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Brain Sciences
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Environmental Exposures, Neurodevelopment, and Mental Health
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Environmental Exposures, Neurodevelopment, and Mental Health

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Neuroscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 10609

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Francesca Federico

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Department of Developmental and Socialization Processes, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Interests: cognitive development; executive functions development; attention; social disparity; cognitive training; self-regulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The role of the physical and social environment in the development of a person is crucial and can involve changes in the development trajectories of some functions but also in the structure of the neural organization itself.

Some mechanisms by which this occurs are known, but others have yet to be explored. What are the environmental factors that can cause a deviation from typical development trajectories? What are the social factors? Is there the possibility of creating virtuous paths that also allow those who grow up in a disadvantaged environment to fully exploit their development potential?

With this issue, we intend to answer these questions by welcoming proposals from different fields, psychological, neuroscientific, neuropsychological, with a focus on both typical development and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Dr. Francesca Federico
Guest Editor

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • environment exposure
  • neurodevelopment
  • mental health
  • executive functions
  • social attention
  • cognitive training
  • neuromodulation

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

8 pages, 811 KiB  
Article
Overestimation of Phonological Judgments on the Right Side of Space
by Patrizia Turriziani, Alessia Santostefano, Angela Catania and Massimiliano Oliveri
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(8), 1123; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13081123 - 25 Jul 2023
Viewed by 1071
Abstract
Spatial attentional biases can be observed during the processing of linguistic material. For example, we previously reported that healthy subjects overestimate the semantic distance between word stimuli in the right vs. left space. Here, we explored whether or not attentional biases are also [...] Read more.
Spatial attentional biases can be observed during the processing of linguistic material. For example, we previously reported that healthy subjects overestimate the semantic distance between word stimuli in the right vs. left space. Here, we explored whether or not attentional biases are also observed in tasks requiring an evaluation of phonological distance between words in the right and left hemifield. Forty-one healthy subjects were presented with triplets of words arranged in space and were asked to indicate the side of the space in which the phonological distance between the middle word and an outer word was smaller. In Experiment 1, real words and pseudowords were used, while in Experiment 2, only pseudowords and consonant strings were used. Subjects overestimated the phonological distance between the middle and outer words in the right space. These findings were specific to word stimuli. These results are consistent with the idea that semantic and phonological information may be internally mapped onto spatial representations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Exposures, Neurodevelopment, and Mental Health)
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15 pages, 1349 KiB  
Article
Study of Alerting, Orienting, and Executive Control Attentional Networks in Bilingual and Monolingual Primary School Children: The Role of Socioeconomic Status
by Francesca Federico, Michela Mellone, Ferida Volpi and Margherita Orsolini
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(6), 948; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13060948 - 14 Jun 2023
Viewed by 2355
Abstract
For decades, researchers have suggested the existence of a bilingual cognitive advantage, especially in tasks involving executive functions such as inhibition, shifting, and updating. Recently, an increasing number of studies have questioned whether bilingualism results in a change in executive functions, highlighting conflicting [...] Read more.
For decades, researchers have suggested the existence of a bilingual cognitive advantage, especially in tasks involving executive functions such as inhibition, shifting, and updating. Recently, an increasing number of studies have questioned whether bilingualism results in a change in executive functions, highlighting conflicting data published in the literature. The present study compared the performance of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade bilingual and monolingual children on attentional and cognitive tasks. The participants were 61 monolingual and 74 bilingual children (M = 114.6 months; SD = 8.48 months) who were tested on two versions of the attention network task (ANT), with and without social stimuli, as well as tests investigating working memory, short-term memory, narrative memory, and receptive vocabulary. Data on families’ socioeconomic status and children’s reasoning abilities were also collected. The results showed that bilingualism and socioeconomic status affected attentional networks in tasks involving social stimuli. In tasks involving non-social stimuli, socioeconomic status only affected the alerting and executive conflict networks. Consistent with the literature, a positive relationship emerged between socioeconomic status and executive control in the context of social stimuli, and a negative relationship emerged between socioeconomic status and the alerting network in the context of non-social stimuli. Interestingly, neither socioeconomic status nor social attentional networks correlated with working memory. Therefore, although more investigations are required, the results suggest that differences in social contexts mainly affect attentional functions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Exposures, Neurodevelopment, and Mental Health)
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12 pages, 1241 KiB  
Article
The Effects of Social Processing and Role Type on Attention Networks: Insights from Team Ball Athletes
by Noemi Passarello, Michela Mellone, Pierpaolo Sorrentino, Andrea Chirico, Fabio Lucidi, Laura Mandolesi and Francesca Federico
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(3), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13030476 - 11 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1712
