bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
STUDIO DI UNA LENTE PER CANNOCCHIALE DI GRANDI DIMENSIONI LAVORATA DA EVANGELISTA TORRICELLI
Authors: SCHETTINO E. , PATERNOSTER, G. , RINZIVILLO, R.
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title The Museum of the Department of Physical Science at the University of Naples holds a large telescope lens, work of Evangelista Torricelli. This lens which probably reached Naples in the first half of XVIII Century was forgotten until it was catalogued and placed with the other scientific instruments in the museum in 1984. The authors update the optic measure of the Torricelli lens taken by Gilberto Govi in 1886 and determine the composition of the lens glass by the fluorescence revealed from X-rays. On the basis of an analysis of correspondence by Torricelli they conclude that this is one of the two lenses which the scientist wrote to the gesuit Raffaello Prodanelli from Rome on October 14, 1645.
Practice Theories: The Latest Turn in Historiography?
Authors: Polyakov Michael
Published: November 2012

Abstract

The linguistic turn in historiography has given way to a ‘cultural’ or ‘practical’ turn over the course of the last several decades. For its proponents, this new development heralds a return of the intentional subject and a re-invigorated concern with the dynamic nature of the social realm. Approaches clustered around the concept of practice, emphasizing routines of daily activities as the backbone of social organization and its stability, specifically seek to resolve the persisting conceptual tension in social sciences between structure and agency. This article surveys the seminal work on the topic of practice, and considers how the approach can be recruited for purposes of historiographic analysis. In defending a tentatively optimistic assessment of practice theory’s usefulness for this purpose, the article also evaluates some of the weaknesses that this approach has yet to cogently address.
The Exemplification Theory of History: Narrativist Philosophy and the Autonomy of History
Authors: van den Akker Chiel
Published: November 2012

Abstract

The “exemplification theory of history” is proposed to account for the relationship between the past and historical narratives. The theory states that what belongs to the past according to some narrative does so in order to exemplify the historical thesis of that narrative. As such the theory explains how the past receives its meaning. This implies that the past has no intrinsic historical meaning itself. Moreover, it follows that historical narratives possess an autonomy of their own with regard to the past. It is argued that the exemplification theory of history goes to the heart of narrativist philosophy of history. This claim is supported by the key arguments of three narrativist philosophers: Arthur Danto, Louis Mink and Frank Ankersmit. The distinction between the history of social individuals (“states”, “poverty”, “Thirty Years War”) and the identification of such individuals turns out to be fundamental in this respect. The article concludes by distinguishing between a Platonic and an Aristotelian view on narrative and by explaining why we ought to prefer the former to the latter.
Bushfalling at All Cost: The Economy of Migratory Knowledge in Anglophone Cameroon1
Authors: Alpes Maybritt Jill
Published: November 2012

Abstract

Despite high financial costs, deportations and many frustrated departure attempts, young Anglophone Cameroonians maintain high aspirations for migration. In this article, I lay out the social rationalities of aspiring migrants, as well as the economic, symbolic and informational context of their emigration decisions. On the basis of three case studies, I analyze how information on emigration is controlled, processed, and evaluated. While discourses within migration policy often posit that aspiring migrants are naïve and uninformed, I demonstrate how migration choices and strategies are developed under circumstances more complex than can be grasped by the simplistic alternative between being informed or not informed about migratory risks. Rather than to consider flows of information, I argue what matters is whether or not information is trusted and how it is interpreted. By looking at the costs and gains of migration from the standpoint of aspiring migrants, this article shifts the focus towards migration dynamics at the point of departure.
The Aesthetics of Belonging
Authors: Maasri Zeina
Published: November 2012

This article traces the transformations in Hizbullah’s media discourse from its formative years in the mid- 1980s until the 2006 war with Israel. It focuses on a specific outlet of self-promotion and public mediation—that of political posters—to unpack their discursive, semiotic and aesthetic changes at decisive moments in the group’s history. The analysis relates the transformations to paradigmatic changes in Hizbullah’s politics; its growth as a Lebanese political party and military organization with transnational impetus; and the ensuing wider publics it attempts to reach, and, conversely, to the hostile imaginaries and exclusionary politics the group struggles with. The article observes how the Party of God increasingly attempts to negotiate its self-image outside a Shii-Islamic subjectivity and how it particularly strives to broaden its reach among the Lebanese public. It argues that the group’s media transformations have entailed, since the early 1990s, not only an accommodation of the party’s discourse of resistance within a nationalist framework, but also the inscription of its media image, rhetoric and aesthetics within a Lebanese social context.
Is Islam an Obstacle for Integration? A Qualitative Analysis of German Media Discourse*
Authors: Becker Melanie , El-Menouar Yasemin
Published: November 2012

