Fostering emotional intelligence in preadolescence: Effects of a pilot training on emotions, coping and psychological well-being.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a short training programme (eight 1-hour sessions) aimed to promote Emotional Intelligence (EI) abilities in primary school on a set of outcomes related to affect, coping and psychological well-being. Sixty-eight preadolescents (10.68±.58 years) were randomly assigned to either the experimental condition (EI training) or the active control condition (pro-environmental training). ANOVAs and Bayesian analyses were performed on pre/post-training measures of ability and trait EI, positive/negative affect, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, coping styles, and psychological well-being. Results showed that only in the EI training condition emotional abilities significantly improved, whereas negative affect and the preference for distraction coping significantly diminished. Although the effects of the present EI training did not extend to the other measures, the findings suggest its effectiveness in improving preadolescents' EI basic skills and some important adjustment variables. This study confirms the efficacy of short school-based programmes in enhancing EI abilities and highlights the importance of further investigating the training features required to extend its benefits also to psychological well-being. Implications for research and educational practices are discussed.

Psychological well-being in childhood: The role of trait emotional intelligence, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, coping and general intelligence.

Given the increase of mental health problems in youth, focusing on the promotion of psychological well-being is essential. Among the variables recognized as linked to children's psychological well-being, trait emotional intelligence, emotional self-efficacy and coping seem to be crucial, whereas the role played by intelligence is still controversial. In the present study, we explored the combined effects of these variables, aimed at disentangling their unique contribution to psychological well-being of 74 children (41 males, mean age: 9.03 years). We administered verbal and reasoning tests as intelligence measures and self-report questionnaires to assess trait emotional intelligence, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, coping styles, psychological well-being. Correlations revealed two independent clusters of variables: a first cluster including intelligence indexes and a second cluster including psychological well-being, trait emotional intelligence, regulatory emotional self-efficacy and adaptive coping styles. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that only trait emotional intelligence and positive restructuring coping style significantly contributed to psychological well-being. This study highlights that, unlike general intelligence, trait emotional intelligence was associated to psychological well-being, whereas coping styles play a negligible role in explaining this relationship. These findings are valuable in identifying the most relevant factors for children's adjustment and in enhancing emotion-related aspects in interventions for psychological well-being promotion.

Using the ATN system as a guide for the neuropsychological assessment of Alzheimer's disease.

INTRODUCTION: Many studies have attempted to determine whether Alzheimer's disease (AD) in-vivo biomarkers can predict neuropsychological performance since pathophysiological changes precede cognitive changes by several years. Nonetheless, neuropsychological measures can also detect cognitive deterioration in cognitively normal individuals with AD-positive biomarkers. Recent studies have investigated whether cognitive measures can be used as a proxy for biomarkers. This is a crucial issue since biomarker analysis is expensive, invasive, and not yet widespread in clinical practice. However, these studies have so far considered only one or two classes of AD biomarkers. Here, we aim at preliminarily evaluating whether and which neuropsychological measures can discriminate individuals that have been classified according to the full scheme of biomarkers known as ATN system. This scheme groups biomarkers as a function of the three main AD-related pathologic processes they measure (i.e., ß-amyloidosis, tauopathy, and neurodegeneration) to provide an unbiased and descriptive definition of the Alzheimer's continuum. METHOD: Biomarkers and neuropsychological data from 78 patients (70.01 ± 9.15 years; 38 females) with suspected cognitive decline were extracted from a medical database. Participants' biomarker profiles were classified into the following ATN categories: normal AD biomarkers; Alzheimer's continuum; non-AD pathologic change. Data were analyzed using a Bayesian approach, to guarantee reliable result interpretation of data stemming from small samples. RESULTS: The discrimination ability of each neuropsychological measure varied depending on the pairs of ATN categories compared. The best-discriminating predictor in the Alzheimer's continuum vs. normal biomarkers comparison was the figure naming ability. In contrast, in the Alzheimer's continuum vs. non-AD pathologic change comparison the best predictor was the wordlist forgetting rate. CONCLUSIONS: Although the study was exploratory in nature, the proposed methodological approach may have the potential to identify the best neuropsychological measures for estimating AD neuropathological changes, leading to a more biologically informed use of neuropsychological assessment.

Cognitive inflexibility and over-attention to detail: The Italian validation of the DFlex Questionnaire in patients with eating disorders.

