• Title/Summary/Keyword: neuro-cognitive

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Panax ginseng as an adjuvant treatment for Alzheimer's disease

  • Kim, Hyeon-Joong;Jung, Seok-Won;Kim, Seog-Young;Cho, Ik-Hyun;Kim, Hyoung-Chun;Rhim, Hyewhon;Kim, Manho;Nah, Seung-Yeol
    • Journal of Ginseng Research
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    • v.42 no.4
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    • pp.401-411
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    • 2018
  • Longevity in medicine can be defined as a long life without mental or physical deficits. This can be prevented by Alzheimer's disease (AD). Current conventional AD treatments only alleviate the symptoms without reversing AD progression. Recent studies demonstrated that Panax ginseng extract improves AD symptoms in patients with AD, and the two main components of ginseng might contribute to AD amelioration. Ginsenosides show various AD-related neuroprotective effects. Gintonin is a newly identified ginseng constituent that contains lysophosphatidic acids and attenuates AD-related brain neuropathies. Ginsenosides decrease amyloid ${\beta}$-protein ($A{\beta}$) formation by inhibiting ${\beta}$- and ${\gamma}$-secretase activity or by activating the nonamyloidogenic pathway, inhibit acetylcholinesterase activity and $A{\beta}$-induced neurotoxicity, and decrease $A{\beta}$-induced production of reactive oxygen species and neuro-inflammatory reactions. Oral administration of ginsenosides increases the expression levels of enzymes involved in acetylcholine synthesis in the brain and alleviates $A{\beta}$-induced cholinergic deficits in AD models. Similarly, gintonin inhibits $A{\beta}$-induced neurotoxicity and activates the nonamyloidogenic pathway to reduce $A{\beta}$ formation and to increase acetylcholine and choline acetyltransferase expression in the brain through lysophosphatidic acid receptors. Oral administration of gintonin attenuates brain amyloid plaque deposits, boosting hippocampal cholinergic systems and neurogenesis, thereby ameliorating learning and memory impairments. It also improves cognitive functions in patients with AD. Ginsenosides and gintonin attenuate AD-related neuropathology through multiple routes. This review focuses research demonstrating that ginseng constituents could be a candidate as an adjuvant for AD treatment. However, clinical investigations including efficacy and tolerability analyses may be necessary for the clinical acceptance of ginseng components in combination with conventional AD drugs.

An Open-Label Study of the Improvements in Clinical Symptoms and Neurocognitive Functions in Korean Children and Adolescents with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder after Treatment with Metadate CD (국내 주의력결핍 과잉행동장애 아동 및 청소년에서 메타데이트CD의 임상증상 및 신경인지기능 개선 효과에 대한 개방 연구)

  • Yoo, Han-Ik K.;Kim, Bong-Seog;Joung, Yoo-Sook;Bahn, Geon-Ho;Song, Dong-Ho;Ahn, Dong-Hyun;Lee, Young-Sik
    • Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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    • v.22 no.4
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    • pp.253-261
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    • 2011
  • Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of Metadate CD (MCD) when given to Korean children and adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We also explored the effects of the drug on diverse neuro-cognitive functions. Methods : Ninety-one subjects with ADHD (mean age 8.6${\pm}$2.2 years) were recruited at 6 outpatient clinics in Seoul, Korea. We used the ADHD Rating Scale (ARS), Clinical Global Impression (CGI), and comprehensive attention test (CAT) to measure the drug's effects. Results : After 0.92${\pm}$0.32mg/kg/day of MCD were administered for 57.4${\pm}$7.6 days, there was a 48.5% reduction in the mean total ARS scores (p<.001). Fifty-seven subjects (64.8%) showed either much improved or very much improved outcomes on the CGI-Improvement scale. The CGI-Severity scale also decreased from an average of 4.7 to an average of 2.9 (p<.001). Errors and response time standard deviations of the CAT, sustained attention test-to-response tasks, the flanker test, and divided attention test scores decreased after treatment (p<.05). The forward memory span of the spatial working memory test scores increased (p<.05). Thirty-five patients (39.8%) experienced side effects, of which the most common were headache (14.8%), nausea (12.5%), and anorexia (9.1%). Conclusion : This open-label study suggests that MCD is effective and safe in improving the symptoms and neurocognitive functions of Korean children and adolescents with ADHD.

