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Previous research about body size estimation in obesity reported heterogeneous results. This might be related to the fact that the tasks adopted explored different body representations. Classifying the previous studies according to the specific body representation probed (i.e. implicit, explicit or both) might clarify discordant findings. A systematic review and meta-analysis of research articles assessing body size estimation in individuals affected by obesity compared with healthy weight individuals were performed in PubMed and Web of Science. Additional records were identified by reference lists inspection. The last search was run in May 2021. Two independent authors performed data extraction according to predefined criteria. Both groups either overestimated or underestimated the implicit body representation depending on the task used and the body part considered. Conversely, the explicit representation of the body was mainly overestimated by both individuals with obesity and healthy weight. In tasks relying on both these representations, overestimation and underestimation were reported in both groups, possibly depending on the degree of which each procedure relied on the explicit and/or implicit representation of the body. According to the meta-analysis, individuals with obesity tended to be significantly less accurate in body size estimations than participants with healthy weight. We confirmed that heterogeneous findings in body size estimation in obesity are related to the adoption of different tasks, which likely involve different body representations. We discussed the role of body dissatisfaction and altered somatosensation in the lower accuracy observed in obesity.
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Imagem Corporal , Obesidade , Tamanho Corporal , Corpo Humano , HumanosRESUMO
INTRODUCTION: The study aims at investigating psychometric properties of the Edinburgh cognitive and behavioural ALS screen (ECAS) in Parkinson's (PD) and Huntington's (HD) diseases. The sensitivity and specificity of the ECAS in highlighting HD and PD cognitive-behavioural features and in differentiating between these two populations and from healthy controls (HC) were evaluated. Moreover, correlations between the ECAS and traditional cognitive measures, together with core clinical features, were analysed. METHODS: Seventy-three PD patients, 38 HD patients, and 49 education-matched healthy participants were enrolled. Participants were administered the ECAS, together with other cognitive screening tools and psychological questionnaires. Patients' behavioural assessment was also carried out with carers. RESULTS: The ECAS distinguished between HD patients and HC and between the two clinical syndromes with high sensitivity and specificity. Even if the diagnostic accuracy of the ECAS in distinguishing between PD and HC was low, the PD cognitive phenotype was very well described by the ECAS performances. Convergent validity of the ECAS against other traditional cognitive screening was observed, as well as correlations with psychological aspects and typical clinical features, especially for the HD group. CONCLUSIONS: The ECAS represents a rapid and feasible tool, useful also in other neurodegenerative disorders affecting verbal-motor abilities than the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis such as PD and HD. Clinical applications in these neurodegenerative conditions require further investigations and, probably, some adaptations of the original test.
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Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica , Transtornos Cognitivos , Doença de Huntington , Doença de Parkinson , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/complicações , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/diagnóstico , Humanos , Doença de Huntington/complicações , Doença de Huntington/diagnóstico , Testes Neuropsicológicos , Doença de Parkinson/complicações , Doença de Parkinson/diagnóstico , Sensibilidade e EspecificidadeRESUMO
Mixed findings characterize studies in Parkinson's disease (PD): some studies indicate a relationship between physical impairments and the ability to mentally represent the body, while others suggest spared abilities for this cognitive function. To clarify the matter, in the present study we explored the mental representations of the body in action in the same PD patients, taking also into account lateralization of symptoms and visual imagery skills. 10 PD patients with left- (lPD), 10 with right (rPD) lateralized symptoms (lPD), and 20 matched healthy controls have been recruited for the study. All patients were screened for neuropsychological impairments. To explore a more implicit component we used the hand laterality task (HLT), while the mental motor chronometry (MMC) was used to explore a more explicit one. Two control tasks, with objects instead of body parts, were administered to control for visual imagery skills. In the HLT, we detected the effects of biomechanical constraints effects in both controls and PD patients. In the latter group, importantly, this was true independently from lateralization of symptoms. In the MMC, we found the expected positive correlation between executed and imagined movements for both hands in controls only, while all PD patients, again independently form lateralization, only showed this effect for the left hand. In terms of visual imagery, only rPD patients differed from controls when asked to implicitly rotate letters, and in terms of accuracy only. However, this difference is explained by executive functions measured through the neuropsychological assessment rather than by a "pure" visual imagery impairment. In summary, our findings suggest that two different aspects of the mental representations of the body in action, one more implicit and the other more explicit, can be differently affected by PD. These impairments are unlikely explained by a basic visual imagery deficit. When present, impairments concern a higher dimension, related to motor functions and awareness, and not driven by sensory impairments, as shown by the independence of effects from physical laterality of symptoms.
