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Hilviu D, Frau F, Bosco FM, Marini A, Gabbatore I. Can Narrative Skills Improve in Autism Spectrum Disorder? A Preliminary Study with Verbally Fluent Adolescents Receiving the Cognitive Pragmatic Treatment. J Psycholinguist Res 2023; 52:1605-1632. [PMID: 37155128 PMCID: PMC10520104 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-023-09945-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting social and communicative skills, including narrative ability, namely the description of real-life or fictive accounts of temporally and causally related events. With this study, we aimed to determine whether a communicative-pragmatic training, i.e., the version for adolescents of the Cognitive-Pragmatic Treatment, is effective in improving the narrative skills of 16 verbally fluent adolescents with ASD. We used a multilevel approach to assess pre- and post-training narrative production skills. Discourse analysis focused on micro- (i.e., mean length of utterance, complete sentences, omissions of morphosyntactic information) and macrolinguistic measures (i.e., cohesion, coherence errors, lexical informativeness). Results revealed a significant improvement in mean length of utterance and complete sentences and a decrease in cohesion errors. No significant change was found in the other narrative measures investigated. Our findings suggest that a pragmatically oriented training may be useful in improving grammatical efficiency in narrative production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dize Hilviu
- Department of Psychology, GIPSI Research Group, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, 10124 Turin, Italy
| | - Federico Frau
- Laboratory of Neurolinguistics and Experimental Pragmatics (NEP), University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy
| | - Francesca M. Bosco
- Department of Psychology, GIPSI Research Group, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, 10124 Turin, Italy
- Neuroscience Institute of Turin, University of Turin, 10043 Turin, Italy
| | - Andrea Marini
- Department of Languages, Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, Cognitive neuroscience lab, University of Udine, Via Margreth, 3, 33100 Udine, Italy
- Claudiana-Landesfachhochschule Für Gesundheitsberufe, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
| | - Ilaria Gabbatore
- Department of Psychology, GIPSI Research Group, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, 10124 Turin, Italy
- Research Unit of Logopedics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, 90014 Oulu, Finland
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Colle L, Hilviu D, Boggio M, Toso A, Longo P, Abbate-Daga G, Garbarini F, Fossataro C. Abnormal sense of agency in eating disorders. Sci Rep 2023; 13:14176. [PMID: 37648816 PMCID: PMC10469170 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-41345-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The feeling of controlling one's own actions and, through them, impacting the external environment (i.e. Sense of Agency-SoA) can be relevant in the eating disorders (EDs) symptomatology. Yet, it has been poorly investigated. This study aims to implicitly assess SoA exploiting the Sensory Attenuation paradigm in two groups of EDs patients (Anorexia Nervosa Restrictive and Anorexia Nervosa Binge-Purging or Bulimia Nervosa) compared to a control group. We find that controls perceive self-generated stimuli as less intense than other-generated ones showing the classic pattern of sensory attenuation. By contrast, EDs patients show the opposite pattern, with self-generated perceived as more intense than other-generated stimuli. This result indicates an alteration of the implicit component of the feeling of control in EDs patients, thus suggesting a potential implication of these results for the clinical practice and the treatment of EDs symptomatology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Livia Colle
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Dize Hilviu
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Monica Boggio
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Alessandra Toso
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, Italy
| | - Paola Longo
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, Italy
| | - Giovanni Abbate-Daga
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, Italy
| | | | - Carlotta Fossataro
- MANIBUS Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
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Parola A, Hilviu D, Vivaldo S, Marini A, DI Lisi D, Consolino P, Bosco FM. Development of communicative-pragmatic abilities in children with early cochlear implants. J Child Lang 2023:1-17. [PMID: 37401468 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000923000405] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/05/2023]
Abstract
Cochlear Implants (CIs) enhance linguistic skills in deaf or hard of hearing children (D/HH). However, the benefits of CIs have not been sufficiently studied, especially with regard to communicative-pragmatics, i.e., the ability to communicate appropriately in a specific context using different expressive means, such as language and extralinguistic or paralinguistic cues. The study aimed to assess the development of communicative-pragmatic ability, through the Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo), in school-aged children with CIs, to compare their performance to a group of children with typical auditory development (TA), and to investigate if CI received under the age of 24 months promotes the typical development of such ability. Results show that children with CIs performed significantly worse than TA on the paralinguistic and contextual scales of the ABaCo. Finally, the age of first implantation had a significant role in the development of communicative-pragmatic ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Parola
- University of Turin, Department of Psychology, Group on Inferential Processes in Social Interaction (GIPSI), Turin, Italy
- Aarhus University, Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Dize Hilviu
- University of Turin, Department of Psychology, Group on Inferential Processes in Social Interaction (GIPSI), Turin, Italy
| | | | - Andrea Marini
- Department of Languages, Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, Udine, Italy
- Claudiana-Landesfachhochschule für Gesundheitsberufe, Bolzano, Italy
| | | | | | - Francesca Marina Bosco
- University of Turin, Department of Psychology, Group on Inferential Processes in Social Interaction (GIPSI), Turin, Italy
- Neuroscience Institute of Turin, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
