Neuroimaging and neuropsychological literature show functional dissociations in brain activity during processing of stimuli belonging to different semantic categories (e.g., animals, tools, faces, places). The aim of the study was to provide informations about the processing of stimuli from different phylogenetic domains, in order to observe the emergence of non-linguistic conceptual knowledge perceptualand categorizational pathway. Event related potentials (ERPs), N200 and P300, were recorded with an odd ball paradigm, in 24healthy right-handed individuals as they performed a perceptual recognition task on 56 of images of animals, man-made objects (i.e., artifacts) and background-color.The animals were grouped according to the phylogenetic scale in Fish (F), Reptiles (R) and Mammals (M). All stimuli were matched according to the familiarity of representation. The Task consisted in 4 sessions, one for every stimulus.The task was to press a button when the subject saw the stimulus between the background colors. Univariate ANOVAs were computed separately for each ERP component in amplitude (V) and latency (L) for Electrode and for Lateralization. Both N200 and P300 had shown significant differences in Frontal Channels (Fp2, F4, F8) V (p<,05) and in Frontal L as well (p<,05). Post hoc Analysis (Bonferroni) for N200 showed thatF and R stimuli elicited a decrement in V (p<,05) and an increment inL in N200 (p<,05) waves and in Right Lateralization (p<,05). Post hoc Analysis for P300 showed that F, R and M stimuli elicited an increment in P300 L (p<,05) and in Right Lateralization (p<,05). Phylogenetically distant stimuli have differently activated the cortical processing,regardless of familiarity with the stimulus presented. The right hemisphere appears to be more sensitive to differences related to the visual representation of the stimuli that are processed more slowly, which correspond to stimuli furthest by evolutive level.

The aim of this work is to analyze, through artificial neural network models, cortical pattern of women with Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) to investigate representative models of sensitization or habituation to the emotional stimulus in IPV. We investigate the ability of high emotional impact images, during a recognition task, analyzing the electroencephalogram data and event related potentials. Neural network analysis highlights an impairment in IPV group in cortical arousal, during the emotional recognition task. The alteration of this capacity has obvious repercussions on people’s lives, because it involves chronic difficulties in interpersonal relationships.

According to the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM), acoustic similarity/dissimilarity between sounds of the second language (L2) and the native language (L1) governs L2 learnability in adulthood and predicts L2 sound perception by naïve listeners. The study addressed two questions: (1) whether the discrimination patterns predicted by the PAM for L2 naïve listeners are also reflected in the modulation of Mismatch Negativity (MMN) component of the event-related response (ERP) and (2) whether L2 classroom learning is associated with the typology of L2 naïve listeners, as recently suggested by behavioral studies on cross-linguistic research. We measured the behavioral and ERP responses in two groups (10 subjects per group) of Salento Italian (SI) undergraduate students of British English (BE) attending the first the fifth year of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Faculty, compared with 10 inexperienced subjects of BE as L2 (only for the ERP experiment). An identification test examined the perceived phonetic distance between the L1 (/i, ɛ, a, ɔ, u/) and L2 (/iː, ɪ, ɛ, æ, ʌ, ɑː, ɒ, ɜː, ɔː, ʊ, uː/) vowel system. The contrasts /iː/-/uː/ and /æ/-/ʌ/ (for which the PAM’s framework predicted an excellent and a good discrimination, respectively) were selected for an oddity discrimination test and the ERP experiment. In the ERP experiment, using an oddball paradigm, the contrasts /iː/-/uː/ and /æ/ -/ʌ/ were tested while subjects watched a silent movie. As a control condition we introduced the L1 within-category contrast /ɛ/-[e] for which poor discrimination is predicted for all subjects. Following the PAM predictions, the two groups of students did not differ in their behavioral discrimination performance: they exhibited excellent discrimination of /iː/-/uː/ and moderate to good discrimination of /æ/-/ʌ/. MMN amplitudes confirmed that the L2 contrasts were well discriminated. Crucially, no difference was found between the groups of students and the inexperienced group for the L2 contrasts /iː/-/uː/ and /æ/-/ʌ/, and, as predicted, all the subjects showed poor discrimination for the L1 within-category contrast. MMN peak latencies were modulated by the contrast type: /i/-/u/ elicited a faster MMN than /æ/-/ʌ/ and /ɛ/-[e]; in turn, /æ/-/ʌ/ evoked a faster MMN than /ɛ/-[e], reflecting the acoustic distance between the stimuli. Furthermore, the MMN was right lateralized. In line with the PAM model, we extend the findings of previous behavioral studies showing that, at the psychophysiological level, classroom instruction in adulthood relies on assimilation of L2 vowels to L1 phoneme categories and does not trigger improvement in L2 phonetic discrimination.

