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The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has called for unprecedented measures, including a national lockdown in Italy. The present study aimed at identifying psychological changes (e.g., changes in depression, stress, and anxiety levels) among the Italian public during the lockdown period, in addition to factors associated with these changes. An online follow-up survey was administered to 439 participants (original sample = 2766), between 28 April and 3 May 2020. A paired sample t-test tested for differences in stress, anxiety, and depression over the period. Multivariate regression models examined associations between sociodemographic variables, personality traits, coping strategies, depression, and stress. Results showed an increase in stress and depression over the lockdown, but not anxiety. Negative affect and detachment were associated with higher levels of depression and stress. Higher levels of depression at the start of the lockdown, as well as fewer coping strategies and childlessness, were associated with increased depression at follow-up, whereas higher levels of stress at the start of the lockdown and younger age were associated with higher stress at follow-up. These results may help us to identify persons at greater risk of suffering from psychological distress as a result lockdown conditions, and inform psychological interventions targeting post-traumatic symptoms.
Paolo Roma; Merylin Monaro; Marco Colasanti; Eleonora Ricci; Silvia Biondi; Alberto Di Domenico; Maria Cristina Verrocchio; Christian Napoli; Stefano Ferracuti; Cristina Mazza. A 2-Month Follow-Up Study of Psychological Distress among Italian People during the COVID-19 Lockdown. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2020, 17, 8180 .
AMA StylePaolo Roma, Merylin Monaro, Marco Colasanti, Eleonora Ricci, Silvia Biondi, Alberto Di Domenico, Maria Cristina Verrocchio, Christian Napoli, Stefano Ferracuti, Cristina Mazza. A 2-Month Follow-Up Study of Psychological Distress among Italian People during the COVID-19 Lockdown. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17 (21):8180.
Chicago/Turabian StylePaolo Roma; Merylin Monaro; Marco Colasanti; Eleonora Ricci; Silvia Biondi; Alberto Di Domenico; Maria Cristina Verrocchio; Christian Napoli; Stefano Ferracuti; Cristina Mazza. 2020. "A 2-Month Follow-Up Study of Psychological Distress among Italian People during the COVID-19 Lockdown." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 21: 8180.
Gratitude may be defined as a personal positive tendency to recognize and respond with gratitude to positive experiences. It has been extensively described within personal relationship literature, showing its correlations with life satisfaction and decreased psychopathology. We propose here to consider gratitude as both a personal and an organizational value able to improve job performance and job satisfaction. The specific aim is twofold: to explore how public administration workers are used to express and perceive gratitude in the workplace, and to validate a serial mediation model, in which dispositional, collective, and relational gratitude are predictors of job satisfaction and job performance. We have designed a mix-method study, with a survey and a diary study, choosing to collect data also on a daily basis because we were interested in gratitude exchanges in work contexts using the event-sampling data method. Nine employees from several Italian public administrations completed a gratitude diary for ten working days in the initial qualitative part of the study. Afterwards, a sample of 96 Italian public administration employees filled in a questionnaire with measures related to job satisfaction, job performance, and three dimensions of gratitude: dispositional, collective, and relational. Results confirm that the three types of gratitude are predictors of job performance and job satisfaction and this relation has been tested in a serial mediation model. This investigation on gratitude has practical implications for the planning of training interventions framed in the positive psychology context.
Michela Cortini; Daniela Converso; Teresa Galanti; Teresa Di Fiore; Alberto Di Domenico; Stefania Fantinelli. Gratitude at Work Works! A Mix-Method Study on Different Dimensions of Gratitude, Job Satisfaction, and Job Performance. Sustainability 2019, 11, 3902 .
AMA StyleMichela Cortini, Daniela Converso, Teresa Galanti, Teresa Di Fiore, Alberto Di Domenico, Stefania Fantinelli. Gratitude at Work Works! A Mix-Method Study on Different Dimensions of Gratitude, Job Satisfaction, and Job Performance. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (14):3902.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMichela Cortini; Daniela Converso; Teresa Galanti; Teresa Di Fiore; Alberto Di Domenico; Stefania Fantinelli. 2019. "Gratitude at Work Works! A Mix-Method Study on Different Dimensions of Gratitude, Job Satisfaction, and Job Performance." Sustainability 11, no. 14: 3902.
