scholarly journals Behavioral and Physiological Evidence of a favored Hand Posture in the Body Representation for Action

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Romano ◽  
Alessandro Mioli ◽  
Marco D’Alonzo ◽  
Angelo Maravita ◽  
Vincenzo Di Lazzaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Motor Planning ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
Motor Command ◽  
The Body ◽  
Hand Posture ◽  
Somatosensory Processing ◽  
Motor Processing ◽  
Physiological Evidence ◽  
Motor Excitability

Abstract Motor planning and execution require a representational map of our body. Since the body can assume different postures, it is not known how it is represented in this map. Moreover, is the generation of the motor command favored by some body configurations? We investigated the existence of a centrally favored posture of the hand for action, in search of physiological and behavioral advantages due to central motor processing. We tested two opposite hand pinch grips, equally difficult and commonly used: forearm pronated, thumb-down, index-up pinch against the same grip performed with thumb-up. The former revealed faster movement onset, sign of faster neural computation, and faster target reaching. It induced increased corticospinal excitability, independently on pre-stimulus tonic muscle contraction. Remarkably, motor excitability also increased when thumb-down pinch was only observed, imagined, or prepared, actually keeping the hand at rest. Motor advantages were independent of any concurrent modulation due to somatosensory input, as shown by testing afferent inhibition. Results provide strong behavioral and physiological evidence for a preferred hand posture favoring brain motor control, independently by somatosensory processing. This suggests the existence of a baseline postural representation that may serve as an a priori spatial reference for body–space interaction.

scholarly journals Implicit and Explicit Body Representations

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Longo
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
Position Sense ◽  
The Body ◽  
Size Perception ◽  
Somatosensory Processing ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Size And Shape ◽  
Tactile Localization ◽  
Somatosensory Information

Several forms of perception require that sensory information be referenced to representations of the size and shape of the body. This requirement is especially acute in somatosensation in which the main receptor surface (i.e., the skin) is itself coextensive with the body. This paper reviews recent research investigating the body representations underlying somatosensory information processing, including abilities such as tactile localization, tactile size perception, and position sense. These representations show remarkably large and stereotyped distortions of represented body size and shape. Intriguingly, these distortions appear to mirror distortions characteristic of somatosensory maps, though in attenuated form. In contrast, when asked to make overt judgments about perceived body form, participants are generally quite accurate. This pattern of results suggests that higher-level somatosensory processing relies on a class of implicit body representation, distinct from the conscious body image. I discuss the implications of these results for understanding the nature of body representation and the factors that influence it.

scholarly journals An analytical method reduces noise bias in motor adaptation analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel H. Blustein ◽  
Ahmed W. Shehata ◽  
Erin S. Kuylenstierna ◽  
Kevin B. Englehart ◽  
Jonathon W. Sensinger
Keyword(s):  
Motor Planning ◽  
Motor Adaptation ◽  
Motor Command ◽  
Systematic Bias ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Noise Masking ◽  
Stochastic Signal ◽  
Movement Data ◽  
Motor Error ◽  
Stochastic Signal Processing

AbstractWhen a person makes a movement, a motor error is typically observed that then drives motor planning corrections on subsequent movements. This error correction, quantified as a trial-by-trial adaptation rate, provides insight into how the nervous system is operating, particularly regarding how much confidence a person places in different sources of information such as sensory feedback or motor command reproducibility. Traditional analysis has required carefully controlled laboratory conditions such as the application of perturbations or error clamping, limiting the usefulness of motor analysis in clinical and everyday environments. Here we focus on error adaptation during unperturbed and naturalistic movements. With increasing motor noise, we show that the conventional estimation of trial-by-trial adaptation increases, a counterintuitive finding that is the consequence of systematic bias in the estimate due to noise masking the learner’s intention. We present an analytic solution relying on stochastic signal processing to reduce this effect of noise, producing an estimate of motor adaptation with reduced bias. The result is an improved estimate of trial-by-trial adaptation in a human learner compared to conventional methods. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the new method in analyzing simulated and empirical movement data under different noise conditions.

