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Applied Sciences
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Emerging Research in Behavioral Neuroscience and in Rehabilitation
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Emerging Research in Behavioral Neuroscience and in Rehabilitation

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 March 2026 | Viewed by 5033

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sofia Lampropoulou

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Guest Editor
Department of Physiotherapy, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece
Interests: neurorehabilitation; motor control; neuroscience; therapeutic exercise; brain behavior; physiotherapy; transcranial magnetic stimulation; tDCS; neurological assessment; cross cultular adaptations; balance; gait; motor learning
Dr. Maria Kyriakidou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Physiotherapy, University of the Peloponnese, 23100 Sparta, Greece
Interests: neonatology; paediatric; paediatric neurological physiotherapy; neurorehabilitation; motor control; neuroscience; therapeutic exercise
Dr. Lucia Billeci

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Clinical Physiology Institute, National Research Council of Italy (IFC-CNR), Via Moruzzi, 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Interests: sensors; wearable systems; signal processing; artificial intelligence; health; neuroscience
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Ehud Ahissar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel
Interests: active vibrissal touch in rodents; human touch; human vision; (robotic) perceiving agents; efficient sensory substitution (SenSub) for the blind; perception that is consistent with the tactile and visual data
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Behavioral Neuroscience focuses on the mechanisms that affect nervous system’s function and behavior. With a special interest on rehabilitation, this Special Issue is expected to report novel findings into the role of the nervous system in the production of behavior, during the full life span and following a range of neurological disabilities. Both original research and review studies exploring various aspects of neuroscience, such as perception, cognition, human movement and sensorimotor processing, emotion, memory, motor control as well as novel rehabilitative technologies, brain-imaging techniques, biomedical engineering applications are welcome to this Special Issue.

Dr. Sofia Lampropoulou
Dr. Maria Kyriakidou
Dr. Lucia Billeci
Prof. Dr. Ehud Ahissar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • motor control
  • cognition
  • brain-imaging techniques
  • physical performance
  • therapeutic exercise
  • behavior
  • brain
  • neurorehabilitation
  • neuroscience
  • neonatology
  • transcranial magnetic stimulation
  • bioengineering
  • new rehabilitative technologies

