Intimate relationships and hypnosis: insecure adult attachment affects emotions and absorption during hypnosis.

Introduction: Hypnosis research indicates that subjects are not equally hypnotizable. Most studies on hypnotizability focused on the relationships with personality or cognitive variables. At the same time, only a few proposed the contribution of the attachment style, defined as the result of the childhood relationship with the caregivers and influencing the adult relations. Methods: In the present investigation, two studies were carried out to test the possible association between adult attachment and hypnotic responsivity. The adult attachment was assessed using the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R) questionnaire, while hypnosis was assessed through the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS:A; Study 1) and the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory: Hypnotic Assessment Procedure (PCI-HAP; Study 2) in order to adopt a behavioral and a phenomenological approach, respectively. Results: Analyses showed that attachment factors (anxiety and avoidance) were not associated with the level of hypnotizability, whereas it was associated with variations of consciousness during hypnosis, mainly internal dialogue, absorption and negative emotions. Overall, the insecure attachment styles yielded increased mind wandering and restlessness during hypnosis when compared to the secure style. The reason probably lies in the feeling of anxiety or danger of insecurely attached individuals when involved in intimate or confidential relationships. Conclusion: These findings clarify a still poorly investigated aspect concerning the influence of attachment style on hypnotic experience and further highlight the need to consider inter-individual differences and the phenomenological perspective when assessing hypnosis and hypnotizability.

The impact of Lego® Therapy on cognitive skills in Autism Spectrum Disorders: a brief discussion.

Over the years, several interventions have been implemented, including Lego® Therapy, with the aim of supporting and implementing social and communication skills impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Although recent studies have shown that the ability to learn implicitly is preserved in ASDs, no study related to Lego® Therapy has analyzed whether and how this training can also affect aspects not directly treated. In this study, we report a first attempt of assessment of Lego® Therapy's effect on the specific area of cognitive skills in an ASD child. Over a period of 12 months, a child with ASD had weekly meetings with an expert operator of Lego® aiming to improve the child's ability to communicate, reduce impulsiveness and hyper verbalism, and encourage pro-social behavior. The intervention resulted in positive outcomes that were assessed after 12 months.

Analysis of Psychological and Social Functioning in Undergraduate Students with a Specific Learning Disorder (SLD).

It is considered to be particularly interesting to enrich the scientific overview investigating the comorbidities of specific learning disorders (SLDs) in young adults. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the psychosocial and relational profiles associated with the presence of learning difficulties in a population of university students. The hypothesis is that young adults with SLDs have lower psychological and socio-relational functioning than their typical-development peers. We further hypothesized that the socio-relational difficulties of students with SLDs could be explained not only by referring to the presence of a learning disorder, but also by considering some variables that may follow the experience of students with SLDs. The results highlighted that students with SLDs, compared to their typical-development peers, have low self-efficacy, high academic anxiety scores, emotional problems, and issues with peers. We finally suggest considering these aspects as early as the diagnostic process to facilitate an effective treatment plan for learning disorders to prevent, in terms of developmental trajectory, the manifestation of these aspects in adulthood.

Transcranial electrical stimulation of the prefrontal cortex to boost the hypnosis experience: who benefits most?

Many attempts have been made to enhance hypnotizability. The most recent studies adopted the non-invasive brain stimulation to deactivate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during hypnosis, indicating this as a promising approach. However, it is still no clear whether individual factors can predict the effects of stimulation on hypnotizability. In the present study we adopted the phenomenological consciousness inventory (PCI) to retrospectively assess the mental processes during hypnosis and to predict hypnotizability, here defined as "hypnoidal state." The aim was to investigate the possible role of the hypnotic susceptibility on the efficacy of a validated approach of hypnosis enhancement through cathodal transcranial electrical stimulation (tDCS) of the left DLPFC. Results indicated that the lower hypnoidal state at baseline predicted the greater enhancement after the active tDCS. These findings suggest the subjects with lower hypnotic responsiveness as the best candidates for the tDCS interventions of hypnosis enhancement, at least for the montage targeting the left DLPFC. Neurocognitive underpinnings and clinical implications of the results are discussed.

