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Object manipulation is essential to build the surrounding reality, and affordances —the action possibilities offered by the environment— have a crucial role in human-tool interaction. Due to the exponential growth of the metaverse, a research question arises: does the theoretical model behind the human-tool interaction also works in artificial reality? The present study aimed to investigate the difference in the sense of embodiment in human-tool interaction between usual and unusual objects in an immersive 360-degree video. The environment is a recording of a human arm that interact with various tools lean on a table. Forty-four participants took part in the study, and they were randomized into two groups, usual or unusual objects, and in two within participants conditions, reach to move or reach to use. Results showed no significant difference in the embodiment between usual and unusual objects, demonstrating that the ventral and dorsal streams may perfectly integrate information in the artificial environment as in the real world. Participants felt present in the virtual environment, as showed by the factor location of embodiment, so they believed they could interact with any tools, independently of their affordances. The study contributes to understanding the mechanisms behind human-tool interaction in the artificial environment.

In the macaque monkey, area V6A, located in the medial posterior parietal cortex, contains cells that encode the spatial position of a reaching target. It has been suggested that during reach planning this information is sent to the frontal cortex along a parieto-frontal pathway that connects V6A–premotor cortex–M1. A similar parieto-frontal network may also exist in the human brain, and we aimed here to study the timing of this functional connection during planning of a reaching movement toward different spatial positions. We probed the functional connectivity between human area V6A (hV6A) and the primary motor cortex (M1) using dual-site, paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation with a short (4 ms) and a longer (10 ms) interstimulus interval while healthy participants (18 men and 18 women) planned a visually-guided or a memory-guided reaching movement toward positions located at different depths and directions. We found that, when the stimulation over hV6A is sent 4 ms before the stimulation over M1, hV6A inhibits motor-evoked potentials during planning of either rightward or leftward reaching movements. No modulations were found when the stimulation over hV6A was sent 10 ms before the stimulation over M1, suggesting that only short medial parieto-frontal routes are active during reach planning. Moreover, the short route of hV6A–premotor cortex–M1 is active during reach planning irrespectively of the nature (visual or memory) of the reaching target. These results agree with previous neuroimaging studies and provide the first demonstration of the flow of inhibitory signals between hV6A and M1.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTAll our dexterous movements depend on the correct functioning of the network of brain areas. Knowing the functional timing of these networks is useful to gain a deeper understanding of how the brain works to enable accurate arm movements. In this article, we probed the parieto-frontal network and demonstrated that it takes 4 ms for the medial posterior parietal cortex to send inhibitory signals to the frontal cortex during reach planning. This fast flow of information seems not to be dependent on the availability of visual information regarding the reaching target. This study opens the way for future studies to test how this timing could be impaired in different neurological disorders.

We studied the development of imitation ability in a cohort of 6-11-year-old children (N=174) with specific attention to error types and to their cognitive interpretation. Participants imitated meaningless actions as if they were in front of a mirror (specularly). Actions varied across three levels of complexity (movements of a single limb, of arm and leg of the same body side, or of arm and leg of opposite sides). Overall performance improved with age. Among the most frequent error categories, “side” errors (movement imitated with the left instead of the right limb or viceversa) paradoxically increased with age (from 9 years), but their sensitivity to complexity decreased with age. Thus, encoding two opposite body sides has high cognitive costs in younger children, and smaller or null costs in older children. We interpreted these results in terms of enhancement of Working Memory (WM) and body knowledge with age. When WM increases, it paradoxically drives older children to apply their superior body knowledge and imitate "anatomically", producing side errors. Younger children are free from such interference because they still lack the necessary body knowledge and WM capacity. The (fewer) side errors made by younger children would be due to failure to manage the conflict between opposite spatial codes, an effect of limited WM capacity witnessed by their sensitivity to action complexity. In conclusion, this study suggests that anatomical imitation becomes available in children’s cognitive repertoire from age 9, as an effect of increased body knowledge and WM capacity.

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.

Working memory (WM) is a multicomponent system that supports cognitive functioning. It has been linked to a wide variety of outcomes including academic success and general well-being. The present study examined the relations between adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and WM among Italian children, adjusting for important parent characteristics and children's lifestyle habits. Data for this study was obtained from 106 children attending primary school in Imola (Italy) who were part of the I-MOVE study emphasizing school-based physical activity. Children's adherence to the MD was calculated using the KIDMED index (KI) based on the ZOOM-8 questionnaire. Physical activity (PA) levels were assessed using an actigraph accelerometer and WM using the backward digit span test. Univariate regression was used to select significant child-level and family measures associated with WM, which were then tested in a single multivariate regression model. Older age is positively associated with higher WM (β = 0.36; 95% CI 0.25, 0.47). Dietary adherence (KI) (β = 0.07; 95% CI 0.01, 0.14) and engagement in organized PA outside school hours (β = 0.58; 95% CI 0.09, 1.10) are positively related to WM. Among the family measures, father's education was positively associated with WM for high school education and for university vs. middle school or lower, respectively.Adherence to the MD was associated with better WM capacity in primary school children. These findings can be used to guide policymakers in designing health promotion programs and instituting policies emphasizing healthy nutrition to improve physical health and boost cognitive functioning.• The development of working memory involves the entire childhood with a rapid spurt between 2 and 8 years of age. • Working memory plays a critical role in children's learning and academic performance and underlies higher-order cognitive abilities.• Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet was associated with higher working memory capacity in primary school children. • Health promotion interventions based on PA and sound nutrition involving children benefit not only physical and mental health, but also cognitive health.

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.

Adaptive interactions with the environment require optimal integration and segregation of sensory information. Yet, temporal misalignments in the presentation of visual and auditory stimuli may generate illusory phenomena such as the sound-induced flash illusion, in which a single flash paired with multiple auditory stimuli induces the perception of multiple illusory flashes. This phenomenon has been shown to be robust and resistant to feedback training. According to a Bayesian account, this is due to a statistically optimal combination of the signals operated by the nervous system. From this perspective, individual susceptibility to the illusion might be moulded through prolonged experience. For example, repeated exposure to the illusion and prolonged training sessions partially impact on the reported illusion. Therefore, extensive and immersive audio-visual experience, such as first-person shooter videogames, should sharpen individual capacity to correctly integrate multisensory information over time, leading to more veridical perception. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the temporal profile of the sound-induced illusion in a group of expert first-person shooter gamers and a non-players group. In line with the hypotheses, gamers experience significantly narrower windows of illusion (~87 ms) relative to non-players (~105 ms), leading to higher veridical reports in gamers (~68%) relative to non-players (~59%). Moreover, according to recent literature, we tested whether audio-visual intensive training in gamers could be related to the incidence of migraine, and found that its severity may be directly proportioned to the time spent on videogames. Overall, these results suggest that continued training within audio-visual environments such as first-person shooter videogames improves temporal discrimination and sensory integration. This finding may pave the way for future therapeutic strategies based on self-administered multisensory training. On the other hand, the impact of intensive training on visual-related stress disorders, such as migraine incidence, should be taken into account as a risk factor during therapeutic planning.

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.

