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The Change in Fingertip Contact Area as a Novel Proprioceptive Cue
No full textHumans, many animals, and certain robotic hands have deformable fingertip pads [1, 2]. Deformable pads have the advantage of conforming to the objects that are being touched, ensuring a stable grasp for a large range of forces and shapes. Pad deformations change with finger displacements during touch. Pushing a finger against an external surface typically provokes an increase of the gross contact area [3], potentially providing a relative motion cue, a situation comparable to looming in vision [4]. The rate of increase of the area of contact also depends on the compliance of the object [5]. Because objects normally do not suddenly change compliance, participants may interpret an artificially induced variation in compliance, which coincides with a change in the gross contact area, as a change in finger displacement, and consequently they may misestimate their finger’s position relative to the touched object. To test this, we asked participants to compare the perceived displacements of their finger while contacting an object varying pseudo-randomly in compliance from trial to trial. Results indicate a bias in the perception of finger displacement induced by the change in compliance, hence in contact area, indicating that participants interpreted the altered cutaneous input as a cue to proprioception. This situation highlights the capacity of the brain to take advantage of knowledge of the mechanical properties of the body and of the external environment
The Sixth International Conference 'Language, Culture, and Society in Russian/English Studies
Get PDFArticles: Stanley, Eric. RIDDLING: a serious pursuit through the ages and in many languages; Kalmar, Tomás Mario. Then Alfred took the throne and then what? Parker’s error and Plummer’s blind spot; Kitaev, Artem and Leonid Slonimskiy. Malevich’s Grave:
from figurative to non-figurative and back: A research project
on the history of Kazimir Malevich’s ashes burial site in the context
of the perception of historical avant-garde in Soviet and post-Soviet culture; Eliot, Simon. The History of Communication: A Case Study. The Ministry of Information 1939-46; Volodarskaya, Emma. Translation of Shakespeare’s works in Russia; Courtney, Julia. Doomed Heroes: Bulgarian patriots in late
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century English translations
of Turgenev’s On the Eve and I. M. Vazov’s Under the Yoke; Tchougounova-Paulson, Elena. Alexander Blok and the ‘seal of
Decadence’: on the example of his article ‘Stagnation’ (1906); Foster, Graham. Russian Holiday: Anthony Burgess
in Leningrad, 1961; Sepeshvari, Vera. A Musical Pun: Challenges of English-Russian Translation; Stein, Gabriele. The Author behind the Lexicographer; Ilson, Robert. Larking about among the Varieties; McGregor, Charles. Reifying vocabulary; Szymański, Leszek. Selected issues in aspect-modality interaction:
English modal auxiliaries and the morphological aspect of the main
verb; Bailey, Janine. The St Petersburg Gospels and the Athelstan Royal Gospels: Palaeographic Purpose; Konshuh, Courtnay. Edward the Elder’s Burghal Policy and Ideology in West Saxon Overlordship of Britain; Kotake, Tadashi. ‘Non A-type’ glosses in the Cambridge Psalter (Cambridge, University Library, Ff. 1.23): A case study of double
glosses; Allen, Rosamund. How Does One Pronounce a Mis-Spelling?; Mester, Annegret. The Six Swans of the Romance of the Cheuelere Assigne: sources and analogues; Matyushina, Inna. Words before blows: flyting in Old English, German, Norse and Russian tradition; Benabdi, Farouk. The School Boards and their Abolition in England: 1870-1902; Chorfi, Fatima. The Article: The Origins of the Labour Party prior to 1906
As deadly as armed conflict? Gang violence and forced displacement in the Northern Triangle of Central America
No full textThe flurry of interest around the European refugee crisis, whilst plainly justified, should not have the effect of distracting international attention from equally pressing humanitarian and refugee crises in other parts of the world. As such, this article highlights the extreme nature and scale of gang violence in the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, which has resulted in substantial forced displacement of affected populations. The article argues that, despite certain commonalities with situations of internal armed conflict (such as Syria), the scenario in the Northern Triangle poses a distinct set of additional challenges for ensuring the protection of refugees and displaced persons from these countries. The urgent need to address these challenges in the Americas is no less than for those presented by the current refugee crisis in Europe
Movilidad y estabilidad de las poblaciones en el mundo romano: una reflexión metodológica e historiográfica
