1,721,012 research outputs found
A novel approach to measure brain-to-brain spatial and temporal alignment during positive empathy
Full text linkToppi J, Siniatchkin M, Vogel P, Freitag CM, Astolfi L, Ciaramidaro A. A novel approach to measure brain-to-brain spatial and temporal alignment during positive empathy. Scientific reports. 2022;12(1): 17282.Empathy is defined as the ability to vicariously experience others' suffering (vicarious pain) or feeling their joy (vicarious reward). While most neuroimaging studies have focused on vicarious pain and describe similar neural responses during the observed and the personal negative affective involvement, only initial evidence has been reported for the neural responses to others' rewards and positive empathy. Here, we propose a novel approach, based on the simultaneous recording of multi-subject EEG signals and exploiting the wavelet coherence decomposition to measure the temporal alignment between ERPs in a dyad of interacting subjects. We used the Third-Party Punishment (TPP) paradigm to elicit the personal and vicarious experiences. During a positive experience, we observed the simultaneous presence in both agents of the Late Positive Potential (LPP), an ERP component related to emotion processing, as well as the existence of an inter-subject ERPs synchronization in the related time window. Moreover, the amplitude of the LPP synchronization was modulated by the presence of a human-agent. Finally, the localized brain circuits subtending the ERP-synchronization correspond to key-regions of personal and vicarious reward. Our findings suggest that the temporal and spatial ERPs alignment might be a novel and direct proxy measure of empathy. © 2022. The Author(s)
The role of the family in the development of neurophysiological abnormalities in children suffering form migraine
No full textMigraine is a familial disorder. The aim of this study was to compare the relationship between specific neurophysiologic pathogenetic mechanisms of migraine such as abnormal information processing and enhanced cortical excitability on the one hand, and parent-child-interactions and personality traits such as neuroticism and extraversion on the other hand in migraine and healthy families. The correlation and factor analyses demonstrated that the stronger the control over a child and the more intensive the suppression of a child's independence by a parent during a stressful situation in migraine families, the more pronounced the loss of habituation of the contingent negative variation (CNV), and the greater the neuroticism in a migraine child. The CNV amplitude was independent of psychosocial conditions in the family but represented similarities in information processing between parents and their children suffering from migraine. This could be possibly explained by genetic influences on information processing in migraine. In healthy families only the relationship between parameters of parent-child-interaction could be observed. This investigation demonstrates that the neurophysiological disposition to a migraine attack as well as personality traits in migraine could be influenced by psychosocial factors such as parent-child interactions and that different parameters of information processing in headache patients are related to either non-genetic familial conditions (habituation) or functional genetic factors (amplitude)
The role of the family in the development of neurophysiological abnormalities in children suffering form migraine
No full textMigraine is a familial disorder. The aim of this study was to compare the relationship between specific neurophysiologic pathogenetic mechanisms of migraine such as abnormal information processing and enhanced cortical excitability on the one hand, and parent-child-interactions and personality traits such as neuroticism and extraversion on the other hand in migraine and healthy families. The correlation and factor analyses demonstrated that the stronger the control over a child and the more intensive the suppression of a child's independence by a parent during a stressful situation in migraine families, the more pronounced the loss of habituation of the contingent negative variation (CNV), and the greater the neuroticism in a migraine child. The CNV amplitude was independent of psychosocial conditions in the family but represented similarities in information processing between parents and their children suffering from migraine. This could be possibly explained by genetic influences on information processing in migraine. In healthy families only the relationship between parameters of parent-child-interaction could be observed. This investigation demonstrates that the neurophysiological disposition to a migraine attack as well as personality traits in migraine could be influenced by psychosocial factors such as parent-child interactions and that different parameters of information processing in headache patients are related to either non-genetic familial conditions (habituation) or functional genetic factors (amplitude)
Lack of intracortical inhibition in migraine - a transcranial magnetic stimulation study
No full textObsessive-compulsive phenomena in children with Tic disorders or attention-deficit disorders
No full textTic disorders (TD), obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often associated with deficits of impulse control and aggressive behavior. Tic disorders and OCD are closely related on epidemiological, psychopathological and neurobiological levels, whereas ADHD and OCD phenomena seem to be at opposite poles, Research evidence on the clinical significance of associated obsessive-compulsive behavior is reviewed and linked to our own new data. Thus the analyses of a worldwide database on Tourette's Syndrome (TS) (N = 4,833) showed that that the associated symptomatology of the OCD spectrum has to emphasized. In further investigations, premonitory sensorimotor phenomena reminiscent of OCD were more frequent in children with tic disorders as they grew older. Obsessive-compulsive behavior concomitant with TS was particularly associated with impulsive and aggressive behavior, as well as with depression and anxiety. The data suggest a reduced serotonergic transmission. Self-reports by children with ADHD, as opposed to those by their parents, mentioned a significantly higher quantitative degree of OC phenomena than those by children with TS. These findings suggest that OC symptoms in children with ADHD have so far been neglected in assessments by others. In summary, a complex psychopathological pattern of tic, OC behavior, impulsivity and internalizing symptomatology emerges that requires discriminating assessment and treatment
Lack of intracortical inhibition in migraine - a transcranial magnetic stimulation study
No full textAre migraineurs hypersensitive? A test of the stimulus processing disorder hypothesis
No full textThe concept of hypersensitivity in migraineurs was advanced mainly on the basis of studies on information processing in which increased amplitudes and reduced habituation in cortical evoked and event related potentials were found in migraine sufferers. The present investigation examined whether migraineurs exhibit hypersensitivity within three different experimental paradigms and various non electrocortical response parameters. Samples of 24 migraine, 19 tension-type headache sufferers, and 24 normal controls were compared regarding their subjective estimation of intensity and discomfort due to visual and acoustical stimuli. Subjects also participated in an experiment using the eyeblink startle response paradigm. In a last experimental task the Stroop test was applied. The trait variables emotionality, arousal, and extraversion were also measured. None of the experimental tasks revealed the predicted hypersensitivity of migraineurs in relation to the control samples. The series of experiments was conducted a second time with half of the participants in order to replicate the findings. The conclusions remained the same. The results of earlier studies on cortical processing can not be interpreted as demonstrating general hypersensitivity in the sense of a dispositional trait in migraine afflicted individuals irrespective of the involved response system. (c) 2005 European Federation of Chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Obsessive-compulsive phenomena in children with Tic disorders or attention-deficit disorders
No full textTic disorders (TD), obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often associated with deficits of impulse control and aggressive behavior. Tic disorders and OCD are closely related on epidemiological, psychopathological and neurobiological levels, whereas ADHD and OCD phenomena seem to be at opposite poles, Research evidence on the clinical significance of associated obsessive-compulsive behavior is reviewed and linked to our own new data. Thus the analyses of a worldwide database on Tourette's Syndrome (TS) (N = 4,833) showed that that the associated symptomatology of the OCD spectrum has to emphasized. In further investigations, premonitory sensorimotor phenomena reminiscent of OCD were more frequent in children with tic disorders as they grew older. Obsessive-compulsive behavior concomitant with TS was particularly associated with impulsive and aggressive behavior, as well as with depression and anxiety. The data suggest a reduced serotonergic transmission. Self-reports by children with ADHD, as opposed to those by their parents, mentioned a significantly higher quantitative degree of OC phenomena than those by children with TS. These findings suggest that OC symptoms in children with ADHD have so far been neglected in assessments by others. In summary, a complex psychopathological pattern of tic, OC behavior, impulsivity and internalizing symptomatology emerges that requires discriminating assessment and treatment
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