This article asks how the integration of Muslim migrants into German society is portrayed and discussed in the influential German news magazine Der Spiegel. Three dominant topics emerge from a qualitative analysis of Der Spiegel articles published up to 2007: first, the oppression of women; second fundamentalist indoctrination in mosques and in Quran schools; and third the overarching issue of the formation of so called ‘parallel societies,’ i.e. the formation of ethnically and culturally homogeneous neighborhoods. Finally, we discuss the culturalist framework in which religiousness and religious tradition is considered a main determinant for failed integration in media representations of German Muslims.We conclude by giving a short overview of the current media discourse since 2008.
The Case of Geert Wilders: Multiculturalism, Islam, and Identity in the UK
Authors: Poole Elizabeth
Published: November 2012

This article aims to show how in the current political climate in the UK debates about multiculturalism, religion, and identity, in relation to Muslims, have played out in the public sphere through an examination of British news media coverage of the Geert Wilders case. Wilders, a far right Dutch MP, was refused entry to the UK in February 2009 for inciting racial hatred. Coverage of this event demonstrates the struggles around identity taking place amongst various social, political groups in the UK. I will show how Islam, in particular, is currently central to these discursive debates and how different groups’ interpretations of the event attempt to assert ideas of ‘Britain’ and ‘Britishness.’
The Image of Islam and Muslims in Swedish Radical Christian Press
Authors: Steiner Kristian
Published: November 2012

This is a case study on the construction of Islam and Muslims in sixty editorials 2006 in a Swedish Evangelical newspaper, Världen idag (“The World Today”). The paper was founded in 2001 and is officially independent and non-denominational. In reality, it is financially and ideologically dependent on the radical faith movement. Its circulation is about 8,500.

The main theme in the selected editorials is “Muslim threat,” in some cases combined with “Western retreat” and “Islam’s incompatibility with democracy.” Islam and Muslims are consistently described as causing these problems. However, terms denoting Muslims are rarely derogatory, instead Muslims are depicted in terms of broad denotation, like “Muslims” or “the Muslim world.” These labels are often combined with a stark derogatory complement. Aggressive acts like “demanding” and “murdering” or “mass-murdering” are the most common ones associated with Muslims. Good Muslim behavior is constantly disregarded; bad behavior reflects true character. Muslims are depicted as one homogeneous stereotypical and static group.
Medical Theories on Malefic Possession: From Bewitchment to Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis
Authors: Uszkalo Kirsten C.
Published: November 2012

Following a diagnostic trajectory that begins with early English cases of bewitchment and becomes hysteria, this article suggests that the new diagnostic category of anti-NMDAR encephalitis provides the best promise of finding a medical reason for the resiliency of some of the severe suffering allegedly caused by malefic possession in early modern England.
Timothy Richard, World Religion, and Reading Christianity in Buddhist Garb
Authors: Scott Gregory Adam
Published: November 2012

This article examines some of the published works of the missionary Timothy Richard (1845 - 1919), and analyzes how his mission experience played a foundational role in his study of religion. It argues that his work and his approach to Chinese religions challenged established views of the relationships between the world religions held by his contemporaries. The latter section focuses on his studies of Mahāyāna Buddhism and how they sought a familiar religious revelation clad in foreign clothing. Finally it suggests that his experience might complicate our picture of orientalist scholarship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Common and distinct neural mechanisms of visual and tactile extinction: A large scale VBM study in sub-acute stroke
Authors: Chechlacz Magdalena , Terry Anna , Rotshtein Pia , Bickerton Wai-Ling , Humphreys Glyn
Published: November 2012

Extinction is diagnosed when patients respond to a single contralesional item but fail to detect this item when an ipsilesional item is present concurrently. It is considered to be a disorder of attention characterized by a striking bias for the ipsilesional stimulus at the expense of the contralesional stimulus. Extinction has been studied mainly in the visual modality but it occurs also in other sensory modalities (touch, audition) and hence can be considered a multisensory phenomenon. The functional and neuroanatomical relations between extinction in different modalities are poorly understood. It could be hypothesised that extinction deficits in different modalities emerge after damage to both common (attention specific) and distinct (modality specific) brain regions. Here, we used voxel-based morphometry to examine the neuronal substrates of visual versus tactile extinction in a large group of stroke patients (). We found that extinction deficits in the two modalities were significantly correlated (; ). Lesions to inferior parietal lobule and middle frontal gyrus were linked to visual extinction, while lesions involving the superior temporal gyrus were associated with tactile extinction. Damage within the middle temporal gyrus was linked to both types of deficits but interestingly these lesions extended into the middle occipital gyrus in patients with visual but not tactile extinction. White matter damage within the temporal lobe was associated with both types of deficits, including lesions within long association pathways involved in spatial attention. Our findings indicate both common and distinct neural mechanisms of visual and tactile extinction.
Multisensory cueing and the attention network test in aging
Authors: Mahoney Jeannette R. , Verghese Joe , Dumas Kristina , Wang Cuiling , Holtzer Roee
Published: November 2012

