Laura Mandolesi

• Professor of General Psychology
• Full Professor at University of Naples Federico II

Background/Objectives: This study investigates how age and cognitive status relate to lower limb coordination during gait, using a network-based analysis of joint kinematics. Methods: Fifty-six healthy participants underwent gait analysis with a stereophotogrammetric system and cognitive assessment through standardized neuropsychological tests. Kin...

Background Physical activity (PA) significantly impacts brain function and counteracts age-related changes in cognitive and motor abilities. Methods This pilot study delved into exploring the cognitive benefits of PA in older adults, focusing on their fluency abilities. We assessed verbal and graphic fluency in 45 older participants (mean age = 68...

Background/Objectives: Adolescence is a crucial developmental stage characterized by significant psychological and emotional changes. Within the school context, academic self-efficacy (ASE) influences students’ emotional well-being, including positive and negative affective states. Research has shown that both ASE and emotional well-being are assoc...

Sensory habituation allows us to decrease responsiveness to repetitive or prolonged stimuli over time, making them easy to filter out and not interfere with ongoing activities. As such, habituation could be an important aspect to be evaluated within a sensory and cognitive assessment. The main aim of the present study was to validate an Italian ver...

Personality can be considered a system characterized by complex dynamics that are extremely adaptive depending on continuous interactions with the environment and situations. The present preliminary study explores the dynamic interplay between brain flexibility and personality by taking the dynamic approach to personality into account, thereby draw...

Background Regular physical activity has consistently shown promise in improving cognitive functioning among children. However, there is a shortage of comprehensive studies that delve into these benefits across various cognitive domains. This preliminary investigation aimed to discern potential disparities in cognitive performance between active an...

This study examined the stability of the functional connectome (FC) over time using fingerprint analysis in healthy subjects. Additionally, it investigated how a specific stressor, namely sleep deprivation, affects individuals’ differentiation. To this aim, 23 healthy young adults underwent magnetoencephalography (MEG) recording at three equally sp...

Evidence in the literature indicates that aerobic physical activity may have a protective role in aging pathologies. However, it has not been clarified whether different types of aerobic exercise produce different effects. In particular, these potential differences have not been explored in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The present narrat...

Recent evidence has shown a relationship between physical exercise (PE) and cognitive functioning. However, it is unknown if unimodal and multimodal modalities of PE affect cognitive abilities in different ways. To fill this gap, we analyzed the effects of unimodal PE (running) and multi-modal PE (Tai Chi) on specific cognitive abilities. A sample...

Evidence has shown that imagining a complex action, like backward-walking, helps improve the execution of the gesture. Despite this, studies in sport psychology have provided heterogeneous results on the use of motor imagery (MI) to improve performance. We aimed to fill this gap by analyzing how sport experience influences backward-walking MI proce...

Purpose Interoceptive awareness refers to how one perceives its internal bodily sensations, and it has been associated with the ability to recognize, describe and regulate emotions. Physical activity (PA) has been demonstrated to have tremendous benefits for emotional well-being, but few studies have investigated how PA could moderate interoceptive...

Evidence has shown that imagining a complex action, like backward walking, helps improve the execution of the gesture. Despite this, studies in sport psychology have provided heterogeneous results on the use of motor imagery (MI) to improve performance. We aimed at filling this gap, by analyzing how sport experience influences backward MI processes...

(1) Background: Several findings have shown how social stimuli can influence attentional processes. Social attention is crucial in team ball sports, in which players have to react to dynamically changing, unpredictable, and externally paced environments. Our study aimed at demonstrating the influence of social processing on team ball sports athlete...

The study of the development of visuospatial memory processes is useful for devising personalized educational interventions as well as for understanding the changes in cognitive functioning in an era characterized by technological progress. The present research is aimed at investigating spatial working memory ability in children that attended the f...

Several previous subjective- or interview-based reports indicated a reduced sleep quality and quantity as well as a great incidence of insomnia troubles in prisoners living in jail. The aim of the present study is to assess the quality and quantity of sleep by using, for the first time, actigraphy. A total of thirty male prisoners and thirty male c...

In the brain and cognitive reserves framework, aerobic exercise is considered as a protective lifestyle factor able to induce positive effects on both brain structure and function. However, specific aspects of such a beneficial effect still need to be completely clarified. To this aim, the present narrative review focused on the potential brain/cog...

