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Background: Plant-based diets have spread widely in the general population and among athletes too, both for well-documented health benefits and for eco-sustainability and ethical concerns. Despite appropriate nutrition is essential for satisfying training, performance, and recovery needs in athletes, little is known about the effects of plant-based diets on body composition in athletes. Appropriate training and nourishment strategies are a daily priority to arrive at victory and achieving an optimal body composition helps achieve success. Our study aimed to shed light on the adequacy of a vegetarian or vegan diet on the body composition of the athlete, in comparison with an omnivorous diet. In particular, we had tried to clarify the effects of well-structured plant-based nutrition in competitive athletes, who, previously, had never followed a diet under specialist supervision. Methods: The groups were followed for 8 months and subjected to a well-planned diet under medical supervision. Anthropometric parameters and body composition evaluation through Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) were performed in each participant. Results: All subjects, especially vegans, showed an improvement in cellular efficiency, muscle mass, and a re-distribution of body water thanks to a better distribution of macronutrients with dietary plans. These changes demonstrate improvement in the athlete's body composition thanks to well-structured plant-based diets that meet the nutrient requirements, without a change in physical training, especially in vegan athletes. Conclusions: The administration of well-structured dietetic schemes for each group has reduced the differences between omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans, underling their more difficult autonomous management and the important role of the nutrition specialist. Given the evidence collected, we demonstrate that plant-based diets are sustainable for athletes and that the role of nutritionist is central to sports and food choices to achieve an optimal body composition.

Objective: Disorders of body representation are reported in bulimia nervosa. Body representation is given by the integration and synthesis of multiple sensory inputs, which include proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile and visual information. The present study aimed to investigate whether a disorder of proprioceptive processing could be observed in bulimia nervosa. Methods: Bulimic patients and healthy participants were asked to remember the location of proprioceptive presented targets. We measured constant, variable and absolute distance and direction errors. Results: Results showed an increase of variable distance and direction errors, and absolute direction error, in bulimic patients with respect to healthy participants. Conclusions: The reduced efficiency in storing of proprioceptive information could contribute to the disorder of body representation in bulimia nervosa.

Selectivity and coherence are necessary for effective action. We must be able to plan and execute actions selectively directed to relevant stimuli, while preventing the distractors affording a variety of actions from interfering with our movements. These operations have been conceptualized as attentional filtering processes, that is, processes enhancing the relevant stimuli and/or attenuating competing distractors. This review examines the existing experimental evidence for neural mechanisms involved in attentional filtering processes.

Asymmetries of visuospatial attention has long been described in hemispatial neglect, a neurological syndrome in which brain damaged patients fail to acknowledge or explore stimuli presented to the contralesional side of space. Asymmetries for spatial attention were also investigated in schizophrenia. In this review, we report the researches that, using tasks selectively employed to study visuospatial processing in neglect patients, demonstrated hemineglect-like behaviour in schizophrenia. Intriguingly, these studies produced mixed evidence. Some researches found biases towards the left hemispace suggesting a right hemineglect, others towards the right hemispace suggesting a left hemineglect. We examine the possible factors that may have contributed in producing these conflicting findings.

Caffeine is one of the most widely consumed psychoactive drug worldwide. Caffeine has well-known short-term stimulating effects on central nervous system, and possibly long-term protective effects against neuro-degeneration. This view is supported by epidemiological studies that revealed an inverse association between the chronic consumption of caffeine and the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's diseases. The putative protective effects of caffeine intake against Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are of great interest since they open possibilities for prevention or postponing the onset of disease. This review presents the existing experimental evidence for neuroprotective effects of caffeine in cognition and the mechanisms by which it affects cognitive decline and pathologic changes in neurodegenerative diseases

Caffeine is the most commonly consumed psychoactive stimulant in the world. Caffeine is often found to enhance vigilance, alertness and performance in sustained attention tasks for extended periods. It has been implicated in the enhancement of certain higher-order cognitive processes, such as those involved in the active monitoring and coordination of behavior. Caffeine influences also performance in real-life motor tasks, such as handwriting, and in simulated-motor tasks, such as driving. Although the positive effects of caffeine are well documented, controversy surrounds the relationship between regular consumption of caffeine and its beneficial effects.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common chronic neurodegenerative disease clinically characterized by a progressive impairment of cognitive function. The neurochemical parameter best correlated with cognitive dysfunction is the level of soluble β-amyloid peptide. Experimental evidence suggests that caffeine afford a robust protection against β-amyloid peptide toxicity. We discuss the mechanisms through which caffeine prevents cerebral β-amyloid peptide toxicity.

