New Insights into Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2024) | Viewed by 3063

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
IRCCS “Carlo Besta” Neurological Institute Foundation, Via Celoria 11, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: cognitive functions (e.g. declarative memory, executive functions, theory of mind, and social cognition); neuropsychology; psychopathology in neurological patients; epilepsy; brain lesions (e.g. brain tumours); neurodegenerative dementia (e.g. frontotemporal dementia, posterior cortical atrophy syndrome, Alzheimers disease); Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cognitive and behavioral neurology is an historical branch of neurology that deals with the brain-related bases of human cognition and behavior, and also characterizes the clinical aspects and pathophysiological mechanisms of cognitive and behavioral syndromes and treatment. Cognitive and behavioral neurology has thus undergone extensive scientific development ranging from phenomenological approaches to the investigation of specific lesions, network imbalances, metabolic alterations, and affective disorders. As a result, cognitive and behavioral neurology continuously feed into and receive input from electrophysiology, neuropsychology, neuroimaging, psychiatry, genetics, and internal medicine, representing a unique contribution to knowledge of brain–mind interaction. Furthermore, it faces humanistic sciences regarding various aspects such as mentalization, social functions, and linguistic paradigms.

This Special Issue aims to provide new insights into cognitive and behavioral neurology by gathering together original clinical research studies, experimental studies regarding the pathophysiological mechanisms of cognitive and behavioral alterations, neurodevelopment, novel assessment methodologies and treatments. Multiple and single case reports presenting highly innovative findings will also be considered. While this Special Issue is open to every type of neurological disorder, special attention will be paid to social cognition, the cultural and environmental background of behavioral syndromes, interpersonal communication and relation, insomnia, neuroanatomic correlation and brain pathologies, advanced electroencephalographic and imaging techniques, and non-pharmacological treatments.

Dr. Anna Rita Giovagnoli
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • cognitive and behavioral neurology
  • memory
  • executive functions
  • social cognition
  • emotion recognition
  • behavior impairment
  • psychopathology
  • neuroimaging
  • neurophysiology
  • cognitive rehabilitation

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 509 KiB  
Article
Fifty Years of Handedness Research: A Neurological and Methodological Update
by Anna Rita Giovagnoli and Alessandra Parisi
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(5), 418; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050418 - 24 Apr 2024
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Abstract
Handedness, a complex human aspect that reflects the functional lateralization of the hemispheres, also interacts with the immune system. This study aimed to expand the knowledge of the lateralization of hand, foot, and eye activities in patients with immune-mediated (IM) or other (noIM) [...] Read more.
Handedness, a complex human aspect that reflects the functional lateralization of the hemispheres, also interacts with the immune system. This study aimed to expand the knowledge of the lateralization of hand, foot, and eye activities in patients with immune-mediated (IM) or other (noIM) neurological diseases and to clarify the properties of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI) in an Italian population. Three hundred thirty-four patients with IM or noIM diseases affecting the brain or spine and peripheral nervous system were interviewed about stressful events preceding the disease, subjective handedness, and familiarity for left-handedness or ambidexterity. The patients and 40 healthy subjects underwent EHI examination. In the whole group of participants, 24 items of the EHI were classified into five factors (Hand Transitive, Hand Refined, Hand Median, Foot, Eye), demonstrating good reliability and validity. Chronological age had a significant influence on hand and foot EHI factors and the laterality quotient (LQ), particularly on writing and painting. In the patient groups, EHI factors and the LQ were also predicted by age of disease onset, duration of disease, and family history of left-handedness or ambidexterity. No differences were found between patients and healthy subjects, but pencil use scored significantly lower in patients with IM diseases than in those with noIM brain diseases. These results demonstrate that the lateralization of hand and foot activities is not a fixed human aspect, but that it can change throughout life, especially for abstract and symbolic activities. Chronic neurological diseases can cause changes in handedness. This may explain why, unlike systemic immunological diseases, IM neurological diseases are not closely associated with left-handedness. In these patients, the long version of the EHI is appropriate for determining the lateralization of body activities to contextualize the neurological picture; therefore, these findings extend the Italian normative data sets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology)
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Review

