The Relationship between Executive Functions and Body Weight: Sex as a Moderating Variable.

This study explores the interplay between executive functions and body weight, examining both the influence of biological factors, specifically sex, and methodological issues, such as the choice between Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) as the primary anthropometric measure. A total of 386 participants (222 females, mean age = 45.98 years, SD = 17.70) were enrolled, from whom sociodemographic (sex, age, years of formal education) and anthropometric (BMI and WC) data were collected. Executive functions were evaluated using the Frontal Assessment Battery-15 (FAB15). The results showed the increased effectiveness of WC over BMI in examining the relationships between executive functions, sex differences, and body weight. In particular, this study revealed that there was a significant moderating effect of sex at comparable levels of executive functioning. Specifically, women with higher executive performance had lower WCs than their male counterparts, suggesting that executive function has a greater impact on WC in women than in men. Our findings highlight the importance of conducting more in-depth investigations of the complex relationship between cognitive deficits and weight gain, considering confounding variables of behavioral, psychobiological, and neurophysiological origin.

The fear of COVID-19 contagion: an exploratory EEG-fMRI study.

Pandemics have the potential to change how people behave and feel. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception; thus, it may serve as a "challenging context" for understanding how pandemics affect people's minds. In this study, we used high-density electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural correlates of fear of contagion during the most critical moments of COVID-19 in Italy (i.e., October 2020-May 2021). To do that, we stimulated participants (N = 17; nine females) with artificial-intelligence-generated faces of people presented as healthy, recovered from COVID-19, or infected by SARS-CoV-2. The fMRI results documented a modulation of large bilateral fronto-temporo-parietal functional brain networks. Critically, we found selective recruitment of cortical (e.g., frontal lobes) and subcortical fear-related structures (e.g., amygdala and putamen) of the so-called social brain network when participants observed COVID-19-related faces. Consistently, EEG results showed distinct patterns of brain activity selectively associated with infected and recovered faces (e.g., delta and gamma rhythm). Together, these results highlight how pandemic contexts may reverberate in the human brain, thus influencing most basic social and cognitive functioning. This may explain the emergence of a cluster of psychopathologies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study underscores the need for prompt interventions to address pandemics' short- and long-term consequences on mental health.

Unlocking the importance of perceived governance: The impact on COVID-19 in NUTS-2 European regions.

In the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, governments implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Previous literature suggests that NPI effectiveness is influenced by governance quality. The acceptance and perceived necessity of these measures by the public are crucial to their success, as NPIs cannot be easily enforced without public support. Does regional governance also play a role? This study examines the correlation between the quality of governance in European NUTS-2 regions and the spread of COVID-19. The findings indicate that overall perceived governance, and its perceived quality and corruption pillars, significantly impact the effectiveness of these interventions. This effect was pronounced during the first wave and then diminished in importance, disappearing before vaccines were available, suggesting that regional governance matters especially in the immediate aftermath of an exogenous shock.

On the functional brain networks involved in tool-related action understanding.

Tool-use skills represent a significant cognitive leap in human evolution, playing a crucial role in the emergence of complex technologies. Yet, the neural mechanisms underlying such capabilities are still debated. Here we explore with fMRI the functional brain networks involved in tool-related action understanding. Participants viewed images depicting action-consistent (e.g., nail-hammer) and action-inconsistent (e.g., scarf-hammer) object-tool pairs, under three conditions: semantic (recognizing the tools previously seen in the pairs), mechanical (assessing the usability of the pairs), and control (looking at the pairs without explicit tasks). During the observation of the pairs, task-based left-brain functional connectivity differed within conditions. Compared to the control, both the semantic and mechanical conditions exhibited co-activations in dorsal (precuneus) and ventro-dorsal (inferior frontal gyrus) regions. However, the semantic condition recruited medial and posterior temporal areas, whereas the mechanical condition engaged inferior parietal and posterior temporal regions. Also, when distinguishing action-consistent from action-inconsistent pairs, an extensive frontotemporal neural circuit was activated. These findings support recent accounts that view tool-related action understanding as the combined product of semantic and mechanical knowledge. Furthermore, they emphasize how the left inferior parietal and anterior temporal lobes might be considered as hubs for the cross-modal integration of physical and conceptual knowledge, respectively.