Editorial: New Boundaries Between Aging, Cognition, and Emotions
Rocco Palumbo; Alberto Di Domenico. Editorial: New Boundaries Between Aging, Cognition, and Emotions. Frontiers in Psychology 2018, 9, 1 .
AMA StyleRocco Palumbo, Alberto Di Domenico. Editorial: New Boundaries Between Aging, Cognition, and Emotions. Frontiers in Psychology. 2018; 9 ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRocco Palumbo; Alberto Di Domenico. 2018. "Editorial: New Boundaries Between Aging, Cognition, and Emotions." Frontiers in Psychology 9, no. : 1.
Difficulties in source monitoring (SM) tasks observed in healthy older adults may be linked to associative memory deficits since SM requires individuals to correctly bind and later remember these bound features to discriminate the origin of a memory. Therefore, focusing attention on discriminating factors that may attenuate older adults' difficulties in attributing contextual information to memories is necessary. We investigated the effect of affective information on source monitoring in younger and older adults by manipulating the type of affective information (pictures and music) and assessing the ability to remember spatial and temporal source details for affective pictures encoded while listening to classical music. Older and younger adults viewed a series of affective IAPS pictures presented on the left or right side of the computer screen in two different lists. At test, participants were asked to remember if the picture was seen (right/left), in which list (list1/list2) or whether it was new. Results showed that spatial information was attributed better than temporal information and emotional pictures were attributed better than neutral pictures in both younger and older adults. In addition, although music significantly increased source memory performance in both younger and older participants compared to the white noise condition, the pleasantness of music differentially affected memory for source details. The authors discuss findings in terms of an interaction between music, emotion and cognition in aging.
Rocco Palumbo; Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Beth Fairfield. When and where in aging: the role of music on source monitoring. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research 2018, 30, 669 -676.
AMA StyleRocco Palumbo, Nicola Mammarella, Alberto Di Domenico, Beth Fairfield. When and where in aging: the role of music on source monitoring. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research. 2018; 30 (6):669-676.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRocco Palumbo; Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Beth Fairfield. 2018. "When and where in aging: the role of music on source monitoring." Aging Clinical and Experimental Research 30, no. 6: 669-676.
False memories are common memory distortions in everyday life and seem to increase with affectively connoted complex information. In line with recent studies showing a significant interaction between the noradrenergic system and emotional memory, we investigated whether healthy volunteer carriers of the deletion variant of the ADRA2B gene that codes for the α2b-adrenergic receptor are more prone to false memories than non-carriers. In this study, we collected genotype data from 212 healthy female volunteers; 91 ADRA2B carriers and 121 non-carriers. To assess gene effects on false memories for affective information, factorial mixed model analysis of variances (ANOVAs) were conducted with genotype as the between-subjects factor and type of memory error as the within-subjects factor. We found that although carriers and non-carriers made comparable numbers of false memory errors, they showed differences in the direction of valence biases, especially for inferential causal errors. Specifically, carriers produced fewer causal false memory errors for scripts with a negative outcome, whereas non-carriers showed a more general emotional effect and made fewer causal errors with both positive and negative outcomes. These findings suggest that putatively higher levels of noradrenaline in deletion carriers may enhance short-term consolidation of negative information and lead to fewer memory distortions when facing negative events.
Beth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Marco D’Aurora; Liborio Stuppia; Valentina Gatta. The ADRA2B gene in the production of false memories for affective information in healthy female volunteers. Behavioural Brain Research 2017, 333, 218 -224.
AMA StyleBeth Fairfield, Nicola Mammarella, Alberto Di Domenico, Marco D’Aurora, Liborio Stuppia, Valentina Gatta. The ADRA2B gene in the production of false memories for affective information in healthy female volunteers. Behavioural Brain Research. 2017; 333 ():218-224.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBeth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Marco D’Aurora; Liborio Stuppia; Valentina Gatta. 2017. "The ADRA2B gene in the production of false memories for affective information in healthy female volunteers." Behavioural Brain Research 333, no. : 218-224.
