Action for perception : influence of handedness in visuo-auditory sensory substitution

In this preliminary study we address the question of the influence of handedness on the localization of targets perceived through a visuo-auditory substitution device. Participants hold the device in one hand in order to explore the environment and to perceive the target. They point to the estimated location of the target with the other hand. This preliminary results support our hypothesis that pointing is more accurate when the device is held in the right dominant hand. Dexterity has to be attributed to the active part of the perceptive system. This study has obviously to be completed but it shows how the concept of enaction is important and how it can be experimentaly addressed in the field of sensory substitution

Coaching the Wii : evaluation of a physical training experiment assisted by a video game

Aging or sedentary behavior can decrease motor capabilities causing a loss of autonomy. Prevention or readaptation programs that involve practice of physical activities can be precious tools to fight against this phenomenon. ?Serious? video game have the potential to help people to train their body mainly due to the immersion of the participant in a motivating interaction with virtual environments. We propose here to discuss the results of a preliminary study that evaluated a training program using the well-known WiiFit game and Wii balance board device in participants of different ages. Our results showed that participants were satisfied with the program and that they progressed in their level of performance. The most important observation of this study, however was that the presence of a real human coach is necessary in particular for senior participants, for security reasons but also to help them to deal with difficulties with immersive situations.Comment: 4 page

Comment l'information et le conseil sur les aides techniques contribuent-ils de manière pertinente au processus d'expression des besoins de la personne?

National audienceL'expression des besoins en aide technique d'une personne en situation de handicap passe par la confrontation de son appréciation de ses incapacités dans le cadre de son projet de vie, avec les informations disponibles sur les aides existantes et leurs usages possibles. Dans ce texte nous essayons de cerner les apports des différents acteurs dans ce processus d'expression des besoins. Quelles informations doit-on regrouper, rechercher, lesquelles donner et par qui pour que la personne concernée puisse exprimer ce besoin de façon efficace

There is something out there: distal attribution in sensory substitution, twenty years later.

Sensory substitution constitutes an interesting domain of study to consider the philosopher's classical question of distal attribution: how we can distinguish between a sensation and the perception of an object that causes this sensation. We tested the hypothesis that distal attribution consists of three distinct components: an object, a perceptual space, and a coupling between subjects' movements and stimulation. We equipped sixty participants with a visual-to-auditory substitution device, without any information about it. The device converts the video stream produced by a head-mounted camera into a sound stream. We investigated several experimental conditions: the existence or not of a correlation between movements and resulting stimulation, the direct or indirect manipulation of an object, and the presence of a background environment. Participants were asked to describe their impressions by rating their experiences in terms of seven possible "scenarios". These scenarios were carefully chosen to distinguish the degree to which the participants attributed their sensations to a distal cause. Participants rated the scenarios both before and after they were given the possibility to interrupt the stimulation with an obstacle. We were interested in several questions. Did participants extract laws of co-variation between their movements and resulting stimulation? Did they deduce the existence of a perceptual space originating from this coupling? Did they individuate objects that caused the sensations? Whatever the experimental conditions, participants were able to establish that there was a link between their movements and the resulting auditory stimulation. Detection of the existence of a coupling was more frequent than the inferences of distal space and object

Biomimetic Space-Variant Sampling in a Vision Prosthesis Improves the User's Skill in a Localization Task

In this experiment, we test the hypothesis of whether a 'retina-like' space variant sampling pattern can improve the efficiency of a visual prosthesis. Subjects wearing a visuo-auditory substitution system were tested for their ability to point at visual targets. The test group (space-variant sampling), performed significantly better than the control group (uniform sampling). The pointing accuracy was enhanced, as was the speed to find the target. Surprisingly, the time spanned to complete the training was also reduced, suggesting that this space-variant sampling scheme facilitates the mastering of sensorimotor contingencies

