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The way human bodies are represented is central in everyday activities. The cognitive system must combine internal, visceral, and somatosensory, signals to external, visually driven information generated from the spatial placement of others’ bodies and the own body in the space. However, how different body representations covertly interact among them when observing human body parts is still unclear. Therefore, we investigated the implicit processing of body parts by manipulating either the body part stimuli’ posture (conditions a and b) or the participants’ response body posture (conditions c, d, and e) in healthy participants (N = 70) using a spatial compatibility task called Sidedness task. The task requires participants to judge the colour of a circle superimposed on a task-irrelevant body part picture. Responses are facilitated when the spatial side of the responding hand corresponds to the spatial code generated by the hand stimulus's position with respect to a body of reference. Results showed that the observation of the task-irrelevant body parts oriented participants’ attention and facilitated responses that were spatial compatible with the spatial position such body parts have within a configural representation of the body structure (i.e., Body Structural Representation) in all the five experimental conditions. Notably, the body part stimuli were mentally attached to the body according to the most comfortable and less awkward postures, following the anatomo-physiological constraints. Moreover, the pattern of the results was not influenced by manipulating the participants’ response postures, suggesting that the automatic and implicit coding of the body part stimuli does not rely on proprioceptive information about one's body (i.e., Body Schema). We propose that the human body's morphometry knowledge is enriched by biomechanical and anatomo-physiological information about the real body movement possibilities. Moreover, we discuss the importance of the automatic orienting of attention based on the sidedness within the context of imitational learning.

The cognitive system selects the most appropriate action imitative process: a semantic process – relying on long-term memory representations for known actions, and low-level visuomotor transformations for unknown actions. These two processes work in parallel; however, how context regularities and cognitive control modulate them is unclear. In this study, process selection was triggered contextually by presenting mixed known and new actions in predictable or unpredictable lists, while a cue on the forthcoming action triggered top-down control. Known were imitated faster than the new actions in the predictable lists only. Accuracy was higher and reaction times faster in the uncued conditions, and the predictable faster than the unpredictable list in the uncued condition only. In the latter condition, contextual factors modulate process selection, as participants use statistical regularities to perform the task at best. With the cue, the cognitive system tries to control response selection, resulting in more errors and longer reaction times.

Objective: To investigate how two types of body representation (body schema and body image) were affected in people with and without apraxia following a supratentorial stroke. Design: Observational cross-sectional study Setting: Level 1 Specialist Neurological Rehabilitation Unit Participants: 30 participants post-stroke diagnosed with (n = 10) and without apraxia (n = 20) according to a modified version of the short Ideomotor Apraxia Test. Interventions: Not applicable Main Outcome Measures: Body schema assessed using the hand laterality recognition test and body part knowledge test; Implicit body image assessed using the sidedness test. Results: Left-sided lesions were more common in the apraxic group. Compared to people without apraxia post-stroke, those with apraxia showed significantly reduced accuracy and longer reaction times on the hand laterality test and fewer correct responses on the body part knowledge test. There was no between-groups difference in the sidedness test. Conclusions: People with apraxia showed deficits in online body representations (body schema) that are used to plan and execute actions. Future research studies could target body schema deficits as an adjunct in the rehabilitation of apraxia.

The dexterous control of our grasping actions relies on the cooperative activation of many brain areas. In the parietal lobe, 2 grasp-related areas collaborate to orchestrate an accurate grasping action: dorsolateral area AIP and dorsomedial area V6A. Single-cell recordings in monkeys and fMRI studies in humans have suggested that both these areas specify grip aperture and wrist orientation, but encode these grasping parameters differently, depending on the context. To elucidate the causal role of phAIP and hV6A, we stimulated these areas, while participants were performing grasping actions (unperturbed grasping). rTMS over phAIP impaired the wrist orientation process, whereas stimulation over hV6A impaired grip aperture encoding. In a small percentage of trials, an unexpected reprogramming of grip aperture or wrist orientation was required (perturbed grasping). In these cases, rTMS over hV6A or over phAIP impaired reprogramming of both grip aperture and wrist orientation. These results represent the first direct demonstration of a different encoding of grasping parameters by 2 grasp-related parietal areas.

