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New evidence for the sensorimotor mismatch theory of weight perception and the size-weight illusion.Experimental Brain Research Jul 2024The size-weight illusion is a phenomenon where a smaller object is perceived heavier than an equally weighted larger object. The sensorimotor mismatch theory proposed...
The size-weight illusion is a phenomenon where a smaller object is perceived heavier than an equally weighted larger object. The sensorimotor mismatch theory proposed that this illusion occurs because of a mismatch between efferent motor commands and afferent sensory feedback received when lifting large and small objects (i.e., the application of too little and too much lifting force, respectively). This explanation has been undermined by studies demonstrating a separation between the perceived weight of objects and the lifting forces that are applied on them. However, this research suffers from inconsistencies in the choice of lifting force measures reported. Therefore, we examined the contribution of sensorimotor mismatch in the perception of weight in the size-weight illusion and in non-size-weight illusion stimuli and evaluated the use of a lifting force aggregate measure comprising the four most common lifting force measures used in previous research. In doing so, the sensorimotor mismatch theory was mostly supported. In a size-weight illusion experiment, the lifting forces correlated with weight perception and, contrary to some earlier research, did not adapt over time. In a non-size-weight illusion experiment, switches between lifting light and heavy objects resulted in perceiving the weight of these objects differently compared to no switch trials, which mirrored differences in the manner participants applied forces on the objects. Additionally, we reveal that our force aggregate measure can allow for a more sensitive and objective examination of the effects of lifting forces on objects.
Topics: Humans; Weight Perception; Illusions; Male; Female; Young Adult; Adult; Size Perception; Feedback, Sensory
PubMed: 38780803
DOI: 10.1007/s00221-024-06849-0 -
CoDAS 2024To evaluate the immediate effect of the inspiratory exercise with a booster and a respiratory exerciser on the voice of women without vocal complaints.
PURPOSE
To evaluate the immediate effect of the inspiratory exercise with a booster and a respiratory exerciser on the voice of women without vocal complaints.
METHODS
25 women with no vocal complaints, between 18 and 34 years old, with a score of 1 on the Vocal Disorder Screening Index (ITDV) participated. Data collection was performed before and after performing the inspiratory exercise and consisted of recording the sustained vowel /a/, connected speech and maximum phonatory times (MPT) of vowels, fricative phonemes and counting numbers. In the auditory-perceptual judgment, the Vocal Deviation Scale (VSD) was used to verify the general degree of vocal deviation. Acoustic evaluation was performed using the PRAAT software and the parameters fundamental frequency (f0), jitter, shimmer, harmonium-to-noise ratio (HNR), Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS), Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) and Acoustic Breathiness Index (ABI). To measure the aerodynamic measurements, the time of each emission was extracted in the Audacity program. Data were statistically analyzed using the Statistica for Windows software and normality was tested using the Shapiro-Wilk test. To compare the results, Student's and Wilcoxon's t tests were applied, adopting a significance level of 5%.
RESULTS
There were no significant differences between the results of the JPA and the acoustic measures, in the pre and post inspiratory exercise moments. As for the aerodynamic measures, it was possible to observe a significant increase in the value of the TMF /s/ (p=0.008).
CONCLUSION
There was no change in vocal quality after the inspiratory exercise with stimulator and respiratory exerciser, but an increase in the MPT of the phoneme /s/ was observed after the exercise.
Topics: Humans; Female; Adult; Voice Quality; Young Adult; Adolescent; Breathing Exercises; Speech Acoustics; Voice Disorders; Phonation
PubMed: 38775526
DOI: 10.1590/2317-1782/20242023148pt -
Brain and Behavior May 2024Visual field defects (VFDs) represent a debilitating poststroke complication, characterized by unseen parts of the visual field. Visual perceptual learning (VPL),... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
INTRODUCTION
Visual field defects (VFDs) represent a debilitating poststroke complication, characterized by unseen parts of the visual field. Visual perceptual learning (VPL), involving repetitive visual training in blind visual fields, may effectively restore visual field sensitivity in cortical blindness. This current multicenter, double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial investigated the efficacy and safety of VPL-based digital therapeutics (Nunap Vision [NV]) for treating poststroke VFDs.
