Whole-Head Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy as an Ecological Monitoring Tool for Assessing Cortical Activity in Parkinson’s Disease Patients at Different Stages

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is increasingly employed as an ecological neuroimaging technique in assessing age-related chronic neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), mainly providing a cross-sectional characterization of clinical phenotypes in ecological settings. Current fNIRS studies in PD have investigated the effects of motor and non-motor impairment on cortical activity during gait and postural stability tasks, but no study has employed fNIRS as an ecological neuroimaging tool to assess PD at different stages. Therefore, in this work, we sought to investigate the cortical activity of PD patients during a motor grasping task and its relationship with both the staging of the pathology and its clinical variables. This study considered 39 PD patients (age 69.0 ± 7.64, 38 right-handed), subdivided into two groups at different stages by the Hoehn and Yahr (HY) scale: early PD (ePD; N = 13, HY = [1; 1.5]) and moderate PD (mPD; N = 26, HY = [2; 2.5; 3]). We employed a whole-head fNIRS system with 102 measurement channels to monitor brain activity. Group-level activation maps and region of interest (ROI) analysis were computed for ePD, mPD, and ePD vs. mPD contrasts. A ROI-based correlation analysis was also performed with respect to contrasted subject-level fNIRS data, focusing on age, a Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIQ), disease duration, the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), and performances in the Stroop Color and Word (SCW) test. We observed group differences in age, disease duration, and the UPDRS, while no significant differences were found for CRIQ or SCW scores. Group-level activation maps revealed that the ePD group presented higher activation in motor and occipital areas than the mPD group, while the inverse trend was found in frontal areas. Significant correlations with CRIQ, disease duration, the UPDRS, and the SCW were mostly found in non-motor areas. The results are in line with current fNIRS and functional and anatomical MRI scientific literature suggesting that non-motor areas—primarily the prefrontal cortex area—provide a compensation mechanism for PD motor impairment. fNIRS may serve as a viable support for the longitudinal assessment of therapeutic and rehabilitation procedures, and define new prodromal, low-cost, and ecological biomarkers of disease progression

Theory of mind and the whole brain functional connectivity: Behavioral and neural evidences with the Amsterdam Resting State Questionnaire

none11noMarchetti, Antonella; Baglio, Francesca; Costantini, Isa; Dipasquale, Ottavia; Savazzi, Federica; Nemni, Raffaello; Intra, Francesca Sangiuliano; Tagliabue, Semira; Valle, Annalisa; Massaro, Davide; Castelli, IlariaMarchetti, Antonella; Baglio, Francesca; Costantini, Isa; Dipasquale, Ottavia; Savazzi, Federica; Nemni, Raffaello; Intra, Francesca Sangiuliano; Tagliabue, Semira; Valle, Annalisa; Massaro, Davide; Castelli, Ilari

The relationship between personality and bullying among primary school children: the mediation role of trait emotion intelligence and empathy

Background/Objectives: Several studies have shown that personality traits are a benchmark in research field of bul-lying prevention, while others have highlighted that the socio-emotional skills are important to prevent a wide range of maladjusted behaviors, suggesting that the investment in their developing may mediate the effects of per-sonality dispositions. The present study aims to clarify if socio-emotional attitudes can mediate the relationships between personality traits and bullying.Methods: Five sequential mediation models are tested using the Big Five personality traits as focal predictors, bul-lying as the outcome, and trait emotional intelligence and empathy as causally chained mediators, involving 199 primary school children (8-10 years) through the Bullying Prevalence Questionnaire, the Big Five Questionnaire for children, the Emotional Intelligence Index and the Empathy-Teen Conflict Survey.Results: Data showed that openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were inversely related to bullying, and that the causal chain of TEI-empathy negatively and completely mediated the relationship between emotional instability and bullying and negatively and partially mediated the relationship between openness and bullying.Conclusions: These results suggest that TEI and empathy mediate the relationship between personality traits and bullying, reducing the risk of being involved in bullying perpetration

Assessing children's gross-motor development: Parent and Teacher agreement. Implication for school and well-being

