How does it feel to act together?

This paper on the phenomenology of joint agency proposes a foray into a little explored territory at the intersection of two very active domains of research: joint action and sense of agency. I explore two ways in which our experience of joint agency may differ from our experience of individual agency. First, the mechanisms of action specification and control involved in joint action are typically more complex than those present in individual actions, since it is crucial for joint action that people coordinate their plans and actions. I discuss the implications that these coordination requirements might have for the strength of the sense of agency an agent may experience for a joint action. Second, engagement in joint action may involve a transformation of agentive identity and a partial or complete shift from a sense of self-agency to a sense of we-agency. I discuss several factors that may contribute to shaping our sense of agentive identity in joint action

Different tool training induces specific effects on body metric representation

Morphology and functional aspects of the tool have been proposed to be critical factors modulating tool use-induced plasticity. However, how these aspects contribute to changing body representation has been underinvestigated. In the arm bisection task, participants have to estimate the length of their own arm by indicating its midpoint, a paradigm used to investigate the representation of the metric properties of the body. We employed this paradigm to investigate the impact of different actions onto tool embodiment. Our findings suggest that a training requiring actions mostly with proximal (shoulder) or distal (wrist) parts induces a different shift in the perceived arm midpoint. This effect is independent of, but enhanced by, the use of the tool during the training and in part influenced by specific demands of the task. These results suggest that specific motor patterns required by the training can induce different changes of body representation, calling for rethinking the concept of tool embodiment, which would be characterized not simply by the morphology of the tools, but also by the actions required for their specific use

Barriers, drivers and decision-making process for industrial energy efficiency: A broad study among manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises

Energy efficiency has been recognized as a primary means to increase the competitiveness of the industrial sector, and in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in which energy efficiency measures (EEMs) are scarcely implemented. For this reason, future policies should carefully address such issue. Hence, it is really crucial to have a precise and punctual knowledge of the barriers to be tackled in the decision-making process of adopting an EEM and the drivers to be promoted. This study discussed the findings from a broad investigation within 222 manufacturing SMEs located in a Northern Italy region. Beside economic issues particularly affecting SMEs, awareness and behavioural issues emerge as critical, affecting the very first steps of the decision-making process, related to the punctual identification and evaluation of plausible EEMs. The support from manufacturers, technology suppliers, installers and ESCOs supporting SMEs through vocational training drivers (e.g. technical support) is really important to tackle such issues. More generally, beside financial institutions, the supply chain of technologies is recognized as particularly useful for supporting enterprises in the adoption of EEMs. Additionally, having previously conducted energy audit and implemented EEMs are critical factors able to highlight non-economic barriers and drivers. Therefore, the promotion of EEMs will necessarily imply a further effort in pointing out the so-called non-energy benefits (NEBs) from the implementation of EEMs. Finally, our study reveals that smaller and non-energy intensive emerge as most critical and therefore deserve greater attention from policy-makers

Distribución de los ingresos urbanos en Colombia en la década del noventa

A principios de los años noventa se presentó una aguda polémica, con respecto a la evolución reciente de la distribución de los ingresos en Colombia. Parte del debate se centró en el problema del censuramiento, es decir: la imposición de un tope máximo al registro de los ingresos en las encuestas de hogares. El presente artículo se enmarca de esta discusión y aplica la metodología de Pareto para solucionar el problema del censuramiento. Se construye una serie de índices de Gini entre 1990 y 1995, los cuales muestran un fuerte deterioro de la equidad hasta 1993 y una leve mejoría entre 1993 y 1995, en los siete principales centros urbanos del país. Al parecer, lo acontecido en estos años, en el mercado laboral, ha tenido más influencia sobre este resultado que la misma apertura económica

Spontaneous perforated duodenal diverticulum: wait or cut first?

Perforation of a duodenal diverticulum is one of the rarest but most serious complications of duodenal diverticula. For the past 30 years, the mortality rate has remained at 6%. Though emergency surgery is the standard therapeutic option, it may increase morbidity and mortality due to surgical complications. Therefore, initial nonoperative management should be considered in selected older patients

REHABILITATION OF NEGLECT BY WEDGE PRISM ADAPTATION: From sensorimotor adaptation to spatial cognition

International audienc

A scuola dai maestri. La pedagogia di Dolci, Freire, Manzi e don Milani

L'istruzione è un crocevia di sfide complesse, in cui gli insegnanti maturano una serie di competenze ed operano diverse forme di mediazione, attingendo ad un bagaglio personale e professionale e lasciandosi guidare da orientamenti pedagogici significativi, che restano spesso latenti. Ripercorrendo il pensiero di grandi maestri pedagogisti quali Danilo Dolci, Paolo Freire, Alberto Manzi e don Lorenzo Milani viene offerta una cornice pedagogica grazie alla quale rileggere le esperienze di accompagnamento scolastico attraverso cui vengono approfondite conoscenze specifiche, sperimentati metodi che rinnovano la pratica didattica e trovati principi ispiratori comuni che orientino le scelte pedagogiche. Insegnanti, dirigenti, educatori, pedagogisti potranno trovare in queste pagine contenuti significativi e stimoli preziosi per ripensare la scuola oggi nella direzione della tutela dei diritti e della giustizia, della rilettura di scenari in cambiamento, nella promozione dell'umano, attraverso l'uso della parola e l'affinamento della conoscenza

Grab it! Biased Attention in Functional Hand and Tool Space

This study explored whether functional properties of the hand and tools influence the allocation of spatial attention. In four experiments that used a visual-orienting paradigm with predictable lateral cues, hands or tools were placed near potential target locations. Results showed that targets appearing in the hand’s grasping space (i.e., near the palm) and the rake’s raking space (i.e., near the prongs) produced faster responses than did targets appearing to the back of the hand, to the back of the rake, or near the forearm. Validity effects were found regardless of condition in all experiments, but they did not interact with the target-in-grasping/raking-space bias. Thus, the topology of the facilitated space around the hand is, in part, defined by the hand’s grasping function and can be flexibly extended by functional experience using a tool. These findings are consistent with the operation of bimodal neurons, and this embodied component is incorporated into a neurally based model of spatial attention