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(1) Background: Physical activity is known to promote health and psychological well-being in older adults, yet global inactivity rates in this population remain high. Among the factors associated with physical activity, self-efficacy for exercise represents a key predictor for developing effective interventions in older adults. This study aimed to validate the Self-Efficacy for Exercise Scale (SEE) in individuals over 65. (2) Methods: A sample of 726 older adults from the USA and Italy (51.1% females; age range = 65-95 years; Mage = 72.57, SDage = 6.49) completed the SEE, along with the Godin-Shepard Leisure-Time Physical Activity Questionnaire (GSLTPAQ), the Big Five Inventory 2-Extra Short Form (BFI-2-XS), and the 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). (3) Results: The SEE showed a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.88 and a Composite Reliability of 0.89. Moreover, it demonstrated a unidimensional factor structure and good fit indices. Full measurement invariance was achieved across gender and age, while partial scalar invariance was found across countries, suggesting minor cultural differences. Correlation with the GSLTPAQ, the BFI-2-XS, and the SF-12 support the convergent and nomological validity of the SEE. (4) Conclusions: These findings provide evidence that the SEE is a reliable and valid measure of self-efficacy for exercise among older adults and that the items are interpreted similarly across different ages, genders, and cultures.

Investigating how people represent the natural environment and abstract it into geographical (e.g., mountain ) and geopolitical (e.g., city ) categories is pivotal to comprehending how they move and interact with the places they inhabit. Yet, the conceptualization of geographical and geopolitical domains has received scant attention so far. To deal with that, we reviewed 50 articles tackling this topic. Most studies have focused on assessing the universality of these concepts-especially geographical ones-mainly using free-listing and ethnophysiographic methods. Current perspectives tend to favor a non-universalistic characterization of these kinds of concepts, emphasizing their high cross-linguistic and cross-cultural variability, especially when compared to other semantic domains. Since geographical and geopolitical features are not pre-segmented by nature, the role of categories imposed by humans is crucial for these concepts. Significantly, their variability does not only depend on "cross" differences: evidence suggests that the cognitive demand requested by the task, idiosyncratic characteristics of individuals such as expertise level, and the typology of inhabited environments are further factors impacting the conceptual flexibility of these domains. Exploring the factors influencing our understanding of geographical and geopolitical categories can provide valuable insights for instructing effective communication policies to enhance sustainable development and address ecological emergencies, taking into consideration diverse cultural backgrounds within different populations., Competing Interests: AB and CF are Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Psychology: Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Falcinelli, Fini, Mazzuca and Borghi.)

Introduction: Older sexual minority people meet a double stigma in our society related to their sexual identity and chronological age. The present study explores how experiences of discrimination and prejudice, coming out, and personal resiliency influence physical health of older lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults., Methods: Respondents were recruited through online advertisements and an online-based survey. The sample included 82 Italian cisgender LGB adults over 65 years: young older adults (65-70 years; 78%) and old-old adults (over 71 years; 22%). Regarding sexual orientation, the sample was composed of sexual minority women ( n  = 30; 37%) and sexual minority men ( n  = 52; 63%)., Results: ANOVAs' findings showed that sexual minority women described lower levels of physical health compared to sexual minority men. At the same time, old-old adults reported higher experiences of discrimination and prejudice compared to young older adults. Moreover, findings from hierarchical multiple regression analysis described that coming out, higher levels of personal resiliency, and fewer experiences of discrimination were predictors of physical health, regardless of age and sexual minority categories., Conclusion: These findings seem to align with previous studies that underline the relevance of investigating aging well in sexual minority people. Knowledge and awareness of LGBTQ+ issues are necessary for recognizing the unique needs and resources of older LGB people for promoting a healthy aging process., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Baiocco, Antoniucci, Pistella, Alessandri, Alivernini, Borghi, Chirico, Filosa, Fini, Palombi, Rosati, Tavolucci and Lucidi.)

