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Brain injuries may cause the loss of the ability to see portions of the visual field, the so-called visual field defects (VFDs). VFDs significantly impact the survivors' functional recovery and quality of life, with the majority of patients displaying no spontaneous recovery or being left with residual deficits. Among the available therapies for VFDs, the compensatory scanning training is considered the most promising. Yet, current evidence is insufficient to recommend it in clinical practice, and the scientific community has stressed the need of more high-quality research. We will conduct a randomized clinical trial in adult patients with chronic VFDs caused by brain lesions. The project aims at verifying the feasibility and efficacy of a novel telerehabilitation using a multisensory scanning therapy, by measuring its effects on visual functions and daily activities, and by looking for neural indicators of the therapy-induced improvements.

Social cognition encompasses a spectrum of essential abilities for process and interpreting social information in order to interact appropriately with others (Adolphs, 2009). In neurologic and psychiatric disorders, these abilities can be compromised, impacting an individual's emotions and behavior (Cotter et al., 2018). These impairments can manifest as severe neurobehavioral disabilities (Williams et al., 2020), such as akinetic mutism or aggression, or as impairments in social skills (Nijsse et al., 2019), including social perception, emotion recognition, empathy, theory of mind, and moral reasoning (Henry et al., 2016). In Italy, the neuropsychological assessment tools available for evaluating emotional and behavioral skills are currently limited. While there are valuable tests for assessing specific domains of social cognition (Dodich et al., 2014, 2015; Isernia, MacPherson, et al., 2022; Isernia, Rossetto, et al., 2022; Maddaluno et al., 2022), is lacking a comprehensive tool to evaluate these abilities within a single and quick protocol. Furthermore, the assessment of neurobehavioral disability in patients with acquired brain injury (ABI) is constrained by the absence of rapid and comprehensive tools suitable for this purpose. Most existing clinical scales designed for this purpose, such as the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (Binetti et al., 1998; Cummings et al., 1994) and the Frontal Behavioral Inventory (Alberici et al., 2007; Kertesz et al., 1997) are primarily developed for neurodegenerative diseases and are occasionally used for ABI patients (Angelelli et al., 2004; Benejam et al., 2009; Ciurli et al., 2011; Siuda et al., 2014). Therefore, we would like to enrich the neuropsychology of emotional and behavioral disorders with a broad project involving multiple studies covering a part more linked to the development and psychometric investigation of the characteristics of neuropsychological/neurobehavioral assessment tools and a phase more linked to the investigation of the emotional and behavioral clinical characteristics of the patients. Specifically, these studies aim to: 1a) explore the psychometric properties of an already existing tool for the assessment of neurobehavioral disability, the Frontal Behavioral Inventory (FBI), investigate its validity, and evaluate the possibility of extending its usability to a population clinic different than dementia (psychometric); 1b) to investigate the prevalence of "negative symptoms" and "disinhibition" in ABI, through the FBI, and their correlations with brain lesions and cognitive profiles in ABI patients (clinical); 2) develop a new screening tool to assess social cognition and evaluate its psychometric and clinical properties (psychometric). Emotional and behavioral disorders often hinder the success of cognitive rehabilitation and physiotherapy, negatively impacting the quality of life for patients and their caregivers (Williams et al., 2020). Thus, is essential improving neuropsychological diagnostics expanding the repertoire of psychometric tests available in Italy for evaluating emotional-behavioral skills and understanding how these disorders manifest within different clinical frameworks, in order to make the beginning steps to promote new therapeutic strategies.

Handwritten signature represents a graphomotor act that, compared to spontaneous writing, develops as a faster and automated graphic gesture, as the sequence of motor commands can be acquired and executed as a single behaviour. The frequent repetition of the signature throughout life indeed promotes a highly automated representation that may even be resistant to cognitive decline in elderly, even when in pathological condition such as in the case of neurodegenerative disorder. Eventually, the signature would be modified only in later stages of dementia, in the presence of delirium or in the case of motor disorders affecting the upper limb. By contrast, spontaneous writing degrades during Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia already in the early and intermediate stages of illness.

The historical hospitals of Naples represent a significant heritage section of existing buildings. The city is an important case study, not only for the quantity of monumental hospital structures in the urban context, but for clear characteristics that define their values, from the artistic-cultural richness to the typological and constructive quality. Above all, from the construction point of view, the methods originally used to build these health structures are representative of traditional Neapolitan building techniques and essential starting points when considering sustainable regeneration interventions. This paper analyzes the traditional construction techniques of selected historical hospitals in Naples. The technological characteristics and structural systems of two emblematic case studies are examined with the aim of identifying relevant strategies for sustainable and effective regeneration interventions. The results show that the knowledge of traditional construction techniques helps to select appropriate regeneration solutions.