Motor imagery (MI) describes a dynamic cognitive process where a movement is mentally simulated without taking place and holds potential as a means of stimulating motor learning and regaining motor skills. There is growing evidence that imagined and executed actions have common neural circuitry. Since MI counteracts cognitive and motor decline, a g...

Sensory processing disorders (SPDs) can be described as difficulty detecting, modulating, interpreting, and/or responding to sensory experiences. Because SPDs occur in many individuals with autism spectrum disorder and in other populations with neurodevelopmental disorders, it is important to distinguish between typical and atypical functioning in...

Several studies have shown that physical exercise (PE) improves behavior and cognitive functioning, reducing the risk of various neurological diseases, protecting the brain from the detrimental effects of aging, facilitating body recovery after injuries, and enhancing self-efficacy and self-esteem. Emotion processing and regulation abilities are al...

The analysis of sequences of words and prosody, meter, and rhythm provided in an interview addressing the capacity to identify and describe emotions represents a powerful tool to reveal emotional processing. The ability to express and identify emotions was analyzed by means of the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA), and TSIA transc...

Background: This study aimed to investigate differences in adolescents' social relationships with classmates of diverse gender, socioeconomic status, immigrant background, and academic achievement. Methods: A population of 10th-grade students (N = 406,783; males = 50.3%; Mage = 15.57 years, SDage = 0.75) completed the Classmates Social Isolation...

Curiosity benefits memory for target information and may also benefit memory for incidental information presented during curiosity states. However, it is not known whether incidental curiosity-enhanced memory depends on or is affected by the valence of the incidental information during curiosity states. Here, older and younger participants incident...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by functional connectivity alterations in both motor and extra-motor brain regions. Within the framework of network analysis, fingerprinting represents a reliable approach to assess subject-specific connectivity features within a given population (healthy or diseased)....

Personality neuroscience is focusing on the correlation between individual differences and the efficiency of large‐scale networks from the perspective of the brain as an interconnected network. A suitable technique to explore this relationship is the magnetoencephalography (MEG), but not many MEG studies are aimed at investigating topological prope...

Executive functions and emotional processes follow a time-dependent development that reflects the brain’s anatomo-functional maturation. Though the assessment of these cognitive functions is largely examined, in children the role of emotions in the mental set-shifting is still rarely investigated. The aim of this study was to assess how attention s...

We have previously evidenced that Mindfulness Meditation (MM) in experienced meditators (EMs) is associated with long-lasting topological changes in resting state condition. However, what occurs during the meditative phase is still debated. Utilizing magnetoencephalography (MEG), the present study is aimed at comparing the topological features of t...

Virtual Reality (VR) emerges as a promising technology capable of creating different scenarios in which the body, environment, and brain are closely related, proving enhancements in the diagnosis and treatment of several spatial memory deficits. In recent years, human spatial navigation has increasingly been studied in interactive virtual environme...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by functional connectivity alterations in both motor and extra-motor brain regions. In network analysis, fingerprint represent a valid approach able to assess the subject-specific connectivity features of a given population. Here, we applied the Clinical Connectome Fin...

Moral reasoning and consequent decision making are central in the everyday life of all people, independent of their profession. It is undoubtedly crucial in the so-called “helping professions”, when the professional through his/her decisions can support or not support others. Our study aimed to investigate whether academic training can play an esse...

Spatial exploration requires a synergy of different cognitive abilities. The assessment of declarative and procedural competencies allows to design and schedule effective intervention strategies addressing the recovery of specific impaired cognitive domains. In recent years, digital technologies have been widely used to implement psychological asse...

The efficacy of rhythmic acoustic stimulation (RAS) to improve gait and balance in healthy elderly individuals is controversial. Our aim was to investigate, through 3D gait analysis, the effect of different types of RAS (fixed frequency and based on subject-specific cadence), using conventional gait parameters and the trunk displacement as readouts...

Personality neuroscience is focusing on the correlation between individual differences and the efficiency of large-scale networks from the perspective of the brain as an interconnected network. A suitable technique to explore this relationship is the magnetoencephalography (MEG), but little are MEG studies aimed at investigating topological propert...

