The neural basis of gambling disorder: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

Previous imaging studies suggested that impairments of prefrontal-striatal and limbic circuits are correlated to excessive gambling. However, the neural underpinnings of gambling disorder (GD) continue to be the topic of debate. The present study aimed to identify structural changes in GD and differentiate the specific brain activity patterns associated with decision-making and reward-processing. We performed a systematic review complemented by Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses on morphometric and functional studies on neural correlates of GD. The ALE meta-analysis on structural studies revealed that patients with GD showed significant cortical grey-matter thinning in the right ventrolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex compared to healthy subjects. The ALE meta-analyses on functional studies revealed that patients with GD showed a significant hyperactivation in the medial prefrontal cortex and in the right ventral striatum during decision-making and gain processing compared to healthy subjects. These findings suggest that GD is related to an alteration of brain mechanisms underlying top-down control and appraisal of gambling-related stimuli and provided indications to develop new interventions in clinical practice

Indoor and outdoor education: The role of body representations on sport practice

Background: Body representation is a complex process determined by the interaction of information coming from many different stimuli inside and outside the body and is a fundamental construct that reflects our knowledge of self. However, the way in which we perceive our bodies and how the body is represented in the brain during development, particularly during outdoor or indoor physical activity, is not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to examine the development of different body representations (i.e., body semantics, body structural representation, and body schema) in school-aged children who practice indoor or outdoor sports. The role of motor coordination was considered as well. Methods:One hundred twelve school aged-children (age range: 8-10 years) completed a computerized battery that included three tasks, the Hand Laterality Task (HLT), Object-Body-Part Association (OBP), and Frontal Body Evocation task(FBE)involving body representation processing as well as control tasks. These control tasks included the Object Laterality Task (OLT), the Christmas Tree Task (CTT), and the Object-Room Association Task (ORT).Theparticipants also performed a foot-tapping performance test (FTap). Results: The effect of indoor or outdoor physical activity on body representations and the associations between age,performance on body representation tasks, and performance on the FTap were all analyzed.When we compared the performance of the two groups on the different body representation and control tasks, we found significant differences only on the FBE, whereas the outdoor physical activity group showed a better performance than the indoor physical activity group. Among the outdoor athletes, significant correlations were foundbetween age and errors made in the FTap, but there were no significant associations between the FTap and the body representation measures. Instead, in the indoor physical activity group, we found significant correlations between the FTap measures and body representation tasks. Discussion: Participants engaging in outdoor physical activities (i.e., soccer, baseball, tennis, cross-country) had better performance on the task assessing the body structural representation (FBE), suggesting that in addition to a significant improvement of physical and mental wellbeing, outdoor physical activity significantly improves the visuo-spatial body map during development.Conclusion:In conclusion,for the first time, we have demonstrated that in school-aged children outdoor physical activity as compared toindoor physical activity improves the structural body representation. These findings are discussed for a better understanding of body representation development and physical activity in indoor and outdoor environments.Also, considering the possible impact of body processing on cognition, this data is discussed in the light of the role of the practice of sportin the educational context

The Body Across Adulthood: On the Relation Between Interoception and Body Representations

Interoceptive information plays a pivotal role in building body representations (BR), but the association between interoception and the different types of BR in healthy individuals has never been systematically investigated. Thus, this study aimed to explore the association between BR and interoceptive sensibility (IS) throughout adulthood. One hundred thirty-seven healthy participants (50 aged from 18 to 40 years old; 50 aged from 41 to 60 years old; and 37 over 60 years old) were given a self-report tool for assessing IS (the Self-Awareness Questionnaire; SAQ), and a specific battery including tasks evaluating three different BR (i.e., the body schema, using the Hand Laterality Task; the body structural representation, using the Frontal Body Evocation task, FBE; and body semantics, using the Object-Body Part Association Task) as well as control tasks (i.e., tasks with non-body stimuli). The older age group (aged over 60 years old) showed lower performances on the tasks probing the body schema and body structural representation than younger groups (aged 18 to 40 and 41 to 60 years old). More interestingly, worse performances on a task assessing the body schema were significantly associated with higher IS with older age, suggesting that higher awareness of one’s inner body sensations would decrease the plasticity of this BR. These findings are interpreted according to the neuropsychological model of BR development and the effects of aging on the brain

Mental health status of Italian elderly subjects during and after quarantine for the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Background: The elderly are more vulnerable to COVID-19 and therefore need to adopt long-term social distancing measures. The duration of quarantine impacts the psychological status of the general population. However, until now no study has explored the psychological impact of the pandemic and quarantine together with longitudinal changes in the mental health status of Italian elderly. Methods: An online questionnaire including an assessment of depression, anxiety, anger, post-traumatic stress, subjective cognitive failures, resilience, coping style, and other dimensions related to the pandemic was completed by participants during (T0) and two months after the end (T1) of the quarantine. Results: The sample recruited at T0 included 334 elderly participants. About 45% of the participants experienced depression, anxiety, or anger. Moreover, more fear of getting infected was related to more severe depression, anxiety, and anger, but resilience was found to mediate these relationships. More severe depressive and anger symptoms were related to more severe cognitive failures. No significant difference was observed in mental health scores between T0 and T1. Finally, more severe depression at T0 was associated with the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms at T1. Conclusions: The fear of getting infected, probably due to perceived vulnerability to disease, seems to play a crucial role in the development of psychological symptoms in the elderly, but resilience seems to mediate the impact of fear. The presence of long-term psychological consequences and the possible risk of developing PTS symptoms in the elderly suggest the need for targeted interventions to reduce possible long-term psychological and cognitive consequences

The body across the lifespan: On the relation between interoceptive sensibility and high-order body representations

Background: Interoceptive information plays a pivotal role in building higher-order cognitive body representations (BR) that neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence classifies as action-oriented (i.e., body schema) or non-action-oriented (i.e., visuo-spatial body map). This study aimed to explore the development of BR, considering the association with the interoceptive sensibility throughout the lifespan. Methods: Two hundred thirty-nine healthy participants divided into five age groups (7 to 8 years; 9 to 10 years; 18 to 40 years; 41 to 60 years; over 60 years) completed a self-report measure of interoceptive sensibility (the Self-Awareness Questionnaire; SAQ) and were given tasks assessing the two BR (action-oriented: hand laterality task; non-action-oriented: frontal body evocation task). Results: Both children (7–8 and 9–10 years) and older adults (over 60 years) performed worse than young (18–40 years) and middle-aged adults (41–60 years) in action-and non-action-oriented BR tasks. Moderation analyses showed that the SAQ score significantly moderated the relationship between age and action-oriented BR. Conclusions: The current results are consistent with inverted U-shaped developmental curves for action-and non-action-oriented BR. As an innovative aspect, the ability to mentally represent one’s own body parts in diverse states could be negatively affected by higher interoceptive sensibility levels in childhood and late adulthood