In the last two decades several studies have been trying to explore a possible role for gut microbiota in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), supported by the high incidence of gastrointestinal disorders among ASD children and by the now well recognized existence of the brain-gut-microbiota axis (the complex system of bidirectional interactions between central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract and microorganisms inhabiting the gut). Nevertheless, results about alterations in gut microbiota composition and/or activity in ASD are to date strongly contrasting. A possible explanation could be that these studies tend to treat ASD as a unique pathology, whereas it includes different cognitive-behavioural phenotypes. Moreover, they do not consider factors which are important for children’s gut flora development, such as type of delivery, nutritional history (e.g. formula milk during lactation) and medical history (e.g. antibiotics intake) as well as factors that may affect the present composition of microbiota, such as the current diet (e.g. the strong food selectivity that often occurs in ASD children) and the presence of gastrointestinal disorders. In this study, I developed an interview to parents to assess whether there are differences related to the above mentioned aspects between ASD children and typically developing children and among ASD themselves, considering differences in cognitive level and severity of autistic traits. I also explored the use of special diets such as gluten-, lactose and casein free diets, the reasons for their adoption and the possible benefits for the child. Moreover, I decided to include in this interview also a section dedicated to parental difficulties in managing mealtime in order to collect information useful to plan future interventions. I found differences between ASD- and typical children in the incidence of gastrointestinal disorders and food selectivity. Especially, some children initially eat everything and then switch to a more and more restricted diet. This could be considered an early symptom of the pathology. I also found an association between gastrointestinal disorders and severity of autistic traits. Furthermore, I collected faecal samples from ASD families (two parents, an ASD child and a typically developing sibling) and analysed them with metaproteomics and bioinformatics techniques in order to assess microbiota activity and evaluate it in light of ASD phenotype, nutritional habits, gastrointestinal disorders and genetic proximity. Demonstrating the existence of a different microbiota composition in ASD or at least in a subgroup could allow to identify a biomarker of a possible development of ASD and to design preventive interventions, even through probiotics intake. Moreover, it could help to better understand the molecular mechanism underlying this pathology.

The works presented in this thesis are the result of the experiments conducted in the Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory (CEEL) and in the Consumer Neuroscience Laboratory (NCLab) of the Economics and Management Department at the University of Trento. The aim of this research is to study the influence of cognitive impulsivity on commercial problem-solving and consumer decision-making. We focused on the attentional aspects related to the decision-making process as analyzed by the eye movements. The first section will present the main topic of the thesis, the key tool used to conduct the experiments (eye tracker) and the three papers; the latter will compose the second, third and fourth chapter. All the chapters have a common thread: to shed light on the cognitive aspects of problem-solving and their implications for the consumer decision-making process as analyzed through gaze behaviour. - The aim of the first paper, “The role of numeracy, cognitive reflection and attentional patterns in commercial problem-solving” by Dorigoni, Polonio, Graffeo and Bonini, is to analyze the predictive power of two important cognitive abilities, numeracy and cognitive reflection, in two different problem solving scenarios with high numerical components. - The aim of the second paper, “Getting the best deal: Effects of cognitive reflection on mental accounting of choice attributes” by Dorigoni, Cadonna and Bonini is to understand if people with low cognitive reflection are more prone to mental accounting across attributes of the same product; low cognitive reflectors do not integrate all the attribute costs and consequently they do not always choose the best deal. - The aim of the third paper, “Cognitive reflection and gaze behaviour in visual tasks” by Dorigoni, Rajsic and Bonini is to demonstrate that cognitive reflection has predictive power on heuristics and biases related to perceptual and visual tasks. This result is extremely important because it reflects a different disposition to see and analyze the information depending on the cognitive impulsivity.

