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The contribution of brain regions to visuospatial abilities according to sex differences and gender identity is inconsistently described. One potential explaining factor may be the different tasks employed requiring a variable load of working memory and other cognitive resources. Here we asked to 20 cis and 20 transgender participants to undergo functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging during performance of a judgement line of orientation test that was adapted to explore the basic visuospatial processing while minimizing the working memory load. We show that V1 activation may be viewed as a brain area with enhanced activation in males, regardless of participants’ gender identity. On its turn, gender identity exclusively influences the visuospatial processing of extrastriate visual areas (V5) in women with gender dysphoria. They showed enhanced V5 activation and an increased functional connectivity between V5 and V1. Overall our neuroimaging results suggest that the basic visuospatial abilities are associated with different activations pattern of cortical visual areas depending on the sex assigned at birth and gender identity.

Several studies show that pre-sleep learning determines changes in subsequent sleep, including improvements of sleep quality. Our aims were to confirm this finding using a more ecological task (learning a theatrical monologue) and to investigate whether the effect is modulated by expertise. Using a mixed design, we compared polysomnographic recordings of baseline sleep (BL, 9-h TIB) to those of post-training sleep (TR, with the same TIB but preceded by the training session), in one group of actors (N = 11) and one of non-actors (N = 11). In both groups, TR appears reorganized and re-compacted by the learning session, as shown, among others, by a significant decrease of WASO%, awakenings, arousals, and state transitions and by a trend towards an increased number of complete cycles and total cycle time. Concerning memory performance, the number of synonyms produced was significantly higher in the morning relative to immediate recall. No between-groups differences emerged either for sleep or memory variables. Our data confirm pre-sleep learning’s beneficial effect on sleep quality in an ecological context. While expertise appears not to influence memory-related sleep mechanisms, results on morning recall support the recent view that sleep’s role in memory processes consists in trace “transformation” for adaptive purposes, rather than rote consolidation.

Previous studies suggest that sleep can influence false memories formation. Specifically, acute sleep loss has been shown to promote false memories production by impairing memory retrieval at subsequent testing. Surprisingly, the relationship between sleep and false memories has only been investigated in healthy subjects but not in individuals with insomnia, whose sleep is objectively impaired compared to healthy subjects. Indeed, this population shows several cognitive impairments involving prefrontal functioning that could affect source monitoring processes and contribute to false memories generation. Moreover, it has been previously reported that subjects with insomnia differentially process sleep-related versus neutral stimuli. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to compare false memories production between individuals with insomnia symptoms and good sleepers, and to evaluate the possible influence of stimulus category (neutral versus sleep-related) in the two groups. The results show that false memories are globally increased in participants reporting insomnia symptoms compared to good sleepers. A reduction in source monitoring ability was also observed in the former group, suggesting that an impairment of this executive function could be especially involved in false memories formation. Moreover, our data seem to confirm that false memories production in individuals with insomnia symptoms appears significantly modulated by stimulus category.

Studies on sleep during the Covid-19 pandemic have mostly been conducted during the first wave of contagion (spring 2020). To follow up on two Italian studies addressing subjective sleep features during the second wave (autumn 2020), here we assess sleep during the third wave (spring 2021) in a sample of healthy adults from Campania (Southern Italy). Actigraphic data (on 2 nights) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were collected from 82 participants (40 F, mean age: 32.5±11.5years) from 11 March to 18 April 2021, when Campania was classified as a "red zone", i.e. it was subjected to strict restrictions, only slightly looser than those characterizing the first national lockdown (spring 2020). Although objective sleep duration and architecture appeared in the normal range, the presence of disrupted sleep was indexed by a relevant degree of sleep fragmentation (number of awakenings ≥ 1min: 12.7±6.12; number of awakenings ≥ 5min: 3.04±1.52), paralleled by poor subjective sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index global score: 5.77±2.58). These data suggest that the relevant subjective sleep impairments reported during the first wave could have relied on subtle sleep disruptions that were undetected by the few objective sleep studies from the same period. Taken together with sleep data on previous phases of the pandemic, our findings show that the detrimental effects on sleep determined by the initial pandemic outbreak have not abated across the subsequent waves of contagion, and highlight the need for interventions addressing sleep health in global emergencies.

Studies over the last 40 years have mainly investigated sleep structure changes as a result of wake duration, in the frame of the classical sleep regulation theories. However, wake intervals of the same duration can profoundly differ in their intensity, which actually reflects the degree of cognitive and physical activity. Data on how sleep can be modified by wake intensity changes (initially sparse and of little consistence) have become much more substantial, especially in the frame of the intense research debate on sleep-memory relationships. Our aim is to examine the vast repertoire of sleep modifications that depend on waking cognitive manipulations, highlighting the sleep features that appear most affected. By systematically addressing this issue, we want to set the basis for future research exploring both the specific nature of the mechanisms involved and the applicative psychosocial and clinical fall-outs, in terms of possible behavioural interventions for sleep quality improvement.

