| 1. |
- Falk Erhag, Hanna, et al.
(author)
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A Multidisciplinary Approach to Capability in Age and Ageing
- 2022
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Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This open access book provides insight on how to interpret capability in ageing – one’s individual ability to perform actions in order to reach goals one has reason to value – from a multidisciplinary approach. With for the first time in history there being more people in the world aged 60 years and over than there are children below the age of 5, the book describes this demographic trends as well as the large global challenges and important societal implications this will have such as a worldwide increase in the number of persons affected with dementia, and in the ratio of retired persons to those still in the labor market. Through contributions from many different research areas, it discussed how capability depends on interactions between the individual (e.g. health, genetics, personality, intellectual capacity), environment (e.g. family, friends, home, work place), and society (e.g. political decisions, ageism, historical period). The final chapter by the editors summarizes the differences and similarities in these contributions. As such this book provides an interesting read for students, teachers and researchers at different levels and from different fields interested in capability and multidisciplinary research.
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| 2. |
- Trägårdh, Karin, et al.
(author)
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Risk Profiles of Female Perpetrators of Severe Violence
- 2019
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In: 13th Nordic Symposium on Forensic Psychiatry. August 20-22, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Female offenders without a severe mental disorder show more criminogenic factors than those with. Both groups are characterized by mental health problems. We need to further characterize female offenders. Background Offenders of lethal/severe violence are in a majority of cases male, about 90% (Falk et al., 2014), and research has to a considerable extent focused on male violent offenders. Although less is known about female violent offenders than male offenders, previous research has indicated significant differences between male and female offenders of lethal/severe violence (Trägårdh et al., 2016; Yourstone et al., 2008). Since a majority of female perpetrators of lethal violence undergo a forensic psychiatric investigation (RPU/FPI), these documents contains important information about this group. Purpose The aim of this ongoing study is to characterize female perpetrators of severe violent crimes, and to compare female perpetrators sentenced to forensic psychiatric compulsory care with those sentenced to correctional treatment. Method This is an exploratory and descriptive study with a cross-sectional design. All forensic evaluations (FPI) made in Sweden between 2000-2014 (from The National Board of Forensic Medicine/RMV), and the subsequent court verdicts, in cases where women had used lethal/severe violence (n≈180) where used as the basis for data collection in this study. The present preliminary analyses (2-tests and ANOVA) contains approx. 26% (n=47) of the total group. Group differences were investigated regarding: Mental health (FPI) Risk factors (HCR-20 and PCL-R) Victim relation (FPI) Criminal behavior (FPI) Results Female offenders with and without a Severe mental disorder (SMD) seems to differ in some respects. For female offenders with a SMD, the crime was more likely to have been conducted in a less criminal context (see Table). For female offenders without a SMD, the following characteristics were more frequently present: Victim gender – male Substance abuse + Under the influence of substance (offender and victim) Previous violence between victim and offender Previous registered criminality Also, several common features between the SMD and non-SMD group of female offenders were found. The majority of all female offenders had: Previous psychiatric contact and diagnoses Previously attempted suicide No previously registered criminality Conclusions Preliminary results of the female perpetrators who had underwent a FPI seems to identify both substantial differences and similarities between those with versus without a SMD, where those without show more criminogenic factors. Both groups were also characterized by a high amount of mental illness. Also, these results supports previous research that female and male offenders of severe violence differ in important ways. Since a majority of female perpetrators of lethal violence undergo a forensic psychiatric investigation, these results should be generalizable to this group as a whole in Sweden. Based on these results, a great need to further characterize female offenders of severe/lethal violence remain.
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| 3. |
- Munthe, Christian, 1962, et al.
(author)
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The Return of Lombroso? Ethical Aspects of (Visions of) Preventive Forensic Screening
- 2015
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In: Public Health Ethics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1754-9973 .- 1754-9981. ; 8:3, s. 270-283
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The vision of legendary criminologist Cesare Lombroso to use scientific theories of individual causes of crime as a basis for screening and prevention programmes targeting individuals at risk for future criminal behaviour has resurfaced, following advances in genetics, neuroscience and psychiatric epidemiology. This article analyses this idea and maps its ethical implications from a public health ethical standpoint. Twenty-seven variants of the new Lombrosian vision of forensic screening and prevention are distinguished, and some scientific and technical limitations are noted. Some lures, biases and structural factors, making the application of the Lombrosian idea likely in spite of weak evidence are pointed out and noted as a specific type of ethical aspect. Many classic and complex ethical challenges for health screening programmes are shown to apply to the identified variants and the choice between them, albeit with peculiar and often provoking variations. These variations are shown to actualize an underlying theoretical conundrum in need of further study, pertaining to the relationship between public health ethics and the ethics and values of criminal law policy.
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| 4. |
- Nyberg, Lars, et al.
