Cognitive, Emotional, and Daily Functioning Domains Involved in Decision-Making among Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional or prodromal stage of dementia in which autonomies are largely preserved (autonomies are not particularly affected). However, this condition may entail a depletion of decision-making (DM) abilities likely due to a gradual deterioration of the prefrontal cortex and subcortical brain areas underlying cognitive-emotional processing. Given the clinical implications of a decline in self-determination observed in some MCI sufferers, the present systematic review was aimed at investigating the literature addressing DM processes in patients with MCI, consistent with PRISMA guidelines. The six online databases inquired yielded 1689 research articles that were screened and then assessed based on eligibility and quality criteria. As a result, 41 studies were included and classified following the PICOS framework. Overall, patients with MCI who underwent neuropsychological assessment were found to be slightly or moderately impaired in DM abilities related to financial management, medical adherence, specific cognitive performances, risky conditions, and especially uncertain life circumstances. Comparative cross-sectional studies indicated not only mid-stage cognitive functioning in MCI but also borderline or deficit DM patterns evaluated through different tasks and procedures. Further research addressing MCI profiles suggested an association between explicit memory, executive functions, and DM performance. These findings highlight the diversity of MCI manifestations, in addition to the critical importance of DM features and correlates in patients' daily functioning. Due to a lack of consensus on both MCI and DM, this review paper sought to shed light on assessment and intervention strategies accounting for the interplay between emotion, motivation, and learning to foster DM in cognitively impaired individuals.

The reminiscence bump and the self: evidence from five studies on positive and negative memories.

A plethora of studies have shown that people persistently remember public and personal events experienced during adolescence and early adulthood, particularly with a positive valence. In five studies, we investigate the reminiscence bump (RB) for positive and negative memories of public events (Studies 1 and 2), private events (Study 3), music-related events (Study 4), and cross-cultural memory differences (i.e., China and US) (Study 5). Participants retrieved either one positive or one negative memory, indicated their Age of Encoding, and provided secondary measures, i.e., memory vividness and rehearsal (Studies 1 and 3) and emotional intensity (Studies 2 and 4). About 10,000 memories were collected and positive memories appeared generally older than negative recollections, but the RB emerged for both positive and negative memories. Furthermore, the peak was earlier for positive memories of public events (<15 years old) than for negative memories (20-40 years), while no differences were found for private events or music-related experiences (15-25 years). Chinese had their RB later than US respondents. Finally, autobiographical recollections have moderate to low associations with secondary measures of phenomenological features of memory. These findings are consistent with the identity-formation theory, providing additional and important information on the development of the Self.

The flashbulb-like nature of memory for the first COVID-19 case and the impact of the emergency. A cross-national survey.

Flashbulb memories (FBMs) refer to vivid and long-lasting autobiographical memories for the circumstances in which people learned of a shocking and consequential public event. A cross-national study across eleven countries aimed to investigate FBM formation following the first COVID-19 case news in each country and test the effect of pandemic-related variables on FBM. Participants had detailed memories of the date and others present when they heard the news, and had partially detailed memories of the place, activity, and news source. China had the highest FBM specificity. All countries considered the COVID-19 emergency as highly significant at both the individual and global level. The Classification and Regression Tree Analysis revealed that FBM specificity might be influenced by participants' age, subjective severity (assessment of COVID-19 impact in each country and relative to others), residing in an area with stringent COVID-19 protection measures, and expecting the pandemic effects. Hierarchical regression models demonstrated that age and subjective severity negatively predicted FBM specificity, whereas sex, pandemic impact expectedness, and rehearsal showed positive associations in the total sample. Subjective severity negatively affected FBM specificity in Turkey, whereas pandemic impact expectedness positively influenced FBM specificity in China and negatively in Denmark.

The Cognitive Cost of Repetitive Thinking: A Study on the Effects of Shifting and Updating on Rumination of Emotional Experiences.

The present study aimed to investigate the consequence of resource competition between post-emotional processing and concurrent cognitive tasks. Previous studies have shown that such a resource competition engenders both short-term (e.g., defeats in the execution of the working memory task) and long-term effects (e.g., procrastination or rumination following an emotional experience). We expected these effects to vary as a function of the different WM components involved (shifting, Study 1; updating, Study 2). In two studies, participants (Study 1: N = 48; Study 2: N = 42) were administered one out of two variants of a visuospatial task (Study 1: shifting; Study 2: updating) adopted by Curci and colleagues before and after a negative or neutral manipulation. Rumination was assessed immediately after the second WM task performance and 24 h later. In Study 1, results showed that the exposure to negative content impaired the subsequent executive performance compared with exposure to neutral material, while no difference was found in Study 2. Rumination for emotional material was higher and more persistent over time as a function of shifting resources but not for updating ones. These findings provide information on the possible role of individuals' cognitive resources on rumination for emotional experiences.