We studied the development of imitation ability in a cohort of 6-11-year-old children (N=174) with specific attention to error types and their cognitive interpretation. Participants imitated meaningless actions as if they were in front of a mirror (specularly). Actions varied across three levels of complexity (movements of a single limb, arm and leg of the same body side, or arm and leg of opposite sides). Overall performance improved with age. Among the most frequent error categories, ‘side’ errors (movement imitated with the left instead of the right limb or vice-versa) paradoxically increased with age (from 9 years). Still, their sensitivity to complexity decreased with age. Thus, encoding two opposite body sides has high cognitive costs in younger children and smaller or null costs in older children. We interpreted these results in terms of the enhancement of Working Memory (WM) and body knowledge with age. When WM increases, it paradoxically drives older children to apply their superior body knowledge and imitate ‘anatomically’, producing side errors. Younger children are free from such interference because they still lack the necessary body knowledge and WM capacity. In conclusion, this study suggests that anatomical imitation becomes available in children’s cognitive repertoire from age nine due to increased body knowledge and WM capacity.Research HighlightsThe analysis of error types uncovers/illustrates the role of working memory and body knowledge in imitation.As an effect of little working memory capacity, younger children pay a cognitive cost to encode opposite body sides and make “side errors”.Imitation performance improves with age, but side errors paradoxically increase in frequency due to greater ability to master body knowledge bringing to anatomical imitation.Anatomical imitation is available in childrens’ cognitive repertoire from age 9, as an effect of the development of body knowledge and working memory capacity.

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

We advance a novel computational model of the cognitive processing that underlies the acquisition of a hierarchical action repertoire and its use for observation, understanding and motor control. The model is grounded in a principled framework for understanding brain and cognition: active inference. We exemplify the functioning of the model by presenting four simulations of a tennis learner who observes a teacher performing tennis shots and forms hierarchical representations of the observed actions - including both actions that are already in her repertoire and novel actions - and finally imitates them. Our simulations show that the agent’s oculomotor activity implements an active information sampling strategy that permits inferring the kinematics aspects of the observed movement, which lie at the lowest level of the action hierarchy. In turn, this low-level kinematic inference supports higher-level inferences about deeper aspects of the observed actions, such as their proximal goals and intentions. Finally, the inferred action representations can steer imitative motor responses, but interfere with the execution of different actions. Taken together, our simulations show that the same hierarchical active inference model provides a unified account of action observation, understanding, learning and imitation. Finally, our model provides a computational rationale to explain the neurobiological underpinnings of visuomotor cognition, including the multiple routes for action understanding in the dorsal and ventral streams and mirror mechanisms.

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.

Background Physical inactivity is worldwide considered one of the biggest public health problems of the 21st century. WHO recommended in children, at least 60 minute of Moderate Vigorous Physical activity (MVPA) per day, but low percentages comply with guidelines. Considering that children spend many hours at school, classroom is the ideal setting to increase their PA. Active Breaks (AB) are a 5-15-minute bouts of PA led by the teachers during academic lessons. The aim of the Imola AB study is to implement a 1-year intervention based on AB (10min/3per-day) in primary school as a new strategy to reduce inactivity. We present the baseline results. Methods Quasi-experimental pre-post study in 6-10aged primary school children, in Imola(Italy).We evaluated PA level with Actigraph accelerometers: time (in minutes) spent in MVPA Weekly and Daily (W-MVPA; D-MVPA) and Weekly Sedentary behaviours (W-SB). Results We recruited 152 children: N = 110 in Active Breaks experimental group (AB) and N = 42 in control group (CG). Actigraph's analysis showed that 42,5% of children in the ABG vs 31.0% in the CG reach the WHO recommendation (p=ns). We investigated baseline differences between groups using ANOVA dividing children by grade. In 3-4 grades: W-MVPA (AB = 318.3±15.5 vs CG = 310.4±98.0 p = 0.78); D-MVPA (AB = 53.0±20.3 vs CG = 51.8±16.3 p = 0.79);W-SB (AB = 6,687.5±375.3 vs CG = 6,754.7±281.0 p = 0.45). In 1grade: W-MVPA (AB = 376.1±127.9 vs CG = 300.3±120.0 p = 0.02); D-MVPA (AB = 62.7±21.3 vs CG = 50.0±20.0 p = 0.02); W-SB (AB = 6,436.0±496.0 vs CG = 6,373.3 ±1,532.0 p = 0.7). Conclusions Only the 39.2% of the total sample met the 60-minute/day of MVPA recommended. We found no significant baseline differences in PA level measured by Actigraph between CG and AB, excepted in 1 grade. The intervention implemented in the Imola AB study could be a good strategy to reduce sedentary in children and reach the WHO recommendation, thus contributing to the aims of the new Global Action Plan on PA 2018-2030. Key messages Less than 50% reach the WHO recommendations of PA. AB implemented in the Imola Study could be a public health school-based strategy to reduce sedentary and increase healthy behavior in children. Active breaks (AB) are emerging as a good strategy to increase the PA level, reducing the time in sedentary habits.

