L’esperienza emotiva tra causalità e motivazione: fenomenologia e neuroscienze sulla capacità di riflessione umana

Riassunto: Applicando il metodo fenomenologico e ricostruendo alcune tematiche della ricerca neuroscientifica, verranno nel testo discriminate le strutture trascendentali dell’esperienza, attraverso le quali il mondo circostante acquisisce significato, e le computazioni inconsce indagate nel dominio psico-fisiologico. L’emozionalità umana coinvolge meccanismi neurali-istintivi che precedono l’attività cosciente, ed essi possono essere esclusivamente investigati ricorrendo a metodi causali-quantitativi. La motivazione, che può essere descritta attraverso il metodo fenomenologico, esprime una forma di causalità più complessa, che ci consente di riflettere sulla nostra emozionalità all’interno del flusso temporale della coscienza. La distinzione tra emozione e sentimento offre un importante indizio per comprendere la dimensione causale della prima rispetto alle caratteristiche motivazionali della seconda: in questo modo, potremo meglio approfondire il ruolo del sentimento in fenomenologia, coinvolgendo esso processi temporali-costitutivi.Parole chiave: Fenomenologia; Neuroscienza; Causalità; Emozione; Motivazione Emotional Experience between Causality and Motivation: Phenomenology and Neuroscience on the Human Capacity for ReflectionAbstract: Applying the phenomenological method and drawing on neuroscientific research, I discriminate between the transcendental structures of experience, through which the surrounding world acquires meaning, and unconscious computations made in the psycho-physiological domain. Human emotionality involves neuronal-instinctive mechanisms that precede subjective conscious activity, and these can only be investigated using causal-quantitative methods. Motivation, which can be described using the phenomenological method, speaks to a more complex causality, that allows us to reflect on our emotionality within the temporal flux of consciousness. The distinction between emotion and feeling offers an important clue to understanding the causal dimension of the former and the motivational characteristics of the latter: in this way, we can better understand the role that feeling, which involves constitutive-temporal processes, plays in phenomenology.Keywords: Phenomenology; Neuroscience; Causality; Emotion; Motivatio

Neurolaw between epistemology and ontology: phenomenology and cognitive neurosciences

In the first part of the paper, I present some problematic concepts in cognitive neuroscience, from aphilosophical point of view, like causality and Law. These concepts open ontological questions, thatwe develop proposing a mechanistic interpretation of cognitive neuroscience, compare to aphenomenological investigation of human experience. General descriptions of mental states andintentionality allow us to investigate different forms of causation, not reducible to “material causes”.By contrast, cognitive neurosciences are specialized to investigate the latter form, beinginterpretable both like a bound and an advantage. In the second part of the paper we will resort tothe presented epistemological descriptions in order to investigate social cognition. We will discussthe case or moral cognition in order to preserve emergent properties in the human experience, in acomplementary way with” cognitive mechanisms”. This argumentation will help us to better definethe Neurolaw field of researches, allowing us to discern different forms of responsibility of thehuman acts with regard to different causal factors

Consciousness and brain mechanisms: Epistemological investigations between phenomenology and clinical neuroscience

