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BACKGROUND: Social media platforms have become integral to modern society, facilitating diverse content interactions for individuals. The widespread use of social media has sparked intriguing inquiries into its impact on self-perception and individual well-being. This study investigated the phenomenon of social media appearance preoccupation and its complex relationship with psychosocial factors such as self-esteem, well-being, appearance-related anxiety, depression, and anxiety, considering both the rich-get-richer hypothesis and the poor-get-richer hypothesis. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: A sample of 401 Italian participants, aged 18 to 54, completed the demographic questionnaire, the Social Media Appearance Preoccupation Scale (SMAPS), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES), the Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI), the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Y2 (STAI-Y2). RESULTS: The results suggest a complex relationship between psychosocial factors and social media appearance preoccupation (SMAP). While higher levels of self-esteem and well-being were associated with lower levels of SMAP, indicating a protective effect against appearance preoccupation on social media, there was a positive correlation between appearance-related anxiety, leisure hours of media use, and SMAP. CONCLUSIONS: These findings underscore the multifaceted nature of SMAP and its associations with various psychosocial factors. Overall, these results provide partial support for the theory of the poor-get-richer hypothesis, suggesting that individuals experiencing heightened levels of appearancerelated anxiety may turn to social media as a coping mechanism, potentially exacerbating their psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive therapeutic method that modulates cortical excitability and shows promising results for treating disorders of consciousness (DoCs). Robotic verticalization training (RVT) has been shown to enhance motor and cognitive recovery. This study evaluates the effects of an innovative approach combining RVT with tDCS in individuals with DoCs. Methods: Twenty-four subjects with DoCs, particularly those with chronic minimally conscious state (MCS) due to vascular or traumatic brain injury, participated in a quasi-randomized study at the Neurorehabilitation Unit, IRCCS Neurolesi (Messina, Italy). Participants were divided into either a control group (CG) receiving RVT alone or an experimental group (EG) receiving combined tDCS and RVT. Both groups underwent treatments five times weekly for four weeks, with tDCS/sham sessions over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) lasting 20 min before Erigo training sessions, which lasted 45 min. Results: The findings indicate that combining tDCS with Erigo® Pro RTT could lead to greater improvements in cognitive functioning and P300 latency compared to the CG. Conclusions: These results suggest that the integrated approach of tDCS with RVT could offer significant benefits for patients with MCS, highlighting its potential to enhance cognitive recovery, such as reducing P300 latency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascular dementia, the second most common type of dementia, currently lacks a definitive cure. In the pursuit of therapies aimed at slowing its progression and alleviating symptoms, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) emerges as a promising approach, characterized by its non-invasive nature and the ability to promote brain plasticity. In this study, the primary objective was to investigate the effects of a two-week cycle of tDCS on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and neurophysiological functioning in thirty patients diagnosed with vascular dementia. Each participant was assigned to one of two groups: the experimental group, which received anodal tDCS to stimulate DPCFL, and the control group, which received sham tDCS. Neurophysiological functions were assessed before and after tDCS using P300 event-related potentials (ERPs), while neuropsychological function was evaluated through a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The results showed a reduction in P300 latency, indicating a faster cognitive process; an increase in P300 amplitude, suggesting a stronger neural response to cognitive stimuli; and a significant improvement in MMSE scores compared to the control group, indicating an overall enhancement in cognitive functions. These findings suggest that tDCS could represent a promising therapeutic option for improving both neurophysiological and cognitive aspects in patients with vascular dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of modern technologies exposes many people to a high level of ambiguous and misleading information that can impact people's judgments and worldviews. This happens especially in a phase of life such as preadolescence when children are particularly sensitive to external conditioning. Critical thinking can be seen as the first line of defense against misleading information. However, little is known about the consequences of media use on the critical thinking skills of tweens. In this study, we evaluated the effects of problematic smartphone use on the various stages of critical thinking, comparing high and low tween smartphone users. The results confirm the main hypothesis, namely, that problematic smartphone use is related to the ability to think critically. There was a significant difference between high and low users in the third phase of critical thinking: evaluation of sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of telerehabilitation systems has shown a significant growth in the past years, demonstrating their crucial relevance in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many devices and sensors have been proposed to analytically measure parameters for patient assessment, with limitations due to costs or feasibility. In this paper, we present a motor telerehabilitation system with computer vision-assisted markerless measures for patients with Rett syndrome. Twenty-one RTT (Rett syndrome) patients, with ages ranging from age 4 to 31 (Median: 12.50; IQR (interquartile range): 9.50–17.25) were recruited. The study follows a pre-test–post-test design, where the patients were submitted to a pre-test, treatment, post-test 1, treatment, post-test 2 procedure. Progress in patient outcomes was assessed by measuring joint passive range of movement (PRoM). Results show the reliability of our system, and the feasibility of a telerehabilitation treatment for RTT patients, with significant improvements in shoulder mobility and in elbow flexion and extension. Limited results in lower limbs suggest that home treatment should be fostered to reduce sedentary time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the performance on five phases of critical thinking in gifted and nongifted children in two settings: ethical and neutral. Ninety-one children, 32 gifted (8–10 years old), 32 normally developing children matched for chronological age (8–10 years old) and 27 normally developing children matched for mental age (12–13 years old) completed critical thinking tasks. The findings confirmed that intellectually gifted children had higher critical thinking capacity than typically developing children. The results reveal that the basic factor determining best performances in critical thinking is mental age and not chronological age. However, critical thinking ability was the same in ethical and neutral settings. Analysis of the phases of critical thinking show that the first and the third phase, clarification and evaluation, specifically differentiates gifted from nongifted children. These phases refer to the ability to understand the type of problem rapidly and to assess the credibility of statements and to assess the logical strength of the actual or intended inferential relationships among statements, descriptions, questions or other forms of representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]