Virtual Social Interaction in a Multiplayer-Online Video Game Increases Implicit Learning: An EEG Study.

It is well known that social interaction enhances learning processes, improving abilities such as attention and memorization. However, it is not clear whether similar advantages may be obtained even in virtual environments. Here, we investigate whether virtual interactions in a video game, similarly to real-life social interactions, may improve individuals' performance in a subsequent implicit learning task. Twenty-one healthy participants were asked to play a cooperative video game for 20 minutes in three different gaming modalities: alone (Single-Player); together with someone without verbal interactions (Multi-Player -); and with someone with verbal interactions (Multi-Player +). After each gaming session, participants were presented with an EEG paradigm directed to measure mismatch negativity (MMN) responses, a well-validated index of implicit learning. MMN responses were significantly larger following Multi-Player +, as compared with Single-Player, and Multi-Player - conditions. No significant difference was found between Single-Player, and Multi-Player - conditions. These results indicate that implicit learning processes are enhanced following communicative virtual interactions. Verbal interaction in a virtual environment seems necessary to elicit social copresence and its positive effects on learning performances. This finding may have important implications for the design of virtual rehabilitation protocols and distance learning programs.

Shared attention in virtual immersive reality enhances electrophysiological correlates of implicit sensory learning.

Shared attention effects on learning and memory demonstrate that experiences are amplified when we are not alone. Virtual reality poses new challenges to the study of co-presence. Above all, is coattending together with someone else's avatar in an immersive VR setting comparable with shared experiences at a neural processing level? In the present study we investigate shared attention effects in VR for the first time. We recorded mismatch negativities (MMN) during an auditory roving paradigm, a well-known index of implicit perceptual learning. EEG responses to deviant and standard sounds were registered while subjects were alone (Solo condition) or together (Other condition) with a virtual avatar (Virtual scenario) or physically present confederate (Physical scenario). We found an overall main effect of co-presence on MMN revealed by a point-by-point 2 × 2 ANOVA, thereby replicating previous studies on physical co-presence. Additionally, we found no significant interaction between the scenario (Physical vs. Virtual) and co-presence (Solo vs. Other). Our results indicate that virtual immersive co-presence mimics physical co-presence.

Physical but not virtual presence of others potentiates implicit and explicit learning.

E-learning activities are becoming more and more common. Whilst it is well known that the physical presence of others motivates individuals to engage in perceptual and learning tasks, systematic investigations comparing the effects of physical and virtual co-presence of others on knowledge acquisition are still scarce. Here we investigate the effects of physical and virtual co-presence of others on explicit and implicit learning. In Experiment 1 (discovery sample), retrieval accuracy in a spatial memory task and EEG indexes (mismatch negativity-MMN) of implicit perceptual learning were recorded when participants were alone or in presence of another individual. In Experiment 2 (replicating sample), we added a "virtual" condition, where the same tasks were performed during a video-conference call. In both experiments, MMN was demonstrated to encode for perceptual learning as revealed by the significant correlation with Bayesian Surprise (a consolidated information-theoretic index of Bayesian learning). Furthermore, In Experiments 1 and 2 physical co-presence systematically ameliorated memorization performances and increased MMN indexes related to implicit learning. These positive effects were absent in the virtual condition, thus suggesting that only physical, but not virtual co-presence is effective in potentiating learning dynamics.

Preferred music listening is associated with perceptual learning enhancement at the expense of self-focused attention.

Can preferred music listening improve following attentional and learning performances? Here we suggest that this may be the case. In Experiment 1, following preferred and non-preferred musical-piece listening, we recorded electrophysiological responses to an auditory roving-paradigm. We computed the mismatch negativity (MMN - the difference between responses to novel and repeated stimulation), as an index of perceptual learning, and we measured the correlation between trial-by-trial EEG responses and the fluctuations in Bayesian Surprise, as a quantification of the neural attunement with stimulus informational value. Furthermore, during music listening, we recorded oscillatory cortical activity. MMN and trial-by-trial correlation with Bayesian surprise were significantly larger after subjectively preferred versus non-preferred music, indicating the enhancement of perceptual learning. The analysis on oscillatory activity during music listening showed a selective alpha power increased in response to preferred music, an effect often related to cognitive enhancements. In Experiment 2, we explored whether this learning improvement was realized at the expense of self-focused attention. Therefore, after preferred versus non-preferred music listening, we collected Heart-Beat Detection (HBD) accuracy, as a measure of the attentional focus toward the self. HBD was significantly lowered following preferred music listening. Overall, our results suggest the presence of a specific neural mechanism that, in response to aesthetically pleasing stimuli, and through the modulation of alpha oscillatory activity, redirects neural resources away from the self and toward the environment. This attentional up-weighting of external stimuli might be fruitfully exploited in a wide area of human learning activities, including education, neurorehabilitation and therapy.

A Virtual Navigation Training Promotes the Remapping of Space in Allocentric Coordinates: Evidence From Behavioral and Neuroimaging Data.

