André Delorme

Infants' reactions to visual movement of the environment.

It has been demonstrated many times that the posture of infants is affected by movement of the visual environment. However, in previous studies, measurements taken with infants less than 10 to 12 months of age have always been recorded with the infants in a sitting position. An experiment is reported in which the postural reactions to a sinusoidal movement of the visual environment were recorded in infants 7 months of age and older standing with support. Fifty subjects divided into five groups (mean age 7.15 to 48.6 months) participated in the experiment. The groups differed in age and motor ability. Movement of the visual environment was achieved by means of a floorless room that could be moved sinusoidally in the anteroposterior axis. The subjects had to stand holding a horizontal bar fixed to a force-measurement platform. For each subject, measurements were made during four 60 s intervals: two with movement of the room and two with the room stationary. For all groups, reactions in the anteroposterior axis were stronger than in the lateral axis and this was true for both stimulus conditions. Comparison of the differences between the movement and stationary conditions in the anteroposterior axis, as a function of age, shows that the youngest infants seemed paradoxically to give stronger reactions when the room was stationary than when it was moving; the inverse was true for older infants and this difference increased with age. An analysis of the data with fast Fourier transforms reveals that the majority of subjects showed a pattern of postural reactions where the dominant (peak) frequency was identical to the peak frequency of room movement. The results of the present experiment lead to the conclusion that young infants react posturally to movements of their visual environment as soon as they are able to stand without help. Also, the best synchronization is found in infants that have just learned to stand without help. These results confirm that ‘visual proprioception’ assumes a leading role in the learning of a new stance.

Comparative effectiveness and safety of antipsychotic drugs in schizophrenia treatment: a real-world observational study

The objective was to compare, in a real‐world setting, the risk of mental and physical health events associated with different antipsychotic drugs (clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine and first‐generation antipsychotics) in patients with SZ.

A provincial adaptation of clinical practice guidelines for depression in primary care: a case illustration of the ADAPTE method.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Mental health services for patients with a major depressive disorder are commonly delivered by primary care. To support the uptake of clinical practice guidelines in primary care, we developed and disseminated a practice protocol for depression tailored for a multidisciplinary audience of primary mental health care providers with the ADAPTE methodology. The research questions addressed in this study aimed at examining the experience of the development process of a mental health practice protocol in terms of adaptation, facilitation and implementation. METHODS We present a descriptive case study of the development and implementation of a practice protocol for major depressive disorder for primary mental health care in the organizational and cultural context of the province of Québec (Canada), following the steps of the ADAPTE methodology. An expert committee composed of general practitioners, mental health specialists, health care administrators and decision makers at regional and provincial levels participated in the protocol development process. RESULTS The practice protocol was based on two clinical practice guidelines: the NICE guideline on the treatment and management of depression in adults (2009, 2010) and the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments clinical guidelines for the management of major depressive disorder in adults (2009). A stepped care model was embedded in the protocol to facilitate the implementation of clinical recommendations in primary mental health care. A multifaceted dissemination strategy was used to support the uptake of the protocol recommendations in clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS The ADAPTE methodology provided structure, rigour and efficiency to the trans-contextual adaptation of guideline recommendations. We will share the challenges associated with the adaptation of clinical recommendations and organizational strategies for a mental health guideline, and the dissemination of the practice protocol in primary care.

Could a "Monocular Advantage Effect" Be Measured in Driving Simulation?

Illusory depth perception experienced in driving simulators is afforded by monocular depth information contained in visual displays. Presumably binocular convergence and binocular disparity, though useful for depth perception in real environments, may poorly contribute to illusory depth in a driving simulator. Instead, they may generate conflicting information by revealing the distance of the display screen and its flatness. Nevertheless, illusory depth induced by monocular information contained in visual displays usually produces enough immersion and realism to create the illusion of driving in a real environment. Many authors have noted improved depth perception in paintings, photographs, and even in drawings when viewed monocularly. However, this effect, known as monocular advantage, has never been explored in driving simulation. The purpose of this experiment was to assess whether the effect might exist in driving simulation. It was expected that drivers would perceive distances in depth better and more accurately with a monocular than with a binocular viewing of the display. Distance estimates were evaluated for two types of driving maneuvers referred to as alignment and bisection. Results showed that when significant performance differences between monocular and binocular viewing conditions occurred, target cars were perceived farther in depth and more accurately using monocular vision. Alternative viewing conditions using both eyes are discussed at the end of the article.

Depth Perception in Pandora's Box and Size Illusion: Evolution with Age

The aim of the experiment was to study the evolution with age (6, 8, 11 and 14 years) of pictorial depth perception in Pandoras box and to compare it with the evolution of size illusion with the same subjects and the same pictorial backgrounds. In addition to familiar size and relative position, each pictorial stimulus contained one or more of the following depth cues: linear perspective, texture gradient, and interposition. The two kinds of measurements produced different results. Size illusions, although present, did not vary with age but increased with the number of cues. Estimates of distance in Pandoras box increased with age and varied according to the type of cue present: texture gradient seemed to be critical to the amount of depth perceived. The correlation between size adjustments and distance adjustments was significant only for the two oldest groups of subjects (11 and 14 years).

