Asian journal of psychiatry最新文献

This cross-sectional observational study examined the relationship between psychological factors and multimodal emotion recognition abilities in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), introducing a humanoid robot as an innovative assessment modality. Sixty adults undergoing dialysis and awaiting renal transplantation (63.3 % male; mean age = 53.95 years, range 20-80) completed three emotion recognition tasks based on Ekman facial expressions, dynamic video clips, and emotional displays performed by the NAO humanoid robot, together with validated measures of alexithymia (TAS-20), anxiety (GAD-7), and depression (PHQ-9). Regression analyses showed that performance on the Ekman task was positively predicted by education and anxiety levels (β =.26, p = .037; β =.26, p = .043). Recognition of emotions in videos was negatively predicted by age (β = -.45, p < .001) and alexithymia (β = -.37, p = .002). For the robot-based task, increasing age (β = -.30, p = .020) and longer dialysis duration (β =.31, p = .017) significantly predicted recognition accuracy. Logistic regression analyses indicated that alexithymia negatively predicted recognition of disgust in videos and fear expressed by the robot. Levels of anxiety positively predicted recognition of happiness and fear in the Ekman test. Across the modalities, alexithymia and age emerged as core factors associated with reduced emotion recognition, with video and robot-based tasks capturing these differences more clearly than static facial stimuli. These findings suggest that socially assistive robots may represent a promising tool for detecting subtle socio-emotional processing alterations in medically vulnerable populations, supporting future longitudinal research integrating technological and psychological assessment.

The presence of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia is unequivocally established. These deficits impact the socio-occupational functioning of the individual. Consequently, enhancing cognitive functions is a key goal of comprehensive treatment approaches. Of late, neurofeedback has shown promise in improving cognitive abilities; however, research in the schizophrenia population remains scarce. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of neurofeedback in enhancing speed, accuracy, and productivity on entry-level vocational activities. Thirty-four individuals with schizophrenia underwent 15 sessions of neurofeedback designed to attenuate theta and late beta activities while augmenting early beta activity. A wait-list control group (N = 34) of schizophrenia patients was used for comparison. Results indicated that the neurofeedback group had improved speed, accuracy, and productivity on the entry-level vocational tasks, potentially due to enhanced alertness and attention. Additionally, cognitive assessments also revealed improvements in attention and information processing. These findings suggest that a brief, targeted neurofeedback protocol can enhance vocational task performance in individuals with schizophrenia.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by significant impairments in cognitive functions, including task-switching dysfunction. This study investigates the differences in switching impairments between non-emotional and emotional switching tasks in MDD patients and explores the underlying neuropsychological mechanisms.

Methods: 48 MDD patients and 52 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Behavioral and electroencephalogram data were recorded while participants performed non-emotional and emotional task-switching paradigms. Event-related potentials (ERPs: P2, N2, P3 difference waves) and event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs: theta, alpha, beta band power) were analyzed to assess group differences.

Results: In the magnitude task, MDD group displayed reduced occipital Pd2 amplitude (p < 0.001, η²_p=0.20), increased frontal/central Pd3 amplitudes (p < 0.001, η²_p=0.10), and larger alpha power differences (p < 0.05, η²_p= 0.04). In the gender task, MDD group had increased occipital Pd2 amplitude (p < 0.05, η²_p=0.04) and larger alpha power differences in the P3 time window (p < 0.01, η²_p=0.03). In the emotion task, MDD group showed prolonged Pd2 latency (p < 0.05, η²_p=0.04), reduced Pd3 amplitude (p < 0.05, η²_p=0.10), smaller theta power differences (p = 0.05, η²_p=0.03), and larger beta power differences (p < 0.05, η²_p=0.04).

Conclusion: MDD patients exhibit a dissociable pattern of task-switching deficits across non-emotional and emotional task-switching scenarios, characterized by distinct abnormalities across early visual processing, conflict monitoring, cognitive resource allocation, and multi-stage emotional processing. This study reveals novel electrophysiological mechanisms underlying cognitive inflexibility in MDD.