Abstract: This paper investigates epistemological differences in the cognitive neuroscientific and phenomenological approaches to outstanding questions in psychiatry. We argue that clinical neuroscience provides scientific explanation in line with a mechanistic approach and describe several examples from computational approaches that illustrate what research on neural processing can tell us about psychiatric diseases. By contrast, phenomenology offers complex descriptions of experiential phenomena. Through a discussion of executive function and the related construct of impulsivity, we show that both cognitive neuroscience and phenomenology provide valuable types of explanation. Our focus on psychopathology also allows us to address some important epistemic differences between these two disciplines.Keywords: Phenomenology; Consciousness; Clinical Neuroscience; Computational Neuroscience; Cognitive Mechanisms Coscienza e meccanismi cerebrali: ricerche epistemologiche tra fenomenologia e neuroscienza clinicaRiassunto: Il presente lavoro propone di esaminare le differenze epistemologiche tra la fenomenologia e le neuroscienze cognitive riguardo dibattiti psichiatrici. Le neuroscienze cliniche saranno discusse in linea con un approccio meccanicista della spiegazione scientifica, mentre descrizioni fenomenologiche saranno proposte nel momento in cui complessi fenomeni esperenziali dovranno essere indagati. Un’interpretazione meccanicista delle neuroscienze cognitive sarà esemplificata ricorrendo ad alcuni esempi dagli approcci computazionali che si occupano di questi temi, i quali ci aiuteranno a definire cosa le ricerche sui processi neurali ci stanno dicendo rispetto alle sintomatologie psichiatriche. Questi argomenti saranno sviluppati attraverso una discussione che verterà sulle funzioni esecutive e il costrutto di impulsività a esse legato. Sarà discusso come sia le neuroscienze cognitive sia la fenomenologia possano fornire specifiche forme di spiegazione. Allo stesso tempo, si proporrà un’argomentazione che consentirà di discernere differenze epistemiche che caratterizzano i suddetti approcci, le quali potranno con più facilità emergere nel dibattito psichiatrico.Parole chiave: Fenomenologia; Coscienza; Neuroscienza clinica; Neuroscienza computazionale; Meccanismi cognitiviAbstract: This paper investigates epistemological differences in the cognitive neuroscientific and phenomenological approaches to outstanding questions in psychiatry. We argue that clinical neuroscience provides scientific explanations in line with a mechanistic approach and describe several examples from computational approaches that illustrate what research on neural processing can tell us about psychiatric diseases. By contrast, phenomenology offers complex descriptions of experiential phenomena. Through a discussion of executive function and the related construct of impulsivity, we show that both cognitive neuroscience and phenomenology provide valuable types of explanation. Our focus on psychopathology also allows us to address some important epistemic differences between these two disciplines.Keywords: Phenomenology; Consciousness; Clinical Neuroscience; Computational Neuroscience; Cognitive Mechanisms Coscienza e meccanismi cerebrali: ricerche epistemologiche tra fenomenologia e neuroscienza clinicaRiassunto: Il presente lavoro propone di esaminare le differenze epistemologiche tra la fenomenologia e le neuroscienze cognitive riguardo dibattiti psichiatrici. Le neuroscienze cliniche saranno discusse in linea con un approccio meccanicista della spiegazione scientifica, mentre descrizioni fenomenologiche saranno proposte nel momento in cui complessi fenomeni esperenziali dovranno essere indagati. Un’interpretazione meccanicista delle neuroscienze cognitive sarà esemplificata ricorrendo ad alcuni esempi dagli approcci computazionali che si occupano di questi temi, i quali ci aiuteranno a definire cosa le ricerche sui processi neurali ci stanno dicendo rispetto alle sintomatologie psichiatriche. Questi argomenti saranno sviluppati attraverso una discussione che verterà sulle funzioni esecutive e il costrutto di impulsività a esse legato. Sarà discusso come sia le neuroscienze cognitive sia la fenomenologia possano fornire specifiche forme di spiegazione. Allo stesso tempo, si proporrà un’argomentazione che consentirà di discernere differenze epistemiche che caratterizzano i suddetti approcci, le quali potranno con più facilità emergere nel dibattito psichiatrico.Parole chiave: Fenomenologia; Coscienza; Neuroscienza clinica; Neuroscienza computazionale; Meccanismi cognitiv

Neurophysiological Profile of Antismoking Campaigns

Over the past few decades, antismoking public service announcements (PSAs) have been used by governments to promote healthy behaviours in citizens, for instance, against drinking before the drive and against smoke. Effectiveness of such PSAs has been suggested especially for young persons. By now, PSAs efficacy is still mainly assessed through traditional methods (questionnaires and metrics) and could be performed only after the PSAs broadcasting, leading to waste of economic resources and time in the case of Ineffective PSAs. One possible countermeasure to such ineffective use of PSAs could be promoted by the evaluation of the cerebral reaction to the PSA of particular segments of population (e.g., old, young, and heavy smokers). In addition, it is crucial to gather such cerebral activity in front of PSAs that have been assessed to be effective against smoke (Effective PSAs), comparing results to the cerebral reactions to PSAs that have been certified to be not effective (Ineffective PSAs). &e eventual differences between the cerebral responses toward the two PSA groups will provide crucial information about the possible outcome of new PSAs before to its broadcasting. &is study focused on adult population, by investigating the cerebral reaction to the vision of different PSA images, which have already been shown to be Effective and Ineffective for the promotion of an antismoking behaviour. Results showed how variables as gender and smoking habits can influence the perception of PSA images, and how different communication styles of the antismoking campaigns could facilitate the comprehension of PSA’s message and then enhance the related impac

The thyroid hormone triiodothyronine controls macrophage maturation and functions: protective role during inflammation.

