1,721,167 research outputs found
[Ayer Federico García Lorca, recuerdos y testimonios] Henri Mengotti
No full textEntrevista a Henri Mengotti sobre una producción francesa sobre "Federico García Lorca", recuerdos sobre Lorc
A multimodal investigation of matching mechanisms in automatic imitation
Full text linkIn recent years, research on imitation focused on investigating the underlying neural mechanisms; to this aim simple paradigms were developed to experimentally investigate the phenomenon. Following the natural tendency of humans to mimic gestures and postures of their conspecifics, paradigms of automatic imitation are nowadays widely used in the field. The main aim of my dissertation is to investigate how imitation occurs using an automatic imitation paradigm, in particular focusing on the matching processes that are required to map model and performers actions.The dissertation contains six chapters. In chapter 1, I will provide a brief background of the current theoretical accounts of imitation and of the concepts of automatic imitation and compatibility effects. I will particularly focus on the questions concerning automatic imitation that are still to be fully addressed, particularly those related to the distinction of imitative and spatial compatibility. I will also address the neuroimaging and neuropsychological literature on the neural correlates of imitation. In chapter 2, I will present a neuroimaging study I carried out to investigate the imitation components. Throughout all the studies of this thesis, we used a simple automatic imitation paradigm that is suitable to differentiate between the spatial compatibility and the imitative compatibility, due to the anatomical correspondence between model and performer. Results of the first study showed that the parietal opercula are active anytime the anatomical correspondence between model and performer is present. Hence, in chapter 3 I will present a study in which double-pulse TMS was used to investigate the role of the parietal opercula in automatic imitation, and in particular in coding the imitative compatibility. Results showed that when the activity in the parietal opercula is interfered by TMS, the imitative compatibility effect disappears. In the second part of my thesis I have investigated the factors that can interact with and modulate imitative behaviors. Chapter 4 contains an fMRI study in which the role of the model in imitation is investigated. Using a simplified version of the automatic imitation paradigm, I found that the fronto-parietal network, usually associated to imitation, is more active when participants perform actions that are compatible with those performed by a human model than by a non biological model. Moreover, in this study I have also investigated how different emotional contexts can influence the automatic tendency to imitate. The results showed that the activation of the fronto-parietal network is suppressed by emotional context, such as an angry face, that does not promote affiliative tendencies. In chapter 5 I will describe a neuropsychological study on brain damaged patients. Associations and dissociations between automatic imitation and action imitation were investigated, to analyze the differences between the two types of imitation. Moreover, the role of putative body representations in imitation and whether these body representations are needed for imitation has been investigated.
Lastly, in chapter 6 I will wrap up the main results of my dissertation and I will argue that I was able to provide evidence that in automatic imitation an anatomical matching operates between the model and the performer, and that this is sustained by the parietal opercula. In addition I clarified the importance of the model, showing that the activity of fronto-parietal regions supporting imitative behaviors is modulated by model identity
L'insegnamento della stotia antica tra Scuola e Università: valenza formativa, problematiche e prospettive
No full textThe effect of observed biological and non biological movements on action imitation: An fMRI study
No full textAbstract Past research has indicated that when individuals observe biological movements many areas in the observer's motor system become active. Nonetheless, recent behavioral evidence showed that observed movements can interfere with execution of incompatible movements, especially the biological ones. However, the hypothesis that the interference originates within a common neural network, encoding both movement observation and execution, and responding preferentially to biological movements, still awaits confirmation. To test this hypothesis, in the present fMRI study we compared patterns of activation obtained when participants executed finger-movements after having observed either a biological or a non biological model performing compatible (imitative) or incompatible (non imitative) movements. Moreover, we tested the possibility that imitative responses are influenced by the emotional facial expression (sad, neutral, angry) presented before the observed movement. Behaviorally, participants showed a marginally larger compatibility effect (compatible movements faster than incompatible movements) in the biological condition than in the non biological condition. In the imaging data, the interaction testing for areas more active when the observed model was biological (compared with non biological) and performed compatible movements (compared with incompatible movements), activated a network including the motor, premotor and parietal cortices. Notably, the interaction was significant for the neutral and sad facial expressions only. We showed that observing biological movements modulates the activation of motor-related regions, by facilitating the execution of compatible movements and/or interfering with the execution of incompatible movement
Neural correlates of the energetic value of food during visual processing and response inhibition
No full textPrevious research showed that human brain regions involved in reward and cognitive control are responsive to visually presented food stimuli, in particular high-energy foods. However, it is still to be determined whether the preference towards high-energy foods depends on their higher energy density (kcal/gram), or is based on the difference in energy content of the food items (total amount of kcal). Here we report the results of an fMRI study in which normal-weight healthy participants processed food images during a one-back task or were required to inhibit their response towards food stimuli during a Go/No-Go task. High-energy density (HD) and low-energy density (LD) foods were matched for energy content displayed. Food-related kitchen objects (OBJ) were used as control stimuli. The lateral occipital complex and the orbitofrontal cortex showed consistent higher activity in response to HD than LD foods, both during visual processing and response inhibition. This result suggests that images of HD foods, even when the amount of food shown is not associated with a higher energy content, elicit preferential visual processing - possibly involving attentional processes - and trigger a response from the reward system. We conclude that the human brain is able to distinguish food energy densities of food items during both active visual processing and response inhibition
Imitation components in the human brain: an fMRI study
No full textHuman ability to imitate movements is instantiated in parietal, premotor and opercular structures, often referred to as the human homologue of the macaque mirror neuron system. As most studies employed imitation of specular models (participants imitated the seen movement as their mirror reflection), it is unclear whether the structures implicated code for the anatomical compatibility between the performer and the model or the spatial compatibility between the location at which both movements occur. We used fMRI to disentangle the neural mechanisms underlying anatomical and spatial components of imitation. Participants moved one finger which was either spatially or anatomically compatible with the finger moved in a video-display. In keeping with the existent behavioral literature, we found that during the spatial task, participants' responses were faster when the seen movement was also anatomically compatible, whereas in the anatomical task, responses were faster when the seen movement was also spatially compatible. Critically, the activity of the parietal opercula bilaterally was associated with the anatomical compatibility effect. Furthermore, increased activity of the left middle frontal gyrus and right superior temporal sulcus (extending to the temporo-parietal junction) was found in those trials in which the spatial mapping between the seen and executed movements was detrimental for the anatomical task. Our findings extend current understanding of the role played by spatial and anatomical components in imitation and provide new insights about the parietal opercula. © 2011 Elsevier Inc
Del commercio de' Romani ed il Colbertismo. Memorie due del signor Francesco Mengotti feltriense
Full text linkIl Colbertismo : Dissertazion coronata dalla Reale Societa economica Fiorentina li 13 guiugno 1792. / Di Francesco Mengotti...
No full textNote sui cippi delimitativi iscritti provenienti dall'agro centuriato a nord-est di Padova: un uso di lunga durata
No full textBoundary stones found on the centuriation north-east of Patavium are examined and dated when possible, with special attention devoted to a small funerary inscription which may contribute to suggest a more precise dating of the centuriation to the mid-first century B.C
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