To hear or not to hear: Sound Availability Modulates Sensory-Motor Integration

When we walk in place with our eyes closed after a few minutes of walking on a treadmill, we experience an unintentional forward body displacement (drift), called the sensory-motor aftereffect. Initially, this effect was thought to be due to the mismatch experienced during treadmill walking between the visual (absence of optic flow signaling body steadiness) and proprioceptive (muscle spindles firing signaling body displacement) information. Recently, the persistence of this effect has been shown even in the absence of vision, suggesting that other information, such as the sound of steps, could play a role. To test this hypothesis, six cochlear-implanted individuals were recruited and their forward drift was measured before (Control phase) and after (Post Exercise phase) walking on a treadmill while having their cochlear system turned on and turned off. The relevance in testing cochlear-implanted individuals was that when their system is turned off, they perceive total silence, even eliminating the sounds normally obtained from bone conduction. Results showed the absence of the aftereffect when the system was turned off, underlining the fundamental role played by sounds in the control of action and breaking new ground in the use of interactive sound feedback in motor learning and motor development

Might as well jump: sound affects muscle activation in skateboarding.

The aim of the study is to reveal the role of sound in action anticipation and performance, and to test whether the level of precision in action planning and execution is related to the level of sensorimotor skills and experience that listeners possess about a specific action. Individuals ranging from 18 to 75 years of age - some of them without any skills in skateboarding and others experts in this sport - were compared in their ability to anticipate and simulate a skateboarding jump by listening to the sound it produces. Only skaters were able to modulate the forces underfoot and to apply muscle synergies that closely resembled the ones that a skater would use if actually jumping on a skateboard. More importantly we showed that only skaters were able to plan the action by activating anticipatory postural adjustments about 200 ms after the jump event. We conclude that expert patterns are guided by auditory events that trigger proper anticipations of the corresponding patterns of movements

The Brazilian Developments On The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (brams 5.2): An Integrated Environmental Model Tuned For Tropical Areas

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)We present a new version of the Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (BRAMS), in which different previous versions for weather, chemistry, and carbon cycle were unified in a single integrated modeling system software. This new version also has a new set of state-of-the-art physical parameterizations and greater computational parallel and memory usage efficiency. The description of the main model features includes several examples illustrating the quality of the transport scheme for scalars, radiative fluxes on surface, and model simulation of rainfall systems over South America at different spatial resolutions using a scale aware convective parameterization. Additionally, the simulation of the diurnal cycle of the convection and carbon dioxide concentration over the Amazon Basin, as well as carbon dioxide fluxes from biogenic processes over a large portion of South America, are shown. Atmospheric chemistry examples show the model performance in simulating near-surface carbon monoxide and ozone in the Amazon Basin and the megacity of Rio de Janeiro. For tracer transport and dispersion, the model capabilities to simulate the volcanic ash 3-D redistribution associated with the eruption of a Chilean volcano are demonstrated. The gain of computational efficiency is described in some detail. BRAMS has been applied for research and operational forecasting mainly in South America. Model results from the operational weather forecast of BRAMS on 5km grid spacing in the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies, INPE/Brazil, since 2013 are used to quantify the model skill of near-surface variables and rainfall. The scores show the reliability of BRAMS for the tropical and subtropical areas of South America. Requirements for keeping this modeling system competitive regarding both its functionalities and skills are discussed. Finally, we highlight the relevant contribution of this work to building a South American community of model developers. © Author(s) 2017.1011892222014/01563-1, FAPESP, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo2014/01564-8, FAPESP, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo2015/10206-0, FAPESP, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo306340/2011-9, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e TecnológicoFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Milano dagli anni Venti ai Settanta: architetture d'interni per le gallerie d'arte

The tradition of gallery design in Milan, Italy, is discussed. Beginning in the 1920s, galleries played a key role in fueling opposition to mainstream or merely fashionable art by showcasing works carefully selected by well-informed curators and pioneering owners in appropriately altered interiors. Some of them hired architects to achieve a recognizable image, and some of their exhibitions focused on architecture and interior design. In the 1905s, Vittoriano Viganò introduced the modern gallery concept of uncluttered, unpretentious, well-proportioned spaces designed to enhance the works on view. This model is now apparently reemerging in Europe's and America's standard all-white spaces, which rule out any possible relationship between interior design and the art displayed. From database: Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson

When Distance Matters: Perceptual Bias and Behavioral Response for Approaching Sounds in Peripersonal and Extrapersonal Space

Studies on sound perception show a tendency to overestimate the distance of an approaching sound source, leading to a faster reaction time compared to a receding sound source. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether motor preparation and execution change according to the perceived sound direction and distance, particularly when the sound falls inside the individual's peripersonal space. In this study we developed several auditory stimuli by means of two speakers, generating sounds moving toward the perceiver but stopping at different distances from her/him. Participants were asked to raise their arms as soon as the sound stopped, and their premotor and motor movement components were recorded by means of electromyography (EMG). Error in locating the perceived sound distance was also measured by asking participants to walk to the point in space where they believed the sound had stopped. Results showed that action initiation was anticipated as a function of sound distance: the closer the sound, the earlier the movement onset, when the sound entered the subject's peripersonal space. Less error for distance estimation was present when the sound was inside the peripersonal space with a modulation in the order of a few centimeters. Overall, our results reveal a link between perceptual bias in sound distance evaluation and peripersonal space, suggesting the presence of motor plan specificity

Metacognition in individuals with a lifetime history of anorexia nervosa: a voxel based morphometry study.

Objective: The aim of the current study was to provide a preliminary investigation of metacognition (MC) and global and regional cerebral volume in women with a lifetime history of Anorexia Nervosa (AN) compared to healthy controls (HC). In particular, we aimed to explore whether (1) MC was still affected in recovered AN patients (rec-AN) compared to HC and (2) prefrontal areas sustaining MC were morphometrically different in rec-AN compared to HC, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Method: Nine adult drug-free rec-AN females (age: M=23.22; SD=+5.91) and nine adult HC (age: M=23.33; SD=+2.67) underwent the psychometric assessment consisting of the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ), the Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and high resolution T1-weighted voxel based morphometric (VBM) MRI (224 contiguous slices, voxel size = 0.7 70.7 70.7, FOV=320 7320, TR=20ms, TE=4.89ms, band = 130Hz/Px), using a 1.5 Tesla Siemens Magneton Avanto scanner. We used Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) to characterize brain differences in gray matter volume between the groups. Local grey matter volume (GMV) differences between the two groups were detected using a Region of Interest (ROI) analysis and a Whole Brain Analysis to strengthen and widen the ROI's results (with p<0.001). Based on the evidence regarding the neural basis of metacognition [1], masks were created around twelve areas, mainly located in the frontal lobes. Mann\u2013Whitney test was performed to compare TCQ, MCQ and TAS-20 scores between rec-AN and HC, with \u3b1 set at < 0.05. Results: The analyses revealed that rec-AN and HC did not differ for both metacognitive abilities, alexithymic traits and global GM volumes. The Region of Interest (ROI) analysis showed reduced GMVs in the right Superior Frontal Gyrus (SFG) and increased GMVs in the Temporo-Parietal Junction (TPJ) and Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG) in rec-AN compared to HC. Besides, the Whole Brain Analysis (WBA) found that rec-AN, compared to HC, showed reduced GMVs in the Left Superior Parietal Lobule (SPL), the Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG), the Right Inferior Occipital Gyrus (IOG), the Left Fusiform Gyrus (FG) and the cerebellum's culmen but not in the DLPFC. Conclusion: The GMV reduction seems to be aspecifically distributed in different brain areas, as found in other VBM studies which investigated adult acute and weight-restored AN patients [2,3]. Several lines of evidence sustain that frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital and cerebellar regions are involved in body shape perception, cognitive and emotional processing, which are often impaired in AN [3]. However, there was no GM decrease in brain areas specifically supporting metacognitive functioning [1], which was not compromised in rec-AN. These findings suggest that clinical recovery (i.e. achievement of adequate body weight and remission of Eating Disorder psychopathology) may accompany the restoration of neurobiological underpinnings of \u2018thinking about thinking\u2019 processes, and that MC impairment may not represent a stable marker of AN. Differences in regional GM volume may be linked to the past starvation, but whether they are state or trait is unclear. These discrete brain volume differences provide candidate brain regions for further structural and functional study in people with Eating Disorders