Left hemisphere damage is a frequent cause of aphasia. Analyses of deviant linguistic behaviors provide valuable information about the functional architecture of language. Correlating specific language difficulties with damage to the brain helps shed light on the relationships between language and the neural substrate. The aim of this Ph.D. thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the neural correlates of sentence comprehension, based on behavioral and neuroimaging evidence from aphasia. A substantial amount of research based on lesion-symptom mapping has been devoted to this issue, but several issues remain to be clarified. To consider just an example, lesion-symptom mapping studies have systematically linked the posterior regions of the left hemisphere to sentence comprehension. Surprisingly, however, the same studies failed to provide similarly strong evidence for prefrontal regions, contradicting the results of previous neuropsychological investigations that clearly supported the critical role of these regions in sentence processing. To date, there are enough controversial issues on sentence processing as to warrant reconsideration of available evidence. The present project focused on the neural correlates of the mechanisms involved in thematic role assignment and in the processing of morphosyntactic features. This is because both sets of mechanisms are critical for sentence interpretation both in comprehension and in production. The first step of the project consisted of a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of lesion-symptom investigations of sentence processing (study 1 – Chapter 1). The literature search yielded 43 studies eligible for review, of which 27 were used in the meta-analysis. The main goal was to identify the correlates of thematic role assignment and of morphosyntactic processing. Thematic role assignment errors correlated mainly with damage in the left temporo-parietal regions, and morphosyntactic errors mainly with damage in the prefrontal regions. However, careful consideration of the reviewed and meta-analyzed studies shows that conclusions are biased under several aspects. Data on thematic deficits are based almost exclusively on sentence comprehension, and data on morphosyntactic deficits on sentence production. Furthermore, even the very few studies that evaluated both impairments did so in distinct linguistic contexts, or in different response modalities. In addition, studies that focused on one set of mechanisms did not consider the possibility that performance on their dimension of interest was influenced by damage to the other. For example, studies focusing on thematic comprehension administered thematic foils, but not morphosyntactic foils. Therefore, the neurofunctional correlates emerging from the meta-analysis and the review may offer a biased and/or partial view. As a first attempt at overcoming these limitations, a lesion study on native speakers of Italian with post-left stroke aphasia was conducted (study 2 – Chapter 2) to clarify the neural substrates of morphosyntactic and thematic processes in comprehension. Experimental stimuli consisted of simple declarative, semantically reversible sentences presented in the active or passive voice. In an auditory sentence comprehension task, participants were asked to match a sentence spoken by the computer to the corresponding picture, that had to be distinguished from a thematic, a morphosyntactic or a lexical-semantic foil. Thirty-three left brain-damaged individuals (out of an initial sample of 70) were selected because they fared normally on lexical-semantic foils, but poorly on morphosyntactic (n=15) and/or thematic (n=18) contrasts. Voxel-based Lesion Symptom Mapping (VLSM) analyses retrieved non-overlapping substrates. Morphosyntactic difficulties were uninfluenced by sentence voice and correlated with left inferior and middle frontal damage, whereas thematic role reversals were more frequent on passives and correlated with damage to the superior and middle temporal gyrus and to the superior occipitolateral cortex. Both correlations persisted after covarying for phonological short-term memory. When response accuracy to passive vs active sentences in the presence of thematic foils was considered, portions of the angular and supramarginal gyrus were retrieved. They could provide the neural substrate for thematic reanalysis, that is critical for comprehending sentences with noncanonical word order. However interesting and strong, these results were obtained by considering just one sentence type (declaratives) and by relying on basic neuroimaging data. To go beyond these limitations, the final step of the project relied on more comprehensive behavioral analyses and more advanced neuroimaging techniques (study 3 – Chapter 3). The SCOPRO (Sentence Comprehension and PROduction) language battery was developed, that focuses on thematic and morphosyntactic processes and allows assessing these processes in a variety of reversible sentences in both comprehension and production. SCOPRO was administered to 50 neurotypical subjects (to assess applicability and establish cutoff levels) and 27 aphasic participants (native Italian speakers with left post-stroke aphasia). Of the latter, 21 were included in an MRI-based lesion-symptom mapping study. Results obtained in comprehension tasks were correlated with neuroimaging data (structural T1 and DWI). Lesion maps, disconnectome maps, tract disconnection probability and personalized deterministic tractography data demonstrated the involvement of grey and white matter. Thematic role reversals correlated to cortical damage in the left angular