Alteration of hypnotic experience following transcranial electrical stimulation of the left prefrontal cortex

Background: Recent studies of neurostimulation reported alteration of hypnotizability and hypnotic phenomena after inhibition of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), but the different assessments of hypnosis and the stimulation parameters still left open many questions about the role of this brain region in hypnotizability. We aimed to administer inhibitory transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left DLPFC to observe effects of stimulation on the hypnotic experience and the feeling of agency. Methods: a procedure of hypnotic induction with suggestions was repeated twice: before and after the unilateral cathodal tDCS over the left DLPFC. The experience was assessed through a phenomenological assessment of hypnosis and sense of agency in thirty-three participants randomly assigned to the sham or the active group. Results: active (inhibitory) tDCS enhanced the hypnotizability by 15.4% and altered a few dimensions of consciousness such as self-awareness and absorption. No changes emerged on the feeling of agency and pass rates for suggestions. Conclusions: tDCS reflects a promising tool to alter the hypnotic phenomena and the responsiveness to hypnotic procedures. Neurocognitive implications are discussed for the construct of hypnotizability as well as for the role of the left DLPFC in the dimensions of consciousness such as self-awareness. (AU)

Perceiving Oneself to Be Integrated into the Peer Group: A Protective Factor against Victimization in Children with Learning Disabilities.

Bullying is still a widespread social problem that needs serious attention. To date, research on this topic has shown that understanding the phenomenon requires a psychosocial perspective. The primary goal of the study is to identify the factors that contribute to the victimization of students with learning disabilities. The hypothesis is that the victimization experiences of this group of students can be explained by some socio-relational dynamics. Using a mediation model, this study demonstrates that perceived social integration completely mediates the association between the presence of learning disabilities and victimization experiences. This implies that students with learning disabilities are primarily victimized when they are not socially integrated into their class group. The implications for diagnosis and treatment are discussed.

Alteration of hypnotic experience following transcranial electrical stimulation of the left prefrontal cortex.

Background: Recent studies of neurostimulation reported alteration of hypnotizability and hypnotic phenomena after inhibition of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), but the different assessments of hypnosis and the stimulation parameters still left open many questions about the role of this brain region in hypnotizability. We aimed to administer inhibitory transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left DLPFC to observe effects of stimulation on the hypnotic experience and the feeling of agency. Methods: a procedure of hypnotic induction with suggestions was repeated twice: before and after the unilateral cathodal tDCS over the left DLPFC. The experience was assessed through a phenomenological assessment of hypnosis and sense of agency in thirty-three participants randomly assigned to the sham or the active group. Results: active (inhibitory) tDCS enhanced the hypnotizability by 15.4% and altered a few dimensions of consciousness such as self-awareness and absorption. No changes emerged on the feeling of agency and pass rates for suggestions. Conclusions: tDCS reflects a promising tool to alter the hypnotic phenomena and the responsiveness to hypnotic procedures. Neurocognitive implications are discussed for the construct of hypnotizability as well as for the role of the left DLPFC in the dimensions of consciousness such as self-awareness.

Effects of Mental Fatigue on Reaction Time in Sportsmen.

AIM: Mental fatigue (MF) has been defined as a psychobiological state commonly caused by prolonged periods of demanding cognitive activity. However, the differences between women and men in their reaction times (RTs) to visual stimuli due to mental fatigue remain largely unknown. We compare the differences in RT and heart rate after an acute intervention of mental fatigue between male and female athletes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For this aim, 64 participants (age 31.7 ± 6.2 y) performed a routine of 15 min of the Stroop test (PsyTool), with 600 tasks and five different colors. Their heart rate (HR) was registered before, during, and one, three, and five minutes after the Stroop test. Meanwhile, the RT was evaluated before and after the Stroop test. A general linear mixed model (GLMM) and a Bonferroni post hoc test were used to compare the HR between the conditions and an ANOVA two-way analysis was used to compare the values pre-/post-Stroop test. (α = 0.05). RESULTS: The GLMM for HR showed an effect on the time (p < 0.001) and the time × group interaction (p = 0.004). The RT was significantly increased pre- to post-Stroop test (p < 0.05); however, there was no difference between the pre- and post-HR measurements (p = 1.000) and the measurements one (p = 0.559), three (p = 1.000) and five (p = 1.000) min after the Stroop test. CONCLUSION: The present findings suggest that the parasympathetic branch of the autonomous nervous system which functions as a relaxation system tends to be activated under increasing mental fatigue, with a decreased performance (RT) similarly in men and women. Therefore, athletes could use MF induced during training to improve the time delay related to motor tasks.

The role of cognitive reserve on prefrontal and premotor cortical activity in visuo-motor response tasks in healthy old adults.

