Simonetta D’Amico

Sex differences in visuospatial and navigational working memory: the role of mood induced by background music

Sex differences in visuospatial abilities are long debated. Men generally outperform women, especially in wayfinding or learning a route or a sequence of places. These differences might depend on women’s disadvantage in underlying spatial competences, such as mental rotation, and on the strategies used, as well as on emotions and on self-belief about navigational skills, not related to actual skill-levels. In the present study, sex differences in visuospatial and navigational working memory in emotional contexts were investigated. Participants’ mood was manipulated by background music (positive, negative or neutral) while performing on the Corsi Block-tapping Task (CBT) and Walking Corsi (WalCT) test. In order to assess the effectiveness of mood manipulation, participants filled in the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule before and after carrying out the visuospatial tasks. Firstly, results showed that after mood induction, only the positive affect changed, whereas the negative affect remained unconfounded by mood and by sex. This finding is in line with the main effect of ‘group’ on all tests used: the positive music group scored significantly higher than other groups. Secondly, although men outperformed women in the CBT forward condition and in the WalCT forward and backward conditions, they scored higher than women only in the WalCT with the negative background music. This means that mood cannot fully explain sex differences in visuospatial and navigational working memory. Our results suggest that sex differences in the CBT and WalCT can be better explained by differences in spatial competences rather than by emotional contexts.

Situated navigational working memory: the role of positive mood

The perspective of situated cognition assumes that cognition is not separated from the context. In the present study, the issue if visuospatial memory and navigational working memory are situated was explored by manipulating participants’ mood (positive, negative and neutral) while performing two different tasks. College students were randomly assigned to the group of positive, negative or neutral music. Participants filled out the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS) before and after carrying out the Corsi Test and the Walking Corsi Test. Both tasks were performed forward and backward. Music was played throughout the memory tasks. Firstly, comparing pre-mood induction PANAS scores to post-mood induction PANAS scores, results showed that only positive affects were manipulated: After mood induction, the Positive Music Group produced higher scores, whereas the Negative Music Group produced lower scores than before mood induction; the Neutral Music Group produced no effect. Secondly, the Positive Music Group produced higher scores than Negative and Neutral Music Groups both at the Corsi Test and at the Walking Corsi Test. These results show that situational contexts that induce a specific mood can affect visuospatial memory and navigational working memory, and open to the idea that positive emotions may play a crucial role in enhancing navigational strategies.

Continuous Environmental Changes May Enhance Topographic Memory Skills. Evidence From L’Aquila Earthquake-Exposed Survivors

Exposure to environmental contextual changes, such as those occurring after an earthquake, requires individuals to learn novel routes around their environment, landmarks and spatial layout. In this study, we aimed to uncover whether contextual changes that occurred after the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake affected topographic memory in exposed survivors. We hypothesized that individuals exposed to environmental changes—individuals living in L’Aquila before, during and after the earthquake (hereafter called exposed participants, EPs)—improved their topographic memory skills compared with non-exposed participants (NEPs) who moved to L’Aquila after the earthquake, as only EPs had to modify their previous cognitive map of L’Aquila. We also hypothesized that memory improvement was selective for the navigational space and did not generalize across other spatial and verbal domains. To test these hypotheses, we compared the topographic and spatial memory skills of 56 EPs without post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms to the skills of 47 NEPs using the Walking Corsi Test (WalCT; memory test in the navigational space) and the Corsi Block-Tapping Test (CBT; visuospatial memory test in the reaching space); EPs and NEPs were matched for gender, education and general navigational skills. A sub-group of participants also underwent the Rey-Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT; verbal memory test). The results showed that only EPs had better performances on topographic learning (TL) assessed using the WalCT rather than spatial learning assessed by the CBT. This outcome suggests the possibility that EPs specifically improved topographic memory. This effect may be due to continuous exposure to environmental changes that have required individuals to learn novel paths within the city and integrate novel information, such as “new towns,” into their pre-existing mental representation of the city. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

How would you describe a familiar route or put in order the landmarks along it? It depends on your cognitive style!

Cognitive style refers to the preference in perceiving, organizing and remembering information. Different cognitive styles have been identified across the years. Amongst others, field-dependence/independence cognitive style is the extent to which the person perceives part of a field as discrete from the surrounding environment as a whole, rather than embedded in the field. Instead, visualizer/verbalizer cognitive style involves the preference in processing visual versus verbal information. Both cognitive styles can influence navigational behaviour. The present study aimed at clarifying the extent to which field-dependence/independence and visualizer/verbalizer cognitive styles affect route-based navigational tasks. Therefore, 44 healthy participants from L’Aquila City were assessed for their cognitive styles and were asked to perform two different navigational tasks: reorder paths using a series of photos depicting landmarks from L’Aquila (visually presented task, visual path task—VisPT); orally describe specific paths of L’Aquila (verbally presented task, verbal path task—VerPT). Results showed that the field-independence cognitive style predicted response times of VisPT, whereas the visualizer/verbalizer cognitive style predicted the instructions given when performing the VerPT, namely, the number of metrical distance indicators provided by participants. By investigating two different cognitive styles, the study clarifies that field-dependence/independence and visualizer/verbalizer cognitive styles can play a different role in spatial navigation and suggests that the material by which a navigational task is presented affects its performance.

