Publications by authors named "Virues-Ortega J"

Background: Helping people recover from aphasia is among the top 10 research priorities relating to life after stroke.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of dubbing techniques (using newly developed software) for post-stroke aphasia therapy and explore its potential efficacy.

Methods: Randomised, crossover, interventional, feasibility trial that included patients with chronic post-stroke non-fluent aphasia.

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Article Synopsis
  • Post-stroke aphasia leads to reduced quality of life and increased risk of depression, yet there's limited research on coping mechanisms for this condition.
  • A study compared 23 patients with post-stroke aphasia to 73 healthy controls using various questionnaires to evaluate health perception, quality of life, communication abilities, and depressive symptoms.
  • Results indicated that patients with aphasia had lower scores in health perception and quality of life compared to controls, but surprisingly reported fewer depressive symptoms, suggesting a complex relationship between communication difficulties and mental health.
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Unlabelled: Recent studies have evaluated the use of social media as learning aids in tertiary education. Emerging research in this area has focused primarily on non-quantitative approaches to student social media engagement. However, quantitative engagement outcomes may be extracted from student posts, comments, likes, and views.

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Fomite-mediated self-infection via face touching is an understudied transmission pathway for infectious diseases. We evaluated the effect of computer-mediated vibrotactile cues (presented through experimental bracelets located on one or both hands of the participant) on the frequency of face touching among eight healthy adults in the community. We conducted a treatment evaluation totaling over 25,000 min of video observation.

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Behavior analysts are not recognized or regulated as a distinct profession in Europe. For the most part, European behavior analysts adhered to the standards set by the U.S.

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Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been shown to exhibit fewer instances of social referencing compared to their typically developing peers. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of multiple-exemplar training, prompting, and social reinforcement to teach social referencing. We used a single-blind randomized control trial with a multiple-baseline design nested within the experimental group to evaluate treatment effects.

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Computer-aided behavior observation is gradually supplanting paper-and-pencil approaches to behavior observation, but there is a dearth of evidence on the relative accuracy of paper-and-pencil versus computer-aided behavior observation formats in the literature. The current study evaluated the accuracy resulting from paper-and-pencil observation and from two computer-aided behavior observation methods: The Observer XT® desktop software and the Big Eye Observer® smartphone application. Twelve postgraduate students without behavior observation experience underwent a behavior observation training protocol.

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Tentative results from feasibility analyses are critical for planning future randomized control trials (RCTs) in the emerging field of neural biomarkers of behavioral interventions. The current feasibility study used MRI-derived diffusion imaging data to investigate whether it would be possible to identify neural biomarkers of a behavioral intervention among people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The corpus callosum has been linked to cognitive processing and callosal abnormalities have been previously found in people diagnosed with ASD.

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Functional analysis (FA) conditions include different antecedent or consequent events that may disrupt responding. Thus, varying patterns of FA differentiation may predict treatment outcomes of problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement. These patterns could be used to inform the development of individualized interventions.

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Background: Communication is one of the most important predictors of social reintegration after stroke. Approximately 15-42% of stroke survivors experience post-stroke aphasia. Helping people recover from aphasia is one of the research priorities after a stroke.

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Nonhuman animal models show that reinforcers control behavior through what they signal about the likelihood of future events, but such control is generally imperfect. Imperfect control by the relation between past and likely future events may result from imperfect detection of those events as they occur, which result in imperfect detection of the relation between events. Such an approach would suggest the involvement of more complex psychological processes like memory in simple operant learning.

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Psychopharmacological and behavioral interventions are often combined in the treatment of problem behavior in people with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD). However, little is known about the interaction between medication pharmacodynamics and behavior function. A better understanding of these mechanisms could serve as the conceptual foundation for combined interventions.

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Unlabelled: Objective. Some authors have suggested that verbal shaping is an active component in cognitive restructuring. The goal of the current study was to provide experimental evidence in support of the shaping hypothesis.

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Diurnal bruxism among individuals with intellectual disabilities is often measured on the basis of its auditory products, thereby precluding the contingent presentation of stimuli during silent bruxism events. Electromyography (EMG) offers a technological solution to the identification of all bruxism events. EMG has not been previously evaluated in nonvocal clients with intellectual disabilities in the context of functional analysis and treatment.

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Unlabelled: Nathan H. Azrin (1930-2013) contributed extensively to the fields of experimental and applied behavior analysis. His creative and prolific research programs covered a wide range of experimental and applied areas that resulted in 160 articles and several books published over a period of almost 6 decades.

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SARS-CoV-2 is the virus causing COVID-19 and is spread through close person-to-person contact. The use of face masks has been described as an important strategy to slow its transmission. We evaluated the effects of coaching caregivers via telehealth technologies to teach face mask wearing to children with autism spectrum disorder.

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We present a systematic review and a meta-analysis comparing the differential outcomes procedure to a nondifferential outcomes procedure among clinical and nonclinical populations. Sixty distinct experiments were included in the systematic review, 43 of which were included in the meta-analysis. We calculated pooled effect sizes for accuracy (overall accuracy, test accuracy, transfer accuracy) and acquisition outcomes (latency, errors, and trials to mastery).

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Objective: To evaluate a home-based behavioral treatment model for children with tube dependency.

Methods: Nine children (aged 4-14 years) dependent on nasogastric and gastrostomy tubes were consecutively admitted into a home-based behavioral treatment program. A psychologist specializing in applied behavior analysis led the assessment and treatment phases with the support of caregivers and a multidisciplinary team.

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Background: Sense of Coherence (SOC) is defined as a tendency to perceive life experiences as comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. The construct is split in three major domains: Comprehensibility, Manageability, and Meaningfulness. SOC has been associated with successful coping strategies in the face of illness and traumatic events and is a predictor of self-reported and objective health in a variety of contexts.

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Excessive motion makes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) extremely challenging among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The medical risks of sedation establish the need for behavioral interventions to promote motion control among children with ASD undergoing MRI scans. We present a series of experiments aimed at establishing both tolerance of the MRI environment and a level of motion control that would be compatible with a successful MRI.

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This study examined the relative effectiveness of interventions based on a pre-intervention functional behavioral assessment (FBA), compared to interventions not based on a pre-intervention FBA. We examined 19 studies that included a direct comparison between the effects of FBA- and non-FBA-based interventions with the same participants. A random effects meta-analysis of effect sizes indicated that FBA-based interventions were associated with large reductions in problem behaviors when using non-FBA-based interventions as a reference intervention (Effect size=0.

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Study Objectives: Physiological adaptation to high altitude hypoxia may be impaired in Andeans with significant European ancestry. The respiratory 'burden' of sleep may challenge adaptation, leading to relative nocturnal hypoxia. Developmental aspects of sleep-related breathing in high-altitude native children have not previously been reported.

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We reanalyzed published studies that reported functional analyses conducted in the presence and absence of medication. In Analysis 1, we assessed the overall effect of psychotropic medication on problem behavior. Medication had a reductive effect in 29 of the 37 sets of functional analyses reviewed.

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As the field of behavior analysis expands internationally, the need for comprehensive and systematic glossaries of behavioral terms in the vernacular languages of professionals and clients becomes crucial. We created a Spanish-language glossary of behavior-analytic terms by developing and employing a systematic set of decision-making rules for the inclusion of terms. We then submitted the preliminary translation to a multi-national advisory committee to evaluate the transnational acceptability of the glossary.

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