Cognitive reserve (CR) is a key factor to mitigate the cognitive decline during the aging process. Here, we used event-related potentials to target the preparatory brain activities associated with different levels of CR during visuo-motor simple response tasks (SRTs) and discriminative response tasks (DRTs). EEG was recorded from 28 healthy old (Age: 72.2 ± 4.7 years) and 14 young (Age: 22.2 ± 2.4 years) individuals during an SRT and a DRT. Depending on the CR median score, old participants were divided into either a high (High-CR) or a low CR (Low-CR) group. Behavioral performance and electrophysiological data were compared across the 3 groups. Compared with the Low-CR, the High-CR group showed larger prestimulus prefrontal (prefrontal negativity) and premotor activity (Bereitschaftspotential-BP), in the SRT, and increased premotor readiness (BP), in the DRT. The High-CR was faster and more accurate than the Low-CR group in the DRT and SRT, respectively. The High-CR group revealed enhanced brain preparatory activities that, paralleled to their behavioral performance, might reflect neural compensation and maintenance effects possibly counteracting the age-related decline in cognitive functioning.

Gambling Behavior and Risk Factors in Preadolescent Students: A Cross Sectional Study.

Although gambling was initially characterized as a specific phenomenon of adulthood, the progressive lowering of the age of onset, combined with earlier and increased access to the game, led researchers to study the younger population as well. According to the literature, those who develop a gambling addiction in adulthood begin to play significantly before than those who play without developing a real disorder. In this perspective, the main hypothesis of the study was that the phenomenon of gambling behavior in this younger population is already associated with specific characteristics that could lead to identify risk factors. In this paper, are reported the results of an exploratory survey on an Italian sample of 2,734 preadolescents, aged between 11 and 14 years, who replied to a self-report structured questionnaire developed ad hoc. Firstly, data analysis highlighted an association between the gambling behavior and individual or ecological factors, as well as a statistically significant difference in the perception of gambling between preadolescent, who play games of chance, and the others. Similarly, the binomial logistic regression performed to ascertain the effects of seven key variables on the likelihood that participants gambled with money showed a statistically significant effect for six of them. The relevant findings of this first study address a literature gap and suggest the need to investigate the preadolescent as a cohort in which it identifies predictive factors of gambling behavior in order to design effective and structured preventive interventions.

Reasoning on Figurative Language: A Preliminary Study on Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Klinefelter Syndrome.

In this study we explored metaphor and idiom competencies in two clinical populations, children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with Klinefelter syndrome (KS), (age range: 9⁻12), compared to typically developing (TD) children of the same age. These three groups were tested with two multiple-choice tests assessing idiom comprehension through iconic and verbal alternatives and a metaphor comprehension test composed of novel, physical-psychological metaphors, requesting verbal explanations. To these instruments, another test was added, assessing basic sentence comprehension. Performances on the different linguistic tasks were examined by means of discriminant analysis which showed that idiom comprehension had a very small weight in distinguishing children with ASD from TD controls, whereas metaphor explanation did distinguish them. This study suggests that figurative language comprehension is not a "core deficit" per se in individuals with ASD. Only when the task requires to explicitly construct and explain a semantic mapping between the two terms of a metaphor does the performance of children with ASD significantly deviate from the typical population. These results are interpreted in terms of a difficulty in children with ASD and KS with complex cognitive and linguistic processes and also in relation with clinical assessment.

Reading and lexical-decision tasks generate different patterns of individual variability as a function of condition difficulty.

We reanalyzed previous experiments based on lexical-decision and reading-aloud tasks in children with dyslexia and control children and tested the prediction of the difference engine model (DEM) that mean condition reaction times (RTs) and standard deviations (SDs) would be linearly related (Myerson et al., 2003). Then we evaluated the slope and the intercept with the x-axis of these linear functions in comparison with previously reported values (i.e., slope of about 0.30 and intercept of about 300 ms). In the case of lexical decision, the parameters were close to these values; by contrast, in the case of reading aloud, a much steeper slope (0.66) and a greater intercept (482.6 ms) were found. Therefore, interindividual variability grows at a much faster rate as a function of condition difficulty for reading than for lexical-decision tasks (or for other tasks reported in the literature). According to the DEM, the slope of the regression that relates means and SDs indicates the degree of correlation among the durations of the stages of processing. We propose that the need for a close coupling between orthographic and phonological processing in reading is what drives the particularly strong relationship between performance and interindividual variability that we observed in reading tasks.

Sensory and Physico-Psychological Metaphor Comprehension in Children with ASD: A Preliminary Study on the Outcomes of a Treatment.