On the determinants of anti-COVID restriction and anti-vaccine movements: the case of IoApro in Italy.

Following restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19, and subsequent vaccination campaigns, sentiments against such policies were quick to arise. While individual-level determinants that led to such attitudes have drawn much attention, there are also reasons to believe that the macro context in which these movements arose may contribute to their evolution. In this study, exploiting data on business activities which supported a major Italian anti-restriction and anti-vaccine movement, IoApro, using quantitative analysis that employs both a fractional response probit and logit model and a beta regression model, we investigate the relationship between socio-economic characteristics, institutional quality, and the flourishing of this movement. Our results suggest a U-shaped relationship between income and the proliferation of the movement, meaning that support for these movements increases the greater the degree of economic decline. Our results further indicate that the share of the population between 40 and 60 years old is positively related to support for such movements, as is institutional corruption.

Assessing the effectiveness of mandatory outdoor mask policy: The natural experiment of Campania.

Face masks are possibly the main symbol of the COVID-19 pandemic. Once rarely used in Western countries, in the last two years they have become an object it is impossible to leave one's home without. Italy made their use a legal requirement, even outdoors, from late 2020 to early 2022. The effectiveness of this policy in reducing COVID-19 cases has been widely debated. The recent cancellation of their mandatory use in Italy offers an interesting setting in which to test its impact, since one Italian region (Campania) extended the restriction for a further three weeks. We aim to shed some light on the real-world impact of mandatory use of face masks outdoors, identifying the effect of this policy on the spread of COVID-19. By means of a quantitative analysis, employing a synthetic control method approach, we find that Campania had statistically the same number of cases as its synthetic counterfactual, built from a donor pool formed from the other Italian provinces. Hence, results suggest that while it imposes a burden on the public, the use of face masks outdoors is not correlated with a decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases.

Fear itself. Is fear a determinant of the efficacy oflockdowns?

Among non-pharmaceutical measures for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most important is the implementation of lockdowns. The cost and effectiveness of this policy remains a much-debated topic in economics. In this study we investigate whether a 'fear effect' is at work in influencing the effectiveness of lockdowns. According to previous contributions on the topic, fear can increase protective habits, and for this reason we may imagine that a high number of COVID-19-caused deaths creates fear among the population, which may make people more likely to follow government prescriptions and observe lockdowns strictly. By means of a qualitative-quantitative analysis, we find that among the 46 countries that reported coronavirus-caused deaths before the implementation of a lockdown, the top quartile for per capita deaths has better results in terms of reducing new COVID-19 cases after a lockdown, compared to the worst quartile. This suggests that the number of reported deaths, as well as its communication to the population, are important determinants of the effectiveness of a lockdown.

Simultaneous real-time EEG-fMRI neurofeedback: A systematic review.

Neurofeedback (NF) is a biofeedback technique that teaches individuals self-control of brain functions by measuring brain activations and providing an online feedback signal to modify emotional, cognitive, and behavioral functions. NF approaches typically rely on a single modality, such as electroencephalography (EEG-NF) or a brain imaging technique, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI-NF). The introduction of simultaneous EEG-fMRI tools has opened up the possibility of combining the high temporal resolution of EEG with the high spatial resolution of fMRI, thereby increasing the accuracy of NF. However, only a few studies have actively combined both techniques. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of EEG-fMRI-NF studies (N = 17) to identify the potential and effectiveness of this non-invasive treatment for neurological conditions. The systematic review revealed a lack of homogeneity among the studies, including sample sizes, acquisition methods in terms of simultaneity of the two procedures (unimodal EEG-NF and fMRI-NF), therapeutic targets field, and the number of sessions. Indeed, because most studies are based on a single session of NF, it is difficult to draw any conclusions regarding the therapeutic efficacy of NF. Therefore, further research is needed to fully understand non-clinical and clinical potential of EEG-fMRI-NF.