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Corpo Humano , Movimento/fisiologia , Doença de Parkinson/fisiopatologia , Doença de Parkinson/psicologia , Cognição/fisiologia , Feminino , Lateralidade Funcional/fisiologia , Mãos/fisiopatologia , Humanos , Imagens, Psicoterapia/métodos , Imaginação/fisiologia , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Testes NeuropsicológicosRESUMO
Background/Objectives: Although manual therapies can be used for pain alleviation in fibromyalgia, there is no clear evidence about the processing of gentle, affective touch in this clinical condition. In fact, persistent painful sensations and psychological factors may impact the hedonic experience of touch. Methods: This observational cross-sectional study compared the subjective experience of affective touch between 14 women with fibromyalgia (age range: 35-70; range of years of education: 5-13) and 14 pain-free women (age range: 18-30; range of years of education: 13-19). The participants rated the pleasantness of slow and fast touches delivered by a brush, the experimenter's hand, and a plastic stick. Tactile stimuli were either imagined or real to disentangle the contribution of top-down and bottom-up sensory components. Additionally, a self-report questionnaire explored the lifetime experiences of affective touch. Results: Akin to healthy counterparts, individuals with fibromyalgia rated slow touches delivered by the experimenter's hand or a brush as more pleasant than fast touches, regardless of whether they were imagined or real. However, the intensity of pain affects only the imagined pleasantness in our participants with fibromyalgia. Furthermore, despite the fibromyalgia patients reporting fewer experiences of affective touch in childhood and adolescence, this evidence was not associated with the experimental outcomes. Conclusions: The hedonic experience of affective touch seems preserved in fibromyalgia despite poor intimate bodily contact in youth. We confirmed that bottom-up and top-down factors contribute to the affective touch perception in fibromyalgia: bodily pain may impact even more the expected pleasure than the actual experience. Future investigations may introduce neurophysiological measures of the implicit autonomic responses to affective touch in fibromyalgia. To conclude, although preliminary, our evidence may be in favor of manual therapies for pain relief in fibromyalgia.
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Generalizing defensive responses to new stimuli resembling learned threats is an adaptive process within an ever-changing environment. However, evaluation mechanisms excessively biased toward generalization (i.e., overgeneralization) may underlie anxiety-related symptoms. In the context of obesity, fear memory and fear generalization processes have never been investigated. In this study, participants with obesity and healthy participants as controls underwent a single-cue auditory fear conditioning paradigm and recognition memory tasks. We analyzed the autonomic reactions evoked by threat-predictive and new stimuli, as well as the recognition performance towards the same cues. We found that participants with obesity displayed similar autonomic defensive responses to a learned fearful stimulus, but enhanced reactions to new stimuli, when compared with the controls. We detected no significant differences between groups in recognition abilities. Our results provided the first evidence that obesity may widen fear generalization patterns. This alteration may encourage future research in investigating the link between emotional dysregulation and clinical anxiety-related symptoms in obesity.
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Sistema Nervoso Autônomo , Medo , Obesidade , Humanos , Obesidade/fisiopatologia , Obesidade/psicologia , Medo/psicologia , Masculino , Feminino , Adulto , Sistema Nervoso Autônomo/fisiopatologia , Adulto Jovem , Ansiedade/fisiopatologia , Generalização Psicológica/fisiologia , Condicionamento Clássico/fisiologia , Sinais (Psicologia) , Reconhecimento Psicológico/fisiologiaRESUMO
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246388.].
