• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.57-65
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• 2017

The current study explored how Korean-speaking children processed the multiple acoustic cues (VOT and f0) for the stop laryngeal contrast (/t'/, /t/, and /$t^h$/) and examined whether individual perceptual strategies could be related to a general cognitive ability performing executive functions (EF). 15 children (aged from 7 to 8) participated in the speech perception task identifying the three Korean laryngeal stops (3AFC) on listening to the auditory stimuli of C-/a/ with synthetically varying VOT and f0. They completed a series of EF tasks to measure working memory, inhibition, and cognitive shifting ability. The findings showed that children used the two cues in a highly correlated manner. While children utilized VOT consistently for the three laryngeal categories, their use of f0 was either reduced or enhanced depending on the phonetic categories. Importantly, the children's processing strategies of a f0 suppression for a tense-aspirated contrast were meaningfully associated with children's better cognitive abilities such as working memory, inhibition, and attentional shifting. As a preliminary experimental investigation, the current research demonstrated that listeners with inefficient processing strategies were poor at the EF skills, suggesting that cognitive skills might be responsible for developmental variations of processing sub-phonemic information for the linguistic contrast.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.21-29
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• 2021

The present study investigated how one's cognitive resources are related to speech perception by examining Korean speakers' executive function (EF) capacity and its association with voice onset time (VOT) and f0 sensitivity in identifying Korean stop laryngeal categories (/t'/ vs. /t/ vs. /t^h/). Previously, Kong et al. (under revision) reported that Korean listeners (N = 154) in Seoul and Changwon (Gyeongsang) showed differential group patterns in dialect-specific cue weightings across educational institutions (college, high school, and elementary school). We follow up this study by further relating their EF control (working memory, mental flexibility, and inhibition) to their speech perception patterns to examine whether better cognitive ability would control attention to multiple acoustic dimensions. Partial correlation analyses revealed that better EFs in Korean listeners were associated with greater sensitivity to available acoustic details and with greater suppression of irrelevant acoustic information across subgroups, although only a small set of EF components turned out to be relevant. Unlike Seoul participants, Gyeongsang listeners' f0 use was not correlated with any EF task scores, reflecting dialect-specific cue primacy using f0 as a secondary cue. The findings confirm the link between speech perception and general cognitive ability, providing experimental evidence from Korean listeners.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2012

Purpose: Despite poor cognitive function in heart failure (HF), few studies have examined cognition and its probable implication in self-care among Korean HF patients. The purposes of this study were (1) to describe cognition in the domains of global, memory, and executive functions, (2) to explore the relationship between cognition and self-care, and (3) to determine the amount of dietary sodium intake among Korean HF patients. Methods: A pilot study was conducted: 7 HF patients (3 men, mean age 68 years) completed face-to-face interviews for neuropsychological tests of cognition and self-care including dietary sodium intake. Results: More than half of the patients had impaired global cognition, memory, or executive function; patients with more severe HF were at higher risk of poor cognitive function. Korean HF patients exhibited poor self-care, with a high dietary sodium intake (5.6 g/day), approximately twice more than the suggested guideline of 2~3 g/day for patients with stable HF. Conclusion: Cognitive dysfunction and inadequate self-care with noncompliance with dietary sodium restriction were evident in Korean HF patients. More studies are warranted that examine the prevalence of cognitive impairment and areas of deficit using neuropsychological tests in a larger sample and that examine how cognition affects self-care and compliance in salt-intake.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.294-304
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate objectively measured physical activity (PA) in institutionalized older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to elucidate the influence of autonomic nervous function, salivary cortisol, and PA on cognitive functions based on neurovisceral integration model. Methods: Overall cognitive function was evaluated using the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and executive function was evaluated using semantic verbal fluency test and clock drawing test. Actigraph for PA, HRV and sAA for autonomous function, and the geriatric depression scale for depression were used. Saliva specimens were collected in the morning for sAA and cortisol. Results: Ninety-eight older adults from four regional geriatric hospitals participated in the study. They took 4,499 steps per day on average. They spent 753.93 minutes and 23.12 minutes on average in sedentary and moderate-to-vigorous activity, respectively. In the multiple regression analysis, lower salivary cortisol level (β = - .33, p = .041) and greater step counts (β = .37, p = .029) significantly improved MMSE score. Greater step count (β = .27, p = .016) also exerted a significant influence on verbal fluency, and greater sAA (β= .35, p = .026) was significantly associated with a better clock drawing test result. Conclusion: Salivary cortisol, sAA and physical activity were significantly associated with cognitive functions. To prevent older adults from developing dementia, strategies are needed to increase their overall PA amount by decreasing sedentary time and to decrease salivary cortisol for cognitive function, and to maintain their sympathetic nervous activity for executive function.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.121-133
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of Feuerstein's program on Gifted children's executive function. The subjects for this study were 40 Gifted children (3th year elementary students) from KAGE. Twenty were randomly allocated to the experiment group and the other 20 to the control group. The results of this study were as follows: The experiment group exhibited statistically significant improvement in attention control, cognitive flexibility and information process procedure compared to the control group. The results proved that FIE program had an effect on improvement of executive functions in gifted children.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.707-717
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was to develop and verify the effects of the exercise-cognitive combined dual-task training program on cognitive function and depression of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: A non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The participants were assigned into two groups: an experimental group receiving an exercise-cognitive combined dual-task (n=20) and a control group receiving a simple-task (n=18). After 8 weeks of intervention (2 days per week), the change in depression and cognitive functions were compared between the groups. Results: General cognitive function (t=-2.81, p=.011), frontal cognitive function (Z=-3.50, p<.001), attention/working memory function (U=-2.91, p=.004), depression (t=4.96, p<.001) of the experimental group were significantly increased than those of the control group. Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that an exercise-cognitive combined dual-task program for MCI was effective in improving general cognitive function, frontal and executive function, attention/working memory function, and reducing depression.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.17-29
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• 2022

