El sentido de lo abisal en Insidious : James Wan y Joseph Bishara. Sintaxis y síntesis del horror

Planificando su discurso a partir de las máximas del suspense y las modulaciones del terror clásico, James Wan logra dar en Insidious (2010) una vuelta de tuerca a dichos parámetros seminales a fin de actualizar, de forma efectiva e innovadora, su operatividad. El realizador compone una secuencia narrativa en la que los motivos de la fantasmagoría y el horror cósmico pivotan en torno a la desemantización y la aporía, deformidad o indefinición formal y temática que conllevan una recurrente ruptura de la lógica y la inversión o plasmación infecta de lo doméstico y familiar. Esencial entre los estilemas del filme es el rédito de la atonalidad y deflagración características de la banda sonora de Joseph Bishara. Las texturas atmosféricas y la sintaxis subversiva de este compositor se erigen en epítome de la desfamiliarización y fragmentación tematizada, lo espasmódico, la perplejidad, el silencio o la agresión sensorial, ilustración cimera del concepto de fractura y abismo en el texto.Following the maxims of suspense and the foundational hallmarks of classic horror, James Wan manages to go a step beyond in Insidious, adequately updating and refreshing these seminal parameters and their effect. The director composes a narrative sequence in which the motifs of phantasmagoria and cosmic horror pivot around desemanticization and aporia, formal and content deformity or uncertainty both leading to a constant breakdown of logic and the inverted or anomalous rendition of the domestic and familiar. For this purpose, the essence of Joseph Bishara's atonal and blasting modes crucially and significantly stand out in the text. His atmospheric layers and disrupting syntax epitomize defamiliarization and fragmentation as dramatically related to the convulsive image, perplexity, silence and sensitive aggression, all of them illustrating the sense of fissure and the abyss in the film

Emotional Reactivity, Negative Affect, and Executive Functioning: Does Physiology Matter?

Emotional reactivity reflects the activation, intensity, and duration of an emotional event. Although it is well-established that emotional reactivity has negative implications on psychological functioning, studies have demonstrated that high emotional reactivity enhances executive functioning performance when in negative mood states. The underlying mechanisms that elicit these benefits remain less understood. The current study investigated the relationship between negative affect and executive functioning by examining the role of emotional reactivity through self-report questionnaires and objective physiological skin conductance measures. Participants completed a task of working memory embedded with emotional images, while electrodermal activity was recorded. Based on previous research, we predicted that individuals with high emotional reactivity would perform better on the working memory task when in a negative mood state compared to low-reactive individuals. At the physiological level, we hypothesized that high-reactive individuals would demonstrate higher phasic peaks to emotionally-laden content compared to low-reactive individuals. We also predicted that the underlying mechanism that would lead high-reactive individuals to experience better behavioural performance on the task would be a more rapid physiological habituation to the negative condition, as they would shift attention from the negative images back to the working memory task more quickly. Results indicated that high-reactive individuals actually performed worse in the negative condition compared to low-reactive individuals. Moreover, emotional reactivity did not predict skin conductance magnitudes. Finally, individuals with high emotional reactivity habituated to the negative condition more quickly than individuals with low-reactivity; however, more rapid habituation did not improve behavioural performance on the working memory task. We outline the implications of this work and provide suggestions for future research

Réorganisation audiotactile suite à un entraînement multisensoriel ou à une privation auditive congénitale

