The NeuroDante Project: Neurometric measurements of participant’s reaction to literary auditory stimuli from dante’s “divina commedia”

Neurodante. Progetto di analisi neurometrica di alcuni brani della Commedi

Empathy, engagement, entrainment: the interaction dynamics of aesthetic experience

A recent version of the view that aesthetic experience is based in empathy as inner imitation explains aesthetic experience as the automatic simulation of actions, emotions, and bodily sensations depicted in an artwork by motor neurons in the brain. Criticizing the simulation theory for committing to an erroneous concept of empathy and failing to distinguish regular from aesthetic experiences of art, I advance an alternative, dynamic approach and claim that aesthetic experience is enacted and skillful, based in the recognition of others’ experiences as distinct from one’s own. In combining insights from mainly psychology, phenomenology, and cognitive science, the dynamic approach aims to explain the emergence of aesthetic experience in terms of the reciprocal interaction between viewer and artwork. I argue that aesthetic experience emerges by participatory sense-making and revolves around movement as a means for creating meaning. While entrainment merely plays a preparatory part in this, aesthetic engagement constitutes the phenomenological side of coupling to an artwork and provides the context for exploration, and eventually for moving, seeing, and feeling with art. I submit that aesthetic experience emerges from bodily and emotional engagement with works of art via the complementary processes of the perception–action and motion–emotion loops. The former involves the embodied visual exploration of an artwork in physical space, and progressively structures and organizes visual experience by way of perceptual feedback from body movements made in response to the artwork. The latter concerns the movement qualities and shapes of implicit and explicit bodily responses to an artwork that cue emotion and thereby modulate over-all affect and attitude. The two processes cause the viewer to bodily and emotionally move with and be moved by individual works of art, and consequently to recognize another psychological orientation than her own, which explains how art can cause feelings of insight or awe and disclose aspects of life that are unfamiliar or novel to the viewer

Cognitive rehabilitation changes memory-related brain activity in people with Alzheimer Disease

Background. People with Alzheimer disease (AD) are capable of new learning when cognitive support is provided, suggesting that there is plasticity even in a degenerating brain. However, it is unclear how a cognition-focused intervention operates on a neural level. Objective. The present study examined the effects of cognitive rehabilitation (CR) on memory-related brain activation in people with early-stage AD, as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods. A total of 19 participants either received 8 weeks of CR treatment (n = 7) or formed a control group (n = 12). We scanned participants pretreatment and posttreatment while they learned and recognized unfamiliar face-name pairs. Results. Following treatment, the CR group showed higher brain activation during recognition of face-name pairs in the left middle and inferior frontal gyri, the left insula, and 2s regions in the right medial parietal cortex. The control group showed decreased activation in these areas during recognition after the intervention period. Neither group showed an activation change during encoding. Behavioral performance on face-name learning did not improve for either group. Conclusions. We suggest that CR may have operated on the process of recognition through partial restoration of function in frontal brain areas that are less compromised in early-stage AD and that physiological markers may be more sensitive indicators of brain plasticity than behavioral performance

Cognitive Rehabilitation Changes Memory-Related Brain Activity in People With Alzheimer Disease

Background. People with Alzheimer disease (AD) are capable of new learning when cognitive support is provided, suggesting that there is plasticity even in a degenerating brain. However, it is unclear how a cognition-focused intervention operates on a neural level. Objective. The present study examined the effects of cognitive rehabilitation (CR) on memory-related brain activation in people with early-stage AD, as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods. A total of 19 participants either received 8 weeks of CR treatment (n = 7) or formed a control group (n = 12). We scanned participants pretreatment and posttreatment while they learned and recognized unfamiliar face-name pairs. Results. Following treatment, the CR group showed higher brain activation during recognition of face-name pairs in the left middle and inferior frontal gyri, the left insula, and 2s regions in the right medial parietal cortex. The control group showed decreased activation in these areas during recognition after the intervention period. Neither group showed an activation change during encoding. Behavioral performance on face-name learning did not improve for either group. Conclusions. We suggest that CR may have operated on the process of recognition through partial restoration of function in frontal brain areas that are less compromised in early-stage AD and that physiological markers may be more sensitive indicators of brain plasticity than behavioral performance

Goal-oriented cognitive rehabilitation for people with early-stage Alzheimer disease: a single-blind randomized controlled trial of clinical efficacy

OBJECTIVES: To provide evidence regarding the clinical efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation (CR) in early-stage Alzheimer disease (AD). DESIGN: Single-blind randomized controlled trial comparing CR with relaxation therapy and no treatment. SETTING: Outpatient, community-based setting. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty-nine individuals (41 women, 28 men; mean age 77.78 years, standard deviation 6.32, range = 56-89) with a diagnosis of AD or mixed AD and vascular dementia and a Mini-Mental State Examination score of 18 or above, and receiving a stable dose of acetylcholinesterase-inhibiting medication. Forty-four family carers also contributed. INTERVENTION: Eight weekly individual sessions of CR consisting of personalized interventions to address individually relevant goals supported by components addressing practical aids and strategies, techniques for learning new information, practice in maintaining attention and concentration, and techniques for stress management. MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcomes were goal performance and satisfaction, assessed using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure. Questionnaires assessing mood, quality of life and career strain, and a brief neuropsychological test battery were also administered. A subset of participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). RESULTS: CR produced significant improvement in ratings of goal performance and satisfaction, whereas scores in the other two groups did not change. Behavioral changes in the CR group were supported by fMRI data for a subset of participants. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support the clinical efficacy of CR in early-stage AD. CR offers a means of assisting people with early-stage AD and their families in managing the effects of the condition