La percepción gustativa y su organización neurocognitiva

El propósito de este artículo es efectuar una revisión analítico-comparativa de los desarrollos teóricos sobre la temática del sentido del gusto y la lateralización de sus sendas neuronales. La experiencia sensorial del gusto se origina cuando los estímulos químicos llegan a los receptores periféricos. Diversas investigaciones muestran que frente a la estimulación gustativa, la parte superior de la ínsula es activada bilateralmente, sin embargo, existe una lateralización en la parte baja de modo que el hemisferio izquierdo es activado para los participantes diestros y el hemisferio derecho, para los participantes zurdos. Existen resultados que rechazan la noción de una organización cruzada de la senda gustativa desde la lengua a la corteza cerebral en favor de la distribución bilateral de la organización de la senda, con una marcada predominancia de la postura no cruzada

A evidência de interferência no processamento de representações gustativas e visuais na memória operativa

The aim of this study is to evaluate the processing interference between gustative and visual representations in working memory. A sample of 48 university students participated in the experiment. The age average of these subjects was 23.27 years (SD = 4.286 years). A crossover design was applied to conduct within-subjects comparisons. Stimulus coherence was defined as an independent variable with three levels, that is, congruent, incongruent and control according to a visual-gustative matching criterion. Two dependent variables were defined, that is, the stimulus identification and the corresponding reaction time. The experiment asked to observe the screen of a computer which presented an image while receiving a gustative stimulus. The experimental task required to identify as quickly as possible the gustative stimuli. The results showed a lower stroop interference for congruent stimuli than for incongruent and control stimuli. Fewer errors and reduced reaction times were observed only for the congruent condition. It is recommended for future research to examine cross-modal stroop interference for gustative and visual processing when visual stimuli are operationalized as written words.El propósito de este estudio es evaluar la interferencia de las representaciones gustativas y visuales en el procesamiento de la memoria operativa. Participaron del experimento 48 sujetos argentinos universitarios cuya edad promedio fue de 23,27 años (de=4,286 años). Se empleó un diseño cruzado para realizar comparaciones intra-sujetos. Se determinó como variable independiente a la congruencia del estímulo y se definieron tres niveles: estímulos congruentes, incongruentes y controles. Se determinaron como variables dependientes al número de aciertos y al tiempo de reacción. El experimento consistía en observar la pantalla de una computadora en la que se presentaba una imagen mientras se degustaba un estímulo gustativo. La consigna requería identificar lo más rápidamente posible el estímulo gustativo. Los resultados mostraron una menor interferencia stroop en el nivel de estímulos congruentes que en los niveles de estímulos incongruentes y controles dado que se produjeron menores errores y menores tiempos de reacción. En futuras investigaciones se recomienda estudiar la interferencia stroop intermodal gustativa y visual por palabra y comparar los resultados con la interferencia stroop intermodal gustativa y visual por imágenes.  O objetivo deste estudo é avaliar a interferência das representações gustativas e visuais no processamento da memória operativa. O experimento envolveu 48 universitários argentinos com idade média de 23,27 anos (de = 4,286 anos). Um projeto transversal foi utilizado para comparações intra-sujeitos. Foi determinada como uma variável independente a congruência do estímulo e três níveis foram definidos: estímulos congruentes, incongruentes e controles. Foram estabelecidas variáveis dependentes ao número de sucessos e variáveis de tempo de reação. O experimento foi observar a tela do computador em que uma imagem foi apresentada enquanto eles provaram um estímulo gustativo. A lema precisou de identificar tão rapidamente quanto possível, o estímulo gustativo. Os resultados mostraram menos nível de interferência stroop em nível de estímulos congruentes que em nível de estímulos incongruentes e controles desde que houve menos erros e menos tempos de reação. Em pesquisas futuras é recomendado para estudar a interferência Stroop intermodal gustativa e visual por imagens

Global study of social odor awareness

Olfaction plays an important role in human social communication, including multiple domains in which people often rely on their sense of smell in the social context. The importance of the sense of smell and its role can however vary inter-individually and culturally. Despite the growing body of literature on differences in olfactory performance or hedonic preferences across the globe, the aspects of a given culture as well as culturally universal individual differences affecting odor awareness in human social life remain unknown. Here, we conducted a large-scale analysis of data collected from 10,794 participants from 52 study sites from 44 countries all over the world. The aim of our research was to explore the potential individual and country-level correlates of odor awareness in the social context. The results show that the individual characteristics were more strongly related than country-level factors to self-reported odor awareness in different social contexts. A model including individual-level predictors (gender, age, material situation, education and preferred social distance) provided a relatively good fit to the data, but adding country-level predictors (Human Development Index, population density and average temperature) did not improve model parameters. Although there were some cross-cultural differences in social odor awareness, the main differentiating role was played by the individual differences. This suggests that people living in different cultures and different climate conditions may still share some similar patterns of odor awareness if they share other individual-level characteristics

Preferred interpersonal distances: a global comparison

Human spatial behavior has been the focus of hundreds of previous research studies. However, the conclusions and generalizability of previous studies on interpersonal distance preferences were limited by some important methodological and sampling issues. The objective of the present study was to compare preferred interpersonal distances across the world and to overcome the problems observed in previous studies. We present an extensive analysis of interpersonal distances over a large data set (N = 8,943 participants from 42 countries). We attempted to relate the preferred social, personal, and intimate distances observed in each country to a set of individual characteristics of the participants, and some attributes of their cultures. Our study indicates that individual characteristics (age and gender) influence interpersonal space preferences and that some variation in results can be explained by temperature in a given region. We also present objective values of preferred interpersonal distances in different regions, which might be used as a reference data point in future studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio