Daniela Altavilla

Neural correlate of the projection of mental states on the not-structured visual stimuli

Projection is a spontaneous and complex mental activity responsible for the subjective meaning attribution. The hypotheses of this study were that the neural correlate of projection may involve frontal, parietal, and temporal brain areas, and that alexithymia may be negatively associated with intensities in limbic and paralimbic areas during projection. EEG data were recorded continuously at 250 Hz using NetStation 4.5.1 with 256-channels HydroCel Geodesic Sensor Net in 20 healthy subjects during the presentation of structured and not-structured visual stimuli. The tasks were paying attention to the stimuli and thinking about the possible meaning of each image. Event related potential (ERP) components and low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLoreta) were analyzed. Participants were administered the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale before stimulus presentation. Source analyses (sLORETA) showed a greater activated source in the left primary somatosensory cortex (BA1) compared to all the others BA in both conditions through all the ERP components. An involvement of the frontal (right-BA4, left- and right-BA9, left-BA11) and parietal (left and right-BA2 and left-BA7) areas was found in projective response to not-structured visual stimuli. Alexithymia levels were negatively correlated with the anterior (right-BA32) and posterior (left-BA29) cingulate cortex. Findings show the relevance of fronto-parieto circuits during projection, where the internally generating somatosensory representations could drive an intermodal meaning attribution during the task. Moreover, high alexithymia levels were associated with a reduced activation of the cingulated cortex.

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is associated with activation of the right middle temporal gyrus during inclusion social cue

Aim of this research was to investigate the neurobiological correlates of fear of missing out in response to the social exclusion and social inclusion cue.Fear of Missing Out scale (FOMOs), Social Media Engagement Questionnaire (SMEQ), and Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) were administered to twenty-six healthy participants. Afterward, EEG activity was acquired during a visual task showing exclusion and inclusion social images.Event Related Potentials (ERP) and sLoreta analyses were performed.In the ERP analyses the main effect of condition was found in temporo-parietal and frontal montages. sLoreta analyses showed a greater intensity of the left secondary somatosensory cortex (BA7) in inclusion compared with exclusion condition and a greater intensity of left temporal-parietal junction (BA41, BA42, BA43) and left prefrontal cortex (BA47) in exclusion versus inclusion condition. Moreover, the main finding of correlations analyses was that the FOMOs score was positively correlated with ASQ-need for approval and with right middle temporal gyrus (BA21) only during inclusion condition.Findings sustain that fear of missing out is associated to a greater sensitivity towards social inclusive experiences rather than social exclusion and with need of belong. Neurobiological correlates of FOMO in response to the social exclusion/inclusion cue.Left BA7 showed a greater intensity during inclusion compared to exclusion cue.FOMOs score was positively correlated with right BA21 only during inclusion cue.FOMOs score was positively correlated with ASQ-need for approval.

Neural Correlates of Outcome of the Psychotherapy Compared to Antidepressant Therapy in Anxiety and Depression Disorders: A Meta-Analysis

The most prevalent mental disorders, anxiety and depression, are commonly associated with structural and functional changes in the fronto-limbic brain areas. The clinical trials investigating patients with affective disorders showed different outcome to different treatments such as psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy. It is, however, still unexplored how these interventions approach affect the functional brain. This meta-analysis aims to compare the effects of psychotherapy compared to antidepressant therapy on functional brain activity in anxiety and depression disorders. Twenty-one samples with psychotherapy and seventeen samples with antidepressant therapy were included. The main finding showed an inverse effect of the two treatments on the right paracingulate activity. The patients undergoing psychotherapy showed an increase in the right paracingulate activity while pharmacological treatment led to a decrease of activation of this area. This finding seems to support the recent studies that hypothesize how psychotherapy, through the self-knowledge and the meaning processing, involves a top-down emotional regulation.

