Claude Braun

Université du Québec à Montréal, Psychology, Faculty Member

Followers

202

Following

Co-authors

Public Views

Uploads

Papers by Claude Braun

L'évaluation des fonctions attentionnelles et processus associés en neuropsychologie clinique

Bulletin de psychologie, Dec 31, 1990

Lorsque confrontés à la tâche de sélectionner des épreuves psychométriquement fiables et valides ... more Lorsque confrontés à la tâche de sélectionner des épreuves psychométriquement fiables et valides pour évaluer les patients, un grand nombre de neuropsychologues s&#39;appuient sur le texte de Lezak, intitulé Neuropsychological Assessment (1983). Dans ce livre il y a un chapitre intitulé &quot;Orientation and Attention&quot; On n&#39;y retrouve pasde définition, en termes de conditions nécessaires et suffisantes, de l&#39;attention, ni de taxonomie des processus attentionnels spécifiques. On n&#39;y trouve pas non plus d&#39;aperçu des syndrômes attentionnels. Le potentiel très riche de stratégies d&#39;utilisation de divers schèmes de temps de réaction (ou chronométrie mentale) n&#39;est pas non plus effleuré. Les niveaux d&#39;évaluation de processus non-sélectifs versus sélectifs n&#39;y sont que vaguement distingués et on n&#39;y retrouve pas suffisamment de mises en garde contre les nombreuses sources de contamination des effets d&#39;attention par des effets procéduraux des tests considérés. Aucune mention n&#39;est faite des bases neuroanatomiques et neurophysiologiques des processus attentionnels. Finalement, la discipline neuropsychométrique a beaucoup évolué depuis la demière révision réalisée par Lezak en 1983. Il apparaît donc valable de tenter ici une mise à jour e t un approfondissement de la démarche entreprise par Lezakt, en ce qui concerne seulement l&#39;attention, toutefois, et ceci dans le même but que cet auteur, qui est d&#39;offrir au neuropsychologue clinicien un texte qul lul soit le plus directement utile que possible dans sa pratique professionnelle.

Is anorexia nervosa a neuropsychological disease?

Neuropsychology Review, Jun 1, 1992

Evidence for central nervous system, and more particularly cortical, etiology of anorexia nervosa... more Evidence for central nervous system, and more particularly cortical, etiology of anorexia nervosa is reviewed. Topics covered are neuropsychiatric comorbidity, inheritance patterns, the neurobiology of body-image disturbance and of the eating function, perinatal and alcoholic insult to the brain, neurochemical and neuroelectric disturbance, anatomic and metabolic brain imaging, and neuropsychological impairment. It is concluded that there is indeed an important neuropsychological etiological dimension to anorexia nervosa. The profile most frequently associated with anorexia nervosa is right posterior hypometabolism, followed by right anterior hypermetabolism, both associated with right-sided abnormal electroencephalogram spiking. It is also proposed that bulimia consists of a &quot;positive&quot; neurological subtype and that restricting anorexia represents a &quot;negative&quot; neurological subtype. Priorities for further research into anorexia nervosa are specified to include twin adoption studies, brain electrical topography studies, postmortem histological studies, and experimentally inspired neuropsychological studies.

EEG correlates of emotions in dream narratives from typical young adults and individuals with autistic spectrum disorders

Psychophysiology, Mar 1, 2008

Download

Problem solving abilities in daily-life situations in adults with severe traumatic head injury

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 1989

Download

A deficit of primary affective facial expression independent of bucco-facial dyspraxia in chronic schizophrenics

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 1989

Chronic schizophrenics are known to manifest a deficit of categorisation and recognition of prima... more Chronic schizophrenics are known to manifest a deficit of categorisation and recognition of primary emotional facial expression despite intact recognition of face identity. An equivalent deficit of expression of the same primary facial emotions in schizophrenics has not been clearly established. Twenty chronic hospitalised schizophrenics and 20 normals were therefore tested on tasks of facial emotional expression upon verbal command,

Evidence of Non-lateralized cortical localization of circuits substending perception of affective face photographs and resistance to distraction and perseveration

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 1991

Download

Development of “material-specific” hemispheric specialization from beginning to end

