Gli autori replicano ai contributi sull'articolo bersaglio "Promozione della salute a scuola: il dibattito sulle competenze ‘cognitive e non cognitive' e i compiti della psicologia della salute", raccogliendo indicazioni e suggerimenti sul piano teorico e applicativo che potranno essere preziosi anche ai fini di una necessaria qualificazione della figura dello psicologo scolastico.

This volume describes how the conceptual and technical sophistication of contemporary cognitive and neuroscientific fields has enhanced the neurocognitive understanding of dreaming sleep. Because it is the only naturally-occurring state in which the active brain produces elaborate cognitive processes in the absence of sensory input, the study of dreaming offers a unique cognitive and neurophysiological view of the production of higher cognitive processes. The theory and research included is driven by the search for the most direct relationships linking the neurophysiological characteristics of sleepers to their concurrent cognitive experiences. The search is organized around three sets of theoretical models and the three classes of neurocognitive relationships upon which they are based. The contributions to this volume demonstrate that the field has begun to move in new directions opened up by the rapid advances in contemporary cognitive science, neuropsychology, and neurophysiology.

The present study assessed the effect of total sleep deprivation on muscle twitch (MT) frequency during the recovery night, as well as the intranight distribution of MTs and their correlation with rapid eye movements (REMs) in the baseline nights of a larger sample of subjects. Results showed that, in the recovery night, sleep deprivation determined an increase of slow-wave sleep amount and of sleep efficiency and a decrease of Stage 1, Stage 2, and intrasleep wake. In the same night, MT and REM frequency decreased, as compared with the baseline night. As regards intranight distribution, MT frequency showed a slight increase in the third and fourth cycles, as compared with the first one, whereas REM frequency sharply increased during the second, third, and fourth REM cycles, as compared with the first one. Finally, a weak but significant correlation between REMs and MTs was found only in the first REM cycle.

Objective: Brain rhythms of both hemispheres are involved in the processing of emotional stimuli but their interdependence between the two hemispheres is poorly known. Here we tested the hypothesis that passive visual perception of facial emotional expressions is related to a coordination of the two hemispheres as revealed by the inter-hemispherical functional coupling of brain electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms.Methods: To this aim, EEG data were recorded in 14 subjects observing emotional faces with neutral, happy or sad facial expressions (about 33% for each class). The EEG data were analyzed by directed transfer function (DTF), which estimates directional functional coupling of EEG rhythms. The EEG rhythms of interest were theta (about 4-6 Hz), alpha 1 (about 6-8 Hz), alpha 2 (about 8-10 Hz), alpha 3 (about 10-12 Hz), beta 1 (13-20 Hz), beta 2 (21-30 Hz), and gamma (31-44 Hz).Results: In the frontal regions, inter-hemispherical DTF values were bidirectionally higher in amplitude across all frequency bands, during the perception of faces with sad compared to neutral or happy expressions.Conclusions: These results suggest that the processing of emotional negative facial expressions is related to an enhancement of a reciprocal inter-hemispherical flux of information in frontal cortex, possibly optimizing executive functions and motor control.Significance: Dichotomical view of hemispherical functional specializations does not take into account remarkable reciprocal interactions between frontal areas of the two hemispheres during the processing of negative facial expressions. (C) 2012 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The study aims at evaluating health-generating function of humor therapy in a hospital ward hosting children suffering from respiratory pathologies. The main scope of this study is to investigate possible positive effects of the presence of a clown on both the clinical evolution of the on-going disease, and on some physiological and pain parameters. Forty-three children with respiratory pathologies participated in the study: 21 of them belonged to the experimental group (EG) and 22 children to the control group (CG). During their hospitalization, the children of the EG interacted with two clowns who were experienced in the field of pediatric intervention. All participants were evaluated with respect to clinical progress and to a series of physiological and pain measures both before and after the clown interaction. When compared with the CG, EG children showed an earlier disappearance of the pathological symptoms. Moreover, the interaction of the clown with the children led to a statistically significant lowering of diastolic blood pressure, respiratory frequency and temperature in the EG as compared with the control group. The other two parameters of systolic pressure and heart frequency yielded results in the same direction, without reaching statistical significance. A similar health-inducing effect of clown presence was observed on pain parameters, both by self evaluation and assessment by nurses. Taken together, our data indicate that the presence of clowns in the ward has a possible health-inducing effect. Thus, humor can be seen as an easy-to-use, inexpensive and natural therapeutic modality to be used within different therapeutic settings.

