Quality of Life,Anxiety and Depression in Soft Tissue Sarcomas as Compared to More Common Tumours: An Observational Study

The aim of this study is to compare the quality of life and the levels of anxiety and depression in a relatively large group of subjects undergoing chemotherapy for soft tissue sarcoma and a control group of subjects undergoing chemotherapy for the most common types of cancer. 56 soft tissue sarcoma affected patients and 56 patients with common tumours, homogeneous in regards to stages of disease and sociodemographic characteristics, were enrolled in two oncological centres in Turin, Italy. Quality of life was assessed by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General and anxiety and depression by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. All patients had ongoing chemotherapy. The comparison between the two groups shows no difference in either quality of life or in anxiety and depression. There are instead gender differences, since females in the group of common tumours show higher levels of anxiety in comparison to those affected by sarcomas, while males show, at a lower degree, the opposite trend. This study suggest that levels of Quality of Life, anxiety and depression are similar in rare and common tumours. The majority of patients are able to cope with the disease in an adaptive manner. However, for some patients the disease poses a threat to their physical and mental integrity; psychological support of these patients may reduce the development of significant morbidity and help patients to better manage the course of the disease and the effects of the treatment.     

The deep versus the shallow: effects of co-speech gestures in learning from discourse

This study concerned the role of gestures that accompany discourse in deep learning processes. We assumed that co-speech gestures favor the construction of a complete mental representation of the discourse content, and we tested the predictions that a discourse accompanied by gestures, as compared with a discourse not accompanied by gestures, should result in better recollection of conceptual information, a greater number of discourse-based inferences drawn from the information explicitly stated in the discourse, and poorer recognition of verbatim of the discourse. The results of three experiments confirmed these predictions.     

Dopaminergic modulation of prospective memory in Parkinson's disease

Growing interest is present in literature on the study of prospective memory functioning in Parkinson's disease (PD). Current data indicate that prospective memory may be impaired in PD and a relationship with general executive dysfunctioning has been suggested. However, although the dopamine dependency of cognitive dysfunction in PD has been widely investigated, poor is known on the dopaminergic modulation of PM. In the present study we explored the effect of acute administration of levodopa on the performance of a PD sample (n=20) in a time-based prospective memory task. PD patients were evaluated in the morning after a 12-hour therapy wash-out in two experimental conditions: i) after levodopa assumption ("on"); ii) without drug administration ("off"). The experimental task required to execute three uncorrelated actions after 10' for three consecutive trials. Distinct scores for the spontaneous recall of the intention to perform the actions (prospective component) and for the correct execution of the actions (retrospective component) have been computed. Results showed that in the "off" condition PD patients were selectively impaired on the prospective component of the task. However, L-dopa administration significantly improved PD patients' performance actually restoring the prospective memory deficit. These results support a critical role of dopaminergic modulation in prospective memory processes in PD patients, possibly through the replacement of dopamine levels in fronto-striatal pathways.     

Walking reduces the gap between encoding and sensorimotor alignment effects in spatial updating of described environments

Spatial updating allows people to keep track of the self-to-object relations during movement. Previous studies demonstrated that physical movement enhanced spatial updating in remote environments, but failed to find the same effect in described environments. However, these studies mainly considered rotation as a physical movement, without examining other types of movement, such as walking. We investigated how walking affects spatial updating within described environments. Using the judgement of relative directions task, we compared the effects of imagination of rotation, physical rotation, and walking on spatial updating. Spatial updating was evaluated in terms of accuracy and response times in different perspectives, and by calculating two indexes, namely the encoding and sensorimotor alignment effects. As regards response times, we found that in the imagination of rotation and physical rotation conditions the encoding alignment effect was higher than the sensorimotor alignment effect, while in the walking condition this gap disappeared. We interpreted these results in terms of an enhanced link between allocentric and sensorimotor representations, due to the information acquired through walking.     

