UMIT TIROL, University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Institute of Psychology, Hall in Tirol 6060, Austria.
Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, Jaén 23400, Spain.
Behav Neurol. 2022 Jul 5;2022:1821684. doi: 10.1155/2022/1821684. eCollection 2022.
In addition to chronic widespread pain and depression and anxiety symptoms, patients with fibromyalgia frequently experience cognitive problems. This study investigated executive functions in fibromyalgia via a Go/No-Go task. To obtain comprehensive information about performance, traditional and ex-Gaussian parameters of reaction time (RT) variability were used, in addition to speed and accuracy indices. Ex-Gaussian parameters show an excellent fit to empirical RT distributions. Fifty-two female fibromyalgia patients and twenty-eight healthy controls participated. The task included 60 visual stimuli, which participants had to respond to (Go stimuli) or withhold the response to (No-Go stimuli). After 30 trials, the task rule changed, such that previous No-Go stimuli had to be responded to. Performance was indexed by the hit rate, false alarm rate, and mean () and intraindividual standard deviation (SD) of RT and the ex-Gaussian parameters mu, sigma, and tau. Mu and sigma indicate the and SD of the Gaussian distribution; tau reflects the and SD of the exponential function. Patients exhibited a lower hit rate, higher RT, and higher tau than controls. Moreover, patients showed greater decrease of the hit rate after the change of task rule. In the entire sample, SD, sigma, and tau were inversely associated with the hit rate and positively associated with the false alarm rate. While the greater decline in hit rate after the change in task rule indicates deficient cognitive flexibility, the lack of any difference in false alarm rate suggests intact response inhibition. Higher RT reflects reduced cognitive or motor speed. Increased tau in fibromyalgia indicates greater fluctuations in executive control and more frequent temporary lapses of attention. For the first time, this study demonstrated that indices of RT variability, in particular those derived from the ex-Gaussian function, may complement speed and accuracy parameters in the assessment of executive function impairments in fibromyalgia. Optimized assessment may facilitate the personalization of therapies aimed at improving the cognitive function of those with the disorder.
除了慢性广泛性疼痛和抑郁、焦虑症状外，纤维肌痛患者常伴有认知问题。本研究通过 Go/No-Go 任务来研究纤维肌痛的执行功能。为了获得关于表现的全面信息，我们使用了传统和外伽马参数来表示反应时间（RT）的变异性，此外还有速度和准确性指数。外伽马参数对外推 RT 分布具有很好的拟合效果。52 名女性纤维肌痛患者和 28 名健康对照者参与了本研究。任务包括 60 个视觉刺激，参与者必须对（Go 刺激）作出反应或抑制对（No-Go 刺激）的反应。30 次试验后，任务规则发生变化，要求之前的 No-Go 刺激必须做出反应。表现通过击中率、虚报率和 RT 的均值 () 和个体内标准差（SD）以及外伽马参数 mu、sigma 和 tau 来衡量。mu 和 sigma 分别表示高斯分布的 和 SD；tau 则反映了指数函数的 和 SD。与对照组相比，患者的击中率较低，RT 较高，tau 较高。此外，患者在任务规则改变后表现出更高的击中率下降。在整个样本中，SD、sigma 和 tau 与击中率呈负相关，与虚报率呈正相关。虽然任务规则改变后击中率的较大下降表明认知灵活性不足，但虚报率没有差异表明反应抑制完整。较高的 RT 反映了认知或运动速度的降低。纤维肌痛患者中 tau 的增加表明执行控制的波动更大，注意力暂时丧失的频率更高。本研究首次证明，RT 变异性的指标，特别是源自外伽马函数的指标，可能在评估纤维肌痛的执行功能障碍方面补充速度和准确性参数。优化评估可能有助于为那些患有该疾病的人提供个性化治疗，以改善其认知功能。
