The impact of circulatory arrest with selective antegrade cerebral perfusion on brain functional connectivity and postoperative cognitive function.

Aortic surgery is one of the most challenging types of surgeries, which is possibly related to cognitive sequelae. We aimed to investigate the changes in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) associated with intraoperative circulatory arrest (CA) in aortic surgery, exploring the relationship between the altered connectivity and postoperative cognitive functions. Thirty-eight patients participated in this study (14 with CA, 24 without). Functional magnetic resonance imaging was scanned on the fifth day after surgery or after the resolution of delirium if it was developed. We assessed the differences in the development of postoperative cognitive changes and rsFC between patients with and without CA. The occurrence of postoperative delirium and postoperative cognitive dysfunction was not significantly different between the patients with and without the application of CA. However, patients with CA showed increased in posterior cingulate cortex-based connectivity with the right superior temporal gyrus, right precuneus, and right hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex-based connectivity with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The application of moderate hypothermic CA with unilateral antegrade cerebral perfusion is unlikely to affect aspects of postoperative cognitive changes, whereas it may lead to increased rsFC of the default mode network at a subclinical level following acute brain insults.

Choice of Leisure Activities by Adolescents and Adults With Internet Gaming Disorder: Development and Feasibility Study of a Virtual Reality Program.

BACKGROUND: Excessive internet game use frequently leads to various physical, psychological, and social problems, and internet gaming disorder (IGD) has become a serious public health issue worldwide. Recently, virtual reality (VR) therapy has emerged as a promising method to increase psychological treatment motivation and accessibility. However, few studies have examined the potential of VR technology for the management of IGD, and VR content tailored to IGD characteristics remains scarce. OBJECTIVE: This preliminary study aimed to examine the potential of a VR-based program that was designed to help users identify their leisure time use patterns, especially those related to gaming, and to modify their gaming overuse by alternative activities provided in the VR content. Moreover, to investigate whether users' VR activities reflect various clinical variables of IGD in youth, we examined the relationships among the leisure time activity selection pattern, built-in response, and speech data obtained from the VR program, as well as symptom severity of internet gaming, psychiatric comorbidities, and motivation of participants reported through relevant questionnaire data. METHODS: Three types of VR content (understanding my daily activities at home, finding an alternative activity to internet gaming at home, expressing contradictory opinions toward a friend's gaming beliefs) were developed by simulating the daily situations in which patients with IGD can select alternative free-time leisure activities. We examined internet addiction, mental health problems, and motivation for 23 IGD and 29 control participants. Behavioral and self-rated responses from VR, such as alternative activity selection data and speech patterns (speech time, speech satisfaction, and speech accordance), and results from various questionnaires were compared between groups. The correlations between IGD behaviors in VR and real-life behaviors assessed by questionnaire measures were analyzed. RESULTS: Significant correlations were found between internet gaming behavior and user activity data, such as speech and activity selection pattern, in our VR program. Our results showed that the IGD group had fewer leisure activities and preferred game or digital activities to other types of activities compared to controls, even in VR. There was a positive relationship between the viability of alternative leisure activities the participants selected in VR and the amount of perceived satisfaction from that activity (r=.748, P<.001). Speech accordance in the IGD group was lower than in the control group and was correlated negatively with Internet Addiction Test and Internet Addiction Test-gaming scores (r=.300, P=.03) but positively with users' motivation (r=.312, P=.02). CONCLUSIONS: The results from our VR program can provide information about daily activity patterns of youths with IGD and the relationship between user VR activities and IGD symptoms, which can be useful in applying VR technology to IGD management.

Inflexible eye fixation pattern in schizophrenia affecting decision-making on daily life.

Patients with schizophrenia have difficulties in real life due to impairment in ability to make decisions. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the relationship between impaired decision-making processes with real life stimuli and abnormal eye gaze patterns in patients with schizophrenia. Each of 23 patients with schizophrenia and 23 healthy controls performed an apparel purchase decision task including the influencing factors such as preference, fit, and price, during which the eye gaze was traced. Fixation time and fixation time ratio on areas of interest, which were set for participant faces and clothing, were compared between the two groups. Compared with controls, patients made purchase decisions at a higher rate and showed significantly shorter fixation time on clothing in the preference, fit, and price phases and on faces in the purchase phase. Fixation time ratio of face over clothing did not change over purchase decisions in patients, whereas controls showed significantly higher fixation time ratio in not-to-buy decisions than in to-buy decisions. These results suggest that aberrant decision-making behaviors in patients with schizophrenia are closely related to inflexible visual information gathering patterns because they apportion the same amount of attention to objects regardless of purchase intention.