The Attention Network Test (ANT) assesses the effect of alerting and orienting cues on a visual flanker task measuring executive attention. Previous findings revealed that older adults demonstrate greater RT benefits when provided with visual orienting cues that offer both spatial and temporal information of an ensuing target. Given the overlap of neural correlates involved in multisensory processing and cueing (i.e., alerting and orienting), especially in the superior colliculus, thalamus, superior temporal and parietal regions, an investigation of multisensory cueing effects was warranted. The current study was designed to determine whether participants, both old and young, benefited from receiving multisensory alerting and orienting cues on a visual flanker task. Eighteen young (M = 19.17 yrs) and eighteen old (M = 76.44 yrs) individuals that were determined to be non-demented and without any medical or psychiatric conditions that would affect their performance were included. Results revealed main effects for the executive attention and orienting networks, but not for the alerting network. In terms of orienting, both old and young adults demonstrated significant orienting effects for auditory–somatosensory (AS), auditory–visual (AV), and visual–somatosensory (VS) cues. Benefits of multisensory compared to unisensory averaged orienting effects differed by cue type and age group; younger adults demonstrated significantly greater RT benefits for AS orienting cues whereas older adults demonstrated significantly greater RT benefits for AV orienting cues. Both groups, however, demonstrated significant RT benefits for VS orienting cues. These findings provide evidence for the facilitative effect of multisensory orienting cues, and not multisensory alerting cues, in old and young adults.
Determinants of the efficacy of single-trial multisensory learning
Authors: Thelen Antonia , Murray Micah M.
Published: November 2012

Single-trial multisensory learning has been reliably shown to impact the later ability to discriminate images. The present study had the following three aims: (1) to determine if single-trial multisensory learning would elicit corresponding effects on auditory discrimination, (2) to determine if there were links between the impact of multisensory sensory learning on auditory discrimination and its impact on visual discrimination within individual participants, and (3) to determine the bases of inter-individual differences in the efficacy of single-trial multisensory learning. On two sessions separated by one week, participants discriminated initial from repeated presentations of either images or sounds during a continuous recognition task. Half of the initial presentations were auditory–visual multisensory parings (semantically congruent, semantically incongruent, or meaningless). The remaining half of initial presentations was unisensory. Half of the repeated stimuli were presented in an identical manner to their initial encounter, and the remaining half were presented in the complementary manner (i.e., those initially presented in a unisensory manner were now presented as multisensory pairs and vice versa). The results show that the efficacy of single-trial multisensory learning across the senses varies according to an individual’s propensity to exhibit repetition priming with sounds (i.e., faster RTs and higher accuracy for repeated vs. initial unisensory sound presentations). Individuals exhibiting such priming also showed facilitative effects of single-trial multisensory learning on both the auditory and visual discrimination tasks. Those who did not exhibit such priming did not benefit from single-trial multisensory learning. Single-trial multisensory learning is therefore an effective tool across the senses.
A neural link between feeling and hearing
Authors: Ro Tony , Ellmore Timothy , Beauchamp Michael S.
Published: November 2012

Hearing and feeling both rely upon the transduction of physical events into frequency-based neural codes, suggesting that the auditory system may be intimately related to the somatosensory system. In this study, we provide evidence that the neural substrates for audition and somatosensation are anatomically linked. Using diffusion tensor imaging with both deterministic and probabilistic tractography to measure white matter connectivity, we show that there are extensive connections between the primary auditory cortex and the primary and secondary somatosensory regions in human cerebral cortex. We further show that these cross-connections are diminished between auditory and primary somatosensory cortex and exaggerated between auditory and secondary somatosensory cortex in the lesioned hemisphere of a patient (SR) with acquired auditory-tactile synesthesia, in whom sounds alone produce bodily sensations. These results provide an anatomical basis for multisensory interactions between audition and somatosensation and suggest that cross-talk between these regions may explain why some sounds, such as nails screeching down a chalkboard or an audible mosquito, can induce feelings of touch, especially on the left half of patient SR.
Exploring the sensory basis of developmental dyspraxia in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Authors: Bodison Stefanie , Sanger Terrence D.
Published: November 2012

