valentina moro - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by valentina moro

Behavioural Brain Research, 2015

Emotional and social cognitive deficits were investigated in a group of 24 individuals with mild ... more Emotional and social cognitive deficits were investigated in a group of 24 individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 24 healthy controls. Empathic and visual emotional responses were collected, analyzed and correlated to brain structural imaging data by means of: (i) a pictorial matching-to-sample task with facial and non-facial stimuli; (ii) self-reported questionnaires for cognitive and affective emotional components, and alexithymia; (iii) in-depth assessment of cognitive functions. Results indicated that visual processing of faces in MCI individuals did not benefit from fearful emotional content which in healthy controls facilitates stimulus' recognition (emotional enhancement effect). This implicit visuo-emotional disorder was specific for the faces, did not generalize to other categories, and did not correlate to explicit measures of empathy. Thus, our main finding indicates that in MCI individuals, deficits in visual recognition of facial emotions may arise already in the earliest stages of memorization, during the visual encoding of facial emotions. Voxel-based morphometry revealed its association with atrophy in frontal and occipito-temporal regions, mostly involving the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (P<0.05, multiple-comparison correction). Neural evidences were corroborated by clinical scores showing significant correlation between reduction of Emotion Enhancement Effect and deficits in frontal/executive functions. Crucially, the disorder did not appear to be related to the number of impaired cognitive domains (single or multiple-domain MCI) but rather to the involvement of frontal brain networks and frontal/executive functions. This suggests that in prodromal stages of dementia, frontal symptoms may represent a significant signal of emotional recognition disorders.

... Uno scenziato illusionista: teorie ed ipotesi intorno all'idea di schema corporeo. Titol... more ... Uno scenziato illusionista: teorie ed ipotesi intorno all'idea di schema corporeo. Titolo Rivista: DiPAV - QUADERNI. Autori/Curatori: Valentina Moro, SimonePernigo. Anno di pubblicazione: 2006 Fascicolo: 15 Lingua: ...

American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, 2014

Executive functions play an important role in the maintenance of autonomy in day-to-day activitie... more Executive functions play an important role in the maintenance of autonomy in day-to-day activities. Nevertheless, there is little research into specific cognitive training for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). We present the results of a program which aims to teach specific strategies and metacognitive abilities in order for patients to be able to carry out attentional and executive tasks. Two groups (A and B) were compared in a cross-over design. After the first evaluation, Group A (but not B) participated in a six month cognitive stimulation program. After a second assessment, only Group B received treatment and then a final evaluation was carried out on both groups. The results show that: i) both groups improved their performance as an effect of training; ii) improvements generalized to memory and general cognitive tasks; iii) in the interval without training, Group B's performance worsened and iv) Group A partially maintained their results over time.

In patients with right brain damage (RBD) or left brain damage (LBD) and healthy subjects, tactil... more In patients with right brain damage (RBD) or left brain damage (LBD) and healthy subjects, tactile and three basic gustatory stimuli (sour, salty, bitter) were applied to the left or right hemitongues or to both hemitongues simultaneously. Tactile stimuli were detected and localized by verbal report, whereas gustatory stimuli were identified by pointing to the corresponding name on cards bearing the names of the three tastes. In the tactile test, 9 of 18 RBD patients showed extinction of left hemitongue stimuli, whereas the remaining RBD patients, 9 LBD patients and 14 healthy subjects detected virtually all stimuli in all conditions. In the gustatory test, healthy subjects outperformed the two brain damaged groups which nevertheless responded well above chance and did not differ from one another. Unexpectedly, the nine RBD patients with left hemitongue tactile extinction showed no gustatory extinction, since performance did not differ significantly between the two hemitongues on both unilateral and bilateral stimulations. To account for these findings, some evidence suggests that the tongue representation is bilateral in both modalities, but predominantly ipsilateral in the gustatory modality and predominantly contralateral in the tactile modality. The RBD patients with left hemitongue tactile extinction were those with more marked symptoms of left-sided extinction in the visual and auditory modalities, making it likely that their brain damage was also responsible for left lingual tactile extinction. The absence of left gustatory extinction in those patients can be attributed to the predominant channelling of left hemitongue taste inputs into the intact left hemisphere.

Neuron, 2008

Visual analysis of faces and nonfacial body stimuli brings about neural activity in different cor... more Visual analysis of faces and nonfacial body stimuli brings about neural activity in different cortical areas. Moreover, processing body form and body action relies on distinct neural substrates. Although brain lesion studies show specific face processing deficits, neuropsychological evidence ...

Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2014

Anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP), or unawareness of motor deficits contralateral to a brain lesio... more Anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP), or unawareness of motor deficits contralateral to a brain lesion, has lasting negative implications for the management and rehabilitation of patients. A recent, bedside psychophysical intervention, namely self-observation by video replay, lead to a lasting remission of severe AHP in an acute stroke patient (Fotopoulou, A., Rudd, A., Holmes, P., & Kopelman, M. ( 2009 ). Self-observation reinstates motor awareness in anosognosia for hemiplegia. Neuropsychologia, 47, 1256-1260). This procedure has been adjusted and applied here, as the basis of two intervention protocols administered independently to two patients with severe AHP. The first study used multiple, successive sessions of video-based self-observation in an acute patient, targeting first the awareness of upper limb and subsequently lower limb paralysis. The second study used a single session of video-based, self- and other-observation in a patient at the chronic stage following onset. Both protocols also involved elements of rapport building and emotional support. The results revealed that video-based self-observation had dramatic, immediate effects on awareness in both acute and chronic stages and it seemed to act as an initial trigger for eventual symptom remission. Nevertheless, these effects did not automatically generalise to all functional domains. This study provides provisional support that video-based self-observation may be included in wider rehabilitation programmes for the management and restoration of anosognosia.

Journal of Neuroscience, 2006

The human visual system is highly tuned to perceive actual motion as well as to extrapolate dynam... more The human visual system is highly tuned to perceive actual motion as well as to extrapolate dynamic information from static pictures of objects or creatures captured in the middle of motion. Processing of implied motion activates higher-order visual areas that are also involved in processing biological motion. Imagery and observation of actual movements performed by others engenders selective activation of motor and premotor areas that are part of a mirror-neuron system matching action observation and execution. By using single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation, we found that the mere observation of static snapshots of hands suggesting a pincer grip action induced an increase in corticospinal excitability as compared with observation of resting, relaxed hands, or hands suggesting a completed action. This facilitatory effect was specific for the muscle that would be activated during actual execution of the observed action. We found no changes in responsiveness of the tested muscles during observation of nonbiological entities with (e.g., waterfalls) or without (e.g., icefalls) implied motion. Thus, extrapolation of motion information concerning human actions induced a selective activation of the motor system. This indicates that overlapping motor regions are engaged in the visual analysis of physical and implied body actions. The absence of motor evoked potential modulation during observation of end posture stimuli may indicate that the observationexecution matching system is preferentially activated by implied, ongoing but not yet completed actions.

Neuropsychologia, 1997

We investigated how perceptual and semantic relationships between the left and right half of chim... more We investigated how perceptual and semantic relationships between the left and right half of chimeric stimuli influence overt and covert visual processing by asking eight right brain damaged (RBD) patients with hemispatial neglect to identify complete, half-, and chimeric drawings. Chimeric stimuli belonged in one of four categories defined according to the perceptual and semantic relatedness between the two compounding hemi-figures. Thus, the hemi-figures could be related both perceptually and semantically, only perceptually, only semantically, or neither perceptually nor semantically. Although patients often appeared to base their report on the right part of the chimerics, the number of errors was minimal when conflicts between the two hemi-figures were maximal. Moreover, perceptual conflicts, which mainly affect the perception of the shape, appeared to influence the performance more than semantic conflicts. Since the analysis of shape incongruency is probably accomplished at early levels of information processing, the result suggests that preattentive analysis is largely spared in the experimental patients and that, in our task, bottom-up factors more than top-down factors modulate the expression of left neglect.

Neuropsychologia, 2003

The corpus callosum is frequently damaged by closed head traumas, and the resulting deficits of i... more The corpus callosum is frequently damaged by closed head traumas, and the resulting deficits of interhemispheric communication may vary according to the specific position of the lesion within the corpus callosum. This paper describes a single case who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury resulting in a lesion of the posterior body of the corpus callosum. Among the classical symptoms of interhemispheric disconnection, left hand anomia, left upper limb ideomotor dyspraxia, left visual field dyslexia and dysnomia, and left ear suppression in a dichotic listening task were observed shortly after the injury but recovered completely or almost completely with the passage of time. The only symptom of interhemispheric disconnection which was found to persist more than 4 years after the injury was an abnormal prolongation of the crossed-uncrossed difference in a simple visuomotor reaction time task. This prolongation was comparable with that observed in subjects with complete callosal lesions or agenesis. The results suggest that the posterior body of the corpus callosum may be an obligatory interhemispheric communication channel for mediating fast visuo-motor responses. The transient nature of other symptoms of interhemispheric disconnection suggests a relatively wide dispersion of fibers with different functions through the callosal body, such that parts of them can survive a restricted lesion and allow functional recovery of hemispheric interactions. An assessment of the evolution in time of symptoms of interhemispheric disconnection following restricted callosal lesions may reveal fine and coarse features of the anatomo-functional topography of the corpus callosum. (G. Berlucchi).

