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The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect is evidence of an association between number magnitude and response position, with faster left-key responses to small numbers and faster right-key responses to large numbers. Similarly, recent studies revealed a SNARC-like effect for tempo, defined as the speed of an auditory sequence, with faster left-key responses to slow tempo and faster right-key responses to fast tempo. In order to address some methodological issues of previous studies, in the present study we designed an experiment to investigate the occurrence of a SNARC-like effect for tempo, employing a novel procedure in which only two auditory beats in sequence with a very short interstimulus interval were used. In the "temporal speed" condition, participants were required to judge the temporal speed (slow or fast) of the sequence. In the "interval duration" condition, participants were required to judge the duration of the interval between the two beats (short or long). The results revealed a consistent SNARC-like effect in both conditions, with faster left-hand responses to slow tempo and faster right-hand responses to fast tempo. Interestingly, the consistency of the results across the two conditions indicates that the direction of the SNARC-like effect was influenced by temporal speed even when participants were explicitly required to focus on interval duration. Overall, the current study extends previous findings by employing a new paradigm that addresses potential confounding factors and strengthens evidence for the SNARC-like effect for tempo.

Since birth, we learn about the perceptual and social world through our senses. Learning to appropriately bind multisensory information is key to effectively interact with our surroundings. In this chapter, we will review the behavioral, computational, and neurophysiological methods used to assess multisensory processing in healthy adult individuals. In the first part, we will provide an overview of fundamental principles governing the activity of multisensory neurons in the animal brain since these principles still provide an influential framework for the investigation of multisensory processing in humans too. In the second part, we will present a series of behavioral paradigms that have been adopted in the past 20 years to assess multisensory processing, particularly focusing on the difference between paradigms assessing multisensory integration and paradigms assessing crossmodal interactions, in which stimulation of one sensory system affects the experience in a different sense, typically leading to illusory percepts. The last part will provide a critical overview of electrophysiological and neuroimaging approaches to measure multisensory interactions in the human brain.

The response to a repetitive irrelevant stimulation tends to vanish. This phenomenon, known as habituation, is observed in virtually all animals and for all types of responses. In this target article we will review the theoretical models of habituation, its characteristics, and the related clinical and everyday life implications, with the aim of fostering the interests of researchers in this pivotal phenomenon for the human and animal mind, which is instead often described as a marginal learning process. Habituation instead reflects the operation of crucial cognitive mechanisms, and has been used as a tool to investigate different cognitive/perceptual functions. Furthermore, the notion of habituation can become useful in different clinical domains, and can create an interesting link between the research conducted among different animal species.

Events in life can be perceived to be under our own control, or to occur independently from our will, two psychological styles known as “internal” vs “external locus-of-control” respectively. While it is established that positive events like reward-predicting stimuli attract attention, whether the control over reward gain can also influence the attentional salience of reward cues is unknown. Here, we systematically manipulated the control in reward gain to investigate this possibility in humans. Experiment 1 showed that stimuli associated with an internal control in reward attainment gained attentional salience. However, Experiment 2 showed that the internal control alone is not sufficient to confer attentional salience to reward-cues. Finally, Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1 and served also the purpose to exclude alternative accounts. Our findings show that the reward-cue attentional salience is not only affected by reward value, but also by the control over reward gain.

Recent findings demonstrate that habituation of capture is stronger where onset distractors are frequent and weaker where they are rare, thus showing that habituation to onsets has a spatial selective nature. However, a debated question is whether habituation at a specific location is exclusively determined by the distractors’ local rate, or whether instead local habituation is also affected by the global rate of the distractors, which may occur also at other locations. Here, we report the results from a between-participants experiment involving three groups of participants exposed to visual onsets during a visual search task. In two groups, onsets appeared at a single location with a high 60% rate or a low 15% rate, respectively, whereas in a third group, distractors could appear in four distinct locations with the same 15% local rate, leading to a 60% global rate. Our results confirmed that locally, habituation of capture was stronger the higher the distractors rate. However, the key finding was that we found a clear and robust modulation of the global distractors rate on the local habituation level. Taken together, our results unambiguously show that habituation has both a spatially selective and a spatially nonselective nature.

