'Making Science Understandable'. Divulgació científica i mediació editorial: el cas de The Wisdom of the Body de Walter B. Cannon (1871-1945)

The present paper aims at an historical reconstruction, in the framework of the publishing industry in the years between the two World Wars, of the role played by the publisher William W. Norton in the genesis, published in 1932, and new edition in 1938, of Walter B. Cannon"s book The Wisdom of the Body. With the analysis of this case study, we aimed at contributing to the current criticism of the «dominant view», which tries, in an uncritical manner, that scientific popularization follows an ineluctable, continuous and linear evolution.

Drumming in immersive virtual reality: the body shapes the way we play

It has been shown that it is possible to generate perceptual illusions of ownership in immersive virtual reality (IVR) over a virtual body seen from first person perspective, in other words over a body that visually substitutes the person's real body. This can occur even when the virtual body is quite different in appearance from the person's real body. However, investigation of the psychological, behavioral and attitudinal consequences of such body transformations remains an interesting problem with much to be discovered. Thirty six Caucasian people participated in a between-groups experiment where they played a West-African Djembe hand drum while immersed in IVR and with a virtual body that substituted their own. The virtual hand drum was registered with a physical drum. They were alongside a virtual character that played a drum in a supporting, accompanying role. In a baseline condition participants were represented only by plainly shaded white hands, so that they were able merely to play. In the experimental condition they were represented either by a casually dressed dark-skinned virtual body (Casual Dark-Skinned - CD) or by a formal suited light-skinned body (Formal Light-Skinned - FL). Although participants of both groups experienced a strong body ownership illusion towards the virtual body, only those with the CD representation showed significant increases in their movement patterns for drumming compared to the baseline condition and compared with those embodied in the FL body. Moreover, the stronger the illusion of body ownership in the CD condition, the greater this behavioral change. A path analysis showed that the observed behavioral changes were a function of the strength of the illusion of body ownership towards the virtual body and its perceived appropriateness for the drumming task. These results demonstrate that full body ownership illusions can lead to substantial behavioral and possibly cognitive changes depending on the appearance of the virtual body. This could be important for many applications such as learning, education, training, psychotherapy and rehabilitation using IVR.

Comparison of quality of life after stereotactic body radiotherapy and surgery for early-stage prostate cancer

Background: As the long-term efficacy of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) becomes established and other prostate cancer treatment approaches are refined and improved, examination of quality of life (QOL) following prostate cancer treatment is critical in driving both patient and clinical treatment decisions. We present the first study to compare QOL after SBRT and radical prostatectomy, with QOL assessed at approximately the same times pre- and post-treatment and using the same validated QOL instrument. Methods: Patients with clinically localized prostate cancer were treated with either radical prostatectomy (n = 123 Spanish patients) or SBRT (n = 216 American patients). QOL was assessed using the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) grouped into urinary, sexual, and bowel domains. For comparison purposes, SBRT EPIC data at baseline, 3 weeks, 5, 11, 24, and 36 months were compared to surgery data at baseline, 1, 6, 12, 24,and 36 months. Differences in patient characteristics between the two groups were assessed using Chi-squared tests for categorical variables and t-tests for continuous variables. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were constructed for each EPIC scale to account for correlation among repeated measures and used to assess the effect of treatment on QOL. Results: The largest differences in QOL occurred in the first 1-6 months after treatment, with larger declines following surgery in urinary and sexual QOL as compared to SBRT, and a larger decline in bowel QOL following SBRT as compared to surgery. Long-term urinary and sexual QOL declines remained clinically significantly lower for surgery patients but not for SBRT patients. Conclusions: Overall, these results may have implications for patient and physician clinical decision making which are often influenced by QOL. These differences in sexual, urinary and bowel QOL should be closely considered in selecting the right treatment, especially in evaluating the value of non-invasive treatments, such as SBRT.