Commentary: Interaction between facial expression and color
Rocco Palumbo; Alberto Di Domenico. Commentary: Interaction between facial expression and color. Frontiers in Neuroscience 2017, 11, 435 .
AMA StyleRocco Palumbo, Alberto Di Domenico. Commentary: Interaction between facial expression and color. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 2017; 11 ():435.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRocco Palumbo; Alberto Di Domenico. 2017. "Commentary: Interaction between facial expression and color." Frontiers in Neuroscience 11, no. : 435.
Cannabinoid receptor 1 gene (CNR1) variants have been related to affective information processing and, in particular, to stress release. Here, we aimed to examine whether the endocannabinoid system via CNR1 signaling modulates affective working memory, the memory system that transiently maintains and manipulates emotionally charged material. We focused on rs2180619 (A > G) polymorphism and examined genotype data collected from 231 healthy females. Analyses showed how a general positivity bias in working memory (i.e., better memory for positive words) emerged as task strings lengthened only in carriers of the major allele (AA/AG). Differently, GG carriers showed better memory for affective items in general (i.e., positive and negative words). These findings are some of the first to directly highlight the role of variant on promoter of the CNR1 gene in affective working memory and to evidence a differentiation among CNR1 genotypes in terms of larger difficulties in disengaging from negative stimuli in GG carriers.
Beth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella; Marica Franzago; Alberto Di Domenico; Liborio Stuppia; Valentina Gatta. A variant on promoter of the cannabinoid receptor 1 gene (CNR1) moderates the effect of valence on working memory. Memory 2017, 26, 260 -268.
AMA StyleBeth Fairfield, Nicola Mammarella, Marica Franzago, Alberto Di Domenico, Liborio Stuppia, Valentina Gatta. A variant on promoter of the cannabinoid receptor 1 gene (CNR1) moderates the effect of valence on working memory. Memory. 2017; 26 (2):260-268.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBeth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella; Marica Franzago; Alberto Di Domenico; Liborio Stuppia; Valentina Gatta. 2017. "A variant on promoter of the cannabinoid receptor 1 gene (CNR1) moderates the effect of valence on working memory." Memory 26, no. 2: 260-268.
Activation of medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) has been typically found during reality monitoring tasks (i.e. distinguishing between internal self-generated vs. external information). No study, however, has yet investigated whether transcranial Random Noise Stimulation (tRNS) over the mPFC leads to a reduction in reality-monitoring misattributions in aging. In particular, stimulating mPFC should increase the number of cognitive operations engaged while encoding and this distinctive information may help older adults to discriminate between internal and external sources better. In addition, given that older adults are more sensitive to positively-charged information compared to younger adults and that mPFC is typically recruited during encoding of positive stimuli with reference to themselves, activation of mPFC should further sustain source retrieval in older adults. In this double-blind, sham-controlled study, we examined whether tRNS over the mPFC of healthy younger and older adults during encoding enhances subsequent reality monitoring for seen vs. imagined emotionally-charged words. Our findings show that tRNS enhances reality monitoring for positively-charged imagined words in the older adult group alone, highlighting the role that mPFC plays in their memory for positive information. In line with the control-based account of positivity effects, our results add evidence about the neurocognitive processes involved in reality monitoring when older adults face emotionally-charged events.
Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Rocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield. Self-generation and positivity effects following transcranial random noise stimulation in medial prefrontal cortex: A reality monitoring task in older adults. Cortex 2017, 91, 186 -196.
AMA StyleNicola Mammarella, Alberto Di Domenico, Rocco Palumbo, Beth Fairfield. Self-generation and positivity effects following transcranial random noise stimulation in medial prefrontal cortex: A reality monitoring task in older adults. Cortex. 2017; 91 ():186-196.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Rocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield. 2017. "Self-generation and positivity effects following transcranial random noise stimulation in medial prefrontal cortex: A reality monitoring task in older adults." Cortex 91, no. : 186-196.
