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The present work aimed at exploring functional correlates of motor and linguistic representations of everyday actions, with a specific interest in potential sensorimotor activation effects induced by the use of related action sentences. While it is indeed known that observing simple motor acts (e.g., precision grasping) and listening to the sound of specific actions (e.g., walking) activate sensorimotor structures, less is known when we move to more complex behaviors and more abstract linguistic representations (e.g., verbal descriptions). Again, the potential of linguistic representations to facilitate the activation of specific sensorimotor structures during action execution or observation is yet unexplored. We then aimed at investigating hemodynamic activation patterns (via functional near-infrared spectroscopy, fNIRS) within the sensorimotor network during different tasks based on everyday activities. Twenty volunteers were asked to execute (EXE), observe (OBS), or listen (LIS) to brief verbal descriptions of transitive actions, to observe them while listening to their description (OBS-LIS), or to execute them while listening to their description (EXE-LIS). Analyses highlighted that, in the left hemisphere, hemodynamic responses were the lowest during observation of complex actions and observation coupled with listening, greater during simple listening to verbal description of actions, and maximal when participants actually executed complex actions or executed them while listening to their verbal descriptions. The present results suggest that processing verbal descriptions of actions might keep the sensorimotor network more active than simply observing them. Such first pieces of evidence hint at potential implications for novel procedures for rehabilitation of movement and action deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to verify the effectiveness of our treatment in patients with spatial neglect in relation to their age and to the severity of neglect. Lots of studies on rehabilitation were proposed and, in some of them, treatments based upon visual-scanning abilities were described. Our rehabilitation training is aimed to induce patients to find by themselves an adequate strategy to solve spatial problems and, after that, try to let this searching strategy as automatized as possible. In this study, forty-six patients with right brain damage and left visuo-spatial neglect underwent to this specific cognitive treatment. A neuropsychological battery was administered before and after treatment. Repeated measure MANOVA on test performances showed significant main effects of treatments, age, and severity of neglect; an interaction effect between these three variables was found as well. Our results confirm an effectiveness of treatment, in particular for elderly patients. Actually, they seem to show a better recovery of neglect after cerebral stroke, even for those of them affected by a severe neglect. These data could be explained in accordance with recent neurophysiological models that claim compensatory responses to reduce brain plasticity even in terms of reorganization of cognitive functions such as visuo-spatial attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Nowadays new tools suitable for exploring executive functioning (EF) of behavioral addicted individuals are needed. Objectives: This study tests a novel digital assessment battery that can be easily and remotely adopted by neuropsychologists working in the field of addiction. Methods: Twenty-three participants were divided into two groups, balanced for age and education: an experimental (EXP) group of 13 patients with gambling behavior, and a control (CNT) group of 10 healthy subjects. A neuropsychological battery including 5 neuropsychological tests (measuring long- and short-term verbal memory, working memory, cognitive flexibility, verbal and non-verbal fluency, attention), and a behavioral task (modified Go/NoGo task with addiction-related stimuli) was digitally administered. Anxiety, depression, and impulsivity levels were collected before the evaluation. Results: Significantly higher scores were found for repetition errors in the short-term verbal memory test, in the EXP subjects compared to controls. Higher reaction times were found in the Go/No-Go task for the EXP compared to CNT, with significant differences for neutral and addiction-related (cocaine, THC) stimuli. Furthermore, EXP showed higher impulsivity scores. Conclusions: Although the study was only exploratory, the significant results could support the validity of this new digital tool. Besides, we could conclude that memory impairment and attentional bias in inhibitory control tasks could cover a significant role in new and old addiction and that impulsivity could represent a critical factor in explaining the relationship between EF impairment and addiction. Lastly, this study contributes not only to the understanding of EF impairment in addictions but also in the delivery of remote suitable digital neuropsychological testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Recently, clinical models based on neuroscientific evidence have highlighted the detrimental role of executive functions impairments in negatively contributing to the functional decline of patients with Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Yet, despite these potential