Survey on health self-focused attention and disease awareness among patients with essential hypertension in the community / 中华全科医师杂志

Objective:To survey the health self-focused attention and disease awareness among patients with primary hypertension in the community.Methods:Twenty patients with essential hypertension in the community participated in one-on-one in-depth interviews from May to June 2021. The contents of the interview include basic personal information, opinions and concerns about their own health status, knowledge and attitude towards essential hypertension (including disease experience, illness feedback, active disease control and management, communication with doctors and peer patients). Colaizzi 7-step analysis method was used to analyze the interview results and summarize the topics, and the obtained topic information was transformed into semi-quantitative items for cluster analysis.Results:Seven topics were sorted out from the interview information, and 17 items were formed after semi-quantitative processing. After cluster analysis, the interviewees can be divided into two categories. There were significant differences between the two categories in the performance of 9 items, specifically: self-evaluation of blood pressure control, perceived overall health status, attention to their own health, opinions on the relationship between hypertension and family history, frequency of blood pressure monitoring, knowledge of hypertension prevention and treatment, difficulty in the treatment process, drug treatment effect, and patient support. When the number of clusters was 2, the contour coefficient was 0.21.Conclusion:The psychological concept of "health self-focused attention" exists objectively in essential hypertension patients, and patients with higher "health self-focused attention" can actively perceive their own health status and have better self-health management behaviors.

Studies about the influence of self-focused attention on social anxiety disorder and other mental disorders / 上海交通大学学报（医学版）

Self-focused attention is an attentional bias about one's own information that produces in the organism. Social anxiety patients' self-focused attention usually focuses on the ideas, emotions and behaviors generated in social occasion, which is a negative cognitive processing tendency that leads to the maintenance of anxiety symptoms. This paper reviewed the literatures of the theories and the research method of self-focused attention, and the effects of self-focused attention on social anxiety disorder and other mental diseases, so as to provide new ideas for the research of mechanisms such as social anxiety disorder.

Relation of social anxiety to self-focused attention and interpersonal needs in college students / 中国心理卫生杂志

Objective: To explore the mediating effects of self-focused attention between social anxiety and interpersonal needs. Methods: Totally 467 college students [159 males and 221 females, mean age (21 ±2)] were assessed with the Social Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Focused Attention Scale (SFAS) and Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ ). The bootstrap method was used to test the mediating effect Results: The SFAS and INQ scores were higher in female students than in males (Ps <0.01). The scores of SAS, SFAS, and INQ were positively correlated each other (r = 0.20 - 0.90, Ps < 0.01). Self-focused attention has a full mediating effect between social anxiety and interpersonal needs, and the 95％ confidence interval was (0.34, 0.59). Conclusion: It suggests that the effect of interpersonal needs on social anxiety may be achieved through self-focused attention in college students. Reducing the level of self-focused attention may be an important way to alleviate social anxiety among college students.

Bells Test: Are there differences in performance between adult groups aged 40-59 and 60-75? / Teste dos sinos: Há diferenças no desempenho entre grupos de adultos de 40 a 59 anos e 60 a 70 anos?

ABSTRACT Objective: To verify whether differences exist between groups of Brazilian adults aged 40-59 and 60-75 in respective performance on the Bells Test, given the dearth of literature investigating the relationship between focused visual attention and the age factor. Methods: Eighty-four neurologically healthy adults (half aged 40-59 and half 60-75) with high educational level (40-59 years group: M=17.75 years' education; SD=4.00; 60-75 years group: M=15.85 years education; SD=3.19) were assessed using the Bells Test. Data on accuracy and processing speed were compared between groups by ANCOVA, controlled for the covariates education and frequency of reading and writing habits. Results: There were no significant differences between the age groups. Conclusion: It is suggested that aging influences sustained and focused attention and speed processing after 75 years of age on visual cancellation paradigms, when executive and attentional changes tend to be more marked. Further studies should investigate healthy older and oldest-old adults, as well as groups with low and intermediate educational backgrounds. In addition, Brazilian clinical populations should also be characterized, particularly those with neurological disorders that might have visual hemineglect.

RESUMO Objetivo: Verificar se existem diferenças entre grupos de adultos brasileiros de 40 a 59 e 60 a 75 anos de idade na performance no Teste dos Sinos, uma vez que há uma literatura reduzida que aborda as relações entre a atenção visual focalizada e o fator de idade. Métodos: Foram avaliados 80 adultos (metade deles com idade entre 40 e 59 e outra metade com idade entre 60 e 75) com alto nível educacional (40-59 anos de idade: M=17,75, DP=4,00; 60-75 anos de idade: M=15,85, DP=3,19) e saudáveis neurologicamente, por meio do Teste dos Sinos. Os dados de precisão e velocidade de processamento foram comparados entre os grupos por uma análise ANCOVA, controlando as covariáveis educação e frequência de hábitos de leitura e escrita. Resultados: Não houve diferenças significativas entre os grupos etários. Conclusão: Sugere-se que a influência do envelhecimento na atenção sustentada e focalizada e velocidade de processamento após os 75 anos de idade em paradigmas de cancelamento visual, quando as mudanças executivas e atencionais tendem a ser mais notáveis. Estudos futuros devem investigar adultos saudáveis mais velhos e longevos, bem como, adultos com níveis educacionais baixos e intermediários. Ademais, populações clínicas brasileiras também devem ser caracterizadas, principalmente com transtornos neurológicos que podem apresentar heminegligência visual.