To program proper reactions, athletes must anticipate opponents’ actions on the basis of previous visuomotor experience. In particular, such abilities seem to rely on processing others’ intentions to act. We adopted a new approach based on an attentional spatial compatibility paradigm to investigate how elite volleyball players elaborate both spatial and motor information at upper-limb posture presentation. Forty-two participants (18 volleyball players and 17 nonathlete controls assigned to Experiments 1 a and b, and eight basketball players assigned to Experiment 2) were tested to study their ability to process the intentions to act conveyed by hands and extract motor primitives (i.e., significant components of body movements). Analysis looked for a spatial compatibility effect between direction of the spike action (correspondence factor) and response side for both palm and back of the hand (view factor). We demonstrated that volleyball players encoded spatial sport-related indices from bodily information and showed preparatory motor activation according to the direction of the implied spike actions for the palm view (Experiment 1, hand simulating a cross-court spike, p = 0.013, and a down-the-line spike, p = 0.026) but both nonathlete controls (Experiment 1, both p &lt, 0.05) and other sports athletes (basketball players, Experiment 2, p = 0.34, only cross-court spike) did not. Results confirm that elite players’ supremacy lies in the predictive abilities of coding elementary motor primitives for their sport discipline.

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.

It has been shown that exercise positively affects cognitive abilities, such as frontal functions and long-term memory processes. We tried to understand whether different exercises (i.e., an open-skill activity, a team game, vs. a closed-skill activity, a circuit) might specifically influence different short-term-memory (STM) subsystems of working memory. We examined the effect of a single bout of open- and closed-skill exercises on three STM tasks (i.e., verbal, visuo-spatial, and motor) in children attending the 3rd and 4th classes at primary school. One group was tested before and after (T0 and T1) an Italian class (control group), one group before and after 30-min exercise on a circuit, and one group before and after 30-min of a team game. The control group presented no improvement. The open-skill activity improved short-term memory performance in all the participants at T1 (p &lt, 0.001 for children attending the 3rd class, and p = 0.007 for children attending the 4th class). In contrast, closed-skill activity improved short-term memory performance in older children (those attending the 4th class, p = 0.046) at T1. Importantly, this finding was found in a school setting and might have ecological validity. Therefore, the exercise protocol here used might help to structure specific training activities for both normal children and those with learning deficits to positively improve short-term memory abilities.

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.

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.

Il presente lavoro riporta il risultato del processo di traduzione in Italiano del questionario Motivations of Marathons Scales (Masters, Ogles, & Jolton, 1993). La traduzione fu preparata seguendo le linee guida per la traduzione e l’adattamento transculturale di misure psicometriche auto-somministrate e pubblicata sul web tramite la piattaforma Google Moduli in modo da raccogliere dati anonimi. Al questionario hanno risposto 1091 atleti. Per poter essere inclusi nello studio ogni partecipante doveva dichiarare di aver corso almeno una maratona competitiva nella sua carriera. Nonostante l’impossibilità di valutare l’affidabilità nel tempo delle risposte (i.e., test-retest), i risultati indi- cano un buon livello di coerenza interna ( = .95) e che la traduzione delle nove scale fattoriali originali ha prodotto livelli di adeguatezza simili ai valori riportati nel lavoro originario. The present work describes the results of the process of translation we performed over the questionnaire Motivations of Marathons Scales (Masters et al., 1993). The translation from the original English form to the Italian version was achieved following the guidelines for translation and cross-cultural adaptation of psychometric self-administered measures. Once translated, the questionnaire was published on the web via the Google platform Modules to collect anonymous data. The respondents declared to be 1030 marathon runners. Notwithstanding the impossibility to evaluate test-retest reliability, results indicated that the translated form of the questionnaire has good internal consistency ( = .95) and that the nine original scales showed levels of fitness that correspond to the ones reported in the original work.

