Body posture differentially impacts on visual attention towards tool, graspable, and non-graspable objects.

Viewed objects have been shown to afford suitable actions, even in the absence of any intention to act. However, little is known as to whether gaze behavior (i.e., the way we simply look at objects) is sensitive to action afforded by the seen object and how our actual motor possibilities affect this behavior. We recorded participants’ eye movements during the observation of tools, graspable and ungraspable objects, while their hands were either freely resting on the table or tied behind their back. The effects of the observed object and hand posture on gaze behavior were measured by comparing the actual fixation distribution with that predicted by 2 widely supported models of visual attention, namely the Graph-Based Visual Saliency and the Adaptive Whitening Salience models. Results showed that saliency models did not accurately predict participants’ fixation distributions for tools. Indeed, participants mostly fixated the action-related, functional part of the tools, regardless of its visual saliency. Critically, the restriction of the participants’ action possibility led to a significant reduction of this effect and significantly improved the model prediction of the participants’ gaze behavior. We suggest, first, that action-relevant object information at least in part guides gaze behavior. Second, postural information interacts with visual information to the generation of priority maps of fixation behavior. We support the view that the kind of information we access from the environment is constrained by our readiness to act

Investigating the relationship between interoceptive accuracy, interoceptive awareness, and emotional susceptibility

Interoception, the sense of the physiological condition of the body, provides a basis for subjective feelings and emotions. Anterior insular cortex activity represents the state of the body and varies according to personality traits, such as emotional susceptibility (ES)-the tendency to experience feelings of discomfort and vulnerability when facing emotionally-laden stimuli. The accuracy of perceiving one's own bodily signals, or interoceptive accuracy (IAc), can be assessed with the heartbeat perception task (HPT), which is the experimental measure used by most of the existing research on interoception. However, IAc is only one facet of interoception. Interoceptive awareness (IAw) is the conscious perception of sensations from inside the body, such as heart beat, respiration, satiety, and the autonomic nervous system sensations related to emotions, which create the sense of the physiological condition of the body. We developed an Italian version of the recent self-report Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), tested its psychometric properties (reliability, dimensionality, and construct validity), and examined its relationship to ES, as assessed using the Emotional Susceptibility Scale, in a sample (n = 321) of healthy Italian psychology students (293 females, mean age: 20.5 years). In a subgroup of females (n = 135), we measured IAc with the HPT. We used a series of correlation/regression analyses to examine the complex interplay between the three constructs. We provide further evidence for a substantial independence of the IAc and IAw measures, confirming previous reports and current theoretical models that differentiate between IAc and IAw. Our analyses elucidate the complex relationship between distinct dimensions of IAw and ES, highlighting the need for continued efforts to shed more light on this topic

No grammatical gender effect on affective ratings: evidence from Italian and German languages

In this study, we tested the linguistic relativity hypothesis by studying the effect of grammatical gender (feminine vs. masculine) on affective judgments of conceptual representation in Italian and German. In particular, we examined the within- and cross-language grammatical gender effect and its interaction with participants’ demographic characteristics (such as, the raters’ age and sex) on semantic differential scales (affective ratings of valence, arousal and dominance) in Italian and German speakers. We selected the stimuli and the relative affective measures from Italian and German adaptations of the ANEW (Affective Norms for English Words). Bayesian and frequentist analyses yielded evidence for the absence of within- and cross-languages effects of grammatical gender and sex- and age-dependent interactions. These results suggest that grammatical gender does not affect judgments of affective features of semantic representation in Italian and German speakers, since an overt coding of word grammar is not required. Although further research is recommended to refine the impact of the grammatical gender on properties of semantic representation, these results have implications for any strong view of the linguistic relativity hypothesis

Online search trends and word-related emotional response during COVID- 19 lockdown in Italy: a cross-sectional online study

