
Cristiano CrescentiniUniversity of Udine | UNIUD · Department of Languages, Literatures, Communication, Education and Society
Cristiano Crescentini
PhD
University of Udine, Italy
About
115
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
July 2016 - June 2019
Publications
Publications (115)
Explicit self-representations often conflict with implicit and intuitive self-representations, with such discrepancies being seen as a source of psychological tension. Most of previous research on the psychological effects of mindfulness-meditation has assessed people’s self-attitudes at an explicit level, leaving unknown whether mindfulness-medita...
Objectives
This study examined the effects of a 9-month mindfulness teacher training (MTT) program on mindfulness skills, emotion regulation, and psychological well-being among future mindfulness instructors, compared to a control group.
Method
Eighty-seven mindfulness instructors-in-training participated in the MTT program. The control group cons...
Mind wandering (MW) encompasses both a deliberate and a spontaneous disengagement of attention from the immediate external environment to unrelated internal thoughts. Importantly, MW has been suggested to have an inverse relationship with mindfulness, a state of nonjudgmental awareness of present-moment experience. Although they are, respectively,...
Background/Objectives: Compassion Fatigue (CF) is a critical issue among healthcare professionals, exacerbated by exposure to trauma and chronic workplace stress. This pilot study evaluates the effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Oriented Professional Resilience (MOPR) program, a structured intervention designed to mitigate CF and enhance resilience in...
It is increasingly recognized that interoceptive ability, the capacity to detect, interpret, and consciously integrate signals related to the physiological condition of the body, is central to emotion experience and regulation. Interoceptive ability can be trained and improved through mind–body interventions. This article attempts to provide an int...
Chronic pain (CP) affects about 30% of the global population and poses significant challenges to individuals and healthcare systems worldwide. The interactions between physiological, psychological, and social factors are crucial in the onset and development of CP conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interv...
Background/Objectives. Problematic Internet Use (PIU) is a multifaceted syndrome characterized by excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges, or behaviors regarding Internet use leading to significant impairments in daily life and mental health. Previous research has separately related PIU to loneliness and dissociation, both in adults an...
Purpose
Acceptability of mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) in primary school settings seems to represent a critical factor influencing the intervention effects on children’s mental health. This study aims at assessing the acceptability of an MBP delivered through the technique of storytelling, as well as identifying which participants’ personality...
Mind wandering is a ubiquitous part of our normal cognition and daily lives, with people reporting that their mind wanders during 25-50% of their waking hours. Studies suggest that mind wandering shares an inverse relationship with mindfulness skills. Our aim was to expand this evidence directly by investigating the mediating effect among mindfulne...
Various reviews and meta‐analyses have shown the positive effects of mindfulness‐based interventions (MBIs) on the mental health of cancer patients and survivors. Some studies have also investigated the impact of MBIs on physiological markers of health in oncology, but a systematic review has not been conducted in this field. The current paper aims...
Although relatively specific anatomo-electro-clinical features of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with bilateral ictal involvement (bitemporal epilepsy—BTLE) have been described, differentiating between BTLE and unilateral TLE (UTLE) remains challenging. Surgery is often the treatment of choice for drug-resistant UTLE, whereas its use is more controve...
Objectives
Recent meta-analyses suggest that mindfulness meditation may enhance prosocial behavior, while evidence regarding moral behavior is still scarce. We combined a randomized controlled mindfulness training design with an ecologically valid moral decision-making task (Temptation to Lie Card Game; TLCG), in which participants were tempted to...
In recent years, the concepts of cognitive reserve (CR) and brain reserve (BR) have been used to take account of the interindividual variability between cognitive impairment and degree of brain damage occurring in a variety of neurological disorders. These studies, however, have typically not addressed the critical issue of the clinical implication...
Several studies in philosophy, linguistics and neuroscience have tried to define the nature and functions of language. Cybernetics and the mathematical theory of communication have clarified the role and functions of signals, symbols and codes involved in the transmission of information. Linguistics has defined the main characteristics of verbal co...
