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Papers by dina di giacomo

Journal of Personalized Medicine

Background: Chronic renal failure is a chronic medical condition characterized by a progressive a... more Background: Chronic renal failure is a chronic medical condition characterized by a progressive and irreversible loss of kidney function. Up to 50% of patients undergoing dialysis experience symptoms of depression and anxiety: what is the impact of individual factors and medical conditions on the mental health issue? The present study was carried out to investigate the individual factors (biomarkers and psychological dimensions) of end-stage renal disease patients dealing with dialysis, analyzing their predictor values for developing negative disease adaptations by an allostatic paradigm. Methods: We conducted an observational study on 35 patients affected by end-stage renal disease; biological and psychological markers have been detected. We conducted descriptive statistical analyses (t-tests) and performed a hierarchical regression analysis to investigate the relationship between pathological medical conditions and psychological dimensions. Results: The findings showed a positive ...

Longer survivorship is possible due to advances enabling early detection and treatment. However, ... more Longer survivorship is possible due to advances enabling early detection and treatment. However, cancer survivors are faced with prognostic uncertainty regarding survival, long-term symptoms, surveillance, and consequences of treatment. This study aimed at investigating emotional traits of women after breast cancer (BC) diagnosis from a three-year perspective of the disease. We intended to examine the emotional trend within longer survivorship after the primary treatment for BC. A sample of 72 women diagnosed with breast cancer (age range 30-55 years) was evaluated based on metacognition (Metacognitive Questionnaire-30 test), psychological distress (Psychological Distress Inventory test), anxiety, stress, and depression (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 test). The data analysis applied was descriptive analysis, ANOVA, MANOVA, and ANCOVA comparing MCQ-30 variables and psychological traits (PDI, DASS-21). The results indicated positive recovery after primary care despite emotional fragility in survivorship owing to negative thoughts; correlations among metacognitive factors, anxiety, and distress not only confirmed the negative emotional pattern just after primary care, but also showed women regaining a positive emotional pattern in daily life. The survivors exhibited emotional fragility during certain specific points of time during the course of their survivorship. Based on our findings, the fear of recurrence and cancer-specific psychological treatment is a better framework to boost and improve clinical practice.

Nuova Rivista Di Neurologia, 2001

Applied Neuropsychology: Adult, 2015

The aim of this research was to study semantic abilities and their loss in mild cognitive impairm... more The aim of this research was to study semantic abilities and their loss in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and in dementia, while analyzing efficiency in the use of associative relations, within verbal and visuoperceptual modalities. Participants were split into 4 groups: 19 participants with amnestic MCI, 16 patients with mild Alzheimer disease (AD), 20 patients with moderate AD, and 20 healthy controls (HCs). All participants performed standardized neuropsychological tests and experimental (naming and semantic associations) tasks to evaluate verbal and visuoperceptual semantic abilities. We analyzed 4 associative relations (part/whole, function, superordinate, and contiguity) in both verbal and visuoperceptual code. Our results suggest a progressive impairment in semantic categorization knowledge, with worse performance in the AD groups relative to the MCI and HC groups. Our data show a different pattern in the 4 associative relations and the involvement of associative semantic relations already in the early stage of disease, as well as a different pattern of deterioration between verbal and visuoperceptual modalities. Our data indicate that the visuoperceptual semantic network appears to be less deteriorated than the verbal network in AD. The verbal semantic network may be more sensitive in detecting patients at an early stage of the disease.

Semantic memory deficits is a main component of the cognitive decline in pathological aging. Many... more Semantic memory deficits is a main component of the cognitive decline in pathological aging. Many studies show a deficit in Alzheimer's disease (AD) of using semantic asso-ciative categories that linked concepts in the semantic network. But what happens in degenerative diseases with other aetiology? Some studies show the existence of visuospa-tial deficit in subjects with Parkinson's disease but there are few study that investigate the ability of semantic association in subjects with subcortical pathology. We hypothesised that the semantic deficit could be indicative of the development of degenerative cerebral disease in pathology with different aetiology without dementia. Aim of this study is to investigate the use of different semantic associative categories in patients with early cortical damage (Mild Cognitive Impairment—MCI) and with subcortical pathology, like Parkinson's disease (PD).

