Francesca Figliozzi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Francesca Figliozzi

Neurological Sciences, 2000

Experimental Brain Research, 2004

Experimental Brain Research, 2007

Brain, 2005

Patients with left unilateral neglect bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centr... more Patients with left unilateral neglect bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centre. However, when given short lines, many of the same patients mark the midpoint to the left of the true centre, towards the otherwise neglected space. This paradoxical phenomenon has been termed 'cross-over' and is difficult to explain based on current accounts of the neglect syndrome. To explore the causes of cross-over, in a first study we evaluated bisection of 20, 100 and 200 mm horizontal lines in groups of unilateral brain-damaged patients with neglect and hemianopia, with neglect and no hemianopia, with hemianopia and no neglect and without neglect or hemianopia. Crossover of 20 mm lines was found only in neglect patients with hemianopia. To ascertain further the influence of visual field defects on cross-over, in a second study we compared the performance of two right-brain-damaged patients with contralesional neglect and inferior quadrantanopia with that of a patient with inferior quadrantanopia and no neglect. Patients bisected lines oriented so as to cross or uncross the blind quadrant of the visual field. When short 20 mm lines crossed the blind quadrant, neglect patients showed cross-over; when the same lines crossed the seeing quadrants cross-over was absent. These findings were confirmed by the examination of a neglect patient with sparing of the central 5 of the contralesional left visual hemifield in the right eye and no sparing in the left eye. In monocular viewing, cross-over was present when 20 mm lines were bisected with the left eye and absent when bisected with the right eye. Recording of eye movements showed that at the moment of bisection left eye fixations shifted towards the contralesional line endpoint whereas right eye fixations remained anchored to the centre of the line. With long lines, both eyes deviated ipsilesionally. These results show that in neglect patients ipsilesional deviation in the bisection of long lines turns into apparently paradoxical contralesional bisection of short ones only when these cross a retinotopically blind sector of the neglected space. Crossover seems to depend on the small spatial effects produced by reflexive contralesional gaze shifts allowing eccentric fixations with the seeing hemifield. During the bisection of long lines, these effects are cancelled out by the strong attentional deviation induced by the marked extension of the ipsilesional line segment. This explanation establishes coherence between cross-over and current accounts of the neglect syndrome.

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2005

& Peripheral vestibular organs feed the central nervous system with inputs favoring the correct p... more & Peripheral vestibular organs feed the central nervous system with inputs favoring the correct perception of space during head and body motion. Applying temporal order judgments (TOJs) to pairs of simultaneous or asynchronous stimuli presented in the left and right egocentric space, we evaluated the influence of leftward and rightward vestibular rotatory accelerations given around the vertical head-body axis on covert attentional orienting. In a first experiment, we presented visual stimuli in the left and right hemifield. In a second experiment, tactile stimuli were presented to hands lying on their anatomical side or in a crossed position across the sagittal body midline. In both experiments, stimuli were presented while normal subjects suppressed or did not suppress the vestibulo-ocular response (VOR) evoked by head-body rotation. Independently of VOR suppression, visual and tactile stimuli presented on the side of rotation were judged to precede simultaneous stimuli presented on the side opposite the rotation. When limbs were crossed, attentional facilitatory effects were only observed for stimuli presented to the right hand lying in the left hemispace during leftward rotatory trials with VOR suppression. This result points to spatiotopic rather than somatotopic influences of vestibular inputs, suggesting that cross-modal effects of these inputs on tactile ones operate on a representation of space that is updated following arm crossing. In a third control experiment, we demonstrated that temporal prioritization of stimuli presented on the side of rotation was not determined by response bias linked to spatial compatibility between the directions of rotation and the directional labels used in TOJs (i.e., ''left'' or ''right'' first). These findings suggest that during passive rotatory head-body accelerations, covert attention is shifted toward the direction of rotation and the direction of the fast phases of the VOR. &

