Duration of face mask exposure matters: evidence from Swiss and Brazilian kindergartners' ability to recognise emotions.

Wearing facial masks became a common practice worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigated (1) whether facial masks that cover adult faces affect 4- to 6-year-old children's recognition of emotions in those faces and (2) whether the duration of children's exposure to masks is associated with emotion recognition. We tested children from Switzerland (= 38) and Brazil (= 41).

The role of motor inhibition in implicit negation processing: two Go/No-Go behavioral studies.

Several studies demonstrated that explicit forms of negation processing (e.g., "I don't know") recruits motor inhibitory mechanisms.

The effect of Surround sound on embodiment and sense of presence in cinematic experience: a behavioral and HD-EEG study.

Although many studies have investigated spectators' cinematic experience, only a few of them explored the neurophysiological correlates of the sense of presence evoked by the spatial characteristics of audio delivery devices. Nevertheless, nowadays both the industrial and the consumer markets have been saturated by some forms of spatial audio format that enrich the audio-visual cinematic experience, reducing the gap between the real and the digitally mediated world. The increase in the immersive capabilities corresponds to the instauration of both the sense of presence and the psychological sense of being in the virtual environment and also embodied simulation mechanisms.

Emotional body postures affect inhibitory control only when task-relevant.

A classical theoretical frame to interpret motor reactions to emotional stimuli is that such stimuli, particularly those threat-related, are processed preferentially, i.e., they are capable of capturing and grabbing attention automatically.

Is motor inhibition involved in the processing of sentential negation? An assessment via the Stop-Signal Task.

In the last decades, the embodied approach to cognition and language gained momentum in the scientific debate, leading to evidence in different aspects of language processing. However, while the bodily grounding of concrete concepts seems to be relatively not controversial, abstract aspects, like the negation logical operator, are still today one of the main challenges for this research paradigm. In this framework, the present study has a twofold aim: (1) to assess whether mechanisms for motor inhibition underpin the processing of sentential negation, thus, providing evidence for a bodily grounding of this logic operator, (2) to determine whether the Stop-Signal Task, which has been used to investigate motor inhibition, could represent a good tool to explore this issue.

Seeing the wood despite the trees: Exploring human disturbance impact on plant diversity, community structure, and standing biomass in fragmented high Andean forests.

High Andean forests harbor a remarkably high biodiversity and play a key role in providing vital ecosystem services for neighboring cities and settlements. However, they are among the most fragmented and threatened ecosystems in the neotropics. To preserve their unique biodiversity, a deeper understanding of the effects of anthropogenic perturbations on them is urgently needed.

The consequences of COVID-19 on social interactions: an online study on face covering.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the nature of our social interactions. In order to understand how protective equipment and distancing measures influence the ability to comprehend others' emotions and, thus, to effectively interact with others, we carried out an online study across the Italian population during the first pandemic peak. Participants were shown static facial expressions (Angry, Happy and Neutral) covered by a sanitary mask or by a scarf.

Visual exploration of emotional body language: a behavioural and eye-tracking study.

Bodily postures are essential to correctly comprehend others' emotions and intentions. Nonetheless, very few studies focused on the pattern of eye movements implicated in the recognition of emotional body language (EBL), demonstrating significant differences in relation to different emotions. A yet unanswered question regards the presence of the "left-gaze bias" (i.

Audience spontaneous entrainment during the collective enjoyment of live performances: physiological and behavioral measurements.

Cardiac synchrony is a crucial component of shared experiences, considered as an objective measure of emotional processes accompanying empathic interactions. No study has investigated whether cardiac synchrony among people engaged in collective situations links to the individual emotional evaluation of the shared experience. We investigated theatrical live performances as collective experiences evoking strong emotional engagement in the audience.

Haptic Aesthetics and Bodily Properties of Ori Gersht's Digital Art: A Behavioral and Eye-Tracking Study.

Experimental aesthetics has shed light on the involvement of pre-motor areas in the perception of abstract art. However, the contribution of texture perception to aesthetic experience is still understudied. We hypothesized that digital screen-based art, despite its immateriality, might suggest potential sensorimotor stimulation.

Sharing the filmic experience - The physiology of socio-emotional processes in the cinema.

As we identify with characters on screen, we simulate their emotions and thoughts. This is accompanied by physiological changes such as galvanic skin response (GSR), an indicator for emotional arousal, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), referring to vagal activity. We investigated whether the presence of a cinema audience affects these psychophysiological processes.

Embodying the camera: An EEG study on the effect of camera movements on film spectators´ sensorimotor cortex activation.

One key feature of film consists in its power to bodily engage the viewer. Previous research has suggested lens and camera movements to be among the most effective stylistic devices involved in such engagement. In an EEG experiment we assessed the role of such movements in modulating specific spectators´ neural and experiential responses, likely reflecting such engagement.

How context influences the interpretation of facial expressions: a source localization high-density EEG study on the "Kuleshov effect".

Few studies have explored the specificities of contextual modulations of the processing of facial expressions at a neuronal level. This study fills this gap by employing an original paradigm, based on a version of the filmic "Kuleshov effect". High-density EEG was recorded while participants watched film sequences consisting of three shots: the close-up of a target person's neutral face (Face_1), the scene that the target person was looking at (happy, fearful, or neutral), and another close-up of the same target person's neutral face (Face_2).

Beholders' sensorimotor engagement enhances aesthetic rating of pictorial facial expressions of pain.