Neurology, 1998

We delivered unilateral (left or right) or bilateral tactile stimuli to hands or feet of right-br... more We delivered unilateral (left or right) or bilateral tactile stimuli to hands or feet of right-brain-damaged patients, six with tactile extinction and two without. Stimuli were simple touches or sliding stimuli directed proximo-distally (e.g., toward the fingers) or disto-proximally (e.g., toward the forearm). Patients were asked to report number (one or two), type (touch or slide), and direction (proximo-distally or disto-proximally) of the experimental stimuli. Nonextinction patients performed perfectly. Extinction patients, although accurate in reporting single stimuli, omitted left stimuli under double-stimuli conditions. However, the number of left stimuli detected consciously was related to an imbalance of the salience between left and right stimuli. Moreover, in three patients the extinguished, left-sided stimulus, even when inaccessible to consciousness, influenced implicitly the report of the features of the right stimulus. Thus, the relationships between left and right stimuli can modulate both overtly and covertly the performance of extinction patients.

Neurological Sciences, 2014

Awareness of cognitive deficits and clinical competence were investigated in 79 mild to moderate ... more Awareness of cognitive deficits and clinical competence were investigated in 79 mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease patients. Awareness was assessed by the anosognosia questionnaire for dementia, and clinical competence by specific neuropsychological tests such as trail making test-A, Babcock story recall test, semantic and phonemic verbal fluency. The findings show that 66 % of the patients were aware of memory deficits, while the 34 % were unaware. Deficit in awareness correlated with lower scores on the Mini Mental State Examination test that, in the score range from 24.51 to 30 and from 19.50 to 24.50, appeared to be a significant predictor of level of awareness. None of the AD patients had fully preserved clinical competence, only 7 patients (9 %) had partially preserved clinical competence and 72 patients (91 %) had completely lost clinical competence. All the patients with partially preserved clinical competence (9 %) were aware of their memory deficit. The study indicates that neuropsychological tests used for the assessment of executive functions are not suitable for investigating clinical competence. Therefore, additional and specific tools for the evaluation of clinical competence are necessary. Indeed, these might allow clinicians to identify AD patients who, despite their deficits in selected functions, retain their autonomy of choice as well as recognize those patients who should proceed to the nomination of a legal representative.

Neurocase, 2004

Somatic misperceptions and misrepresentations, like supernumerary phantom limb and denial of owne... more Somatic misperceptions and misrepresentations, like supernumerary phantom limb and denial of ownership of a given body part, have typically been reported following damage to the right side of the brain. These symptoms typically occur with personal or extrapersonal neglect and extinction of left-sided stimuli, suggesting that all these different symptoms may be linked to the same neural substrate. In the present research, we tested two right brain-damaged (RBD) patients to find out whether changing the position of the hands in space influences tactile extinction and denial of ownership to the same extent. Results showed that manipulation of the spatial position of the hands reduces tactile extinction but leaves denial of ownership of the left hand unaffected. Such a dissociation suggests that delusional misperceptions may be independent from somatic neglect and that representation of hands in space and attribution of ownership are dynamically mapped in at least partly separate neural substrates.

