International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Background: The study of complex systems, such as the psychotherapeutic encounter, transcends the... more Background: The study of complex systems, such as the psychotherapeutic encounter, transcends the mechanistic and reductionist methods for describing linear processes and needs suitable approaches to describe probabilistic and scarcely predictable phenomena. Objective: The present study undertakes a scoping review of research on the computational methods in psychotherapy to gather new developments in this field and to better understand the phenomena occurring in psychotherapeutic interactions as well as in human interaction more generally. Design: Online databases were used to identify papers published 2011–2022, from which we selected 18 publications from different resources, selected according to criteria established in advance and described in the text. A flow chart and a summary table of the articles consulted have been created. Results: The majority of publications (44.4%) reported combined computational and experimental approaches, so we grouped the studies according to the ty...
It often happens that the most relevant decisions in terms of consequences are taken in situation... more It often happens that the most relevant decisions in terms of consequences are taken in situations of uncertainty and risk, as well as in conditions of strong temporal stress. In such situations, some decisions are more considered, others, instead, appear more irrational. In the last twenty years, studies on decision making have focused mainly on problem solving skills and cognitive processes underlying rational choices. Only since the fifties of the twentieth century, different research paradigms have tried to shed light on the mechanisms responsible for choices that do not conform to the classical model of rational choice. Among these mechanisms the disjunction effect stands out which, although scarcely investigated, could prove to be a fundamental variable. Method: In order to analyze the reference literature and the studies of the last ten years, a research was carried out on different online science servers (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, ResearchGate), using the follow...
Psychotherapy, unanimously described as a particular organized and systematic relationship betwee... more Psychotherapy, unanimously described as a particular organized and systematic relationship between a patient and a therapist, is a real complex system. The interaction between the numerous variables belonging to the patient, the therapist and the context in which the therapeutic couple is inserted, presents auto-poietic characteristics and generates emergent qualities that, at the current state of psychotherapy research, have not been effectively addressed. The methods of machine learning are suitable for analyzing complex systems and in our opinion, at the moment, they are the most appropriate for studying the therapeutic relationship, understood as a quality emerging from patient-therapist interaction. In fact, through the use of artificial intelligence methods it is possible to construct a model of interaction between therapist and patient by integrating in it the non-linearity of information exchanges between the components of the system. The humanistic therapies vision of the p...
2017 8th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2017
The study describes the relationship between personality traits and executive functions within a ... more The study describes the relationship between personality traits and executive functions within a circularly based paradigm.
Borderline Personality Disorder is a serious mental disease, classified in Cluster B of DSM IV-TR... more Borderline Personality Disorder is a serious mental disease, classified in Cluster B of DSM IV-TR personality disorders. People with this syndrome presents an anamnesis of traumatic experiences and shows dissociative symptoms. Since not all subjects who have been victims of trauma develop a Borderline Personality Disorder, the emergence of this serious disease seems to have the fragility of character as a predisposing condition. Infect, numerous studies show that subjects positive for diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder had scores extremely high or extremely low to some temperamental dimensions (harm Avoidance and reward dependence) and character dimensions (cooperativeness and self directedness). In a sample of 602 subjects, who have had consecutive access to an Outpatient Mental Health Service, it was evaluated the presence of Borderline Personality Disorder using the semi-structured interview for the DSM IV-TR personality disorders. In this population we assessed the pre...
Dissociative phenomena are common among psychiatric patients; the presence of these symptoms can ... more Dissociative phenomena are common among psychiatric patients; the presence of these symptoms can worsen the prognosis, increasing the severity of their clinical conditions and exposing them to increased risk of suicidal behavior. Personality disorders as long duration stressful experiences may support the development of dissociative phenomena. In 933 psychiatric outpatients consecutively recruited, presence of dissociative phenomena was identified with the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES). Dissociative phenomena were significantly more severe in the group of people with mental disorders and/or personality disorders. All psychopathologic traits detected with the symptom checklist-90-revised had a significant correlation with the total score on the DES. Using total DES score as the dependent variable, a linear regression model was constructed. Mental and personality disorders which were associated with greater severity of dissociative phenomena on analysis of variance were included...
Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) although elaborated on the general popu... more Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) although elaborated on the general population, is frequently used in clinical samples. The study evaluates the psychometric characteristics of TCI in clinical populations with the aim of creating a reduced version of the test suitable for these subjects. This research was conducted on two groups of mental health outpatients. In the first study, 44 items, correlated with the psychiatric disorders, was selected. These items, divided in four dimensions utilizing both statistic and psychopathological criteria, show good internal consistency and external validity and constitute a Reduced Version (TR-TCI) of the test. In the second study, the predictive validity of the TR-TCI was evaluated through the ROC curves and a logistic regression model. The results show a good predictive validity of TR-TCI, that allows us to use this instrument in order to identify the personality structures that make people sensitive to psychiatric patholo...
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2018
The goal of our study was to utilize the science of complex interactions to bridge the gap in res... more The goal of our study was to utilize the science of complex interactions to bridge the gap in research concerning psychotherapy. In particular, we chose to focus on the use of graph theory to model and simulate the topology and dynamics of the psychotherapeutic relationship, given how in the past few years such method has been instrumental in understanding complex dynamic systems.
Sport, in different ways, change considerably people’s life. The purpose of this experiment was t... more Sport, in different ways, change considerably people’s life. The purpose of this experiment was to reveal possible association between the stimulation of sympathetic system induced by exercise and the one induced by the rise of systemic concentration of Orexin A and bring the truth about orexins and sport network. Blood samples were collected from subjects (men, n = 10; age: 23.2 ± 2.11 years) 15, 0 min before the start of exercise, and 30, 45, 60 min after a cycle ergometer exercise at 75 W for 15 min. Also, heart rate (HR), galvanic skin response (GSR), and rectal temperature were monitored. The exercise produce a significant rise (p < 0.01) in plasmatic orexin A with a peak at 30 min after the exercise bout, in association with a rise of the other three monitored variables: HR (p < 0.01), GSR (p < 0.05), and rectal temperature (p < 0.01). Our results indicate that plasmatic orexin A is involved in the reaction to physical activity and in the beneficial effects of sport.
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom)
Continuous management of dialysis patients exposes family caregivers to significant psychophysica... more Continuous management of dialysis patients exposes family caregivers to significant psychophysical risks. Having demonstrated the effectiveness of artificial intelligence in the care and assistance processes, it was hypothesized the implementation of a mobile app which would detect the distress of these Family Caregivers in order to activate support actions and adequate sustenance. In order to identify the Burnout risk factors of the Family Caregivers of dialysis patients, 31 items were selected, from the questionnaires recognized in the literature, and submitted to a sample of 713 subjects. The four components extracted through factor analysis identify critical aspects of the family caregiver’s experience. The neural network implemented on these four dimensions shows that overall they have an excellent ability to predict the stress state of the subjects (82%). From this study emerged the basic structure of a psychometric instrument suitable for the assessment of the stress of the family caregivers of patients undergoing dialysis treatment. This reagent can be administered through a mobile app and, using a deep learning algorithm, can report in real time the discomfort of the family caregivers.
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom)
Memory is one of the most fascinating and complex faculties of human beings. Thanks to numerous s... more Memory is one of the most fascinating and complex faculties of human beings. Thanks to numerous studies in the neuroscientific field, today we are aware that when we try to remember the past, we do not entirely repeat an event like a movie, infact, the tendency of memory is to change, deform or fade its contents, with the time and with the accumulation of new experiences, to the point of completely forgetting. The aim to this study is to represent the elements of the process of remembering paying attention also to oblivion. It has been been shown that the substrate of memory is at least partially localized in the brain, in certain areas of the brain, but none of the mechanisms highlighted can work in isolation. So, the aim of this papers is to understand how to study the faculty of memory in the light of new neuroscientific discoveries and beyond.
