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- Changes in social emotion recognition following traumatic frontal lobe injuryPublication . Martins, Ana Teresa; Faísca, Luís; Esteves, Francisco; Simão, Cláudia; Justo, M. G.; Muresan, A.; Reis, AlexandraChanges in social and emotional behaviour have been consistently observed in patients with traumatic brain injury. These changes are associated with emotion recognition deficits which represent one of the major barriers to a successful familiar and social reintegration. In the present study, 32 patients with traumatic brain injury, involving the frontal lobe, and 41 age- and education-matched healthy controls were analyzed. A Go/No-Go task was designed, where each participant had to recognize faces representing three social emotions (arrogance, guilt and jealousy). Results suggested that ability to recognize two social emotions (arrogance and jealousy) was significantly reduced in patients with traumatic brain injury, indicating frontal lesion can reduce emotion recognition ability. In addition, the analysis of the results for hemispheric lesion location (right, left or bilateral) suggested the bilateral lesion sub-group showed a lower accuracy on all social emotions.
- Portuguese adaptation of a faux pas test and a theory of mind picture stories taskPublication . Faisca, Luis; Fonseca, Sofia; Bruene, Martin; Gonçalves, Gabriela Maria Ramos; Gomes, Alexandra; Martins, Ana TeresaBackground: Developmental concepts of 'Theory of Mind' (ToM) suggest that this cognitive domain is an innate human capacity requiring input from the social environment to mature. Research suggests substantial individual differences in ToM, depending on childhood experiences, genetics, and the presence or absence of a neuropsychiatric disorder. None of the existing ToM tests for adult populations have been made available in Portuguese. Accordingly, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Portuguese versions of the Faux Pas (FP) Recognition Test and the ToM Picture Stories Task. Sampling and Methods: Both tests were given to a sample of 200 Portuguese adults (125 women and 75 men) aged between 18 and 60 years. Results and Conclusions: The psychometric analyses of the results indicate that the Portuguese version of the FP Recognition Test is appropriate for use in research and clinical settings, providing a composite score that reliably measures the ability to infer the thoughts and feelings of others in a 'faux pas' situation (Cronbach's alpha = 0.82). However, the ToM Picture Stories Task did not show acceptable psychometric qualities. (C) 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel
- Paradoxical effects of Worrisome Thoughts Suppression: the influence of depressive moodPublication . Silva, Sónia; Janeiro, Luís; Brás, Marta; Carmo, Cláudia; Martins, Ana Teresa; Jiménez-Ros, Antonia MaríaThought suppression increases the persistence of unwanted idiosyncratic worries thoughts when individuals try to suppress them. The failure of suppression may contribute to the development and maintenance of emotional disorders. Depressive people seem particulary prone to engage in unsuccessful mental control strategies such as thought suppression. Worry has been reported to be elevated in depressed individuals and a dysphoric mood may also contribute for the failure of suppression. No studies examine, however, the suppression of worisome thoughts in individuals with depressive symptoms. To investigate the suppression effects of worrisome thoughts, 46 participants were selected according to the cut-off score of a depressive symptomatology scale and they were divided in two groups (subclinical and nonclinical group). All the individuals took part in an experimental paradigm of thought suppression. The results of the mixed factorial analysis of variance revealed an increased frequency of worrisome thoughts during the suppression phase on depending of the depressive symptoms. These findings confirm that depressive mood can reduce the success of suppression.
- Fontes de informação, conhecimentos e uso do preservativo em estudantes universitários do Algarve e de HuelvaPublication . Martins, Ana Teresa; Nunes, Cristina; Muñoz-Silva, Alicia; Sánchez-García, ManuelEmbora os estudantes universitários tenham fácil acesso à informação sobre a transmissão do VIH e os comportamentos de risco associados à actividade sexual, esta informação nem sempre é correcta nem se baseia em fontes fiáveis ou conhecimentos científicos. Por outro lado, o nível de conhecimentos nem sempre se traduz numa utilização mais frequente do preservativo. Neste estudo analisaram-se as fontes de informação sobre os métodos contraceptivos e as doenças de transmissão sexual, os conhecimentos sobre a AIDS e o modo de transmissão do VIH e o uso do preservativo em 678 estudantes universitários portugueses e espanhóis. O nível de conhecimento é elevado em ambas as amostras, contudo os estudantes portugueses apresentam um melhor nível. Encontraram-se algumas diferenças no uso do preservativo e na utilização das fontes de informação entre países e sexo. Discutem-se as implicações para as actividades de promoção da saúde assim como o papel dos diferentes agentes educativos.
- Traumatic brain injury patients: does frontal brain lesion influence basic emotion recognition?Publication . Martins, Ana Teresa; Faísca, Luís; Esteves, Francisco; Muresan, A.; Justo, M. G.; Simão, C.; Reis, AlexandraAdequate emotion recognition is relevant to individuals’ interpersonal communication. Patients with frontal traumatic brain injury (TBI) exhibit a lower response to facial emotional stimuli, influencing social interactions. In this sense, the main goal of the current study was to assess the ability of TBI patients in recognizing basic emotions. Photographs of facial expressions of five basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and surprise) were presented to 32 TBI patients and 41 healthy controls. Emotion recognition was measured by accuracy and reaction time. Overall performance of the TBI group was poorer than control group for emotion recognition, both in terms of accuracy and reaction time. It is suggested that TBI patients show impairment on emotion recognition, and this relation seems to be moderated by the lesion localization. Keywords: emotion recognition, basic emotions, TBI patients.
- Atypical moral judgment following traumatic brain injuryPublication . Martins, Ana Teresa; Faísca, Luís; Esteves, Francisco; Muresan, A.; Reis, AlexandraPrevious research has shown an association between emotions, particularly social emotions, and moral judgments. Some studies suggested an association between blunted emotion and the utilitarian moral judgments observed in patients with prefrontal lesions. In order to investigate how prefrontal brain damage affects moral judgment, we asked a sample of 29 TBI patients (12 females and 17 males) and 41 healthy participants (16 females and 25 males) to judge 22 hypothetical dilemmas split into three different categories (non-moral, impersonal and personal moral). The TBI group presented a higher proportion of affirmative (utilitarian) responses for personal moral dilemmas when compared to controls, suggesting an atypical pattern of utilitarian judgements. We also found a negative association between the performance on recognition of social emotions and the proportion of affirmative responses on personal moral dilemmas. These results suggested that the preference for utilitarian responses in this type of dilemmas is accompanied by difficulties in social emotion recognition. Overall, our findings suggest that deontological moral judgments are associated with normal social emotion processing and that frontal lobe plays an important role in both emotion and moral judgment.