scholarly journals Visual and somatosensory information contribute to distortions of the body model

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Peviani ◽  
Lucia Melloni ◽  
Gabriella Bottini
Keyword(s):  
Estimation Error ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Spatial Dimension ◽  
Line Length ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Tactile Acuity ◽  
Body Model ◽  
Somatosensory Information

Abstract Distorted representations of the body are observed in healthy individuals as well as in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Distortions of the body model have been attributed to the somatotopic cerebral representation. Recently, it has been demonstrated that visual biases also contribute to those distortions. To better understand the sources of such distortions, we compared the metric representations across five body parts affording different degrees of tactile sensitivity and visual accessibility. We evaluated their perceived dimensions using a Line Length Judgment task. We found that most body parts were underestimated in their dimensions. The estimation error relative to their length was predicted by their tactile acuity, supporting the influence of the cortical somatotopy on the body model. However, tactile acuity did not explain the distortions observed for the width. Visual accessibility in turn does appear to mediate body distortions, as we observed that the dimensions of the dorsal portion of the neck were the only ones accurately perceived. Coherent with the multisensory nature of body representations, we argue that the perceived dimensions of body parts are estimated by integrating visual and somatosensory information, each weighted differently, based on their availability for a given body part and a given spatial dimension.

scholarly journals Non-informative vision improves spatial tactile discrimination on the shoulder but does not influence detection sensitivity

2020 ◽  
Vol 238 (12) ◽  
pp. 2865-2875
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Leo ◽  
Sara Nataletti ◽  
Luca Brayda
Keyword(s):  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
Detection Threshold ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
The Body ◽  
Detection Sensitivity ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Tactile Acuity ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Numerosity Judgment

Abstract Vision of the body has been reported to improve tactile acuity even when vision is not informative about the actual tactile stimulation. However, it is currently unclear whether this effect is limited to body parts such as hand, forearm or foot that can be normally viewed, or it also generalizes to body locations, such as the shoulder, that are rarely before our own eyes. In this study, subjects consecutively performed a detection threshold task and a numerosity judgment task of tactile stimuli on the shoulder. Meanwhile, they watched either a real-time video showing their shoulder or simply a fixation cross as control condition. We show that non-informative vision improves tactile numerosity judgment which might involve tactile acuity, but not tactile sensitivity. Furthermore, the improvement in tactile accuracy modulated by vision seems to be due to an enhanced ability in discriminating the number of adjacent active electrodes. These results are consistent with the view that bimodal visuotactile neurons sharp tactile receptive fields in an early somatosensory map, probably via top-down modulation of lateral inhibition.

scholarly journals Intrinsic somatosensory feedback supports motor control and learning to operate artificial body parts

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Amoruso ◽  
Lucy Dowdall ◽  
Mathew Thomas Kollamkulam ◽  
Obioha Ukaegbu ◽  
Paulina Kieliba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Motor System ◽  
Pressure Sensors ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
The Body ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Somatosensory Feedback ◽  
Somatosensory Information

Abstract Objective Considerable resources are being invested to enhance the control and usability of artificial limbs through the delivery of unnatural forms of somatosensory feedback. Here, we investigated whether intrinsic somatosensory information from the body part(s) remotely controlling an artificial limb can be leveraged by the motor system to support control and skill learning. Approach In a placebo-controlled design, we used local anaesthetic to attenuate somatosensory inputs to the big toes while participants learned to operate through pressure sensors a toe-controlled and hand-worn robotic extra finger. Motor learning outcomes were compared against a control group who received sham anaesthetic and quantified in three different task scenarios: while operating in isolation from, in synchronous coordination, and collaboration with, the biological fingers. Main results Both groups were able to learn to operate the robotic extra finger, presumably due to abundance of visual feedback and other relevant sensory cues. Importantly, the availability of displaced somatosensory cues from the distal bodily controllers facilitated the acquisition of isolated robotic finger movements, the retention and transfer of synchronous hand-robot coordination skills, and performance under cognitive load. Motor performance was not impaired by toes anaesthesia when tasks involved close collaboration with the biological fingers, indicating that the motor system can close the sensory feedback gap by dynamically integrating task-intrinsic somatosensory signals from multiple, and even distal, body- parts. Significance Together, our findings demonstrate that there are multiple natural avenues to provide intrinsic surrogate somatosensory information to support motor control of an artificial body part, beyond artificial stimulation.

