This study investigated the potential of a new executive functions assessment battery developed for evaluating cognitive-neuropsychological correlates in addictions, and its remote administration in a sample of patients with gambling disorder (GD). The Battery for Executive Functions in the Addiction (BFE-A) comprises five neuropsychological tests aimed at measuring verbal short- and long-term...
Parkinson's disease (PD) is typically known as a neurodegenerative disorder affecting motor skills. It is characterized by the loss of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra and subsequent accumulation of Lewy bodies in the residual neurons. Although cognitive impairments are a significant aspect of PD, there has been limited investigation and analysis of these changes. This is...
Faces influence our initial trust decisions but sometimes can be deceiving. Young children can form trust impressions from faces and use them to guide their decisions in economic trust games (Ewing et al., 2015). Older children can also consider the fairness of partners' return behavior when making trust decisions (Siddique et al., 2022). Here, we explored how 5-7-year-olds adjust their trust...
Gli ambienti sociali in cui ci muoviamo sono ricchi di stimoli capaci di suscitare emozioni diverse nelle persone. Come esseri intrinsecamente sociali, noi esseri umani abbiamo sviluppato diversi processi per proteggerci e socializzare con altri esseri umani. Tra queste componenti troviamo il sistema immunitario comportamentale (SIC), risultato di una combinazione di processi socio-cognitivi,...
Nel contesto lavorativo contemporaneo, le aziende sono spinte a un rapido adattamento alle nuove modalità e agli strumenti tecnologici sempre più avanzati. Queste innovazioni hanno però ripercussioni sui livelli di attenzione, engagement e sintonizzazione nelle interazioni interpersonali.
Il presente studio intende indagare il processo di collaborazione e sincronizzazione in una popolazione...
Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) may be more prone to make risky value-based decisions, probably due to impairments in anticipating the unrewarding consequences or to an insensitiveness to them. So far, evidence showed that: i) In PD neural structures pivotal in decision making (DM) are affected; ii) Dopaminergic medications may bias choices toward risk; iii) Cognitive functioning, in...
A widespread problem in studying the neural correlates of visual consciousness is the difficulty in disentangling the actual correlates of the visual experience from the neural consequences of such percepts. This study aims to elucidate the electrophysiological dynamics underlying visual experiences' consequences. To do so, a partial report paradigm was used to separate activity related to the...
In sports, the home advantage is the higher chance to win a game when playing home, while the referee bias is the referee decision bias in favor of the home team. During the pandemic period, a natural experiment occurred, due to the large number of matches played in absence of spectators. Previous studies examined the effect of spectators on these phenomena on a relatively small number of...
Psychological research has focused on developing a deeper theoretical and practical understanding of the best intervention strategies to support eco-friendly behaviours, attitudes, and practices. It has been noted that the anticipation of regret is a strong inducement to act. The overall goal is to encourage young individuals to make eco-friendly decisions by manipulating their regrets. For...
L'Effetto boost attenzionale si riferisce alla facilitazione nel riconoscimento di immagini (o parole) presentate insieme a stimoli target, ai quali i partecipanti devono rispondere, durante la fase di codifica. Uno studio precedente ha dimostrato che l'effetto boost può migliorare la discriminazione visiva di immagini molto simili tra loro (pattern separation; Sisk & Lee, 2022). Gli obiettivi...
An extensive literature demonstrated that non-invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) through overt and covert manipulation of specific brain signals enable alternative ways of communication in highly disabled individuals with neurodegenerative disorders. In particular, EEG-BCI spellers allow patients with severe loss of motor control and language abilities to by-pass the dysfunctional...
Research consistently shows that rhythm complexity elicits pleasurable responses to music, with medium complexity rhythms eliciting the highest levels of pleasure and wanting to move. However, whether it predicts rhythmic skills and its association with musical pleasure and musical hedonia remains unexplored. So, in Experiment 1, we first quantified the pulse entropy of realistic musical...
The Values-Beliefs-Norms theory is frequently utilized in environmental psychology to explain pro-environmental actions through a causal relationship among psychological dimensions. The theory suggests that values influence beliefs, which then shape personal norms. These factors interact and influence each other, promoting the adoption of Pro-Environmental Behaviors (PEB). However, the...
