1,721,095 research outputs found
Analisi distribuzionali dei tempi di reazione: Uno strumento avanzato per la valutazione dei modelli cognitivi.
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Visual and Spatial Components of Visual Working Memory Representations: An ERP study
No full textWe investigated the contribution of visual and spatial working memory (WM) subsystems in building a visual WM representation. To this aim we tested 15 participants in a color-change detection task by monitoring an electrophysiological marker of visual WM capacity: The Sustained Posterior Contralateral Negativity (SPCN). We compared two spatial arrangements of 2, 4 and 6 colored squares: 1. randomly positioned on a visual display or 2. organized in accordance with the Gestalt grouping principle of proximity. Behavioral results showed no significant differences between the two spatial arrangements. Notably, when compared the same number of stimuli, electrophysiological results showed larger SPCN amplitude in the random arrangement than in the organized arrangement. In addition, no significant interaction between spatial arrangement and the number of stimuli was observed. These data support the independence of the two distinct WM subsystems in building a visual WM representation
Un’indagine elettrofisiologica sull’empatia al dolore fisico in contesti cross-razziali.
No full textIntroduzione: Nell’ambito degli studi sull’empatia verso il dolore fisico altrui, indagini mediante risonanza magnetica funzionale e stimolazione magnetica transcranica hanno messo in luce una riduzione della risposta empatica in contesti cross-razziali. Tuttavia tali tecniche non consentono di rivelare la natura temporale e la persistenza di tale bias. Al fine di esplorare questi importanti aspetti, il presente studio ha impiegato la tecnica dei potenziali evento-relati (ERP).
Metodo: A 12 partecipanti caucasici sono stati presentati volti caucasici e africani sottoposti a stimolazione dolorosa o neutra e dovevano indicare il tipo di stimolazione presentato. Inoltre, alla fine dell’esperimento, hanno compilato il questionario Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), volto a misurare il grado di empatia percepita. L’ampiezza delle risposte neurali nelle diverse condizioni sperimentali (etnia: propria vs. altra etnia; stimolazione: dolorosa vs. neutra) è stata sottoposta a un’ANOVA a misure ripetute e le reazioni empatiche (differenza tra i tipi di stimolazione) correlate con i valori dell’IRI. Infine, sono state stimate le sorgenti neurali di tali reazioni.
Risultati: In una finestra temporale fra le componenti ERP N2 e N3 è stata osservata una reazione empatica, generata nel giro frontale inferiore, selettiva per i membri della propria etnia. Questa correlava con una scala dell’IRI. Al contrario, l’ampiezza della reazione empatica a livello della componente P3 non differiva in funzione dell’etnia, sebbene le sorgenti di queste reazioni fossero distinte nel giro frontale medio (caucasici) e nella giunzione temporo-parietale (africani).
Conclusioni: Questi risultati supportano una distinzione di ordine funzionale, neurale e temporale tra due stadi di elaborazione sequenziali sottostanti all’empatia: uno stadio di condivisione del dolore altrui, sensibile all’appartenenza etnica, seguito da uno stadio di rappresentazione cognitiva del dolore altrui, indipendente da essa
Empathic neural responses to faces perceived as trustworthy and untrustworthy: I don't mind if you are in pain if you look like untrustworthy!
No full textTaking one’s time in feeling other-race pain: neural activity reveals different empathic responses to own-race and other-race individuals
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Perceived untrustworthiness of a face goes beyond its race when it comes to empathizing with others' pain: An event-related potentials study
No full textPrevious studies have shown that the race of a face can modulate neural empathic responses for pain. An early electrophysiological response is selectively observed for own-race faces, whereas a late response is of comparable size for both own- and other-race faces, as indexed by the effect of pain on the amplitude of the P3 component. As it might be expected, neural empathic responses can be shaped also by the affective/social relationship between the observer and the suffering person. Previous studies have also shown that even in the absence of information on the personality and social behaviour of an individual, empathy is modulated by the ‘first impression’ derived from other’s physical facial features, such as perceived trustworthiness. It has been shown that the trustworthiness of a face is a very relevant dimension, which is implicitly processed even when task-irrelevant, similarly to the race of a face. We conjectured that the trustworthiness of a face might be critical in the context of empathy towards own- and other-race individuals’ pain.
By means of event-related potentials technique, we monitored the neural empathic responses of 17 White participants exposed to faces perceived as either trustworthy or untrustworthy of both White (own-race) and Black (other-race) individuals, displayed in painful and in non-painful contexts. Previous studies have reported more positive deflections when observing others in a painful condition vs. a non-painful condition.
We observed that both White and Black individuals looking untrustworthy induced neural empathic reactions reduced almost to nil. Interestingly, an early empathic reaction to pain was still selectively observed for trustworthy own-race faces. Most importantly, the pain effect on the P3 component was modulated as a function of trustworthiness independently of the race of the faces, indexing that both White and Black individuals perceived as trustworthy induced in the observers comparable P3 empathic reactions. Moreover, this P3 effect was associated with individual scores of implicit racial prejudice such that high prejudiced participants showed a neural empathic response of greater magnitude for White when compared to Black individuals perceived as trustworthy.
Taken together this pattern of results suggest that when an observer is exposed to a face of an individual in pain, perceived (un)trustworthiness is such a relevant dimension that goes beyond its race
Race perception and gaze direction differently impair visual working memory for faces: An event-related potential study
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