The degree to which each sport modality relies on cognitive visual skills is hitherto under-researched. This study sought to further understanding of the relationship between sport modality and visual search ability, visual working memory, and reasoning. Ninety-five participants took part in the present study. In order to assess visual search ability, we employed the Visual Search Task. Visual working memory was assessed through the Corsi Block Tapping – Backwards Task. Reasoning abilities were assessed through the Cognitive Reflection Task. Results indicate that visual search skills appear to benefit to a higher extent from open-skill sports when compared to closed-skill sports. It is important to emphasize, however, that this result was associated with a small effect size. Moreover, the present findings indicate that closed-skill athletes do not differ in terms of visual search abilities, working memory, and reasoning abilities when compared to control indivi

Boxing athletes code the opponents’ intention to act in advance to plan and perform the most appropriate counterattack responses; in contrast, non-athletes respond with a defence action (Ottoboni, Russo, Tessari, 2015). We investigated whether such difference is limited at elaborating the most appropriate motor response or relies on different visual and attentional strategies during the early visual analysis of the opponent. We recorded saccades as indexes of visual attentional orienting during an implicit paradigm (i.e., a Simon-like task): nine experienced boxers and nine controls observed photographs of boxing attacks (jab and cross) or a neutral position (guard) and judged the colour of body parts either salient or not for elaborating the attack action (gloves vs. shorts, respectively) by shifting their gaze towards one of two lateral response boxes. Release reaction times (i.e., time between the start of the first saccade away from the fixation rectangle toward the response box) were faster toward the arm that seemed about to attack for the jab stance (the most dynamic one as implying motion) when judging the glove colour in both athletes and controls. No effect emerged when focusing on the shorts that provide irrelevant information for elaborating a defence or attack action. Therefore, athletes and controls seem to use the same visual strategies (saccadic movements) when analysing the opponent’s posture before acting. However, if expertise brings better motor response processing as previously found, the difference between athletes and non-athletes must lay in a later cognitive stage (other than the visual one) devoted to plane the most effective motor response.

Previous studies showed that imitation of finger and hand/arm gestures could be differentially impaired after brain damage. However, so far, the interaction between gesture meaning and body part in imitation deficits has not been fully assessed. In the present study, we aimed at filling this gap by testing 36 unilateral left brain-damaged patients with and without apraxia (20 apraxics), and 29 healthy controls on an imitation task of either finger or hand/arm meaningful (MF) gestures and meaningless (ML) movements, using a large sample of stimuli and controlling for the composition of the experimental list. Left-brain damaged patients imitated ML finger worse than hand/arm movements, whereas they did not show the same difference in MF gesture imitation. In addition, apraxic patients imitated finger movements worse than hand/arm movements. Furthermore, apraxic patients' imitation performance was equally affected irrespective of the action meaning, whereas non-apraxic patients showed better imitation performance on MF gestures. Results suggest that MF gestures are processed as a whole, as imitation of these gestures relies on the stored motor programs in long-term memory, independently of the body part involved. In contrast, ML movements seem to be processed through direct visuo-motor transformations, with left-brain damage specifically disrupting imitation performance of the more cognitive demanding finger movements.

hysical activity (PA) is a very important component of people's well-being. Copious evidence argues for its role as a protective factor across individuals’ lifespan. However, its role as a factor of enhancement for human cognitive skills is still a matter of studies. The present work aims to provide conclusive evidence about the role of PA on the modulation of the working memory skills in active pre-adolescent children. By enrolling a large number of participants (110 students) we tested the effect of PA on Digit Span Backwards (DSB), a well-consolidated test taxing primarily short-term auditory memory, i.e., less dependent on attention fluctuations. Mainly, higher working memory capacity was assumed to emerge in the participants used to practice PA compared to the less active ones; moreover, due to the different activities participants reported to practice, we expected that children practising open-skill activities manifested stronger memory skill than the peers practising closed-skill activities, due to the intrinsic nature of the two forms of activities. Data supported the previous evidence highlighting the positive effect of PA, however, they do not do the same for the differences assumed to feature open and closed skills. Results are discussed in the light of the cognitive efforts required to sport beginners, and in particular, in the light of what they are prompted to code, remember and recall in each step of the proposed exercises.