The endocrine system participates in regulating macrophage maturation, although little is known about the modulating role of the thyroid hormones. In vitro results demonstrate a negative role of one such hormone, triiodothyronine (T 3 ), in triggering the differentiation of bone marrow–derived monocytes into unpolarized macrophages. T 3 -induced macrophages displayed a classically activated (M1) signature. A T 3 -induced M1-priming effect was also observed on polarized macrophages because T 3 reverses alternatively activated (M2) activation, whereas it enhances that of M1 cells. In vivo , circulating T 3 increased the content of the resident macrophages in the peritoneal cavity, whereas it reduced the content of the recruited monocyte-derived cells. Of interest, T 3 significantly protected mice against endotoxemia induced by lipopolysaccharide i.p. injection; in these damaged animals, decreased T 3 levels increased the recruited (potentially damaging) cells, whereas restoring T 3 levels decreased recruited and increased resident (potentially beneficial) cells. These data suggest that the anti-inflammatory effect of T 3 is coupled to the modulation of peritoneal macrophage content, in a context not fully explained by the M1/M2 framework. Thyroid hormone receptor expression analysis and the use of different thyroid hormone receptor antagonists suggest thyroid hormone receptor β1 as the major player mediating T 3 effects on macrophages. The novel homeostatic link between thyroid hormones and the pathophysiological role of macrophages opens new perspectives on the interactions between the endocrine and immune systems

Review on study of sporting activity for the reaches school learning

The threshold of attention is valid for all types of contexts that the child faces from an early age, one of these is their academic performance that often, due to the inability to concentrate, is scarce and obstacle to the relationship between problematic child and his peers and adults. No responsibility is ascribable to children because, certainly, they are suffering from a neuropsychological disorder, nor are they the parents' fault. The pathology that has found space is ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder: attention deficit and hyperactivity). It is one of the most frequent neuropsychological disorders of the developmental age, which occurs in pediatric age, characterized by a level of inattention and by a series of secondary seconds that denote hyperactivity and impulsivity. Children with ADHD cannot control their responses to the environment: they are inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive. Such behavior compromises their social and educational life. This pathology is associated, in fact, with disorders of social adaptation, a low level of education and employment, to be considered one of the most important signs, in childhood, of bad psychosocial adaptation in adulthood. The ADHD is too often misunderstood therefore not considered supported by therapeutic interventions. So, the aim of this research in to promote an educational and therapeutic path based on the increase of the hours of sport and motor education (in the extracurricular context) with the aim of improving the attention span, reducing impulsive problems, hyperactivity and stimulating self-control

Study on correlation between motor and memory learning

The Knowledge of the Result for motor learning, relationship between subjective estimation of the error and relative frequency of external feedback. Research on the learning of a motor task, although generally conducted on healthy individuals, can offer useful indications about the best strategies to be adopted in the rehabilitation of subjects with CNS lesions. In fact, rehabilitation can be considered as a learning process in pathological conditions. There are numerous experimental evidences that, a lower relative frequency (FR) with which it is provided to the one who learns the knowledge of the result (CR) about the outcome of the response, and the request of the formulation of a subjective estimate before the CR (SS) both positively affect the fixation of the motor task. Recently, however, the possibility of an interaction between these two variables has been suggested, in the sense that the subject, when he must formulate a subjective estimate of the error, would benefit from a greater, and not a lesser, FR. To verify this, 60 healthy young subjects (mean age 24.1 ± 3.2) performed a simple task of producing a concentric work target with flexed elbow muscles during isokinetic contraction at a rate of 30 degrees / second. During the practice trials, subjects a) were required, or were not required, to estimate the error made in the newly concluded trial, and b) CR was provided after each trial (100% FR) or after one in every five trials (20 % FR). To further stress the difference between the subjects who were or should not formulate an SS, the latter was asked, immediately after the conclusion of the trial, to perform a simple mental calculation. All subjects performed 15 sets of 10 repetitions of the task during a single practice session. A retention test (1 set of 10 repetitions without CR or SS) was performed the following day. The comparison between the groups in the retention test was performed with the analysis of the variance, before and after adjustment for the initial conditions. The results showed that, after adjusting for the initial conditions, the group of subjects who received CR with 100% FR and who had to formulate the SS during the practice period, performed the retention test in a significantly better way

LFI Acceptance Test Plan for IDIS

This document describes the test plan envisaged by the LFI DPC to accept the IDIS system tools. The intent is to validate that the IDIS software components released to the LFI DPC are compliant with the user requirements. The tests defined in this document are meant to be performed at the LFI DPC site after the successful installation of the IDIS system tools. The IDIS software components are expected to be already tested at the system level. Therefore we simply define here the tests to be performed at the DPC site to fully cover the user requirements while, when applicable, for a subset of the requirements we simply indicate test cases defined in the IDIS system test reports

LFI Acceptance Test Report for IDIS

This document follows the LFI Acceptance Test Plan for IDIS and its purpose is to provide the results of the execution of each test case implemented according to the definition given in the plan. The versions of the IDIS tools covered by this document and the test environment are defined respectively in sections 2.2 and 2.7 of the Plan. In the conclusions of this document (section 3) we analyze the results obtained and summarize the status of the acceptance