The impact of fine motor activities like playing musical instruments on the thickness and strength of the flexor digitorum muscle.

Background: This study aimed to explore the impact of occupational activities involving extensive finger movement on the muscular characteristics of the forearms. In particular, the flexor digitorum (FD) muscular thickness and strength asymmetry between right and left hand were compared between musicians and non-musicians.

Methods: Ultrasonography was employed to measure the thickness of the FD in each hand, while a validated custom-made device was used to assess the strength of the flexor and extensor digitorum (ED).

Music and speech time perception of musically trained individuals: The effects of audio type, duration of musical training, and rhythm perception.

The perception of time is a subjective experience influenced by various factors such as individual psychology, external stimuli, and personal experiences, and it is often assessed with the use of the reproduction task that involves individuals estimating and reproducing the duration of specific time intervals. In the current study, we examined the ability of 97 musically trained participants to reproduce the durations of temporal intervals that were filled with music or speech stimuli. The results revealed a consistent pattern of durations being underestimated, and an association was observed between the duration of musical training and the level of accuracy in reproducing both music and speech tracks.

The effect of visually filled reproductions on the reproduced durations of auditory intervals.

The present study examined how the perception of time is affected by the presence of a visual stimulus during the reproduction phase of an online time reproduction task. Participants were instructed to reproduce the durations of speed-altered speech snippets with either a picture or a blank screen presented during the reproduction phase. Results showed that fast speeches were reproduced as longer than slow ones, while the reproduced durations of short speeches were closer to the actual durations than were the long speeches.

Biases in object location estimation: The role of rotations and translation.

Spatial memory studies often employ static images depicting a scene, an array of objects, or environmental features from one perspective and then following a perspective-shift-prompt memory either of the scene or objects within the scene. The current study investigated a previously reported systematic bias in spatial memory where, following a perspective shift from encoding to recall, participants indicated the location of an object farther to the direction of the shift. In Experiment 1, we aimed to replicate this bias by asking participants to encode the location of an object in a virtual room and then indicate it from memory following a perspective shift induced by camera translation and rotation.

Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Vs Guided Imagery on mood changes in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy treatment: A crossover trial.

Purpose: To test whether Virtual Reality (VR) can benefit cancer patients from their interaction with an immersive environment, on their mood and their biophysical parameters, compared to those who will experience a Guided Imagery (GI) intervention.

Methods: This was a randomized crossover trial with 50 cancer patients on active chemotherapy treatment, who were randomized to one of two treatment sequences VR-GI or GI-VR. Patients were assessed for Mood Changes, using POMS questionnaire, for three symptoms (Nausea, Pain and Feeling Sick), using three questions from FACT-G questionnaire, and Bio-physical parameters (Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Oxygen Saturation).

Novel Ultrasonographic Thickness and Strength Assessments of the Flexor Digitorum: A Reliability Analysis.

Objectives: Clinical conditions such as focal dystonia often require the assessment of atrophy and weakness of the finger muscles. However, due to a lack of well-established protocols, the current investigation focused on assessing the reliability of thickness and strength assessments of the flexor digitorum (FD) muscle, including both the superficialis and profundus components. As a secondary assessment, the reliability of the strength measurement of the extensor digitorum muscle was examined as well.

Age-related changes in visual encoding strategy preferences during a spatial memory task.

Ageing is associated with declines in spatial memory, however, the source of these deficits remains unclear. Here we used eye-tracking to investigate age-related differences in spatial encoding strategies and the cognitive processes underlying the age-related deficits in spatial memory tasks. To do so we asked young and older participants to encode the locations of objects in a virtual room shown as a picture on a computer screen.

Are Spatial Memories for Familiar Environments Orientation Dependent?

In one experiment we examined the organizational structure of spatial memories for familiar environments, comparing it directly with that for unfamiliar environments. Participants in the familiar condition pointed from imagined perspectives towards objects in their own rooms and their performance was compared to that of matched controls in an unfamiliar condition who carried out the same task after studying the same rooms in immersive Virtual Reality. In both conditions, participants were faster and more accurate in pointing from imagined perspectives that were aligned with the geometry of the room (vs.

Alignment Effects in Spatial Perspective Taking from an External Vantage Point.

In three experiments, we examined, using a perceptual task, the difficulties of spatial perspective taking. Participants imagined adopting perspectives around a table and pointed from them towards the positions of a target. Depending on the condition, the scene was presented on a virtual screen in Virtual Reality or projected on an actual screen in the real world (Experiment 1), or viewed as immediate in Virtual Reality (Experiment 2).

Virtual Reality and Symptoms Management of Anxiety, Depression, Fatigue, and Pain: A Systematic Review.

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has become an interesting alternative to traditional exposure-based therapies for many symptoms. VR involves immersion in a computer-generated virtual environment that minimizes avoidance and facilitates emotional processing. The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate evidence on the intervention effect of VR on anxiety, depression, fatigue, and pain.

Age-related differences in visual encoding and response strategies contribute to spatial memory deficits.

Successful navigation requires memorising and recognising the locations of objects across different perspectives. Although these abilities rely on hippocampal functioning, which is susceptible to degeneration in older adults, little is known about the effects of ageing on encoding and response strategies that are used to recognise spatial configurations. To investigate this, we asked young and older participants to encode the locations of objects in a virtual room shown as a picture on a computer screen.

Integrating visuospatial information across distinct experiences.

In two experiments, we examined whether the presence of stable visual information and the confluence of the viewpoints would cause participants to integrate in a single memory representation spatial locations they encoded at different points in time. Participants studied from the same or from different viewpoints two layouts of objects within a common visually cluttered room. Then, they carried out a series of pointing trials that involved objects from either the same or different layouts.