Laterality, Sep 6, 2017

Disparity of verbal and performance intelligence (VIQ, PIQ) on the Wechsler scales of intelligenc... more Disparity of verbal and performance intelligence (VIQ, PIQ) on the Wechsler scales of intelligence is a conceptually cluttered and empirically weak measure of hemispheric specialization (HS). However, in the context of life span research, it is the only measure that can be exploited meta-analytically with the lesion method from prenatal life to late senescence. We assembled 1917 cases with a unilateral cortical focal brain lesion occurring at all ages and a post-lesion VIQ and PIQ. Lesion locus, volume and side were documented for each case, as well as age at lesion onset, age at first symptoms and age at the IQ test, presence/absence of epilepsy, lesion aetiology, gender, date of publication or of transfer of medical file. With and without covariate adjustment, HS was significant across the life span though its pattern changed. HS increased linearly and highly significantly until late senescence. Only in early adulthood did VIQ appear to vacate the right temporal lobe and occupy the left and PIQ vacate the left parietal lobe and occupy the right until late senescence. Biomaturational factors are more important in the ontogeny of material-specific HS over the whole life span than previously established.

Cognitive Structure and Real Life Implementation of Scripts in Late Adulthood

Physical & Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics, 2005

Download

Homotopy and heterotopy and the bilateral field advantage in the Dimond paradigm

Acta Psychologica, Feb 1, 2006

Pairs of homotopic and heterotopic visual bilateral stimuli and pairs of unilateral visual stimul... more Pairs of homotopic and heterotopic visual bilateral stimuli and pairs of unilateral visual stimuli were presented to 12 normal right-handed university students requiring a key press if they were of the same form. As predicted from the known histology of the corpus callosum (massive preponderance of homotopic fibers), homotopic presentations yielded significantly faster reaction times than heterotopic stimulations. Bilateral pairs of stimuli were also advantaged in comparison with unilateral trials, replicating Sereno and Kosslyn [Sereno, A. B., &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Kosslyn, S. M. (1991). Discrimination within and between hemifields: a new constraint on theories of attention. Neuropsychologia, 29, 659-675]. Moreover, certain attentional processes have never been investigated in the Dimond paradigm and this study provides evidence to the effect that discriminative reaction times to stimulus pairs are strongly influenced by their proximity to the fixation point. In similar previous experiments, the homotopy/heterotopy observation and the bilateral field advantage may have been distorted by that particular confound, as well as several others.

Self-injury in intravenous amphetamine users and their siblings

Intra and inter hemispheric dynamics revealed by reaction time in the Dimond paradigm: A quantitative review of the literature

Neuropsychologia, May 1, 2014

In stimulus matching tasks requiring discrimination of two unilaterally or bilaterally presented ... more In stimulus matching tasks requiring discrimination of two unilaterally or bilaterally presented stimuli (Dimond paradigm), a well established intrahemispheric processing bottleneck model predicts that an increase in task difficulty as measured by reaction time should provide an advantage to bilateral stimulations. The purpose of the current investigation was to review the entire relevant literature on the Dimond paradigm and identify the experimental variables which reliably yield such effects. Forty nine experimental effects compatible with the &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;intrahemispheric processing bottleneck&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; model and 26 contrary effects were found. Manipulation of the complexity of the stimulus matching criterion significantly produced intrahemispheric bottleneck effects. This effect was also significantly greater when non-target stimuli required heavier processing. These two findings support the intrahemispheric bottleneck model: computationally complex tasks seem to overload a hemisphere׳s processing capacity, an effect seen in the unilateral presentation conditions. However, manipulating the similarity of target stimuli produced contrary effects. Contrary effects were also obtained more readily when two physical matching tasks were compared. These two latter effects may best be explained as low level visual-perceptual limitations of interhemispheric transfer or integration.

Journal of Neurotherapy, Jun 20, 2008

Background. This study aimed to find the best possible approach to neurotherapy for stuttering. M... more Background. This study aimed to find the best possible approach to neurotherapy for stuttering. Method. Five right-handed Dysfluent Speakers and five right-handed Fluent Speakers were compared before dysfluent and fluent speech onset with electrical event related potentials. EEG electrodes were at inferior frontal, precentral, and temporoparietal locations on each hemiscalp. Participants processed two words displayed consecutively at center screen, the first or second of which was to be uttered aloud according to the subsequent command digit being 1 or 2. Results. The Fluent Speakers manifested significant left hemisphere contingent negative variations (CNVs) prior to the words and the contingency stimulus. The Dysfluent Speakers presented overall smaller CNVs that were more marked over the right hemisphere than left. This pattern was observed before both their stuttered and fluent words, with the former differing significantly from the fluent speakers hemispheric CNV pattern. Conclusion. These results indicate that dysfluent speech is related to abnormal hemispheric asymmetry. Neurofeedback therapy for persons who stutter could aim at normalizing contingent negativity asymmetry seconds prior to speech.