Experimental Brain Research, 2004

Space perception was investigated in right brain damaged patients with (N=13) and without neglect... more Space perception was investigated in right brain damaged patients with (N=13) and without neglect (N=5; control group). Patients were requested to localise a target tachistoscopically flashed at various eccentricities along the horizontal meridian. All patients had an intact visual field and spared ability to manually point to a target. To segregate magno- and parvo-pathway activity, stimuli modulated in either luminance or chromatic contrast were used. Patients were required to verbally report the stimulus position (verbal task) or to manually point to the stimulus (pointing task). Neglect patients reported the stimuli in the left visual field closer to the centre than they actually were. In the verbal test, underestimation was about 7 deg at the most eccentric position tested (20 deg), and decreased linearly for smaller eccentricities. The effect was similar but less marked in the pointing task. No difference was found for stimuli with luminance or chromatic contrast. Space undere...

Neuropsychologia, 2010

The “Simon effect” is the performance advantage for spatially corresponding target–response ensem... more The “Simon effect” is the performance advantage for spatially corresponding target–response ensembles that is observed when coding of target position is irrelevant for the selection of motor responses. The “attentional-shift” account of the Simon effect holds that it arises from the congruency between response location and the direction of the last shift of attention toward the target. The “referential-coding” account traces the origin of the Simon effect back to the congruency between the response location and the position of the target with respect to a spatial reference frame. We were able to contrast these two hypotheses using full-field horizontal optokinetic stimulation (OKS). It was shown that OKS moving in one horizontal direction drives covert orienting of attention toward the side of arrival of OKS, i.e. the “In-coming” side, which is opposed to the direction of OKS motion toward the “Out-going” side (36 and 39). We therefore asked healthy participants to discriminate betw...

Experimental Brain Research, 2007

Despite decades of research, the question of whether the rapid eye movements (REMs) of paradoxica... more Despite decades of research, the question of whether the rapid eye movements (REMs) of paradoxical sleep (PS) are equivalent to waking saccades and whether their direction is congruent with visual spatial events in the dream scene is still very controversial. We gained an insight into these questions through the study of a right brain damaged patient suffering attentional neglect for the left side of space and drop of the optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) with alternating rightward slow/leftward fast phases evoked by rightward optic flow. During PS the patient had frequent Nystagmoid REMs with alternating leftward slow/rightward fast phases and reported dreams with visual events evoking corresponding OKN such as a train running leftward. By contrast, just as in waking OKN, Nystagmoid REMs with alternating rightward slow/leftward fast phases were virtually absent. REMs followed by staring eye position or by consecutive REMs were also observed: these showed no asymmetry comparable to that o...

Brain, 2005

Patients with left unilateral neglect bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centr... more Patients with left unilateral neglect bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centre. However, when given short lines, many of the same patients mark the midpoint to the left of the true centre, towards the otherwise neglected space. This paradoxical phenomenon has been termed 'cross-over' and is difficult to explain based on current accounts of the neglect syndrome. To explore the causes of cross-over, in a first study we evaluated bisection of 20, 100 and 200 mm horizontal lines in groups of unilateral brain-damaged patients with neglect and hemianopia, with neglect and no hemianopia, with hemianopia and no neglect and without neglect or hemianopia. Crossover of 20 mm lines was found only in neglect patients with hemianopia. To ascertain further the influence of visual field defects on cross-over, in a second study we compared the performance of two right-brain-damaged patients with contralesional neglect and inferior quadrantanopia with that of a patient with inferior quadrantanopia and no neglect. Patients bisected lines oriented so as to cross or uncross the blind quadrant of the visual field. When short 20 mm lines crossed the blind quadrant, neglect patients showed cross-over; when the same lines crossed the seeing quadrants cross-over was absent. These findings were confirmed by the examination of a neglect patient with sparing of the central 5 of the contralesional left visual hemifield in the right eye and no sparing in the left eye. In monocular viewing, cross-over was present when 20 mm lines were bisected with the left eye and absent when bisected with the right eye. Recording of eye movements showed that at the moment of bisection left eye fixations shifted towards the contralesional line endpoint whereas right eye fixations remained anchored to the centre of the line. With long lines, both eyes deviated ipsilesionally. These results show that in neglect patients ipsilesional deviation in the bisection of long lines turns into apparently paradoxical contralesional bisection of short ones only when these cross a retinotopically blind sector of the neglected space. Crossover seems to depend on the small spatial effects produced by reflexive contralesional gaze shifts allowing eccentric fixations with the seeing hemifield. During the bisection of long lines, these effects are cancelled out by the strong attentional deviation induced by the marked extension of the ipsilesional line segment. This explanation establishes coherence between cross-over and current accounts of the neglect syndrome.

