Objective. To investigate possible neurobehavioral changes secondary to a mindfulness based intervention (MBI) training for individuals living with Parkinson's disease (PD). Background. In the context of complementary medicine, MBIs are... more
Objective. To investigate possible neurobehavioral changes secondary to a mindfulness based intervention (MBI) training for individuals living with Parkinson's disease (PD). Background. In the context of complementary medicine, MBIs are increasingly being used for stress reduction and in patient populations coping with chronic illness. The use of alternative and complementary medicine may be higher in patients with chronic conditions such as PD. However, behavioral effects of mindfulness training in PD have not yet been reported in the literature and this points to an unmet need and warrants further examination. Methods. A total of 27 out of 30 PD patients completed a randomized controlled longitudinal trial. Questionnaires and the UPDRS I-IV were obtained at baseline and 8-week follow-up. Results. Significant changes after the MBI were found including a 5.5 point decrease on the UPDRS motor score, an increase of 0.79 points on Parkinson's disease questionnaire (PDQ-39) pain item, and a 3.15 point increase in the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire observe facet. Conclusions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative analysis of neurobehavioral effects of MBI in PD.
In the framework known as processing approach to grammar that was introduced by Hawkins (1994; 2004), it is argued that processing provides a full-fledged functional explanation for all syntactic phenomena including constituent ordering... more
In the framework known as processing approach to grammar that was introduced by Hawkins (1994; 2004), it is argued that processing provides a full-fledged functional explanation for all syntactic phenomena including constituent ordering and movement. Linguistic structure is simply built in a way that eases processing difficulty of sentences and results in efficiency of language use. It seems that the operation of that part of the linguistic representation system that leads to formulation of concepts utilizing lexical access procedure is governed by processing mechanisms. The processing mechanisms, as it has put forward by Hawkins (1994) are those that make it possible for humans to recognize (and produce) grammatical structure in a rapid and efficient manner. The formulator is also planned in a way that minimizes the processing load. Therefore, it appears that some ordering regularities and grammatical constraints in word order and syntactic phenomena such as movement are motivated by the flawless performance of this phase of human linguistic processor. This research aims at studying the processing basis of relativisation and syntactic movement known as scrambling and the effects of grammatical weight in Persian by drawing upon evidence from behavioral measures (eye-tracking analysis and self-paced reading). In eye-tracking experiment, two sets of sentences in two weight levels and two configurations (each including 40 Ss) were presented to 30 participants. In a self-paced reading experiment, two sets of 24 sentences in three levels of weight (light, medium and heavy) and two structural levels (unmarked preverbal constituent and post-verbal one) were presented to 40 randomly selected Persian-speaking participants. Questions increasing the motivation and triggering initiation of doing this research are how different structural configurations of sentences with identical truth condition modify processing level and if the increase of grammatical weight could result in likelihood of syntactic movement. The final questions are how the movement of grammatically heavy constituents including relative clause and scrambled constituents explained in terms of processing implications. Accordingly, four hypotheses were developed in the course of the research. After conducting the two experiments, data was statistically analyzed using SPSS software version 22. The findings confirmed the four hypotheses revealing that in general, the processing of sentences with canonical constituent ordering was not significantly different with that of post-verbal constituents. However, as the grammatical weight of the constituent subjected to scrutiny increases, the post-verbal movement of constituents resulted in lessening processing difficulty. This decline was markedly more significant in sentences with heavy constituents. Overall, the ordering of constituents and the likelihood of movement is highly weight-sensitive. It is concluded that the end-weight principle as an incentive to optimize the processing efficiency was approved in Persian.
