Browsing by Author "Brand, Matthias"
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Item Decision Making and Risk Propensity in Individuals with Tendencies towards Specific Internet-Use Disorders.(Brain Sciences, 2021) Müller, Silke M.; Wegmann, Elisa; García Arias, María; Bernabeu Brotons, Elena; Marchena Giráldez, Carlos Alberto; Brand, MatthiasThe uncontrolled use of specific Internet applications is increasingly recognized as a mental health issue. Gaming disorder, which is one subtype of specific Internet-use disorders (sIUDs), has been included in the ICD-11 as disorder due to addictive behaviors. Addictive disorders are assumed to be accompanied by cognitive deficits as indicated by weaker performance in executive function and risky decision-making tasks. This study investigates risky decision-making in individuals with tendencies towards sIUDs including gaming, online buying-shopping, and social-networksuse disorders. A total of 293 individuals participated in the study. Based on specific screening instruments, the participants were assigned to a group with tendencies towards sIUD or a control group. Participants completed a risky decision-making task and questionnaires assessing risk-taking propensity, impulsivity, psychopathology, and perceived stress. The group with sIUD tendencies showed higher attentional impulsivity and higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to the control group. The groups did not differ in decision making and risk propensity. Decision making did not have significant effects on sIUD symptoms. Risk for developing sIUDs does not appear to be accompanied by altered general decision-making tendencies. Rather, psychological (pre-)load and attentional deficits appear to be relevant features in uncontrolled use of the Internet.Item Decision Support in Patients with mild Alzheimer’s Disease.(Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 2019) Mueller, Silke M.; García Arias, María; Mejuto Vázquez, Gema; Schiebenera, Johannes; Brand, Matthias; Wegmanna, ElisaIntroduction: Making advantageous decisions is a key competence of individuals of all ages. However, previous studies reported a reduction of this competence in patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, which is explained by impairments of executive functions such as cognitive flexibility or working memory. While previous findings from healthy participants with reduced executive functions showed that support can improve decision making under risk, the study at hand aimed to investigate this effect in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (mAD). Method: A group of elderly individuals diagnosed with mAD (n = 14; mean Mini-Mental State Examination, MMSE = 24.14, SD = 3.18) and a group of healthy age-matched controls (n = 14; mean MMSE = 29.29, SD = 1.98) performed the Game of Dice Task (GDT) three times (t0, t1, t2) with intervals of five to nine days between each: The standard GDT plus other neurocognitive tasks (t0), the GDT with decision support (t1), and again the standard GDT (t2). Results: At any time, mAD patients made more disadvantageous decisions than controls. However, the decision-making performance of mAD patients improved significantly with decision support. Interestingly, when the standard GDT was played again (t2), mAD patients’ performance remained similar to the performance in the GDT with decision support (t1). GDT performance correlated consistently with executive function measures in the control group, but only at t0 in the mAD group. Conclusions: The findings indicate that supportive information about the riskiness of options can compensate for mAD-related deficits in decision making under risk. Thus, decision support can improve the quality of mAD patients’ decisions. Further, it may prevent mAD patients from making highly risky decisions in similar situations in the future. The persistence of decision support should be further investigated as it has relevant implications for everyday decisions that include risks.Item Deficits in executive functions but not in decision making under risk in individuals with problematic social-network use.(Comprehensive Psychiatry, 2021) Müller, Silke M.; Wegmann, Elisa; García Arias, María; Bernabeu Brotons, Elena; Marchena Giráldez, Carlos Alberto; Brand, MatthiasBackground: The tendency to strive for immediate gratification by neglecting potential negative long-term outcomes characterizes addictive behaviors, such as substance use or gaming disorder. Problematic socialnetwork use is currently discussed as another potential addictive behavior, which is considered to result from an imbalance between affective and cognitive processes, indicated by traits such as increased impulsivity and/ or decreased executive functions and decision-making abilities. Methods: This study investigates the respective functions in social-network users by use of the Cards and Lottery Task (CLT) – a decision-making task under risk conditions in which options contain conflicting immediate and long-term outcomes at the same time. A sample of German and Spanish participants (N = 290) performed the CLT aswell as the Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), the short Internet Addiction Test specified for social-networking (sIAT-SNS), and screeners on other potentially problematic behaviors. Results: Comparing extreme groups based on sIAT-SNS scores (1SD above/below mean), individuals with problematic social-network use (n = 56), as compared to those with non-problematic social-network use (n = 50), showed increased attentional impulsivity and reduced executive functions. No differences were observed in decision-making performance. Conclusion: The findings indicate that problematic social-network use is related to attentional rather than general decision-making deficits. Furthermore, problematic social-network use is likely to co-occurwith other problematic Internet-use behaviors, particularly gaming or shopping.