This perspective article provides an overview of the impact of mindfulness meditation (MM) on social and moral behavior. In mindfulness research, prosocial behavior has been operationalized as helping behavior, altruistic redistribution of funds, reparative behavior, or monetary donation. Studies concerning moral behavior are still scarce. Despite...
BACKGROUND: according to the most updated data children and adolescents are less affected by sars-coV-2 infection , but they may be among the most exposed to the psychosocial consequences of the pandemic. We investigated the immediate psychological consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak in a sample of italian adolescents.
METHODS: an online survey...
The COVID-19 health emergency and restrictive measures have increased psychological
problems, particularly anxiety and depression, in the general population. However, little is known about mental health conditions and the possible risk and protective factors of specific population groups, such as institutionalized vs. community-dwelling elderly. We...
One of the key aspects of traumatization is the "biphasic" response to trauma: alternating hyperarousal and intrusive responses with numbing and constriction (van der Kolk, 1987). Hyperarousal behaviors include "hyperreactivity, explosive aggressive outbursts… and re-enactment of situations reminiscent". The numbing response consists of "emotional...
Background:
Mind-body interventions may support the development of adolescents' self-regulation and provide a protective effect against maladaptive outcomes, e.g., internalizing and externalizing problems. The present study aimed at evaluating the effects of mindfulness-oriented meditation training (MOM) and autogenic training (AT) on a group of h...
Objectives:
We explored the effects of a single 40-min session of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Brainspotting (BSP), and Body Scan Meditation (BSM) in the processing of distressing memories reported by a non-clinical sample of adult participants.
Design:
A within-subject design was used.
Methods:
Participants (n = 40 Ps...
In relation to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, a large body of research has identified a negative impact on individuals' affectivity, frequently documented by increased prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms. For children, this research was less extensive, was mainly based on caregivers' reports and neglected personality assessment. In order...
The chapter begins with a brief description of the evolution of the nervous system in vertebrates, spanning from the least complex life forms to Homo sapiens. In humans the development of the neocortex is driven by the need to live in increasingly complex social groups. The chapter introduces a description of the distinctive features of Homo sapien...
Mindfulness meditation usually takes place as personal, introspective activity. It is not known if this practice activates the brain differently when done alone or with someone else.
Sixteen couples of expert meditators performed mindfulness-oriented meditation (MOM) and instructed mind-wandering (IMW) tasks in two conditions: once sitting in the s...
We propose an innovative approach to study Mind Wandering (MW), and we present an application of this methodology to study the effects of a Mindfulness-Oriented Meditation (MOM) training. We assessed individuals’ MW through a free association task and an attentional task with thought-probes combined with a questionnaire for the phenomenological cha...
Through the practice of Mindfulness Meditation (MM), meditators become familiar with the observation of ongoing spontaneous thoughts, while maintaining an attitude of openness and equanimity. The aim of this systematic review is to present a synthesis of available findings of the short and long-term effects of MM on mind wandering (MW). We included...
We took a group of 40 Psychologists and Medical Doctors, and we studied what happened to their distressing memories if they received a single session treatment among 4 different experimental conditions: two psychotherapeutic techniques (EMDR and Brainspotting), a mindfulness meditation practice (Body Scan) and an active control condition (Book Read...
Dissociation is an involuntary defensive mechanism to protect oneself by avoiding unbearable internal conflicts or overwhelming emotions. Cultivating mindful awareness could allow the development of voluntary processes that can offer part of the self-protective function of dissociation while favoring internal integration processes. The aim of the p...
The present study shows the beneficial effects of mindfulness practice
on non-clinical individuals’ dissociative tendencies, mindfulness skills
and interoceptive awareness. These findings were attributed to a
possible role of mindfulness meditation in enabling the development of
volitional processes that afford psychological safety and integration,...
