Acetylcholine ; Amygdala ; Cues ; Fear

OBJECTIVE: To test the feasibility of newly developed 3- dimensional virtual reality (VR) program for assessing the post-stroke cognitive dysfunction. METHOD: Thirty five post-stroke patients and twenty normal healthy subjects were recruited in this study, and post-stroke patients were classified into three groups according to the severity of cognitive dysfunction. We developed three dimensional virtual reality program to assess the cognitive function with virtual subway environment from taking a subway to arriving at one's destination. The total score, number of success and cue were obtained during completing virtual tasks. We investigated the test-retest reliability, and the parameters of the 3-dimensional VR program were compared with Korean Mini-mental status examination. RESULTS: All parameters of the VR program were significantly correlated with MMSE score (p<0.01), and showed the significant difference between patient subgroups and control group (p<0.05). The test-retest reliability of the VR program was significantly high (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Three dimensional virtual reality program may be helpful to assess the cognitive function in patients with stroke.
Cues ; Humans ; Railroads ; Stroke

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon refers to knowing the meaning of the desired information but being unable to produce the phonological information. This study induced the TOT phenomenon through a task involving naming famous people, compared and analyzed results by age, and examined the differences with effects from pathological aging [mild cognitive impairment (MCI)]. METHODS: Young (n=10), middle-aged (n=10), older (n=10), oldest (n=10), and MCI (n=10) subjects participated in this study. To examine TOT rate, rate of TOT response, voluntary TOT solution rate, and TOT solution rate after presenting syllabic cue, each group participated in the experiment through a task of naming famous people. RESULTS: First, as subject age increased, TOT rate (the number of TOTs divided by total trials) increased. There was no significant difference with pathological aging. Second, normal aging and pathological aging had no significant effect on the rate of TOT response (the number of each response type divided by total response types). Third, the voluntary TOT solution rate (the number of voluntary TOT solutions divided by total TOTs) on occurrence of the TOT phenomenon was very low. Fourth, the TOT solution rate (the number of TOT solutions after presenting syllabic cue divided by total TOTs) had a negative correlation to normal aging. In examining pathological aging, the TOT solution rate of the MCI group was significantly lower than normal oldest people. CONCLUSION: Normal aging and pathological aging showed differences regarding TOT rate and TOT solution rate when naming famous individuals. The results of this study could be helpful as a differential tool between normal and pathological aging.
Aging* ; Cues ; Mild Cognitive Impairment*

A common complaint of older listeners is that they can hear speech, yet cannot understand it, especially when listening to speech in a background noise. When target and competing speech signals are concurrently presented, a difference in the fundamental frequency (DeltaF0) between competing speech signals, which determines the pitch of voice, can be an important and commonly occurring cue to facilitate the separation of the target message from the interfering message, consequently improving intelligibility of the target message. To address the question of whether the older listeners have reduced ability to use DeltaF0 and how the age-related deficits in the processing of DeltaF0 are theoretically explained, this paper is divided into three parts. The first part of this article summarizes how the speech-communication difficulties that older listeners have are theoretically explained. In the second part, literatures on the perceptual benefits from DeltaF0 and the age-related deficits on the use of DeltaF0 are reviewed. As a final part, three theoretical models explaining the general processing of DeltaF0 are compared to discuss which better explains the age-related deficits in the processing of DeltaF0.
Cues ; Models, Theoretical ; Noise ; Voice

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to assess the interaction between alcohol cues and social pressure in the induction of alcohol craving. METHODS: Fourteen male patients with alcohol dependence and 14 age-matched social drinkers completed a virtual reality coping skill training program composed of four blocks according to the presence of alcohol cues (x2) and social pressure (x2). Before and after each block, the craving levels were measured using a visual analogue scale. RESULTS: Patients with alcohol dependence reported extremely high levels of craving immediately upon exposure to a virtual environment with alcohol cues, regardless of social pressure. In contrast, the craving levels of social drinkers were influenced by social pressure from virtual avatars. CONCLUSION: Our findings imply that an alcohol cue-laden environment should interfere with the ability to use coping skills against social pressure in real-life situations.
Adaptation, Psychological* ; Alcoholism* ; Cues ; Education ; Humans ; Male

PURPOSE: To determine the range of normal distance stereoacuity in populations with normal vision and the change of distance stereoacuity with age using the Frisby Davis Distance (FD2) stereotest and to evaluate the influence of monocular cues on the FD2 test. METHODS: Ninety-eight subjects between 4 and 73 years old who had no ocular or neurologic diseases were examined. Distance stereoacuity was measured binocularly and monocularly with the FD2 test. RESULTS: According to the results of the FD2 test, the mean distance stereoacuity of patients was 14.74+/-6.02 sec of arc. The monocular threshold with the dominant eye was 182.09+/-58.13 sec of arc. Subjects between 21 and 30 years old showed the best distance stereoacuity of 10.67+/-3.20 sec of arc. A significant decline in distance stereoacuity and monocular threshold were seen in subjects older than 61 (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The normal distance stereoacuity using the FD2 was 14.74+/-6.02 sec of arc, and significant reductions of stereoacuity and monocular threshold were seen in subjects older than 61. Therefore, we have to consider the effect of age on stereoacuity when performing the FD2 test. To take monocular cues into account, the FD2 test should be performed under both binocular and monocular conditions.
Cues ; Eye ; Humans ; Telescopes ; Vision, Ocular