Objectives: The present pre-registered study examined the reciprocal day-to-day associations between global self-esteem and self-concept clarity and their incremental validity with respect to daily life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect., Methods: We used intensive longitudinal data from 153 adult workers (45.1% women), over a period of 31 days. Data were analyzed using dynamic structural equation modeling., Results: Results attested higher global self-esteem and self-concept clarity mean levels for older vs. younger participants, and lower global self-esteem and self-concept clarity variability for older vs. younger participants. Furthermore, global self-esteem and self-concept clarity were correlated at a cross-sectional daily level, yet only self-concept clarity states positively predicted subsequent global self-esteem states, while global self-esteem states did not predict subsequent self-concept clarity states. Daily global self-esteem and daily self-concept clarity further predicted subsequent daily higher life satisfaction and positive affect, respectively., Conclusion: Overall, our findings shed light on the short-term relationships linking global self-esteem and self-concept clarity, pointing to their discriminant validity in predicting individuals' subjective well-being., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Despite the widely recognized benefits of physical activity for preventing physical and cognitive decline during aging, global estimates indicate that most older adults do not achieve the recommended amount of physical activity due to a lack of motivation. The current research examined the validity and psychometric properties of the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ-3) among older adults. Based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the BREQ-3 stands out as one of the most extensively utilized tools among exercise motivation studies., Methods: A sample of older adults (N = 383; M age = 73.2 years, SD age = 7.2) completed the BREQ-3 and the Godin-Shepard Leisure-Time Physical Activity Questionnaire (GSLTPAQ)., Results: Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the six-factor structure postulated by SDT, showing good fit indices (CFI= 0.95; RMSEA = 0.05; SRMR = 0.04) and supporting the full measurement invariance of the scale across sex and age groups (65 to 74 years; over 75 years). The construct and criterion validity of the BREQ-3 was upheld through the latent correlations between its subscales and their correlations with the GSLTPAQ., Conclusions: We demonstrated for the first time the effectiveness of the BREQ-3 in assessing all forms of behavioral regulation proposed by SDT in older adults, suggesting that older adults similarly interpreted the items across sex and age groups.

concepts are relevant to a wide range of disciplines, including cognitive science, linguistics, psychology, cognitive, social, and affective neuroscience, and philosophy. This consensus paper synthesizes the work and views of researchers in the field, discussing current perspectives on theoretical and methodological issues, and recommendations for future research. In this paper, we urge researchers to go beyond the traditional abstract-concrete dichotomy and consider the multiple dimensions that characterize concepts (e.g., sensorimotor experience, social interaction, conceptual metaphor), as well as the mediating influence of linguistic and cultural context on conceptual representations. We also promote the use of interactive methods to investigate both the comprehension and production of abstract concepts, while also focusing on individual differences in conceptual representations. Overall, we argue that abstract concepts should be studied in a more nuanced way that takes into account their complexity and diversity, which should permit us a fuller, more holistic understanding of abstract cognition., Competing Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s).)

In this paper, we propose that interpersonal bodily interactions represent a fertile ground in which the bodily and psychological self is developed, gradually allowing for forms of more abstract and disembodied interactions. We start by focusing on how early infant-caregiver bodily interactions play a crucial role in shaping the boundaries of the self but also in learning to predict others' behavior. We then explore the social function of the sense of touch in the entire life span, highlighting its role in promoting physical and psychological well-being by supporting positive interpersonal exchanges. We go on by introducing the concept of implicit theory of mind, as the early ability to interpret others' intentions, possibly grounded in infant-caregiver bodily exchanges (embodied practices). In the following part, we consider so-called higher level forms of social interaction: intellectual exchanges among individuals. In this regard, we defend the view that, beside the apparent private dimension of "thinking abstractly", using abstract concepts is intrinsically a social process, as it entails the re-enactment of the internalized dialogue through which we acquired the concepts in the first place. Finally, we describe how the hypothesis of "dialectical attunement" may explain the development of abstract thinking: to effectively transform the world according to their survival needs, individuals co-construct structured concepts of it; by doing so, humans fundamentally transform not merely the world they are being in, but their being in the world., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