Extending body space in immersive virtual reality: a very long arm illusion

Recent studies have shown that a fake body part can be incorporated into human body representation through synchronous multisensory stimulation on the fake and corresponding real body part- the most famous example being the Rubber Hand Illusion. However, the extent to which gross asymmetries in the fake body can be assimilated remains unknown. Participants experienced, through a head-tracked stereo head-mounted display a virtual body coincident with their real body. There were 5 conditions in a between-groups experiment, with 10 participants per condition. In all conditions there was visuo-motor congruence between the real and virtual dominant arm. In an Incongruent condition (I), where the virtual arm length was equal to the real length, there was visuo-tactile incongruence. In four Congruent conditions there was visuo-tactile congruence, but the virtual arm lengths were either equal to (C1), double (C2), triple (C3) or quadruple (C4) the real ones. Questionnaire scores and defensive withdrawal movements in response to a threat showed that the overall level of ownership was high in both C1 and I, and there was no significant difference between these conditions. Additionally, participants experienced ownership over the virtual arm up to three times the length of the real one, and less strongly at four times the length. The illusion did decline, however, with the length of the virtual arm. In the C2-C4 conditions although a measure of proprioceptive drift positively correlated with virtual arm length, there was no correlation between the drift and ownership of the virtual arm, suggesting different underlying mechanisms between ownership and drift. Overall, these findings extend and enrich previous results that multisensory and sensorimotor information can reconstruct our perception of the body shape, size and symmetry even when this is not consistent with normal body proportions.

Inducing illusory ownership of a virtual body

We discuss three experiments that investigate how virtual limbs and bodies can come to feel like real limbs and bodies. The fi rst experiment shows that an illusion of ownership of a virtual arm appearing to project out of a person"s shoulder can be produced by tactile stimulation on a person"s hidden real hand and synchronous stimulation on the seen virtual hand. The second shows that the illusion can be produced by synchronous movement of the person"s hidden real hand and a virtual hand. The third shows that a weaker form of the illusion can be produced when a brain-computer interface is employed to move the virtual hand by means of motor imagery without any tactile stimulation. We discuss related studies that indicate that the ownership illusion may be generated for an entire body. This has important implications for the scientific understanding of body ownership and several practical applications.

Hot wire configuration for depositing device grade nano-crystalline silicon at high deposition rate

The University of Barcelona is developing a pilot-scale hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HW-CVD) set up for the deposition of nano-crystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) on 10 cm × 10 cm glass substrate at high deposition rate. The system manages 12 thin wires of 0.15-0.2 mm diameter in a very dense configuration. This permits depositing very uniform films, with inhomogeneities lower than 2.5%, at high deposition rate (1.5-3 nm/s), and maintaining the substrate temperature relatively low (250 °C). The wire configuration design, based on radicals' diffusion simulation, is exposed and the predicted homogeneity is validated with optical transmission scanning measurements of the deposited samples. Different deposition series were carried out by varying the substrate temperature, the silane to hydrogen dilution and the deposition pressure. By means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), the evolution in time of the nc-Si:H vibrational modes was monitored. Particular importance has been given to the study of the material stability against post-deposition oxidation.

The contribution of real-time mirror reflections of motor actions on virtual body ownership in an immersive virtual environment

This paper reports an experiment that investigated people"s body ownership of an avatar that was observed in a virtual mirror. Twenty subjects were recruited in a within-groups study where 10 first experienced a virtual character that synchronously reflected their upper-body movements as seen in a virtual mirror, and then an asynchronous condition where the mirror avatar displayed prerecorded actions, unrelated to those of the participant. The other 10 subjects experienced the conditions in the opposite order. In both conditions the participant could carry out actions that led to elevation above ground level, as seen from their first person perspective and correspondingly in the mirror. A rotating virtual fan eventually descended to 2m above the ground. The hypothesis was that synchronous mirror reflection would result in higher subjective sense of ownership. A questionnaire analysis showed that the body ownership illusion was significantly greater for thesynchronous than asynchronous condition. Additionally participants in the synchronous condition avoided collision with the descending fan significantly more often than those in the asynchronous condition. The results of this experiment are put into context within similar experiments on multisensory correlation and body ownership within cognitive neuroscience.