According to the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM), articulatory similarity/dissimilarity between sounds of the second language (L2) and the native language (L1) governs L2 learnability in adulthood and predicts L2 sound perception by naïve listeners. We performed behavioral and neurophysiological experiments on two groups of university students at the first and fifth years of the English language curriculum and on a group of naïve listeners. Categorization and discrimination tests, as well as the mismatch negativity (MMN) brain response to L2 sound changes, showed that the discriminatory capabilities of the students did not significantly differ from those of the naïve subjects. In line with the PAM model, we extend the findings of previous behavioral studies showing that, at the neural level, classroom instruction in adulthood relies on assimilation of L2 vowels to L1 phoneme categories and does not trigger improvement in L2 phonetic discrimination.

Augmented Reality allows a more detailed understanding of a learning object. Aim of this work was to analyse embodied cognition of the learning object, when it is presented in 2D or in 3D presentation in AR. Our sample was composed by University Students that differed with respect to the knowledge of plankton (naïve and competent condition). The subjects had to manipulate in AR some Application about plankton. After the AR manipulation, the subjects had to perform a recognition task during an EEG recording. We examined Event Related Potential P1, N2 and P3 components. Main result of the study was a significant change in amplitude in the parietal and central left lobe in all components in direction of greater amplitude in naïve condition. We interpret these results like a modulatory effect in the interaction with augmented reality application.

This research aims to investigate, in a population of adolescents, the body's representations, the representations of the relationship with food, the characteristics of dietary habits, body image perceived body image as real as possible predictors of behavior disorders food in the same age group. We recruited 100 children (mean age 16.3 sd = 1.51), by the school to which they belong. We 'measured the BMI (Body Mass Index), the semantic differential on the body representation, one on food relationship and test EAT. This study showed that the representation of the body is extremely sensitive in the adolescent population, the figure body itself in relation to BMI and not eating habits. This result implies that adolescent prevention should be focused on the representation on that body rather than eating habits.

This research aims to illustrate the progress in the field of Artificial Intelligence, in particular with an examination of the Brain Computer Interface (BCI), also known as Neural Interface.These devices, which have a distinctly interdisciplinary character, binds primarily the medical engineering field with that of neuro - cognitive research and have as main objective the rehabilitation or better support for therapeutic purposes with the so-called lock-in patients. First a brief focus on the neural interface story was outlined, with attention to early studies and recent developments that have characterized this protocol. Then we moved to the clarification of the neuro - psychological components that form the basis of a Neural Interface and therefore, detection systems and the particular brain frequencies that activate a BCI will be analyzed. Finally, we’ll discuss some of the most recent studies which have guided the BCI to new scope for development.

Within a route of Education Naturalistic Museum (MAUS), we configured various types of intervention and study related to new technologies and new scientific languages, depending on the objective of learning and involvement. The idea of this work was to increase and to enhance the usability of MAUS Museum through App of Augmented Reality and through Virtual Reality projections, related to natural stimuli (Plankton 3D and Tarbosaurus 3D), to a site storage of exhibits and geo-referencing of the same and all analysis and stimuli validation on the basis of new technologies and on the basis of the of the elements of interaction's characteristics. Easy Perception Lab is a project developed on Information Technology in which we validated/evaluated the activation produced by stimuli presented in 2D and 3D in MAUS museum, developed on evolutionary and neuroaesthetic hypotheses.