Background: Among health care workers, nursing has been identified as particularly stressful. Several studies have shown cross-national differences in nurses' levels of occupational stress and burnout.Objectives: The purpose of the study was to compare job characteristics, organizational conditions, and strain reactions in Italian (N = 609) and Dutch (N = 873) nurses. It was also examined how and to what extent various job characteristics and organizational conditions explain occupational and general strain.Design: The study was a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.Method: Based on the Job Demand-Control-Support Model and the Tripod accident causation model, respectively job characteristics and organizational conditions were assessed as independent variables. Strain was operationalized in terms of job satisfaction, burnout, and psychosomatic complaints.Results: Italian nurses perceived their job characteristics, organizational conditions, and well-being as more unfavourable than their Dutch colleagues. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that high job demands, low skill discretion, and low social support from supervisor were the most consistent predictors of occupational and general strain across samples. Organizational conditions added significantly to the prediction of job satisfaction and burnout. Furthermore, lack of personnel was a stronger predictor of burnout in the Italian nurses than in the Dutch nurses.Conclusions: The study provides cross-national confirmation of the impact of job characteristics and organizational conditions on nurses' well-being. Differences in job characteristics partially explain the observed cross-national differences in distress/wellbeing. Furthermore, some evidence for crossnational differential effects of job characteristics and organizational conditions on well-being was found. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

- On the broader level of bio-psycho-social disciplines, for some years now there has been an important change in paradigm which, for convenience, we may call a shift from the "illness model" to the "health model". Everything starts with the famous WHO definition: from health as the "absence of disease" to health as a "state of bio-psychosocial well-being". For too long now have people dwelt on appreciating the even important recognition of the systemic bio-psycho-social model, overlooking the real novelty: that of considering health as a "state" and no longer as a mere "absence". As the title suggests, this paper calls for a dual reflection: on the one hand, the difficulty and sluggishness that the new model, focusing on health, faces in order to overcome the force of inertia of the old model, which focuses on disease; on the other, a reflection on the influence that language has had and continue to have in this process. As regards the first aspect, the difficulties inherent in the change of paradigm will be examined both at a theoretical and practical level. With regard to the second aspect, it must be noted how research and application in the biomedical field and then later also in the bio-psycho-social field has used a kind of language strongly focusing on disease and on its removal. To this linguistic influence must be added the insufficiency, or indeed absence, of words currently available to support the development of the new model. For example, while there is a specific word to codify the many spheres of illness, and namely "illnesses", in the linguistic scenario of health, although we continue to work on its positive dimensions, there is still no plural form. If we consider that the disease model has been around for about three hundred years, the current challenge prompts an awareness of the difficulties to be overcome, and also gives us an insight into the fascinating road ahead. Key words: well-being state, theory and application, language.

The present electroencephalographic (EEG) study evaluated the hypothesis of a preferred directionality of communication flows between brain hemispheres across 24h (i.e., during the whole daytime and nighttime), as an extension of a recent report showing changes in preferred directionality from pre-sleep wake to early sleep stages.Scalp EEGs were recorded in 10 normal volunteers during daytime wakefulness (eyes closed; first period: from 10:00 to 13:00 h; second period: from 14:00 to 18:00 h; third period: from 19:00 to 22:00 h) and nighttime sleep (four NREM-REM cycles). EEG rhythms of interest were delta (1-4 Hz), theta (5-7 Hz), alpha (8-11 Hz), sigma (12-15 Hz) and beta (16-28 Hz). The direction of the inter-hemispheric information flow was evaluated by computing the directed transfer function (DTF) from these EEG rhythms.Inter-hemi spheric directional flows varied as a function of the state of consciousness (wake, NREM sleep, REM sleep) and in relation to different cerebral areas. During the daytime, alpha and beta rhythms conveyed inter-hemispheric signals with preferred Left-to-Right hemisphere direction in parietal and central areas, respectively. During the NREM sleep periods of nighttime, the direction of inter-hemispheric DTF information flows conveyed by central beta rhythms was again preponderant from Left-to-Right hemisphere in the stage 2, independent of cortical areas. No preferred direction emerged across the REM periods.These results support the hypothesis that specific directionality of communication flows between brain hemispheres is associated with wakefulness, NREM (particularly stage 2) and REM states during daytime and nighttime. They also reinforce the suggestive hypothesis of a relationship between inter-hemispheric directionality of EEG functional coupling and frequency of the EEG rhythms. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.