INTRODUCTION: The visual scanning techniques used by helicopter pilots are a critical skill to accomplish safe and correct landing. According to the human information processing theory, visual scanning techniques can be analyzed as a function of fixation location, number, and duration of fixations.METHODS: This study assessed these techniques in expert and novice pilots during an open sea flight simulation in a low-workload condition, consisting of a daylight and good weather simulation, and in a high-workload condition of night-time, low visibility, and adverse weather conditions. Taking part in the study were 12 helicopter pilots. Mental workload was assessed through psychological measures (NASA-TLX). The pilots performance was assessed and eye movements were recorded using an eye-tracker during four phases of the flight simulations.RESULTS: Overall, pilots made more fixations out of the window (OTW; 22.54) than inside the cockpit (ITC; 11.08), Fixations were longer OTW (830.17 ms) than ITC (647.97 ms) and they were shorter in the low-demand condition (626.27 ms). Further, pilots reported higher mental workload (NASA-TLX) in the high-demand condition compared to the low-demand condition, regardless of their expertise, and expert pilots reported a lower mental workload compared to novice pilots.DISCUSSION: Pilots performance and perceived mental workload varied as a function of expertise and flight conditions. Pilots rely on instrument support during the cruise phase and external visual cues during the landing phase. The implications for a new visual landing system design are discussed.Rainieri G, Fraboni F, Russo G, Tul M, Pingitore A, Tessari A, Pietrantoni L. Visual scanning techniques and mental workload of helicopter pilots during simulated flight. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2021; 92(1):1119.

Accumulating evidence supports the view that the medial part of the posterior parietal cortex (mPPC) is involved in the planning of reaching, but while plenty of studies investigated reaching performed toward different directions, only a few studied different depths. Here, we investigated the causal role of mPPC (putatively, human area V6A–hV6A) in encoding depth and direction of reaching. Specifically, we applied single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the left hV6A at different time points while 15 participants were planning immediate, visually guided reaching by using different eye-hand configurations. We found that TMS delivered over hV6A 200 ms after the Go signal affected the encoding of the depth of reaching by decreasing the accuracy of movements toward targets located farther with respect to the gazed position, but only when they were also far from the body. The effectiveness of both retinotopic (farther with respect to the gaze) and spatial position (far from the body) is in agreement with the presence in the monkey V6A of neurons employing either retinotopic, spatial, or mixed reference frames during reach plan. This work provides the first causal evidence of the critical role of hV6A in the planning of visually guided reaching movements in depth.

Physical activity presents clear benefits for children’s cognition; this study examined the effect of a single exercise session of open- or closed-skill exercise, as opposed to a no-exercise activity on multisensory perception, i.e. the ability to appropriately merge inputs from different sensory modalities, and on working memory (verbal, visuo-spatial, and motor working memory) in 51 preadolescent children (aged 6-8). Using a semi-randomised pre-post design, participants completed a range of cognitive tasks immediately before and after an exercise session or a classroom sedentary activity. Participants were randomised, within each school, to one of the three groups (open-skill, n=16; closed-skill, n=16; classroom activity, n=19). Exercise, but not usual classroom activity, improved children’s multisensory perception, with no difference between exercise types. Results also revealed that a single open-skill session produced verbal working memory (digit span) benefits; a closed-skill exercise session benefitted motor working memory. While the relatively small number of participants should be acknowledged as limitation, these findings contribute to emerging evidence for selective cognitive benefits of exercise, and show, for the first time in children, that multisensory processing sensitivity is improved by exercise.