Sex hormonal variations have been shown to affect functional cerebral asymmetries in cognitive domains, contributing to sex-related differences in functional cerebral organization. The aim of this study was to investigate spatial attention by means of a bisection line test and computer-supported attention task during the menstrual cycle in healthy women compared to men, in basal condition and under Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCS) of the left parietal cortex. Women were studied during the menses, follicular and luteal phases, ascertained by transvaginal ultrasounds. In basal conditions, women showed a clear deviation toward the right in the bisection line test during the menstrual phase, similarly to men. The midpoint recognition in the computer-supported attention task was not influenced by the menstrual cycle for women, while men showed a significant increase in errors toward the left side. The anodal activation of the left parietal cortex did not affect the line bisection task, while in men it reduced the total amount of errors in midpoint recognition observed in the computer supported attention task. The hand-use effect demonstrated by the bisection-line test could be influenced by estrogen fluctuations, while the right hemisphere prevalence in spatial attention appears to be gender-related and scarcely influenced by the menstrual cycle. The left parietal cortex seems to exert a scarce effect on hand-use effect, while its activation is able to revert sex related right hemisphere supremacy.

Migraine is characterized by an altered cortical excitability. Because transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can change brain activity noninvasively, it is possible to hypothesize its efficacy in modulating pain in migraine. In this study, we compared the effects of tDCS of the left primary motor cortex (M1) and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) both on subjective pain and on evoked responses induced by laser stimulation (LEPs). Thirty-two patients and sixteen controls were randomized to receive sham stimulation and real tDCS with the anode centered over M1 or DLPFC. Laser Evoked potentials were recorded in basal, sham and tDCS conditions. We did not find significant acute changes in LEPs parameters and pain perception among subjects who received tDCS of both M1 and DLPFC. After DLPFC tDCS, we observed a significant increase of N2-P2 component habituation in migraine patients while M1 stimulation reduced it. These findings may suggest a modulation of abnormal pain processing induced by DLPFC and M1 anodal tDCS and outline the need for future investigations exploring the possible neuronal plasticity changes supporting the clinical effect on migraine.

Cognitive impairment (CI) can develop during the course of ageing and is a feature of many neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. Many individuals with CI have substantial, sustained, and complex health care needs, which frequently include pain. However, individuals with CI can have difficulty communicating the features of their pain to others, which in turn presents a significant challenge for effective diagnosis and treatment of their pain. Herein, we review the literature on responsivity of individuals with CI to experimental pain stimuli. We discuss pain responding across a large number of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders in which CI is typically present. Overall, the existing data suggest that pain processing is altered in most individuals with CI compared with cognitively intact matched controls. The precise nature of these alterations varies with the type of CI (or associated clinical condition) and may also depend on the type of pain stimulation used and the type of pain responses assessed. Nevertheless, it is clear that regardless of the etiology of CI, patients do feel noxious stimuli, with more evidence for hypersensitivity than hyposensitivity to these stimuli compared with cognitively unimpaired individuals. Our current understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underpinning these alterations is limited but may be enhanced through the use of animal models of CI, which also exhibit alterations in nociceptive responding. Further research using additional behavioural indices of pain is warranted. Increased understanding of altered experimental pain processing in CI will facilitate the development of improved diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for pain in individuals with CI.

Recent research on the crossmodal integration of visual and auditory perception suggests that evaluations of emotional information in one sensory modality may tend toward the emotional value generated in another sensory modality. This implies that the emotions elicited by musical stimuli can influence the perception of emotional stimuli presented in other sensory modalities, through a top-down process. The aim of this work was to investigate how crossmodal perceptual processing influences emotional face recognition and how potential modulation of this processing induced by music could be influenced by the subject’s musical competence. We investigated how emotional face recognition processing could be modulated by listening to music and how this modulation varies according to the subjective emotional salience of the music and the listener’s musical competence. The sample consisted of 24 participants: 12 professional musicians and 12 university students (non-musicians). Participants performed an emotional go/no-go task whilst listening to music by Albeniz, Chopin, or Mozart. The target stimuli were emotionally neutral facial expressions. We examined the N170 Event-Related Potential (ERP) and behavioral responses (i.e., motor reaction time to target recognition and musical emotional judgment). A linear mixed-effects model and a decision-tree learning technique were applied to N170 amplitudes and latencies. The main findings of the study were that musicians’ behavioral responses and N170 is more affected by the emotional value of music administered in the emotional go/no-go task and this bias is also apparent in responses to the non-target emotional face. This suggests that emotional information, coming from multiple sensory channels, activates a crossmodal integration process that depends upon the stimuli emotional salience and the listener’s appraisal.

