Biology subjects

Pita, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Pita, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

An integrated biobehavioral study of empathy

Empathy, a crucial prosocial human trait, is mainly measured through questionnaires, but performance in tasks involving emotional stimuli, brain activity during these tasks, and genetic information also provide relevant clues. These approaches are developed separately or by combining only some of these factors. Integrating them into a single study and analysis may help to better characterize their relative load and to understand the complexity of empathy. The IRI empathy scale was administered to 65 participants, who later performed a lexical decision task on emotional words while their performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Three genetic polymorphisms, one in the OXTR gene (SNP rs2254298) and two in the AVPR1a gene (RS1 and RS3 regions), were also analyzed. Generalized linear models revealed that these biobehavioral factors jointly predicted emotional but not cognitive empathy. Reaction times and the amplitude of the LPP component of ERPs in response to emotional words, along with rs2254298 AA/AG genotype, were significantly associated with scores on the IRI personal distress subscale. Meanwhile, LPP amplitudes and AVPR1a-RS1 LL genotype significantly predicted scores on the empathy concern subscale. The balanced loading of all these factors in the models reinforces the desirability of a comprehensive, multifaceted approach to characterizing empathy.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

INFLUENCE OF PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME ON ATTENTIONAL CAPTURE BY EXPRESSIONS IN THE LUTEAL PHASE

Research on female health has increased thanks to the growing interest in womens well-being. Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) is characterized by its high incidence and negative emotional symptoms during the luteal phase. While various studies suggest that the menstrual cycle affects emotional processing, the role of PMS has barely been investigated. Prior evidence suggests that the menstrual cycle does not modulate the attentional capture by emotional faces (Alvarez et al., 2022). This study aims to explore PMSs impact on this phenomenon. Forty-seven women performed an attentional capture task in both phases of the menstrual cycle, with emotional faces as distractors. Both behavioral performance and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Additionally, premenstrual symptoms were monitored over two menstrual cycles. Results showed no significant interaction effect of PMS, either at the behavioral or ERP levels. However, emotional stimuli, particularly angry faces, consistently captured attention more than neutral ones, as reflected in enhanced P1 and N170 components. These results indicate no evidence that PMS modulates exogenous attention to emotional stimuli. Future studies should consider individual affective states, such as depressive and anxiety symptoms associated with PMS, rather than PMS as a category, to further investigate the potential effects of PMS on attentional capture.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Deregulation of multiple mechanisms shapes the onset of LAMA2-congenital muscular dystrophy

LAMA2-congenital muscular dystrophy (LAMA2-CMD) is the most common congenital muscular dystrophy. This often-lethal disease is triggered by mutations in LAMA2, coding for laminin-2 chain, a key extracellular matrix (ECM) component, prevalent in the skeletal muscle. Several phenotypes have been associated with LAMA2-CMD, however, it is not yet known what mechanisms are faulty, right at disease onset in utero. Using the dyW mouse model of LAMA2-CMD we showed that the disease onset is characterized by a profound downregulation of gene expression, with a marked effect on cytoskeletal organization, myoblast differentiation and fusion and altered DNA repair and oxidative stress responses. Concordantly, we found that Lama2-deficient myoblast cells displayed proliferation and differentiation defects, increased oxidative stress and DNA damage. Together, our findings provide unique insights into the processes dependent on laminin-2 chain during muscle development, revealing its critical importance to maintain muscle cell homeostasis already at fetal stages.

developmental biology↗