Clinical and rehabilitative translational research

Description

The aim of Clinical and Rehabilitative Translational area is to develop innovative models in term of clinical, rehabilitation and organization of health care system for the treatment of visual, auditory and neuropsychological disorders in the developmental age. Through clinical practice, team activities are aimed at researching early predictive factors useful for the implementation of increasingly effective rehabilitation models in treating pathologies related to our field of interest. Furthermore, another team activity concerns the collection of epidemiological data in order to provide new organizational models that could improve clinical-care practice in the developmental age.

We have also established two laboratories equipped with innovative technologies used for diagnosis and rehabilitation of visual disorders in the paediatric patients, such as microperimetry and eye tracking system, and neurophysiology laboratory supplied with EEG, event related potential and somatosensory evoked potential in order to study major neuropsychological disorders.

Selected publications

• Zanini S, Marini A, Fabbro F. (Persico A, ed). I disturbi dello sviluppo del linguaggio, in press.
• Zanini S, Del Piero I, Martucci L, Restuccia D. High frequency oscillations after median nerve stimulations in healthy children and adolescents. Int J Dev Neurosci 2017; 61:68-72.
• Piermarocchi S, Bini S, Martini F, Berton M, Lavini A, Gusson E, Marchini G, Padovani EM, Macor S, Pignatto S, Lanzetta P, Cattarossi L, Baraldi E, Lago P. Predictive algorithms for early detection of retinopathy of prematurity. Acta Ophthalmol 2017;95(2):158-164.
• Zanini S, Martucci L, Del Piero I, Restuccia D. Cortical hyper-excitability in healthy children: evidence from habituation and recovery cycle phenomena of somatosensory evoked potentials. Dev Med Child Neurol 2016; 58(8):855-60.
• Zilli T, Zanini S, Conte S, Borgatti R, Urgesi C. Neuropsychological assessment of children with epilepsy and average intelligence using NEPSY II. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2015;37(10):1036-51. 
• Restuccia D, Vollono C, Virdis D, del Piero I, Martucci L, Zanini S. Patterns of habituation and clinical fluctuations in migraine. Cephalalgia.2014,34(3):201-10. 
• Restuccia D, Vollono C, del Piero I, Martucci L, Zanini S. Different levels of cortical excitability reflect clinical fluctuations in migraine. Cephalalgia 2013;33(12):1035-47. 
• Restuccia D, Vollono C, Del Piero I, Martucci L, Zanini S. Somatosensory High Frequency Oscillations reflect clinical fluctuations in migraine. Clin Neurophysiol 2012;123(10):2050-6.
• Restuccia D, Del Piero I, Martucci L, Zanini S. High-frequency oscillations after median-nerve stimulation do not undergo habituation: a new insight on their functional meaning? Clin Neurophysiol 2011;122(1):148-52.
• Restuccia D, Zanini S, Cazzagon M, Del Piero I, Martucci L, Della Marca G. Somatosensory mismatch negativity in healthy children. Dev Med Child Neurol 2009;51(12):991-8.
• L. Bassi, D. Ricci, A. Volzone, J. Allsop, L. Srinivasan, A Pai, C Ribes, L Ramenghi, E Mercuri, F Mosca, D Edwards, F Cowan, M Rutherford, S Counsell. “Probabilistic Diffusion Tractography of the optic radiation and visual function in preterm infants at term equivalent age”. Brain. 2008 Feb;131:573-82.

Partnerships

• Clinica Oculistica, Università degli Studi di Udine
• IRCCS Burlo Garofalo, Trieste
• Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Roma