Fluctuating sex hormone levels during the menstrual cycle have been shown to affect functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) in cognitive domains, contributing to sex-related differences in functional cerebral organization. The line-bisection task is usually used to quantify disorders in spatial attention. Respect to spatial representation, it has been demonstrated that men outperform women in spatial analysis of complex auditory scenes. Although the line-bisection task is a rather indirect measure of callosal function, the importance of the corpus callosum in line-bisection, especially of posterior callosal areas, is demonstrated by several studies This study aims to observe whether there is an effect between gender, hormonal components and spatial attention. Thirty-three healthy volunteers (ten women in age of fertility and thirteen women in menopause and ten man) was investigated during a computer based line-bisection task (considering the position 1: central; 2 low distance right; 3 high distance right; 4 low distance left; 5 high distance left). EEG was recorded by 38 scalp electrodes according to the enlarged 10-20 system. A General Linear Model (GLM) was made considering the effect group and the effect of position in Lateralization for the component Amplitude (V) and Latencies (L). Level of significance was fixed at p<0,05. GLM showed a significant effect (Wilk’s Lambda<,05) for Group (G) and Target Position (TP) but not for interaction Group and Target Position. Particularly we found a significant effect in Left L and V (p<0,05) and Central L for TP; for G GLM found significant effect in Left L and V (p<,05), in Right V (p<0,05) and Central L and V (p<0,05). Post hoc analysis showed a significant effect in 5 TP, in direction of a ampler and faster P300 in all groups, and a significant effect in all the groups in Left L and V (p<,05) and Right V (p<,05) in direction of slower latencies and higher amplitudes in groups of menopause women and faster latencies and less amplitudes in women in fertile age for Left Hemisphere. Conclusion of these preliminary study is that the gender difference and hormonal variations can influence spatial perception, especially in extremely left position, during a line- bisection task, and it could be in direction of a different activation of Left Hemisphere

In this work, the perception of affordances was analysed in terms of cognitive neuroscience during an interactive experience in a virtual reality environment. In particular, we chose a virtual reality scenario based on the Leap Motion controller: this sensor device captures the movements of the user's hand and fingers, which are reproduced on a computer screen by the proper software applications. For our experiment, we employed a sample of 10 subjects matched by age and sex and chosen among university students. The subjects took part in motor imagery training and immersive affordance condition (a virtual training with Leap Motion and a haptic training with real objects). After each training sessions the subject performed a recognition task, in order to investigate event-related potential (ERP) components. The results revealed significant differences in the attentional components during the Leap Motion training. During Leap Motion session, latencies increased in the occipital lobes, which are entrusted to visual sensory; in contrast, latencies decreased in the frontal lobe, where the brain is mainly activated for attention and action planning.

