The consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) for health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are poorly investigated, and a TBI-specific instrument has not previously been available. The cross-cultural development of a new measure to assess HRQoL after TBI is described.An international TBI Task Force derived a conceptual model from previous work, constructed an initial item bank of 148 items, and then reduced the item set through two successive multi-centre validation studies. The first study with eight language versions of the QOLIBRI recruited 1528 participants with TBI and the second with six language versions 921 participants. The data from 795 participants from the second study who had complete GCS and GOS data were used to finalise the instrument.The final version of the QOLIBRI consists of 37 items in six scales. Satisfaction is assessed in the areas of "Cognition", "Self", "Daily life and Autonomy", and "Social Relationships" and feeling bothered by "Emotions "and "Physical Problems". The QOLIBRI scales meet standard psychometric criteria (internal consistency,  = .75 to .89, test-retest reliability, r tt = .78 to .85). Test-retest reliability (r tt = 0.68 to 0.87) as well as internal consistency ( = .81 to .91) was also good in a subgroup of participants with lower cognitive performance. Although there is one strong HRQoL factor, a six scale structure explaining additional variance was validated by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and with Rasch modelling.The QOLIBRI is a new cross-culturally developed instrument for assessing HRQoL after TBI that fulfils standard psychometric criteria. It is potentially useful for clinicians and researchers conducting clinical trials, assessing the impact of rehabilitation or other interventions, or carrying out epidemiological surveys.

The QOLIBRI (Quality of Life after Brain Injury) is a novel health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) instrument specifically developed for traumatic brain injury (TBI). It provides a profile of HRQoL in six domains together with an overall score. Scale validity and factors associated with HRQoL were investigated in a multi-center international study. A total of 795 adults with brain injury were studied from 3 months to 15 years post-injury. The majority of participants (58%) had severe injuries as assessed by 24-h worst Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. Systematic relationships were observed between the QOLIBRI and the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and SF-36. Within each scale patients with disability reported having low HRQoL in two to three times as many areas as those who had made a good recovery. The main correlates of the total QOLIBRI score were emotional state (HADS depression and anxiety), functional status (amount of help needed and outcome on the GOSE), and comorbid health conditions. Together these five variables accounted for 58% of the variance in total QOLIBRI scores. The QOLIBRI is the first tool developed to assess disease-specific HRQoL in brain injury, and it contains novel information not given by other currently available assessments.

The QOLIBRI provides information about patient's subjective perception of his/her HRQoL which supplements clinical measures and measures of functional outcome. It can be applied across different populations and cultures. It allows the identification of personal needs, the prioritization of therapeutic goals and the evaluation of individual progress. It may also be useful in clinical trials and in longitudinal studies of TBI recovery.

The QOLIBRI-OS assesses a similar construct to the QOLIBRI total score and can be used as a brief index of HRQoL for TBI.

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We often fail to detect clearly visible, yet unexpected objects when our attention is otherwise engaged, a phenomenon widely known as inattentional blindness. The potentially devastating consequences and the mediators of such failures of awareness have been studied extensively. Surprisingly, however, hardly anything is known about whether and how we process the objects that go unnoticed during inattentional blindness. In 2 experiments, we demonstrate that the meaning of objects undetected due to inattentional blindness interferes with the classification of attended stimuli. Responses were significantly slower when the semantic content of an undetected stimulus contradicted that of the attended, to-be-judged object. We thus clarify the depth of the "blindness" caused by inattention, as we provide compelling evidence that failing to detect the unexpected does not preclude its processing, even at postperceptual stages. Despite inattentional blindness, our mind obviously still has access to something as refined as meaning. (PsycINFO Database Record

In groups, individuals often adjust their behavior to the majority’s. Here, we provide a brief introduction into the research on social conformity and review the first, very recent investigations elucidating the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. Multiple studies suggest that conformity is a behavioral adjustment based on reinforcement-learning mechanisms in posterior medial frontal cortex and ventral striatum. It has also been suggested that the detection of cognitive inconsistency and the modulation of basic encoding processes are involved. Together, recent findings provide valuable insight into the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying social conformity and clearly point up the need for further studies in this field.

In an event-related potential (ERP) study of varieties of negative priming (NP), 20 participants performed two basic tasks, identification and localization. NP was established in response times (RTs) for two different conditions employed in the literature, DT (distractor-target shifts between subsequent displays), and DTTD (distractor-target reversals). With identification, there were two findings specific to DTTD: reduced amplitude of frontocentral P200 and earlier onset of response-locked lateralized readiness potential (R-LRP). The pattern suggests that DTTD probes were perceived as highly similar to the prime, causing a tendency to repeat the prime response. Identity-based DT had no significant ERP correlate but was accompanied by wrong preactivation in the stimulus-locked LRP (S-LRP). Regarding localization, P300 seemed reduced with the DTTD condition. However, current-source density (CSD) analysis suggested additional frontal and occipital N2 components, indicating inhibition of a tendency to repeat the prime response and persisting inhibition of the prime distractor location, respectively. A larger frontopolar N440 accompanying spatial NP suggested attempts to resolve conflicts occurring at late stages of processing. Data support the view of NP effects being caused by different subprocesses. Furthermore, distinct brain processes seem to underlie NP obtained from DT and DTTD conditions.