The ability to identify the emotions of others is a key component of what is known as social cognition. Narratives exploit this mechanism to create an emotional bond with the characters and to ...maintain the engagement of the audience throughout the story. In this paper, we illustrate a case study in emotion understanding in stories that exploits a computational agent to explore emotion impairment in a group of traumatic brain injured people. The study focuses on moral emotions, aiming to investigate the differences in moral functioning that characterize traumatic brain injured patients. After comparing the understanding of the moral and emotional facets of the agent's behavior in traumatic brain injured patients and in neurologically intact controls, slight-yet meaningful-differences were observed between the two groups. We describe the test methodology and results, highlighting their implications for the design of rehabilitation applications based on virtual agents.
Introduction
Stroke-related deficits often include motor impairments and gait dysfunction, leading to a limitation of social activities and consequently affecting the quality of life of stroke ...survivors. Neurorehabilitation takes advantage of the contribution of different techniques in order to achieve more benefits for patients. Robotic devices help to improve the outcomes of physical rehabilitation. Moreover, motor imagery seems to play a role in neurological rehabilitation since it leads to the activation of the same brain areas as actual movements. This study investigates the use of a combined physical and cognitive protocol for gait rehabilitation in stroke patients.
Methods
Specifically, we tested the efficacy of a 5-week training program using a robotic orthosis (P.I.G.R.O.) in conjunction with motor imagery training. Twelve chronic stroke patients participated in the study. We evaluated balance and gait performance before and after the training. Six of them underwent fMRI examination before and after the training to assess the effects of the protocol on brain plasticity mechanisms in motor and imagery tasks.
Results
Our results show that the rehabilitation protocol can effectively improve gait performance and balance and reduce the risk of falls in stroke patients. Furthermore, the fMRI results suggest that rehabilitation is associated with cerebral plastic changes in motor networks.
Discussion
The present findings, if confirmed by future research, have the potential to advance the development of new, more effective rehabilitation approaches for stroke patients, improving their quality of life and reducing the burden of stroke-related disability.
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are often associated with communicative deficits. The incoherent and impoverished language observed in non-aphasic individuals with severe TBI has been linked to a ...problem in the global organization of information at the text level. The present study aimed to analyze the features of narrative discourse impairment in a group of adults with moderate TBI (modTBI). 10 non-aphasic speakers with modTBI and 20 neurologically intact participants were recruited for the experiment. Their cognitive, linguistic and narrative skills were thoroughly assessed. The persons with modTBI exhibited normal phonological, lexical and grammatical skills. However, their narratives were characterized by lower levels of Lexical Informativeness and more errors of both Local and Global Coherence that, at times, made their narratives vague and ambiguous. Significant correlations were found between these narrative difficulties and the production of both perseverative and non-perseverative errors on the WCST. These disturbances confirm previous findings which suggest a deficit at the interface between cognitive and linguistic processing rather than a specific linguistic disturbance in these patients.
•We analyzed narrative discourse in modTBI non-aphasic speakers.•They had adequate microlinguistic skills.•They could not organize the relevant information at the macrolinguistic level.•Scores on tests assessing executive functions correlated with narrative measures.•A deficit at the interface between cognitive and linguistic processing is postulated.
This review was aimed at systematically investigating the treatment efficacy and clinical effectiveness of neurobehavioral rehabilitation programs for adults with acquired brain injury and making ...evidence-based recommendations for the adoption of these rehabilitation trainings. Using a variety of search procedures, 63 studies were identified and reviewed using a set of questions about research methods, treatments, results and outcomes for the 1,094 participants. The 63 studies included treatments falling into three general categories: approaches based on applied behavior analysis, interventions based on cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT), and comprehensive-holistic rehabilitation programs (CHRPs). Considerable heterogeneity exists in the reviewed literature among treatment methods and within reported sample subjects. Despite the variety of methodological concerns, results indicate that the greatest overall improvement in psychosocial functioning is achieved by CHRP that can be considered a treatment standard for adults with behavioral and psychosocial disorders following acquired brain injury. Both approaches based on applied behavior analysis and CBT can be said to be evidence-based treatment options. However, findings raise questions about the role of uncontrolled factors in determining treatment effects and suggest the need for rigorous inclusion/exclusion criteria, with greater specification of theoretical basis, design, and contents of treatments for both interdisciplinary-comprehensive approaches and single-case methodologies.
•We evaluated communicative-pragmatic abilities and cognitive skills in TBI individuals.•We evaluated both linguistic and extralinguistic expressive modalities.•TBI individuals showed deficits in ...pragmatic tasks, executive function and ToM tests.•We evaluated the role of executive function and ToM in sustaining pragmatic disorders.•Both EF and ToM contributed to explain TBI’s pragmatic disorder.
Previous research has shown that communicative-pragmatic ability, as well as executive functions (EF) and Theory of Mind (ToM), may be impaired in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, the role of such cognitive deficits in explaining communicative-pragmatic difficulty in TBI has still not been fully investigated. The study examined the relationship between EF (working memory, planning and flexibility) and ToM and communicative-pragmatic impairment in patients with TBI. 30 individuals with TBI and 30 healthy controls were assessed using the Assessment Battery of Communication (ABaCo), and a set of cognitive, EF and ToM, tasks. The results showed that TBI participants performed poorly in comprehension and production tasks in the ABaCo, using both linguistic and extralinguistic means of expression, and that they were impaired in EF and ToM abilities. Cognitive difficulties were able to predict the pragmatic performance of TBI individuals, with both executive functions and ToM contributing to explaining patients’ scores on the ABaCo.
