The multisensory body revealed through its cast shadows

One key issue when conceiving the body as a multisensory object is how the cognitive system integrates visible instances of the self and other bodies with one\u2019s own somatosensory processing, to achieve self-recognition and body ownership. Recent research has strongly suggested that shadows cast by our own body have a special status for cognitive processing, directing attention to the body in a fast and highly specific manner. The aim of the present article is to review the most recent scientific contributions addressing how body shadows affect both sensory/perceptual and attentional processes. The review examines three main points: (1) body shadows as a special window to investigate the construction of multisensory body perception; (2) experimental paradigms and related findings; (3) open questions and future trajectories. The reviewed literature suggests that shadows cast by one\u2019s own body promote binding between personal and extrapersonal space and elicit automatic orienting of attention toward the bodypart casting the shadow. Future research should address whether the effects exerted by body shadows are similar to those observed when observers are exposed to other visual instances of their body. The results will further clarify the processes underlying the merging of vision and somatosensation when creating body representations

Attentional Guidance from Multiple Working Memory Representations: Evidence from Eye Movements

Recent studies have shown that the representation of an item in visual working memory (VWM) can bias the deployment of attention to stimuli in the visual scene possessing the same features. When multiple item representations are simultaneously held in VWM, whether these representations, especially those held in a non-prioritized or accessory status, are able to bias attention, is still controversial. In the present study we adopted an eye tracking technique to shed light on this issue. In particular, we implemented a manipulation aimed at prioritizing one of the VWM representation to an active status, and tested whether attention could be guided by both the prioritized and the accessory representations when they reappeared as distractors in a visual search task. Notably, in Experiment 1, an analysis of first fixation proportion (FFP) revealed that both the prioritized and the accessory representations were able to capture attention suggesting a significant attentional guidance effect. However, such effect was not present in manual response times (RT). Most critically, in Experiment 2, we used a more robust experimental design controlling for different factors that might have played a role in shaping these findings. The results showed evidence for attentional guidance from the accessory representation in both manual RTs and FFPs. Interestingly, FFPs showed a stronger attentional bias for the prioritized representation than for the accessory representation across experiments. The overall findings suggest that multiple VWM representations, even the accessory representation, can simultaneously interact with visual attention

Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expression

Only a few studies investigated whether animal phobics exhibit attentional biases in contexts where no phobic stimuli are present. Among these, recent studies provided evidence for a bias toward facial expressions of fear and disgust in animal phobics. Such findings may be due to the fact that these expressions could signal the presence of a phobic object in the surroundings. To test this hypothesis and further investigate attentional biases for emotional faces in animal phobics, we conducted an experiment using a gaze-cuing paradigm in which participants\u2019 attention was driven by the task-irrelevant gaze of a centrally presented face. We employed dynamic negative facial expressions of disgust, fear and anger and found an enhanced gaze-cuing effect in snake phobics as compared to controls, irrespective of facial expression. These results provide evidence of a general hypervigilance in animal phobics in the absence of phobic stimuli, and indicate that research on specific phobias should not be limited to symptom provocation paradigms

Microsaccadic response during inhibition of return in a target–target paradigm

AbstractThis study examined the relationship between inhibition of return (IOR) in covert orienting and microsaccade statistics. Unlike a previous study [Galfano, G., Betta, E., & Turatto, M. (2004)], IOR was assessed by means of a target–target paradigm, and microsaccade dynamics were monitored as a function of both the first and the second visual event. In line with what has been reported with a cue-target paradigm, a significant directional modulation was observed opposite to the first visual event. Because participants were to respond to any stimulus, this rules out the possibility that the modulation resulted from a generic motor inhibition, showing instead that it is peculiarly coupled to the oculomotor system. Importantly, after the second visual event, a different response was observed in microsaccade orientation, whose direction critically depended of whether the second visual event appeared at the same location as the first visual event. The results are consistent with the notion that IOR is composed of both attentional and oculomotor components, and challenge the view that covert orienting paradigms engage the attentional component in isolation

IL BATTISTERO DEL DUOMO DI PISA: MOVIMENTI ED INDAGINI

Questo lavoro rappresenta solo l'inizio di una più ampia indagine sulle caratteristiche di tutti quei fattori che incidono sulla struttura del Battistero, sui suoi movimenti, sull'evolversi dei cedimenti e crepe oggi presenti e sulla previsione di quelli che saranno i futuri punti critici ed i prossimi movimenti del monumento. Più precisamente, il lavoro si articola in cinque parti: • una prima parte di introduzione storica che espone il contesto nel quale è stato costruito il Battistero, la descrizione del restauro ottocentesco e l'attuale presentazione del monumento; • la seconda parte raccoglie gli studi sui movimenti del monumento e della Piazza (indagini già trattate dai colleghi citati ma riviste ed aggiornate); • la terza parte raccoglie le indagini geoelettriche e le indagini effettuate sul sottosuolo attorno al Battistero attraverso la prova penetrometrica con il piezocono (CPTU) e la misura della velocità delle onde di taglio con il dilatometro sismico (SDMT) al fine di individuare la stratigrafia del terreno; • l'ultima parte analizza il monitoraggio delle fessure e le livellazioni effettuate all'interno e all'esterno del Battistero. Il terreno al di sotto del Battistero, seppur con i dovuti distinguo, non è molto dissimile da quello della vicina Torre. Nell'analisi condotta attraverso le prove CPTU si sono visti abbastanza bene le transizioni tra i vari strati, sebbene vi siano state alcune incertezze sulla natura dello strato più superficiale (terreno limo-argilloso) e sulla sua transizione con lo strato sottostante. Questo è sicuramente un elemento da approfondire in quanto sembra che questo strato sia particolarmente spesso nel quadrante nord-occidentale, zona dove sono presenti le crepe monitorate. Sebbene non sia da escludere che le oscillazioni del livello di falda possano aver contribuito al quadro fessurativo esistente, come pure le caratteristiche meccaniche del terreno più scadenti che negli altri quadranti, il movimento del Battistero è una rotazione (e quindi un affondamento) nel quadrante diametralmente opposto a quello delle fessure: motivo in più per approfondire le indagini al fine di identificare con precisione i litotipi al di sotto del monumento, le loro caratteristiche e soprattutto la loro suscettività all'acqua

Comparing Different Methods for Multiple Testing in Reaction Time Data

Reaction times were simulated for examining the power of six methods for multiple testing, as a function of sample size and departures from normality. Power estimates were low for all methods for non-normal distributions. With normal distributions, even for small sample sizes, satisfactory power estimates were observed, especially for FDR-based procedures

Comparing Different Methods for Multiple Testing in Reaction Time Data

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