Right-brain damaged patients suffering neglect for the left side of space bisect long horizontal ... more Right-brain damaged patients suffering neglect for the left side of space bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centre. This phenomenon is traditionally explained by pathological reduction of the attentional salience of the contralesional side of the line and enhancement of the attentional salience of its ipsilesional side due to brain damage (Pouget and Driver, 2000; Bartolomeo and Chokron, 2002). At variance with this largely accepted explanation, Bisiach and co-workers (Bisiach et al., 1994; Bisiach, 1997; Bisiach et al., 2002) conjectured that in neglect patients the representation of horizontal space is continuously and progressively ‘relaxed ’ toward the left and ‘compressed ’ toward the right, in a logarithmic manner. By consequence the left side of a symmetrical horizontal line immersed in this ‘anisometrical ’ representational gradient

Right-brain damaged patients suffering neglect for the left side of space bisect long horizontal ... more Right-brain damaged patients suffering neglect for the left side of space bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centre. This phenomenon is traditionally explained by pathological reduction of the attentional salience of the contralesional side of the line and enhancement of the attentional salience of its ipsilesional side due to brain damage (Pouget and Driver, 2000; Bartolomeo and Chokron, 2002). At variance with this largely accepted explanation, Bisiach and co-workers (Bisiach et al., 1994; Bisiach, 1997; Bisiach et al., 2002) conjectured that in neglect patients the representation of horizontal space is continuously and progressively ‘relaxed ’ toward the left and ‘compressed ’ toward the right, in a logarithmic manner. By consequence the left side of a symmetrical horizontal line immersed in this ‘anisometrical ’ representational gradient

Training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria TCCVM, 2010

ABSTRACT Il programma che permette di eseguire un training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-... more ABSTRACT Il programma che permette di eseguire un training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria (TCCVM) è stato creato dal Servizio di Riabilitazione Infantile della Fondazione Santa Lucia — IRCCS di Roma in collaborazione con il Dipartimento di Psicologia,Università La Sapienza di Roma, e con il Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute,Università degli Studi di L’Aquila. Esso si avvale del software Game Maker, uno strumento per lo sviluppo di videogiochi con un potente sistema di scripting, che usa un linguaggio simile al Pascal, il Game Maker Language (GML; Game Maker è stato creato dal Professor Mark H. Overmars, docente della facoltà di informatica dell’Università di Utrecht, Olanda).

Training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria TCCVM, 2010

Il TCCVM non è utile solamente per quelle patologie genetiche dove il danno della coordinazione o... more Il TCCVM non è utile solamente per quelle patologie genetiche dove il danno della coordinazione occhio-mano è inquadrabile nello specifico profilo di un grave ritardo cognitivo, ma anche nelle patologie a eziologia neurologica come le encefalopatie congenite, in cui la compromissione della coordinazione è da imputare non tanto a un ritardo cognitivo, quanto soprattutto a un grave danno motorio.

Training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria TCCVM, 2010

Il TCCVM è stato utilizzato nel trattamento riabilitativo di una bambina affetta da sindrome di R... more Il TCCVM è stato utilizzato nel trattamento riabilitativo di una bambina affetta da sindrome di Rett e di una bambina affetta da sindrome Cri-du-Chat (Pizzamiglio et al, 2008a, b).

... Page 3. Laura Piccardi •Claudio Vitturini Francesca Figliozzi •Maria Rosa Pizzamiglio Trainin... more ... Page 3. Laura Piccardi •Claudio Vitturini Francesca Figliozzi •Maria Rosa Pizzamiglio Training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria TCCVM Strumento per la riabilitazione di gravi disturbi della coordinazione occhio-mano in età evolutiva 123 Page 4. ...

Neurological Sciences, 2000

Experimental Brain Research, 2004

Experimental Brain Research, 2007

Brain, 2005

Patients with left unilateral neglect bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centr... more Patients with left unilateral neglect bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centre. However, when given short lines, many of the same patients mark the midpoint to the left of the true centre, towards the otherwise neglected space. This paradoxical phenomenon has been termed 'cross-over' and is difficult to explain based on current accounts of the neglect syndrome. To explore the causes of cross-over, in a first study we evaluated bisection of 20, 100 and 200 mm horizontal lines in groups of unilateral brain-damaged patients with neglect and hemianopia, with neglect and no hemianopia, with hemianopia and no neglect and without neglect or hemianopia. Crossover of 20 mm lines was found only in neglect patients with hemianopia. To ascertain further the influence of visual field defects on cross-over, in a second study we compared the performance of two right-brain-damaged patients with contralesional neglect and inferior quadrantanopia with that of a patient with inferior quadrantanopia and no neglect. Patients bisected lines oriented so as to cross or uncross the blind quadrant of the visual field. When short 20 mm lines crossed the blind quadrant, neglect patients showed cross-over; when the same lines crossed the seeing quadrants cross-over was absent. These findings were confirmed by the examination of a neglect patient with sparing of the central 5 of the contralesional left visual hemifield in the right eye and no sparing in the left eye. In monocular viewing, cross-over was present when 20 mm lines were bisected with the left eye and absent when bisected with the right eye. Recording of eye movements showed that at the moment of bisection left eye fixations shifted towards the contralesional line endpoint whereas right eye fixations remained anchored to the centre of the line. With long lines, both eyes deviated ipsilesionally. These results show that in neglect patients ipsilesional deviation in the bisection of long lines turns into apparently paradoxical contralesional bisection of short ones only when these cross a retinotopically blind sector of the neglected space. Crossover seems to depend on the small spatial effects produced by reflexive contralesional gaze shifts allowing eccentric fixations with the seeing hemifield. During the bisection of long lines, these effects are cancelled out by the strong attentional deviation induced by the marked extension of the ipsilesional line segment. This explanation establishes coherence between cross-over and current accounts of the neglect syndrome.

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2005

& Peripheral vestibular organs feed the central nervous system with inputs favoring the correct p... more & Peripheral vestibular organs feed the central nervous system with inputs favoring the correct perception of space during head and body motion. Applying temporal order judgments (TOJs) to pairs of simultaneous or asynchronous stimuli presented in the left and right egocentric space, we evaluated the influence of leftward and rightward vestibular rotatory accelerations given around the vertical head-body axis on covert attentional orienting. In a first experiment, we presented visual stimuli in the left and right hemifield. In a second experiment, tactile stimuli were presented to hands lying on their anatomical side or in a crossed position across the sagittal body midline. In both experiments, stimuli were presented while normal subjects suppressed or did not suppress the vestibulo-ocular response (VOR) evoked by head-body rotation. Independently of VOR suppression, visual and tactile stimuli presented on the side of rotation were judged to precede simultaneous stimuli presented on the side opposite the rotation. When limbs were crossed, attentional facilitatory effects were only observed for stimuli presented to the right hand lying in the left hemispace during leftward rotatory trials with VOR suppression. This result points to spatiotopic rather than somatotopic influences of vestibular inputs, suggesting that cross-modal effects of these inputs on tactile ones operate on a representation of space that is updated following arm crossing. In a third control experiment, we demonstrated that temporal prioritization of stimuli presented on the side of rotation was not determined by response bias linked to spatial compatibility between the directions of rotation and the directional labels used in TOJs (i.e., ''left'' or ''right'' first). These findings suggest that during passive rotatory head-body accelerations, covert attention is shifted toward the direction of rotation and the direction of the fast phases of the VOR. &

Experimental Brain Research, 2004

Space perception was investigated in right brain damaged patients with (N=13) and without neglect... more Space perception was investigated in right brain damaged patients with (N=13) and without neglect (N=5; control group). Patients were requested to localise a target tachistoscopically flashed at various eccentricities along the horizontal meridian. All patients had an intact visual field and spared ability to manually point to a target. To segregate magno- and parvo-pathway activity, stimuli modulated in either luminance or chromatic contrast were used. Patients were required to verbally report the stimulus position (verbal task) or to manually point to the stimulus (pointing task). Neglect patients reported the stimuli in the left visual field closer to the centre than they actually were. In the verbal test, underestimation was about 7 deg at the most eccentric position tested (20 deg), and decreased linearly for smaller eccentricities. The effect was similar but less marked in the pointing task. No difference was found for stimuli with luminance or chromatic contrast. Space undere...

