Introduzione. Le interazioni sociali con altre persone all’interno delle esperienze quotidiane sono potenti mezzi per imparare a interagire con il mondo. Attraverso l’apprendimento osservativo, una forma di apprendimento sociale, gli individui possono ridurre il tempo e i tentativi necessari per apprendere azioni e comportamenti complessi. Sebbene l’apprendimento osservativo sia cruciale per...
Gli spazi di apprendimento online, durante e dopo la pandemia Covid-19, sono divenuti per il cervello dell’uomo non-luoghi, ossia mezzi utili alla fruizione didattica, caratterizzati dall’isolamento fisico e mentale. I neuroni GPS, adibiti al riconoscimento dello spazio circostante, non si attivano nel setting digitale. Inoltre, le dimensioni dell’attenzione e del coinvolgimento hanno subito...
Questo studio longitudinale esplora l'associazione tra la pratica della pallavolo non agonistica e lo sviluppo di abilità cognitive, competenze emotive e capacità sociali in adolescenti che praticano la pallavolo (12-19 anni), confrontandoli con un gruppo di non atleti.
Il disegno prevede valutazioni a inizio (T1) e fine stagione (T2, 9 mesi) tramite task cognitivi (Flanker, Number Letter,...
Previous ERP research has shown that violations of stereotypical gender expectations elicit responses similar to those seen in morphosyntactic gender agreement violations. These studies did not report any expected semantic effect. The present work aims to investigate the effect of stereotypical and grammatical gender on subject-verb agreement processing. Participants (N=44) silently read...
The potential role of attachment quality in emotion regulation and attention has been frequently discussed. Anxious attachment is associated with hypervigilance toward emotional stimuli while avoidant attachment is characterized by attentional withdrawal. However, there might be a selective attention deficit affecting either the engagement or disengagement components of attentional processing....
Parkinson's disease (PD) is typically known as a neurodegenerative disorder affecting motor skills and is characterized by the loss of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra and subsequent accumulation of Lewy bodies in the residual neurons. While motor symptoms are hallmark features of PD, increasing evidence suggests that non-motor symptoms, such as attentional deficits,...
Introduction: The ability to regulate emotional responses is essential for university students, frequently exposed to high-levels stressors that affect their well-being and cognitive functioning. Butterfly Tapping (BT) is a self-administered form of bilateral alternating stimulation, originally introduced in clinical settings to promote emotional regulation. Despite its clinical relevance, its...
The IASP definition of pain emphasizes its subjective nature, highlighting its multidimensionality. Pain signals potential harm to the body and, due to its negative emotional impact, can attract attention and mobilize resources to deal with the threat. Managing pain thus requires a strong cognitive component, as evidenced by the overlap between neural systems involved in pain management and...
Introduzione. Il comportamento di avvicinamento (CA; closing-in, in ambito clinico) si verifica quando, durante un compito di copia, ci si avvicina al modello per replicarlo. Questo fenomeno, osservabile anche in individui sani in condizioni di doppio compito (Sagliano et al., 2013), suggerisce un legame con il sovraccarico delle funzioni di controllo frontale. Tuttavia, i correlati cerebrali...
Vari studi sostengono che il ragionamento si sviluppi in contesti sociali, in particolare attraverso il dialogo (Kuhn et al, 2024; Mercier, 2016). L’evidenza empirica sui benefici di una comunicazione in formato dialogico è ancora però limitata. Lo studio condotto si propone di indagare l’impatto di tre diversi formati testuali - dialogo, monologo comunicativo e monologo descrittivo - sulla...
Partendo dalle evidenze che sottolineano l’ampia variabilità interindividuale nelle abilità navigazionali ed estendendo il concetto di embodied cognition (Goldman & de Vignemont, 2009) alla navigazione umana, l’obiettivo di questo studio è indagare se le differenze individuali nell’elaborazione dello spazio corporeo interno (interocezione) ed esterno possano contribuire a determinare la...