European population will face an unprecedented aging era in the next years. Albeit aging in itself is a success goal, it may bring with it a general decline and functional limitations. In order to decelerate such decline, one of the most efficient strategies is physical activity. The present paper reports the insight emerging from three focus-group interviews organized at the beginning of the MOTION—Remote Home Physical Training for Seniors project, whose main aim regarded the implementation of an ICT system capable of offering home-based gym sessions to healthy seniors. The sixteen interview participants (11 females and 5 males, averaged age 72.3) provided several indications, which were grouped into the following themes: (1) ICT technical characteristics; (2) Platform accessibility; (3) Physical program features; (4) Psychological factors. At the end of the thematic analysis, results suggest that theoretical frameworks mainly focusing on ICT issues might be insufficient to endorse the successful development and maintenance of ICT systems such as MOTION, which challenges seniors to accept ICT while staying committed to the physical exercise program .

The present study investigates whether sport activities involving children with a disability can reduce negative attitudes towards disability in children without disability. We compared the effect of being schoolmate or member of the same football team whereby a child with disability was member of the class/team or not. This lead to four groups that were assessed both at the beginning and at the end of the school year. Two measures were collected: an ad-hoc questionnaire and an Implicit Association Test. The two assessments were designed to measure explicit and implicit attitudes towards children with disabilities. Results suggested that sport activities over one school year reduced more (p < .001) the implicit negative attitude towards disability (Mean = -.17, sd = .10) than the contact with the classmate in the school context (Mean = -.03, sd = .14), possibly due to their team building characteristic.

One single bout of exercise can be associated with positive effects on cognition, due to physiological changes associated with muscular activity, increased arousal, and training of cognitive skills during exercise. While the positive effects of life-long physical activity on cognitive ageing are well demonstrated, it is not well established whether one bout of exercise is sufficient to register such benefits in older adults. The aim of this study was to test the effect of one bout of exercise on two cognitive processes essential to daily life and known to decline with ageing: audio-visual perception and immediate memory. Fifty-eight older adults took part in a quasi-experimental design study and were divided into three groups based on their habitual activity (open skill exercise (mean age = 69.65, SD = 5.64), closed skill exercise, N = 18, 94% female; sedentary activity-control group, N = 21, 62% female). They were then tested before and after their activity (duration between 60 and 80 minutes). Results showed improvement in sensitivity in audio-visual perception in the open skill group and improvements in one of the measures of immediate memory in both exercise groups, after controlling for baseline differences including global cognition and health. These findings indicate that immediate benefits for cross-modal perception and memory can be obtained after open skill exercise. However, improvements after closed skill exercise may be limited to memory benefits. Perceptual benefits are likely to be associated with arousal, while memory benefits may be due to the training effects provided by task requirements during exercise. The respective role of qualitative and quantitative differences between these activities in terms of immediate cognitive benefits should be further investigated. Importantly, the present results present the first evidence for a modulation of cross-modal perception by exercise, providing a plausible avenue for rehabilitation of cross-modal perception deficits, which are emerging as a significant contributor to functional decline in ageing.

In this study we investigated with a priming paradigm whether uni and bimanual actions presented as primes differently affected language processing. Animals' (self-moving entities) and plants' (not self-moving entities) names were used as targets. As prime we used grasping hands, presented both as static images and videos. The results showed an interference effect with unimanual action primes (both static and moving) with plants' names. No modulation of responses for animals' names was found. We argue that in the present task plants elicit information on unimanual grasping actions they support, while the lack of effect for animals could be due to them being better characterized as active agents.

