GIUV2017-344
Overall, the research activity of our working group has focused on the assessment of cognitive functioning in patients with mental disorders, the development of alternatives to facilitate the assessment of their intellectual functioning, the specific study of implicit memory in these same patients to determine to what extent the types of tasks and the parameters used to assess the functioning of this memory system condition the results of such assessment and, finally, the evaluation of the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes of cognition in mental disorders, especially in schizophrenia. This work has been carried out for more than two decades with the support of research projects funded by the Universitat de València, the Consellería de Educación, the Consellería de Sanidad and the Ministerio de Educación. This research has resulted in the publication of numerous works which are listed in the attached CVs. More specifically, our research activity has been developed through the following lines of work:
Cognitive assessment in schizophrenia. This line of research focuses on the evaluation of neurocognitive functioning, including social cognition, in the mental disorder in...Overall, the research activity of our working group has focused on the assessment of cognitive functioning in patients with mental disorders, the development of alternatives to facilitate the assessment of their intellectual functioning, the specific study of implicit memory in these same patients to determine to what extent the types of tasks and the parameters used to assess the functioning of this memory system condition the results of such assessment and, finally, the evaluation of the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes of cognition in mental disorders, especially in schizophrenia. This work has been carried out for more than two decades with the support of research projects funded by the Universitat de València, the Consellería de Educación, the Consellería de Sanidad and the Ministerio de Educación. This research has resulted in the publication of numerous works which are listed in the attached CVs. More specifically, our research activity has been developed through the following lines of work:
Cognitive assessment in schizophrenia. This line of research focuses on the evaluation of neurocognitive functioning, including social cognition, in the mental disorder in order to determine the interrelationships that exist between the different cognitive domains, and to assess the extent to which they determine the social functioning of the patient. In the context of this line of research, our attention has focused on the neurocognitive domains of attention, episodic memory and executive functioning, and within social cognition, on the domains of emotional perception, theory of mind, social perception and attributional style. Although they could be framed within the field referred to in our research line nº1, our research team has been developing two more specific lines of research (lines nº2 and nº3).
Intellectual functioning in schizophrenia. This line of research focuses on the development of abbreviated versions of the classic tests used to assess intellectual functioning, with the aim of facilitating their use in patients with mental disorders and allowing rapid screening of the patient.
Implicit memory in schizophrenia. In general terms, scientific evidence indicates that implicit memory functioning is preserved in mental disorder. However, sometimes the evidence is contradictory and the reason may lie in the disparity of tasks used in the assessment of implicit memory and in the methodological conditions that occur within each test. In this line of research, our work focuses on clarifying which tasks are the most appropriate and which methodological conditions should be considered within these tasks in order to validly assess implicit memory. Assessment of cognitive deficits in people with different diagnoses of mental disorder, basically schizophrenia, by means of tasks widely used in experimental psychology such as lexical decision and fragment completion.
Psychological intervention in cognition in schizophrenia. In this line of research our work focuses on the evaluation of programmes focused on the rehabilitation of neurocognition and social cognition to improve the social functioning of people with mental disorders (e.g. IPT, Gradior, EMT).
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- Identificar los patrones de interrelación entre la neurocognición, la cognición social y el funcionamiento social en pacientes con trastorno mental. Para alcanzar este objetivo es necesaria la Evaluación de la neurocognición (atención, memoria episódica y funcionamiento ejecutivo), la cognición social (percepción emocional, teoría de la mente, percepción social y estilo atribucional) y el funcionamiento social del paciente. La Identificación de esos patrones de interrelación permite determinar qué aspectos de la neurocognición y de la cognición social tienen un efecto sobre el funcionamiento cotidiano del paciente y en consecuencia identificar los dominios neurocognitivos y de cognición social sobre los que dirigir la atención para el desarrollo de programas de rehabilitación.
- La pruebas utilizadas en la Evaluación del funcionamiento intelectual requieren completar distintas tareas que en total necesitan de un periodo amplio de tiempo. En el caso de los pacientes con trastorno mental este tiempo aún es mayor, y completar la Evaluación supone un esfuerzo suplementario para estos pacientes. Estas circunstancias hacen que en numerosas ocasiones no se realice una adecuada valoración de su funcionamiento intelectual. Dada esta situación, nuestro objetivo es desarrollar versiones abreviadas de las pruebas más utilizadas en la Evaluación del funcionamiento intelectual (escalas Wechsler) para su utilización específica en pacientes con esquizofrenia. Estas versiones persiguen alcanzar una fiabilidad equivalente a la que tienen las versiones completas de las pruebas, reducir notablemente el tiempo necesario para completarlas e, indirectamente, favorecer su utilización en la valoración de estos pacientes.
- El estudio del funcionamiento de la memoria implícita en el trastorno mental se ha desarrollado de manera amplia en los últimos años porque, frente a la evidencia consistente de que la memoria episódica está deteriorada, la evidencia sobre el posible deterioro de la memoria implícita no ha sido tan consistente. En buena medida esto se ha debido a la variedad de pruebas de laboratorio utilizadas para su Evaluación y al modo como se han manipulado los parámetros utilizados en esas pruebas. En este contexto nuestro objetivo es el de clarificar cuál es el patrón de resultados que pueden observarse cuando se evalúa el funcionamiento de la memoria implícita en función del tipo de tarea experimental utilizada (p.e. completado de fragmentos, decisión léxica) y los parámetros manipulados en esas tareas (p.e. fuerza asociativa, asincronía estimular).
- Nuestro trabajo del estudio del funcionamiento intelectual, neurocognitivo y de la cognición social en pacientes con un trastorno mental grave como es la esquizofrenia en última instancia pretende identificar dominios cognitivos no deteriorados en estos pacientes, que puedan utilizarse como recursos cuando se diseñan programas de rehabilitación cognitiva. Por eso, otro de nuestros objetivos es el de evaluar programas de rehabilitación cognitiva y de la cognición social en pacientes con trastorno mental, para aportar la evidencia empírica que permita valorar su eficacia.
- Intellectual functioning in mental disorder.Development of abbreviated versions of the classic tests used in intellectual assessment, with the aim of facilitating the assessment of intellectual functioning and the screening of patients with severe mental disorders.
- Cognitive assessment in mental disorder.To assess neurocognition and social cognition in schizophrenia, including attention, episodic memory, executive functions, emotional perception, theory of mind, attributional style and social perception.
- Psychological intervention in cognition in mental disorders.To evaluate the effectiveness of different programmes (e. g. IPT, EMT, INT) in improving neurocognition, social cognition and social functioning in people with mental disorders.
- Implicit memory functioning in schizophrenia.Study of the functioning of the semantic memory network to specifically identify both deficits and preserved functions in schizophrenia in order to develop personalised rehabilitation plans.
| Name | Nature of participation | Entity | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| JUAN C RUIZ RUIZ | Director | Universitat de València | |
| Research team | |||
| CARMEN DASI VIVO | Member | Universitat de València | |
| MARIA PILAR BLASCO GONZALEZ | Member | Universitat de València | |
| MARIA DOLORES SANCERNI BEITIA | Collaborator | Universitat de València | |
| INMACULADA FUENTES DURA | Collaborator | Universitat de València | |
| PATRICIA MARIA CORREA GHISAYS | Collaborator | Universitat de València | |
| PATRICIA MARIA CORREA GHISAYS | Collaborator | Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental | Postdoctoral researcher |
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- Behavioral Sciences Methodology
