Effect of genotype and outdoor enrichment on productive performance and meat quality of slow growing chickens.

The optimization of animal welfare, meat quality, environmental impact, and economic sustainability in alternative poultry farming can be achieved by modulating several productive factors and improving the synergy between the chicken genotype and the outdoor environment. The objective of the study was to characterize 4 slow-growing chicken genotypes reared in free range conditions. Eight hundred chickens (SGs; 25 chickens/replicates/genotype/enrichment) belonging to the following genotypes, Red JA57 (RJ), Naked Neck (NN), Lohmann Dual meat-type (LD), and an Italian crossbreed (Robusta Maculata x Sasso, CB).

The Effects of Social Processing and Role Type on Attention Networks: Insights from Team Ball Athletes.

(1) Background: Several findings have shown how social stimuli can influence attentional processes. Social attention is crucial in team ball sports, in which players have to react to dynamically changing, unpredictable, and externally paced environments. Our study aimed at demonstrating the influence of social processing on team ball sports athletes' attentional abilities.

How Is Working Memory Related to Reading Comprehension in Italian Monolingual and Bilingual Children?

This study explored how working memory resources contributed to reading comprehension using tasks that focused on maintenance of verbal information in the phonological store, the interaction between the central executive and the phonological store (WMI), and the storage of bound semantic content in the episodic buffer (immediate narrative memory). We analysed how performance in these tasks was related to text decoding (reading speed and accuracy), listening and reading comprehension. The participants were 62 monolingual and 36 bilingual children (mean age nine years, SD = 9 months) enrolled in the same Italian primary school.

Erectile Dysfunction Severity: The Role of Glycometabolic Compensation and Antihyperglycemic Drugs.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of DM among patients with ED and the impact of glycometabolic compensation and antihyperglycemic treatment on ED severity. Methods: In total, 1332 patients with ED were enrolled. The diagnosis was performed through the International-Index-of-Erectile-Function questionnaire.

The Impact of Bilingualism on Executive Functions in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review Based on the PRISMA Method.

Approximately half of the world's population is bilingual or multilingual. The bilingual advantage theory claims that the constant need to control both known languages, that are always active in the brain, to use the one suitable for each specific context improves cognitive functions and specifically executive functions. However, some authors do not agree on the bilingual effect, given the controversial results of studies on this topic.

Natural Environment and Social Relationship in the Development of Attentional Network.

The attention mechanism is related to both voluntary and automatic processes, that may be summarized in three distinct networks: alert, orientation, and inhibitory control. These networks can be modulated by different contextual and relational situations. Aim of this review is to explain how a combination of natural and social stimuli can positively affect the attentional processes.

Acquisition of Ownership Illusion with Self-Disownership in Neurological Patients.

The multisensory regions in frontoparietal cortices play a crucial role in the sense of body and self. Disrupting this sense may lead to a feeling of disembodiment, or more generally, a sense of disownership. Experimentally, this altered consciousness disappears during illusory own-body perceptions, increasing the intensity of perceived ownership for an external virtual limb.

Aging in cognitive control of social processing: evidence from the attention network test.

Aging seems to be associated with impairment of attentional network functioning. It is not known whether social information can modulate this age-related decline. We used three variants of Attention Network test to examine the age-related decline of attentional effects in response to stimuli with and without social-cognitive content.

Development in attention functions and social processing: Evidence from the Attention Network Test.

According to the attention network approach, attention is best understood in terms of three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct networks - alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Recent findings showed that social information influences the efficiency of these networks in adults. Using some social and non-social variants of the Attentional Network Test (ANT), this study was aimed to evaluate the development of the three attention networks in childhood, also assessing the development of the ability to manage social or non-social conflicting information.

Peer and Teacher-Selected Peer Buddies for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role of Social, Emotional, and Mentalizing Abilities.

This study examined mentalizing abilities, social behavior, and social impact of adolescents who expressed the willingness to become peer buddies for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and adolescents selected by their teachers and peers. Twenty-seven teachers and 395 adolescents from public high schools completed mentalizing abilities, social status, behavioral, and peer buddy nomination measures. Findings suggest that social status and preference play a significant role in the selection of peer buddies by both teachers and classmates.

Attention network test--the impact of social information on executive control, alerting and orienting.

According to the attention network approach, attention is best understood in terms of three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct networks - alerting, orienting, and executive attention. An important question is whether social information influences the efficiency of these networks. Using the same structure as the Attentional Network Test (ANT), we developed a variant of this test to examine attentional effects in response to stimuli with and without social-cognitive content.

Learning by observation: insights from Williams syndrome.