This study examined the production of inferential false memories for complex pictorial stimuli and the implications of affective content in Alzheimer's disease (AD). A group of 24 AD patients and a group of 24 healthy older adults studied a sequence of pictures depicting stories that included positive, negative or neutral consequences of an unseen action, and then completed an old-new picture recognition test. The number of causal errors was higher in healthy older adults compared to AD patients but affective content attenuated the effect. Causal errors increased in AD patients when stories included affective (positive or negative) outcomes. In addition, negative content produced a larger number of errors than positive content across groups. This data confirms that although memory processing is poorer in AD, it is sensitive to affective content. Accordingly, the nature of affective false memory errors suggest the need to consider the use of affective information in the development of new cognitive training procedures.
Beth Fairfield; Mirco Colangelo; Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Cesare Cornoldi. Affective false memories in Dementia of Alzheimer's Type. Psychiatry Research 2017, 249, 9 -15.
AMA StyleBeth Fairfield, Mirco Colangelo, Nicola Mammarella, Alberto Di Domenico, Cesare Cornoldi. Affective false memories in Dementia of Alzheimer's Type. Psychiatry Research. 2017; 249 ():9-15.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBeth Fairfield; Mirco Colangelo; Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Cesare Cornoldi. 2017. "Affective false memories in Dementia of Alzheimer's Type." Psychiatry Research 249, no. : 9-15.
Rocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico. Does make-up make you feel smarter? The “lipstick effect” extended to academic achievement. Cogent Psychology 2017, 4, 1 .
AMA StyleRocco Palumbo, Beth Fairfield, Nicola Mammarella, Alberto Di Domenico. Does make-up make you feel smarter? The “lipstick effect” extended to academic achievement. Cogent Psychology. 2017; 4 (1):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico. 2017. "Does make-up make you feel smarter? The “lipstick effect” extended to academic achievement." Cogent Psychology 4, no. 1: 1.
Numerous studies have reported age-related differences in memory for emotional information. One explanation places emphasis on an emotion processing preference in older adults that reflects their socioemotional self-relevant goals. Here, we evaluate the degree to which this preference in memory may be modulated by color. In 2 experiments, younger and older adults were asked to study a series of affective words (Experiment 1) or affective pictures (Experiment 2) and then presented with an immediate yes/no memory recognition task. In particular, words and pictures were colored according to the following valence-color associations: positive-green, negative-red, and neutral-blue. Each study condition included both congruent (e.g., positive-green) and incongruent associations (e.g., positive-red). For both experiments, participants showed an advantage for congruent associations compared with other types of valence-color pairings that emphasized a robust joint effect of color and affective valence in memory. More specifically, older adults' memory was sensitive to positive-green stimuli only. We discussed results in line with mechanisms underlying positivity effects in memory and the effect of color on emotional memory encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record
Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Rocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield. When green is positive and red is negative: Aging and the influence of color on emotional memories. Psychology and Aging 2016, 31, 914 -926.
AMA StyleNicola Mammarella, Alberto Di Domenico, Rocco Palumbo, Beth Fairfield. When green is positive and red is negative: Aging and the influence of color on emotional memories. Psychology and Aging. 2016; 31 (8):914-926.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Rocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield. 2016. "When green is positive and red is negative: Aging and the influence of color on emotional memories." Psychology and Aging 31, no. 8: 914-926.
Studies have shown a direct link between memory for emotionally salient experiences and false memories. In particular, emotionally arousing material of negative and positive valence enhanced reality monitoring compared to neutral material since emotional stimuli can be encoded with more contextual details and thereby facilitate the distinction between presented and imagined stimuli. Individuals with schizophrenia appear to be impaired in both reality monitoring and memory for emotional experiences. However, the relationship between the emotionality of the-to-be-remembered material and false memory occurrence has not yet been studied. In this study, twenty-four patients and twenty-four healthy adults completed a false memory task with everyday episodes composed of 12 photographs that depicted positive, negative or neutral outcomes. Results showed how patients with schizophrenia made a higher number of false memories than normal controls (p0.05) resulting from erroneous inferences but did interact with plausible, script consistent errors in patients (i.e. neutral episodes yielded a higher degree of errors than positive and negative episodes. Affective information reduces the probability of generating causal errors in healthy adults but not in patients suggesting that emotional memory impairments may contribute to deficits in reality monitoring in schizophrenia when affective information is involved.