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25 pages, 803 KiB  
Review
Cognitive Stimulation with Music in Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment: A Scoping Review
by Alfredo Raglio, Camilla Figini, Alice Bencivenni, Federica Grossi, Federica Boschetti and Marina Rita Manera
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(8), 842; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14080842 - 22 Aug 2024
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Abstract
Background: The use of music in cognitive interventions represents a possibility with potential worthy of further investigation in the field of aging, both in terms of prevention from dementia, in the phase of mild cognitive impairment, and in the treatment of overt dementia. [...] Read more.
Background: The use of music in cognitive interventions represents a possibility with potential worthy of further investigation in the field of aging, both in terms of prevention from dementia, in the phase of mild cognitive impairment, and in the treatment of overt dementia. Objectives: Currently, the types of music-based interventions proposed in the literature are characterized by wide heterogeneity, which is why it is necessary to clarify which interventions present more evidence of effectiveness in stimulating different cognitive domains. Method: The study was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews. By searching two different databases, PubMed and the Web of Science, all studies evaluating the cognitive effects of music-based interventions on people at early stages of cognitive decline (MCI or mild-to-moderate dementia) were selected. Results: The study selection included a total of 28 studies involving n = 1612 participants (mean age ranged from 69.45 to 85.3 years old). Most of the studies analyzed agree with the observation of an improvement, or at least maintenance, of global cognitive conditions (mainly represented by the results of the MMSE test) following music-based interventions, together with a series of other positive effects on verbal fluency, memory, and executive processes. Conclusions: The results of this review suggest the introduction of music-based interventions as complementary approaches to usual cognitive treatments. Also, the use of standardized and well-defined protocols, in addition to strong methodological research approaches, is suggested. Music-based interventions are recommended in the early stages of dementia, in MCI, and in a preventive sense in healthy older adults. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology)
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Other

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10 pages, 912 KiB  
Brief Report
Sensitivity and Specificity of a Screening Test for the Detection of Deficiencies in Visuo-Perceptual Skills
by Elizabeth Casillas-Casillas, Luis Héctor Salas-Hernández, Katie Lynn Ortiz-Casillas, Tamara Petrosyan, Sergio Ramírez-González and Luis Fernando Barba-Gallardo
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(7), 705; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14070705 - 14 Jul 2024
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Abstract
This study determines the sensitivity and specificity of a screening test to detect perceptual abnormalities and whether there are differences between gender. Vision is a complex process involving visual perception. Any alterations can affect learning, so having a screening test in Spanish that [...] Read more.
This study determines the sensitivity and specificity of a screening test to detect perceptual abnormalities and whether there are differences between gender. Vision is a complex process involving visual perception. Any alterations can affect learning, so having a screening test in Spanish that is easy to use and reliable for timely diagnosis will reduce the percentage of visuo-perceptual interference during learning process. A total of 200 subjects participated, aged between 8 and 15 years old, with good visual acuity, and no strabismus, amblyopia, ocular pathology, or neurological damage. The Petrosyan questionnaire (screening test) was employed to identify symptoms associated with perceptual impairment, and a subsequent assessment was conducted to evaluate perceptual abilities. The mean age was 11.5 years (57% male; 44% female). The screening test indicated that 30% of the subjects were suspected of having perceptual alteration, while 24% were diagnosed with a real alteration in perceptual abilities. The sensitivity was 1 and the specificity was 0.92. The Spanish version of the Petrosyan questionnaire has high sensitivity and specificity values and is therefore considered very accurate for identifying the need for a perceptual assessment. There are statistically significant differences in perceptual abilities according to gender. The female group shows more symptomatology and a higher percentage of alteration in perceptual skills. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology)
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