Unisensory and multisensory Self-referential stimulation of the lower limb: An exploratory fMRI study on healthy subjects

Background: The holistic view of the person is the essence of the physiotherapy. Knowledge of approaches that develop the whole person promotes better patient outcomes. Multisensory Selfreferential stimulation, more than a unisensory one, seems to produce a holistic experience of the Self (“Core-Self”). Objectives: (1) To analyze the somatotopic brain activation during unisensory and multisensorial Self-referential stimulus; and (2) to understand if the areas activated by multisensorial Self-referential stimulation are the ones responsible for the “Core-Self.” Methods: An exploratory functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was performed with 10 healthy subjects, under the stimulation of the lower limbs with three Self-referential stimuli: unisensory auditory-verbal, unisensory tactile-manual, and multisensory, applying the unisensory stimuli simultaneously. Results: Unisensory stimulation elicits bilateral activations of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), of the primary motor cortex (BA4), of the premotor cortex (BA6) and of BA44; multisensory stimulation also elicits activity in TPJ, BA4, and BA6, and when compared with unisensory stimuli, activations were found in: (1) Cortical and subcortical midline structures—BA7 (precuneus), BA9 (medial prefrontal cortex), BA30 (posterior cingulated), superior colliculum and posterior cerebellum; and (2) Posterior lateral cortex—TPJ, posterior BA13 (insula), BA19, and BA37. Bilateral TPJ is the one that showed the biggest activation volume. Conclusion: This specific multisensory stimulation produces a brain activation map in regions that are responsible for multisensory Self-processing and may represent the Core- Self. We recommend the use of this specific multisensory stimulation as a physiotherapy intervention strategy that might promote the Self-reorganization.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Social media and audio visual learning in the study of human anatomy. Study of a group of students on Facebook and YouTube

The development of social network sites (SNS) has been one of the most influential phenomena of digital technology in recent years. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center on the use of SNS in the United States (Smith, 2013), two-thirds of adults use tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspac and Linkedin and 60% of mobile applications used by smartphone owners are linked to the social network. The growing interest of Internet users for SNS is also confirmed by one of the latest Nielsen studies (2011). According to this study, Internet users in Europe spend more and more time on social networks and blogs: for example, Italian users spend 31% of their total time on the Internet by visiting these categories of services. Among the various SNS, Facebook is now the most popular, with over 900 million users, of which over 500 million access via mobile products (Facebook, 2012). " Social Media" refers to a wide range of applications that allow users to create, share, comment and discuss a multitude of digital content. Social media is considered "dynamic", "interactive", "democratic", "people-centred", "volatile", "social" and "adaptive" (Manca & Ranieri, 2016b). Another aspect of SM that is often overlooked is its ability to transform teaching/learning into a more social, open and collaborative activity. Researchers have used many theories/models to determine the feasibility of using social media for educational purposes. With the exponential growth of social media and the ease of information flow, new horizons are opening up, as the technological progress that allows the teacher to create a student/group on a social media platform and motivating learners to ask questions at any time to clarify their doubts. In addition, teachers can regularly provide parents has been with immediate feedback about the students’ progress. The use of social media, especially Facebook and Youtube, has boomed in the field of education. Thanks to Youtube videos, students can learn through sight and hearing by fixing and memorizing the key concepts of what has been acquired. Multisensory learning, as the name suggests, is the process of learning a new topic through the use of two or more senses. Sensory integration occurs in the central nervous system where complex interactions such as coordination, attention, emotions and memory are processed to give a meaningful response. This can include the visual and auditory combination. By activating brain regions associated with hearing and vision, they indicate a direct relationship between knowledge and sensory mechanisms in the brain. In this study I have examined with particular attention the relationship between technologies, digital media and the learning process. In the first part of the work the theoretical frame of reference is outlined for reconstructing the transition from a monosensory society to a multisensory society increasingly dominated by digital artifacts. The second part focuses on the results obtained by answering the question: "How do social media affect the visual and auditory learning of anatomy?" A multisensory integration model has been developed and there is a clear evidence that this model, based on social media Facebook and Youtube, has improved students’ performance in anatomy. Perceptual learning is a good testing ground for the multisensory as it is typically very slow, it requires many days of training and has been shown to be mediated by early visual areas of the brain traditionally considered to be highly unimodal. An auditory-visual study has been chosen because visual motion stimuli are typically accompanied by sounds and because there is anatomical evidence in animals and human neurophysiology studies indicating that hearing-sight interactions affect visual processing in the primary visual cortex as well. This study aims at the following: - investigating the role of the visual element in the study of anatomy thanks to the use of Youtube; - exploring how Youtube and Facebook technology have played a role in enhancing students' learning skills - shedding new light on the importance of Youtube and Facebook as fundamental teaching tools and as a resource for both teachers and students. This empirical research shows the positive results achieved using SNS and multisensory models in both higher and university education. not

