Decision-making Impairments in Primary Angle-closure Glaucoma Patients

Analysis of the status quo and clinical influencing factors of the social cognitive impairment in deficit schizophrenia

Background

Due to the high heterogeneity of schizophrenia, the factors influencing social cognitive impairment are controversial. The purpose of this study was to investigate the social cognitive dysfunction of deficit schizophrenia (DS), and to explore its clinical impact on the clinical characteristics and neurocognitive function assessment results.

Methods

This study involved 100 DS patients, 100 non-deficit schizophrenia (NDS) patients, and 100 healthy controls (HC). Social cognitive functions were assessed using the Eye Complex Emotion Discrimination Task (ECEDT), Game of Dice Task (GDT), and Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), while neurocognitive functions were examined using the Clock Drawing Task (CDT), the Verbal Fluency Task (VFT), Digit Span Test (DST), Stroop Color-word Test (SCWT), and Trail Making Test (TMT). We analyzed the differences in cognitive function among the three groups of patients and the correlation between cognitive function assessment results and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores.

Results

Comparison of neurocognitive functions among the three groups through CDT, VFT, DST, SCWT, and TMT revealed that in the values of these tests in the DS group differed significantly from those of the NDS and HC groups. However, the DSB of the NDS group was lower and the TMT results were significantly higher than those of the HC group. In the DS group, ECEDT emotion recognition was positively correlated with stroop colors and stroop interference; the score of gender recognition was positively correlated with VFT, DSF, and SCWT, and TMT-B; the total time spent was positively correlated with TMT; The GDT risky option was negatively correlated with VFT, DST, stroop word, and stroop interference; the negative feedback utilization was negatively correlated with PANSS-Negative; TMT was positively correlated with VFT; IGT was positively correlated with CDT, VFT, DST, and SCWT, but it was negatively correlated with PANSS-Negative and TMT, with statistically significant.

Conclusion

There are significant social cognitive impairments in the perception of social information, judgment and resolution of social problems in deficit schizophrenia, which are closely related to negative symptoms and multidimensional neurocognitive dysfunction such as attention, learning, memory, brain information processing speed, cognitive flexibility, and functional executive power.

Effects of acute stress on risky decision-making are related to neuroticism: An fMRI study of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task

BACKGROUND

Decision making under acute stress is frequent in daily life. While evidence suggests for a modulatory role of neuroticism on risky decision-making behaviors, the neural correlates underlying the association between neuroticism and risky decision-making under acute stress remain to be elucidated.

METHODS

Based on a modified Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) with concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging, we evaluated the effect of acute stress on risk-taking behavior in 27 healthy male adults, and further assessed stress-induced changes in brain activation according to the individual differences in neuroticism.

RESULTS

Higher trait neuroticism levels positively correlated with increased stress-modulated activation of the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex during risk-taking, and negatively correlated with decreased stress-modulated activation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during cash-outs.

LIMITATIONS

Only male participants were recruited.

CONCLUSIONS

We found a positive correlation between neuroticism and greater risk-taking behavior under acute stress. These results extend our understanding of the increased risk-taking propensity in high neurotic individuals under acute stress.

Resting-state network predicts the decision-making behaviors of the proposer during the ultimatum game

Objective. The decision-making behavior of the proposer is a key factor in achieving effective and equitable maintenance of social resources, particularly in economic interactions, and thus understanding the neurocognitive basis of the proposer's decision-making is a crucial issue. Yet the neural substrate of the proposer's decision behavior, especially from the resting-state network perspective, remains unclear.Approach. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the resting-state network and decision proposals and further established a multivariable model to predict the proposers' unfair offer rates in the ultimatum game.Main results.The results indicated the unfair offer rates of proposers are significantly related to the resting-state frontal-occipital and frontal-parietal connectivity in the delta band, as well as the network properties. And compared to the conservative decision group (low unfair offer rate), the risk decision group (high unfair offer rate) exhibited stronger resting-state long-range linkages. Finally, the established multivariable model did accurately predict the unfair offer rates of the proposers, along with a correlation coefficient of 0.466 between the actual and predicted behaviors.Significance. Together, these findings demonstrated that related resting-state frontal-occipital and frontal-parietal connectivity may serve as a dispositional indicator of the risky behaviors for the proposers and subsequently predict a highly complex decision-making behavior, which contributed to the development of artificial intelligence decision-making system with biological characteristics as well.