Dichoptically viewed colour aftereffects produced by monocular adaptation.

Colour aftereffects were observed in dichoptically viewed achromatic striped patterns after a 25 s period of monocular adaptation to an homogeneous coloured field of red, green, or blue. Three test conditions of dichoptic viewing were used. In condition 1, black line patterns were viewed dichoptically on fused white backgrounds. Stimuli used in condition 2 were similar except that they were white line patterns on black backgrounds. Last, condition 3 was realised with the same stimulus patterns utilised in condition 1, except that the mode of dichoptic viewing produced a juxtaposition rather than a fusion of the two white backgrounds containing the line patterns. Some colour aftereffect was obtained for each colour-adaptation condition and in each test condition. It consisted in a negative colour aftereffect (NCA) in the adapted eye (the colour seen was roughly the complementary of the adaptation colour) and/or a positive colour aftereffect (PCA) in the unadapted eye (the colour seen tended rather to be similar in hue to the adaptation colour). In fact, the following four kinds of responses were obtained: (i) two colour aftereffects, one seen by each eye, ie a NCA involving the adapted eye and a PCA involving the unadapted eye; (ii) a NCA involving the adapted eye only; (iii) a PCA involving the unadapted eye only; (iv) no colour aftereffect at all. Results obtained in different test conditions permitted us to assert that both kinds of colour aftereffect could be produced with white patterns on dark backgrounds as well as with black patterns on white backgrounds and did not require binocular fusion of the white backgrounds. Hypothetical physiological explanations of these aftereffects are available.

Influence of Temporal Frequency on Perceived Speed

The visual perception of velocity was studied in three experiments. The stimulus used in the first experiment was an endless striped belt moving behind a stable fixation line. In the second experiment a vertical moving line was presented in front of a stable striped background. In the third experiment the same moving line was pursued by the eye but the background was stable or moving either with the moving stimulus or in the opposite direction. The variables studied were the speed of the moving stimulus, the speed of the background, and the density (spatial frequency) of the stripes. Two theoretical explanations of the perceptual effects obtained are compared. The first explains variations of perceptual velocity in terms of density. The second asserts effects of perceptual velocity are contingent upon temporal frequency of encounters between the moving stimulus and the stable or moving contextual elements. The results favor the latter interpretation in the three experiments, but part of the results of Exp. 3 could be explained by the influence of ocular pursuit.

Strategies and impacts of patient and family engagement in collaborative mental healthcare: protocol for a systematic and realist review

Introduction Collaborative mental healthcare (CMHC) has garnered worldwide interest as an effective, team-based approach to managing common mental disorders in primary care. However, questions remain about how CMHC works and why it works in some circumstances but not others. In this study, we will review the evidence on one understudied but potentially critical component of CMHC, namely the engagement of patients and families in care. Our aims are to describe the strategies used to engage people with depression or anxiety disorders and their families in CMHC and understand how these strategies work, for whom and in what circumstances. Methods and analysis We are conducting a review with systematic and realist review components. Review part 1 seeks to identify and describe the patient and family engagement strategies featured in CMHC interventions based on systematic searches and descriptive analysis of these interventions. We will use a 2012 Cochrane review of CMHC as a starting point and perform new searches in multiple databases and trial registers to retrieve more recent CMHC intervention studies. In review part 2, we will build and refine programme theories for each of these engagement strategies. Initial theory building will proceed iteratively through content expert consultations, electronic searches for theoretical literature and review team brainstorming sessions. Cluster searches will then retrieve additional data on contexts, mechanisms and outcomes associated with engagement strategies, and pairs of review authors will analyse and synthesise the evidence and adjust initial programme theories. Ethics and dissemination Our review follows a participatory approach with multiple knowledge users and persons with lived experience of mental illness. These partners will help us develop and tailor project outputs, including publications, policy briefs, training materials and guidance on how to make CMHC more patient-centred and family-centred. PROSPERO registration number CRD42015025522.

The Oppel-Kundt Illusion in the White Rat:

A technique was established to measure the Oppel-Kundt illusion in the white rat. Using Lashleys jumping stand, 11 pairs of hatched and non-hatched white lines were presented to 4 rats. Several factors were controlled; the stimuli were presented in a predetermined sequence in order to force the animals to choose only on the basis of the length of the figures. One rat underestimated the length of the hatched line, as previously hypothesized, while 3 rats overestimated it. It can be concluded that the Oppel-Kundt illusion exists in these rats and that both the procedure and the technique used are valid.