In aiming sport contexts, the quiet eye (QE) - the final ocular fixation before movement initiation - is a crucial perceptual-cognitive skill. Indeed, an extended QE permits athletes to achieve high performances, aiding optimal attentional control, particularly in situations in which athletes are "under pressure." Such situations are common in spor...

The relationship between physical exercise and improvement in specific cognitive domains in children and adolescents who play sport has been recently reported, although the effects on visuospatial abilities have not yet been well explored. This study is aimed at evaluating in school-age children practicing artistic gymnastics the visuospatial memor...

Aim The aim of the present study is to investigate the relations between both functional connectivity and brain networks with cognitive decline, in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Introduction PD phenotype is not limited to motor impairment but, rather, a wide range of non-motor disturbances can occur, cognitive impairment being one of the...

Sleep is a fundamental physiological process necessary for efficient cognitive functioning especially in relation to memory consolidation and executive functions, such as attentional and switching abilities. The lack of sleep strongly alters the connectivity of some resting-state networks, such as default mode network and attentional network. In th...

The functioning of our brain depends on both genes and their interactions with environmental factors. The close link between genetics and environmental factors produces structural and functional cerebral changes early on in life. Understanding the weight of environmental factors in modulating neuroplasticity phenomena and cognitive functioning is r...

During the COVID-19 lockdown, individuals were forced to remain at home, hence severely limiting the interaction within environmental stimuli, reducing the cognitive load placed on spatial competences. The effects of the behavioral restriction on cognition have been little examined. The present study is aimed at analyzing the effects of lockdown on...

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...

Background The measures taken to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, such as the lockdown in Italy, do impact psychological health; yet, less is known about their effect on cognitive functioning. The transactional theory of stress predicts reciprocal influences between perceived stress and cognitive performance. However, the e...

Rapid reconfigurations of brain activity support efficient neuronal communication and flexible behaviour. Suboptimal brain dynamics is associated to impaired adaptability, possibly leading to functional deficiencies. We hypothesize that impaired flexibility in brain activity can lead to motor and cognitive symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). To t...

Background In 2020, to limit the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), many countries, including Italy, have issued a lengthy quarantine period for the entire population. For this reason lifestyle has changed, bringing inevitable repercussions to the Quality of Life (QoL). The present study aims to identify which psychosocial variables predict behavior...

Aim The aim of the present study is to investigate the relations between both functional connectivity and brain networks with cognitive decline, in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Introduction PD phenotype is not limited to motor impairment but, rather, a wide range of non-motor disturbances can occur, cognitive impairment being one of the...

Most people tend to explore space starting from the left side, a bias that can also be found in cancellation and line bisection tasks. This spatial bias, known as pseudoneglect, is modulated by biological and cultural factors. Traditional paper-and-pencil tests are affected by ecological and sensitivity issues. Recently, we developed an enhanced ve...

The use of rhythmic acoustic stimulation (RAS) in improving gait and balance in healthy elderly subjects has been widely investigated. However, methodologies and results are often controversial. In this study, we hypothesize that both the kinematic features of gait and stability, depend on the frequency at which RAS is administered. Our aim was to...

Many complex systems, such as the brain, display large-scale coordinated interactions that create ordered patterns. Classically, such patterns have been studied using the framework of criticality, i.e., at a transition point between two qualitatively distinct patterns. This kind of system is generally characterized by a scale-invariant organization...

The topological characteristics of brain networks changes according to environmental demands and can be described under the framework of graph theory. We hypothesized that 24-hours long sleep deprivation (SD) causes functional rearrangements of the brain topology so as to impair optimal communication, and that such rearrangements relate to changes...

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic deletion syndrome characterized by severe visuospatial deficits affecting spatial exploration and navigation abilities in extra-personal space.To date, little is known about spatial elaboration and reaching abilities in the peripersonal space in individuals with WS. The present study is aimed at evaluating the vi...

Background The measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the lockdown in Italy, do impact psychological health; yet, less is known about their effect on cognitive functioning. The transactional theory of stress predicts reciprocal influences between perceived stress and cognitive performance. However, the effects of a period of stres...

