PhD Program in Neural and Cognitive Sciences | NeCS

XXXVI Cycle

2020/21

 

 

Niccolò Butti
Supervisor: Cosimo Urgesi (UniUD)
 
 
Annamaria Caruso
Supervisor: Sara Renata Francesca Marceglia (DIA)
 
 
Mary Ann Ciosk
Supervisor: Andrea Carnaghi (DSV)
Co-supervisor: Sylvie Graf (University of Bern)
 
 
Gabriella Cirigliano 
Supervisor: Guglielmo Antonutto (UniUD)
Co-supervisor: Tiziano Agostini (DSV)
 
 
Alberto Cucca
Supervisor: Paolo Manganotti (University Hospital of Trieste)
 
 
Alessandro Cuder
Supervisor: Sandra Pellizzoni (DSV)
 
 
Alberto Mariconda
Supervisor: Tiziano Agostini (DSV)
 

 

BODY REPRESENTATION, NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE AND SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN WITH OVERGROWTH SYNDROMES, WITH A SPECIFIC FOCUS ON THE FUNCTIONAL EVALUATION OF PATIENTS WITH BECKWITH-WIEDEMANN SYNDROME AND SOTOS SYNDROME

Sotos Syndrome (SS) and Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) are known as overgrowth syndromes as they involve an excessive growth of the whole body or of specific body parts. Beyond their primary physical problems, people with SS and BWS could present cognitive delay, socio-emotional and social behavior difficulties. For the SS, previous research reported impairments in specific neuropsychological domains and alterations of the social behavior (Lane et al., 2016, 2017, 2019). Nevertheless, a description of the neuropsychological and behavioral profile in developmental age is still lacking. For the BWS, only in recent years alterations in social-cognitive development and in social behavior have started to gain attention of clinicians and researchers (Kent et al., 2008; Mussa et al., 2016). However, no study has investigated the neuropsychological and behavioral functioning of children and adolescents with BWS. In this light, this research project aims at providing the first detailed description of the neuropsychological and behavioral profile of children and adolescents with SS and BWS. 

Moreover, patients with SS and BWS experience structural alterations of their bodies and are early exposed to invasive diagnostical and medical procedures, which could interfere with the development of body representation (Butti et al., 2020). Body representation starts forming early in life through the integration of exteroceptive and interoceptive information (Slaughter et al., 2011), and plays a pivotal role in the social-cognitive development (Brandone, 2015; Marshall and Meltzoff, 2015). Given the changes occurring in puberty and the crucial importance of body image in the relationship with peers, adolescence could be seen as a critical period for studying body representation (Gatti et al., 2014; De Witte et al., 2016). Thus, this project would investigate alterations of body representation at multiple levels (i.e. body image, body schema and interoceptive perception) and evaluate their impact on social-cognitive abilities in adolescents with SS and BWS.