Alzheimer's disease is a debilitating form of dementia which currently affects at least 30 million people worldwide. For many decades, the prevailing hypothesis on the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease has involved the gradual buildup of β-amyloid plaques in the brain. Recent evidence suggests that soluble oligomers assemblies of β-amyloid are neurotoxic and responsible for the synaptic and memory dysfunction. Herein, we review the main researches on the mechanisms through which β-amyloid oligomers exert their toxic action.

The aim of this study has been to investigate the dissociative phenomena and the difficulties related to perceive, understand and describe the proper ones and other people's emotional states in a sample of 53 patients with Eating Disorders. The recruited sample is made by 14 Anorexia Nervosa (AN) patients, 15 with Bulimia Nervosa (BN), 12 with Eating Disorder Non Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) and 12 with Binge Eating Disorder (BED). To all subjects was administred the Eating Disorder Inventory-2, the Dissociative Experiences Scale and the Scala Alessitimica Romana. In according with literature, we confirme the relationships among Eating Disorders, the dissociative phenomena and Alexithymia.

Aging is associated with a redistribution of both fat and lean tissue within the body. There are distinct sex-dependent differences in the regional fat distribution. Women carry more fat subcutaneously whereas men carry more fat viscerally. During menopause, not only are there hormonal changes, but they also directly affect the distribution of subcutaneous fat and influence energy balance. Leptin and estrogen are both involved in the regulation of adipose tissue deposition and feeding behavior. The purpose of this review is: 1) to identify factors influencing circulating leptin in postmenopausal women; 2) to determine whether hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) influences serum leptin after adjusting for confounding factors; 3) to identify potential independent effects of HRT or leptin on resting energy expenditure (REE).

Decreased upper-extremity/visuomotor abilities are frequently encountered in healthy aging. However, few studies have assessed hand movements in the prodromal stage of dementia. The evaluation of visuomotor skills in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (PwMCI) may have non-negligible clinical relevance both in diagnostic and prognostic terms, given the strong relationships with executive functioning and functional autonomies. In the present review paper, these issues will be disclosed by describing general pathophysiological and neuropsychological mechanisms responsible for visuomotor deficits, and by reporting the available experimental results on differences in visuomotor functioning between PwMCI, healthy controls and/or patients with dementia. Moreover, the relationships binding visuomotor and executive domains to functional autonomies will be then addressed. Finally, we will propose insights for future research.

Objective: The Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) is a neuropsychological tool largely used to assess executive functions. Prior studies found a marked ceiling effect for the prehension behavior subtest (PBT) in healthy and clinical populations. Aims of the present study were (i) to examine the psychometric properties of the FAB without the contribution of PBT and (ii) to provide normative data for a revised version of the FAB after exclusion of PBT (FAB15). Methods: The normative sample included 1,187 healthy participants. PBT had near-zero variance, poor content validity, and no discrimination power. Internal consistency increased when PBT was excluded. We assessed the FAB15 factorial structure, interrater, and test–retest reliabilities. Normative data for the FAB15 were extracted through a regression-based procedure according to sex, age, and education. Results: The principal component analysis revealed a single “executive factor” or alternatively a bifactorial solution reflecting the different degree of discriminative capability vs. difficulty of the subtests. The FAB15 demonstrated excellent interrater and test–retest reliabilities. Regression analysis showed that sex (lowly educated women < lowly educated men), higher age, and lower education affected FAB15 score. Accordingly, three grids for adjustment of raw scores (men, women, and both) were constructed. The cut-off was fixed at the non-parametric outer tolerance limit on the fifth centile (9.36, 95% CI). Conclusion: The observation of a ceiling effect in healthy subjects makes PBT not suitable for inclusion in a neuropsychological battery. The FAB15 may successfully replace the conventional FAB as a more severe and valid short screening tool to assess executive functioning.