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Hilviu D, Gabbatore I, Parola A, Bosco FM. A cross-sectional study to assess pragmatic strengths and weaknesses in healthy ageing. BMC Geriatr 2022; 22:699. [PMID: 35999510 PMCID: PMC9400309 DOI: 10.1186/s12877-022-03304-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Ageing refers to the natural and physiological changes that individuals experience over the years. This process also involves modifications in terms of communicative-pragmatics, namely the ability to convey meanings in social contexts and to interact with other people using various expressive means, such as linguistic, extralinguistic and paralinguistic aspects of communication. Very few studies have provided a complete assessment of communicative-pragmatic performance in healthy ageing. Methods The aim of this study was to comprehensively assess communicative-pragmatic ability in three samples of 20 (N = 60) healthy adults, each belonging to a different age range (20–40, 65–75, 76–86 years old) and to compare their performance in order to observe any potential changes in their ability to communicate. We also explored the potential role of education and sex on the communicative-pragmatic abilities observed. The three age groups were evaluated with a between-study design by means of the Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo), a validated assessment tool characterised by five scales: linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic, contextual and conversational. Results The results indicated that the pragmatic ability assessed by the ABaCo is poorer in older participants when compared to the younger ones (main effect of age group: F(2,56) = 9.097; p < .001). Specifically, significant differences were detected in tasks on the extralinguistic, paralinguistic and contextual scales. Whereas the data highlighted a significant role of education (F(1,56) = 4.713; p = .034), no sex-related differences were detected. Conclusions Our results suggest that the ageing process may also affect communicative-pragmatic ability and a comprehensive assessment of the components of such ability may help to better identify difficulties often experienced by older individuals in their daily life activities. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-022-03304-z.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dize Hilviu
- GIPSI Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Ilaria Gabbatore
- GIPSI Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy. .,Research Unit of Logopedics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
| | - Alberto Parola
- GIPSI Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.,Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Francesca M Bosco
- GIPSI Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.,Neuroscience Institute of Turin - NIT, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
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Hilviu D, Parola A, Vivaldo S, Di Lisi D, Consolino P, Bosco F. Children with hearing impairment and early cochlear implant: A pragmatic assessment. Heliyon 2021; 7:e07428. [PMID: 34286120 PMCID: PMC8273221 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2021] [Revised: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Extensive research has demonstrated the benefits of cochlear implants (CI) in contributing to improve the linguistic skills of children with hearing impairment; however, few studies have focused on the development of pragmatic ability and its relationship with age of implantation. Pragmatics is the ability to use language in different contexts and its development has crucial implications, e.g., social inclusion and professional attainments. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of pragmatic ability using the Language Pragmatic Abilities (APL Medea), a battery composed by five different tasks: Comprehension of Metaphors, Implicit meaning, Comics, Situations and Colors Game (a perspective taking task). Eighteen children with early CI, belonging to 3 different age groups (6; 11-7; 11, 8; 0-8; 11 and 9; 0-9; 11 years-old), and twenty-four children with typical development (Control Group) participated to the study. We also investigated how the precocity of CI, i.e., age of first implantation, may affect the pragmatic development. Globally, children with CI obtained lower scores in the APL Medea battery than typically hearing children. However, focusing on the Medea tasks separately, children with CIs differed from their hearing peers only in Comics and Colors Game tasks. Finally, age of implantation was a moderate but significant predictor of pragmatic performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- D. Hilviu
- University of Turin, Department of Psychology, Group on Inferential Processes in Social Interaction (GIPSI), Turin, Italy
| | - A. Parola
- University of Turin, Department of Psychology, Group on Inferential Processes in Social Interaction (GIPSI), Turin, Italy
- Aarhus University, Department of Linguistics, Semiotics and Cognitive Science, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - S. Vivaldo
- Martini Hospital, ENT Department, Turin, Italy
| | - D. Di Lisi
- Martini Hospital, ENT Department, Turin, Italy
| | | | - F.M. Bosco
- University of Turin, Department of Psychology, Group on Inferential Processes in Social Interaction (GIPSI), Turin, Italy
- University of Turin, Neuroscience Institute of Turin, Turin, Italy
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Colle L, Hilviu D, Rossi R, Garbarini F, Fossataro C. Self-Harming and Sense of Agency in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder. Front Psychiatry 2020; 11:449. [PMID: 32547429 PMCID: PMC7273851 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2019] [Accepted: 05/04/2020] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Self-harm is considered a pervasive problem in several psychopathologies, and especially in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Self-harming behaviors may be enacted for many purposes for example to regulate emotions and to reduce dissociation. BPD patients often report dissociative episodes, which may be related to an altered body awareness, and in particular to an altered awareness of the sense of agency. The sense of agency draws in part upon perceptions of being in control of our bodies and our physical movements, of being able to act upon environments. In this study, we aim to investigate whether dissociative experiences of BPD patients may be linked to an altered sense of agency and whether self-injurious actions may, through strong sensorial stimulation, constitute a coping strategy for the reduction of the distress associated with these dissociative experiences. A group of 20 BPD patients, of whom 9 presented self-harming behaviors, took part in the study and were compared with an age-matched control group of 20 healthy individuals. Sense of agency was evaluated through the Sensory Attenuation paradigm. In this paradigm, in a comparison with externally generated sensations, the degree to which perceived intensity of self-generated sensations is reduced is considered an implicit measure of sense of agency. As we expected, we found a significant difference in the perceptions of the two groups. The attenuation effect appeared to be absent in the BPD group while it was present in the control group. However, further analysis revealed that those BPD patients who engaged in self-harming behaviors presented a degree of attenuation which was similar to that of the control group. These results confirm the hypothesis that self-injurious actions constitute a coping strategy for increasing the sense of agency. We finally discuss the correlation of these experimental results with some clinical self-evaluation measures assessing dissociation, anxiety, depression, and affective dysregulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Livia Colle
- Psychology Department, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Dize Hilviu
- Psychology Department, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Roberta Rossi
- Unit of Psychiatry, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy
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