Short periods of sleep restriction have been found to alleviate symptoms of depression. Among other manifestations, depression is characterized by anhedonia, a lack of enjoyment from life’s experiences. According to this, individuals with depressive symptoms may exhibit less frequent or reduced reactions to positive emotional stimuli, performing paradoxically better in emotion suppression...
Gender bias is pervasive in many aspects of our lives: women experience more difficulties than men in the job market. Here, we tested a linguistic strategy to mitigate gender bias in professional contexts in Italian.
Four versions of 20 faces were created, varying along a continuum from masculinity (1) to femininity (7) using FaceGenArtistPro3 (Values:1,3,5,7). Participants saw two versions...
Le relazioni rivestono un ruolo di fondamentale importanza per il benessere psicofisico della persona, specialmente nell’anziano. Durante le interazioni sociali entrano in gioco diverse abilità, fra cui la Teoria della Mente (ToM) che permette di interpretare i propri e altrui stati mentali (pensieri, emozioni, desideri). Tale abilità è particolarmente utile nel predire i comportamenti degli...
During the decision-making process, people create mental representations of the situation, that could be directed at the “real” or “ideal” world. Moreover, when people decide, they could adopt an individual or group orientation. In the first type of orientation, people consider the task and personal needs as more relevant than relationships, while group orientation is characterized by a high...
I ricordi fotografici (Flashbulb Memories, FBMs) sono ricordi autobiografici vividi e dettagliati del contesto di apprendimento di un evento pubblico, inaspettato, importante e ad alto impatto emotivo. Uno studio cross-nazionale condotto su 11 Paesi nel mondo (N= 2306), ha indagato la formazione di un ricordo flashbulb per la notizia del primo caso COVID-19 nel proprio Paese, e ha testato...
Il presente studio si pone l’obiettivo di indagare il ruolo dell’attenzione visuo-spaziale durante l’elaborazione semantica delle informazioni in parafovea.
È stato utilizzato il paradigma Rapid Parallel Visual Presentation (RPVP) che prevede la presentazione simultanea di due parole per 150 ms, una in fovea (W1) e una in parafovea (W2), controllate per lunghezza e frequenza d’uso. Metà delle...
Conflict is an inevitable aspect of human life, and the manner in which it is managed critically influences the outcomes of such situations. Extensive research has demonstrated that culture, personality, and situational factors shape individuals' preferences for conflict management styles. Despite the fact that women constitute 50% of the global population and 60% of individuals are bilingual...
L’obiettivo dello studio è verificare l’effetto nel tempo dei sintomi da COVID-19 sulle condizioni di ansia, depressione e sonno su un campione di adulti spagnoli. Le 601 persone hanno compilato il questionario su ansia, depressione e sonno, ogni 2 settimane, per un anno, all’interno del periodo che va tra la fine di luglio 2021 e dicembre 2022. Per ciascun partecipante sono disponibili anche...
Previous research has shown that visual stimuli presented across eye movements can distort time and space perception. Interestingly, introducing a full-field visual mask within 40 milliseconds after two brief visual events can reverse temporal judgments, even in the absence of eye movements. We explored whether the spatial characteristics of the mask could influence this temporal inversion...
La transizione dai tradizionali veicoli a combustione ai veicoli elettrici (VE) è essenziale per raggiungere gli obiettivi di decarbonizzazione e cercare di fronteggiare il surriscaldamento globale. Ci sono vari ostacoli che frenano tale transizione, di cui molti di natura psicologica. Particolarmente noto è il problema del range anxiety, cioè il timore di rimanere senza carica durante gli...
Nei compiti di ricerca in cui la caratteristica che definisce lo stimolo target può cambiare da una prova all'altra, le risposte sono più rapide quando tale caratteristica è ripetuta rispetto a quando cambia.
Questo effetto, noto come “Intertrial Priming of Pop-Out” (PoP), suggerisce che le proprietà dell’array di ricerca precedente modulano l’efficienza della selezione dello stimolo target...
In un compito di scelta, la prestazione è tipicamente più veloce e accurata quando l’orientamento della porzione afferrabile di un utensile corrisponde alla posizione della risposta manuale (effetto di corrispondenza manico-mano). Secondo una spiegazione aggiornata in termini di “affordance activation”, il manico, visivamente saliente o meno, attiverebbe un’appropriata azione di afferramento...