The effect of self-esteem on the spread of a pandemic. A cross-country analysis of the role played by self-esteem in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Extant research on COVID-19 suggests that many socio-economic determinants, by affecting personal behavior, have influenced the evolution of the pandemic. In this paper we study the role played in this regard by average levels of self-esteem in the public. There are reasons to believe that both low and very levels of self-esteem may have an effect on the spread of COVID-19, for opposite reasons. On the one hand, people with low self-esteem may not worry enough to behave in the way recommended (and prescribed, through non-pharmaceutical interventions) by the authorities; people with very high self-esteem, on the other hand, may be over-confident and fail to follow the prescriptions, believing that they do not need them. In this study we test this hypothesis by means of a quantitative cross-country analysis, using a hybrid model and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Our results suggest the existence of a U-shaped relationship between the trend of COVID-19 and average levels of self-esteem in a country.

ß-arrestin1-E2F1-ac axis regulates physiological apoptosis and cell cycle exit in cellular models of early postnatal cerebellum.

Development of the cerebellum is characterized by rapid proliferation of cerebellar granule cell precursors (GCPs) induced by paracrine stimulation of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling from Purkinje cells, in the external granular layer (EGL). Then, granule cell precursors differentiate and migrate into the inner granular layer (IGL) of the cerebellum to form a terminally differentiated cell compartment. Aberrant activation of Sonic hedgehog signaling leads to granule cell precursors hyperproliferation and the onset of Sonic hedgehog medulloblastoma (MB), the most common embryonal brain tumor. ß-arrestin1 (ARRB1) protein plays an important role downstream of Smoothened, a component of the Sonic hedgehog pathway. In the medulloblastoma context, ß-arrestin1 is involved in a regulatory axis in association with the acetyltransferase P300, leading to the acetylated form of the transcription factor E2F1 (E2F1-ac) and redirecting its activity toward pro-apoptotic gene targets. This axis in the granule cell precursors physiological context has not been investigated yet. In this study, we demonstrate that ß-arrestin1 has antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic functions in cerebellar development. ß-arrestin1 silencing increases proliferation of Sonic hedgehog treated-cerebellar precursor cells while decreases the transcription of E2F1-ac pro-apoptotic targets genes, thus impairing apoptosis. Indeed, chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments show a direct interaction between ß-arrestin1 and the promoter regions of the pro-apoptotic E2F1 target gene and P27, indicating the double role of ß-arrestin1 in controlling apoptosis and cell cycle exit in a physiological context. Our data elucidate the role of ß-arrestin1 in the early postnatal stages of cerebellar development, in those cell compartments that give rise to medulloblastoma. This series of experiments suggests that the physiological function of ß-arrestin1 in neuronal progenitors is to directly control, cooperating with E2F1 acetylated form, transcription of pro-apoptotic genes.

Sex differences in functional brain networks involved in interoception: An fMRI study.

Interoception can be described as the ability to perceive inner body sensations and it is different between biological sex. However, no previous research correlated this ability with brain functional connectivity (FC) between males and females. In this study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate FC of networks involved in interoception among males and females in a sample of healthy volunteers matched for age. In total, 67 participants (34 females, mean age 44.2; 33 males, mean age 37.2) underwent a functional MRI session and completed the Self-Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ) that tests the interoceptive awareness. To assess the effect of sex on scores obtained on the SAQ we performed a multivariate analysis of variance. A whole-brain seed-to-seed FC analysis was conducted to investigate the correlation between SAQ score and FC, and then to test differences in FC between males and females with SAQ score as a covariate. MANOVA revealed a significant difference in SAQ scores between males and females with higher values for the second ones. Also, significant correlations among interoception scores and FC in Salience network and fronto-temporo-parietal brain areas have been detected, with a sharp prevalence for the female. These results support the idea of a female advantage in the attention toward interoceptive sensations, suggesting common inter-network areas that concur to create the sense of self.

In COVID We Trust: The Impact of The Pandemic on Religiousness-Evidence from Italian Regions.

By changing many aspects of everyday life, the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distance policies implemented to face it have affected the behaviour of people all over the world. Has the pandemic also affected people's approach towards the divine? Previous evidence suggests that prayer searches on the Internet rose during the pandemic and that people tend to rely mainly on intrinsic rather than extrinsic religiousness to cope with adversity. In the present contribution, using a set of panel random effect estimators, we compare the change in religious attendance in Italian regions before and during the pandemic. Our results suggest that there has been an increase in religiousness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings are robust to several specifications of the model and to different estimators. This suggests that people derive more comfort from religious activities during hard times that are characterized by uncertainty.