gyrus. They also correlated to cortical damage in the left supramarginal gyrus when controlling for single-word processing in a voxel-based disconnectome-symptom mapping analysis. Thematic errors were associated also with underlying white matter damage. Correlating the probability of tract disconnections and personalized deterministic tractography with thematic role performance involved the left arcuate fasciculus. The posterior segment was associated with thematic role reversals, even after controlling for morphosyntactic and single-word processing. The anterior segment was linked to accuracy on thematic roles when single-word processing was used as a covariate. The long segment also correlated with the level of thematic role performance, but the correlation was no longer present when morphosyntactic performance was used as a covariate. SCOPRO can be used not only to assess language processes in a broad sense (e.g., morphosyntactic vs thematic), but also to look into more detailed issues. Contrasting accuracy on declarative and comparative sentences is an interesting case in point. Both sentence types express reversible relations, but only declaratives require thematic role mapping. Hence, contrasting results between the two could help distinguish the correlates of role mapping from those of reversibility per se. The supramarginal gyrus was damaged in participants who fared poorly in both declaratives and comparatives but, interestingly, the aphasics with selective thematic difficulties had suffered damage to the posterior division of the middle temporal gyrus and to the angular gyrus, whereas those with selective difficulties on comparatives presented with lesions in the parietal and central opercular cortex. Clearly, these results are preliminary and require further investigation. It is unanimously accepted that sentence processing involves a large-scale network including frontal, temporal and parietal cortices and the underlying white matter pathways. The main contribution of the present project is that it allows articulating more detailed hypotheses on the role played by some components of the network during sentence comprehension. Results tie left frontal regions to morphosyntactic processing, posterior temporal regions to the retrieval of verb argument structure, and a posterior-superior parietal area to thematic reanalysis. Preliminary observations also suggest that different neural substrates could be involved in processing reversibility as such and when more specifically implemented in thematic roles. Further studies exploiting detailed behavioral tools like the SCOPRO battery and sophisticated neuroimaging techniques in larger samples will lead to a better understanding of language functions and their processing in the brain.

Nel presente lavoro di tesi sono riportati i risultati di un innovativo progetto di ricerca longitudinale nell'ambito della psicobiologia. I recenti progressi nel campo dell'epigenetica sono stati applicati allo studio delle conseguenze di esperienze avverse precoci sullo sviluppo socio-emozionale in bambini nati fortemente pretermine. La nascita pretermine costituisce un fattore di rischio per lo sviluppo socio-emozionale, in parte per l'esposizione ad eventi stressanti (es.: dolore neonatale) durante l'ospedalizzazione in terapia intensiva neonatale (TIN). L'epigenetica si riferisce a processi biochimici altamente sensibili alle esperienze ambientali e che alterano la funzione di trascrizione di specifici geni, senza modificare la struttura della sequenza di DNA. Il candidato ha sviluppato un razionale clinicamente rilevante per la ricerca epigenetica comportamentale della prematurità. Inoltre il progetto di ricerca ha dimostrato che il livello di esposizione a procedure dolorose si associa a esiti avversi sul piano temperamentale e della risposta allo stress a tre mesi e che tale associazione è mediata da alterazioni epigenetiche a livello del gene che codifica per il trasportatore della serotonina. Le implicazioni teoriche, cliniche ed etiche di questi risultati sono trattate nella sezione conclusiva. Il progetto di epigenetica comportamentale della prematurità fornisce una nuova prospettiva teorica ed empirica sul tema dell’interazione tra genetica ed ambiente. / In the present work, the candidate reports the results of an innovative longitudinal research project in the field of psychobiology. The recent epigenetic progresses have been applied to the study of the consequences of early adverse event exposures on the socio-emotional development of very preterm infants. Preterm birth is a major concern for socio-emotional development, partly due to the exposure to adverse stressful stimulations (i.e., skin-breaking procedures) during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay. Epigenetics refers to biochemical processes which are sensitive to environmental cues and which alter the transcriptional activity of specific genes without changing the DNA structure. The candidate has developed a clinically relevant rationale for preterm behavioral epigenetics (PBE). The research project has demonstrated that the early exposure to high levels of skin-breaking procedures during NICU stay associate with non-optimal temperamental profile and stress regulation at 3 months of age. This association was mediated by epigenetic modifications (DNA methylation) of the stress-related gene encoding for serotonin transporter. The theoretical, clinical and ethical implications of these findings are discussed further in the final section of the thesis. The PBE project provides a new framework for the issue of the interconnections between nature and nurture.