Rapid reconfigurations of brain activity support efficient neuronal communication and flexible behaviour. Suboptimal brain dynamics impair this adaptability, possibly leading to functional deficiencies. We hypothesize that impaired flexibility in brain activity can lead to motor and cognitive symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). To test this hypot...

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The problem of cleaning magnetoencephalographic data is addressed in this manuscript. At present, several denoising procedures have been proposed in the literature, nevertheless their adoption is limited due to the difficulty in implementing and properly tuning the algorithms. Therefore, as of today, the gold standard remains manual cleaning. We pr...

The present study is aimed at investigating the development of spatial memory in pre-school children aged 4–6 years using an ecological walking task with multiple rewards. The participants were to explore an open space in order to find nine rewards placed in buckets arranged in three spatial configurations: a Cross, a 3 × 3 Matrix, and a Cluster co...

Aim Our aim was to describe the rearrangements of the brain activity related to genetic mutations in the SPAST gene. Methods Ten SPG4 patients and ten controls underwent a 5 min resting state magnetoencephalography recording and neurological examination. A beamformer algorithm reconstructed the activity of 90 brain areas. The phase lag index was u...

Executive functions (EF) are crucial for the athletes’ success, and they are even more essential in open skill sports (e.g. volleyball and football). In these sports, due to continuously changing conditions, goal-directed behaviours need to be repeatedly adjusted and corrected. One of the most important EF is the ability to continuously switch betw...

New skills may be learned from the outcomes of their own internally generated actions (experiential learning) or from the observation of the consequences of externally generated actions (observational learning). Observational learning requires the coordination of cognitive functions and the processing of social information. Due to the “social” abil...

It has been suggested that the practice of meditation is associated to neuroplasticity phenomena, reducing age-related brain degeneration and improving cognitive functions. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the brain connectivity changes in meditators. In the present work, we aim to describe the possible long-term effects of meditation on the br...

New competencies may be learned through active experience (experiential learning or learning by doing) or observation of others' experiences (learning by observation). Observing another person performing a complex action facilitates the observer's acquisition of the same action. The present research is aimed at analyzing if the observation of speci...

The cover image, by Francesca Foti et al., is based on the Paper Learning by observation and learning by doing in Down and Williams syndromes, DOI: 10.1111/desc.12642. Funding Credit: The Fondation Jérôme Lejeune to LM (2016B n.1567)

Much evidence shows that physical exercise (PE) is a strong gene modulator that induces structural and functional changes in the brain, determining enormous benefit on both cognitive functioning and wellbeing. PE is also a protective factor for neurodegeneration. However, it is unclear if such protection is granted through modifications to the biol...

The present study investigates whether a functional difference between the visualization of a sequence of movements in the perspective of the first- ( internal VMI-I) or third- ( external VMI-E) person exists, which might be relevant to promote learning. By using a mental chronometry experimental paradigm, we have compared the time or execution, im...

New skills may be learned by active experience (experiential learning or learning by doing) or by observation of others’ experience (learning by observation). In general, learning by observation reduces the time and the attempts needed to learn complex actions and behaviors. The present research aimed to compare learning by observation and learning...

Brain plasticity is the ability of the nervous system to change structurally and functionally in response to experience. By shaping brain structure and function, experience leads to the creation of a protective reserve that accounts for differences among individuals in susceptibility to age-related brain modifications and pathology. This review is...

We do not all grow older in the same way. Some individuals have a cognitive decline earlier and faster than others who are older in years but cerebrally younger. This is particularly easy to verify in people who have maintained regular physical activity and healthy and cognitively stimulating lifestyle and even in the clinical field. There are pati...

L’affermarsi delle scienze cognitive e degli approcci sociocognitivi, l’ingresso delle nuove tecnologie nel mondo dello sport e della ricerca, oltre al contributo delle neuroscienze, hanno determinato lo sviluppo della psicologia dello sport. Nel fornire un aggiornato panorama della disciplina, il manuale analizza alcuni temi tipici della psicologi...

Williams syndrome (WS) is associated with a distinct profile of relatively proficient skills within the verbal domain compared to the severe impairment of visuo-spatial processing. Abnormalities in executive functions and deficits in planning ability and spatial working memory have been described. However, to date little is known about the influenc...

