The guilty brain: the utility of neuroimaging and neurostimulation studies in forensic field

Several studies have aimed to address the natural inability of humankind to detect deception and accurately discriminate lying from truth in the legal context. To date, it has been well established that telling a lie is a complex mental activity. During deception, many functions of higher cognition are involved: the decision to lie, withholding the truth, fabricating the lie, monitoring whether the receiver believes the lie, and, if necessary, adjusting the fabricated story and maintaining a consistent lie. In the previous 15 years, increasing interest in the neuroscience of deception has resulted in new possibilities to investigate and interfere with the ability to lie directly from the brain. Cognitive psychology, as well as neuroimaging and neurostimulation studies, are increasing the possibility that neuroscience will be useful for lie detection. This paper discusses the scientific validity of the literature on neuroimaging and neurostimulation regarding lie detection to understand whether scientific findings in this field have a role in the forensic setting. We considered how lie detection technology may contribute to addressing the detection of deception in the courtroom and discussed the conditions and limits in which these techniques reliably distinguish whether an individual is lying

Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation improves focal hand dystonia in musicians: A two-case study

Focal hand dystonia (FHD) in musicians is a movement disorder causing abnormal movements and irregularities in playing. Since weak electrical currents applied to the brain induce persistent excitability changes in humans, cathodal tDCS was proposed as a possible non-invasive approach for modulating cortical excitability in patients with FHD. However, the optimal targets and modalities have still to be determined. In this pilot study, we delivered cathodal (2 mA), anodal (2 mA) and sham tDCS over the motor areas bilaterally for 20 min daily for five consecutive days in two musicians with FHD. After cathodal tDCS, both patients reported a sensation of general wellness and improved symptoms of FHD. In conclusion, our pilot results suggest that cathodal tDCS delivered bilaterally over motor-premotor (M-PM) cortex for 5 consecutive days may be effective in improving symptoms in FHD

Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (ctDCS) Effect in Perception and Modulation of Pain

Transcranial direct stimulation (tDCS) in the treatment of intractable or marginally tractable pain is experiencing an increasing diffusion in many fields worldwide. Recently, new modality of tDCS application has been proposed and applied, as cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS). Indeed, the cerebellum has been proved to play a role in pain processing and to be involved in a wide number of integrative functions. In this chapter, we encompass the history of the technique, analysis of principles, a general description, including the methodological procedures of ctDCS; then, main clinical applications and their main effects in perceptive threshold of pain and other sensation, pain intensity, and laser evoked potentials (LEPs) changes

Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), Leaves Virtual Navigation Performance Unchanged

Spatial cognition is an umbrella term used to refer to the complex set of abilities necessary to encode, categorize, and use spatial information from the surrounding environment to move effectively and orient within it. Experimental studies indicate that the cerebellum belongs to the neural network involved in spatial cognition, although its exact role in this function remains unclear. Our aim was to investigate in a pilot study using a virtual reality navigation task in healthy subjects whether cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive technique, influences spatial navigation. Forty healthy volunteers (24 women; age range = 20–42 years; years of education range 13–18) were recruited. The virtual reality spatial navigation task comprised two phases: encoding, in which participants actively navigated the environment and learned the spatial locations for one object, and retrieval, in which they retrieved the position of the object they had discovered and memorized in the previous encoding phase, starting from another starting point. Participants received tDCS stimulation (anodal or sham according to the experimental condition they were assigned to) for 20 min before beginning the retrieval phase. Our results showed that cerebellar tDCS left the accuracy of the three indexes used to measure effective navigational abilities unchanged. Hence, cerebellar tDCS had no influence on the retrieval phase for the spatial maps stored. Further studies, enrolling a larger sample and testing a different stimulation protocol, may give a greater insight into the role of the cerebellum in spatial navigation

Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over the Cerebellum Enhances Sadness Recognition in Parkinson's Disease Patients: a Pilot Study

Emotional processing impairments, resulting in a difficulty to decode emotions from faces especially for negative emotions, are characteristic non-motor features of Parkinson's disease (PD). There is limited evidence about the specific contribution of the cerebellum to the recognition of emotional contents in facial expressions even though patients with cerebellar dysfunction often lose this ability. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether the recognition of facial expressions can be modulated by cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in PD patients. Nine PD patients were enrolled and received anodal and sham tDCS (2 mA, 20 min), for 5 consecutive days, in two separate cycles at intervals of at least 1 month. The facial emotion recognition task was administered at baseline (T0) and after cerebellar tDCS on day 5 (T1). Our preliminary study showed that anodal cerebellar tDCS significantly enhanced emotional recognition in response to sad facial expressions by about 16%, but left recognition of anger, happiness, and neutral facial expressions unchanged. Despite the small sample size, our preliminary results show that anodal tDCS applied for five consecutive days over the cerebellum modulates the way PD patients recognize specific facial expressions, thus suggesting that the cerebellum plays a crucial role in recognition of negative emotions and corroborating previous knowledge on the link between social cognition and the cerebellum

The Impact of COVID-19 on Neuropsychological and Emotional-Behavioural Development in a Group of 8- and 9-Year-Old Children

Introduction: The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the psychological well-being of millions of people around the world, and even more so among children. Contracting SARS-CoV-2, resulting in home confinement and restrictions on daily and school activities, led to negative effects on the mental health of the paediatric population. Although children suffering from COVID-19 had milder general symptoms compared to adults, impairments in cognitive, neuropsychological, and emotional-behavioural development were noted. Objective: The main aim of the present study was to detect possible changes in the neuropsychological and emotional-behavioural development of children after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The second aim was to investigate possible relationships between cognitive abilities and psychosocial characteristics. Methods: A total of 40 patients aged 8–9 years were recruited and divided into two groups: children who contracted (CG) and did not contract (NCG) SARS-CoV-2. The BVN 5–11 (Neuropsychological evaluation battery for developmental age from 5 to 11 years) instrument was administered to assess attention, memory, verbal recall, planning, phonemics, and categorical fluency domains in the paediatric population. Data on changes in emotional-behavioural profile and daily activities were collected through a questionnaire to parents. Results: The Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed a significant change in mood after the COVID-19 period only in the CG participants (p = 0.019). However, the neuropsychological performance of the two identified groups on BVN 5–11 sub-items was below the cutoff of clinical significance. Correlations were found between sub-items of the BVN 5–11 battery, extracurricular activities, and children’s psycho-motor development. Significant positive correlations were observed between Naming on visual presentation and Reading time (p = 0.006), backward digit span and time of motor activity (p = 0.009), Visual attention and Reading time (p = 0.048), and Phonemic fluency and time observed using devices (p = 0.030). Positive statistically significant correlations were also found between Mood and Free behaviour (p = 0.000), between Mood and Structured behaviour (p = 0.005), and between Mood and peer Interaction (p = 0.013). Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 infection negatively affected the emotional development of children contracting the virus. The neuropsychological functioning of the paediatric population was influenced by psychosocial variables and time spent on daily activities, which played a protective role in children’s cognitive development