Fluctuating sex hormone levels during the menstrual cycle have been shown to affect functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) in cognitive domains, contributing to sex-related differences in functional cerebral organization. This study aims to observe changes induced by anodal tDCS in left parietal cortex on performance in a computer based visual line bisection task and event related potentials across menstrual cycle in fertile compared to menopause women. Twenty-three healthy volunteers (ten fertile women and thirteen menopausal women) were investigated. Subjects were submitted to a computer based line-bisection task (position 1: central; 2 low distance on right; 3 high distance on right; 4 low distance on left; 5 high distance on left): baseline (B), sham (S), tDCS (T), which were randomized in three consecutive months. EEG was recorded by 38 scalp electrodes according to the enlarged 10-20 system. Anodal tDCS was performed on the P3 derivation (cathode on left supra orbital site) (20 min 2 mA intensity). The group of fertile women was investigated during follicular, secretive and menstrual phases. Subjects were instructed to press the computer bar soon after the presentation of the subjective judged central position. The positive component in the time interval between 200-400 msec was evaluated by means of Brain Vision Analyzer 2.0, after a visual inspection and rejection of artifact. In basal condition the GLM test showed a significant increase of P300 amplitude (Phase p=0,002; Condition p=0,00; Phase *Conditions p=0,026) related to the 5 (high distance) target on the left hemisphere in the menstrual phase, compared to the secretive and follicular phases (fig.1). After the left parietal TDCS, the P3 amplitude was similar across the different phases and in relation to the different targets, in all the considered EEG derivations related to 5 line position across the different phases (Figure 2). Post hoc analysis (Bonferroni Test) for Left Latence and Amplitude indicated a significant effect in follicular condition (p =0,00), in secretive condition (p=0,00) and in menstrual condition (p=0,00). In menopause group, analyses for Condition showed in all lateralization channel significant values in A and in L (p<0,05). Post hoc analyses indicated a particular effect for T vs B (p<0,05) in all derivations, in direction of lower latencies and higher amplitudes in T conditions. Analyses for Position showed in all lateralization channels significant values in amplitudes and in L (p<0,05) except in L position. Post hoc analyses indicated a lower latency and higher amplitude in 5 position (p<0,05). We can conclude that hormonal phase can influence spatial perception and it could be in direction of a predominant activation of Left Asymmetry. Furthermore these results are not affected by stimulation like tDCS.

New technologies in the field of neuroprosthetics and robotics are leading to the development of innovative commercial products based on user-centered, functional processes of cognitive neuroscience and perceptron studies. The aim of this review is to analyze this innovative path through the description of some of the latest neuroprosthetics and human–robot interaction applications, in particular the brain–computer interface (BCI) linked to haptic systems, interactive robotics, and autonomous systems. These issues will be addressed by analyzing developmental robotics and examples of neurorobotics research. These new devices show the benefits of using an interdisciplinary approach based on cognitive neuroscience, embodied and situated cognition, neural network, and deep learning. All of these products share the capability to adapt, online, to the dynamic environment and to the user’s actions. As the role of the human tutor is key in this learning process, these systems permit a natural and dynamic approach to interaction among people, neuroprosthetics, and robotics self-extensions.

The recent spread of techniques of medically assisted reproduction, and today’s changes in the laws ruling this practice, enable many couples with infertility to have access to these treatments, thus getting in contact with a world full of cultural and mental representations that often affect conception, pregnancy and parenting, raising new ethical and bioethical issues on the scene of assisted conception. This paper presents a comparison between a clinical thought, born from the experience of the famous French psychiatrist, Benoît Bayle, and a review of scientific literature, with a specific reference to the prenatal cognitive matrix. This study analyzes the physiological, cognitive, behavioral, and dynamic levels related to the scene of Artificial Conception. The results of this research indicate that the differences in these variables are actually more significant in the studies conducted on couples treated with PMA than in those conducted on controls.

gli spazi consultoriali in Italia sono servizi pubblici di assistenza alla famiglia, di educazione alla maternità e alla paternità responsabili, alla salute della donna e della coppia. Sono stati istituiti nelle varie regioni Italiane a partire dal 1975. Nel corso degli anni stanno modificando i servizi offerti in funzione della domanda dell’utenza. Obiettivo di questo studio è stato quello di analizzare, attraverso la somministrazione di un questionario, i vari servizi e i vari tipi di utenza del nord, centro e sud Italia analizzando in particolare i servizi rivolti agli adolescenti. Le analisi effettuate sono state di tipo descrittivo e di tipo inferenziale. Risultati delle analisi hanno visto una distribuzione eterogenea rispetto al nord, centro e sud, in particolare rispetto alle proporzione di utenti donne, adolescenti e rispetto alla categoria degli immigrati

Aim of this work was to study the perception of affordances in VR according to a cognitive neuroscience. In order to investigate this topic we focused our analysis on the perception of affordances during a game, the Leap Motion Controller (LM). The sample was composed of 10 university students matched by age and sex. The subjects performed in Thinking training and in Immersive Affordance Condition (a virtual training with LM and a Real training). After each training the subject had to perform a recognition task. During the task ERP components were measured through EEG. The results highlighted that, during the LM training, attentional components changed. In the occipital lobes, which is entrusted to visual sensory, we got increased latencies; on the contrary, in frontal lobe, where the brain mainly activates for attention and action planning, we got decreased latencies.