Candidate: Niccolò Butti

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Peer-reviewed Journals

2023

  • Bove, B., Doz, E., Cuder, A., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi, M. C. (2023). Potenziare l’apprendimento matematico con il nuovo dispositivo digitale “MagiCal”: Uno studio pilota.  Rivista del Centro Interdipartimentale per la Ricerca Didattica dell’Università di Trieste, 25, 10-36.
  • Butti, N., Oldrati, V., Ferrari, E., Romaniello, R., Gagliardi, C., Borgatti, R., Urgesi, C. (2023). New Insights into the Neuropsychological Profile and Intellectual Quotient Variability in Joubert Syndrome Compared to Other Congenital Cerebellar Malformations. The Cerebellum.
  • Coladonato, R., Carnaghi, A., Ciosk, M. A., Bianchi, M., & Piccoli, V. (2023). A Cognitive Look at the “Invisibility” of Older Gay Men Within the Categories ‘Gay Man’and ‘Elderly Man’. Journal of Language and Social Psychology42(2), 231-244.
  • Cucca et al. Using illusions to understand hallucinations: differences in perceptual performances on illusory figures may underscore specific visuoperceptual impairments in Parkinson’s disease Front. Neurosci., 06 December 2023 Sec. Visual Neuroscience; (17)-2023. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1256224
  • Doz, E., Cuder, A., Caputi, M., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi, M. C. (2023). Distance learning environment: Perspective of Italian primary and secondary teachers during COVID-19 pandemic. Learning Environments Research, 26(2), 555–571. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-022-09451-9
  • Doz, E., Cuder, A., Pellizzoni, S., Carretti, B., & Passolunghi, M. C. (2023). Arithmetic Word Problem-Solving and Math Anxiety: The Role of Perceived Difficulty and Gender. Journal of Cognition and Development, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2023.2186692
  • Malerba, G., Bellazzecca, S., Urgesi, C., Butti, N., D’Angelo, M.G., Diella, E., Biffi, E. (2023). Is Social Training Delivered with a Head-Mounted Display Suitable for Patients with Hereditary Ataxia? Brain Sciences.
  • Mariconda, A., Murgia, M., De Tommaso, M., Mingolo, S., Agostini, T., & Prpic, V. (2023). Temporal speed prevails on interval duration in the SNARC-like effect for tempo. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 1-10.   
  • Mingolo, S., Prpic, V., Mariconda, A., Brugger, P., Drack, T., Bilotta, E., ... & Murgia, M. (2023). It’s SNARC o’clock: manipulating the salience of the context in a conceptual replication of Bächtold et al.’s (1998) clockface study. Psychological Research, 1-15.
  • Montirosso, R., Castagna, A., Butti, N., Innocenti, M. S., Roggman, L. A., Rosa, E. (2023). A contribution to the Italian validation of the Parenting Interaction with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcome (PICCOLO). Frontiers in Psychology.
  • Živković, M., Pellizzoni, S., Doz, E., Cuder, A., Mammarella, I., & Passolunghi, M. C. (2023).
    Math self-efficacy or anxiety? The role of emotional and motivational contribution in math performance.
    Social Psychology of Education, 26(3), 579–601. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-023-09760-8

2022

  • Butti, N., Castagna, A., & Montirosso, R. (2022). Psychosocial Difficulties in Preschool-Age Children with Beckwith–Wiedemann Syndrome: An Exploratory Study. Children. 
  • Butti, N., Finisguerra, A., & Urgesi, C. (2022). Holistic Processing of Body Stimuli: Evidence of Body Composite Illusion in Adults and Children. Developmental Psychology. 
  • Corti, C., Butti, N., Bardoni, A., Strazzer, S., & Urgesi, C. (2022). Body Processing in Children and Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury: An Exploratory Study. Brain Sciences. 
  • Ferrari, E., Butti, N., Gagliardi, C., Romaniello, R., Borgatti, R., & Urgesi, C. (2022). Cognitive predictors of Social processing in congenital atypical development. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 
  • Cuder, A., Vidoz, M., De Vita, C., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi, M. C. (2022).
    Numerical Training Videos and Early Numerical Achievement: A Study on 3-Year-Old Preschoolers. Brain Sciences, 12(1), 88. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12010088
  • Mariconda, A., Prpic, V., Mingolo, S., Sors, F., Agostini, T., & Murgia, M. (2022). A systematic investigation reveals that Ishihara et al.’s (2008) STEARC effect only emerges when time is directly assessed. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 18822.
  • Pastore MR, Milan S, Agolini R, Egidi L, Agostini T, Belfanti L, Cirigliano G, Tognetto D. How Could Medical and Surgical Treatment Affect the Quality of Life in Glaucoma Patients? A Cross-Sectional Study. J Clin Med. 2022 Dec 8;11(24). doi: 10.3390/jcm11247301. PubMed PMID: 36555917; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9784022.

  • Pastore MR, Grotto A, Vezzoni F, Gaggino A, Milan S, Gouigoux S, Guerin PL, Vinciguerra AL, Cirigliano G, Tognetto D. Reproducibility and Reliability of Spectralis II OCT Angiography Vascular Measurements. Diagnostics (Basel). 2022 Aug 7;12(8). doi: 10.3390/diagnostics12081908. PubMed PMID: 36010258; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9406840.  

