Joan Guàrdia

University of Barcelona | UB · Department of Social Psychology & Quantitative Psychology

Background/Objective Neuroimaging studies have shown brain abnormalities in Down syndrome (DS) but have not clarified the underlying mechanisms of dysfunction. Here, we investigated the degree centrality (DC) abnormalities found in the DS group compared with the control group, and we conducted seed-based functional connectivity (FC) with the signif...

This study aims to explore whole-brain resting-state spontaneous brain activity using fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) strategies to find differences among age groups within a population ranging from middle age to older adults. The sample comprised 112 healthy persons (M = 68.80, SD = 7.99) a...

Although Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of neurodevelopmental delay, few neuroimaging studies have explored this population. This investigation aimed to study whole-brain resting-state spontaneous brain activity using fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) strategies to find di...

Background/Objective Neuroimaging studies have reported abnormalities in the examination of functional connectivity in late-life depression (LLD) in the default mode network (DMN). The present study aims to study resting-state functional connectivity within the DMN in people diagnosed with late-life major depressive disorder (MDD) compared to healt...

Background Late-life depression (LLD) is characterized by cognitive and social impairments. Determining neurobiological alterations in connectivity in LLD by means of fMRI may lead to a better understanding of the neural basis underlying this disorder and more precise diagnostic markers. The primary objective of this paper is to identify a structur...

Introduction: The genetic disorder causing Down syndrome (DS) affects the cardiorespiratory and hemodynamic parameters. When exercising, sufficient blood flow is necessary for active muscles. Cardiac output (Q) must be proportional to the peripheral requirements. In case the stroke volume (SV) is lower, the heart rate (HR) will increase further in...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been linked to attention and mental processing speed deficits that can be improved after pharmacological treatment. However, it is unclear whether a class of antidepressants is more effective than others to ameliorate these deficits in MDD. Additionally, the possible effects of clinical and demographic variables...

Objectives: To picture the psychological impact on the general population consulting the Emergency Medical System (EMS) of Catalonia for psychological assistance due to the COVID-19. Methods: Calls received to the 061 emergency phone number between the months of March and June 2020 (period of lockdown and de-escalation) were analyzed. The reason, m...

The presence of missing data and small sample sizes are very common in social and health sciences. Concurrently to present a methodology to solve the small sample size and missing data, we aim to present a definition of Cognitive Reserve for people with Down Syndrome. This population has become an appealing focus to study this concept because of th...

In the last few years, the field of brain connectivity has focused on identifying biomarkers to describe different health states and to discriminate between patients and healthy controls through the characterization of brain networks. A particularly interesting case, because of the symptoms' severity, is the work done with samples of patients diagn...

Introduction: Down syndrome (DS) is a chromosomal disorder affecting simultaneously cardiovascular and respiratory systems. There is no research studying the coupling between these systems during cardiorespiratory exercise testing in a population with DS. Cardiorespiratory coordination (CRC), evaluated through principal component analysis (PCA), me...

Neuroimaging studies of Intellectual Disability (ID) have been published over the last three decades, but the findings are often inconsistent and therefore the neural correlates of ID remain elusive. The aim of this paper is to study the different publications in task-fMRI and different ID populations in order to make a qualitative and quantitative...

Background: Studies on complexity indicators in the field of functional connectivity derived from resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) in Down syndrome (DS) samples and their possible relationship with cognitive functioning variables are rare. We analyze how some complexity indicators estimated in the subareas that constitute the default mode network (DMN...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been linked to executive functions (EF) deficits that can be improved after pharmacological treatment, but it is unclear whether there is a class of antidepressants that is more effective than others to ameliorate these deficits in MDD. Additionally, the possible effects of clinical and demographic variables on t...

Emerging evidence suggests that an effective or functional connectivity network does not use a static process over time but incorporates dynamic connectivity that shows changes in neuronal activity patterns. Using structural equation models (SEMs), we estimated a dynamic component of the effective network through the effects (recursive and nonrecur...

Background Down syndrome (DS) is a chromosomal disorder that causes intellectual disability. Few studies have been conducted on functional connectivity using resting‐state fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) signals or more specifically, on the relevant structure and density of the default mode network (DMN). Although data on this issue ha...

