No abstract

Limited information is available on the relationship between antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and early filtering, or gating, of information, even though this could contribute to the repeatedly reported impairment in ASPD of higher-order information processing. In order to investigate early filtering in ASPD, we compared electrophysiological measures of auditory sensory gating assessed by the paired-click paradigm in males with ASPD (n = 37) to healthy controls (n = 28). Stimulus encoding was measured by P50, N100, and P200 auditory evoked potentials; auditory sensory gating (ASG) was measured by a reduction in amplitude of evoked potentials following click repetition. Effects were studied of co-existing past alcohol or drug use disorders, ASPD symptom counts, and trait impulsivity. Controls and ASPD did not differ in P50, N100, or P200 amplitude or ASG. Past alcohol or drug use disorders had no effect. In controls, impulsivity related to improved P50 and P200 gating. In ASPD, P50 or N100 gating was impaired with more symptoms or increased impulsivity, respectively, suggesting impaired early filtering of irrelevant information. In controls the relationship between P50 and P200 gating and impulsivity was reversed, suggesting better gating with higher impulsivity scores. This could reflect different roles of ASG in behavioral regulation in controls versus ASPD.

Recebido em 21/05/2019. Aprovado em 13/09/2019. was conducted in 4 residential facilities in the central region of Portugal including institutionalized elderly aged ≥60 years, using 2 verbal and non-verbal commands. Participants were stratified according to categorical profiles of frailty based on a set of 9 variables: age, social relations, sleep, comorbidities, upper limb motor function, cognitive function, depression, instrumental and basic daily activities. The processing speed tests compared the individuals in the different frailty categories, using the Kruskal-Wallis test (p <0.05). Result: One hundred and four elderly people were evaluated: 51 individuals were classified as Robust (G1); 36 as Pre-frail (G2); and 17 as Frail (G3). The processing speed in Attention Tasks was a good predictor for the categorization of frailty profiles G1-G3 (p = 0.000) and G2-G3 (p = 0.004); the range of processing speed in Memory Tasks made a distinction between G1-G3 (p = 0.028). Conclusion: Processing speed in attention and memory tasks has been shown to be a promising indicator for the characterization of frailty profiles in elderly people who are institutionalized.

A relação entre a Memória de Trabalho (MT) e a funcionalidade não é clara, os instrumentos disponíveis para avaliação são escassos e limitados nas dimensões avaliadas. Este estudo pretende caracterizar a correlação entre a MT e a performance nas atividades da vida diária em idosos institucionalizados. Foram recrutados idosos institucionalizados, não acamados, capazes de compreender dois comandos verbais, que foram avaliados quanto à funcionalidade e cognição, e foram submetidos ao Protocolo Agilidades para avaliar a MT através da Velocidade do Alcance em Tarefas de Memória. Foi conduzido um estudo correlacional entre os dados de avaliação da MT e de performance nas atividades da vida diária. Foi avaliada uma amostra de 104 idosos institucionalizados. A MT evidenciou correlações significativas com: descer escadas - r=0.43, alimentação - r=0.25, higiene pessoal - r=0.32, vestir – r= 0.34, utilização da sanita - r=0.36, transferências - r=0.39 e mobilidade - r=0.38. Conclui-se assim que existe uma correlação entre a MT e a independência funcional em idosos institucionalizados, podendo significar que o estímulo desta habilidade contribui para a funcionalidade desta população.