Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating chronic disease that has had increasing prevalence over the last years. We have investigated whether the perceived quality of life is reduced in multiple sclerosis patients compared to control participants with a cross-sectional approach, and how it relates to sociodemographic, clinical, and psychosocial variables in MS with multiple regression. To that end, a group of MS patients (n = 50) and a control group (n = 50) that was matched for age and education level filled in the WHOQOL-BREF (perceived quality of life across four domains) and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The participants in the MS group also filled in a clinical questionnaire and three instruments measuring psychosocial variables (the DASS-21 for depression, anxiety, and stress, the Brief-COPE for coping skills, and the Meaning in Life Scale). The results showed that the perceived quality of life was lower in the MS group than in the control group. Multiple regression models incorporating the variables that showed significant correlations with the quality of life indicated that age, professional status, recovery from relapses, depression, active coping, and meaning in life predicted at least one domain of the quality of life. Meaning in life predicted the quality of life in all four of the domains. Although the quality of life in MS is linked to multiple biopsychosocial variables, meaning in life seems crucial.

Background: Aging impacts semantic abilities, therefore semantic exercises might be a valuable tool for cognitive stimulation in healthy older adults. However, programs in this area are limited. Methods: In the current paper, we adapted the BOX linguistic semantic program for online use via the CerUp platform. Our goal was to prepare the optimization future experience of CerUp users, including potential changes in task structure, level of difficulty and instructions, and participants’ adherence, engagement, performance accuracy, perceived difficulty, and adequacy ratings assigned to the instructions we provided that might guide future changes. Additionally, we created a map of hypothesized task-specific features that may guide tailor-made uses of the program. Results: To that end, we present preliminary results on the usability of CerUp. By analyzing task-specific usability data alongside the hypothesized map of task-specific features, we also tested the validity of the latter. Conclusions: These preliminary results on the usability of the CerUp platform highlight the potential of programs for semantic stimulation. Such findings can inform future optimizations of the program, tailored to users’ needs and effectively supporting overall language skills and general cognition.

Difficulties in both duration and beat‐based time perception are common in individuals with dyslexia (DD). It is also known that internalised beat cues may aid in duration processing. This study investigated whether the difficulties in duration processing among DD stem from their inability to utilise internal beat cues. Participants with and without dyslexia estimated intervals ranging from 500 ms to 10 s. In the beat cue condition, participants listened to a sequence of 500 ms beats before the interval, and in the no beat cue condition, they were exposed to silence while EEG was recorded. Interestingly, the two groups did not differ in duration estimation performance, but they did differ in their utilisation of beat cues, with DD showing less sensitivity to these, whether the impact was negative (cues before shorter intervals) or positive (before longer intervals). Brainwave entrainment to the target frequency was significantly higher compared with entrainment to a non‐target frequency, and cross‐group differences were null. Our findings suggest that DD may have difficulties either in retaining the beat when it is no longer audible, or in using the internalised beat for duration estimation. Nevertheless, they can achieve comparable accuracy to neurotypical adults, possibly through compensatory strategies.

The mechanisms subtending the positive association between reading and rhythmic skills, remain unclear. Our goal was to perform a systematic test between two major explanations: the Temporal Sampling Framework (TSF), which highlights the relation between rhythm and speech encoding, and a competitor explanation based on the enhancing role of rhythm in prediction within visual and auditory sequences. We compared beat vs. duration perception for their associations with encoding and sequence learning tasks, using both visual and auditory sequences. We also compared these associations for Portuguese vs. Greek participants, since Portuguese stress-timed rhythm is more compatible with music-like beats, lasting around 500 ms, than Greek, syllable-timed rhythm (faster). If rhythm acts via speech encoding, it should be more salient in Portuguese. Consistent with TSF’s proposal, we found a significant association between beat perception and auditory encoding in Portuguese but not Greek participants. Correlations of time perception with visual and auditory sequence learning were either null or insufficiently supported in both groups. Altogether, the evidence favored TSF-related predictions in detriment of the rhythm-as-prediction-enhancer hypothesis.

Duration perception abilities seem to enhance reading skills, but the reason for this remains under debate. Some studies focused on the ability to perceive the length of sounds (speech-related duration perception), while others approached general time skills (using, e.g., beep stimuli), but a direct comparison between the two modalities has not been done so far. In the present study, we compared the relevance of domain-general (comparison of time intervals defined by beeps) vs. speech-specific duration perception (pre-attentive EEG responses to different consonants) as statistical predictors of reading in adults. Reading included word and pseudoword decoding, as well as reading comprehension. We made regression-based analyses with the two time-related predictors for each reading skill. Pseudoword decoding was the only reading skill that was significantly predicted by duration perception, and this happened for domain-general duration perception only. Our findings strengthen the idea that skilled duration perception enhances phonological coding and its impact on grapheme-to-phoneme conversion processes. They also suggest that the benefits to phonological encoding are not specifically related to better processing of speech sound durations. Instead, the impact of skilled duration perception may rely on its connection to entrainment-to-speech skills, and the enhanced encoding of speech units that comes with it.

Background/Objectives: The mechanisms underlying the positive association between reading and rhythmic skills remain unclear. Our goal was to systematically test between two major explanations: the Temporal Sampling Framework (TSF), which highlights the relation between rhythm and speech encoding, and a competing explanation based on rhythm’s role in enhancing prediction within visual and auditory sequences. Methods: We compared beat versus duration perception for their associations with encoding and sequence learning (prediction-related) tasks, using both visual and auditory sequences. We also compared these associations for Portuguese vs. Greek participants, since Portuguese stress-timed rhythm is more compatible with music-like beats lasting around 500 ms, in contrast to the syllable-timed rhythm of Greek. If rhythm acts via speech encoding, its effects should be more salient in Portuguese. Results: Consistent with the TSF’s predictions, we found a significant association between beat perception and auditory encoding in Portuguese but not in Greek participants. Correlations between time perception and sequence learning in both modalities were either null or insufficiently supported in both groups. Conclusions: Altogether, the evidence supported the TSF-related predictions in detriment of the Rhythm-as-Predictor (RaP) hypothesis.