Previous studies have suggested that imitators can reproduce known gestures shown by a model using a semantic, indirect route, and novel gestures using a sublexical, direct route. In the present study we aimed at testing the validity of such a dual-route model of action imitation. Patients with either left-brain damage (LBD) or right-brain damage (RBD) were tested on an action imitation task. Actions were either meaningful (n ¼ 20) or meaningless (n ¼ 20), and were presented in an intermingled list and, on a different day, in separate lists. We predicted that, in the mixed condition, patients would use a direct route to imitate meaningful and meaningless actions, as it allows the imitation of both action types. In the blocked condition, patients were expected to select the semantic route for meaningful actions and the direct route for meaningless actions. As hypothesized, none of the 32 patients showed dissociations between imitation of meaningful and meaningless actions in the mixed presentation. In contrast, eight patients showed a dissociation between imitation of meaningful actions and imitation of meaningless actions in the blocked presentation. Moreover, two of these patients showed a classical double dissociation between the imitation of the two action types. Results were interpreted in support of the validity of a dual-route model for explaining action imitation. We argue that the decrease in imitation of meaningful actions, relative to meaningless actions, is caused by a damage of the semantic route, and that the decline in imitation of meaningless actions, relative to meaningful actions, is produced by a breakdown of the direct route. The brain areas that were lesioned in all six LBD patients who showed a dissociation were in the superior temporal gyrus and the angular gyrus, whereas the two RBD subjects had common lesions of the pallidum and of the putamen. The brain structures affected in our patients with selective apraxia are consistent with those reported before in other neuropsychological reports. They are also in agreement with areas found activated in imaging studies in which the neural mechanisms underlying imitation were examined.

Our commentary addresses two issues that are not developed enough in the target article. First, the model does not clearly address the distinction among external objects, external body parts, and internal bodies. Second, the authors could have discussed further the role of body schema with regard to its dynamic character, and its role in perspective and in imitation.

The effects of learning on strategy selection in the context of action imitation have been investigated in two experiments conducted with healthy individuals. It was predicted that, once learnt, meaningless actions are processed by the cognitive system as meaningful and this new representational status might influence the process selection in action imitation. Results showed that not only were learnt meaningless actions processed in the same way as known, meaningful actions, but that they were imitated even better, probably due to their being represented only once in the episodic, long-term memory system. Our findings are interpreted in the light of a multiple route model for action imitation.

The medial posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in the complex processes of visuomotor integration. Its connections to the dorsal premotor cortex, which in turn is connected to the primary motor cortex (M1), complete the fronto-parietal network that supports important cognitive functions in the planning and execution of goal-oriented movements. In this study, we wanted to investigate the time-course of the functional connectivity at rest between the medial PPC and the M1 using dual-site transcranial magnetic stimulation in healthy humans. We stimulated the left M1 using a suprathreshold test stimulus to elicit motor-evoked potentials in the hand, and a subthreshold conditioning stimulus was applied over the left medial PPC at different inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs). The conditioning stimulus affected the M1 excitability depending on the ISI, with inhibition at longer ISIs (12 and 15 ms). We suggest that these modulations may reflect the activation of different parieto-frontal pathways, with long latency inhibitions likely recruiting polisynaptic pathways, presumably through anterolateral PPC.

Background Acquired brain injury and spinal cord injury are leading causes of severe motor disabilities impacting a person’s autonomy and social life. Enhancing neurological recovery driven by neurogenesis and neuronal plasticity could represent future solutions; however, at present, recovery of activities employing assistive technologies integrating artificial intelligence is worthy of examining. MAIA (Multifunctional, adaptive, and interactive AI system for Acting in multiple contexts) is a human-centered AI aiming to allow end-users to control assistive devices naturally and efficiently by using continuous bidirectional exchanges among multiple sensorimotor information. Methods Aimed at exploring the acceptability of MAIA, semi-structured interviews (both individual interviews and focus groups) are used to prompt possible end-users (both patients and caregivers) to express their opinions about expected functionalities, outfits, and the services that MAIA should embed, once developed, to fit end-users needs. Discussion End-user indications are expected to interest MAIA technical, health-related, and setting components. Moreover, psycho-social issues are expected to align with the technology acceptance model. In particular, they are likely to involve intrinsic motivational and extrinsic social aspects, aspects concerning the usefulness of the MAIA system, and the related ease to use. At last, we expect individual factors to impact MAIA: gender, fragility levels, psychological aspects involved in the mental representation of body image, personal endurance, and tolerance toward AT-related burden might be the aspects end-users rise in evaluating the MAIA project.