(author)
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Longitudinal evidence for diminished frontal-cortex function in aging
- 2010
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In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 107:52, s. 22682-22686
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Cross-sectional estimates of age-related changes in brain structure and function were compared with 6-y longitudinal estimates. The results indicated increased sensitivity of the longitudinal approach as well as qualitative differences. Critically, the cross-sectional analyses were suggestive of age-related frontal overrecruitment, whereas the longitudinal analyses revealed frontal underrecruitment with advancing age. The cross-sectional observation of overrecruitment reflected a select elderly sample. However, when followed over time, this sample showed reduced frontal recruitment. These findings dispute inferences of true age changes on the basis of age differences, hence challenging some contemporary models of neurocognitive aging, and demonstrate age-related decline in frontal brain volume as well as functional response.
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| 5. |
- Jensen, Mikael, 1969
(author)
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Lärande och lärandeteorier - Om den intentionella människan
- 2016
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Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Mänskligt lärande är ett komplext fenomen. Det påverkas av såväl mentala/individrelaterade faktorer som interaktiva/sociala faktorer. Den här boken försöker integrera dessa olika perspektiv på lärande som annars brukar ställas emot varandra. Det är berättelsen om människan som en social och kognitiv varelse. I boken drivs tesen om den intentionella lärande människan. Lärande och lärandeteorier presenterar lärandeteorier från olika perspektiv och historiska perioder. Några viktiga kärnbegrepp i boken är: intentioner, social kognition, motivation, minne och kunskap, kommunikation, återkoppling, grupper och organisationer samt kulturella faktorer. Men den diskuterar även mindre vanliga teman såsom transfer, kreativitet, personlighetsdrag, tillit, nätverk och kunskapsdelande.
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| 6. |
- Norberg, Joakim, et al.
(author)
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Effects of attention manipulations on motivated attention to feared and nonfeared negative distracters in spider fear
- 2013
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In: BMC Neuroscience. - : Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. - 1471-2202. ; 14:139
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundWhen people view emotional and neutral pictures, the emotional pictures capture more attention than do neutral pictures. In support, studies with event-related potentials have shown that the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP) to emotional versus neutral pictures are enhanced when pictures are attended. However, this motivated attention decreases when voluntary attention is directed away from the pictures. Most previous studies included only generally emotional pictures of either negative or positive valence. Because people with spider fear report intense fear of spiders, we examined whether directing attention away from emotional pictures at fixation decreases motivated attention less strongly for spiders than for generally negative distracters.ResultsWe recorded event-related potentials from 128 channels to study whether manipulations of attention (i.e., spatial attention and perceptual load) decrease the EPN and the LPP to emotional distracters less strongly for spiders than for fear-irrelevant negative pictures in people with spider fear. Results confirmed that the EPN and the LPP to spiders (vs. neutral pictures) were particularly enhanced in participants with spider fear compared to participants without spider fear. When attention was directed away from the pictures, the EPN and the LPP to spiders (vs. neutral pictures) decreased similarly in fearful and nonfearful participants. Further, in fearful participants, the decrease in the EPN and the LPP was similar for spiders and for fear-irrelevant negative pictures.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that for people with spider fear, directing attention away from emotional pictures at fixation decreases motivated attention to these distracters similarly for spiders as for fear-irrelevant negative pictures. These findings imply that attention to spiders in spider fear does not exceed the level of attention expected from the spider pictures’ high arousal and negative valence (i.e., their intrinsic motivated attention).
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| 7. |
- Craig, Michael, et al.
(author)
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How does intentionality of encoding affect memory for episodic information?
- 2016
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In: Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.). - : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. - 1072-0502 .- 1549-5485. ; 23:11, s. 648-659
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Episodic memory enables the detailed and vivid recall of past events, including target and wider contextual information. In this paper, we investigated whether/how encoding intentionality affects the retention of target and contextual episodic information from a novel experience. Healthy adults performed (1) a What-Where-When (WWW) episodic memory task involving the hiding and delayed recall of a number of items (what) in different locations (where) in temporally distinct sessions (when) and (2) unexpected tests probing memory for wider contextual information from the WWW task. Critically, some participants were informed that memory for WWW information would be subsequently probed (intentional group), while this came as a surprise for others (incidental group). The probing of contextual information came as a surprise for all participants. Participants also performed several measures of episodic and nonepisodic cognition from which common episodic and nonepisodic factors were extracted. Memory for target (WWW) and contextual information was superior in the intentional group compared with the incidental group. Memory for target and contextual information was unrelated to factors of nonepisodic cognition, irrespective of encoding intentionality. In addition, memory for target information was unrelated to factors of episodic cognition. However, memory for wider contextual information was related to some factors of episodic cognition, and these relationships differed between the intentional and incidental groups. Our results lead us to propose the hypothesis that intentional encoding of episodic information increases the coherence of the representation of the context in which the episode took place. This hypothesis remains to be tested.