Resumen: La disminución de la capacidad de disfrute puede considerarse un factor de riesgo de trastornos mentales. Por ello, es de utilidad disponer de instrumentos válidos para evaluar la gaudibilidad en niños y adolescen-tes. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue construir y analizar las propiedades psicométricas de la Escala de Gaudibilidad para...

Abstract The decrease in the ability to enjoy can be considered a risk factor or marker of mental disorders. Therefore, it can be useful to have a scale to quantify gaudiebility in children and adolescents. The objective of the present work was to build and analyze the psychometric properties of the Gaudiebility Scale for Children and Adolescents (...

Objetivos Determinar las propiedades métricas de la escala COMFORT Behavior Scale desarrollada por van Dijk et al. (2000) en el contexto del paciente crítico pediátrico. Diseño Estudio observacional, psicométrico y prospectivo. Lugar de estudio Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos de un hospital pediátrico y universitario de tercer nivel asistencial. P...

Objectives To determine the measurement properties of the Spanish version of the COMFORT Behavior Scale developed by van Dijk et al (2000) in paediatric critical care patients. Design Prospective observational and psychometric study. Setting Level III Intensive Care Area at a university’s children hospital. Patients A total of 311 children with...

Background: The study of the Default Mode Network (DMN) has been shown to be sensitive for the recognition of connectivity patterns between the brain areas involved in this network. It has been hypothesized that the connectivity patterns in this network are related to different cognitive states. Purpose: In this study, we explored the relationsh...

Executive Functions (EF) are fundamental during childhood since they participate actively in such heterogeneous domains as mental and physical health, learning, school performance, and cognitive, social and psychological development. Their evaluation is of interest, both in the field of clinical practice and research. Several criticisms and discuss...

Background: Graph theory has been widely used to study structural and functional brain connectivity changes in healthy aging, and occasionally with clinical samples; in both cases, during task-related and resting-state experiments. Recent studies have focused their interest on dynamic changes during a resting-state fMRI register in order to identi...

Background: The Personal Outcomes Scale (POS) is used to assess quality of life (QoL) in people with intellectual disability (ID) but the results are influenced by the severity of the disability. To address this issue, we present the standardization of the Spanish adaptation of the POS. One of the limitations of the Classical Test Theory is the di...

Background/Objective: This study aims to characterize the differences on the short-term temporal network dynamics of the undirected and weighted whole-brain functional connectivity between healthy aging individuals and people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The Network Change Point Detection algorithm was applied to identify the significant c...

Crime and fear of crime are key challenges for civic coexistence in contemporary cities, specifically because of the unequal relationship between the two phenomena. In the case of Italy, for instance, even though crime has been trending downward over the past few decades, people are increasingly concerned about their safety. Based on survey data (N...

Certain personality traits and cognitive domains of executive functions (EF) are differentially related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in adolescents. This study aimed to analyze the five-factor model (FFM) personality characteristics in adolescents with ADHD, and to examine whether EF mediate the relationships between...

Background Studies addressing critical care nurses' practices regarding physical restraints have focused on individual nurses' knowledge and attitudes but lack the understanding of other social influences that could affect nurses’ intentions to use them. Objective The objective of this study was to determine critical care nurses’ attitudes, subjec...

Background: In the last few years, many investigations have focused on brain activity in general and in populations with different pathologies using non-invasive techniques such as electroencefalography (EEG), positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, the use of n...

The present study aims to assess the impact of age on the short-term temporal dynamics of the topological properties of the undirected and weighted whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) networks. We studied the association between the participant's age and the number of significant change points detected through Network Change Point Detection (N...

Self‐determination, as a person dispositional characteristic, is indeed influenced by situational characteristics that shape actions across contexts. Research has also reported differences in self‐determination as a function of personal factors, but there is a need to integrate this knowledge in a general model aiming to analyse the impact of conte...

