Cognitive underpinning of future thinking

Thinking about the future can take numerous forms, varying from planning actions to foreseeing possible scenarios by means of knowledge and informed guesses, or speculations and intuitions, or imagination and creativity. Different cognitive processes are needed for each of these different types of future thinking. This thesis encompasses a series of experiments both on healthy volunteers and on brain damaged patients, revolving around the issue of “Future Thinking” (FT) that is the cognitive ability, specifically human, of envisaging one’s own future. The concept of FT and the relevant literature are presented and discussed in Chapters 2 and 3. The ability to foresee has been normally assumed to rely on the reconstructive nature of episodic memory. This hypothesis is investigated in Chapters 4, 5 and 6. In these chapters data on young adults, who mentally pre-experienced autobiographical episodes, are presented to investigate which type of cue would elicit richer visualizations and to explore possible differences between temporal and a-temporal scene construction. The findings from these experiments on healthy volunteers call for a deeper understanding of the relationship between past experience and FT. Chapter 7 discusses results revealing that aMCI patients produced fewer episodic but more semantic details for both past and future events, as compared to controls, suggesting that reminiscence and FT are the expression of the same neurocognitive system. However, contrary to what was generally thought, data on patients with Parkinson Disease with spared memory performance reported in Chapter 8 and 9 show that FT is not entirely dependent on memory (and the hippocampus), rather the results suggest that poor performance in FT is associated with poor executive control. In Chapter 10 two patients affected by dense amnesia are investigated. Chapter 11 presents a single case exhibiting florid confabulation. The results confirm that although amnesia is associated with poor performance on FT, memory deficits cannot account for the entire picture of FT deficits. Indeed, dysexecutive symptoms play an important role in eliciting FT deficits

Lithium limits trimethyltin-induced cytotoxicity and proinflammatory response in microglia without affecting the concurrent autophagy impairment

Trimethyltin (TMT) is a highly toxic molecule present as an environmental contaminant causing neurodegeneration particularly of the limbic system both in humans and in rodents. We recently described the occurrence of impairment in the late stages of autophagy in TMT-intoxicated astrocytes. Here we show that similarly to astrocytes also in microglia, TMT induces the precocious block of autophagy indicated by the accumulation of the autophagosome marker, microtubule associated protein light chain 3. Consistent with autophagy impairment we observe in TMT-treated microglia the accumulation of p62/SQSTM1, a protein specifically degraded through this pathway. Lithium has been proved effective in limiting neurodegenerations and, in particular, in ameliorating symptoms of TMT intoxication in rodents. In our in vitro model, lithium displays a pro-survival and anti-inflammatory action reducing both cell death and the proinflammatory response of TMT-treated microglia. In particular, lithium exerts these activities without reducing TMT-induced accumulation of light chain 3 protein. In fact, the autophagic block imposed by TMT is unaffected by lithium administration. These results are of interest as defects in the execution of autophagy are frequently observed in neurodegenerative diseases and lithium is considered a promising therapeutic agent for these pathologies. Thus, it is relevant that this cation can still maintain its pro-survival and anti-inflammatory role in conditions of autophagy bloc

Agminated Spitzoid Naevi after Remission of Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis: First Italian Case and Literature Review.

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Eye movements disrupt episodic future thinking

Remembering the past and imagining the future both rely on complex mental imagery. We considered the possibility that constructing a future scene might tap a component of mental imagery that is not as critical for remembering past scenes. Whereas visual imagery plays an important role in remembering the past, we predicted that spatial imagery plays a crucial role in imagining the future. For the purpose of teasing apart the different components underpinning scene construction in the two experiences of recalling episodic memories and shaping novel future events, we used a paradigm that might selectively affect one of these components (i.e., the spatial). Participants performed concurrent eye movements while remembering the past and imagining the future. These concurrent eye movements selectively interfere with spatial imagery, while sparing visual imagery. Eye movements prevented participants from imagining complex and detailed future scenes, but had no comparable effect on the recollection of past scenes. Similarities between remembering the past and imagining the future are coupled with some differences. The present findings uncover another fundamental divergence between the two processes

Burkitt's lymphoma mimicking EBV disease as first sign of vertical HIV infection in an adolescent

Burkitt's Lymphoma (BL) rarely represents the first clinical manifestation of vertical HIV infection in adolescent in Western Europe. We report the case of a 17 year-old boy with two week history of fever and enlarged cervical lymph nodes firstly misdiagnosed as EBV infection, subsequently diagnosed as Burkitt's Lymphoma and vertical HIV infection

Barium titanate nanoparticles and hypergravity stimulation improve differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into osteoblasts.

BACKGROUND: Enhancement of the osteogenic potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is highly desirable in the field of bone regeneration. This paper proposes a new approach for the improvement of osteogenesis combining hypergravity with osteoinductive nanoparticles (NPs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we aimed to investigate the combined effects of hypergravity and barium titanate NPs (BTNPs) on the osteogenic differentiation of rat MSCs, and the hypergravity effects on NP internalization. To obtain the hypergravity condition, we used a large-diameter centrifuge in the presence of a BTNP-doped culture medium. We analyzed cell morphology and NP internalization with immunofluorescent staining and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, respectively. Moreover, cell differentiation was evaluated both at the gene level with quantitative real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and at the protein level with Western blotting. RESULTS: Following a 20 g treatment, we found alterations in cytoskeleton conformation, cellular shape and morphology, as well as a significant increment of expression of osteoblastic markers both at the gene and protein levels, jointly pointing to a substantial increment of NP uptake. Taken together, our findings suggest a synergistic effect of hypergravity and BTNPs in the enhancement of the osteogenic differentiation of MSCs. CONCLUSION: The obtained results could become useful in the design of new approaches in bone-tissue engineering, as well as for in vitro drug-delivery strategies where an increment of nanocarrier internalization could result in a higher drug uptake by cell and/or tissue constructs