Taking two to tango:fMRI analysis of improvised joint action with physical contact

<div><p>Many forms of joint action involve physical coupling between the participants, such as when moving a sofa together or dancing a tango. We report the results of a novel two-person functional MRI study in which trained couple dancers engaged in bimanual contact with an experimenter standing next to the bore of the magnet, and in which the two alternated between being the leader and the follower of joint improvised movements. Leading showed a general pattern of self-orientation, being associated with brain areas involved in motor planning, navigation, sequencing, action monitoring, and error correction. In contrast, following showed a far more sensory, externally-oriented pattern, revealing areas involved in somatosensation, proprioception, motion tracking, social cognition, and outcome monitoring. We also had participants perform a “mutual” condition in which the movement patterns were pre-learned and the roles were symmetric, thereby minimizing any tendency toward either leading or following. The mutual condition showed greater activity in brain areas involved in mentalizing and social reward than did leading or following. Finally, the analysis of improvisation revealed the dual importance of motor-planning and working-memory areas. We discuss these results in terms of theories of both joint action and improvisation.</p></div

Processing of Body Odor Signals by the Human Brain

Brain development in mammals has been proposed to be promoted by successful adaptations to the social complexity as well as to the social and non-social chemical environment. Therefore, the communication via chemosensory signals might have been and might still be a phylogenetically ancient communication channel transmitting evolutionary significant information. In humans, the neuronal underpinnings of the processing of social chemosignals have been investigated in relation to kin recognition, mate choice, the reproductive state and emotional contagion. These studies reveal that human chemosignals are probably not processed within olfactory brain areas but through neuronal relays responsible for the processing of social information. It is concluded that the processing of human social chemosignals resembles the processing of social signals originating from other modalities, except that human social chemosignals are usually communicated without the allocation of attentional resources, that is below the threshold of consciousness. Deviances in the processing of human social chemosignals might be related to the development and maintenance of mental disorders

Examining the Adoption of E-Shopping for Travel Services: Determinants of Consumers’ Perceptions

Δημοσιεύσεις μελών--ΣΔΟ--Τμήμα Τουριστικών Επιχειρήσεων, 2002This study examines the relationship between the advantages and disadvantages of electronic travel shopping, in comparison to traditional in-store shopping from high street travel agents, and consumers' perception of the innovation characteristics (relative advantage, compatibility and complexity) of e-shopping; and the relationship between consumers' perception of these characteristics and their intention to adopt electronic travel shopping using a sample of 127 households in Thessaloniki, Greece. The results indicate that advantages and disadvantages of physical efforts and time pressure related to traditional in-store travel agency shopping positively influence consumers' perception of the characteristics of e-shopping. The results also show that consumers' perception of the relative advantage and compatibility of electronic travel shopping positively influence their intention to adopt e-shopping. It also examines whether income, education and age moderate these relationships

The Ironic Effect of Source Identification on the Perceived Credibility of Online Product Reviewers

This study posits that sources of online product reviews can induce differential effects on 2 dimensions of source credibility, perceived expertise and perceived trustworthiness. Study 1 shows that experts are perceived as having more expert knowledge, but at the same time as having less trustworthiness than laypersons, and vice versa. These opposing credibility evaluations suppress the effect of online source identification on readers' attitudes toward online product reviews. Study 2 finds that these opposing credibility assessments only emerge when the expert status of the source is based on self-claims. When the expert status of the online source is based on peer ratings, the source is assessed as having both expertise and trustworthiness