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is clinically defined by impairments in communication, reciprocal social interactions, and repetitive behaviours and/or restricted interests. These symptoms are present early in development, often co-occur with other symptoms and can significantly impact the child’s ability to successfully engage in meaningful occupations that contribute to the child’s overall growth and development. It has been documented that between 80 and 94% of children with ASD have some kind of sensory abnormality and while there is little consensus regarding the pattern of these sensory deficits, it is theorized that children with ASD fail to properly develop the ability to integrate, or bind together, multisensory inputs. As reported in the literature and through case reports, some children with ASD have difficulty learning age appropriate complex motor skills suggesting that they may also have some form of developmental dyspraxia. This study sought to explore the relationship between multisensory integration and the development of praxis in children with ASD compared to typically developing children. Through the use of a newly developed behavioural paradigm and several standardized measures of sensory and motor function, results suggest that some children with ASD have difficulty transforming sensory data into motor action, leading to delays in the attainment of complex motor skills.
Now you see it, now you don’t: Design dependent sound symbolism effect in categorization studies
Authors: Kovic Vanja , Pejovic Jovana
Published: November 2012

A number of studies have demonstrated sound-symbolism effects in adults and in children. Moreover, recently, ERP studies have shown that the sensitivity to sound-symbolic label–object associations occurs within 200 ms of object presentation (Kovic et al., 2010). It was argued that this effect may reflect a more general process of auditory–visual feature integration where properties of auditory stimuli facilitate a mapping to specific visual features. Here we demonstrate that the sound-symbolism effect is design dependent, namely — it occurs only when mapping from auditory to visual stimuli and not vice verse. Two groups of participants were recruited for solving the categorization task. They were presented them with 12 visual stimuli, half of which were rounded and another half of angular shapes. One group was trained to classify the rounded objects as ‘takete’ and the rounded ones as ‘maluma’, whereas the other group mapped ‘takete’ to rounded and ‘maluma’ to angular shapes. Moreover, half of these two groups heard the label before seeing the objects, whereas the other half was given the label after perceiving the object. The results revealed the sound-symbolism effect only in the group which was trained on the auditory–visual objects mapping and not in the one trained on the visual–auditory mappings. Thus, despite the previous findings we demonstrate that the sound-symbolism effect is not significant per se, but design-dependent and we argue that the sound brings up a mental image that is more constrained than the sounds brought up by a picture.
Crossmodal correspondences, crossmodal completion and crossmodal imagery
Authors: Deroy Ophelia
Published: November 2012

Crossmodal correspondences can be defined as tendency to match a sensory feature/dimension, either presented or imagined, to another sensory feature/dimension, either presented or imagined, in another modality. They start to be documented across all modalities (see Spence, 2011 for a review) but both their etiology and role remain to be explored. Crossmodal correspondences, such as those holding between auditory pitch and visual brightness or size have been showed to exert an influence on multisensory perception when two congruent cues are presented together (e.g., Parise and Spence, 2008, 2009). Here, following the framework exposed in Spence and Deroy (in press), I show that crossmodal correspondences can also play two others roles, that is in crossmodal completion and in crossmodal imagery. As such, crossmodal correspondences can explain phenomena such as silent-lip reading or certain aspects of musical imagery that other models want to attribute either to ubiquituous synaesthetic effects (Ward, 2011) or emotional congruence (Palmer et al., 2011).
Threat modulates perception of looming visual stimuli
Authors: Vagnoni Eleonora , Lourenco Stella , Longo Matthew
Published: November 2012

Objects on a collision course with an observer produce a specific pattern of optical expansion on the retina known as looming, which in theory exactly specifies time-to-collision. Looming stimuli produce stereotyped defensive responses in monkeys and human infants, indicating that the primate visual system is intrinsically tuned to interpret this stimulus as threatening. We investigated how emotional reactions to the semantic content of a looming stimulus affects perceived time-to-collision. We presented either threatening (snakes, spiders) or non-threatening (butterflies and rabbits) stimuli which expanded in size at a rate indicating one of five different times to contact (3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 or 5.0 s). After 1 s, the image disappeared and participants judged when it would have made contact with them continuing on the same trajectory. Consistent with previous findings, time-to-collision judgments systematically underestimated true arrival time. More importantly, our results showed that the magnitude of this underestimating significantly increased for threatening, compared to non-threatening, stimuli. Further, the magnitude of this increase was correlated with participants’ self-reported fear of snakes and spiders. Traditionally, looming has been interpreted as a purely optical cue to collision. Against that view, our results demonstrate that the semantic content of visual stimuli modulates perceived time-to-contact. Our results suggest that perceived threat led participants to use a larger margin of safety: underestimating time-to-collision errs on the side of allowing more time to prepare defensive responses (or flee). More generally, these results demonstrate that emotion has widespread effects on even very basic aspects of perception.
Is A always red? Multisensory integration of synesthetic stimuli in synesthetes and non-synesthetes
Authors: Arvaniti Miketa , Sagiv Noam , Lecoutre Lucille , Vatakis Argiro
Published: November 2012

