Understanding Motor Awareness Through Normal and Pathological Behavior

ABSTRACT— Data on patients with localized brain damage and on neurologically intact subjects show that normal motor control depends on the functionality of a chain of neurobiological events. These events, through the activation of internal representations of the desired, predicted, and actual condition of one's body with respect to the external world, contribute to the construction of conscious knowledge of voluntary actions and to self-awareness.     

The Grounding of Identities

Philosophia - A popular stance amongst philosophers is one according to which, in Lewis’ words, “identity is utterly simple and unproblematic”. Building from Lewis’ famous...     

Circadian typology and the Alternative Five‐Factor Model of personality

Two studies were carried out to explore the relationship between circadian typology and the Alternative Five‐Factor Model of personality. In the first study, 379 participants (232 females) were administered the reduced version of the Morningness‐Eveningness Questionnaire and the Zuckerman–Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire. Evening types reported higher impulsive sensation‐seeking scores than morning and intermediate types, whereas morning types scored higher than evening types on activity factor. In the second study, the association between morningness and activity personality factor was verified through the objective‐actigraphic monitoring of the rest‐activity cycle. Actigraphy allowed us to operationalise both circadian typology, through the computing of midpoint of sleep (early values, expressed in hours and minutes, correspond to an advanced phase of the sleep/wake cycle), and activity factor by the means of motor activity recording. Fifty‐one individuals (30 females) wore an actigraph on the nondominant wrist continuously for 1 week. A negative correlation was observed between midpoint of sleep and mean diurnal motor activity, demonstrating that an early phase of the sleep/wake cycle (i.e. morningness preference) was related to higher diurnal motor activity. Assessed both subjectively and objectively, the results of both studies highlight a significant relationship between morningness and activity personality factor.     

Short-term effectiveness of psychotherapy treatments delivered at a university counselling service

This work aimed to evaluate the short-term effectiveness of psychotherapy delivered at the counselling service of the University of Bologna (Italy), by means of a single group longitudinal study including a 6-months follow-up. To this end, sixty-six students completed the 6-months follow-up and filled in the Symptom Questionnaire (SQ) three times, during the first and the last session of the psychotherapy, and 6 months after its conclusion. The majority of students presented a problem concerning mood (n?=?35; 53.03%); students completed a programme of psychodynamic therapy (n?=?38, 57.58%) or cognitive-behavioural therapy (n?=?28, 42.42%). With reference to 10 out of 12 SQ dimensions, significant improvements were observed both after therapy and at the 6-months follow-up, in comparison to pre-treatment; furthermore no significant differences were observed between the end of psychotherapy and the follow-up. The present data indicate the effectiveness of the therapy in reducing students’ distress at the end of treatment and also in the short-term.     

‘I still have difficulties feeling like a mother’: The transition to motherhood of preterm infants mothers

Objective: The premature birth of their infant can constitute a sudden interruption of the transition to motherhood that requires a reorganisation of the process. The present study aimed to analyse the experience of the transition to motherhood of preterm infants’ mothers, framing it within Stern’s transition to motherhood theory.

Method: A semi-structured interview was administered to 30 mothers during the recovery of the infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The interview explored the experience of mothers related to pregnancy, the infant’s birth and recovery.

Results: Thematic Analyses evidenced four interrelated themes: disconnection from the child, perception of maternal inadequacy, loss of parental role and temporal suspension. The themes showed that the mothers’ experience of preterm birth not only concerns the traumatic delivery, but is also embedded in the entire process of becoming a mother within an institutional context.

Conclusions: Results were connected to Stern’s theory. Findings revealed difficulties for preterm mothers that could affect the development of the maternal constellation and thus their transition to motherhood. These difficulties may influence the construction of maternal identity, mother’s representation of their child and the bond with their child.     

Typologies of Alcohol Dependence. From Jellinek to Genetics and Beyond

The goal of typology research is to identify subtypes of alcohol dependent (AD) patients sharing fundamental characteristics and try to match each subtype, with the most precise treatment strategy. This review provides a comprehensive history of the literature on alcohol dependent subtypes starting from the earliest attempt made by Jellinek. The binary models identified most closely with Cloninger and Babor as well as the successively more complex classifications are discussed. Typology classification potentially useful in guiding the treatment of AD patients, especially in the case of the serotonergic medications. Contrasting data suggests that other factors could influence the response to a medication and/or that more complex typologies should be identified. In summary, typology models may assist in the ascertainment criteria for clinical trials performed in behavioral and pharmacotherapeutic interventions. Greater emphasis, however, must be made to more clearly delineate this field of research, while moving toward more standardized typologies.     

Valence specific laterality effects in free viewing conditions: the role of expectancy and gender of image

Recent research has looked at whether the expectancy of an emotion can account for subsequent valence specific laterality effects of prosodic emotion, though no research has examined this effect for facial emotion. In the study here (n=58), we investigated this issue using two tasks; an emotional face perception task and a novel word task that involved categorising positive and negative words. In the face perception task a valence specific laterality effect was found for surprise (positive) and anger (negative) faces in the control but not expectancy condition. Interestingly, lateralisation differed for face gender, revealing a left hemisphere advantage for male faces and a right hemisphere advantage for female faces. In the word task, an affective priming effect was found, with higher accuracy when valence of picture prime and word target were congruent. Target words were also responded to faster when presented to the LVF versus RVF in the expectancy but not control condition. These findings suggest that expecting an emotion influences laterality processing but that this differs in terms of the perceptual/experience dimension of the task. Further, that hemispheric processing of emotional expressions appear to differ in the gender of the image.