Impaired Conscious Recognition of Negative Facial Expressions in Patients with Locked-in Syndrome

The involvement of facial mimicry in different aspects of human emotional processing is widely debated. However, little is known about relationships between voluntary activation of facial musculature and conscious recognition of facial expressions. To address this issue, we assessed severely motor-disabled patients with complete paralysis of voluntary facial movements due to lesions of the ventral pons [locked-in syndrome (LIS)]. Patients were required to recognize others’ facial expressions and to rate their own emotional responses to presentation of affective scenes.LISpatientswere selectivelyimpairedin recognition of negativefacial expressions,thusdemonstratingthatthe voluntary activation of mimicry represents a high-level simulation mechanism crucially involved in explicit attribution of emotions

Durvalumab and multiple sclerosis: a causal link or simple unmasking?

Non applicabile - Letter to the edito

Attentional biases toward threat: the concomitant presence of difficulty of disengagement and attentional avoidance in low trait anxious individuals.

Attentional biases toward threats (ABTs) have been described in high anxious individuals and in clinical samples whereas they have been rarely reported in non-clinical samples (Bar-Haim et al., 2007; Cisler and Koster, 2010). Three kinds of ABTs have been identified (facilitation, difficulty of disengagement, and avoidance) but their mechanisms and time courses are still unclear. This study aimed to understand ABTs mechanisms and timing in low trait anxiety (LTA) and high trait anxiety (HTA) anxious individuals. In particular, in an exogenous cueing task we used threatening or neutral stimuli as peripheral cues with three presentation times (100, 200, or 500 ms). The main results showed that HTA individuals have an attentional facilitation bias at 100 ms (likely automatic in nature) whereas LTA individuals show attentional avoidance and difficulty to disengage from threatening stimuli at 200 ms (likely related to a strategic processing). Such findings demonstrate that threat biases attention with specific mechanisms and time courses, and that anxiety levels modulate attention allocation

Comparison of alternate and original forms of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA): an Italian normative study

Objective: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a screening test widely used in clinical practice and suited for detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment. Alternate forms of the MoCA were developed to avoid \u201clearning effect\u201d in serial assessments, and the present study aimed at investigating inter-form parallelism and at providing normative values for the Italian versions of MoCAs 2 and 3. Method: Three separate convenience samples were recruited: the first (n = 78) completed three alternate MoCA versions for ascertaining inter-form parallelism; the second (n = 302) and the third (n = 413) samples were administered MoCA 2 or 3 to compute normative data. Results: A three-step procedure complemented by confirmatory factor analysis and a mixed factorial ANOVA suggested that the three MoCA versions are not strictly parallel. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that age and education significantly influenced MoCA 2 and 3 total scores. No significant effect of sex was found. From the derived linear equation, correction grids for MoCA 2 and 3 raw scores were built and equivalent scores computed. Inferential cutoff for adjusted scores, estimated using a non-parametric technique, were 17.49 for MoCA 2 and 18.34 for MoCA 3. Correlation analysis showed strong correlations of MoCA 2 (r = 0.69, p <.001) and MoCA 3 (r = 0.61, p <.001) adjusted total scores with MMSE adjusted scores. Conclusion: The three MoCA forms are not strictly parallel. Specifically developed normative data must be adopted for using MoCA in serial cognitive assessments for clinical and research studies

Frontal left alpha activity as an indicator of willingness to interact with virtual agents: A pilot study

Over the last decade, much effort has been made to develop virtual agents acting as assistants of elderly people in their daily activities. With the emergence of such technologies, several questionnaires have been developed to investigate the factors increasing user's acceptance of virtual agents. While questionnaires provide detailed information about users' preferences, they may not be sufficient for investigating user's internal affective states and impressions during the interaction with virtual agents. Therefore, improving assessment techniques for elders' acceptance of virtual agents is necessary for understanding the impressions they arouse and determining their design accordingly. This paper is a report of a pilot study that benefits from the predictive ability of left frontal alpha activity in the brain on positive affect and approach related motivation, and investigates relationships between user's willingness to interact with virtual agents and left frontal alpha activity in order to gain insights on user's affective and motivational states during the interaction with an agent

The relationships between interoception and alexithymic trait. The Self-Awareness Questionnaire in healthy subjects

Interoception is the basic process enabling evaluation of one's own bodily states. Several previous studies suggested that altered interoception might be related to disorders in the ability to perceive and express emotions, i.e., alexithymia, and to defects in perceiving and describing one's own health status, i.e., hypochondriasis. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between alexithymic trait and interoceptive abilities evaluated by the "Self-Awareness Questionnaire" (SAQ), a novel self-report tool for assessing interoceptive awareness. Two hundred and fifty healthy subjects completed the SAQ, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 items (TAS-20), and a questionnaire to assess hypochondriasis, the Illness Attitude Scale (IAS). The SAQ showed a two-factor structure, with good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88). We observed significant direct correlations between SAQ, TAS-20 and two of its subscales, and the IAS. Regression analysis confirmed that the difficulty in identifying and expressing emotions is significantly related with awareness for one's own interoceptive feelings and with a tendency to misinterpret and amplify bodily sensations. From a clinical point of view, the assessment of interoceptive awareness by the SAQ could be pivotal in evaluating several psychopathological conditions, such as the somatoform disorders