words (e.g., freedom) compose a significant part of speech. Despite this, learning them is complicated. Abstract concepts collect more heterogeneous exemplars and are more detached from sensory modalities than concrete concepts. Recent views propose that, because of their complexity, other people are pivotal for abstract concepts' acquisition and use, e.g., to explain their meaning. We tested this hypothesis using a combined behavioral and thermal imaging paradigm. Twenty-one Italian children (10\F, mean age: 6 years) determined whether acoustic stimuli (concrete and abstract words; non-words) were or not correct Italian words (lexical decision). Concrete terms yielded faster responses than abstract ones: for the first time, this effect appears with response times in very young children. More crucially, the higher increase in temperature of the nasal tip (i.e., typically associated with parasympathetic dominance of the neurovegetative response) suggests that, with abstract concepts, children might be more socially and cognitively engaged., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Paoletti, Fini, Filippini, Massari, D’Abundo, Merla, Bellagamba and Borghi.)

Compared to concrete concepts, like "book," abstract concepts expressed by words like "justice" are more detached from sensorial experiences, even though they are also grounded in sensorial modalities. Abstract concepts lack a single object as referent and are characterised by higher variability both within and across participants. According to the Word as Social Tool (WAT) proposal, owing to their complexity, abstract concepts need to be processed with the help of inner language. Inner language can namely help participants to re-explain to themselves the meaning of the word, to keep information active in working memory, and to prepare themselves to ask information from more competent people. While previous studies have demonstrated that the mouth is involved during abstract concepts' processing, both the functional role and the mechanisms underlying this involvement still need to be clarified. We report an experiment in which participants were required to evaluate whether 78 words were abstract or concrete by pressing two different pedals. During the judgement task, they were submitted, in different blocks, to a baseline, an articulatory suppression, and a manipulation condition. In the last two conditions, they had to repeat a syllable continually and to manipulate a softball with their dominant hand. Results showed that articulatory suppression slowed down the processing of abstract more than that of concrete words. Overall results confirm the WAT proposal's hypothesis that abstract concepts processing involves the mouth motor system and specifically inner speech. We discuss the implications for current theories of conceptual representation.

Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Social distancing during a pandemic might be influenced by different attitudes: people may decide to reduce the risk and protect themselves from viral contagion, or they can opt to maintain their habits and be more exposed to the infection. To better understand the underlying motivating attitudes, we asked participants to indicate in an online platform the interpersonal distance from different social targets with professional/social behaviors considered more or less exposed to the virus. We selected five different social targets: a cohabitant, a friend working in a hospital, a friend landed from an international flight, a friend who is back from a cycling ride, or a stranger. In order to measure the realistic and the symbolic perceived threat, we administered the Brief 10-item COVID-19 threat scale. Moreover, in order to measure the risk attitude in different domains, the participants were also asked to fill in the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking DOSPERT scale. Results reveal a general preference for an increased distance from a stranger and the friends who are considered to be more exposed to the virus: the friend working in a hospital or landed from an international flight. Moreover, the interpersonal distance from friends is influenced by the perception of Realistic Threat measured through the Integrated Covid Threat Scale and the Health/Safety Risk Perception/Assumption as measured by the DOSPERT scale. Our results show the flexible and context-dependent nature of our representation of other people: as the social categories are not unchangeable fixed entities, the bodily (e.g., spatial) attitudes towards them are an object of continuous attunement., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

The sensorimotor system plays a critical role in several cognitive processes. Here, we review recent studies documenting this interplay at different levels. First, we concentrate on studies that have shown how the sensorimotor system is flexibly involved in interactions with objects. We report evidence demonstrating how social context and situations influence affordance activation, and then focus on tactile and kinesthetic components in body-object interactions. Then, we turn to word use, and review studies that have shown that not only concrete words, but also abstract words are grounded in the sensorimotor system. We report evidence that abstract concepts activate the mouth effector more than concrete concepts, and discuss this effect in light of studies on adults, children, and infants. Finally, we pinpoint possible sensorimotor mechanisms at play in the acquisition and use of abstract concepts. Overall, we show that the involvement of the sensorimotor system is flexibly modulated by context, and that its role can be integrated and flanked by that of other systems such as the linguistic system. We suggest that to unravel the role of the sensorimotor system in cognition, future research should fully explore the complexity of this intricate, and sometimes slippery, relation.