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Introduction: Pleasant and comforting bodily contacts characterized intimate and affective interactions. Affective touch informs us about others' emotions and intentions, sustains intimacy and closeness, protecting from loneliness and psychological distress. Previous evidence points to an altered experience of affective touch in clinical populations reporting interpersonal difficulties. However, there is no investigation of affective touch in obesity, which is often associated with negative affective-relational experiences since childhood. Methods: This study aimed to provide the first evidence about the experience of affective touch in obesity by comparing 14 women with obesity with 14 women with healthy weight. Participants rated the pleasantness of both imagined and actual tactile stimuli, which consisted of (i) soft-brush strokes, (ii) touches of the experimenter's hand, and (iii) of a plastic stick (as control, non-affective, stimulation). Participants should report the pleasantness of each kind of touch. Moreover, we explored lifespan experiences of affective touch and interpersonal pleasure in social contexts through self-report questionnaires. Results: No differences emerged for the pleasantness of affective touch (in both the real and imagery task) between the two groups. However, participants with obesity reported less frequent and less satisfying early experiences of affective touch when compared with the controls. Discussion: Our results spoke in favor of a preserved experience of affective touch when experimentally probed in obesity, despite a limited early exposure to bodily affective contacts. We interpreted our results in the light of the social reconnection hypothesis. Nevertheless, we provided crucial methodological considerations for future research, considering that both the experimenter's and the brush touch may not resemble adequately real-life experiences, in which affective touch involves intimate people.
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The Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) significantly impacts cognitive functioning. The prolonged use (more than 3 months) of ventilotherapy with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) seems to have positive effects in restoring cognitive difficulties. However, there is poor evidence about its possible short-term effect. We investigated whether the short use (less than 15 days at testing) of CPAP improved the cognitive functioning in fifty individuals with OSAS by collecting retrospective neuropsychological measures about verbal memory and learning, information processing speed, attention (i.e., alerting, orienting, and executive system), and executive functions (i.e., strategic reasoning, problem-solving, and mental planning). The predictive role of days of CPAP use on the neuropsychological scores was assessed by hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses, over and above the possible role of demographics, body mass index, level of OSAS severity, and the level of anxiety and depression. The average number of days since CPAP adaptation was 4.70 (SD = 3.90; range = 0-15). As the days of CPAP adaptation increased, verbal learning and long-term memory significantly improved, contrary to the other assessed domains. Our results show a significant improvement in some cognitive functions even after a short treatment with CPAP, pointing to the importance of the early use of ventilotherapy to rapidly improve cognitive functioning. Identifying which cognitive functions can or cannot be restored with CPAP use may enable the design of complementary neuropsychological interventions focused on those residual difficulties, possibly enhancing patients' compliance to the treatment.
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BACKGROUND: The pleasantness of a gentle and slow, namely affective, touch experienced in interpersonal interactions motivates social closeness. In anorexia nervosa (AN), independent evidence suggests lower pleasantness of affective touch, as well as social withdrawal. We aim to probe both the experience of affective touch and its possible association with social anhedonia and lifespan experiences of affective bodily contacts in AN. METHODS: The pleasantness of affective and non-affective touch was compared between fourteen women with AN and fourteen healthy women. Stimuli were traditionally delivered with a brush, with the experimenter's hand, as novelty, and with a stick, as control. The pleasantness of imagined and real touch was probed. Self-report questionnaires assessed social anhedonia and lifespan experiences of affective touch. RESULTS: A preserved pleasantness of affective touch emerged in AN in both the imagery and real task, despite higher social anhedonia and less lifespan experience of affective touch than healthy women. LIMITATIONS: Affective touch involves loved ones; thus, the experimenter's touch may not resemble real-life interactions. Future research may take advantage of imagery procedures to solve this issue. CONCLUSIONS: Body-oriented therapy for AN recognizes touch as a therapeutic tool: ascertaining how touch is experienced is crucial to maximize rehabilitative outcomes. Furthermore, clarifying the possible interplay between interpersonal difficulties in AN and affective touch is especially relevant considering the possible role of the attachment style, which is intensively debated in AN, on affective touch.
