Evaristus A Nwulia
Tanzania
Research Article
Overlapping Risky Decision-Making and Olfactory Processing Ability in HIV-Infected Individuals
Author(s): Christopher Jackson, Narayan Rai, Charlee K McLean, Maria Mananita S Hipolito, Flora Terrell Hamilton, Suad Kapetanovic and Evaristus A NwuliaChristopher Jackson, Narayan Rai, Charlee K McLean, Maria Mananita S Hipolito, Flora Terrell Hamilton, Suad Kapetanovic and Evaristus A Nwulia
Objective: Given neuroimaging evidences of overlap in the circuitries for decision-making and olfactory processing, we examined the hypothesis that impairment in psychophysical tasks of olfaction would independently predict poor performances on Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a laboratory task that closely mimics real-life decisionmaking, in a US cohort of HIV-infected (HIV+) individuals. Method: IGT and psychophysical tasks of olfaction were administered to a Washington DC-based cohort of largely African American HIV+ subjects (N=100), and to a small number of demographically-matched non-HIV healthy controls (N=43) from a different study. Constructs of olfactory ability and decision-making were examined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Structural equation models (SEMs) were used to evaluate the validity of the path relationship between these two constructs Result: The 100 HIV+ p.. View More»