Due studi condotti dall’Università di Udine su oltre 1000 partecipanti, principalmente del FVG, hanno indagato l’impatto dell’emergenza sanitaria sulla salute mentale dei più giovani e dei genitori, esplorando quali fattori durante il lockdown hanno aumentato il rischio di sviluppare disturbi psicologici e quali hanno contribuito a promuovere la re...
Objective
High incidence of sleep problems in children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been described. Mindfulness meditation has emerged as a novel approach to sleep disturbances and insomnia remediation. This preliminary study tested the efficacy of Mindfulness-Oriented Meditation (MOM) training on sleep q...
Cognitive reserve (CR) theory suggests that individual differences in general intelligence (IQ), occupational attainment or participation in leisure/recreational activities protect against cognitive decline. However the relationship between CR and cognitive functioning in patients with brain tumours has been very rarely investigated in past researc...
Objective
Preliminary findings suggest that different kinds of meditation could work on diverse cognitive and psychological processes. The present study aimed at disentangling the effects of three mindfulness techniques on mental rumination and subjective time perspective. Design: 75 young healthy participants were randomly assigned to one of four...
The Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown have profoundly impacted families’ daily life, challenging their psychological resilience. Our study aimed to investigate the immediate psychological consequences of the pandemic on Italian parents and children focusing on internalizing and post-traumatic symptoms. We also wanted to explore the impa...
Mindfulness-oriented meditation (MOM) is a self-regulatory training used for attentional and behavioral problems. With its focus on attention, MOM is a promising form of training that is gaining empirical support as a complementary or alternative intervention for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this study, we tested the prelimin...
The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent public health measures were shown to impact negatively on people's mental health. In particular, women were reported to be at higher risk than men of developing symptoms of stress/anxiety/depression, and resilience was considered a key factor for positive mental health outcomes. In the present study, a sample of...
Introduction
Adaptive interoceptive awareness has been revealed to be an important factor for mental health. Touch is one of the modalities through which we perceive bodily feelings. In this pilot study, self touch’s role in enhancing interoceptive awareness was investigated. It was tested by means of a Self Body Brushing (SBB) procedure, which ent...
The aim of this article is to present recent applications of emotion regulation theory and methods to the field of psychotherapy. The term Emotion Regulation refers to the neurocognitive mechanisms by which we regulate the onset, strength, and the eventual expression of our emotions. Deficits in the regulation of emotions have been linked to most,...
The 8-week mindfulness meditation (MM) trainings have proven to be helpful for reducing burnout due to work-related stress. Most studies reported these positive effects with evaluations made immediately before and immediately after the therapeutic interventions. Little is known, however, about the symptoms of burnout in the months following these i...
Among a sample of only female school teachers, we compared a mindfulness meditation (MM) training group (n = 19) with a waiting-list control group (n = 20) on several participant-completed questionnaires: the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, the Big Five Personality Inventory, the Teacher Stress Inventory, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Wi...
Objectives: Mindfulness practice can enhance different aspects of attentional functions, such as the ability to sustain the attentional focus over time. However, it is still unclear whether this practice might indeed impact higher cognitive functions, such as control mechanisms that allow the appropriate and flexible allocation of attentional resou...
We propose a theoretical framework that integrates the dynamics of mind wandering and meta-awareness into the practice of mindfulness meditation, referring to the Meta-Awareness Hypothesis (Smallwood, 2013) and to the cycle of cognitive states theorized by Hesenkamp et al. (2012). We present a study that investigates the relationship between mind w...
Emotion regulation plays a crucial role in individuals’ well-being, as it is known that deficits in regulating emotions can lead to psychological and psychiatric diseases. Cognitive reappraisal is widely considered as an adaptive and effective emotion regulation strategy. People are more or less able to apply it, but it is still not clear how reapp...