Background / Purpose: Latest research shows a deficit of visuo-spatial performances in the early ... more Background / Purpose: Latest research shows a deficit of visuo-spatial performances in the early stages of dementia. Usually these studies were carried out using comparison and recognition of similarity tasks however, mental rotation performance in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has not been extensively studied.The aim of this study is to verify the presence of mental rotation deficits in subjects with mild and moderate Alzheimer dementia. The hypothesis is that, through the use of specific cognitive tests, deficits in mental rotation will be detected in patients with mild and moderate AD. The sample is composed of 60 subjects distributed in 2 groups: patients with AD (21 females, 9 males) and normal control (NC) subjects (15 females, 15 males) without neurological pathologies, matched one to one for age, sex and level of education. Main conclusion: The statistical analysis shows a difference between AD and NC. Subjects with AD have a worse performance in all three tasks of ...

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2015

BACKGROUND Semantic memory ability deteriorates early in the progression of Alzheimer's disea... more BACKGROUND Semantic memory ability deteriorates early in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In our previous papers we showed that the semantic deficit in early AD may depend on the progressive disruption of the associations between concepts, starting from the most abstract associative category and progressing to the segregation of the concept Our data showed progressive disruption of the semantic network in AD, specifically the breakdown of the associative categories: Superordinate, Attribute, Part/Whole, Contiguity, Function (Passafiume et al.. 2012); in addition, we showed that the deterioration of semantic associative relations in AD proceeds backwards from its acquisition in the childhood (Di Giacomo et al. 2012). OBJECTIVE AND HYPOTHESIS Many Researchers sustain that the finding of semantic deficits in AD depends on the kind of stimuli. In the main time, the literature reports the two cerebral hemisferes having different time of maturation. The Researchers sustain...

INTRODUZIONE. Il deterioramento della memoria semantica è uno dei principali deficit neuropsicolo... more INTRODUZIONE. Il deterioramento della memoria semantica è uno dei principali deficit neuropsicologici che caratterizzano la demenza di Alzheimer (AD). La natura dell'indebolimento della memoria semantica nei pazienti con demenza di Alzheimer non è ancora ben chiara: per alcuni autori è la conseguenza di una perdita di informazioni e di un depauperamento del magazzino semantico (Hodges et al., 1992; Binetti et al., 1995); altri invece sostengono che il deficit non riguarda il magazzino semantico, che rimane intatto, ma la capacità di accedere, recuperare e manipolare le informazioni semantiche in esso contenute (Nebes, 1989; Bayles et al., 1991). L'obiettivo di questo studio è analizzare il deterioramento del network semantico nella componente associativa, verificando l'ipotesi che nei pazienti AD le categorie di associazione semantica (parte/tutto, attributo, contiguità, funzione e superordinata) non si SOGGETTI. Lo studio è stato condotto su 22 soggetti di età compresa ...

INTRODUZIONE. La malattia di Alzheimer rappresenta il 50-60% di tutte le demenze e, ad oggi, rapp... more INTRODUZIONE. La malattia di Alzheimer rappresenta il 50-60% di tutte le demenze e, ad oggi, rappresenta la prima causa di deterioramento cognitivo delle popolazioni occidentali. E' caratterizzata da un degrado progressivo delle capacità cognitive: accanto a deficit di memoria, di linguaggio ed aprassici, troviamo un disturbo delle funzioni esecutive, soprattutto nella componente del pensiero astratto e della pianificazione di operazioni complesse, con ripercussioni sull'autonomia dell'individuo e sul suo funzionamento sociale. In base alle caratteristiche dei deficit cognitivi ed alle capacità residue dei pazienti, sono state sviluppate e proposte diverse metodiche di intervento, allo scopo di rallentare e contrastare l'avanzare del deterioramento demenziale. La letteratura riporta che i vari trattamenti, pur non modificando le prestazioni dei soggetti ai test neuropsicologici, producono tuttavia dei miglioramenti nei comportamenti del paziente, con un miglioramento...