Previous studies have evidenced cognitive difficulties across various domains in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) children, but the implicit memory system has not yet been systematically explored.Taking into account that the interplay between memory and perception may be modulated by the semantic category of the stimuli and their salience, we explored explicit and implicit memory using both object and food stimuli to verify whether for T1DM children there is a feebleness in performing the function of memory as a function of the stimuli used.Eighteen T1DM children and 47 healthy children performed an explicit recognition task in which they were requested to judge whether the presented image had already been shown ("old") or not ("new") and an identification priming task in which they were asked to name new and old pictures presented at nine ascending levels of spatial filtering.Results did not reveal any differences between controls and T1DM children in the explicit memory recognition task, whereas some differences between the two groups were found in the identification priming task. In T1DM children, the priming effect was observed only for food images.The dissociation between implicit and explicit memory observed in children with diabetes seems to be modulated by the category of the stimuli, and these results underscore the relevance of taking into account this variable when exploring cognitive functions.

Individual abilities in face recognition (good versus bad recognizers) were explored by means of event-related potentials (ERPs). The adaptation response profile of the N170 component to whole faces, eyes and mouths was used in order to highlight the crucial role of individual abilities in identity repetition processes for unfamiliar faces. The main point of this study is to underline the importance of characterizing the performance (bad or good) of the participants and to show that behaviorally selected groups might reveal neural differences. Good recognizers showed selective right hemisphere N170 repetition effects for whole faces and not for features. On the contrary, bad recognizers showed a general repetition effect not specifically related to faces and more pronounced processing for features. These findings suggest a different contribution of holistic and featural analysis in bad and good performers. In conclusion, we propose that the N170 might be used as a tool to tease apart face encoding processes as a function of individual differences.

Using a nap design, we have recently shown that training at a complex cognitive task at bedtime improves objective sleep quality by reducing sleep fragmentation. In order to extend our findings to nighttime sleep, here we assess the impact of a multi-componential cognitive task at bedtime on the subsequent sleep episode of subjects reporting habitual bad sleep, allegedly characterized by high sleep fragmentation. In a within-subjects design, 20 subjective bad sleepers underwent polysomnographic recording in three conditions: (a) baseline sleep (BL); (b) post-training sleep (TR), preceded by a complex ecological task, i.e. a modified version of the word game Ruzzle; (c) post-active control sleep (AC), preceded by a control task. Sleep in TR was more organized (higher number of cycles and longer time spent in cycles) and showed lower microarousal frequency than in AC and BL. As for sleep continuity (total and brief awakening frequency) and other stability measures (state transition and functional uncertainty period frequency, time in functional uncertainty), both TR and AC showed significant improvements compared with BL. Arousal frequency was also reduced in TR relative to BL. Our results show a clear impact of cognitive training on subsequent night sleep, basically consisting of an increase in sleep continuity, stability and organization. In our sample of bad sleepers, these post-training changes end up representing a notable sleep improvement, also consistently reflected in subjective sleep quality perception. Therefore, ecological pre-sleep cognitive training should be further studied as an easily accessible complementary approach in standard therapies for sleep-disordered populations.

Previous work showed a significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Italians' sleep both during the first wave, when a total lockdown (TL) was imposed, and during the second wave, when a partial lockdown (PL) was mandated (autumn 2020). Here we complement these data by describing the profile of sleep across four time-points: the first and second lockdown (TL, PL) and the months preceding them (pre-TL, pre-PL). An online survey was completed by 214 participants (Mage = 36.78 ± 14.2 y; 159 F) during TL and again during PL. All sleep-related questions (including items of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) required a double answer, one referred to the current lockdown and one to the month preceding the lockdown. Bedtime and rise time were delayed in TL and then advanced in pre-PL and PL. Similarly, time in bed increased in TL and then decreased in pre-PL and PL. Sleep quality worsened in the two lockdowns compared to the preceding periods and the proportion of poor sleepers correspondingly increased in both lockdowns. Sleep habits and quality displayed different profiles across phases of the pandemic. Sleep timing was altered during the first lockdown and then returned towards baseline (likely due to normalized working schedules). Instead, sleep quality, which markedly worsened during both lockdowns, appears particularly sensitive to changes in life habits and psychological factors, independently of sleep habits. Our findings also point to a possible role of acute and chronic stress (experienced during the first and second wave, respectively) in modulating sleep changes across the pandemic waves.

