Neural Pathways of Visual Face Recognition Immediately After Birth.

The present study aimed to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of face-identity recognition in newborn infants immediately after birth. Electroencephalographic acquisition was continuously recorded in 23 newborn infants (3 < age < 24 h of life) during the following visual task: presentation of a woman's face for 60 s ("known face"); random presentation of 50 known faces, 50 novel women's faces, and 50 chessboards (for 2 s each). The final sample included in ERP analyses was composed of 11 newborn infants (male/female: 6/5; age: 5 h 16' ± 3 h 51').

Testing the persuasiveness of conspiracy theories: a comparison of narrative and argumentative strategies.

The present study examined the persuasive impact of conspiracy theories (CTs) in relation to two distinct communicative strategies: argumentation and narrative. The final sample consisted of 160 participants, randomly assigned to three groups: a first group (N = 56) watched a video in which a conspiracy theory related to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion was presented in a predominantly argumentative form (mostly argumentative group: MAG); a second group (N = 53) who watched a video in which the same conspiracy theory was presented in a predominantly narrative form (mostly narrative group: MNG); and a third control group (CG) (N = 51) who watched a video on non-conspiracy topics. The experiment was conducted online by the participants.

How psychological and descriptive narratives modulate the perception of facial emotional expressions: an event-related potentials (ERPs) study.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether stories with high and low narrative transport exert different effects on neural activation in response to facial emotional expressions. Thirty-one participants were randomly assigned to two groups based on the type of story they read: psychological narrative with high narrative transport (6 women and 10 men; age M = 34.38 ± 8.

Exploring how first- and third-person narrative modulates neural activation during a social cognition task. An event-related potentials (ERPs) study.

Several studies showed a positive effect of stories on Theory of Mind (ToM) performance. The aim of the present exploratory study was to investigate whether and how a specific aspect of narrative, i.e.

Narrative identity in addictive disorders: a conceptual review.

Narrative identity allows individuals to integrate their personal experiences into a coherent and meaningful life story. Addictive disorders appear to be associated with a disturbed sense of self, reflected in problematic and disorganized self-narratives. In recent literature, a growing body of research has highlighted how narrative approaches can make a dual contribution to the understanding of addiction: on the one hand, by revealing crucial aspects of self structure, and, on the other, by supporting the idea that addiction is a disorder related to unintegrated self-states in which dissociative phenomena and the resulting sense of 'loss of self' are maladaptive strategies for coping with distress.

Defining the Characteristics of Story Production of Autistic Children: A Multilevel Analysis.

Several studies suggest that a valuable tool to examine linguistic skills in communication disorders is offered by procedures of narrative discourse assessment. Following this line of research, we present an exploratory study aimed to investigate storytelling abilities of autistic children to better define the characteristics of their story production. Participants included 41 autistic children and 41 children with typical development aged between 7.

Introspective self-narrative modulates the neuronal response during the emphatic process: an event-related potentials (ERPs) study.

Empathy is the ability to perceive and understand others' emotional states generating a similar mental state in the self. Previous behavioural studies have shown that self-reflection can enhance the empathic process. The present event-related potentials' study aims to investigate whether self-reflection, elicited by an introspective self-narrative task, modulates the neuronal response to eye expressions and improves the accuracy of empathic process.

Attachment style dimensions are associated with neural activation during projection of mental states.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between attachment dimensions and neural correlates in response to the Rorschach inkblots. Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were recruited for the electroencephalographic registration during a visual presentation of the Rorschach inkblots and polygonal shapes. The Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) was administered to participants.

Does the character-based dimension of stories impact narrative processing? An event-related potentials (ERPs) study.

This event-related potentials (ERPs) study investigated online processes of integration of information relating to characters in narrative comprehension. The final sample included twenty-nine participants who read short third-person stories in which the plausibility of the characters' actions was manipulated. Stories were administered in three conditions: a character-based congruent condition including a target word that was consistent with the character's job; a character-based incongruent condition with a target word inconsistent with the character's job; a character-based neutral condition, narrating the action of a character presented by his/her proper name without information about his/her job.

Different Electrophysiological Responses to Pain-Related Visual Stimuli Between Fibromyalgia and Chronic low Back Pain Women: A Pilot Case-Control Study.

Background: Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome which occurs in the absence of an organic damage, whom causes is still unclear. Aims of this pilot study were to investigate the neural correlates of fibromyalgia in response to pain-related visual stimuli and explore the psychological differences among fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain (CLBP) and healthy conditions.

Methods: After a clinical assessment, electrophysiological responses to pain-related visual stimuli were recorded using a 256-Hydrocel Geodesic-Sensor-Net.