An increasing bulk of evidence shows that through different mechanisms, experienced-based or voluntary, reactive or proactive, human beings can attenuate the distracting impact of salient visual, albeit irrelevant, stimuli. Current mechanisms assume that this is achieved by suppressing the salient distractor’s features or location at the priority map level, or at lower dimension-based maps levels. However, this functional architecture has so far ignored the role of time in distractors filtering, a key question that we have addressed in the present study. We found that during a visual discrimination task, a “standard” onset distractor, always appearing at the same interval from the beginning of the trial, was subject to habituation. Crucially, however, when the onset distractor was unfrequently presented with an unexpected 1-second delay, it reboosted capture at full strength, while the “standard” distractor continued to remain overall habituated. As predicted by Sokolov’s (1963, Annual Review of Physiology, 25[1], 545–580) theory, our results show that habituation mechanisms filter the irrelevant distracting sensory input also on the basis of its temporal parameters. We conclude that habituation to onsets is controlled also by time-based expectation mechanisms and suggest that more recently proposed theories of distractors filtering should also incorporate the temporal parameter among the factors that allow an efficient handling of visual distraction.

This review focuses on new and/or less standardized event-related potentials methods, in order to improve their knowledge for future clinical applications. The olfactory event-related potentials (OERPs) assess the olfactory functions in time domain, with potential utility in anosmia and degenerative diseases. The transcranial magnetic stimulation-electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) could support the investigation of the intracerebral connections with very high temporal discrimination. Its application in the diagnosis of disorders of consciousness has achieved recent confirmation. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and event-related fields (ERF) could improve spatial accuracy of scalp signals, with potential large application in pre-surgical study of epileptic patients. Although these techniques have methodological limits, such as high inter- and intraindividual variability and high costs, their diffusion among researchers and clinicians is hopeful, pending their standardization.

A great wealth of studies has investigated the capacity of motivationally relevant stimuli to bias attention, suggesting that reward predicting cues are prioritized even when reward is no longer delivered and when attending to such stimuli is detrimental to reward achievement. Despite multiple procedures have been adopted to unveil the mechanisms whereby reward cues gain attentional salience, some open questions remain. Indeed, mechanisms different from motivation can be responsible for the capture of attention triggered by the reward cue. In addition, we note that at present only a few studies have sought to address whether the cue attractiveness dynamically follows changes in the associated reward value. Investigating how and to what extent the salience of the reward cue is updated when motivation changes, could help shedding light on how reward-cues attain and maintain their capacity to attract attention, and therefore on apparent irrational attentive behaviors.

The clinical effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are now the subject of numerous studies worldwide. But what are the effects of the quarantine imposed by the states that implemented the measures of lockdown? The present research aims to explore, in a preliminary way, the major stress-related symptoms during the lockdown, due to Covid-19, in the Italian population. Subjects were asked to fill out a survey, that traced a line identifying the most relevant psychophysiological symptoms that took into account factors such as perceived stress, body perception, perceived pain, quality of sleep, perceptive variations (i.e., olfactory, gustatory, visual, acoustic, and haptic perception). A network approach formulating a hypothesis-generating exploratory analysis was adopted. Main results of the network analysis showed that the beliefs of having had the Covid-19 was related to individual variables (i.e., gender, working in presence, sleep quality, anxiety symptoms), while the familiarity of Covid-19 disease was related to contextual factors (e.g., number of recorded cases in the Region, working in presence). The self-perception of olfactory and perceptive alterations highlighted a great sensorial cross-modality, additionally, the olfactory impairment was related to the belief of having had the Covid-19. Compared to general network data, BAI, perceived stress, anxiety and chronic pain were in relation to daily sleep disturbance. Main study's results show how the management of the Covid-19 stressful representation, in its cognitive aspects, can modulate the psychophysiological responses.

