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Neural mechanisms of understanding of truth, lie and irony
Souček Loginova, Alisa ; Zaytseva, Yulia (advisor) ; Hocko Fajnerová, Iveta (referee)
Ironic statements are commonly used in our everyday communication. They are characterised by a meaning opposite to the literal one. They rely on mutual understanding of the contrast in the expressed ironic statement, which is based on common experience, knowledge, or understanding of the situational context. In this experiment, we aimed to find the neural correlates involved in the understanding of irony, as well as differences between brain regions involved in the understanding of deceits and the truth. The theoretical part of this thesis places irony into the broader context of higher cognitive functions and provides a solid theoretical background for its understanding from different points of view, such as neurobiological and psychological. Moreover, it describes a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as a non-invasive imaging technique allowing researchers to have deeper understanding and locate activations in various conditions. Practical part provides a detailed description of the experiment, including description of participants, methods, and analysis methods. Specifically, 17 healthy volunteers - 10 females and 7 males took part in this fMRI project. They were to evaluate 20 statements in 3 different contexts - ironic, deceitful, and truthful. Measured data in form of...
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Cognitive remediation using virtual reality in neuropsychiatric disorders
Plechatá, Adéla ; Hocko Fajnerová, Iveta (advisor) ; Podlipný, Jiří (referee) ; Nikolai, Tomáš (referee)
Theoretical background: This dissertation investigates the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) for cognitive remediation in neuropsychiatric patients. The main goal was to create VR tasks appropriate for this purpose, assess the characteristics of the applied VR media, and investigate the validity and efficacy of the developed program in the target population. Method: In Study 1, healthy seniors (n = 36) and young adults (n = 25) participated in a newly developed Virtual Supermarket Shopping Task (VSST) in immersive VR (IVR) or non-immersive VR (non-IVR) to investigate their characteristics. Study 2 assessed validity (n = 21) and reliability (n = 8) of a novel VR task focused on psychomotor speed called Flies. In Study 3, VSST was administered to 20 patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and 20 healthy controls (HC) to investigate its validity. Finally, in Study 4, 28 patients with schizophrenia or depression participated in the proposed VE program and standard paper-pencil remediation approach to investigate feasibility and efficacy. Results: In Study 1, the seniors performed significantly worse in IVR than in non-IVR, cognitive performance in young adults was stable across different VR media, the young adults preferred IVR over non-IVR. Study 2 found a significant correlation between the Flies and...
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Spatial memory in humans and its disorders: From animal models towards schizophrenia
Fajnerová, Iveta ; Vlček, Kamil (advisor) ; Rokyta, Richard (referee) ; Jiruška, Přemysl (referee)
Spatial memory is often studied using spatial tasks originally developed for animals, such as the Morris water maze and the Carousel maze tasks. Both tasks have an important role in the process of identification of brain areas crucial for spatial memory, and also in pharmacological research of animal models of neuropsychiatric diseases. In recent years considerable attention has been devoted to the research and treatment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Comparative research addressing cognitive abilities of both animals and patients in similar tasks, could therefore lead to verification of the predictive and face validity of animal models of this complex disorder. The aim of this study was to create virtual analogues of these tasks, which would allow this comparative approach. This thesis first describes the experiment testing the performance of an animal model of schizophrenia induced by the application of dizocilpine (MK-801) in reversal version of both mentioned spatial tasks, in order to assess mental flexibility and learning abilities affected in schizophrenia. Other two experiments present the findings of the two virtual analogues tested in the first episode of schizophrenia patients. Our results confirm the presence of deficits in spatial memory and mental flexibility, functions dependent on...
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Impairment of cognitive flexibility and its assessment in obsessive-compulsive disorder
Janíková, Martina ; Hocko Fajnerová, Iveta (advisor) ; Krámská, Lenka (referee)
Cognitive flexibility can be described as adaptive ability to change one's behavior in response to the environment. Psychological tests measure cognitive flexibility mainly as an ability to switch between different cues, tasks or objects. This thesis is focused on cognitive flexibility in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). To assess it, participants were tested in two different virtual tests of cognitive flexibility in spatial navigation task: Active allothetic place preference and Active allothetic place avoidance. In one of the tests participants have to navigate in rotating arena towads invisble goal (AAPP). In the other one they have to avoid invisible sector where time is counted upon entering (AAPA). As the sector and goal are visually imperceptible, participants have to use only cues inside and outside the arena and are also informed about entering the sector by sound signal. The sector changes its position from stable position in room frame to stable position in arena frame between conditions. Therefore, participants have to learn to switch between room and arena frame to sucessfully solve the task. Results of this study suggest that OCD patients are significantly worse in estimating position of the goal in AAPP, especially after change of condition. Further comparsion of...