concepts (ACs, e.g. 'justice') are more complex compared with concrete concepts (CCs) (e.g. 'table'). Indeed, they do not possess a single object as a referent, they assemble quite heterogeneous members and they are more detached from exteroceptive and more grounded in interoceptive experience. Recent views have hypothesized that interpersonal communication is particularly crucial to acquire and use ACs. The current study investigates the reliance of ACs/CCs representation on interpersonal behaviour. We asked participants to perform a motor interaction task with two avatars who embodied two real confederates. Before and after the motor interaction task, the two confederates provided participants with hints in a concept guessing task associated with visual stimuli: one helped in guessing ACs and the other, CCs. A control study we performed both with the materials employed in the main experiment and with other materials, confirmed that associating verbal concepts with visual images was more difficult with ACs than with CCs. Consistently, the results of the main experiment showed that participants asked for more hints with ACs than CCs and were more synchronous when interacting with the avatar corresponding to the AC's confederate. The results highlight an important role of sociality in grounding ACs., (© 2021 The Authors.)

Background: Food addiction (FA) is characterised by the consumption of appetible foods and by addictive psychological and behavioural symptoms such as cravings, tolerance, limited control of substance intake and withdrawal symptoms. Despite previous research on FA has been hindered by the lack of a formal definition for this condition, recent global trends have stirred the interest of the scientific community towards a proper classification and construct of FA. More specifically, recent studies have pointed towards shared defective neurobiological mechanisms as well as frequent comorbidities between FA, eating disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders and substance-related and addictive disorders., Objective: In this review, we will provide an overview of the complex symptomatology of food addiction evaluating its relationship with mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and substance-related and addictive disorders., Methods: We wrote a systematic review and followed a PRISMA methods., Results: Patients with FA and substance use disorders show similar risk factors, neurobiological and hormonal correlates, personality traits and symptom profiles. The presence of FA appears to be directly proportional to the burden of symptoms of affective disorder. The comorbidity between FA and other eating disorders is associated with worse clinical conditions and symptoms., Conclusion: FA should be considered a sort of transnosological construct existing in different psychopathological domains that have similarities with substance-related, affective, and eating disorders. Furthermore, FA seems to be likely an important factor related to several psychopathological dimensions, but further studies are needed to clarify this view., Level of Evidence: Level V, review article.

Lee and Schwarz made considerable theoretical advances in the psychology of cleansing by proposing that cleaning actions might serve as separation procedures between two psychological entities. Here, we propose that the effectiveness of the separation process may be modulated by the available amount of executive resources, and that separation may operate as a load-dependent resetting procedure.

Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

It is debated whether only concrete but also abstract, figurative sentences, e.g.: "She grasps the cup" vs. "She grasps the concept", are grounded in the sensorimotor system. Importantly, studies on sentences with action verbs and motor system activation have been conducted so far only with WEIRD samples (Western cultures, in North American and European countries). The aim of our work is to investigate the relationship between language and motor responses using both concrete and abstract sentences in Italian and Persian languages. In the present study, Italian and Persian participants were asked to read the sentences on the screen. The sentences referred either literally or metaphorically to motor actions. They were accompanied by a video displaying a movement that could be congruent or incongruent with the one described in the sentence. Participants were asked to re-execute the movement observed and subsequently they had to perform the task evaluating whether the sentence made sense or not. In the Italian sample a strong effect of concreteness was present, especially in the congruent but also in the incongruent condition. In the Persian sample, instead, there was an inhibition effect of congruent trials, particularly with concrete sentences, and in the incongruent trials no difference in RTs between abstract and concrete sentences was present. Results indicate that cross-cultural differences have to be taken into account when investigating the relationship between language and action., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Previous behavioral studies using stimulus-response compatibility tasks have shown that people are faster to carry out instructed approach/avoidance responses to positive/negative stimuli. This result has been taken as evidence that positive/negative stimulus valence directly activates a tendency to approach/avoid, which in turn, facilitates execution of instructed approach/avoidance behavior. In these studies, however, it cannot be excluded that the results reflect a purely semantic link between stimulus valence and instructed responses. According to this alternative interpretation, positive/negative stimuli do not elicit an approach/avoidance tendency, but instead they interact with the positive/negative valence of the instructed responses, and in this way, produce the observed compatibility effect. To circumvent this possible disadvantage of compatibility tasks, we used a novel method for the measurement of early action tendencies: TMS induced MEPs. In two experiments, participants were first trained to abduct the index finger to approach and the thumb to avoid. Then, they observed a series of positive and negative stimuli. Each stimulus was followed by a TMS pulse (at 400 ms post-stimulus onset) and MEPs were measured continuously on the muscles of both fingers. These observation trials were randomly intermixed with response trials, in which neutral stimuli were presented and participants were instructed to approach/avoid the stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants received clear visual feedback on the outcome of their response in the response trials. In Experiment 2, we omitted this feedback to test whether it was necessary for the effect to occur. The results indicated higher MEPs for the approach/avoidance finger after positive/negative stimuli in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2. Analyses on the data aggregated over both experiments suggest that the visual feedback was necessary for stimulus valence to elicit action tendencies. Taken together, the results are in line with the results of behavioral studies with compatibility tasks, suggesting that stimulus valence directly elicits specific action tendencies already at 400 ms but they indicate that clear visual feedback is necessary for this effect to occur., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Dual-process models with a default-interventionist architecture explain early emotional action tendencies by a stimulus-driven process, and they allow goal-directed processes to intervene only in a later stage. An alternative dual-process model with a parallel-competitive architecture developed by Moors, Boddez, and De Houwer (Emotion Review, 9(4), 310-318, 2017), in contrast, explains early emotional action tendencies by a goal-directed process. This model proposes that stimulus-driven and goal-directed processes often operate in parallel and compete with each other, and that if they do compete, the goal-directed process often wins the competition. To examine these predictions, we set up a goal-directed process in an experimental group by rewarding participants for avoiding positive stimuli and for approaching negative stimuli and punishing them for the opposite behavior. We expected this process to compete with a potentially preexisting stimulus-driven process in which positive stimuli are associated with approach and negative stimuli with avoidance. We compared the elicited action tendencies of participants in this group with a control group in which only the stimulus-driven process could operate. Early approach and avoidance tendencies were assessed via motor evoked potentials (MEP) measured in the finger muscles previously trained to approach or to avoid stimuli after single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) delivered at 400 ms. Results confirmed that positive/negative stimuli led to stronger avoidance/approach tendencies in the experimental group but not to approach/avoidance tendencies in the control group. This suggests that goal-directed processes are indeed able to determine relatively early emotional action tendencies, but it does not show that goal-directed process can defeat stimulus-driven processes.

A classic example of discriminatory behavior is keeping spatial distance from an out-group member. To explain this social behavior, the literature offers two alternative theoretical options that we label as the "threat hypothesis" and the "shared-experience hypothesis". The former relies on studies showing that out-group members create a sense of alertness. Consequently, potentially threatening out-group members are represented as spatially close allowing the prevention of costly errors. The latter hypothesis suggests that the observation of out-group members reduces the sharing of somatosensory experiences and, thus, increases the perceived physical distance between oneself and others. In the present paper, we pitted the two hypotheses against each other. In Experiment 1, Caucasian participants expressed multiple implicit "Near/Far" spatial categorization judgments from a Black-African Avatar and a White-Caucasian Avatar located in a 3D environment. Results indicate that the Black-African Avatar was categorized as closer to oneself, as compared with the White-Caucasian Avatar, providing support for "the threat hypothesis". In Experiment 2, we tested to which degree perceived threat contributes to this categorization bias by manipulating the avatar's perceived threat orthogonally to group membership. The results indicate that irrespective of group membership, threatening avatars were categorized as being closer to oneself as compared with no threatening avatars. This suggests that provided information about a person and not the mere group membership influences perceived distance to the person.

