Motor simulation without motor expertise: enhanced corticospinal excitability in visually experienced dance spectators

The human “mirror-system” is suggested to play a crucial role in action observation and execution, and is characterized by activity in the premotor and parietal cortices during the passive observation of movements. The previous motor experience of the observer has been shown to enhance the activity in this network. Yet visual experience could also have a determinant influence when watching more complex actions, as in dance performances. Here we tested the impact visual experience has on motor simulation when watching dance, by measuring changes in corticospinal excitability. We also tested the effects of empathic abilities. To fully match the participants' long-term visual experience with the present experimental setting, we used three live solo dance performances: ballet, Indian dance, and non-dance. Participants were either frequent dance spectators of ballet or Indian dance, or “novices” who never watched dance. None of the spectators had been physically trained in these dance styles. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to measure corticospinal excitability by means of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in both the hand and the arm, because the hand is specifically used in Indian dance and the arm is frequently engaged in ballet dance movements. We observed that frequent ballet spectators showed larger MEP amplitudes in the arm muscles when watching ballet compared to when they watched other performances. We also found that the higher Indian dance spectators scored on the fantasy subscale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the larger their MEPs were in the arms when watching Indian dance. Our results show that even without physical training, corticospinal excitability can be enhanced as a function of either visual experience or the tendency to imaginatively transpose oneself into fictional characters. We suggest that spectators covertly simulate the movements for which they have acquired visual experience, and that empathic abilities heighten motor resonance during dance observation

Expressivity in Natural and Artificial Systems

Roboticists are trying to replicate animal behavior in artificial systems. Yet, quantitative bounds on capacity of a moving platform (natural or artificial) to express information in the environment are not known. This paper presents a measure for the capacity of motion complexity -- the expressivity -- of articulated platforms (both natural and artificial) and shows that this measure is stagnant and unexpectedly limited in extant robotic systems. This analysis indicates trends in increasing capacity in both internal and external complexity for natural systems while artificial, robotic systems have increased significantly in the capacity of computational (internal) states but remained more or less constant in mechanical (external) state capacity. This work presents a way to analyze trends in animal behavior and shows that robots are not capable of the same multi-faceted behavior in rich, dynamic environments as natural systems.Comment: Rejected from Nature, after review and appeal, July 4, 2018 (submitted May 11, 2018

Immersive Composition for Sensory Rehabilitation: 3D Visualisation, Surround Sound, and Synthesised Music to Provoke Catharsis and Healing

There is a wide range of sensory therapies using sound, music and visual stimuli. Some focus on soothing or distracting stimuli such as natural sounds or classical music as analgesic, while other approaches emphasize the active performance of producing music as therapy. This paper proposes an immersive multi-sensory Exposure Therapy for people suffering from anxiety disorders, based on a rich, detailed surround-soundscape. This soundscape is composed to include the users’ own idiosyncratic anxiety triggers as a form of habituation, and to provoke psychological catharsis, as a non-verbal, visceral and enveloping exposure. To accurately pinpoint the most effective sounds and to optimally compose the soundscape we will monitor the participants’ physiological responses such as electroencephalography, respiration, electromyography, and heart rate during exposure. We hypothesize that such physiologically optimized sensory landscapes will aid the development of future immersive therapies for various psychological conditions, Sound is a major trigger of anxiety, and auditory hypersensitivity is an extremely problematic symptom. Exposure to stress-inducing sounds can free anxiety sufferers from entrenched avoidance behaviors, teaching physiological coping strategies and encouraging resolution of the psychological issues agitated by the sound

Light fountain – a virtually enhanced stone sculpture

The article describes the making of an art piece combining stone sculp- ture and digital fluidity. The motivation for this simulation was to enrich the usual static format of a stone sculpture with a dynamic dimension. Such digitally enriched sculpture should resemble water droplets running over the stone surface while obeying physical laws. The 3D surface of a specially designed and carved stone sculpture is continuously captured by the Kinect range sensor. Each water drop out of many thousands, which are introduced as rain drops falling evenly distributed over the sculpture, are simulated individually to run over the stone following the maximal gradient of the 3D surface. These simulated water drops are then projected as light points with a video projector on the surface of the sculpture. An admirer can enjoy the haptic experience of touching the stone surface while observing a digitally generated but physically grounded ever-shifting fluidity

Light fountain – a virtually enhanced stone sculpture

The article describes the making of an art piece combining stone sculp- ture and digital fluidity. The motivation for this simulation was to enrich the usual static format of a stone sculpture with a dynamic dimension. Such digitally enriched sculpture should resemble water droplets running over the stone surface while obeying physical laws. The 3D surface of a specially designed and carved stone sculpture is continuously captured by the Kinect range sensor. Each water drop out of many thousands, which are introduced as rain drops falling evenly distributed over the sculpture, are simulated individually to run over the stone following the maximal gradient of the 3D surface. These simulated water drops are then projected as light points with a video projector on the surface of the sculpture. An admirer can enjoy the haptic experience of touching the stone surface while observing a digitally generated but physically grounded ever-shifting fluidity

A Survey of Ocean Simulation and Rendering Techniques in Computer Graphics

This paper presents a survey of ocean simulation and rendering methods in computer graphics. To model and animate the ocean's surface, these methods mainly rely on two main approaches: on the one hand, those which approximate ocean dynamics with parametric, spectral or hybrid models and use empirical laws from oceanographic research. We will see that this type of methods essentially allows the simulation of ocean scenes in the deep water domain, without breaking waves. On the other hand, physically-based methods use Navier-Stokes Equations (NSE) to represent breaking waves and more generally ocean surface near the shore. We also describe ocean rendering methods in computer graphics, with a special interest in the simulation of phenomena such as foam and spray, and light's interaction with the ocean surface

Light fountain – a virtually enhanced stone sculpture

The article describes the making of an art piece combining stone sculp- ture and digital fluidity. The motivation for this simulation was to enrich the usual static format of a stone sculpture with a dynamic dimension. Such digitally enriched sculpture should resemble water droplets running over the stone surface while obeying physical laws. The 3D surface of a specially designed and carved stone sculpture is continuously captured by the Kinect range sensor. Each water drop out of many thousands, which are introduced as rain drops falling evenly distributed over the sculpture, are simulated individually to run over the stone following the maximal gradient of the 3D surface. These simulated water drops are then projected as light points with a video projector on the surface of the sculpture. An admirer can enjoy the haptic experience of touching the stone surface while observing a digitally generated but physically grounded ever-shifting fluidity

The truth about lies: the relationship between fiction and reality in Abbas Kiarostami’s 'Certified Copy'

Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's essential and recurrent concern lies in the questioning of the notion of frontier in all shapes and forms—from the geographical to the personal. His latest film Certified Copy, ranks as a trademark production inasmuch as it epitomises Kiarostami's preoccupation with the permeability and inconsistency of the dividing line between reality and fiction—a preoccupation which runs through all his creative works, be they fiction film, experimental documentaries, poetry or photography. Our article examines the specific ways in which the reality/fiction trope is actualised in Certified Copy. Through a study of Kiarostami's cinécriture (Varda) our aim is to highlight the film-maker's contribution to the debate on the role of cinema as an art form, on life (authentic) and art (imitation). We will bring to light the varied ways in which Kiarostami subverts classical narrative techniques, plays with truths and lies, and disrupts the boundaries between spectators, actors, film characters and ultimately director. In this game of reflections Kiarostami materialises a vision of life while succeeding in reaching out to the viewer's emotional make-up