PurposeThis paper examines the ethical tensions in social entrepreneurship (SE) research by focusing on the ethical consequences of obtaining ethics approval in a university in the developed world while executing fieldwork for data collection in a developing country. It aims to offer insight into ethical research practice to protect vulnerable research participants from being further silenced and marginalised by the dominant social order that developed world universities embody.Design/methodology/approachThe ethical tensions are described through narratives drawn from a Filipino Ph.D. candidate's experience. The candidate obtained ethics approval from the university in New Zealand and collected interview data from social enterprise beneficiaries in the Philippines. A critical reflexive lens carves a space for a deepened understanding of these ethical tensions.FindingsThis paper offers critical insights into ethical SE research involving participants from vulnerable communities. These insights suggest that closer consideration needs to be given to contextual sensitivity, particularly on the part of researchers and research ethics committees, in crafting ethical data collection protocols. Findings also show how it is important for the indigenous researcher to filter ethical protocols through their local knowledge.Originality/valueThe paper uses critical reflexivity to examine ethical tensions in SE research involving vulnerable beneficiaries. It offers insights into ethical research procedures and practices that engender mindfulness of the contextual and relational aspects of doing SE research in the developing world.

L'attenzione visuospaziale e le sue asimmetrie hanno sempre suscitato un grande interesse scientifico. Molte ricerche si sono concentrate sull’indagine della lateralizzazione dell’attenzione spaziale nel cervello sano, sulle asimmetrie spaziali conseguenti a lesioni cerebrali (es. negligenza spaziale unilaterale o neglect) e sulla possibilità di modulare tali asimmetrie con tecniche di stimolazione cerebrale non invasive, come la stimolazione transcranica a corrente diretta (transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, tDCS). In tal senso, lo studio dei movimenti oculari può fornire prove dirette sul modo in cui orientiamo la nostra attenzione nello spazio circostante (i.e., attenzione esplicita). Il compito di esplorazione visiva libera (Free Visual Exploration, FVE) è un semplice compito che si avvale della registrazione dei movimenti oculari per rilevare, in condizioni ecologiche, asimmetrie visuospaziali sia negli individui sani che nei pazienti con neglect. Tuttavia, rispetto ad altri paradigmi sperimentali, è carente l’indagine dei fattori che modulano la prestazione al FVE, tra cui: l’influenza di variabili individuali (es. l’età) sulle asimmetrie esplorative, l’associazione con altri compiti comportamentali e, soprattutto, se tali asimmetrie possano essere modulate da stimolazioni transcraniche dei circuiti frontoparietali. Gli esperimenti di questa tesi di dottorato affrontano queste lacune attraverso l’analisi dei movimenti oculari e la modulazione delle relative asimmetrie visuospaziali mediante tDCS. Nello specifico, nello Studio 1, ho studiato le dinamiche temporali della FVE in un campione di 60 giovani adulti e anziani, dimostrando che lo pseudoneglect, la tipica asimmetria attentiva verso sinistra che presentano gli individui sani, è significativamente ridotto con l'aumentare dell'età e correla con la performance in un compito di bisezione di linee, un compito standard per misurare le asimmetrie spaziali. Gli esperimenti dello Studio 2 indagano gli effetti della tDCS anodica sulle dinamiche temporali e le asimmetrie esplorative in un compito di FVE, affrontando alcuni aspetti cruciali relativi alla focalità di stimolazione (utilizzando sia la tDCS sia convenzionale che ad alta definizione), gli effetti differenziali della stimolazione parietale e frontale dell'emisfero destro, nonché la “dipendenza” degli effetti tDCS dallo stato individuale, ovvero l’impatto delle prestazione di baseline sugli effetti della stimolazione. Nel complesso, i risultati degli studi forniscono una nuova caratterizzazione comportamentale e neuromodulatoria dell'orientamento attentivo esplicito nel cervello sano, incoraggiando sia applicazioni future dei compiti di FVE in ambito neuropsicologico sperimentale e clinico, sia ulteriori indagini della complessità della tDCS per la modulazione dei processi visuospaziali. Visuospatial attention and its asymmetries have always attracted great interest: plenty of research has focused on lateralized attentional mechanisms in the healthy brain, the asymmetrical spatial biases following brain lesions (e.g., the neglect syndrome), and the possibility of modulating such asymmetries with non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). In this direction, the study of eye movements can provide direct evidence regarding the way we shift our attention in the surrounding space, i.e., overt attentional processes. The Free Visual Exploration (FVE) task is a simple, ecological, eye-tracking task, shown to reliably detect visuospatial asymmetries both in healthy individuals and patients with neglect. However, compared to other experimental paradigms, the FVE has received little attention as to the factors influencing attentional asymmetries in this task, its relationship with other behavioral paradigms, and, importantly, whether spatial asymmetries during visual field exploration can be modulated by tDCS. The experiments of this doctoral thesis aimed at addressing these issues. Specifically, in Study 1, I investigated the temporal dynamics of FVE in a sample of 60 younger and older adults, showing that pseudoneglect, the typical leftward attentional asymmetry of healthy individuals, in the FVE task is significantly reduced with increasing age and correlates with the performance in a line bisection task, a task most commonly used to assess visuospatial biases. In the experiments of Study 2, I explored the effects of anodal tDCS on the temporal dynamics and exploration asymmetries of FVE, addressing some crucial aspects related to: the stimulation focality (by employing both conventional and High Definition tDCS), differential effects of parietal and frontal stimulations, as well as the state-dependency of the tDCS by considering the impact of baseline performance on tDCS after-effects. Taken together, the results provide a novel behavioral and neuromodulatory characterization of overt attentional orienting in the healthy brain, encouraging future applications of FVE paradigms in clinical and experimental neuropsychological settings, as well as further research into the complexity of tDCS modulation of visuospatial processes.