Corticostriatal transformations in the primate somatosensory system. Projections from physiologically mapped body-part representations

1991 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 1249-1263 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Flaherty ◽  
A. M. Graybiel
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Somatosensory System ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Saimiri Sciureus ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Somatosensory Information ◽  
Multiple Regions

1. The basal ganglia of primates receive somatosensory input carried largely by corticostriatal fibers. To determine whether map-transformations occur in this corticostriatal system, we investigated how electrophysiologically defined regions of the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) project to the striatum in the squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus). Receptive fields in the hand, mouth, and foot representations of cortical areas 3a, 3b, and 1 were mapped by multiunit recording; and small volumes of distinguishable anterograde tracers were injected into different body-part representations in single SI areas. 2. Analysis of labeled projections established that at least four types of systematic remapping occur in the primate corticostriatal system. 1) An area of cortex representing a single body part sends fibers that diverge to innervate multiple regions in the putamen, forming branching, patchy fields that are densest in the lateral putamen. The fields do not form elongated cylindrical forms; rather, they are nearly as extended mediolaterally as they are rostrocaudally. 2) Cortical regions representing hand, mouth, and foot send globally somatotopic, nonoverlapping projections to the putamen, but regions with closely related representations (such as those of the thumb and 5th finger in area 3b) send convergent, overlapping corticostriatal projections. The overlap is fairly precise in the caudal putamen, but in the rostral putamen the densest zones of the projections do not overlap. 3) Regions representing homologous body parts in different SI cortical areas send projections that converge in the putamen. This was true of paired projections from areas 3a and 3b, and from areas 3b and 1. Thus corticostriatal inputs representing distinct somatosensory submodalities can project to the same local regions within the striatum. Convergence is not always complete, however: in the rostral putamen of two cases comparing projections from areas 3a and 1, the densest zones of the projections did not overlap. 4) All projections from SI avoid striosomes and innervate discrete zones within the matrix. 3. These experiments demonstrate that the somatosensory representations of the body are reorganized as they are projected from SI to the somatosensory sector of the primate putamen. This remapping suggests that the striatal representation of the body may be functionally distinct from that of each area of SI. The patchy projections may provide a basis for redistribution of somatosensory information to discrete output systems in the basal ganglia. Transformations in the corticostriatal system could thus be designed for modulating different movement-related programs.

Maximizing Recall of Gruesome Images for Health Effects Advertising: An Experimental Investigation

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennen W. Mills ◽  
Owen B. J. Carter ◽  
Robert J. Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Advertising Effectiveness ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Video Images ◽  
The Impact

The objective of this case study was to experimentally manipulate the impact on arousal and recall of two characteristics frequently occurring in gruesome depictions of body parts in smoking cessation advertisements: the presence or absence of an external physical insult to the body part depicted; whether or not the image contains a clear figure/ground demarcation. Three hundred participants (46% male, 54% female; mean age 27.3 years, SD = 11.4) participated in a two-stage online study wherein they viewed and responded to a series of gruesome 4-s video images. Seventy-two video clips were created to provide a sample of images across the two conditions: physical insult versus no insult and clear figure/ground demarcation versus merged or no clear figure/ground demarcation. In stage one, participants viewed a randomly ordered series of 36 video clips and rated how “confronting” they considered each to be. Seven days later (stage two), to test recall of each video image, participants viewed all 72 clips and were asked to identify those they had seen previously. Images containing a physical insult were consistently rated more confronting and were remembered more accurately than images with no physical insult. Images with a clear figure/ground demarcation were rated as no more confronting but were consistently recalled with greater accuracy than those with unclear figure/ground demarcation. Makers of gruesome health warning television advertisements should incorporate some form of physical insult and use a clear figure/ground demarcation to maximize image recall and subsequent potential advertising effectiveness.