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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21 pages, 1709 KB  
Article
Decoding Humor-Induced Amusement via Facial Expression Analysis: Toward Emotion-Aware Applications
by Gabrielle Toupin, Arthur Dehgan, Marie Buffo, Clément Feyt, Golnoush Alamian, Karim Jerbi and Anne-Lise Saive
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(13), 7499; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15137499 - 3 Jul 2025
Viewed by 520
Abstract
Humor is widely recognized for its positive effects on well-being, including stress reduction, mood enhancement, and cognitive benefits. Yet, the lack of reliable tools to objectively quantify amusement—particularly its temporal dynamics—has limited progress in this area. Existing measures often rely on self-report or [...] Read more.
Humor is widely recognized for its positive effects on well-being, including stress reduction, mood enhancement, and cognitive benefits. Yet, the lack of reliable tools to objectively quantify amusement—particularly its temporal dynamics—has limited progress in this area. Existing measures often rely on self-report or coarse summary ratings, providing little insight into how amusement unfolds over time. To address this gap, we developed a Random Forest model to predict the intensity of amusement evoked by humorous video clips, based on participants’ facial expressions—particularly the co-activation of Facial Action Units 6 and 12 (“% Smile”)—and video features such as motion, saliency, and topic. Our results show that exposure to humorous content significantly increases “% Smile”, with amusement peaking toward the end of videos. Importantly, we observed emotional carry-over effects, suggesting that consecutive humorous stimuli can sustain or amplify positive emotional responses. Even when trained solely on humorous content, the model reliably predicted amusement intensity, underscoring the robustness of our approach. Overall, this study provides a novel, objective method to track amusement on a fine temporal scale, advancing the measurement of nonverbal emotional expression. These findings may inform the design of emotion-aware applications and humor-based therapeutic interventions to promote well-being and emotional health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Research in Behavioral Neuroscience and in Rehabilitation)
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14 pages, 1045 KB  
Article
Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Impairment in Older Users of Community Home Care Services in Low-Resource Settings: A Real-World Clinical Study [Geo-CoDe Study]
by Eleni-Zacharoula (Eliza) Georgiou, Vasileios Thomopoulos, Savvina Prapiadou, Maria Brouma, Maria Skondra, George Panagiotopoulos, Kyriaki Premtou, Georgios Karydas, Georgia Markopoulou, Afroditi Theodoropoulou, Panagiota Macha, Paraskevi Tatsi, Dimitris Kaliampakos, Apostolos Vantarakis, Kostas Tsichlas and Panagiotis Alexopoulos
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(12), 6426; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15126426 - 7 Jun 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1654
Abstract
Background: Depressive symptoms and cognitive decline are common in older adults. The aims of this study were (i) to assess the frequency of depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment in users of municipal home care services and (ii) to explore factors that may [...] Read more.
Background: Depressive symptoms and cognitive decline are common in older adults. The aims of this study were (i) to assess the frequency of depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment in users of municipal home care services and (ii) to explore factors that may pertain to seeking in-depth neuropsychiatric diagnostic workup, if recommended. Methods: The study was mainly conducted in low-resource areas of south-western Greece. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Clock Drawing Test (CDT) were employed. The study included the tracking of whether participants sought medical consultation within 12 months after receiving the recommendation for further neuropsychiatric diagnostic workup. Results: The study encompassed 406 individuals. Cognitive deficits were detected in 312 (76.84%) study participants, of whom only 82 (26.28%) had received the diagnosis of a mental or neurological disorder. Depressive symptoms were detected in 236 (58.27%) individuals, of whom only 18 (4%) had received the diagnosis of a mental or neurological disorder. Only just over a third of individuals consulted physicians. Reluctance towards in-depth neuropsychiatric workup mainly derived from a lack of insight and fears related to COVID-19. Previously diagnosed neuropsychiatric disorders slightly correlated with the decision to consult a physician. Conclusions: Developing pragmatic cognitive and mental healthcare services to address the needs of older people with disabling chronic disorders who live in low-resource settings is urgently needed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Research in Behavioral Neuroscience and in Rehabilitation)
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16 pages, 1495 KB  
Article
Altered Visual Attention at 12 Months Predicts Joint Attention Ability and Socio-Communicative Development at 24 Months: A Single-Center Eye-Tracking Study on Infants at Elevated Likelihood to Develop Autism
by Valeria Costanzo, Fabio Apicella, Lucia Billeci, Alice Mancini, Raffaella Tancredi, Carolina Beretta, Filippo Muratori, Giacomo Vivanti and Sara Calderoni
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(6), 3288; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15063288 - 17 Mar 2025
Viewed by 1988
Abstract
Early identification of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) can significantly improve outcomes. Deficits in joint attention (JA) abilities, considered a milestone in socio-communicative development, are among the earliest indicators of ASD. The purpose of this study is to examine if the ability to disengage [...] Read more.
Early identification of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) can significantly improve outcomes. Deficits in joint attention (JA) abilities, considered a milestone in socio-communicative development, are among the earliest indicators of ASD. The purpose of this study is to examine if the ability to disengage visual attention (DA) at 12 months could predict joint attention abilities and socio-communicative development at 24 months in a population of infants at increased likelihood and reduced likelihood to develop ASD. Latency of DA at 12 months was analyzed through an eye-tracking paradigm in a group of 56 infants at increased (IL = 29) or reduced (RL = 27) likelihood to develop ASD. JA at 12 months was assessed through items from the Early Social Communication Scales. Diagnostic status was established at 24 months, with 10 children receiving a diagnosis of ASD. A higher DA latency at 12 months is correlated with a lower frequency of JA behaviors at 12 months and with poorer JA abilities at 24 months. Altered visual attention at 12 months was also correlated with socio-communicative development at 24 months and, together with lower JA abilities at 12 months, correlated with diagnostic status. Our findings point to the potential relevance of DA and JA skills as prognostic markers and intervention targets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Research in Behavioral Neuroscience and in Rehabilitation)
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