The relationships between interoception and alexithymic trait. The Self-Awareness Questionnaire in healthy subjects

Interoception is the basic process enabling evaluation of one's own bodily states. Several previous studies suggested that altered interoception might be related to disorders in the ability to perceive and express emotions, i.e., alexithymia, and to defects in perceiving and describing one's own health status, i.e., hypochondriasis. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between alexithymic trait and interoceptive abilities evaluated by the "Self-Awareness Questionnaire" (SAQ), a novel self-report tool for assessing interoceptive awareness. Two hundred and fifty healthy subjects completed the SAQ, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 items (TAS-20), and a questionnaire to assess hypochondriasis, the Illness Attitude Scale (IAS). The SAQ showed a two-factor structure, with good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88). We observed significant direct correlations between SAQ, TAS-20 and two of its subscales, and the IAS. Regression analysis confirmed that the difficulty in identifying and expressing emotions is significantly related with awareness for one's own interoceptive feelings and with a tendency to misinterpret and amplify bodily sensations. From a clinical point of view, the assessment of interoceptive awareness by the SAQ could be pivotal in evaluating several psychopathological conditions, such as the somatoform disorders

Empathy through the Pandemic: Changes of Different Emphatic Dimensions during the COVID-19 Outbreak

Growing evidence suggests that empathy is a relevant psychological trait to face the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but at the present very little is known on whether this multi-dimensional construct has been affected by the pandemic outbreak differently in its separate components. Here, we aimed at filling this gap by capitalizing on the opportunity of having collected data from different self-report measures and cognitive tasks assessing the main dimensions of empathy immediately before the beginning of the global pandemic and about one year later. The results showed a detrimental impact of the pandemic outbreak on empathic social skills but not on both cognitive (perspective-taking) and emotional empathy that instead significantly improved. Thus, reduced empathic social skills could be a weakness to be targeted in psychological interventions to help people cope with the mental health challenges related to COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the ability of understanding another’s mental states and emotions could represent a strength in dealing with the current long-lasting crisis

EEGs as potential predictors of virtual agents' acceptance

Over the last decade, much effort has been made to develop robots and virtual agents acting as assistants of elderly people in order to support them in their daily activities. In this context users' acceptance of such virtual assistants is fundamental for engaging them in order to maximize the assistance's effectiveness and users' comfort. Therefore, improving assessment techniques for elders' acceptance of virtual agents is necessary for understanding the impressions they arouse and determining their design accordingly. This paper is a proposition to introduce an EEG emotion detection procedure to gain further insight in implementing effective virtual agents' acceptance

Longitudinal Evaluation of Serum MOG-IgG and AQP4-IgG Antibodies in NMOSD by a Semiquantitative Ratiometric Method

Background and purpose: Immunoadsorption (IA) is an antibody-depleting therapy used to treat neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) associated to antiaquaporin 4 (anti-AQP4-IgG) and antimyelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (anti-MOG-IgG) serum autoantibodies. Our aim was to evaluate longitudinal changes of serum MOG-IgG and AQP4-IgG antibody titer and to correlate it with the clinical status. Methods: Autoantibody titer and clinical features of two MOG-IgG+/AQP4-IgG– and two AQP4-IgG+/MOG-IgG– patients with NMOSD were collected at baseline (T0), after 6 IA courses (T1), and then 2 weeks (T2) and 6 months after treatment (T3). A fluorescent ratiometric assay was used for a quantitative detection of MOG and AQP4 antibodies, based on HEK-293 cells transfected with the full-length hMOG fused to GFP or h-AQP4-M23 isoform fused to m-cherry, respectively. We defined the antibody titer as MOG quantitative ratio (MOGqr) and AQP4 quantitative ratio (AQP4qr). Results: In Case 1, the MOGqr dropped from 0.98 at T0 to 0.14 at T3, and in Case 2, it decreased from 0.96 at T0 to undetectable at T3. In Case3, the AQP4qr remained high: 0.90 at T0 and 0.92 at T3. In Case 4, the AQP4qr decreased from 0.50 at T0 to undetectable at T3. Complete recovery was found in Cases 1, 2, and 4. Conclusions: Semiquantitative ratiometric method accurately detects even slight variation of MOG-IgG and AQP4-IgG titer, suggesting it may be useful to monitor the antibody titer during the disease course and maintenance immunotherapy