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2014

• Di Giacomo D., Semantic associative relations and conceptual processing. Cogn Process. 2012 Feb... more • Di Giacomo D., Semantic associative relations and conceptual processing. Cogn Process. 2012 Feb;13(1):55-62

Introduction. Semantic impairment is well recognized as a cognitive deficit in patients with Alzh... more Introduction. Semantic impairment is well recognized as a cognitive deficit in patients with Alzheimer's Disease, but it is under investigated in the early stage. Aim of this study was to explore the ability to access to semantic associative relations and the loss of these relations during the time in mild cognitive impairment patients, amnestic type (aMCI). Methods. We conducted a longitudinal study on 32 subjects, aged between 60 and 80 years old (17 male and 15 female; Mage = 75,15+/-5,04). The patients were subjected to a neuropsychological evaluation and to a verbal semantic experimental battery, composed by a naming task and a semantic associative task. They were tested at baseline and then were followed at 11 months to identify, in those who remained stable over time, which associative relation was deteriorated. Five associative relations were analyzed: Superordinate, Contiguity, Attribute, Function and Part/All. Results. Our results suggest a progressive impairment in the associative ability, but not in the naming task, in which there were no variance between test and retest conditions. The most interesting difference is between the performance of male and female: analyzing the five associative relations separately we found in post-hoc analysis a significant decrease in Function and Contiguity relations only in male (p<0.001). Female performance was instead stable during the year. Conclusion. Our data seem to suggest that semantic linkage in a-MCI may be early indicator of possible transition to dementia. The findings seem also to suggest gender asymmetries in the management of semantic associative relations.

ABSTRACT The semantic processes were investigated with different experimental approaches. In our ... more ABSTRACT The semantic processes were investigated with different experimental approaches. In our recent research, we verified the loss of semantic associative abilities in the early cognitive degeneration (Di Giacomo et al., 2012). We verified the progressive lost of associative relations in dementia with early weakness in the linkage between verbal labels and following in the perceptual labels.. Our researches showed a relationship between the loss and the acquisition of the associative ability; the associative relations first acquired in early childhood (function and part/whole) seem to be more resilient to the decline in pathological aging, the associative relations acquired later (contiguity, attribute, superordinate relations) seem be less preserved in the long time. Aim of the study was been the evaluation of modification in the use of semantic associative relations in aging. We conducted the experiment to investigate the association mechanisms on normal adulthood in order to verify differences in the association activation. The sample was composed of 50 subjects (Italian native speakers) in range age 20-60 year olds divided in 2 groups: a) Adult and b) Senior. The modified Semantic Associative Test (SAT) was applied: we carried out computerized form of SAT to consent to evaluate the accuracy and also the decision time. The results showed, as expected, the accuracy not significative; the comparison among adult and senior performance in the time of decision performance showed significatively difference only in some associative relations examined (contiguity, superordinate and attribute), the themselves less preserved to the decline in pathological aging; our data seem to highlight the presence of a different activation of association mechanism, and a different way to operate in the adulthood. The difference activation reflects the decline associative abilities in early cognitive degeneration: the perceptual labels were been better preserved than verbal labels; in aging the subjects are able to apply efficiently the associative relations but the activation time appears different and changing in the long time.

Creativity Research Journal, 2014

Psicologia Clinica Dello Sviluppo, 2003

The Journal of Creative Behavior, 2014

ABSTRACT Cognitive reserve relies on the ability to effectively cope with aging and brain damage ... more ABSTRACT Cognitive reserve relies on the ability to effectively cope with aging and brain damage by using alternate processes to approach tasks when standard approaches are no longer available. In this study, the issue if creativity can predict cognitive reserve has been explored. Forty participants (mean age: 61 years) filled out: the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking in visual and verbal form, Raven's Progressive Matrices (PM38), and the Verbal Judgments Test. The analysis revealed that all indices of verbal creativity were positively correlated with indices of cognitive reserve, except with cognitive reserve related to working activity. However, using the composite score of verbal creativity, all indices of cognitive reserve were predicted, including the index related to working activity. These results show that verbal creativity could be considered as another proxy indicator of cognitive reserve, and open to the hypothesis that verbal creativity enhances cognitive reserve and sustains active aging.