Theory of Mind and Executive Functions in Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment or Healthy Aging.

Social cognition involves skills for maintaining harmonious personal and social relationships throughout life. Social cognition issues, including Theory of Mind (ToM), can significantly impact the well-being of older individuals and intensify with the onset of neurological conditions. Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a state between healthy and pathological neurocognitive aging, where monitoring social functions is crucial. Despite numerous studies on ToM challenges in older adults and cognitive disorders, the underlying mechanisms remain debated. Uncertainty exists regarding whether ToM deficits are related to other cognitive functions, such as Executive Functions (EFs). Our study examined the correlation between EF and ToM performance in 32 MCI patients and 36 healthy elderly controls. The findings revealed a link between EF and ToM performance among healthy elderly individuals. Specifically, within the assessed EFs, the role of the working memory (WM) emerged. The study also highlighted distinctions between the MCI group and the healthy elderly group, showing that despite a general reduction in cognitive performance, the condition could impact these abilities in different ways. The study contributes to the literature, fostering comprehension of the mechanisms underlying ToM difficulties, while also paving the way for targeted interventions and enhanced clinical or preventative care.

A scientometric and descriptive review on the debate about repressed memories and traumatic forgetting.

Recent work suggests that the debate surrounding repressed memory and traumatic forgetting continues today. To further investigate this debate, we performed preregistered scientometric analyses on publications on the debate about repressed memory to provide information about its bibliometric evolution. Furthermore, we reviewed these publications to highlight the different positions taken by scholars on this debate. We reviewed 434 publications extracted from Scopus and Web of Science from 1969 to 2022. Our scientometric analyses permitted us to visualize the development of the publications on repressed memories and identify the terminology used to label this phenomenon. We identified three waves of publications (i.e., 1994-2000; 2003-2009; 2012-2021) showing that there is a recent peak of scholarly attention into this topic. 40% of scholars supported the phenomenon of repressed memory while 29% did not. Moreover, although in the last wave of publications, 35% of articles included critical arguments against the existence of repressed memory, a sizable number of publications (21%) supported ideas in favour of repressed memory. Finally, we observed that the term dissociative amnesia is another expression used to refer to the phenomenon. Our results provide additional evidence that the debate on repressed memories (and dissociative amnesia) is far from being over.

Corrigendum to "Self-reported face recognition abilities moderately predict face-learning skills: Evidence from Italian samples" [Heliyon 9 (3) (March 2023) Article e14125].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14125.].

Self-reported face recognition abilities moderately predict face-learning skills: Evidence from Italian samples.

Face Recognition Ability (FRA) varies widely throughout the population. Previous research highlights a positive relationship between self-perceived and objectively measured FRA in the healthy population, suggesting that people do have insight into their FRA. Given that this relationship has not been investigated in Italian samples yet, the main aim of the present work was to develop an Italian translation of the Prosopagnosia Index-20 (PI-20), a self-report measure of FRA, to investigate the relationship between PI-20 performances and an objective assessment given by the Cambridge Face Memory Test Long Form (CFMT+) in the Italian population. A sample of 553 participants filled in the PI-20 Italian version 1 or 2 (PI-20_GE or PI-20_BA) and completed the CFMT+. Results showed a negative correlation between both versions of the Italian PI-20 and CFMT+ scores, meaning that the more self-evaluations were negative, the worse they objectively performed. The same results applied to the extreme limits of the distribution (i.e., 10% of the highest and lowest PI-20 scores). Furthermore, both age and administration order of the tests were predictor variables of CFMT+ scores. Overall, our results suggest that people possess insight, although relatively limited, into their FRA.

Collective remembering and future forecasting during the COVID-19 pandemic: How the impact of COVID-19 affected the themes and phenomenology of global and national memories across 15 countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a unique set of circumstances in which to investigate collective memory and future simulations of events reported during the onset of a potentially historic event. Between early April and late June 2020, we asked over 4,000 individuals from 15 countries across four continents to report on remarkable (a) national and (b) global events that (i) had happened since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, and (ii) they expected to happen in the future. Whereas themes of infections, lockdown, and politics dominated global and national past events in most countries, themes of economy, a second wave, and lockdown dominated future events. The themes and phenomenological characteristics of the events differed based on contextual group factors. First, across all conditions, the event themes differed to a small yet significant degree depending on the severity of the pandemic and stringency of governmental response at the national level. Second, participants reported national events as less negative and more vivid than global events, and group differences in emotional valence were largest for future events. This research demonstrates that even during the early stages of the pandemic, themes relating to its onset and course were shared across many countries, thus providing preliminary evidence for the emergence of collective memories of this event as it was occurring. Current findings provide a profile of past and future collective events from the early stages of the ongoing pandemic, and factors accounting for the consistencies and differences in event representations across 15 countries are discussed.