Observing another person performing a complex action accelerates the observer's acquisition of the same action and limits the time-consuming process of learning by trial and error. Observational learning makes an interesting and potentially important topic in the developmental domain, especially when disorders are considered. The implications of studies aimed at clarifying whether and how this form of learning is spared by pathology are manifold.

Relationship between brain abnormalities and cognitive profile in Williams syndrome.

Previous studies have shown inconsistent results when reporting brain abnormalities in Williams syndrome (WS). This makes an interpretation of clinical and behavioural data uncertain in terms of anatomical localization of brain tissue changes. In this study we employed voxel based morphometry to directly investigate the regional distribution of grey matter (GM) density as a function of individual neuropsychological profiles in individuals with WS.

Cognitive performances of cholinergically depleted rats following chronic donepezil administration.

Since acute and chronic administration of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, namely donepezil, improves cognitive functions in patients afflicted by mild to moderate dementia and reverses memory deficits in experimental models of learning and memory, it seemed interesting to assess the effects of chronic donepezil treatment on cognitive functions in adult rats with forebrain cholinergic depletion. Lesions were performed by means of intracerebroventricular injections of the immunotoxin 192 IgG-saporin. The cognitive functions of lesioned animals treated or not treated with donepezil were compared with those of intact animals.

Environmental enrichment provides a cognitive reserve to be spent in the case of brain lesion.

To experimentally verify the reserve hypothesis, the influence of rearing conditions on the cognitive performances and on dendritic spines following basal forebrain lesions was analyzed. Adult rats reared in enriched or standard conditions were depleted of the cholinergic projection to the neocortex by 192 IgG-saporin injection into Ch4 region of basal forebrain. Their performance in spatial tasks was compared with that of intact animals reared in analogous conditions.

Cognitive performance of healthy young rats following chronic donepezil administration.

Rationale: Experimental studies have investigated the effects of chronic donepezil treatment on the behavioral deficits elicited by reduced activity or the loss of cholinergic neurons that occurs in aging or in models of dementia. However, few studies have analyzed the effects of chronic donepezil treatment on the cognitive functions of intact animals.

Objectives: The cognitive functions of healthy young rats treated chronically with the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor donepezil were evaluated using a wide behavioral test battery.

Is the cerebellum involved in the visuo-locomotor associative learning?

The role played by cerebellar circuits in visuo-motor associative learning is still unclear. The aim of the present study was to analyse cerebellar involvement using a visuo-locomotor associative learning paradigm that did not require spatial competences. Hemicerebellectomized (HCbed) and Control rats were tested in a visual discrimination task.

NMDA receptor activity in learning spatial procedural strategies II. The influence of cerebellar lesions.

Experimental data support the involvement of cerebellar circuits in the acquisition of spatial procedural competences. Since the ability to acquire new procedural competences is lost when cerebellar regions are lesioned or when NMDA receptor activity is blocked, we analyzed whether the learning of explorative strategies is affected by blocking NMDA receptor activity in the presence of cerebellar lesions. To this aim, the NMDA receptor antagonist (CGS 19755, 7 mg/kg) was administered i.

NMDA receptor activity in learning spatial procedural strategies I. The influence of hippocampal lesions.

To acquire knowledge about the environment two types of learning are necessary: declarative localizatory learning about where environmental cues and the subject are, and procedural learning about how to explore and move around the environment. Experimental data indicate that hippocampal regions are involved in spatial learning, playing a key role in building spatial cognitive maps. The contribution of hippocampal NMDA receptors to spatial functions is indicated by the disruption of place learning when NMDA long-term potentiation is blocked.

The NMDA receptor antagonist CGS 19755 disrupts recovery following cerebellar lesions.

Purpose: To test whether activation of NMDA receptors is required for the maintenance of the posture and motor behavior recovered from cerebellar lesions, an NMDA antagonist (CGS 19755) was systemically administered to totally or partially cerebellectomized rats.

Methods: Three groups of animals were tested: rats that had undergone a total cerebellectomy four months before drug administration; rats that had undergone a right hemicerebellectomy four months before drug administration; intact control animals.

Results: Under drug action in the control animals the postural pattern was slightly influenced, showing a light worsening, and motor skills requiring coordinated motor performance and subtle balance control were markedly worsened.

Environmental enrichment promotes improved spatial abilities and enhanced dendritic growth in the rat.

An enriched environment consists of a combination of enhanced social relations, physical exercise and interactions with non-social stimuli that leads to behavioral and neuronal modifications. In the present study, we analyzed the behavioral effects of environmental complexity on different facets of spatial function, and we assessed dendritic arborisation and spine density in a cortical area mainly involved in the spatial learning, as the parietal cortex. Wistar rat pups (21 days old) were housed in enriched conditions (10 animals in a large cage with toys and a running wheel), or standard condition (two animals in a standard cage, without objects).