Orientation-dependent spatial memories for scenes viewed on mobile devices.

We examined whether spatial representations for scenes experienced on the screens of mobile devices are orientation dependent and whether the type of movement (physical vs. simulated) during learning affects the encoding and the retrieval of spatial information. Participants studied a spatial layout depicted on a tablet and then carried out perspective-taking trials in which they localized objects from imagined perspectives.

Selection of macroreference frames in spatial memory.

Spatial memories are often hierarchically organized with different regions of space represented in unique clusters within the hierarchy. Each cluster is thought to be organized around its own microreference frame selected during learning, whereas relationships between clusters are organized by a macroreference frame. Two experiments were conducted in order to better understand important characteristics of macroreference frames.

Developmental changes in the mental transformation of spatial arrays.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the spatial memory and transformation of spatial relations in a sample of 7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds and to compare their performance with that of adults. Four pictures of animals were presented at different locations on the outline of a circle. Participants were instructed to memorize the array of locations and then, in a direct retrieval task, to reconstruct it from memory on a piece of paper that included only the circle outline.

Updating spatial relations to remote locations described in narratives.

In four experiments we examined whether sensorimotor encoding influences readers' reasoning about spatial scenes acquired through narratives. Participants read a narrative that described the geometry of a store and then pointed to the memorized locations of described objects from imagined perspectives. In Experiment 1, participants walked during learning towards the direction of every described object and then visualized these objects as being in the immediate environment.

Modeling the Effects of Perceptual Load: Saliency, Competitive Interactions, and Top-Down Biases.

A computational model of visual selective attention has been implemented to account for experimental findings on the Perceptual Load Theory (PLT) of attention. The model was designed based on existing neurophysiological findings on attentional processes with the objective to offer an explicit and biologically plausible formulation of PLT. Simulation results verified that the proposed model is capable of capturing the basic pattern of results that support the PLT as well as findings that are considered contradictory to the theory.

What's so difficult with adopting imagined perspectives?

Research on spatial cognition suggests that transformation processes and/or spatial conflicts may influence performance on mental perspective-taking tasks. However, conflicting findings have complicated our understanding about the processes involved in perspective-taking, particularly those giving rise to angular disparity effects, whereby performance worsens as the imagined perspective adopted deviates from one's actual perspective. Based on data from experiments involving mental perspective-taking in immediate and remote spatial layouts, we propose here a novel account for the difficulty with perspective-taking.

The protagonist's first perspective influences the encoding of spatial information in narratives.

Three experiments examined the first-perspective alignment effect that is observed when retrieving spatial information from memory about described environments. Participants read narratives that described the viewpoint of a protagonist in fictitious environments and then pointed to the memorized locations of described objects from imagined perspectives. Results from Experiments 1 and 2 showed that performance was best when participants responded from the protagonist's first perspective even though object locations were described from a different perspective.

Social and representational cues jointly influence spatial perspective-taking.

We examined how social cues (the conversational partner's viewpoint) and representational ones (the intrinsic structure of a spatial layout) jointly shape people's spatial memory representations and their subsequent descriptions. In 24 pairs, Directors studied an array with a symmetrical structure while either knowing their Matcher's subsequent viewpoint or not. During the subsequent description of the array, the array's intrinsic structure was aligned with the Director, the Matcher, or neither partner.

Integration of visuospatial information encoded from different viewpoints.

Two experiments investigated whether separate sets of objects viewed in the same environment but from different views were encoded as a single integrated representation or maintained as distinct representations. Participants viewed two circular layouts of objects that were placed around them in a round (Experiment 1) or a square (Experiment 2) room and were later tested on perspective-taking trials requiring retrieval of either one layout (within-layout trials) or both layouts (between-layout trials). Results from Experiment 1 indicated that participants did not integrate the two layouts into a single representation.

Flexible spatial perspective-taking: conversational partners weigh multiple cues in collaborative tasks.

Research on spatial perspective-taking often focuses on the cognitive processes of isolated individuals as they adopt or maintain imagined perspectives. Collaborative studies of spatial perspective-taking typically examine speakers' linguistic choices, while overlooking their underlying processes and representations. We review evidence from two collaborative experiments that examine the contribution of social and representational cues to spatial perspective choices in both language and the organization of spatial memory.

Cross-sensory reference frame transfer in spatial memory: the case of proprioceptive learning.

In three experiments, we investigated whether the information available to visual perception prior to encoding the locations of objects in a path through proprioception would influence the reference direction from which the spatial memory was formed. Participants walked a path whose orientation was misaligned to the walls of the enclosing room and to the square sheet that covered the path prior to learning (Exp. 1) and, in addition, to the intrinsic structure of a layout studied visually prior to walking the path and to the orientation of stripes drawn on the floor (Exps.

Collaborating in spatial tasks: how partners coordinate their spatial memories and descriptions.

We summarize findings from a study examining whether the availability of the conversational partner's spatial viewpoint influences the speaker's spatial memories, description strategies, their joint efficiency and accuracy on the task, as well as the partner's resulting spatial memories. In 18 pairs, Directors described to a misaligned Matcher arrays that they learned while either knowing their Matcher's viewpoint or not. Memory tests preceding descriptions revealed that Directors represented their Matcher's viewpoint when known in advance.

Egocentric updating of remote locations.

The study examined whether people update remote spatial locations in unfamiliar environments during physical movement. Participants learned a layout of objects from one perspective and carried out perspective-taking trials after physically rotating to a new perspective in either the same room as learning or in an adjacent room. Prior to rotation in the adjacent room participants were instructed to visualize the objects as being around them.