Effects on Posture of a Two-Diopter Horizontal Prism Base Out on the Non-Dominant Eye.

: Ocular proprioception is implicated in balance control and heterophoria is associated with abnormal posture, though previous research focused mainly on the role of vertical phoria and the use of vertical prisms. This study aims to evaluate whether ocular misalignment and prismatic correction of horizontal phoria affect posture. : Sixty-nine ( = 69) young healthy subjects were included and equally divided by horizontal distance phoria: orthophoria ( = 23), esophoria ( = 23) and exophoria ( = 23).

Modeling functional loss in Alzheimer's Disease through cognitive reserve and cognitive state: A panel data longitudinal study.

Cognitive Reserve (CR) refers to the brain's ability, supported by active and modifiable forms of lifestyle compensation, to cope with neural changes due to age or disease, delaying the onset of cognitive deficits. In CR studies, neuropsychological performances and functional autonomy are considered alternative outcomes. While decreased functional independence gains importance in dementia diagnosis and monitoring, cognitive functioning may play a role in staging its severity.

The role of pain expectancy and its confidence in placebo hypoalgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia.

Placebo hypoalgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia, which exemplify the impact of expectations on pain, have recently been conceptualised as Bayesian inferential processes, yet empirical evidence remains limited. Here, we explore whether these phenomena can be unified within the same Bayesian framework by testing the predictive role of expectations and their level of precision (ie, expectation confidence) on pain, with both predictors measured at the metacognitive level. Sixty healthy volunteers underwent a pain test (ie, 8 noxious electrical stimuli) before (Baseline) and after (T0, T1, T2) receiving a sham treatment associated with hypoalgesic (placebo), hyperalgesic (nocebo), or neutral (control) verbal suggestions, depending on group allocation.