Italy and Belgium have been among the first western countries to face the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency, imposing a total lockdown over the entire national territories. These limitations have proven effective in slowing down the spread of the infection. However, the benefits obtained in public health have come with huge costs in terms of social, economic, and psychological well-being. In the current study, we aimed to investigate how the period of home confinement affected self-reported sleep characteristics in Italians and Belgians, with special regard to sleep timing and subjective quality. Using an online survey we collected data from 2272 participants, 1622 Italians (Mage = 34.1 ± 13.6 years, 1171 F), and 650 Belgian (Mage = 43.0 ± 16.8 years, 509 F). Participants reported their sleep pattern (eg, bedtime, risetime) and perceived sleep quality during and, retrospectively, before the lockdown. During the lockdown, sleep timing was significantly delayed, time spent in bed increased, and sleep quality was markedly impaired in both Italians and Belgians. The most vulnerable individuals appeared to be women, subjects experiencing a more negative mood, and those perceiving the pandemic situation as highly stressful. However, the two samples differed in the subgroups most affected by the changes, possibly because of the different welfare systems of the two countries. In fact, in the Italian sample sleep quality and timing underwent significant modifications especially in unemployed participants, whereas in the Belgian sample this category was the one who suffered less from the restrictions. Considering that the novel coronavirus has spread across the whole globe, involving countries with different types of health and welfare systems, understanding which policy measures have the most effective protective role on physical and mental health is of primary importance.

Research during the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted its significant impact on dreaming. Here we address changes in dream features both during the first wave, when the Italian government imposed a total lockdown, and the second wave (autumn 2020), when a partial lockdown was effected. In April 2020 (total lockdown), 1,622 participants (Mage=34.1±13.6 years; 1171F) completed an online survey including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and a set of questions on dream features and their possible changes relative to the month preceding the lockdown (pre-total lockdown). In November 2020 (partial lockdown), 214 participants (Mage=36.78±14.2years; 159F) from the previous sample completed the same survey. Approximately half of the subjects reported increased or decreased dream frequency (30.5% and 21.8%), length (27.1% and 15.8%) and vividness (31.5% and 17.1%) during total lockdown as well as during partial lockdown (frequency: 30.3% and 13.5%; length: 23.3% and 12.6%; vividness: 31.6% and 24.1%). Dream affect became significantly more negative in total lockdown relative to pre-total lockdown and in partial lockdown relative to pre-partial lockdown (both p&nbsp

Despite the increasing interest in sleep and dream-related processes of emotion regulation, their reflection into waking and dream emotional experience remains unclear. We have previously described a discontinuity between wakefulness and dreaming, with a prevalence of positive emotions in wakefulness and negative emotions during sleep. Here we aim to investigate whether this profile may be affected by poor sleep quality. Twenty-three &lsquo, Good Sleepers&rsquo, (GS) and 27 &lsquo, Poor Sleepers&rsquo, (PS), identified through the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) cut-off score, completed three forms of the modified Differential Emotions Scale, assessing, respectively, the frequency of 22 emotions over the past 2 weeks, their intensity during dreaming and during the previous day. The ANOVA revealed a different pattern of emotionality between groups: GS showed high positive emotionality in wakefulness (both past 2 weeks and 24 h) with a significant shift to negative emotionality in dreams, while PS showed evenly distributed emotional valence across all three conditions. No significant regression model emerged between waking and dream affect. In the frame of recent hypotheses on the role of dreaming in emotion regulation, our findings suggest that the different day/night expression of emotions between groups depends on a relative impairment of sleep-related processes of affect regulation in poor sleepers. Moreover, these results highlight the importance of including sleep quality assessments in future dream studies.

Response inhibition relies on both proactive and reactive mechanisms that exert a synergic control on goal-directed actions. It is typically evaluated by the go/no-go (GNG) and the stop signal task (SST) with response recording based on the key-press method. However, the analysis of discrete variables (i.e., present or absent responses) registered by key-press could be insufficient to capture dynamic aspects of inhibitory control. Trying to overcome this limitation, in the present study we used a mouse tracking procedure to characterize movement profiles related to proactive and reactive inhibition. A total of fifty-three participants performed a cued GNG and an SST. The cued GNG mainly involves proactive control whereas the reactive component is mainly engaged in the SST. We evaluated the velocity profile from mouse trajectories both for responses obtained in the Go conditions and for inhibitory failures. Movements were classified as one-shot when no corrections were observed. Multi-peaked velocity profiles were classified as non-one-shot. A higher proportion of one-shot movements was found in the SST compared to the cued GNG when subjects failed to inhibit responses. This result suggests that proactive control may be responsible for unsmooth profiles in inhibition failures, supporting a differentiation between these tasks.

