Search results for "activities"

2014

Nonsimultaneous maskers can strongly impair performance in an auditory intensity discrimination task. Using methods of molecular psychophysics, we quantified the extent to which (1) a masker-induced impairment of the representation of target intensity (i.e., increase in internal noise) and (2) a systematic influence of the masker intensities on the decision variable contribute to these effects. In a two-interval intensity discrimination procedure, targets were presented in quiet, and combined with forward maskers. The lateralization of the maskers relative to the targets was varied via the interaural time difference. Intensity difference limens (DLs) were strongly elevated under forward mas…

Changes in Motor, Cognitive, and Behavioral Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment During the COVID-19 Lockdown

2020

Objective: The effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on subjects with prodromal phases of dementia are unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the motor, cognitive, and behavioral changes during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with and without mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI and PD-NC) and in patients with MCI not associated with PD (MCInoPD).Methods: A total of 34 patients with PD-NC, 31 PD-MCI, and 31 MCInoPD and their caregivers were interviewed 10 weeks after the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy, and changes in cognitive, behavioral, and motor symptoms were examined. Modified standardized scales, including the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and t…

Clinical and genetic characteristics of 21 Spanish patients with biallelic pathogenic SPG7 mutations.

2021

Spastic paraplegia type 7 (SPG7) is one of the most common hereditary spastic paraplegias. SPG7 mutations most often lead to spastic paraparesis (HSP) and/or hereditary cerebellar ataxia (HCA), frequently with mixed phenotypes. We sought to clinically and genetically characterize a Spanish cohort of SPG7 patients. Patients were recruited from our HCA and HSP cohorts. We identified twenty-one patients with biallelic pathogenic SPG7 mutations. Mean age at onset was 37.4 years (SD ± 14.3). The most frequent phenotype was spastic ataxia (57%), followed by pure spastic paraplegia (19%) and complex phenotypes (19%). Isolated patients presented with focal or multifocal dystonia, subclinical myopat…

Study and modulation of human cortical excitability with transcranial magnetic stimulation.

1998

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be applied in different paradigms to obtain a measure of various aspects of cortical excitability. These different TMS paradigms provide information about different neurotransmitter systems, enhance our understanding about the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric conditions, and in the future may be helpful as a guide for pharmacological interventions. In addition, repetitive TMS (rTMS) modulates cortical excitability beyond the duration of the rTMS trains themselves. Depending on rTMS parameters, a lasting inhibition or facilitation of cortical excitability can be induced. These effects can be demonstrated neurophysiologically or by combining rTMS…

EHMTI-0220. Cortical excitability in episodic cluster headache.

2014

Methods Twenty-five patients with episodic CH and thirteen healthy subjects underwent an experimental session where we evaluated, in both hemispheres, motor-cortical response to: 1) single-pulse TMS: i.e. motor threshold (MT); input-output (IO) curves and cortical silent period (CSP) and 2) paired-pulse TMS: i.e. intracortical facilitation (ICF) and short intracortical inhibition (SICI). Thirteen patients were evaluated outside bout, while the remaining twelve patients were inside bout at the time of recording.

Does experimentally induced pain-related fear influence central and peripheral movement preparation in healthy people and patients with low back pain?

2020

Nonspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a multifactorial disorder. Pain-related fear and altered movement preparation are considered to be key factors in the chronification process. Interactions between both have been hypothesized, but studies examining the influence of situational fear on movement preparation in low back pain (LBP) are wanting, as well as studies differentiating between recurrent LBP (RLBP) and CLBP. Therefore, this study examined whether experimentally induced pain-related fear influences movement preparation. In healthy controls (n = 32), RLBP (n = 31) and CLBP (n = 30) patients central and peripheral measures of movement preparation were assessed by concurrently mea…

Soccer practice as an add-on treatment in the management of individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia

2013

Giuseppe Battaglia,1,3 Marianna Alesi,2 Michele Inguglia,4 Michele Roccella,2 Giovanni Caramazza,3 Marianna Bellafiore,1,3 Antonio Palma1,3 1Department of Law, Social and Sport Science, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; 2Department of Psychology, University of Palermo, Palermo Italy; 3Regional Sports School of CONI Sicilia, Sicily, Italy; 4Local Health of Palermo, Palermo, Italy Abstract: Physical activity is an important aspect of good health for everyone; it is even more important for psychiatric patients who usually live an unhealthy lifestyle. In recent years, there has been growing focus on the use of soccer as a vehicle to improve the health of subjects with severe mental illness…

Guidelines for Youth Sports Clubs to Develop, Implement, and Assess Health Promotion Within Its Activities

2014

The settings approach to health promotion is a world-known concept concerning settings like city, hospital, school, and workplace. The concept has also been used in some regionally specific settings, such as island, prison, or university. However, there are still many, often noninstitutional, settings that have a lot of potential but have not yet been recognized. One of the newcomers is the youth sports club, which has the potential to reach a lot of children and adolescents and is effective, via its casual educational nature based on voluntary participation. According to research, health is an important aim for most youth sports clubs, but it has not been converted into practical actions.…

Discrepancy between food offered and consumed during hospitalization in older adult patients

2020

AbstractMalnutrition is one of the most frequent geriatric syndromes and a key contributor to frailty. Ageing is commonly associated with modifications in eating habits with changes in appetite and food intake. Malnutrition is not only a sign of illness, but its presence increases morbidity, hospital stay, institutionalization, poor quality of life, in-hospital complications, expenses, and mortality. Hospitalized patients have increased calorie requirements to overcome the increased energy expenditure due to acute disease. We aimed to evaluate the actual consumption of the food offered to a sample of hospitalized older adults. Sixty hospitalized patients (women/men = 23/37) were recruited s…

Dietary intake of nutrients of great interest in immunonutrition to prevent muscle damage in soccer players

2008

Soccer is a sport in which players are exposed to long-term periods of training and players need to augment strength and fat-free massgains by resistance training, minimize muscle damage and soreness and help to improve endurance. Recently, the incidence of injuries hasincreased during and preceding soccer matches, which inuences the effectiveness of the team. One study