Il NM è una disturbo del movimento spontaneo caratterizzato da un sottoutilizzo dell’arto controlesionale in assenza di un deficit primario che migliora con il comando verbale. Per la sue caratteristiche è difficile da evocare in ambito clini-co e il suo riconoscimento si basa sull'osservazione dei sintomi. Le lesioni associate al NM sono diverse e i suoi mecca-nismi sono sconosciuti. La compromissione selettiva del movimento spontaneo suggerisce un coinvolgimento del si-stema motorio mediale. La ricerca ha lo scopo di studiare il NM con un nuovo metodo quantitativo, basato su actigra-fia, e di esplorare le basi neuroanatomiche. Due accelerometri erano posti su entrambi i polsi per 24 ore. 31 soggetti sani e 38 cerebrolesi, 6 con MN sono stati reclutati. In due casi abbiamo esplorato le lesioni. E’stato validato il nuovo indice di asimmetria AR24h. I MN mostravano un comportamento asimmetrico, simile agli emiplegici e diverso dai sani e dai pazienti non emiplegici. I pazienti mostravano una lesione del cingolo e putamen, parti del sistema motorio mediale, importante per le azioni volontarie. I risultati che l’actigrafia differenziale nel quantifica il movimento spontaneo e valuta il NM. Putamen e il cingolo causano una disfunzione del sistema motorio mediale e induce NM. / The MN is a movement disorder characterized by spontaneous underutilized contralesional limb in the absence of a primary deficit that improves with the verbal command. For its characteristics it is difficult to evoke in the clinical set-ting and its recognition is based on observation of symptoms. The lesions associated with NM are different and its mechanisms are unknown. The selective impairment of spontaneous movement suggests the involvement of the medi-al motor system. Research has the aim of studying the MN with a new quantitative method, based on the actigraphy, and to explore the neuroanatomical bases. Two accelerometers were placed on both wrists for 24 hours. Sog-31 jets and 38 brain-healthy, with 6 MN were recruited. In two cases we analysis lesions. It has been validated new asymmetry index AR24h. The MN showed an asymmetric behavior, similar to and different from the healthy and hemiplegic pa-tients not hemiplegic. Patients showed a lesion of the cingulate and putamen, parts of the medial motor system im-portant for voluntary actions. The differential actigraphy quantifies the spontaneous movement and evaluates the NM. Putamen and the track cause dysfunction of the motor system and causes medial NM.