Psychopathic personality traits are linked to reduced false memories for negative events.

Individuals scoring high on psychopathic personality traits process emotional material to a different extent than individuals with few psychopathic traits. Evidence exists that these individuals have impaired emotional memory. The question arises whether this emotional memory impairment has ramifications for the production of emotional false memories. In the present study, we investigated the production of false and true memories for emotional events in a community sample (N = 120) of individuals varying in psychopathic traits (evaluated with the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised [PPI-R] questionnaire). The fearless dominance (FD) component of psychopathy interacted with the emotional impact of to-be-remembered events in the production of false memories, showing fewer negative false memories with increasing levels of FD. At the subjective level, negative false memories were not perceived as vivid memory experiences in high FD individuals. Concerning true memories, higher scores in cold-heartedness were related to fewer true memories for neutral and negative (but not positive) events. These results show that individuals with high psychopathy traits - in particular, FD - do not have a general emotional memory impairment but they process negative material in a different way than individuals with low psychopathic traits and thus are less susceptible to producing false memories for negative events.

The Psychological Effects of Imprisonment: The Role of Cognitive, Psychopathic and Affective Traits.

The present cross-sectional correlational study aimed to investigate a set of cognitive, affective, and personality traits impacting the psychological effects of imprisonment. Ninety-three male inmates filled out a battery including measures of intelligence, working memory, psychopathy, aggressiveness, anxious trait, emotionality, rumination styles, and empathy proneness. Inmates' psychological outcomes were conceptualized in terms of mood, anxiety, depression, and general health. Results showed that inmates with high cognitive abilities, psychopathic impulsivity, proactive aggression, personal distress and fantasy, anxious and negative emotionality are mainly prone to ill-being psychological outcomes. Contrariwise, the fearless dominance trait, positive emotionality and empathic concern ability seem to expose inmates to positive psychological outcomes. Reactive aggression and perspective taking seem to impact both positive and negative moods. Ruminative style was unrelated to psychological outcomes. These preliminary results provide an insight into which factors intervention programs should be based upon in order to enhance well-being and reduce distress among inmates.

Decision Making and Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review.

Decision making (DM) is the ability to choose among multiple options, considering external and internal variables and identifying potential paths of action that need to be assessed. Some brain areas involved in decision making are also implicated in pain processing, such as in fibromyalgia (FM). FM is a syndrome characterized by chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain and cognitive difficulties. We conducted a systematic review with the aim of identifying articles that evaluated DM in people with fibromyalgia, highlighting the main assessment tools. This work was conducted according to the PRISMA statement by consulting six online databases and providing a quality assessment of each search that met the inclusion criteria. In line with the limited interest in this in the scientific landscape to date, we found nine studies that evaluated the performance of DM in patients with FM; furthermore, we discovered that only certain types of DM were tested. The importance of our work lies in shedding light on a cognitive ability that is often undervalued in the scientific landscape but essential in everyday life. This review can serve as a starting point for further studies to clarify the relationship between DM and FM, improving understanding of the topic.

False memory and COVID-19: How people fall for fake news about COVID-19 in digital contexts.

People are often exposed to fake news. Such an exposure to misleading information might lead to false memory creation. We examined whether people can form false memories for COVID-19-related fake news. Furthermore, we investigated which individual factors might predict false memory formation for fake news. In two experiments, we provided participants with two pieces of COVID-19-related fake news along with a non-probative photograph. In Experiment 1, 41% (n = 66/161) of our sample reported at least one false memory for COVID-19-related fake news. In Experiment 2, even a higher percentage emerged (54.9%; n = 185/337). Moreover, in Experiment 2, participants with conspiracy beliefs were more likely to report false memories for fake news than those without such beliefs, irrespective of the conspiratorial nature of the materials. Finally, while well-being was found to be positively associated with both true and false memories (Experiment 1), only analytical thinking was negatively linked to the vulnerability to form false memories for COVID-19-related fake news (Experiment 2). Overall, our data demonstrated that false memories can occur following exposure to fake news about COVID-19, and that governmental and social media interventions are needed to increase individuals' discriminability between true and false COVID-19-related news.

A court ruled case on therapy-induced false memories.

We report on a unique Italian criminal case in which a court ruled that a therapist implanted false memories of abuse in a young girl. Using therapeutic excerpts, we show that the therapist used a multitude of problematic interventions that are all linked to false memory creation. Specifically, an analysis of the therapeutic excerpts showed that across many sessions, the therapist asked highly suggestive questions to the girl, implying that she was abused by her father. In addition, the girl underwent EMDR techniques that have been associated with memory undermining effects. Our analyses showed that although before treatment the girl did not have any recollection of being abused by her father, she gradually started to remember the abuse and identified the father as her abuser during the therapeutic sessions. Our case report clearly shows the danger of suggestive pressure in a therapeutic context causing patients to form false memories of abuse and supports the need to prevent the therapeutic practice of suggestive techniques.