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Anorexia Nervosa , Percepção do Tato , Humanos , Feminino , Tato , Anorexia Nervosa/psicologia , Longevidade , AnedoniaRESUMO
The customization of the intervention using patient feedback is an evidence-based practice aimed at the continuous evaluation, during treatment, of the patient's change at a clinical level. There are few easy-to-use tools for common assessment of psychological distress, designed to be used for screening and during treatment to monitor progress. The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-10 (CORE-10) is definitely one of them. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the CORE-10. A sample of 548 participants (females, N=463, 84.5%; mean age 23.29±7.21 years) was recruited in the study and filled out a battery of measures. The internal validity of the CORE-10 was investigated through a confirmatory factor analysis which evidenced a good fit to the data, suggesting a unidimensional factorial structure of the measure. Further, the scale had a good internal reliability and was significantly associated with other measures of distress, interpersonal problems, well-being, and insecure attachment. Finally, it showed excellent diagnostic accuracy, as well as intrinsic and post-test diagnostics. Given its validity and reliability, the CORE-10 may be adopted by Italian-speaking psychotherapists and researchers to evaluate the outcomes of mental health interventions as well as to track the session-to-session changes over time in psychological distress among patients.
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Objectives: This study aimed at exploring (1) the motor and non-motor correlates of counterfactual thinking (CFT) abilities in non-demented amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and (2) the ability of CFT measures to discriminate these patients from healthy controls (HCs) and patients with and without cognitive impairment. Methods: N = 110 ALS patients and N = 51 HCs were administered two CFT tasks, whose sum, resulting in a CFT Index (CFTI), was addressed as the outcome. Patients further underwent an in-depth cognitive, behavioral, and motor-functional evaluation. Correlational analyses were run to explore the correlates of the CFTI in patients. Logistic regressions were performed to test whether the CFTI could discriminate patients from HCs. Results: The CFTI was selectively associated (p ≤ 0.005) with fluency and memory subscales of the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioral ALS Screen (ECAS), but not with other variables. CFTI scores discriminated patients from HCs (p < 0.001) with high accuracy (82%), but not patients with a normal vs. defective performance on the ECAS-Total. Conclusion: CFT measures in non-demented ALS patients were associated with verbal fluency and memory functions, and they were also able to discriminate them from HCs.
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Psychological variables may be crucial in favoring or discouraging health-related behaviors, including vaccine acceptance. This study aimed to extend the previous literature by outlining the psychological profile associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in a sample of Italian citizens. Between April and May 2021, 1122 Italian volunteers completed a web survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, also including several self-reported psychological measures. A multiple hierarchical logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the psychological variables associated with vaccine hesitancy. Low confidence in COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and safety, low collective responsibility, high complacency, and high calculation (i.e., extensive information searching, and costs-benefit estimates) predicted higher hesitancy. Our results suggest that to be effective, vaccine-related communications should be as clear, understandable, and sound as possible, preventing the spreading of misunderstandings, or even fake information, that may foster people's insecurities and distrust. Furthermore, the advantages and necessity of vaccination, both at the individual and community-level, should be clearly emphasized. Efficacious vaccine-related communications may be crucial, not only to maintain an adequate immunity rate for COVID-19, but also to inform policymakers and public authorities in the case of possible future infectious outbreaks.
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Eye movement abnormalities in association with cognitive and emotional deficits have been described in neurological, neurodevelopmental, and psychiatric disorders. Eye-Tracking (ET) techniques could therefore enhance cognitive interventions by contingently providing feedback to patients. Since no consensus has been reached thus far on this approach, this study aimed at systematically reviewing the current evidence. This review was performed and reported according to PRISMA guidelines. Records were searched for in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus (1990-2021) through the following string: ('Eye Tracking' OR 'Eye-Tracking' OR 'Oculomotor') AND ('Neuropsychol*' OR 'Cognitive') AND ('Rehabilitation' OR 'Training' OR 'Stimulation'). Study outcomes were thematically classified and qualitatively synthesized. A structured quality assessment was performed. A total of 24 articles were included, addressing neurodevelopmental (preterm infants and children with autism spectrum disorder, Rett syndrome, or ADHD; N = 14), psychiatric (mood and anxiety disorders or alcohol dependence; N = 7), and neurological conditions (stroke; N = 3). Overall, ET gaze-contingent training proved to be effective in improving cognitive and emotional alterations. However, population heterogeneity limits the generalizability of results. ET gaze-contingent protocols allow researchers to directly and dynamically train attentional functions; together with the recruitment of implicit, "bottom-up" strategies, these protocols are promising and possibly integrable with traditional cognitive approaches.
