Background: The measures taken to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, such as the lockdown in Italy, do impact psychological health; yet, less is known about their effect on cognitive functioning. The transactional theory of stress predicts reciprocal influences between perceived stress and cognitive performance. However, the effects of a period of stress due to social isolation on spatial cognition and exploration have been little examined. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible effects and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on spatial cognition tasks, particularly those concerning spatial exploration, and the physiological leftward bias known as pseudoneglect. A right-hemisphere asymmetry for spatial attention processes crucially contributes to pseudoneglect. Other evidence indicates a predominantly right-hemisphere activity in stressful situations. We also analyzed the effects of lockdown on coping strategies, which typically show an opposite pattern of hemispheric asymmetry, favoring the left hemisphere. If so, then pseudoneglect should increase during the lockdown and be negatively correlated with the efficacy of coping strategies.Methods: One week before the start of the lockdown due to COVID-19 in Italy (T1), we had collected data from a battery of behavioral tests including tasks of peri-personal spatial cognition. During the quarantine period, from late April to early May 2020 (T2), we repeated the testing sessions with a subgroup of the same participants (47 right-handed students, mean age = 20, SD = 1.33). At both testing sessions, participants performed digitized neuropsychological tests, including a Cancellation task, Radial Arm Maze task, and Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices. Participants also completed a newly developed COVID-19 Student Stress Scale, based on transactional models of stress, and the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced—New Italian Version (COPE-NIV) to assess coping orientation.Results: The tendency to start cancelation from a left-sided item, to explore first a left-sided arm of the maze, and to choose erroneous response items on the left side of the page on Raven’s matrices increased from T1 to T2. The degree of pseudoneglect increment positively correlated with perceived stress and negatively correlated with Positive Attitude and Problem-Solving COPE-NIV subscales.Conclusion: Lockdown-related stress may have contributed to increase leftward bias during quarantine through a greater activation of the right hemisphere. On the other hand, pseudoneglect was decreased for better coping participants, perhaps as a consequence of a more balanced hemispheric activity in these individuals.

The Baking Tray Task is an ecological task developed for the assessment of unilateral neglect that can also be used for research on neurotypical participants. In this task, participants are asked to place 16 objects inside a board as evenly as possible. In the case of impaired spatial exploration, consequent to right attentional networks damage, asymmetrical object disposition is observed as more objects are placed on the ipsilesional side (typically the right side). The E-BTT is a technology-enhanced version of the Baking Tray Task, implemented with a software platform, E-TAN, which detects the objects and automatically computes their spatial coordinates. This allows a complement to the traditional scoring methods with new measures to extract richer information from the data. In this study, we focus on neurotypical participants to explore if some new indexes, derived from the literature review on similar tasks, can be applied to BTT and E-BTT for research aims. A principal component analysis (PCA) was then performed to verify if these new indexes reflect some common dimensions. Results indicate the emergence of two principal dimensions: spatiality, which summarizes both laterality and verticality, and quality, which regards the explored space and (dis)organization in placing the items.

Background: This study investigates how anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances affect pain perception and clinical impairment in burning mouth syndrome (BMS).Methods: A cross‐sectional survey was conducted on 200 BMS patients. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM‐D) and Anxiety (HAM‐A), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and short form of McGill pain questionnaire (SF‐MPQ) were used. The Clinical Global Impressions Severity of Illness (CGI‐S) assessed illness severity, and comorbidities were analyzed via the Age‐Adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (AACCI). Correlation tests and path analyses explored relationships among psychological factors, sleep quality, and BMS severity.Results: Pain intensity (VAS) correlated significantly with anxiety (HAM‐A, ρ = 0.25, p < 0.05), depression (HAM‐D, ρ = 0.15, p < 0.05), and shorter sleep duration (ρ = −0.19, p < 0.05). Path analyses revealed that anxiety significantly increased pain intensity (β = 0.24, p < 0.05), indirectly influencing clinical severity (CGI‐S: β = 0.07, p < 0.05). Depression strongly impacted poor sleep quality (PSQI, β = 0.33, p < 0.05). Shorter sleep duration affected both sleep quality (β = −0.46, p < 0.05) and clinical outcomes (CGI‐S, β = −0.17, p < 0.05). Pain quality (SF‐MPQ) showed weaker, non‐significant associations with psychological factors.Conclusions: Anxiety amplifies pain intensity, while depression worsens sleep quality, exacerbating clinical outcomes. Shorter sleep duration further contributes to worse outcomes. These findings emphasize the need for tailored interventions targeting psychological distress and sleep disturbances to improve pain management and quality of life in BMS patients.

