For us to interact with our environment we must have an understanding of the location and properties of the objects within it over time. Incoming stimuli from different sensory modalities continuously provide information. In order to create a coherent percept, it is necessary to combine these sensory signals in the brain into a single representation of an object or event. Temporal integration, the process of combining information over time is one important prerequisite for it. Likewise, multisensory integration, the process of combining information from different sensory modalities to generate a coherent percept is of great importance. Furthermore, as our environment is not static but dynamic it is necessary to combine sensory information over time and space. Despite, the ever-increasing neuroscientific results, much about the underlying brain mechanisms remains unknown. This thesis describes an effort of understanding how sensory information are integrated in the brain and what effects attention has on how we integrate multiple objects in space and time. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the existing literature on neural oscillations, specifically alpha band frequency, which is hypothesized to play a critical role in temporal processing and attention. This is followed by a review of the literature on temporal integration and the theoretical background of multisensory integration. The following chapters will report the three studies conducted: Chapter 2 describes the first study, a MEG study that investigates the role of alpha oscillations in temporal integration. Chapter 3 reports the second MEG study, which focuses the role of attention to modality in multisensory integration. Chapter 4 presents the third study, a behavioral oscillations study, which focuses on the role of neural oscillations in selective attention in a dynamic scene. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes all the findings from this research.

How humans make choices in uncertain and competitive situations is a key determinant of viability and successful living. Improving those choices requires sometimes encountering undesirable outcomes and avoiding them, eventually even anticipating them in novel situations. Learning depends on making choices, encountering errors and updating evaluations of options. Various models extended from the reinforcement learning framework compared to human behavior describe in part how individuals heterogeneously make choices. To peer into the components of these mechanisms, strategic games that emulate real-world situations provide measurable and manageable environments in which to examine slight differences in choice behavior among different people. Such differences may be endogenous to participants (e.g. age or learning disposition) while others derive from external events (e.g. emotional induction or brain stimulation). We contrasted such behavior in three situations involving learning or competition, leveraging differences in age, emotional induction and brain stimulation. We aimed to describe the variations in choice behavior across these differences and investigated, when possible, how prior conditions generated a transfer of learning from one domain to another. The work here builds on recent investigations of neural mechanisms underlying choice behavior during strategic or competitive interaction.

Background and aim Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s Disease (CD), collectively labelled as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), are idiopathic, chronic inflammatory disorder of the bowel with a remitting and relapsing course. IBD are associated to poor emotional functioning and psychological distress. We have investigated the brain involvement in patients with IBD using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Materials and methods We developed an emotional visual task to investigate the emotional functioning in 10 UC patients and 10 healthy controls (HC). Furthermore, we have compared the brain stress response between a group of 20 CD patients and a group of 18 HC. Finally, we evaluated potential morphological differences between 18 CD patients and 18 HC in a voxel based morphometry (VBM) study. Results We found brain functional changes in UC patients characterized by decreased activity in the amygdala in response to positive emotional stimuli. Moreover, in CD patients, the brain stress response and habituation to stressful stimuli were significantly different in the medial temporal lobe (including the amygdala and hippocampus), the insula and cerebellum. Finally, in CD patients there were morphological abnormalities in the anterior mid cingulated cortex (aMCC). Conclusion IBD are associated to functional and morphological brain abnormalities. The previous intestinal inflammatory activity in IBD patients might have contributed to determine the functional and morphological changes we found. On the other hand, the dysfunctions of the brain structures we found may influence the course of the disease. Our findings might have clinical implications. The differences in the emotional processing may play a role in the development of psychological disorders in UC patients. Furthermore, in CD patients, the different habituation to stress might contribute to stress related inflammatory exacerbations. Finally, the structural changes in the aMCC might be involved in the pain symptoms associated to the bowel disorder.

It is believed that the way of being and the communicative-relational skills of every individual have multifactorial origins, including the quality of primary relationships with caregivers. For some time, the need for health care professionals to possess specific communicative and interpersonal skills has been highlighted. To the degree course in Nursing, like to all other degree programs related to health, access is granted to students who have large individual differences, both in terms of personality, and in terms of relational skills. Each academic year, therefore, the people responsible for the didactic organization of every course, are faced with having to prepare a training plan capable of addressing communicative-relational aspects and, at the same time, of being adequate to the real attitudes of incoming students. Thus, the need for appropriate tools for measuring the personological and vocational traits considered specific to health professions was born. This study has a twofold objective. On one hand, it aims at selecting a battery of psychological tests to detect psychological and attitudinal patterns, to facilitate the coordinators of graduate courses in their didactic organization and planning of educational training; on the other hand, it seeks to assess the correlations between communicative-relational skills (Relational-Communicative style, according to the model of patient-centered medicine-TRS) (Mucchielli’s Test of Spontaneous Attitudes – usual kind of attitude in dual relationships), personality traits (Alexithymia), styles of attachment to parental figures (PBI), and the capability of recognizing facial emotions, in a sample of students enrolled in the first year of a degree in Nursing.