In this study we targeted metacognition of lip-reading benefits in older and younger adults listening to a visible talker in noise. We explored individuals' awareness of the advantages of lip-reading under the form of improved confidence and reduced listening effort. Additionally, we examine whether this metacognitive awareness changes with age, investigating differences in metacognitive...
Objectives: Sars-Cov-2 infection had a significant impact on the psychological well-being of children and led to negative effects on their mental health. Although children affected by COVID-19 had milder symptoms compared to adults, impairments in neuropsychological and emotional development were noted.
The main aim of this study was to detect possible changes in the neuropsychological and...
The perinatal period (conception to first year) brings about psychological changes in mothers, including heightened vulnerability to potential threats, especially during pregnancy (e.g., Brygger Venø et al., 2021). When competing for resources, people are also sensitive to cues of threat, with physically weaker individuals tending to concede more resources to those who appear more (vs less)...
The aim of this viewpoint paper is to synthetically report the state of the art at a global level on research, practice and assessment, policies, and training in clinical psychology of aging and more specifically in geropsychology. The main sources of information were: 1) the most recent reviews of the literature available in the scientific literature, 2) the resources on the internet...
In professional settings, interruptions can frequently disrupt tasks, necessitating adaptive control processes and focused attention to meet deadlines effectively. This research explored the behavioral and electrophysiological (EEG) markers of professionals’ capacity to resist distractions during a goal setting task, and their adaptability and willingness to adjust a previously determined...
Scototaxis test is an anxiety-like test used by behavioural neuroscientists consisting in the assessment of dark/light preference of laboratory animals. Most of the fish species have been shown to express a preference for the dark environment. However, the majority of the investigated species has a dark body colour, thus making a clear contrast with a white/bright background. Also, while in...
Recent studies have revealed intriguing links between experimental manipulation of body ownership and changes in autonomic responses, including skin temperature changes. However, the mechanisms underlying this interaction remain unclear.
The aim of the present study is to investigate the electroencephalographic correlates of body ownership manipulation and skin temperature changes.
The...
Un noto studio di Ward e colleghi (2017) ha messo in evidenza che la mera presenza dello smartphone (posizionato sul tavolo vs. in un’altra stanza) sembrerebbe interferire con le prestazioni cognitive (Ward et al., 2017). Tale effetto, definito “brain drain” da Ward e colleghi, è stato oggetto di alcuni tentativi di replica, con risultati nulli nella maggior parte dei casi. Il presente...
Most of the studies on the cognitive abilities of fish focused on models organisms adopted in behavioural neuroscience. To date, little attention has been devoted to characiformes fish and we record a lack of cognitive investigation on the piranha. In the present study, we aimed to assess whether red-bellied piranhas (Pygocentrus nattereri) can solve an automated operant conditioning task like...
When we observe an object, our visual system identifies its general shape and adds specific details to form a coherent representation. This coarse-to-fine approach involves quick processing of low spatial frequency content (LSF) to generate a basic template, which aids the integration of the more detailed high spatial frequency information (HSF). In three experiments, we explored how LSF and...
In an eye tracking and pupillometry study, we investigated the factors influencing attentional capture when individuals see food items. We suggest that the two core motivational systems, namely Wanting (i.e.,the desire for food and meal selection) and Liking (i.e.,the subjective pleasure and arousal evoked by food), modulate attentional processes in different ways. Moreover, we hypothesized...
Environmental issues and climate change require consumers to shift their habits towards more sustainable consumption behaviors. Recently, the negative environmental impact of the fashion industries has garnered increasingly attention. Hence, we conducted an exploratory study aiming at understanding which determinants and barriers shape consumers’ sustainable fashion consumption. Additionally,...
La Realtà Virtuale (VR) è sempre più utilizzata per creare strumenti avanzati di valutazione ecologica delle funzioni cognitive. Tuttavia, comprendere i vantaggi e le sfide introdotte da questa nuova tecnologia è cruciale per sviluppare test neuropsicologici più funzionali. Questo studio ha analizzato l'influenza del tipo di ambiente virtuale (VR a 360° vs. VR model-based) sulle capacità...