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive inflexibility and over-attention to detail are two cognitive styles common to eating disorders (ED) and other psychopathologies characterized by rigid perfectionism. Despite many options to assess the above styles, the only self-report tool that simultaneously permits their specific assessment is the Detail and Flexibility Questionnaire (DFlex), originally developed to investigate the ED domain. The aim of this study was to validate the Italian version of the DFlex. METHOD: 170 patients (149 females) with ED and 148 controls (100 females) completed the Italian version of the DFlex. RESULTS: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that the two-factor model originally proposed in the literature was a good fit to the data. Item factor loadings were largely equivalent across clinical and control groups, with intercept distributions showing higher values for the clinical group compared to controls. Both DFlex subscales showed good internal reliability and were able to predict membership to the group condition. CONCLUSIONS: The DFlex is a reliable tool for investigation in the ED population. However, because DFlex items do not explicitly assess food and body shape domains, it is possible to extend its use to other psychopathologies characterized by rigid perfectionism. We propose the use of the DFlex in research and clinical practice as a useful tool for better understanding patients' cognitive functioning and in order to support treatment planning.

Testing the transdiagnostic hypothesis of inhibitory control deficits in addictions: An experimental study on gambling disorder.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Many psychopathologies, including addictions, are characterized by inhibitory control deficits. In this regard, recent studies on substance-related disorders (SRD) have shown an impairment in the ability to inhibit potentially interfering memories, despite preserved motor inhibition. To investigate whether the same dissociation could also characterize gambling disorder (GD) in a transdiagnostic perspective, we tested both cognitive and motor inhibitory processes through dedicated tasks, for the first time in this behavioral addiction. METHODS: 30 outpatients with GD and 30 healthy controls performed a go/no-go task addressing the integrity of motor inhibition, and the Retrieval Practice Paradigm, a task addressing the integrity of memory inhibition as indexed by the Retrieval-Induced Forgetting (RIF) effect. Self-report questionnaires assessing impulsivity were also administered. RESULTS: Whereas RIF was similar across the two groups, patients showed more commission errors in the go/no-go task, and higher self-rated scores of impulsivity than controls. DISCUSSION: The present findings suggest preserved memory inhibition and impaired motor response inhibition in GD, a pattern of inhibitory deficits opposite to that previously reported for SRD. Therefore, although both GD and SRD are characterized by altered inhibitory processing, a more fine-grained analysis revealed a specific inhibitory profile indicating vulnerability in different inhibitory components. CONCLUSION: The present study highlights the need to investigate the multifaceted construct of inhibition more thoroughly, using performance measures able to assess its various components. This approach would enable to both better characterize different psychopathologies and orient their treatment.

Italian norms and naming latencies for 357 high quality color images.

In the domain of cognitive studies on the lexico-semantic representational system, one of the most important means of ensuring effective experimental designs is using ecological stimulus sets accompanied by normative data on the most relevant variables affecting the processing of their items. In the context of image sets, color photographs are particularly suited to this purpose as they reduce the difficulty of visual decoding processes that may emerge with traditional image sets of line drawings. This is especially so in clinical populations. In this study we provide Italian norms for a set of 357 high quality image-items belonging to 23 semantic subcategories from the Moreno-Martínez and Montoro database. Data from several variables affecting image processing were collected from a sample of 255 Italian-speaking participants: age of acquisition, familiarity, lexical frequency, manipulability, name agreement, typicality and visual complexity. Lexical frequency data were derived from the CoLFIS corpus. Furthermore, we collected data on image oral naming latencies to explore how the variance in these latencies could be explained by these critical variables. Multiple regression analyses on the naming latencies show classical psycholinguistic phenomena, such as the effects of age of acquisition and name agreement. In addition, manipulability was also a significant predictor. The described Italian normative data and naming latencies are available for download as supplementary material.

Control over interfering memories in eating disorders.

