1,721,204 research outputs found
La prevenzione delle patologie cardiovascolari
No full textPrevenire le malattie cronico-degenerative,
promuovere la salute, ri-orientare i servizi
sanitari nell’ottica della prevenzione di patologie,
investire in termini di politiche sanitarie:
chi sta leggendo queste righe ha probabilmente
già capito e sperimentato che la
prevenzione delle patologie cronico-degenerative,
di cui le patologie cardiovascolari
fanno parte, rappresenta ancora oggi una
sfida sia per tutti i professionisti della salute
sia per quella parte della comunità che
riveste ruoli determinanti nelle politiche
sanitarie quali ad esempio gli stakeholders
chiave ed istituzionali. Di fatto sono sempre
maggiori gli sforzi e le risorse investite, a
livello mondiale così come nelle piccole
realtà territoriali, per porre le condizioni perchè
si realizzi un network di azioni coordinate
finalizzato a eradicare, eliminare o minimizzare
l’impatto che le patologie cronicodegenerative
- e tutte le disabilità a loro correlate
- possono avere sia sui singoli individui
che sull’intera comunità.
Qualche volta però, nel porre le condizioni e
perseguire le strategie di interventi a protezione
e promozione della “salute”, ci si di -
mentica di interrogarsi sul significato at -
tualmente ad essa attribuito. Prima cioè di
parlare di prevenzione di patologia e promozione
della salute, è necessario chiedersi:
“cosa si intende per salute, oggi?”. Nel corso
degli anni questo termine ha assunto diversi
significati, perdendo quello di mera
“assenza di malattia” fino ad arrivare alla
definizione proposta dall’Oms in cui la salute
coincide con uno “stato di benessere psicofisico
dei singoli individui e di gruppi di
persone”, da perseguire attraverso azioni
coordinate sia di prevenzione di patologia
sia di promozione dei determinanti positivi
di salute
Prismatic adaptation as a novel tool to directionally modulate motor cortex excitability: evidence from paired-pulse TMS.
No full textBACKGROUND:The prismatic adaptation (PA) is a visuo-motor procedure that has captured the attention of neuroscientists in the last decades, hence it seems to affect high-order cognition. However, the basic neural processes related to PA and its effects on cortical plasticity are not clear yet.
OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS:
The aim of the present study is to explore whether PA induces a direct effect on the motor cortices (M1) excitability.
METHODS:
Fourteen healthy participants were submitted to paired-pulse TMS to measure short-intracortical-inhibition (SICI) and intracortical-facilitation (ICF) on both the left and the right M1, before and after PA, that could induce a leftward or rightward after-effect.
RESULTS:
An increase of intracortical-facilitation was found in the M1 contralateral to the after-effect direction. Moreover the extent of facilitation and of the after-effect were correlated to each others.
CONCLUSION:
This finding reveals that PA influences M1 cortices directly, raising their excitability. The present investigation represents an innovative step for the understanding of neurophysiological processes by which PA affects brain functions
Alpha-tACS effects in working memory performance depend on both the number of relevant and non relevant items
No full textModulation of excitatory and inhibitory circuits for visual awareness in the human right parietal cortex
No full textThe balance of specific patterns of excitation and inhibition in critical regions of both hemispheres could be relevant in orienting attention over the extrapersonal space. In the present study a group of normal subjects had to detect small rectangular stimuli presented briefly on a computer screen in three different conditions: unilateral presentation either to left or right visual periphery or bilateral simultaneous presentation. Paired transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), was applied over the right parietal cortex 150 ms after the presentation of the visual stimuli with different inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs: 1, 3,5 and 10 ms). When paired TMS was applied 150 ms, but not 100 ms, after simultaneous visual presentation, the number of failures in detecting left targets increased compared to the single-pulse condition if the ISI was 3 ms; on the contrary, it decreased if the ISI was 5 ms. No effects were seen when paired pulses of the same intensity were delivered. These findings provide evidence of a supramodal-specific pattern of excitability of the right posterior parietal cortex in processing visuospatial information
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
La ceroplastica ericina
No full textThe tradition of wax modeling in the Trapani area, with particular attention to the figure of the Child Jesus in the compositions produced in the monasteries of Erice. Analysis and contextualization of the most representative artefacts of which formal and stylistic characteristics are highlighte
Optokinetic stimulation affects temporal estimation in healthy humans.
No full textThe representation of time and space are closely linked in the cognitive system. Optokinetic stimulation modulates spatial attention in healthy subjects and patients with spatial neglect. In order to evaluate whether optokinetic stimulation could influence time perception, a group of healthy subjects performed "time-comparison" tasks of sub- and supra-second intervals before and after leftward or rightward optokinetic stimulation. Subjective time perception was biased by the direction of optokinetic stimulation. Rightward optokinetic stimulation induced an overestimation of time perception compared with baseline and leftward optokinetic stimulation. These results indicate a directional bias in time perception induced by manipulation of spatial attention and could argue for a mental linear representation of time intervals
Neural networks engaged in milliseconds and seconds time processing: evidence from transcranial magnetic stimulation and patients with cortical or subcortical dysfunction.
No full textHere, we review recent transcranial magnetic stimulation studies and investigations in patients with neurological disease such as Parkinson's disease and stroke, showing that the neural processing of time requires the activity of wide range-distributed brain networks. The neural activity of the cerebellum seems most crucial when subjects are required to quickly estimate the passage of brief intervals, and when time is computed in relation to precise salient events. Conversely, the circuits involving the striatum and the substantia nigra projecting to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are mostly implicated in supra-second time intervals and when time is processed in conjunction with other cognitive functions. A conscious representation of temporal intervals relies on the integrity of the prefrontal and parietal cortices. The role of the PFC becomes predominant when time intervals have to be kept in memory, especially for longer supra-second time intervals, or when the task requires a high cognitive level. We conclude that the contribution of these strongly interconnected anatomical structures in time processing is not fixed, depending not only on the duration of the time interval to be assessed by the brain, but also on the cognitive set, the chosen task and the stimulus modality
Suppression of extinction with TMS in humans: From healthy controls to patients.
Full text linkWe review a series of studies exemplifying some applications of single-pulse and paired-transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in the study of spatial attention and of its deficits. We will focus primarily on sensory extinction, the failure to consciously perceive a contralesional sensory stimulus only during bilateral stimulation of homologous surfaces. TMS studies in healthy controls show that it is possible either to interfere or modulate the excitability of the parietal cortex during sensory (i.e. tactile and visual) attentional tasks, thus reproducing a condition of virtual extinction. TMS studies in patients with unilateral (mainly right) brain damage show that the modulation of the unbalance in conical excitability between the two cerebral hemispheres transiently improves contralesional sensory extinction. These studies show the possible application of TMS not only as a research method in healthy subjects, but also as a tool for inducing brain excitability changes in patients with sensory extinction, which could be useful for supporting the rehabilitation of this deficit
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