According to the action-specific theory of perception, a person's dynamic ability to act in the environment affects her/his spatial perception. Empirical evidence shows that the elderly perceive distances as farther compared with younger adults and that the harder the ground surface to walk, the farther the perceived distance. Such results suggest a general perceptual readaptation promoted by the aging process that is fine-tuned with the decline of the motor resources. However, it is still unknown whether the elderly space perception is affected by interindividual differences in their functional autonomy (FA) and whether the decline of motor resources affects spatial categorization only when distances are judged with reference to the observer's own body or also when they are judged with reference to the body of another agent present in the scene. To this aim, a sample of elderly adults with preserved cognitive functions but different levels of FA, measured through the Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL) scale, were enrolled and tested on the extrapersonal space categorization task. This task requires judging the position of a target as "Near" or "Far" with respect to different reference frames (RFs): centered on the observer's body (Self RF) or centered on external elements, like another body (Other RF) or an object (Object RF). Results indicated that the higher the level of FA, the wider the space categorized as "Near" when adopting as reference frame our own body or the body of another agent in the scene, but not a static object. In conclusion, the individual functional autonomy of elderly individuals, which is strongly influenced by motor resources and efficiency, modulates how the surrounding space is represented, but only when the distance judgment implies an agent body, thus providing new relevant data for recent embodied cognition models of aging., Competing Interests: All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Giorgia Committeri et al.)

This study examines two contrasting explanations for early tendencies to fight and flee. According to a stimulus-driven explanation, goal-incompatible stimuli that are easy/difficult to control lead to the tendency to fight/flee. According to a goal-directed explanation, on the other hand, the tendency to fight/flee occurs when the expected utility of fighting/fleeing is the highest. Participants did a computer task in which they were confronted with goal-incompatible stimuli that were (a) easy to control and fighting had the highest expected utility, (b) easy to control and fleeing had the highest expected utility, and (c) difficult to control and fleeing and fighting had zero expected utility. After participants were trained to use one hand to fight and another hand to flee, they either had to choose a response or merely observe the stimuli. During the observation trials, single-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) was applied to the primary motor cortex 450 ms post-stimulus onset and motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were measured from the hand muscles. Results showed that participants chose to fight/flee when the expected utility of fighting/fleeing was the highest, and that they responded late when the expected utility of both responses was low. They also showed larger MEPs for the right/left hand when the expected utility of fighting/fleeing was the highest. This result can be interpreted as support for the goal-directed account, but only if it is assumed that we were unable to override the presumed natural mapping between hand (right/left) and response (fight/flight)., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Sociality influences both concrete and abstract concepts acquisition and representation, but in different ways. Here we propose that sociality is crucial during the acquisition of abstract concepts but less for concrete concepts, that have a bounded perceptual referent and can be learned more autonomously. For the acquisition of abstract concepts, instead, the human relation would be pivotal in order to master complex meanings. Once acquired, concrete words can act as tools, able to modify our sensorimotor representation of the surrounding environment. Indeed, pronouncing a word the referent of which is distant from us we implicitly assume that, thanks to the contribution of others, the object becomes reachable; this would expand our perception of the near bodily space. Abstract concepts would modify our sensorimotor representation of the space only in the earlier phases of their acquisition, specifically when the child represents an interlocutor as a real, physical "ready to help actor " who can help her in forming categories and in explaining the meaning of words that do not possess a concrete referent. Once abstract concepts are acquired, they can work as social tools: the social metacognition mechanism (awareness of our concepts and of our need of the help of others) can evoke the presence of a "ready to help actor " in an implicit way, as a predisposition to ask information to fill the knowledge gaps.

When we have to judge the distance between another person and an object (social condition), we judge this distance as being smaller compared to judging the distance between two objects (nonsocial condition). It has been suggested that this compression is mediated by the attribution of a motor potential to the reference frame (other person vs. object). In order to explore the neural basis of this effect, we investigated whether the modulation of activity in the inferior frontal cortex (IFC) of the left hemisphere (recruited during visuospatial processes with a social component) changes the way we categorize space in a social compared with a nonsocial condition. We applied transcranial direct current stimulation to the left IFC, with different polarities (anodal, cathodal, and sham) while subjects performed an extrapersonal space categorization task. Interestingly, anodal stimulation of IFC induced an higher compression of space in the social compared to nonsocial condition. By contrast, cathodal stimulation induced the opposite effect. Furthermore, we found that this effect is modulated by interindividual differences in cognitive perspective taking. Our data support the idea that IFC is recruited during the social categorization of space.