Recent studies show that sleep facilitates the learning of complex cognitive skills. Here, we assess the effect of sleep on performance in an ecological, multi-componential task, which requires subjects to trace on a screen as many words as possible with 16 letters, some of which (“bonuses”) multiply the value of letters or words containing them. In a within-subjects design, 23 healthy adults underwent training and retest, with a retention period (approximately 8hr) spent awake (WK, with training in the morning and retest in the afternoon) or asleep (SL, with training in the evening and retest in the morning). The main performance measure (GLOB) results from the total value of the letters used, the number of words, their length and the strategic use of bonus letters. An additional measure (WORDS, i.e., the proportion of words correctly detected over all detectable words) was also used, mainly reflecting procedural rather than strategic skills. In WK, although GLOB increased at retest, a significant improvement emerged only for WORDS, whereas in SL only GLOB was enhanced. In WK, the GLOB improvement appears to depend on the increase in the number of words detected (GLOB and WORDS improvement measures were positively associated), whereas in SL this association was not observed, indicating a shift to more complex but more rewarding strategies. Our data contribute to the understanding of everyday life learning processes by suggesting that sleep benefits memories of future relevance and promotes preferential consolidation of strategic skills when this is useful to achieve one's goal.

Introduction Several studies have shown the negative impact of COVID-19-related confinement measures (spring 2020) on sleep features and quality. Here we aim to follow-up on these data by assessing self-reported sleep characteristics during the second wave of the pandemic (autumn 2020) in Italy, where the government responded with a second, partial, lockdown. Methods Using a longitudinal approach, 214 participants (Mage=36.78±14.2y; 159F) who had participated in a previous survey (April 2020 – Total Lockdown, TL) completed the same online survey from November 10th to December 1st (Partial Lockdown, PL). In each survey, participants had to respond to a set of questionnaires, including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), referring to their current situation and, retrospectively, to their situation before the lockdown, resulting in four time-points (pre-TL, TL, pre-PL, PL). Results Linear mixed-model analysis showed that bedtime was delayed from pre-TL (23:46) to TL (24:42) and then linearly advanced in pre-PL (24:02) and PL (23:56). The same pattern emerged for rise time (pre-TL: 07:48, TL: 9:05, pre-PL: 8:28, PL: 7:58) and time in bed, which increased from pre-TL (8h4min) to TL (8h24min) and then linearly decreased (pre-PL: 8h15m, PL: 8h2m). Subjective sleep quality decreased in the two lockdowns compared to the period with no restrictions. The proportion of poor sleepers (PSQI>5) increased from 39.7% (pre-TL) to 48.6% in TL and again from 36.9% (pre-PL) to 47.7% in PL. Conclusion Sleep habits and quality showed different profiles across four time-points of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictive measures. Sleep timing alterations appeared during the first lockdown, recovered after the confinement period, and almost returned to baseline during the second lockdown (likely due to a normalization of working schedules). Instead, subjective sleep quality markedly worsened during both lockdowns relative to the preceding respective months. These data suggest that subjective sleep quality is particularly sensitive to changes in life habits and psychological factors, independently of sleep habits. Considering that the pandemic situation may continue for several months, there is a need for interventions targeting sleep quality. Support (if any) N/A

Background/Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the effects of a learning task on the characteristics of a subsequent daytime nap. Participants and Methods: Thirty-eight subjects were administered a control nap (C) and one preceded by a cognitive training session (TR). Results: Relative to C, TR naps showed significantly increased sleep duration with decreased sleep latency, as well as significantly increased sleep efficiency due to reduced awakening frequency. Meaningful trends were also found toward an increase of Stage 2 sleep proportion and a reduction of Stage 1 sleep, percentage of wake after sleep onset (WASO), and frequency of state transitions. Conclusions: Our results indicate that presleep learning favors sleep propensity and maintenance, offering the possibility to explore planned cognitive training as a low-cost treatment for sleep impairments.

The relationship between objective and subjective sleep quality is still debated. Here, we investigate differences in objective sleep parameters in habitual subjective good sleepers and bad sleepers with the aim of evaluating sleep continuity, stability and organization as possible determinants of subjective sleep quality. In total, 38 subjects (good sleepers, N = 18; bad sleepers, N = 20) underwent two nights of sleep recording. Traditional sleep parameters displayed no between-groups differences. Conversely, bad sleepers showed lower sleep continuity (awakenings frequency), stability (e.g. arousals and state transitions frequency) and organization (e.g. number of sleep cycles and time spent in cycles). Our findings point to the involvement of these measures in determining habitual sleep quality perception and suggest the possibility to include them in standard sleep assessments.

