Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “MENTAL PROCESSES”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 937 records · Page 52Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Nonspecific leukoencephalopathy associated with aging.

With advancing age, the periventricular and subcortical white matter becomes susceptible to a heterogeneous assortment of tissue alterations that cannot be easily categorized in terms of traditionally defined neuropathologic disease. These alterations, which appear radiolucent on CT and hyperintense on T2-weighted MR imaging, are more common in patients with chronic hypertension and perhaps other microvascular arteriosclerotic risk factors. Examination of the affected tissue reveals a spectrum of histologic change that is graded with respect to pathologic severity. The majority of the alterations are of low histopathologic grade and exert minimal clinical effects. Frequently observed microscopic changes include dilated perivascular (Virchow-Robin) spaces, mild demyelination, gliosis, and diffuse regions neuropil vacuolation. Associated clinical abnormalities, when present, are usually confined to deficits of attention, mental processing speed, and psychomotor control. These deficits may often be demonstrable only through neuropsychologic testing. There is some evidence that the cognitive symptoms of AD may be exacerbated by the concomitant presence of these white matter alterations, but an etiologic link between AD and radiographically detectible white matter changes remains speculative. Occasionally, histologically severe white matter lesions may occur that result in dementia and focal neurologic impairment. These lesions are characterized by extensive arteriosclerosis, diffuse white matter necrosis, and lacunar infarction; affected patients may receive a diagnosis of Binswanger's disease or subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy. Nevertheless, severe ischemic white matter pathology of this type is uncommon as an explanation for serious neurologic dysfunction, and clinicians must carefully weigh other categories of neuropathology before making a diagnosis of Binswanger's disease. Alternative diagnostic considerations include neurodegenerative illnesses such as AD, cerebral infarction, neoplasm, and other forms of white matter pathology such as those due to infection, inflammation, a primary demyelinative condition, or metabolic leukodystrophy.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

Deficits of cognitive executive functions in patients with sleep apnea syndrome.

Impairment of cognitive executive functions previously has been suspected to occur in association with sleep apnea syndrome (SAS), as suggested by some neuropsychological studies. However, such functions have not been assessed directly. In the present study, 17 patients with SAS were evaluated with various focused frontal lobe-related tests in comparison with 17 normal controls. Such tasks explored attention, short-term memory spans, learning abilities, planning and programming capacities, categorizing activities and verbal fluency. Patients were found to have a significantly decreased ability to initiate new mental processes and to inhibit automatic ones, in conjunction with a tendency for preservative errors. They were also affected with deficits of verbal and visual learning abilities and had reduced memory spans. Such defects were further evaluated via logistic regression against two criteria of the severity of the disease: the number of apneas and hypopneas per hour of sleep and the level of nocturnal hypoxemia. Memory deficits were rather related to the former, whereas typical frontal lobe-related abnormalities seemed rather consistent with the latter. These findings are discussed in light of data from the literature concerning cognitive impairments described for patients with isolated daytime sleepiness versus hypoxemia, as illustrated in other pathological or physiological circumstances.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[The phenomenology of hysterical personality disorder].

Phenomena that are observable in the "classic" hysterical personality disorder are named, described and classified according to the basic functions of human experience and behavior. In this way, a psychopathological picture of the hysterical personality arises, which can facilitate the sometimes difficult task of diagnosis and differential diagnosis. It is shown that the phenomenon of dissociation is one essential characteristic of this disorder. The dissociation of the mental processes is demonstrated for the various basic functions. It implies a dissociation of contents and of parts of personality on the axis conscious-preconscious/unconscious. The dissociation ultimately becomes a prerequisite for living these not permitted and not integrated parts of personality in a partial and compromising way.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1993

[The effects of phenytoin and carbamazepine on the cognitive function of epileptic patients].

