1,721,060 research outputs found
Facilitation of Action Planning in Children with Autism: the Contribution of the Maternal Body Odor
No full textImitation is a key socio-cognitive skill impaired in individuals with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). It
is known that the familiarity with an actor facilitates the appearance of imitative abilities. Here, we
explore whether a highly familiar and socially relevant stimulus presented in the olfactory modality is
able to improve spontaneous imitation as early as at the level of action planning. A group of 20 children
with ASC and 20 controls observed their own mother or the mother of another child performing a reachto-
grasp action towards an object, under the exposure to their maternal odor, the odor of the mother of
another child or no odor. Subsequently, children acted upon the same object with no specific instruction
to imitate. Child’s movement initiation time (MIT) served as an indicator of motor planning facilitation
induced by action observation. Results suggest that for children with ASC (but not controls) MIT was significantly
lower when exposed to the maternal odor both when interacting with a familiar or an unfamiliar
model. In the former case, the performance is comparable to controls. The familiar model in the
absence of any olfactory cue is able to induce a facilitation effect, but the maximal facilitation on MIT
is evident when maternal odor and familiar model are paired. We hypothesize that for children with
ASC the maternal odor provides relevant social motivation for taking advantage of others’ actions when
planning movements in an imitative context
Body odors promote automatic imitation in autism
Full text linkBackground: Autism spectrum disorders comprise a range of neurodevelopmental pathologies characterized, among other symptoms,
by impaired social interactions. Individuals with this diagnosis are reported to often identify people by repetitively sniffing pieces of
clothing or the body odor of family members. Since body odors are known to initiate and mediate many different social behaviors,
smelling the body odor of a family member might constitute a sensory-based action promoting social contact. In light of this, we
hypothesized that the body odor of a family member would facilitate the appearance of automatic imitation, an essential social skill
known to be impaired in autism.
Methods: We recruited 20 autistic and 20 typically developing children. Body odors were collected from the children’s mothers’ axillae.
A child observed a model (their mother or a stranger mother) execute (or not) a reach-to-grasp action toward an object. Subsequently,
she performed the same action. The object was imbued with the child’s mother’s odor, a stranger mother’s odor, or no odor. The
actions were videotaped, and movement time was calculated post hoc via a digitalization technique.
Results: Automatic imitation effects—expressed in terms of total movement time reduction—appear in autistic children only when
exposed to objects paired with their own mother’s odor.
Conclusions: The maternal odor, which conveys a social message otherwise neglected, helps autistic children to covertly imitate the
actions of others. Our results represent a starting point holding theoretical and practical relevance for the development of new
strategies to enhance communication and social behavior among autistic individuals
Using UHF RFID properties to develop and optimize an upper-limb rehabilitation system
No full textRehabilitation of the upper limb is an important aspect of the therapy for people affected by neuromotor diseases for the recovery of the capability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs). Nonetheless, the costs associated with the administration of rehabilitation therapy and the increasing number of patients highlight the need for new solutions. Technology-based solutions and, in particular, telerehabilitation could strongly impact in this field. In this paper, a new system based on radiofrequency (RF) technology is presented which is able to effectively provide home-based telerehabilitation and extract meaningful information on the therapy execution performance. The technology has been tuned to the needs of the rehabilitation system, optimizing the hardware, the communication protocol and the software control. A methodology for extracting the execution time of the rehabilitation tasks, the distance covered by the patient’s hand in each subtask and the velocity profile is presented. The results show that a highly usable system for the rehabilitation of the upper limb has been developed using the RF technology and that performance metrics can be reliably extracted by the acquired signals
When flavor guides motor control: an effector independence study
No full textResearch on multisensory integration during natural tasks has revealed how chemical senses contribute to plan and control movements. An aspect which has yet to be investigated regards whether the motor representations evoked by chemosensory stimuli, once established for a particular movement, can be used to control different effectors. Here, we investigate this issue by asking participants to drink a sip of flavored solution, grasp with the hand a visual target, and then bring it to the mouth, miming the action of biting. Results show that hand and lip apertures were scaled according to the size of the object evoked by the flavor. Maximum hand and lip apertures were greater when the action toward a small visual target (e.g., strawberry) was preceded by a sip of a "large" (e.g., orange) than a "small" (e.g., almond) flavor solution. Conversely, maximum hand and lip apertures were smaller when the action toward a large visual target (e.g., apple) was preceded by the presentation of a "small" (e.g., strawberry) rather than a "large" flavor solution. These findings support previous evidence on the presence of a unique motor plan underlying the act of grasping with-the-hand and with-the-mouth, extending the knowledge of chemosensorimotor transformations to motor equivalence