Beth Fairfield; Mario Altamura; Flavia A. Padalino; Angela Balzotti; Alberto Di Domenico; Nicola Mammarella. False Memories for Affective Information in Schizophrenia. Frontiers in Psychiatry 2016, 7, 1 .
AMA StyleBeth Fairfield, Mario Altamura, Flavia A. Padalino, Angela Balzotti, Alberto Di Domenico, Nicola Mammarella. False Memories for Affective Information in Schizophrenia. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2016; 7 ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBeth Fairfield; Mario Altamura; Flavia A. Padalino; Angela Balzotti; Alberto Di Domenico; Nicola Mammarella. 2016. "False Memories for Affective Information in Schizophrenia." Frontiers in Psychiatry 7, no. : 1.
Better memory for positive information compared to negative and neutral information has been repeatedly associated with successful aging. The main psychological explanations for this so-called “positivity effect” in memory principally rely on emotional, motivational, and cognitive mechanisms that make older adults' cognition highly sensitive to positive information according to ultimate goals of well-being. However, emerging evidence also delineates a genetic profile for positivity effects in memory, which may render some older adults more prone than others to encoding and remembering positive memories. First, we present a brief overview of behavioral and neuroimaging studies about the positivity effect in aging. Subsequently, we report studies on candidate genes associated with positive memories. In particular, we review work to date on several candidate genes that are sensitive to stimulus valence such as ADRA2B, COMT, and 5HTTLPR. Finally, we propose that the future approach to the study of genetic correlates of positivity effects in memory should also include mitochondrial functioning (TOMM40). Altogether, the study of genetics and cell biology of positivity effects in memory can help us to reveal the underlying bottom-up pathways to positive affect in healthy aging.
Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Beth Fairfield. Aging and the genetic road towards the positivity effect in memory. Experimental Gerontology 2016, 82, 120 -124.
AMA StyleNicola Mammarella, Alberto Di Domenico, Beth Fairfield. Aging and the genetic road towards the positivity effect in memory. Experimental Gerontology. 2016; 82 ():120-124.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Beth Fairfield. 2016. "Aging and the genetic road towards the positivity effect in memory." Experimental Gerontology 82, no. : 120-124.
Prosody, or the way things are said, can modify the meaning of utterances making qualitatively different affective prosodies useful for understanding how auditory affective information is processed and remembered. In this study, we collected behavioral data from 225 younger (M age = 20.8 years, SD = 2.5 years; 119 males) and 225 older adults (M age = 71.6 years, SD = 6.5 years; 119 males) in order to examine age differences in emotional prosody effects on verbal memory. Participants were randomly divided into three subgroups according to different prosody listening conditions (positive, negative, and neutral) and prosody effects on a yes–no recognition memory task were investigated. The results showed how older adults who listened to the story read with a neutral prosody remembered more words than those who listened to the same story with a positive or negative prosody. Younger adults showed no valence effects. Our findings highlighted an age and affective prosody interaction that affects remembering in older adults alone.
Beth Fairfield; Alberto Di Domenico; Sonia Serricchio; Erika Borella; Nicola Mammarella. Emotional prosody effects on verbal memory in older and younger adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition 2016, 24, 408 -417.
AMA StyleBeth Fairfield, Alberto Di Domenico, Sonia Serricchio, Erika Borella, Nicola Mammarella. Emotional prosody effects on verbal memory in older and younger adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition. 2016; 24 (4):408-417.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBeth Fairfield; Alberto Di Domenico; Sonia Serricchio; Erika Borella; Nicola Mammarella. 2016. "Emotional prosody effects on verbal memory in older and younger adults." Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition 24, no. 4: 408-417.