Background. The strong and long lockdown adopted by the Italian government to limit COVID-19 spreading represents the first threat-related mass isolation in history that can be studied in depth by scientists to understand individuals' emotional response to a pandemic. Methods. We investigated the effects on individuals' mental wellbeing of this long-term isolation by means of an online survey on 71 Italian volunteers. They completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and Fear of COVID-19 Scale and judged valence, arousal, and dominance of words either related or unrelated to COVID-19, as identified by Google search trends. Results. Emotional judgments changes from normative data varied depending on word type and individuals' emotional state, revealing early signals of individuals' mental distress to COVID-19 confinement. All individuals judged COVID-19-related words to be less positive and dominant. However, individuals with more negative feelings and COVID-19 fear also judged COVID-19-unrelated words to be less positive and dominant. Moreover, arousal ratings increased for all words among individuals with more negative feelings and COVID-19 fear but decreased among individuals with less negative feelings and COVID-19 fear. Discussion. Our results show a rich picture of emotional reactions of Italians to tight and 2-month long confinement, identifying early signals of mental health distress. They are an alert to the need for intervention strategies and psychological assessment of individuals potentially needing mental health support following the COVID-19 situation

Brain oscillations in cognitive control: a cross-sectional study with a spatial Stroop task

An important aspect of cognitive control is the ability to overcome interference, by boosting the processing of task-relevant information while suppressing the irrelevant information. This ability is affected by the progressive cognitive decline observed in aging. The aims of this study were to shed light on the neural spectral dynamics involved in interference control and to investigate age-dependent differences in these dynamics. For these reasons two samples of participants of different ages (23 younger and 20 older adults, age range=[18 35] and [66 82], respectively) were recruited and administered a spatial Stroop task while recording electroencephalographic activity. Scalp- and source-based time-frequency analyses revealed a main role of theta and beta frequencies in interference control. Specifically, for the theta band, we found age-dependent differences both for early event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) Stroop effects at the source level \u2013 which involved dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices \u2013 and for related brain-behaviour correlations. This ERSP Stroop effect in theta was greatly reduced in magnitude in the older group and, differently from what observed in younger participants, it was not correlated with behavioural performance. These results suggest an age-dependent impairment of the theta-related mechanism signalling the need of cognitive control, in line with existing findings. We also found age-related differences in ERSP and source spectral activity involving beta frequencies. Indeed, younger participants showed a specific ERSP Stroop effect in beta \u2013 with the main involvement of left prefrontal cortex \u2013 whereas the pattern of older participants was delayed in time and spread bilaterally over the scalp. This study shows clear age-related differences in the neural spectral correlates of cognitive control. These findings open new questions about the causal involvement of specific oscillations in different cognitive processes and may inspire future interventions against age-related cognitive decline

Infrared exploration of the architectural heritage: from passive infrared thermography to <em>hybrid</em> infrared thermography (HIRT) approach

Hasta la fecha, los enfoques sobre la termografía infrarroja han sido considerados, o pasivos, o activos. En este último caso, el flujo de calor se obtiene a través de una fuente de calor no natural. El uso de energía solar ha sido recientemente incorporado al enfoque activo gracias a los estudios multitemporales. En este trabajo, se ilustra un enfoque innovador de la termografía híbrida (HIRT). Se combina tanto el componente de tiempo y la fuente de energía solar para recuperar la información cuantitativa así como la profundidad del defecto. Las imágenes térmicas se obtuvieron mediante el análisis de la fachada de la Iglesia de Santa María Collemaggio (L'Aquila, Italia), mientras que los resultados cuantitativos inherentes a las discontinuidades sub-superficiales se obtuvieron gracias al uso de otras técnicas avanzadas. Los resultados experimentales vinculados al enfoque pasivo (es decir, el proceso de mosaico de las imágenes térmicas) derivan de un conjunto de Iglesias antiguas, también incluidas en el estudio, a fin de explicar cuándo y dónde tiene sentido realizar un proceso híbrido

Wearable Robotics for Impaired Upper-Limb Assistance and Rehabilitation: State of the Art and Future Perspectives