New competencies may be learned through active experience (learning by doing) or observation of others’ experience (learning by observation). Observing another person performing a complex action accelerates the observer’s acquisition of the same action, limiting the time-consuming process of learning by doing. Here, we compared learning by observat...

Evidence indicates that the degeneration of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons may represent an important factor underlying the progressive cognitive decline characterizing Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the nature of the relationship between cholinergic depletion and AD is not fully elucidated. This study aimed at clarifying some aspects of t...

Observing another person performing a complex action accelerates the observer's acquisition of the same action and limits the time-consuming process of learning by trial and error. Observational learning makes an interesting and potentially important topic in the developmental domain, especially when disorders are considered. The implications of st...

Nel capitolo precedente abbiamo visto l’impalcatura teorica su cui le neuroscienze si sono fondate nonché alcune tecniche che permettono di analizzare i substrati cerebrali del comportamento motorio e l’attività motoria in generale. Spero sia emerso che le conoscenze raggiunte in questo campo sono state conquistate con approcci diversi che hanno pr...

Lo studio delle immagini mentali rappresenta un terreno fertilissimo per le neuroscienze in quanto la comprensione dei meccanismi neuronali che vi sono alla base aiuta a svelare i processi sottostanti il pensiero, nonche a tracciare un confine, per quanto possibile, di coscienza.

Quasi sempre, spiegando il sistema motorio, si procede “dal basso verso l’alto” analizzando come primo aspetto il muscolo, i circuiti neuronali all’interno del midollo spinale, a seguire le vie motorie a partenza dal tronco dell’encefalo fino ad arrivare alla complessa organizzazione delle aree corticali, non solo motorie, in cui il comando motorio...

Come migliorare, proteggere e recuperare le abilità motorie è stato oggetto di studio più o meno diretto nei capitoli precedenti. Se ricordate, l’apprendimento per osservazione, la motor imagery, la mirror therapy ecc., sono stati descritti proprio in questa chiave. Inoltre, abbiamo visto come tali strumenti didattici e, al tempo stesso, terapeutic...

A questo punto credo sia chiaro che i circuiti cerebrali che si attivano quando si osserva qualcuno svolgere un’azione sono gli stessi che entrano in gioco quando quella stessa azione viene realmente eseguita e in parte sovrapposti con quelli che si attivano quando l’azione viene immaginata.

Nel capitolo precedente abbiamo analizzato le recenti evidenze sperimentali e cliniche che hanno dimostrato come il sistema motorio sia anche un sistema cognitivo, in cui non solo la percezione diventa azione, ma l’interazione con l’ambiente, attraverso il comportamento, è guidata da specifiche strategie motorie. Tali conquiste conoscitive stanno i...

Nel 1980 Reinhold Messner scalò l’Everest in solitaria senza l’ausilio di ossigeno compiendo un’impresa storica. Il noto alpinista aveva ben pianificato il da farsi in condizioni estreme. Si era preparato, allenandosi sia mentalmente sia fisicamente. Una volta partito, era a conoscenza delle conseguenze di ogni suo passo, di ogni sua azione. Cammin...

Che il sonno faccia bene lo sanno tutti. Pochi però sono a conoscenza che durante questo processo fisiologico e caratteristico di tutte le specie viventi si consolidano, o più semplicemente si memorizzano, le informazione acquisite durante la veglia. Quando apprendiamo una nuova nozione, come può essere quella di eseguire in maniera diversa un movi...

Che cosa rispondete alla domanda che intitola il primo paragrafo?

The present study was aimed at investigating the spatial abilities in Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) by using the Radial Arm Maze (RAM) task. We trained PWS individuals with the deletion subtype in two different RAM paradigms that tapped different aspects of spatial memory. To evaluate the extent of spatial deficit in PWS individuals, it seemed intere...

Numerous studies have shown that imitating observed actions belongs to the same category of processes involved in planning and executing actions. New competencies may be acquired by actually executing a task or by executing a task after having seen how to do it. The performance of thirty dyslexic children was compared with that of an age- and gende...

This study aimed to evaluate spatial function in subjects with Williams syndrome (WS) by using a large-scale task with multiple rewards and comparing the spatial abilities of WS subjects with those of mental age-matched control children. In the present spatial task, WS participants had to explore an open space to search nine rewards placed in bucke...