PIERANDREA MIRINO

PhD Graduate

PhD program:: XXXV

supervisor: Prof. Cecilia Guariglia

Thesis title: Preclinical pathological aging: predictive markers of the future onset

Background: Detecting the beginning of cognitive decay is crucial to guarantee good management and the possible prevention of dementia progression. The present study arises from observations collected during an educational event to promote mental and physical health in which incidental neuropsychological data gathered on 290 citizens showed the importance of routine neuropsychological examination in detecting early signs of cognitive decay, since many individuals were unaware of the decrease in their cognitive efficiency. Accordingly, the availability of a screening tool that is computerized, portable, selfadministrable, and sensitive to the main neurocognitive changes testifying the progression towards pathological aging is critical. Objective: the main aims of this work were identify the trend over time of the deterioration of cognitive functions, linked to normal aging in the healthy population, in order to create indicators of a preclinical pathological cognitive impairment. Methods: to obtain this result, we proceeded to developing a digital system that will allow to collect large amounts of data from several individuals and from different devices contemporary; developing a battery of neuropsychological test, apt for portable devices, designed to be easily and rapidly self-administered; Calculate normal aging curves to visualize trends in cognitive test performance as age varies, as a reference for identifying pathological brain aging. Results: DiaNe is not just the translation of standard tests into telematics, rather it is a new tool that provides both accuracy and response time measurements, aimed to screen cognitive profile and monitor it over time, being able to detect changes in still normal performances that may be suggestive of an ongoing onset of neurocognitive disorders.

Research products

11573/1681610 - 2023 - The time squares sequences: a new task for assessing visuospatial working memory (01a Articolo in rivista)
MIRINO, PIERANDREA; PECCHINENDA, ANNA; BOCCIA, MADDALENA; GUARIGLIA, CECILIA
11573/1600486 - 2021 - Cortico-cerebellar hyper-connections and reduced purkinje cells behind abnormal eyeblink conditioning in a computational model of autism spectrum disorder (01a Articolo in rivista)
TRIMARCO, EMILIANO; MIRINO, PIERANDREA
11573/1615368 - 2022 - DiaNe: A New First Level Computerized Tool Assessing Memory, Attention, and Visuospatial Processing to Detect Early Pathological Cognitive Decline (01a Articolo in rivista)
DI VITA, ANTONELLA; VECCHIONE, FRANCESCA; BOCCIA, MADDALENA; BOCCHI, ALESSIA; CINELLI, MARIA CRISTINA; MIRINO, PIERANDREA; TEGHIL, ALICE; D'ANTONIO, FABRIZIA; DE LENA, CARLO; PICCARDI, LAURA; GIANNINI, ANNA MARIA; GUARIGLIA, CECILIA
11573/1630483 - 2022 - Cerebellum-Cortical Interaction in Spatial Navigation and Its Alteration in Dementias (01g Articolo di rassegna (Review))
MIRINO, PIERANDREA; PECCHINENDA, ANNA; BOCCIA, MADDALENA; D'ANTONIO, FABRIZIA; GUARIGLIA, CECILIA
11573/1652722 - 2022 - A multi-expert ensemble system for predicting Alzheimer transition using clinical features (01a Articolo in rivista)
D'ADDARIO, SEBASTIAN LUCA; MIRINO, PIERANDREA; GUARIGLIA, CECILIA; VENTURA, ROSSELLA
11573/1656170 - 2021 - How the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex cooperate during associative learning (04f Poster)
MIRINO, PIERANDREA
11573/1656168 - 2022 - Objetivos / Objectives Ubicarnos óptimamente en el espacio es fundamental para la vida diaria. Para ello, empleamos dos estrategias de orientación: egocéntrica (utiliza la posición del propio cuerpo como referencia) y alocéntrica (emplea claves del entorno, dependiente del hipocampo). Estas son moduladas por la memoria de trabajo, pero la influencia de la capacidad de percepción temporal y su relación con ellas aún requiere mayor investigación. Por ello, el objetivo de este trabajo es comprobar las diferencias de rendimiento según estrategia espacial (alocéntrica/egocéntrica), mediado por la memoria de trabajo y la percepción temporal simultáneamente. Metodología / Methodology Un total de 20 hombres y 21 mujeres, todos ellos estudiantes de la Universidad de la Sapienza, fueron evaluados empleando dos tareas virtuales de reconocimiento espacial (alocéntrica 3D y egocéntrica 2D). Ambas tareas contaron con dos tiempos de presentación diferentes para la imagen de muestra (3000/1000ms) para verificar su influencia en el rendimiento. También se emplearon otras dos tareas adicionales de memoria de trabajo y percepción temporal. Resultados y Conclusiones / Results & Conclusions Considerando memoria de trabajo y percepción temporal como covariables, en la tarea alocéntrica se encontró que los hombres tienen mejor rendimiento respecto a las mujeres, modulado por el tipo de ensayo (aciertos, falsas alarmas...). Por el contrario, en la tarea egocéntrica, no había diferencias en el rendimiento entre hombres y mujeres, pero sí entre cada tipo de ensayo. En líneas generales, se refleja una modulación diferencial de memoria de trabajo y percepción temporal para cada estrategia espacial. Específicamente, solo se encuentra un patrón conductual sexualmente dimórfico para la estrategia de orientación alocéntrica. (04f Poster)
MIRINO, PIERANDREA; GUARIGLIA, CECILIA
11573/1656167 - 2022 - The hippocampus is responsible for encoding both spatial and temporal aspects of information. Given that the hippocampus is dimorphic between the sexes, it might stand to reason that if there are differences in spatial ability, there are also differences in temporal ability, but there isn't much evidence to explore this. In both abilities it has been possible to verify that in different tasks there are significant differences in performance according to the age and sex of the participants. For this reason, the objective of this study was to verify whether dimorphism occurs according to biological sex in temporal perception tasks. For this, 55 participants were evaluated, of whom 25 were men and 30 women, all of them students at the University of Almería. This evaluation consisted of carrying out two tests of temporal perception similar to each other in the programming. They were presented with an object (in one task a car and in the other a square) that passed from the left to the right of the screen, having a different speed on each trial. In the center appeared a rectangle that caused the object to disappear for a variable time. The participants had to decide if the speed of the object was higher or lower in the invisible part when compared to the visible part. The results showed that there were differences between men and women in both tests, with men making fewer errors. This seems to be in line with the results found in the evaluation of spatial ability, which could indicate that there are apparently differences in the hippocampus between men and women. Another reason why these differences could appear is the use of strategies, both for spatial and temporal skills, different between both sexes. Future works can extend this evidence through the use of electroencephalography (EEG). (04f Poster)
PEPE, SOFIA; MIRINO, PIERANDREA
11573/1433311 - 2020 - How the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex cooperate during trace eyeblinking conditioning (01a Articolo in rivista)
MIRINO, PIERANDREA