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies have suggested that patients suffering from either anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN) exhibit abnormal performance in the ability to control cognitive interference in response selection. METHOD: We assessed the status of cognitive control in episodic memory by addressing the ability to inhibit interfering memories. To this end, we used the retrieval-practice paradigm, which allows for measuring both the beneficial and the detrimental effects of memory practice. The latter phenomenon, known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF), is thought to reflect an adaptive inhibitory mechanism aimed at reducing competition in memory retrieval. Twenty-seven healthy controls and 27 patients suffering from eating disorders (either AN or BN) performed a retrieval-practice paradigm and a control task addressing general reactivity and filled a self-report questionnaire on impulsivity. RESULTS: No differences between patients and healthy controls were observed for the beneficial effects of practice. The same pattern also emerged for RIF. However, when patients with AN and BN were analyzed separately, a clear dissociation emerged: patients with AN displayed no hint of RIF, whereas patients with BN showed an intact memory suppression performance. No group differences emerged in the control task. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a specific impairment in the ability to suppress interfering memories in patients with AN, thus extending current evidence of cognitive control deficits in AN to episodic memory.

TDCS over the right inferior frontal gyrus disrupts control of interference in memory: A retrieval-induced forgetting study.

Retrieving information from episodic memory may result in later inaccessibility of related but task-irrelevant information. This phenomenon, known as retrieval-induced forgetting, is thought to represent a specific instance of broader cognitive control mechanisms, that would come into play during memory retrieval, whenever non-target competing memories interfere with recall of target items. Recent neuroimaging studies have shown an association between these mechanisms and the activity of the right Prefrontal Cortex. However, so far, few studies have attempted at establishing a causal relationship between this brain region and behavioural measures of cognitive control over memory. To address this missing link, we delivered transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over the right Inferior Frontal Gyrus (rIFG) during a standard retrieval-practice paradigm with category-exemplar word pairs. Across two experiments, tDCS abolished retrieval-induced forgetting to different degrees, compared to the sham control group whereas no effects of stimulation emerged in an ancillary measure of motor stopping ability. Moreover, influence analyses on specific subsets of the experimental material revealed diverging patterns of results, which depended upon the different categories employed in the retrieval-practice paradigm. Overall, the results support the view that rIFG has a causal role in the control of interference in memory retrieval and highlight the often underestimated role of stimulus material in affecting the effects. The present findings are therefore relevant in enriching our knowledge about memory functions from both a theoretical and methodological perspective.

Task-switching preparation across semantic and spatial domains: An event-related potential study.

Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have identified the specific electrophysiological markers of advance preparation in cued task-switching paradigms. However, it is not yet completely clear whether there is a single task-independent preparatory mechanism for task-switching or whether preparation for a switch can be selectively influenced by the domain of the task to be performed. To address this question, we employed a cued-task switching paradigm requiring participants to repeat or to switch between a semantic and a spatial task. The behavioural results showed a significant switch cost for both domains. The ERP findings, however, revealed that switch and repeat trials for semantic and spatial domains differed in the amplitude modulation of an early P2 and a sustained negativity both expressed over fronto-central scalp regions. Further differences between the two domains also emerged over posterior-parietal electrodes. This pattern of data thus shows that advance preparation in task-switching can be selectively modulated by the domain of the task to be performed.

Neural underpinnings of the 'agent brain': new evidence from transcranial direct current stimulation.

Intentional binding (IB) refers to the temporal compression between a voluntary action and its sensory effect, and it is considered an implicit measure of sense of agency (SoA), that is, the capacity to control one's own actions. IB has been thoroughly studied from a behavioural point of view but only few studies have investigated its neural underpinnings, always using the same two paradigms. Although providing evidence that the supplementary motor complex is involved, findings are still too scarce to draw definitive conclusions. The aim of the present study was to establish a causal relationship between the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), known for its key role in action planning and initiation, and IB by means of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Participants underwent anodal, cathodal and sham control stimulations during three separate sessions (Experiment I). Subsequently, they underwent the same stimulation protocol (Experiment II) using as control a region potentially involved in the processing of the sensory effects of voluntary action (i.e., the right primary auditory cortex for the auditory effects of action). A significant reduction in IB was found only after stimulation of the pre-SMA, which supports the causal contribution of this prefrontal area in the perceived linkage between action and its effects. As SoA could be disrupted in many psychiatric and neurological diseases, these results have direct clinical relevance as tDCS could be successfully used in this domain in virtue of the promising advantages it offers for rehabilitation.

