Enhancing task performance in adults with intellectual disability through modified goal management training and assistive technology with errorless learning: A randomized controlled trial.

Individuals with intellectual disabilities often fail to learn complex tasks. Modified Goal Management Training (mGMT) or Errorless Learning combined with assistive technology (App + EL) can help. The goal is to demonstrate the effectiveness of mGMT and/or App + EL in learning complex tasks.

Sex-specific differences in pain localization in female patients with endometriosis: A comparison of sexless and female human body outlines.

Background: This study explores sex-specific differences in pain localization using pain drawings in female patients with endometriosis. Traditional human body outlines (HBOs) used for pain drawings are often viewed as male, making accurate pain assessment difficult. The study aims to compare pain localization and extent between patients presented with sexless and female HBOs.

Errorless learning and assistive technology did not improve the negative prognosis for severe dressing impairment after stroke if persisting for two weeks: A randomized controlled trial.

Following severe cerebrovascular accidents, patients are often unable to dress themselves. Little is known about the persistence and treatment of this impairment. followed 23 patients who were (1) completely dependent on others for help with dressing (2) for two weeks continually until their discharge from the rehabilitation unit.

Guiding patients with traumatic brain injury through the instrumental activities of daily living with the RehaGoal App: a feasibility study.

Purpose: Individuals with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) often experience executive function impairments that impact activities of daily living. Assistive technologies can help overcome these disabilities and Goal Management Training (GMT) provides an effective therapeutic approach for treating such impairments. To capture the benefits of GMT with assistive technology we developed the RehaGoal App.

[Balance between structured activities and individual leisure time : Perceptions of retirement by people with intellectual and mental disabilities].

Background: The number of people with intellectual disabilities reaching retirement age has risen by more than two thirds in the last decade.

Objective: Due to the high number of retirements in this group of persons, the facilities for integration assistance are required to provide appropriate offers, both in terms of the transition to retirement and the course of retirement.

Methods: Interviews on retirement planning were conducted with aspiring pensioners from several workshops for disabled people, which were mostly located in urban areas.

Early detection of dementia in people with an intellectual disability - A German pilot study.

Background: This study investigated the application of a newly developed neuropsychological assessment, the Wolfenbütteler Dementia Test for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (WDTIM) in combination with the Dementia Screening Questionnaire for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (DSQIID).

Methods: The instruments were evaluated in a prospective 2-year follow-up study. A total of 102 people with an intellectual disability were assessed at 6-month intervals.

Impaired stimulus-outcome but preserved stimulus-response shifting in young substance-dependent individuals.

Substance dependency has been related to an impairment in executive functions and to a dysfunction of the frontal cortex. In this study we developed two experimental tasks, which are physically identical, to analyze whether substance-dependent individuals are impaired in shifting response patterns (stimulus response links) or preferences (stimulus outcome links). To increase the specificity of the dependent variable, we also used two control tasks to analyze for unspecific performance deficits.

Learning by doing: an fMRI study of feedback-related brain activations.

Extracting meaningful information from the positive and negative outcomes of actions is a key requirement for learning. To define the neural correlates of feedback processing, rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was used in an associative learning paradigm in normal human volunteers. Positive (compared with negative) feedback was associated with activations in the ventral striatum, midbrain and anterior and posterior cingulate cortex.

Disturbed egocentric space representation in cervical dystonia.

In addition to visual spatial input, vestibular and proprioceptive signals are used in judging the egocentric space. We asked whether the abnormal head posture of patients with cervical dystonia (CD) is associated with distortions of their internal spatial reference frame. The perception of subjective straight-ahead (SSA) was tested under various conditions in 28 CD patients and in matched controls.

Anxiety in musicians with focal dystonia and those with chronic pain.

Psychological conditions were studied in 20 musicians with focal dystonia and compared with 20 musicians with chronic pain and 30 healthy musicians using the Freiburg Personality Inventory and the Questionnaire for Competence and Control Orientations. Additional questionnaires focused on perfectionism and anxiety particularly with regard to the dynamics of these psychological features. Musicians with focal dystonia and those with chronic pain more often displayed anxiety than controls.

Disturbed monitoring and response inhibition in patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and co-morbid obsessive compulsive disorder.

Objective: Fronto-striatal dysfunction has been discussed as underlying symptoms of Tourette syndrome (TS) with co-morbid Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This suggests possible impairments of executive functions in this disorder, which were therefore targeted in the present study.

Methods: A comprehensive series of neuropsychological tests examining attention, memory and executive functions was performed in a group of 14 TS/OCD in co-occurrence with OCD patients and a matched control group.

Disturbance of "extrinsic alertness" in Huntington's disease.

Neuropsychological deficits are a main feature of Huntington's disease (HD) with previous data suggesting involvement of attentional functions. Attention can be divided into several different dimensions: intensity, selectivity and supervisory attentional control. These different aspects of attention were investigated in a group of 13 patients with HD and 13 healthy matched control subjects.

The effects of proprioceptive stimulation on cognitive processes in patients after traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To investigate the hypothesis that proprioceptive stimulation may be effective in the treatment of brain injury, using neurophysiologic and neuropsychologic measures.

Design: Cohort analytic study.

Setting: Patients recovering from traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a neurologic rehabilitation hospital were examined.