Olivia Morgan Lapenta

Background. The combination of meditation and EEG neurofeedback has gained attention as a nonpharmacological approach for emotion regulation, stress reduction, and cognitive enhancement. Methods. This systematic review, registered in PROSPERO (CRD42024554716) and conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines, aimed to map methodologies, protocols, and evidence on these combined interventions. Experimental or quasi-experimental empirical studies involving human participants across ages and contexts, published between 2015 and 2025, were included. Searches across six databases yielded 356 records; 45 met eligibility criteria. Results. Studies showed substantial methodological heterogeneity, with a predominance of randomized clinical trials (44%) and within-subject designs (33%). Focused attention and mindfulness meditations and auditory feedback prevailed; wearable devices were used in 35 studies. Intervention dose varied widely, from 1 to 50+ sessions, ranging from 1.5 to 80 min long. Primary outcomes consistently showed reductions in stress, anxiety, depression, and fatigue, alongside gains in well-being, attention, and resilience. Neurophysiological findings included increases in alpha and theta power. Conclusions. Combining meditation with EEG neurofeedback is a promising strategy, but the lack of protocol standardization, small sample sizes, and limited blinding reduce evidence robustness. Future research with rigorous methodology is needed to establish clinical efficacy and guide interventions.

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) provides interactive and engaging environments to stimulate motor learning and neuroplasticity. Combining IVR with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may further enhance these effects by modulating activity in targeted brain areas. We investigated the effects of a 5-day IVR game-training (Beat Saber game for PS4) alone or combined with sham or anodal tDCS over the left posterior parietal cortex, a key structure for visuospatial processing and motor coordination. Seventy-four healthy participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: IVR alone, IVR + anodal tDCS, or IVR + sham tDCS. Participants performed a battery of motor tasks requiring hand–eye coordination (Box and Blocks, Ruler Drop, Trail Making part A, and Plate Tapping tests) before and after training on days 1 and 5 to assess motor performance and transfer effects. Results showed progressive improvements in game performance from day 1 to 4 and significant motor transfer effects across all tasks, regardless of stimulation condition. tDCS did not further enhance motor outcomes, suggesting potential limitations related to stimulation site and/or parameters. Our findings highlight IVR's potential for motor skill development, contributing to the growing body of evidence supporting its use as a versatile and accessible tool for motor learning, research, and rehabilitation. While tDCS did not enhance outcomes in this context, future research should explore alternative protocols to optimize its efficacy in IVR motor training.

Human point-light displays consist of luminous dots representing human articulations, thus depicting actions without pictorial information. These stimuli are widely used in action recognition experiments. Because humans excel in decoding human motion, point-light displays (PLDs) are often masked with additional moving dots (noise masks), thereby challenging stimulus recognition. These noise masks are typically found within proprietary programming software, entail file format restrictions, and demand extensive programming skills. To address these limitations, we present the first user-friendly step-by-step guide to develop visual noise to mask PLDs using free, open-source software that offers compatibility with various file formats, features a graphical interface, and facilitates the manipulation of both 2D and 3D videos. Further, to validate our approach, we tested two generated masks in a pilot experiment with 12 subjects and demonstrated that they effectively jeopardised human agent recognition and, therefore, action visibility. In sum, the main advantages of the presented methodology are its cost-effectiveness and ease of use, making it appealing to novices in programming. This advancement holds the potential to stimulate young researchers’ use of PLDs, fostering further exploration and understanding of human motion perception.

Human movement synchronisation with moving objects strongly relies on visual input. However, auditory information also plays an important role, since real environments are intrinsically multimodal. We used electroencephalography (EEG) frequency tagging to investigate the selective neural processing and integration of visual and auditory information during motor tracking and tested the effects of spatial and temporal congruency between audiovisual modalities. EEG was recorded while participants tracked with their index finger a red flickering (rate f_V = 15 Hz) dot oscillating horizontally on a screen. The simultaneous auditory stimulus was modulated in pitch (rate f_A = 32 Hz) and lateralised between left and right audio channels to induce perception of a periodic displacement of the sound source. Audiovisual congruency was manipulated in terms of space in Experiment 1 (no motion, same direction or opposite direction), and timing in Experiment 2 (no delay, medium delay or large delay). For both experiments, significant EEG responses were elicited at f_V and f_A tagging frequencies. It was also hypothesised that intermodulation products corresponding to the nonlinear integration of visual and auditory stimuli at frequencies f_V ± f_A would be elicited, due to audiovisual integration, especially in Congruent conditions_. However, these components were not observed. Moreover, synchronisation and EEG results were not influenced by congruency manipulations, which invites further exploration of the conditions which may modulate audiovisual processing and the motor tracking of moving objects.

The concept of food addiction, characterized by a strong urge to overeat highly palatable foods, has gained increased research attention over the last decade. College students are a recognized risk group for manifesting an eating pathology and weight gain due to the changes in eating habits experienced during this period. However, there is a gap in the literature connecting food addiction with eating and weight variables in this population. Thus, the present study aims to characterize food addiction in a sample of college students and enlighten the relationship between food addiction, weight-variables, eating habits, and food choices in this population. A sample of 194 college students (89.2% females) aged between 18 and 32 years old (M = 20.85, SD = 2.78) completed a set of self-reported online questionnaires on Google Forms. Namely, a Sociodemographic and Anthropometric Questionnaire, a questionnaire on Food Choices Characterization, the Eating Habits Scale, and the Portuguese Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0. Thirty (22.2%) participants presented food addiction problems. The logistic regression models utilized suggest that participants in the group with food addiction problems are more likely to seek clinical help to control weight, to consider that they should eat less food high in sugar, and to report lower food adequacy. In sum, this finding highlighted a connection between food addiction, weight dissatisfaction, eating habits, and food choices in college students, a population at risk for developing and retaining eating pathologies. Further research is essential to evaluate and implement interventions regarding food addiction, weight dissatisfaction, eating habits, and food choices in college students.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to several lifestyle changes, including eating behavior. Herein, we aimed to evaluate how pandemic-related sanitary cues presented in food videos impact food appraisal and desire to eat, and their priming after-effects on subsequent food pictures presented without such cues. In two online sessions, separated by 4 to 7 days, participants watched either a Non-Pandemic or a Pandemic video of a woman eating, the latter containing sanitary elements adopted during the pandemic. The order of the videos was counterbalanced across participants over the two experimental sessions. Videos were followed by images of food from different categories. After observing both videos and each picture, participants were instructed to evaluate the visual aspect, expected smell and flavor, and rate their desire to eat. Our study demonstrated (1) higher hedonic responses to the Non-Pandemic compared to the Pandemic video, (2) a priming effect showing higher appreciation for sweet foods after the Non-Pandemic compared to the Pandemic video, (3) that food exposure gradually increases one’s desire to eat, but such effects are impacted by pandemic sanitary cues, and (4) greater hedonic responses are given for sweet and high-calorie foods compared to salty and low-calorie ones, irrespective of pandemic priming. Finally, depression and anxiety symptoms were associated with lower smell evaluations only in the Pandemic condition.