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| 8. |
- Finkelmeyer, A., et al.
(author)
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Altered hippocampal function in major depression despite intact structure and resting perfusion
- 2016
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In: Psychological Medicine. - 0033-2917 .- 1469-8978. ; 46:10, s. 2157-2168
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background. Hippocampal volume reductions in major depression have been frequently reported. However, evidence for functional abnormalities in the same region in depression has been less clear. We investigated hippocampal function in depression using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and neuropsychological tasks tapping spatial memory function, with complementing measures of hippocampal volume and resting blood flow to aid interpretation. Method. A total of 20 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and a matched group of 20 healthy individuals participated. Participants underwent multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): fMRI during a spatial memory task, and structural MRI and resting blood flow measurements of the hippocampal region using arterial spin labelling. An offline battery of neuropsychological tests, including several measures of spatial memory, was also completed. Results. The fMRI analysis showed significant group differences in bilateral anterior regions of the hippocampus. While control participants showed task-dependent differences in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal, depressed patients did not. No group differences were detected with regard to hippocampal volume or resting blood flow. Patients showed reduced performance in several offline neuropsychological measures. All group differences were independent of differences in hippocampal volume and hippocampal blood flow. Conclusions. Functional abnormalities of the hippocampus can be observed in patients with MDD even when the volume and resting perfusion in the same region appear normal. This suggests that changes in hippocampal function can be observed independently of structural abnormalities of the hippocampus in depression.
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| 9. |
- Harmat, László, 1972-, et al.
(author)
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Physiological correlates of the flow experience during computer game playing
- 2015
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In: International Journal of Psychophysiology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-8760 .- 1872-7697. ; 97:1, s. 1-7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Flow is the subjective experience of effortless attention, reduced self-awareness, and enjoyment that typically occurs during optimal task performance. Previous studies have suggested that flow may be associated with a non-reciprocal coactivation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems and, on a cortical level, with a state of hypofrontality and implicit processing. Here, we test these hypotheses, using the computer game TETRIS as model task. The participants (n = 77) played TETRIS under three conditions that differed in difficulty (Easy < Optimal < Difficult). Cardiac and respiratory activities, and the average oxygenation changes of the prefrontal cortex were measured continuously with functional near infrared spectroscopy (INIRS) during performance. The Optimal condition was characterized by the highest levels of state flow, positive affect, and effortless attention. The associations between self-reported psychological flow and physiological measures were investigated using a series of repeated measures linear mixed model analyses. The results showed that higher flow was associated with larger respiratory depth and lower LF. The higher respiratory depth during high flow is indicative of a more relaxed state with an increased parasympathetic activity, and thus provides partial support for the main hypotheses. There was no association between frontal cortical oxygenation and flow, even at liberal thresholds; i.e. we found no support that flow is related to a state of hypofrontality.
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| 10. |
- Ackerley, Rochelle, 1980, et al.
(author)
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Case Studies in Neuroscience: Sensations elicited and discrimination ability from nerve cuff stimulation in an amputee over time
- 2018
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In: Journal of Neurophysiology. - : American Physiological Society. - 0022-3077 .- 1522-1598. ; 120:1, s. 291-295
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The present case study details sensations elicited by electrical stimulation of peripheral nerve axons using an implanted nerve cuff electrode, in a participant with a transhumeral amputation. The participant uses an osseointegrated electromechanical interface, which enables skeletal attachment of the prosthesis and long-term, stable, bidirectional communication between the implanted electrodes and prosthetic arm. We focused on evoking somatosensory percepts, where we tracked and quantified the evolution of perceived sensations in the missing hand. which were evoked from electrical stimulation of the nerve, for over 2 yr. These sensations included small, pointlike areas of either vibration or pushing, to larger sensations over wider areas, indicating the recruitment of a few and many afferents, respectively. Furthermore, we used a two-alternative forced choice paradigm to measure the level of discrimination between trains of brief electrical stimuli, to gauge what the participant could reliably distinguish between. At best, the participant was able to distinguish a 05-Hz difference and on average acquired a 3.8-Hz just-noticeable difference at a more stringent psychophysical level. The current work shows the feasibility for long-term sensory feedback in prostheses, via electrical axonal stimulation, where small and relatively stable percepts were felt that may be used to deliver graded sensory feedback. This opens up opportunities for signaling feedback during movements (e.g., for precision grip), but also for conveying more complex cutaneous sensations. such as texture. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We demonstrate the long-term stability and generation of sensations from electrical peripheral nerve stimulation in an amputee. through an osseointegrated implant. We find that perceived tactilelike sensations could be generated for over 2 yr. in the missing hand. This is useful for prosthetic development and the implementation of feedback in artificial body parts.
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