Freezing behavior is a widely used parameter that represents the level of fear. A number of studies on emotional learning have used this behavior for quantification of fear that results from a cue or a context. Even though the expression of freezing behavior is based on the dynamic interaction of mice with the environment, the effect of environmental stimuli on freezing behavior has not been studied extensively because of its minority compared to the effect of conditioning-stimuli. In this study, we found that the auditory environment of a context affects the freezing behavior of a mouse in it. This effect was not observed when the mouse was exposed to the context for the first time. However, during the second exposure, the level of freezing behavior increased significantly in an intensity-dependent manner, while the type, pitch, and rhythm of additional sounds involved in the context did not induce notable effects. This intensity-dependent effect was unrelated to the level of fear and anxiety, reflecting another aspect of the freezing behavior as a parameter for recognizing the pattern of normal behaviors.
Animals ; Anxiety ; Cues ; Freezing ; Learning ; Mice

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to propose a theoretical model of hope commonly held by the cancer patients just after surgery, under the assumptions that hope of those patients is not only realistic and disease oriented but in dialectical circulation. METHOD: A theoretical model was generated through 4 steps: exploring a hope structure by synthesizing the relevant hope structures expressed in Kim and Tae's studies, in-depth literature review, examining the meanings of the concepts consisted of the structure in use and their causal relations in logical adequacy, proposing a theoretical structure through synthesizing the causal relations, and diagramming the structure. RESULTS: The proposed theoretical model involves concepts such as Cancer Related Uncertainty (CRU), Efforts to Find out the Possibility of Cure or Recovery (EFPCR), and Hopefulness or Hopelessness. The 'EFPCR' is stipulated as 'Behaviors Related to Looking for Evidences or Cues (BRLEC)' and 'Formation of Cognitive Schema (FCS)'. In the model, Hopefulness is directly influenced by 'CRU in low', which is affected by 'FCS in good' from the result of EFPCR started with 'CRU in increase' while 'CRU with increase' from the result from EFPCR has direct effect on Hopelessness. CONCLUSION: The theoretical model would be used to enhancing hope of the cancer patients in post-operation.
Cues ; Hope* ; Humans ; Logic ; Models, Theoretical* ; Uncertainty

BACKGROUND: Impairments of language function represent patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from the early stage and as the disease progresses the damage spreads over a much broader range of cognition and communicative functions. And, performances of the naming tasks in AD patients may reveal the gradual deterioration of their naming ability. METHODS: In this study, naming ability was studied in patients with questionable AD (CDR 0.5, n=10), mild AD (CDR 1, n=10), moderate AD (CDR 2, n=10) and 10 healthy controls matched for age, gender and educational level using confrontation naming and naming by verbal definition tasks. The purpose of present study was 1) to investigate whether the confrontation naming and naming by verbal definition in Alzheimer's disease is different depending on the severity, 2) to examine the effects of the syllabic cue on the two naming ability for the errors questions. RESULTS: The results from this study are as follow: 1) The two naming performances of the all AD groups were lower than those of normal people and showed significant difference. 2) There were differences between the two naming tasks, significantly lower performance on confrontation naming task than naming by verbal definition. 3) The effects of syllabic cue decreased gradually as severity progressed. 4) The effects of syllabic cue were no significant differences between the two naming tasks. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that anomia in patients with AD is due to various impairment including to lexico-semantic system, visual processing, phonological processing and auditory comprehension.
Alzheimer Disease ; Anomia ; Cognition ; Comprehension ; Cues ; Humans

The chronic and acute effects of hyperglycemia affecting cognition and work are as important as those of hypoglycemia. Its impact, considering that majority of diabetic patients fail to reach therapeutic targets, would be potentially significant. Self monitoring of blood glucose, recognition of body cues and management interventions should be geared not only towards avoidance of disabling hypoglycemia, but also towards unwanted hyperglycemia. Over the long term, chronic hyperglycemia is a risk for cognitive decline. Acute episodes of hyperglycemia, above 15 mmol/L have also been shown to affect cognitive motor tasks. Maintaining blood sugar to avoid hyperglycemia in diabetic workers will help promote safety at work.
Blood Glucose ; Cognition ; Cues ; Humans ; Hyperglycemia ; Hypoglycemia