Get PDFEl presente artículo tiene como objetivo hacer una reflexión sobre las posibilidades de estudio de la movilidad en el mundo antiguo y en concreto en el Imperio romano. Para ello parte de un análisis de la obra The Corrupting Sea de N. Purcell y P. Horden y de estudios sobre la movilidad según la han estudiado los arqueólogos para época prehistórica y los demógrafos modernos para tiempos más recientes. Como conclusión se argumenta que, a pesar de las limitaciones de la documentación antigua para conocer en detalle el fenómeno, es posible sostener la existencia de una movilidad limitada cuantitativamente, pero que suponía un importante grado de conectividad en el mundo romano
L’éllipse verbale en français: point de vue diachronique
No full textDans son étude sur les verbes auxiliaires en ancien et moyen français Miller (1997, 119) constate : « OFr and MFr had a distinct syntactic class of auxiliary verbs, namely estre, avoir and faire, which were involved in a number of specific syntactic constructions distinguishing them from ordinary verbs ». Les constructions décrites par Miller dans son enquête se rencontrent assez couramment dans des contextes dialogiques, sous forme de réponses-échos du type si estoient, non a, etc., servant à acquiescer ou contredire (Cf. les recommandations du Donait François de John Barton, ca. 1409) . L’article qui suit se propose de prolonger et de repenser les observations faites par Miller et ses prédécesseurs à la lumière d’un corpus élargi, et de soulever de nouvelles questions concernant l’usage et l’évolution de ces constructions
Guest Editorial – Sources and Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice Research
No full textIn this Guest Editorial for a special issue of Legal Information Management, David Gee (Deputy Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies) summaries the aims and outputs of a national socio-legal training day on “Sources and Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice” at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies on Friday 20 November 2015. He introduces the articles developed from the training day by librarians, information managers and interested researchers which seek to highlight what is included in key collections and how they can be used for criminology and criminal justice research. The workshop was jointly organised by the British Library, the British Society of Criminology, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and the Socio-Legal Studies Association
Proactive Control Strategies for Overt and Covert Go/NoGo Tasks: An Electrical Neuroimaging Study
No full textProactive and reactive inhibition are generally intended as mechanisms allowing the withholding or suppression of overt movements. Nonetheless, inhibition could also play a pivotal role during covert actions (i.e., potential motor acts not overtly performed, despite the activation of the motor system), such as Motor Imagery (MI). In a previous EEG study, we analyzed cerebral activities reactively triggered during two cued Go/NoGo tasks, requiring execution or withholding of overt or covert imagined actions, respectively. This study revealed activation of pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), key nodes of the network underpinning reactive inhibition of overt responses in NoGo trials, also during MI enactment, enabling the covert nature of the imagined motor response. Taking into account possible proactive engagement of inhibitory mechanisms by cue signals, for an exhaustive interpretation of these previous findings in the present study we analyzed EEG activities elicited during the preparatory phase of our cued overt and covert Go/NoGo tasks. Our results demonstrate a substantial overlap of cerebral areas activated during proactive recruitment and subsequent reactive implementation of motor inhibition in both overt and covert actions; also, different involvement of pre-SMA and rIFG emerged, in accord with the intended type (covert or overt) of incoming motor responses. During preparation of the overt Go/NoGo task, the cue is encoded in a pragmatic mode, as it primes the possible overt motor response programs in motor and premotor cortex and, through preactivation of a pre-SMA-related decisional mechanism, it triggers a parallel preparation for successful response selection and/or inhibition during the response phase. Conversely, the preparatory strategy for the covert Go/NoGo task is centered on priming of an inhibitory mechanism in rIFG, tuned to the instructed covert modality of motor performance and instantiated during subsequent MI, which allows the imagined response to remain a potential motor act
Interoception and Positive Symptoms in Schizophrenia
