Loss of empathy is an early and central symptom of frontotemporal lobar degeneration spectrum dis... more Loss of empathy is an early and central symptom of frontotemporal lobar degeneration spectrum diseases. We aimed to investigate the topographical distribution of morphometric brain changes associated with empathy in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS) patients. Twenty-seven participants with CBS and 31 with PSP were evaluated using Interpersonal Reactivity Index scales in correlation with gray matter atrophy using a voxel-based morphometry approach. Lower levels of empathy were associated with an increased atrophy in fronto-temporal cortical structures. At subcortical level, empathy scores were positively correlated with gray matter volume in the amygdala, hippocampus and the cerebellum. These findings allow to extend the traditional cortico-centric view of cognitive empathy to the cerebellar regions in patients with neurodegenerative disorders and suggest that the cerebellum may play a more prominent role in social cognition than previously apprecia...
Excessive daytime sleepiness is a frequent condition among children and adolescents that may lead... more Excessive daytime sleepiness is a frequent condition among children and adolescents that may lead to several and significant daytime consequences, including impaired neurocognitive skills and scholastic performance. Here, we evaluated in one hundred and ninety-one unselected primary school children, the relationship between sleepiness and a wide range of cognitive and academic skills through a standardized neuropsychological test battery. In order to assess the statistical relationship, we performed a partial least squares path modelling, a non-parametrical approach which combined a model of paths between latent variables and the coefficients between indicators and dimensions. Results were validated through the bootstrap approach and suggest that sleepiness is not associated with all cognitive and scholastic abilities, but only with those relying on verbal abilities and complex cognitive functions (i.e., reading comprehension, oral/syntactic comprehension, spelling, and mathematic s...
In the present study, we explored the unique contribution of reading accuracy, reading fluency an... more In the present study, we explored the unique contribution of reading accuracy, reading fluency and linguistic comprehension within the frame of Simple View of Reading (SVR). The experimental sample included 118 3rd to 5th grade children learning Italian, a language with a highly regular orthography. We adopted a flexible method of analysis, i.e., the Network Analysis (NA), particularly suited for exploring relations among different domains and where the direct relations between a set of intercorrelated variables is the main interest. Results indicated an independent and unique contribution of syntactic comprehension skills as well as reading fluency and reading accuracy in the comprehension of a written text. The decoding measures were not directly associated with non-verbal reasoning and the latter was not directly associated with reading comprehension but was strongly related to oral syntactic comprehension. Overall, the pattern of findings is broadly consistent with the predictio...
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 2021
ABSTRACT Introduction: Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) suffer from several neurocogni... more ABSTRACT Introduction: Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) suffer from several neurocognitive deficits. We investigated the cognitive and socio-cognitive profiles of patients with severe OSA, controlling for potentially relevant mediating variables (i.e. age, body-mass index, cognitive reserve and depression). Moreover, we studied the neuropsychological profile of a high-risk OSA phenotype characterized by severe OSA and severe nocturnal hypoxemia. Method: We assessed 29 previously untreated severe OSA patients with a mean age of 55.6 (± 9.9 years) and a mean apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 53.1 (± 17.4). A control group of 34 healthy participants was also enrolled. Participants completed an extensive neuropsychological battery that included social cognition, a relatively new investigation area among OSA patients. Data analysis: Data were analyzed with a Bayesian approach. Specifically, Bayesian ANCOVA was used to investigate whether the grouping variable could predict test performance. Age, body-mass index, cognitive reserve and state of depression were added as covariates to the null model to weight the effects of these potential confounding factors. Three groups were analyzed: healthy controls (H), OSA with severe apnea and severe nocturnal oxygen desaturation (D+), and OSA with severe apnea non-desaturators (D−). Performances on the various neuropsychological tests were treated as the dependent variables. Results: The results indicate that non-verbal reasoning, the theory of mind skills, and mental shifting ability were impaired in OSA patients. Patients with severe nocturnal hypoxemia underperformed compared to patients with the same severity of apnea but non-desaturators. Additionally, we observed a trend toward a worse performance among OSA desaturator patients in the following abilities: constructional ability, short term verbal memory, phonological fluency, and the ability to inhibit automatic and dominant responses. Conclusion: The data suggest a key role of hypoxemia in affecting cognitive functioning in OSA patients. Executive functions and the concomitant involvement of social cognition are particularly affected.
