Publications by authors named "Virginie Voltzenlogel"

Our aim is to explore the possible emergence of traumatic symptoms and the identity-related repercussions of the restrictions on elderly, who entered into nursing homes during the Covid-19 health crisis in France. Twenty-five subjects institutionalised before the health crisis and twenty-six subjects institutionalised during the periods of lockdown into nursing homes completed scales assessing anxiety-depressive symptomatology, traumatic symptoms and identity. Anxiety and depression symptoms were similar between the groups.

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Little research has examined changes in personal identity over different periods of adult development. The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to target these changes through the characterization of the main dimensions in self-defining memories (SDMs; thematic content, specificity, integrative meaning, tension, contamination/redemption, and emotion) and their interactions. Our final sample was composed of 652 healthy French adults aged from 18 to 97 years, divided into four age groups: young adults ( = 163, = 23.

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The aim of this descriptive study was to investigate the Self-Defining Memories (SDMs) in a large sample of 181 older adults (65-90 years; mean age = 73.0 years) and to target the relationships between their different dimensions. The sampling method was nonprobabilistic, based on voluntary participation.

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Background: Self-defining future projections (SDFP) are mental representations of plausible and highly significant future events that provide core information of one's understanding of self.

Objective: We explored SDFPs in a large sample of older adults and aimed to target the interrelations between the main dimensions of SDFPs. Moreover, correlations between these dimensions and clinical and cognitive variables were examined.

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The current investigation examined the self-concept and temporality in institutionalized and non-institutionalized elderly. Sixty-two participants divided into two groups according to their place of residence participated in the study. The analysis focused on psychopathological scales, on self-concept assessment, its positive or negative valence, its development and the time perspective.

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Previous studies have reported the major role of apathy in awareness assessment among Alzheimer's patients using the patient-caregiver discrepancy method, whatever the awareness dimension assessed. Using the Apathy Evaluation Scales among other awareness scales, we report that apathy is the sole awareness dimension distinguishing healthy controls (25), mild (57) and moderate-to-moderately-severe (11) Alzheimer's patients. A linear regression showed that the Mini-Mental State Examination score used as a risk factor for non-awareness was the only factor associated with awareness of apathy and was the best predictor.

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Our senses are constantly stimulated in our daily lives but we have only a limited understanding of how they affect our cognitive processes and, especially, our autobiographical memory. Capitalizing on a public science event, we conducted the first empirical study that aimed to compare the relative influence of the five senses on the access, temporal distribution, and phenomenological characteristics of autobiographical memories in a sample of about 400 participants. We found that the access and the phenomenological features of memories varied as a function of the type of sensory cues, but not their temporal distribution.

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Self-Defining Memories (SDMs) are a specific type of autobiographical memory, which play a key role in the construction of personal identity. ; Objective: We investigated the characteristics of SDMs in elderly subjects. The originality of the present study is to compare our elderly group to middle-aged subjects instead of young adults, as previously reported in the literature, to understand the age-related modifications in SDMs.

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This study aimed to provide a model of awareness in Alzheimer's disease using the stage of the disease as a risk factor. Awareness was assessed using three methods (patient-caregiver discrepancy, prediction-performance discrepancy, clinical rating). Twenty-five healthy control subjects and sixty-one patients participated, with measures of cognition, apathy, depression, and awareness.

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Objective: Overgeneral autobiographical memory (AM) was reported in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) using AM cueing tasks that did not directly indexes memories that are personally important to the individual, that is, self-defining memories (SDMs). The aim of this study is to investigate characteristics of SDMs in females with AN.

Method: A total of 46 outpatients with chronic AN and 52 healthy controls (HC) were asked to recall three SDMs.

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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is commonly acknowledged to be associated with reduced specificity of autobiographical memory (AM). However, very few studies have assessed AM in the peritraumatic phase. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the AM impairment reported in PTSD is present a few days after a traumatic event.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients are often unable to adequately fulfill their established roles due to physical disabilities and cognitive changes, making this chronic illness particularly threatening to personal identity. Twenty-five MS patients and 25 healthy controls were asked to recall five self-defining memories (SDM). Overall characteristics of SDM did not differ between patients and controls; MS patients displayed preserved capacity to draw meaning upon past events.

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Purpose: To investigate cognition, particularly anterograde and remote memory, in patients suffering from unilateral drug-responsive mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) patients and to compare their performance with that observed in drug-resistant mTLE patients.

Methods: Sixteen drug-responsive mTLE patients, with only infrequent seizures in their lifetime, were matched for demographic and clinical variables to 18 patients suffering from drug-resistant unilateral mTLE. A comprehensive neuropsychological examination, including baseline, anterograde memory tasks, and a large range of remote memory tests was carried out.

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Purpose: Seizure frequency, although considered as an important factor in memory impairment in mesial temporal epilepsy (mTLE), is mostly confounded with other clinical variables, making it unclear to what extent recurrent seizures actually interfere with memory. The present study focuses on the influence of seizure frequency, studied as a main variable, on anterograde and remote memory.

Methods: Seventy-one patients with unilateral mTLE were divided into two subgroups, as a function of their seizure frequency (monthly versus weekly seizures).

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Purpose: To examine the effects of temporal lobectomy (TL), particularly concerning its lateralization.

Methods: Patients completed autobiographical memory tests, preoperatively and 1-year postoperatively.

Results: (a) right TL (RTL) patients recalled significantly more memories from the year after surgery than from the year before TL; (b) their pre to postoperative improvement on autobiographical memory scores was positively correlated to improvement of delayed story recall scores; and (c) 1 year after surgery, performance on recent personal memory recall was normalized for RTL patients only.

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Purpose: The present study aims at characterizing remote memory in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE); it also considers the impact of its most important variables (lateralization of the lesion, duration of epilepsy, age at onset, and seizure frequency) on remote memory.

Methods: We examined the performance of 38 patients with unilateral TLE (19 right TLE and 19 left TLE) and 35 healthy subjects on six remote memory tasks. Memory for personal events was assessed by using the Autobiographical Memory Interview and the Modified Crovitz Test.

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