The occurrence of acute primary angle closure triggered, aggravated, and accelerated by COVID-19 infection: retrospective observational study

Introduction

The aim of this study is to demonstrate the relevance of primary acute angle closure (APAC) and COVID-19 infection, compare the demographic features and manifestations between COVID-19 positive and negative patients with APAC, and infer the underlying mechanism.

Methods

This study is based on all patients diagnosed with APAC at the glaucoma center of Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital of Fudan University (Fenyang road center) from 15th December 2022 to 11th January 2023. Totally 171 APAC cases were categorized into COVID-19 positive and negative group. Demographic features and final treatment level of the patients were compared between the two groups. Clinical manifestations, intraocular pressure, and anterior chamber configuration were also compared between the two groups.

Results

In the COVID-19 positive group, the number of cases with APAC onset spiked in 22nd December 2022, which coincided with the spike of COVID-19 antigen positive people. Compared to the COVID-19 negative group, COVID-19 positive APAC patients were younger with a lower percentage of APAC history. Additionally, more eyes of COVID-19 positive APAC patients showed keratic precipitates. COVID-19 positive eyes had significantly larger anterior chamber depth with a more dilated pupil. Therefore, COVID-19 infection could probably act as a triggering factor of APAC.

Discussion

The onset of APAC might be accelerated by COVID-19 infection for patients with younger age and milder anatomical configuration. Additionally, COVID-19 related APAC cases might have a more abrupt and fierce onset. Ophthalmic emergent services should not be neglected during the epidemic period.

Efficacy of brinzolamide in the initial management of acute primary angle closure: A randomized controlled trial

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE?: Since comprehensive medication has an important role in the initial management of patients presenting with acute primary angle closure, it is necessary to analyse the effect of each drug on alleviating the disease. This study aimed to evaluate the intraocular pressure-lowering effect of brinzolamide in the sequential treatment of acute primary angle closure. METHODS: In this randomized double-blind controlled trial, a total of 131 eyes of 125 consecutive patients who presented with their first episode of acute primary angle closure were recruited and received sequential treatment. In this treatment, in the absence of remission, anti-glaucoma drugs, anterior chamber paracentesis and argon laser peripheral iridoplasty are used sequentially. The patients were randomized to receive either brinzolamide or normal saline as a placebo. The primary outcomes were decreased intraocular pressure, success rate and treatment time. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: There was no statistically significant difference in the decreased level of intraocular pressure between the two groups at 6, 12 or 24 h after the start of treatment (p-values were 0.526, 0.206 and 0.130 respectively). The success rate and treatment time were also not significantly different between the groups. No adverse side effects of brinzolamide were observed in the brinzolamide group. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION?: In patients with a first episode of acute primary angle closure, brinzolamide did not improve the effectiveness of the sequential treatment for reducing the intraocular pressure levels or shortening the treatment time within the first 24 h of initiating therapy.

Personality types of patients with glaucoma: A systematic review of observational studies

OBJECTIVES

To synthesize recent empirical research on the association between personality and glaucoma among this sub-population.

METHODS

PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases were searched to identify eligible studies published between January 1950 and March 2019 in any language. The quality of included observational studies was assessed using an 11-item checklist which was recommended by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). After using the checklist, 12 papers are included into the systematic review.

RESULTS

There are some differences on the studies about the negative personality of glaucoma patients. In spite of these differences, most included studies significantly showed that glaucoma patients tend to or do have some specific personality.

CONCLUSION

The extant research could demonstrate that glaucoma patients tend to have some negative personality in some extent. Future studies are needed to provide more convincing support to personality of glaucoma patients.