ELENA GIGANTE1,§,*, ELISABETTA PICCIOCCHI2,3,§, ANNA VALENZANO2, GIUSEPPE CIBELLI2, VALENTINA RUB... more ELENA GIGANTE1,§,*, ELISABETTA PICCIOCCHI2,3,§, ANNA VALENZANO2, GIUSEPPE CIBELLI2, VALENTINA RUBERTO2, DANIELA CANTONE4, ENRICO MORETTO1, ALFONSO DAVIDE DI SARNO1, TERESA LONGOBARDI1, DANIELA IENNACO1, MARTINA MESSINA1, NICOLE NASCIVERA1, DANIELA PISANELLI2, ANNA NUNZIA POLITO5, GABRIELLA MARSALA6, VANIA COSTA1, LUCIANA MOSCA1, SIVIA DELL’ORCO1 1SiPGI Postgraduate School of Integrated Gestalt Psychotherapy, D.M. 12.10.2007 Naples, Italy 2Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy 3Casa di Cura Villa dei Fiori Acerra, Napoli, Italy 4Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy 5Complex Structure of Neuropsychiatry Childhood-Adolescence of Ospedali Riuniti of Foggia, Italy 6Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Ospedali Riuniti di Foggia, Foggia, Italy equal contribution
The covid-19 lockdown forced psychotherapists to use videoconferencing psychotherapy (VCP). There... more The covid-19 lockdown forced psychotherapists to use videoconferencing psychotherapy (VCP). There is little literature on the relationship between VCP and the theoretical orientation of the psychotherapist. The aim of our research work is to explore to what extent the Italian therapists used VCP and how they experienced the change in setting during lockdown. A sample of psychotherapists completed an on-line questionnaire including data about any previous experience of remote work, information on changes in setting during lockdown and their opinions on this experience. In the second phase, a statistical analysis of the data collected was performed with SPSS. The most represented theoretical orientations are psychoanalytic, Gestalt, systemic-relational and psychodynamic. Almost all the respondents had chosen to change the setting, opting for remote work via video calls, with no differences in terms of theoretical orientation and age group. Psychotherapeutic orientation seems to affect...
In the psychological field, the study of the interaction between the caregiver and the child is c... more In the psychological field, the study of the interaction between the caregiver and the child is considered the context of primary development. Observing how infants interact with their mothers, in the first year of their life, has allowed researchers to identify behavioural indicators useful to highlight the crucial role of their synchronisation, within the behavioural and cognitive domain. The aim of this study is to employ a new observational method, mediated by an artificial neural network model, to systematically study the complex bodily gestural interaction between child and caregiver, which concurs in the development of the child’s bodily awareness, and how the quality of early interactions affects the child’s relationship with his body. The first part will deal with qualitative observational methods, their limits and the object of the study; the second part will describe the reference theory; the third part will describe the neural network model, the details of the proposed study and the expected results. We hypothesise that this model could be used for the construction of a tool that could compensate for some of the critical shortcomings that lie within observational methods in the field of psychology.
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2018
In this paper the link between memory and consciousness is discussed. Modern studies allow us to ... more In this paper the link between memory and consciousness is discussed. Modern studies allow us to redefine what we know about memory, describing our brain not as a store of knowledge and memories but as an active agent that is based and allows us to make predictions about what happens in the surrounding environment. First we will present theories concerning the structures that support the memory function, we will try to define the conscience and its correlations with the concept of memory, finally a research proposal will be presented that will make use of the virtual reality for the study of the individual conscious experience. Our objective is to study the complex phenomenon of how certain aspects of reality become part of the conscious content of consciousness
This paper intends to clarify the complexity of the concept of Executive Functions and to show it... more This paper intends to clarify the complexity of the concept of Executive Functions and to show its relationships with cognitive, emotional and awareness dimensions. In this sense, Executive Functions cannot be considered precondictions of normal physiological functioning, when they are undamaged or, on the contrary, the cause of pathological phenomena, when they are in deficit. Although the small size of our sample does not allow us to explore completely this hypothesis, our data show that there is probably no direct relationship between Executive Functions deficiencies and psychopathological manifestations. In the light of these empirical evidences and theoretical implications, it is plausible to move from a linear interpretative model to a circular explanatory hypothesis.
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2018
The way individuals make choices and decisions influences their behavior and life style. The choi... more The way individuals make choices and decisions influences their behavior and life style. The choice is not simply based on rational and formal logic, but it’s influenced by many emotional and social factors. Starting from this assumption, some studies investigated the way in which emotions influence decision-making processes, while others explored the possibility that decision-making processes are compromised by the onset of psychiatric pathologies and by the presence of prefrontal cortexlesions, which can induce a radical change in basic preferences of the subject. In our opinion, the decision-making style is strictly connected to the normal personality structure while the relationship with psychopathology can be framed within the non-causal and non-linear effects typical of risk or protection factors. The present pilot study, first, intends to explore the relation between decision-making styles, non-pathological personality traits and psychic disorders; second, it intends to propo...
