Shoes and Insoles: The Influence on Motor Tasks Related to Walking Gait Variability and Stability.

The rhythmic control of the lower limb muscles influences the cycle-to-cycle variability during a walking task. The benefits of insoles, commonly used to improve the walking gait, have been little studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the walking gait variability and stability on different walking conditions (without shoes, WTS, with shoes, WS, with shoes and insoles, WSI) related to brain activity.

Electrophysiological and Behavioral Indices of the Role of Estrogens on Memory Processes for Emotional Faces in Healthy Young Women.

It is well known that estrogens influence cognitive activities, such as memory, and emotional states. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of estrogens in the short-term memory processing of basic emotional face expressions, by means of event-related potentials (ERPs) and a recognition memory (RM) behavioral task. Healthy young women were divided into a periovulatory (PO) group, characterized by high levels of estrogens and low levels of progesterone, and an early follicular (EF) group, characterized by low levels of both estrogens and progesterone.

Evidence of estrogen modulation on memory processes for emotional content in healthy young women.

Purpose: It is well accepted that emotional content can affect memory, interacting with the encoding and consolidation processes. The aim of the present study was to verify the effects of estrogens in the interplay of cognition and emotion.

Methods: Images from the International Affective Pictures System, based on valence (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral), maintaining arousal constant, were viewed passively by two groups of young women in different cycle phases: a periovulatory group (PO), characterized by high level of estrogens and low level of progesterone, and an early follicular group (EF), characterized by low levels of both estrogens and progesterone.

Facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia: an event-related potentials study.

Previous studies extensively reported an impaired ability to recognize emotional stimuli in patients with schizophrenia. We used pictures from Ekman and Friesen in an event-related potentials study to investigate the neurophysiological correlates of the fear emotional processing compared with happiness in patients with schizophrenia versus healthy subjects. A significant lower P300 amplitude for fear processing but not for P100, N170 and N250 amplitude was found in schizophrenics compared to controls.

Estrogens and memory in physiological and neuropathological conditions.

Ovarian hormones can influence brain regions crucial to higher cognitive functions, such as learning and memory, acting at structural, cellular and functional levels, and modulating neurotransmitter systems. Among the main effects of estrogens, the protective role that they may play against the deterioration of cognitive functions occurring with normal aging is of essential importance. In fact, during the last century, there has been a 30 years increase in female life expectancy, from 50 to 83 years; however, the mean age of spontaneous menopause remains stable, 50-51 years, with variability related to race and ethnicity.

Sex-related memory recall and talkativeness for emotional stimuli.

Recent studies have evidenced an increasing interest in sex-related brain mechanisms and cerebral lateralization subserving emotional memory, language processing, and conversational behavior. We used event-related-potentials (ERP) to examine the influence of sex and hemisphere on brain responses to emotional stimuli. Given that the P300 component of ERP is considered a cognitive neuroelectric phenomenon, we compared left and right hemisphere P300 responses to emotional stimuli in men and women.

Working and reference memory across the estrous cycle of rat: a long-term study in gonadally intact females.

The results of many studies conducted over the past two decades suggested a role of estrogen on mammal's ability to learn and remember. In the present paper, we analyzed the influence that the endogenous fluctuation of estrogen, naturally present across the different phases of estrous cycle of female rats, can exert over the performance of tasks utilized to assess memory. In particular, we analyzed the performances in an eight arms radial maze task, dependent upon working memory, and in a water maze (WM) task, dependent upon spatial reference memory.

Emotional memory and migraine: effects of amitriptyline and sex related difference.

Many studies suggest that emotional arousal improves memory storage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of emotional content on explicit memory in untreated cephalalgic patients and in migraineurs treated with the antidepressant amitriptyline. We utilized an adaptation of two versions of the same story, with different arousing properties (neutral or emotional), which have been already employed in experiments involving the enhancing effects of emotions on memory retention.

Sex-related hemispheric lateralization of electrical potentials evoked by arousing negative stimuli.

Recent studies suggest that both sex and cerebral hemisphere influence brain mechanisms associated with emotional memory. Here we used evoked potentials to examine the influence of sex and hemisphere on brain responses to emotional stimuli. Given that the P300 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) is considered a cognitive neuroelectric phenomenon, we compared left and right hemisphere P300 responses to brief (2 s) presentations of emotionally arousing pictures in men and women.

Declarative memory retention and emotional stimuli. A study of an Italian sample.

Psychological and pharmacological studies in humans suggest that emotional arousal enhances long-term memory. In this paper we used, in an Italian sample, an adaptation of a paradigm previously utilized in American samples to study the relationship between emotion and long-term memory. Seventy-two healthy adults from different educational backgrounds were randomly assigned either to a neutral group or to an emotional arousal group and then told a short story, presented audio-visually.

Sex-related lateralized effect of emotional content on declarative memory: an event related potential study.

Several studies suggest that emotional arousal can promote memory storage. In this study, we evaluated the effects of emotional content on declarative memory, utilizing an adaptation of two versions of the same story, with different arousing properties (neutral or emotional), which have been already employed in experiments involving the enhancing effects of emotions on memory retention. We used event related potentials (ERP) to evaluate whether there is a sex-related hemispheric lateralization of electrical potentials elicited by the emotional content of a story.