Neuropsychologia, 2010

The “Simon effect” is the performance advantage for spatially corresponding target–response ensem... more The “Simon effect” is the performance advantage for spatially corresponding target–response ensembles that is observed when coding of target position is irrelevant for the selection of motor responses. The “attentional-shift” account of the Simon effect holds that it arises from the congruency between response location and the direction of the last shift of attention toward the target. The “referential-coding” account traces the origin of the Simon effect back to the congruency between the response location and the position of the target with respect to a spatial reference frame. We were able to contrast these two hypotheses using full-field horizontal optokinetic stimulation (OKS). It was shown that OKS moving in one horizontal direction drives covert orienting of attention toward the side of arrival of OKS, i.e. the “In-coming” side, which is opposed to the direction of OKS motion toward the “Out-going” side (36 and 39). We therefore asked healthy participants to discriminate betw...

Experimental Brain Research, 2007

Despite decades of research, the question of whether the rapid eye movements (REMs) of paradoxica... more Despite decades of research, the question of whether the rapid eye movements (REMs) of paradoxical sleep (PS) are equivalent to waking saccades and whether their direction is congruent with visual spatial events in the dream scene is still very controversial. We gained an insight into these questions through the study of a right brain damaged patient suffering attentional neglect for the left side of space and drop of the optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) with alternating rightward slow/leftward fast phases evoked by rightward optic flow. During PS the patient had frequent Nystagmoid REMs with alternating leftward slow/rightward fast phases and reported dreams with visual events evoking corresponding OKN such as a train running leftward. By contrast, just as in waking OKN, Nystagmoid REMs with alternating rightward slow/leftward fast phases were virtually absent. REMs followed by staring eye position or by consecutive REMs were also observed: these showed no asymmetry comparable to that o...

Brain, 2005

Patients with left unilateral neglect bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centr... more Patients with left unilateral neglect bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centre. However, when given short lines, many of the same patients mark the midpoint to the left of the true centre, towards the otherwise neglected space. This paradoxical phenomenon has been termed 'cross-over' and is difficult to explain based on current accounts of the neglect syndrome. To explore the causes of cross-over, in a first study we evaluated bisection of 20, 100 and 200 mm horizontal lines in groups of unilateral brain-damaged patients with neglect and hemianopia, with neglect and no hemianopia, with hemianopia and no neglect and without neglect or hemianopia. Crossover of 20 mm lines was found only in neglect patients with hemianopia. To ascertain further the influence of visual field defects on cross-over, in a second study we compared the performance of two right-brain-damaged patients with contralesional neglect and inferior quadrantanopia with that of a patient with inferior quadrantanopia and no neglect. Patients bisected lines oriented so as to cross or uncross the blind quadrant of the visual field. When short 20 mm lines crossed the blind quadrant, neglect patients showed cross-over; when the same lines crossed the seeing quadrants cross-over was absent. These findings were confirmed by the examination of a neglect patient with sparing of the central 5 of the contralesional left visual hemifield in the right eye and no sparing in the left eye. In monocular viewing, cross-over was present when 20 mm lines were bisected with the left eye and absent when bisected with the right eye. Recording of eye movements showed that at the moment of bisection left eye fixations shifted towards the contralesional line endpoint whereas right eye fixations remained anchored to the centre of the line. With long lines, both eyes deviated ipsilesionally. These results show that in neglect patients ipsilesional deviation in the bisection of long lines turns into apparently paradoxical contralesional bisection of short ones only when these cross a retinotopically blind sector of the neglected space. Crossover seems to depend on the small spatial effects produced by reflexive contralesional gaze shifts allowing eccentric fixations with the seeing hemifield. During the bisection of long lines, these effects are cancelled out by the strong attentional deviation induced by the marked extension of the ipsilesional line segment. This explanation establishes coherence between cross-over and current accounts of the neglect syndrome.