The study of personality has been developed according to different lines of research in which it ... more The study of personality has been developed according to different lines of research in which it is also possible to identify transversal elements that are useful for an unprecedented trans-theoretical research programme. The existence of a close relation between the contents of thought (narrative system) and the vegetative and motor functions (experiential system) of the human being is currently considered of great relevance. However, until now, the studies using classic psychological test in order to describe the contents of the narrative system customize the experiential system and produce partial descriptions and non-integrated description of the personality. Nevertheless, when the people reflect about the questions in a personality test, they present (under the action of this cognitive stimulus) a synchronous activity of the narrative and experiential system. The intention of the study proposed in this paper, with the use of biofeedback and neurofeedback methods, is to record t...
2019 10th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2019
Psychopathological diagnostics is affected by structural methodological limitations that make it ... more Psychopathological diagnostics is affected by structural methodological limitations that make it less effective in clinical and research applications. These limits are related to: the intrinsic characteristics of psychopathological experiences which cannot be described in the third person; to the complexity of the individual-environment system that cannot be studied using methods based on linear causality; to the forms of psychodiagnostic reagents that hypothesize the possibility of obtaining quantitative measurements of psychic phenomena. In order to overcome these limitations, a complex psychodiagnostic evaluation model is presented in which self-report questionnaires, technologies for the evaluation of physiological indices and methods of analysis of data derived from artificial intelligence are integrated. In this project, the objectives of diagnostic evaluations are: emotional experiences articulated according to a phenomenological vision; the relational dynamics analyzed throu...
2019 10th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2019
Dyspraxia is a disorder of internal representation and programming of voluntary movement that can... more Dyspraxia is a disorder of internal representation and programming of voluntary movement that can compromise the development of higher cognitive functions and personality. It is therefore important to have diagnostic tools that allow us to diagnose early motor dysfunctions that are the basis of the disorder in order to be able to quickly intervene avoiding the stabilization of deficient processes. In this paper we intend to propose a computational diagnostic model based on the theory of embodied cognition. The main cognitive function integrated by multimodal neuronal clusters is the integration of space and time, which occurs through precise articulations of the experience of being in the world. The work presents the development in three phases of a computational diagnostic system. The development of the method starts from the identification of motor sequences aimed at detecting the deficits of the praxic functions; in a subsequent phase it evolves into the creation of a neural netw...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Background: The study of complex systems, such as the psychotherapeutic encounter, transcends the... more Background: The study of complex systems, such as the psychotherapeutic encounter, transcends the mechanistic and reductionist methods for describing linear processes and needs suitable approaches to describe probabilistic and scarcely predictable phenomena. Objective: The present study undertakes a scoping review of research on the computational methods in psychotherapy to gather new developments in this field and to better understand the phenomena occurring in psychotherapeutic interactions as well as in human interaction more generally. Design: Online databases were used to identify papers published 2011–2022, from which we selected 18 publications from different resources, selected according to criteria established in advance and described in the text. A flow chart and a summary table of the articles consulted have been created. Results: The majority of publications (44.4%) reported combined computational and experimental approaches, so we grouped the studies according to the ty...
It often happens that the most relevant decisions in terms of consequences are taken in situation... more It often happens that the most relevant decisions in terms of consequences are taken in situations of uncertainty and risk, as well as in conditions of strong temporal stress. In such situations, some decisions are more considered, others, instead, appear more irrational. In the last twenty years, studies on decision making have focused mainly on problem solving skills and cognitive processes underlying rational choices. Only since the fifties of the twentieth century, different research paradigms have tried to shed light on the mechanisms responsible for choices that do not conform to the classical model of rational choice. Among these mechanisms the disjunction effect stands out which, although scarcely investigated, could prove to be a fundamental variable. Method: In order to analyze the reference literature and the studies of the last ten years, a research was carried out on different online science servers (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, ResearchGate), using the follow...
Psychotherapy, unanimously described as a particular organized and systematic relationship betwee... more Psychotherapy, unanimously described as a particular organized and systematic relationship between a patient and a therapist, is a real complex system. The interaction between the numerous variables belonging to the patient, the therapist and the context in which the therapeutic couple is inserted, presents auto-poietic characteristics and generates emergent qualities that, at the current state of psychotherapy research, have not been effectively addressed. The methods of machine learning are suitable for analyzing complex systems and in our opinion, at the moment, they are the most appropriate for studying the therapeutic relationship, understood as a quality emerging from patient-therapist interaction. In fact, through the use of artificial intelligence methods it is possible to construct a model of interaction between therapist and patient by integrating in it the non-linearity of information exchanges between the components of the system. The humanistic therapies vision of the p...
