A Threat to a virtual hand elicits motor cortex activation

We report an experiment where participants observed an attack on their virtual body as experienced in an immersive virtual reality (IVR) system. Participants sat by a table with their right hand resting upon it. In IVR, they saw a virtual table that was registered with the real one, and they had a virtual body that substituted their real body seen from a first person perspective. The virtual right hand was collocated with their real right hand. Event-related brain potentials were recorded in two conditions, one where the participant"s virtual hand was attacked with a knife and a control condition where the knife only struck the virtual table. Significantly greater P450 potentials were obtained in the attack condition confirming our expectations that participants had a strong illusion of the virtual hand being their own, which was also strongly supported by questionnaire responses. Higher levels of subjective virtual hand ownership correlated with larger P450 amplitudes. Mu-rhythm event-related desynchronization in the motor cortex and readiness potential (C3-C4) negativity were clearly observed when the virtual hand was threatened as would be expected, if the real hand was threatened and the participant tried to avoid harm. Our results support the idea that event-related potentials may provide a promising non-subjective measure of virtual embodiment. They also support previous experiments on pain observation and are placed into context of similar experiments and studies of body perception and body ownership within cognitive neuroscience.

A Threat to a virtual hand elicits motor cortex activation

We report an experiment where participants observed an attack on their virtual body as experienced in an immersive virtual reality (IVR) system. Participants sat by a table with their right hand resting upon it. In IVR, they saw a virtual table that was registered with the real one, and they had a virtual body that substituted their real body seen from a first person perspective. The virtual right hand was collocated with their real right hand. Event-related brain potentials were recorded in two conditions, one where the participant"s virtual hand was attacked with a knife and a control condition where the knife only struck the virtual table. Significantly greater P450 potentials were obtained in the attack condition confirming our expectations that participants had a strong illusion of the virtual hand being their own, which was also strongly supported by questionnaire responses. Higher levels of subjective virtual hand ownership correlated with larger P450 amplitudes. Mu-rhythm event-related desynchronization in the motor cortex and readiness potential (C3-C4) negativity were clearly observed when the virtual hand was threatened as would be expected, if the real hand was threatened and the participant tried to avoid harm. Our results support the idea that event-related potentials may provide a promising non-subjective measure of virtual embodiment. They also support previous experiments on pain observation and are placed into context of similar experiments and studies of body perception and body ownership within cognitive neuroscience.

El Periodisme esportiu i els gèneres periodístics: una anàlisi quantitativa a partir d'un corpus de premsa catalana i espanyola d'informació general

Prenent com a marc el món de l’esport i la premsa d'informació general amb presència a Catalunya, el present treball es proposa investigar quina cobertura dóna aquest tipus de premsa a l’esport en general i al futbol en particular. Per a dur a terme aquesta tasca ens centrarem en la utilització dels gèneres periodístics en la redacció dels textos

Superando la violencia colectiva y construyendo cultura de paz

La aparición del libro 'Superando la violencia colectiva y construyendo cultura de paz' no podría ser más oportuna en nuestro país. Actualmente vivimos la etapa más esperanzadora respecto al fin de la violencia de ETA, última organización terrorista en territorio europeo (TE-SAT, 2011) y aunque este no es un libro sobre ETA, sus aportaciones sobre la violencia colectiva y la construcción de la paz, nos muestran como el fin de la violencia y la construcción de la paz es un proceso que requiere de una nueva cultura, la cultura de paz.

Projecte P.I.T.O.S (Projecte d'informació telefònica d'orientació al S.A.T)

JCM és una empresa dedicada al disseny de sistemes de control d’accés. Disposa d’uns equips elèctrics amb molts paràmetres configurables, així es poden utilitzar en molts tipus d’instal•lació. Aquets paràmetres són configurables pels clients. JCM, disposa d’un servei d’atenció telefònica (SAT), que intenta donar solucions a tots els problemes que puguin sorgir als clients. Sovint, no poden donar suport als dubtes dels clients per culpa de la poca informació que reben a través del client. L'objectiu del projecte és resoldre el problema de falta d'informació i mala comunicació per millorar la qualitat del servei que ofereix el SAT. La solució, no ha d’alterar el cost de producció del producte. S’ha de tenir en compte també que els equips poden estar instal•lats en qualsevol part del món i que només es poden utilitzar recursos de fàcil accés per tots els clients. Per complir amb aquests objectius, emetrem un missatge, a través del brunzidor del equip, amb la informació de configuració de l'equip. Aquest missatge viatjarà a través de la xarxa telefònica fins al SAT. Un cop allà, el descodificarem i n'enviarem les dades a un PC perquè pugui presentar les dades sobre la configuració de una forma clara pel SAT.

El comentario de textos electrónicos = Commentary on electronic texts

When sat in front of a computer screen and keyboard, we read and write different kinds of texts (chats, blogs, websites,etc.) and do so differently (with links, photographs, icons, etc.). However, we still comment on as many texts as in the pastin both public and private spheres. After setting out some typical features of reading and writing electronic texts, we givesome examples of students' colloquial commentary out of school, list some of the commonest academic tasks and offersome ideas and make some recommendations for making progress in this field