We made a comparative study of the cognitive function of 60 epileptic patients before and after the use of phenytoin (DPH) and carbamazepine (CBZ). Five types of neuropsychological tests were adopted. Although both DPH and CBZ affected cognitive function, the degrees of their effects were not the same. DPH affected cognitive function in a broad field, including concentration, remembrance, psychological motor speed and mental processing, whereas CBZ had only slight effect on perception and motor speed. It is stressed that cognitive function disorder caused by antiepileptic drugs should be early detected by synchronous examinations of the level of antiepileptic drugs and the neuropsychological functions.

Attention↗
PubMed1993

Validation of a motor skills performance theory with applications for dental education.

While several investigations assessing applications of contemporary motor learning theory to preclinic laboratory instruction have been successful, they provide only indirect and incomplete validation of theoretical constructs. This study's purpose was to further evaluate the validity of salient constructs through the use of a validation technique called verbal self-reporting, and to describe applications for dental education. Subjects were videotaped completing a preparation. Later, the tape was replayed and a structured interview used to stimulate recall of mental processes that occurred during the preparation. Transcribed self-reports were classified by two calibrated raters into categories corresponding to the constructs of interest. Results confirm many of the constructs' characteristics. Subjects reported that they a) defined the desired outcome in detail before beginning production; b) defined performance strategies that would be useful for different aspects of the preparation; c) constantly generated knowledge of results during the course of production in order to directly assess the adequacy of the product; and d) generated knowledge of performance as an indirect assessment of product acceptability especially when visual access was impeded. These results support previous applications of the theory to dentistry and have important implications for the improvement of instruction in preclinic laboratory courses.

Education, Dental↗
PubMed1993

[Neuropsychological investigation in multiple sclerosis].

We studied neuropsychological performance in 10 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Neuropsychological test batteries consisted of Mini-Mental State Examination, Digist Span, Paired Associate Learning Test (PAL), Benton Visual Retention Test, Kohs Block-Design Test, Digit Symbol Subtest in WAIS, 'Kanahiroi" Test, Verbal Fluency and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. In accordance with cerebral lesions on MRI, patients were divided into three groups. A: Multiple-confluent lesions, B: Discrete lesions, C: No lesion. In MS patients as a whole, performance of PAL, "Kanahiroi" Test and Verbal Fluency were significantly impaired compared with 10 age and education matched normal controls (p < 0.05), while other tests were not. In four out of five patients of A group, more than four neuropsychological tests showed below mean -2SD score of normal controls, whereas in patients of B and C group, less than three neuropsychological tests showed below -2SD score of normal controls. In conclusion, severity of cognitive impairment in patients with MS correlated with lesion extent on MRI. Patients with MS exhibited significant cognitive impairment on tasks of recent memory and mental processing speed. It is suggested that MS patients show the features of subcortical dementia.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Simultaneously recorded single units in the frontal cortex go through sequences of discrete and stable states in monkeys performing a delayed localization task.

To test whether spiking activity of six to eight simultaneously recorded neurons in the frontal cortex of a monkey can be characterized by a sequence of discrete and stable states, neuronal activity is analyzed by a hidden Markov model (HMM). Using the HMM method, we are able to detect distinct states of neuronal activity within which firing rates are approximately stationary. Transitions between states, as expressed by concomitant changes in the firing rates of several units, occur quite abruptly. The significance and consistency of the states are confirmed by comparison with simulated data. The detected states are specific to a monkey's response in a delayed localization task, allowing correct prediction of the response in approximately 90% of the trials. Similar predictive power is achieved by a model based simply on the response histograms (PSTH) of the units. The two models reach this predictive ability with different time courses: the PSTH model gains predictive power with a higher rate in the first second of the delay, and the HMM gains predictive power with higher rate in the next 3 sec. In this later period, conventional methods such as the PSTH cannot detect any firing rate modulations, but the HMM successfully captures transitions between distinct states that are specific to the monkey's behavioral response and occur at highly variable times from trial to trial. Our results suggest that neuronal activity in this later period is described best as transitions among distinct states that may reflect discrete steps in the monkey's mental processes.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Activation of the brain and consciousness].

