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The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly become a global health crisis, leading people to change their interpersonal behaviours to contain the spread of the virus. Italy has rapidly become the country hit second hardest in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic and the first one in Western countries. To reduce the spread of the COVID-19, people are required to change their interpersonal behaviours, reducing their social interactions in close contacts. The lockdown impact on the economy as well as on social and psychological processes is relevant, we conducted an exploratory study to examine which social factors are associated with the psychological reactions of Italians during the COVID-19 lockdown. Participants ( n  = 690) self-reported their social identification on three levels (i.e., Italians, Europeans and humankind), their trust toward social and political actors, and their level of welbeing, interdependent-happiness, and distress. Results showed that the relation between trust and the level of wellbeing and distress was mediated by identification with Italians and humankind, only the identification with humankind mediated the relationship between trust and the level of interdependent-happiness. The identification with Europeans did not emerge as a mediator in such relationships. The implications for dealing with COVID-19 lockdown in Italy are discussed., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest/Competing InterestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2020.)

The present study investigates the neural pathways underlying individual susceptibility to affective or cognitive information in persuasive communication, also known as the structural matching effect. Expanding on the presumed involvement of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) in persuasion, we hypothesized that the vMPFC contributes to the evaluation of persuasive information depending on its match with the recipient's affective or cognitive predominance. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 30 participants evaluated 10 consumable products presented with both affective and cognitive persuasive messages. All participants were characterized on a continuum regarding their personal orientation in terms of individual differences in need for affect (NFA) and need for cognition (NFC). The results showed that the vMPFC, posterior cingulate cortex, and cerebellum are more strongly activated when the persuasive message content, either affective or cognitive, matched the recipient's individual affective or cognitive orientation. Interestingly, this effect in the vMPFC was found specifically when participants evaluated the products presented by the persuasive messages, whereas the correlation in the posterior cingulate cortex and cerebellum activity was detected when reading the messages. These results confirm the hypothesis that the vMPFC plays a role in subjectively weighting persuasive message content depending on individual differences in affective and cognitive orientation. Such a structural matching effect might involve the vMPFC particularly during explicit expressions of subjective valuations. These novel findings also further develop the conceptualization of the role of the vMPFC in self-related processing.

Purpose: Minimally invasive video-assisted parathyroidectomy (MIVAP) is one of the most widespread targeted parathyroid surgeries for primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP). The aim of this study was to assess its limits and propose an expansion of its indications in the management of parathyroid pathology., Methods: A retrospective analysis of 77 consecutive patients who underwent MIVAP for PHP between Jan and Oct 2016 was conducted. The adequacy of the procedure and/or the need to convert to a standard cervicotomy was the main outcome of interest. Secondary outcomes of interest included: operative time, postoperative morbidity, postoperative pain assessed by the visual analogue scale (VAS) score, and the length of the surgical incision., Results: There were 64 females and 13 males with a mean age of 51 years. In one patient a concomitant en bloc thyroid lobectomy was required due to features suspicious of parathyroid carcinoma while exploration was required in two other patients. None of these three cases required conversion to standard cervicotomy. The mean operative time, length of incision and VAS score was 31 min, 17 mm and 1.6, respectively. Biochemical cure was achieved in all patients, and no postoperative morbidities were reported., Conclusion: MIVAP offers the ability to perform a neck exploration and/or an en bloc thyroid lobectomy without the need to convert to a standard cervicotomy. Therefore, it not only serves as a targeted parathyroid procedure but also a potential alternative to full neck exploration.