The success of many of our activities depends on how we learn to adapt cognitive control: Usually, we focus and redirect our behavior towards our objectives when facing a particularly challenging task or when irrelevant information activates a response that conflicts with our goals, while we relax and let events guide us when the task is familiar or undemanding. Although most of the theories defining cognitive control tend to describe it as a domain-general construct, several researchers posit that each task elicits different types of control adaptations, thus implying that the control adjustments learned in one task might be purely task-specific. Indeed, some studies failed to find a transfer of control preparation strategies between tasks, while others have even questioned whether individuals can prepare for response conflict overall. To provide clarification, this project aims to (1) understand whether people can learn to employ prior control demands to prepare for subsequent task’s demands and (2) understand whether control adaptation rules (or strategies) devised in one task are indeed task-specific, or they can be transferred to other paradigms. In summary, our results provide evidence of transfer of control adaptation rules between tasks requiring control, and maltransfer of these control strategies towards tasks that do not involve variations in control demands. Moreover, our findings suggest that control adaptations rely on potentially generalizable learning strategies, which can encompass both bottom-up associative learning and a top-down strategic proactive mechanism. Overall, the outcomes of this research project are consistent with a domain-general view of cognitive control adaptations.

Il progetto di ricerca indaga la regolazione emotiva analizzando le interazioni complesse tra strategie di regolazione dell'individuo e variabili proprie dello stimolo elicitante. A tale scopo, il progetto si struttura in tre studi. Nello Studio 1, una batteria di questionari per la valutazione di strategie stabili di regolazione e coping è stata somministrata ad un campione di 198 studenti infermieri che partecipavano allo Studio 3 e ad un gruppo di controllo di 416 studenti universitari. Lo studio presenta inoltre una validazione preliminare dell'Emotion Regulation Questionnaire in lingua italiana. Lo Studio 2 riguarda la misurazione dell'impatto emotivo di stimoli elicitanti: una batteria di filmati emotivi è stata costruita attraverso la manipolazione di due dimensioni di appraisal emotivo e somministrata a 420 studenti universitari a cui era chiesto di valutare la propria esperienza emotiva. Infine, nello Studio 3, uno stesso filmato di chirurgia ma incorporato all'interno di contesti diversi (costituiti dai filmati testati nello studio 2) è stato sottoposto a 163 studenti infermieri allo scopo di analizzare gli effetti a breve termine di due strategie di rivalutazione cognitiva quando l'individuo affronta un evento ad alto impatto emotivo contestualizzato. Ai partecipanti era chiesto di osservare gli eventi cercando di immedesimarsi o di distanziarsi. Lo studio analizza le risposte emotive in tre sistemi di risposta emotiva: fisiologico, comportamentale ed esperienziale. / The present research program investigated emotion regulation analyzing the complex interaction between variables concerning individual regulatory strategies and variables concerning the eliciting stimulus. To this purpose, the research program was structured into three studies. In Study 1, a set of questionnaires assessing individual stable emotion regulation and coping strategies was administered to a sample of 198 nursing students who participated to Study 3 and to a control sample of 416 undergraduate students. A preliminary Italian validation of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) was conducted. Study 2 aimed at measuring the emotional impact of eliciting stimuli: a set of emotion-generating films were constructed according to the manipulation of appraisal criteria and administered to 420 undergraduate students who were asked to rate their emotional experience. In Study 3, 163 nursing students watched the same surgery clip included within different contextual scenarios provided by the film stimuli tested in Study 2. The main goal was the investigation of the short-terms outcomes of two types of reappraisal when the individual is confronted with a contextualized high-impact emotional event: to this purpose, participants were asked to adopt a detached vs. immersed point of view. Three systems of emotional response were analyzed as indicated by emotion literature: behavioural, physiological and experiential.