No full textThe present study focuses on the multifaceted concept of self-disturbance in schizophrenia, adding knowledge about a not yet investigated aspect, which is the interoceptive accuracy. Starting from the assumption that interoceptive accuracy requires an intact sense of self, which otherwise was proved to be altered in schizophrenia, the aim of the present study was to explore interoceptive accuracy in a group of schizophrenia patients, compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, the possible association between interoceptive accuracy and patients’ positive and negative symptomatology was assessed. To pursue these goals, a group of 23 schizophrenia patients and a group of 23 healthy controls performed a heartbeat perception task. Patients’ symptomatology was assessed by means of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results demonstrated significantly lower interoceptive accuracy in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. This difference was not accounted for participants’ age, BMI, anxiety levels, and heart rate. Furthermore, patients’ illness severity, attention and pharmacological treatment did not influence their interoceptive accuracy levels. Interestingly, a strong positive relation between interoceptive accuracy and positive symptoms severity, especially Grandiosity, was found. The present results demonstrate for the first time that interoceptive accuracy is altered in schizophrenia. Furthermore, they prove a specific association between interoceptive accuracy and positive symptomatology, suggesting that the symptom Grandiosity might be protective against an altered basic sense of self in patients characterized by higher sensibility to their inner bodily sensations
Differentiated audio-tactile correspondences in sighted and blind individuals
No full textThe aim of the present study is to investigate whether the crossmodal correspondence robustly documented between auditory pitch and visual elevation has analogues in the audio-tactile domain. Across 4 experiments, the compatibility effects between intuitively congruent pairs of stimuli (i.e., outward tactile movement, going from the inside of the finger toward the fingertip and increasing pitch, or inward tactile movement and decreasing pitch) and incongruent pairs stimuli (i.e., the reverse associations) were measured. Two methods were compared to assess the behavioral effects of such a correspondence: One where participants have to respond to either the auditory or tactile stimulus presented simultaneously, while ignoring the other (speeded classification task), and the other where the auditory and tactile stimuli are presented sequentially and associated to different response buttons (implicit association test). No significant compatibility effect was observed under the speeded classification task. The implicit association test revealed a significant compatibility effect. This effect was similar in the conditions where the finger was placed vertically and horizontally. However, this implicit association between pitch and tactile movements was not observed in blind participants. These results have methodological implications for the explanation and testing of crossmodal correspondences, and the origin of the widely discussed association between pitch and vertical elevation
Anticipatory Vibrotactile Cueing Facilitates Grip Force Adjustment during Perturbative Loading
No full textGrip force applied to an object held between the thumb and index finger is automatically and unconsciously adjusted upon perception of an external disturbance to the object. Typically, this adjustment occurs within approximately 100 ms. Here, we investigated the effect of anticipatory vibrotactile cues prior to a perturbative force, which the central nervous system may use for rapid grip re-stabilization. We asked participants to grip and hold an instrumented, actuated handle between the thumb and index finger. Under computer control, the handle could suddenly be pulled away from a static grip and could independently provide vibration to the gripping fingers. The mean latency of corrective motor action was 139 ms. When vibrotactile stimulation was applied 50 ms before application of tractive force, the latency was reduced to 117 ms, whereas the mean latency of the conscious response to vibrotactile stimuli alone was 229 ms. This suggests that vibrotactile stimulation can influence reflex-like actions. We also examined the effects of anticipatory cues using a set of perturbative loads with different rising rates. As expected, facilitation of grip force adjustment was observed for moderate loads. In contrast, anticipatory cues had an insignificant effect on rapid loads that evoked an adjustment within 60-80 ms, which approaches the minimum latency of human grip adjustment. Understanding the facilitative effects of anticipatory cues on human reactive grip can aid the development of human-machine interfaces to enhance human behavior