Abstract
(1) Background: Several findings have shown how social stimuli can influence attentional processes. Social attention is crucial in team ball sports, in which players have to react to dynamically changing, unpredictable, and externally paced environments. Our study aimed at demonstrating the influence of [...] Read more.
(1) Background: Several findings have shown how social stimuli can influence attentional processes. Social attention is crucial in team ball sports, in which players have to react to dynamically changing, unpredictable, and externally paced environments. Our study aimed at demonstrating the influence of social processing on team ball sports athletes’ attentional abilities. (2) Methods: A total of 103 male players divided by sport (soccer, handball, and basketball) and by role (striker, midfielder, or defender) were tested through a modified version of the Attention Network Test (ANT) in which they were exposed to both social and non-social stimuli. (3) Results: Social stimuli positively impacted the athletes’ abilities to focus on target stimuli and ignore conflicting environmental requests (t = −2.600, p = 0.011 *). We also found that the athletes’ roles impacted their performance accuracy. Specifically, differences were found in the ability to maintain a general state of reactivity between athletes (strikers vs. midfielders: t = 3.303, p = 0.004 **; striker vs. defenders: t = −2.820, p = 0.017 *; midfielders vs. defenders: t = −5.876, p < 001 ***). (4) Conclusion: These findings revealed that social stimuli are crucial for performance enhancement in team ball sports athletes. Further, we suggest that it is possible to draw specific attentional profiles for athletes in different roles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Exposures, Neurodevelopment, and Mental Health)
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13 pages, 713 KiB  
Article
Resilience of Neural Cellularity to the Influence of Low Educational Level
by Viviane A. Carvalho de Morais, Ana V. de Oliveira-Pinto, Arthur F. Mello Neto, Jaqueline S. Freitas, Magnólia M. da Silva, Claudia Kimie Suemoto, Renata P. Leite, Lea T. Grinberg, Wilson Jacob-Filho, Carlos Pasqualucci, Ricardo Nitrini, Paulo Caramelli and Roberto Lent
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(1), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13010104 - 5 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2350
Abstract
Background: Education is believed to contribute positively to brain structure and function, as well as to cognitive reserve. One of the brain regions most impacted by education is the medial temporal lobe (MTL), a region that houses the hippocampus, which has an important [...] Read more.
Background: Education is believed to contribute positively to brain structure and function, as well as to cognitive reserve. One of the brain regions most impacted by education is the medial temporal lobe (MTL), a region that houses the hippocampus, which has an important role in learning processes and in consolidation of memories, and is also known to undergo neurogenesis in adulthood. We aimed to investigate the influence of education on the absolute cell numbers of the MTL (comprised by the hippocampal formation, amygdala, and parahippocampal gyrus) of men without cognitive impairment. Methods: The Isotropic Fractionator technique was used to allow the anisotropic brain tissue to be transformed into an isotropic suspension of nuclei, and therefore assess the absolute cell composition of the MTL. We dissected twenty-six brains from men aged 47 to 64 years, with either low or high education. Results: A significant difference between groups was observed in brain mass, but not in MTL mass. No significant difference was found between groups in the number of total cells, number of neurons, and number of non-neuronal cells. Regression analysis showed that the total number of cells, number of neurons, and number of non-neuronal cells in MTL were not affected by education. Conclusions: The results indicate a resilience of the absolute cellular composition of the MTL of typical men to low schooling, suggesting that the cellularity of brain regions is not affected by formal education. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Exposures, Neurodevelopment, and Mental Health)
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13 pages, 3624 KiB  
Article
Effects of Long-Term Exposure to 2260 m Altitude on Working Memory and Resting-State Activity in the Prefrontal Cortex: A Large-Sample Cross-Sectional Study
by Xin Chen, Aibao Zhou, Junle Li, Bing Chen, Xin Zhou, Hailin Ma, Chunming Lu and Xuchu Weng
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(9), 1148; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12091148 - 28 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2178
Abstract
It has been well established that very-high-altitude (>4000 m) environments can affect human cognitive function and brain activity. However, the effects of long-term exposure to moderate altitudes (2000–3000 m) on cognitive function and brain activity are not well understood. In the present cross-sectional [...] Read more.
It has been well established that very-high-altitude (>4000 m) environments can affect human cognitive function and brain activity. However, the effects of long-term exposure to moderate altitudes (2000–3000 m) on cognitive function and brain activity are not well understood. In the present cross-sectional study, we utilized an N-back working memory task and resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy to examine the effects of two years of exposure to 2260 m altitude on working memory and resting-state brain activity in 208 college students, compared with a control group at the sea level. The results showed that there was no significant change in spatial working memory performance after two years of exposure to 2260 m altitude. In contrast, the analysis of resting-state brain activity revealed changes in functional connectivity patterns in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), with the global efficiency increased and the local efficiency decreased after two years of exposure to 2260 m altitude. These results suggest that long-term exposure to moderate altitudes has no observable effect on spatial working memory performance, while significant changes in functional connectivity and brain network properties could possibly occur to compensate for the effects of mild hypoxic environments. To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the resting state activity in the PFC associated with working memory in people exposed to moderate altitudes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Exposures, Neurodevelopment, and Mental Health)
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