Psychological assessments, particularly with young children, rely on developmental estimations reported by different caregivers (i.e. parents and teachers). The degree of accordance between different informants is very important to detect early impairments or delays in different developmental domains.To date, recentresearch studies have drawn attention to the association between gross motor proficiency in infancyand later academic successorchildren's personal wellbeingthrough the long-term effects of gross motor domain on social acceptance, general participation in play, and willingness to take part in social activities in general.This investigationexamined parents' and teachers'agreement in rating107 pupils' gross motor development. Caregivers' estimationswere compared with children's actual motor skillsperformedat standardized clinical assessment testing for their accuracy. The convenient sample was composed from 47 kindergarten children, 60 first graders (age range 4-6 yearolds). Parents and teachers were interviewed with the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales(VABS-II) and children completed the gross motor proficiency tasks of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2). Findings revealed significant differences in caregivers ratings of children's gross motor development with respect to the Walking and Running, Play Activity and Total Score of the VABS-II. Teachers' ratings were higher when assessing the ability to run and throwing balls but were lower when reporting children's performances in handling bikes and balance skills. Estimations differed in the Aiming and Catching and Static-Dynamic Balance subscales of the MABC-2. Overall caregiver estimations correlated with children's actual motor proficiency. Parent judgements have been found to be more accurate than those of teachers. Results are discussed in light of practical considerations for the school setting, teacher disciplinary preparation in estimating children's motor skills, and situation specificity influence on caregivers' assessment

Imparare ad assumere il punto di vista epistemico dell\u2019altro: uno studio di training sulla falsa credenza di II ordine

La Teoria della Mente (ToM), capacit\ue0 di rappresentarsi gli stati mentali propri e altrui per comprendere e prevedere il comportamento, costituisce un costrutto psicologico multisfaccettato, classicamente studiato attraverso l\u2019utilizzo dei compiti di falsa credenza, ritenuti la \u201ccartina-al- tornasole\u201d di tale sviluppo in et\ue0 evolutiva (Wellman, Cross, Watson, 2001). Accanto ai numerosi lavori relativi all\u2019individuazione delle tappe evolutive della ToM, iniziano a essere presenti studi di training, da cui emerge che l\u2019impiego di feedback correttivi (Clements et al., 2000), di stimoli di natura verbale (Lohmann, Tomasello, 2003) e di conversazioni ricche di lessico psicologico (Ornaghi et al., 2011 Bianco et al., 2015; 2016) rafforzi la comprensione dei contenuti mentali, essenziali per promuovere la ToM. Tuttavia, l\u2019efficacia degli elementi specifici di tali training in bambini di et\ue0 scolare \ue8 ancora da approfondire. Per questo scopo, \ue8 stato realizzato un conversation-based training focalizzato su un aspetto specifico della ToM, quale la comprensione della falsa credenza, stato mentale epistemico complesso. Partecipanti: 24 bambini (et\ue0 media= 10 anni, 6 mesi, ds=3.36 mesi, bilanciati per genere) di madrelingua italiana, in condizioni di sviluppo tipico e omogenei per status socio-economico. I partecipanti sono stati suddivisi equamente e casualmente in due gruppi: gruppo sperimentale, sottoposto a un training sulla ToM (false credenze a complessit\ue0 crescente e conversazioni relative agli stati epistemici) e gruppo di controllo, sottoposto a un training senza riferimento alla ToM. Entrambi i gruppi sono stati testati con una batteria di compiti classici ToM in una fase di pre- e post-training, al fine di verificare l\u2019efficacia del training ToM. I risultati mostrano che i bambini del gruppo sperimentale presentano un miglioramento statisticamente significativo nella comprensione della falsa credenza di secondo ordine rispetto a quelli del gruppo di controllo (t= 2.331, p < .05), a supporto dell\u2019efficacia del training proposto. Il presente studio, in linea con quelli a campione pi\uf9 numeroso presenti in letteratura (Bianco et al., 2015; 2016), contribuisce a dimostrare che \ue8 possibile potenziare specifiche componenti della ToM (comprensione della falsa credenza) attraverso discussioni e riflessioni di gruppo focalizzate sul riconoscimento delle differenti prospettive epistemiche che le persone possono avere sul medesimo dato di realt\ue0, e sulla comprensione di come tali differenti prospettive guidino il comportamento. Supportare lo sviluppo di questa consapevolezza mentalistica dovrebbe avere ricadute positive sulle competenze sociali e relazionali che il bambino utilizza nelle interazioni quotidiane

Le credenze sulle proprie abilit\ue0 di Teoria della Mente e il self-construal

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