Allocentric space representations demonstrated to be crucial to improve visuo-spatial skills, pivotal in every-day life activities and for the development and maintenance of other cognitive abilities, such as memory and reasoning. Here, we present a series of three different experiments: Experiment 1, Discovery sample (23 young male participants); Experiment 2, Neuroimaging and replicating sample (23 young male participants); and Experiment 3 (14 young male participants). In the experiments, we investigated whether virtual navigation stimulates the ability to form spatial allocentric representations. With this aim, we used a novel 3D videogame (MindTheCity!), focused on the navigation of a virtual town. We verified whether playing at MindTheCity! enhanced the performance on spatial representational tasks (pointing to a specific location in space) and on a spatial memory test (asking participant to remember the location of specific objects). Furthermore, to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying the observed effects, we performed a preliminary fMRI investigation before and after the training with MindTheCity!. Results show that our virtual training enhances the ability to form allocentric representations and spatial memory (Experiment 1). Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed the behavioral results of Experiment 1. Furthermore, our preliminary neuroimaging and behavioral results suggest that the training activates brain circuits involved in higher-order mechanisms of information encoding, triggering the activation of broader cognitive processes and reducing the working load on memory circuits (Experiments 2 and 3).

Validation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Italian Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale.

Background: The advent of COVID-19 worldwide has led to consequences for people's health, both physical and psychological, such as fear and anxiety. This is the case in Italy, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic. Given the heightened fear concerning COVID-19 in Italy., the present study analyzed the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). Methods: The sample comprised 250 Italian participants who were administered Italian versions of the FCV-19S, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Severity Measure for Specific Phobia-Adult (SMSP-A). Several psychometric tests were performed to investigate the validity and reliability of the test including confirmatory factor analysis. Results: Analysis of the data showed satisfactory psychometric characteristics and confirmed the scale's unidimensional properties. The seven FCV-19S items had acceptable correlations with the test total (from .443 to .784). Furthermore, the loadings on the factor were significant and strong (from .684 to .897). The internal consistency was very good (α = .871). Construct validity for the FCV-19S was supported by significant and positive correlations with the HADS (r=.649) and SMSP-A (r=.703). Conclusions: The Italian version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale is valid and reliable in assessing fear of COVID-19 among the general Italian population.

Nice and easy: Mismatch negativity responses reveal a significant correlation between aesthetic appreciation and perceptual learning.

Neurocomputational models of cognition have framed aesthetic appreciation within the domain of knowledge acquisition and learning, suggesting that aesthetic appreciation might be considered as a hedonic feedback on successful perceptual learning dynamics. Such hypothesis, however, has never been empirically demonstrated yet. In order to investigate the relationship between aesthetic appreciation and learning, we measured the EEG mismatch negativity (MMN) response to more or less appreciated musical intervals, which is considered as a reliable index of perceptual learning. To this end, we measured the MMN to frequency (Hz) standard and frequency deviant musical intervals (Experiment 1) while participants were asked to judge their beauty. For each single stimulus, we also computed an information-theoretic index of perceptual learning (Bayesian surprise). We found that more appreciated musical intervals were associated with a larger MMN responses, which, in turn, correlated with trial-by-trial fluctuations in Bayesian surprise (Experiment 1). Coherently with previous results, Bayesian surprise was also found to correlate with slower RTs in a detection task of the same stimuli, evidencing that motor behavior is inhibited in presence of surprising sensory states triggering perceptual learning (Experiment 2). Our results provide empirical evidence of the existence of a positive correlation between aesthetic appreciation and EEG indexes of perceptual learning. We argue that the sense of beauty might have evolved to signal the nervous system new sensory knowledge acquisition and motivate the individual to search for informationally profitable stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Validation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Italian Version of the Bergen-Yale Sex Addiction Scale.

Excessive problematic sexual behavior in the form of compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), hypersexuality (HS), and sex addiction has gained increasing credibility in recent years and has led to the development of various psychometric instruments to assess such behavior. However, there is still considerable controversy over the operational definition of such concepts and whether they can be used interchangeably to describe the behavior. One recently developed tool is the Bergen-Yale Sex Addiction Scale (BYSAS) based on the "components model of addiction." The present study validated the Italian version of the BYSAS. The BYSAS was administered to a large Italian-speaking sample of Italian adults [N = 1230, aged 18 to 67 years] along with psychometric instruments assessing the "Big Five" personality traits, self-esteem, depression, and two other measures of addictive sexual behavior (i.e., PATHOS and Shorter PROMIS Questionnaire-Sex Subscale). Confirmatory factorial analysis supported a one-factor solution. Furthermore, the scale had good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.787). The BYSAS was positively associated with extroversion, openness to experience, depression, and problematic sexual behavior, and negatively associated with self-esteem, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and age. Based on the findings, the BYSAS is a brief, psychometrically reliable and valid measure for assessing sex addiction among Italian adults.