Electrophysiological identification of malingered executive dysfunction
Item
-
Title
-
Electrophysiological identification of malingered executive dysfunction
-
Identifier
-
d_2009_2013:3cd9b4f43c00:11032
-
identifier
-
11338
-
Creator
-
Hoover, Steven A.,
-
Contributor
-
Jillian Grose-Fifer
-
Date
-
2011
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Cognitive psychology | Neurosciences | brain injury | ERP | executive | malingering | neuropsychology
-
Abstract
-
Traditional evaluation of cognitive functioning is based on the assumption that the individual being assessed is responding to the best of his or her abilities. However, when individuals have external incentives to appear more impaired, such as those involved in civil or criminal litigation, the results of these evaluations may be questionable. Therefore, measures designed to assess malingering have become an integral part of many neuropsychological evaluations, particularly in forensic settings. However, these malingering measures have been demonstrated to be vulnerable to both manipulation and coaching. Consequently, recent research has attempted to identify physiological indices of cognitive functioning that are less susceptible to overt manipulation. Previous physiological studies have focused on assessing the validity of an individual's memory impairment, however, this study evaluates the effectiveness of a physiological measure of frontal lobe executive functioning.;This study used EEG recording in conjunction with a three stimulus oddball design to compare differences in neural responses in simulated malingerers and controls. The experimental group was tasked with simulating the cognitive deficits associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Specifically, the study was designed to compare an event-related potential (ERP) known as the P3a, which is elicited by irrelevant distracter stimuli, and to investigate its resilience to intentional manipulation. The P3a is believed to be an index of frontal lobe executive processes, specifically the attentional orienting response.;The results of this study demonstrated that simulated malingerers did not produce a physiological P3a response that was significantly different from control participants. Furthermore, the P3a in simulated malingerers did not demonstrate any of the physiological indicators demonstrated to be present in prior studies with mTBI patients. Not only were malingerers unable to produce a significant change in their basic orienting response, but the very process of attempting to employ additional strategies to appear impaired produced other physiological markers of deceptive responses. Therefore, the P3a component appeared to be unaffected by an individual's motivation or overt performance, thus making it an excellent candidate for measures differentiating between malingerers and patients with genuine TBI.;The results are discussed in comparison to traditional behavioral measures of malingered executive deficits, and serve as a pilot study for future development of physiological measures of cognitive functioning that span multiple cognitive domains.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
2009_2013.csv
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
Psychology