The exposure to relevant social and/or historical events can increase the generation of false memories (FMs). The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a calamity challenging health, political, and journalistic bodies, with media generating confusion that has facilitated the spread of fake news. In this respect, our study aims at investigating the relationships between memories (true memories, TMs vs. FMs) for COVID-19-related news and different individual variables (i.e., use of traditional and social media, COVID-19 perceived and objective knowledge, fear of the disease, depression and anxiety symptoms, reasoning skills, and coping mechanisms). One hundred and seventy-one university students (131 females) were surveyed. Overall, our results suggested that depression and anxiety symptoms, reasoning skills, and coping mechanisms did not affect the formation of FMs. Conversely, the fear of loved ones contracting the infection was found to be negatively associated with FMs. This finding might be due to an empathy/prosociality-based positive bias boosting memory abilities, also explained by the young age of participants. Furthermore, objective knowledge (i) predicted an increase in TMs and decrease in FMs and (ii) significantly mediated the relationships between the use of social media and development of both TMs and FMs. In particular, higher levels of objective knowledge strengthened the formation of TMs and decreased the development of FMs following use of social media. These results may lead to reconsidering the idea of social media as the main source of fake news. This claim is further supported by either the lack of substantial differences between the use of traditional and social media among participants reporting FMs or the positive association between use of social media and levels of objective knowledge. The knowledge about the topic rather than the type of source would make a difference in the process of memory formation.

It is widely acknowledged that obesity is a growing public clinical issue involving both physical and psychological well-being. Nevertheless, the relationship between psychological features and weight gain is still unclear. Although emotional eating (EE) and personality traits are considered significant predictors of eating disorders, their role in obesity without eating disorders (OB-wed) is far from proven. The present study aimed at investigating the cumulative effect of EE and personality traits on overeating behavior in a sample of 266 university students (169 female, mean age = 21.85, SD = 2.39) stratified based on their body mass index (BMI, normal weight, overweight, obese). They were enrolled during free screening days promoted by the Human Dietetic and Sport Service of a Southern Italian university. The results show a psychological pattern of increasing overeating behavior and lower Self-Directedness combined with higher Sadness and Anger. However, OB-wed subjects overate regardless of this emotional/personological configuration.

Background: The clock-drawing test (CDT) is a neuropsychological screening tool largely used to explore cognitive functioning. It requires participants to draw an analog clock face. Many studies have reported a good correlation between the CDT and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The CDT has also showed a variable specificity. There are, however, some inconsistencies concerning the effect of sociodemographic variables (sex, age, education) on clock-drawing abilities. The present study aimed at examining these issues in a sample of middle-aged/young-old healthy adults. Method: Participants (n = 97) performed the MMSE and CDT. Clock drawings were assessed by five formal scoring systems (Wolf-Klein, Watson, Freedman, Manos, Shulman). In addition, three naïve raters provided a dichotomous judgment (normal vs. abnormal) for each clock. Results: Sociodemographic variables did not affect CDT performance. Unlike earlier studies, CDT scores did not correlate with MMSE. Moreover, test specificity was appropriate only for Freedman’s, Shulman’s, and Wolf-Klein’s methods. Interestingly, some participants drew clocks with numbers as they appear in digital clocks. By re-running the statistical analyses after removing these atypical clocks, four out of the five formal scores showed a significant correlation with MMSE; furthermore, CDT specificity slightly increased for all scoring systems including naïve ratings. Conclusions: CDT is not affected by sociodemographic variables. The finding of some clocks with digitally represented numbers suggests the need to align neuropsychological assessments with demands from an increasing digitalized environment. Moreover, the occurrence of high false-positives and possible digital contaminations suggest great caution in interpreting the clinical significance of CDT.