Researches concerning the psychological and behavioral alterations following exposure to Intimate Partner Violence, associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well, represent an interesting area of analyses. The aim of this work was to study the variations of event related brain potentials (ERPs), specifically N200 and P300, related to the establishment of visual emotional stimuli in women with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to IPV. We administered the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and a PTSD questionnaire to select a group of women recruited in a Center against Family Violence. Two categories of visual stimuli, emotional pictures with negative valence (EP) and positive and neutral pictures (NP), were presented during a decisional task, utilizing an oddball paradigm. The task was to press a button when the subject saw an emotional image. The IPV group was composed of 14 women (mean age: 39). The Control Group was composed of 14 women (mean age: 33) without PTDS or IPV nor depressive/anxiety symptomatology (measured with BDI II and BAI). Univariate ANOVAs were computed separately for each ERP component in amplitude and latency for electrode and for Lateralization. Both N200 and P300 had shown significant differences in amplitude (p<,05) and only N2 in latency as well (p<,05). IPV Group had shown a decrement in Amplitude and Latency in P300 waves. The IPV group displayed an increase in latency of N200 (p<,05) in Occipital single channels and in Left (p<,05) and Right (p<,05) position for Lateralization analysis as well. The Behavioral Result confirms an increase of Latency in RT for IPV group. The possible interpretations for these findings is that IPV Group exhibits a lower sensitivity threshold when the stimuli in question relate to negative emotional valence to stimuli, that could be an habituation in elicitation of emotional arousal.

The virtual reality (VR) is scientifically recognized as an interactive tool and simulation that allows a specific form of communication. Recently it has been considered as a tool of therapy in the rehabilitation of neurodegenerative and some psychological disorders, making it a useful adjunct (and not replacing) of the classic techniques of psychotherapy, in that,acting as a Cognitive-ExperientialTherapy, succeeds is to mediate between the study of the therapist and the real world, both to overcome some obstacles related to some classic treatments exhibition of imaginative type.The recreated environments using theVR technology, in fact, may represent a further context for social interaction through which the user has the opportunity to experience real-life situations, objects and feared contexts, to have feelings, emotions and thoughts (past or present) on his psychological distress and increase the level of self-esteem,self-efficacy and safety,testing new adaptation strategies.And theVR protocol can also be useful as an additional diagnostic tool than traditional methods,since it allows to acquire specific information regarding the cognitive and behavioral sphere of patients undergoing these investigations. For this reason, even today, clinical psychology can utilizeVR as a valid means of assessment, diagnosis and intervention.

This paper aims to analyze the musical percept as a precursor of language, which later evolved into a human brain structure with syntactic, spatial and temporal rules similar to the language. This will be described through the studies of Psychology of Music and through evolutionary analyses, and neuroarchaeological analysis. Through acomparate and evolutionary model will b eillustrated the phylogenetic development of musical perception (listening, pitch detection, physiological production and instrumental production) and how this could be considered one of the foundations of the speech. Through this analysis we will describe how the percept music/sound exists as strongly connected both at the genetic level, biological and behavioral language functions, and we will as a capacity which the tactile receptor is involved in the processes ofsound / music discrimination and production.

In recent years, many researches have focused how the technologies related to cognitive neuroscience can be of support the educational, clinical and museal structures. The purpose of this paper is to present a concise and integrated, as in situations other environment-related perceptual museum, virtual reality and neuroaesthetic may be elements of support for these structures. We will consider recent research related to cognitive neuroscience and virtual reality, and we will see how, in a condition linked to the context, they can be applied to an ergonomic environment and interactive, which favors the motivation of the subject during the acquisition of artistic / historical information or environmental / scientific information.

