TITLE:
Investigation of Prefrontal Cortex Activity in University Students with Presenteeism: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) Study
AUTHORS:
Masateru Matsushita, Schuhei Yamamura, Manabu Ikeda
KEYWORDS:
Absenteeism, Adolescent Health, Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS), Presenteeism, School Refusal
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science,
Vol.5 No.9,
August
18,
2015
ABSTRACT: Presenteeism
refers to impaired performance attributed to attending work with health problems.
There has been no study examining the state of presenteeism with objective measures.
We compared cerebral hemodynamic changes, measured by near-infrared spectroscopy
(NIRS), during neuropsychological tests conducted by university students with presenteeism
and healthy controls. Twenty-two university students participated in the study;
11 of them with impaired performance caused by mental health problem were allocated
to the presenteeism group and 11 without health problems to the control group. Presenteeism
was assessed by the Presenteeism Scale for Students. To evoke hemodynamics changes,
the participants completed a Word Fluency Test (WFT) and a Trail Making Test (TMT).
The NIRS probes were located over the bilateral prefrontal area. Students with presenteeism
had significantly higher incidences of depression than controls. However, there
was no significant difference in behavioral performance examinations between the
two groups. With regard to hemodynamics changes, the repeated measures analysis
of covariance of the NIRS signals revealed significant interactions between group
and task activation. Although we observed a significant increase in oxygenated hemoglobin
concentration during the WFT among controls (simple main effect; left channel, F(1, 19) = 27.34, P F(1, 19) = 22.05, P F(1, 19) = 0.12, P F(1, 19) = 0.08, P t = ﹣0.94, P with Bonferroni correction = 0.745; right channel, t = ﹣2.19, P with Bonferroni correction