scholarly journals Perception on Prolonged Standing Work in Electronic Manufacturing Company

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.24) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Norlizaa Mohamad ◽  
Jafri Mohd Rohani ◽  
Ismail Abdul Rahman ◽  
Anis Amira Mat Zuki
Keyword(s):  
Good Health ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Region ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Prolonged Standing ◽  
Electronic Manufacturing ◽  
Strong Relation ◽  
Ergonomic Interventions

Prolonged standing is one of the common activities in electronic industry as the task requirement. Prolonged standing can cause discomfort on the body of the workers and can lead to injury and occupational disease. The purpose of this study is to investigate standing workers perception on the fatigue and the discomfort on their respective body region for 12 hours working time. The subjects are the 80 workers with a good health condition and at least 6 months tenure. The subject data are collected via questionnaires and Likert scale to define the discomfort, pain, and fatigue. The workers were interviewed regarding their job and perceived fatigue discomfort. The results show the domination of the lower body region with the higher mean at the lower back, legs, and foot ankle. No statistically significant differences were found between the job tenure and body part discomfort pain and fatigue. There is a significant relation between gender and discomfort pain on legs and foot ankle. The result also shows a strong relation between age and the discomfort body parts of thigh and foot ankle. The perceptions of the workers towards discomfort pain and fatigue cause by prolonged standing during performing the task. The results from this study will provide a view for industrial consultants or ergonomist with evidence to support for ergonomic interventions for prolonged standing activity such as job rotation and work-rest schedule. 

Parametric Human Body Model for Digital Apparel Design

2013 ◽  
Vol 365-366 ◽  
pp. 121-124
Author(s):  
Shu Xia Wang ◽  
Sheng Feng Qin ◽  
Cong Ying Guan ◽  
Sui Huai Yu
Keyword(s):  
Cross Section ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Model ◽  
Body Model ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Cloud Points ◽  
Body Scanner

With the advance in 3D body scanning technology, it opens opportunities for virtual try-on and automatic made-to-measure in apparel products domain. This paper proposed a novel feature-based parametric method of human body shape from the cloud points of 3D body scanner [T2. Firstly, we improved the skeleton construction through adding and adjusting the position of joints. Secondly, automatic extraction approach of semantic feature cross-sections is developed based on the hierarchy. According to the unique distribution of cloud points of each cross-section of each body part, the extraction method of key points on the cross-section is described. Thirdly, we presented an interpolation approach of key points which fit cardinal spline to cross-section for each body part, in which tension parameter is used to represent the simple deformation of body shape. Finally, a connection approach of body part is proposed by sharing a boundary curve. The proposed method has been tested with our virtual human model (VHM) system which is robust and easier to use. The process generally requires about five minutes for generating a full body model that represents the body shape captured by 3D body scanner. The model can be imported in a CAD environment for application to a wide variety of ergonomic analyses.

Semantics of Hawrami Body Part Terms

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-335
Author(s):  
Bistoon Abasi ◽  
Amer Gheitury
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Field Work ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Internal Body

Human body as a universal possession of human beings constitutes an interesting domain where questions regarding semantic categorisations might be sought crosslinguistically. In the following, we will attempt to describe the terms used to refer to the body in Hawrami, an Iranian language spoken in Paveh, a small township in the western province of Kermanshah near Iraqi borders. Due to the scarcity of written material, the inventory of 202 terms referring to external and internal body parts were obtained through a field work, which took a long time, and techniques, such as the “colouring task”, observation and recording the terms as used in ordinary conversations and informal interviews with native speakers. The semantic properties of the terms and the way they are related in a partonymy or locative relationship were also investigated. As far as universals of body part terms are concerned, while conforming to ‘depth principle’ concerning the number of levels each partonomy may consist of, Hawrami violates an important feature of this principle by not allowing transitive relations between different levels of partonomic hierarchies. In addition, Hawrami lacks a term for labelling the ‘whole’.