Background: Asenapine is a second-generation antipsychotic approved in Europe for treating moderate-to-severe manic episodes in adults affected by type I bipolar disorder (BD-I). We aimed to compare its efficacy in psychiatric inpatients with BD-I, with or without substance use disorder (SUD)., Methods: We administered flexible asenapine doses ranging from 5-20 mg/day to 119 voluntarily hospitalized patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) BD-I diagnosis, with or without SUD. Patients were assessed with clinician-rated questionnaires [i.e. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF)]. Assessments were carried out at baseline (T0, prior to treatment), and 3 (T1), 7 (T2), 15 (T3), and 30 days (T4) after starting treatment for all clinical scales and at T0 and T4 for the GAF., Results: Patients improved on all scales ( p < 0.001) across all timepoints, as shown both by paired-sample comparisons and by applying a repeated-measures, generalized linear model (GLM). Patients without comorbid SUD showed greater reductions in BPRS scores at T2 and T3, greater reduction in YMRS scores at T3, and lower HARS scores at all timepoints. HDRS scores did not differ between the two groups at any timepoint. However, the reduction in HARS scores in the comorbid group was stronger than in the BD-I only group, albeit not significantly. Side effects were few and mild-to-moderate., Conclusions: The open-label design and the relatively short observation period may expose to both type I and type II statistical errors (false positive and false negatives). Asenapine showed effectiveness and safety in hospitalized BD-I patients. Its effect was stronger in patients without comorbid SUD., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Recent results have shown that the way we categorize space varies as a function of the frame of reference. If the reference frame (RF) is another person vs. an object, the distance is judged as reduced. It has been suggested that such an effect is due to the spontaneous processing of the other's motor potentialities. To investigate the impact of movement representation on space perception, we used biological motion displays as a prime for a spatial categorization task. In Exp. 1, participants were presented with a point-light walker or a scrambled motion, and then judged the location ("Near" or "Far") of a target with a human body or an inanimate object as RF. In Exp. 2, participants were primed with point-light walkers of different speeds: a runner, a normal walker and a slow walker. In Exp. 3 they were primed with a point-light display depicting a human body sitting down on or standing up from a chair, with a human body RF either oriented or not oriented towards the target. Results showed a reduced judged distance when the human body RF was primed with a point-light walker (Exp. 1). Furthermore, we found an additional reduction of the judged distance when priming with a runner (Exp. 2). Finally, Exp. 3 showed that the human body RF has to be target oriented as a precondition for priming effects of the point-light walker., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In multiple sclerosis, microstructural damage of normal-appearing brain tissue is an important feature of its pathology. Understanding these mechanisms is vital to help develop neuroprotective strategies. The visual pathway is a key model to study mechanisms of damage and recovery in demyelination. Anterograde trans-synaptic degeneration across the lateral geniculate nuclei has been suggested as a mechanism of tissue damage to explain optic radiation abnormalities seen in association with demyelinating disease and optic neuritis, although evidence for this has relied solely on cross-sectional studies. We therefore aimed to assess: (i) longitudinal changes in the diffusion properties of optic radiations after optic neuritis suggesting trans-synaptic degeneration; (ii) the predictive value of early optic nerve magnetic resonance imaging measures for late optic radiations changes; and (iii) the impact on visual outcome of both optic nerve and brain post-optic neuritis changes. Twenty-eight consecutive patients with acute optic neuritis and eight healthy controls were assessed visually (logMAR, colour vision, and Sloan 1.25%, 5%, 25%) and by magnetic resonance imaging, at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months. Magnetic resonance imaging sequences performed (and metrics obtained) were: (i) optic nerve fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (optic nerve cross-sectional area); (ii) optic nerve proton density fast spin-echo (optic nerve proton density-lesion length); (iii) optic nerve post-gadolinium T1-weighted (Gd-enhanced lesion length); and (iv) brain diffusion-weighted imaging (to derive optic radiation fractional anisotropy, radial diffusivity, and axial diffusivity). Mixed-effects and multivariate regression models were performed, adjusting for age, gender, and optic radiation lesion load. These identified changes over time and associations between early optic nerve measures and 1-year global optic radiation/clinical measures. The fractional anisotropy in patients' optic radiations decreased (P = 0.018) and radial diffusivity increased (P = 0.002) over 1 year following optic neuritis, whereas optic radiation measures were unchanged in controls. Also, smaller cross-sectional areas of affected optic nerves at 3 months post-optic neuritis predicted lower fractional anisotropy and higher radial diffusivity at 1 year (P = 0.007) in the optic radiations, whereas none of the inflammatory measures of the optic nerve predicted changes in optic radiations. Finally, greater Gd-enhanced lesion length at baseline and greater optic nerve proton density-lesion length at 1 year were associated with worse visual function at 1 year (P = 0.034 for both). Neither the cross-sectional area of the affected optic nerve after optic neuritis nor the damage in optic radiations was associated with 1-year visual outcome. Our longitudinal study shows that, after optic neuritis, there is progressive damage to the optic radiations, greater in patients with early residual optic nerve atrophy, even after adjusting for optic radiation lesions. These findings provide evidence for trans-synaptic degeneration., (© The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The way we experience the space around us is highly subjective. It has been shown that motion potentialities that are intrinsic to our body influence our space categorization. Furthermore, we have recently demonstrated that in the extrapersonal space, our categorization also depends on the movement potential of other agents. When we have to categorize the space as "Near" or "Far" between a reference and a target, the space categorized as "Near" is wider if the reference corresponds to a biological agent that has the potential to walk, instead of a biological and non-biological agent that cannot walk. But what exactly drives this "Near space extension"? In the present paper, we tested whether abstract beliefs about the biological nature of an agent determine how we categorize the space between the agent and an object. Participants were asked to first read a Pinocchio story and watch a correspondent video in which Pinocchio acts like a real human, in order to become more transported into the initial story. Then they had to categorize the location ("Near" or "Far") of a target object located at progressively increasing or decreasing distances from a non-biological agent (i.e., a wooden dummy) and from a biological agent (i.e., a human-like avatar). The results indicate that being transported into the Pinocchio story, induces an equal "Near" space threshold with both the avatar and the wooden dummy as reference frames.