implications, the screening tools that are typically used to assess such impairments are not specific for patients presenting addiction and are not able to properly sketch their dysfunctional executive control profile. Objectives: This study aimed at testing the clinical potential of a novel screening battery for neurocognitive disorders in addiction. Methods: The screening battery was tested on 151 patients with SUD and 55 control subjects. The battery consisted of five neuropsychological tests tapping on verbal and working memory, focused attention, and cognitive flexibility and two computerized neurocognitive tasks (Stroop and Go/No-go tasks adapted for the evaluation of interference inhibition, executive control, and attention bias towards drugs of abuse). Results: Statistical analyzes showed worse cognitive performance in patients with SUD compared to controls, both at neuropsychological tests of cognitive flexibility, focused attention and verbal memory and at neurocognitive tasks, suggesting the presence of deficit of regulatory mechanisms involved in inhibition and orientation of attention/cognitive resources. These results were also confirmed by second-level analyses where the role of age and education as potential moderators was checked, suggesting the robustness of the tested measures. Conclusions: The results further stress the link between specific executive impairments and SUD and suggest the potential of the battery as a quick yet valid neurocognitive screening tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Mounting evidence shows that mental training activities aimed at increasing self-awareness and self-regulation can better psychophysical wellbeing, as well as on neurocognitive efficiency. Nevertheless, the commitment required by traditional approaches to such activities often discourages their implementation as prevention tools with elderly users. Integrating traditional interventions and new technologies might help to achieve this goal. Objectives: The study aims at evaluating the effects on cognitive control and self-regulation of a mindfulness protocol supported by a wearable neurofeedback device, comparing young-adults and elderly people. Methods: Participants completed a three-week experimental (EXP) or control (CONT) training protocol, with daily sessions of practice. The EXP protocol was based on breathing awareness practices executed with the support of the wearable neurofeedback device. In the CONT protocol, participants completed breathing practices while listening to ambient sounds with no feedback. Stress, anxiety and mood levels, cognitive skills, and physiological markers (EEG and autonomic indices) of neurocognitive efficiency and stress were assessed pre-/post-training. Results: Both young and elderly participants completing the experimental protocol showed a post-training improvement in executive control, a reduction in perceived stress levels, and an improvement of psychophysiological markers of stress regulation. In addition, young participants presented an improvement of EEG markers of attention regulation, while elderly participants showed an improvement of EEG markers of affective regulation and a reduction of subclinical depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Findings highlights the potential of integrating traditional interventions and new technologies in order to promote subjective well-bein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Empathizing with others' pain appears to recruit the whole pain matrix, including a collection of frontal regions involved in the affective, motivational, cognitive, and attentional dimension of pain. Objectives: This research explored how the modulation of interoceptive attentiveness (IA) can influence the frontal (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex -DLPFC- and somatosensory cortices) activity related to the emotional regulation and sensory response of observing pain in others. Methods: 22 healthy participants were required to observe face versus hand, painful/non-painful stimuli in an individual versus social condition while brain hemodynamic response (oxygenated [O2Hb] and deoxygenated hemoglobin [HHb] components) was measured by functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). The sample was divided into experimental (EXP) and control (CNT) groups and the EXP group was explicitly required to focus on its interoceptive correlates while observing the stimuli. Results: In the individual condition, higher brain responsiveness was detected for painful confronted to non-painful stimuli, and a left/right hemispheric lateralization was found for the individual and social condition, respectively. Besides, both groups showed higher DLPFC activation for face stimuli displayed in the individual condition compared to hand stimuli in the social condition. However, face stimuli activation prevailed for the EXP group, suggesting the direct interoceptive phenomenon has certain features, namely it manifests itself in the individual condition and for pain stimuli. Conclusions: We can conclude that IA modulation promoted the recruitment of internal adaptive regulatory strategies engaging both DLPFC and somatosensory regions towards emotionally relevant stimuli (painful faces displayed in the individual condition). Therefore IA could be trained for promoting emotion regulation and empathic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]