Assessing the effects of tDCS over a delayed response inhibition task by targeting the right inferior frontal gyrus and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Many situations in our everyday life call for a mechanism deputed to outright stop an ongoing course of action. This behavioral inhibition ability, known as response stopping, is often impaired in psychiatric conditions characterized by impulsivity and poor inhibitory control. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has recently been proposed as a tool for modulating response stopping in such clinical populations, and previous studies in healthy humans have already shown that this noninvasive brain stimulation technique is effectively able to improve response stopping, as measured in a stop-signal task (SST) administered immediately after the stimulation. So far, the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) has been the main focus of these attempts to modulate response stopping by the means of noninvasive brain stimulation. However, other cortical areas such as the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) have been implicated in inhibitory control with other paradigms. In order to provide new insight about the involvement of these areas in response stopping, in the present study, tDCS was delivered to 115 healthy subjects, using five stimulation setups that differed in terms of target area (rIFG or rDLPFC) and polarity of stimulation (anodal, cathodal, or sham). The SST was performed 15 min after the offset of the stimulation. Consistently with previous studies, only anodal stimulation over rIFG induced a reliable, although weak, improvement in the SST, which was specific for response stopping, as it was not mirrored in more general reaction time measures.

Transcranial direct current stimulation and cognitive training in the rehabilitation of Alzheimer disease: A case study.

In the present study we tested the cognitive effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in a case of probable Alzheimer disease (AD). The patient (male, 60 years, mild AD) underwent two cycles of treatments, separated by 2 months. In the first cycle, active stimulation (10 sessions, 2 mA for 20 min; anode over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) was followed by computerised tasks (CTs) specifically chosen to engage the most impaired cognitive processes in the patient (tDCS+CT condition). In the second cycle, which was structured as the first, CTs were administered after placebo stimulation (sham+CT condition). Effects on cognitive performance were evaluated not only by the CTs, but also by neuropsychological tests assessing global cognitive functioning. Statistical analyses revealed that whereas the tDCS+CT condition had few effects on the CTs, it induced a stability of the patient's global cognitive functioning lasting approximately 3 months, which was not achieved when the patient underwent sham+CT condition. Therefore, the synergetic use of tDCS and CTs appeared to slow down the cognitive decline of our patient. This preliminary result, although in need of further confirmation, suggests the potentiality of tDCS as an adjuvant tool for cognitive rehabilitation in AD.

Human memory retrieval and inhibitory control in the brain: beyond correlational evidence.

Retrieving information from long-term memory can result in the episodic forgetting of related material. One influential account states that this retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) phenomenon reflects inhibitory mechanisms called into play to decrease retrieval competition. Recent neuroimaging studies suggested that the prefrontal cortex, which is critically engaged in inhibitory processing, is also involved in retrieval competition situations. Here, we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to address whether inhibitory processes could be causally linked to RIF. tDCS was administered over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during the retrieval-practice phase in a standard retrieval-practice paradigm. Sixty human participants were randomly assigned to anodal, cathodal, or sham-control groups. The groups showed comparable benefits for practiced items. In contrast, unlike both the sham and anodal groups, the cathodal group exhibited no RIF. This pattern is interpreted as evidence for a causal role of inhibitory mechanisms in episodic retrieval and forgetting.

Electrode montage dependent effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on semantic fluency.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has proved to be valuable in improving many language processes. However, its influence on verbal fluency still needs to be fully proved. In the present study, we explored the effects of different electrode montages on a semantic fluency task, aimed at comparing their effectiveness in affecting language production. Ninety healthy, right-handed volunteers were randomly assigned to receive one of the following stimulation protocols: (1) anode over the left frontal cortex/cathode over the right supraorbital (rSO) area, (2) anode over the left fronto-temporal (lFT) cortex/cathode over the rSO area, (3) anode over the lFT cortex/cathode over the right FT cortex, (4) anode over the lFT cortex/big-size cathode over the rSO area, (5) sham. In the active stimulation conditions, 2 mA current was delivered for 20 min. Participants performed the semantic fluency task before the stimulation, immediately after it, and 15 min after the first post-stimulation task. Although none of the different protocols improved language production immediately after the stimulation, anodal stimulation over the left frontal cortex (standard-size cathode over the rSO area) improved fluency at the second post-stimulation task. This proved that small differences in either active electrode positioning, or reference positioning/size can impact tDCS behavioral effects also in the cognitive domain. These findings, which can be sometimes missed when tested immediately after the stimulation only, add new information on tDCS spatial and temporal features, thus providing new indications to increase the effectiveness of stimulation protocols.

Individual differences and decision making: when the lure effect of gain is a matter of size.