Background: As social animals we share the space with other people. It is known that perceived extension of the peripersonal space (the reaching space) is affected by the implicit representation of our own and other's action potentialities. Our issue concerns whether the co-presence of a body in the scene influences our extrapersonal space (beyond reaching distance) categorization., Methodology/principal Findings: We investigated, through 3D virtual scenes of a realistic environment, whether egocentric spatial categorization can be influenced by the presence of another human body (Exp. 1) and whether the effect is due to her action potentialities or simply to her human-like morphology (Exp. 2). Subjects were asked to judge the location ("Near" or "Far") of a target object located at different distances from their egocentric perspective. In Exp. 1, the judgment was given either in presence of a virtual avatar (Self-with-Other), or a non-corporeal object (Self-with-Object) or nothing (Self). In Exp. 2, the Self condition was replaced by a Self-with-Dummy condition, in which an inanimate body (a wooden dummy) was present. Mean Judgment Transition Thresholds (JTTs) were calculated for each subject in each experimental condition. Self-with-Other condition induced a significant extension of the space judged as "Near" as compared to both the Self-with-Object condition and the Self condition. Such extension was observed also in Exp. 2 in the Self-with-Dummy condition. Results suggest that the presence of others impacts on our perception of extrapersonal space. This effect holds also when the other is a human-like wooden dummy, suggesting that structural and morphological shapes resembling human bodies are sufficient conditions for the effect to occur., Conclusions: The observed extension of the portion of space judged as near could represent a wider portion of "accessible" space, thus an advantage in the struggle to survive in presence of other potential competing individuals.