The ability to follow the gaze of conspecifics can provide valuable information about the environment and may be essential for developing more advanced socio-cognitive skills in both humans and other species. In this study, we took a comparative approach to investigate whether robust capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) can follow the gaze of their conspecifics. We presented 10 subjects with...
Recent evidence suggest that linguistic estimates can predict behavioural performance in number comparison tasks, supporting the idea that data extracted from vector-space models are informative about the mental representation of numbers. The current study investigates whether this phenomenon is specifically related to one’s native language and whether it can be replicated in multiple...
I processi di orientamento garantiscono all'individuo di spostare l'attenzione nello spazio al fine di analizzare selettivamente e rispondere a stimoli esterni. L’attività di tali meccanismi facilita la creazione di un programma motorio anticipatorio, aumentando la prontezza ad agire e riducendo i tempi di risposta (TR) a stimoli che si presentano nella posizione attenzionata. Il presente...
L'industria del fast fashion contribuisce in modo significativo al cambiamento climatico, sfruttando enormi quantità di risorse naturali (Mukherjee, 2015; Niinimäki, 2020). La moda on demand sta emergendo come alternativa sostenibile perché prevede la produzione dei capi solo su ordinazione. Le tecnologie di scansione del corpo svolgono un ruolo chiave in questo processo, permettendo ai...
Introduzione:
L'ascolto della musica sembra influenzare l'attivazione delle reti cerebrali coinvolte nei processi emotivi e cognitivi, modulandone la risposta. La componente P300 dei potenziali evento-correlati (ERP), ottenuta da un paradigma “oddball” uditivo, rappresenta un indicatore neurofisiologico utile per studiare le risorse attentive.
Metodo:
La P300 è stata elicitata con...
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. In base all’ipotesi dell’attivazione di affrordaces, il manico visivamente saliente o meno, attiverebbe un’appropriata azione di afferramento della mano ad esso allineata.
Secondo una linea di ricerca...
Introduction: University students often face high emotional and cognitive demands, highlighting the need for effective strategies to regulate anxiety and emotional reactivity. Alternating Bilateral Stimulation (BLS), a non-invasive technique derived from EMDR therapy, alternately activates brain hemispheres through rhythmic sensory stimuli. It is hypothesized to reduce emotional reactivity by...
Mobile typing is a widespread activity for people of all ages and social backgrounds. Several factors can affect typing efficiency and accuracy including age, typing style (e.g., using two thumbs or a single index finger), keys size and whether the device provides feedback during input. The different use of each thumb on the keyboard between digital natives and immigrants (born respectively...
Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) offers powerful opportunities to simulate complex and ethically sensitive scenarios, enabling profound impacts on individuals' attitudes and behaviors. In this study, we leveraged IVR to address one of society’s most deeply rooted problems: the influence of organized crime and -particularly- mafia-like organizations. Using a between-subjects design, 100...
False memories refer to the phenomenon of remembering events that never happened, or remembering them quite differently from the way they happened. In aging, this phenomenon is often confused with normal episodic memory decline and therefore under-investigated, particularly in pathological conditions. According to the literature, healthy aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer’s...
Background
Psychological flexibility is a key factor in athletic performance and well-being. This study investigates the effects of a DNA-V training on Italian adolescent competitive swimmers, focusing on the development of psychological flexibility and its impact on motivation and resilience in training and competition.
Method
This idiographic longitudinal study involved four athletes...
Understanding others’ mental states is a fundamental human ability, essential for navigating a complex and dynamic social world. Identifying the brain areas involved in this capacity is crucial, given the clinical and social consequences that difficulties in social understanding can entail. To better delineate the roles of the mentalizing and mirror systems, we performed a functional MRI study...
BACKGROUND
Face perception relies on global processing, minimizing attention to individual features. Inversion disrupts this by impairing spatial configuration, shifting focus to local features (Maurer et al., 2002). Motor planning also shapes perception: precision grips enhance local analysis, while power grips promote global processing (Job et al., 2017). This study tests whether grip...
