Exploration of psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Core Young Person's Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (YP-CORE).

There is an increasing need of outcome measures for young people suitable to evaluate treatments and routine settings. However, measures must show suitable psychometric characteristics for such use. This is the first psychometric evaluation of the Italian version of the Core Young Person Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (YP-CORE). Data are reported for a clinical sample, aged 11-17 (n=175) and non-clinical sample, aged 11-17 (n=206). Analyses included acceptability, confirmatory factor analysis, internal reliability, influence of gender and age on cutoff scores and reliable change. The YP-CORE acceptability was good, with a very high completion rate (98.7% fully completed). Internal consistency was good: the overall Cronbach's alpha value (α) equal to 0.75 (95% confidence interval=0.69-0.80). The measure was sensitive to change (Cohen dz=1.35). The Italian version of the YP-CORE showed acceptable psychometric properties is suitable for use in services for young people as a change/outcome measure.

Interhemispheric EEG asymmetries during unilateral bright-light exposure and subsequent sleep in humans.

We tested whether evening exposure to unilateral photic stimulation has repercussions on interhemispheric EEG asymmetries during wakefulness and later sleep. Because light exerts an alerting response in humans, which correlates with a decrease in waking EEG theta/alpha-activity and a reduction in sleep EEG delta activity, we hypothesized that EEG activity in these frequency bands show interhemispheric asymmetries after unilateral bright light (1,500 lux) exposure. A 2-h hemi-field light exposure acutely suppressed occipital EEG alpha activity in the ipsilateral hemisphere activated by light. Subjects felt more alert during bright light than dim light, an effect that was significantly more pronounced during activation of the right than the left visual cortex. During subsequent sleep, occipital EEG activity in the delta and theta range was significantly reduced after activation of the right visual cortex but not after stimulation of the left visual cortex. Furthermore, hemivisual field light exposure was able to shift the left predominance in occipital spindle EEG activity toward the stimulated hemisphere. Time course analysis revealed that this spindle shift remained significant during the first two sleep cycles. Our results reflect rather a hemispheric asymmetry in the alerting action of light than a use-dependent recovery function of sleep in response to the visual stimulation during prior waking. However, the observed shift in the spindle hemispheric dominance in the occipital cortex may still represent subtle local use-dependent recovery functions during sleep in a frequency range different from the delta range.