Right-brain damaged patients suffering neglect for the left side of space bisect long horizontal ... more Right-brain damaged patients suffering neglect for the left side of space bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centre. This phenomenon is traditionally explained by pathological reduction of the attentional salience of the contralesional side of the line and enhancement of the attentional salience of its ipsilesional side due to brain damage (Pouget and Driver, 2000; Bartolomeo and Chokron, 2002). At variance with this largely accepted explanation, Bisiach and co-workers (Bisiach et al., 1994; Bisiach, 1997; Bisiach et al., 2002) conjectured that in neglect patients the representation of horizontal space is continuously and progressively ‘relaxed ’ toward the left and ‘compressed ’ toward the right, in a logarithmic manner. By consequence the left side of a symmetrical horizontal line immersed in this ‘anisometrical ’ representational gradient

Right-brain damaged patients suffering neglect for the left side of space bisect long horizontal ... more Right-brain damaged patients suffering neglect for the left side of space bisect long horizontal lines to the right of the true centre. This phenomenon is traditionally explained by pathological reduction of the attentional salience of the contralesional side of the line and enhancement of the attentional salience of its ipsilesional side due to brain damage (Pouget and Driver, 2000; Bartolomeo and Chokron, 2002). At variance with this largely accepted explanation, Bisiach and co-workers (Bisiach et al., 1994; Bisiach, 1997; Bisiach et al., 2002) conjectured that in neglect patients the representation of horizontal space is continuously and progressively ‘relaxed ’ toward the left and ‘compressed ’ toward the right, in a logarithmic manner. By consequence the left side of a symmetrical horizontal line immersed in this ‘anisometrical ’ representational gradient

Training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria TCCVM, 2010

ABSTRACT Il programma che permette di eseguire un training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-... more ABSTRACT Il programma che permette di eseguire un training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria (TCCVM) è stato creato dal Servizio di Riabilitazione Infantile della Fondazione Santa Lucia — IRCCS di Roma in collaborazione con il Dipartimento di Psicologia,Università La Sapienza di Roma, e con il Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute,Università degli Studi di L’Aquila. Esso si avvale del software Game Maker, uno strumento per lo sviluppo di videogiochi con un potente sistema di scripting, che usa un linguaggio simile al Pascal, il Game Maker Language (GML; Game Maker è stato creato dal Professor Mark H. Overmars, docente della facoltà di informatica dell’Università di Utrecht, Olanda).

Training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria TCCVM, 2010

Il TCCVM non è utile solamente per quelle patologie genetiche dove il danno della coordinazione o... more Il TCCVM non è utile solamente per quelle patologie genetiche dove il danno della coordinazione occhio-mano è inquadrabile nello specifico profilo di un grave ritardo cognitivo, ma anche nelle patologie a eziologia neurologica come le encefalopatie congenite, in cui la compromissione della coordinazione è da imputare non tanto a un ritardo cognitivo, quanto soprattutto a un grave danno motorio.

Training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria TCCVM, 2010

Il TCCVM è stato utilizzato nel trattamento riabilitativo di una bambina affetta da sindrome di R... more Il TCCVM è stato utilizzato nel trattamento riabilitativo di una bambina affetta da sindrome di Rett e di una bambina affetta da sindrome Cri-du-Chat (Pizzamiglio et al, 2008a, b).

... Page 3. Laura Piccardi •Claudio Vitturini Francesca Figliozzi •Maria Rosa Pizzamiglio Trainin... more ... Page 3. Laura Piccardi •Claudio Vitturini Francesca Figliozzi •Maria Rosa Pizzamiglio Training computerizzato di coordinazione visuo-motoria TCCVM Strumento per la riabilitazione di gravi disturbi della coordinazione occhio-mano in età evolutiva 123 Page 4. ...