Cultural Mission

It pursues the primary goal of identifying the quantitative and qualitative aspects that connote quality motor activities for the holistic development of children and adolescents, for the health and performance of young adults, and for the health and quality of life of the elderly. The common thread of this research across the lifespan is the study of the interaction of the energetic, coordinative, cognitive, and social-emotional aspects of educational and preventive motor activities.

Main lines of research

Relationship between physical activity, motor competence and cognitive function in children, adults, the elderly and athletes. Models of holistic education through ‘enriched’ motor activities. ‘Translational’ research on implementation of educational motor activity interventions. Determinants of functional ability in the elderly. Effects of multicomponent and dual task training in the elderly. Study of chronic effects of different types of fitness training of the elderly (metabolic, neuromuscular, etc.) on different aspects–physical and mental–of health.

Publications

• Pesce, C., & Tocci, N. (2024). Creativity and consciousness in motion: The roundtrip of ‘mindful’ and ‘mindless’ processes in embodied creativity. In: Ben-Soussan, T.D., Glicksohn, J., and Srinivasan, N. (Eds.), Progress in Brain Research (PBR) Volume 287: The Neurophysiology of Silence (C): Creativity, Aesthetic Experience and Time. Elsevier.
• Lucia S., Forte R., Boccacci L., Grimandi L., Bittner M., Aydin M., Trentin C.,Tocci N., Di Russo F (2024). A non-pharmacologic treatment for anxiety in older adults based on cognitive-motor training with response-generated feedback. JOURNALS OF GERONTOLOGY SERIES B-PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, vol. 79, ISSN: 1079-5014, doi:10.1093/geronb/gbad170
• Ciaccioni, S., Castro, O., Bahrami, F., Tomporowski, P.D., Capranica, L., Biddle, S.J.H., Vergeer, Pesce, C. (2024). Martial Arts, Combat Sports, and Mental Health in Adults: A Systematic Review. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 70, 102556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102556
• Gutiérrez-Capote, A., Jiménez-Martínez, J., Madinabeitia, I., de Orbe-Moreno, M., Pesce, C., & Cardenas, D. (2024). Sport as cognition enhancer from childhood to young adulthood: A systematic review focused on sport modality. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 22(2), 395-427.
  https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2023.2289552

Publications from previous years