Poche qualità umane hanno un così forte impatto sulla nostra esistenza quanto la creatività (Scott et al., 2004). Il presente progetto di ricerca raccoglie le sfide identificate da Houtz (2003) come cruciali per la ricerca psicologica: riconoscere, potenziare e comprendere la creatività. Il progetto si focalizza sul concetto di pensiero divergente (Guilford, 1956) come risvolto cognitivo della creatività e si divide in tre studi. Il primo studio presenta un contributo alla validazione del Wallach Kogan Creativity Test (1965). Nel secondo studio ill WKCT, validato nel primo studio, insieme al Test di pensiero creativo (Sprini e Tomasello, 1989 - versione italiana del Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, Torrance 1966) è servita per valutare l'efficacia di un training di pensiero creativo. Nel terzo studio a 306 soggetti di seconda media sono stati somministrati i seguenti strumenti: Big Five Questionnaire – Children (Barbaranelli et al.,1998), Test di pensiero creativo - forma A, parte verbale (Sprini e Tomasello, 1989) versione italiana del Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT; Torrance, 1966) e una serie di item utilizzati da Choi (2004). Quindi è stata condotta una path analysis per testare un modello in cui personalità, motivazione, pensiero divergente e variabili contestuali sono predittori dell'atteggiamento creativo. / Improving creative thinking is a crucial challenge for the progress of human beings and nations (Florida, 2002). The research project aims at recognizing, fostering and understanding divergent thinking (Guilford, 1956) as cognitive aspect of creativity. The project consists of 3 studies. First study is a contribution to the Italian validation of Wallach Kogan Creativity Test (1965) with subjects aged 12. Second study is an experimental research conducted in a school with children 12 years old. A group of them followed a three-months-training that aimed at fostering divergent thinking abilities, another group served as control. Pretest and posttest were administered using Wallach Kogan Creativity Test (1965) previously validated and also the Italian version of Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1966) in the verbal form (Sprini & Tomasello, 1989). Third study presents a path analysis to test a model in which personality, motivation, divergent thinking and contextual variables are predictors of a creative aptitude.

POTENZIAMENTO DEL METODO DI STUDIO: ANALISI DI UN INTERVENTO Obiettivo principale della ricerca è stato quello di verificare se un training formativo sul metodo di apprendimento induca ad aumentare le capacità di autoregolazione, dare senso allo studio e personalizzare il proprio apprendimento. Oltre ad aver applicato alcuni strumenti per i quali esistono già dei risultati, è stato tradotto e validato uno strumento di analisi delle capacità di autoregolazione di cui non sono disponibili dati in Italia, il LASSI (Learning and Study Strategies Inventory). Il training formativo è stato applicato a due classi del 2°anno di scuola superiore di 1° grado; un'altra classe ha svolto il ruolo di gruppo di controllo. Sulla base delle analisi condotte gli strumenti individuati sono risultati adeguati. Gli studenti hanno mostrato di possedere differenti livelli di percezione e concettualizzazione degli obiettivi dell'insegnamento, dei vissuti e del proprio ruolo nelle attività didattiche oltre a differenti livelli di autocontrollo e delle strategie cognitive implicate nell'apprendimento. Il rapporto tra consapevolezza e controllo metacognitivo e profitto non è risultato essere lineare: sono soprattutto gli studenti che si collocano nella fascia intermedia di profitto ad avere maggiori livelli di consapevolezza e convinzioni più adeguate. Le risposte ai vari strumenti risultano poco correlate questo ad indicare che a questa età i ragazzi non sono ancora in grado di costruirsi una rappresentazione integrata dell'apprendimento. Le risposte date nelle diverse attività rispetto alle differenti opinioni e abitudini di studio sono coerenti. Alcune convinzioni sono inoltre risultate essere soggette ad influssi di genere. Questi risultati indicano che il training ha portato gli studenti a riconoscere il loro ruolo attivo rispetto all'organizzazione ed alla gestione dello studio. Infine, questo lavoro prova che le convinzioni possedute dagli studenti circa l'apprendimento possono essere esplicitate, discusse e modificate nel setting scolastico. / STRENGTHENING OF THE STUDY METHOD: ANALYSIS OF AN INTERVENTION The aim of this research is to verify if an educational training focused on the learning method leads to an increase of self-regulation skill, a meaning of the study and the personalization of the learning. Besides applying certain tools for which results are already available, an instrument of selfregulation skill analysis, which data is not available in Italy, was translated, the LASSI (Learning and Study Strategies Inventory). The educational training was applied on two classes of second year of secondary school; a third class had the role of control group. The identified tools were appropriate for the analysis that were lead. Students showed that they possessed different levels of perception and conceptualization of the objects of teaching, of their experience and of their own role in teaching activities besides different levels of self-control and of cognitive strategies implied in learning. The relationship between awareness and metacognitive control and profit didn’t turn out to be linear: especially the students of the intermediate zone of profit have higher levels of awareness and more appropriate beliefs. The answers to the various instruments are weakly linked. This shows that at this age kids are not yet able to build an integrated representation of learning. The answers given to the different activities in relation to the different opinions and study habits are consistent. Some beliefs are also found to be exposed to gender. These results indicate that training brought students to recognize their active role in relation to the organization and study management. Finally, this work proved that students’ beliefs regarding learning can be explained, discussed and modified in the scholastic setting.

