Journal of psychosomatic research
-
Attentional bias to emotion- and illness-related information plays a prominent role in many mental disorders, particularly major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders. Using the emotional Stroop task we investigated which variables beyond aspects of patients' psychopathology might influence reaction times and interference in the Stroop test. ⋯ The present study provides further support for the idea that the experience of childhood trauma influences adult neuropsychological performance. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the ability to suppress emotions may be an important predictor of attentional bias.
-
Patients with a psychogenic paresis have difficulties performing voluntary movements. Typically, diagnostic interventions are normal. We tested whether patients with a psychogenic lower limb paresis exhibit abnormal motor excitability during motor imagery or movement observation. ⋯ In patients with motor conversion disorder, the imagination of own body movements induces a reduction of corticospinal motor excitability whereas it induces an excitability increase in healthy subjects. This discrepancy might be the electrophysiological substrate of the inability to move voluntarily. Watching another person perform movements induces a normal excitability increase, indicating a crucial role of the perspective and suggesting that focusing the patient's attention on a different person might become a therapeutic approach.