РОЛЬ РОМАНИСТИКИ ПЬЕТРО КЬЯРИ В СТАНОВЛЕНИИ ИТАЛЬЯНСКОГО ЛИТЕРАТУРНОГО РОКОКО

This article explores a cultural significance of novel “La Filosofessa Italiana” written in 1753 Pietro Chiari and regarded the first Italian novel of early modern period. The objective of this research is to elucidate a formation of a new literary genre in Italian literature in XVIII century. In the following piece of research, the most outstanding European novels of XVIII century are examined in comparison with Pietro Chiari’s novel. In the following work we analyze the influence that exercised P. Marivaux, S. Richardson, F. Prévost and D. Default’s novels on the genesis of a new genre of Italian literary Rococo. In this article we investigate the details of the plot of “La Filosofessa Italiana” and explore the mental focus that was exposed by the first writer of Italian Rococo in this novel.

Mind-wandering impedes response inhibition by affecting the triggering of the inhibitory process

Mind-wandering is a state where our mental focus shifts towards task-unrelated thoughts. While it is known that mind-wandering has a detrimental effect on concurrent task performance, e.g., decreased accuracy, its effect on executive functions is poorly studied. Yet, the latter question is relevant to many real-world situations, e.g., rapid stopping during driving. Here we studied how mind-wandering would affect the requirement to subsequently stop an incipient motor response. We tested, first, whether mind-wandering affected stopping, and second, which component of stopping was affected: the triggering of the inhibitory brake or the implementation of the brake following triggering. We observed that during mind-wandering, stopping-latency increased as did the proportion of trials with failed triggering. Indeed, 67% of the variance of the increase in stopping-latency was explained by the increased trigger failures. Thus, mind-wandering affects stopping, primarily by affecting the triggering of the brake.

Daily Stressors Degrade Perceived Cognitive Abilities in Healthcare Professionals

Stress negatively impacts cognitive functioning. Less is known about whether daily stress is associated with perceived cognitive abilities in healthcare workers who require mental sharpness and attention to provide high-quality patient care. We examined daily associations between stressors and perceived cognitive abilities in nurses and whether the associations differed between workday vs. non-workday. Using 14-day smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment, 61 inpatient nurses at a U.S. cancer hospital reported the frequency and severity of daily stressors (e.g., arguments, accidents). Each day, participants subjectively evaluated their mental focus, memory, and attention. Multilevel modeling examined the within- and between-person associations of daily stressors with cognitive abilities adjusting for sociodemographics, work shift, and workday. Nurses reported experiencing stressors once every other day. More stressors were associated with poorer cognitive abilities. At the between-person level, those with more frequent or severe stressors reported poorer mental focus (B=-22.4, p<.01; B=-0.35, p<.01, respectively), worse memory (B=-24.35, p<.01; B=-0.37, p<.01, respectively), and lower attention (B=-25.47, p<.05; B=-0.40, p<.01, respectively). At the within-person level, on days with more frequent or severe stressors, participants reported poorer mental focus (B=-2.05, p<.05; B=-.03, p<.05, respectively) and lower attention (B=-1.95, p<.05; B=-.04, p<.01, respectively). Some of the between-person associations were more apparent on workdays; those with more stressors reported poorer mental focus and lower attention on workdays than on non-workdays. Nurses’ perceived cognitive abilities at work vary by daily stressors. Disconnecting the linkage between stressors and perceived cognition may help improve work performance in nurses who may encounter frequent stressors at work.

