Video Game Skills across Diverse Genres and Cognitive Functioning in Early Adulthood: Verbal and Visuospatial Short-Term and Working Memory, Hand-Eye Coordination, and Empathy.

The cognitive and affective impacts of video games are subjects of ongoing debate, with recent research recognizing their potential benefits. This study employs the Gaming Skill Questionnaire (GSQ) to evaluate participants' gaming skills across six genres and overall proficiency. A total of 88 individuals aged 20-40 participated, completing assessments of empathy and six cognitive abilities: verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, visuospatial short-term memory, visuospatial working memory, psychomotor speed (hand-eye coordination), and attention.

Validation of the Gaming Skills Questionnaire in Adolescence: Effects of Gaming Skills on Cognitive and Affective Functioning.

Given the widespread popularity of videogames, research attempted to assess their effects on cognitive and affective abilities, especially in children and adolescents. Despite numerous correlational studies, robust evidence on the causal relationship between videogames and cognition remains scarce, hindered by the absence of a comprehensive assessment tool for gaming skills across various genres. In a sample of 347 adolescents, this study aimed to develop and validate the Gaming Skill Questionnaire (GSQ) and assess the impact of gaming skills in six different genres (sport, first-person shooters, role-playing games, action-adventure, strategy, and puzzle games) on cognitive and affective abilities of adolescents.

Virtual Reality Training of Social Skills in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Examination of Acceptability, Usability, User Experience, Social Skills, and Executive Functions.

Poor social skills in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are associated with reduced independence in daily life. Current interventions for improving the social skills of individuals with ASD fail to represent the complexity of real-life social settings and situations. Virtual reality (VR) may facilitate social skills training in social environments and situations similar to those in real life; however, more research is needed to elucidate aspects such as the acceptability, usability, and user experience of VR systems in ASD.

Cybersickness, Cognition, & Motor Skills: The Effects of Music, Gender, and Gaming Experience.

Recent research has attempted to identify methods to mitigate cybersickness and examine its aftereffects. In this direction, this paper examines the effects of cybersickness on cognitive, motor, and reading performance in VR. Also, this paper evaluates the mitigating effects of music on cybersickness, as well as the role of gender, and the computing, VR, and gaming experience of the user.

Hippocampal Metabolic Alterations in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study.

Background: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been overwhelmingly applied to motor regions to date and our understanding of frontotemporal metabolic signatures is relatively limited. The association between metabolic alterations and cognitive performance in also poorly characterised.

Material And Methods: In a multimodal, prospective pilot study, the structural, metabolic, and diffusivity profile of the hippocampus was systematically evaluated in patients with ALS.

Action-Specific Perception & Performance on a Fitts's Law Task in Virtual Reality: The Role of Haptic Feedback.

While user's perception and performance are predominantly examined independently in virtual reality, the Action-Specific Perception (ASP) theory postulates that the performance of an individual on a task modulates this individual's spatial and time perception pertinent to the task's components and procedures. This paper examines the association between performance and perception and the potential effects that tactile feedback modalities could generate. This paper reports a user study (N=24), in which participants performed a standardized Fitts's law target acquisition task by using three feedback modalities: visual, visuo-electrotactile, and visuo-vibrotactile.

Executive Dysfunction, Social Cognition Impairment, and Gray Matter Pathology in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 2: A Pilot Study.

Background: In contrast to myotonic dystrophy type 1, the cognitive and radiologic profile of myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) is relatively poorly characterized.

Objective: To conduct a pilot study to systematically evaluate cognitive and radiologic features in a cohort of Greek individuals with DM2.

Method: Eleven genetically confirmed individuals with DM2 and 26 age- and education-matched healthy controls were administered the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Screen (ECAS) to screen for impairment in multiple cognitive domains.

Electrotactile Feedback Applications for Hand and Arm Interactions: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Future Directions.

Haptic feedback is critical in a broad range of human-machine/computer-interaction applications. However, the high cost and low portability/wearability of haptic devices remain unresolved issues, severely limiting the adoption of this otherwise promising technology. Electrotactile interfaces have the advantage of being more portable and wearable due to their reduced actuators' size, as well as their lower power consumption and manufacturing cost.

The association of theory of mind with language and visuospatial abilities in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a pilot study.

Dysfunction of social cognition is well-recognized as one of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cognitive impairments. Previous studies have mostly associated social cognition subcomponents, including Theory of Mind (ToM), with executive dysfunction using highly-demanding tasks. In the present study, we investigate dysfunction of affective ToM in a sample of ALS patients without dementia and evaluate any possible associations both with executive and non-executive dysfunction.

An ecologically valid examination of event-based and time-based prospective memory using immersive virtual reality: The influence of attention, memory, and executive function processes on real-world prospective memory.