Du corps biologique au corps capacitaire

International audienceIn this article, we suggest that the « capable body » concept can be introduced at the crossroads of an evolutionist and a neurobiological points of view. The ability of the human specie to create, learn and disseminate technical skills (body and technical knowhow), became a decisive selective advantage. The neurobiological component of this advantage originates not only from a global increase of the cerebral volume, but rather from the properties and efficiency of specific neuronal populations. These neurons are involved in the learning and diffusion of technical skills (cerebellum, mirror neurons) but also in the integration of the tools in the sensitive body (bimodal neurons). Thus, the human being inherits phylogenetically and epi-phylogenetically an “able body” which extends the biological body. The able body is versatile and polymorphic, changing with the grasping and releasing of the required tool.Il est question dans cette article de synthèse de montrer que le concept de corps capacitaire peut tout à fait prendre sa place dans une perspective intégrant des connaissances concernant à la fois l’évolution de l’espèce humaine et le cerveau de l’homme contemporain. La capacité de l’espèce humaine à créer, apprendre et transmettre des savoir-faire (utilisant des techniques du corps ou des aides techniques), s’est avérée constituer un avantage sélectif déterminant. La composante neurobiologique de cet avantage n’a sans doute pas seulement pour origine une augmentation globale du volume cérébral, mais semble surtout provenir des propriétés et de l’efficacité de certaines populations de neurones. Ces neurones sont impliqués dans l’apprentissage des techniques et la diffusion des savoirs techniques (cervelet, neurones miroirs) mais aussi dans l’intégration de l’outil au corps sensible (neurones bimodaux). Ainsi, l’individu humain hérite phylogénétiquement et épi-phylogénétiquement d’un corps capacitaire dont le corps biologique n’est que le substrat. Ce corps capacitaire est changeant et polymorphe, au gré des outils saisis et déposés

De l'énaction à l'émersion : la voie du corps vivant. Introduction au dossier

From Enaction to Emersion: the Way of Living Body. Body ecology explores the direct relationship of the living body and its nervous system with their environment, especially during immersion in natural, artificial or virtual environments. The activation of the body is the activation of the nervous and sensitive part of the living body under the effect of ecologization. Emersiology proposes to analyze the emersion of the living body in the consciousness of the lived body. Emersion is the involuntary movement in our body of networks, moods and images about which our consciousness knows only the emerged part of. In this issue of Intellectica, we question the modalities of the activation of the living part of our body whose knowledge is not immediately accessible to us. Some authors question here this ecological and unconscious treatment of neurobiological signals (emotions, gestures, movements), so that subjects learn from their living body; while others would like to transform the awareness of experience or cognition by what will have been awakened by the activity of the living (by technologies, emerging logic, attention focusing, neuro-imagery etc.). Indeed, certain activities, often made possible by recent technical developments, are able to participate in the activation of the living body and to produce enabling effects on neural networks. The concepts proposed by emersiology are obviously related to others belonging to different disciplines or theoretical currents such as the neurobiological phenomenology of action, enactivism, embodied cognition, neurosciences and psychology of emotions, of attention and awareness. This issue therefore brings together contributions of a theoretical and/or experimental nature which are concerned with philosophical, psychological and neuro-scientific aspects concerning practices involving the activation of the living body, in particular by the use of hybridization devices or technical remedies.L’écologie corporelle explore la relation directe du corps vivant et de son système nerveux avec son environnement en particulier lors de l’immersion dans des milieux naturels, artificiels ou virtuels. L’activation du corps est la mise en action de la partie nerveuse et sensible du corps vivant sous l’effet de l’écologisation. L’émersiologie propose d’analyser l’émersion du corps vivant dans la conscience du corps vécu. L’émersion est le mouvement involontaire dans notre corps des réseaux, humeurs et images dont notre conscience ne connaît que la partie émergée. Dans ce numéro d’Intellectica, nous interrogeons les modalités de l’activation du vivant de notre corps dont la connaissance ne nous est pas immédiatement accessible. Certains auteurs s’intéressent au traitement écologique et inconscient des signaux neurobiologiques (émotions, gestes, mouvements), pour que les sujets apprennent de leur corps vivant ; tandis que d’autres voudraient transformer la conscience du vécu ou la cognition par ce qui y aura été éveillé par l’activité du vivant (par les technologies, la logique émergente, les focalisations d’attention, la neuro-imagerie etc...). En effet certaines activités, souvent rendues possibles par de récents développement techniques, sont susceptibles de participer à l’activation du corps vivant et de produire des effets capacitants sur les réseaux neuronaux. Les concepts proposés par l’émersiologie sont évidemment en lien avec ceux appartenant à d’autres disciplines ou courants théoriques comme la phénoménologie neurobiologique de l’action, l’énactivisme, la cognition incarnée, les neurosciences et la psychologie des émotions, de l’attention et de la conscience. Ce numéro réunit des contributions de nature théorique et/ou expérimentale s’intéressant aux aspects philosophiques, psychologiques et neuro-scientifiques concernant des pratiques engageant l’activation du corps vivant, notamment par l’utilisation de dispositifs d’hybridation ou de remédiations techniques.Hanneton Sylvain, Andrieu Bernard. De l'énaction à l'émersion : la voie du corps vivant. Introduction au dossier. In: Intellectica. Revue de l'Association pour la Recherche Cognitive, n°71, 2019/2. L’activation du corps vivant. Émersions, Hybridations, Remédiations. pp. 7-20