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From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of surgical masks became widespread. However, they occlude an important part of the face and make it difficult to decode and interpret other people's emotions. To clarify the effect of surgical masks on configural and featural processing, participants completed a facial emotion recognition task to discriminate between happy, sad, angry, and neutral faces. Stimuli included fully visible faces, masked faces, and a cropped photo of the eyes or mouth region. Occlusion due to the surgical mask affects emotion recognition for sadness, anger, and neutral faces, although no significative differences were found in happiness recognition. Our findings suggest that happiness is recognized predominantly via featural processing.
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COVID-19 , Máscaras , COVID-19/prevenção & controle , Emoções , Expressão Facial , Humanos , Pandemias , SARS-CoV-2RESUMO
To locate our body in the space, we rely on an implicit representation of body size and shape: the body model. Evidence about the implicit representation of bodily dimensions in obesity is rare. Nevertheless, it seems to suggest that such representation is not altered in obesity compared to healthy weight individuals. To probe further this hypothesis, we investigated the implicit representation of hand dimensions with a landmark localisation task, comparing individuals with obesity and healthy weight individuals. Furthermore, as body model distortions may be related to tactile acuity, the tactile acuity threshold was measured using a two-point discrimination task. In accordance with the previous evidence, we observed that healthy weight participants showed a significant underestimation of finger length and overestimation of hand width. Interestingly, comparable body model distortions were shown also in participants with obesity. No differences in tactile acuity emerged between the two groups; also, when considering the whole sample, as tactile acuity decreases hand width overestimation increases. Thus, obesity seems to have no effect on the characteristics of the body model relative to the hand. Accordingly, the physiological mechanisms supporting the development of the implicit representation of hand dimensions in the healthy weight population may be preserved in obesity.
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Imagem Corporal , Percepção do Tato , Tamanho Corporal , Mãos , Humanos , Obesidade , TatoRESUMO
OBJECTIVE: The semantic fluency task is widely used in both clinical and research settings to assess both the integrity of the semantic store and the effectiveness of the search through it. Our aim was to investigate whether nondemented Parkinson's disease (PD) patients show an impairment in the strategic exploration of the semantic store and whether the tested semantic category has an impact on multiple measures of performance. METHOD: We compared 74 nondemented PD patients with 254 healthy subjects in a semantic fluency test using relatively small (fruits) and large (animals) semantic categories. Number of words produced, number of explored semantic subcategories, and degree of order in the produced sequences were computed as dependent variables. RESULTS: PD patients produced fewer words than healthy subjects did, regardless of the category. Number of subcategories was also lower in PD patients than in healthy subjects, without a significant difference between categories. Critically, PD patients' sequences were less semantically organized than were those of controls, but this effect appeared in only the smaller category (fruits), thus pointing to a lack of strategy in exploring the semantic store. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the semantic fluency deficit in PD patients has a strategic component, even though that may not be the only cause of the impaired performance. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that the semantic category used in the test influences performance, hence providing an explanation for the failure by previous studies, which often used large categories such as animals, to detect strategy deficits in PD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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Doença de Parkinson , Humanos , Memória , Testes Neuropsicológicos , Doença de Parkinson/complicações , Semântica , Comportamento VerbalRESUMO
Understanding the determinants of risk perception for COVID-19 might help to promote self-preventive behaviours. This scoping review aimed to map the extent, variety and characteristics of the evidence on the possible determinants of risk perception for COVID-like diseases. PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science were searched for original, peer-reviewed English-written articles published up to March 2020 and investigating risk perception determinants for respiratory infectious diseases in adults. Titles and abstracts were screened, and full texts were analysed by the first author; when unsure, eligibility was discussed with the last author. Data were collected according to an extraction sheet developed by the first and last authors. The cross-sectional evidence covers a variety of diseases, countries and timings of testing. Mostly, questionnaires recorded socio-demographics, media exposure, trust in institutions, disease proximity and knowledge; psychological variables, including personality traits, distress and self-efficacy, were less investigated. A miscellaneous operationalization of risk perception emerged, including the likelihood of getting sick, perceived dangerousness, concerns or a combination of them. A comprehensive understanding of the substantial amount of evidence may be challenging due to methodological heterogeneity. Referring to uniform theoretical frameworks is recommended; also, longitudinal research may be implemented to probe causal relationships.