Il presente lavoro si è concentrato sui meccanismi neurofisiologici e comportamentali legati all'invecchiamento sano e patologico. Il primo studio ha esplorato le dinamiche comportamentali ed elettrofisiologiche (N2pc e CDA) del processamento di oggetti multipli in pazienti con decadimento cognitivo lieve ed in pazienti con malattia di Alzheimer (AD), al fine di identificare marcatori neurofisiologici per distinguere l’invecchiamento normale da quello patologico. I dati suggeriscono che la CDA può essere un marcatore neurale utile sia per distinguere tra invecchiamento sano e patologico che per caratterizzare le diverse fasi lungo il continuum della malattia di Alzheimer, diventando un biomarcatore per la diagnosi precoce di AD. Il secondo studio ha valutato la possibilità di applicare un protocollo di neuroriabilitazione non invasiva, mediante stimolazione elettrica transcranica (tES), per migliorare le prestazioni cognitive aumentando il livello di eccitazione. Sia le prestazioni comportamentali ad un compito di memoria a breve termine che gli indici di attivazione fisiologica autonomica (dilatazione pupillare e conduttanza cutanea) sono stati studiati in un gruppo di soggetti giovani sani e in un gruppo di soggetti anziani sani. Nei giovani, entrambe le risposte comportamentali e fisiologiche non sono state modulate dall’applicazione della tES. Negli anziani, invece, la stimolazione reale ha indotto la rievocazione di una proporzione significativamente più bassa di stimoli ad alta salienza, rispetto alla condizione sham, suggerendo una riduzione della capacità di memoria. Gli indici fisiologici risultano inaffidabile nei partecipanti anziani e non possono essere utilizzati per trarre conclusioni definitive sulle modulazioni indotte dalla tES sul livello di eccitazione. Questi risultati hanno mostrato che l’applicazione della tES, durante un compito di memoria a breve termine, modulano diversamente le prestazioni comportamentali nei partecipanti giovani ed in quelli anziani. / The present work focused on neurophysiological and behavioral mechanisms related to healthy and pathological aging. The first study explored the behavioral and electrophysiological dynamics (N2pc and CDA) of multiple object processing in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients to identify neurophysiological markers able to differentiate normal from pathological aging. Data suggested that CDA may be a useful neural signature to both distinguish between healthy and pathological aging and characterize the different stages along the AD continuum, possibly becoming a reliable candidate for an early diagnostic biomarker of AD pathology. The second study evaluated the possibility to apply a non-invasive neurorehabilitation protocol, by means of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), to improve cognitive performance by increasing the level of arousal. Both the behavioral performance to a short term memory task and indexes of autonomic physiological activation (pupillary dilatation and skin conductance) were investigated in a group of healthy young subjects and in a group of healthy elderly subjects. In young, both behavioural and physiological responses were not modulated by tES application. In elderly, instead, real tES induced the report of a significant lower proportion of high salient stimuli, compared to the sham condition, suggesting a reduction of the memory span. The physiological indexes resulted unreliable in elderly participants and they could not be used to draw firm conclusions on the tES modulations of the level of arousal. These results showed that bursts of tES, applied during a short term memory task, differently modulated behavioural performance in young and elderly participants.

Per spiegare i loro risultati gli psicologi sperimentali fanno uso di termini riferentisi al mentale. Tuttavia, nel corso della storia, essi hanno definito in modi differenti il concetto di mente e quindi il significato dei termini usati nelle sue teorie. Nella prima parte della tesi sono discusse quattro opzioni epistemologiche in base alle quali tali termini sono stati interpretati nella storia della psicologia scientifica (il ‘mentalismo’ dell’introspezionismo, l’‘anti-mentalismo’ del comportamentismo, il ‘mentalismo’ del cognitivismo, l’ ‘antimentalismo’ delle neuroscienze cognitive). Assumere una di queste posizioni piuttosto che un’altra implica il porre l’attenzione su tipi diversi di dati e dunque la scelta di differenti metodologie di raccolta e analisi degli stessi. Nella seconda parte vengono replicati gli esperimenti del neurologo Damasio per testare la sua “ipotesi del marcatore somatico”. Tali esperimenti sono interessanti perchè utilizzano dati e metodologie che fanno riferimento a tutte e quattro le opzioni epistemologiche descritte nella prima parte. I risultati qui presentati non replicano quelli di Damasio e dunque sembrano falsificare la sua ipotesi. L’analisi empirica e quella epistemologica mostrano come l’opzione mentalistico-introspezionistica (rifiutatata da Damasio in favore di quella neuroscientifica) meriti di essere considerata e perseguita come linea metodologica che può dare origine a risultati scientificamente fecondi. / Experimental psychologists use terms referring to mind for explaining their results. However, in the course of history, they have defined the concept of mind in many ways and so the meaning of the terms used in its theories. In the first part of this work four epistemological options according to which these terms have been interpreted all along the history of experimental psychology are discussed (the ‘mentalism’ of introspectionism, the ‘anti-mentalism’ of behaviourism, the ‘mentalism’ of cognitivism, the ‘anti-mentalism’ of cognitive neuroscience). Assuming one of these options implies to consider different kinds of data and so to choose different data collecting and analyzing methodologies. In the second part the experiments proposed by neurologist Damasio for testing his ‘somatic marker hypothesis’ are replicated. Such experiments are interesting because they appeal to data and methodologies referring to all the four epistemological options above considered. The results presented do not replicate the Damasio’s ones and so they seem to falsify his hypothesis. The epistemological analysis and the empirical research show how the introspectionistic-mentalistic option (refused by Damasio in favour of the neuroscientific option) deserve to be considered as a reliable methodological that can lead to important scientific results.