The perception of an odour is a two-step process. First, there is a physiological process, i.e. the detection of chemical stimuli (odorous molecules) by olfactory receptors in the olfactory epithelium. Next, there is a neurologic process; olfactory neurons transduce receptors activation into neuronal electrical signals travelling along the olfactory nerve to olfactory bulb and finally, they are processed by higher cortical areas of the human brain where odour encoding and perception occur. Because of this, olfaction is a complex primal sense highly associated with attraction, mood, detection of danger and odours have the power to evoke distant memories and boost self-confidence. A lot of knowledge on olfaction has to be still get mainly regarding its relationship with other sensory stimuli as audio, visual, taste [1]. Odour recognition memory is slightly influenced by the length of retention intervals. This was observed for short intervals (few minutes) as well as longer retention period (over a year too)[2]. One approach to understanding the olfaction links to other senses is to monitor and analyse human brain activity during odours perception. By measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) by electroencephalography, it’s possible to measure the electrophysiological response of brain to a specific event, i.e. in this case the presentation of olfactory stimuli [3,4]. Aim of this study is understanding how the olfactory system, which involves and activates the limbic system, can modulate a perception on emotional face recognition. Through these results we aim to investigate and to implement innovative applications of cognitive neuroscience in order to improve basic knowledge as well as to develop novel devices for enhancing synesthetic experiences with olfactory stimuli. Method: We arrange an experiment of olfactive conditioned evoked potentials by analysing Event Related Potential (ERP) of 7 volunteers during perception of 2 odour stimuli: pleasant (rose, 2-phenyl ethanol C2H4O2) and unpleasant (acid, Acetic Acid C8H10O). Specifically, we have proposed a paradigm of operant conditioning in which the three types of odours were conditioned on images of neuter face expression [5], by a NimStim Face Stimulus Set [6], for the duration of 5 minutes to task learning, repeated for three times. Subsequently, the subject had to perform a test Face detection, implemented through NimStim Set, for a period of 10 minutes task, during a Emo No Go Paradigm Presented with E-Prime Presentation. The subject had to press a pc key during a recognition task of emotional neuter face expression in a presentation of randomized emotional expressions (fear, neuter and happy). For the odorous stimuli in the experiment, pure chemical compounds were diluted in distilled water. A dilution ratio (1:4) was suitably consider in order to realise easily perceptible, but not unpleasant, odours; the odorants and their concentration used in the test are listed in table 1 together with their odour sensory description. In addition, the distilled water was used a control for inducing an odourless stimulus. The odorous solutions (5 ml) were put into 20 ml glass vials sealed with septum till the exposure time to the volunteers. We can conclude that an unpleasant odour can modulate, in a cross modal way, the perceptions of emotional and neutral face expressions, and it can be general in a very early component (P100) and more specific, in conditioning way, in the attentive component (P300), only for neutral expressions

Association between sleep disorders and headache is largely known. The aim of the present study was to evaluate sleep quality and quantity in a large cohort of primary headache patients, in order to correlate these scores with symptoms of central sensitization as allodynia, pericranial tenderness and comorbidity with diffuse muscle-skeletal pain.

Abstract The purpose of this work is to investigate the olfactory response to a neuter and a smell stimulation through Olfactory Event Related Potentials (OERP). We arranged an experiment of olfactory stimulation by analyzing Event Related Potential during perception of 2 odor stimuli: pleasant (Rose, 2-phenyl ethanol C2H4O2) and neuter (Neuter, Vaseline Oil CH2). We recruited 15 adult safe non-smokers volunteers. In order to record OERP, we used VOS EEG, a new device dedicated to odorous stimulation in EEG. After the OERP task, the subject filled a visual analogic scale, regarding the administered smell, on three dimensions: pleasantness (P), arousing (A) and familiarity (F). We performed an artificial neural network analysis that highlighted three groups of significant features, one for each amplitude component. Three neural network classifiers were evaluated in terms of accuracy on both full and restricted datasets, showing the best performance with the latter. The improvement of the accuracy rate in all VAS classifications was: 13.93% (A), 64.81% (F), 9.8% (P) for P300 amplitude (Fz); 16.28% (A), 49.46% (F), 24% (P) for N400 amplitude (Cz, Fz, O2, P8); 110.42% (A), 21.19% (F), 24.1% (P) for N600 amplitude (Cz, Fz). Main results suggested that in smell presentation we can observe the involvement of slow Event-Related-Potentials, like N400 and N600, ERP involved in stimulus encoding.