Our research project aimed at investigating multisensory temporal integration in synesthesia and explore whether or not there are commonalities in the sensory experiences of synesthetes and non-synesthetes. Specifically, we investigated whether or not synesthetes are better integrators than non-synesthetes by examining the strength of multisensory binding (i.e., the unity effect) using an unspeeded temporal order judgment task. We used audiovisual stimuli based on grapheme-colour synesthetic associations (Experiment 1) and on crossmodal correspondences (e.g., high-pitch — light colours; Experiment 2) presented at various stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) with the method of constant stimuli. Presentation of these stimuli in congruent and incongruent format allowed us to examine whether congruent stimuli lead to a stronger unity effect than incongruent ones in synesthetes and non-synesthetes and, thus, whether synesthetes experience enhanced multisensory integration than non-synesthetes. Preliminary data support the hypothesis that congruent crossmodal correspondences lead to a stronger unity effect than incongruent ones in both groups, with this effect being stronger in synesthetes than non-synesthetes. We also found that synesthetes experience stronger unity effect when presented with idiosyncratically congruent grapheme-colour associations than in incongruent ones as compared to non-synesthetes trained in certain grapheme-colour associations. Currently, we are investigating (Experiment 3) whether trained non-synesthetes exhibit enhanced integration when presented with synesthetic associations that occur frequently among synesthetes. Utilizing this design we will provide psychophysical evidence of the multisensory integration in synesthesia and the possible common processing mechanisms in synesthetes and non-synesthetes.
Beat gestures modulate auditory integration in speech perception
Authors: Biau Emmanuel , Soto-Faraco Salvador
Published: November 2012

In everyday life, people interact with each others through verbal communication but also by spontaneous beat gestures which are a very important part of the paralinguistic context during face-to-face conversations. Nonetheless, their role and neural correlates have been seldom addressed. Here we investigate the time course of beat-speech integration in natural speech perception conditions. We measured event-related potentials to words pronounced with or without an accompanying beat gesture while participants attended to a political speech. When the speaker was on sight, words pronounced with a beat gesture elicited appositive shift in ERPs at early sensory (before 100 ms) and at a later time window coinciding with the auditory component P2. This result remained partially true even when the auditory signal was removed from audiovisual signal. Interestingly, there was no difference with words pronounced without gesture when participants listened to the same speech passage without viewing of the speaker. We conclude that in a naturalistic speech context, beat gestures are integrated with speech early on in time and modulate the sensory/phonological levels of processing. We propose that these results suggest a possible role of beats as a highlighter, helping direct the focus of attention of the listener on important information, rather than adding information per se. Beat gestures would modulate how verbal information is treated.
Multisensory objects and the orienting of spatial attention
Authors: Mastroberardino Serena , Santangelo Valerio , Macaluso Emiliano
Published: November 2012

The presentation of an auditory stimulus semantically-congruent with a visual element of a multi-objects display can enhance processing of that element. Here we used multisensory objects (MO) as non-informative cues in a spatial cueing paradigm, aiming to directly assess the interplay between MO integration and spatial attention. We presented two pictures (e.g., left — dog, right — cat) plus a central sound (e.g., a dog’s bark) that defined the location of the MO (left, in this example). This was followed by a target (a Gabor patch) either at the MO location or in the opposite hemifield. Subjects discriminated the orientation of the Gabor, while ignoring all task-irrelevant pictures and sounds. Further, we manipulated the task requirements including ‘easy’ or ‘difficult’ discrimination (Gabor tilt = ±5° or ±10°), and by presenting either a single unilateral Gabor (Exp. 1, ‘low’ competition) or two Gabors bilaterally (red and blue, with the target now defined by colour; Exp. 2, ‘high’ competition). Functional imaging data revealed activation of frontal regions when the target was presented on the opposite side of the MO (invalid trials). The frontal eye-fields activated irrespective of task requirements, while the inferior frontal gyrus activated only when the MO-cue was invalid and competition was low (Exp. 1 only). These findings show that MOs automatically affect the distribution of spatial attention, and that re-orienting operations on invalid trials activate dorsal and ventral frontal areas depending on top-down task constraints. Overall, the results are consistent with the hypothesis linking the integration of multisensory objects with biases of spatial attention.
Fear-specific modulation of tactile perception is disrupted after amygdala lesions
Authors: Bertini Caterina , Passamonti Claudia , Scarpazza Cristina , Ladavas Elisabetta
Published: November 2012

