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Effetti cognitivi di esperienze professionali: tassisti, aviatori e controllori del traffico aereo
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Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and motor preparation: a TMS investigation of the foreperiod effect
Full text linkWhen Foreperiods (FPs) of different duration alternate on a trial-by-trial basis equiprobably but randomly, the reaction time (RT) decreases as the FP increases (FP effect). Another phenomenon observed in that paradigm consists of the sequential effects: RT is slower as the FP in the preceding trial gets longer. It is not clear if the two effects are due to different underlying mechanisms. Patients with lesions on the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex do not show the typical FP effect [Stuss et al. (2005). Neuropsychologia, 43, 396-417]. Aim of the present study was to replicate this result in healthy adults, through an off-line TMS paradigm (Theta Burst Stimulation). Another purpose was to investigate whether any change of the sequential effects would follow a possible variation of the FP effect. Results of two experiments (with simple and choice RT task, respectively) indicate a significant reduction of the FP effect, selectively after stimulation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with respect to a pre-TMS baseline, and to the stimulation of a contralateral site and of another site in the right Angular Girus. The dissociation between the two effects supports a dual-process model [Vallesi & Shallice, subm.], according to which they are due to two distinct but interacting processes. In particular, the FP effect is attributed to a strategic process monitoring the conditional probability of the stimulus occurrence, whereas the sequential effects would originate by an automatic mechanism of arousal regulation by the length of the preceding FP
Self/nonself discrimination in ciliated Protozoa: the molecular basis. REPORT of the VIIIth meeting of the Italian Association for Developmental and Comparative Immunobiology (IADCI), Napoli.
No full textAs also a recent review in Cell on the "Quality
Control in Self/Nonself Discrimination" points out
(Boehm T. Cell 125: 845-858, 2006), comparative
studies of the mechanisms that avoid self-mating in
more ancient eukaryotes are thought to be of key
relevance for shedding light on the control of
specificity in self/nonself discrimination, as well as
on the evolutionary emergence of the antigen
receptors in the adaptive immune system. These
studies, however, traditionally drive most attention
on the self-incompatibility of plants, self-sterility and
allo-recognition of tunicates, mating types of fungi.
Scarce or no reference at all is made to ciliates.
Nevertheless, the ciliate highly multiple mating-type
systems are providing insightful information not only
on the molecular basis of self/nonself recognition in
more ancient organisms, but also on the central
question of how new receptor/ligand pairs are
generated in complex recognition systems.
This information essentially derives from: (i) NMR and crystallographic analyses (mostly carried
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out in collaboration with the Kurt Wuthrich’s laboratory at the ETH in Zurich) of the three-dimensional structures of a set of water-born protein signals (pheromones) produced by Euplotes species (Luporini et al. Curr. Pharm. Des. 12: 3015-3024, 2006), and (ii) the determination of the splicing mechanism by which the same cell controls its own specific diffusible signal and the (autocrine) binding receptor of this signal (Vallesi et al. Eukaryot. Cell 4: 1221-1227, 2005)
The case of Air Traffic Control training
No full textAir traffic controllers have to guarantee safe and efficient air traffic by predicting future flight paths based on their perception and interpretation of multiple data on the radar display. The multi-tasking nature of their job makes the cognitive and emotional processes required in Air Traffic Control fundamentally different from those traditionally studied in the lab. Thus, Air Traffic Control represents a unique naturalistic opportunity to investigate how such a demanding job may shape cognition. This chapter reviews work dealing with the cognitive characteristics of air traffic control, as well as the few studies that have investigated how training and experience in this profession change different aspects of cognitive functioning, in particular different facets of cognitive flexibility and planning abilities. Finally, it will also examine the cognitive consequences of the unique challenges represented by man-technology interactions inherent in this job. Despite the promising findings reviewed in this chapter, the research on the cognitive enhancement derived from training and experience on ATC is still limited and not conclusive. Further methodologically well-controlled studies are clearly needed to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the extraordinary potentialities of this profession
Dual-task costs in aging are predicted by formal education
Full text linkThe capacity to manage different concurrent tasks at the same time decays in older adults. There is however a considerable amount of inter-individual variability in this capacity even in healthy aging. The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate which factors help explaining this variability. A dual-task paradigm was administered to 64 older adults and 31 younger controls. In this paradigm, a primary simple response time task had to be carried out either by itself (single-task condition) or while concurrently performing a secondary subtraction task (dual-task condition). Dual-task costs were operationalized by comparing dual-task and single-task conditions. Older adults showed higher dual-task interference than younger controls. Within the older group, the influence of age, general cognitive abilities, performance on the secondary task, and years of formal education was assessed with a multiple regression analysis. The results showed that years of formal education in older adults were the best predictor that significantly explained a portion of the variance in dual-task performance. These findings extend previous literature by showing that formal education provides an important dose of cognitive reserve, which is useful to successfully implement cognitive dual-task management despite aging
Dalla neuropsicologia alle neuroscienze cognitive: un'introduzione storica. In P. Bisiacchi e A. Vallesi (a cura di), Il cervello al lavoro: Nuove prospettive in neuropsicologia. Bologna: Il Mulino.
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