Prosocialitat i neurociència : més enllà dels límits neuro-social-cognitius

El present estudi aborda la necessària connexió entre els fonaments biològics de la personalitat de l’individu –ara des de la neurociència– i les pràctiques o conductes prosocials. I defensa la modificació comportamental dels éssers humans, des de la intervenció educativa, a la que considera impregnada de la dimensió afectiva i relacional, quan esdevé eficient i millora les actuacions d’educadors i educands. Altrament es valora com a incompleta. Més enllà d’això defensa aquella connexió –entre els fonament biològics de la personalitat de l’individu, ara des de la neurociència, i les pràctiques o conductes prosocials– com a interactiva, doncs no només les bases genètiques condicionen els comportaments, sinó que metodologies d’intervenció programades i consistents poden arribar a modular aquells components biològics. I es conclou en la descripció del model «MOST» europeu d’intervenció. En qualsevol cas, resta oberta la porta a posteriors investigacions, que quantifiquen la influència d’aquella mútua interconnexió i els subsegüents beneficis en favor de la prosocialitat dels individus

Fetomaternal hemorrhage in case of reduced fetal movements: The rules of computerized cardiotocography and middle cerebral artery

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LA GENOMICA PSICOSOCIALE ED IL CONTRIBUTO SCIENTIFICO DELL’INTERNATIONAL PSYCHOSOCIAL GENOMIC TEAM (IPGT)

Il contributo qui presentato si colloca all’interno di una serie di attività di ricerche che il sottoscritto sta conducendo a partire dal 2005 tra gli Usa e l’Italia, all’interno di un gruppo di ricerca internazionale denominato international psychosocial genomic team (IPGT) e composto da medici, psicologi, biologi molecolari, e bio-informatici. Le ricerche sviluppate in questi anni sono orientate allo studio della Genomica psicosociale, area scientifica interdisciplinare che vede il coinvolgimento di discipline come la Medicina, la Psicologia, le Neuroscienze e la Genomica. Proponiamo una nuova metodologia per lo studio del funzionamento mente-corpo ed una prima evidenza sperimentale all’ipotesi che certe esperienze psicologiche possano modulare l’espressione genica

THE CHRONOBIOLOGICAL HYPOTHESIS AND PSYCHOSOCIAL AND CULTURAL GENOMIC THERAPIES: FROM THE EXAMPLE OF PARKINSON’S DISEASE AND NEURODEGENERATIVE PROCESS

Recent research on Parkinson’s Disease (PD) revealed some common etiopathogenic mechanisms underlying a large range of chronic diseases, and more specifically the deregulation of chronobiological rhythms that may start in the very beginning of such pathological development. Contrary to the bottom-up tradition, the post-genomic biology provides now a much favorable zeitgeist to integrate holistic interventions in both biomedical research and mainstream medical practice. Such integrative efforts may not only improve our understanding of system-level dynamics about health and disease, but also opens larger possibilities for new clinical options that bring positive pathological evolutions while globally increasing quality of life of patients, caregivers, and their families. To facilitate the transition, we renew the invitation to join our international open source research project in widely testing the Creative Psychosocial Genomic Healing Experience (CPGHE), an evidence-based construction of a holistic and naturalist intervention with its standardized version specially designed to offer easy adaption for scientific investigation towards an evidence-based integration of holistic intervention possibilities

Familial ALS-superoxide dismutases associate with mitochondria and shift their redox potentials

Recent studies suggest that the toxicity of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mutant Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) arises from its selective recruitment to mitochondria. Here we demonstrate that each of 12 different familial ALS-mutant SOD1s with widely differing biophysical properties are associated with mitochondria of motoneuronal cells to a much greater extent than wild-type SOD1, and that this effect may depend on the oxidation of Cys residues. We demonstrate further that mutant SOD1 proteins associated with the mitochondria tend to form cross-linked oligomers and that their presence causes a shift in the redox state of these organelles and results in impairment of respiratory complexes. The observation that such a diverse set of mutant SOD1 proteins behave so similarly in mitochondria of motoneuronal cells and so differently from wild-type SOD1 suggests that this behavior may explain the toxicity of ALS-mutant SOD1 proteins, which causes motor neurons to die

Beyond Verbal Behavior: An Empirical Analysis of Speech Rates in Psychotherapy Sessions

Objective: The present work aims to detect the role of the rate of speech as a mechanism able to give information on patient's intrapsychic activity and the intersubjective quality of the patient–therapist relationship. Method: Thirty clinical sessions among five patients were sampled and divided into idea units (N = 1276) according to the referential activity method. Each idea unit was rated according to referential activity method and in terms of speech rate (syllables per second) for both patient and therapist. A mixed-effects model was applied in order to detect the relationship between the speech rate of both the patient and the therapist and the features of the patient's verbal production in terms of referential activity scales. A Pearson correlation was applied to evaluate the synchrony between the speech rate of the patient and the therapist. Results: Results highlight that speech rate varies according patient's ability to get in touch with specific aspects detected through referential activity method: patient and the therapist speech rate get synchronized during the course of the sessions; and the therapist's speech rate partially attunes to the patient's ability to get in touch with inner aspects detected through RA method. Conclusion: The work identified speech rate as a feature that may help in the development of the clinical process in light of its ability to convey information about a patient's internal states and a therapist's attunement ability. These results support the intersubjective perspective on the clinical process

STEPS TOWARDS A UNIFIED THEORY OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: THE PHASE SPACE OF MEANING MODEL

none6noThe hypothesis of a general psychopathology factor (p factor) has been advanced in recent years. It is an innovation with breakthrough potential, in the perspective of a unified view of psychopathology; however, what remains a controversial topic is how its nature might be conceptualized. The current paper outlines a semiotic, embodied and psychoanalytic conceptualization of psychopathology – the Phase Space of Meaning (PSM) model – aimed at providing ontological grounds to the p factor hypothesis. Framed within a more general model of how the mind works, the PSM model maintains that the p factor can be conceived as the empirical marker of the degree of rigidity of the meaning-maker’s way of interpreting experience, namely of the dimensions of meanings used to map the environment’s variability. As to the clinical implications, two main aspects are outlined. First, according PSM model, psychopathology is not an invariant condition, and does not have a set dimensionality, but is able to vary it locally, in order to address the requirement of situated action. Second, psychopathology is conceived as one of the mind’s modes of working, rather than the manifestation of its disruption. Finally, the puzzling issue of the interplay between stability and variability in the evolutionary trajectories of patients along with their life events is addressed and discussed.openVenuleo, C.; Salvatore, G.; Andrisano-Ruggieri, R.; Marinaci, T.; Cozzolino, M.; Salvatore, S.Venuleo, C.; Salvatore, G.; Andrisano-Ruggieri, R.; Marinaci, T.; Cozzolino, M.; Salvatore, S