METHODS
Stroke outpatients with VFDs (>6 months after stroke onset) were randomized into NV (defective field training) or Nunap Vision-Control (NV-C, central field training) groups. Both interventions provided visual perceptual training, consisting of orientation, rotation, and depth discrimination, through a virtual reality head-mounted display device 5 days a week for 12 weeks. The two groups received VFD assessments using Humphrey visual field (HVF) tests at baseline and 12-week follow-up. The final analysis included those completed the study (NV, n = 40; NV-C, n = 35). Efficacy measures included improved visual area (sensitivity ≥6 dB) and changes in the HVF scores during the 12-week period.
RESULTS
With a high compliance rate, NV and NV-C training improved the visual areas in the defective hemifield (>72 degrees) and the whole field (>108 degrees), which are clinically meaningful improvements despite no significant between-group differences. According to within-group analyses, mean total deviation scores in the defective hemifield improved after NV training (p = .03) but not after NV-C training (p = .12).
CONCLUSIONS
The current trial suggests that VPL-based digital therapeutics may induce clinically meaningful visual improvements in patients with poststroke VFDs. Yet, between-group differences in therapeutic efficacy were not found as NV-C training exhibited unexpected improvement comparable to NV training, possibly due to learning transfer effects.
Topics: Humans; Double-Blind Method; Male; Female; Middle Aged; Aged; Visual Fields; Stroke; Visual Perception; Virtual Reality; Stroke Rehabilitation; Learning; Vision Disorders
PubMed: 38773793
DOI: 10.1002/brb3.3525 -
Journal of Eating Disorders May 2024Body image dissatisfaction is a significant concern among men, influencing appearance evaluation, eating behaviors, and muscle dysmorphia psychopathology. However,...
BACKGROUND
Body image dissatisfaction is a significant concern among men, influencing appearance evaluation, eating behaviors, and muscle dysmorphia psychopathology. However, research on these correlations is notably deficient in men, largely because body image concerns are unevenly distributed between genders. Therefore, this study aims to assess the various dimensions of concerns about body image in men and explore their associations with characteristics such as sexual orientation.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted with 251 adult men from fitness centers in the Veneto Region, Italy. Participants completed self-report questionnaires, including the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), the Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised (ASI-R), and the Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI). Body weight perception and dissatisfaction were evaluated using a Figure Rating Scale (FRS) with 12 male biometric silhouettes.
RESULTS
Participants were divided into three subgroups based on the experienced levels of body weight dissatisfaction: those who rated a smaller body (BWsmaller), those who rated a larger body (BWlarger) more highly relative to their own estimated body size, and those who reported implicit neutrality with their current weight (BWneu). BWsmaller participants reported higher levels of eating-related concern, while BWlarger participants exhibited higher levels of muscle dysmorphia. Additionally, the BWlarger group showed the highest degree of quantitative perceptual underestimation of their body weight. Sexual orientation was found to have an impact on body weight dissatisfaction, with bisexual men more likely to desire an increase in weight and gay men more likely to desire a decrease.
CONCLUSIONS
Body weight dissatisfaction significantly impacts appearance evaluation, eating behaviors, and muscle dysmorphia psychopathology in males. Tailored interventions that consider individual differences can support the well-being of men. The study provides useful insight into male body image issues, warranting further exploration to inform effective interventions and promote positive body image and mental health in this population.
PubMed: 38773673
DOI: 10.1186/s40337-024-01025-9 -
Nature Communications May 2024Decision-makers objectively commit to a definitive choice, yet at the subjective level, human decisions appear to be associated with a degree of uncertainty. Whether...
Decision-makers objectively commit to a definitive choice, yet at the subjective level, human decisions appear to be associated with a degree of uncertainty. Whether decisions are definitive (i.e., concluding in all-or-none choices), or whether the underlying representations are graded, remains unclear. To answer this question, we recorded intracranial neural signals directly from the brain while human subjects made perceptual decisions. The recordings revealed that broadband gamma activity reflecting each individual's decision-making process, ramped up gradually while being graded by the accumulated decision evidence. Crucially, this grading effect persisted throughout the decision process without ever reaching a definite bound at the time of choice. This effect was most prominent in the parietal cortex, a brain region traditionally implicated in decision-making. These results provide neural evidence for a graded decision process in humans and an analog framework for flexible choice behavior.