When do children with autism develop adequate social behaviour? Cross-sectional analysis of developmental trajectories

ABSTRACT The ability to process social information is part of the social cognition construct and it includes the ability to select the appropriate social responses. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show difficulties in these competences that could compromise the development of adequate social behaviour. The aim of the study was to examine the development of the ability to process social cues across the Social Information Processing Interview (SIP-I) conducted with 38 children with ASD compared with 39 children with typical development using cross-sectional developmental trajectory analysis. Children with ASD showed slower development of complex abilities according to the SIP-I measures, particularly for the response construction component. This component evaluates the capacity of a child to put himself/herself in the shoes of other people and try to explain how he/she would act in the same situation. Slower development of this competence could explain the difficulty encountered by children with ASD in interacting with their peers and making an adequate behavioural response.

Persistence of Traumatic Symptoms After Seven Years: Evidence from Young Individuals Exposed to the L’Aquila Earthquake

ABSTRACT In this article, we investigated the presence of trauma-induced sequelae in a sample of 41 young individuals exposed to the L’Aquila earthquake who did not seek mental help in the aftermath of the disaster or in the ensuing months. We compared this group with 43 individuals, matched for age and education, who had not experienced an earthquake but had moved to and lived in L’Aquila after the earthquake and thus experienced the challenges of living in an earthquake-struck city. This study aimed to show that earthquake-exposed individuals scored significantly higher than nonexposed persons on certain scales of the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) seven years after the event. Our results indicated that exposed individuals exhibited higher scores on the dissociation, intrusive experience, and defensive avoidance scales. Furthermore, a correlational analysis between specific conditions detected by the Earthquake Checklist L’Aquila (ECLA) and the TSI identified the influences of specific conditions, such as being trapped or injured under rubble during the earthquake, experiencing a persistent fear of aftershocks or a life-threatening feeling, and witnessing the death of a loved one. All of these experiences resulted in the persistence of trauma-related symptoms. Dissociative experiences during the trauma, cognitive and behavioral avoidance and reexperiencing were associated with negative effects and may hinder the natural process of recovery in trauma-exposed individuals. Knowledge of mid- and long-term psychological difficulties following a traumatic event may be useful for promoting interventions in mental health across exposed populations.

Riconoscimento Delle Posizioni Prospettiche

Quando un individuo trova un ostacolo lungo un percorso, o deve trovare una scorciatoia, o nel caso in cui debba riprodurre al contrario un tragitto precedentemente effettuato, per orientarsi con successo deve essere in grado di riconoscere i landmark precedentemente incontrati, anche se questi vengono visualizzati secondo una prospettiva differente. La capacita di riconoscere una stessa immagine presentata da punti di vista diversi e quindi fondamentale per il buon esito della navigazione.

Orientamento topografico nell’uomo

Per mantenere l’orientamento nell’ambiente circostante, l’uomo deve aggiornare le proprie relazioni spaziali egocentriche (vale a dire le informazioni che provengono da se stesso in relazione con l’ambiente) al cambiare della sua posizione nello spazio. Tali aggiornamenti avvengono tramite l’integrazione di diverse fonti di informazioni (visiva, vestibolare, propriocettiva). In particolar modo l’informazione visiva gioca un ruolo fondamentale nell’aggiornamento sia della propria posizione sia di eventuali modifiche subite dall’ambiente (Farrell, Robertson, 2000). Inoltre, attraverso l’esperienza che deriva dal suo movimento nello spazio, l’individuo e in grado di elaborare un’informazione sia propriocettiva (cioe un’informazione sul senso di posizione e movimento degli arti e del corpo, che si ha indipendentemente dalle informazioni visive) sia locomotoria (un’informazione derivante dal proprio movimento indipendentemente dall’informazione visiva). Inoltre, gli studi condotti sui non vedenti ci insegnano che gli individui sono effettivamente in grado di aggiornare la propria posizione anche in assenza dell’informazione visiva (Rieser et al., 1986; Rieser 1989; Seemungal et al., 2007). Quando una persona si muove al buio ricava le informazioni sulla propria posizione basandosi su un processo definito path integration nel quale la posizione viene dedotta sulla base delle informazioni che derivano da segnali inerziali inviati dal sistema vestibolare e da informazioni tattili, attraverso un complicatissimo processo di integrazione che si avvale anche di veri e propri calcoli matematici per addizionare le informazioni vettoriali di movimento (Mittlestaedt, Mittlestaedt, 1980; Glasauer et al., 2002).

Prerequisiti Di Percezione Visuo-Spaziale

L’abilita di navigazione umana include diverse sottocomponenti che contribuiscono indipendentemente alla capacita di orientamento.

Memoria Di Posizione

La memoria di posizione si riferisce all’abilita di ricordare la collocazione di elementi nell’ambiente. Su questa capacita facciamo affidamento, per esempio, ogniqualvolta desideriamo ritrovare un particolare oggetto riposto all’interno di una stanza. A partire dai 13 anni di eta, a differenza di altre abilita visuo-spaziali, la capacita di ricordare la posizione di oggetti risulta essere migliore nei soggetti di sesso femminile, percio una serie di esercizi mirati al potenziamento di tale abilita puo essere di aiuto per migliorare anche nei soggetti di sesso maschile un’abilita importante per la propria autonomia.