L'homme des champs, our Les Gérgiques franca̧ises.

"Nouvelle édition augmentée, avec figures."

Oeuvres de Delille,

The translations are accompanied by original text on opposite pages.

Adaptive and Maladaptive Implications of Reinforcement Learning Processes: Fronto-Striatal Loops and Behavioural Correlates

That humans and animals learn from interaction with the environment is a foundational idea underlying nearly all theories of learning and intelligence. Learning that certain outcomes are associated with specific actions or stimuli (both internal and external), is at the very core of the capacity to adapt behaviour to environmental changes. In the present work, appetitive and aversive reinforcement learning paradigms have been used to investigate the fronto-striatal loops and behavioural correlates of adaptive and maladaptive reinforcement learning processes, aiming to a deeper understanding of how cortical and subcortical substrates interacts between them and with other brain systems to support learning. By combining a large variety of neuroscientific approaches, including behavioral and psychophysiological methods, EEG and neuroimaging techniques, these studies aim at clarifying and advancing the knowledge of the neural bases and computational mechanisms of reinforcement learning, both in normal and neurologically impaired population.

Integration of Multiple Simultaneous Stimuli within and between Somatosensory sub-Modalities

Psychological characterisation of the somatosensory system often focusses on minimal units of perception, such as detection, localisation, and magnitude estimation of single events. Research on how multiple simultaneous stimuli are aggregated to create integrated, synthetic experiences is rarer. This thesis aims to shed a light on the mechanisms underlying the integration of multiple simultaneous stimuli, within and between different sub-modalities of the somatosensory system. First, we investigated the ability of healthy individuals to perceive the total intensity of composite somatosensory patterns. We found that the overall intensity of tactile, cold, or warm patterns was systematically overestimated when the multiple simultaneous stimuli had different intensities. Perception of somatosensory totals was biased towards the most salient element in the pattern. Furthermore, we demonstrated that peak-biased aggregation is a genuine perceptual phenomenon which does not rely on the discrimination of the parts, but is rather based on the salience of each stimulus. Next, we studied a classical thermal illusion to assess participants’ ability to localise thermal stimuli delivered on the fingers either in isolation, or in uniform and non-uniform patterns. We found that despite a surprisingly high accuracy in reporting the location of a single stimulus, when participants were presented with non-uniform patterns, their ability to identify the thermal state of a specific finger was completely abolished. Lastly, we investigated the perceptual and neural correlates of thermo-nociceptive interaction during the presentation of multiple thermal stimuli. We found that inhibition of pain by warmth was independent from both the position and the number of thermal stimuli administered. Our results suggest that nonlinear integration of multiple stimuli, within and between somatosensory sub-modalities, may be an efficient way by which the somatosensory system synthesises the complexity of reality, providing an extended and coherent perception of the world, in spite of its deep bandwidth limitations.

Functional and neural mechanisms of human fear conditioning: studies in healthy and brain-damaged individuals

Fear conditioning represents the learning process by which a stimulus, after repeated pairing with an aversive event, comes to evoke fear and becomes intrinsically aversive. This learning is essential to organisms throughout the animal kingdom and represents one the most successful laboratory paradigm to reveal the psychological processes that govern the expression of emotional memory and explore its neurobiological underpinnings. Although a large amount of research has been conducted on the behavioural or neural correlates of fear conditioning, some key questions remain unanswered. Accordingly, this thesis aims to respond to some unsolved theoretic and methodological issues, thus furthering our understanding of the neurofunctional basis of human fear conditioning both in healthy and brain-damaged individuals. Specifically, in this thesis, behavioural, psychophysiological, lesion and non-invasive brain stimulation studies were reported. Study 1 examined the influence of normal aging on context-dependent recall of extinction of fear conditioned stimulus. Study 2 aimed to determine the causal role of the ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) in the acquisition of fear conditioning by systematically test the effect of bilateral vmPFC brain-lesion. Study 3 aimed to interfere with the reconsolidation process of fear memory by the means of non-invasive brain stimulation (i.e. TMS) disrupting PFC neural activity. Finally, Study 4 aimed to investigate whether the parasympathetic – vagal – modulation of heart rate might reflect the anticipation of fearful, as compared to neutral, events during classical fear conditioning paradigm. Evidence reported in this PhD thesis might therefore provide key insights and deeper understanding of critical issues concerning the neurofunctional mechanisms underlying the acquisition, the extinction and the reconsolidation of fear memories in humans.