Better Night’s Sleep and Subjective Cognition: The Role of Day and Night Work Shifts

Previous research indicates poor sleep and cognitive functioning are associated. Studies have yet to consider the role of work shift on this relationship. The current study examined the sleep and subjective cognition relationship in nurses, and if this relationship differed for day- and night- shift nurses. Sixty-one nurses (M=35.39, SD=11.73; 39 day-, 22 night-shift) reported their nightly sleep characteristics and next-day subjective cognition (i.e., processing speed, memory, and mental focus) using ecological momentary assessments for 2 weeks. Multilevel models controlled for sociodemographic characteristics and decomposed the variance attributed by between- and within-person levels. At the within-person level, better sleep the previous night was associated with better subjective cognition the following day. This relationship was more apparent in night-shift nurses than in day-shift nurses, such that (a) longer sleep duration predicted better mental focus (B=1.62, p<.05) and (b) higher sleep quality predicted better memory (B=8.67, p<.001). At the between-person level, better sleep overall was associated with better subjective cognition across days. This association was more apparent in day-shift nurses than in night-shift nurses, such that (a) better sleep quality and sufficiency predicted faster processing speed (B=34.33; B=26.28; p<.001) and (b) better sleep quality and greater sleep sufficiency predicted better memory (B=30.94; B=23.09; p<.001). Findings suggest that sleep characteristics are associated with subjective cognition in nurses day-to-day and on average. Specific sleep characteristics associated with subjective cognition differ between day- and night-shift nurses, presumably due to differences in their sleep issues and perceived cognitive abilities.

Exploration of User’s Mental State Changes during Performing Brain–Computer Interface

Substantial developments have been established in the past few years for enhancing the performance of brain–computer interface (BCI) based on steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP). The past SSVEP-BCI studies utilized different target frequencies with flashing stimuli in many different applications. However, it is not easy to recognize user’s mental state changes when performing the SSVEP-BCI task. What we could observe was the increasing EEG power of the target frequency from the user’s visual area. BCI user’s cognitive state changes, especially in mental focus state or lost-in-thought state, will affect the BCI performance in sustained usage of SSVEP. Therefore, how to differentiate BCI users’ physiological state through exploring their neural activities changes while performing SSVEP is a key technology for enhancing the BCI performance. In this study, we designed a new BCI experiment which combined working memory task into the flashing targets of SSVEP task using 12 Hz or 30 Hz frequencies. Through exploring the EEG activity changes corresponding to the working memory and SSVEP task performance, we can recognize if the user’s cognitive state is in mental focus or lost-in-thought. Experiment results show that the delta (1–4 Hz), theta (4–7 Hz), and beta (13–30 Hz) EEG activities increased more in mental focus than in lost-in-thought state at the frontal lobe. In addition, the powers of the delta (1–4 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz), and beta (13–30 Hz) bands increased more in mental focus in comparison with the lost-in-thought state at the occipital lobe. In addition, the average classification performance across subjects for the KNN and the Bayesian network classifiers were observed as 77% to 80%. These results show how mental state changes affect the performance of BCI users. In this work, we developed a new scenario to recognize the user’s cognitive state during performing BCI tasks. These findings can be used as the novel neural markers in future BCI developments.

Mini Breaks, Many Benefits: Development and Pilot Testing of an Intraoperative Microbreak Stretch Web-Application for Surgeons

Periodic intraoperative microbreaks with calesthenic exercises performed within the sterile field improved self-reported mental focus (38%) and physical performance (57%) for 56 surgeons. Therefore, targeted stretching exercises and a web-application (web-app) leading the stretches with a reminder system were developed and piloted using user-centered design principles. A focus group with 10 users was conducted to refine the developed app. Seven surgeons (4 females) at a quaternary medical institute piloted the periodic stretching web-app in their operating rooms. At the end of each surgical day, the surgeons completed a short survey about the intraoperative stretching exercises web-app impact on their physical performance, mental focus and workflow disruption. Non-Routine Events were captured during the procedures. Twelve surgical days were followed with a median of 6 microbreaks/day/surgeon. Results showed that better physical performance and lower fatigue were reported (91.7%) across the surgical days, also better mental focus was reported (83.3%) across the surgical days, and less pain/discomfort was reported (100%) across the surgical days, with others reporting no change. The web-app leading sterile field microbreak stretches helped reduce physical pain, discomfort/pain, fatigue, and improve mental focus with minimal disruption for a small sample. The web-app is a promising tool for improving surgeon mental focus and physical performance and potentially musculoskeletal health.