Behavioural Brain Research, 2015

Emotional and social cognitive deficits were investigated in a group of 24 individuals with mild ... more Emotional and social cognitive deficits were investigated in a group of 24 individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 24 healthy controls. Empathic and visual emotional responses were collected, analyzed and correlated to brain structural imaging data by means of: (i) a pictorial matching-to-sample task with facial and non-facial stimuli; (ii) self-reported questionnaires for cognitive and affective emotional components, and alexithymia; (iii) in-depth assessment of cognitive functions. Results indicated that visual processing of faces in MCI individuals did not benefit from fearful emotional content which in healthy controls facilitates stimulus' recognition (emotional enhancement effect). This implicit visuo-emotional disorder was specific for the faces, did not generalize to other categories, and did not correlate to explicit measures of empathy. Thus, our main finding indicates that in MCI individuals, deficits in visual recognition of facial emotions may arise already in the earliest stages of memorization, during the visual encoding of facial emotions. Voxel-based morphometry revealed its association with atrophy in frontal and occipito-temporal regions, mostly involving the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (P<0.05, multiple-comparison correction). Neural evidences were corroborated by clinical scores showing significant correlation between reduction of Emotion Enhancement Effect and deficits in frontal/executive functions. Crucially, the disorder did not appear to be related to the number of impaired cognitive domains (single or multiple-domain MCI) but rather to the involvement of frontal brain networks and frontal/executive functions. This suggests that in prodromal stages of dementia, frontal symptoms may represent a significant signal of emotional recognition disorders.

... Uno scenziato illusionista: teorie ed ipotesi intorno all'idea di schema corporeo. Titol... more ... Uno scenziato illusionista: teorie ed ipotesi intorno all'idea di schema corporeo. Titolo Rivista: DiPAV - QUADERNI. Autori/Curatori: Valentina Moro, SimonePernigo. Anno di pubblicazione: 2006 Fascicolo: 15 Lingua: ...

American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, 2014

Executive functions play an important role in the maintenance of autonomy in day-to-day activitie... more Executive functions play an important role in the maintenance of autonomy in day-to-day activities. Nevertheless, there is little research into specific cognitive training for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). We present the results of a program which aims to teach specific strategies and metacognitive abilities in order for patients to be able to carry out attentional and executive tasks. Two groups (A and B) were compared in a cross-over design. After the first evaluation, Group A (but not B) participated in a six month cognitive stimulation program. After a second assessment, only Group B received treatment and then a final evaluation was carried out on both groups. The results show that: i) both groups improved their performance as an effect of training; ii) improvements generalized to memory and general cognitive tasks; iii) in the interval without training, Group B's performance worsened and iv) Group A partially maintained their results over time.

In patients with right brain damage (RBD) or left brain damage (LBD) and healthy subjects, tactil... more In patients with right brain damage (RBD) or left brain damage (LBD) and healthy subjects, tactile and three basic gustatory stimuli (sour, salty, bitter) were applied to the left or right hemitongues or to both hemitongues simultaneously. Tactile stimuli were detected and localized by verbal report, whereas gustatory stimuli were identified by pointing to the corresponding name on cards bearing the names of the three tastes. In the tactile test, 9 of 18 RBD patients showed extinction of left hemitongue stimuli, whereas the remaining RBD patients, 9 LBD patients and 14 healthy subjects detected virtually all stimuli in all conditions. In the gustatory test, healthy subjects outperformed the two brain damaged groups which nevertheless responded well above chance and did not differ from one another. Unexpectedly, the nine RBD patients with left hemitongue tactile extinction showed no gustatory extinction, since performance did not differ significantly between the two hemitongues on both unilateral and bilateral stimulations. To account for these findings, some evidence suggests that the tongue representation is bilateral in both modalities, but predominantly ipsilateral in the gustatory modality and predominantly contralateral in the tactile modality. The RBD patients with left hemitongue tactile extinction were those with more marked symptoms of left-sided extinction in the visual and auditory modalities, making it likely that their brain damage was also responsible for left lingual tactile extinction. The absence of left gustatory extinction in those patients can be attributed to the predominant channelling of left hemitongue taste inputs into the intact left hemisphere.

Neuron, 2008

Visual analysis of faces and nonfacial body stimuli brings about neural activity in different cor... more Visual analysis of faces and nonfacial body stimuli brings about neural activity in different cortical areas. Moreover, processing body form and body action relies on distinct neural substrates. Although brain lesion studies show specific face processing deficits, neuropsychological evidence ...

Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2014

Anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP), or unawareness of motor deficits contralateral to a brain lesio... more Anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP), or unawareness of motor deficits contralateral to a brain lesion, has lasting negative implications for the management and rehabilitation of patients. A recent, bedside psychophysical intervention, namely self-observation by video replay, lead to a lasting remission of severe AHP in an acute stroke patient (Fotopoulou, A., Rudd, A., Holmes, P., & Kopelman, M. ( 2009 ). Self-observation reinstates motor awareness in anosognosia for hemiplegia. Neuropsychologia, 47, 1256-1260). This procedure has been adjusted and applied here, as the basis of two intervention protocols administered independently to two patients with severe AHP. The first study used multiple, successive sessions of video-based self-observation in an acute patient, targeting first the awareness of upper limb and subsequently lower limb paralysis. The second study used a single session of video-based, self- and other-observation in a patient at the chronic stage following onset. Both protocols also involved elements of rapport building and emotional support. The results revealed that video-based self-observation had dramatic, immediate effects on awareness in both acute and chronic stages and it seemed to act as an initial trigger for eventual symptom remission. Nevertheless, these effects did not automatically generalise to all functional domains. This study provides provisional support that video-based self-observation may be included in wider rehabilitation programmes for the management and restoration of anosognosia.

Journal of Neuroscience, 2006

The human visual system is highly tuned to perceive actual motion as well as to extrapolate dynam... more The human visual system is highly tuned to perceive actual motion as well as to extrapolate dynamic information from static pictures of objects or creatures captured in the middle of motion. Processing of implied motion activates higher-order visual areas that are also involved in processing biological motion. Imagery and observation of actual movements performed by others engenders selective activation of motor and premotor areas that are part of a mirror-neuron system matching action observation and execution. By using single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation, we found that the mere observation of static snapshots of hands suggesting a pincer grip action induced an increase in corticospinal excitability as compared with observation of resting, relaxed hands, or hands suggesting a completed action. This facilitatory effect was specific for the muscle that would be activated during actual execution of the observed action. We found no changes in responsiveness of the tested muscles during observation of nonbiological entities with (e.g., waterfalls) or without (e.g., icefalls) implied motion. Thus, extrapolation of motion information concerning human actions induced a selective activation of the motor system. This indicates that overlapping motor regions are engaged in the visual analysis of physical and implied body actions. The absence of motor evoked potential modulation during observation of end posture stimuli may indicate that the observationexecution matching system is preferentially activated by implied, ongoing but not yet completed actions.

Neuropsychologia, 1997

We investigated how perceptual and semantic relationships between the left and right half of chim... more We investigated how perceptual and semantic relationships between the left and right half of chimeric stimuli influence overt and covert visual processing by asking eight right brain damaged (RBD) patients with hemispatial neglect to identify complete, half-, and chimeric drawings. Chimeric stimuli belonged in one of four categories defined according to the perceptual and semantic relatedness between the two compounding hemi-figures. Thus, the hemi-figures could be related both perceptually and semantically, only perceptually, only semantically, or neither perceptually nor semantically. Although patients often appeared to base their report on the right part of the chimerics, the number of errors was minimal when conflicts between the two hemi-figures were maximal. Moreover, perceptual conflicts, which mainly affect the perception of the shape, appeared to influence the performance more than semantic conflicts. Since the analysis of shape incongruency is probably accomplished at early levels of information processing, the result suggests that preattentive analysis is largely spared in the experimental patients and that, in our task, bottom-up factors more than top-down factors modulate the expression of left neglect.

Neuropsychologia, 2003

The corpus callosum is frequently damaged by closed head traumas, and the resulting deficits of i... more The corpus callosum is frequently damaged by closed head traumas, and the resulting deficits of interhemispheric communication may vary according to the specific position of the lesion within the corpus callosum. This paper describes a single case who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury resulting in a lesion of the posterior body of the corpus callosum. Among the classical symptoms of interhemispheric disconnection, left hand anomia, left upper limb ideomotor dyspraxia, left visual field dyslexia and dysnomia, and left ear suppression in a dichotic listening task were observed shortly after the injury but recovered completely or almost completely with the passage of time. The only symptom of interhemispheric disconnection which was found to persist more than 4 years after the injury was an abnormal prolongation of the crossed-uncrossed difference in a simple visuomotor reaction time task. This prolongation was comparable with that observed in subjects with complete callosal lesions or agenesis. The results suggest that the posterior body of the corpus callosum may be an obligatory interhemispheric communication channel for mediating fast visuo-motor responses. The transient nature of other symptoms of interhemispheric disconnection suggests a relatively wide dispersion of fibers with different functions through the callosal body, such that parts of them can survive a restricted lesion and allow functional recovery of hemispheric interactions. An assessment of the evolution in time of symptoms of interhemispheric disconnection following restricted callosal lesions may reveal fine and coarse features of the anatomo-functional topography of the corpus callosum. (G. Berlucchi).