  • Pellizzoni, S., Cargnelutti, E., Cuder, A., & Passolunghi, M. C. (2022). The interplay between math anxiety and working memory on math performance: A longitudinal study. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14722
  • Tognetto D, Giglio R, De Giacinto C, Pastore MR, Cirigliano G, Piñero DP, Turco G. Profile of a new extended range-of-vision IOL: a laboratory study. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2022 Mar;260(3):913-916. doi: 10.1007/s00417-021-05426-3. Epub 2021 Oct 4. PubMed PMID: 34605952; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8850284.

  • Tognetto D, Pastore MR, Guerin GM, Decorti G, Franzin M, Lagatolla C, Cirigliano G. Bactericidal activity of three different antiseptic ophthalmic preparations as surgical prophylaxis. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2022 Jan;260(1):289-293. doi: 10.1007/s00417-021-05361-3. Epub 2021 Aug 24. PubMed PMID: 34427741; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8763824.  

2021

  • Cucca A, et al. (in press). Art therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Parkinsonism and Related Disorders
  • Cuder, A., De Vita, C., Doz, E., Tentor, G., Colombini, E., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi, M.C. (2021) Le opinioni degli insegnanti di scuola primaria sulla didattica a distanza durante il lockdown: uno studio qualitativo. Rivista del Centro Interdipartimentale per la Ricerca Didattica dell’Università di Trieste, 93-113.
  • De Vita, C., Vidoz, M., Cuder, A., Falconer, C., Pellizzoni, S, & Passolunghi, M.C. (2021). Fattori cognitivi dominio-generali e dominio-specifici: uno studio longitudinale all’inizio della scuola dell’infanzia per l’individuazione dei bambini a rischio di difficoltà matematica. Psicologia clinica dello sviluppo, 1-22.
  • Doz, E., Colombini, E., Cuder, A., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi, M.C. (2021). Problemi aritmetici di tipo verbale: un’analisi dei fattori che contribuiscono alla loro difficoltà. Rivista del Centro Interdipartimentale per la Ricerca Didattica dell’Università di Trieste. 22, 63-84.
  • Ferrazzoli D, Ortelli P, Volpe D, Cucca A, et al. (in press). The ties that bind: aberrant plasticity and networks dysfunction in movement disorders. Implications for rehabilitation. Brain Connectivity, DOI: 10.1089/brain.2020.0971
  • Gagliano, A., Cuder, A., Doz, E., Passolunghi, M.C., & Pellizzoni, S. (2021). Lo sviluppo delle funzioni esecutive e l’educazione musicale: uno studio esplorativo. Rivista del Centro Interdipartimentale per la Ricerca Didattica dell’Università di Trieste. 23, 40-64.

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Peer-reviewed Books

 

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Pre-Print

2023

  • Butti, N., Urgesi, C., McGlone, F.P., Oldrati, V., Montirosso, R., Cazzato, V. (2023). To touch or to be touched? Comparing pleasantness of vicarious execution and reception of interpersonal touch. bioRxiv

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Oral presentations at Peer-Reviewed Conferences

2023

  • Butti, N. (2023) Implicazioni psicologiche nella BWS: Dai dati di ricerca alla quotidianità in famiglia. AIBWS (Italian Association Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome) family meeting, Rimini, 24th April
  • Ciosk, M.A. (July 8th, 2022). On the “invisibility” of Black women: A non-prototypical, numerical minority and disempowered group. GTA Conference, Trieste, Italy.

  • Ciosk, M.A. (July 2nd, 2023). A Matter of Prototypicality: Intersectional representations of gender and race categories in Italy, United States, and South Africa. EASP Conference, Krakow, Poland.

  • Ciosk, M.A. (July 5th, 2023). Conjunction fallacy in judgments of race and sexual orientation. ISPP Conference, Montreal, Canada. 

