Showing papers by "Francis Eustache published in 2018"

Impact of breast cancer on prospective memory functioning assessed by virtual reality and influence of sleep quality and hormonal therapy: PROSOM-K study.

Abstract: Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent cancer in women with more than 70% of BC patients being treated with hormonal therapy (HT) Among these patients, some report difficulties in remembering what they are supposed to do at the right moment, referring to prospective memory (PM) PM is essential for autonomy and medical adherence of patients, and requires an ecological assessment Virtual reality, that recreates naturalistic environment, seems to be a promising method to evaluate PM Several BC patients also report sleep disturbances Given the role of sleep on memory consolidation, it is imperative to explore the influence of sleep quality on PM in BC patients treated with HT The purpose of PROSOM-K study is to assess PM functioning using virtual reality and sleep quality in BC treated or not with HT PROSOM-K is a prospective study including post-menopausal BC patients ≤70 years old treated with radiotherapy (n = 25) or with radiotherapy and HT (n = 25), and healthy post-menopausal women (n = 25) matched for age and education PM will be assessed using a virtual reality based task Other cognitive functions and psychosocial factors will be assessed with validated questionnaires and neuropsychological tests The study is divided in 3 sessions: a session of familiarisation with the virtual environment and the PM task: a day-time session during which participants learn intentions during the morning and recall them in the evening; and a night-time session during which participants learn intentions in the evening and recall them the following morning Women will be monitored by wrist actigraphy; during the night-time session, objective sleep quality and quantity will be measured by polysomnography This is a novel study aiming to assess PM using virtual reality, coupled with the evaluation of other cognitive functions Polysomnographic study of sleep will provide further information about architectural sleep disturbances in BC Association between sleep architecture parameters and PM mechanism in BC women treated with HT will be described in detail We expect our results will provide knowledge for patients and clinicians and further help to improve patient care and cognitive therapy NCT03420105 , registered: January 10, 2018

Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Patients without Focal Lesion but with Behavioral Disorders: Shrinkage of Gray Matter Nuclei and Thalamus Revealed in a Pilot Voxel-Based MRI Study.

Abstract: After a traumatic brain injury (TBI), behavioral disorders can occur without major focal brain lesion, and in these situations, their pathophysiology remains unclear. The aim of this study...

Alexithymia in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Its Neural Correlates

Abstract: Introduction: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a severe neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive and extensive motor deficits. Patients may also have cognitive impairments or alteration of emotional processing. Very few studies, however, have looked at deficits in how they experience their own feelings (alexithymia). Methods: We assessed alexithymia in 28 patients with ALS using the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), comparing them with a control group matched for sex, age, and education level. We took into account both the total score of the TAS-20 and its three subscores corresponding to the three dimensions of alexithymia: Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF), Difficulty Describing Feelings (DDF), and Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT). Patients also underwent a neuropsychological assessment and anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to correlate cognitive performances and gray matter volume and level of alexithymia. Results: On average, ALS subjects had a significantly higher total score and DIF sub-score of the TAS-20 than controls indicating an increased alexithymia in patients. Total and DIF Scores correlated significantly and negatively to gray matter volume of the prefrontal cortex, right superior temporal pole and parahippocampal gyri. No correlations were found between scores on executive functions and those on the TAS-20. Conclusion: The first stage of one's own emotional processing seems to be affected in ALS independently of executive dysfunction. This trouble seems to be underpinned by cerebral regions that are well known to be both implicated in alexithymia in healthy subjects and altered in ALS.

Does the heart forget? Modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories

Abstract: The subjective construction surrounding the perception of negative experience is partly build upon bodily afferent information, comprising heart, gut or respiratory signals. While this bottom-up influence has been extensively described, the opposite pathway, the putative influence of cognitive processes over autonomic response, is still debatable. However, emotion regulation and the ability to control maladjusted physiological response associated with thoughts and memories is a recurrent concern for most psychiatric disorders and mental health as a whole. Memory suppression (i.e. exerting inhibitory control toward unwanted memories) has been proposed as a possible solution to perform such regulation. However, this method also holds debates as it could putatively worsen distressing reactions when unsuccessful, or simply be ineffective on the physiological roots of emotions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that memory suppression can influence the physiological markers of emotions in two studies using the "Think/No-Think" paradigm. We measured in healthy participants the aftereffect of suppressing negative memories on their cardiac reaction toward the excluded memories. Results of Study 1 revealed that an efficient control of memories was associated with a long-term inhibition of the cardiac deceleration normally induced by disgusting stimuli. Study 2 replicated this finding and critically showed that it was linked to the decrease of the 5-9 Hz frequency band, a prominent electrophysiological markers of memory suppression. These results support the notion that cognitive control over unwanted emotional memories can influence in parallel autonomic processes to achieve emotional regulation, and open new avenues for possible interventions focused on training this suppression mechanism to reduce the impact of distressing intrusive memories on mental health.

Impact des altérations de la substance blanche liées à l’âge sur les performances cognitives : études en imagerie par tenseur de diffusion

Abstract: Resume Le vieillissement s’accompagne de nombreux changements tant au niveau physique, biologique, psychoaffectif que cognitif. Le vieillissement cerebral est un processus complexe et heterogene. L’imagerie par resonance magnetique permet d’identifier et de quantifier in vivo une partie de ces changements. Les donnees d’imagerie par tenseur de diffusion (DTI) suggerent une alteration de l’integrite des faisceaux de substance blanche, generant des changements dans la diffusion des molecules d’eau. L’objectif de cette revue est d’introduire les principes generaux de la DTI puis, en s’appuyant sur les travaux conduits dans ce domaine, de decrire les alterations liees a l’âge dans les faisceaux de substance blanche et leur impact sur les fonctions cognitives, notamment les fonctions executives et la memoire. Un interet particulier sera porte a la memoire prospective ou memoire des intentions futures.

La force de la mémoire collective dans la mémoire autobiographique

Abstract: Resume En neuropsychologie, la memoire autobiographique fait reference aux evenements personnellement vecus situes dans le temps et dans l’espace qui donnent au sujet un sentiment d’identite et de continuite. Meme si des interactions entre memoire individuelle et memoire collective ont ete soulignees, son evaluation porte essentiellement sur la dimension personnelle et subjective. Depuis la fin du xxe siecle, ce qui est appele en psychologie et en neurosciences le « tournant social » a conduit progressivement a la reconnaissance des aspects sociaux de la memoire et il est maintenant admis que les souvenirs se situent a l’interface de l’identite personnelle et des representations collectives. Cet article rend compte de cette evolution en citant les principales contributions au domaine de la memoire autobiographique. Enfin, il evoque le programme « 13-Novembre » elabore specifiquement pour mieux comprendre les interactions entre memoire individuelle et memoire collective, dans le contexte d’un evenement traumatique a grande echelle. L’approche transdisciplinaire qui y est formalisee necessite des developpements methodologiques et theoriques majeurs. Au-dela de son interet manifeste pour comprendre le trouble de stress post-traumatique, ce cadre nouveau pourrait permettre une autre lecture de differentes pathologies de la memoire.