Topics: Humans; Decision Making; Male; Female; Adult; Brain; Parietal Lobe; Choice Behavior; Young Adult; Uncertainty
PubMed: 38773117
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48342-w -
Cognitive Psychology Jun 2024Performing an action to initiate a consequence in the environment triggers the perceptual illusion of temporal binding. This phenomenon entails that actions and...
Performing an action to initiate a consequence in the environment triggers the perceptual illusion of temporal binding. This phenomenon entails that actions and following effects are perceived to occur closer in time than they do outside the action-effect relationship. Here we ask whether temporal binding can be explained in terms of multisensory integration, by assuming either multisensory fusion or partial integration of the two events. We gathered two datasets featuring a wide range of action-effect delays as a key factor influencing integration. We then tested the fit of a computational model for multisensory integration, the statistically optimal cue integration (SOCI) model. Indeed, qualitative aspects of the data on a group-level followed the principles of a multisensory account. By contrast, quantitative evidence from a comprehensive model evaluation indicated that temporal binding cannot be reduced to multisensory integration. Rather, multisensory integration should be seen as one of several component processes underlying temporal binding on an individual level.
Topics: Humans; Adult; Male; Female; Visual Perception; Young Adult; Cues; Auditory Perception; Illusions; Time Perception; Models, Psychological
PubMed: 38772251
DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2024.101662 -
Cureus Apr 2024Background More than half of healthcare university students are believed to experience inadequate sleep. The application of brain gym exercises is a relatively new...
Background More than half of healthcare university students are believed to experience inadequate sleep. The application of brain gym exercises is a relatively new concept that has shown potential for addressing a variety of cognitive and perceptual deficits. Nevertheless, its use in managing sleep disorders is still in the early stages. Though cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is still the standard treatment for sleep management, recent research suggests that brain gym exercises may help with sleep disorders like insomnia. Independent studies have demonstrated the efficacy of CBT and brain gym activities in treating sleep disorders. Yet, there remains a paucity of studies directly comparing these two methods in treating individuals with sleep disturbances. Aim and objectives To ascertain the effectiveness of brain gym exercises over cognitive behavioral therapy in improving sleep quality among healthcare university students. Method The experimental study comparing brain gym exercises and cognitive behavioral therapy interventions was conducted in Wardha, Maharashtra, India, from March 2023 to December 2023, with 60 subjects selected after considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. The protocol was administered for 4 weeks for 30 minutes per day. The baseline outcome measures were the insomnia severity index (ISI) and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). The outcome measure was used before and after 4 weeks of interventions to evaluate the outcome of the protocol. The software used in the analysis was SPSS 27.0 version and GraphPad Prism 7.0 version, and p<0.05 was considered as the level of significance. Result Post-treatment, evidence was observed for ISI (20.55, P = 0.0001) and PSQI (18.09, P = 0.0001) in Group A. Post-rehabilitation evidence was observed in Group B for ISI (19, P=0.0001) and PSQI (16.64, P=0.0001). The findings revealed a significantly higher mean difference between Group A and Group B, showing a considerable improvement in outcome measure scores within Group A relative to Group B. Conclusion The statistical analysis demonstrates a notable improvement in the pre-and post-scores of the ISI and PSQI following four weeks of brain gym exercises. In comparison, cognitive behavioral therapy showed comparatively less effectiveness in addressing insomnia. The observed improvement in sleep quality among students highlights that brain gym exercises have the potential to be a non-pharmacological alternative for managing mild to moderate insomnia.
