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- The influence of planning and response inhibition on cognitive functioning of Non-Psychotic unipolar depressed suicide attemptersPublication . Moniz, Marco; Jesus, Saul Neves de; Pacheco, Andreia; Gonçalves, Eduardo; Viseu, J.; Brás, Marta; Silva, Dina; Batista, SilviaDepression is one of the main risk factors for suicide. However, little is known about the intricate relationships among depressive symptomatology in unipolar depression, suicide risk, and the characteristics of executive dysfunction in depressed patients. We compared 20 non-psychotic unipolar depressed suicide attempters to 20 matching depressed non-attempters and to 20 healthy controls to further investigate the possible differences in neuropsychological performance. Depressed subjects were controlled for current suicidal ideation, and their neuropsychological profile was assessed using a range of measures of executive functioning, attention, verbal memory, processing speed, and psychomotor speed. Depressed groups were outperformed by healthy controls. Depressed attempters presented more cognitive impairment than depressed non-attempters on a simple Go/No-go response inhibition task and performed better than non-attempters on the Tower of London planning task. Depressed attempters were clearly distinguished by a deficit in response inhibition (Go/No-go commission errors). The normative planning performance (Tower of London extra moves) of the suicide attempters was unexpected, and this unanticipated finding calls for further research. Normative planning may indicate an increased risk of suicidal behavior.
- Estilos de vida, qualidade de vida pessoal, motivação e sucesso académico: o caso da Universidade do AlgarvePublication . Pacheco, Andreia; Jesus, Saul Neves de
- Caracterização cognitiva de perfis de leitores: o estudo da ortografia portuguesaPublication . Pacheco, Andreia; Reis, Alexandra; Petersson, Karl MagnusA evolução humana permitiu algumas conquistas culturais, como a compet~encia aprendida formalmente para (des)codificar linguagem escrita, ato que implica um elevado grau de complexidade em termos de atividade cerebral. Apesar de variados estudos procurarem compreender os processos cognitivos e os correlatos cerebrais da leitura, impõe-se ainda a compreensão das dificuldades que muitas crianças revelam, não obstante níveis de inteligência normais e oportunidades educativas ajustadas.
- Cognitive profiles in portuguese children with dyslexiaPublication . Pacheco, Andreia; Araújo, Susana; Faísca, Luís; Castro, S. L.; Petersson, Karl Magnus; Reis, AlexandraIndividuals with reading disorders like dyslexia seem not be a homogeneous group, neither with respect to the underlying causes nor the resulting cognitive profile. Our purpose was to analyze the cognitive profile, using a hierarchical cluster analysis, in an attempt to isolate the main cognitive profiles present in a sample of dyslexic Portuguese children.
- Visual rapid naming and phonological abilities: different subtypes in dyslexic childrenPublication . Araújo, Susana; Pacheco, Andreia; Faísca, Luís; Petersson, Karl Magnus; Reis, AlexandraOne implication of the double-deficit hypothesis for dyslexia is that there should be subtypes of dyslexic readers that exhibit rapid naming deficits with or without concomitant phonological processing problems. In the current study, we investigated the validity of this hypothesis for Portuguese orthography, which is more consistent than English orthography, by exploring different cognitive profiles in a sample of dyslexic children. In particular, we were interested in identifying readers characterized by a pure rapid automatized naming deficit. We also examined whether rapid naming and phonological awareness independently account for individual differences in reading performance. We characterized the performance of dyslexic readers and a control group of normal readers matched for age on reading, visual rapid naming and phonological processing tasks. Our results suggest that there is a subgroup of dyslexic readers with intact phonological processing capacity (in terms of both accuracy and speed measures) but poor rapid naming skills. We also provide evidence for an independent association between rapid naming and reading competence in the dyslexic sample, when the effect of phonological skills was controlled. Altogether, the results are more consistent with the view that rapid naming problems in dyslexia represent a second core deficit rather than an exclusive phonological explanation for the rapid naming deficits. Furthermore, additional non-phonological processes, which subserve rapid naming performance, contribute independently to reading development.
- Decision-making in adult unipolar depressed patients and healthy subjects: significant differences in Net Score and in non-traditional alternative measuresPublication . Moniz, Marco; Jesus, Saúl; Gonçalves, Eduardo; Pacheco, Andreia; Viseu, J.Alterations in executive functioning are frequent in depressive patients. One clinical characteristic of depression is difficulty and slowness in decision-making. This study aimed to compare the performance of a group of 30 non-psychotic unipolar depressed to 30 healthy controls in a version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) from the Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL). Significant differences between depressed patients and healthy controls in traditional Net Score measures as well as in various alternative metrics were verified.