The Role of Hand Size in the Fake-Hand Illusion Paradigm

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p5853 ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 1547-1554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Pavani ◽  
Massimiliano Zampini
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Video Image ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Statistical Correlations ◽  
Hand Size ◽  
Visible Hand

When a hand (either real or fake) is stimulated in synchrony with our own hand concealed from view, the felt position of our own hand can be biased toward the location of the seen hand. This intriguing phenomenon relies on the brain's ability to detect statistical correlations in the multisensory inputs (ie visual, tactile, and proprioceptive), but it is also modulated by the pre-existing representation of one's own body. Nonetheless, researchers appear to have accepted the assumption that the size of the seen hand does not matter for this illusion to occur. Here we used a real-time video image of the participant's own hand to elicit the illusion, but we varied the hand size in the video image so that the seen hand was either reduced, veridical, or enlarged in comparison to the participant's own hand. The results showed that visible-hand size modulated the illusion, which was present for veridical and enlarged images of the hand, but absent when the visible hand was reduced. These findings indicate that very specific aspects of our own body image (ie hand size) can constrain the multisensory modulation of the body schema highlighted by the fake-hand illusion paradigm. In addition, they suggest an asymmetric tendency to acknowledge enlarged (but not reduced) images of body parts within our body representation.

scholarly journals Semidiscrete central difference method in time for determining surface temperatures

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi Qian ◽  
Chu-Li Fu ◽  
Xiang-Tuan Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Difference Method ◽  
Heat Conduction Problem ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Inverse Heat Conduction Problem ◽  
The Body ◽  
Temperature History ◽  
Measured Temperature ◽  
Central Difference ◽  
Approximation Solution ◽  
Computational Effect

We consider an inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP) in a quarter plane. We want to know the distribution of surface temperature in a body from a measured temperature history at a fixed location inside the body. This is a severely ill-posed problem in the sense that the solution (if exists) does not depend continuously on the data. Eldén (1995) has used a difference method for solving this problem, but he did not obtain the convergence atx=0. In this paper, we gave a logarithmic stability of the approximation solution atx=0under a stronger a priori assumption‖u(0,t)‖p≤Ewithp>1/2. A numerical example shows that the computational effect of this method is satisfactory.

scholarly journals Creative Thinking in Qualitative Research and Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof T. Konecki
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Journal Writing ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Phenomenological Research ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Combining Data ◽  
Intellectual Capacity

I would like to present the possibility of broadening the traditional methodological and technical skills of researcher and analyst, but also the intellectual capacity of the researcher associated with combining data, categorizing, linking categories, as well as the interpretation of the causes and consequences of the emergence of certain social phenomena. Some methodologies, methods, and research techniques are more conducive to creative conceptual and interpretive solutions. Therefore, I describe the serendipity phenomenon in such methodologies as grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenological research, and contemplative inquiry. The problem of intuition in qualitative research will be also described in the paper. There will be presented also some suggestions how to be creative in qualitative research. From the review of issues of creativity in qualitative research we can derive the following conclusions: Creativity in qualitative research depends on the strength of a priori conceptualization and stiffness of the adapted methods of research and analysis. If the methodology is more flexible (as the methodology of grounded theory), the researcher can get to phenomena that he/she has not realized and which are still scantily explored in his/her field of expertise. The phenomenological and contemplative approaches allow the use of the investigator’s feelings and experience as they appear in the studied phenomena, which usually does not take place in objectifying and positivistic research. The investigator may therefore consciously use these methodologies and approaches that foster creativity. The researchers can improve their skills in thinking and creative action by doing some methodical exercises (journal writing, writing poetry as a summary of the collected data, the use of art as representation of the phenomenon, the use of meditation, observation of the body feelings, humor, etc.).

scholarly journals The Temporality of Maximal Grip: On Pragmatists’ Readings of Merleau-Ponty

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniil Koloskov
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Body ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Phenomenology Of Perception

In this article, I will pursue three aims. First, I would like to demonstrate the non-transcendental character of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, namely, his claim that a strict division between a priori and a posteriori is an abstraction that derives from a more primordial unity that is given in our lived experience. I will criticize authors such as H. Dreyfus and T. Carman who treat the body and bodily character of our existence as a classical Kantian a priori that functions as a condition of experience without itself being a part of the experience. The claim I would like to defend in this regard is that reflections on the conditions of our experience must themselves be a part of our experience. The second task is to show how Merleau-Ponty’s analysis of temporality helps him to avoid this strict division between a priori and a posteriori. Based on this, I will elucidate some of the most obscure passages of Phenomenology of Perception. Finally, I will claim that the notion of optimal grip can neither be explained by the reference to our body, as Carman claims, or to brains, organisms and their copings with the environment, as Dreyfus argues. Instead, I will claim that the maximal grip is rather a consolidation or intensification of the temporal ecstasy.