Des études suggèrent que certaines capacités sensorielles peuvent être augmentées chez l’humain, soit i) à la suite d’un entraînement ou ii) à la suite de privation sensorielle précoce. Des études suggèrent qu’une telle altération sensorielle peut être retrouvée chez les personnes ayant subi un entraînement musical. L’interaction entre ce qui est entendu et ressenti est spécialement importante lorsqu’un individu joue d’un instrument de musique. L’entraînement musical est reconnu comme étant une forme d’entraînement multisensoriel incluant des interactions entre des composantes auditives, visuelles et tactiles. Celui-ci peut mener à des réorganisations anatomiques et structurelles dans les régions corticales associées à ces modalités sensorielles. Plusieurs études comportementales ont révélé des habiletés de détection tactile améliorées chez les musiciens. Il est toujours incertain que ces améliorations puissent être retrouvées lors de processus plus complexes tels que la reconnaissance des émotions. Une autre population d’étude pourrait aussi révéler une altération des capacités tactiles, soit les personnes sourdes de naissance. Des études en imagerie ont révélé que les stimuli vibrotactiles activaient les régions auditives chez les personnes sourdes, suggérant ainsi une importante réorganisation tactile chez ces individus. Pourtant, au niveau comportemental, les capacités de détection tactile semblent similaires aux contrôles. Récemment, il a été suggéré que des processus tactiles plus complexes pourraient permettre de révéler des différences comportementales entre les personnes sourdes et entendantes. Malheureusement, tout comme chez les musiciens, ces processus n’ont toujours pas été évalués à ce jour. L’objectif principal de cette thèse est donc d’évaluer i) la perception unisensorielle tactile, auditive ainsi que multisensorielle chez les musiciens et ii) la perception unisensorielle tactile chez les sourds à l’aide de tâches non-musicales et musicales. Chez les musiciens, les résultats de cette thèse suggèrent des capacités de discrimination fréquentielle auditive, tactile et audiotactile améliorées (étude 1) ainsi que des améliorations de la perception d’émotions musicales complexes auditive et tactile (étude 2). Ces études supportent l’hypothèse qu’une formation musicale à long terme : i) entraîne une amélioration des capacités unisensorielles auditives et tactiles, mais surtout que celle-ci s’étend à des processus tactiles complexes, ii) a un impact à tous les niveaux hiérarchiques du traitement sensoriel et cognitif. Chez les individus sourds, les résultats ont révélé un plus haut taux d’erreurs lors de la tâche de détection d’ordre temporel tactile (étude 3). Ce résultat suggère que la cartographie spatiale du toucher est altérée chez les individus sourds. De plus, l’étude ayant mesuré la perception des émotions tactiles a révélé que ceux-ci sont capables d’identifier des émotions via la modalité tactile seule et ont même une capacité améliorée à identifier la joie (étude 4). Cette capacité accrue à percevoir la joie dans une mélodie via la modalité tactile illustre que des habiletés tactiles complexes peuvent être améliorées suite à une privation auditive de longue date. Ces deux études mises en commun illustrent que des capacités tactiles complexes non-musicales et musicales sont altérées chez l’individu sourd, ce qui supporte les études suggérant une réorganisation corticale des aires auditives et tactiles chez les individus sourds.Studies suggest that some sensory abilities may be increased in humans, either i) following training or ii) following early sensory deprivation. Studies suggest that such sensory alteration can be found in people who have undergone musical training. The interaction between what is heard and felt is especially important when an individual is playing a musical instrument. Musical training is well-known as a form of multisensory training that includes interactions between auditory, visual and tactile modalities. This can lead to anatomical and structural reorganizations in the cortical regions associated with these sensory systems. Several behavioral studies have revealed improved tactile perception skills in musicians. It is still unclear whether these improvements can be found for more complex processes, such as recognition of emotions. Similar alteration of tactile abilities may also be found in another population, namely early-deaf individuals. Imaging studies have shown that vibrotactile stimuli activate auditory regions following deafness, suggesting a significant tactile reorganization of their cortex. Yet, from a behavioral point of view, tactile perception in deaf seems similar to controls. Recently, it has been suggested that more complex tactile processes may reveal behavioral differences between deaf and normal-hearing individuals. Unfortunately, similarly to musicians, these processes have not been investigated to date. The main objective of this thesis is therefore to evaluate via non-musical and musical tasks i) tactile, auditory and multisensory perception of music among musicians and ii) tactile perception of music among deaf individuals. For musicians, results of this thesis suggest enhanced auditory, tactile and audio-tactile frequency discrimination capabilities (Study 1). Also, results suggest an increase perception of emotions in music, which suggests improvements for complex auditory and tactile abilities (Study 2). These studies support the hypothesis that long-term musical training: i) leads to improved auditory and tactile perception, but especially that it extends to complex tactile processes, ii) has an impact at all hierarchical levels of sensory and cognitive processing For deaf individuals, results revealed a higher error rate during the tactile temporal order detection task (Study 3). This result suggests that spatial mapping of touch is impaired in deaf individuals. In addition, the study measuring tactile perception of emotion in music revealed that they are able to identify emotions via tactile modality solely. Also, improvements were found for the identification of happy emotion via tactile modality solely (Study 4). This increased ability to perceive happiness in a melody via the tactile modality illustrates that complex tactile skills can be improved following longstanding hearing deprivation. These two studies together suggest that complex non-musical and musical tactile abilities are altered in the deaf individual, which supports studies suggesting a cortical reorganization of auditory and tactile areas following long-term auditory deprivation