Luigi Trojano

Professor of Neuropsychology

Name Luigi
Surname Trojano
Institution Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli
E-Mail luigi.trojano@unicampania.it
Address Department of Psychology, University of Campania 'Luigi Vanvitelli', Viale Ellittico 31, 81100 Caserta, Italy

Member PUBLICATIONS

  • Italian normative data for the Battery for Visuospatial Abilities (TERADIC).

    Publication Date: 01/08/2015 on Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology
    by Trojano L, Siciliano M, Pedone R, Cristinzio C, Grossi D
    DOI: 10.1007/s10072-015-2114-4

    Battery for Visuospatial Abilities (BVA, known in Italy as TeRaDiC) has been developed to analyse putative basic skills involved in drawing and to plan and monitor outcomes after rehabilitation of visuoconstructional disorders. It encompasses eight tasks assessing both simple "perceptual" abilities, such as line length and line orientation judgments and complex "representational" abilities, such as mental rotation. The aim of present study was to provide normative values for BVA collected in a wide sample of healthy Italian subjects. Three hundred seventeen healthy Italian subjects (173 women and 144 men) of different age classes (age range, 40-95 years) and education level (from primary to university), with a normal score on Mini Mental State Examination, completed BVA/TeRaDiC. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that age and education significantly influenced performance on most tests of the BVA/TeRaDiC; only line length judgment was not affected by educational level. Gender significantly affected line orientation judgment and mental rotation, with an advantage for males in both tests. From the derived linear equations, a correction grid for adjusting BVA/TeRaDiC raw scores was built. Using a non-parametric technique, inferential cut-off scores were determined and equivalent scores computed. The present study provided Italian normative data for the BVA/TeRaDiC useful for both clinical and research purposes.

  • Psychometric properties of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale in multiple sclerosis.

    Publication Date: 01/08/2015 on Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation
    by Raimo S, Trojano L, Spitaleri D, Petretta V, Grossi D, Santangelo G
    DOI: 10.1007/s11136-015-0940-8

    Multiple sclerosis (MS) is frequently associated with depressive symptoms and major depression.

  • A multicentre study of intentional behavioural responses measured using the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised in patients with minimally conscious state.

    Publication Date: 01/08/2015 on Clinical rehabilitation
    by Estraneo A, Moretta P, Cardinale V, De Tanti A, Gatta G, Giacino JT, Trojano L
    DOI: 10.1177/0269215514556002

    To investigate which conscious behaviour is most frequently detected using the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised in patients with minimally conscious state.

  • The closing-in phenomenon in Parkinson's disease.

    Publication Date: 01/07/2015 on Parkinsonism & related disorders
    by De Lucia N, Trojano L, Vitale C, Grossi D, Barone P, Santangelo G
    DOI: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2015.04.013

    Closing-in (CI) is a peculiar phenomenon consisting in the tendency to copy drawings close to or superimposed on a model. Recent findings showed that CI can be associated with frontal/executive dysfunctions, likely determining a failure in high-level monitoring of attention-action circuits. CI has been often observed in demented patients, but scarce data are available about CI in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). In the present study, we detected occurrence of CI and investigated the cognitive processes associated to this phenomenon in a large sample of non-demented PD patients.

  • Clinical and electroencephalographic on-off effect of amantadine in chronic non-traumatic minimally conscious state.

    Publication Date: 01/06/2015 on Journal of neurology
    by Estraneo A, Pascarella A, Moretta P, Loreto V, Trojano L
    DOI: 10.1007/s00415-015-7771-y
  • Transcranial Electrical Stimulation over Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Modulates Processing of Social Cognitive and Affective Information.

    Publication Date: 07/05/2015 on PloS one
    by Conson M, Errico D, Mazzarella E, Giordano M, Grossi D, Trojano L
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126448

    Recent neurofunctional studies suggested that lateral prefrontal cortex is a domain-general cognitive control area modulating computation of social information. Neuropsychological evidence reported dissociations between cognitive and affective components of social cognition. Here, we tested whether performance on social cognitive and affective tasks can be modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). To this aim, we compared the effects of tDCS on explicit recognition of emotional facial expressions (affective task), and on one cognitive task assessing the ability to adopt another person's visual perspective. In a randomized, cross-over design, male and female healthy participants performed the two experimental tasks after bi-hemispheric tDCS (sham, left anodal/right cathodal, and right anodal/left cathodal) applied over DLPFC. Results showed that only in male participants explicit recognition of fearful facial expressions was significantly faster after anodal right/cathodal left stimulation with respect to anodal left/cathodal right and sham stimulations. In the visual perspective taking task, instead, anodal right/cathodal left stimulation negatively affected both male and female participants' tendency to adopt another's point of view. These findings demonstrated that concurrent facilitation of right and inhibition of left lateral prefrontal cortex can speed-up males' responses to threatening faces whereas it interferes with the ability to adopt another's viewpoint independently from gender. Thus, stimulation of cognitive control areas can lead to different effects on social cognitive skills depending on the affective vs. cognitive nature of the task, and on the gender-related differences in neural organization of emotion processing.