Self-projection in middle childhood: a study on the relationship between theory of mind and episodic future thinking.

Growing evidence suggests that theory of mind (ToM) and episodic future thinking (EFT) are closely related at both brain and functional level. This study explored the relationship between ToM and EFT in 96 Italian-speaking children with typical development aged between 8 and 10.11 using a behavioral design.

Neural correlates of sex-related differences in attachment dimensions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate sex-related differences in the electrophysiological response to socioemotional stimuli (positive, negative, and ambiguous) depicting couple interactions. The associations between anxiety and avoidance attachment dimensions (measured with the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised questionnaire) and the strength of cortico-limbic circuit intensity was explored, recorded using a 256-Hydrocel Geodesic Sensor-Net. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) data were analyzed for a total sample of 74 participants.

Neurophysiological correlates of emotional face perception consciousness.

Aim of the present study was to investigate the neurophysiologic correlates of the conscious and not conscious perception of faces (presented for 14, 40, 80 ms) with happy and sad emotional valence. Electroencephalographic data of 22 participants during a report-based visual task were recorded. Both happy and sad faces presented for 14 ms showed a longer N170 latency compared to the faces presented for 40 and 80 ms.

An investigation of visual narrative comprehension in children with autism spectrum disorders.

The present study analyzed the comprehension of visual narrative in a group of twelve children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Their performances were compared to a control group of fifteen children with typical development (TD) matched for age, level of formal education, and IQ. Visual narrative comprehension was assessed by administering a task that required children to understand narrative's global coherence by arranging in the correct order the constituent parts of stories presented in pictures.

Violence in video game produces a lower activation of limbic and temporal areas in response to social inclusion images.

Exposure to violence in video games has been associated with a desensitization toward violent content, a decrease of empathy, and prosocial behavior. Moreover, violent video games seem to be related to a reduction of neural activation in the circuits linked to social emotional processing. The purpose of the present study was to compare the neural response to social inclusion images after violent and nonviolent video game playing.

Neurophysiological Correlates of Collective Trauma Recall in 2009 L'Aquila Earthquake Survivors.

In the present study, we aimed to explore neural correlates of survivors of the 2009 L'Aquila, Italy earthquake in response to being shown pictures featuring their own city before and after an earthquake as well as those of an unfamiliar city. Moreover, we explored the associations among psychological variables and brain responses to the pictures of L'Aquila after the earthquake. Our final sample (N = 30 adults) comprised 15 survivors (M age = 31.

Neurophysiological correlate of emotional regulation in cognitive and motor deficits in Tourette's syndrome.

The present study investigated the role of different emotions in the expression of cognitive and motor control abilities of children having Tourette's syndrome (TS) compared to healthy controls. The electroencephalography activity of 33 children (mean age in final sample: TS ( = 10) = 10.5 ± 2.

Neural Correlates of Outcome of the Psychotherapy Compared to Antidepressant Therapy in Anxiety and Depression Disorders: A Meta-Analysis.

The most prevalent mental disorders, anxiety and depression, are commonly associated with structural and functional changes in the fronto-limbic brain areas. The clinical trials investigating patients with affective disorders showed different outcome to different treatments such as psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy. It is, however, still unexplored how these interventions approach affect the functional brain.

Neural correlate of Internet use in patients undergoing psychological treatment for Internet addiction.

Background: The new version of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5th) proposed the Internet Gaming Disorder for the diagnosis of Internet addiction (IA) considering the neurobiological evidence of the craving.

Aims: The aim was to test the neural correlate in response to the Internet cue in patients with IA.

Methods: Sixteen males with IA diagnosis (clinical group) and 14 healthy male (control group) were recruited for an experimental visual task composed of Internet images and emotional images.

Neural correlate of the projection of mental states on the not-structured visual stimuli.

Projection is a spontaneous and complex mental activity responsible for the subjective meaning attribution. The hypotheses of this study were that the neural correlate of projection may involve frontal, parietal, and temporal brain areas, and that alexithymia may be negatively associated with intensities in limbic and paralimbic areas during projection. EEG data were recorded continuously at 250 Hz using NetStation 4.

The role of the eyes in processing an intact face and its scrambled image: a dense array ERP and low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) study.

The aim of the present study was to test whether the eyes of an intact face produced a specific brain response compared to the mouth, nose, or hair and whether their specificity was also maintained in a scrambled face. Fifteen subjects were asked to focus visual attention on global and single elements in intact faces and in their scrambled image. EEG data were recorded from 256-Hydrocel Geodesic Sensor-Net200.