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This study aimed to explore the relationship between action execution and mental rotation modalities. To this end, pantomime gesture (i.e. the mime of the use of an object) was used as its execution relies on imagery processes. Specifically, we tried to clarify the role of visuo-spatial or motor and body-related mental imagery processes in pantomime gestures performed away (AB, e.g. drawing on a sheet) and towards the body (TB, e.g. brushing the teeth). We included an "actual use" condition in which participants were asked to use a toothbrush and make 3, 6, or 9 circular movements close to their mouth (as if they were brushing their teeth) or to use a pencil and make 3, 6, or 9 circular movements on a desk (as if they were drawing circles). Afterwards, participants were asked to pantomime the actual use of the same objects ("pantomime" condition). Finally, they were asked to mentally rotate three different stimuli: hands, faces, and abstract lines. Results showed that participants were faster in AB than TB pantomimes. Moreover, the more accurate and faster the mental rotation of body-related stimuli was, the more similar the temporal duration between both kinds of pantomimes and the actual use of the objects appeared. Instead, the temporal similarity between AB pantomimes and pencil actual use, as well as, the duration of AB pantomime and actual use, were associated with the ability to mentally rotate abstract lines. This was not true for TB movements. These results suggest that the execution of AB and TB pantomimes may involve different mental imagery modalities. Specifically, AB pantomimes would not only require to mentally manipulate images of body-parts in movement but also represent the spatial relations of the object with the external world.

This study aimed at comparing the time course of the activation of function and manipulation knowledge during object identification. The influence of visual similarity and context information was also assessed. In 3 eye-tracking experiments, conducted with the Visual-World-Paradigm, participants heard the name of an object and had to identify it among four pictures. The target object (e.g., ) could be presented along with objects related by (a) function (e.g., ), (b) manipulation (e.g., ), (c) context (e.g., ), (d) visual similarity (e.g., ), and (e) completely unrelated objects. Growth curve analyses were used to assess competition effects among semantically (a, b, and c), visually related (d), and unrelated competitors (e). Results showed that manipulation- and function-related, but not context-related objects received more fixations than the unrelated ones, with a temporal advantage for the manipulation-related objects (Experiment 1). However, the visually similar objects faded the semantic competition effects, especially for function-related objects (Experiment 2). Finally, no temporal differences appeared when manipulation- and function-related objects were shown within the same visual array (Experiment 3). These results support the idea that both function and manipulation are relevant features of object semantic representations, but in the absence of other semantic competitors the activation of manipulation features appears prioritized during object identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved). 46;1

This study aimed to explore the development of mental rotation ability throughout life by comparing different kinds of stimuli. Thirty-six children (6–9 years-old), 30 young (20–28 years-old) and 30 elderly people (60–82 years-old) performed mental rotation tasks with abstract (i.e. two-dimensional lines) and concrete stimuli (i.e. hands, human/animal faces). The results showed that overall young people outperformed children and elderly people, while children were less accurate than the elderly. However, the effect of age was shaped by the kinds of stimuli: (a) young people were more accurate than children and elderly people particularly with abstract stimuli; (b) elderly people improved their performance with images depicting faces; (c) children performed better with body-related stimuli than animal faces. Finally, performance was more difficult when stimuli were rotated by 180°, especially for younger and older females. We may conclude that the effects of age are modulated by the characteristics of the stimuli with a specific difficulty for abstract stimuli and a facilitation for concrete stimuli. As an innovative aspect, during childhood there appeared a specific facilitation for body-related stimuli, not just for concrete ones. These findings are interpreted according to embodied models of cognitive development and the effects of ageing on the brain.

Many everyday spatial activities require the cooperation or switching between egocentric (subject-to-object) and allocentric (object-to-object) spatial representations. The literature on blind people has reported that the lack of vision (congenital blindness) may limit the capacity to represent allocentric spatial information. However, research has mainly focused on the selective involvement of egocentric or allocentric representations, not the switching between them. Here we investigated the effect of visual deprivation on the ability to switch between spatial frames of reference. To this aim, congenitally blind (long-term visual deprivation), blindfolded sighted (temporary visual deprivation) and sighted (full visual availability) participants were compared on the Ego–Allo switching task. This task assessed the capacity to verbally judge the relative distances between memorized stimuli in switching (from egocentric-to-allocentric: Ego–Allo; from allocentric-to-egocentric: Allo–Ego) and non-switching (only-egocentric: Ego–Ego; only-allocentric: Allo–Allo) conditions. Results showed a difficulty in congenitally blind participants when switching from allocentric to egocentric representations, not when the first anchor point was egocentric. In line with previous results, a deficit in processing allocentric representations in non-switching conditions also emerged. These findings suggest that the allocentric deficit in congenital blindness may determine a difficulty in simultaneously maintaining and combining different spatial representations. This deficit alters the capacity to switch between reference frames specifically when the first anchor point is external and not body-centered.