Although sleep problems at young ages are well investigated, the prevalence of bad sleepers and the determinants of sleep quality perception remain unexplored in these populations. For this purpose, we addressed these issues in a sample of children (n = 307), preadolescents (n = 717), and adolescents (n = 406) who completed the School Sleep Habits Survey, addressing sleep quality perception, sleep habits, sleep features, daytime behavior and sleep disturbances, circadian preference, and dreaming. The sample was split in &ldquo, good sleepers&rdquo, and &ldquo, bad sleepers&rdquo, based on the answer to the question item assessing overall subjective sleep quality. Being a bad sleeper was reported by 11.7% of the sample, with significant between-groups differences (children: 8.3%, preadolescents: 11.3%, adolescents: 15.3%, p = 0.01). At all ages, relative to good sleepers, bad sleepers showed higher eveningness, sleepiness, and depression, longer sleep latency, more frequent insufficient sleep, nocturnal awakenings, sleep&ndash, wake behavioral problems, and unpleasant dreams (all p&rsquo, s &le, 0.01). Sleep quality perception was predicted: in children, by depressed mood, eveningness, and unpleasant dreams (all p&rsquo, 0.01), in preadolescents, by sleep latency, awakening frequency, depressed mood, sufficiency of sleep, and unpleasant dreams (all p&rsquo, s &lt, in adolescents, by awakening frequency, depressed mood, and sufficiency of sleep (all p&rsquo, 0.001). In children, bad subjective sleep quality appears to be mainly determined by daytime psychological features, for example, depressed mood, whereas at later ages, sleep characteristics, such as frequent awakenings, add to the former determinants. This could depend on (a) the appearance, with increasing age, of objective sleep modifications and (b) a greater attention paid by adolescents to their sleep characteristics.

Introduction The Italian government has responded to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (autumn 2020) with a partial lockdown (PL). Here we aim to investigate the effects of the PL on dream features in the Italian population and to follow up on previous data collected during the total lockdown (TL) effected during the first wave of the pandemic (spring 2020). Methods Using a longitudinal approach, 214 participants (Mage=36.78±14.2y; 159F) who had participated in a previous survey (April 2020 – TL) completed the same online survey from November 10th to December 1st (PL). The questionnaires administered included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and a set of specific ad hoc questions on dream features (frequency, length, vividness, emotional tone, relation of content to the current health emergency) and their possible changes relative to the month preceding the lockdown, resulting in four time points (pre-TL, TL, pre-PL, PL). Results Frequency and length of dreams significantly increased from pre-PL to PL (both p’s Conclusion In line with the continuity hypothesis on the relationships between dreaming and the wake state, our data confirm that dream features are significantly and immediately affected by major life changes such as those brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions. Interestingly, dream emotionality and subjective sleep quality show a parallel profile across the different time points, suggesting the possible role of sleep quality as a modulating factor on dream affect. Support (if any) N/A

The present investigation explores the role of bottom-up and top-down factors in the recognition of emotional facial expressions during binocular rivalry. We manipulated spatial frequencies (SF) and emotive features and asked subjects to indicate whether the emotional or the neutral expression was dominant during binocular rivalry. Controlling the bottom-up saliency with a computational model, physically comparable happy and fearful faces were presented dichoptically with neutral faces. The results showed the dominance of emotional faces over neutral ones. In particular, happy faces were reported more frequently as the first dominant percept even in the presence of coarse information (at a low SF level: 2&ndash, 6 cycle/degree). Following current theories of emotion processing, the results provide further support for the influence of positive compared to negative meaning on binocular rivalry and, for the first time, showed that individuals perceive the affective quality of happiness even in the absence of details in the visual display. Furthermore, our findings represent an advance in knowledge regarding the association between the high- and low-level mechanisms behind binocular rivalry.

In this study, we conducted two experiments to evaluate the effect of different types of odors on a time reproduction task, comparing performances of males to those of females. In the first experiment, subjects had to estimate short (510, 600, 690 ms) and long (1700, 2000, 2300 ms) interval durations under three odor conditions: positive, negative and neutral. A gender specific effect of olfactory stimulation on time estimation was found only for short durations. Namely, females were less accurate (overestimated) in reproducing short time intervals during the unpleasant odor presentation. This effect was confirmed and strengthened in the second experiment in which the intensity of the negative odor was enhanced. The present findings suggest that the neural network underlying time estimation is more “sensitive” to context manipulations in females than in men. Practical Applications The first important point is that there might be relevant gender differences in the processing of time (time estimation) that are mediated by olfactory stimulation. This new evidence might have important implications and applications in health issues and especially in workplace safety, for example in jobs or contexts in which fast processing and rapid decisions or choices are required. Therefore, the knowledge that females are more influenced by unpleasant odors than males during time estimation should be seriously considered in situations in which time plays a crucial role such as during rapid decision-making, where automatic processes should be efficiently activated. Overall, the higher sensitivity to specific olfactory stimulation observed in women probably reflects individual differences in a complex process such as time processing.