Le interazioni sociali richiedono che un agente sia in grado di selezionare ed elaborare informazioni ambientali rilevanti, che sia situato in un contesto complesso, e che interagisca con altri agenti, rispettando le opportunità e i vincoli di contesto. Riconoscere noi stessi e gli altri come agenti intenzionali è un passaggio cruciale per il processo generale di comprensione sociale e, in particolare, per la nostra capacità di percepire le intenzioni e gli scopi altrui. Tali competenze sociali sostengono il nostro sviluppo fisico, cognitivo e affettivo promuovendo interazioni adattive. Di conseguenza, una disfunzione di tali competenze può compromettere gravemente l’autonomia e la qualità di vita. Si ritiene che un sistema distribuito medi la percezione di agentività e degli stati mentali altrui, ma la struttura interna dei processi che costituiscono la nostra capacità di comprendere i nostri simili e di interagire adeguatamente è tuttora per buona parte sconosciuta. Il progetto ha come obiettivo indagare le fasi iniziali di tali processi e, in particolare, l’elaborazione precoce di cues sociali (social affordances) per la detezione di agentività e opportunità d’interazione in contesti sociali. È strutturato in tre studi principali: il primo mira a esplorare i correlati elettrofisiologici (ERPs e dati di source localization) dell’elaborazione di informazioni visive per la detezione di agentività in interazione; il secondo mira a indagare possibili marcatori (ERPs) del profilo delle competenze di comprensione sociale associate alla sindrome di Williams; il terzo ha testato, tramite TMS, il ruolo causale di rTPJ nel mediare l’elaborazione pre-riflessiva di agentività e intenzionalità nel comportamento osservato. / Social interactions require an agent to be able to select and process relevant environmental information, to be situated in a complex context and to interact with other agents, according to the opportunities and boundaries of that context. Sensing ourselves and detecting others as intentional agents is a crucial step for the overall social understanding process and, in particular, for our ability to perceive others’ intentions and goals. Those social skills foster our physical, cognitive and affective development by promoting adaptive interactions. Consequently, a dysfunction of such skills can seriously affect the autonomy and quality of life. A distributed system is thought to subserve the perception of agency and others’ mental states, but the internal structure of processes that constitute our ability to understand our similars and interact adequately is still largely unknown. This project aimed at investigating early stages of those processes and, in particular, the initial elaboration of social cues (social affordances) for the detection of agentivity and opportunities for interaction in social situations. It is structured in three main empirical studies: the first one aimed at looking electrophysiological correlates (ERPs and source localization data) of visual information processing for the detection of agency in interactions; the second one aimed at looking for possible markers (ERPs) of the uneven profile of basic WS social understanding; the third one tested the causal role of rTPJ in mediating pre-reflective processing of agency and intentionality from observed behaviour by means of TMS.