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is widely used in investigations of decision making. A growing number of studies have linked performance on this task to personality differences, with the aim of explaining the large degree of variability in healthy individuals' performance of the task. However, this line of research has yielded inconsistent results. In the present study, we tested whether increasing the conflict between short-term and long-term gains in the IGT can clarify personality-related modulations of decision making. We assessed performance on the original IGT as a function of the personality traits typically involved in risky decision making (i.e., impulsivity, sensation seeking, sensitivity to reward and punishment). The impact of these same personality traits was also evaluated on a modified version of the task in which the difference in immediate reward magnitude between disadvantageous and advantageous decks was increased, while keeping the net gain fixed. The results showed that only in this latter IGT variant were highly impulsive individuals and high sensation seekers lured into making disadvantageous choices. The opposite seems to be the case for participants who were highly sensitive to punishment, although further data are needed to corroborate this finding. The present preliminary results suggest that the IGT variant used in this study could be more effective than the original task at identifying personality effects in decision making. Implications for dispositional and situational effects on decision making are discussed.

Circadian preference and the big five: the role of impulsivity and sensation seeking.

In the present study, the relationship between personality dimensions and Circadian Preference was evaluated using a structural equation modeling approach. Participants (N=390; 53.8% female, mean age: 26.8 ± 8.1 yrs) completed measures of Circadian Preference, Impulsivity, Sensation Seeking, and the Big Five factors. A mediation structural equation model assessed the direct and indirect effects of the Big Five factors on Circadian Preference. The results showed that Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking were significantly associated with Eveningness, whereas no significant direct effects of the Big Five traits were detected once the effects of Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking were taken into account.

Asymmetric cortical adaptation effects during alternating auditory stimulation.

The present study investigates hemispheric asymmetries in the neural adaptation processes occurring during alternating auditory stimulation. Stimuli were two monaural pure tones having a frequency of 400 or 800 Hz and a duration of 500 ms. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded from 14 volunteers during the presentation of the following stimulus sequences, lasting 12 s each: 1) evoked potentials (EP condition, control), 2) alternation of frequency and ear (FE condition), 3) alternation of frequency (F condition), and 4) alternation of ear (E condition). Main results showed that in the central area of the left hemisphere (around C3 site) the N100 response underwent adaptation in all patterns of alternation, whereas in the same area of the right hemisphere the tones presented at the right ear in the FE produced no adaptation. Moreover, the responses to right-ear stimuli showed a difference between hemispheres in the E condition, which produced less adaptation in the left hemisphere. These effects are discussed in terms of lateral symmetry as a product of hemispheric, pathway and ear asymmetries.

Individual differences affecting caffeine intake. Analysis of consumption behaviours for different times of day and caffeine sources.

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the individual variables contributing to determine the high variability in the consumption behaviours of caffeine, a psychoactive substance which is still poorly investigated in comparison with other drugs. The effects of a large set of specific personality traits (i.e., Impulsivity, Sensation Seeking, Anxiety, Reward Sensitivity and Circadian Preference) were compared along with some relevant socio-demographic variables (i.e., gender and age) and cigarette smoking behaviour. Analyses revealed that daily caffeine intake was significantly higher for males, older people, participants smoking more cigarettes and showing higher scores on Impulsivity, Sensation Seeking and a facet of Reward Sensitivity. However, more detailed analyses showed that different patterns of individual variables predicted caffeine consumption when the times of day and the caffeine sources were considered. The present results suggest that such detailed analyses are required to detect the critical predictive variables that could be obscured when only total caffeine intake during the entire day is considered.

Neurophysiological markers of retrieval-induced forgetting in multiplication fact retrieval.

Event-related potential (ERP) counterparts of practice effects in multiplication fact retrieval were examined. Participants performed a multiplication verification task after having practiced a specific problem set. Practice was either active (retrieval of solutions to multiplication problems) or passive (reexposure to the same operands plus the correct result). Behavioral data showed retrieval-induced facilitation for practiced items and retrieval-induced forgetting for related, unpracticed items, irrespective of practice type. ERPs revealed that, for the active practice group, forgetting was reflected in a reduced N100 component time-locked to result onset. Irrespective of practice type, forgetting was also reflected in a reduced result-locked P350 component, whereas facilitation was associated with an increased amplitude of the same component. These results suggest that beneficial and detrimental effects of practice may be mediated by partially distinct processes.