Background: The notion of ‘functional uncertainty' during sleep was first proposed to indicate an inability of the central nervous system to maintain stable states by coordinating physiological processes. While the presence of functional uncertainty phenomena has been shown in infants and hypothesized in the elderly, its actual occurrence in the aged population has never been systematically investigated. Objective: The aim of the study is to identify, in the sleep of aged individuals, indexes of sleep instability and fragmentation as markers of functional uncertainty, by comparing a sample of healthy elderly subjects to one of young adults. Methods: We compared polysomnograhic recordings of 20 healthy elderly subjects (age range 65-85 years) with those of 20 young individuals (age range 22-32 years), with special regard to the variables expressing functional uncertainty in sleep, such as continuity (e.g. arousals, awakenings), stability (e.g. state transitions, periods of marked ‘functional uncertainty') and cyclic organization parameters. Results: Significant differences emerged for all variables of interest: the elderly group showed higher indexes of fragmentation and instability than the young, as well as less and shorter cycles, and a lower percentage of time spent in cycles. Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis of a progressive sleep quality disruption with aging, expressed by pronounced sleep instability, fragmentation and disorganization. We propose that functional uncertainty measures could usefully be included in standard sleep assessments on both aged and sleep-disordered populations as accurate sleep quality indexes.

Insomniacs often report memory and concentration problems, but these complaints have not been consistently supported by performance measurements. Furthermore, while the majority of studies have addressed explicit memory, few have investigated the implicit domain, and very little is known concerning other types of implicit memory besides procedural memory, such as priming. Thus, the purpose of the study was to investigate priming effect for visual stimuli in insomniacs and good sleepers. Twenty-three insomniacs and 20 good sleepers performed a visual priming task in which they were asked to name new and old pictures presented at nine ascending levels of spatial filtering. Both neutral and sleep-related stimuli were used, as previous research evidenced an attentional bias for sleep-related stimuli. Visual priming effect was observed in both groups, suggesting that poor sleep quality does not affect this type of implicit memory. However, the identification process in insomniacs is influenced by the nature of the stimulus to identify: insomniacs recognized both new and old sleep-related stimuli at lower spatial frequencies compared with good sleepers. The tendency to selectively attend to sleep-related stimuli may influence top-down processes occurring during identification of filtering stimuli, by determining a pre-allocation of attentional resources and facilitating identification processes even when sensorial information is scant. Differences in the identification processes of sleep-related stimuli compared with neutral ones should be carefully taken into account as possible pre-clinical markers of insomnia in poor sleepers.

Converging results have shown that adults benefit from congruent multisensory stimulation in the identification of complex stimuli, whereas the developmental trajectory of the ability to integrate multisensory inputs in children is less well understood. In this study we explored the effects of audiovisual semantic congruency on identification of visually presented stimuli belonging to different categories, using a cross-modal approach. Four groups of children ranging in age from 6 to 13 years and adults were administered an object identification task of visually presented pictures belonging to living and nonliving entities. Stimuli were presented in visual, congruent audiovisual, incongruent audiovisual, and noise conditions. Results showed that children under 12 years of age did not benefit from multisensory presentation in speeding up the identification. In children the incoherent audiovisual condition had an interfering effect, especially for the identification of living things. These data suggest that the facilitating effect of the audiovisual interaction into semantic factors undergoes developmental changes and the consolidation of adult-like processing of multisensory stimuli begins in late childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record

Despite its clinical importance, the issue of the diurnal time course of sleepiness and performance in children remains largely unexplored. The objective of this study is to draw a profile of daytime subjective sleepiness and performance, at simple and complex tasks, in a cohort of Italian primary school children.To this aim, a sample of 316 children (age range: 5–11 years; mean 8.2 ± 1.5) was recruited and sub-divided into three groups, according to age: Group 1 (5–7 years; N = 127), Group 2 (8–9 years; N = 108), Group 3 (10–11 years; N = 81). Subjective sleepiness and simple performance were evaluated, respectively, through the Pictorial Sleepiness Scale and the Simple Reaction Time Task. Executive functions were addressed by means of the “Go/No-Go Task.” Measurements were made in the children’s class three times a day, one day a week over a 3-week period in order to reliably reflect the habitual time course of sleepiness and performance, within the following time intervals: a) 8:30 am–10:30 am; b) 11 am–1 pm; c) 2 pm–4 pm.For the global sample, a significant increase of subjective sleepiness was found at the end of school day (2–4 pm), although at relatively low levels. No significant differences were observed in reaction times across the day, whereas a significant worsening was detected in performance at complex task already since mid-morning. Significant correlations were found between subjective sleepiness and complex performance at all points.Slight age-related differences were found in the time courses of subjective sleepiness: in fact, a significant overday reduction of vigilance levels, from mid-morning onwards, was observed in children aged 5–9 years, but not in the older children (10–11 years). However, the daily time course of both simple and complex performances did not differ among children of the three age groups. Our results show changes in vigilance and cognitive functions across a typical school day in childhood, as well as age-related differences in sleepiness profile, that we suggest to thoroughly consider when conceiving chronopsychological interventions in the school context.