Towards a digital body: the virtual arm illusion

The integration of the human brain with computers is an interesting new area of applied neuroscience, where one application is replacement of a person"s real body by a virtual representation. Here we demonstrate that a virtual limb can be made to feel part of your body if appropriate multisensory correlations are provided. We report an illusion that is invoked through tactile stimulation on a person"s hidden real right hand with synchronous virtual visual stimulation on an aligned 3D stereo virtual arm projecting horizontally out of their shoulder. An experiment with 21 male participants showed displacement of ownership towards the virtual hand, as illustrated by questionnaire responses and proprioceptive drift. A control experiment with asynchronous tapping was carried out with a different set of 20 male participants who did not experience the illusion. After 5 min of stimulation the virtual arm rotated. Evidence suggests that the extent of the illusion was also correlated with the degree of muscle activity onset in the right arm as measured by EMG during this period that the arm was rotating, for the synchronous but not the asynchronous condition. A completely virtual object can therefore be experienced as part of one"s self, which opens up the possibility that an entire virtual body could be felt as one"s own in future virtual reality applications or online games, and be an invaluable tool for the understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying body ownership.

First person experience of body transfer in virtual reality

Altering the normal association between touch and its visual correlate can result in the illusory perception of a fake limb as part of our own body. Thus, when touch is seen to be applied to a rubber hand while felt synchronously on the corresponding hidden real hand, an illusion of ownership of the rubber hand usually occurs. The illusion has also been demonstrated using visuomotor correlation between the movements of the hidden real hand and the seen fake hand. This type of paradigm has been used with respect to the whole body generating out-of-the-body and body substitution illusions. However, such studies have only ever manipulated a single factor and although they used a form of virtual reality have not exploited the power of immersive virtual reality (IVR) to produce radical transformations in body ownership.

Tractament digital de la imatge com a suport per a la recerca

La investigació actual necessita recórrer en nombroses ocasions a la imatge, i encara ho podria fer més. El registre d'imatges s'ha convertit avui en una feina senzilla i económica, almenys en relació amb la situació de fa vint anys. I des de fa amb prou feines un parell d'anys, el tractament de la imatge animada mitjançant tècniques digitals encara s'ha simplificat més, alhora que ha proporcionat nous canvis que permeten explorar la realitat.

Body Image in Eating Disorders: The Influence of Exposure to Virtual-Reality Environments.

The aim of this article was to study the effect of virtual-reality exposure to situations that are emotionally significant for patients with eating disorders (ED) on the stability of body-image distortion and body-image dissatisfaction. A total of 85 ED patients and 108 non-ED students were randomly exposed to four experimental virtual environments: a kitchen with low-calorie food, a kitchen with high-calorie food, a restaurant with low-calorie food, and a restaurant with high-calorie food. In the interval between the presentation of each situation, body-image distortion and body-image dissatisfaction were assessed. Several 2 x 2 x 2 repeated measures analyses of variance (high-calorie vs. low-calorie food x presence vs. absence of people x ED group vs. control group) showed that ED participants had significantly higher levels of body-image distortion and body dissatisfaction after eating high-calorie food than after eating low-calorie food, while control participants reported a similar body image in all situations. The results suggest that body-image distortion and body-image dissatisfaction show both trait and state features. On the one hand, ED patients show a general predisposition to overestimate their body size and to feel more dissatisfied with their body image than controls. On the other hand, these body-image disturbances fluctuate when participants are exposed to virtual situations that are emotionally relevant for them.