Braitenberg Vehicles as Developmental Neurosimulation

The connection between brain and behavior is a longstanding issue in the areas of behavioral science, artificial intelligence, and neurobiology. Particularly in artificial intelligence research, behavior is generated by a black box approximating the brain. As is standard among models of artificial and biological neural networks, an analogue of the fully mature brain is presented as a blank slate. This model generates outputs and behaviors from a priori associations, yet this does not consider the realities of biological development and developmental learning. Our purpose is to model the development of an artificial organism that exhibits complex behaviors. We will introduce our approach, which is to use Braitenberg Vehicles (BVs) to model the development of an artificial nervous system. The resulting developmental BVs will generate behaviors that range from stimulus responses to group behavior that resembles collective motion. Next, we will situate this work in the domain of artificial brain networks. Then we will focus on broader themes such as embodied cognition, feedback, and emergence. Our perspective will then be exemplified by three software instantiations that demonstrate how a BV-genetic algorithm hybrid model, multisensory Hebbian learning model, and multi-agent approaches can be used to approach BV development. We introduce use cases such as optimized spatial cognition (vehicle-genetic algorithm hybrid model), hinges connecting behavioral and neural models (multisensory Hebbian learning model), and cumulative classification (multi-agent approaches). In conclusion, we will revisit concepts related to our approach and how they might guide future development.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Being a beast machine: the somatic basis of selfhood

Modern psychology has long focused on the body as the basis of the self. Recently, predictive processing accounts of interoception (perception of the body ‘from within’) have become influential in accounting for experiences of body ownership and emotion. Here, we describe embodied selfhood in terms of ‘instrumental interoceptive inference’, which emphasises allostatic regulation and physiological integrity. We apply this approach to the distinctive phenomenology of embodied selfhood, accounting for its non-object-like character and subjective stability over time. Our perspective has implications for the development of selfhood, and illuminates longstanding debates about relations between life and mind, implying – contrary to Descartes – that experiences of embodied selfhood arise because of, and not in spite of, our nature as ‘beast machines’

Precis of neuroconstructivism: how the brain constructs cognition

Neuroconstructivism: How the Brain Constructs Cognition proposes a unifying framework for the study of cognitive development that brings together (1) constructivism (which views development as the progressive elaboration of increasingly complex structures), (2) cognitive neuroscience (which aims to understand the neural mechanisms underlying behavior), and (3) computational modeling (which proposes formal and explicit specifications of information processing). The guiding principle of our approach is context dependence, within and (in contrast to Marr [1982]) between levels of organization. We propose that three mechanisms guide the emergence of representations: competition, cooperation, and chronotopy; which themselves allow for two central processes: proactivity and progressive specialization. We suggest that the main outcome of development is partial representations, distributed across distinct functional circuits. This framework is derived by examining development at the level of single neurons, brain systems, and whole organisms. We use the terms encellment, embrainment, and embodiment to describe the higher-level contextual influences that act at each of these levels of organization. To illustrate these mechanisms in operation we provide case studies in early visual perception, infant habituation, phonological development, and object representations in infancy. Three further case studies are concerned with interactions between levels of explanation: social development, atypical development and within that, developmental dyslexia. We conclude that cognitive development arises from a dynamic, contextual change in embodied neural structures leading to partial representations across multiple brain regions and timescales, in response to proactively specified physical and social environment

How to achieve synergy between medical education and cognitive neuroscience? An exercise on prior knowledge in understanding

A major challenge in contemporary research is how to connect medical education and cognitive neuroscience and achieve synergy between these domains. Based on this starting point we discuss how this may result in a common language about learning, more educationally focused scientific inquiry, and multidisciplinary research projects. As the topic of prior knowledge in understanding plays a strategic role in both medical education and cognitive neuroscience it is used as a central element in our discussion. A critical condition for the acquisition of new knowledge is the existence of prior knowledge, which can be built in a mental model or schema. Formation of schemas is a central event in student-centered active learning, by which mental models are constructed and reconstructed. These theoretical considerations from cognitive psychology foster scientific discussions that may lead to salient issues and questions for research with cognitive neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscience attempts to understand how knowledge, insight and experience are established in the brain and to clarify their neural correlates. Recently, evidence has been obtained that new information processed by the hippocampus can be consolidated into a stable, neocortical network more rapidly if this new information fits readily into a schema. Opportunities for medical education and medical education research can be created in a fruitful dialogue within an educational multidisciplinary platform. In this synergetic setting many questions can be raised by educational scholars interested in evidence-based education that may be highly relevant for integrative research and the further development of medical education

Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self

The concept of the brain as a prediction machine has enjoyed a resurgence in the context of the Bayesian brain and predictive coding approaches within cognitive science. To date, this perspective has been applied primarily to exteroceptive perception (e.g., vision, audition), and action. Here, I describe a predictive, inferential perspective on interoception: ‘interoceptive inference’ conceives of subjective feeling states (emotions) as arising from actively-inferred generative (predictive) models of the causes of interoceptive afferents. The model generalizes ‘appraisal’ theories that view emotions as emerging from cognitive evaluations of physiological changes, and it sheds new light on the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie the experience of body ownership and conscious selfhood in health and in neuropsychiatric illness

Multisensory learning in adaptive interactive systems

The main purpose of my work is to investigate multisensory perceptual learning and sensory integration in the design and development of adaptive user interfaces for educational purposes. To this aim, starting from renewed understanding from neuroscience and cognitive science on multisensory perceptual learning and sensory integration, I developed a theoretical computational model for designing multimodal learning technologies that take into account these results. Main theoretical foundations of my research are multisensory perceptual learning theories and the research on sensory processing and integration, embodied cognition theories, computational models of non-verbal and emotion communication in full-body movement, and human-computer interaction models. Finally, a computational model was applied in two case studies, based on two EU ICT-H2020 Projects, "weDRAW" and "TELMI", on which I worked during the PhD