Assessing the real benefits of surgery for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis without instability and spondylolisthesis: a single surgeon experience with a mean 8-year follow-up

Background: The degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the most commonly treated spinal disorders in older adults; despite its increasing frequency, it is not yet clear what the most effective therapy might be. The aim of this study is to investigate the very long term results of a homogenized cohort of patients suffering from lumbar spinal stenosis: the first subset of patients operated on with laminectomy and the second subset of patients was also advised to undergo laminectomy but never operated on. Methods: Patients from both subgroups were advised to undergo surgery, according to the same criteria, in the period between 2000 and 2010 and were re-evaluated in the period between January and December 2016. Results: Comparing the two subsets of patients, both suffering from clinically relevant LSS, the first subset returns a statistically significant clinical improvement at follow-up. The rate of excellent results decreases over years. Iatrogenic spinal instability incidence was found to be 3.8% in the present cohort. Conclusions: Although the improvement of the first postoperative years decreases over time and despite the lack of general consensus, the lack of established shared guidelines and the limitations of this research, the results support the utilisation of surgery for the management of this condition. Level of Evidence: 3

Risk Perceptions and Psychological Effects During the Italian COVID-19 Emergency

The current study provides data about the immediate risk perceptions and psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among Italian participants. A sample of 980 volunteers answered a web-based survey which aimed to investigate the many facets of risk perceptions connected to COVID-19 (health, work, institutionaleconomy, interpersonal and psychological), and risk-related variables such as perceived knowledge, news seeking, perceived control, perceived efficacy of containment measures, and affective states. Socio-demographic characteristics were also collected. Results showed that although levels of general concern are relatively high among Italians, risk perceptions are highest with regards to the institutional-economy and work, and lowest concerning health. COVID-19 has been also estimated to be the least likely cause of death. Cognitive and affective risk-related variables contributed to explain the several risk perception domains differently. COVID-19 perceived knowledge did not affect any risk perception while the perceived control decreased health risk likelihood. The other risk-related variables amplified risk perceptions: News seeking increased work and institutional-economy risk; perceived efficacy of containment measures increased almost all perceived risks; negative affective states of fear, anger and sadness increased health risk; anxiety increased health, interpersonal and psychological risks, and uncertainty increased work, institutional-economy, interpersonal and psychological risk perceptions. Finally, positive affective states increased health risk perception. Socio-psychological implications are discussed

Association between Ability Emotional Intelligence and Left Insula during Social Judgment of Facial Emotions

The human ability of identifying, processing and regulating emotions from social stimuli is generally referred as Emotional Intelligence (EI). Within EI, Ability EI identifies a performance measure assessing individual skills at perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions. Previous models suggest that a brain "somatic marker circuitry" (SMC) sustains emotional sub-processes included in EI. Three primary brain regions are included: the amygdala, the insula and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Here, our aim was to investigate the relationship between Ability EI scores and SMC activity during social judgment of emotional faces. Sixty-three healthy subjects completed a test measuring Ability EI and underwent fMRI during a social decision task (i.e. approach or avoid) about emotional faces with different facial expressions. Imaging data revealed that EI scores are associated with left insula activity during social judgment of emotional faces as a function of facial expression. Specifically, higher EI scores are associated with greater left insula activity during social judgment of fearful faces but also with lower activity of this region during social judgment of angry faces. These findings indicate that the association between Ability EI and the SMC activity during social behavior is region- and emotionspecific.Peer reviewe

Type or dimension? A taxometric investigation of Flashbulb Memories

Flashbulb memories (FBMs) have been defined as vivid and detailed memory of a reception context under which one first heard of a public and unexpected emotional event. One of the issues still open for research on FBMs is to understand whether this latent construct has to be conceptualised as a continuum with other autobiographical memories, or whether it represents a special cluster of memories. This theoretical distinction has some implications for the measurement of the phenomenon, that could be assessed by a dimensional or categorical (taxonic) model. The current study attempted to provide an empirical answer to the problem of FBM measurement, by adopting a taxometric analysis. The main strength of these analyses is to treat taxonic and dimensional models as two competing hypotheses and to evaluate the relative support for each of them. Taxometric analyses were applied to FBM data for the Pope’s death, and results supported the taxonic structure of FBMs

L'impatto dei bias cognitivi sul lavoro degli esperti nel contesto giudiziario

I bias cognitivi o fallacie logiche sono distorsioni inconsce tipiche di ogni forma di ragionamento umano (Ditrich, 2015; Dror, 2018). L’articolo bersaglio di Scarpazza e Ghidini (2023) dal titolo I bias cognitivi e la loro influenza sull’esito processuale, si focalizza sul tema dell’imputabilità nel contesto giudiziario e mette in discussione la radicata convinzione che certe categorie di persone in ambiti specifici siano sempre in grado di effettuare valutazioni razionali e oggettive, senza mai essere influenzati da bias. L’assunzione diffusa è che gli esperti siano in grado di condurre osservazioni in modo completamente imparziale e possano trarre conclusioni basate esclusivamente sulle evidenze pertinenti

Does Emotions Communication Ability Affect Psychological Well-Being? A Study with the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) v2.0

The main aim of the current study was to provide evidence regarding the relationship between emotions communication ability—in terms of emotional intelligence (EI)—and psychological well-being. Additionally, the study explored the moderating effect of sex on this relationship. Participants filled in the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, General Health Questionnaire, Psychological General Well-Being Index, and Depression Questionnaire. Results showed the moderating role of sex in the relationship between EI ability and psychological well-being. Furthermore, the associations between EI and psychological well-being measures were generally higher for men than for women, supporting the idea that sex needs to be taken into account when considering EI measures. The potential helpfulness of EI and emotions communications ability in promoting mental health is discussed

Memory for emotional events: The accuracy of central and peripheral details

The emotional intensity of an event is a significant predictor for vividness of event memory. Nevertheless, during the last few decades, there has been some confusion in literature as to whether emotional events are poorly or well retained. It is important to consider that not all details of emotional events are equally remembered: Memory for the central details seems to be relatively good, whereas memory for peripheral details appears to be relatively poor. The aim of the present study was to investigate the accuracy of central vs. peripheral details of an emotional event in a natural but controlled context: the emotional event is a simulated life event, the central and peripheral details of the emotional event were controlled. Indeed previous research work was simply based on the induction of an emotional state in an experimental context and subsequent assessment of a performance memory task. Results showed that, following an emotional event, individuals provided a vivid and accurate recollection not only of the central gist of the event, but also of the context and peripheral details. Implications for literature on emotional autobiographical memories were discussed

Ability Emotional Intelligence: A privileged way to health

Identifying, processing and dealing effectively with one’s own and others’ emotions are essential features of Emotional Intelligence (EI), and considered crucial to the individual’s well-being. Ability models consider EI as a form of intelligence emphasizing the processing of emotional information in an effective manner. Numerous studies examined EI’s involvement in many aspects of human functioning, including health and well-being. The main aim of the present chapter is to provide a review of the literature concerning the role of Ability EI in a wide range of health outcomes, from subjective and psychological well-being to psychological and physiological pathology. The literature reviewed here proposes that Ability EI is associated with a wide range of health outcomes, including maintaining positive mood, adaptive coping and effective emotion regulation, as well as maintaining social support networks associated with more effective coping and positive health outcomes. The potential applications and the future perspectives about the helpfulness of EI abilities in promoting mental and physical health are discussed