  • Cuder, A., Doz, E., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi, M. C. (2023, June 5-8). The relationship between math anxiety, attentional processes, and math performance: evidence from a developmental sample. In M.C. Passolunghi (Chair), Towards Math Equity for All Students: the Link between Math Anxiety, Match Achievement, Math Avoidance and Career Interests [Simposio]. MCLS conference, Loughborough, Regno Unito.
  • Gagliardi, C., Urgesi, C., Butti, N., Oldrati, V., Bellazzecca, S. (2023) Spazio reale e sociale: cosa ci insegna la WS. AFSW (Association of Families Williams Syndrome) family meeting, Sesto San Giovanni (MI), 13th September. 
  • Mariconda, A., Mauro Murgia, Matteo De Tommaso, Dhea Longo, Tiziano Agostini & Valter Prpic (2023, September 18–20). La velocità temporale prevale sulla durata dell'intervallo nell'effetto SNARC-like per il tempo [Conference presentation]. AIP Sezione Sperimentale, Lucca 2023. https://aipass.org/eventi/xxix-congresso-aip-sezione-sperimentale/

 

2022

  • Butti, N. (2022) Io mi vedo così: Rappresentazione del corpo, profilo neuropsicologico e sviluppo socio-emozionale in bambini con Sindrome di Beckwith- Wiedemann, Sindrome di Sotos e Sindrome di Malan. 10th-year celebration of ASSI Gulliver (Italian Association Sotos Syndrome), Milano, 22nd October. 
  • Butti, N. (2022) BODY PROBAND: Cognitive functioning and Body Representation in Overgrowth syndromes: Preliminary findings of a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. 22nd International Gestalt Theory Conference, Trieste, 7-10th July. 
  • Montirosso, R. & Butti, N. (2022). Neuropsychological skills and emotional-behavioural functioning in BWS: preliminary evidence of an Italian study in school-age children. 1st International Congress for families and health professionals Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome, Cervia (RA), 2-5th June. 
  • Butti, N. (2022). Indicazioni preliminari sul profilo neuropsicologico e comportamentale nei bambini con Sindrome di Sotos. ASSI Gulliver webinar, 12th March.
  • Cuder, A., Doz, E., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi, M. C. (2022, September 27-30). The interaction between math anxiety and visuospatial working memory: a moderation analysis on diverse mathematical skills. In M.C. Passolunghi (Chair), Cognitive, emotional and environmental factors in mathematical learning [Simposio]. XXX Congresso AIP, Padova, Italia.
  • Cuder, A., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi M.C. (2022, June 1-3). Math Anxiety and Math Abilities: The Moderating Role of Visuospatial Working Memory. In M.C. Passolunghi (Chair), Towards Math Equity for All Students: the Link between Math Anxiety, Match Achievement, Math Avoidance and Career Interests [Simposio].  MCLS Conference, Anversa, Belgio.
  • Cuder, A., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi M.C. (2022, September 22-24). Effetti dei video a contenuto numerico in bambini prescolari a rischio di sviluppare difficoltà matematiche. XXX Congresso AIRIPA, Padova, Italia.
  • Mariconda, A., Valter Prpic, Serena Mingolo, Fabrizio Sors, Tiziano Agostini & Mauro Murgia (2022, September 27–30). It’s about time: the role of task demands in spatial associations for temporal duration [Conference presentation]. AIP Sezione Sperimentale, Padova 2022. https://aipass.org/xxx-congresso-aip-plenario-padova-27-30-settembre-2022/

2021

  • Butti, N., Finisguerra, A., Urgesi, C. (2021). Holistic and Configural Processing of Body Stimuli: the Body Composite Illusion and the Body Inversion effect in Adults and Children. 3rd Body Representation Network (BRNet) Conference, Virtual meeting, 12th July.
  • Cuder, A., Vidoz, M., De Vita, C., Falconer, C., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi, M.C. (2021, September 16-18). “Apprendimento matematico e video a contenuto numerico: uno studio di training su bambini di tre anni d’età”. VIII Congresso Nazionale CKBG, Roma, Italia.
  • Cuder, A., Zivković, M., Passolunghi, M.C., & Pellizzoni S. (2021, September 24-25). L’ansia disciplinare e la relazione con diverse abilità matematiche: il ruolo moderatore della memoria di lavoro visuo-spaziale. XXIX Web-Conference Nazionale AIRIPA, Ferrara, Italia.
  • Doz, E., Colombini, E., Cuder, A., Pellizzoni, S., Carretti, B., & Passolunghi, M.C. (2022, September 27-30). The role of emotional aspects on arithmetic word problem-solving in primary school children. XXX Congresso AIP, Padova, Italia.