Neurology, 1998

We delivered unilateral (left or right) or bilateral tactile stimuli to hands or feet of right-br... more We delivered unilateral (left or right) or bilateral tactile stimuli to hands or feet of right-brain-damaged patients, six with tactile extinction and two without. Stimuli were simple touches or sliding stimuli directed proximo-distally (e.g., toward the fingers) or disto-proximally (e.g., toward the forearm). Patients were asked to report number (one or two), type (touch or slide), and direction (proximo-distally or disto-proximally) of the experimental stimuli. Nonextinction patients performed perfectly. Extinction patients, although accurate in reporting single stimuli, omitted left stimuli under double-stimuli conditions. However, the number of left stimuli detected consciously was related to an imbalance of the salience between left and right stimuli. Moreover, in three patients the extinguished, left-sided stimulus, even when inaccessible to consciousness, influenced implicitly the report of the features of the right stimulus. Thus, the relationships between left and right stimuli can modulate both overtly and covertly the performance of extinction patients.

Neurological Sciences, 2014

Awareness of cognitive deficits and clinical competence were investigated in 79 mild to moderate ... more Awareness of cognitive deficits and clinical competence were investigated in 79 mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease patients. Awareness was assessed by the anosognosia questionnaire for dementia, and clinical competence by specific neuropsychological tests such as trail making test-A, Babcock story recall test, semantic and phonemic verbal fluency. The findings show that 66 % of the patients were aware of memory deficits, while the 34 % were unaware. Deficit in awareness correlated with lower scores on the Mini Mental State Examination test that, in the score range from 24.51 to 30 and from 19.50 to 24.50, appeared to be a significant predictor of level of awareness. None of the AD patients had fully preserved clinical competence, only 7 patients (9 %) had partially preserved clinical competence and 72 patients (91 %) had completely lost clinical competence. All the patients with partially preserved clinical competence (9 %) were aware of their memory deficit. The study indicates that neuropsychological tests used for the assessment of executive functions are not suitable for investigating clinical competence. Therefore, additional and specific tools for the evaluation of clinical competence are necessary. Indeed, these might allow clinicians to identify AD patients who, despite their deficits in selected functions, retain their autonomy of choice as well as recognize those patients who should proceed to the nomination of a legal representative.

Neurocase, 2004

Somatic misperceptions and misrepresentations, like supernumerary phantom limb and denial of owne... more Somatic misperceptions and misrepresentations, like supernumerary phantom limb and denial of ownership of a given body part, have typically been reported following damage to the right side of the brain. These symptoms typically occur with personal or extrapersonal neglect and extinction of left-sided stimuli, suggesting that all these different symptoms may be linked to the same neural substrate. In the present research, we tested two right brain-damaged (RBD) patients to find out whether changing the position of the hands in space influences tactile extinction and denial of ownership to the same extent. Results showed that manipulation of the spatial position of the hands reduces tactile extinction but leaves denial of ownership of the left hand unaffected. Such a dissociation suggests that delusional misperceptions may be independent from somatic neglect and that representation of hands in space and attribution of ownership are dynamically mapped in at least partly separate neural substrates.

La coordinazione motoria è una funzione tanto complessa quanto essenziale allo sviluppo armonico ... more La coordinazione motoria è una funzione tanto complessa quanto essenziale allo sviluppo armonico del bambino, non solo per l’organizzazione dell’azione, ma più in generale per l’acquisizione delle competenze cognitive. Per questo, essa è sempre stata oggetto di grande attenzione nell’ambito della neuropsichiatria infantile e della psicomotricità. Nonostante ciò, nel nostro paese gli strumenti adatti ad una sua specifica valutazione e provvisti di valori normativi per la popolazione italiana erano fino ad ora carenti. Il volume colma questa lacuna offrendo la standardizzazione italiana del test di sviluppo della Coordinazione Motoria di Charlop-Atwell, riconosciuto a livello internazionale come uno strumento adeguato all’osservazione delle tappe di acquisizione delle competenze e alla rilevazione precoce di eventuali disturbi. La riconosciuta professionalità degli autori e l’ampio numero di soggetti su cui è stata fatta la taratura del test, garantiscono la solidità dello strumento, che potrà essere utilizzato da psicomotricisti,fisioterapisti,neuropsichiatri,psicologi ed educatori, a scopo diagnostico ma anche preventivo ed educativo.