This study aims to compare polygraphic data in patients with OSA treated with Barbed Reposition P... more This study aims to compare polygraphic data in patients with OSA treated with Barbed Reposition Pharyngoplasty (BRP) performed with a simplified technique compared to the standard method. Variations of technique were performed and tested with the purpose of promoting tolerability and diffusion of this simplified technique. To evaluate the efficacy of the simplified BRP method, a sample of 99 patients was divided into two groups: Group A was treated with BRP (BRP group) and Group B was treated with simplified BRP (sBRP group). The results obtained on the two groups were compared with the two sample Bootstrap t-tests method, showing a substantial overlap in polygraphic results recorded 6 months after surgery.
It has been suggested that dogs’ ability to comprehend human pointing gestures evolved as a by-pr... more It has been suggested that dogs’ ability to comprehend human pointing gestures evolved as a by-product of the socio-emotional changes associated with domestication. Given the large role played by the oxytocin system in socio-emotional processes, it is possible to hypothesize a role for oxytocin in modulating dogs’ socio-communicative skills. Indeed, it has been shown that intranasal oxytocin enhances dogs’ ability to use human pointing cues in an object choice task, a classic paradigm used to assess the ability to follow a pointing gesture. We further tested this hypothesis in another sample of dogs and replicated the above findings. We also provided a novel explanation to the above findings, suggesting that oxytocin released during human–dog interactions increases the positive expectations about human behaviour via emotion and reward processes and thus facilitates the interpretation of pointing as leading to positive events. Given the large and deep homology across mammals in the neural mechanisms involved in emotions, oxytocin could be involved in the acquisition of socio-communicative skills during human typical as well as pathological development.
Loss of empathy is an early and central symptom of frontotemporal lobar degeneration spectrum dis... more Loss of empathy is an early and central symptom of frontotemporal lobar degeneration spectrum diseases. We aimed to investigate the topographical distribution of morphometric brain changes associated with empathy in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS) patients. Twenty-seven participants with CBS and 31 with PSP were evaluated using Interpersonal Reactivity Index scales in correlation with gray matter atrophy using a voxel-based morphometry approach. Lower levels of empathy were associated with an increased atrophy in fronto-temporal cortical structures. At subcortical level, empathy scores were positively correlated with gray matter volume in the amygdala, hippocampus and the cerebellum. These findings allow to extend the traditional cortico-centric view of cognitive empathy to the cerebellar regions in patients with neurodegenerative disorders and suggest that the cerebellum may play a more prominent role in social cognition than previously apprecia...
Excessive daytime sleepiness is a frequent condition among children and adolescents that may lead... more Excessive daytime sleepiness is a frequent condition among children and adolescents that may lead to several and significant daytime consequences, including impaired neurocognitive skills and scholastic performance. Here, we evaluated in one hundred and ninety-one unselected primary school children, the relationship between sleepiness and a wide range of cognitive and academic skills through a standardized neuropsychological test battery. In order to assess the statistical relationship, we performed a partial least squares path modelling, a non-parametrical approach which combined a model of paths between latent variables and the coefficients between indicators and dimensions. Results were validated through the bootstrap approach and suggest that sleepiness is not associated with all cognitive and scholastic abilities, but only with those relying on verbal abilities and complex cognitive functions (i.e., reading comprehension, oral/syntactic comprehension, spelling, and mathematic s...