Authentication of Hempseed Oil from Different Commercial Oils Using Simple UV-Vis Spectrophotomety (UV-Vis spectrophotometry법을 이용한 다양한 유지류로부터 헴프씨드 오일의 진위 판별법)

  • Lee, Yun-Jin;Kang, Deok-Gyeong;Kim, Young-Min;Sohn, Ho-Yong
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.32 no.5
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    • pp.362-367
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    • 2022
  • Hempseed, a dehulled Cannabis fructus, has high nutraceutical potential. It has plenty of essential amino acids, vitamins, and essential polyunsaturated fatty acids, including α- and γ-linolenic acid. Increased exercise capacity, cognitive function, and ameliorative effects against hypercholesterolemia, neuro-inflammation, thrombus formation, and learning and memory impairment were reported in hemp-seed oil-administered models. Therefore, the market prices of hempseed oil are 45~140-fold higher than the other plant-derived oils, such as soy, corn, olive, canola, or linseed oil. In this study, instead of FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) or FTIR-Raman spectroscopy, a simple UV-Vis spectrophotometry method was developed to authenticate the hempseed oil. Measurements of absorbance at 245, 305, and 415 nm of oils and calculations of 245/415 and 315/415 nm provided that the ratios of 245/415 and 315/415 nm of authentic hempseed oils were 12.9 and 9.6, respectively. The 245/415 and 315/415 nm of soy oil, corn oil, canola oil, and linseed oil were 35.4~61.8 and 29.7~50.8, respectively. This simple UV-Vis spectrophotometry method could also be applied to differentiate hempseed oil from blended oil products in markets.

The Effect of Users' Personality on Emotional and Cognitive Evaluation in UCC Web Site Usage (UCC(user-created-contents) 웹 사이트에서 사용자의 인성이 감정적, 인지적 평가와 UCC 활용에 미치는 영향)

  • Moon, Yun-Ji;Kang, So-Ra;Kim, Woo-Gon
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.167-190
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    • 2010
  • The research conducted here focuses on the effect of factors that affect the behavior of UCC (User Created Content) website users, other than user's rational recognition of how useful a UCC website can be. Most discussions in the existing literature on information systems have focused on users' evaluation how a UCC website can help to attain the users' own goals. However, there are other factors and this research pays attention to an individual's 'personality,' which is stable and biological in nature. Specifically, I have noted here that 'extroversion' and 'neuroticism,' the two common personality factors presented in Eysenck's most representative 'EPQ Model' and 'Big Five Model,' are the two personality factors that affect a site's 'usefulness,' by this I mean how useful does the user consider the website and its content. How useful a site is considered by the user is the other factor that has been regarded as the antecedent factor that influences the adoption of information systems in the existing MIS (Management Information System) research. Secondly, as using or creating a UCC website does not guarantee the user's or the creator's extrinsic motivation, unlike when using the information system within an organization, there is a greater likelihood that the increase in user's activities in relation to a UCC website is motivated by emotional factors rather than rational factors. Thus, I have decided to include the relationship between an individual's personality and what they find pleasurable in the research model. Thirdly, when based on the S-O-R Paradigm of Mehrabian and Russell, the two cognitive factors and emotional factors are finally affected by stimulus, and thus these factors ultimately have an effect on an individual's respondent behavior. Therefore, this research has presented an assumption that the recognition of how useful the site and content is and what emotional pleasure it provides will finally affect the behavior of the UCC website users. Finally, the relationship between the recognition of how useful a site is and how pleasurable it is to useand UCC usage may differ depending on certain situational conditions. In other words, the relationship between the three factors may vary according to how much users are involved in the creation of the website content. Creation thus emerges as the keyword of UCC. I analyzed the above relationships through the moderating variable of the user's involvement in the creation of the site. The research result shows the following: When it comes to the relationship between an individual's personality and what they find pleasurable it is extroverted users who have a greater likelihood to feel pleasure when using a UCC website, as was expected in this research. This in turn leads to a more active usage of the UCC web site because a person who is an extrovert likes to spend time on activities with other people, is sensitive to new experiences and stimuli and thus actively responds to these. An extroverted person accepts new UCC activities as part of his/her social life, rather than getting away from this new UCC environment. This is represented by the term 'Foxonomy' where the users meet a variety of users from all over the world and contact new types of content created by these users. However, neuroticism creates the opposite situation to that created by extroversion. The representative symptoms of neuroticism are instability, stress, and tension. These dispositions are more closely related to stress caused by a new environment rather than this creatingcuriosity or pleasure. Thus, neurotic persons have an uneasy feeling and will eventually avoid the situation where their own or others' daily lives are frequently exposed to the open web environment, this eventually makes them have a negative attitude towards the web environment. When it comes to an individual's personality and how useful site is, the two personality factors of extroversion and neuroticism both have a positive relationship with the recognition of how useful the site and its content is. The positive, curious, and social dispositions of extroverted persons tend to make them consider the future usefulness and possibilities of a new type of information system, or website, based on their positive attitude, which has a significant influence on the recognition of how useful these UCC sites are. Neuroticism also favorably affects how useful a UCC website can be through a different mechanism from that of extroversion. As the neurotic persons tend to feel uneasy and have much doubt about a new type of information system, they actively explore its usefulness in order to relieve their uncomfortable feelings. In other words, neurotic persons seek out how useful a site can be in order to secure their own stable feelings. Meanwhile, extroverted persons explore how useful a site can be because of their positive attitude and curiosity. As a lot of MIS research has revealed that the recognition of how useful a site can be and how pleasurable it can be to use have been proven to have a significant effect on UCC activity. However, the relationship between these factors reveals different aspects based on the user's involvement in creation. This factor of creationgauges the interest of users in the creation of UCC contents. Involvement is a variable that shows the level of an individual's mental effort in creating UCC contents. When a user is highly involved in the creation process and makes an enormous effort to create UCC content (classed a part of a high-involvement group), their own pleasure and recognition of how useful the site is have a significantly higher effect on the future usage of the UCC contents, more significantly than the users who sit back and just retrieve the UCC content created by others. The cognitive and emotional response of those in the low-involvement group is unlikely to last long,even if they recognize the contents of a UCC website is pleasurable and useful to them. However, the high-involvement group tends to participate in the creation and the usage of UCC more favorably, connecting the experience with their own goals. In this respect, this research presents an answer to the question; why so many people are participating in the usage of UCC, the representative form of the Web 2.0 that has drastically involved more and more people in the creation of UCC, even if they cannot gain any monetary or social compensation. Neither information system nor a website can succeed unless it secures a certain level of user base. Moreover, it cannot be further developed when the reasons, or problems, for people's participation are not suitably explored, even if it has a certain user base. Thus, what is significant in this research is that it has studied users' respondent behavior based on an individual's innate personality, emotion, and cognitive interaction, unlike the existing research that has focused on 'compensation' to explain users' participation with the UCC website. There are also limitations in this research. Firstly, I divided an individual's personality into extroversion and neuroticism; however, there are many other personal factors such as neuro-psychiatricism, which also needs to be analyzed for its influence on UCC activities. Secondly, as a UCC website comes in many types such as multimedia, Wikis, and podcasting, these types need to be included as a sub-category of the UCC websites and their relationship with personality, emotion, cognition, and behavior also needs to be analyzed.