  • Impact of body posture on laterality judgement and explicit recognition tasks performed on self and others' hands.

    Publication Date: 01/04/2015 on Experimental brain research
    by Conson M, Errico D, Mazzarella E, De Bellis F, Grossi D, Trojano L
    DOI: 10.1007/s00221-015-4210-3

    Judgments on laterality of hand stimuli are faster and more accurate when dealing with one's own than others' hand, i.e. the self-advantage. This advantage seems to be related to activation of a sensorimotor mechanism while implicitly processing one's own hands, but not during explicit one's own hand recognition. Here, we specifically tested the influence of proprioceptive information on the self-hand advantage by manipulating participants' body posture during self and others' hand processing. In Experiment 1, right-handed healthy participants judged laterality of either self or others' hands, whereas in Experiment 2, an explicit recognition of one's own hands was required. In both experiments, the participants performed the task while holding their left or right arm flexed with their hand in direct contact with their chest ("flexed self-touch posture") or with their hand placed on a wooden smooth surface in correspondence with their chest ("flexed proprioceptive-only posture"). In an "extended control posture", both arms were extended and in contact with thighs. In Experiment 1 (hand laterality judgment), we confirmed the self-advantage and demonstrated that it was enhanced when the subjects judged left-hand stimuli at 270° orientation while keeping their left arm in the flexed proprioceptive-only posture. In Experiment 2 (explicit self-hand recognition), instead, we found an advantage for others' hand ("self-disadvantage") independently from posture manipulation. Thus, position-related proprioceptive information from left non-dominant arm can enhance sensorimotor one's own body representation selectively favouring implicit self-hands processing.

  • Normative data for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in an Italian population sample.

    Publication Date: 01/04/2015 on Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology
    by Santangelo G, Siciliano M, Pedone R, Vitale C, Falco F, Bisogno R, Siano P, Barone P, Grossi D, Santangelo F, Trojano L
    DOI: 10.1007/s10072-014-1995-y

    The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a rapid screening battery, also including subtests to assess frontal functions such as set-shifting, abstraction and cognitive flexibility. MoCA seems to be useful to identify non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and subcortical dementia; it has high sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing MCI from mild Alzheimer's Disease. Previous studies revealed that certain items of MoCA may be culturally biased and highlighted the need for population-based norms for the MoCA. The aim of present study was to collect normative values in a sample of Italian healthy subjects. Four hundred and fifteen Italian healthy subjects (252 women and 163 men) of different ages (age range 21-95 years) and educational level (from primary to university) underwent MoCA and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that age and education significantly influenced performance on MoCA. No significant effect of gender was found. From the derived linear equation, a correction grid for MoCA raw scores was built. Inferential cut-off score, estimated using a non-parametric technique, is 15.5 and equivalent scores were computed. Correlation analysis showed a significant but weak correlation between MoCA adjusted scores with MMSE adjusted scores (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). The present study provided normative data for the MoCA in an Italian population useful for both clinical and research purposes.

  • Relationship between apathy and cognitive dysfunctions in de novo untreated Parkinson's disease: a prospective longitudinal study.

    Publication Date: 01/02/2015 on European journal of neurology
    by Santangelo G, Vitale C, Trojano L, Picillo M, Moccia M, Pisano G, Pezzella D, Cuoco S, Erro R, Longo K, Pellecchia MT, Amboni M, De Rosa A, De Michele G, Barone P
    DOI: 10.1111/ene.12467

    Apathy may be either a symptom of major depression or a behavioral disturbance occurring in concomitance with depression or alone in Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of the present study was to determine the progression of cognitive impairment in drug-naïve untreated PD patients with or without clinically significant apathy.

  • The Genesis of Graphic Perseverations in Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular Dementia.

    Publication Date: 01/01/2015 on The Clinical neuropsychologist
    by De Lucia N, Grossi D, Trojano L
    DOI: 10.1080/13854046.2015.1119313

    Perseveration is the involuntary production of iterative responses. This study explored graphic perseverative errors in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, to comprehend the neuropsychological correlates of this behavior.