The COVID-19 Stress Perceived on Social Distance and Gender-Based Implications.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event entailing long-term consequences on population health and welfare. Those who contracted the coronavirus may have suffered from both physical and mental health issues that unfold the need for tailored intervention strategies. Hence, our study aims to investigate the psychological and social consequences of COVID-19 on a sample of 86 participants, encompassing 43 patients (clinical group; 25 women; mean age = 50.4 ± 10.1 years) recruited from Bari University Hospital, 19 of whom were hospitalized due to the disease. The remaining 43 were individuals not fallen ill with COVID-19 to date (control group; 25 women; mean age = 50.4 ± 10.1 years). The investigation yielded significant gender differences in post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression, and representation of interpersonal distance (IPD), evaluated through the IES-R, the BDI-II, and the IVAS task, respectively. This pattern of results was not replicated in the control group. In general, participants who reported having experienced the most intense post-traumatic symptoms also presented a greater mood deflection and, more specifically, within the clinical group women obtained the highest scores on both scales. Women reported higher IES-R and BDI-II scores compared to men, that could indicate that women who have contracted COVID-19 are more exposed to post-traumatic and depressive symptoms. Our results also showed a significant effect of COVID-19 on IPD with a tendency of disease-experienced individuals to increase their preferred IPD from adults, children, and elderly people. Regarding gender differences in mood and proxemic behavior, a correlation between depressive symptoms and probable PTSD and a further correlation between probable PTSD and greater IPD were found in women from both clinical and control group. Overall, these findings might contribute to a better understanding of gender-based implications of the current pandemic on mental health, also leading to the development of integrated yet personalized intervention strategies.

Do liars really remember what they lied upon? The impact of fabrication on memory.

The present experiment aimed to examine how fabrication can affect memory. In particular, we examined whether different types of fabrication can lead to different mnemonic effects. A sample of 159 participants watched a video of a robbery and subsequently answered some questions about it. Participants were divided into three conditions: one group was instructed to tell the truth (i.e., truth-telling group), while the other two groups were instructed to lie either by partially distorting details (i.e., distortion group) or by completely making up wrong details of the event seen in the video (i.e., fabrication group). Two days later, participants completed a final memory test where they honestly answered recognition and recall questions concerning: (i) memory for the video and (ii) memory for having discussed details during the interview. Results showed that different types of fabrication affect liars' memory differently. Fabricators reported an undermining of memory for the event, whereas those who partially distorted details reported a higher impairment for the interview. Our findings showed that the effects of lying on liars' memory might be determined by the cognitive resources required to lie.

Does Alexithymia Affect Memory for a Crime? The Relationship Between Alexithymia, Executive Functions, and Memories.

Prior studies on alexithymia and memory have found a negative association between the two constructs, especially when emotional memories are considered. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that also the executive functioning (EF) of the individuals influences this relationship. Thus, the goal of this study is to verify whether alexithymia can influence the memory accuracy for a violent crime in people with different levels of EF resources in terms of both correct details and memory distortions (i.e., omissions and commissions) reported. We assessed the alexithymia and EF resources of individuals and showed participants a video of a violent crime (i.e., murder). We then asked participants to testify about the content of the video by imagining to be witnesses of the crime. A memory test was run on two moments in time: immediately after the video presentation and after 10 days. Findings demonstrated that alexithymia influences the recall of the event both in proneness to report correct details and memory distortions of the participants (i.e., omissions and commissions). Additionally, we found a contribution of EF resources in this relationship. The findings provide new information for legal professionals on memory functioning.

The role of executive functions in the effects of lying on memory.

Recent studies have demonstrated that lying can affect memory and that such memory effects are based on the cognitive load required in performing the lie. The present study aimed to verify whether the impact of two deceptive strategies (i.e., false denials and fabrication) depends on individuals' cognitive resources in terms of Executive Functions (i.e., EF: Shifting, Inhibition, and Updating). A sample of 147 participants watched a video of a robbery and then were instructed to either fabricate (i.e., fabrication condition), deny (i.e. false denial condition), or tell the truth (i.e., truth-telling condition) to some questions about the crime. Two days later, all participants had to provide an honest account on a final memory test where they indicated their memory for having discussed details (i.e., fabricated, denied, or told the truth) and their memory for the video. Finally, their EF resources were also assessed. Our findings demonstrated that individual differences in EFs played a role in how the event was recalled and on the effects of lying on memory. That is, memory for the event after having lied depended especially on individuals' Shifting resources. We also found that the two deceptive strategies differentially affected individuals' memory for the interview and for the event: Denying affected memory for the interview while fabricating affected memory for the event. Our findings can inform legal professionals on the possibility to assess individuals' EF as an indicator of witnesses' credibility.