L'additive manufacturing nel planning pre-operatorio in chirurgia maxillofacciale

Il 3D printing è presente da tempo in molti settori economici e da sempre ha nella sanità uno dei principali ambiti di applicazione. Durante il corso del presente lavoro sono state esaminate le principali applicazioni in campo sanitario con particolare focus sulla fase di planning in caso di chirurgia complessa. La pianificazione risulta essere la fase maggiormente impattante nel contesto più globale di gestione del paziente in quanto una maggior accuratezza nella visualizzazione del caso clinico consente di ottimizzare l’identificazione di un adeguato approccio chirurgico con ovvie conseguenti ripercussioni positive sulla totalità della degenza del paziente all’interno della struttura clinica ospitante. Nel dettaglio è stato valutato l’utilizzo di un innovativo protocollo di pre-planning e follow-up operatorio tramite la realizzazione di modelli stampati 3D a partire da immagini di diagnostica classica (TAC, MRI, 3Dscan) che hanno consentito di poter fornire allo specialista clinico di riferimento un prodotto che riproducendo perfettamente l’anatomia del soggetto (morfologia-proprietà fisiche del tessuto) ha consentito allo stesso un miglioramento delle usuali pratiche chirurgiche e terapeutiche in casi di elevata complessità in un arco temporale ristretto. I parametri utilizzati per la valutazione dei reali benefici dell’approccio esposto sono stati: tempi di pianificazione chirurgica e tempi di intervento all’interno di una più globale analisi dei costi associati. A fronte di un’indagine interna preventiva presso l’azienda ospedaliera ospitante sono stati designati i seguenti reparti come settori pilota: maxillofacciale, neurochirurgia e radiologia interventistica. Lo studio è stato svolto in collaborazione con l’ospedale M.Bufalini di Cesena in qualità di referente clinico e l’azienda Aid4Med Srl in qualità di azienda leader in pianificazione operatoria tramite ausili realizzati tramite tecniche di additive manufacturing.

Seeing emotions in others: Improving cognitive and neuronal mechanisms of facial expression processing

In the conceptual framework of affective neuroscience, this thesis intends to advance the understanding of the plasticity mechanisms of other’s emotional facial expression representations. Chapter 1 outlines a description of the neurophysiological bases of Hebbian plasticity, reviews influential studies that adopted paired associative stimulation procedures, and introduces new lines of research where the impact of cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation protocols on higher order cognitive functions is investigated. The experiments in Chapter 2 aimed to test the modulatory influence of a perceptual-motor training, based on the execution of emotional expressions, on the subsequent emotion intensity judgements of others’ high (i.e., full visible) and low-intensity (i.e., masked) emotional expressions. As a result of the training-induced learning, participants showed a significant congruence effect, as indicated by relatively higher expression intensity ratings for the same emotion as the one that was previously trained. Interestingly, although judged as overall less emotionally intense, surgical facemasks did not prevent the emotion-specific effects of the training to occur, suggesting that covering the lower part of other’s face do not interact with the training-induced congruence effect. In Chapter 3 it was implemented a transcranial magnetic stimulation study targeting neural pathways involving re-entrant input from higher order brain regions into lower levels of the visual processing hierarchy. We focused on cortical visual networks within the temporo-occipital stream underpinning the processing of emotional faces and susceptible to plastic adaptations. Importantly, we tested the plasticity-induced effects in a state dependent manner, by administering ccPAS while presenting different facial expressions yet afferent to a specific emotion. Results indicated that the discrimination accuracy of emotion-specific expressions is enhanced following the ccPAS treatment, suggesting that a multi-coil TMS intervention might represent a suitable tool to drive brain remodeling at a neural network level, and consequently influence a specific behavior.

Giornale istorico veneto per l'Anno 1738 : in cui si contiene la fondazione di tutti li templi, le reliquie, e corpi santi che in essi fi conservano, ...

Mode of access: Internet.

La prefazione al manuale tipografico di Giambattista Bodoni, seguita da una dissertazione estetica di Giuseppe Chiantore;

Mode of access: Internet.

Della vita e delle opere di Giuseppe Sabatelli, professore nelle I.E.R. Accademie di Firenze e di Milano.

Manuscript "Ode" inserted between pages 26 and 27.

Il patriarca della nuova alleanza San Giuseppe : contemplato nei fatti e nei misteri della sua vita, nel mesa di marzo a lui consacrato

UANL