Matching Items (4)
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- All Subjects: Executive Function
- Creators: Dixon, Maria
- Creators: Ezenyilimba, Akuadasuo
- Resource Type: Text
- Status: Published
Description
This pilot study evaluated whether Story Champs and Puente de Cuentos helped bilingual preschoolers increase their usage of emotional terms and ability to tell stories. Participants in this study included 10 Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers. Intervention was conducted in 9 sessions over 3 days using the Test of Narrative Retell to measure results. Results did not find significant gains in either emotional term usage or ability to tell stories, but the results were promising as a pilot study.
ContributorsSato, Leslie Mariko (Author) / Restrepo, Maria (Thesis director) / Dixon, Maria (Committee member) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The purpose of the present study is to explore a potential rehabilitation alternative/additive, when time, insurance, finances, or lack of knowledge are limitations for mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) executive function (EF) rehabilitation. The experimental intervention involved two sets of participants an experimental group and a control group. Participants within the experimental and control groups partook in initial (week 1) and final (week 6) EF and TBI assessments. The experimental group additionally participated in four weeks (weeks 2 - 5) of an experimental intervention in beta stage of a web-based application. The aim of the intervention was to train EF skills planning, organization, and cognitive flexibility through serious gamification. At the conclusion of the study, it was observed that participants within the experimental group achieved higher scores on the experimental executive function assessment when compared to the control group. The difference in scores can be attributed to the weekly participation in executive function training.
ContributorsEzenyilimba, Akuadasuo (Author) / Cooke, Nancy (Thesis advisor) / McDaniel, Troy (Committee member) / Gray, Rob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to show impairments in various domains of executive function (EF) such as behavioral flexibility or inhibitory control. Research suggests that EF impairment in adults with ASD may relate to ASD core symptoms, restrictive behaviors and social communication deficits. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has shown promise for improving EF abilities in neurotypical adults, but research has not explored its efficacy or neural mechanisms in adults with ASD. This pilot study examines the effects of an 8-week MBSR intervention on self-report measures of EF and resting-state functional connectivity in a sample of adults with ASD. Fifty-four participants were assigned either to an MBSR group (n = 29) or a social support group (n = 25). Executive function was measured using the BRIEF-2 before and after the intervention for the twenty-seven participants in the second cohort. MBSR-specific improvements in EF were found for BRIEF measures of initiation, inhibition, and working-memory. Resting-state fMRI data was analyzed using independent component analysis (ICA), and group by time resting-state functional connectivity differences were observed between the cerebellar network and frontal regions including the right frontal pole (rFP), medial frontal cortex (MFC) and left and right superior frontal gyri (SFG). The MBSR group showed increases in functional connectivity between the cerebellum and EF regions which correlated with improvements in BRIEF-2 measures. These findings suggest that MBSR may improve EF domains in adults with ASD, and that increases in functional connectivity between the cerebellum and frontal regions while at rest may be a mechanism for such improvements.
ContributorsGuerithault, Nicolas (Author) / Braden, B. Blair (Thesis advisor) / Rogalsky, Corianne (Committee member) / Dixon, Maria (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The present study sought to understand traumatic brain injuries (TBI) impact on executive function (EF) in terms of anticipation amongst individuals with a background in soccer; along with other contributing factors of EF curtailments that inhibit athletes. Within this study 57 participants, with a background in soccer (high school, collegiate, and semi-professional), completed five EF tasks: working memory, cognitive flexibility, attentional control, and anticipation; pattern detection and athletic cues (temporal occlusion). The results of this study concluded that when TBI history, gender, and soccer athletic level are factors, athletes with a soccer level of collegiate and semi-professional had decrements related to pattern detection anticipation; meaning athletes at higher levels had lower average scores on the Brixton Spatial Anticipation Test (BSAT). Additionally, female athletes showed more anticipation decrements related to athletic cues, especially those that are reliant on the initiation of judgment. Overall undiagnosed TBIs and limited understanding on how to approach rehabilitation to mitigate EF decrements, continue to impede individual autonomy amongst athletes. Keywords: Traumatic brain injury, executive function, anticipation, soccer, temporal occlusion, Brixton Spatial Anticipation Test (BSAT), collegiate, semi-professional, pattern detection, rehabilitation
ContributorsEzenyilimba, Akuadasuo (Author) / Gray, Rob (Thesis advisor) / Chiou, Erin (Committee member) / Cooke, Nancy (Committee member) / Gutzwiller, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021