Publication
Title
Psychomotor function and response inhibition in chronic fatigue syndrome
Author
Abstract
Most research points to cognitive slowing in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), although there have been negative reports. The present study is one of few that examines fine motor processing and the inhibition of automatic responses in a well-characterised CFS population. A total of 35 female CFS patients without current major depression and 25 female controls performed two computerised figure-copying tasks. The cognitive and fine motor processing of visualspatial information was measured by recording reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT), respectively. The inhibition of automatic responses was assessed by introducing conflicting patterns (i.e., patterns that were difficult to draw from the preferred left to right). A multivariate general linear model was adopted for the statistical analysis of the movement recordings. As a result, CFS was significantly associated with longer RT and MT in the pooled and in the task-specific analyses. However, there was no interaction between disease status and conflicting character of the patterns. In conclusion, these performance data on the figure-copying tasks provide confirmatory evidence for psychomotor slowing in CFS, but not for a disturbed inhibition of automatic responses. Computerised figure-copying tasks may be promising tools for use in neurobiological research and clinical trials in CFS.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Psychiatry research. - Amsterdam
Publication
Amsterdam : 2011
ISSN
0165-1781
DOI
10.1016/J.PSYCHRES.2010.07.022
Volume/pages
186 :2/3 (2011) , p. 367-372
ISI
000289131700035
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 18.08.2010
Last edited 04.03.2024
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