Download

Inter-hemispheric dynamics revealed by reaction time in the Dimond paradigm

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2015

The Dimond paradigm (DP) consists of tachistoscopically presenting two stimuli to be discriminate... more The Dimond paradigm (DP) consists of tachistoscopically presenting two stimuli to be discriminated--either both stimuli in a single visual hemifield or one in each. The DP has recently been implemented using predecessors to index homotopy of the callosal fibre projection with reaction time (RT) as the dependent measure. Using simple perceptual discrimination tasks, it has recently been reported that the advantage of the unilateral stimulation condition significantly decreases with practice. This effect has been interpreted as being due to the plasticity of the callosal network. Two experiments were designed to replicate these two little-known effects, namely callosal homotopy and callosal network plasticity. In addition, new evidence of another type of callosal network plasticity, termed &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;callosal network dispatching&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;, was sought by introducing double manipulation of orientations of both stimulus-contours and inter-stimulus arrays to the DP. Strong support for the callosal homotopy and callosal network plasticity effects was obtained. In addition, evidence for a &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;callosal network dispatcher&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; effect accrued.

Method for effective rabbit head restraint during stereotaxic surgery

Brain Research Bulletin, Jul 1, 1978

A method for rigid head restraint during stereotaxic surgical procedures is described. The method... more A method for rigid head restraint during stereotaxic surgical procedures is described. The method is based on modifications of a conventional rabbit stereotaxic head holder and provides reliable head fixation for accurate implantation of depth and surface electrodes, cannulae, microelectrode wells, etc.

Effects of brainstem lesions on tonic immobility in the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

Brain Research Bulletin, 1983

Lesions were placed in discrete brainstem areas implicated in the generation of both tonic immobi... more Lesions were placed in discrete brainstem areas implicated in the generation of both tonic immobility (T1) and paradoxical sleep (PS) to examine postulated state and event correspondences between these states in the rabbit. Lesions were concentrated in the region of the nucleus locus coeruleus (LC)-an area implicated in the mediation of muscular atonia during PS-but also included other reticular (pontine gigantocellular tegmental field: FTG), and nonreticular (vestibular, cerebellar, central grey, collicular) areas. Polygraphic recordings of EEG, EMG and EOG activities were taken during sleep-waking states and measures of the TI response were obtained before (1 day prior) and after (5 and 14 days) lesions were made. None of the lesions was followed by a sustained, significant variation in either frequency of induction or duration of TI. Following LC lesions, and to a lesser extent after FTG lesions, sleep patterns were fragmented, with a reduction or absence of PS and the occurrence of phasic motor activation at times when PS periods might be expected to occur. The absence of PS and persistence of TI following specific brainstem lesions indicate a fundamental difference in mechanisms underlying these states. It is suggested that a major determinant of these results is the activation of phasic activity during PS but not TI, and that the possibility remains that both states may share a common mechanism of tonic motor control.

Problèmes temporels de la parole dysarthrique dans l'ataxie de Friedreich: Analyse acoustique des segments intrasyllabiques

La comparaison des perturbations des diadococinesies des valves phonoarticulatoires et des membre... more La comparaison des perturbations des diadococinesies des valves phonoarticulatoires et des membres chez dix patients atleints d&#39;ataxie de Friedreich et chez dix sujets normaux visait it identifier des caracteristiques distinctes et/ou communes des mouvements accomplis par ces deux types d&#39;effecteurs en fonction de la contri- bution cerebelleuse. Tous les effecteurs ont montre de la lenteur et de la variabilite chez les patients. Au niveau acoustique. les caracteristiques plus frequemment rencontrees ont ete la prolonga- tion des phonemes et des intervalles non voises ainsi que des irregularites de la frequence fondamentalc: bitonaJite, degradation phonemique et voisement irregulier. Malgre Jeurs deficiences diadococinetiques generalisees, associees aux symptOmes de surpassement, de dysmetrie et de dyssynergie, ces ataxiques avec degenerescence spinocerebelleuse manifestent de nombreuses particularites du controle moteur qui n&#39;apparaissent que dans la voix, ou qui ne pourraient que Ires difficilement etre mises en evidence avec des procedures d&#39;evaluation des membres.