Les relacions de suport i el component emocional com a aspectes clau per al desenvolupament del procés resilient i el benestar dels infants al sistema de protecció

La present comunicació mostra el potencial que pot tenir l’establiment de certes relacionsque ofereixen suport i recolzament emocional als infants i joves tutelats, en la promociódel benestar emocional i del procés resilient. La recerca es contextualitza al sistema de proteccióa la infància, centrant-nos en adolescents que a causa de la seva situació de desproteccióhan hagut d’abandonar el seu nucli familiar i entrar al sistema de protecció a la infància.L’afrontament d’aquesta situació afegit a l’entorn advers del qual provenen, comporta que elsadolescents hagin de lidiar amb unes necessitats específiques de l’àrea emocional i relacional.Certs tipus de relacions interpersonals poden ajudar i mediar en aquest impacte emocional,promocionant un desenvolupament del procés resilient, així com millorant el seu benestarpersonal i social. Els resultats de la recerca que es presenta, permeten identificar elements característicsd’aquest tipus de relacions i els beneficis que els adolescents perceben, essent elsaspectes emocionals els que sustenten aquestes relacions...

Anàlisi del funcionament i el grau d'inclusió de dues unitats de suport a l'educació especial (USEE)

L’estudi que es detalla a continuació consisteix en un anàlisi sobre el funcionament i grau d’inclusió de les USEE (Unitat de Suport a l’Educació Especial). Per dur-lo a terme s’han analitzat les pràctiques de les USEE de dues escoles a través de quatre entrevistes, tres observacions i dos registres a cada centre. La recerca respon als dos objectius generals basats en avançar en el coneixement de les USEE actuals en termes d’organització, funcionament i de les pràctiques que actualment s’hi desenvolupen i en analitzar si treballen de forma inclusiva o no des del punt de vista de l’Índex d’Inclusió (Booth i Ainscow, 2000). En general, s’observa la intenció inclusiva de la mesura, no obstant, es detecten obstacles que en dificulten el procés i que en termes generals evidencien que encara és necessari un treball de sensibilització social i de revisió sobre els principis i les pràctiques educatives envers la inclusió.

Estudi de cas: Inclusió de l’alumnat amb dificultats en l’aprenentatge a l’aula ordinària. Atenció a la diversitat amb el suport USEE

La present recerca té com a bases teòriques la Concepció Constructivista de l’Ensenyament i Aprenentatge Escolar en una perspectiva d’educació Inclusiva. Consisteix en un estudi de cas focalitzat a una classe de segon de secundària d’una escola específica. L’escola parteix de l’atenció a la diversitat del seu alumnat a partir del recurs propi d’Unitat de Suport a l’Educació Especial. L’estudi pretén donar resposta a les situacions de millora de les intervencions d’aquest recurs a l’aula en concret en referència a l’atenció a la diversitat.

Therapeutic benefits of body percussion using the BAPNE method

Body percussion using to the BAPNE method is a means of cognitive stimulation with multiple applications. The aim of this research is to assess their full potential as a source of therapy. The methodology used is theoretical in nature and makes use of a wide bibliography to find evidence for its therapeutic effect. In essence, body percussion can be seen to lead to improvements in three areas. the Physical, as it stimulates awareness of the body, control of movement and muscular strength, coordination and balance; the Mental, as it improves concentration, memory and perception; and finally Socio-affective, as it helps to build egalitarian relationships and leads to a decrease in anxiety in social interactions. This means of therapy has several different uses and it is targeted at different groups. In the present investigation we categorise them into five main groups: individuals with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease; individuals with learning disorders such as dyslexia or ADHD; patients affected by diseases of the spinal cord, cranial neuropathies and trauma (Neurorehabilitation); and for the treatment of addictive behavior (addiction); and depressive disorders or anxiety disorders.After thorough analysis, we have found scientific evidence that the therapeutic body percussion using the BAPNE method improves the quality of life of patients and it is an important factor in stabilizing the development of different diseases.In addition, evidence involving certain biological indicators (in control and experimental groups, and through a pre-test and post-test) show its effect on levels of stress and anxiety (reduction of cortisol), as well as improvement of social relations as a result of working as a group (increased levels of oxytocin), and improvements seen in self-esteem and in a variety of personal aspects through the Aspects of Identity questionnaire.