Development of a real-world simulated instrument for evaluating visuospatial working memory: a preliminary psychometric study on older adults.

Background: A prevalent challenge in neuropsychological assessment, particularly when utilizing instruments designed for controlled laboratory environments, is that the outcomes may not correspond to an individual's real-life status. Accordingly, assessments of visuospatial working memory (VSWM) conducted in such settings might fail to capture certain facets of this function, as it operates in real life. On the other hand, entirely ecological assessments may risk compromising internal validity.

Disgust-reduction evaluative conditioning (DREC) and brain stimulation in patients with contamination-based obsessive-compulsive disorder: a protocol for a randomized control trial.

Background: The negative emotional valence of a stimulus can be altered if paired with a pleasant stimulus, a phenomenon referred to as evaluative conditioning. Disgust, as a central emotion in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), particularly in the contamination subtype, may be an appropriate target for such a method. We know that disgust processing and OCD pathophysiology share in some brain areas, including the orbitofrontal cortex, as the neuromodulation techniques targeted in this area have been able to decrease OCD symptoms.

Scary in the eye of the beholder: Attentional bias and attentional retraining for social anxiety.

Unlabelled: Consistent with cognitive models of social anxiety, socially anxious individuals show cognitive biases that magnify their perceived level of threat in the environment.

Objectives: The first objective was to determine whether attentional bias for socially threatening stimuli occurs after concomitant depression has been controlled. The second objective was to test the effectiveness of the Attention Control Training Program for Social Anxiety (ACTP-SA) for reducing social anxiety attentional bias and improving therapeutic indices in people with social anxiety.

Effectiveness of eye movement exercise and diaphragmatic breathing with jogging in reducing migraine symptoms: A preliminary, randomized comparison trial.

Background: Migraine is a multifactorial headache disorder. Maladaptive functional networks or altered circuit-related connectivity in the brain with migraine appear to perturb the effects of usual treatments.

Objectives: In the present preliminary trial, we aim to study the effectiveness of performing pieces of body-mind, cognitive, or network reconstruction-based training (i.

Do I Really Want to Change? The Effectiveness of Goal Ambivalence Feedback on Dieters' Motivation.

Becoming committed to a new health-related goal and pursuing it is difficult for many people. The present study (a) developed and tested the psychometric properties of a brief Goal Ambivalence Scale (GAS) in a sample of dieters and (b) tested the effectiveness of providing dieters with feedback on their scores on the GAS. In Study 1, dieters ( = 334, 74% females) completed the GAS and a measure of Health-Related Concerns and Actions (HRCA).

Validity and Reliability of a Revised S-UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale: The Interplay between Impulsivity and Working Memory.

Impulsivity is a multidimensional construct. The UPPS-P model of impulsivity differentiates five distinct dimensions: negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking. The present study, reports the first translation and validation of the recently revised short form of the UPPS-P scale (S-UPPS-P) on a Persian-speaking sample, examining the relationship between impulsivity and working memory.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Attentional Control Training for Treating Alcohol Use Disorder.

There is consistent evidence that community and clinical samples of individuals with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) have attentional biases toward alcohol cues. The alcohol attentional control training program (AACTP) has shown promise for retraining these biases and decreasing alcohol consumption in community samples of excessive drinkers. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of ACTP in clinical AUD samples.

Individualized Web-Based Attention Training With Evidence-Based Counseling to Address HIV Treatment Adherence and Psychological Distress: Exploratory Cohort Study.

Background: The prevalence of mood, trauma, and stressor-related disorders is disproportionately higher among people living with HIV than among individuals without the virus. Poor adherence to HIV treatment and heightened psychological distress have been linked to symptoms associated with these disorders.

Objective: The objective of this exploratory pilot study was to develop and implement an intervention that combined individualized web-based attention training with evidence-based counseling to promote HIV treatment adherence and reduce psychological distress among people living with HIV.

The prospective association between illicit drug use and nonprescription opioid use among vulnerable adolescents.

In recent years, more than half of all drug overdose deaths in United States involved an opioid. To address this epidemic, antecedents to opioid misuse must be identified and empirically validated. The objective of the current investigation was to examine whether illicit drug use was prospectively associated with nonprescription opioid use among adolescents from a vulnerable population with a greater prevalence of substance abuse.

Differential effects of stimulant versus opiate drugs on driving performance.

Background And Aims: Pharmacological differences among different drug classes influence human cognition, visual, and motor behavior in different ways. These differences impact driving safety, and therefore individuals who use stimulant and opioid drugs might experience different patterns in driving safety and impairment in driving performance. This study examined the effect of long-term use of stimulant drugs and of opiate drugs on driving performance, hazard perception, visual search skills and psychomotor skills related to driving.

The Investigation of Simultaneous EEG and Eye Tracking Characteristics During Fixation Task in Mild Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that occurs many years before the first clinical symptoms. Finding more exact, significant, and valuable criteria or indices for the diagnosis of the mild form of Alzheimer's disease is very important for clinical and research purposes. Electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking biomarkers would provide noninvasive tools for the early detection of AD.

Feasibility of using a computer-assisted working memory training program for healthy older women.