Despite more than thirty-five years of research on wearable technologies to assist the upper-limb and a multitude of promising preliminary results, the goal of restoring pre-impairment quality of life of people with physical disabilities has not been fully reached yet. Whether it is for rehabilitation or for assistance, nowadays robotics is still only used in a few high-tech clinics and hospitals, limiting the access to a small amount of people. This work provides a description of the three major 'revolutions' occurred in the field (end-effector robots, rigid exoskeletons, and soft exosuits), reviewing forty-eight systems for the upper-limb (excluding hand-only devices) used in eighty-nine studies enrolling a clinical population before June 2022. The review critically discusses the state of the art, analyzes the different technologies, and compares the clinical outcomes, with the goal of determine new potential directions to follow

Strangeness production in heavy ion collisions at SPS and RHIC within two-source statistical model

The experimental data on hadron yields and ratios in central Pb+Pb and Au+Au collisions at SPS and RHIC energies, respectively, are analysed within a two-source statistical model of an ideal hadron gas. These two sources represent the expanding system of colliding heavy ions, where the hot central fireball is embedded in a larger but cooler fireball. The volume of the central source increases with rising bombarding energy. Results of the two-source model fit to RHIC experimental data at midrapidity coincide with the results of the one-source thermal model fit, indicating the formation of an extended fireball, which is three times larger than the corresponding core at SPS.Comment: Talk at "Strange Quarks in Matter" Conference (Strangeness'2001), September 2001, Frankfurt a.M., German

Upper limb soft robotic wearable devices: a systematic review

Introduction: Soft robotic wearable devices, referred to as exosuits, can be a valid alternative to rigid exoskeletons when it comes to daily upper limb support. Indeed, their inherent flexibility improves comfort, usability, and portability while not constraining the user’s natural degrees of freedom. This review is meant to guide the reader in understanding the current approaches across all design and production steps that might be exploited when developing an upper limb robotic exosuit. Methods: The literature research regarding such devices was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. The investigated features are the intended scenario, type of actuation, supported degrees of freedom, low-level control, high-level control with a focus on intention detection, technology readiness level, and type of experiments conducted to evaluate the device. Results: A total of 105 articles were collected, describing 69 different devices. Devices were grouped according to their actuation type. More than 80% of devices are meant either for rehabilitation, assistance, or both. The most exploited actuation types are pneumatic (52%) and DC motors with cable transmission (29%). Most devices actuate 1 (56%) or 2 (28%) degrees of freedom, and the most targeted joints are the elbow and the shoulder. Intention detection strategies are implemented in 33% of the suits and include the use of switches and buttons, IMUs, stretch and bending sensors, EMG and EEG measurements. Most devices (75%) score a technology readiness level of 4 or 5. Conclusion: Although few devices can be considered ready to reach the market, exosuits show very high potential for the assistance of daily activities. Clinical trials exploiting shared evaluation metrics are needed to assess the effectiveness of upper limb exosuits on target users

lmeEEG: Mass linear mixed-effects modeling of EEG data with crossed random effects

Background: Mixed-effects models are the current standard for the analysis of behavioral studies in psycholinguistics and related fields, given their ability to simultaneously model crossed random effects for subjects and items. However, they are hardly applied in neuroimaging and psychophysiology, where the use of mass univariate analyses in combination with permutation testing would be too computationally demanding to be practicable with mixed models. New method: Here, we propose and validate an analytical strategy that enables the use of linear mixed models (LMM) with crossed random intercepts in mass univariate analyses of EEG data (lmeEEG). It avoids the unfeasible computational costs that would arise from massive permutation testing with LMM using a simple solution: removing random-effects contributions from EEG data and performing mass univariate linear analysis and permutations on the obtained marginal EEG. Results: lmeEEG showed excellent performance properties in terms of power and false positive rate. Comparison with existing methods: lmeEEG overcomes the computational costs of standard available approaches (our method was indeed more than 300 times faster). Conclusions: lmeEEG allows researchers to use mixed models with EEG mass univariate analyses. Thanks to the possibility offered by the method described here, we anticipate that LMM will become increasingly important in neuroscience. Data and codes are available at osf.io/kw87a. The codes and a tutorial are also available at github.com/antovis86/lmeEEG