The main aim of our study was to investigate the role of imitation in improving word-finding difficulties in a group of aphasic subjects. For this purpose, we designed software based on the ...computerised program described by Lee et al. (2010). Seven subjects with aphasia resulting from a brain injury were enrolled in the study. A battery of tests was administered to participants one month before the treatment (T0) and immediately before its beginning (T1) with the aim of detecting their language difficulties. In the period between T0 and T1 sessions, participants underwent traditional logopaedic and neuropsychological rehabilitation. The treatment lasted 45 days with 90-minute sessions per day and it was personalised in terms of difficulty for each of the subjects. During every session the task required participants to carefully observe and then imitate six actors while pronouncing aloud a series of words and sentences describing a set of items. The results showed a significant improvement in the whole sample and in all the analysed measures only between T1 and T2 (post-training evaluation), while, as expected, no improvement was registered between T0 and T1. Such outcomes are consistent with research showing the key role played by imitation in the word retrieval process following aphasia.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, FSPLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
After a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), emotion recognition is typically impaired. This is commonly attributed to widespread multifocal damage in cortical areas involved in emotion processing as well ...as to Diffuse Axonal Injury (DAI). However, current models suggest that emotional recognition is subserved by a distributed network cantered on the amygdala, which involves both cortical and subcortical structures. While the cortical system is preferentially tuned to process high spatial frequencies, the subcortical networks are more sensitive to low-spatial frequencies. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether emotion perception from low-spatial frequencies underpinning the subcortical system is relatively preserved in TBI patients. We tested a group of 14 subjects with severe TBI and 20 matched healthy controls. Each participant was asked to recognize the emotion expressed by each stimulus that consisted of happy and fearful faces, filtered for their low and high spatial frequencies components. Results in TBI patients’ performances showed that low-spatial frequency expressions were recognized with higher accuracy and faster reaction times when compared to high spatial frequency stimuli. On the contrary, healthy controls did not show any effect in the two conditions, neither for response accuracy nor for reaction times. The outcomes of this study indicate that emotion perception from low-spatial frequencies is relatively preserved in TBI, thereby suggesting spare of functioning in the subcortical system in mediating emotion recognition.
• We analyzed narrative discourse in severe TBI non-aphasic speakers. • They had adequate microlinguistic skills and could identify a good amount of information. • However, they could not organize it ...at either micro- or macrolinguistic levels of narrative processing. • These symptoms may reflect a deficit at the interface between cognitive and linguistic processing.
Persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often show impaired linguistic and/or narrative abilities. The present study aimed to document the features of narrative discourse impairment in a group of adults with TBI. 14 severe TBI non-aphasic speakers (GCS
<
8) in the phase of neurological stability and 14 neurologically intact participants were recruited for the experiment. Their cognitive, linguistic and narrative skills were thoroughly assessed. The group of non-aphasic individuals with TBI had normal lexical and grammatical skills. However, they produced narratives with increased errors of cohesion and coherence due to the frequent interruption of ongoing utterances, derailments and extraneous utterances that made their discourse vague and ambiguous. They produced a normal amount of thematic units (i.e. concepts) in their narratives. However, this information was not correctly organized at micro- and macrolinguistic levels of processing. A Principal Component Analysis showed that a single factor accounted for the production of global coherence errors, and the reduction of both propositional density at the utterance level and proportion of words that conveyed information. It is hypothesized that the linguistic deficits observed in the participants with TBI may reflect a deficit at the interface between cognitive and linguistic processing rather than a specific linguistic disturbance.
Persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often experience macrolinguistic (i.e., pragmatic and discourse) difficulties. However, it is still not clear whether these difficulties are related to their ...cognitive impairments and little research has investigated communication abilities across the severity spectrum of TBI. This study compared the cognitive profile and narrative performance of persons with mild-to-moderate TBI, individuals with severe TBI and healthy control participants by adopting a multilevel procedure for discourse analysis. The results showed both severity-dependent and severity-independent effects on the participants’ cognitive and narrative skills. A series of correlational analyses and two Principal Component Analyses confirmed the articulated nature of their narrative impairments and the complex interplay between cognitive and discourse difficulties in both groups of patients. The results from this study suggest that trauma severity influences the gravity of some of the symptoms observed in persons with TBI. At the same time, however, they highlight the cognitive nature of their narrative difficulties.
•We analyzed narrative discourse in severe and mild-to-moderate TBI.•They couldn't organize the relevant information at the macrolinguistic level.•Both severity-dependent and severity-independent effects were found.•Scores on tests assessing executive functions correlated with narrative measures.
To verify the efficacy of Cognitive Pragmatic Treatment (CPT), a new rehabilitation training program for improving communicative-pragmatic abilities.
The CPT program consists of 24 group sessions, ...concerned with improving several communication modalities, theory of mind (ToM), and cognitive components that can affect pragmatic performance, such as awareness and executive functions.
A sample of 15 adults with severe traumatic brain injury.
Improvements were evaluated before and after training, using the equivalent forms of the Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo), a tool for evaluating comprehension and production of a wide range of pragmatic phenomena. A neuropsychological and ToM assessment was also conducted.
The patients' performance improved after training, in terms of both comprehension and production, in all the communication modalities assessed by the ABaCo, that is, linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic, and social appropriateness abilities. The follow-up showed that the improvement of patients persists after 3 months from the end of the training.
The results suggest that the CPT program is efficacious in improving communicative-pragmatic abilities in individuals with TBI, and that improvements at this level are still detectable even in chronic patients years after the injury.
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