Background and Purpose: Verbal and nonverbal fluency tests are the conventional methods for examining executive function in the elderly population. However, differences in impairments result in fluency tests in patients with mild cognitive impairments (MCIs) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in neural correlates underlying the tests still necessitate concrete evidence. Methods: We compared the test performances in 27 normal controls, 28 patients with MCI, and 20 with AD, and investigated morphological changes in association with the test performances using structural magnetic imaging. Results: Patients with AD performed poorly across all the fluency tests, and a receiver operating characteristics curve analysis revealed that only category fluency test discriminated all the 3 groups. Association, category, and design fluency tests involved temporal and frontal regions, while letter fluency involved the cerebellum and caudate. Conclusions: Category fluency is a reliable measure for screening patients with AD and MCI, and this efficacy might be related to morphological correlates that underlie semantic and executive processing.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.3344-3352
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Korean computer-based cognitive rehabilitation program (CoTras) on frontal-executive functions in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study was performed at C hospital in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea from August 2013 to March 2014. Ten patients with TBI were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group had been given CoTras once a day, five times a week for four weeks, whereas the control group had performed self-cognitive training under the same conditions. To verify the effect of intervention, the following executive function measures were used: Korean Montreal Cognitive Assessment (K-MoCA), Executive Clock Drawing Test (ECDT), Trail Making Test (TMT), Rey-Complex Figure Test (RCFT). Intervention group showed significant increase in K-MoCA, TMT, RCFT-delayed recall (p<.05). However, control group showed no significant change in any test. There was significant difference of changed scores (post test-pre test) between two groups in K-MoCA, TMT and RCFT-delayed recall (p<.05). This study showed that CoTras is effective to improve frontal-executive functions in patients with traumatic brain injury.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2011

Purpose: This study investigated changes in neurocognitive function over a 2-month period of board game therapy in patients with schizophrenia. Method: Twenty-one schizophrenic patients treated with board game therapy and nineteen control schizophrenic patients were evaluated with neuropsychological and clinical tests, such as the Wisconsin Card Shorting Test (WCST). The same tests were re-administered after 2 months of board game therapy. Results: At the first series of neuropsychological tests, no difference was seen in performance, demographical aspects, or clinical severity among both patient groups. After 2 months, the group receiving board game therapy showed significant improvement of WCST performances compared to the controls. However, no difference was observed in clinical symptoms between the groups. Conclusion: The results of cognitive enhancement in patients playing board games indicates that board game play, easily used in an inpatient setting, is a promising tool for executive function improvement in chronic schizophrenic patients.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.105-114
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• 1995

Schiophrenia is characterized by a variety of cognitive dysfunctions. A number of research findings suggest that schizophrenic patients have global deficits in cognitive functions, such as attention, memory, executive functions, and motor functions. These cognitive deficits, once they arise, tend to become relatively stable. In spite of much efforts to search for the cognitive dysfunctions in schizophrenia, there are no specific deficits or localizations found. It is necessary that future neuropsychological research of schizophrenia should include relationships between symptoms and cognitive dysfunctions and their relationships to treatment.