Hand–foot motor priming in the presence of temporary inability to use hands

To verify if the link between observed hand actions and executed foot actions found in aplasics is essentially induced by the constant use of foot substituting the hand, we investigated if the vision of a grasping hand is able to prime a foot response in normals. Participants were required to detect the time-to-contact of a hand grasping an object either with a suitable or a less suitable movement, an experimental paradigm known to induce a priming effect. Participants responded either with the hand or the foot, while having free or bound hands. Results showed that for hand responses motor priming effect was stronger when the hands were free, whereas for foot responses it was stronger when the hands were bound. These data are interpreted as a further evidence that a difficulty to move affects specific cognitive functions and that the vision of a grasping hand may prime a foot response.     

Beyond words: Sensory properties of depressive thoughts

Verbal thoughts (such as negative cognitions) and sensory phenomena (such as visual mental imagery) are usually conceptualised as distinct mental experiences. The present study examined to what extent depressive thoughts are accompanied by sensory experiences and how this is associated with symptom severity, insight of illness and quality of life. A large sample of mildly to moderately depressed patients (N = 356) was recruited from multiple sources and asked about sensory properties of their depressive thoughts in an online study. Diagnostic status and symptom severity were established over a telephone interview with trained raters. Sensory properties of negative thoughts were reported by 56.5% of the sample (i.e., sensation in at least one sensory modality). The highest prevalence was seen for bodily (39.6%) followed by auditory (30.6%) and visual (27.2%) sensations. Patients reporting sensory properties of thoughts showed more severe psychopathological symptoms than those who did not. The degree of perceptuality was marginally associated with quality of life. The findings support the notion that depressive thoughts are not only verbal but commonly accompanied by sensory experiences. The perceptuality of depressive thoughts and the resulting sense of authenticity may contribute to the emotional impact and pervasiveness of such thoughts, making them difficult to dismiss for their holder.     

Integration of spatial maps in pigeons

The integration of spatial maps in pigeons was investigated using a spatial analog to sensory preconditioning. The pigeons were tested in an open-field arena in which they had to locate hidden food among a 4×4 grid of gravel-filled cups. In phase 1, the pigeons were exposed to a consistent spatial relationship (vector) between landmark L (a red L-shaped block of wood), landmark T (a blue T-shaped block of wood) and the hidden food goal. In phase 2, the pigeons were then exposed to landmark T with a different spatial vector to the hidden food goal. Following phase 2, pigeons were tested with trials on which they were presented with only landmark L to examine the potential integration of the phase 1 and 2 vectors via their shared common elements. When these test trials were preceded by phase 1 and phase 2 reminder trials, pigeons searched for the goal most often at a location consistent with their integration of the LT phase 1 and Tphase 2 goal vectors. This result indicates that integration of spatial vectors acquired during phases 1 and 2 allowed the pigeons to compute a novel Lgoal vector. This suggests that spatial maps may be enlarged by successively integrating additional spatial information through the linkage of common elements.     

Liens entre le déclin sensoriel et cognitif dans le vieillissement normal : revue critique de la littérature et apports de l’approche incarnée et située de la cognition

Biological aging impacts many organs including sensory's ones and the brain, and thus, cognition. Research has shown that the sensory and cognitive decline are positively correlated. The main data from this literature are firstly reviewed in the present article. Then, the four main hypotheses that are generally proposed to explain these associations are presented. According to them, sensory decline is supposed to cause cognitive decline, or vice-versa, or these concomitant changes result from the general alteration of the nervous system. However, none of them seems able to account for all of the existing data. Moreover, the precise mechanisms that may drive these associations remain to be clarified. The rest of the article is then dedicated to the embodied and situated cognition approach as it provides a particularly interesting and adequate framework to account for these links. Indeed, according to this approach, cognitive representations are grounded in their sensorimotor properties. In other words, cognitive functioning is not conceived as detached from sensory functioning, but instead directly dependent of it. Representations are thus thought to emerge from the sensorimotor simulation of the properties involved in these representations. Therefore, sensory decline should directly impact cognitive performance. It is then hypothesized that older adults have low-resolution representations decreasing the signal on noise ratio of traces, increasing sensorimotor interferences and thus decreasing cognitive performance. This approach leads to consider low and high levels of sensory and perceptual functioning, which are both impaired in aging. Therefore, the repercussion of the sensory-perceptual decline is not only valid for present processing, but also extend to all past knowledge. Several predictions are then proposed on (1) the link between high-level perceptual functioning and cognitive functioning in older adults; (2) the possible interaction in young adults between sensory and high-level perceptual functioning as a function of the level of interference of the material involved; (3) the possible link between the motor and cognitive functioning in older adults. The clinical consequences in terms of cognitive stimulation of such a perspective will close the article. It is proposed to develop a stimulation program based on pattern separation mechanism to better process sensory interference in order to train older adults to improve cognitive precision and thus performance.     