The present study addresses a novel issue by investigating whether beholders' sensorimotor engagement with the emotional content of works of art contributes to the formation of their objective aesthetic judgment of beauty. To this purpose, participants' sensorimotor engagement was modulated by asking them to overtly contract the Corrugator Supercilii facial muscles or to refrain from any voluntary facial movement while judging the aesthetic value of painful and neutral facial expressions in select examples of Renaissance and Baroque paintings. Results demonstrated a specific increase in the aesthetic rating of paintings showing painful facial expressions during the congruent activation of the Corrugator Supercilii muscles.

Herbivory induced non-local responses of the clonal invader Carpobrotus edulis are not mediated by clonal integration.

The anthropogenic displacement of species around the world results in new environmental situations where native and exotic species coexist. Exotic plants have to face native herbivores, and interactions between introduced plants and native herbivores seem to play an important role in the invasiveness of some exotic plant species. We studied the role of clonal integration in induce morphological, physiological, and biochemical responses in the clonal invader Carpobrotus edulis against the attack of the native snail Theba pisana.

Adsorption dynamics of polyatomic molecules on planar surfaces.

This is a comparative study of the adsorption dynamics of increasingly longer polyatomic molecules on a planar surface. We perform kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of the gas uptake to identify the molecular mechanisms and parameters that govern the evolution of the adsorbed film to its final equilibrium state. We also develop an analytical model for the adsorption dynamics of mono-atomic gases that demonstrates a direct correlation between the strength of the gas-gas interaction and the adsorption rate dependence with coverage.

How Context Influences Our Perception of Emotional Faces: A Behavioral Study on the Kuleshov Effect.

Facial expressions are of major importance in understanding the mental and emotional states of others. So far, most studies on the perception and comprehension of emotions have used isolated facial expressions as stimuli; for example, photographs of actors displaying facial expressions corresponding to one of the so called 'basic emotions.' However, our real experience during social interactions is different: facial expressions of emotion are mostly perceived in a wider context, constituted by body language, the surrounding environment, and our beliefs and expectations.

"Embodied Body Language": an electrical neuroimaging study with emotional faces and bodies.

To date, most investigations in the field of affective neuroscience mainly focused on the processing of facial expressions, overlooking the exploration of emotional body language (EBL), its capability to express our emotions notwithstanding. Few electrophysiological studies investigated the time course and the neural correlates of EBL and the integration of face and body emotion-related information. The aim of the present study was to investigate both the time course and the neural correlates underlying the integration of affective information conveyed by faces and bodies.

"Cuts in Action": A High-Density EEG Study Investigating the Neural Correlates of Different Editing Techniques in Film.

In spite of their striking differences with real-life perception, films are perceived and understood without effort. Cognitive film theory attributes this to the system of continuity editing, a system of editing guidelines outlining the effect of different cuts and edits on spectators. A major principle in this framework is the 180° rule, a rule recommendation that, to avoid spectators' attention to the editing, two edited shots of the same event or action should not be filmed from angles differing in a way that expectations of spatial continuity are strongly violated.

Correction: Proactive Control Strategies for Overt and Covert Go/NoGo Tasks: an Electrical Neuroimaging Study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Sorption Kinetics on Open Carbon Nanohorn Aggregates: The Effect of Molecular Diameter.

We present the results of a study of the kinetics of adsorption on aggregates of open carbon nanohorns using argon and CF₄ sorbates. We measured the equilibration times for each value of the sorbent loading along eight adsorption isotherms (four isotherms for each sorbate species). We found that: the equilibration times decrease as the sorbent loading (and the equilibrium pressure of the coexisting gas) increases, for a given temperature; and, that, for a given value of the sorbent loading, the equilibration times decrease with increasing temperature.

Proactive Control Strategies for Overt and Covert Go/NoGo Tasks: An Electrical Neuroimaging Study.

Proactive and reactive inhibition are generally intended as mechanisms allowing the withholding or suppression of overt movements. Nonetheless, inhibition could also play a pivotal role during covert actions (i.e.

Motor Inhibition during Overt and Covert Actions: An Electrical Neuroimaging Study.

Given ample evidence for shared cortical structures involved in encoding actions, whether or not subsequently executed, a still unsolved problem is the identification of neural mechanisms of motor inhibition, preventing "covert actions" as motor imagery from being performed, in spite of the activation of the motor system. The principal aims of the present study were the evaluation of: 1) the presence in covert actions as motor imagery of putative motor inhibitory mechanisms; 2) their underlying cerebral sources; 3) their differences or similarities with respect to cerebral networks underpinning the inhibition of overt actions during a Go/NoGo task. For these purposes, we performed a high density EEG study evaluating the cerebral microstates and their related sources elicited during two types of Go/NoGo tasks, requiring the execution or withholding of an overt or a covert imagined action, respectively.

Equilibration processes during gas uptake inside narrow pores.

We analyze the adsorption kinetics of a gas in contact with the open ends of a narrow longitudinal pore, where gas transport along its interior occurs via single-file diffusion mechanisms. By implementing a Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of the gas dynamics, we obtain the overall change in gas uptake inside the pore and the concentration profile of the adsorbed phase as the system evolves towards equilibrium. Typically, higher external pressure leads to faster kinetics as it happens for adsorption on open surfaces.

Audio-visuomotor processing in the musician's brain: an ERP study on professional violinists and clarinetists.

The temporal dynamics of brain activation during visual and auditory perception of congruent vs. incongruent musical video clips was investigated in 12 musicians from the Milan Conservatory of music and 12 controls. 368 videos of a clarinetist and a violinist playing the same score with their instruments were presented.