Are patients with Parkinson's disease impaired in the recognition of emotion's authenticity?

In recognising emotions expressed by others, one can make use of both embodied cognition and mechanisms that do not necessarily require activation of the limbic system, such as evoking from memory the meaning of morphological features of the observed face. Instead, we believe that the recognition of the authenticity of an emotional expression is primarily based on embodied cognition, for which the mirror system would play a significant role. To verify this hypothesis, we submitted 20 parkinsonian patients and 20 healthy control subjects to the Emotional Authenticity Recognition test, a novel test using dynamic stimuli to evaluate the ability to recognise emotions and their authenticity.

Self-other distinction modulates the sense of self-agency during joint actions.

In daily life interactions, we achieve goals with partners through tight temporal coordination or sequential joint efforts. Is our individual sense of control over shared outcomes (sense of self-agency) the same as the one experienced when we act alone? Do we explicitly and implicitly feel like we are fully in control of the motor act even if the goal is finally achieved by our partner? To address these questions, we measured explicit and implicit sense of self-agency in individual and (coordinated or sequential) interactive contexts. We studied 42 healthy adult participants during active/passive button presses aimed at turning on a light bulb.

Sense of agency in schizophrenia: A reconciliation of conflicting findings through a theory-driven literature review.

The sense of agency is the experience of being the author of self-generated actions and their outcomes. Both clinical manifestations and experimental evidence suggest that the agency experience and the mechanisms underlying agency attribution may be dysfunctional in schizophrenia. Yet, studies investigating the sense of agency in these patients show seemingly conflicting results: some indicated under-attribution of self-agency (coherently with certain positive symptoms), while others suggested over-attribution of self-agency.

Trait food craving predicts functional connectivity between dopaminergic midbrain and the fusiform food area during eating imagery.

Neurofunctional coupling between the dopaminergic midbrain (i.e., ventral tegmental area, VTA) and higher-order visual regions may contribute to food craving, leading to the onset or maintenance of obesity.

The sense of agency in near and far space.

The sense of agency is the ability to recognize that we are the actors of our actions and their consequences. We explored whether and how spatial cues may modulate the agency experience by manipulating the ecological validity of the experimental setup (real-space or computer-based setup) and the distance of the action-outcome (near or far). We tested 58 healthy adults collecting explicit agency judgments and the perceived time interval between movements and outcomes (to quantify the intentional binding phenomenon, an implicit index of agency).

How aging shapes our sense of agency.

The sense of agency refers to the feeling of controlling one's actions and their effects on the external environment. Here, we tested how the physiological process of aging affects the agency experience by taking advantage of a validated ecological experimental paradigm and exploring the different dimensions of agency. We tested 60 young and older adults during active and passive movements, causing, after a variable time delay, an external sensorial event.

Mapping Gilles de la Tourette syndrome through the distress and relief associated with tic-related behaviors: an fMRI study.

Personal distress associated with tic urges or inhibition and relief associated with tic production are defining features of the personal experience in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS). These affective phenomena have not been studied using fMRI, hindering our understanding of GTS pathophysiology and possible treatments. Here, we present a novel cross-sectional fMRI study designed to map tic-related phenomenology using distress and relief as predicting variables.

Seeing emotions in the eyes: a validated test to study individual differences in the perception of basic emotions.

People are able to perceive emotions in the eyes of others and can therefore see emotions when individuals wear face masks. Research has been hampered by the lack of a good test to measure basic emotions in the eyes. In two studies respectively with 358 and 200 participants, we developed a test to see anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise in images of eyes.

The social relevance and the temporal constraints of motor resonance in humans.

In humans, motor resonance effects can be tracked by measuring the enhancement of corticospinal excitability by action observation. Uncovering factors driving motor resonance is crucial for optimizing action observation paradigms in experimental and clinical settings. In the present study, we deepen motor resonance properties for grasping movements.

Modulating motor resonance with paired associativestimulation: Neurophysiological and behavioral outcomes.

In the human brain, paired associative stimulation (PAS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique based on Hebbian learning principles, can be used to model motor resonance, the inner activation of an observer's motor system by action observation. Indeed, the newly developed mirror PAS (m-PAS) protocol, through the repeatedly pairing of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses over the primary motor cortex (M1) and visual stimuli depicting index-finger movements, allows the emergence of a new, atypical pattern of cortico-spinal excitability. In the present study, we performed two experiments to explore (a) the debated hemispheric lateralization of the action-observation network and (b) the behavioral after-effects of m-PAS, particularly concerning a core function of the MNS: automatic imitation.

Lateralized reading in the healthy brain: A behavioral and computational study on the nature of the visual field effect.