Staying on or getting off the sidewalk? Testing the Mehrabian-Russell Model on pedestrian behavior

Social and environmental psychology provide a variety of models based on which to understand how built environments can elicit people’s behavioral responses. The Mehrabian-Russell model (MRM), initially presented in 1974, provides a framework that explains avoid–approach behavior towards a place based on a primary emotional response (PER) and affective states elicited by the perceived stimuli from the environment. However, despite the potential applications of the MRM in travel behavior studies, traditional models (e.g., discrete choice models and integrated choice latent variable) do not incorporate this specific psychological process that converts environmental stimuli into behavioral responses. Hence, this paper aims to test the applicability of MRM to urban sidewalks. To fulfill this objective, we developed a two-level structural equation model using latent variables (LV) identified from a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) based on 1056 in-person surveys on 30 different sidewalks in Bogotá, Colombia. We then evaluated the effect of the PER on declared avoidance as a proxy of behavioral intention. The CFA uncovered three LV equivalent to the three affective dimensions of the MRM—arousal, pleasure, and dominance—followed by a fourth LV, representing the PER, which explains the three previous LVs. This confirms the applicability of these kinds of psychological and environmental models in pedestrian behavior evaluation. We found that PER can explain the declared intention of avoidance towards the sidewalk in an urban setting. Proving that this kind of model can explain the way in which the built environment can elicit pedestrians’ emotional responses and subsequent behaviors, provides information that can be used as input in travel behavior studies focusing on the promotion of active traveling and mode change.     

Atmospheric memories: Affect and minor politics at the ten-year anniversary of the London bombings

This paper addresses how the ten-year anniversary of the London bombings was made present through political affects and atmospheres on 7 July 2015. Although the anniversary of a terrorist event forms an opportune moment for invoking the nation as united in feeling, we are interested in how people attune to political atmospheres of memory and trauma in multiple ways, which do not always cohere to sovereign narratives about unity and certainty. By focusing on these events through an attentiveness to the atmospheric and affective, we examine how these events were recalled, memorialised, felt and sensed in the small-scale ceremonies taking place across London on that morning, by way of a multi-authored sensory auto-ethnography. As such, we are led towards various moments of encounter, which involve ‘minor gestures’ (Manning, 2016), and imply ways of responding to acts of terror that rub against the unifying forces of the state. In contrast to the ‘rolling maelstroms of affect’ (Thrift 2004: 57) pursued by the state and media following a terrorist attack, this project is attentive to multiple, uncertain and ambivalent encounters. These matter because they suggest other ways of being political and of responding to both terrorist and state-led violence.     