INTRODUCTION
Blink reflexes have been shown to be a valuable approach to explore age-related physiological changes in brainstem function. However, the Hand Blink Reflex (HBR), a subcortical defensive response that enhances when the stimulated hand is inside the face’s peripersonal space, has not been studied in ageing context. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate age-related HBR...
INTRODUCTION. Implicit adaptation is an important issue in extended reality settings. Here we investigated adaptation by artificially amplifying the visual consequences of head rotation (Augmented Gaze-AG) to facilitate immersive visual exploration in a 360-deg telepresence environment (virtual biking).
METHODS. Eighteen participants completed three 3-minutes exposures performing a task...
Background:
Recognizing others’ intentions is pivotal for social interaction and involves the mirror neuron system (MNS) and the mentalizing system (MENT). Yet the organization and interaction of these systems during self- versus other-directed action observation are not fully understood. EEG research associates MNS activity with mu rhythms (alpha: 8–13 Hz; beta: 15–20 Hz) and has revealed...
Sebbene siano state distinte diverse tipologie di spazio (Tversky et al., 1999), gli studi presenti in letteratura hanno prevalentemente indagato lo sviluppo di ciascuna dimensione spaziale separatamente. Pertanto, questo studio intende esaminare, all’interno dello stesso campione, l’elaborazione dello spazio navigazionale e dello spazio corporeo interno ed esterno, confrontando giovani...
Studi condotti su giovani adulti hanno dimostrato che i meccanismi di controllo pro-attivo top-down sono attivi durante compiti di ricerca visiva, anche in assenza temporanea di distrattori (Petilli et al., 2018). Il presente studio indaga se l’invecchiamento influenzi tali processi, esaminando il ruolo dell’aspettativa del distrattore in adulti anziani sani, tramite il paradigma della...
Objective
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, and psychological symptoms, significantly affecting quality of life. Non-pharmacological treatments, such as non-invasive neuromodulation and exercise therapy, have shown potential in alleviating symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) alone or...
Language acquisition depends on critical periods in early ontogeny when the brain is especially sensitive to linguistic input. For typically hearing children, auditory exposure during this time supports the development of the neural systems underpinning speech perception and comprehension. In cases of congenital deafness, although hearing can be restored through cochlear implantation, this...
The nature of numerical representations, whether abstract and notation-independent, still sparks a fervent debate in the numerical cognition field. Recent behavioral evidence using distributional semantics have challenged the abstract coding view, showing that linguistic experience accounts for notation-dependent distance effects. This study examines whether linguistic priors also account for...
Open Science (OS) seeks to make scientific research more accessible, transparent, and reproducible by promoting practices such as open data and open methods. However, despite the growing importance of these practices, there is currently no comprehensive tool to systematically assess the extent to which research studies adhere to OS principles. The aim of this study was to develop an...
La crisi di replicabilità in psicologia ha messo in luce i rischi legati alla flessibilità dei ricercatori nelle fasi di raccolta, codifica e analisi dei dati – i cosiddetti “garden of forking paths”. Questa flessibilità analitica genera un multiverso di risultati plausibili, dei quali solo una parte - tipicamente i più favorevoli - viene riportata.
La Multiverse Analysis (MA) affronta questo...
The Workplace Ostracism Scale (WOS) is the most widely used instrument to assess Workplace Ostracism (WO), a particular form of social exclusion, comprising individual perceptions of being ignored and/or excluded by colleagues or supervisors at the workplace. The goal of the study was to contribute to the cross-validation of the WOS on an Italian sample (N = 441; 53.3% males; Mage = 35, SD =...
Lo sguardo altrui è un potente e automatico attrattore dell’attenzione. La tendenza a seguire lo sguardo altrui, nota come gaze-following behaviour (GFB), si riferisce all’orientamento automatico dell’attenzione nella direzione dello sguardo di un altro individuo. Tuttavia, il GFB può essere modulato o inibito da processi di categorizzazione sociale. Nell’ambito della categorizzazione...
