Cognitive reserve in a cross-cultural population: the case of Italian emigrants in Montreal.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive reserve could be defined as the accumulation of experiences, abilities, knowledge and changes that occur throughout the lifespan. One of the most difficult changes in life is the experience of emigrating to a foreign country. AIMS: The present investigation aimed to compare the cognitive reserve of two paired groups of elderly: Italians living in Italy and Italians who in adult age (around 20 years) emigrated to Montreal. Both groups attended the same years of school, in Italy. METHODS: Cognitive reserve was measured in the two groups by a structured and standardised questionnaire, the cognitive reserve questionnaire. RESULTS: Cognitive reserve showed to be significantly higher in the Italian-Canadian individuals (i.e. Italians who emigrated). CONCLUSIONS: Emigration might act as an environmental factor that enriches people's lifestyle and reflects itself in the amount of their cognitive reserve.

When people matter more than money: an ERPs study.

In the present study, we showed that, in a social gambling task, individuals are influenced more by the type of social interaction than by the pattern of gains and losses. More precisely, the neural responses, as well as the level of pleasantness/unpleasantness following gains and losses, are modulated by social interaction factors. Here we present an Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) study in which three groups of participants were compared. Subjects were engaged in gambling tasks differing with regard to social factors: in a first condition, there was no social context; in a second condition, participants compared their outcomes with those of another individual; in a third condition, participants competed for a limited amount of money with another contender. In all conditions, all participants were revealed the outcome of an unselected alternative (non-obtained outcome) prior to the payoff associated with their selected option (obtained outcome). In addition, affective ratings were measured after the outcomes were presented. In the group without social context, ERPs results replicated previous findings. Interestingly, the P200 was modulated by varying social contexts, suggesting that attentive resources allocated to payoffs in comparison and competitive situations are decreased presumably in favor of social cues. Furthermore, Feedback Related Negativity (FRN) was predictive of the subjective feeling of pleasantness/unpleasantness following monetary outcomes. The present data provide information about neural and cognitive processing underlying economic decision-making when other individuals are involved.