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Normative data of neuropsychological tests typically consider the effect of demographic variables like age and education on performance. However, a broad literature has shown that, after the school age, other cognitively stimulating experiences (e.g., occupational attainment and a variety of leisure-time activities) may increase and build up cognitive reserve (CR), which is positively associated with better performance in many neuropsychological tests. With these premises, we investigated the predictive capability of education and a life-experience proxy of CR on a widely used cognitive screening, i.e., the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Results show that models including the more comprehensive life-experience CR proxy performed better than models including Education. Based on the results of our analyses we provide normative data and cut-offs on 440 Italian individuals aged 50-90 years, by taking into account, for the first time for the Italian population, a CR index, together with demographic variables and Education, in the calculation of regression-based norms. Accounting for life-experience CR proxies can improve the accuracy of normative data and allow a finer estimation of cognitive performance, which lead to a more tailored approach to patient assessment., Author(s): Sonia Montemurro [sup.1] , Roberta Daini [sup.2] [sup.3] , Chiara Tagliabue [sup.4] , Sabrina Guzzetti [sup.5] , Giulia Gualco [sup.6] , Sara Mondini [sup.7] [sup.8] , Giorgio Arcara [sup.1] [...]

Background. The left and right temporoparietal junctions (TPJs) are two brain areas involved in several brain networks, largely studied for their diverse roles, from attentional orientation to theory of mind and, recently, predictive processing. In predictive processing, one crucial concept is prior precision, that is, the reliability of the predictions of incoming stimuli. This has been linked with modulations of alpha power as measured with electrophysiological techniques, but TPJs have seldom been studied in this framework. Methods. The present article investigates, using magnetoencephalography, whether spontaneous oscillations in pre-stimulus alpha power in the left and right TPJs can modulate brain responses during a linguistic task that requires predictive processing in literal and non-literal sentences. Results. Overall, results show that pre-stimulus alpha power in the rTPJ was associated with post-stimulus responses only in the left superior temporal gyrus, while lTPJ pre-stimulus alpha power was associated with post-stimulus activity in Broca's area, left middle temporal gyrus, and left superior temporal gyrus. Conclusions. We conclude that both the right and left TPJs have a role in linguistic prediction, involving a network of core language regions, with differences across brain areas and linguistic conditions that can be parsimoniously explained in the context of predictive processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) was traditionally described as a disease restricted to the motor system. However, recent findings suggested that it also affects cognition, especially executive functions, social cognition, language and pragmatics. A relevant issue in current research is thus the description of the cognitive phenotype of ALS and the identification of the most vulnerable aspects. Aims: The focus was on a communicative phenomenon placed at the crossroads of pragmatic and other cognitive domains, namely humour, which till now has been poorly explored in ALS. The first aim was to investigate whether ALS is associated with impairments in understanding and appreciating jokes. The second aim was to explore the predictors of humour comprehension and appreciation in patients, to confirm the involvement of pragmatic skills and to explore the role of other cognitive and clinical aspects. Methods & Procedures: A total of 30 non-demented patients with ALS and 27 controls were assessed with a task of verbal humour comprehension and appreciation, including two types of jokes: phonological and mental. We also administered a battery of pragmatic and other language tasks, and cognitive and socio-cognitive tasks. Mixed-effects models were used to test differences in the humour task between the two groups. Multiple regressions determined the best predictors of humour comprehension and appreciation in patients. Outcomes & Results: Patients obtained lower comprehension accuracy scores than controls in the humour task, independently of the type of joke. Conversely, patients and controls did not differ in joke appreciation and both rated mental jokes as funnier than the phonological ones. Patients' comprehension accuracy was predicted by pragmatic skills and ALS severity, whereas appreciation was predicted by several clinical variables and, to a smaller extent, by language skills. Conclusions & Implications: The findings suggest that humour is a very vulnerable aspect in ALS, and that impairment in humour comprehension might be part of the larger cognitive impairment, being linked to pragmatic impairment. Clinical variables were also important, especially in relation to humour appreciation. More generally, these data speak in favour of pragmatics as a relevant aspect to sketch the cognitive phenotype of ALS. On the practical level, these findings point to the need of supporting communication at large, not only motor-related aspects such as dysarthria but also social--pragmatic aspects such as understanding jokes, to increase well-being in ALS.

Predictive processing (PP) stands as a predominant theoretical framework in neuroscience. While some efforts have been made to frame PP within a cognitive domain‐general network perspective, suggesting the existence of a "prediction network," these studies have primarily focused on specific cognitive domains or functions. The question of whether a domain‐general predictive network that encompasses all well‐established cognitive domains exists remains unanswered. The present meta‐analysis aims to address this gap by testing the hypothesis that PP relies on a large‐scale network spanning across cognitive domains, supporting PP as a unified account toward a more integrated approach to neuroscience. The Activation Likelihood Estimation meta‐analytic approach was employed, along with Meta‐Analytic Connectivity Mapping, conjunction analysis, and behavioral decoding techniques. The analyses focused on prediction incongruency and prediction congruency, two conditions likely reflective of core phenomena of PP. Additionally, the analysis focused on a prediction phenomena‐independent dimension, regardless of prediction incongruency and congruency. These analyses were first applied to each cognitive domain considered (cognitive control, attention, motor, language, social cognition). Then, all cognitive domains were collapsed into a single, cross‐domain dimension, encompassing a total of 252 experiments. Results pertaining to prediction incongruency rely on a defined network across cognitive domains, while prediction congruency results exhibited less overall activation and slightly more variability across cognitive domains. The converging patterns of activation across prediction phenomena and cognitive domains highlight the role of several brain hubs unfolding within an organized large‐scale network (Dynamic Prediction Network), mainly encompassing bilateral insula, frontal gyri, claustrum, parietal lobules, and temporal gyri. Additionally, the crucial role played at a cross‐domain, multimodal level by the anterior insula, as evidenced by the conjunction and Meta‐Analytic Connectivity Mapping analyses, places it as the major hub of the Dynamic Prediction Network. Results support the hypothesis that PP relies on a domain‐general, large‐scale network within whose regions PP units are likely to operate, depending on the context and environmental demands. The wide array of regions within the Dynamic Prediction Network seamlessly integrate context‐ and stimulus‐dependent predictive computations, thereby contributing to the adaptive updating of the brain's models of the inner and external world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]