Previous evidence has shown that after conditioning reward cues may continue to grab attention even when the paired reward is devalued, thus triggering an irrational attentional capture. Here, we investigated whether such persistent cue attentional salience, once established, can be abolished. In Experiment 1, we first confirmed that the cue attentional salience outlasted reward devaluation, and then we found that such persistent capture did not change after an incentive-learning procedure with a devalued reward. In Experiment 2, we showed that the reward cue salience remained unaltered after reward devaluation for at least 1 week. In Experiment 3, we finally succeeded in modifying the cue attentional salience when a new contingency between the cue and the reward was learned, and the reward was not devalued, such that the organism was in a high motivational state. The pattern of results emerging from our study reveals a complex interaction between attention, learning, and motivation, and may help shedding light on the learning mechanisms underlying addiction.

Contains fulltext : 213543.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), Background: Over the last decades, a considerable number of observational scales have been developed to assess pain in persons with dementia. The time seems ripe now to build on the knowledge and expertise implemented in these scales to form an improved, "best-of" meta-tool. The EU-COST initiative "Pain in impaired cognition, especially dementia" aimed to do this by selecting items out of existing observational scales and critically re-assessing their suitability to detect pain in dementia. This paper reports on the final phase of this collaborative task. Methods: Items from existing observational pain scales were tested for "frequency of occurrence (item difficulty)", "reliability", and "validity". This psychometric testing was carried out in eight countries, in different healthcare settings, and included clinical as well as experimental pain conditions. Results: Across all studies, 587 persons with dementia, 27 individuals with intellectual disability, 12 Huntington's disease patients, and 59 cognitively healthy controls were observed during rest and movement situations or while receiving experimental pressure pain, respectively. The psychometric outcomes for each item across the different studies were evaluated within an international and multidisciplinary team of experts and led a final selection of 15 items (5x facial expressions, 5x body movements, 5x vocalizations). Conclusions: The final list of 15 observational items have demonstrated psychometric quality and clinical usefulness both in their former scales and in the present international evaluation; accordingly, they qualified twice to form a new internationally agreed-on meta-tool for Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition, the PAIC-15 scale.

BACKGROUND:Recognition of pain in people with dementia is challenging. Observational scales have been developed, but there is a need to harmonize and improve the assessment process. In EU initiative COST-Action TD1005, 36 promising items were selected from existing scales to be tested further. We aimed to study the observer agreement of each item, and to analyse the factor structure of the complete set. METHODS:One hundred and ninety older persons with dementia were recruited in four different countries (Italy, Serbia, Spain and The Netherlands) from different types of healthcare facilities. Patients represented a convenience sample, with no pre-selection on presence of (suspected) pain. The Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition (PAIC, research version) item pool includes facial expressions of pain (15 items), body movements (10 items) and vocalizations (11 items). Participants were observed by health professionals in two situations, at rest and during movement. Intrarater and interrater reliability was analysed by percentage agreement. The factor structure was examined with principal component analysis with orthogonal rotation. RESULTS:Health professionals performed observations in 40-57 patients in each country. Intrarater and interrater agreement was generally high (≥70%). However, for some facial expression items, agreement was sometimes below 70%. Factor analyses showed a six-component solution, which were named as follows: Vocal pain expression, Face anatomical descriptors, Protective body movements, Vocal defence, Tension and Lack of affect. CONCLUSIONS:Observation of PAIC items can be done reliably in healthcare settings. Observer agreement is quite promising already without extensive training. SIGNIFICANCE:In this international project, promising items from existing observational pain scales were identified and evaluated regarding their reliability as an alternative to pain self-report in people with dementia. Analysis on factor structure helped to understa