The perception of tactile stimuli on the face is modulated when subjects concurrently observe a face being touched; this effect is termed ‘Visual Remapping of Touch’, or the VRT effect, and might represent a visually evoked somatosensory activity. VRT effect is modulated by specific key information processed in face-to-face interactions: facial emotional expression. Indeed, tactile perception in healthy subjects is enhanced when viewing touch towards a fearful face compared to viewing touch towards neutral, happy or angry expressions. The fear-specific modulation of the VRT effect might be interpreted as an adaptive preferential enhancement of the somatosensory cortices in presence of fearful stimuli. The present experiment was designed to test whether the amygdala, a crucial neural site in fear perception, might contribute to this effect. Six epileptic patients (mean age: 20 years) with lesions to the amygdala due to temporal lobe resection received tactile stimuli near the perceptual threshold, either on their right, left or both cheeks. Concurrently, they watched several blocks of movies depicting a face with a neutral, happy or fearful expression that was touched or just approached by human fingers. Participants were asked to distinguish between felt unilateral and bilateral tactile stimulation. Tactile perception was enhanced when viewing touch only towards a neutral face, while no effect was found when patients viewed touch towards fearful or happy faces. Results of the present experiment suggest that the amygdala modulates the activity of the somatosensory cortices, playing a crucial role in mediating the fear-specific enhancement in the VRT effect.
Scrutinizing integrative effects in a multi-stimuli detection task
Authors: Pannunzi Mario , Pérez-Bellido Alexis , Pereda Baños Alexandre , López-Moliner Joan , Deco Gustavo , Soto-Faraco Salvador
Published: November 2012

The level of processing at which different modalities interact to either facilitate or interfere with detection has been a matter of debate for more than half a century. This question has been mainly addressed by means of statistical models (Green, 1958), or by biologically plausible models (Schnupp et al., 2005). One of the most widely accepted statistical frameworks is the signal detection theory (SDT; Green and Swets, 1966) because it provides a straightforward way to assess whether two sensory stimuli are judged independently of one another, that is when the detectability (d′) of the compound stimulus exceeds the Pythagorean sum of the d′ of the components. Here, we question this logic, and propose a different baseline to evaluate integrative effects in multi-stimuli detection tasks based on the probabilistic summation. To this aim, we show how a simple theoretical hypothesis based on probabilistic summation can explain putative multisensory enhancement in an audio-tactile detection task. In addition, we illustrate how to measure integrative effects from multiple stimuli in two experiments, one using a multisensory audio-tactile detection task (Experiment 1) and another with a unimodal double-stimulus auditory detection task (Experiment 2). Results from Experiment 1 replicate extant multisensory detection data, and also refuse the hypothesis that auditory and tactile stimuli integrated into a single percept, leading to any enhancement. In Experiment 2, we further support the probabilistic summation model using a unimodal integration detection task.
ERP evidence for crossmodal interactions during the encoding of audio–visual motion offsets
Authors: Schmiedchen Kristina , Richter Nicole , Getzmann Stephan , Schröger Erich , Rübsamen Rudolf
Published: November 2012

Previous behavioural studies have challenged the notion of unrestricted visual dominance in motion perception by demonstrating that the auditory modality can affect visual motion perception in the peripheral field. Thus far, electrophysiological evidence for the interplay between both modalities across space has not been provided, yet. The present study investigated crossmodal interactions during the encoding of bimodal motion offsets at different locations in space. To this end, moving audio–visual stimuli with either congruent or spatially and temporally disparate motion offsets were presented along different azimuthal trajectories in free-field while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The pattern of interactions at motion offset suggests that dominance effects between modalities are reflected in a latency shift of ERP components. The latencies of the visual offset N1 were shifted towards the respective termination of the moving acoustic signal at peripheral motion offset locations. The presence of a concurrent visual motion stream less consistently affected the latencies of auditory offset components at frontal motion offset locations which only partially supports the widely reported visual dominance in the central visual field. However, the results provide electrophysiological evidence that the auditory system can modulate the processing of motion streams in the peripheral visual field which is supposed to be due to superior tracking of an ongoing motion in the periphery by the auditory system compared to the visual system. Our findings are well in line with previous studies that highlighted the crucial role of the auditory modality when the reliability of the visual signal is degraded.
Auditory gating during visually-guided action?
Authors: Tremblay Luc , Wong Joanne , Manson Gerome
Published: November 2012

We recently used an audiovisual illusion (Shams et al., 2000) during fast and accurate reaching movements and showed that susceptibility to the fusion illusion is reduced at high limb velocities (Tremblay and Nguyen, 2010). This study aimed to determine if auditory information processing is suppressed during voluntary action (Chapman and Beauchamp, 2006), which could explain reduced fusion during reaching movements. Instead of asking our participants () to report the number of flashes, we asked them to report the number of beeps (Andersen et al., 2004). Before each trial, participants were asked to fixate on a target LED presented on a horizontal reaching surface. The secondary stimuli combined 3 flash (0, 1, 2) by 2 beep (1, 2). During control tests, the secondary stimuli were presented at rest. In the experimental phase, stimuli were presented 0, 100 or 200 ms relative to the onset of a fast and accurate movement. Participants reported the number of beeps after each trial. A 3 flash × 2 beep × 4 presentation condition (0, 100, 200 ms + Control) ANOVA revealed that participants were less accurate at perceiving the actual number of beeps during the movement as compared to the control condition. More importantly, the number of flashes influenced the number of perceived beeps during the movement but not in the control condition. Lastly, no relationship was found between limb velocity and the number of perceived beeps. These results indicate that auditory information is significantly suppressed during goal-directed action but this mechanism alone fails to explain the link between limb velocity and the fusion illusion.
A neurocomputational model of cortical auditory–visual illusions
Authors: Cuppini Cristiano , Magosso Elisa , Ursino Mauro
Published: November 2012

