• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.121-132
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• 2006

In Hangeul, the graphemes of syllables are organized in horizontal, vertical and mixed (both horizontal & vertical) orientations, and the graphemic position of consonant(s) and vowel(s) within a each syllable needs to be maintained within a square pattern. We investigated the characteristics of writing errors of 9 stroke patients with right hemisphere (RH) lesions and compared it to the performances of 15 normal subjects. The subjects were asked to write to dictation of 90 Korean syllables. One of the interesting findings was that our patients manifested visuospatial errors which are not commonly observed in other language-speaking (e.g., English) patients due to the unique syllabic organizations of Korean writing system. The prominent errors in the RH group could be explained by the impaired RH which normally controls the visuospatial functions.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.35-50
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• 2020

This study aimed to investigate the changes of emotional perception biases according to the level of social phobia and the relationship with visuospatial attention allocation ability. This study used the Korean self-report assessment test (Korean version of social avoidance and distress, K-SAD) to measure the level of social phobia. Moreover, the emotional perception and useful field of view (UFOV) tasks were employed for measuring emotional perception biases and visuospatial attention allocation ability, respectively. A total of 118 participants participated in this experiment, and only 107 (males: 94, females: 13) data were analyzed due to the exclusion of response errors and other statistical problems. The average age of the participants used in the analysis was 21 years (SD: 3.64), and those participants were divided into three groups according to the K-SAD scores. Consequently, all experimental groups showed negative emotional perception biases in the emotional perception task, but the magnitudes of the biases of each group were not significantly different. Furthermore, the positive emotional perception biases were higher at higher levels of social phobia, which could be related to the tendency of interpreting positive stimuli negatively. In the UFOV task, the higher the level of social phobia, the lower the visuospatial attention allocation ability. These results suggest that the deterioration of visuospatial attention allocation ability potentially contributes to the increase of positive emotional perception biases by being difficult to perceive external stimuli. Thus, this paper discusses the potential contribution of visuospatial attention allocation ability to the increased perceptual biases of positive emotions as the level of social phobia increases.

• Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2020

Objectives: This study investigated the relationship between clock-drawing test (CDT) performance and neuropsychological functions in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Methods: Thirty-one patients with schizophrenia and 30 healthy controls participated in this study. The CDT was administered in three conditions and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative scoring systems. Comprehensive neuropsychological tests were administered. Results: The results of the quantitative analysis showed that the schizophrenia group performed significantly worse in all three conditions of the CDT compared with the control group. However, no significant differences were observed between the two groups, when the IQ and educational level were controlled. The qualitative analysis showed that the schizophrenia group exhibited significantly more errors in "graphic difficulty" compared with the control group. In addition, CDT quantitative scores were significantly correlated with visuospatial function, memory, attention and executive functions in patients with schizophrenia. Conversely, each qualitative error type was correlated with specific cognitive domains. Furthermore, "graphic difficulty" and "spatial/planning deficit" were identified as predictors of depression symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that the CDT is useful for assessing cognitive dysfunctions in patients with schizophrenia, while qualitative analyses provide more specific information about cognitive deficits compared with quantitative analyses.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.123-131
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• 2017

Objectives: Executive dysfunction including working memory deficit has been suggested to be one of the major neuropsychological etiologies of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the augmentative effects of Cogmed working memory training on the symptoms and neurocognitive functions in medicated children and adolescents with ADHD. Methods: Twenty-five children with ADHD, aged 7 to 19 years, taking ADHD medication participated in this study. The participants were trained for 5 weeks with a commercially available and computerized working memory program ($Cogmed^{(R)}$) without any changes to their medication. The Korean version of the ADHD Rating Scale, Clinical Global Impression Scale, and Comprehensive Attention Test were administered before training and 4 weeks and 7 months after training, respectively. Results: After completing the training, the clinical symptoms and function, rated by the parents and clinician, were improved. In addition, the level of commission errors was significantly reduced in the selective attention (visual/auditory) task, sustained attention to response task, and flanker task. The untrained visuospatial short-term memory and working memory were also improved. These effects were still observed 7 months after the training. Conclusion: Cogmed working memory training can be a promising training option for the additional improvement of the symptoms and deficits in working memory and response inhibition in medicated children with ADHD.