In inferential environments, people make decisions on the base of outcomes predictions: the more they become ac- quainted, the more the levels of confidence increase. At the moment, the role of psychological traits or superior cognitive functions is still unclear. Through a novel visuo- spatial decision-making task we begin to disentangle the role of these factors: due to the stocastic nature of the task, we assumed that personality traits affect achieve- ments more than intelligence. Forty-two healthy partici- pants performed a visuo-spatial decision-making task de- manding for profit maximization, and responded to Raven- APM, EPQr and STAI tests. No effects of anxiety or personality emerged. Only Raven guided task performance: par- ticipants with higher score maximized their responses more than who showed lower, but still within normality, score. However, this emerged only within a variability threshold. The present experiment formalizes how envi-ronmental variability constrains the role of intelligence in extracting information from a visuo-spatial inferential task.

Background: Children and adolescents should perform, according to the World Health Organization guidelines, at least 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per-day in order to avoid the risk of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. The school represents a fundamental setting to conduct interventions to promote physical activity (PA) and contrast sedentary behaviors. Active breaks (ABs), bouts of 10 min of PA conducted inside the classroom, seem to be a good strategy to promote PA and improve classroom behavior. The aim of this study protocol is to describe the design and the assessment of the Imola Active Breaks I-MOVE study. Methods: The I-MOVE study is a school-based intervention trial, with a quasi-experimental design, performed in a primary school. It involves one experimental-group performing the intervention, focused on ABs, and one control-group. Nine main outcomes are evaluated: PA and sedentary behaviors; health related fitness; motor control development; dietary patterns; anthropometric evaluation; sociodemographic determinants; cognitive function; time-on-task behavior and quality of life. Conclusions: Results from the I-MOVE study will help to clarify the effects of incorporating ABs in the Italian school curriculum as a new public health strategy and an innovative school model oriented to the well-being of children and teachers for the best quality of school life.

Background: The school gives access to children, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender and socio-economic class and can be identified as the key environment in which to promote children&rsquo, s physical activity (PA). The guidelines of the European Union recommend accumulating at least 10-min bouts of PA to reach the daily 60 min. Active breaks (ABs) led by teachers inside the classroom represent a good strategy to promote PA. The aim of this pilot and feasibility study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness in terms of PA level of an AB programme in children aged 8&minus, 9 years attending primary school. Methods: A pre-post quasi-experimental pilot and feasibility study was performed in two primary school classes, one of which was assigned to a 14-week AB intervention (AB group) and the other to the control group (CG). At baseline and at follow-up, children were monitored for sedentary and motor activity during an entire week using ActiGraph Accelerometer (ActiLife6 wGT3X-BT). The satisfaction of children and teachers was assessed by self-administered questionnaires. Results: In the pre-post comparison, AB group (n = 16) showed a reduction in the minutes spent in weekly sedentary activity (-168.7 min, p &gt, 0.05), an increase in the number of step counts (+ 14,026.9, p &lt, 0.05) and in time spent in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA): weekly MVPA: + 64.4 min, daily MVPA: + 8.05 min, percentage of MVPA: + 0.70%. On the contrary, CG showed a worsening in all variables. ANCOVA analysis, after adjusting for baseline values, showed significant differences between the AB group and CG for time spent in MVPA, percentage of MVPA and step counts. The satisfaction of children and teachers was good. Teachers were able to adapt the AB protocol to the needs of the school curriculum, thus confirming the feasibility of the AB programme. Conclusions: This pilot and feasibility study showed the feasibility and effectiveness of the AB protocol and represented the basis for a future controlled trial.

