Ricerc@Sapienza

Obese subjects can be considered “food addicted”. Since there is growing evidence for the role of deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (dTMS) in reducing craving for different addictions, we proposed high frequency (HF) dTMS as a mean to reduce food craving and body weight. To identify regional location of dTMS stimulation we presently measured the regional brain network centrality (degree centrality, DC), in resting-state fMRI brain patterns, to explore plastic changes associated with HF dTMS in obese patients.

Action observation triggers imitation, a powerful mechanism permitting interpersonal coordination. Coordination, however, also occurs when the partners’ actions are nonimitative and physically incongruent. One inf luential theory postulates that this is achieved via top-down modulation of imitation exerted by prefrontal regions. Here, we rather argue that coordination depends on sharing a goal with the interacting partner: this shapes action observation, overriding involuntary imitation, through the predictive activity of the left ventral premotor cortex (lvPMc).

In the last 20 years, motor imagery (MI) has been extensively used to train motor abilities in sport and in rehabilitation. However, MI procedures are not all alike as much as their potential beneficiaries. Here we assessed whether the addition of visual cues could make MI performance more comparable with explicit motor performance in gait tasks. With fMRI we also explored the neural correlates of these experimental manipulations. We did this in elderly subjects who are known to rely less on kinesthetic information while favoring visual strategies during motor performance.

BACKGROUND: Using functional MRI (fMRI), we explored cortical activation in patients with acute
Bell’s palsy (BP) and analyzed its correlates with clinical status in the acute phase, and with 6-monthoutcome.
METHODS: 24 right-handed patients with acute BP within 15 days of onset and 24 healthy controls
underwent fMRI during performance of unilateral active (hemi-smiling) and passive lip movement tasks
with both the paretic and the normal lip. The degree of paresis was evaluated during the acute stage and

Autism Spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core deficits in social functioning. Core autistics traits refer to poor social and imagination skills, poor attention-switching/strong focus of attention, exceptional attention to detail, as expressed by the Autism-Spectrum Quotient. Over the years, the importance of the cerebellum in the etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder has been acknowledged.

The loss of sensorimotor and visual information that follows limb amputation is known to affect both the action-oriented (body schema, BS) and non-action oriented (NA) body representations. However, the neural underpinnings of these effects have not yet been fully understood. We investigated the neural correlates of body representations in a group of 9 healthy right-handed individuals with left lower limb amputation (LLA) and 11 healthy age-matched controls (HC) by using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging.

High blood pressure (BP) is associated with reduced pain sensitivity, known as BP-related hypoalgesia. The underlying neural mechanisms remain uncertain, yet arterial baroreceptor signaling, occurring at cardiac systole, is implicated. We examined normotensives using functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and pain stimulation during distinct phases of the cardiac cycle to test the hypothesized neural mediation of baroreceptor-induced attenuation of pain

Perseverative cognition (i.e. rumination and worry) describes intrusive, uncontrollable, repetitive thoughts. These negative affective experiences are accompanied by physiological arousal, as if the individual were facing an external stressor. Perseverative cognition is a transdiagnostic symptom, yet studies of neural mechanisms are largely restricted to specific clinical populations (e.g. patients with major depression).

Episodic autobiographical memory (EAM) is pivotal for the development and maintenance of personal identity. However, a theoretical debate still exists about where EAMs are stored in our brain and about hippocampal unique contribution to their recollection. Here we disentangled this issue performing an Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on 79 neuroimaging experiments, classified according to the remoteness of EAMs, and meta-analytic connectivity modeling. A wide brain network, spanning from occipital to frontal lobe, was involved in recalling EAMs.

Flexible and adaptive behavior requires the ability to contextually stop inappropriate actions and select the right one as quickly as possible. Recently, it has been proposed that three brain regions, i.e., the inferior frontal gyrus (iFg), the anterior insula (aIns), and the anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPs), play an important role in several processing phases of perceptual decision tasks, especially in the preparation, perception and action phases, respectively.