Despite its widespread use to measure functional lateralization of language in healthy subjects, the neurocognitive bases of the visual field effect in lateralized reading are still debated. Crucially, the lack of knowledge on the nature of the visual field effect is accompanied by a lack of knowledge on the relative impact of psycholinguistic factors on its measurement, thus potentially casting doubts on its validity as a functional laterality measure. In this study, an eye-tracking-controlled tachistoscopic lateralized lexical decision task (Experiment 1) was administered to 60 right-handed and 60 left-handed volunteers and word length, orthographic neighborhood, word frequency, and imageability were manipulated.

Neural structural abnormalities behind altered brain activation in obesity: Evidence from meta-analyses of brain activation and morphometric data.

Obesity represents a risk factor for disability with a major bearing on life expectancy. Neuroimaging techniques are contributing to clarify its neurobiological underpinnings. Here, we explored whether structural brain abnormalities might accompany altered brain activations in obesity.

Neurons: The Interplay between Cytoskeleton, Ion Channels/Transporters and Mitochondria.

Neurons are permanent cells whose key feature is information transmission via chemical and electrical signals. Therefore, a finely tuned homeostasis is necessary to maintain function and preserve neuronal lifelong survival. The cytoskeleton, and in particular microtubules, are far from being inert actors in the maintenance of this complex cellular equilibrium, and they participate in the mobilization of molecular cargos and organelles, thus influencing neuronal migration, neuritis growth and synaptic transmission.

Patient-reported outcome and cognitive measures to be used in vascular and brain tumor surgery: proposal for a minimum set.

Background: The standardization of outcome measures is needed for comparing studies and using common measures in clinical practice. We aimed to identify cognitive and patient-reported outcomes and timing of assessment for glioma, meningioma, and vascular surgery.

Method: A consensus study was conducted.

Neurovascular and infectious disease phenotype of acute stroke patients with and without COVID-19.

Background: The infectious disease phenotype of acute stroke associated with COVID-19 has been poorly characterized.

Objective: We investigated the neurovascular and infectious disease phenotype of stroke patients with and without COVID-19 infection, and their effect on in-hospital mortality.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients with acute stroke, admitted to any ward of a hub hospital for stroke in Lombardy, Italy, during the first wave of COVID-19.

Etonogestrel Administration Reduces the Expression of PHOX2B and Its Target Genes in the Solitary Tract Nucleus.

Heterozygous mutations of the transcription factor are responsible for Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by inadequate respiratory response to hypercapnia and life-threatening hypoventilation during sleep. Although no cure is currently available, it was suggested that a potent progestin drug provides partial recovery of chemoreflex response. Previous in vitro data show a direct molecular link between progestins and PHOX2B expression.

The sense of agency in joint actions: A theory-driven meta-analysis.

The sense of agency is the feeling of voluntarily controlling our actions and their effects. It represents a crucial component of self-awareness, and it is foundational to our perception of responsibility toward what we do as individuals acting in a social context. While the sense of agency has been widely investigated in individual contexts, much less is known about the agency experienced when subjects are involved in motor interactions, despite its relevance in the social domain.

How the motor system copes with aging: a quantitative meta-analysis of the effect of aging on motor function control.

Motor cognitive functions and their neurophysiology evolve and degrade along the lifespan in a dramatic fashion. Current models of how the brain adapts to aging remain inspired primarily by studies on memory or language processes. Yet, aging is strongly associated with reduced motor independence and the associated degraded interaction with the environment: accordingly, any neurocognitive model of aging not considering the motor system is, ipso facto, incomplete.

Paired Associative Stimulation drives the emergence of motor resonance.

Background: Associative plasticity, the neurophysiological bases of Hebbian learning, has been implied in the formation of the association between sensory and motor representations of actions in the Mirror Neuron System; however, such inductor role still needs empirical support.

Objective/hypothesis: We have assessed whether Paired Associative Stimulation (PAS), known to activate Hebbian associative plasticity, can induce the formation of atypical (absent in normal conditions), visuo-motor associations, reshaping motor resonance.

Methods: Healthy participants underwent a novel PAS protocol (mirror-PAS, m-PAS), during which they were exposed to repeated pairings of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied over the right primary motor cortex (M1), time-locked with the view of index-finger movements of the right (ipsilateral) hand.

Neuropsychological assessment in acute stroke patients.

Background And Purpose: The number of people suffering from stroke is strongly increasing, giving rise to multiple cognitive deficits which frequently prevent a full recovery. The identification of both spared and impaired cognitive domains has a key role to plan adequate interventions. However, the existing standard tests are either too expensive in terms of time and efforts for patients in acute stage or they derived from instruments addressing different pathologies such as dementia.