Lack of motivation, or apathy, is a clinically significant feature among dementia patients. The current study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a brief emotional shaping intervention developed to reduce apathy and increase willingness-to-do in Alzheimer's Dementia patients. To this end, 26 Alzheimer patients diagnosed with apathy according to the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES, Marin et al.,1991) and 26 healthy older controls performed an emotional shaping task intended to unconsciously foster willingness-to-do. Participants were randomly assigned to either a positive or a neutral conditioning situation. Results showed how the positively conditioned group was associated with improved willingness-to-do in both patients and controls compared to the neutrally conditioned group. Our findings suggest that unconscious emotional processing can be used to treat apathy symptoms and increase willingness-to-do in Alzheimer's Dementia.
Alberto Di Domenico; Rocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella. Fighting apathy in Alzheimer's dementia: A brief emotional-based intervention. Psychiatry Research 2016, 242, 331 -335.
AMA StyleAlberto Di Domenico, Rocco Palumbo, Beth Fairfield, Nicola Mammarella. Fighting apathy in Alzheimer's dementia: A brief emotional-based intervention. Psychiatry Research. 2016; 242 ():331-335.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlberto Di Domenico; Rocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella. 2016. "Fighting apathy in Alzheimer's dementia: A brief emotional-based intervention." Psychiatry Research 242, no. : 331-335.
Interest in the role of the noradrenergic system in the modulation of emotional memories has recently increased. This study briefly reviews this timely line of research with a specific focus on aging. After having identified surprisingly few studies that investigated emotional memory in older adults from a neurobiological perspective, we found a significant interaction between noradrenergic activity and emotional memory enhancement in older adults. This pattern of data are explained both in terms of a top-down modulation of behavioral processes (e.g., changes in priority and individual goals) and in terms of greater activity of noradrenergic system during aging. Altogether, both behavioral and genetic variations studies (e.g., Alpha 2 B Adrenoceptor genotype) have shown that healthy older adults are able to circumvent or minimize the experience of negative emotions and stabilize or even enhance positive emotional experiences. Future studies are highly warranted to better clarify the relationship between noradrenaline and emotional memories in the aging brain.
Nicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Rocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield. Noradrenergic modulation of emotional memory in aging. Ageing Research Reviews 2016, 27, 61 -66.
AMA StyleNicola Mammarella, Alberto Di Domenico, Rocco Palumbo, Beth Fairfield. Noradrenergic modulation of emotional memory in aging. Ageing Research Reviews. 2016; 27 ():61-66.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicola Mammarella; Alberto Di Domenico; Rocco Palumbo; Beth Fairfield. 2016. "Noradrenergic modulation of emotional memory in aging." Ageing Research Reviews 27, no. : 61-66.
Highlights•ADRA2B is involved in valence processing.•ADRA2B carriers exhibited enhanced working memory for positive information.•ADRA2B carriers showed a decrease in their willingness to avoid negative information.•ADRA2B carriers remembered a greater number of words read with a positive intonation.•ADRA2B carriers showed higher levels of cognitive–affective flexibility compared to non-carriers. AbstractPrevious studies found that the ADRA2B gene modulates early perception and attention. Here, we aimed to examine whether ADRA2B polymorphisms also influence emotional working memory and the willingness to implement behaviors (switching affective intonation) in order to avoid negative information, both considered indexes of cognitive–affective flexibility. We examined genotype data collected from 212 healthy females, 91 ADRA2B carriers and 121 non-carriers, and found that carriers showed a positivity bias in working memory. That is, carriers remembered a higher number of positive words compared to negative and neutral words. In addition, although carriers were more unwilling to switch intonation in order to avoid negative information, they showed better recognition memory for words read with a positive intonation. These findings suggest that deletion variants of ADRA2B may show greater levels of cognitive–affective flexibility compared to non-carriers.
Nicola Mammarella; Beth Fairfield; Alberto Di Domenico; Laura D’Onofrio; Liborio Stuppia; Valentina Gatta. The modulating role of ADRA2B in emotional working memory: Attending the negative but remembering the positive. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 2016, 130, 129 -134.