Qu’est-ce que la psychologie?

Philosophie et Culture: Actes du XVIIe congrès mondial de philosophie, 1988

Sex differences in secondary autism spectrum disorders: Differential risk by sex, neurologic load and ascertainment bias

Neurology, Psychiatry and Brain Research, 2019

Introduction: Controversy persists as to whether there exists a bioendogenous and/or sociocultura... more Introduction: Controversy persists as to whether there exists a bioendogenous and/or socioculturally determined male overprevalence and/or a predominantly female neurological protective effect against occurrence of autism but with greater brain morbidity (intellectual disability, epilepsy) in females who do have autism. Much research on idiopathic ASD has not fully resolved this conundrum. Method: We assembled from case series in the literature 70 samples of male and female patients with specific bioetiologies (genetic, neurological, metabolic), all with complete documentation of sex, comorbid ASD, epilepsy and intellectual disability (total sample = 1264 cases). Results: Male overprevalence in these patients with secondary ASD (sASD) was significant, but much lower than typically reported in idiopathic ASD (iASD). The males with sASD had significantly greater prevalence of intellectual disability than the females with sASD. The neuropathologies with highest risk of sASD presented the highest male overprevalence of sASD. "Ascertainment bias" emerged as a significant modulator of male overprevalence in sASD. Conclusion: In secondary autism, male overprevalence is not as strong as in idiopathic autism, risk of female autism is modestly explained by risk of epilepsy, and male overprevalence is strongly explained by risk of intellectual disability and ascertainment bias. 1.1.2. Idiopathic ASD in the female sex Claims of a "female protective effect" (see Robinson, Lichtenstein, Anckarsäter, Happé, & Ronald, 2013), or a "female overmorbidity" in iASD, suggest that a greater load of brain insults (genetic, metabolic, teratologic, etc.) are required for iASD to occur in girls and women. Kirkovski, Enticott, and Fitzgerald, (2013) reported that de novo copy variation load was higher in female patients with iASD. Holtmann

Download

Strategic Sequence Planning and Prospective Memory Impairments in Frontally Lesioned Head Trauma Patients Performing Activities of Daily Living

Brain and Cognition, 2002

The aim of this research was to study strategic sequence planning and prospective memory in activ... more The aim of this research was to study strategic sequence planning and prospective memory in activities of daily living (ADL) in 10 patients with frontal lobe lesions after a mild to moderate closed head injury (CHI). The lesions were documented radiologically. The CHI patients were compared to 12 normal controls with a neuropsychological test battery and a realistic simulation of complex multitask ADL (planning and preparing a meal). Though the CHI patients were significantly slow on one test and subject to interference on an attention test, they manifested no basic executive or memory deficit on the paper-pencil tests. However, the CHI patients manifested marked anomalies in the organization of behavior in the meal preparation task. While small sequences of actions were easily produced, large action sets could not be correctly executed. An outstanding difficulty in strategic planning and prospective memory, particularly time-based more than event-based, appears to be an important underpinning of the impairment of ADL observed in the CHI patients with frontal lobe lesions.

Download

Biological costs of the evolution of adaptive behavior and consciousness

Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 2015

This essay is an attempt to account for adaptive behavior and consciousness in the most concrete ... more This essay is an attempt to account for adaptive behavior and consciousness in the most concrete manner possible, addressing their embodiments throughout phylogenesis. The focus is on their biological costs, not particularly their benefits. The goal is to understand consciousness biologically while eschewing mentalism, anthropocentrism, and teleonomic enthusiasm. Throughout evolution adaptive behavior and consciousness have been embodied as catalytic molecular cascades, no more, no less. As these cascades became increasingly complex in particular ecological niches many new biological problems accrued for living organisms. Evolutionary resolution of these problems has been varied, incomplete, and fragile, including in the human species.

Claude Braun

Uploads

Papers by Claude Braun

Log In