In the present study, we explored the unique contribution of reading accuracy, reading fluency an... more In the present study, we explored the unique contribution of reading accuracy, reading fluency and linguistic comprehension within the frame of Simple View of Reading (SVR). The experimental sample included 118 3rd to 5th grade children learning Italian, a language with a highly regular orthography. We adopted a flexible method of analysis, i.e., the Network Analysis (NA), particularly suited for exploring relations among different domains and where the direct relations between a set of intercorrelated variables is the main interest. Results indicated an independent and unique contribution of syntactic comprehension skills as well as reading fluency and reading accuracy in the comprehension of a written text. The decoding measures were not directly associated with non-verbal reasoning and the latter was not directly associated with reading comprehension but was strongly related to oral syntactic comprehension. Overall, the pattern of findings is broadly consistent with the predictio...
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 2021
ABSTRACT Introduction: Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) suffer from several neurocogni... more ABSTRACT Introduction: Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) suffer from several neurocognitive deficits. We investigated the cognitive and socio-cognitive profiles of patients with severe OSA, controlling for potentially relevant mediating variables (i.e. age, body-mass index, cognitive reserve and depression). Moreover, we studied the neuropsychological profile of a high-risk OSA phenotype characterized by severe OSA and severe nocturnal hypoxemia. Method: We assessed 29 previously untreated severe OSA patients with a mean age of 55.6 (± 9.9 years) and a mean apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 53.1 (± 17.4). A control group of 34 healthy participants was also enrolled. Participants completed an extensive neuropsychological battery that included social cognition, a relatively new investigation area among OSA patients. Data analysis: Data were analyzed with a Bayesian approach. Specifically, Bayesian ANCOVA was used to investigate whether the grouping variable could predict test performance. Age, body-mass index, cognitive reserve and state of depression were added as covariates to the null model to weight the effects of these potential confounding factors. Three groups were analyzed: healthy controls (H), OSA with severe apnea and severe nocturnal oxygen desaturation (D+), and OSA with severe apnea non-desaturators (D−). Performances on the various neuropsychological tests were treated as the dependent variables. Results: The results indicate that non-verbal reasoning, the theory of mind skills, and mental shifting ability were impaired in OSA patients. Patients with severe nocturnal hypoxemia underperformed compared to patients with the same severity of apnea but non-desaturators. Additionally, we observed a trend toward a worse performance among OSA desaturator patients in the following abilities: constructional ability, short term verbal memory, phonological fluency, and the ability to inhibit automatic and dominant responses. Conclusion: The data suggest a key role of hypoxemia in affecting cognitive functioning in OSA patients. Executive functions and the concomitant involvement of social cognition are particularly affected.
This study aims to compare polygraphic data in patients with OSA treated with Barbed Reposition P... more This study aims to compare polygraphic data in patients with OSA treated with Barbed Reposition Pharyngoplasty (BRP) performed with a simplified technique compared to the standard method. Variations of technique were performed and tested with the purpose of promoting tolerability and diffusion of this simplified technique. To evaluate the efficacy of the simplified BRP method, a sample of 99 patients was divided into two groups: Group A was treated with BRP (BRP group) and Group B was treated with simplified BRP (sBRP group). The results obtained on the two groups were compared with the two sample Bootstrap t-tests method, showing a substantial overlap in polygraphic results recorded 6 months after surgery.
It has been suggested that dogs’ ability to comprehend human pointing gestures evolved as a by-pr... more It has been suggested that dogs’ ability to comprehend human pointing gestures evolved as a by-product of the socio-emotional changes associated with domestication. Given the large role played by the oxytocin system in socio-emotional processes, it is possible to hypothesize a role for oxytocin in modulating dogs’ socio-communicative skills. Indeed, it has been shown that intranasal oxytocin enhances dogs’ ability to use human pointing cues in an object choice task, a classic paradigm used to assess the ability to follow a pointing gesture. We further tested this hypothesis in another sample of dogs and replicated the above findings. We also provided a novel explanation to the above findings, suggesting that oxytocin released during human–dog interactions increases the positive expectations about human behaviour via emotion and reward processes and thus facilitates the interpretation of pointing as leading to positive events. Given the large and deep homology across mammals in the neural mechanisms involved in emotions, oxytocin could be involved in the acquisition of socio-communicative skills during human typical as well as pathological development.
Uploads