Neurosurgical systematic reviews and meta-analyses for a daily practice

No abstract availabl

Surgical Techniques in Benign Extra-Axial Tumors

Extra-axial tumors are lesions, neoplastic and not, which are external to the brain parenchyma and can originate in the skull, meninges, cranial nerves, and brain appendages such as the pituitary gland. Surgery provides a diagnosis and can be the first step in the treatment. When chosen as a treatment, we should consider the access and the approach to the lesion, the adequate operative technique, and related skills, minor or major complications. Because of the benign nature of these tumors, the evaluation of the risk/benefit in submitting a patient to a surgical treatment has to be considered. We would like to give an overview about benign extra-axial tumors and surgical operative techniques and tools that can be applied to improve patient’s outcome

Does a look of fear prompt to act? The effects of gaze and face emotional expression on manipulable objects

Gaze direction is an important social cue for understanding the intentions of other people. Indeed, interacting with others requires the ability to encode their current focus of attention in order to predict their future actions. Previous studies have showed that when asked to detect or identify a target, people are faster if shown a gaze oriented toward rather than away from that target. Most importantly, there is evidence that the emotion conveyed by the face with the averted gaze matters. We further tested the interplay between gaze and face emotion in the context of manipulable objects to understand whether and to what extent other people's gaze influences our own actions toward objects. Participants judged whether a target graspable object was upright or inverted after viewing a face cue with a central or averted gaze. Importantly, the target's handle could be oriented toward the gazed-at location or the opposite side such that gaze and handle were corresponding or non-corresponding in space. Furthermore, we manipulated the expression of the cue by using neutral and fearful faces. Results showed a handle-response (H-R) compatibility effect (i.e., a facilitation when the response key is on the same side as the object's handle) only with fearful cues with a central gaze

Letter by Rustemi et al Regarding Article, "Flow Diverters for Intracranial Aneurysms: The DIVERSION National Prospective Cohort Study"

No abstract availabl

Comparing Stroop-like and Simon Effects on Perceptual Features

Stroop-like and Simon tasks produce two sources of interference in human information processing. Despite being logically similar, it is still debated whether the conflicts ensuing from the two tasks are resolved by the same or different mechanisms. In the present study, we compare two accounts of the Stroop-like effect. According to the Perceptual Account, the Stroop-like effect is due to Stimulus-Stimulus congruence. According to the Decisional Account, the Stroop-like effect results from the same mechanisms that produce the Simon effect, that is, Stimulus-Response compatibility. In two experiments we produced Stroop-like and Simon effects by presenting left/right-located stimuli consisting of a colored square surrounded by a frame of the same color as the square or of a different color. Results showed that discriminating either the color of the square (Experiment 1) or that of the frame (Experiment 2) yielded additive Stroop-like and Simon effects. In addition, the patterns of temporal distributions of the two effects were different. These results support the Perceptual Account of the Stroop-like effect and the notion that the Stroop-like effect and the Simon effect occur at different processing stages and are attributable to different mechanisms

Innovations in the Surgery of Cerebral Aneurysms: Enhanced Visualization, Perfusion, and Function Monitoring

Surgery of cerebral aneurysms has evolved over the years. Advances regard enhanced intraoperative visualization and monitoring of both function and perfusion. Technological assistance used in oncological or skull base surgery, such as intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) or endoscopy, now adopt to vascular surgery. Intraoperative indocyanine green video angiography (ICG-VA) and techniques for its interpretation (squeezing maneuver; entrapment sign), endoscopes, and exoscopes increase visualization. Flow evaluation by microflow probe permits perfusion monitoring; IONM allows functional monitoring. Bypasses replace flow in complex aneurysm cases. Pre-, intra-, and postoperative imaging and flow measurement techniques help in donor selection and follow-up. Despite some progression in the aneurysm clips, the principle has not changed. Innovation and even change of principle in aneurysm exclusion might be desirable. Basic research in aneurysm wall and flow dynamics might in the future change the paradigms of cerebral aneurysm treatment

Does social distancing affect the processing of brand logos?

Social distancing and isolation have been imposed to contrast the spread of COVID-19. The present study investigates whether social distancing affects our cognitive system, in particular the processing of different types of brand logos in different moments of the pandemic spread in Italy. In a size discrimination task, six different logos belonging to three categories (letters, symbols, and social images) were presented in their original format and spaced. Two samples of participants were tested: one just after the pandemic spread in Italy, the other one after 6 months. Results showed an overall distancing effect (i.e., spaced stimuli are processed slower than original ones) that interacted with the sample, revealing a significant effect only for participants belonging to the second sample. However, both groups showed a distancing effect modulated by the type of logo as it only emerged for social images. Results suggest that social distancing behaviors have been integrated in our cognitive system as they appear to affect our perception of distance when social images are involved

From Amodal to Grounded to Hybrid Accounts of Knowledge: New Evidence from the Investigation of the Modality-Switch Effect

My dissertation sets out to contribute to the ongoing theoretical debate on the format of conceptual representation from both a theoretic (Part 1) and an experimental point of view (Part 2). From a theoretic point of view, it is attempted to show that the amodal and grounded views do not bear incompatible claims. On the contrary, grounded cognitition has complemented traditional approaches taking into account the modalities, the body, and the environment’s influence on cognitive mechanisms. From an experimental point of view, this dissertation is committed to testing predictions coming from grounded accounts of knowledge. Specifically, it is aimed at verifying the assumption that modality-specific representations underlie concepts and conceptual processing through the investigation of the Modality-Switch Effect, a cost for performance in terms of speed and accuracy occurring when two different sensory modality properties for concepts alternate compared to when the same sensory modality property is presented. Four experiments were conducted. Experiments 1 & 2 (Study 1) allowed the author to demonstrate that the Modality-Switch Effect is an automatic robust effect arising during both reading and speech processing. Experiments 3 & 4 (Study 2) assessed the impact of the mode of presentation of stimuli (i.e., visual: through the monitor, aural: through a pair of headphones) on the conceptual Modality-Switch Effect. It is shown that the mode of presentation effect weakens the conceptual Modality-Switch Effect in both a property verification and a lexical decision priming paradigms. In sum, the extensive analysis of amodal and grounded views taken together with the innovative findings reported in this dissertation led the author to suggest that hybrid approaches, that combine aspects of both views, should be preferred over the amodal-only and grounded-only accounts