1,721,028 research outputs found
Il laboratorio di psicofisiologia del sonno e del sogno
Full text linkRenzo Canestrari fondò l’Istituto di Psicologia dell’Università di Bologna e lo diresse per oltre 20 anni, durante i quali indirizzò varie linee di ricerca sull’adulto. Assegnò due ambienti al laboratorio del sonno per ricerche su struttura, variazioni circadiane e attività mentali durante il sonno (AMS). Dal 1967 Piero Salzarulo studiò l’influenza della deprivazione sensoriale e dei ritmi circadiani sulle caratteristiche neurofisiologiche del sonno, mentre Marino Bosinelli analizzò le caratteristiche percettive ed emozionali delle AMS soprattutto in addormentamento. Canestrari sostenne costantemente le ricerche con risorse umane, finanziarie e tecnologiche, per cui Salzarulo e Bosinelli poterono organizzare due gruppi di giovani ricercatori. Vennero così individuate le variazioni stadio- e ciclo-dipendenti nei contenuti e nella struttura delle AMS, il funzionamento dei processi cognitivi coinvolti nell’elaborazione delle AMS, l’accesso alle fonti mnestiche trasformate in contenuti di AMS. I progetti di ricerca dei due gruppi, realizzati con approcci cognitivi distinti ma complementari alle AMS, hanno avuto ampia risonanza internazionale e sono stati considerati come i più sistematici realizzati negli anni ’70 e ’80 al di fuori degli USA. Nel laboratorio sono tuttora attive le linee originarie di ricerca, unitamente alla cronopsicologia del sonno
Neurobiology of Dreams
No full textDreaming is a subjective experience created during sleep and accessible for recollection after awakening. Experimental studies, developed after the discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, indicate that, contrary to popular opinion, dreaming occurs, albeit with some quantitative and qualitative differences, during all stages and cycles of sleep. By monitoring sleep stages using electropolygraphic techniques, a successful dream recall is obtained after about 80% of awakenings from REM sleep and about 50% after NREM sleep in healthy subjects. Investigation on patients with acute cortical lesions has shown that the cessation of dreaming is caused by damage to either posterior brain areas, mostly unilateral, located in or near the temporo-parieto-occipital (TPO) junction, or anterior brain areas, mostly bilateral, in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Neuroimaging studies have both confirmed these findings and disclosed the role played in dream generation by some subcortical structures, such as the hippocampus and the amygdala. Recent advances in electrophysiological [e.g., surface high-density electroencephalographic (hd-EEG) and intracranial recordings], transcranial stimulation and neuroimaging techniques are providing relevant insights into the neural correlates of dreaming in healthy individuals and patients with brain damage, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders, or parasomnias. These approaches are shedding light on the neural bases of (a) inter- and intraindividual differences in dream recall, (b) temporal localization of specific dream properties (e.g., lucidity), (c) how episodic and semantic memories are processed and incorporated into dream content, and (d) some dreamlike experiences (such as daydreaming and mind wandering) that occur while awake. These findings, which complement those from neuropsychological studies on brain-damaged patients, point to an overlap between functional and structural cerebral substrates of waking and REM sleep mental imagery
Incorporation of pre-sleep stimuli into dream contents: evidence for a consolidation effect on declarative knowledge during REM sleep
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S.V.E.B.A. una scala per la valutazione del benessere emotivo dell’anziano
No full textThe “Scala di Valutazione dell’Emotività e del Benessere dell’Anziano” (SVEBA) (Evaluation Scale of Affectivity and Well-Being in the Elderly) is a psychometric tool consisting of 15 “yes/no” questions, devised for the rapid clinical screening of affective disorders. A validation study of the scale matched the SVEBA score and both the interview evaluation and the Symptoms Rating Test score (SRT-Italian validated form). The subjects (321 volunteers) were distributed according to essential socio-demographic characteristics of the Italian population. The results confirmed a high concomitant validity with respect to both SRT and clinical evaluation, although with respect to the latter it revealed less specificity. In two subsequent trials with out-patients and long-term hospitalized patients, the SVEBA scale showed a high degree of empirical validity and a satisfactory sensitivity also in the case of slight-mild cognitive deficit. The presence of medical illness appeared to be unrelated to the affective distress quantified by the SVEBA scale
Le radici del Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari": documenti per una memoria collettiva
Full text linkRenzo Canestrari (1924-2017) è stato uno dei più illustri psicologi italiani ed ha dato un contributo decisivo alla rinascita della psicologia in Italia nel secondo dopoguerra. Laureato in Pedagogia e in Medicina e Chirurgia, è stato professore ordinario di Psicologia nella Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia dell’Università di Bologna dal 1960 al 1999. Ha fondato l’Istituto (poi Dipartimento) di Psicologia negli anni ’60, all’interno del quale ha promosso lo sviluppo di molteplici aree di ricerca di psicologia sperimentale, clinica e applicata. Queste linee sono state successivamente sviluppate dagli allievi, molti dei quali hanno raggiunto posizioni importanti in numerose università italiane. In occasione dell’intitolazione del Dipartimento di Psicologia a suo nome, numerosi allievi hanno progettato di ricordare gli esordi e i successivi sviluppi dei suoi contributi in molteplici aree di ricerca. Questo numero di Ricerche di Psicologia intende essere sia un segno di gratitudine sia uno stimolo per la raccolta di ulteriori documentazioni e per approfondimenti storiografici sulla diffusione e affermazione della psicologia in ambito universitario e in altri ambiti della società italiana nella seconda metà del XX secolo.Renzo Canestrari (1924-2017) was one of the most eminent Italian psychologists who gave a decisive contribution to the revival of psychology in Italy after World War II. He graduated in both Science of Education and Medicine and Surgery and was a full Professor of Psychology from 1960 to 1999 in the School of Medicine of the University of Bologna. He founded the Institute of Psychology (then Department) in the 1960s where he promoted several lines of research in the domains of experimental, clinical and applied psychology. These lines of research were further developed by his students, who went on to obtain important positions in several Italian universities. On the occasion for the naming of the Renzo Canestrari Department of Psychology, several of his students decided to describe the early steps and subsequent developments of his contributions in multiple areas of psychology. This issue of Ricerche di Psicologia aims to be both a sign of gratitude and a prompt for the collection of new documents and for further historical investigation on how psychology was established within universities and other areas of Italian society in the second half of the twentieth century
Beyond the neuropsychology of dreaming. Insights into the neural basis of dreaming with new techniques of sleep recording and analysis
No full textRecent advances in electrophysiological [e.g., surface high-density electroencephalographic (hd-EEG) and intracranial recordings], video-polysomnography (video-PSG), transcranial stimulation and neuroimaging techniques allow more in-depth and more accurate investigation of the neural correlates of dreaming in healthy individuals and in patients with brain-damage, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders or parasomnias. Convergent evidence provided by studies using these techniques in healthy subjects has led to a reformulation of several unresolved issues of dream generation and recall [such as the inter- and intra-individual differences in dream recall and the predictivity of specific EEG rhythms, such as theta in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, for dream recall] within more comprehensive models of human consciousness and its variations across sleep/wake states than the traditional models, which were largely based on the neurophysiology of REM sleep in animals. These studies are casting new light on the neural bases (in particular, the activity of dorsal medial prefrontal cortex regions and hippocampus and amygdala areas) of the inter- and intra-individual differences in dream recall, the temporal location of specific contents or properties (e.g., lucidity) of dream experience and the processing of memories accessed during sleep and incorporated into dream content. Hd-EEG techniques, used on their own or in combination with neuroimaging, appear able to provide further important insights into how the brain generates not only dreaming during sleep but also some dreamlike experiences in wakin
Self-rating and objective memory testing of normal and depressed elderly
No full textThis study aimed to assess the relationships between the scores of subjective assessment (metamemory) and those of performance testing for memory, on the one hand, and the level of depression, on the other. A hundred and eighty elderly subjects (102 women and 78 men; mean age 67.5 years) were selected for the study. They showed neither intellectual impairments (as assessed through Mini Mental State test: MMS) nor neuropsychiatric symptoms. Each subject was administered the Randt Memory Test (RMT) for performance testing, he Sehulster Memory Scale (SMS) for the subjective assessment, and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). A MULTCOVA analysis showed that both age and the depression level are negatively correlated with the measures (Acquisition-Recall: AR; Delayed Memory: DM) of the RMT. The scores of the second (memory complaints) of the three sets of SMS were positively correlated with those of AR and DM indices. A Multivariate Regression Analysis showed that, in males, the age and the depression level were significant regressors for both AR and MD scores, while in females only the depression level was a significant regressor for DM. Overall the results suggest: (a) that the relationships between the depression level and memory functioning are close, although not fully homogeneous in men and women; and (b) that the scores in some areas of metamemory parallelize, independently on the level of depression, the performance outcomes of memory functioning
Relazioni fra livelli di depressione e misure soggettive ed obiettive di memoria nell’anziano
No full textThe influence of depression on the functioning of long-term memory in the elderly is not completely known. The study aimed to assess the relationship between the scores of subjective assessment (metamemory) and those of performance testing for memory, on the one hand, and the level of depression , on the other. 180 elderly subjects (102 women and 78 men; mean age 67.5 yr) were selected for this study. They were all without intellectual impairment (as assessed through MMS) and neuropsychiatric symptoms. The Randt Memory Test (RMT) for performance testing, the Sehulster Memory Scale (SMS) for the subjective assessment, and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were administered to each subject. A multiple regression analysis showed that the level of depression was inversely correlated with both the measures (Acquisition-Recall: AR, Delayed Memory: DM) of RMT, and that, with the same level of depression, men’ scores for AR and DM were slightly lower than those of women. The age appeared inversely correlated only with AR scores. The scores of the second (memory complaints) of the three sets of SMS were positively correlated with those of AR and MD indices. Overall the results suggest: (a) that the relationships between not clinical relevant levels of depression and different indices of memory functioning are substantial in the elderly, although not fully homogeneous in men and women, and (b) that the scores in some areas of metamemory parallelize, independently on the level of depression, the performance outcomes of memory functioning
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