Cognitive Functions among Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) & Emotional Disorders.

Objectives: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Emotional Disorders (ED) afflict young children and adolescents significantly and children with these psychiatric disorders clearly have impairment in cognitive functions. The present study aims to study the impairment in cognitive functions (Focused Attention & Executive Function) among children with ADHD and ED compared to normal control. The study further aims to study the variation in the cognitive functions with severity of the illness. Method: Twenty diagnosed ADHD children meeting the ICD-10 criteria for ADHD and twenty children having Emotional Disorders (ED) meeting the ICD-10 criteria under F-93 were assessed on the measures of Focused Attention and Executive Function and compared with twenty age and education matched normal control group. Results: Children with ADHD and ED performed poorly on the measures of Focused Attention and Executive Function compared to normal control, however, the severity of illness was not identified as a factor contributing to the impairment in cognitive functioning. Conclusion: Inattention and impairment in executive functions are not restricted to children with ADHD alone, but are also manifested in children with ED. Both the groups (Children with ADHD and ED) can be placed in juxtaposition with regard to their pattern of cognitive impairment. However, the difference lies in relation to the degree of impairment, as children with ADHD demonstrate greater deficit in their cognitive functioning as compared to those with EDs. Thus, inattention does not always indicate that the child stands in the crowd of ADHD rather the clinicians and researchers need to look for the other possible childhood disorders that are likely to contribute to the impairment in executive functions and attentional abilities of the child

The Dichotic Listening Research for Different Chinese Rhyming Words in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder by Focused Attention / 中国心理卫生杂志

Objective:To explore the brain function asymmetry characters of the patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).Methods:The study examined the ear advantage of 58 healthy subjects, 115 patients with MDD using two kinds of rhyming words by the method of focused attention. Results:1.In healthy group, no ear advantage was found in true words test, but appeared significant right ear (left-hemisphere) advantage in pseudo-words test. 2.In MDD group, there was also no ear advantage in true words test, but appeared enhanced right ear (left-hemisphere) advantage in pseudo-words test. There was a significant difference between the MDD and healthy subjects. Among patient group, 3. by true words test, no ear advantage was found in those with a comorbid anxiety disorder, but those without comorbid anxiety appeared right ear advantage. By pseudo-word test, both patients with or without comorbid anxiety appeared right ear (left-hemisphere) advantage, and those without had larger advantage. there was a significant difference between this two groups. 4.HAMD, HAMA and SCL-90 ratings had no relation to asymmetry scores of true words or that of pseudo-words.Conclusions:1. both healthy control and MDD patients have no ear advantage for process and cognition of true words in, but as for that of pseudo-words, both of them appear right ear (left-hemisphere) advantage, with the MDD patients have greater advantage. 2.The patients with or without a comorbid anxiety disorder were different in response, patients with comorbid anxiety appear more close to normal control. 4. Asymmetry scores don’t correlate significantly with the scores of HAMD, HAMA or SCL-90. 5.The pseudo-words is the better choice as stimuli for dichotic listening test.

Comparison of the Brain Activation Patterns during Focused Attention and Working Memory Using Positron Emission Tomography / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: This study was undertaken to identify neural substrates for simple focused attention and more highly-focused working memory in normal people and investigate their characteristics and differences. METHOD: Fourteen normal subjects were studied with [15O]H 2O positron emission tomography during a visual processing baseline task, simple focused attention task and working memory task. Results were analyzed with the subtraction analysis to map the neural correlates of focused attention and working memory. RESULTS: Activated areas during focused attention tended to be lateralized to the left and scattered over various regions including the anterior cingulate, motor area, and primary and secondary visual cortices. While the areas activated during working memory also show the left lateralization and scattered distribution, activation prevailed more in the frontal lobe than in the visual cortex, and was particularly remarkable in the right anterior cingulate. CONCLULSION: Focused attention and working memory do not have only conceptually commonalities and differences but also have common and specific areas in their neural substrates. The anterior cingulate may commonly play an important role in both cognitive functions, whereas secondary visual cortex and prefrontal cortex seem to be predominantly implicated in each function, respectively.