The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) suggests the existence of an association between number magnitude and response position, with faster left-hand responses to small numbers and faster right-hand responses to large numbers. Recent studies have revealed similar spatial association effects for non-numerical magnitudes, such as temporal durations and musical stimuli. In the present study we investigated whether a spatial association effect exists between music tempo, expressed in beats per minutes (bpm), and response position. In particular, we were interested in whether this effect is consistent through different bpm ranges. We asked participants to judge whether a target beat sequence was faster or slower than a reference sequence. Three groups of participants judged beat sequences from three different bpm ranges, a wide range (40, 80, 160, 200 bpm) and two narrow ranges ("slow" tempo, 40, 56, 88, 104 bpm; "fast" tempo 133, 150, 184, 201 bpm). Results showed a clear SNARC-like effect for music tempo only in the narrow "fast" tempo range, with faster left-hand responses to 133 and 150 bpm and faster right-hand responses to 184 and 201 bpm. Conversely, a similar association did not emerge in the wide nor in the narrow "slow" tempo ranges. This evidence suggests that music tempo is spatially represented as other continuous quantities, but its representation might be narrowed to a particular range of tempos. Moreover, music tempo and temporal duration might be represented across space with an opposite direction.

Attentional capture by salient distractors can be attenuated by the target search strategy (feature-search mode vs. singleton-detection mode) adopted, as well as by learning processes concerning the distractor features. Hence, two different models, one based on the task-relevant and one on the task-irrelevant information, would interact in the control of attention. Here, we investigated whether the search mode used to locate the target can affect the possibility to reject salient distractor on the basis of habituation mechanisms. Our results showed that when a feature-search mode was used, capture by a uniquely-coloured distractor was progressively reduced with practice, a result consistent with the habituation of capture phenomenon (Experiment 1). Conversely, when a singleton-detection mode was used habituation of capture was prevented (Experiment 2), both when the distractor feature remained constant (Experiment 3) and when a prolonged exposure to the distractor was allowed (Experiment 4). We propose that when the templates for the task-relevant (i.e., the target) and the task-irrelevant (i.e., the distractor) information overlap the former prevails in the control of attention, and prevents habituation of capture to take place.

Reward-predicting cues attract attention because of their motivational value. A debated question regards the conditions under which the cue's attentional salience is governed more by reward expectancy rather than by reward uncertainty. To help shedding light on this relevant issue, here, we manipulated expectancy and uncertainty using three levels of reward-cue contingency, so that, for example, a high level of reward expectancy (p=.8) was compared with the highest level of reward uncertainty (p=.5). In Experiment 1, the best reward-cue during conditioning was preferentially attended in a subsequent visual search task. This result was replicated in Experiment 2, in which the cues were matched in terms of response history. In Experiment 3, we implemented a hybrid procedure consisting of two phases: an omission contingency procedure during conditioning, followed by a visual search task as in the previous experiments. Crucially, during both phases, the reward-cues were never task relevant. Results confirmed that, when multiple reward-cue contingencies are explored by a human observer, expectancy is the major factor controlling both the attentional and the oculomotor salience of the reward-cue.

Nonsongbirds can produce rhythmical sounds that, at times, have been shown to be meaningful in their communication. This raises the possibility that rhythm is a separate ability that might have evolved earlier than song. We asked whether nearly completely naive domestic chicks perceive rhythm and respond in specific ways to different rhythmic patterns. To do so, specific constituent parameters of rhythmicity were used based on the sound of a natural mother hen's cluck. The sound samples created ranged from a continuous sound to articulated rhythmic patterns of alternating strong and weak events. Chicks' reactivity to the patterns was tested over a series of sound exposure experiments by their propensity to operate a running wheel toward the acoustic source, a paradigm simulating chicks' natural affiliative response to the hen's call. Results showed that motor activity increased markedly when acoustic events were discrete (compared with continuous), and significantly when accent structure was faster (compared with slower rates). Similar to human infants, chicks showed a significant preference for pulsed over continuous patterns. Chicks also ran harder toward calls with fast strong pulsating events, suggesting that different arrangements of events in time can be differently arousing, but independently of whether the events were presented in a regular or nonregular fashion.