Body and emotion

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 341-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Yu
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Emotional Experiences ◽  
Emotional Symptoms ◽  
Internal Organs ◽  
Internal Body ◽  
External Body

This study presents a semantic analysis of how emotions and emotional experiences are described in Chinese. It focuses on conventionalized expressions in Chinese, namely compounds and idioms, which contain body-part terms. The body-part terms are divided into two classes: those denoting external body parts and those denoting internal body parts or organs. It is found that, with a few exceptions, the expressions involving external body parts are originally metonymic, describing emotions in terms of their externally observable bodily events and processes. However, once conventionalized, these expressions are also used metaphorically regardless of emotional symptoms or gestures. The expressions involving internal organs evoke imaginary bodily images that are primarily metaphorical. It is found that the metaphors, though imaginary in nature, are not really all arbitrary. They seem to have a bodily or psychological basis, although they are inevitably influenced by cultural models.

Determination and transdetermination in imaginal disks of Drosophila (Summary only)

1970 ◽  
Vol 176 (1044) ◽  
pp. 291-293
Keyword(s):  
Single Cells ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Body Cavity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Region ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Imaginal Disks

It is generally assumed that in multicellular organisms the diversity of the different cell types is the result of different gene activity which becomes manifest in the course of development. This theoretical concept of cell differentiation was developed on the basis of results obtained from a relatively small number of suitable experimental systems. One of them comprises the imaginal disks of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster . Imaginal disks are larval primordia in holometabolic insects such as flies and mosquitoes, and consist of densely packed populations of morphologically uniform cells. They give rise to defined structures of the adult body (mainly integument), thus replacing parts of the larva which are almost completely histolysed during metamorphosis. The prospective fate of the various imaginal disks can be tested, for example, by transplantation experiments. Individual disks are removed from larvae of a genetically marked strain and transplanted into the body cavity of another larva with which the transplants undergo metamorphosis. The metamorphosed derivatives of the disks are then found in the abdomen of the fly and can be microscopically identified on the basis of the morphology of bristles, hairs and other structural features of the integument. The same method is applied for examination of the developmental performance of disk fragments. From the results of such experiments the following conclusions are drawn: (1) Individual disks of fully grown larvae, that is larvae which are ready to pupate, are determined (programmed) for exactly defined body parts of the adult organism. (2) The individual subregions of such a body part can be localized precisely within a disk. Based on these facts fate maps (anlage plans) can be worked out. (3) From experiments in which different genetically marked disks are intermingled and then transplanted into larvae it is concluded that even single cells are determined for structures of a specific body region.

scholarly journals Patterns of semantic variation differ across body parts: evidence from the Japonic languages

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. A. Huisman ◽  
Roeland van Hout ◽  
Asifa Majid
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Language Family ◽  
The Face ◽  
Lexical Similarity ◽  
Multi Method Approach ◽  
Method Approach

Abstract The human body is central to myriad metaphors, so studying the conceptualisation of the body itself is critical if we are to understand its broader use. One essential but understudied issue is whether languages differ in which body parts they single out for naming. This paper takes a multi-method approach to investigate body part nomenclature within a single language family. Using both a naming task (Study 1) and colouring-in task (Study 2) to collect data from six Japonic languages, we found that lexical similarity for body part terminology was notably differentiated within Japonic, and similar variation was evident in semantics too. Novel application of cluster analysis on naming data revealed a relatively flat hierarchical structure for parts of the face, whereas parts of the body were organised with deeper hierarchical structure. The colouring data revealed that bounded parts show more stability across languages than unbounded parts. Overall, the data reveal there is not a single universal conceptualisation of the body as is often assumed, and that in-depth, multi-method explorations of under-studied languages are urgently required.

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