There is evidence that early deprivation of vision prompts the use of body-based, egocentric spatial representations in congenitally blind individuals, whereas previous visual experience favors the use of object-based, allocentric representations (e.g. Pasqualotto A, Spiller MJ, Jansari AS, Proulx MJ. Visual experience facilitates allocentric spatial representation. Behav Brain Res 2013;236:175-79). Here we investigated whether the influence of the visual status on the capacity to represent egocentric and allocentric spatial relations is mediated by the scale of space explored: large-scale (where a haptic+locomotor exploration is required) and small-scale space (where haptic exploration is needed). Our results showed that congenitally blind people had more difficulty in representing spatial information allocentrically with respect to late blind and sighted individuals, but this difficulty was stronger with large-scale than small-scale space. Instead, egocentric performance was better than the allocentric one for all groups, particularly in the small scale condition. These results suggest that visual experience is necessary to develop accurate allocentric representations especially of large-scale spaces. This is probably due to its capacity to convey a large amount of spatial information simultaneously and to its role on the setting up of multisensory brain areas underlying spatial cognition. In the absence of any kind of visual experience, egocentric spatial representations are favored, especially in small-scale space, when the body offers a stable anchor point.

Being able to predict potential collisions is a necessary survival prerequisite for all moving species. Temporal and spatial information is fundamental for this purpose. However, it is not clear yet if the peripersonal (i.e. near) and extrapersonal (i.e. far) distance between our body and the moving objects affects the way in which we can predict possible collisions. In order to assess this, we manipulated independently velocity and path of two balls moving one towards the other in such a way as to collide or not in peripersonal and extrapersonal space. In two experiments, participants had to judge if these balls were to collide or not. The results consistently showed a lower discrimination capacity and a more liberal tendency to predict collisions when the moving balls were in peripersonal space and their velocity was different rather than equal. This did not happen in extrapersonal space. Therefore, peripersonal space was particularly affected by temporal information. The possible link between the motor and anticipatory adaptive function of peripersonal space and collision prediction mechanisms is discussed.

The aim of this research is to assess whether the crucial factor in determining the characteristics of blind people's spatial mental images is concerned with the visual impairment per se or the processing style that the dominant perceptual modalities used to acquire spatial information impose, i.e. simultaneous (vision) vs sequential (kinaesthesis). Participants were asked to learn six positions in a large parking area via movement alone ( congenitally blind , adventitiously blind , blindfolded sighted ) or with vision plus movement ( simultaneous sighted , sequential sighted ), and then to mentally scan between positions in the path. The crucial manipulation concerned the sequential sighted group. Their visual exploration was made sequential by putting visual obstacles within the pathway in such a way that they could not see simultaneously the positions along the pathway. The results revealed a significant time/distance linear relation in all tested groups. However, the linear component was lower in sequential sighted and blind participants, especially congenital. Sequential sighted and congenitally blind participants showed an almost overlapping performance. Differences between groups became evident when mentally scanning farther distances (more than 5 m). This threshold effect could be revealing of processing limitations due to the need of integrating and updating spatial information. Overall, the results suggest that the characteristics of the processing style rather than the visual impairment per se affect blind people's spatial mental images.

The aim of this study was to explore the role of motor resources in peripersonal space encoding: are they intrinsic to spatial processes or due to action potentiality of objects? To answer this question, we disentangled the effects of motor resources on object manipulability and spatial processing in peripersonal and extrapersonal spaces. Participants had to localize manipulable and non-manipulable 3-D stimuli presented within peripersonal or extrapersonal spaces of an immersive virtual reality scenario. To assess the contribution of motor resources to the spatial task a motor interference paradigm was used. In Experiment 1, localization judgments were provided with the left hand while the right dominant arm could be free or blocked. Results showed that participants were faster and more accurate in localizing both manipulable and non-manipulable stimuli in peripersonal space with their arms free. On the other hand, in extrapersonal space there was no significant effect of motor interference. Experiment 2 replicated these results by using alternatively both hands to give the response and controlling the possible effect of the orientation of object handles. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that the encoding of peripersonal space involves motor processes per se, and not because of the presence of manipulable stimuli. It is argued that this motor grounding reflects the adaptive need of anticipating what may happen near the body and preparing to react in time.

Preserving the soundscape and geographic extension of quiet areas is a great challenge against the wide-spreading of environmental noise. The E.U. Environmental Noise Directive underlines the need to preserve quiet areas as a new aim for the management of noise in European countries. At the same time, due to their low population density, rural areas characterized by suitable wind are considered appropriate locations for installing wind farms. However, despite the fact that wind farms are represented as environmentally friendly projects, these plants are often viewed as visual and audible intruders, that spoil the landscape and generate noise. Even though the correlations are still unclear, it is obvious that visual impacts of wind farms could increase due to their size and coherence with respect to the rural/quiet environment. In this paper, by using the Immersive Virtual Reality technique, some visual and acoustical aspects of the impact of a wind farm on a sample of subjects were assessed and analyzed. The subjects were immersed in a virtual scenario that represented a situation of a typical rural outdoor scenario that they experienced at different distances from the wind turbines. The influence of the number and the colour of wind turbines on global, visual and auditory judgment were investigated. The main results showed that, regarding the number of wind turbines, the visual component has a weak effect on individual reactions, while the colour influences both visual and auditory individual reactions, although in a different way.

