“Detecting Pre-Clinical Signs of MCI or Dementia in Healthy Elderly Populations” Novel memory test, VALMT, detects early signs of dementia in aging populations and individuals with sports-related head injuries. Highlights the need for sensitive screening tools and explores links between disrupted sleep and memory issues in the elderly. Implications for dementia diagnosis and treatment.

“The Jansari assessment of Executive Functions (JEF©): A new ecologically-valid tool for assessing EFs using virtual reality.” Invited talk by Dr. Ashok Jansari, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.

Our master student Sandeep Kaur presented her thesis project “Interactions between visuo-spatial attention and semantic memory in large-scale cortical Networks.

Our master student Firuze Oğuz presented her masters’ thesis work in NIH Toolbox Assessments Conference in Bethesda, MA, USA, entitled “Individual psychological traits predict the activity of limbic and prefrontal areas” where she combined NIH Toolbox and fMRI data acquired by Human Connectome Project (HCP).

Our PhD student Michelangelo Tani presented a poster entitled: “Target updating during reach-to-grasp action in a virtual environment: behavioural correlates & pilot fMRI data” at CSA 2024, Brixen, Italy.

Our PhD student Federica Bencivenga presented a thesis entitled “Neural underpinnings of visuomotor functions: Insights from brain connectivity”. In which she explored visuomotor connectivity applting multiple methodologies and techniques. Congratulations!!!

Among the egomotion areas, MT+, V6+, and V3A responses are modulated by object-motion velocities during self-motion, hence reflecting their possible role in discriminating between distinct velocities of self- and object-motion.

Findings highlighted that the effect of IPS and AG stimulations seems to suggest that the two regions may be coactivated or that a third-party source might indirectly mediate the interaction between the two networks.

This paper details the functional organization of posterior parietal cortex, delineating fronto-parietal networks for visuomotor tasks. Identifies distinct regions: lateral lpIPS (saccades, linked with FEF) and medial mpIPS (pointing, linked with PMd). Dynamic causal modeling shows effector-specific modulation of interactions within networks during similar movements.

Findings highlighted functional sensitivity for coherent visual motion and lower-limb movements in MST and FST, suggesting their possible involvement in integrating sensory and motor information to perform locomotion.