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.

Imitare i gesti altrui è un lavoro complesso, governato da specifici meccanismi cognitivi. Alcuni dei modelli nel corso degli anni hanno ottenuto i risultati più apprezzabili nello spiegare i processi sottostanti all'imitazione. Pochissimi studi sono stati condotti, ma ciò che emerge è che il confronto tra schemi corporei può mettere ulteriore ordine all'interno del piano lungo il quale le teorie imitative possono essere collocate.

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 .

We propose STIMA, a short test for ideo-motor apraxia, allowing us to quantify the apraxic deficit according to action meaning and affected body segment. STIMA is based on a neurocognitive model holding that there are two processes involved in action imitation (i.e., a semantic route for recognizing and imitating known gestures, and a direct route for reproducing new gestures). The test allows to identify which imitative process has been selectively impaired by brain damage (direct vs. semantic route) and possible deficits depending on the body segment involved (hand/limb vs. hand/fingers). N = 111 healthy participants were administered with an imitation task in two separated blocks of known and new gestures. In each block, half of the gestures were performed mainly with the proximal part of the upper limb and the remaining half with the distal one. It resulted in 18 known gestures (nine proximal and nine distal) and 18 new gestures (nine proximal and nine distal) for a total of 36. Each gesture was presented up to a maximum of two times. Detailed criteria are used to assign the final imitation score. Cut offs, equivalent scores and main percentile scores were computed for each subscale. Participants imitated better known than new gestures, and proximal better than distal gestures. Age influenced performance on all subscales, while education only affected one subscale. STIMA is easy and quick to administer, and compared to previous tests, it offers important information for planning adequate rehabilitation programs based on the functional locus of the deficit.

Durante un incontro pugilistico, i due pugili devono codificare una gran numero di informazioni in modo da prendere la decisione più adeguata per rispondere ai colpi dell’avversario. In questo studio abbiamo analizzato i meccanismi pre-attentivi alla base delle abilità degli atleti di pugilato nel reagire ai colpi dell’avversario. Pugili esperti, pugili novizi e persone senza esperienza di pugilato hanno preso parte ad un compito Simon modificato ad–hoc. Il compito dei partecipanti è stato quello di rispondere alla vista del colore dei guantoni da pugilato (rosso o blu) indossati da un atleta in posizione di attacco premendo dei pulsanti posti ai lati degli stimoli. I risultati hanno suggerito come i processi di simulazione mentale possano avere un ruolo significativo nella pianificazione delle risposte ad eventi critici. Si sono verificate inoltre variazioni e modulazioni a seconda dell’esperienza/competenza dei soggetti. Le risposte date dai pugili meno esperti e dai non pugili sembrano simulare azioni di difesa (pugno sinistra - mano destra, pugno destra - mano sinistra). Le risposte dei pugili esperti sembrano invece simulare azioni di contrattacco (pugno destro - mano destra, pugno sinistra - mano sinistra), impiegano un tempo statisticamente più lungo rispetto agli altri due gruppi. I dati sembrano suggerire che al crescere dell’esperienza si utilizzi più tempo per mettere in atto meccanismi di risposta basati sulla funzionalità finale della risposta motoria, che, nel pugilato, è colpire l’avversario dalla parte scoperta da difesa.

