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

“Building blocks and drawing figures is not the same”: Neuropsychological bases of block design and Rey figure drawing in typically developing children

Several studies investigated the neuropsychological bases of spatial construction in developmental samples. However, no study directly tested whether the pattern of the neuropsychological processes implied in spatial construction changed depending on whether a block building or a figure drawing task is considered. Here, we used the path analysis to test the direct and indirect effects of verbal abilities (naming and verbal knowledge), executive functions, figure disembedding and mental rotation on two classical spatial construction tasks: the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) and the Block Design (BD). We recruited a sample of 186 typically developing children (age range: 7–12 years). Results showed that ROCF copying was directly influenced by age and figure disembedding, and it was indirectly affected by executive functions, naming and verbal knowledge, whereas BD was influenced in a direct way by verbal knowledge, figure disembedding and mental rotation and indirectly affected by executive functions and naming skills. Moreover, the results showed a full measurement invariance of the path model between sexes, whereas only partial invariance was found for age. Thus, we tested the model in two age groups (age ranges: 7–9.5 and 9.6–12 years) and found that the relationships between the variables of the model changed across development. Although other variables might be relevant to spatial construction, the present findings demonstrate different neuropsychological bases of drawing figures and building blocks in typically developing children

Switching between the forest and the trees: The contribution of global to local switching to spatial constructional abilities in typically developing children

Background: Spatial analysis encompasses the ability to perceive the visual world by arranging the local elements (“the trees”) into a coherent global configuration (“the forest”). During childhood, this ability gradually switches from a local to a global precedence, which contributes to changes in children’s spatial construction abilities, such as drawing or building blocks. At present, it is not clear whether enhanced global or local processing or, alternatively, whether switching between these two levels best accounts for children’s spatial constructional abilities. Methods: We assessed typically developing children 7 to 8 years old on a global/local switching task and on two widely used spatial construction tasks (the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure and the Block Design test). Results: The ability to switch from global to local level, rather than a global or a local advantage, best accounted for children’s performance on both spatial construction tasks. Conclusions: The present findings contribute to elucidate the relationship between visual perception and spatial construction in children showing that the ease with which children switch perception from global to local processing is an important factor in their performance on tasks requiring complex drawing and block assembling

Implicit motor imagery and the lateral occipitotemporal cortex: Hints for tailoring non-invasive brain stimulation

Background: Recent evidence has converged in showing that the lateral occipitotemporal cortex is over-recruited during implicit motor imagery in elderly and in patients with neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease. These data suggest that when automatically imaging movements, individuals exploit neural resources in the visual areas to compensate for the decline in activating motor representations. Thus, the occipitotemporal cortex could represent a cortical target of non-invasive brain stimulation combined with cognitive training to enhance motor imagery performance. Here, we aimed at shedding light on the role of the left and right lateral occipitotemporal cortex in implicit motor imagery. Methods: We applied online, high-frequency, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left and right lateral occipitotemporal cortex while healthy right-handers judged the laterality of hand images. Results: With respect to the sham condition, left hemisphere stimulation specifically reduced accuracy in judging the laterality of right-hand images. Instead, the hallmark of motor simulation, i.e., the biomechanical effect, was never influenced by rTMS. Conclusions: The lateral occipitotemporal cortex seems to be involved in mental representation of the dominant hand, at least in right-handers, but not in reactivating sensorimotor information during simulation. These findings provide useful hints for developing combined brain stimulation and behavioural trainings to improve motor imagery

Identifying neuropsychological predictors of drawing skills in elementary school children

Much evidence indicates that drawing is related to different neuropsychological abilities in children. However, a comprehensive cognitive model of drawing in children is still lacking. Here, we conducted a study on the neuropsychological predictors of drawing in a sample of 142 typically developing elementary school children (M age = 8.8 years; SD = 1.1). Based on a path analysis, we examined the contribution of visual perception (matching geometrical figures), complex spatial abilities (e.g., complex figures identification and mental rotation), visual attention, working memory, verbal and visual-motor skills, as well as of gender, age and socio-economic status, to copying the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF). Results showed that ROCF copying was influenced in a specific and additive way by visual perception, visual-motor coordination, and verbal abilities as well as age, while it was indirectly related to visual attention, working memory, and to complex spatial abilities. These findings provide the grounds for identifying the neuropsychological bases of drawing in elementary school children

Specific Global–Local Visual Processing Abilities Mediate the Influence of Non-social Autistic-like Traits on Mental Rotation

Inconsistent data are available on mental rotation performance in neurotypicals with high autistic-like traits. Here, we tested whether global–local visual processing abilities mediate the influence of specific autistic-like trait domains (social skill, attention switching, attention-to-detail, communication, and imagination) on mental rotation. Neurotypical participants (N = 128) underwent an assessment of autistic-like traits, a flanker task with hierarchical stimuli, and a mental rotation task. Path analysis showed that Reaction Times on the incongruent/local condition of the flanker task mediated the relationship between attention-to-detail and mental rotation accuracy. These findings indicate that a better capacity of ignoring incongruent global information to identify local information (reduced global interference) in persons with high non-social autistic-like traits, as attention-to-detail, facilitates mental rotation performance

Tendency to worry and fear of mental health during Italy’s COVID-19 lockdown

Background: We tested whether the tendency to worry could affect psychological responses to quarantine by capitalizing on the opportunity of having collected data before the COVID-19 outbreak on measures of worry, anxiety, and trait mindfulness in a group of university students. Methods: Twenty-five participants completed self-report measures assessing worry (Penn State Worry Questionnaire, PSWQ), anxiety (Anxiety Sensitivity Index, ASI-3), and trait mindfulness (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, MAAS) at T0 (pre-lockdown, 4 November 2019–17 February 2020) and T1 (at the end of lockdown, 26 April–30 April 2020). We compared assessments at the two time points in the whole sample and in high and low worriers (defined at T0 by scores on PSWQ respectively above and below 1.5 SD from mean of the Italian normative sample). Outcomes: High worriers showed at T1 a significant increase of anxiety sensitivity and fear of mental health in comparison to low worriers. Moreover, in the whole sample, at T1 trait mindfulness was inversely related to worry and fear of mental health. Interpretation: A valuable approach to support individuals experiencing anxiety related to the COVID-19 outbreak could be represented by mindfulness-based interventions improving the ability to focus attention and awareness on the present moment