A convenient and accurate parallel Input/Output USB device for E-Prime

Psychological and neurophysiological experiments require the accurate control of timing and synchrony for Input/Output signals. For instance, a typical Event-Related Potential (ERP) study requires an extremely accurate synchronization of stimulus delivery with recordings. This is typically done via computer software such as E-Prime, and fast communications are typically assured by the Parallel Port (PP). However, the PP is an old and disappearing technology that, for example, is no longer available on portable computers. Here we propose a convenient USB device enabling parallel I/O capabilities. We tested this device against the PP on both a desktop and a laptop machine in different stress tests. Our data demonstrate the accuracy of our system, which suggests that it may be a good substitute for the PP with E-Prime.     

Conversation on mental states at nursery: Promoting social cognition in early childhood

Despite growing evidence that conversation on inner states fosters gains in children’s social cognition, this mechanism has yet to be tested with toddlers. To address this gap, we examined whether an intervention based on conversing about mental states with small groups of 2-year-old children at nursery had a significant effect on toddlers’ theory of mind (ToM) and emotion understanding (EU). Participants were 68 children (M_age at pre-test: 29.9 months) who were assigned to either an experimental or a control condition. Measures of verbal ability, ToM and EU were administered at pre-test, post-test and follow-up stages. Over a one-month intervention, all children were read a series of brief illustrated stories. After listening to the stories, the experimental group (n = 34) was involved in conversations on mental states, whereas the control group (n = 34) was engaged in conversation regarding the material entities and actions featured in the storybook. The experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on measures of both ToM and EU, independently of gains in verbal ability. Furthermore, these positive effects remained stable over time. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Developmental trajectory of number acuity reveals a severe impairment in developmental dyscalculia

Developmental dyscalculia is a learning disability that affects the acquisition of knowledge about numbers and arithmetic. It is widely assumed that numeracy is rooted on the “number sense”, a core ability to grasp numerical quantities that humans share with other animals and deploy spontaneously at birth. To probe the links between number sense and dyscalculia, we used a psychophysical test to measure the Weber fraction for the numerosity of sets of dots, hereafter called number acuity. We show that number acuity improves with age in typically developing children. In dyscalculics, numerical acuity is severely impaired, with 10-year-old dyscalculics scoring at the level of 5-year-old normally developing children. Moreover, the severity of the number acuity impairment predicts the defective performance on tasks involving the manipulation of symbolic numbers. These results establish for the first time a clear association between dyscalculia and impaired “number sense”, and they may open up new horizons for the early diagnosis and rehabilitation of mathematical learning deficits.     

Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Italian Form: Psychometric proprieties with Italian preadolescents

During preadolescence children start to give attention to the future, to formulate thoughts, and to wonder about what they want. They also acquire knowledge and experiment with strategies to assist them in designing their future career. Among the constructs that can now play a relevant role in life designing, the four resources of career adaptability have a prominent role. This article reports the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-International Form 2.0 for a group of middle school students. Two different studies involving Italian preadolescents were conducted. The first study tests the instrument's multidimensional structure, internal consistency and discriminant validity. The second one verifies the factorial structure's across-gender invariance and the test–retest reliability. Results provide strong psychometric support for the CAAS-Italian Form with preadolescents as a valid measure for analyzing their career adaptability and for using it in career counseling and education.     

Detrimental educational practices deemed as culturally acceptable: Adultcentrism and Black Pedagogy in Italian primary schools

Social Psychology of Education - In a complex and systemic view of human development, the educational relationship is conceived as the keystone of development (Pianta, 1999; Pianta, 2001). However,...     

Rape stereotypes and labeling: awareness of victimization and trauma

For years, studies in the U.S. college population have described the phenomena of date and acquaintance rape. These phenomena have perpetuated myths regarding rape leading to the faulty labeling of the experience by the survivors themselves. Compared with the U.S., in Europe there are very few studies concerning this issue. This preliminary study in Italy comprised surveys of 210 participants who were asked to express their opinions on 2 scenarios of sexual assault (a forced rape and an acquaintance rape). Only 48% of the participants thought that acquaintance rape should be tried in a criminal court.