Amy Burns | University of British Columbia (original) (raw)
Supervisors: Colleen Brenner
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Facial expressions are encoded via sensory mechanisms, but meaning extraction and salience of the... more Facial expressions are encoded via sensory mechanisms, but meaning extraction and salience of these expressions involve cognitive functions. We investigated the time course of sensory encoding and subsequent maintenance in memory via EEG. Twenty-nine healthy participants completed a facial emotion delayed match-to-sample task. P100, N170 and N250 ERPs were measured in response to the first stimulus, and evoked theta power (4-7 Hz) was measured during the delay interval. Negative facial expressions produced larger N170 amplitudes and greater theta power early in the delay. N170 amplitude correlated with theta power, however larger N170 amplitude coupled with greater theta power only predicted behavioural performance for one emotion condition (very happy) out of six tested (see Supplemental Data). These findings indicate that the N170 ERP may be sensitive to emotional facial expressions when task demands require encoding and retention of this information. Furthermore, sustained theta activity may represent continued attentional processing that supports short-term memory, especially of negative facial stimuli. Further study is needed to investigate the potential influence of these measures, and their interaction, on behavioural performance. Crown Please cite this article as: Brenner, C.A., et al., The role of encoding and attention in facial emotion memory: An EEG investigation, Int. J. Psychophysiol. (2014), http://dx.
Objective: Support for cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for psychosis has accumulated, with sev... more Objective: Support for cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for psychosis has accumulated, with several reviews and meta-analyses indicating its effectiveness for various intended outcomes in a broad variety of clinical settings. Most of these studies, however, have evaluated CBT provided to the subset of people with schizophrenia who continue to experience positive symptoms despite adequate treatment with antipsychotics. Despite several reviews and meta-analyses, a specific estimate of the effects of CBT for patients with medication-resistant positive symptoms, for whom CBT is frequently used in outpatient clinical settings, is lacking. This meta-analysis examined CBT's effectiveness among outpatients with medication-resistant psychosis, both on completion of treatment and at follow-up. Methods: Systematic searches (until May 2012) of the Cochrane Collaborative Register of Trials, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and PubMed were conducted. Sixteen published articles describing 12 randomized controlled trials were used as source data for the meta-analysis. Effect sizes were estimated using the standardized mean difference corrected for bias, Hedges' g, for positive and general symptoms. Results: The trials included a total of 639 individuals, 552 of whom completed the posttreatment assessment (dropout rate of 14%). Overall beneficial effects of CBT were found at posttreatment for positive symptoms (Hedges' g=.47) and for general symptoms (Hedges' g=.52). These effects were maintained at follow-up for both positive and general symptoms (Hedges' g=.41 and .40, respectively). Conclusions: For patients who continue to exhibit symptoms of psychosis despite adequate trials of medication, CBT for psychosis can confer beneficial effects above and beyond the effects of medication.
Facial expressions are encoded via sensory mechanisms, but meaning extraction and salience of the... more Facial expressions are encoded via sensory mechanisms, but meaning extraction and salience of these expressions involve cognitive functions. We investigated the time course of sensory encoding and subsequent maintenance in memory via EEG. Twenty-nine healthy participants completed a facial emotion delayed match-to-sample task. P100, N170 and N250 ERPs were measured in response to the first stimulus, and evoked theta power (4-7 Hz) was measured during the delay interval. Negative facial expressions produced larger N170 amplitudes and greater theta power early in the delay. N170 amplitude correlated with theta power, however larger N170 amplitude coupled with greater theta power only predicted behavioural performance for one emotion condition (very happy) out of six tested (see Supplemental Data). These findings indicate that the N170 ERP may be sensitive to emotional facial expressions when task demands require encoding and retention of this information. Furthermore, sustained theta activity may represent continued attentional processing that supports short-term memory, especially of negative facial stimuli. Further study is needed to investigate the potential influence of these measures, and their interaction, on behavioural performance. Crown Please cite this article as: Brenner, C.A., et al., The role of encoding and attention in facial emotion memory: An EEG investigation, Int. J. Psychophysiol. (2014), http://dx.
Objective: Support for cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for psychosis has accumulated, with sev... more Objective: Support for cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for psychosis has accumulated, with several reviews and meta-analyses indicating its effectiveness for various intended outcomes in a broad variety of clinical settings. Most of these studies, however, have evaluated CBT provided to the subset of people with schizophrenia who continue to experience positive symptoms despite adequate treatment with antipsychotics. Despite several reviews and meta-analyses, a specific estimate of the effects of CBT for patients with medication-resistant positive symptoms, for whom CBT is frequently used in outpatient clinical settings, is lacking. This meta-analysis examined CBT's effectiveness among outpatients with medication-resistant psychosis, both on completion of treatment and at follow-up. Methods: Systematic searches (until May 2012) of the Cochrane Collaborative Register of Trials, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and PubMed were conducted. Sixteen published articles describing 12 randomized controlled trials were used as source data for the meta-analysis. Effect sizes were estimated using the standardized mean difference corrected for bias, Hedges' g, for positive and general symptoms. Results: The trials included a total of 639 individuals, 552 of whom completed the posttreatment assessment (dropout rate of 14%). Overall beneficial effects of CBT were found at posttreatment for positive symptoms (Hedges' g=.47) and for general symptoms (Hedges' g=.52). These effects were maintained at follow-up for both positive and general symptoms (Hedges' g=.41 and .40, respectively). Conclusions: For patients who continue to exhibit symptoms of psychosis despite adequate trials of medication, CBT for psychosis can confer beneficial effects above and beyond the effects of medication.