Il presente lavoro di ricerca si è proposto di indagare i costrutti di intuizione e analisi nell’ambito del decision-making attraverso l’integrazione di differenti tipologie di dati al fine di delineare un quadro esauriente e dettagliato dell’oggetto di studio. Nello specifico, la prima parte della ricerca si è occupata dello studio di intuizione e analisi attraverso l’impiego di scale self-report. L’obiettivo generale degli Studi 1 e 2 è stato quello di verificare l’esistenza di relazioni tra differenti strumenti che, sebbene propongano definizioni e operazionalizzazioni diverse dello stesso costrutto, presentano aree di sovrapposizione. A partire da tali connessioni, ci si è, quindi, posti l’obiettivo di identificare ampi profili individuali, cognitivi e decisionali, descritti attraverso tali differenti dimensioni stilistiche. La seconda parte della ricerca si è posta l’obiettivo di indagare intuizione e analisi “in azione”, ossia di valutare il ruolo di strategie e stili individuali intuitivi e analitici nell’ambito di uno specifico contesto strategico. Focalizzando l’indagine sulla prospettiva del proposer, negli Studi 3, 4 e 5 è stato utilizzato l’Ultimatum Game come setting sperimentale. In particolare, lo Studio 3 si è proposto di verificare se le persone siano in grado di attivare processi di mindreading pertinenti per interagire con successo nel corso del gioco. Attraverso lo Studio 4, ci si è posti l’obiettivo di valutare come l’introduzione di due distinte modalità, intuitiva e analitica, di processamento delle informazioni relative all’altro giocatore influenzi le proposte monetarie. Da ultimo, nello Studio 5 ci si è focalizzati sul ruolo giocato dallo stile individuale intuitivo e analitico nell’influenzare direttamente l’entità delle offerte e nel modulare l’effetto della modalità di pensiero intuitivo e analitico. / The present work aimed at researching into the constructs of intuition and analysis in decision-making through the integration of different sources of data in order to provide a comprehensive and multifaceted outline of the issue at hand. Specifically, the first part of the investigation concerned the study of intuition and analysis by employing self-report inventories. The general purpose of the Study 1 and 2 was to verify the existence of relationships among different instruments which, even though providing varied conceptual and operational definitions of the same constructs, showed some points of overlapping. Basing on these relations the goal was, then, to identify broad cognitive and decision profiles including a set of characteristics, rather than defining individual styles through single and isolated dimensions. The second part of the investigation intended to study intuition and analysis “in action”, that is to assess the role of both intuitive-analytical strategies and individual styles within a specific strategic context. Focussing on the proposer’s perspective, Study 3, 4, and 5 all employed the Ultimatum Game as experimental setting. Study 3 aimed at assessing whether people can activate relevant mindreading processes in order to successfully interact in the course of the game. Study 4, then, investigated how the monetary proposals were affected by the introduction of two distinct modes, intuitive and analytical, of processing information about the counterpart. Finally, in Study 5, the role of individual intuitive and analytical style in directly influencing the entity of the offers and, in case, modulating the effect of the intuitive and analytical modes of thinking was examined.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-24T20:13:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoaoMGR_DISSERT.pdf: 11548329 bytes, checksum: b018f7ac6bfdefc0440cb7355ab6ae06 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-08 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / The circadian behavior associated with the 24 hours light-dark (LD) cycle (T24) is due to a circadian clock , which in mammals is located in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Under experimental conditions in which rats are espoused to a symmetric LD 22h cycle (T22) the two SCN regions, ventrolateral (vl) and dorsomedial (dm), can be functionally isolated, suggesting that each region regulates distinct physiological