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Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET), particularly immersive Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (iVRET), has gained attraction as an innovative approach in exposure therapy (ET), notably for some anxiety disorders with a fear of contamination component, such as spider phobia (SP) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). This systematic work investigates iVRET's effectiveness in modulating disgust emotion—a shared aberrant feature across these disorders. Recent reviews have evaluated VRET's efficacy against in vivo ET. However, emerging evidence also highlights iVRET's potential in diminishing atypical disgust and related avoidance behaviors, expanding beyond traditional fear-focused outcomes. Our systematic synthesis, adhering to PRISMA guidelines, aims to fill this gap by assessing iVRET's efficacy in regulating disgust emotion within both clinical and at-risk populations, identified through standardized questionnaires and subjective disgust ratings. This research analyzes data from eight studies on clinical populations and five on healthy populations, offering an insight into iVRET's potential to mitigate the aberrant disgust response, a common transdiagnostic feature in varied psychopathologies. The findings support iVRET's clinical relevance in disgust management, providing evidence for a broader therapeutic application of iVRET and pointing out the need for more focused and complete investigations in this emergent field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: 'Dancing‐like' semiology is extremely rare and described in few case reports. It is characterized by rhythmic, oscillatory movements of the pelvis and/or limbs during which the subject appears to be dancing. It has been associated with both the frontal and temporal epileptic zone; however, the possible network involved in these fascinating seizures is unclear. Methods: The case of a 45‐year‐old woman suffering from drug‐resistant focal epilepsy with multi‐day seizures of bizarre semiology is described. A structural and perfusion magnetic resonance imaging study (interictal and peri‐ictal) and video‐electroencephalograms were carried out, and several home videos were employed. A vagal stimulator was implanted. Results: Home videos documented the 'dancing' semiology of seizures better than video‐ electroencephalogram recordings. The imaging study revealed a focal frontal polymicrogyria with a peri‐ictal cerebral blood flow increase at the perisylvian lesion foci. The combination of add‐on cenobamate and vagal nerve stimulation resulted in complete seizure freedom. Conclusion: The unusual and complex dancing‐like semiology observed during our patient's seizures adds to the repertoire of fascinating complex motor manifestations of frontal lobe epilepsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with acquired brain injuries (ABIs) may experience various complications related to poor coughing or impaired cough reflex (including risk of aspiration pneumonia or respiratory infections). For this reason, cough assessment is an important component in the clinical evaluation since patients with ABI are not able to cough voluntarily due to severe motor deficits. When voluntarily coughing is not possible, it is essential for clinical practices to find a quick and minimally invasive way to induce a cough reflex. In the present study, we evaluated the cough reflex in ABI patients using a new method based on a capsaicin spray stimulation test. In total, 150 healthy controls demographically matched with 50 ABI patients were included in this study. Clinical observations demonstrated robust cough response in both healthy controls and ABI patients, as well as the safety and tolerability of capsaicin spray stimulation. ABI patients with dysphagia were characterized by slower and delayed cough responses. Further studies are needed to validate this feasible, less-invasive, and simple-to-comprehend technique in inducing cough reflex. According to this preliminary evidence, we believe that this test might be translated into a simple and effective treatment to improve reflexive cough modulation in ABI patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pervasiveness of word-finding difficulties in aphasia has motivated several theories regarding management of the deficit and its effectiveness. Recently, the hypothesis was advanced that instead of simply accompanying speech gestures participate in language production by increasing the semantic activation of words grounded in sensory-motor features, hence facilitating retrieval of the word form. Based on this assumption, several studies have developed rehabilitation therapies in which the use of gestures reinforces word recovery. Until now, however, no studies have investigated the beneficial effects of gesture observation in word retrieval. Here, we report whether a different modality of accessing action-motor representation interacts with language by promoting long lasting recovery of verb retrieval deficits in aphasic patients. Six aphasic participants with a selective deficit in verb retrieval participated in an intensive rehabilitation training that included three daily sessions over two consecutive weeks. Each session corresponded to a different rehabilitation procedure: (1) "action observation", (2) "action observation and execution", and (3) "action observation and meaningless movement". In the four participants with lexical phonologically based disturbances, significant improvement of verb retrieval was found only with "action observation" and "action observation and execution". No significant differences were present between the two procedures. Moreover, the follow-up testing revealed long-term verb recovery that was still present two months after the two treatments ended. In support of a multimodal representation of action, these findings univocally demonstrate that gestures interact with the speech production system, inducing long-lasting modification at the lexical level in patients with cerebral damage. (Contains 2 figures and 6 tables.)

We studied spatial stimulus response compatibility in the somatosensory modality by instructing 16 men and 16 women to press a key using the left or the right thumb in response to a nonnoxious electric stimulation delivered either to the left or to the right little finger or, in different blocks, to the left or to the right malleolar region. The task was performed in compatible (stimulus and key-response on the same side of the corporeal midline) and in incompatible conditions (stimulus and key-response on opposite sides of the corporeal midline). In Exp. 1 subjects were tested while keeping their limbs in anatomic position; in Exp. 2 subjects performed the task while keeping the left upper and lower limbs on the right side and the right limbs on the left side of the bodily midline (crossed position). The compatibility effect was observed in both experiments and was higher for stimuli delivered to the little finger than to the malleolar region. This suggests that the cost of inhibiting compatible responses is maximal when stimulated and responding body parts are contiguous. Moreover, in the spatially most demanding task (Exp. 2) men outperformed women for both speed and accuracy suggesting a sex-related specialisation in the spatial processing of somatosensory information.