Yawning, besides being a spontaneous behavior, can also be evoked by observing others yawn. However, contagious yawning does not always occur, depending possibly on several factors, such as one’s propensity to spontaneously yawn and a heightened level of sleepiness. The aim of this study is to investigate in young adults whether contagious yawning frequency varies throughout the day, and if it is related to the daily time course of spontaneous yawning frequency and level of sleepiness. For the study, 22 subjects were instructed to log hourly, throughout wakefulness, the number of spontaneous yawns and sleepiness level. Subjects were required to continue this procedure for 3 consecutive days, after which they underwent five experimental sessions occurring at regular intervals throughout the same day. During each experimental session, subjects observed others yawn (stimulus condition) and smile (control condition). Our findings show that the contagious effect of yawning is always present throughout the daytime. Both contagious and spontaneous yawning peaked in the early morning and in the late evening, according to the sleepiness time course. However, the frequency of spontaneous yawns was remarkably lower than the frequency of contagious yawns around 19:00. This difference suggests that different mechanisms control spontaneous and contagious yawning.

The night sleep of 12 healthy subjects aged 76-98 was polygraphically investigated in order to analyse body movements and their association with sleep stages at very old age; this group was compared with 11 healthy old subjects aged 61-75 years. In very old subjects sleep is less punctuated by body movements and the association of body movements with each sleep stage is further modified compared to less old subjects. Short-lasting movements emerge indifferently from stage 1, stage 2 and REM sleep, but are significantly less frequent in SWS. Furthermore, in very old subjects the probability of awakening after body movements is higher than in old subjects, suggesting that sleep is more vulnerable to the occurrence of body movements than at previous ages. The difficulty in the elderly to maintain a stable state expresses the inability to sustain and coordinate stable physiological activities characteristic of the old age. In addition, the presence of numerous awakenings, not preceded by movements, supports the hypothesis that the awakening in the very old people may be a sudden event, as should be confirmed by the study of other behavioural and physiological activities preceding awakening.

Sleep is preceded by physiological and behavioural events that inform the subject that it is time to sleep. Our hypothesis is that insomniacs do not adequately recognize such signals, thus missing the best time to go to bed. Eighty-seven chronic insomniac participants and 76 age-matched good sleeper controls were recruited. Semi-structured interviews focused on three aspects of nocturnal sleep: features, habitual activities and signals that they usually rely on in order to decide their readiness to sleep. The results showed that insomniacs relied more than good sleepers on external signals (time) than on bodily ones to decide to go to sleep.

Yawning has been observed in foetuses and preterm infants. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency and the 24 h distribution of yawning in preterm infants. Twelve low-risk infants between 31 and 40 weeks of post-conceptional age (PCA) were continuously video-recorded for 24 h in their incubator. Spontaneous yawning was defined as opening of the mouth to its full extension in a dramatic stretch movement. The results showed that the rate of yawning across the 24-h period was 1.10/h. The highest incidence of yawns was in the waking motility pattern when compared to active sleep or quiet sleep motility patterns. Between 31 and 40 weeks, yawn incidence significantly decreased mainly during the day. The marked decrease in yawn frequency with age may be related to the development of circadian and homeostatic control of sleep and wake.

Yawning occurs more frequently in the early morning and in the late evening, close to sleep onset and after the awakening, and it might be linked to sleep propensity. We aimed to study yawning and its temporal distribution in morning and evening subjects who display different sleep-wake and sleepiness rhythms. Sixteen healthy young adults (8 evening-types and 8 morning-types, matched for age and gender) have been selected and instructed to keep their habitual sleep schedules and to signal every yawning occurrence for three consecutive days. Results show that evening-types yawn more frequently than morning-types, particularly during morning hours. Yawning frequency decreases across daytime in evening-types reaching its lowest level in the early evening and increases thereafter. Instead, in morning-types, yawning frequency remains quite low during daytime and increases in the evening. Moreover, both morning and evening types show a progressive increase of yawning frequency in the hours preceding sleep onset, whereas they differ after the awakening. Evening-types show a higher yawning frequency that remains quite stable in the hours following the awakening, while morning-types display a decline in yawning frequency. Our findings show that the temporal distribution of yawning frequency differs between chronotypes, supporting the hypothesis that differences in sleep-wake rhythm affect yawning, which could represent a behavioural sign of sleep propensity.