PubMed: 38765356
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.58463 -
Cognition Aug 2024Absolute pitch is the name given to the rare ability to identify a musical note in an automatic and effortless manner without the need for a reference tone. Those... (Review)
Review
Absolute pitch is the name given to the rare ability to identify a musical note in an automatic and effortless manner without the need for a reference tone. Those individuals with absolute pitch can, for example, name the note they hear, identify all of the tones of a given chord, and/or name the pitches of everyday sounds, such as car horns or sirens. Hence, absolute pitch can be seen as providing a rare example of absolute sensory judgment in audition. Surprisingly, however, the intriguing question of whether such an ability presents unique features in the domain of sensory perception, or whether instead similar perceptual skills also exist in other sensory domains, has not been explicitly addressed previously. In this paper, this question is addressed by systematically reviewing research on absolute pitch using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) method. Thereafter, we compare absolute pitch with two rare types of sensory experience, namely synaesthesia and eidetic memory, to understand if and how these phenomena exhibit similar features to absolute pitch. Furthermore, a common absolute perceptual ability that has been often compared to absolute pitch, namely colour perception, is also discussed. Arguments are provided supporting the notion that none of the examined abilities can be considered like absolute pitch. Therefore, we conclude by suggesting that absolute pitch does indeed appear to constitute a unique kind of absolute sensory judgment in humans, and we discuss some open issues and novel directions for future research in absolute pitch.
Topics: Humans; Pitch Perception; Judgment; Synesthesia; Color Perception; Music
PubMed: 38761646
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105805 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Jul 2024Previous research has suggested that self-bias (i.e., enhanced cognitive processing of self-versus other-relevant information) may be atypical in autism spectrum...
Previous research has suggested that self-bias (i.e., enhanced cognitive processing of self-versus other-relevant information) may be atypical in autism spectrum conditions (ASC), perhaps due to difficulties with self-other distinction. However, empirical evidence for this is inconsistent, and the neural basis of processing differences remains unknown. We present two experiments that aimed to test perceptual self-bias and familiarity effects in ASC using a perceptual-association task. Participants were asked to distinguish face/label associations of the self from those of other people of differing levels of familiarity (i.e., friend vs stranger). Experiment 1 took an individual differences approach by testing whether behavioural self-bias is associated with the number of autistic traits in a neurotypical adult sample (N = 59). Experiment 2 took a case-control approach by testing whether behavioural self-bias and associated ERP responses differ between neurotypical (N = 27) and autistic (N = 30) adults. Across both experiments, behavioural results showed that participants experienced a self-bias (self > friend and stranger) and a familiarity effect (e.g., friend > stranger); neither effect was affected by the number of autistic traits or autism diagnosis. In Experiment 2, analysis of N1, N2, and P3 ERP components revealed a typical self-bias in both groups (self distinct from friend and stranger), and only the autistic group showed evidence of a familiarity effect (N2 more negative-going for stranger than friend). The findings are discussed in relation to self-other distinction ability, and the relevance of other neuropsychological and psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and alexithymia are also considered.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Adult; Recognition, Psychology; Young Adult; Autistic Disorder; Evoked Potentials; Electroencephalography; Self Concept; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Adolescent
PubMed: 38760243
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.03.012 -
PloS One 2024Dementia, a major global health concern, is an acquired disorder that causes a progressive decline in cognitive abilities, affecting learning and memory, language,...
INTRODUCTION
Dementia, a major global health concern, is an acquired disorder that causes a progressive decline in cognitive abilities, affecting learning and memory, language, executive function, complex attention, perceptual-motor skills, and social cognition. Our study aims to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes regarding dementia and Alzheimer's disease among medical students.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted among 393 medical students in Palestine from August 2023 to November 2023. The assessment of knowledge and attitude toward dementia was measured using the Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS) and Dementia Attitude Scale (DAS). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26, and the Mann-Whitney U-test and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used to compare the mean between the groups with a 5% significance level.
RESULTS
The overall mean score of the student's knowledge of dementia measured by the ADKS was 18.91 (±3.32 SD) out of 30. The mean score of the student's attitude toward dementia measured by the DAS was 91.68 (±3.32 SD). Clinical students had higher ADKS scores than pre-clinical students (p-value < 0.001). No significant differences in the knowledge and attitudes toward dementia were found between males and females. The medical students' knowledge and attitude scores were positively correlated (ρ = 0.227, p-value <0.001).
CONCLUSION
Palestinian medical student's knowledge about Alzheimer's disease and dementia is insufficient, with students in the clinical phase showing better understanding than pre-clinical students. The findings highlight a necessity for enhancing the dementia curriculum and conducting further studies to evaluate training's impact on students' knowledge and attitudes.
Topics: Humans; Students, Medical; Male; Female; Cross-Sectional Studies; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Dementia; Alzheimer Disease; Young Adult; Arabs; Adult; Middle East; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 38758934
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304012