Interventions for age-associated cognitive impairment are of increasing significance as populations age. Using N-back and memory strategy enhancement, the present study aimed to explore the feasibility of using, and outcomes of a working memory (WM) training program on visuospatial and verbal WM in older female adults. Older women from two comparable local health centers who scored 26 and higher on Mini-Mental State Examination were invited to participate.

Effectiveness of cathodal tDCS of the primary motor or sensory cortex in migraine: A randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is a new technology that is extensively used for migraine treatment. The present study aims to examine the effectiveness of cathodal-tDCS (c-tDCS) in decreasing migraine pain frequency, duration, and intensity at the right primary motor cortex (M) or sensory cortex (S) in individuals with episodic or chronic migraine.

Methods: The present study has a randomized, single-blind, and sham-controlled design.

Free will in addictive behaviors: A matter of definition.

Certain people are at risk for using alcohol or other drugs excessively and for developing problems with their use. Their susceptibility might arise from a variety of factors, including their genetic make-up, brain chemistry, family background, personality and other psychological variables, and environmental and sociocultural variables. Moreover, after substance use has become established, there are additional cognitive-motivational variables (e.

Aggression, emotional self-regulation, attentional bias, and cognitive inhibition predict risky driving behavior.

The present study explored whether aggression, emotional regulation, cognitive inhibition, and attentional bias towards emotional stimuli were related to risky driving behavior (driving errors, and driving violations). A total of 117 applicants for taxi driver positions (89% male, M age=36.59years, SD=9.

Efficacy of the attention control training program on reducing attentional bias in obese and overweight dieters.

Evidence indicates that attentional bias and dieter's eating styles (i.e., external, emotional, restraint) play important roles in the success or failure of dieters.

Enhanced visual performance in obsessive compulsive personality disorder.

Visual performance is considered as commanding modality in human perception. We tested whether Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) people do differently in visual performance tasks than people without OCPD. One hundred ten students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and non-student participants were tested by Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID-II), among whom 18 (mean age = 29.

Executive Function: Comparing Bilingual and Monolingual Iranian University Students.

The study aimed to examine whether Kurdish-Persian early Bilingual university students (EBL) and Persian Monolingual university students (ML) differ on tasks of executive function (EF). Thirty male EBL and 30 male ML students from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad completed a Persian Stroop Color-Word task (SCWT), Backward Digit Span Test (BDST), Raven Standard Progressive Matrices, and a demographic questionnaire. The results of an analysis of variance showed EBL students responded faster on the SCWT compared with ML students, suggesting an inhibition advantage for EBL students.

Effects of attention control training on drug abusers' attentional bias and treatment outcome.

Objective: Attentional bias for drug-related stimuli (Drug-AB) has been shown to play an important role in drug abuse, drug treatment, and relapse. This study sought to retrain Drug-AB using the Drug Attention Control Training Program (Drug-ACTP) on a sample of Iranian drug abusers.

Method: The experimental group (n = 24) received 3 sessions of training with the Drug-ACTP in addition to treatment as usual; the control group (n = 24) received only treatment as usual.

Neuroscience of attentional processes for addiction medicine: from brain mechanisms to practical considerations.

The present chapter first argues how having a goal for procuring alcohol or other substances leads to the development of a time-binding, dynamic, and goal oriented motivational state termed current concern, as the origin of substance-related attentional bias. Next, it discusses the importance of attentional bias in the development, continuation of, and relapsing to substance abuse. It further proceeds with a review of selective evidence from cognitive psychology that helps account for making decisions about using an addictive substance or refraining from using it.

The Relationship Between Trust-in-God, Positive and Negative Affect, and Hope.

We aimed to test the relationships between Trust-in-God, positive and negative affect, and feelings of hope. A sample of university students (N = 282, 50 % female) completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Adult Dispositional Hope Scale, and a Persian measure of Trust-in-God for Muslims. The results of a series of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that Trust-in-God was positively associated with participants' scores for hope and positive affect but was negatively associated with their scores for negative affect.

Differential effects and temporal course of attentional and motivational training on excessive drinking.

Two cognitive-motivational variables that help to solidify drinkers' intentions to drink are their alcohol attentional bias and their maladaptive motivation. The Alcohol Attention Control Training Programme (AACTP) was designed to rectify the former, and the Life Enhancement and Advancement Programme (LEAP) was designed to rectify the latter. The present study used a factorial design to compare the individual and combined effects of the 2 interventions on mean weekly drinking and atypical weekly drinking of 148 harmful drinkers (49% males, mean age = 28.

The motivational basis of cognitive determinants of addictive behaviors.

If a person expects that (a) drinking alcohol or using another addictive substance will enhance positive affect or reduce negative affect, and (b) there is a strong likelihood that these desirable consequences will occur if the substance is used, that person is likely to form a goal of using the substance. The theoretical framework presented here predicts that when that happens, the person will have a current concern for using the substance, with the person thereby sensitized to environmental stimuli related to procuring and using the substance. One indication of the sensitization is selective attention to substance-related stimuli, which is correlated with urges to use and actual use of the substance.