Recent research into difficulties in figurative language in children with ASD highlighted that it is possible to devise training interventions to overcome these difficulties by teaching specific strategies. This study describes how children with ASD can improve their capability to explain metaphors with a treatment. Two types of metaphors, in the "X is Y" form, were addressed: sensory and physico-psychological. To face the difficulties posed by these metaphors, the adult taught two strategies: inserting the connective "is like" between "X" and "Y", which transforms the metaphor into a simile; comparing "X" and "Y" by means of thinking maps. Two tests of metaphor comprehension were used, one based on sensory and the other on physico-psychological metaphors. Sixteen 10 year-old children participated into the study, including an experimental group formed by 8 children with ASD (n = 4) which had received the treatment, and a control group (n = 4) which had not, and 8 typically-developing (TD) children. At the post-test, the experimental group significantly outperformed the controls in explaining both types of metaphors, but only in the sensory metaphors did their performances reach TD children's levels. These results illuminate how clinical treatment can positively influence the developmental trajectories of metaphor comprehension.

Developmental dyslexia in a regular orthography: can the reading profile be reduced to strategic control?

In languages with regular orthographies, the identification of different forms of reading impairment (such as surface or phonological dyslexia) has proved elusive. Alternatively, it has been proposed that different patterns of errors depend upon strategic choices on the part of the reader. The present study aimed to test this strategic interpretation by evaluating the effectiveness of instructions to read quickly (or accurately) in modifying the reading rate and types of errors of dyslexic children. Further, drawing on an error classification based on the contrast between sounding-out behaviour and word substitution, we examined the types of reading error that best characterize the deficit in a language with regular orthography (Italian). Thirty children with dyslexia and 30 chronologically age-matched controls read aloud passages and word lists with instructions to emphasize either rate or accuracy. When asked to read quickly, children with dyslexia increased their reading rate (although less than skilled children). However, the type of instructions had little influence on reading errors. Therefore, the results did not support the view that strategic control has an important role in modulating the types of reading errors made by children with dyslexia. For word lists, sounding-out behaviour, errors in stress assignment, and form-related nonwords were useful to correctly identifying children with dyslexia. For text passages, sounding-out behaviour and form-related errors were the best predictors of group membership. Thus, specific types of errors are a fundamental component of the reading deficit in children who speak a language with regular orthography over and above their reading slowness.

Separating global and specific factors in developmental dyslexia.

The general goal of the study was to identify global and specific components in developmental dyslexia using various manipulations based on the rapid automatization paradigm (RAN). In two experiments, we used both factor analysis and the Rate-and-Amount Model to verify if one (or more) global factor(s) and a variety of specific effects contribute to the naming (and visual search) deficits in children with dyslexia. Results of Experiment 1 indicated the presence of three global components: pictorial naming, detailed orthographic analysis, and visual search. Pictorial naming is predicated by typical RAN tasks (such as naming colors or objects), independent of set size, but also from a variety of other tasks including Stroop interference conditions. The detailed orthographic analysis factor accounts for naming of orthographic stimuli at high set size. Visual search marked tasks requiring the scanning of visual targets. Results of Experiment 2 confirmed the separation between the pictorial naming and detailed orthographic analysis factors both in the original sample and in a new group of children. Furthermore, specific effects of frequency, lexicality, and length were shown to contribute to the reading deficit. Overall, it is proposed that focusing on the profile of both global and specific effects provides a more effective and, at the same time, simpler account of the dyslexics' impairment.

Is developmental dyslexia modality specific? A visual-auditory comparison of Italian dyslexics.

Although developmental dyslexia is often referred to as a cross-modal disturbance, tests of different modalities using the same stimuli are lacking. We compared the performance of 23 children with dyslexia and 42 chronologically matched control readers on reading versus repetition tasks and visual versus auditory lexical decision using the same stimuli. With respect to control readers, children with dyslexia were impaired only on stimuli in the visual modality; they had no deficit on the repetition and auditory lexical decision tasks. By applying the rate-amount model (Faust et al., 1999), we showed that performance of children with dyslexia on visual (but not auditory) tasks was associated with that of control readers by a linear relationship (with a 1.78 slope), suggesting that a global factor accounts for visual (but not auditory) task performance. We conclude that the processing of linguistic stimuli in the visual and auditory modalities is carried out by independent processes and that dyslexic children have a selective deficit in the visual modality.

Crowding, reading, and developmental dyslexia.