Background Recent neuroimaging data support the hypothesis of a multisensory interplay at low-level sensory-specific cortex. Objective We used an on-line interference approach by rTMS to investigate the role of the left lateral occipital cortex (LOC) in audio–visual (AV) object recognition process. Methods Fifteen healthy volunteers performed a visual identification task of degraded pictures presented alone or simultaneously to coherent or non-coherent sounds. Focal 10-Hz rTMS at an intensity of 100% resting motor threshold was delivered simultaneously to the picture. Two blocks of 60 pictures were randomly displayed in two different experimental conditions: rTMS of the left LOC and over Cz. Results rTMS of the left LOC produced a worsening of the accuracy compared to rTMS over Cz specifically in the coherent AV condition. Conclusion These data support the view that audio–visual interaction effect may occur at early stage of recognition processing.

Objective The relationship between left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and cognitive performance in patients with coronary artery disease without overt heart failure is still under debate. In this study we combine behavioral measures and event-related potentials (ERPs) to verify whether electrophysiological correlates of recognition memory (old/new effect) are modulated differently as a function of LVEF. Methods Twenty-three male patients (12 without [LVEF > 55%] and 11 with [LVEF 25 were enrolled. ERPs were recorded while participants performed an old/new visual word recognition task. Results A late positive ERP component between 350 and 550 ms was differentially modulated in the two groups: a clear old/new effect (enhanced mean amplitude for old respect to new items) was observed in patients without LVEF dysfunction; whereas patients with overt LVEF dysfunction did not show such effect. In contrast, no significant differences emerged for behavioral performance and neuropsychological evaluations. Conclusions These data suggest that ERPs may reveal functional brain abnormalities that are not observed at behavioral level. Significance Detecting sub-clinical measures of cognitive decline may contribute to set appropriate treatments and to monitor asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients with LVEF dysfunction.

The study aimed to evaluate the development of awakenings during preterm and term age in 12 low-risk infants observed between 33 and 40 weeks of post-conceptional age. Waking was been detected through the analysis of body motility. Gross generalized body movements with prolonged startles, marked stretching and writhing was considered as waking, whereas vigorous, forceful abrupt body movements with high frequency tremor sometimes superimposed upon movements were considered as corresponding to crying. Total number of awakenings in the 24 h does not show significant changes with age, whereas the mean duration increases significantly, which is accounted for mainly by those awakenings starting with crying, in particular, during the day. These data suggest a developmental gap between the ability to sustain the waking state, which already starts to increase before term age, and the ability to maintain prolonged sleep episodes, which has been shown to develop later. Furthermore, the developmental difference between awakenings starting with crying and awakenings starting with wakefulness suggests that two kinds of awakenings might be modulated by different factors.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the organisation of EEG patterns in 24-h recordings of preterm and near-term neonates. In particular, the distribution of the different EEG codes at different postmenstrual ages (PMA) and the variations of sleep-related EEG pattern organisation was studied, during day (8.00 a.m.-8.00 p.m.) and night (8.00 p.m.-8.00 a.m.) time. The age of appearance of different neonatal EEG patterns, previously described in literature for short lasting records, was confirmed in this 24-h study. The medium-voltage continuous EEG pattern (pattern "3") was less represented approaching term age, in coincidence with the appearance of the two low-voltage continuous patterns ("1" and "2"), which are also related to active sleep and wakefulness. Discontinuous pattern ("7") was also less represented with age, but in day-time only. The percentage of time occupied by this pattern, related to quiet sleep, was significantly higher during day-time hours, than at night.

In order to enlighten the profile of body movements during sleep at old age, the night sleep of twelve elderly subjects was polygraphically investigated; seven young healthy subjects were the control group. Significantly less body movements during sleep were found in the elderly compared to young subjects, meaning that the decrease in the number of body movements observed from infancy to childhood up to adulthood also continues at later ages. Differently from young adult, whose sleep body movements mainly occur in stage REM, no specific sleep state and/or stage was preferentially associated with the occurrence of body movements in the elderly. These data may point to an age-related modification in the interaction between motor cortex control and subcortical circuits. Furthermore, when body movements occur in elderly individuals, they are significantly more often followed in the next 60 s by a sleep stage change or by a spontaneous behavioural awakening. This might reflect a peculiar inability of elderly subjects to sustain stable states, and could also suggest that body movements may act as a co-factor in a process, comprising other physiological changes, leading to state shifts.

Children undergoing magnetic resonance imaging examination frequently experience anxiety and fear before and during the scanning. The aim of the present study was to assess: i) whether and to what extent psychological interventions might reduce anxiety and fear levels, ii) whether the intervention is related to a decrease in the need for sedation. The interventions consisted of three activities: a clown show, dog interaction and live music. The emotional status (anxiety and fear) of the children was evaluated before and after the activities through a rating scale questionnaire. The results showed that the activities had high effectiveness in reducing the level of anxiety and fear and decreased the need for sedation in the experimental group compared to the control group. This approach proved to be a positive patient experience, helping to alleviate children’s anxiety and fear, decreasing the need for sedation, and was cost-effective.