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COVID-19 , Doenças Transmissíveis , Adulto , Estudos Transversais , Humanos , Percepção , SARS-CoV-2RESUMO
Background: The understanding of factors that shape risk perception is crucial to modulate the perceived threat and, in turn, to promote optimal engagement in preventive actions. Methods: An on-line, cross-sectional, survey was conducted in Italy between May and July 2020 to investigate risk perception for COVID-19 and the adoption of preventive measures. A total of 964 volunteers participated in the study. Possible predictors of risk perception were identified through a hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis, including sociodemographic, epidemiological and, most of all, psychological factors. A path analysis was adopted to probe the possible mediating role of risk perception on the relationship between the independent variables considered and the adoption of preventive measures. Results: Focusing on the psychological predictors of risk perception, high levels of anxiety, an anxious attachment, and an external locus of control predicted higher perceived risk. Conversely, high levels of openness personality and of avoidant attachment predicted a lower perception of risk. In turn, the higher was the perceived risk the higher was the adoption of precautionary measures. Furthermore, psychological factors influenced the adoption of preventive behaviors both directly and indirectly through their effect on risk perception. Conclusions: Our findings might be taken into high consideration by stakeholders, who are responsible for promoting a truthful perception of risk and proper compliance with precautionary measures.
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Even though increasing literature describes changes in emotional processing in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), efforts to summarize relevant findings are lacking in the field. A systematic literature review was performed to provide a critical and up-to-date account of emotional abilities in ALS. References were identified by searches of PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus (1980-2021, English literature), with the following key terms: ("Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis" or "Primary Lateral Sclerosis" or "Motor Neuron") and "Emotion*" and ("Processing" or "Attribution" or "Elaboration" or "Perception" or "Recognition"). Studies concerning only caregivers, pseudobulbar affect, and social cognition were excluded. Forty-one articles were included, all concerning ALS, and seven topics were identified: Emotion recognition, Emotional responsiveness, Emotional reactivity, Faces approachability rating, Valence rating, Memory for emotional materials and Alexithymia. The majority of these aspects have only been sparsely addressed. The evidence confirms altered emotional processing in ALS. The most consistent findings regard the recognition of facial expressions for negative emotions, but also alterations in the subjective responsiveness to emotional stimuli (arousal, valence and approachability), in psychophysiological and cerebral reactivity and in emotional memory, together with alexithymia traits, were reported. According to this evidence, emotional abilities should be included in the clinical assessment and therapeutic interventions.
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BACKGROUND: The ability to simulate alternatives to factual events is called counterfactual thinking (CFT) and it is involved both in emotional and behavioral regulation. CFT deficits have been reported in psychiatric and neurological conditions, possibly contributing to patients' difficulties in modulating behaviors and affections. Thus, acknowledging the presence and possible consequences of CFT impairments might be essential for optimal clinical management. OBJECTIVES: This scoping review aims to summarize the previous evidence about CFT in psychiatric and neurological diseases to determine the extent of the previous research and what has been discovered so far, the variety of clinical conditions considered, the methodologies adopted, and the relevant issues to be addressed by future investigations. METHODS: PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched to identify articles published up to January 2020, written in English and focused on CFT in adults affected by psychiatric or neurological conditions. RESULTS: Twenty-nine studies have been included; most of them focused on psychiatric conditions, a minority considered neurological diseases. The generation of counterfactual thoughts related to a negative real-life or a fictional event and the counterfactual inference test were the most popular tasks adopted. CFT impairments were reported in both psychiatric and neurological conditions, likely associated with a fronto-executive dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: Future research might further explore CFT in those psychiatric and neurological conditions in which CFT difficulties have been preliminary reported. Furthermore, it would be recommendable to extend this investigation to all the clinical conditions possibly at risk of fronto-executive dysfunction. In the end, we speculate that since CFT plays a role in driving everyday behaviors, it might be crucial also when medical decisions are involved; thus, future research might extend the investigation of CFT especially to those populations that implicate complex clinical management.