The assessment of task-independent functional connectivity (FC) after a lesion causing hemianopia remains an uncovered topic and represents a crucial point to better understand the neural basis of blindsight (i.e. unconscious visually triggered behavior) and visual awareness. In this light, we evaluated functional connectivity (FC) in 10 hemianopic...

This paper reports some experiments on probabilistic reasoning designed to investigate the impact of the probabilistic problem presentation format (verbal-numerical and graphical-pictorial) on subjects’ confidence in the correctness of their performance, other than the calibration between confidence and accuracy. To understand the potential effect...

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been linked to episodic memory deficits that may be improved after pharmacological treatment, but it is unclear whether there is a class of antidepressants that is more effective than others to ameliorate these deficits in MDD. In addition, the possible effects of clinical and sociodemographic variab...

Mild cognitive impairment is defined as greater cognitive decline than expected for a person at a particular age and is sometimes considered a stage between healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia syndromes. It is known that functional connectivity patterns change in people with this diagnosis. We studied functional connectivity pat...

Introduction: There is an essential relationship between reading development and orthographic knowledge, which varies depending on a language’s orthographic characteristics. In transparent orthographies, such as Spanish, that relationship is closer, where reading speed and orthographic knowledge reflect the automation of the process in which crucia...

Objective To study the influence of cognitive reserve (CR) on cognitive performance of individuals with subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs) within a period of 36 months. Design We used a general linear model repeated measures procedure to analyze the differences in performance between three assessments. We used a longitudinal structural equatio...

(1) Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a diagnostic label in which stability is typically low. The aim of this study was to examine temporal changes in the diagnosis of MCI subtypes by using an overlapping-time strategy; (2) Methods: The study included 435 participants aged over 50 years with subjective cognitive complaints and who comp...

Background: None of the published studies involving cancer cachexia experimental models have included a measure of the severity of the syndrome like the scoring system previously developed for human subjects. The aim of the present investigation was to define and validate a cachexia score usable in both rat and mouse tumor models. Methods: In or...

Age-related changes in the brain connectivity of healthy older adults have been widely studied in recent years, with some differences in the obtained results. Most of these studies showed decreases in general functional connectivity, but they also found increases in some particular regions and areas. Frequently, these studies compared young individ...

Aims To develop and psychometrically test a Theory of Planned Behaviour questionnaire to assess nurses' intention to use physical restraints in intubated patients. Design A psychometric instrument validation study conducted in three phases. Methods A theory‐driven questionnaire was developed. Eight experts validated the content of the preliminary...

Introduction Ethical conflict is a phenomenon that has been under study over the last three decades, especially the types moral dilemma and moral distress in the field of nursing care. However, ethical problems and their idiosyncrasies need to be further explored. Aim The objectives of this study were, first, to obtain a transcultural Portuguese-l...

People’s perception of insecurity is linked to a wide range of factors and up-to-date sources stress the impact of socially constructed concerns on feelings of unsafety. Building further on recent developments, the present research proposes a measure of social vulnerability focusing on future-oriented anxieties and self-perceived social exclusion a...

Background The interest in measuring quality of life (QoL) in persons with intellectual disability (ID) has brought about a number of QoL measurements for this population. These measurements need to address two issues that have contributed to enhancing the current instruments. First, the necessity to develop measures with adequate psychometric prop...

A cross-national comparison between Italy and Spain was conducted on probabilistic reasoning performance presented in verbal-numerical and graphical-pictorial formats. This study investigated the similarities and differences in Psychology undergraduates in these two countries (Italy n=290; Spain n=130) and attempted to identify aspects that might e...

Absenteeism among Law School students is a frequent concern among both university faculty and administrators. The aim of this study, building on previous surveys undertaken in academic years 2007–2008 and 2009–2010 years, is to identify the reasons given by students matriculated on the undergraduate degree in Law at the University of Barcelona to a...

Background Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) affects the entire cellular network of the organism. Some patients develop cognitive disturbances due to the disease, but several authors have suggested that the brain develops compensatory mechanisms to minimize or prevent neuropsychological decline. The present study aimed to assess the effective connecti...