"The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a wind farm on individuals by means of an audio-visual methodology that tried to simulate biologically plausible individual–environment interactions. To disentangle the effects of auditory and visual components on cognitive. performances and subjective evaluations, unimodal (Audio or Video) and bimodal (Audio ? Video) approaches were compared. Participants were assigned to three experimental conditions that reproduced a wind farm by means of an immersive virtual reality system: bimodal condition, reproducing scenarios with both acoustic and visual stimuli; unimodal visual condition, with only visual stimuli; unimodal auditory condition, with only auditory stimuli.. While immersed in the virtual scenarios, participants performed. tasks assessing verbal fluency, short-term verbal memory, backward counting, and distance estimations. (egocentric: how far is the turbine from you?; allocentric: how far is the turbine from the target?). Afterwards, participants reported their degree of visual and noise annoyance.. The results revealed that the presence of a visual scenario as compared to the only availability of auditory stimuli may exert a negative effect on resource-demanding cognitive tasks but a positive effect on perceived noise. annoyance. This supports the idea that humans perceive the environment holistically and that auditory and visual features are processed in close interaction."

IntroductionLittle is known about the developmental course of spatialmemory, although this topic would be of clinical andtheoretical relevance. Spatial memory plays a fundamentalrole in everyday human activities, like way-finding, local-izing places or grasping objects. The assessment of spatialmemory, that is the pre-requisite of independent mobilityin the environment, is therefore crucial to monitor elderlypeople’s well-being.The purpose of this research is to investigate the effectof ageing on the frames of reference necessary to representspatial information in memory. Frames of reference areusually divided into egocentric and allocentric. Egocentricframes define spatial information with respect to the bodyor its parts, while allocentric frames specify spatial infor-mation on the basis of external objects (Kosslyn 1994).So far, age-related changes in basic visuospatial abili-ties, mental imagery and navigational abilities have beeninvestigated (see Ruggiero et al. 2008; Iachini et al. 2005).Laboratory-based psychometric tasks, such as mentalrotation, and more ecological tasks, such as direction-finding and map learning have been used (Barrash 1994;Wilkniss et al. 1997; Kirasic 1991). The results obtainedare still controversial and it is not yet clear which spatialprocesses decline with normal ageing and which ones arepreserved. Furthermore, deficits in spatial cognition, suchas topographical disorientation (Aguirre and D’Esposito1999), may be symptoms of age-related diseases likeAlzheimer’s disease.As regards the egocentric/allocentric distinction, to thebest of our knowledge the literature on ageing and spatialmemory has not directly addressed this issue. Few attemptsto compare directly these two kinds of processing in youngpeople with behavioural data (Iachini and Ruggiero 2006)and fMRI acquisition (Committeri et al. 2004), and withfocal brain-damaged patients (Iachini et al. 2009a) havebeen made. Parkin et al. (1995) used a spatial discrimina-tion task that involved egocentric spatial memory tocompare healthy elderly and young people. They found nosignificant negative effect of age on the spatial perfor-mance, but only a slight decline. Instead, Hort et al. (2007)compared healthy elderly and patients with mild cognitiveimpairment (MCI) and with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on anavigational task that involved either egocentric or allo-centric components. Interestingly, they found a significantdeficit in the allocentric component in patients but not inhealthy elderly people.In this research healthy participants aged from 20 to89 years were submitted to a spatial task that compareddirectly the capacitytouseegocentric andallocentricframesofreference.Thiswasachievedbymanipulatingtheframeofreference required to give distance judgements. Further, thetask allowed to investigate the performance in far and nearspaces by varying the distance between the viewer and theobjects. In humans, egocentric frames of reference representthe primary interface between the organism and the envi-ronment (e.g. Millar 1994). For this reason, we expected afaster and more accurate egocentric than allocentric perfor-mance. As regards the effect of ageing, two outcomes arepossible: a negative influence on both spatial components ora selective drop in one of them. In the second case, an ego-centric decrease would be more likely (see Hort et al. 2007).

The purpose of this paper was to verify whether left and right parietal brain lesions may selectively impair egocentric and allocentric processing of spatial information in near/far spaces. Two Right-BrainDamaged (RBD), 2 Left-Brain-Damaged (LBD) patients (not affected by neglect or language disturbances) and eight normal controls were submitted to the Ego-Allo Task requiring distance judgments computed according to egocentric or allocentric frames of reference in near/far spaces. Subjects also completed a general neuropsychological assessment and the following visuospatial tasks: reproduction of the ReyOsterreith figure, line length judgement, point position identification, mental rotation, mental construction, line length memory, line length inference, Corsi block-tapping task. LBD patients presented difficulties in both egocentric and allocentric processing, whereas RBD patients dropped in egocentric but not in allocentric judgements, and in near but not far space. Further, RBD patients dropped in perceptually comparing linear distances, whereas LBD patients failed in memory for distances. The overall pattern of results suggests that the right hemisphere is specialized in processing metric information according to egocentric frames of reference. The data are interpreted according to a theoretical model that highlights the close link between egocentric processing and perceptual control of action.