At least 3 levels of consciousness were identified within the stage B of sleep. Against the background of the increase in the alpha-rhythm amplitude, we observed an enhancement of voluntary and involuntary associations and increase in the flow of thoughts. The stage of "thought wandering" was accompanied by a considerable decrease in the alpha-rhythm regularity, a decrease in its frequency, and decrease in EEG coherence in all brain areas under study. At the stage of the "flat" EEG, the subjects experienced inhibition of mental processes ("empty heady"), their consciousness as if "falling down" to the lowest Ego level. The subjects were aware of the transition from one stage to another and could fix the stages. Thus, the results showed that subjective changes of levels of consciousness corresponded to different stages of transition from wakefulness to sleep which was objectively determined by the EEG.

Brain↗
PubMed1997

Frontal lobe-related cognitive functions in patients with sleep apnea syndrome before and after treatment.

Impairments of cognitive executive functions has been previously suspected to occur in Sleep Apnea Syndrome (SAS), as suggested by some neuropsychological studies. However such functions have not been assessed directly. In the present study, ten patients with SAS were evaluated with various focused frontal lobe-related tests in comparison with ten matched normal controls. Such tasks explored attention, short term memory spans, learning abilities, planning and programming capacities, categorizing activities and verbal fluency. Patients were found with a significant decreased ability to initiate new mental processes and to inhibit automatic ones in conjunction with a tendency for perseverative errors. They were also affected with deficits of verbal and visual learning abilities and they had reduced spans. Patients were submitted to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and further reevaluated after 4-6 months of treatment. Patients were found to have normalized most of their cognitive executive and learning disabilities, except for all the short-term memory tests which remained unchanged. These findings are discussed in light of data from the literature concerning cognitive impairments described for patients with isolated daytime sleepiness versus hypoxemia, as illustrated in other pathological or physiological circumstances. The contribution of frontal lobe-related systems in short-term memory functions is also taken into account.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

[Human hypnosis and super-slow electrical activity of the brain].

The authors studied the transformation of infraslow oscillations of brain potentials in 15 patients with neuroses during 50 sessions of hypnosis. The results of such studies permitted to distinguish some important traits in the changes of infraslow oscillations of brain potentials in different stages of hypnosis. It is concluded that a study of these changes during hypnosis may establish some correlations between the physiological state of the brain and the unconscious mental processes.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

[Changes in the work capacity of the operators of command-measuring systems during daily duty].

Through 12 hours of work the operators of command-measuring complexes had initial signs of exhaustion, showed them-self by decrease of health state, activity, mood, increase of latent period of simple sensorimotor reaction. These changes of a functional condition had no effect on quality of fulfillment of target problems. At the end of daily duty exhaustion, described by deterioration of health state, increase of operators' anxiousness, rapid pulse, reduction of time of delay of breath, increase of time of instability of sensorimotor reactions, amount of faulty actions, reduction of speed of mental processes and distribution of attention were developed.

Efficiency↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Disorders of the integrative brain functions in posttraumatic hydrocephalus].

As many as 110 patients with posttraumatic hydrocephalus in the remote period of mild closed craniocerebral injury underwent routine neuropsychologic evaluation. 80.9% of the patients presented with disorders of higher integrative functions of the brain; of these, 72.7% appeared to get too easily fatigued, their mental processes running to exhaustion too soon. In decreasing rank order are disorders of attention, slowing down of those processes relating to abstract thought, power of apprehension and recent memory (62.7%, 60.9%, and 34.5% respectively). Mnestic disturbances prevailed among patients with moderate severity posttraumatic hydrocephalus (40%) and external hydrocephalus (47.8%). Mild degree hydrocephalus was free from disturbances to higher integrative functions of the brain. The aforesaid attests to the need of the nootropic, vasoactive agents, drugs having resolving and dehydrating effects to be included into the combined treatment of the above patient population.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

[The process of constructing mental models from spatial descriptions].

