Background: The advent of digital technology has significantly altered ways of writing. While typing has become the dominant mode of written communication, handwriting remains a fundamental human skill, and its profound impact on cognitive processes continues to be a topic of intense scientific scrutiny. Methods: This paper investigates the neural mechanisms underlying handwriting and typing, exploring the distinct cognitive and neurological benefits associated with each. By synthesizing findings from neuroimaging studies, we explore how handwriting and typing differentially activate brain regions associated with motor control, sensory perception, and higher-order cognitive functions. Results: Handwriting activates a broader network of brain regions involved in motor, sensory, and cognitive processing. Typing engages fewer neural circuits, resulting in more passive cognitive engagement. Despite the advantages of typing in terms of speed and convenience, handwriting remains an important tool for learning and memory retention, particularly in educational contexts. Conclusions: This review contributes to the ongoing debate about the role of technology in education and cognitive development. By understanding the neural differences between handwriting and typing, we can gain insights into optimal learning strategies and potential cognitive advantages, in order to optimize educational, cognitive, and psychological methodologies.

Background/Objectives: Lithium taken during pregnancy was linked in the past with increased risk for foetal/newborn malformations, but clinicians believe that it is worse for newborn children not to treat the mothers’ underlying psychiatric illness. We set to review the available evidence of adverse foetal outcomes in women who received lithium treatment for some time during their pregnancy. Methods: We searched four databases and a register to seek papers reporting neonatal outcomes of women who took lithium during their pregnancy by using the appropriate terms. We adopted the PRISMA statement and used Delphi rounds among all the authors to assess eligibility and the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias tool to evaluate the RoB of the included studies. Results: We found 28 eligible studies, 10 of which met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The studies regarded 1402 newborn babies and 2595 women exposed to lithium. Overall, the systematic review found slightly increased adverse pregnancy outcomes for women taking lithium for both the first trimester only and any time during pregnancy, while the meta-analysis found increased odds for cardiac or other malformations, preterm birth, and a large size for gestational age with lithium at any time during pregnancy. Conclusions: Women with BD planning a pregnancy should consider discontinuing lithium when euthymic; lithium use during the first trimester and at any time during pregnancy increases the odds for some adverse pregnancy outcomes. Once the pregnancy has started, there is no reason for discontinuing lithium; close foetal monitoring and regular blood lithium levels may obviate some disadvantages of lithium administration during pregnancy.

Background/Objectives: While positive symptoms of schizophrenia are often satisfactorily controlled, negative symptoms are difficult to treat, persisting despite treatment. Different strategies have been devised to deal with this problem. We aimed to review drug treatment for negative symptoms of schizophrenia in controlled trials of marketed drugs. Methods: We searched the PubMed database and the resulting records’ reference lists to identify eligible trials using schizophrenia[ti] AND “negative symptom*”[ti] as a search strategy. We determined eligibility through Delphi rounds among all authors. Results: On 11 February 2025, we identified 1485 records on PubMed and 3 more from reference lists. Eligible were 95 records. Most studies were double-blind, randomized controlled trials, carried-out in add-on in patients stabilized with antipsychotics. Other antipsychotics were the most frequent comparators, followed by antidepressants, and recently, antioxidants are gaining importance in trials. Many trials, especially those conducted in the Western world, found no significant effects compared to placebo, while most Iranian studies were positive, although not with a strong effect size. Conclusions: Current research has contributed little to progress in the treatment of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The reason might reside in the absence of knowledge of the mechanisms whereby these symptoms are generated, which prevents us from designing possibly effective treatment strategies, and/or to the chronicity of negative symptoms, as they are the first to be established even when they do not become fully apparent.

