Journal of Neurodevelopmental Cognition
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Spring and Summer 2020

Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy has used neuroscience findings to propose the specific neuroaffective deficits in processing of the emotion experiences as etiology of the borderline personality disorder. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy to improve the symptoms in patients diagnosed with the borderline personality disorder by remediation of neuro-affective defects. This study was designed as a randomized controlled trial using the pre-test, post-test and a control group. Thirty patients who were diagnosed with borderline personality disorder meeting the inclusion criteria, randomly divided into two groups. Both groups evaluated using both Borderline Evaluation of Severity over Time (BEST) and Patient Health Questionnaire Mood Scale (PHQ-9) questionnaires at the baseline and the over course of the treatment. Data analysis using repeated measures ANOVA indicated that the effect of measuring time (p=0.001) and time/group (p=0.010) on linear combination of the severity of borderline disorder and depression were significant. This result supports the efficacy of Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy based on the neurocognitive remediation of the emotion processing using association, attribution and alterity techniques.

Today, in all human societies, exceptional people, especially people with intellectual disabilities are regarded. Students and children mentally retarded in physical skills such as strength have serious shortcomings. This study aimed town to investigate the effect of sensory-motor training on muscle strength in children with educable mental retardation. A quasi-experimental study was conducted. Thirty mentally retarded girls from primary school were selected through purposive sampling. Then, they were homogenized based on their pretest scores and were divided into two groups: fifteen experimental & fifteen control. Because of the evaluation reduction, the number of the control group reached ten. In this research, A Dynamometer and vertical jump test- were used to test physical strength. Sensory stimulation and physical exercises were practiced by the experimental group during twenty-four sessions. Each session was forty-five minutes long and was held three times a week. The control group performed the class programs. After twenty-four sessions both groups were tested.  To investigate the research hypothesis Paired T-test and ANOVA2 × 2 and by SPSS software (version 21) were used. There were no significant differences between the two groups with regard to improving muscle strength (p>0.05). Statistical results showed no significant differences between the two groups with regard to improving muscle strength. Although applying the integrated sensory-motor is common among occupational therapists, it does not yield satisfactory results for muscle strength, according to the results of this study. Simultaneous utilization of other reference frames besides the sensory-motor Integration may result in better outcomes.

Long-term psychological stress can highly influence brain structure and functions. However, there are only a few studies using electroencephalogram (EEG) that have examined this fact. The current study demonstrates a brain-computer interface (BCI) to classify EEG correlates of long-term mental stress in various mental states. The study was performed on 26 healthy right-handed university students and the examination period was considered a long-term mental stressor. Two groups of subjects were selected based on their stress levels evaluated by the perceived stress scale (PSS-14). The subjects' EEG data were collected during an eyes-open resting state and while they were exposed to positive and negative emotional stimuli scored by self-assessment manikin questionnaire (SAM). Several types of features were extracted from EEG data including power spectrum density (PSD), laterality index (LI), correlation coefficient (CC), Canonical correlation analysis (CCA), magnitude square coherence estimation (MSCE), mutual information (MI), phase-slope index (PSI), Granger causality (GC) and directed transfer function (DTF). Subsequently, the extracted features were discriminated using several types of classifiers including k-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), and naive Bayesian (NB) classifiers. The proposed BCI was validated by one leave-out method and an investigation was done in different time windows using low and high-frequency resolutions, 7 and 36 frequency bands respectively. The results showed that the proposed system can accurately recognize subjects' stress levels in various mental states. Moreover, the MI as a functional and DTF as effective connectivity methods yield the highest classification accuracy compared to other feature extraction methods.

In this article, we show how human decision-makers behave in interactive decisions. We interpret the players’ behavior with help of the concept of hyper-rationality. These interpretations help to enlarge our understanding of the psychological aspects of strategy choices in games. With help of this concept can be analyzed social sciences and society based on the cognitive psychology approach such that human society can be understood easily and predicted more fluently. In addition, we introduce a new game in which there is a dilemma that this dilemma occurs in most societies. We investigate this dilemma based on the claim that each player is hyper-rational. In this dilemma, weak trust has been created between players, but it is fragile. In many cases, our study provides a framework to move toward cooperation between human decision-makers.

Source determination in an inverse problem from the over-specified data plays a crucial role in cognitive modeling. In this paper, an accurate and fast method is proposed for solving the one-dimensional inverse problem concerning diffusion equation with source control parameter. The proposed method is based on applying a compact finite difference scheme for spatial components and solving the system that arose from this scheme by multigrid.

The ability to regulate behavior, cognitive processes, emotions, and social interactions, i. e. self-control, is one of the most critical aspects of human lives. When talking about self-regulation and self-control, the essential factor is the self and the restrictions and frameworks it imposes upon itself. This viewpoint guides our thoughts to an agency aspect of self-control abilities. Endorsing this sense of agency and freedom of choice is a crucial factor in enhancing and facilitating self-control abilities. In this article, we propose a multistage developmental scheme for acquiring self-control by focusing on its entwined relations with freedom of choice. The proposed developmental scheme composes of three seven-year stages, namely, Cognition, Obedience, and Contribution. The key idea is to allow the child to acquire self-control through a natural path by exercising his/her own free will.