Introduction: The ecological assessment and the analysis of spatial organization behaviors, like the organization of objects in an empty space, in clinical and neurotypical conditions, is crucial. The Enhanced-Baking Tray Task (E-BTT) is as simple as that – placing objects inside a frame as evenly as possible, as if they were “cookies” to be baked in the oven. The E-BTT is the enhanced version of a task for neglect assessment, the Baking Tray Task, and has the advantage to register the coordinates of each object and their temporal order, meaning that it is easy to reconstruct the sequence of their placement. This sequence could be further analyzed, and, in this paper, we aim to do that with a series of indexes. Moreover, since they investigate the visual search organization of the sequence itself, their validity will be tested with a convergent measure of subjective organization.Methods: Therefore, we asked 100 observers (76 women) to evaluate the subjective organization of each of 97 E-BTT plots, on a scale that ranged from 0 = not at all to 100 = well organized.Results: A multiple regression model showed a significant association between subjective organization ratings (dependent variable) and Intersection rate, Total time of performance and distance to both optimal sequences (independent variables).Discussion: Therefore the above-mentioned indexes can be considered measures of the overall organization in the E-BTT.

Here we present the first prototype of the E-TAN ANALYST, an app that is able to analyse spatio-temporal data developed in Python. This app was developed to analyse the Enhanced Baking Tray Task (E-BTT) data, an innovative task that exploits Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) and returns a series of sixteen ordered coordinates as output. The E-TAN ANALYST allows the automatic computation of a series of indexes on these coordinates and the graphical representation of E-BTT performance. This elaboration can then be used by the clinician or by the experimenter to analyse the single subject’s performance and their spatial exploration.

Background: Frailty reflects an age‐associated progressive decline in physiological reserve, increasing vulnerability to adverse outcomes. Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) is a chronic idiopathic orofacial pain disorder commonly seen in older individuals, yet its relationship with frailty remains uninvestigated. Objectives: This study aims to assess frailty in BMS patients using the SUNFRAIL+ multidimensional screening tool, which facilitates early detection of bio‐psycho‐social risk factors for frailty in community‐dwelling older adults. Methods: This multi‐centre case–control study included 104 adults aged ≥ 65 years (52 with BMS and 52 age and sex matched controls). The SUNFRAIL+ tool was used to identify risks and trigger further single‐domain evaluation with the Tool for Adherence to Therapies (TAS), Mini‐Nutritional Assessment (MNA), Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (PREDIMED), Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), Timed Up and Go test (TUG), Quick Mild Cognitive Impairment (Q mci ) screen, General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition (GPCOG), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Social Provisions Scale (SPS), socio‐economic conditions self‐assessment questionnaire (MUSE) and 12‐item Short Form Health Survey (SF‐12). Results: Patients with BMS showed significantly higher levels of frailty, characterized by higher rates of polypharmacy (76.9% vs. 30.8%), reduced mobility (61.5% vs. 42.3%; p > 0.05), greater cognitive impairment (Q mci 56.8 vs. 75.5), more self‐reported depressive symptoms (GDS: 7.5 vs. 4), less social support (SPS: 30 vs. 36), and lower quality of life (SF‐12; p < 0.05). Conclusions: Older adults with BMS have a greater proportion of clinical markers of frailty. The SUNFRAIL+ model is effective in revealing hidden vulnerabilities, supporting early, multidisciplinary intervention in this cohort.