Effects of social isolation on quality of life in elderly adults.

Prolonged periods of social isolation are known to have significant negative health consequences and reduce quality of life, an effect that is particularly pronounced in older populations. Despite the known deleterious effects of social isolation, a key component of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the issuance of stay at home and/or shelter in place orders. Relatively little is known about the potential effects these periods of social isolation could have on older adults, and less still is known about potential risk factors or protective factors that modulate these effects.

Neural correlates of intentional communication.

We know a great deal about the neurophysiological mechanisms supporting instrumental actions, i.e., actions designed to alter the physical state of the environment.

Brain mechanisms underlying human communication.

Human communication has been described as involving the coding-decoding of a conventional symbol system, which could be supported by parts of the human motor system (i.e. the "mirror neurons system").

Recipient design in tacit communication.

The ability to design tailored messages for specific listeners is an important aspect of human communication. The present study investigates whether a mere belief about an addressee's identity influences the generation and production of a communicative message in a novel, non-verbal communication task. Participants were made to believe they were playing a game with a child or an adult partner, while a confederate acted as both child and adult partners with matched performance and response times.