Le neuroscienze hanno oggi a disposizione strumenti estremamente sofisticati per ottenere immagini anatomiche e funzionali che contribuiscano sia alla comprensione dei fenomeni che determinano le varie patologie, sia a monitorare l’efficacia dei trattamenti farmacologici e psicoterapeutici.
L’obiettivo di questo volume è riunire le competenze di d...
We investigated changes in self-representation depending on language in Friulian–Italian bilinguals. The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and the Junior-TCI were administered respectively to 24 adults and 25 children, both in Friulian and in Italian, at a distance of two weeks from each other. Variations in TCI were detected: both adults a...
Recently, the empirical interest in religiousness and spirituality has grown, showing the association between the activity of a complex network of subcortical and fronto-parietal areas and explicit and implicit religious/spiritual representations. Importantly, while the causal link between parietal stimulation and implicit religiousness/spiritualit...
Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at increased risk of neuropsychological impairments, but few studies are available on the nonlinguistic neuropsychological abilities of children with CHD. We conducted neuropsychological evaluations using the NEPSY II on a cohort of 17 school-age Italian children with diagnoses of Class 1 CHD, no gen...
Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) represent one of the most common types of congenital abnormalities. More than 90% of children with critical heart defects achieve adulthood due to improvements in medical and surgical treatments. Nonetheless, survivors are at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders that may lead also to language impairments. The curre...
The present exploratory study investigated possible relationships between language and personality, attachment styles, and mindfulness disposition. Sixty-three participants were assessed through the Big-Five inventory questionnaire, the Attachment Style Questionnaire, and the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, and then they were asked to look a...
Oculometric measures have been proven to be useful markers of mind-wandering during visual tasks such as reading. However, little is known about ocular activity during mindfulness meditation, a mental practice naturally involving mind-wandering episodes. In order to explore this issue, we extracted closed-eyes ocular movement measurements via a cov...
The study of the origin and evolution of consciousness presents several problems. The first problem concerns terminology. The word consciousness comes from the Latin term conscĭentĭa that means “knowledge shared with others.” However, the term consciousness also refers to several other aspects involving both its levels (sleep, coma, dreams and waki...
Multiple lines of evidence show that mindfulness meditation (MM) improves practitioners’ mental health. To date, most studies have tested the effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBI), which typically combine the practice of mindfulness with in-class psychoeducation and discussions between teacher and practitioners. However, much less is kno...
The present work introduces the neuropsychological paradigm as a new approach to studying ancient literature. In the first part of the article, an epistemological framework for the proper use of neuropsychology in relation to ancient literature is presented. The article then discusses neuropsychological methods of studying different human experienc...
Background
Research on adults points to personality as a crucial determinant of well-being. The present study investigates the question of personality’s relation to well-being and psychosocial adjustment in adolescence.
Methods
We assessed the role of temperament and character (Temperament and Character Inventory, TCI-125), on psychological well-b...
Participants’ raw data concerning personality (TCI-125), well-being (psychological, PWB, and subjective, SWB), and psychosocial adjustment (SDQ-A) self-report measures
Episodic memory is one of the most significant sources of information of humans. It entails cooperative and linguistic skills and, as Mahr & Csibra (M&C) note, the capacity to ground veridical beliefs about the past. In some psychiatric disorders (antisocial personality disorder and conduct disorder), it was found that the habit of lying is associa...
Background:
Varied evidence shows that mindfulness-oriented meditation improves individuals' mental health, positively influencing practitioners' personality profiles as well. A limited number of studies are beginning to show that this type of meditation may also be a helpful therapeutic option for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Methods:...
The aim of the present review is to investigate previous studies concerning the effects of meditation and dispositional mindfulness on conscious and implicit or non-conscious attitudes. First we present a brief perspective on conscious and non-conscious states of mind. Then we introduce the fundamental bases of mindfulness meditation. Third we revi...
In recent years, the concepts of cognitive reserve
(CR) and brain reserve
(BR) have been used to take account of the interindividual variability between cognitive impairment and degree of brain damage occurring in a variety of neurological disorders. These studies, however, have typically not addressed the critical issue of the clinical implication...
Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used as a persuasive technology for attitude and behavior change. This paper considers Terror Management Theory (TMT), one of the notable theories that have not been considered so far in persuasive technology, and aims at exploring its use in VR experiences. First, we show that a VR experience can be used to eff...
La meditazione mindfulness costituisce il settimo passo dell’ottuplice sentiero, un programma psicopedagogico per liberare dal dolore fisico e psichico messo a punto piu di 2500 anni fa da Siddharta Gautama, un principe indiano conosciuto come il Buddha. La mindfulness e stata descritta nel ‘Grande discorso sui fondamenti della presenza mentale’ di...
Mindfulness-based interventions are increasingly being used as methods to promote psychological well-being of clinical and non-clinical adult populations. Much less is known, however, on the feasibility of these forms of mental training on healthy primary school students. Here, we tested the effects of a mindfulness-meditation training on a group o...
Several studies in the literature have shown positive psychophysical effects during or immediately after mindfulness meditation. However, the extent to which such positive effects are maintained in real-life, stressful contexts, remains unclear. This paper investigates the effects of an 8-week mindfulness-oriented meditation (MOM) program on the ps...
The endless scale illusion, obtained by cyclically repeating a chromatic scale made up of Shepard tones, has been used in a variety of musical works. Music psychology and neuroscience has been interested in this particular psychoacoustic phenomenon mainly for studying the cognitive processes of pitch perception involved. In the present study, we in...
Creativity can be defined as the phenomenon of creating something novel and useful (Ding, Tang, Tang, & Posner, 2014). In the past, creativity has been frequently associated with personal characteristics and personality traits. Now there is evidence that there are many different conditions and skills that can influence creative performance. One of...
La presente rassegna mette in luce le evidenze finora ottenute relativamente ai correlati neurali della meditazione e spiritualità umana. In particolare vengono passati in rassegna studi di neuroscienze cognitive relativi a popolazioni eterogenee: dagli esperti in pratiche spirituali e meditative, ai non esperti valutati mediante test di spirituali...
According to Gallup polls, more than 40 percent of Americans report having had a profound religious experience or awakening that changed the direction of their lives. What are the potential mental, spiritual, and even physical benefits of following the call to take a particular path in life? This standout book addresses the full range of calling ex...
Although religiousness and spirituality (RS) are considered two fundamental constituents of human life, neuroscientific investigation has long avoided the study of their neurocognitive basis. Nevertheless, recent investigations with brain imaging and brain damaged patients, and more recently with brain stimulation methods, have documented important...
The scientific interest on mindfulness meditation (MM) has significantly increased in the last two decades probably because of the positive health effects that this practice exerts in a great variety of clinical and non-clinical conditions. Despite attention regulation, emotional regulation, and body awareness have been argued to be critical mechan...
ABSTRACT The study of personality is critical to enhance our knowledge of the psychological characteristics of alcohol dependence (AD). Recent evidence shows that mindfulness-oriented meditation (MOM) positively influences healthy individuals' character. Here we assessed whether 8-week MOM promotes similar changes in a group of alcohol-dependent in...
This unique book is an essential resource for interdisciplinary research and scholarship on the phenomenon of feeling called to a life path or vocation at the interface of science and religion. According to Gallup polls, more than 40 percent of Americans report having had a profound religious experience or awakening that changed the direction of th...
This contribution aims to illustrate Claudio Naranjo's approach to meditation from the point of view of modern cognitive neuroscience and psychology. After a short historical introduction on meditation, we briefly describe the main forms of meditation and the psychological and neurobiological effects of mindfulness meditation. The contribution cont...
Purpose:
Cognitive impairment is one of the most disabling symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), affecting a large proportion of patients and having a severe impact on their quality of life. Nevertheless, there exists a large variability in the neuropsychological profiles of MS patients and some of them appear to withstand better than others the MS...