2017 8th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2017
The study describes the relationship between personality traits and executive functions within a ... more The study describes the relationship between personality traits and executive functions within a circularly based paradigm.
Borderline Personality Disorder is a serious mental disease, classified in Cluster B of DSM IV-TR... more Borderline Personality Disorder is a serious mental disease, classified in Cluster B of DSM IV-TR personality disorders. People with this syndrome presents an anamnesis of traumatic experiences and shows dissociative symptoms. Since not all subjects who have been victims of trauma develop a Borderline Personality Disorder, the emergence of this serious disease seems to have the fragility of character as a predisposing condition. Infect, numerous studies show that subjects positive for diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder had scores extremely high or extremely low to some temperamental dimensions (harm Avoidance and reward dependence) and character dimensions (cooperativeness and self directedness). In a sample of 602 subjects, who have had consecutive access to an Outpatient Mental Health Service, it was evaluated the presence of Borderline Personality Disorder using the semi-structured interview for the DSM IV-TR personality disorders. In this population we assessed the pre...
Dissociative phenomena are common among psychiatric patients; the presence of these symptoms can ... more Dissociative phenomena are common among psychiatric patients; the presence of these symptoms can worsen the prognosis, increasing the severity of their clinical conditions and exposing them to increased risk of suicidal behavior. Personality disorders as long duration stressful experiences may support the development of dissociative phenomena. In 933 psychiatric outpatients consecutively recruited, presence of dissociative phenomena was identified with the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES). Dissociative phenomena were significantly more severe in the group of people with mental disorders and/or personality disorders. All psychopathologic traits detected with the symptom checklist-90-revised had a significant correlation with the total score on the DES. Using total DES score as the dependent variable, a linear regression model was constructed. Mental and personality disorders which were associated with greater severity of dissociative phenomena on analysis of variance were included...
Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) although elaborated on the general popu... more Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) although elaborated on the general population, is frequently used in clinical samples. The study evaluates the psychometric characteristics of TCI in clinical populations with the aim of creating a reduced version of the test suitable for these subjects. This research was conducted on two groups of mental health outpatients. In the first study, 44 items, correlated with the psychiatric disorders, was selected. These items, divided in four dimensions utilizing both statistic and psychopathological criteria, show good internal consistency and external validity and constitute a Reduced Version (TR-TCI) of the test. In the second study, the predictive validity of the TR-TCI was evaluated through the ROC curves and a logistic regression model. The results show a good predictive validity of TR-TCI, that allows us to use this instrument in order to identify the personality structures that make people sensitive to psychiatric patholo...
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2018
The goal of our study was to utilize the science of complex interactions to bridge the gap in res... more The goal of our study was to utilize the science of complex interactions to bridge the gap in research concerning psychotherapy. In particular, we chose to focus on the use of graph theory to model and simulate the topology and dynamics of the psychotherapeutic relationship, given how in the past few years such method has been instrumental in understanding complex dynamic systems.
Sport, in different ways, change considerably people’s life. The purpose of this experiment was t... more Sport, in different ways, change considerably people’s life. The purpose of this experiment was to reveal possible association between the stimulation of sympathetic system induced by exercise and the one induced by the rise of systemic concentration of Orexin A and bring the truth about orexins and sport network. Blood samples were collected from subjects (men, n = 10; age: 23.2 ± 2.11 years) 15, 0 min before the start of exercise, and 30, 45, 60 min after a cycle ergometer exercise at 75 W for 15 min. Also, heart rate (HR), galvanic skin response (GSR), and rectal temperature were monitored. The exercise produce a significant rise (p < 0.01) in plasmatic orexin A with a peak at 30 min after the exercise bout, in association with a rise of the other three monitored variables: HR (p < 0.01), GSR (p < 0.05), and rectal temperature (p < 0.01). Our results indicate that plasmatic orexin A is involved in the reaction to physical activity and in the beneficial effects of sport.
