Federica Impellizzeri

• University of Messina

Touch, particularly affective touch mediated by C-tactile fibers, plays a key role in emotional regulation and therapeutic interventions. However, tactile stimulation is underutilized in sensory stimulation (SS) protocols for brain injury patients, despite its potential to enhance consciousness and promote recovery through neural and autonomic regu...

Background: Pathological gambling (PG) is a significant non-motor complication in Parkinson’s disease (PD), often linked to dopaminergic therapies. PG impacts the quality of life of patients and their families, presenting unique challenges due to its interplay with motor symptoms and cognitive impairments in PD. This scoping review synthesized curr...

Background Neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) encompass a diverse range of disorders that impair muscle function, often leading to progressive weakness and loss of independence. Objective This systematic review aims to synthesize research on how virtual reality (VR) and gamified rehabilitation approaches enhance patient engagement and outcomes, ultimat...

Background and aim. While conventional MS rehabilitation primarily addresses physical 23 and cognitive symptoms, recent advances in VR technology offer immersive environments that fa-24 cilitate both emotional and cognitive skill development. However still little is known about gender 25 specific effects of virtual reality (VR)-based training on em...

Background and aim: While conventional MS rehabilitation primarily addresses physical and cognitive symptoms, recent advances in VR technology offer immersive environments that facilitate both emotional and cognitive skill development. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of VR-based training on emotional self-efficacy in multiple sc...

Background and Objectives: Meditation and mindfulness, rooted in ancient traditions, enhance mental well-being by cultivating awareness and emotional control. It has been shown to induce neuroplasticity, increase cortical thickness, reduce amygdala reactivity, and improve brain connectivity and neurotransmitter levels, leading to improved emotional...

Background and Objectives: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive therapeutic method that modulates cortical excitability and shows promising results for treating disorders of consciousness (DoCs). Robotic verticalization training (RVT) has been shown to enhance motor and cognitive recovery. This study evaluates the effect...

Introduction Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder, leading to motor and non-motor symptoms, including deficits in executive functions (EF), memory, visuospatial abilities, and psychomotor speed. Current treatments are primarily symptomatic, involving pharmacological, surgical strategies. Neurologic Mus...

Background In recent years, innovative interactive technologies, such as virtual reality, have emerged as a valuable approach in the rehabilitation of aphasia. Indeed, they offer the opportunity to practice activities that are not or cannot be usually carried out within the clinical environment, and that are aimed at increasing cognitive and motor...

Introduction and objective: This pilot study aimed to evaluate whether and to what extent cybersickness (CS) may affect a rehabilitation program using the Computer-assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN), a virtual reality (VR) computer-assisted device for clinical rehabilitation. Methods: The study was carried out on 30 subjects, 15 patient...

Personality is an important variable when explaining individual differences in disease acceptance, coping styles and psychological well-being. Personality changes, such as social inadequacy, disinhibition, apathy, emotional lability, and impulsivity, have been reported in many patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). This review sought to assess the...

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease, affecting both the sensorimotor and cognitive systems. The typical pattern of cognitive impairment includes reduced speed of information processing, decreased phonological and semantic speech fluency, deficits in verbal and visual episodic memory, as well as attention and executive dy...

Purpose: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common age-related neurodegenerative disorder, presenting not only with motor symptoms (resting tremor, bradykinesia, and muscular rigidity), but also with cognitive and behavioral problems that need to be addressed in a rehabilitation setting. Aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of a co...

The Red Nucleus (RN) is a large nucleus located in the ventral midbrain: it is subdivided into a small caudal magnocellular part (mRN) and a large rostral parvocellular part (pRN). These distinct structural regions are part of functionally different networks and show distinctive connectivity features: the mRN is connected to the interposed nucleus,...

Background