Marcello Gallucci

Publications (33) View all

• Article: Exploring the effects of ecological activities during exposure to optical prisms in healthy individuals.

  Paola Fortis, Roberta Ronchi, Elena Calzolari, Marcello Gallucci, Giuseppe Vallar
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  ABSTRACT: Prism adaptation improves a wide range of manifestations of left spatial neglect in right-brain-damaged patients. The typical paradigm consists in repeated pointing movements to visual targets, while patients wear prism goggles that displace the visual scene rightwards. Recently, we demonstrated the efficacy of a novel adaptation procedure, involving a variety of every-day visuo-motor activities. This "ecological" procedure proved to be as effective as the repetitive pointing adaptation task in ameliorating symptoms of spatial neglect, and was better tolerated by patients. However, the absence of adaptation and aftereffects measures for the ecological treatment did not allow for a full comparison of the two procedures. This is important in the light of recent findings showing that the magnitude of prism-induced aftereffects may predict recovery from spatial neglect. Here, we investigated prism-induced adaptation and aftereffects after ecological and pointing adaptation procedures. Forty-eight neurologically healthy participants (young and aged groups) were exposed to rightward shifting prisms while they performed the ecological or the pointing procedures, in separate days. Before and after prism exposure, participants performed proprioceptive, visual, and visual-proprioceptive tasks to assess prism-induced aftereffects. Participants adapted to the prisms during both procedures. Importantly, the ecological procedure induced greater aftereffects in the proprioceptive task (for both the young and the aged groups) and in the visual-proprioceptive task (young group). A similar trend was found for the visual task in both groups. Finally, participants rated the ecological procedure as more pleasant, less monotonous, and more sustainable than the pointing procedure. These results qualify ecological visuo-motor activities as an effective prism-adaptation procedure, suitable for the rehabilitation of spatial neglect.
  Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 01/2013; 7:29. · 2.34 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: Marcello Gallucci

  Article: Looking for a simple big five factorial structure in the domain of adjectives.

  Marco Perugini, Marcello Gallucci, Stefano Livi
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  ABSTRACT: The Big Five factors structure is currently the benchmark for personality dimensions. In the domain of adjectives, various instruments have been developed to measure the Big Five. In this contribution the authors propose a methodology to find a simple factorial structure and apply this methodology to the domain of Big Five as measured by adjectives. Using data collected on a sample of 337 Ss (mean age 21.69 yrs), a five-factor benchmark structure is proposed derived from the 50 best marker adjectives selected among the adjectives contained in three instruments specifically developed to measure the Big Five (i.e., L. R. Goldberg's 100 adjectives list, IASR-B5, and SACBIF (1992)). They use this common factor structure (or benchmark structure) to investigate the differences and the similarities between the three operationalizations of the Big Five, and to investigate the placements of the full set of adjectives contained in the three instruments. The main features of the proposed methodology and the generalizability of the obtained results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
  European Journal of Psychological Assessment 10/2012; 16(2):87-97. · 2.53 Impact Factor
• Article: Adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury: the effects of personality traits, family relationships and maltreatment on the presence and severity of behaviours.

  Rossella Di Pierro, Irene Sarno, Sara Perego, Marcello Gallucci, Fabio Madeddu
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  ABSTRACT: Personality traits, family environment and maltreatment episodes are often associated with nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI); however, research on these associations has shown mixed results. The aim of the present study was to clarify the effects of these factors on the presence and the severity of NSSI among a sample of Italian students who attended secondary schools (N = 267, mean age = 17.03 SD = 0.866). The results showed that personality traits, family environment and maltreatment differently predicted the presence and the severity of NSSI. Self-injurers were more impulsive and aggressive than non-self-injurers and reported poorer relationship quality with their mothers and more sexual and physical abuse episodes than non-self-injurers. Conversely, the frequency of NSSI behaviours was predicted by the presence of less impulsiveness, more anxiety and aggressiveness, poorer relationship quality with both parents and a lower degree of identification with the father. Finally, more frequent self-injurers also reported more sexual abuses and neglect episodes than less frequent self-injurers.
  European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 06/2012; 21(9):511-20. · 2.82 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: Hans IJzerman

  Article: Cold-blooded loneliness: social exclusion leads to lower skin temperatures.

  Hans Ijzerman, Marcello Gallucci, Wim T J L Pouw, Sophia C Weiβgerber, Niels J Van Doesum, Kipling D Williams
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  ABSTRACT: Being ostracized or excluded, even briefly and by strangers, is painful and threatens fundamental needs. Recent work by Zhong and Leonardelli (2008) found that excluded individuals perceive the room as cooler and that they desire warmer drinks. A perspective that many rely on in embodiment is the theoretical idea that people use metaphorical associations to understand social exclusion (see Landau, Meier, & Keefer, 2010). We suggest that people feel colder because they are colder. The results strongly support the idea that more complex metaphorical understandings of social relations are scaffolded onto literal changes in bodily temperature: Being excluded in an online ball tossing game leads to lower finger temperatures (Study 1), while the negative affect typically experienced after such social exclusion is alleviated after holding a cup of warm tea (Study 2). The authors discuss further implications for the interaction between body and social relations specifically, and for basic and cognitive systems in general.
  Acta psychologica 06/2012; 140(3):283-8. · 2.19 Impact Factor
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  Available from: Costanza Papagno

  Article: Measuring clinical outcomes in neuro-oncology. A battery to evaluate low-grade gliomas (LGG).

  Costanza Papagno, Alessandra Casarotti, Alessandro Comi, Marcello Gallucci, Marco Riva, Lorenzo Bello
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  ABSTRACT: We describe how a neuropsychological evaluation in patients with brain tumors should be performed, specifically in the case of low-grade gliomas. Neuropsychological examination is crucial before starting any treatment as well as during the follow-up, since it can improve neurosurgery techniques and reveal potential cognitive effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, besides planning rehabilitation. We underline that sensitive and wide-ranging tests are required; specific tasks based on the lesion site should be added. Moreover, some tests can provide additional information about the evolution of the tumor. A careful, thorough examination improves quality of life.
  Journal of Neuro-Oncology 02/2012; 108(2):269-75. · 3.21 Impact Factor