Counselling spaces in Italy are in public care services to the family, education for responsible motherhood and fatherhood, women's and couples' health. The public counsellings have been established in various Italian regions since 1975. Over the years the services changed in according to customer requests. The aim of this study has been to analyze, by administering a questionnaire, the different services and different types of users in North, Central and Southern Italy with particular regard to the services for adolescents. There have been descriptive and inferential analysis. Analysis results have seen a heterogeneous distribution in North, Central, and Southern Italy, particularly in relation to the proportion of female users, adolescents and immigrants. Within the public counselling there are gynecologists, midwives and psychologists, there are less frequently pediatricians and internists, probably in relation to the type of given performances (contraception, pregnancy and unwanted pregnancy). Finally, regarding the satisfaction of the service provided, the facilities managers perceive themselves, especially in the South and the North, how mostly inaccessible, impractical and with an insufficient number of operators.

Aim of this study is to investigate innovative olfactory applications of cognitive neuroscience in order to improve basic knowledge as well as to develop novel devices for enhancing synaesthetic experiences through olfactory stimulation. We arranged an experiment of olfactive conditioned evoked potentials by analyzing Event Related Potential (ERP) of adult safe volunteers during the conditioning perception of 2 odor stimuli, in an experiment of emotional face recognition task. Specifically, it was developed a paradigm of classical conditioning in which the three types of odors (pleasant, unpleasant, neuter) were conditioned on images of neuter face expression and these results were compared with direct results of olfactory stimulation. The main experimental evidence of our study consists in significant values in ERPs components in direction of a greater amplitude and slower latency in unpleasant condition. On the basis of these results one might assume that an unpleasant odor can modulate, in a cross modal way, the perceptions of emotional and neutral face expressions, and it’s highlighted in an early ERPs component (P1) in conditioning way only for neutral expressions.

Objective: To compare interference between walking and a simple P3 auditory odd-ball paradigm in patients with Huntington's disease (HD) and age- and sex-matched controls. Methods: Twenty-four early-to-middle-stage HD patients and 14 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers were examined. EEG—EMG recordings were obtained from 21 scalp electrodes and eight bipolar derivations from the legs. Principal component analysis was used to obtain artifact-free recordings. The stimulation paradigm consisted of 50 rare and 150 frequent stimuli and was performed in two conditions: standing and walking along a 10 by 5 m path. P3 wave amplitude and latency and EEG and EMG spectral values were compared by group and experimental condition and correlated with clinical features of HD. Results: P3 amplitude increased during walking in both HD patients and controls. This effect was inversely correlated with motor impairment in HD patients, who showed a beta-band power increase over the parieto-occipital regions in the walking condition during the P3 task. Walking speed and counting of rare stimuli were not compromised by concurrence of motor and cognitive demands. Conclusion: Our results showed that walking increased P3 amplitude in an auditory task, in both HD patients and controls. Concurrent cognitive and motor stimulation could be used for rehabilitative purposes as a means of enhancing activation of cortical compensatory reserves, counteracting potential negative interference and promoting the integration of neuronal circuits serving different functions.

Method and related system for measuring physiological parameters of a human subject undergoing an olfactory stimulation comprising one or more smelling olfactory stimuli, where by means of said system and according to said method a human subject is undergone to said olfactory stimulation by sending said one or more smelling olfactory stimuli to the human subject; one or more physiological parameters of the human subject are recorded; and said olfactory stimulation and physiological parameters recording are synchronized

Electromagnetic device for stimulating a particular encephalic area comprising at least a current generator and characterized in that it is provided with at least a coil of circular shape for stimulating a portion of the brain lobes in a localized way and in that it generates an electric power between 0 and 50 Watt at a frequency between 3 and 20 Hz adjustable in continuum to determine a brain synchronization effect in response to an applied magnetic field

Electromagnetic device for stimulating a particular encephalic area comprising at least a current generator and characterized in that it is provided with at least a coil of circular shape for stimulating a portion of the brain lobes in a localized way and in that it generates an electric power between 0 and 50 Watt at a frequency between 3 and 20 Hz adjustable in continuum to determine a brain synchronization effect in response to an applied magnetic field.