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Introduction: Motor Conversion Disorders (also called Functional Movement Disorders, FMD) are a group of neuropsychiatric conditions characterized by neurological symptoms of altered voluntary motor function that cannot be explained by typical neurological diseases or other medical conditions. In the last decade, several hypotheses have been formulated with respect to their pathophysiology, and a major line of research, trying to integrate psychological, cognitive, and neurobiological factors, focused on the subjective experience that patients feel of their own bodies. However, no study has, so far, directly investigated their Body Schema (the implicit sensorimotor representation of one's own body) and its plasticity. Objectives: To investigate the Body Schema in patients with FMD through a paradigm specifically designed to assess their perceived body metrics, through a spatial estimation of body parts length, and to compare their results with the ones obtain on a group of healthy control subjects (HC) Methods: 10 patients with FMD and 11 HC underwent the Forearm Bisection Task, aimed at assessing perceived body metrics, which consists in asking the subject, blindfolded, to repeatedly point at the perceived middle point of their dominant forearm with the index finger of their contralateral hand, and a psychometric assessment for anxiety, depression, alexithymia, and tendency to dissociation. Results: FMD patients bisected their forearm more proximally (with an increased shift towards their elbow equal to 7.5%) with respect to HC; average bisection point was positively associated with anxiety levels in the whole sample, and with the tendency to dissociation in the FMD group. Conclusions: FMD patients seem to perceive their forearm as shorter than HC do, which might suggest an alteration of their Body Schema. The Body Schema can go through short- and long-term plastic changes in the life course, mainly related to the use of each body segment; we speculate that, despite FMD being a disorder of functional nature, characterized by variability and fluctuations in symptomatology, the lack of sense of agency over a body part might be interpreted by the nervous system as disuse and hence influence the Body Schema, as deficits of organic aetiology do. Disclosure of Interest: None Declared [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To explore potential alterations of the Body Schema, the implicit sensorimotor representation of one's own body, in patients with Functional Movement Disorders (FMD, Motor Conversion Disorders), characterized by neurological symptoms of altered voluntary motor function that cannot be explained by typical medical conditions. This investigation is prompted by the potential dissociation from their reportedly intact sense of ownership., Methods: 10 FMD patients and 11 healthy controls (HC) underwent the Forearm Bisection Task, aimed at assessing perceived body metrics, which consists in asking the subject, blindfolded, to repeatedly point at the perceived middle point of their dominant forearm with the index finger of their contralateral hand, and a psychometric assessment for anxiety, depression, alexithymia, and tendency to dissociation., Results: FMD patients bisected their forearm more proximally (with an increased shift towards their elbow equal to 7.5%) with respect to HC; average bisection point was positively associated with anxiety levels in the whole sample, and with the tendency to dissociation in the FMD group., Conclusions: FMD patients perceive their forearm as shorter than HC, suggesting an alteration of their Body Schema. The Body Schema can go through short- and long-term updates in the life course, mainly related to the use of each body segment; we speculate that, despite FMD being a disorder of functional nature, characterized by variability and fluctuations in symptomatology, the lack of sense of agency over a body part might be interpreted by the nervous system as disuse and hence influence the Body Schema, as deficits of organic etiology do., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest none., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

There is still an evident need for selective and stable ligands able to separate actinide(III) from lanthanide(III) metal ions in view of the treatment of the accumulated radioactive waste and of the recycling of minor actinides. We have herein demonstrated that hydrophilic 2,6-bis-triazolyl-pyridines are able to strip all actinides in all the different oxidation states from a diglycolamide-containing kerosene solution into an acidic aqueous phase. The ascertained high actinide selectivity, efficiency, extraction kinetics, and chemical/radiolytic stability spotlight this hydrophilic class of ligands as exceptional candidates for advanced separation processes fundamental for closing the nuclear fuel cycle and solving the environmental issues related to the management of existing nuclear waste.

Four lipophilic 1,10-phenanthroline di(thio)amide, diester or diketone derivatives were studied as ligands for Am(III)/Eu(III) separation from acidic media. The synthesis of these compounds is reported together with the extraction tests in different solvents (kerosene, octanol and o-nitrophenyl hexyl ether), HNO3 concentrations and ratios between the ligand and the synergistic agent (Br-Cosan). The promising results obtained from the large number of solvent extraction tests carried out show that it might be possible to apply this class of ligands to advanced reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. The experimental data indicate that, under the conditions that simulate the real radioactive waste, the extraction efficiency and Am/Eu separation factors are particularly high, thus suggesting that the combination of soft heterocyclic N-donor atoms and hard carbonyl groups of ester and amides affords a tetradentate donor set of atoms (ONNO) that gives rise to remarkable selectivities. ESI-MS studies and DFT calculations shed light on the possible structure of the Eu(3+) complexes indicating that the 1 : 1 : 2 (cation : ligand : anion) complex is slightly more stable than the 1 : 2 : 1 species.