I benefici che l’attività motoria opera sia nell’età adulta che durante l’infanzia sono molteplici. Tra questi, si annoverano i miglioramenti delle abilità percettive, attentive e mnestiche. Lo scopo del presente lavoro è verificare se le capacità mnestiche ed attentive possano essere incrementate dalla messa in opera di un’offerta formativa specifica. Due gruppi di bambini, di età compresa tra i sei e i dieci anni sono stati avviati al gioco della pallavolo. Un gruppo è stato allenato con un metodo che carica di significati i movimenti corporei dell’allenatore e dei compagni al fine di associare tali movimenti allo svolgimento di future indicazioni da eseguire (Pittera, Pedata e Ligas, 2008). L’altro gruppo ha svolto esercizi propedeutici alla pallavolo attraverso la focalizzazione sull’apprendimento dei gesti tecnici. La differenza tra i dati raccolti all’inizio e alla fine del periodo di allenamento preso in esame evidenziarono un miglioramento della capacità di ricordare azioni motorie; nessun miglioramento apparve però per quanto ha riguardato il numero di posizioni spaziali o il numero di componenti verbali da ricordare. Sorprendentemente, poi, nessun miglioramento emerse nelle misure di attenzione sostenuta. I risultati suggeriscono come, focalizzando l’attenzione dei discenti sugli aspetti motori dell’esercizio, e facendo in modo che questi aumentino di significato al fine della successiva realizzazione di nuovi compiti, si possa aumentare una capacità basilare di ogni apprendimento sportivo, ovvero la capacità di ricordare nuove azioni.

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.

Imitare i gesti altrui è un lavoro complesso, organizzato in subunità e governato da specifici meccanismi cognitivi. La presente rassegna vuole presentare i modelli che nel corso degli anni hanno ottenuto i risultati più apprezzabili nello spiegare i processi sottostanti all’imitazione. Alcuni dei modelli descritti prendono le mosse da evidenze provenienti dall’osservazione del comportamento di persone afflitte da problematiche cerebrali, altri da evidenze raccolte attraverso esperimenti con persone sane, altre- la maggior parte- da evidenze raccolte con individui in età evolutiva. Proprio in considerazione alle evidenze evolutive, la rassegna si chiuderà evidenziando la necessità di investigare ulteriormente il confronto tra le dimensioni corporee dei soggetti interessati al momento imitativo. Pochissimi studi sono stati condotti, ma ciò che emerge è che il confronto tra schemi corporei può mettere ulteriore ordine all’interno del piano lungo il quale le teorie imitative possono essere collocate

When two athletes meet inside the ropes of the boxing ring to fight, their cognitive systems have to respond as quickly as possible to a manifold of stimuli to assure victory. In the present work, we studied the pre-attentive mechanisms, which form the basis of an athlete's ability in reacting to an opponent's punches. Expert boxers, beginner boxers and people with no experience of boxing performed a Simon-like task where they judged the colour of the boxing gloves worn by athletes in attack postures by pressing two lateralised keys. Although participants were not instructed to pay attention to the direction of the punches, beginner boxers' responses resembled a defence-related pattern, expert boxers' resembled counterattacks, whereas non-athletes' responses were not influenced by the unrelated task information. Results are discussed in the light of an expertise-related action simulation account.

There is evidence suggesting that viewing hands triggers automatic access to the Body Structural Description, a visual-spatial representation of human body parts configuration. Hands, however, have a special representational status within the brain because of their significance for action and cognition. We tested whether feet, less important in gestural and object-directed action, would similarly show automatic access to the Body Structural Description. Positive evidence of that would be finding a Sidedness effect (Ottoboni et al. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 31:778–789, 2005), a Simon-like paradigm previously used to study automatic hand recognition. This effect demonstrates that processing hands generates spatial codes corresponding to the side of the body on which the hand would be located within the Body Structural Description map. Feet were shown with toes pointing upwards (Experiment 1), without any connection to the ankle and the leg (Experiment 2) and with toes pointing downwards (Experiment 3). Results revealed a Sidedness effect in both Experiments 1 and 3: spatial compatibility occurred according to the side of the body that each foot would assume within the Body Structural Description. In Experiment 2, as already found in stimuli similarly featured, no effect emerged, due to the lack of the necessary anatomical links connecting the foot to a body. Results suggest that body parts with variable degrees of significance for action and cognition can access automatically the Body Structural Description hence reinforcing the hypothesis of its pure visuo-spatial nature.