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Poster presentations at Peer-Reviewed Conferences

2023

  • Butti, N., Urgesi, C., McGlone, F.P.., Makris, S., Montirosso, R., Cazzato, V. (2023) Motor resonance to vicarious affective touch: a TMS/MEP study. XXXI Congresso nazionale SIPF (Italian Society of Psychophysiology and Cognitive Neuroscience), Siena, 9-11th November. 
  • Butti, N., Montirosso, R., Cartaud, A., Coello, Y., Bellazzecca, S., Biffi, E., Urgesi, C. (2023) Body representation and social functioning in adolescents with overgrowth syndromes: preliminary evidence from a stop-distance task and a full-body illusion paradigm in virtual reality, 5th Body Representation Network (BRNet) Conference, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 14-15th September. 
  • Butti, N., Urgesi, C., McGlone, F. P., Montirosso, R., Cazzato, V. (2023). I see how you are touching: similarities and differences in vicarious execution vs. reception of interpersonal affective touch, Festival of Touch – A first joint meeting of Iasat and Research in Touch, Marseille, France, 4-7th July. 
  • Ciosk, M.A. (2023). Conjunction fallacy in judgments of race and sexual orientation. G-VERSITY workshop, Nijmegen, 17-21st April.
  • Mariconda, A., Mauro Murgia, Matteo De Tommaso, Serena Mingolo, Tiziano Agostini & Valter Prpic (2023, September 6–9). Temporal speed prevails on temporal duration in SNARC-like tasks [Poster presentation]. 23rd conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP), Porto 2023. :https://www.escop.eu/events

2022

  • Butti, N., Montirosso, R., Cartaud, A., Coello, Y., Bellazzecca, S., Biffi, E., Urgesi, C. (2022).  Body representation in overgrowth syndromes: preliminary evidence from a stop-distance task and a full-body illusion paradigm in virtual reality, XXX Congresso nazionale SIPF (Italian Society of Psychophysiology and Cognitive Neuroscience), Udine, 15-17th September. 
  • Butti, N., Montirosso, R., Cartaud, A., Coello, Y., Urgesi, C. (2022).   Peripersonal Space and Interpersonal Distance in Overgrowth Syndromes: Preliminary Evidence of How Altered Body Experience Affects Action and Social Spaces, 22nd ESCOP (European Society of Cognitive Psychology) Conference, Lille, France, 29th August – 1st September. 
  • Ciosk, M.A. (2022). Social category representation: an intersectional approach in gender and race prototypicality. G-VERSITY workshop, Venice, 4-8th April.
  • Mariconda, A., Valter Prpic, Serena Mingolo, Fabrizio Sors, Tiziano Agostini & Mauro Murgia (2022, August 29 - September 1). Early is left, late is right (at least in direct tasks): A systematic investigation of the Spatial-Temporal Association of Response Codes [Poster presentation]. 22rd conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP), Lille 2022. https://www.escop.eu/events

2021

  • Butti, N., Montirosso, R., Urgesi, C. (2021). BODY PROBAND: Body Representation and Perception in Overgrowth syndromes, Behavioral Assessment and Neuropsychological Development – Study Protocol, ENCODS (European Neuroscience Conference for Doctoral Students), Virtual meeting, 4-6th June. 

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2023

 

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2022

  • Butti, N. Contribution to developing a short cartoon for children with rare disorders sponsored by AIBWS  – “BIWY e I dottori” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CIVwW_VT8s)
  • Cuder, A., Doz E., Pellizzoni, S., & Passolunghi, M.C. (2022, Dicembre). Una sfida per la mente. Psicologia e Scuola, 12, 20-23.
  • Passolunghi, M.C., & Cuder, A. (2022, Novembre). Numeri per crescere. Scuola e infanzia, 14-15.

 

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2021