How posture affects macaques’ reach-to-grasp movements
No full textAlthough there is a wealth of behavioral data regarding grasping movements in non-human primates, how posture influences the kinematics of prehensile behavior is not yet clearly understood. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare kinematic descriptions of grip behaviors while primates (macaque monkeys) were in a sitting posture or when stopping after quadrupedal locomotion (i.e., tripedal stance). Video footage taken while macaques grasped objects was analyzed frame-by-frame using digitalization techniques. Each of the two grip types considered (power and precision grips) was found to be characterized by specific, distinct kinematic signatures for both the reaching and the grasping components when those actions were performed in a sitting position. The grasping component did not differentiate in relation to the type of grip that was needed when, instead, the prehensile action took place in a tripedal stance. Quadrupedal locomotion affected the concomitant organization of prehensile activities determining in fact a similar kinematic patterning for the two grips regardless of the size of the object to be grasped. It is suggested that using a single kinematic grip patterning for all prehensile activities might be both the by-product of planning a grasping action while walking and a way to simplify motor programming during unstable tripedal stance
Both your intention and mine are reflected in the kinematics of my reach-to-grasp movement
No full textThe aim of the present study is to ascertain whether in a social context the kinematic parameters are influenced by the stance of the participants. In particular, we consider two basic modes of social cognition, namely cooperation and competition. Naïve subjects were asked either to cooperate or to compete with a partner (a professional female actor), whose attitude could be either congruent or incongruent with the task instructions. Thus, on congruent conditions, subjects cooperated or competed with a partner showing a congruent cooperative or competitive attitude. On incongruent trials, the partner assumed an attitude that was manifestly in contrast with the instruction: competitive for the cooperative task, cooperative for the competitive task. We hypothesized that this mismatch between partner's attitude and instruction would produce a sort of unexpected social situation, affecting the kinematics of reach-to-grasp movement performed by the agents. If cooperative and competitive kinematic patterns are sensitive to the partner's attitude, then we should expect that an incongruent attitude have the potency to determine a reversal in kinematic patterning. Results revealed that for the incongruent trials the specific kinematic patterns for cooperation and competition found for the congruent conditions where modified according to the incongruent attitude assumed by the model actor. We suggest that this 'attitude' contagion is part of a sophisticated system that allows us to infer about the intention to act in a social context
The case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: a kinematic study on social intention
No full textThe aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of social intentions on action. Participants (N = 13) were
requested to reach towards, grasp an object, and either pass it to another person (social condition) or put it on a concave
base (single-agent condition). Movements’ kinematics was recorded using a three-dimensional motion analysis system. The
results indicate that kinematics is sensitive to social intention. Movements performed for the ‘social’ condition were characterized
by a kinematic pattern which differed from those obtained for the ‘single-agent’ condition. Results are discussed
in terms of a motor simulation hypothesis, which assumes that the same mechanisms underlying motor intention are sensitive
to social intentions
Reaching and grasping behavior in Macaca fascicularis: a kinematic study
No full textThe prehensile hand is one of the major traits
distinguishing primates from other mammal species. All
primates, in fact, are able to grasp an object and hold it in
part or entirely using a single hand. Although there is a
wealth of behavioral data regarding grasping movements in
humans and apes, there is relatively little material on
macaques, the animal model often used to investigate
neuronal mechanisms responsible for grip control in
humans. To date, evidence regarding free-ranging macaques
is confined to observational data, while quantitative
reports describe studies carried out in laboratory settings or
in captivity. The purpose of the present study was to provide
the first kinematic descriptions of basic grip behavior
with regard to precision and power grips in free-ranging
macaque monkeys. Video footage of those animals grasping
objects was analyzed frame-by-frame using digitalization
techniques. The results revealed that the two types of
grips considered are each characterized by specific kinematic
signatures. It was also found that hand kinematics
was scaled depending on the type of grasp needing to be
adopted and the intrinsic properties of the object to be
grasped. In accordance with data concerning humans, these
findings indicate that the intrinsic features of an object
affect the planning and control of reach-to-grasp movements
even in free-ranging macaques. The data presented
here take research in the field of comparative reach-tograsp
kinematics in human and non-human primates
another step forward as they are based on precise
measurements of spontaneous grasping movements by
animals living/acting in their natural environment
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