La dislessia evolutiva (DE) è associata ad un deficit di elaborazione temporale degli stimoli uditivi, secondario ad un'attività oscillatoria neurale atipica, che si ritiene contribuisca alle difficoltà fonologiche e di lettura. Per favorire un entrainment più accurato alle proprietà spettro-acustiche degli stimoli uditivi negli studenti con DE, abbiamo esplorato la possibilità di sincronizzare la prosodia durante la lettura con una stimolazione ritmica uditiva. Pertanto, è stato realizzato un programma di intervento per la DE, chiamato Training Lettura Ritmica (TLR). Tre studi test-training-retest hanno mostrato l'efficacia di questa nuova metodologia nel miglioramento delle capacità di lettura in individui italiani con DE, sia in età evolutiva che adulti. Lo studio 1 ha mostrato che il TLR ha portato a miglioramenti della lettura in studenti di scuola primaria e secondaria di primo grado con DE paragonabili a quelli di un intervento risultante dalla combinazione di due trattamenti già validati per la DE, con un effetto lievemente maggiore sulla rapidità di lettura. Inoltre, la consapevolezza fonologica e la capacità di riproduzione ritmica sono migliorate. Lo studio 2 ha esplorato gli effetti a breve e medio termine del TLR, quando combinato con un allenamento uditivo specifico in bambini e preadolescenti con DE, che sono risultati comparabili a quelli di un intervento multi-componenziale personalizzato. Infine, nello studio 3 il TLR è stato applicato con successo ad una popolazione adulta, ossia studenti universitari con DE, anche quando somministrato in combinazione a neuromodulazione (tDCS), la quale aumenta la plasticità delle aree coinvolte. / Developmental dyslexia (DD) is associated with deficiencies in temporal processing of auditory stimuli, depending on atypical oscillatory neural activity, that are considered to contribute to phonological and reading impairments. To induce a more accurate entrainment to the spectral properties of auditory stimuli in students with DD, we explored the possibility to synchronize speech prosody during reading with an external rhythmical auditory stimulation. Accordingly, an intervention program for DD, called Rhythmic Reading Training (RRT), was devised. Three test-training-retest studies supported the efficacy of this novel methodology on reading skills of both young and older populations of Italian individuals with DD. Study 1 showed that RRT yielded reading improvements in primary and junior high-school students with DD comparable to those of an intervention resulting from the combination of two already validated treatments for DD, with a slightly larger effect on reading speed. Moreover, phonological awareness and rhythm reproduction improved along. Study 2 explored RRT short- and medium-term effects when combined with a specific auditory training in children and preadolescents with DD, which were found to be comparable to those of a personalized multi-componential intervention. Finally, in study 3 RRT was successfully applied to an older population, namely undergraduate students with DD, also when in combination with a neuromodulation technique (namely, tDCS) boosting plasticity of the involved networks.

The Mechanistic Theory of Human Cognition (MTHC) is currently one of the most influential fundamental theories in the field of cognitive science. The main idea is to provide an account of what human neuro-cognitive complex mechanisms are and how to explain them. The theory proposes an ambitious revolutionary unified view of human cognition that can provide foundations and theoretical unification within cognitive science and between cognitive science and relevant portions of neuroscience. However, this proposal faces many challenges. The central objective of this work is to make a theoretical critical appraisal of MTHC. I critically analyse and evaluate whether MTHC provides a unifying account of human cognition and its explanation for cognitive science. I argue that MTHC provides a significant theoretical contribution for the field; however, it cannot offer the ambitious revolutionary integration that some of its most influential advocates promise.