Reduction of drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction in people with self-reported dysregulated eating behaviors after intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Aim: This study aimed to explore the effect of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) of the right and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in people with self-reported dysregulated eating behaviors but without a diagnosis of eating disorders (EDs). Methods: Participants were randomly divided into two equivalent groups according to the side (right or left) of the hemisphere to be stimulated and they were tested before and after a single iTBS session. Outcome measurements were scores on self-report questionnaires assessing psychological dimensions related to eating behaviors (EDI-3), anxiety (STAI-Y), and tonic electrodermal activity. Results: The iTBS interfered with both psychological and neurophysiological measures. Significant variations of physiological arousal after iTBS of both the right and left DLPFC were witnessed by increased mean amplitude of non-specific skin conductance responses. With regard to the psychological measures, the iTBS on the left DLPFC significantly reduced the scores of the EDI-3 subscales drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction. Interestingly, these two scales are two of the three EDI-3 clinic scales (drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and bulimia) used as specific markers to assess the onset and/or maintenance of eating disorders. Conclusion: Our results show that the left DLPFC iTBS has an impact on the psychological dimensions that are risk factors for the onset of eating disorders, suggesting that an altered hemispheric asymmetry similar to that encountered in clinical populations is present in normal subjects even in the absence of clinical symptoms

Formare gli studenti universitari alla Cittadinanza Digitale

Today digital media are configured as social environments that expand our personal, cultural, social and educational reality, therefore measuring citizens’ activities in online environments is of fundamental importance. In the last decade, different scholars have proposed different definitions of the digital citizenship and different measurement tools. Most definitions focus on two conceptions of digital citizenship, some more inherent in digital skills and others centered on critical aspects and civic engagement. In this study, we present the translation and Italian adaptation of two scales: the Digital Citizenship Scale by Al-Zahrani (2015) and the Digital Citizenship Scale by Choi, Glassman, and Cristol (2017). These two scales, consisting of a total of 72 items, were administered to 198 undergraduate students attending to the LM-85bis Master’s Degree Course at University of Palermo. We then proceeded with the reliability analysis by calculating the Alpha of Cronbach and the correlation between individual items and the total scale. The goal was to determine which profile, dimensions and digital citizenship needs characterize the participant university students. The results show that participants have good levels of digital citizenship in terms of respect and education for themselves and for others and in the self-assessment of technical skills in the digital field. Lower levels are recorded in participation and collaboration on cultural, social, political and economic issues

Boosting Phonological Fluency Following Leftward Prismatic Adaptation: A New Neuromodulation Protocol for Neurological Deficits?

Prism adaptation (PA) has been recently shown to modulate a brain frontal-parieto-temporal network, with an increase of excitation of this network in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the side of prismatic deviation. This effect raises the hypothesis that left prismatic adaptation, modulating the excitability of frontal areas of the left hemisphere could modulate subjects’ performance on linguistic tasks that map on those areas. To test this hypothesis, sixty-one healthy subjects participated in experiments in which leftward, rightward or no-PA were applied before the execution of a phonological fluency task, i.e. a task with the strict left hemispheric lateralization and mapping onto frontal areas. Leftward-PA significantly increased the number of words produced compared with the pre-PA (p = .0017), R-PA (p=.00013) and no-PA (p=.0005) sessions. In contrast, rightward-PA did not significantly modulate phonological fluency compared with the pre-PA (p = .92) and no-PA (p = .99) sessions. The effect of leftward PA on phonological fluency correlated with the magnitude of spatial aftereffect, i.e. the spatial bias towards the side of space opposite to prismatic deviation following prisms removal (r = .51; p = .04). The present findings document for the first time modulation of a language ability following prismatic adaptation. The results could have a huge clinical impact on neurological populations, opening new strategies of intervention for language and executive dysfunctions

Improvement of phonemic fluency following leftward prism adaptation

Anatomo functional studies of prism adaptation (PA) have been shown to modulate a brain frontal-parieto-temporal network, increasing activation of this network in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the side of prism deviation. This effect raises the hypothesis that left prism adaptation, modulating frontal areas of the left hemisphere, could modify subjects' performance on linguistic tasks that map on those areas. To test this hypothesis, 51 healthy subjects participated in experiments in which leftward or rightward prism adaptation were applied before the execution of a phonemic fluency task, i.e., a task with strict left hemispheric lateralization onto frontal areas. Results showed that leftward PA significantly increased the number of words produced whereas rightward PA did not significantly modulate phonemic fluency. The present findings document modulation of a language ability following prism adaptation. The results could have a huge clinical impact in neurological populations, opening new strategies of intervention for language and executive dysfunctions

NEUROPLASTIC AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES FOLLOWING PRISM ADAPTATION

Prismatic or Prism adaptation (PA) is a particular visuomotor procedure that through the deviation of visual field and a motor task influences brain activity (Redding & Wallace, 2006). Initially developed 1998, when Rossetti et al. study showed an improvement of neglected hemispace exploring emineglected stroke patients, the number of studies focused on PA was greatly increased. The PA effects were investigated in healthy subjects as well as in patients in different tasks targeting different cognitive functions. A large number of applications of PA procedure was developed in the different studies but the majority of the procedures includes a movement task during the wearing of lenses that deviate the visual field of the subjects. Functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) studies have showed, prevalently, a recruitment of cerebellum and parietal cortex during PA procedure. Moreover, recent evidences (Bracco et al., 2017) have shown an increase of motor cortex activity during the task. The present work presents the results of a series of experiments aimed at identifying new applications of PA. The work is structured in three chapters. In the first chapter we will present an overview of PA thought analysing the different techniques, settings, and neuro-correlates of the procedure. In the second chapter we will be present a brief analysis of the pre-existing literature about PA and postural effects, followed by an experimental work about baropodometric and hand strength changes after PA. In the third chapter we will present an experimental work about the effects of PA in Phonemic Fluency and discuss the main results with reference to pre-existing literature about PA effects in cognitive function. I declare that all the articles reported in this dissertation are reproduced according to the Creative Commons policy (CC-BY) or with the permission of the journals

Liquid Biopsy in Diagnosis and Prognosis of High-Grade Gliomas; State-of-the-Art and Literature Review

Gliomas, particularly high-grade gliomas, represent the most common and aggressive tumors of the CNS and are still burdened by high mortality and a very poor prognosis, regardless of the type of therapy. Their diagnosis and monitoring rely on imaging techniques and direct biopsy of the pathological tissue; however, both procedures have inherent limitations. To address these limitations, liquid biopsies have been proposed in this field. They could represent an innovative tool that could help clinicians in the early diagnosis, monitoring, and prognosis of these tumors. Furthermore, the rapid development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has led to a significant reduction in sequencing cost, with improved accuracy, providing a molecular profile of cancer and leading to better survival results and less disease burden. This paper focuses on the current clinical application of liquid biopsy in the early diagnosis and prognosis of cancer, introduces NGS-related methods, reviews recent progress, and summarizes challenges and future perspectives