Pleasant touch moderates the subjective but not objective aspects of body perception.

Un-myelinated C tactile afferents (CT afferents) are a key finding in affective touch. These fibers, which activate in response to a caress-like touch to hairy skin (CT afferents are not found in palm skin), may have more in common with interoceptive systems encoding body ownership, than afferent systems processing other tactile stimuli. We tested whether subjective embodiment of a rubber hand (measured through questionnaire items) was increased when tactile stimulation was applied to the back of the hand at a rate optimal for CT afferents (3 cm/s) vs.

The role of the environment in eliciting phantom-like sensations in non-amputees.

Following the amputation of a limb, many amputees report that they can still vividly perceive its presence despite conscious knowledge that it is not physically there. However, our ability to probe the mental representation of this experience is limited by the intractable and often distressing pain associated with amputation. Here, we present a method for eliciting phantom-like experiences in non-amputees using a variation of the rubber hand illusion in which a finger has been removed from the rubber hand.

Space perception and William James's metaphysical presuppositions.

William James's overtly philosophical work may be more continuous with his psychological work than is sometimes thought. His Essays in Radical Empiricism can be understood as an explicit statement of the absolute presupposition that formed the basis of Jamesian psychology: that direct experience is primary and has to be taken at face value. An examination of James's theory of space perception suggests that, even in his early work, he presupposed the primacy of direct experience, and that later changes in his account of space perception can be understood as making his view more consistent with this presupposition.

Biases in the subjective timing of perceptual events: Libet et al. (1983) revisited.

We report two experiments in which participants had to judge the time of occurrence of a stimulus relative to a clock. The experiments were based on the control condition used by Libet, Gleason, Wright, and Pearl [Libet, B., Gleason, C.

Older people with enduring or recurrent severe mental illness (graduates): A literature review.

Objectives: To review the literature on older people with enduring or recurrent severe mental illness with an onset earlier than 65 years (graduates) and, in particular, to look at the specific features and needs of this group.

Method: A Medline literature search produced 41 relevant papers and reports on the subject.

Results: There are a substantial number of older people with severe mental illness and the number will rise in line with increased longevity.

Older people with enduring or recurrent severe mental illness in the Eastern Region of Ireland.

Objectives: There has been no specific planning for older people with enduring or recurrent severe mental illness in Ireland. This survey aims to identify the number of affected over 65 year olds (graduates) and 55-64 year olds (prospective graduates) in the Health Service Executive, Eastern Region, their diagnoses and their use of psychiatric services.

Method: A comprehensive survey of the ten general adult psychiatry and four old age psychiatry services in the (HSE) Eastern Region was undertaken for the year 2003 to determine the number of patients, their diagnoses and service utilisation.

Transfer of route learning from virtual to real environments.

The authors investigated the extent to which route learning in a virtual environment (VE) transfers to the real world. In Experiment 1, active VE exploration, on its own or with a map, produced better transfer of training than either no VE training at all or passive VE training; however, transfer was achieved after shorter training times with the map. Experiment 2 demonstrated that VE + map training was not superior to training with a map alone, and Experiment 3 demonstrated that the poorer performances observed after passive VE training were not simply due to a lack of attention but to the lack of active navigational decisions.

Can virtual reality be used to measure and train surgical skills?

The quantitative literature on the use of virtual environments to measure and train a variety of surgical skills is critically reviewed. We selected works from the years 1995-2000. Theoretical perspectives, such as those of Saltzman (1979), Bernstein (1967) and Schmidt (1975) and techniques, such as hierarchical task analysis, are presented and contrasted with the largely atheoretical approach of the practitioners of virtual surgery.

Performance of a skilled motor task in virtual and real environments.

Three experiments compared the performances of adult participants (three groups of 10) on a perceptuo-motor task in both real world (RW) and virtual environments (VEs). The task involved passing a hoop over a bent wire course, and three versions of the task were used: a 3-D wire course with no background, a flattened version of the 3-D course (2(1/2)-D course) with no background, and the 2(1/2)-D course with added background to provide spatial context. In all three experiments the participants had to prevent the hoop from touching the wire as they moved it.

On-Line Updating of Spatial Information Druing Locomotion Without Vision.

Two experiments are reported in which the control of locomotion without vision was investigated. In Experiment 1, subjects (N = 10) made similar, although less functional, locomotor adjustments when walking without vision to a target than they did when walking with vision. That result suggests that while walking without vision, the subjects updated their positions on-line with respect to a representation of the target rather than operating from a preformulated action plan.