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Experimental evaluation of prioritization of animal stimuli by human
Kočková-Amortová, Eliška ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Hocko Fajnerová, Iveta (referee)
In some previous studies, felines were evaluated as one of the most beautiful groups of mammals, but at the same time, they were rated as dangerous. Some studies suggest that felines may be among those dangerous animals that are prioritized by humans in terms of faster neural response and preferential processing of visual information. This thesis tests the prioritization of potentially dangerous animals with each other while trying to identify the factors that influence the positive evaluation of felines. It has been found that felines are prioritized among potentially dangerous animals, but the experimental design is very important. Prioritization has not been proven when respondents have followed a different task and the animals have only acted as distractors. Big cats were evaluated as the most beautiful and most feared felines, with morphology, especially the weight of the animal, influencing both of these ratings. The ranking of beauty was also influenced by the presence of the pattern and saturation and lightness of the colors. Compared to viverrids, felines were rated both as more beautiful and more feared. Felines would be more likely protected and treated as pets than viverrids. Furthermore, large felines are relatively well-known among humans, while respondents basically did not know any...
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Role of glutamate in obsessive-compulsive disorder: clinical and experimental findings
Mainerová, Karolína ; Stuchlík, Aleš (advisor) ; Fajnerová, Iveta (referee)
Obsessive - compulsive disorder is a common and chronic illness that decreases quality of life and leads to serious limitations. Its treatment is currently only successful in some patients and many of them remain with their problems without proper help and medication. The exact cause of the disease is not yet known, but the role of the glutamatergic system in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder is apparently very important and its modulation can potentially lead to increase in treatment success. Animal models of genetic, behavioural, pharmacological and optogenetic origins are very useful in gaining new insights into the principles and underlying causes of the disease. Clinical studies indicate the efficacy of glutamatergic modulators for disease manifestations and could serve as new avenues for the development of new drugs. Key words: obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); glutamate, animal model, clinical findings
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Spatial memory in humans and its disorders: From animal models towards schizophrenia
Fajnerová, Iveta ; Vlček, Kamil (advisor) ; Rokyta, Richard (referee) ; Jiruška, Přemysl (referee)
Spatial memory is often studied using spatial tasks originally developed for animals, such as the Morris water maze and the Carousel maze tasks. Both tasks have an important role in the process of identification of brain areas crucial for spatial memory, and also in pharmacological research of animal models of neuropsychiatric diseases. In recent years considerable attention has been devoted to the research and treatment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Comparative research addressing cognitive abilities of both animals and patients in similar tasks, could therefore lead to verification of the predictive and face validity of animal models of this complex disorder. The aim of this study was to create virtual analogues of these tasks, which would allow this comparative approach. This thesis first describes the experiment testing the performance of an animal model of schizophrenia induced by the application of dizocilpine (MK-801) in reversal version of both mentioned spatial tasks, in order to assess mental flexibility and learning abilities affected in schizophrenia. Other two experiments present the findings of the two virtual analogues tested in the first episode of schizophrenia patients. Our results confirm the presence of deficits in spatial memory and mental flexibility, functions dependent on...
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Animal phobia: fear or disgust?
Peléšková, Šárka ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Hocko Fajnerová, Iveta (referee)
Animal phobias are among the most common specific phobias. It is traditionally assumed that two basic emotions are involved - fear and anxiety, although recent studies suggest that disgust may also be important. Phobias and involved emotions are defined mostly by psychologists and psychiatrists. Their manifestations could be identified mainly on physiological level and are being researched using advanced medical methods (e.g. functional neuroimaging). The eliciting stimuli of arachnophobia, ophidiophobia etc. are specific animal, spiders or snakes. However the category of elicitors for disgust sensu lato is fairly extended. The etiology of these phenomena is explained from the perspective of evolutionary biology and presumes biologicaly significant selective pressures and common coevolution. The aim of this paper is to summarize information gathered so far, verify proposed evolutionary hypothesis about the involvement of disgust in the etiology of animal phobia and to evaluate biological relevancy of fear of animal stimuli.
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Perception of space in virtual reality environments
Fajnerová, Iveta ; Vlček, Kamil (advisor) ; Vavrečka, Michal (referee)
This thesis attempts to analyze spatial perception for navigation in a virtual arena and to cover neuronal basics of distance estimation. For this purpose, we created a virtual version of Hidden goal task which is an analogy to Morris water maze. The thesis presents results of the experiment with removing orientation cues in a circular arena. The aim of the experiment was to determine, if the assumption of Cognitive mapping theory about orientation cues equivalence is valid for our arena. Experiment outcome indicates that the accuracy of goal position estimation is not only influenced by the number of cues but also by the individual hierarchy of the cues. The hierarchy emerges from the distance of the cue from the goal, although in some cases it can be affected by an outstanding identity of the particular cue. These findings are a basis for the experiment utilizing the functional magnetic resonance method to determine neuronal basics for estimating distances in virtual arena in both the egocentric and allocentric reference frame. Results support the findings of the cited papers about the participation of occipital and parietal lobe in estimating object distance in space. Comparison of the two reference frames showed that whereas the egocentric estimation is related to activity in premotor cortex,...
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