| Name | Luigi |
| Surname | Trojano |
| Institution | Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli |
| luigi.trojano@unicampania.it | |
| Address | Department of Psychology, University of Campania 'Luigi Vanvitelli', Viale Ellittico 31, 81100 Caserta, Italy |
Prospective memory (PM) deficits are often reported in multiple sclerosis (MS), but their relationship with neuropsychological characteristics and personality traits remains to be explored.
: Subjects can improve their performance on memory for action phrases if, during the encoding condition, they self-perform actions associated with verbs (subject-performed condition), or if they perceive the actions carried out by experimenter (experimenter-performed condition), with respect to a verbal task condition in which they only read or listen to the stimuli. This facilitation is labeled "Enactment effect" (EE), and is thought to be associated with episodic integration processes binding actions and nouns together in a coherent representation. Only recently, studies addressed EE in AD individuals reporting significant improvements on memory tasks in the subject-performed encoding condition. However, no studies tried to explore the cognitive mechanisms supporting EE in AD individuals. : Performance on recognition and cued recall tasks for action phrases were assessed in a sample of 32 mild-to-moderate AD individuals and 30 healthy adults, in verbal, subject-performed and experimenter-performed encoding conditions. Moreover, a cognitive assessment was completed to explore the possible correlates of EE in our participants. : Results showed that both subject-performed and experimenter-performed encoding conditions produced similar advantages over the verbal condition, in both memory tasks in both groups. Moreover, these memory advantages were strongly associated to executive processes, in both AD and healthy adults. : The present study confirmed that EE is spared in mild to moderate AD. Our findings supported the role of episodic integration processes and suggested a contribution of executive processes in EE.
Prospective memory (PM) is defined as memory for future intentions and it is typically divided into time-based and event-based PM. Deficit of PM has been reported in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) but no study has yet explored the association between motor subtypes (tremor dominant and rigidity/bradykinesia dominant) and performance on PM tasks. The aim of the study was to explore the role of motor subtypes in the defect of PM.
: Impulse control disorders (ICDs) in Parkinson's disease (PD) are a group of impulsive behaviors most often associated, but not limited to, dopamine replacement therapy (DRT), particularly the use of dopamine agonists (DA). ICDs can impair activities of daily living and have a strong negative impact on quality of life of patients and their families. : This review mainly focusses on the most common ICDs in the context of currently accepted management strategies for PD and emphasizes areas of controversy in need of further research. The authors further describe the concept of dopamine agonist withdrawal (DAWS) syndrome and its implication for the treatment of ICDs, the role of recently available antiparkinsonian drugs and routes of delivery, and non-pharmacological treatments. : When ICDs develop, proper management mainly consists of reducing, discontinuing or switching dopaminergic agents, especially of DA. In these scenarios, patients should be closely followed up as their motor condition may deteriorate along with occurrence of DAWS. Assessment of the presence and intensity of ICDs should be carried throughout the course of the disease and not only when a particular treatment is started or when the dosage is increased, since their occurrence is not linearly related to DRT alone.
The Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS-9) and the Parkinson Fatigue Scale (PFS-16) are commonly used for assessing fatigue in Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we validated the Italian version of these scales, assessed their psychometric properties by Rasch analysis, and computed their optimal cut-off scores using clinical diagnosis of PD-related fatigue as the gold standard.
In the context of a causal relationship between stress and migraine, coping strategies are aimed at managing stressful life events and reducing the distressing emotions connected to them.
We evaluated: i) psychometric properties of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y (STAI Form Y); ii) clinical correlates of state and trait anxiety; iii) associations of anxiety with Quality of Life (QoL) dimensions.
Inconsistent evidence is available about the possibility that cognitive reserve (CR) moderates the impact of disease progression, evaluated by MRI biomarkers (lesion load, white matter or gray matter volumes) or clinical proxies of physical disability (i.e. the Expanded Disability Status Scale, EDSS) on cognition in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). A meta-analytic study with a meta-regression approach was performed to investigate the possible role of CR as moderator of the impact of brain damage and physical disability on cognition.
Behavioral symptoms, such as apathy and depression, are common in multiple sclerosis (MS) but their relationship with cognitive and clinical characteristics often remains underinvestigated and not monitored over time.
Cognitive dysfunction is frequent in multiple sclerosis (MS), and its relationship with cognitive reserve (CR) has been investigated in several studies with conflicting results. In this meta-analysis, we here sought to determine the relationship between CR and cognition in MS patients and to ascertain whether demographic or clinical variables could moderate the above-mentioned relationship.