BackgroundCerebral Visual Impairment is a very common finding in children affected by Cerebral Palsy. In this paper we studied the characteristics of CVI of a large group of children with CP and CVI, describing their neurovisual profiles according to three different age subgroups.MethodsWe enrolled 180 subjects with CP and CVI for the study. We carried out a demographic and clinical data collection, neurological examination, developmental or cognitive assessment, and a video-recorded visual function assessment including an evaluation of ophthalmological characteristics, oculomotor (...) functions, and basic visual functions. In school-aged children, we also performed an evaluation of their cognitive-visual profiles.ResultsThere were signs of CVI in all the three subgroups. Subgroup 1 and subgroup 2 were different for fixation, visual acuity and contrast sensitivity, being more frequently impaired in younger children. Comparing subgroup 2 with subgroup 3, the older children presented more frequently myopia while the younger ones esotropia and alteration in smooth pursuit and saccades. Furthermore, fixation, smooth pursuit, visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and visual filed were more frequently impaired in younger children compared to the older ones. Multiple correspondence analysis confirmed the different neurovisual profiles according to age: younger children with CP showed more signs of CVI compared to the older ones. 34 out of 68 children belonging to subgroup 3 underwent the cognitive visual evaluation; an impairment of cognitive visual skills was detected in 21 subjects.ConclusionYounger children with CP showed more signs of CVI compared to the older ones, likely for the physiological maturation of visual system and mechanisms of neuroplasticity. In this direction, we suggest an early neurovisual evaluation to detect any weak visual functions. (shrink)

Developmental Dyslexia significantly interferes with children’s academic, personal, social, and emotional functioning. Nevertheless, therapeutic options need to be further validated and tested in randomized controlled clinical trials. The use of transcranial direct current stimulation has been gaining ground in recent years as a new intervention option for DD. However, there are still open questions regarding the most suitable tDCS protocol for young people with DD. The current crossover study tested the effectiveness of a short and intensive tDCS protocol, including the (...) long-term effects, as well as the influence of age and neuropsychological processes at baseline on reading improvements. Twenty-four children and adolescents with DD were randomly assigned to receive active tDCS during the first slot and sham tDCS during the second slot or vice versa. Five consecutive daily sessions of left anodal/right cathodal tDCS set at 1 mA for 20 min were administered over the parieto-occipital regions. Reading measures and neuropsychological measures were collected before, immediately after, 1 week and 1 month later the treatment. Our results showed that only the active tDCS condition improved non-word reading speed immediately after and 1 month later the end of the treatment compared with baseline. In addition, the improvement in non-word reading speed was significantly correlated with age and with neuropsychological measures at baseline but only in the active tDCS condition. The current crossover study contributed to enforce previous effects of tDCS, including long-term effects, on non-word reading speed and to understand the effect of age and neuropsychological processes on reading outcomes. Our findings showed that tDCS could be a low-cost and easy-to-implement treatment option with long-term effects for children and adolescents with DD. (shrink)

A beautiful and thoughtful collection of essays on reading, writing and learning, _Writing and Psychoanalysis_ grows out of a colloquium. The results are wondrous and impact on the reader at many different levels. In the act of writing, we all discover something about what we know previously unknown to us, and we learn more about our inner world that we knew before we set pen to paper. Patrick Mahony goes so far as to argue that Freud's self-analysis was essentially a (...) "writing cure." _Writing in Psychoanalysis_ is the first volume in the projected Monograph Series, Psychoanalytic Issues, the _Rivista di Psicoanalisi_ is undertaking in conjunction with Karnac Books. This series constitutes a major effort to bring about a dialogue among psychoanalysts who while ultimately bound together by a common psychoanalytic heritage nonetheless are separated in their thinking by different idioms, whether linguistic or theoretical. While featuring writers of very different idioms, this series will also present a venue to make some important Italian voices known to English speaking analysts. (shrink)

El presente trabajo se centra en identificar si, dentro del debate actual sobre el rol de la tecnología y sus implicancias en la vida de las personas, la filosofía de Langdon Winner indaga en la naturaleza y el significado de las construcciones artificiales desde una posición determinista. De modo que, buscaremos descubrir los caminos argumentales que propone Langdon Winner para explicar cómo se elige y se construye un sistema técnico que involucra a los humanos como partes de su funcionamiento. Entendiendo (...) que un sistema técnico es una forma de vida. En primer lugar, abordaremos el debate sobre sobre el papel de la tecnología y sus implicancias ético- políticas, para esto compararemos las principales teorías que son parte del debate antes mencionado: la teoría instrumental, la teoría sustantivista, la teoría crítica y el determinismo tecnológico. En segundo lugar, analizaremos el rol de la tecnología en el pensamiento de Langdon Winner. Podemos resaltar tres formas, que se relacionan entre sí, en que Winner considera a la tecnología como fenómeno político, como forma de vida y como técnica incontrolada. En tercer lugar, buscaremos demostrar que su teoría no pertenece al determinismo tecnológico. Para esto, abordaremos el determinismo como problema filosófico luego explicaremos en qué consiste el determinismo tecnológico y las condiciones que debe cumplir una teoría para ser enmarcada como determinista. Para, finalmente, contrastar estas condiciones con la teoría filosófica de Langdon Winner y definir si puede o no ser considerada determinista. (shrink)

El trabajo opera un contrapunto entre un poema clásico, Las metamorfosis (Ovidio), y una novela neobarroca latinoamericana, Hombres de maíz (Asturias), textos que reelaboran, respectivamente, antiguos mitos greco-romanos y mesoamericanos referidos al devenir de los cuerpos. En ambos, las mutaciones somáticas de los seres a nivel de la diégesis se muestran a través de un corpus polifónico y mutante al que corresponden identidades caracterizadas por la discordia, la hibridez, la movilidad o la posibilidad de petrificación.