A literature review of outcome and treatment options after acquired brain injury: Suggestions for adult offenders using knowledge from the general population.

Background: Acquired brain injury (ABI) is a major health problem, often with negative effects on behaviour and mental health as well as cognition. Prevalence of ABI is exceptionally high among offenders and increases their re-offending risk. Information on risk factors for ABI and its outcomes among offenders that could guide effective treatment for them is, nevertheless, scarce and dispersed.

The efficacy of dyadic interventions for community-dwelling people with dementia and their caregivers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Most people with dementia live at home and depend on informal caregivers for care. Both caregivers and persons with dementia can experience negative psychological and behavioural effects as the disease progresses. Non-pharmacological interventions can alleviate these effects and dyadic interventions, involving both caregiver and person with dementia, may be particularly effective.

The effects of a moderate physical activity intervention on physical fitness and cognition in healthy elderly with low levels of physical activity: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Increasing physical activity is one of the most promising and challenging interventions to delay or prevent cognitive decline and dementia.

Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of a physical activity intervention, aimed at increasing step count, in elderly with low levels of physical activity on measures of strength, balance, aerobic capacity, and cognition. Participants were assigned to 9 months of exercise counseling or active control.

The long-term relation between physical activity and executive function in the Rotterdam Study.

Background: Research on the association between physical inactivity and cognitive decline and dementia is dominated by studies with short-term follow-up, that might be biased by reverse causality.

Objective: Investigate the long-term association between physical activity, cognition, and the rate of age-associated cognitive decline.

Methods: We investigated the association between late-life physical activity and executive functioning and rate of decline of executive abilities during follow-up of up to 16 years, in 3553 participants of the prospective Rotterdam Study cohort.

Acquired Brain Injury and Interventions in the Offender Population: A Systematic Review.

The prevalence of acquired brain injury (ABI) in offender populations appears much higher than in the general population, being estimated at 50% compared to 12%, respectively. Taking into account ABI-related cognitive and social impairments or behavioral changes in forensic treatments might be relevant and may improve treatment outcomes. The aim of the current review is to summarize and integrate the literature on psychological interventions or treatments for consequences of ABI in the forensic setting.

Plasma Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor Levels Are Associated with Aging and Smoking But Not with Future Dementia in the Rotterdam Study.

Background: Brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) plays a vital role in neuronal survival and plasticity and facilitates long-term potentiation, essential for memory. Alterations in BDNF signaling have been associated with cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. Although peripheral BDNF levels are reduced in dementia patients, it is unclear whether changes in BDNF levels precede or follow dementia onset.

Sensory Stimulation for Nursing-Home Residents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Its Effects on Sleep Quality and Rest-Activity Rhythm in Dementia.

Introduction: Disrupted sleep-wake cycles might be associated with an exacerbation of behavioural disturbances and accelerate disease progression in dementia. The effect of sensory stimulation for improving sleep quality is unclear.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed and all studies examining the effects of a sensory stimulation intervention (i.

Mood and behavioral problems are important predictors of quality of life of nursing home residents with moderate to severe dementia: A cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To examine the predictors associated with quality of life of nursing home residents with dementia, in order to identify which predictors are most important and hold most promise for future intervention studies.

Methods/design: This cross-sectional analysis of data collected in two intervention trials included 143 participants with moderate to severe dementia who resided in 40 psychogeriatric wards in 13 nursing homes. The outcome measure quality of life was assessed with the Qualidem.

Predictors of care dependency in nursing home residents with moderate to severe dementia: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Nursing home residents with dementia show a rapid decline in their ability to perform activities of daily living. This decline is linked to a greater care dependency, which is associated with a reduced quality of life. Care dependency is influenced by multiple predictors, yet current research often focuses on the contribution of a single or a small number of predictors of care dependency.

Relationship between social cognition and social behaviour following traumatic brain injury.

To present an overview of studies that investigated associations between social cognition functions (social cue perception, empathy, understanding intentions) and social behaviour or social outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI). The literature search was conducted in the Medline, PsycInfo, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases. Main criteria for selection were that the participants were adult persons with TBI, social cognition as well as social behaviour or social outcome post-TBI was assessed and correlations between social cognition and social behaviour or outcome were reported.

Increased neural response to social rejection in major depression.

Background: Being a part of community is critical for survival and individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) have a greater sensitivity to interpersonal stress that makes them vulnerable to future episodes. Social rejection is a critical risk factor for depression and it is said to increase interpersonal stress and thereby impairing social functioning. It is therefore critical to understand the neural correlates of social rejection in MDD.

Social Behavior and Impairments in Social Cognition Following Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objectives: The negative effect of changes in social behavior following traumatic brain injury (TBI) are known, but much less is known about the neuropsychological impairments that may underlie and predict these changes. The current study investigated possible associations between post-injury behavior and neuropsychological competencies of emotion recognition, understanding intentions, and response selection, that have been proposed as important for social functioning.