We tested the hypothesis that crowding effects are responsible for the reading slowness characteristic of developmental dyslexia. A total of twenty-nine Italian dyslexics and thirty-three age-matched controls participated in various parts of the study. In Experiment 1, we measured contrast thresholds for identifying letters and words as a function of stimulus duration. Thresholds were higher in dyslexics than controls for words (at a limited time exposure) but not for single letters. Adding noise to the stimuli produced comparable effects in dyslexics and controls. At the long time exposure thresholds were comparable in the two groups. In Experiment 2, we measured the spacing between a target letter and two flankers at a fixed level of performance as a function of eccentricity and size. With eccentricity, the critical spacing (CS) scaled in the control group with 0.62 proportionality (a value of b close to Bouma's law, 0.50) and with a greater proportionality (0.95) in the dyslexic group. CS was independent of size in both groups. In Experiment 3, we examined the critical print size (CPS), that is, the increase in reading rate up to a critical character size (S. T. Chung, J. S. Mansfield, & G. E. Legge, 1998). CPS of dyslexic children was greater than that of controls. Individual maximal reading speed was predicted by individual bs (from Experiment 2). The maximal reading rate achieved by dyslexics at CPS (and also for larger print sizes) was below the values observed in controls. We conclude that word analysis in dyslexics is slowed because of greater crowding effects, which limit letter identification in multi-letter arrays across the visual field. We propose that the peripheral reading of normal readers might constitute a model for dyslexic reading. The periphery model accounts for 60% of dyslexics' slowness. After compensating for crowding, the dyslexics' reading rate remains slower than that of proficient readers. This failure is discussed in terms of a developmental learning effect.

Rapid naming deficits in dyslexia: a stumbling block for the perceptual anchor theory of dyslexia.

According to a recent theory of dyslexia, the perceptual anchor theory, children with dyslexia show deficits in classic auditory and phonological tasks not because they have auditory or phonological impairments but because they are unable to form a 'perceptual anchor' in tasks that rely on a small set of repeated stimuli. The theory makes the strong prediction that rapid naming deficits should only be present in small sets of repeated items, not in large sets of unrepeated items. The present research tested this prediction by comparing rapid naming performance of a small set of repeated items with that of a large set of unrepeated items. The results were unequivocal. Deficits were found both for small and large sets of objects and numbers. The deficit was actually bigger for large sets than for small sets, which is the opposite of the prediction made by the anchor theory. In conclusion, the perceptual anchor theory does not provide a satisfactory account of some of the major hallmark effects of developmental dyslexia.

Naming speed and visual search deficits in readers with disabilities: evidence from an orthographically regular language (Italian).

The study examined rapid automatized naming (RAN) in 42 children with reading disabilities and 101 control children-all native speakers of Italian, a language with shallow orthography. Third-, 5th- and 6th-grade children were given a RAN test that required rapid naming of color, object, or digit matrices. A visual search test using the same stimulus material (but not requiring a verbal response) and an oral articulation test were also given. Readers with disabilities performed worse than controls on the RAN test. This effect was larger in higher grades than in lower ones. Readers with disabilities were also slower than controls in performing the visual search test. The pattern of results for the RAN test held constant when the visual search performance was partialed out by covariance analysis, indicating the independence of the 2 deficits. The 2 groups did not differ for articulation rate. Finally, analysis of the pattern of intercorrelations indicated that reading speed was most clearly related to RAN, particularly in the group with reading disabilities. The results extend observations of RAN effects on reading deficits to Italian, an orthographically shallow language.

Do phonologic and rapid automatized naming deficits differentially affect dyslexic children with and without a history of language delay? A study of Italian dyslexic children.

OBJECTIVE: The study aims to verify whether phonologic and rapid automatized naming (RAN) deficits are present and associated in Italian dyslexic children and whether they differentially affect dyslexics with and without a history of previous language delay (LD). BACKGROUND: According to the phonologic core deficit hypothesis, dyslexia may stem from impairment of the representation and manipulation of phonemes and may be closely associated with oral language deficits. However, deficits in tasks not requiring fine-grained phonologic representations, such as RAN, have also been described in dyslexic children. METHODS: Thirty-seven children were selected on the basis of a reading deficit and were assigned to 2 groups according to whether or not they had a history of early LD as determined retrospectively by parental report. A battery of reading and writing, verbal working memory, metaphonologic, RAN, and visual search tests were administered. RESULTS: RAN deficits were shared by most dyslexics (with and without a history of LD), whereas phonologic deficits were mainly associated with a previous LD. This last condition did not result in a more profound impairment of reading and writing decoding skills. CONCLUSION: In a shallow orthography such as Italian, RAN, not phonologic deficits, may represent the main cognitive marker of developmental dyslexia.