Neurophysiological correlate of emotional regulation in cognitive and motor deficits in Tourette’s syndrome

Abstract Objectives: The present study investigated the role of different emotions in the expression of cognitive and motor control abilities of children having Tourette’s syndrome (TS) compared to healthy controls. Methods: The electroencephalography activity of 33 children (mean age in final sample: TS (n = 10) = 10.5 ± 2.3; control (n = 10) = 10.1 ± 2.9) was recorded during a visual task consisting of four emotional face cues (anger, happiness, neutral and sadness) followed by a target in congruent or incongruent position with emotional cue. The participants were asked to indicate the target location. Results: The TS patients showed a shorter latency of the P1 and N170 only for anger cues compared to controls. In addition, sLORETA results showed an increased activation in the left occipital area and a decreased activation in the left amygdala, temporal and cingulate for anger cues in TS patients. Coherently, TS patients showed a lower accuracy of response only with anger cue and severity of tics resulted correlated with the event-related potentials data and behavioural responses linked to anger cue. Conclusions: These results suggest that children with TS process emotions (in particular the anger) differently from the controls, and that its regulation seems to have an important role in the cognitive and motor deficits in TS.

Brain functional connectivity of meaning attribution in patients with psychosis: Preliminary electroencephalographic observations

Psychotic patients show lower performances on tasks requiring goals attribution, intentions and beliefs of others (Koelkebeck et al., 2010; Liepelt et al., 2012). Recent researches supported the “disconnectivity hypothesis” by considering the “abnormal” functional integration among structural brain regions as a useful marker of specific impairment in higher-order processing typically described in schizophrenia (Uhlhaas, 2015). Aim of the present preliminary studywas to examine the brain functional connectivity during a meaning attribution task with structured (geometric polygons) and not-structured (Rorschach inkblots) visual stimuli in a group of eight patients diagnosed with psychosis (44.2 ± 10.2 years) compared to eight healthy participants (27.8 ± 4.8 years). Event-related potentials (ERPs) and brain connectivity data (low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography LORETA) were analyzed as reported by Pascual-Marqui et al. (2011) (Fig. 1 Supplementary materials). Analysis of variance Groups (Clinical vs. Control), as between-subjects factor, per Condition (Structured vs. Not-structured) per Hemisphere (left vs. right), as within subject factor, were performed on ERP data. Furthermore, the comparisons (t-test) between the two groups in response to structured and non-structured stimuli on the connectivity data (LORETA) were performed following the procedure specifically reported by Pascual-Marqui et al. (2011) (see Table 1). In response to geometric polygons, psychotic patients showed a significantly (p b 0.01) greater intensity of connectivity in all regions of interest (ROIs) and, specifically, between parietal and occipital areas in left hemisphere on theta band, right temporal and bilateral para-hippocampus areas on alpha1 and alpha2 bands (Table 1 and Fig. 2 Supplementary materials). During the response to structured stimuli, patients with psychosis seem to recruit the maximum neural generators suggesting an impairment of calling upon prior predictions and to modulate their brain activation in basic processing (Missonier et al., 2011). A possible explanation of this finding is that psychotic patients could perceive simple geometric polygons as poorly adherent to the reality, due to a potential failure to attenuate sensory precision of the information regardless of physical features of the stimulus (Friston et al., 2016). In response to not-structured stimuli, psychotic patients showed a longer latency compared to healthy participants on the frontal-parietal montage for P3 component, an endogenous component reflecting stimulus context and levels of arousal (Missonier et al., 2011). This finding suggests that, also for not-structured stimuli, psychotic patients seem

Neural correlate of Internet use in patients undergoing psychological treatment for Internet addiction

Abstract Background: The new version of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5th) proposed the Internet Gaming Disorder for the diagnosis of Internet addiction (IA) considering the neurobiological evidence of the craving. Aims: The aim was to test the neural correlate in response to the Internet cue in patients with IA. Methods: Sixteen males with IA diagnosis (clinical group) and 14 healthy male (control group) were recruited for an experimental visual task composed of Internet images and emotional images. During the visual presentation of Internet cue, electroencefalographic data were recorded using Net Station 4.5.1 with a 256-channels HydroCel Geodesic Sensor Net. Event-related potential (ERP) components and low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLoreta) were analysed. Results: sLoreta analyses showed that patients from the clinical group presented a higher primary somatosensorial cortex and lower paralimbic, temporal and orbito-frontal activation in response to both Internet and emotional images compared to those of the control group. Conclusions: These results suggest that clinically recognized pathological use of Internet could be linked to dissociative symptoms.