and behavioral components. The vl region regulates the locomotor activity and slow wave sleep (SWS) rhythms, while the dm region assures the body temperature and paradoxical sleep (PS) rhythms regulation. This research aimed to deepen the knowledge on the functional properties of circadian rhythmicity, specifically about the internal desynchronization process, and its consequences to locomotor activity and body temperature rhythms as well as to the sleep-wake cycle pattern in rats. We applied infrared motion sensors, implanted body temperature sensors and a telemetry system to record electrocorticogram (ECoG) and electromyogram (EMG) in two rat groups. The control group under 24h period LD cycle (T24: 12hL-12hD) to the baseline record and the experimental group under 22h period LD cycle (T22: 11hL- 11hD), in which is known to occur the uncoupling process of the circadian locomotor activity rhythm where the animals show two distinct locomotor activity rhythms: one synchronized to the external LD cycle, and another expressed in free running course, with period greater than 24h. As a result of 22h cycles, characteristic locomotor activity moment appear, that are coincidence moments (T22C) and non coincidence moments (T22NC) which were the main focus or our study. Our results show an increase in locomotor activity, especially in coincidence moments, and the inversion of locomotor activity, body temperature, and sleep-wake cycle patterns in non coincidence moments. We can also observe the increase in SWS and decrease in PS, both in coincidence and non coincidence moments. Probably the increases in locomotor activity as a way to promote the coupling between circadian oscillators generate an increased homeostatic pressure and thus increase SWS, promoting the decreasing in PS / O comportamento circadiano associado ao ciclo di?rio de 24 horas deve-se ? a??o de um rel?gio circadiano que em mam?feros se localiza nos n?cleos supraquiasm?ticos do hipot?lamo (NSQs). Sob condi??es experimentais em que ratos s?o submetidos a um ciclo claro-escuro (CE) sim?trico de 22h (T22) as regi?es ventrolateral (vl) e dorsomedial (dm) dos NSQs podem ser separadas funcionalmente, sugerindo que cada regi?o regula vari?veis fisiol?gicas distintas. A regi?o vl regula os ritmos de atividade e sono de ondas lentas (SOL), enquanto a regi?o dm ? respons?vel pelo ritmo da temperatura corporal e sono paradoxal (SP). A investiga??o desenvolvida no presente trabalho visou aprofundar o conhecimento sobre as propriedades funcionais da ritmicidade circadiana, mais especificamente sobre o processo da dessincroniza??o interna e as suas implica??es no ritmo de atividade locomotora, temperatura corporal e padr?o do ciclo sono-vig?lia em ratos. Com este objetivo, foram utilizados sensores de movimentos por infravermelho e implantados sensores para temperatura corporal, al?m disso o sistema de telemetria foi utilizado para o registro de par?metros fisiol?gicos de eletrocorticograma (ECoG) e eletromiograma (EMG), em dois grupos de animais. O grupo controle sob ciclo claro-escuro com per?odo de T24 (12h claro: 12h escuro), para o registro basal das vari?veis em an?lise; e o grupo experimental sob ciclo claro-escuro com per?odo de T22 (11h claro: 11h escuro), no qual se sabe que ocorre o desacoplamento do ritmo circadiano de atividade locomotora e os animais apresentam dois componentes distintos de atividade: um sincronizado ao ciclo claro-escuro; e outro que se expressa em livre curso, com per?odo maior que 24h. Em decorr?ncia do protocolo de dessincroniza??o for?ada, surgem momentos caracter?sticos no perfil de atividade locomotora: momentos de coincid?ncia (T22C) e de n?o coincid?ncia (T22NC), que foram o foco principal do nosso estudo. Podemos observar o aumento de atividade locomotora principalmente em momentos de coincid?ncia, e a invers?o do padr?o de atividade locomotora, temperatura corporal e ciclo sono-vig?lia em momentos de n?o coincid?ncia. Podemos ainda observar o aumento do SOL e diminui??o do SP, tanto em momentos de coincid?ncia como em momentos de n?o coincid?ncia. ? prov?vel que o aumento da atividade locomotora como forma de facilitar o acoplamento entre os osciladores circadianos gere um aumento da press?o homeost?tica e com isso aumento de SOL, e diminui a dura??o de SP