Analysis of Most Recent Dream Content Korean Early Adolescents by Hall/Van de Castle System (Hall/Van de Castle System에 의한 한국 초기 청소년의 최근 꿈 분석)

  • Song, Hyoung-Seok;Chang, Sok-Ha;Kang, Seung-Gul;Park, Young-Min;Lee, Heon-Jeong;Kim, Leen
    • Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.33-41
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    • 2007
  • Objectives: It has been known that the contents of dreams change according to neuro-developmental differences in sex, progression of age and various environments, unlike the established psychoanalytic theory. To investigate the changes, we collected "most recent dream report" and analyzed the contents of dreams by using Hall/Van de Castle System. Method: Most recent dream reports were gathered from age 12-14 years old, 2,673 middle school students (1,544 male 1,129 female) and analyzed those reports using Hall/Van de Castle System. The data were sorted in SAS and dream SAT. Result: There were prominent differences between male and female middle school students in Male/Female Percentage (male/ female;56%/35%), Familiarity Percentage (57%/69%), Aggression/Friendliness Percentage (79%/65%), Befriender Percentage (50%/33%), Physical Aggression Percentage (90%/70%), Indoor Setting Percentage (40%/55%), Negative Emotion Percentage (56%/68%) and Torso/Anatomy Percentage (51%/36%). There were significant differences in Male/Female Percentage (65%/44%), Friendliness, Physical Aggression and Self Negativity Percentage in male and there were significant differences in Friendliness, Familiarity and Friends Percent in female between 1st and 2nd grade. But, it showed much similar dream patterns between 2nd and 3rd grade in both gender. In male, Aggression/Character Index with male character is significantly increased by 2nd grade (1st/ 2nd/ 3rd;0.48/ 1.04/0.98), In female, Friendliness/Character Index with male character had significantly decreased by 2nd grade (0.38/ 0.19/0.20). Conclusion: There were apparent differences between age 12-14 years old male and female. Male adolescents have differences mostly in categories related with aggression, but female adolescents have differences in categories related with environment or character. It shows that developmental level of male are slower than female as of yet and male needs more active interpersonal relationship to find identity. Otherwise, the influences of passive attitude and actual circumferential environment are reflected in female's dream. There are no prominent differences among ages, but age 12-13 years old adolescents shows significant differences in interacting with the other gender. It means that circumferential environment and interpersonal relationship affect the contents of dreams and also the cognitive development related to age and sex. Afterwards, the development of dreams could be better understood through the neurocognitive study and dream analysis between other ages and nations.

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