scholarly journals The Need for Transdisciplinarity in Higher Education in a Globalized World

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basarab Nicolescu
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
The Body ◽  
First Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
New Production ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
Integral Education ◽  
New Type ◽  
The University ◽  
Globalized World

A viable education can only be an integral education of the human being. Transdisciplinary education is founded on the inexhaustible richness of the scientific spirit which is based on questioning and of the refusal of all a priori answers and all certitude contradictory to the facts. At the same time, it revalues the role of the deeply rooted intuition, of the imaginary, of sensitivity, and of the body in the transmission of knowledge. It is only in this way that the society of the twenty-first century can reconcile effectivity and respect for the potentiality of every human being. The transdisciplinary approach will be an indispensable complement to the disciplinary approach because it will mean the emergence of continually connected beings, who are able to adapt themselves to the changing exigencies of professional life, and who are endowed with permanent flexibility which is always oriented towards the actualization of their interior potentialities. If the University intends to be a valid actor in sustainable development it has first to recognize the emergence of a new type of knowledge: transdisciplinary knowledge. The new production of knowledge implies a necessary multidimensional opening of the process of learning: towards civil society; towards cyber-space-time; towards the aim of universality; towards a redefinition of the values governing its own existence.

A Software Component Generation Model for Pervasive Computing Environment

2011 ◽  
pp. 67-85
Author(s):  
Ratneshwer N/A
Keyword(s):  
Pervasive Computing ◽  
Context Awareness ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Body ◽  
Generation Model ◽  
Software Components ◽  
Computing Environment ◽  
Develop Software ◽  
Multiple Variants ◽  
Generic Component

In order to develop software components that are reusable across the pervasive computing applications it would be required to consider the variations and properties (mobility, adaptability, composability, context awareness etc.) that may be required for different pervasive computing applications (application types). It should go without saying that various requirements and variations may not always be known a priori and hence developing all the multiple variants may not always be possible or feasible. It is quite unlikely that all the pervasive computing applications would be able to reuse a component ‘as-is’ always. One idea is to use lightweight components such that the overheads (those that are not required in a particular pervasive computing application) do not get transported with the body of the component. Based on this idea, a model of “Generic Component” with ‘Component Generator’ has been proposed that will generate components according to the requirements of a specific pervasive computing application. This work starts a discussion and calls for more extensive research oriented studies by professionals and academicians for perfection of the model.

Triadic body representations in the human cerebral cortex and peripheral nerves

2021 ◽  
pp. 133-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noriaki Kanayama ◽  
Kentaro Hiromitsu
Keyword(s):  
Peripheral Nerves ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
Neural System ◽  
The Body ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Structural Description ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
The Brain

Is the body reducible to neural representation in the brain? There is some evidence that the brain contributes to the functioning of the body from neuroimaging, neurophysiological, and lesion studies. Well-known dyadic taxonomy of the body schema and the body image (hereafter BSBI) is based primarily on the evidence in brain-damaged patients. Although there is a growing consensus that the BSBI exists, there is little agreement on the dyadic taxonomy because it is not a concrete and common concept across various research fields. This chapter tries to investigate the body representation in the cortex and nervous system in terms of sensory modality and psychological function using two different approaches. The first approach is to review the neurological evidence and cortical area which is related to body representation, regardless of the BSBI, and then to reconsider how we postulate the BSBI in our brain. It can be considered that our body representation could be constructed by the whole of the neural system, including the cortex and peripheral nerves. The second approach is to revisit the BSBI conception from the viewpoint of recent neuropsychology and propose three types of body representation: body schema, body structural description, and body semantics. This triadic taxonomy is considered consistent with the cortical networks based on the evidence of bodily disorders due to brain lesions. These two approaches allow to reconsider the BSBI more carefully and deeply and to give us the possibility that the body representation could be underpinned with the network in the brain.

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