Ricerc@Sapienza

Background The presence of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) can impact on normal brain function by altering normal signal transmission and determining different symptoms.
Aim To evaluate the relationship between the presence of brainWMHs and the scores of speech perception test (SPT) in a sample of normal-hearing patients under 70 years of age.

Aim of this study was to characterize the effects of oral trehalose administration (2%w/v) on healthspan in old mice. Trehalose was administered in drinking water for 1 month to male and female C57BL/6N mice aged 25-months. After behavioral phenotyping (grip strength, beam walking and rotarod tests), autophagy (LC3-II/actin) and oxidative stress were tested in the cerebral cortex and gastrocnemius muscle.

Brain and sleep maturation covary across different stages of life. At the same time, dream generation and dream recall are intrinsically dependent on the development of neural systems. The aim of this paper is to review the existing studies about dreaming in infancy, adulthood, and the elderly stage of life, assessing whether dream mentation may reflect changes of the underlying cerebral activity and cognitive processes.

Sleep significantly changes across the lifespan, and several studies underline its crucial role in cognitive functioning. Similarly, mental activity during sleep tends to covary with age. This review aims to analyze the characteristics of dreaming and disturbing dreams at dierent age brackets. On the one hand, dreams may be considered an expression of brain maturation and cognitive development, showing relations with memory and visuo-spatial abilities.

Several findings support the activation hypothesis, positing that cortical arousal promotes
dream recall (DR). However, most studies have been carried out on young participants, while the
electrophysiological (EEG) correlates of DR in older people are still mostly unknown. We aimed to
test the activation hypothesis on 20 elders, focusing on the Non‐Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep
stage. All the subjects underwent polysomnography, and a dream report was collected upon their

Background: Driving performance is strongly vulnerable to drowsiness and vigilance
fluctuations. Excessive sleepiness may alter concentration, alertness, and reaction times. As people
age, sleep undergoes some changes, becoming fragmented and less deep. However, the effects of
these modifications on daily life have not been sufficiently investigated. Recently, the assessment of
sleepiness became mandatory in Europe for people at risk who need the driving license release.

Visual working memory exhibits age effects that are amongst the largest observed in the cognitive aging literature. In this research we investigated whether or not older adults can benefit from visual symmetry and semantic availability, as young adults typically do. Visual matrix pattern tasks varied in terms of the perceptual factor of symmetry (Experiment 1), as well as the availability of visual semantics, or long-term memory (LTM; Experiment 2).

In the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE), images or words presented with to-be-responded target squares are later recognized more accurately than images or words presented with to-be-ignored distractor squares. Surprisingly, previous studies investigating the ABE have always examined young participants: thus, the question of whether this memory facilitation can be also observed in older adults has never been tested.

Understanding the association between autonomic nervous system [ANS] function and brain morphology across the lifespan provides important insights into neurovisceral mechanisms underlying health and disease. Resting-state ANS activity, indexed by measures of heart rate [HR] and its variability [HRV] has been associated with brain morphology, particularly cortical thickness [CT]. While findings have been mixed regarding the anatomical distribution and direction of the associations, these inconsistencies may be due to sex and age differences in HR/HRV and CT.

We examined the slowing in vocal reaction times shown by dyslexic (compared to control) children with that of older (compared to younger) adults using an approach focusing on the detection of global, non-task- speci c components. To address this aim, data were analyzed with reference to the difference engine (DEM) and rate and amount (RAM) models. In Experiment 1, typically developing children, children with dyslexia (both attending sixth grade), younger adults and older adults read words and non-words and named pictures.