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Objective Mentalizing is the ability to interpret one's own and others' behavior as driven by intentional mental states. Epistemic trust (openness to interpersonally transmitted information) has been associated with mentalizing. Balanced mentalizing abilities allow people to cope with external and internal stressors. Studies show that social isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic was highly stressful for most people, especially for adolescents. Here we examine whether mentalizing and epistemic trust were protective factors in relation to emotional distress during the lockdown. Method A total of 131 nonclinical adolescents, aged between 12 and 18 years, were evaluated during the lockdown using the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire for Youth, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, Perceived Stress Scale, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Results Results from network analysis showed that epistemic trust and mentalizing were negatively associated with perceived stress and emotion dysregulation. Epistemic trust in fathers was associated with level of perceived stress, and epistemic trust in mothers with emotion dysregulation. Conclusion These findings suggest that epistemic trust and the capacity to mentalize were low in adolescents during lockdown, and this was associated with high levels of stress. However, robust levels of epistemic trust and mentalizing may have acted as protective factors that buffered individuals from the risk of emotional dysregulation during the lockdown.

Phosphoglucomutase 1 (PGM1) is a key enzyme for the regulation of energy metabolism from glycogen and glycolysis, as it catalyzes the interconversion of glucose 1-phosphate and glucose 6-phosphate. PGM1 deficiency is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by a highly heterogenous clinical spectrum, including hypoglycemia, cleft palate, liver dysfunction, growth delay, exercise intolerance, and dilated cardiomyopathy. Abnormal protein glycosylation has been observed in this disease. Oral supplementation with D-galactose efficiently restores protein glycosylation by replenishing the lacking pool of UDP-galactose, and rescues some symptoms, such as hypoglycemia, hepatopathy, and growth delay. However, D-galactose effects on skeletal muscle and heart symptoms remain unclear. In this study, we established an in vitro muscle model for PGM1 deficiency to investigate the role of PGM1 and the effect of D-galactose on nucleotide sugars and energy metabolism. Genome-editing of C2C12 myoblasts via CRISPR/Cas9 resulted in Pgm1 (mouse homologue of human PGM1, according to updated nomenclature) knockout clones, which showed impaired maturation to myotubes. No difference was found for steady-state levels of nucleotide sugars, while dynamic flux analysis based on 13C6-galactose suggested a block in the use of galactose for energy production in knockout myoblasts. Subsequent analyses revealed a lower basal respiration and mitochondrial ATP production capacity in the knockout myoblasts and myotubes, which were not restored by D-galactose. In conclusion, an in vitro mouse muscle cell model has been established to study the muscle-specific metabolic mechanisms in PGM1 deficiency, which suggested that galactose was unable to restore the reduced energy production capacity.

L'attenzione sostenuta, la capacità di mantenere l'attenzione su un compito per un periodo di tempo prolungato senza distrarsi, è alla base di molte attività quotidiane. I questionari di autovalutazione tipicamente usati per misurarla presentano notevoli limiti: valutare la propria attenzione durante lo svolgimento di un compito può interferire con il compito stesso, mentre valutarla a posteriori difficilmente permette di coglierne i cambiamenti nel tempo. Al contrario, alcuni parametri fisiologici potrebbero costituire una misura oggettiva dell’attivazione cognitiva nel tempo senza alterare l’attività svolta. La recente disponibilità di strumenti accurati e poco invasivi per registrare questi parametri permetterebbe di studiarli anche in situazioni più vicine all’esperienza quotidiana. Questo studio mira a validare, come indicatori di attenzione sostenuta, misure basate sulla variabilità della frequenza cardiaca e della conduttanza cutanea. Un gruppo di 30 partecipanti volontari (20-28 anni) ha eseguito al computer due test neuropsicologici di attenzione sostenuta: il Jumping Square Task e il Sustained-Pace Finger Tapping task, indossando contemporaneamente un device da polso per la registrazione dei parametri fisiologici. La capacità di attenzione sostenuta è stata operazionalizzata dal punto di vista comportamentale come il cambiamento in correttezza e in tempi di risposta tra la prima e la seconda metà di ciascun compito. I parametri fisiologici sono stati analizzati in modo analogo. I risultati mostrano un'associazione, anche se moderata, tra la capacità di attenzione cognitiva e il cambiamento nei parametri fisiologici.