Studies on prospective memory (PM) predominantly assess either event- or time-based PM by implementing non-ecological laboratory-based tasks. The results deriving from these paradigms have provided findings that are discrepant with ecologically valid research paradigms that converge on the complexity and cognitive demands of everyday tasks. The Virtual Reality Everyday Assessment Lab (VR-EAL), an immersive virtual reality (VR) neuropsychological battery with enhanced ecological validity, was implemented to assess everyday event- and time-based PM, as well as the influence of other cognitive functions on everyday PM functioning.

An ecologically valid examination of event-based and time-based prospective memory using immersive virtual reality: the effects of delay and task type on everyday prospective memory.

Recent research has focused on assessing either event- or time-based prospective memory (PM) using laboratory tasks. Yet, the findings pertaining to PM performance on laboratory tasks are often inconsistent with the findings on corresponding naturalistic experiments. Ecologically valid neuropsychological tasks resemble the complexity and cognitive demands of everyday tasks, offer an adequate level of experimental control, and allow a generalisation of the findings to everyday performance.

Neuropsychological Assessment Should Always be Considered in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 2.

Myotonic dystrophies (DMs) are hereditary, multisystem, slowly progressive myopathies. One of the systems they affect is the CNS. In contrast to the well-established cognitive profile of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), only a few studies have investigated cognitive dysfunction in individuals with myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2), and their findings have been inconsistent.

Validation of the Virtual Reality Everyday Assessment Lab (VR-EAL): An Immersive Virtual Reality Neuropsychological Battery with Enhanced Ecological Validity.

Objective: The assessment of cognitive functions such as prospective memory, episodic memory, attention, and executive functions benefits from an ecologically valid approach to better understand how performance outcomes generalize to everyday life. Immersive virtual reality (VR) is considered capable of simulating real-life situations to enhance ecological validity. The present study attempted to validate the Virtual Reality Everyday Assessment Lab (VR-EAL), an immersive VR neuropsychological battery, against an extensive paper-and-pencil neuropsychological battery.

A Comparison of the Greek ACE-III, M-ACE, ACE-R, MMSE, and ECAS in the Assessment and Identification of Alzheimer's Disease.

Objective: This study aimed to adapt the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-III (ACE-III) and Mini-Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (M-ACE) into Greek and then to examine the convergent validity against their predecessors Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in a Greek population. Moreover, a primary aim was to appraise the utility of each screen by conducting a comparison of the psychometric properties of ACE-III, M-ACE, ACE-R, MMSE, and the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Screen (ECAS) in detecting Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: Forty patients with AD were recruited and matched with 38 controls.

Validation of the Virtual Reality Neuroscience Questionnaire: Maximum Duration of Immersive Virtual Reality Sessions Without the Presence of Pertinent Adverse Symptomatology.

There are major concerns about the suitability of immersive virtual reality (VR) systems (i.e., head-mounted display; HMD) to be implemented in research and clinical settings, because of the presence of nausea, dizziness, disorientation, fatigue, and instability (i.

Technological Competence Is a Pre-condition for Effective Implementation of Virtual Reality Head Mounted Displays in Human Neuroscience: A Technological Review and Meta-Analysis.

Immersive virtual reality (VR) emerges as a promising research and clinical tool. However, several studies suggest that VR induced adverse symptoms and effects (VRISE) may undermine the health and safety standards, and the reliability of the scientific results. In the current literature review, the technical reasons for the adverse symptomatology are investigated to provide suggestions and technological knowledge for the implementation of VR head-mounted display (HMD) systems in cognitive neuroscience.

The Edinburgh cognitive and behavioral amyotrophic lateral sclerosis screen (ECAS): sensitivity in differentiating between ALS and Alzheimer's disease in a Greek population.

(1) Adapt the ECAS into Greek, validate it in ALS patients and compare with the ALS-CBS. (2) Determine the sensitivity and specificity of ECAS in the differentiation between AD and non-demented ALS patients as compared with the ACE-III and mini-ACE. ALS patients ( = 28) were recruited and AD patients ( = 26) were matched in age, sex, and education with ALS patients ( = 24).

PIRSF: family classification system at the Protein Information Resource.

The Protein Information Resource (PIR) is an integrated public resource of protein informatics. To facilitate the sensible propagation and standardization of protein annotation and the systematic detection of annotation errors, PIR has extended its superfamily concept and developed the SuperFamily (PIRSF) classification system. Based on the evolutionary relationships of whole proteins, this classification system allows annotation of both specific biological and generic biochemical functions.

The Protein Information Resource.

The Protein Information Resource (PIR) is an integrated public resource of protein informatics that supports genomic and proteomic research and scientific discovery. PIR maintains the Protein Sequence Database (PSD), an annotated protein database containing over 283 000 sequences covering the entire taxonomic range. Family classification is used for sensitive identification, consistent annotation, and detection of annotation errors.