Background/Objectives: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been extensively studied through neuroimaging, primarily focusing on grey matter and more in children than in adults. Studies in children and adolescents fail to capture changes that may dampen with age, thus leaving only changes specific to ASD. While grey matter has been the primary focus, white matter (WM) may be more specific in identifying the particular biological signature of the neurodiversity of ASD. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is the more appropriate tool to investigate WM in ASD. Despite being introduced in 1994, its application to ASD research began in 2001. Studies employing DTI identify altered fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity, and radial diffusivity (RD) in individuals with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) individuals. Methods: We systematically reviewed literature on 21 May 2025 on PubMed using the following strategy: (“autism spectrum”[ti] OR autistic[ti] OR ASD[ti] OR “high-functioning autism” OR Asperger*[ti] OR Rett*[ti]) AND (DTI[ti] OR “diffusion tensor”[ti] OR multimodal[ti] OR “white matter”[ti] OR tractograph*[ti]). Our search yielded 239 results, of which 26 were adult human studies and eligible. Results: Analysing the evidence, we obtained regionally diverse WM alterations in adult ASD, specifically in FA, MD, RD, axial diffusivity and kurtosis, neurite density, and orientation dispersion index, compared to TD individuals, mostly in frontal and interhemispheric tracts, association fibres, and subcortical projection pathways. These alterations were less prominent than those of children and adolescents, indicating that individuals with ASD may improve during brain maturation. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that white matter alterations in adults with ASD are regionally diverse but generally less pronounced than in younger populations. This may indicate a potential improvement or adaptation of brain structure during maturation. Further research is needed to clarify the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these changes and their implications for clinical outcomes.

Background/Objectives: Dopamine partial agonists are drugs initially developed to treat schizophrenia, seeking a double effect of increased dopaminergic transmission in the prefrontal cortex and decrease in the accumbens/striatum. Of these drugs, aripiprazole, brexpiprazole, and cariprazine are currently marketed and used in schizophrenia spectrum and mood disorders. It is debated whether patients with psychiatric disorders becoming pregnant should discontinue or continue their antipsychotic treatment despite some risks for the fetus, i.e., whether it is worse to have an untreated disorder or treating it with drugs. The safety of drugs for mother and baby extend from pregnancy to the postpartum, when breastfeeding assumes great importance. We set to investigate the use of dopamine partial agonists in pregnancy and lactation. Methods: On 23 June 2025, we used suitable strategies for identifying cases and studies of cariprazine, aripiprazole, brexpiprazole, dopamine partial agonists in pregnancy, perinatal period, and/or lactation on PubMed, CINAHL, PsycInfo/PsycArticles, Scopus, and ClinicalTrials.gov. We used the PRISMA Statement in developing our review. We included case reports and clinical studies. We excluded reports without pregnancy or focused on other drugs than the above. We reached consensus on eligibility with Delphi rounds among all authors. Results: Our searches produced 386 results on the above databases. We included 24 case reports/series and 15 studies. Most studies showed no negative pregnancy outcomes. There were serious concerns about the use of dopamine D₂/D₃ partial agonists during lactation. Conclusions: The use of dopamine partial agonists during pregnancy appears to be safe, but during breastfeeding they should be better avoided.

Background/Objectives: Autistic traits are distributed dimensionally across psychiatric populations, yet their systematic assessment in mood and psychotic spectrum disorders remains limited. While elevated autistic traits have been documented in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, evidence in bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) is scarce, and no studies have applied the clinician-rated PANSS Autism Severity Score (PAUSS) to mood disorder populations. This study aims to investigate the presence and severity of autistic traits across psychotic spectrum disorder (PSD), BD, and MDD in an outpatient sample using the PAUSS. Methods: In this cross-sectional naturalistic outpatient study, clinically stable adult patients with MDD, BD, or PSD, without autism spectrum disorder, were assessed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and PAUSS. Group comparisons, adjusted models, correlation analyses, principal component analysis, and multinomial logistic regression were performed. Results: A total of 165 patients were included (MDD, n = 84, BD, n = 45, PSD, n = 36). Compared with the mood disorder groups, PSD patients were younger and showed higher BPRS scores. PSD was also characterized by significantly higher PAUSS total, social, and communication scores, whereas PAUSS RRB did not differ in univariate analyses. In the overall sample, BPRS severity correlated positively with all PAUSS dimensions, while age showed only weak or non-significant associations. Diagnosis-stratified analyses revealed that the association between psychopathology and autistic traits was present in MDD and BD, but not in PSD. PCA showed that autistic trait dimensions converged on a broad common profile and differed across diagnostic groups, with PSD showing the most distinct pattern. In multinomial logistic regression, higher BPRS, higher PAUSS social and communication scores, and younger age independently distinguished PSD from MDD and BD; PAUSS RRB showed an inverse association only in the multivariable model. Conclusions: This study supports a transdiagnostic perspective on autistic traits in adult psychiatric populations, highlighting disorder-specific differences across diagnostic categories. Social and communication impairments emerged as key dimensions distinguishing PSD from mood disorders. Assessing autistic traits in psychiatric settings may improve diagnostic precision and inform personalized, stratified treatment approaches.