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom)
Continuous management of dialysis patients exposes family caregivers to significant psychophysica... more Continuous management of dialysis patients exposes family caregivers to significant psychophysical risks. Having demonstrated the effectiveness of artificial intelligence in the care and assistance processes, it was hypothesized the implementation of a mobile app which would detect the distress of these Family Caregivers in order to activate support actions and adequate sustenance. In order to identify the Burnout risk factors of the Family Caregivers of dialysis patients, 31 items were selected, from the questionnaires recognized in the literature, and submitted to a sample of 713 subjects. The four components extracted through factor analysis identify critical aspects of the family caregiver’s experience. The neural network implemented on these four dimensions shows that overall they have an excellent ability to predict the stress state of the subjects (82%). From this study emerged the basic structure of a psychometric instrument suitable for the assessment of the stress of the family caregivers of patients undergoing dialysis treatment. This reagent can be administered through a mobile app and, using a deep learning algorithm, can report in real time the discomfort of the family caregivers.
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom)
Memory is one of the most fascinating and complex faculties of human beings. Thanks to numerous s... more Memory is one of the most fascinating and complex faculties of human beings. Thanks to numerous studies in the neuroscientific field, today we are aware that when we try to remember the past, we do not entirely repeat an event like a movie, infact, the tendency of memory is to change, deform or fade its contents, with the time and with the accumulation of new experiences, to the point of completely forgetting. The aim to this study is to represent the elements of the process of remembering paying attention also to oblivion. It has been been shown that the substrate of memory is at least partially localized in the brain, in certain areas of the brain, but none of the mechanisms highlighted can work in isolation. So, the aim of this papers is to understand how to study the faculty of memory in the light of new neuroscientific discoveries and beyond.
ELENA GIGANTE1,§,*, ELISABETTA PICCIOCCHI2,3,§, ANNA VALENZANO2, GIUSEPPE CIBELLI2, VALENTINA RUB... more ELENA GIGANTE1,§,*, ELISABETTA PICCIOCCHI2,3,§, ANNA VALENZANO2, GIUSEPPE CIBELLI2, VALENTINA RUBERTO2, DANIELA CANTONE4, ENRICO MORETTO1, ALFONSO DAVIDE DI SARNO1, TERESA LONGOBARDI1, DANIELA IENNACO1, MARTINA MESSINA1, NICOLE NASCIVERA1, DANIELA PISANELLI2, ANNA NUNZIA POLITO5, GABRIELLA MARSALA6, VANIA COSTA1, LUCIANA MOSCA1, SIVIA DELL’ORCO1 1SiPGI Postgraduate School of Integrated Gestalt Psychotherapy, D.M. 12.10.2007 Naples, Italy 2Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy 3Casa di Cura Villa dei Fiori Acerra, Napoli, Italy 4Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy 5Complex Structure of Neuropsychiatry Childhood-Adolescence of Ospedali Riuniti of Foggia, Italy 6Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Ospedali Riuniti di Foggia, Foggia, Italy equal contribution
The covid-19 lockdown forced psychotherapists to use videoconferencing psychotherapy (VCP). There... more The covid-19 lockdown forced psychotherapists to use videoconferencing psychotherapy (VCP). There is little literature on the relationship between VCP and the theoretical orientation of the psychotherapist. The aim of our research work is to explore to what extent the Italian therapists used VCP and how they experienced the change in setting during lockdown. A sample of psychotherapists completed an on-line questionnaire including data about any previous experience of remote work, information on changes in setting during lockdown and their opinions on this experience. In the second phase, a statistical analysis of the data collected was performed with SPSS. The most represented theoretical orientations are psychoanalytic, Gestalt, systemic-relational and psychodynamic. Almost all the respondents had chosen to change the setting, opting for remote work via video calls, with no differences in terms of theoretical orientation and age group. Psychotherapeutic orientation seems to affect...
In the psychological field, the study of the interaction between the caregiver and the child is c... more In the psychological field, the study of the interaction between the caregiver and the child is considered the context of primary development. Observing how infants interact with their mothers, in the first year of their life, has allowed researchers to identify behavioural indicators useful to highlight the crucial role of their synchronisation, within the behavioural and cognitive domain. The aim of this study is to employ a new observational method, mediated by an artificial neural network model, to systematically study the complex bodily gestural interaction between child and caregiver, which concurs in the development of the child’s bodily awareness, and how the quality of early interactions affects the child’s relationship with his body. The first part will deal with qualitative observational methods, their limits and the object of the study; the second part will describe the reference theory; the third part will describe the neural network model, the details of the proposed study and the expected results. We hypothesise that this model could be used for the construction of a tool that could compensate for some of the critical shortcomings that lie within observational methods in the field of psychology.