Per sviluppare il potenziale degli studenti mediante percorsi didattici e formativi personalizzati, è importante disporre di strumenti in grado di rilevare le configurazioni di interessi, potenzialità e attitudini di ogni individuo. Per rispondere a tale obiettivo è stato sviluppato lo strumento SOPI, volto a misurare il potenziale degli studenti in nove domini (verbale, logico-matematico,...
Numerosi studi hanno evidenziato una relazione tra qualità del sonno e regolazione emotiva, suggerendo che il sonno svolga un ruolo cruciale nei processi emotivi. Tuttavia pochi studi hanno indagato tali processi nella vita quotidiana. Il presente studio ha l’obiettivo di osservare la relazione bidirezionale a livello within tra qualità del sonno e affettività nella quotidianità. Inoltre, si...
Traditional research on the self primarily focuses on the distinction between minimal and narrative aspects of the self, yet little is known about the broader, dynamic interactions between self aspects proposed by the Pattern Theory of Self (PTS). In this exploratory study, we employed a mental imagery paradigm designed to operationalize the PTS-derived self aspects, alongside benchmark...
L’infortunio sportivo rappresenta un evento critico nella carriera di un atleta con impatti significativi sul suo benessere psicologico.Il presente studio,con campionamento in corso,propone un intervento innovativo che mira a promuovere l'autostima,la resilienza e la compassione verso sé stessi in atleti agonisti in fase di riabilitazione post infortunio.Il campione (n=20;10 sport...
Over the last decades, various models have addressed the mechanisms of conceptual processing in bicultural bilinguals. Among these, the Shared Distributed Asymmetrical Model (Dong et al., 2005) proposes that bilinguals have partially overlapping yet asymmetrically distributed conceptual representations for their two languages: initially, L2 words only map onto L1-based conceptual...
Introduction:
It is well known that touching and being touched is crucial for neuro-cognitive development but very little is known regarding the development of social attention through touch in children, especially in visually impaired ones. This study investigates whether visual deprivation affects the ability to discriminate the source of affective touch, adapting a previous...
Human perceptual decisions are biased by prior events, a phenomenon known as serial dependence. For instance, when judging the orientation of a sequence of stimuli, responses are systematically biased toward the orientation of the preceding stimulus. This phenomenon has been extensively studied focusing on one participant at a time, thus limiting the findings to the level of individual...
A coherent sense of body ownership relies on the integration of top-down and bottom-up sensory signals. Disrupting the coherence of these signals through experimental manipulations (e.g., the rubber hand illusion or mirror box illusion) has been shown to affect body representation and peripheral physiological activity, such as body temperature. However, recent studies have debated these...
L’uso eccessivo dei social network, l’essere sempre connessi, rappresenta un problema crescente in tutto il mondo. Un termine che si è recentemente imposto nel mondo scientifico è “nomofobia”. “Nomo” è l’abbreviazione di “no mobile”, termine che i ricercatori britannici hanno utilizzato per descrivere il terrore di non essere raggiungibile al cellulare. La dipendenza da smartphone implica...
Background and objective: Motor imagery (MI) can improve motor performance and counteract neurological impairment, although its effectiveness varies across individuals according to hypnotizability levels. The study investigated whether not only highly hypnotizable (highs), but also medium (mediums) and low hypnotizable individuals (lows) can improve their actual and imagined motor performance...
Nature-based solutions (NBS), such as urban parks and large flowerbeds, are increasingly recognized for promoting human health by enhancing physical and mental well-being. Accessible natural environments can encourage physical activity, such as nature-based walking, supporting mental health, especially among older adults. However, few studies have examined how to design and implement...
INTRODUZIONE
Tra le abilità di computazione, il calcolo esatto rappresenta una competenza formalmente e la più indagata. L'approssimazione (es. 28+17 è < o > 50?) e la stima di grandezze (es. “Quanto è lungo un treno ad alta velocità?”) si basano invece su meccanismi sviluppati in età precoce e meno allenati nel contesto scolastico. Nonostante la loro rilevanza ecologica, i meccanismi...