Methods: Forty participants with TBI and 32 matched healthy participants completed a battery of tests assessing the three functions of interest.

A natural language-based presentation of cognitive stimulation to people with dementia in assistive technology: A pilot study.

Currently, an estimated 36 million people worldwide are affected by Alzheimer's disease or related dementias. In the absence of a cure, non-pharmacological interventions, such as cognitive stimulation, which slow down the rate of deterioration can benefit people with dementia and their caregivers. Such interventions have shown to improve well-being and slow down the rate of cognitive decline.

Improving access to a multi-component intervention for caregivers and people with dementia.

Due to the increasing social and economic costs of dementia, there are urgent calls to develop accessible and sustainable care for people with dementia and their caregivers. Multi-component non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) appear effective in improving or maintaining daily functioning and well-being, but are typically labour-intensive for health care professionals, thus hindering access. The current study aimed to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a novel approach to widen access to NPI by involving caregivers to present part of the intervention and with staff from local support organizations instructed to train the caregivers.

Reduced detection of positive expressions in major depression.

In patients with depression, negative biases have been reported in various cognitive domains, but few studies have examined whether even detection is affected, i.e. are depressed patients more likely to detect the presence of negative stimuli? This study compared detection of sad and happy faces in patients (n=17) and healthy participants (n=18) using an attentional blink task.

Deficits in facial emotion recognition indicate behavioral changes and impaired self-awareness after moderate to severe traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of disability, specifically among younger adults. Behavioral changes are common after moderate to severe TBI and have adverse consequences for social and vocational functioning. It is hypothesized that deficits in social cognition, including facial affect recognition, might underlie these behavioral changes.

Cognitive stimulation by caregivers for people with dementia.

Cognitive stimulation (CS) is a psychological intervention for people with dementia aimed at maintaining cognitive functioning. CS provided by caregivers would allow long-term maintenance without greatly increasing demands on health services, but raises questions concerning treatment fidelity and acceptability, which were investigated in this study. Caregivers of home-living people with dementia were trained to provide CS activities to their relative with dementia.

Abnormal neural responses to social exclusion in schizophrenia.

Social exclusion is an influential concept in politics, mental health and social psychology. Studies on healthy subjects have implicated the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a region involved in emotional and social information processing, in neural responses to social exclusion. Impairments in social interactions are common in schizophrenia and are associated with reduced quality of life.

Social cognition impairments in relation to general cognitive deficits, injury severity, and prefrontal lesions in traumatic brain injury patients.

Impairments in social behavior are frequently found in moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients and are associated with an unfavorable outcome with regard to return to work and social reintegration. Neuropsychological tests measuring aspects of social cognition are thought to be sensitive to these problems. However, little is known about the effect of general cognitive problems on these tests, nor about their sensitivity to injury severity and frontal lesions.

Detection of emotional faces is modulated by the direction of eye gaze.

Emotionally expressive faces have shown enhanced detectability over neutral faces, but little is known about the effect of eye gaze on detecting the presence of emotional faces. Emotional expressions and gaze direction are both cues to the intentions of another person, and gaze direction has been shown to affect recognition accuracy and perceived intensity of emotional faces. The current study showed that fearful faces were detected more frequently with an averted gaze than with a direct gaze in an attentional blink task, whereas angry and happy faces were detected more frequently with a direct gaze than with an averted gaze.

The insular cortex and the neuroanatomy of major depression.

Background: The neuroanatomical substrate underlying Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is incompletely understood. Recent reports have implicated the insular cortex.

Methods: Two cohorts of participants with MDD were tested.

Attentional bias to brief threat-related faces revealed by saccadic eye movements.

According to theories of emotion and attention, we are predisposed to orient rapidly toward threat. However, previous examination of attentional cueing by threat showed no enhanced capture at brief durations, a finding that may be related to the sensitivity of the manual response measure used. Here we investigated the time course of orienting attention toward fearful faces in the exogenous cueing task.

Attentional cueing: fearful body postures capture attention with saccades.

According to theories of attention and emotion, threat-related stimuli (e.g., negative facial expressions) capture and hold attention.

Stable expression recognition abnormalities in unipolar depression.

Although abnormalities in emotion recognition during a depressed episode have frequently been reported in patients with depression, less is known about the stability of these abnormalities. To examine the stability of emotion recognition abnormalities, this longitudinal study assessed patients with unipolar depression on three separate occasions at 3-monthly intervals. Recognition of sad, angry, fearful, disgusted, happy and neutral facial expressions was assessed in a matching task and a labelling task.

Inhibition related impairments of coherent motion perception in the attention-induced motion blindness paradigm.

A striking effect of selective attention on perception of first- and second-order motion has been termed 'attention-induced motion blindness' or AMB (Sahraie et al., 2001). The AMB paradigm is based on a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task and causes a severe transient impairment of the detection of coherent motion in a random dot kinematogram (RDK).