FUS Alters circRNA Metabolism in Human Motor Neurons Carrying the ALS-Linked P525L Mutation.

Deregulation of RNA metabolism has emerged as one of the key events leading to the degeneration of motor neurons (MNs) in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) disease. Indeed, mutations on RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) or on proteins involved in aspects of RNA metabolism account for the majority of familiar forms of ALS. In particular, the impact of the ALS-linked mutations of the RBP FUS on many aspects of RNA-related processes has been vastly investigated. FUS plays a pivotal role in splicing regulation and its mutations severely alter the exon composition of transcripts coding for proteins involved in neurogenesis, axon guidance, and synaptic activity. In this study, by using in vitro-derived human MNs, we investigate the effect of the P525L FUS mutation on non-canonical splicing events that leads to the formation of circular RNAs (circRNAs). We observed altered levels of circRNAs in FUSP525L MNs and a preferential binding of the mutant protein to introns flanking downregulated circRNAs and containing inverted Alu repeats. For a subset of circRNAs, FUSP525L also impacts their nuclear/cytoplasmic partitioning, confirming its involvement in different processes of RNA metabolism. Finally, we assess the potential of cytoplasmic circRNAs to act as miRNA sponges, with possible implications in ALS pathogenesis.

Your vaccine attitude determines your altitude. What are the determinants of attitudes toward vaccination?

Attitudes toward vaccination are doubtless an important determinant of public health, and this became evident after the first year of the last COVID-19 pandemic. The issue, long-debated within European societies, especially with respect to occasional surges of diseases in given years, has become a crucial determinant of the wellbeing of a country since 2021. In this study, using microdata from a 2019 Eurobarometer survey, we frame and deepen our knowledge about the main determinants of vaccination attitudes as observed by the related literature. We argue that a positive attitude toward vaccination may be due to individualistic or altruistic reasons, or various incentives; our analysis aims to improve our knowledge about the determinants of such a complex decision. Our findings, obtained by means of a quantitative analysis that employs Ordered Probit, Ordered Logit and Generalized Ordered Logit estimations, provide complete support for some of the theories that have been debated in the literature, limited support for others because of mixed evidence, and no support for some.

Assessing university-business collaborations for moderate innovators: Implications for university-led innovation policy evaluation.

The growing literature on University-Industry Collaborations (UICs) highlights how learning processes get unevenly located in space, within centers of innovative activity, where the local presence of research-oriented universities plays a crucial role. Through a mixed-methods approach, this article explores the firm-level drivers of innovation and the interactions between a sample of companies and the local university in a moderate innovation EU region. Findings highlight that firms' size, sector, leadership's commitment to digitalization, and collaborations with the university explain companies' innovative performance. The article contributes to the university's societal impact assessment and discusses the implications for university-led innovation for Smart Specialization.

Carrot and stick: Economic support and stringency policies in response to COVID-19.

To address the economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have implemented, together with policies aimed at stopping the spread of the virus, a mixture of fiscal and monetary measures. This work investigates the effect of containment policies and economic support measures on economic growth in the short run, investigating a time window of six quarters in a cross country perspective. Our results confirm the existence of a negative effect of stringency measures on GDP; we also detect a positive effect from economic support measures. Moreover, looking at the interaction between these two kinds of interventions, our findings suggest that up to a relatively low level of stringency policies, economic support measures are able to positively counterbalance the negative impact of containment and closure policies. When the level of closures became more severe, however, the economic support measures that countries adopt are not able to completely recoup, in the short run, the economic losses due to stringency policies. Results suggest that in order to have a positive net effect, policymakers should take into account the level of stringency measures implemented before investing in economic support.

The cortical thickness of the area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex mediates technical-reasoning skills.