AMA StyleNicola Mammarella, Beth Fairfield, Alberto Di Domenico, Laura D’Onofrio, Liborio Stuppia, Valentina Gatta. The modulating role of ADRA2B in emotional working memory: Attending the negative but remembering the positive. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. 2016; 130 ():129-134.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicola Mammarella; Beth Fairfield; Alberto Di Domenico; Laura D’Onofrio; Liborio Stuppia; Valentina Gatta. 2016. "The modulating role of ADRA2B in emotional working memory: Attending the negative but remembering the positive." Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 130, no. : 129-134.
Emotional face recognition is impaired in bipolar disorder, but it is not clear whether this is specific for the illness. Here, we investigated how aging and bipolar disorder influence dynamic emotional face recognition. Twenty older adults, 16 bipolar patients, and 20 control subjects performed a dynamic affective facial recognition task and a subsequent rating task. Participants pressed a key as soon as they were able to discriminate whether the neutral face was assuming a happy or angry facial expression and then rated the intensity of each facial expression. Results showed that older adults recognized happy expressions faster, whereas bipolar patients recognized angry expressions faster. Furthermore, both groups rated emotional faces more intensely than did the control subjects. This study is one of the first to compare how aging and clinical conditions influence emotional facial recognition and underlines the need to consider the role of specific and common factors in emotional face recognition.
Mario Altamura; Flavia A. Padalino; Eleonora Stella; Angela Balzotti; Antonello Bellomo; Rocco Palumbo; Alberto Di Domenico; Nicola Mammarella; Beth Fairfield. Facial Emotion Recognition in Bipolar Disorder and Healthy Aging. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease 2016, 204, 188 -193.
AMA StyleMario Altamura, Flavia A. Padalino, Eleonora Stella, Angela Balzotti, Antonello Bellomo, Rocco Palumbo, Alberto Di Domenico, Nicola Mammarella, Beth Fairfield. Facial Emotion Recognition in Bipolar Disorder and Healthy Aging. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease. 2016; 204 (3):188-193.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMario Altamura; Flavia A. Padalino; Eleonora Stella; Angela Balzotti; Antonello Bellomo; Rocco Palumbo; Alberto Di Domenico; Nicola Mammarella; Beth Fairfield. 2016. "Facial Emotion Recognition in Bipolar Disorder and Healthy Aging." Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease 204, no. 3: 188-193.
Commentary: Spacing as the friend of both memory and induction in young and older adults
Nicola Emammarella; Beth Efairfield; Alberto Di Domenico. Commentary: Spacing as the friend of both memory and induction in young and older adults. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 2015, 7, 226 .
AMA StyleNicola Emammarella, Beth Efairfield, Alberto Di Domenico. Commentary: Spacing as the friend of both memory and induction in young and older adults. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. 2015; 7 ():226.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicola Emammarella; Beth Efairfield; Alberto Di Domenico. 2015. "Commentary: Spacing as the friend of both memory and induction in young and older adults." Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 7, no. : 226.
Emotional meta-memory can be defined as the knowledge people have about the strategies and monitoring processes that they can use to remember their emotionally charged memories. Although meta-memory per se has been studied in many cognitive laboratories for many years, fewer studies have explicitly focused on meta-memory for emotionally charged or valenced information. In this brief review, we analyzed a series of behavioral and neuroimaging studies that used different meta-memory tasks with valenced information in order to foster new research in this direction, especially in terms of commonalities/peculiarities of the emotion and meta-memory interaction. In addition, results further support meta-cognitive models that take emotional factors into account when defining meta-memory per se.
Beth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella; Rocco Palumbo; Alberto Di Domenico. Emotional Meta-Memories: A Review. Brain Sciences 2015, 5, 509 -520.
AMA StyleBeth Fairfield, Nicola Mammarella, Rocco Palumbo, Alberto Di Domenico. Emotional Meta-Memories: A Review. Brain Sciences. 2015; 5 (4):509-520.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBeth Fairfield; Nicola Mammarella; Rocco Palumbo; Alberto Di Domenico. 2015. "Emotional Meta-Memories: A Review." Brain Sciences 5, no. 4: 509-520.