There remains some debate about whether beta power effects observed during sentence comprehension reflect ongoing syntactic unification operations (beta-syntax hypothesis), or instead reflect maintenance or updating of the sentence-level representation (beta-maintenance hypothesis). In this study, we used magnetoencephalography to investigate beta power neural dynamics while participants read relative clause sentences that were initially ambiguous between a subject- or an object-relative reading. An additional condition included a grammatical violation at the disambiguation point in the relative clause sentences. The beta-maintenance hypothesis predicts a decrease in beta power at the disambiguation point for unexpected (and less preferred) object-relative clause sentences and grammatical violations, as both signal a need to update the sentence-level representation. While the beta-syntax hypothesis also predicts a beta power decrease for grammatical violations due to a disruption of syntactic unification operations, it instead predicts an increase in beta power for the object-relative clause condition because syntactic unification at the point of disambiguation becomes more demanding. We observed decreased beta power for both the agreement violation and object-relative clause conditions in typical left hemisphere language regions, which provides compelling support for the beta-maintenance hypothesis. Mid-frontal theta power effects were also present for grammatical violations and object-relative clause sentences, suggesting that violations and unexpected sentence interpretations are registered as conflicts by the brain's domain-general error detection system.
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Family participation in essential care may be beneficial for both ICU patients and relatives [2]. It may also improve the patient’s comfort, safety and quality of care [5]. Furthermore, relatives may feel less powerless during the patient’s ICU stay when participating in care [2]. Most ICU healthcare providers (HCPs) are willing to facilitate family participation. However, current guidelines for Family-Centered Care (FCC) [6] do not provide practical guidance for family participation in essential care activities, nor advice for implementation. Furthermore, research on possible benefits and limitations of family participation in essential care remains scarce [5], [7].
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BACKGROUND: Acute admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) can negatively affect quality of life for patients and their relatives. Relatives play an important caregiving role after the patient's admission. More knowledge and understanding of their needs are necessary as the patient transitions home.AIM: This study aims to explore relatives' experiences of acutely admitted ICU patients' transition from the ICU to a general ward and then home.STUDY DESIGN: A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach was conducted. Interviews were in-depth and featured open-ended questions. The interviews took place after the patients transitioned from ICU to home and were conducted online by videoconference. Data were analysed using Colaizzi's seven-step method.RESULTS: Twelve relatives of acutely admitted ICU patients were interviewed. Five main themes emerged: (1) mixed feelings, (2) sense of not being involved, (3) limited information provision, (4) lack of acknowledgement as a caregiver, and (5) an uncertain future perspective. Relatives experience major uncertainties during transitions and prefer to be actively involved in care and care decisions.CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that relatives of ICU patients experience a lack of guidance during the transitions from the ICU to a general ward and to home, or a follow-up facility. More focus is needed on the themes of mixed feelings, the sense of not being involved, limited information provision, lack of acknowledgement as a caregiver, and an uncertain future perspective. This increased focus might improve the guidance during these transitions.RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The insights from this study may help to improve the care of patients and their relatives during the transitions.