This study examined the effect of word order in constructing mental models from spatial descriptions. In Experiment 1, 24 graduate and undergraduate students read three sentences in length of spatial descriptions and verified location diagrams. Experimental factors were word order and propositional combinations. In single sentence processing, reading times (RTs) of Subject-Location-Verb (SLV) word order condition were longer than RTs of Location-Subject-Verb (LSV) condition. In the integration process, the effect of propositional combinations (reflected in RTs of the second sentence) were found only in the LSV condition. To clarify the integration process, the word order of the second sentence was changed in Experiment 2. Compared with the result of Experiment 1 (with both the first and the second sentence SLV). RTs of the second SLV sentence (with the first LSV) were reduced. These results support the hypothesis that the integration process is carried out by on-line processing, and that subjects use not only proportional representations of text, which contain logical relations of terms, but also surface structure information such as word order in constructing mental models.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The role of folates in the diverse biochemical processes that control mental function].

A variety of studies indicate that folate deficiency is associated with the appearance of problems of a neuromuscular or neurological nature such as depression, muscular and mental fatigue, states of confusion and non-senile dementia, and that these processes improve fully or partly when the deficiency is corrected. Because of the role of folates in the reactions in synthesis of neuro-transmitter and elements of neuron structure, it is not surprising that a deficiency is associated with depression and other mental problems. Folates are involved in the synthesis of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) which is the main contributor of methyl groups in the nervous system and whose action as an antidepressive agent is confirmed. They are also involved in the synthesis of glutamate which is an excitant neurotransmitter, and in the formation of puric and pyrimidic bases. An alternative mechanism for explaining the etiopathogenesis of folate deficiency in depression and other mental disorders involves the regeneration of tetrahydrobiopterin (THB) which is an essential cofactor in hydroxylation process in the brains of mammals. Folate deficiency is a common nutritional problem in many groups of the Spanish population and, given the role of this vitamin in the operation of the nervous system, we might consider the possibility that, in some case, folate deficiency may cause or aggravate some alterations to mental function.

Brain↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The impact of routine outcome measurement on treatment processes in community mental health care: approach and methods of the MECCA study.

Three issues characterise the background to the MECCA study: A) Throughout Europe, most patients with severe forms of psychotic disorders are cared for in the community. The challenge now is to make processes in community mental health care more effective. B) There are widespread calls to implement regular outcome measurement in routine settings. This, however, is more likely to happen, if it provides a direct benefit to clinicians and patients. C) Whilst user involvement is relatively easy to achieve on a political level, new mechanisms may have to be established to make the views of patients feed into individual treatment decisions. The MECCA study is a cluster randomised controlled trial following the same protocol in community mental health teams in six European countries. In the experimental group, patients' subjective quality of life, treatment satisfaction and wishes for different or additional help are assessed in key worker-patient meetings every two months and intended to inform the therapeutic dialogue and treatment decisions. The trial tests the hypothesis that the intervention--as compared to current best standard practice--will lead to a better outcome in terms of quality of life and other criteria in patients with psychotic disorders over a one year period. This more favourable outcome is assumed to be mediated through different treatment input based on more appropriate joint decisions or a more positive therapeutic relationship in line with a partnership model of care or both. Moreover, the study will hopefully reveal new insights into how therapeutic processes in community mental health care work and how they can be optimised.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMed2005

From referral to disposition: case processing in seven mental health courts.

The number of mental health courts in the United States is rapidly increasing, from one in 1997 to nearly 100 in 2004. However, to date there is comparatively little research regarding these specialty courts. The present study reports data on the referral and disposition decision-making processes of seven mental health courts. Information on all referrals to the seven courts over a three-month period was gathered. Results show that, in comparison with individuals involved in the criminal justice system, mental health court clients are more likely to be older, White, and women than individuals in the general criminal justice system. Furthermore, this over-representation occurs at the point of referral, rather than at the point of the court's decision to accept or reject a referral. In addition, the length of time from referral to diversion is much longer in these mental health courts than in other types of diversion programs. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Self-process in comorbid mental illness and drug abuse.

A theory of social influence is proposed as a framework within which to examine the psychosocial processes that underlie substance abuse among persons with severe mental illness. The theory's potential to account for some of the empirical findings in the mental health and substance abuse literatures is discussed, and implications for research are offered.

Comorbidity↗