Introduction: The fast expanding field of Interpersonal Physiology (IP) focuses on the study of co-ordination or synchronization dynamics between the physiological activities of two, or more, individuals. IP has been associated with various relational features (e.g., empathy, attachment security, rapport, closeness…) that overlap with desirable characteristics of clinical relationships, suggesting that the relevant studies might provide objective, economical, and theory-free techniques to investigate the clinical process. The goal of the present work is to systematically retrieve and review the literature on IP in the field of psychotherapy and psychological intervention, in order to consolidate the knowledge of this research domain, highlight its critical issues, and delineate possible developments. Method: Following the guidelines by Okoli and Schabram (2010), a systematic literature search was performed in Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and PubMed databases by means of multiple keyword combinations; the results were integrated with references to the retrieved articles' bibliography as well as to other published reviews on IP. Results: All the retrieved documents reported clinical interactions that are characterized, at least partially, by IP phenomena. They appear to use fragmented and sometimes ambiguous terminology and show a lack of both specific theory-informed hypotheses and sound analytical procedures. Conclusion: Although the psychological nature of IP and its role in the clinical relationship are still mostly unknown, the potential value of a physiology-based measure of implicit exchanges in psychotherapy drives an acceleration in this research field. On the basis of the highlighted critical issues, possible future directions for clinical IP researchers are discussed.

Introduction. Motion Energy Analysis (MEA) is a procedure that allows to automatically assess the amount of persons’ movement from video recordings. Recent studies used MEA to investigate nonverbal synchrony, i.e., the occurrence of simultaneous movement, suggesting the existence of an association with relationship quality. In patient-therapist dyads, synchrony predicted therapeutic alliance, empathy, as well as treatment outcome. Package description . The article presents rMEA, an open-source R package that allows to import, filter, and visualize dyadic time-series of nonverbal behaviour generated by other MEA software. The package includes a fast, state-of-the-art, moving window cross-correlation algorithm with lag analysis, which provides a user-friendly interface for the assessment of nonverbal synchrony. Through the analysis of a motivating example (40 psychotherapy intake interviews split between dropouts and good cases) the article provides an in-depth description of the package main functions and a tutorial for a typical analysis in this field, requiring only the most basic knowledge of the R language and environment. The rich visualization capabilities of the software provide powerful tools for the various steps involved in the diagnostics, analysis, interpretation and publication of these data. Conclusions. Overall, the paper aims to empower psychotherapy researchers and other interaction scientists to investigate nonverbal synchrony in their own dyads.

The nature of near-death experiences (NDEs) is largely unknown but recent evidence suggests the intriguing possibility that NDEs may refer to actually “perceived”, and stored, experiences (although not necessarily in relation to the external physical world). We adopted an integrated approach involving a hypnosis-based clinical protocol to improve recall and decrease memory inaccuracy together with Electroencephalography (EEG) recording in order to investigate the characteristics of NDE memories and their neural markers compared to memories of both real and imagined events. We included 10 participants with NDEs, defined by the Greyson NDE scale, and 10 control subjects without NDE. Memories were assessed using the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire.Our hypnosis-based protocol increased the amount of details in the recall of all kind of memories considered (NDE, real, and imagined events). Findings showed that NDE memories were similar to real memories in terms of detail richness, self-referential, and emotional information. Moreover, NDE memories were significantly different from memories of imagined events. The pattern of EEG results indicated that real memories recall was positively associated with two memory-related frequency bands, i.e., high alpha and gamma. NDE memories were linked with theta band, a well-known marker of episodic memory. The recall of NDE memories was also related to delta band, which indexes processes such as the recollection of the past, as well as trance states, hallucinations, and other related portals to transpersonal experience. It is notable that the EEG pattern of correlations for NDE memories recall differed from the pattern for memories of imagined events. In conclusion, our findings suggest that, at a phenomenological level, NDE memories cannot be considered equivalent to imagined memories, and at a neural level, NDE memories are stored as episodic memories of events experienced in a peculiar state of consciousness.

Physiological synchronization is the study of how individuals in interaction coregulate their physiology. The topic has sparked increasing interest in counseling and psychotherapy research, where it has been found to be associated with the therapeutic alliance, clinicians' empathy and patients' outcome. Physiological synchronization allows researcher to investigate subtle but fundamental aspects of the clinical process through objective measures. In this article, we aim to offer a guide to researchers and clinicians to explore this growing field of study. We begin by reviewing the existing literature of physiological synchronization in clinical relationships, and then we provide practical guidelines for research. We discuss the various aspects involved in synchronization studies: study design, selection of physiological signals, data analytic approaches, and interpretation of results. To better illustrate how to implement these types of design, we provide a running example describing the data collection and analysis of a single-case study. In the example we discuss both how to conduct a longitudinal nomothetic analysis, as well as a moment-to-moment idiographic exploration of the clinical content. In this latter analysis, in particular, we show how physiological synchronization can be used in combination with 2 transcripts analysis tools, the Patient Attachment Coding System, and the Therapist Attunement Scales to reach a deeper understanding of the ongoing processes. We conclude by arguing that research in counseling and psychotherapy has much to gain from and contribute to the overall development of our understanding of physiological synchronization in human interaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

This study investigated the somatic underpinning of empathy using an interpersonal physiology approach. Thirty-nine dyads were formed by a “pseudo-patient” and a “listener” (a therapist, a psychologist, or a non-therapist). Dyadic physiological concordance in electrodermal responses and listeners' empathy were evaluated during simulations of clinical sessions. A significant positive correlation between empathy as perceived by pseudo-patients and physiological concordance was found, providing empirical evidence of a somatic underpinning of empathy. Moreover, therapists showed higher levels of physiological concordance and empathy, confirming the importance of psychotherapy training in managing clinical interactions.

Background Cognitive impairment, mainly characterised by executive dysfunction, occurs in about half of cases in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). There is evidence that gender influences some clinical features of the disease, but its influence on the cognitive spectrum is unknown. Our objective was to investigate the impact of gender on cognitive profiles of patients with ALS. Methods A retrospective study based on an exhaustive neuropsychological battery was performed in a group of 165 (70 females, 95 males) sporadic, non-demented patients with ALS compared with 134 healthy control participants. This assessment primarily focused on executive, memory and language functions. Results 47 (29%) patients revealed impairment in executive function and 30 (18%) patients revealed cognitive non-executive impairment. Independent from mood tone and clinical variables, a significantly greater executive impairment was determined in female patients than in male patients and control participants. The relative risk for ALS females having impairment in executive function compared with male patients was 2.6 (95% CI 1.6 to 4.4; p=0.0003). ALS females scored lower in Phonemic Fluency, Trial Making, and Wisconsin Card Sorting test. Conclusions Results highlight a significant vulnerability of ALS female patients to develop cognitive dysfunctions peculiar to the disease, independently of bulbar onset. The explicative hypotheses of the data are focused on two interpretative lines not mutually exclusive: the role of gonadal hormones and gender-related brain asymmetry pre-existing to the disease. These findings, never reported before in the literature, can have important implications for models of ALS pathogenesis and for future clinical trial designs.