È ormai consolidato come la variabilità interpersonale e intrapersonale, in termini di funzionamento cognitivo ed emotivo, aumenti all’avanzare dell’età. Questa variabilità potrebbe evidenziarsi anche nel margine di miglioramento che può derivare da interventi di stimolazione cognitiva, soprattutto rivolti a competenze più complesse ed essenziali al mantenimento dell’autonomia funzionale....
Superstitious beliefs are culturally prevalent in western and eastern societies. Sometimes they can affect the decision process, as we can see the fields of economics, marketing and sports. In the realm of decision making under risk, Prospect Theory offers a solid background capable of capturing people’s preferences, namely, their tendencies to avoid losses. We are interested to see if...
Numeracy has significant implications throughout the life course, and its age-induced decline represents a vulnerability factor in elderly population. We studied the impact of healthy aging on the ability to access basic symbolic and non-symbolic numerical representations using a parity judgment task (PJT), with three numerical formats: Arabic digits (N), Finger representations (F), and Dots...
Background
As digital health technologies advance, neuropsychological assessment is undergoing a shift toward more standardized, efficient, and accessible formats. Tablet-based solutions enable automated testing, precise response tracking, and remote delivery—expanding opportunities for early cognitive screening. In this context, we developed TAP-COG, a digital battery for cognitive...
Trait Emotional Intelligence (Trait EI) is conceptualized as a multidimensional and hierarchical construct. However, traditional psychometric models have struggled to fully capture its theoretical complexity. This study proposes a cross-cultural validation of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Full-Form (TEIQue-FF) across British and Italian samples, adopting a bifactor Exploratory...
Introduction: The investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying deceptive behavior has historically attracted great interest due to its potential applications in forensic and legal contexts. Over the past decades, research on lie detection has transitioned from behavioral and physiological methodologies to the application of neuroimaging techniques. Among these, functional magnetic...
Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a clinical condition characterized by cognitive deficits that do not significantly interfere with daily functioning. It represents an intermediate stage between normal aging and dementia and is considered a preclinical phase that may progress to more severe neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to cognitive symptoms, MCI has...
Task set inhibition consists of actively suppressing interference from recently executed tasks. Previous research has demonstrated that returning to a previously abandoned task (e.g. ABA) is more difficult than switching to less recently performed tasks (e.g. CBA) in terms of slower reaction times (RTs) and higher error rates. Though consistently observed in cued task-switching paradigms, it...
In recent years, technological advancements have led to the development of Artificial Intelligence image generators, expanding creative possibilities beyond traditional approaches (Pise et al., 2024).
In psychological research, text-to-image generation tools are used for various purposes. They have been used to develop a wide range of visual stimuli, including novel and familiar objects...
Introduction
Cognitive map formation and spatial orientation are essential for navigation, yet traditional assessments often lack ecological validity. The Virtual Spatial Configuration Task (VSCT) is a VR-based tool designed to assess allocentric spatial abilities. In a previous validation study with 54 participants, VSCT performance showed a significant correlation with the Spatial...
Intro: The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models (LLMs), is transforming numerous aspects of daily life, with these tools increasingly used as sources of information and problem-solving.
Method: This study aims to investigate the general level of trust people place in AI-generated responses, examine whether this trust varies depending on...
Previous research has shown that motor plans related to hand-object interactions are activated during the semantic processing of graspable object nouns. Adjectives expressing object features can modulate these motor plans, indicating sensorimotor integration. The present experiment investigated the role of verbs in this noun-adjective integration. Each trial began with a verb presented at the...
Smartphones integrate text suggestion systems that offer word completion from partially typed input. These tools alter the linearity of the writing process by introducing a continuous shift between typing and reading suggestions. While they offer cognitive benefits—such as reducing spelling errors and memory load—their impact on writing fluency remains debated. One key factor may be the...
Introduction: Functional Motor Disorders (FMD) is yet poorly understood, with inconsistent limb weakness, tremors, dystonia, and gait disturbances. Delayed diagnosis and inadequate treatment lead to severe disability. Predictive coding theories suggest symptoms stem from disrupted neural circuits integrating interoception, exteroception, and motor control, distorting bodily...