Most recent research highlights how a specific form of causal understanding, namely technical reasoning, may support the increasing complexity of tools and techniques developed by humans over generations, i.e., the cumulative technological culture (CTC). Thus, investigating the neurocognitive foundations of technical reasoning is essential to comprehend the emergence of CTC in our lineage. Whereas functional neuroimaging evidence started to highlight the critical role of the area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex (IPC) in technical reasoning, no studies explored the links between the structural characteristics of such a brain region and technical reasoning skills. Therefore, in this study, we assessed participants' technical-reasoning performance by using two ad-hoc psycho-technical tests; then, we extracted from participants' 3 T T1-weighted magnetic-resonance brain images the cortical thickness (i.e., a volume-related measure which is associated with cognitive performance as reflecting the size, density, and arrangement of cells in a brain region) of all the IPC regions for both hemispheres. We found that the cortical thickness of the left area PF predicts participants' technical-reasoning performance. Crucially, we reported no correlations between technical reasoning and the other IPC regions, possibly suggesting the specificity of the left area PF in generating technical knowledge. We discuss these findings from an evolutionary perspective, by speculating about how the evolution of parietal lobes may have supported the emergence of technical reasoning in our lineage.

COVID-19 Diffusion Before Awareness: The Role of Football Match Attendance in Italy.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that football matches may have played a role in the spread of COVID-19 all over Europe. Nevertheless, from a scientific point of view, the impact of football matches on the spread of COVID-19 remains unclear. In this paper we study, via a quantitative analysis, the case of Italy, a country badly affected by COVID, and one where attending football matches is very popular. We consider the impact of matches played in January and February 2020 on the dynamic of the pandemic in March and April the same year. Our results, which consider all levels of Italian professional football, and the highest level of amateur football, show that matches played in January and February had an impact on the evolution of the pandemic in March and April. These results suggest that great care must be taken before considering re-opening stadia.

Brain Networks Involved in Depression in Patients with Frontotemporal Dementia and Parkinson's Disease: An Exploratory Resting-State Functional Connectivity MRI Study.

Depression is characterized by feelings of sadness, loss, or anger that may interfere with everyday activities. Such a neuropsychiatric condition is commonly reported in multiple neurodegenerative disorders, which are quite different from each other. This study aimed at investigating the brain networks involved in depression in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) as compared to healthy controls (HC). Fifty participants were included in the study: 17 depressed FTD/PD patients; 17 non-depressed FTD/PD patients; and 16 non-depressed HCs matched for age and gender. We used the Beck depression inventory (BDI-II) to measure depression in all groups. On the same day, 3T brain magnetic resonance with structural and resting-state functional sequences were acquired. Differences in resting-state functional connectivity (FC) between depressed and non-depressed patients in all the experimental groups were assessed by using seed-to-seed and network-to-network approaches. We found a significant seed-to-seed hyperconnectivity patterns between the left thalamus and the left posterior temporal fusiform cortex, which differentiated FTD/PD depressed patients from the HCs. Network-to-network analysis revealed a significant hyperconnectivity among the default-mode network (left lateral-parietal region), the medial prefrontal cortex and the left lateral prefrontal cortex (i.e., part of the central executive network). We investigated whether such FC patterns could be related to the underlying neurodegenerative disorder by replicating the analyses with two independent samples (i.e., non-depressed PD and non-depressed FTD patients) and adding clinical parameters as covariates. We found no FC differences in these groups, thus suggesting how the FC pattern we found may signal a common depression-related neural pathway implicated in both the neurocognitive disorders.

Does social capital enforce social distancing? The role of bridging and bonding social capital in the evolution of the pandemic.

By shaping the way people look at members of their networks as well as strangers, social capital affects the behavior of a population during a pandemic. Over the course of 2020, various countries implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI), imposing restrictions that were difficult to enforce (due to the scale of the policies) in order to protect the public from the threat of COVID-19. This is an interesting quasi-experimental setting in which to test the compliance of populations with different levels of social capital with government suggestions and prescriptions. With the help of European Social Survey data, and the John Hopkins University dataset on the spread of COVID-19 around the world, the present work aims to test the impact within a sample of European countries with different social capital stocks on the spread of coronavirus. The results show that countries with higher social capital have fewer COVID-19 cases, ceteris paribus for NPI. This is especially true if this capital is of the bonding kind.