Sleep-disordered breathing, impaired cardiac adrenergic innervation and prognosis in heart failure.

Objective: Unfavourable effects of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in heart failure (HF) are mainly mediated by impaired sympathetic activity. Few data are available on SDB and cardiac adrenergic impairment evaluated at myocardial level. The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between SDB, cardiac sympathetic innervation assessed by I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (I-MIBG) imaging and prognosis in HF.

Mental simulation of drawing actions enhances delayed recall of a complex figure.

Motor simulation implies that the same motor representations involved in action execution are re-enacted during observation or imagery of actions. Neurofunctional data suggested that observation of letters or abstract paintings can elicit simulation of writing or drawing gestures. We performed four behavioural experiments on right-handed healthy participants to test whether observation of a static and complex geometrical figure implies re-enactment of drawing actions.

Insulin resistance is associated with impaired cardiac sympathetic innervation in patients with heart failure.

Aims: Insulin resistance (IR) represents, at the same time, cause and consequence of heart failure (HF) and affects prognosis in HF patients, but pathophysiological mechanisms remain unclear. Hyperinsulinemia, which characterizes IR, enhances sympathetic drive, and it can be hypothesized that IR is associated with impaired cardiac sympathetic innervation in HF. Yet, this hypothesis has never been investigated.

The role of embodied simulation in mental transformation of whole-body images: evidence from Parkinson's disease.

It has been repeatedly demonstrated that mentally performing an action and mentally transforming body-parts entail simulation of one's own body movements, consistent with predictions of embodied cognition theories. However, the involvement of embodied simulation in mental transformation of whole-body images is still disputed. Here, we assessed own body transformation in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with symptoms most affecting the left or the right body side.