Background: In recent decades, Family Quality of Life (FQOL) has emerged as a decisive construct, both to improve the living conditions of the families of people with disabilities and to assess the results on the services and supports that they receive. The aim of this research is to determine the perception of the families regarding their support...

Instruments to measure self-determination have only been available in the Spanish language to date, for adolescents with intellectual disability (ID). However, given the development of a new measure of self-determination for youth with and without disabilities, the Self-Determination Inventory, there is a need to adapt and validate this tool in the...

The authors regret: A calculation error was detected in algorithm to obtain score norms showed in Table 3. A predicted value for education was wrongly introduced, slightly affecting the normative scores.

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of religion on bereaved parents after the death of a child. Literature had attempted to understand how religiosity may influence parental grief both in positive and negative ways. However, this area is scarcely explored in the Malaysian context. This qualitative study involved 11 bereaved parent...

Background: Although major depressive disorder is usually treated with antidepressants, only 50–70% of the patients respond to this treatment. This study applied Jacobson and Truax’s (1991) methodology (reliable change index, RCI) to a sample of depressive patients being treated with one of two antidepressants to evaluate their functioning and the...

The purpose of this study is to explore the dynamics of the relationship between bereaved parents after the loss of their child. Literature has attempted to understand how coping mechanisms related to gender characteristics, communication, and intimacy influence the spousal relationship after the loss of a child. However, this area is scarcely expl...

Objective: Analyze the effects of CR on cognitive performance in adults with subjective cognitive complaints at follow-up. Method: We analyzed the factorial structure of the three constructs defined in cognitive performance (Episodic memory, Working memory, and General cognitive performance) separately to search for evidence of the invariance of th...

Introduction: Labor insertion for young people is probably more difficult nowadays than it was a few decades ago in all productive sectors and in academic education. A few decades ago, having a university degree was a guarantee of quick labor insertion, but nowadays, although having a university degree may somewhat alleviate the unemployment rate,...

Background: Self-determination is a psychological construct that applies to both the general population and to individuals with disabilities that can be self-determined with adequate accommodations and opportunities. As the relevance of self-determination-related skills in life has been recently acknowledged, researchers have created a measure to a...

Background: Acting in a self-determined manner, that is, using problem-solving or decision-making strategies, strongly depends on the opportunities the person is given to do so by the context. In fact, context can either facilitate or thwart the opportunities of adolescents and young adults for self-determined action, though there is, to date, a la...

Structural Equation Models (SEM) is among of the most extensively applied statistical techniques in the study of human behavior in the fields of Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroscience. This paper reviews the application of SEM to estimate functional and effective connectivity models in work published since 2001. The articles analyzed were compiled...

The study of orthographic errors in a transparent language such as Spanish is an important topic in relation to writing acquisition because in Spanish it is common to write pseudohomophones as valid words. The main objective of the present study was to explore the possible differences in activation patterns in brain areas while processing pseudohom...

Background: A new measure of self-determination, the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report (Spanish version), has recently been adapted and empirically validated in Spanish language. As it is the first instrument intended to measure self-determination in youth with and without disabilities, there is a need to further explore and strengthen...

Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is both a specific psychopharmacological treatment of heroin dependence and a core harm-reduction intervention. Over the last 10 years we have been working to break the mould of the traditional focus on the so-called hard indicators of MMT effectiveness, pursuing instead a line of research that makes room for t...

Los déficit de las funciones ejecutivas (FE) suelen estar presentes en el Trastorno por Déficit de Atención e Hiperactividad (TDAH). Distintos trabajos mostraron algunas falencias vinculadas a la medición de las FE, como la participación de otros procesos que no constituyen objeto de la evaluación. En el trabajo que se informa se analizaron las dif...

The relation between self-determination and intellectual functioning is complex, as other contextual factors may also play significant roles in explaining variability in self-determination. This study used meta-analytic techniques to assess how self-determination measures vary between people with disabilities classified as having intellectual disab...

Background: The study of measurements of quality of life (QoL) is one of the great challenges of modern psychology and psychometric approaches. This issue has greater importance when examining QoL in populations that were historically treated on the basis of their deficiency, and recently, the focus has shifted to what each person values and desir...