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2018
In this paper the link between memory and consciousness is discussed. Modern studies allow us to ... more In this paper the link between memory and consciousness is discussed. Modern studies allow us to redefine what we know about memory, describing our brain not as a store of knowledge and memories but as an active agent that is based and allows us to make predictions about what happens in the surrounding environment. First we will present theories concerning the structures that support the memory function, we will try to define the conscience and its correlations with the concept of memory, finally a research proposal will be presented that will make use of the virtual reality for the study of the individual conscious experience. Our objective is to study the complex phenomenon of how certain aspects of reality become part of the conscious content of consciousness
This paper intends to clarify the complexity of the concept of Executive Functions and to show it... more This paper intends to clarify the complexity of the concept of Executive Functions and to show its relationships with cognitive, emotional and awareness dimensions. In this sense, Executive Functions cannot be considered precondictions of normal physiological functioning, when they are undamaged or, on the contrary, the cause of pathological phenomena, when they are in deficit. Although the small size of our sample does not allow us to explore completely this hypothesis, our data show that there is probably no direct relationship between Executive Functions deficiencies and psychopathological manifestations. In the light of these empirical evidences and theoretical implications, it is plausible to move from a linear interpretative model to a circular explanatory hypothesis.
2018 9th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2018
The way individuals make choices and decisions influences their behavior and life style. The choi... more The way individuals make choices and decisions influences their behavior and life style. The choice is not simply based on rational and formal logic, but it’s influenced by many emotional and social factors. Starting from this assumption, some studies investigated the way in which emotions influence decision-making processes, while others explored the possibility that decision-making processes are compromised by the onset of psychiatric pathologies and by the presence of prefrontal cortexlesions, which can induce a radical change in basic preferences of the subject. In our opinion, the decision-making style is strictly connected to the normal personality structure while the relationship with psychopathology can be framed within the non-causal and non-linear effects typical of risk or protection factors. The present pilot study, first, intends to explore the relation between decision-making styles, non-pathological personality traits and psychic disorders; second, it intends to propo...
The study of personality has been developed according to different lines of research in which it ... more The study of personality has been developed according to different lines of research in which it is also possible to identify transversal elements that are useful for an unprecedented trans-theoretical research programme. The existence of a close relation between the contents of thought (narrative system) and the vegetative and motor functions (experiential system) of the human being is currently considered of great relevance. However, until now, the studies using classic psychological test in order to describe the contents of the narrative system customize the experiential system and produce partial descriptions and non-integrated description of the personality. Nevertheless, when the people reflect about the questions in a personality test, they present (under the action of this cognitive stimulus) a synchronous activity of the narrative and experiential system. The intention of the study proposed in this paper, with the use of biofeedback and neurofeedback methods, is to record t...
2019 10th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2019
Psychopathological diagnostics is affected by structural methodological limitations that make it ... more Psychopathological diagnostics is affected by structural methodological limitations that make it less effective in clinical and research applications. These limits are related to: the intrinsic characteristics of psychopathological experiences which cannot be described in the third person; to the complexity of the individual-environment system that cannot be studied using methods based on linear causality; to the forms of psychodiagnostic reagents that hypothesize the possibility of obtaining quantitative measurements of psychic phenomena. In order to overcome these limitations, a complex psychodiagnostic evaluation model is presented in which self-report questionnaires, technologies for the evaluation of physiological indices and methods of analysis of data derived from artificial intelligence are integrated. In this project, the objectives of diagnostic evaluations are: emotional experiences articulated according to a phenomenological vision; the relational dynamics analyzed throu...
2019 10th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), 2019
Dyspraxia is a disorder of internal representation and programming of voluntary movement that can... more Dyspraxia is a disorder of internal representation and programming of voluntary movement that can compromise the development of higher cognitive functions and personality. It is therefore important to have diagnostic tools that allow us to diagnose early motor dysfunctions that are the basis of the disorder in order to be able to quickly intervene avoiding the stabilization of deficient processes. In this paper we intend to propose a computational diagnostic model based on the theory of embodied cognition. The main cognitive function integrated by multimodal neuronal clusters is the integration of space and time, which occurs through precise articulations of the experience of being in the world. The work presents the development in three phases of a computational diagnostic system. The development of the method starts from the identification of motor sequences aimed at detecting the deficits of the praxic functions; in a subsequent phase it evolves into the creation of a neural netw...
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Papers by Enrico Moretto