Facial expression is one of the most important social indicators that allows people to know our emotions. Emotion recognition is mostly defined as an ability to understand facial expressions. The study is aimed at designing a test to measure emotion recognition and determine its psychometric properties. A test consists of 44 (male/female and mild/intense) facial expressions that were designed to measure 6 basic emotions. 240 students were selected using the cluster sampling method. Split-halves and Kuder-Richardson coefficients were used to assess the reliability of the test. In order to assess the construct validity of the task the Pearson coefficients were calculated between the total score and 6 scales. Relationships between the total score of the Emotion Recognition Task, Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), and Theory of Mind test (ToM) were calculated to show convergent construct validity. The results showed that the test is reliable and valid.

Face perception recruits different neural mechanisms in comparison to other objects and individuals with autism show disruptions in facial processing in comparison to other objects. Scientists have reported multiple abnormalities in both the early and late stages of face processing in people who suffer from autism. On the other hand, pre-stimulus oscillation could impact the perception of the incoming stimulus in healthy participants. Yet, the effect of pre-stimulus oscillations on post-stimulus activities in individuals with autism has rarely been investigated. Here we acquired magnetoencephalography (MEG) to explore the role of pre-stimulus alpha oscillations on the face and non-face perception in an autistic participant. Our results showed that the pre-stimulus alpha power in the lateral occipital cortex yielded to the significant separation of post-stimulus activities in the fusiform face area as well as the intra-parietal sulcus in response to human face stimulus.

The number of patients with neuropsychological problems is increasing rapidly in the world. Autonomous methods are replacing the traditional diagnosis methods in detection and classification of many mental and neurological problems. Machine learning algorithms and especially deep neural networks are able to diagnose various neurological and psychological complications automatically. In this paper, a machine learning based framework is used for autonomous estimation of patients’ neuropsychological state. The proposed framework can automatically diagnose neuropsychological state of the patients and present a personalized solution for their problems. A convolutional neural networks is used for automatic profiling of patients and to classify their mental state according to their EEG signals. The proposed framework can be used to help patients to have better life experience.

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders. Despite the prevalence and serious effects of depression, pathological studies of depression are still preliminary. The main reason for this is limited access to valid animal models. Using animal models, the underlying molecular changes and causal relationship between environmental or genetic changes and depression can be studied, which provides a better insight into the pathology of depression. The role of stress as a key factor in the etiology of depression is emphasized. Because of the importance of stress in creating depression disorder in this study, animal models of stress-based depression have been investigated. Animal models of stress-based depression are:1- learned helplessness (LH) model 2- Models based on early-life stress 3- chronic mild stress (CMS) model 4- Social defeat stress model. Studies show that exposure to early life stress can continuously alter DNA methylation in the brain of adult mice or rodents. In this regard, we can mention the role of methylation of the Nr3c1 gene in parts of the hippocampus of the brain, indicating that epigenetic changes may play a role in depressive-like behavior. Also, an unpredictable chronic mild stress model in rodents shows that significantly reduced diffusion of astrocyte cell gap and abnormal ultrastructure gap junction in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and low levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in the mouse brain, are the cause of depressive-like behavior.

Conventional economics believes that individuals are rational in their decisions based on five factors such as: considering all known options; using the maximum amount of available information; determining the precise weight -albeit subjective- of the costs and potential benefits of each option; accurate calculation -albeit subjective- of the various possible consequences; and the maximum amount of common sense considering all factors; are seeking to make sensible decisions. However, these factors have not always been fully established, perhaps even Individuals may be exposed to the uncertainty that jeopardizes decision-making. This is an applied and developmental research, with the type of library study and using the new findings of cognitive science, he explains how to make decisions under uncertainty. The findings of this study indicate the role of OPFC in decision-making, especially in the face of emotional factors and complex decisions that are all made by the PFC. In the face of risks of uncertainty, both of VPFC and VS sectors are active. The striatum is associated with loss aversion of people. Also, the role of the striatum in learning and habit formation can also be mentioned; so that information about uncertainty transmits through the striatum to the PFC section, and because the striatum transmits information to the brain via dopamine neurons, so by repeating behavior and receiving a reward, that behavior has become a habit, then belief Systems and mental models have been formed. Repeating uncertainty ultimately disrupts an individual's cognitive system, creates irrational beliefs, and increases people's uncertainty.

Adverse environmental experiences during early life are identified as potential concerns for neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with 1% prevalence among populations. Maternal separation (MS) is an animal model that is widely used to study long-term behavioral abnormality. To date, a great deal of studies is focused on the potential therapeutic role of environmental enrichment (EE) for the early life stress consequences inducing anxiety, depression, and learning deficits. However, the influence of sex on the effect of environmental enrichment for the autistic-like behaviors induced by maternal separation has not been studied. The focus of the current study is to investigate the therapeutic effect of environmental enrichment on the behavioral deficits related to ASD in female Wistar rats. Pups were separated from the mothers for 3 hours daily from PND1 to PND14. After weaning time (PND21), the rats were subjected to environmental enrichment until behavioral tests day. On PND42-PND50 autism-related behaviors such as social interaction, stereotype behaviors, anxiety behavior, and locomotion were tested. The results showed that EE reduced stereotype behaviors in the maternal separation rat model of autism but increased anxiety behavior (p<0.05). Social behavior and locomotion decreased by maternal separation (p<0.05) but EE had no significant effect on these behavioral abnormalities (p>0.05). The current study demonstrates that repetitive behaviors induced by maternal separation can be treated by EE but anxiety exacerbation may occur which needs more exploration.