Altered visual and somatosensory feedback affects gait stability in persons with multiple sclerosis

Persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) often report problems due to sensory loss and have an inability to appropriately reweight sensory information. Both of these issues can affect individual’s ability to maintain stability when walking under challenging conditions. The purpose of the current study was to determine how gait stability is adapted when walking under challenging sensory conditions where vision and somatosensation at the feet is manipulated. 25 healthy adults and 40 PwMS (15 fallers, 25 non-fallers) walked on a treadmill at their preferred normal walking speed under 3 conditions: normal walking, altered vision using goggles that shifted visual field laterally, and altered somatosensation using shoes with compliant foam soles. Inertial measurement united recorded acceleration at the lumbar and right ankle, and acceleration variability measures were calculated including root mean square (RMS), range, sample entropy (SaEn), and Lyapunov exponents (LyE). A gait stability index (GSI) was calculated using each of the four variability measures as the ratio of lumbar acceleration variability divided by foot acceleration variability in the frontal and sagittal planes. The sagittal and frontal GSI_RMS were larger in the somatosensory condition compared to the normal and visual conditions (p < 0.001). The frontal GSI_SaEn was greater in the visual condition compared to the somatosensory condition (p = 0.021). The frontal and sagittal GSI_LyE was greater in the somatosensory condition compared to the normal and visual conditions (p < 0.002). The current study showed that HC, MS non-fallers and MS fallers largely adapted to altered sensory feedback during walking in a similar manner. However, MS faller subjects may be more reliant on visual feedback compared to MS non-fallers and HC subjects.     

Manipulating memory associations changes decision-making preferences in a preconditioning task

Memories of past experiences can guide our decisions. Thus, if memories are undermined or distorted, decision making should be affected. Nevertheless, little empirical research has been done to examine the role of memory in reinforcement decision-making. We hypothesized that if memories guide choices in a conditioning decision-making task, then manipulating these memories would result in a change of decision preferences to gain reward. We manipulated participants’ memories by providing false feedback that their memory associations were wrong before they made decisions that could lead them to win money. Participants’ memory ratings decreased significantly after receiving false feedback. More importantly, we found that false feedback led participants’ decision bias to disappear after their memory associations were undermined. Our results suggest that reinforcement decision-making can be altered by false feedback on memories. The results are discussed using memory mechanisms such as spreading activation theories.     

Sensory processing disorders in children with cerebral palsy

ObjectiveTo evaluate sensory processing in children with CP using the Sensory Profile questionnaire and to compare results with the ones of children with typical development (TD).MethodsWe assessed sensory processing of 59 TD children and 43 CP children using the Sensory Profile, a standardized parent reporting measure that records children's responses to sensory events in daily life. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the results of sensory processing evaluation among the groups. Bonferroni correction was applied.ResultsWe found differences in sensory processing between groups in 16 out of the 23 categories evaluated in the Sensory Profile.ConclusionOur results pointed out to the existence of disturbances in the processing of sensory information in CP. Based on the importance of the sensory integration process for motor function, the presence of such important disturbances draw the attention to the implementation of sensory therapies which improve function in these children.     

Is sensory processing an issue for infants with colic?

ObjectivesTo determine the association between sensory functioning, sleep, cry/fuss, and feeding behaviors of infants with colic younger than 4 months of age.MethodsDunn’s Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile™ and a modified Barr Baby Day Diary^© were used to assess 44 breastfed infants with colic under four months of age. Colic was defined according to Wessel’s criteria.ResultsThirty-four of the 44 infants with colic (77%) scored as atypical for sensory processing. Of these, 56% scored atypical for sensory processing on quadrant one (Q1) (Low Registration), with 24%, 65%, and 18% scoring as atypical for sensory processing on Q2 (Sensory seeking), Q3 (Sensory sensitivity), and Q4 (Sensation avoiding), respectively. All infants demonstrating sensation avoiding also scored as Low Threshold. A moderate statistically significant correlation was found between sensation seeking and time spent sleeping (r = 0.31; p = 0.04). No other statistically significant associations between infant behaviors and their sensory functioning were demonstrated. Overall, infants demonstrating atypical sensory responses (in any quadrant) slept significantly more than infants demonstrating typical sensory responses (mean difference = −67.8 min/day; 95% CI = −133.6 to −2.1; p = 0.04).ConclusionVery limited associations between infant behaviors and sensory functioning were demonstrated, suggesting that sensory functioning may not be a significant factor in the multifactorial nature of infant colic. Further well-designed studies using validated tools for infants with colic are required to determine whether associations between infant behaviors and sensory functioning exist.