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Background and aim: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and metacognitive therapy (MCT) can reduce depressive symptoms as monotherapies or associated with pharmacological treatment. Here, we investigated the effectiveness of combining these treatments in a group of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods: So far, fourteen participants (10 females, Mage 43 ± 12) out of N= 54 estimated sample size were recruited at the Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health – Fondazione IRRCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico of Milano. All participants were under pharmacological treatment. They were randomly assigned to three groups receiving (i) real tDCS + sham MCT (n= 7); (ii) sham tDCS + MCT (n = 6) (iii) real tDCS + MCT (n= 1). The treatment lasted eight weeks, in which participants had one weekly MCT (groups ii and iii) or clinical interview session (group i) following the tDCS. TDCS was combined with attentional training (20 minutes, 1.5 mA, anode over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and took place three times a week for the first three weeks and then once a week. Clinical standardized questionnaires measuring depressive symptoms, anxiety, worry, rumination, and meta-beliefs were administered before and after the treatment, two weeks, three, six, and twelve months after treatment’s end. Results: Due to sampling distribution, mixed effects models were run, including time and only two groups as fixed factors (i and ii) and participants’ random intercept. Outcome measures revealed an effect of time, showing symptoms reduction after the treatment. Crucially, our results suggested a more robust reduction of worry and negative beliefs in the group receiving MCT compared to the one receiving only tDCS. Conclusions: despite preliminary, our results suggest that MCT can effectively reduce core symptoms contributing to the development and maintenance of MDD. Completing data collection will allow disentangling whether tDCS can boost this ef

Il saggio intende approfondire il rapporto filosofico tra meraviglia e origine dell'estetico.

Background: Cognitive Remediation (CR) is designed to halt the pathological neural systems that characterize major psychotic disorders (MPD), and its main objective is to improve cognitive functioning. The magnitude of CR-induced cognitive gains greatly varies across patients with MPD, with up to 40% of patients not showing gains in global cognitive performance. This is likely due to the high degree of heterogeneity in neural activation patterns underlying cognitive endophenotypes, and to inter-individual differences in neuroplastic potential, cortical organization and interaction between brain systems in response to learning. Here, we review studies that used neuroimaging to investigate which biomarkers could potentially serve as predictors of treatment response to CR in MPD. Methods: This systematic review followed the PRISMA guidelines. An electronic database search (Embase, Elsevier; Scopus, PsycINFO, APA; PubMed, APA) was conducted in March 2021. peer-reviewed, English-language studies were included if they reported data for adults aged 18+ with MPD, reported findings from randomized controlled trials or single-arm trials of CR; and presented neuroimaging data. Results: Sixteen studies were included and eight neuroimaging-based biomarkers were identified. Auditory mismatch negativity (3 studies), auditory steady-state response (1), gray matter morphology (3), white matter microstructure (1), and task-based fMRI (7) can predict response to CR. Efference copy corollary/discharge, resting state, and thalamo-cortical connectivity (1) require further research prior to being implemented. Conclusions: Translational research on neuroimaging-based biomarkers can help elucidate the mechanisms by which CR influences the brain's functional architecture, better characterize psychotic subpopulations, and ultimately deliver CR that is optimized and personalized.

Olfaction is the most ancient sense and is directly connected with emotional areas in the brain. It gives rise to perception linked to emotion both in everyday life and in memory-recall activities. Despite its emotional primacy in perception and its role in sampling the real physical world, olfaction is rarely used in clinical psychological settings because it relies on stimuli that are difficult to deliver. However, recent developments in virtual-reality tools are creating novel possibilities for the engagement of the sense of smell in this field. In this article, we present the relevant features of olfaction for relaxation purposes and then discuss possible future applications of involving olfaction in virtual-reality interventions for relaxation. We also discuss clinical applications, the potential of new tools, and current obstacles and limitations.

Facial attractiveness plays an important role in everyday social interactions. In the present study, we investigated whether people's evaluation of attractiveness can be modulated by odours. In Experiment 1, twelve participants rated a series of odours on several perceptual and synaesthetic characteristics (gender, pleasantness, cheerfulness, intensity, arousal and association with food), along visual analogue scales. In Experiment 2, the participants judged the attractiveness of female and male faces, while smelling an odour that was rated in Experiment 1 as more feminine (caramel), masculine (licorice) or when odourless water was presented. The results showed that the participants evaluated female faces as more attractive when the caramel odour was concurrently presented. By contrast, the participants evaluated the male faces as more attractive when the licorice odour was presented. These results highlight the importance of the synaesthetic associations between “gender” and odours on people's judgements of facial attractiveness.

BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation is increasingly recognised as a rescue therapy for refractory cardiac arrest, nevertheless data are scanty about its effects on neurologic and cardiac outcome. The aim of this study is to compare clinical outcome in patients with cardiac arrest of ischaemic origin (i.e. critical coronary plaque during angiography) and return of spontaneous circulation during conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation vs refractory cardiac arrest patients needing extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Moreover, we tried to identify predictors of survival after successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation.METHODS: We enrolled 148 patients with ischaemic cardiac arrest admitted to our hospital from 2011-2015. We compared clinical characteristics, cardiac arrest features, neurological and echocardiographic data obtained after return of spontaneous circulation (within 24 h, 15 days and six months).RESULTS: Patients in the extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation group ( n=63, 43%) were younger (59±9 vs 63±8 year-old, p=0.02) with lower incidence of atherosclerosis risk factors than those with conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In the extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation group, left ventricular ejection fraction was lower than conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation at early echocardiography (19±16% vs 37±11 p<0.01). Survivors in both groups showed similar left ventricular ejection fraction 15 days and 4-6 months after cardiac arrest (46±8% vs 49±10, 47±11% vs 45±13%, p not significant for both), despite a major extent and duration of cardiac ischaemia in extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation patients. At multivariate analysis, the total cardiac arrest time was the only independent predictor of survival.CONCLUSIONS: Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation patients are younger and have less comorbidities than conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but they have worse survival and lower earl

Background: Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit behavioral inhibition deficits, which often lead to emotional dysregulation (ED) affecting individual ability to control emotions and behavioral responses. In ADHD, ED is associated with poor outcomes and comorbidities, with both externalizing and internalizing disorders. This work aims to evaluate sensitivity to emotional stimuli in children with ADHD using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). Methods: During frontal fNIRS recording, 20 children with ADHD and 25 typically developing (TD) peers performed a visual continuous performance task with stimuli of different emotional content (i.e., positive, negative, neutral, and control stimuli without emotional content). This is a cognitive task designed to evaluate the ability to recognize emotional stimuli and to deal with emotional interference. Results: The ADHD sample showed more variability in response time to stimuli and more false alarms compared to TD group. fNIRS data showed between-group differences in right prefrontal and frontal cortices, with wider hemoglobin concentration changes in the TD group, during positive, negative, and neutral conditions. Limitations: Owing to the limited possibility of near infrared light to penetrate tissue, fNIRS can only measure cortical activations, while it would be of interest to identify the subcortical areas linked to emotional processing, too. Conclusions: Findings suggest the presence of emotional processing deficits in children with ADHD, as suggested by poor performances on the e-CPT task, and of peculiar sensitivity to emotional stimuli, linked to atypical hemodynamics of right prefrontal and frontal areas.

Only recently, neuroscience has devoted attention to one of the most fascinating phenomena that has captured human imagination for centuries, that is, the psychological sublime or awe. Defined as an emotion arising from vast overwhelming stimuli, it has been investigated consistently, i.e., outlining its facial, experiential, behavioral, and cognitive correlates, while far little is known about the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. The aim of this study is to elucidate the neurophysiological correlates of the laboratory experience of the psychological sublime in a pilot sample of 5 young healthy Italian participants. Five young Italian adults were exposed to four immersive virtual reality environments (VREs), three validated for the elicitation of instances of the psychological sublime and one as control condition, in a counterbalanced order. Stimuli were delivered through an Oculus rift DK2 and simultaneous electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were performed. Functional connectivity (FC) analyses were performed in the main frequency bands to extract local and global characteristics of the neuronal network. During the sublime experience, we expected differential FC patterns among the three-sublime inducing VREs and compared to the control condition. Compared to the control condition, high mountains showed a significant increase of FC network strength in theta band, while Earth view showed a decrease of FC network strength in beta band. At the link-level, also Tall Trees featured an increased FC in interhemispheric connections in theta and alpha bands. This is the first study elucidating the neurophysiological correlates of a dynamic sublime experience and drafting brain activity during different instances of the psychological sublime. Our preliminary results demonstrate the importance of exploring the brain interactions at multiple spatial scales and frequency bands, opening new avenues in our understanding of the neuronal response to awe.