The ability of the brain to integrate information from different sensory channels is fundamental to perceive the external world. Experimental findings suggest that multisensory interactions occur in the early processing stages in primary cortices, at the expense of the classical idea of independent sensory processing streams. However the underlying mechanisms are still not well known. The aim of the present endeavour was to develop a neural network model to analyse possible mechanisms and neural circuitries underlying perceptual audio–visual illusions, such as the Shams illusion and the ventriloquism effect. The model consists of two arrays of auditory and visual neurons topologically aligned. Neurons within each layer interact via excitatory and inhibitory lateral synapses, following a classical Mexican-hat disposition; moreover neurons in the two layers are reciprocally connected via one-to-one excitatory inter-area synapses. A fundamental point in the model is that the visual neurons exhibit a smaller spatial receptive field compared with the auditory ones (i.e., better spatial resolution) but a slower time constant (i.e., less accurate temporal precision). This is the only difference between the two areas. Simulations suggest that classic illusions (Sham effect and ventriloquism) can be explained by assuming direct excitatory synapses among the two regions, without the need of feedback projections from higher-order integrative regions. Moreover the model ascribes the sham illusion to the better temporal resolution of the auditory processing compared with the visual one. Similarly, the better spatial resolution of visual processing can explain the ventriloquism effect, with the same model structure and the same parameter values.
Remapping of touch in the blind for current, but not for planned postures
Authors: Schubert Jonathan , Roeder Brigitte , Heed Tobias
Published: November 2012

Crossing effects in temporal order judgment (TOJ) have been interpreted to indicate remapping of touch from somatotopic into external spatial coordinates. Such crossing effects have been reported to be absent in the congenitally blind, presumably indicating that they do not, by default, remap touch (e.g., Röder et al., 2004). Here, we devised a TOJ task in which participants, trial by trial, took on an uncrossed or crossed start posture and executed a cued movement with both arms into an uncrossed or crossed end posture. When stimulated during movement planning (i.e., before movement execution into the end posture), sighted participants’ performance was affected both by start posture (i.e., the posture during stimulation) as well as end posture (i.e., the currently planned posture). In contrast, blind participants showed a crossing effect for the start posture, but no effect of end posture. Thus, the blind do seem to remap touch when hand posture must be explicitly coded to perform the task such as when planning hand movements. However, whereas the sighted relate touch not only to current, but also to planned future postures, the blind seem to restrict remapping to current posture.
Aesthetic preferences for tridimensional shapes: A comparison between vision and touch
Authors: Etzi Roberta , Spence Charles , Gallace Alberto
Published: November 2012

Aesthetic preferences for different shapes have been investigated in vision but not in touch. Here the visual and tactile pleasantness of 3-dimensional shapes has been studied in two experiments. In Experiment 1, the participants evaluated the tactile pleasantness of two shapes (a sphere and a cube), manipulated with right, left or both hands. The results revealed that the sphere was preferred over the cube in all the exploration conditions. Moreover, the cube was preferred more when explored bimanually than when explored unimanually. In Experiment 2, the participants evaluated pleasantness and angularity of 11 shapes, presented under visual and haptic exploration conditions. Curved shapes (e.g., cylinder) evoked more pleasant ratings compared to angular shapes in both sensorial conditions. Interestingly, certain shapes (e.g., triangle, rhombus) were preferred significantly more when visually presented than when haptically explored. These results provide some preliminary insights into the cognitive and neural differences in the processing of the aesthetic qualities of visual and tactile stimuli.
Interpreting sensory substitution beyond the perceptual assumption: An analogy with reading
Authors: Auvray Malika , Deroy Ophelia
Published: November 2012

Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) aim at replacing or assisting one or several functions of a deficient sensory modality by means of another sensory modality. Despite the numerous studies and research programs devoted to their development and integration, SSDs have failed to live up to their goal of allowing one to ‘see with the skin’ (White et al., 1970) or to ‘see with the brain’ (Bach-y-Rita et al., 2003). These somewhat peremptory claims, as well as the research conducted so far, are based on an implicit perceptual paradigm. Such perceptual assumption accepts the equivalence between using a SSD and perceiving through a particular sensory modality. Our aim is to provide an alternative model, which defines the integration of SSDs as being closer to culturally-implemented cognitive extensions of existing perceptual skills such as reading. In this talk, we will show why the analogy with reading provides a better explanation of the actual findings, that is, both of the positive results achieved and of the limitations noticed across the field of research on SSDs. The parallel with the most recent two-route and interactive models of reading (e.g., Dehaene et al., 2005) generates a radically new way of approaching these results, by stressing the dependence of integration on the existing perceptual-semantic route. In addition, it enables us to generate innovative research questions and specific predictions which set the stage for future work.
The effect of balance training on audio–visual integration in older adults
Authors: Merriman Niamh A. , Whyatt Caroline , Setti Annalisa , Gillian Nicholas , Young William , Ferguson Stuart , Craig Cathy , Newell Fiona N.
Published: November 2012

Although the vestibular system is involved in maintaining balance and posture control, recent studies have provided evidence for a crucial role of other sensory modalities in this task. In older adults, reduced visual capacity, specifically impaired depth perception and contrast sensitivity, has been associated with an increased risk of falls. Moreover, using the auditory-flash illusion (Shams et al., 2000) we recently reported that auditory–visual perception is less efficient in fall-prone older adults than in their age-matched counterparts (Setti et al., 2011) and that susceptibility increases with ageing. The aim of this study was to investigate whether balance training is associated with changes in how efficiently auditory and visual information is integrated in older adults. We tested 58 older (65+ years) adults, half of whom took part in a balance training intervention programme over a series of 5 weeks and half of whom were controls. Pre- and post-training measures of balance control (e.g., Berg Balance Scale) and movement-based signals (e.g., displacement of centre of pressure) across groups suggested that the intervention was successful in improving overall balance control. Furthermore, we found that susceptibility to the auditory-flash illusion did not increase for the intervention group, but did increase in the control group over time. Furthermore, following balance training our data suggest that audio–visual integration becomes relatively more efficient in fall-prone than in non-fall prone older adults. Our findings suggest important links between balance control and multisensory interactions in the ageing brain.
An ERP study of audiovisual simultaneity perception
Authors: Binder Marek
Published: November 2012

The aim of this study was to examine relation between conscious perception of temporal relation between the elements of an audiovisual pair and the dynamics of accompanying neural activity. This was done by using a simultaneity judgment task and EEG event-related potentials (ERP). During Experiment 1 the pairs of 10 ms white-noise bursts and flashes were used. On presenting each pair subjects pressed one of two buttons to indicate their synchrony. Values of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) were based on individual estimates of simultaneity thresholds (50∕50 probability of either response). They were estimated prior to EEG measurement using interleaved staircase involving both sound-first and flash-first stimulus pairs. Experiment 2 had the identical setup, except subjects indicated if audio–visual pair began simultaneously (termination was synchronous). ERP waveforms were time-locked to the second stimulus in the pair. Effects of synchrony perception were studied by comparing ERPs in trials that were judged as simultaneous and non-simultaneous. Subjects were divided into two subgroups with similar SOA values. In both experiments at about 200 ms after the second stimulus onset a stronger ERP wave positivity for trials judged as non-simultaneous was observed in parieto-central sites. This effect was observed for both sound-first and video-first pairs and for both SOA subgroups. The results demonstrate that the perception of temporal relations between multimodal stimuli with identical physical parameters is reflected in localized ERP differences. Given their localization in the posterior parietal regions, these differences may be viewed as correlates of conscious perception of temporal integration vs. separation of audiovisual stimuli.
Greater sensitivity in detecting cross-modal asynchrony for body parts that are seen most often
Authors: Hoover Adria E. N. , Harris Laurence R.
Published: November 2012

We have previously shown that people are more sensitive at detecting asynchrony between a self-generated movement and delayed visual feedback when the perspective of the movement matches the ‘natural view’ suggesting an internal, visual, canonical body representation (Hoover and Harris, 2011). Is there a similar variation in sensitivity for parts of the body that cannot be seen in a first-person perspective? To test this, participants made movements with their hands and head (viewing their face or the back of their head) under four viewing conditions: (1) the natural (or direct) view, (2) mirror-reversed, (3) inverted, and (4) inverted and mirror-reversed. Participants indicated which of two periods (one with a minimum delay, the other with an added delay of 33–264 ms) was delayed and their sensitivity to delay was calculated. A significant linear trend was found when comparing sensitivity to detect cross-modal asynchrony in the ‘natural’ or ‘direct’ view condition across body parts; where sensitivity was greatest when viewing body parts seen most often (hands), intermediary for viewing body parts that are seen only indirectly (moving head while viewing face), and least for viewing body parts that are never seen at all (moving head while viewing back of the head). Further, dependency on viewpoint was most evident for body parts that are seen most often or indirectly, but not for body parts that are never seen. Results are discussed in terms of a visual representation of the body.