Peripersonal space: a multisensory interface for body-object interactions

Research in the last four decades has brought a considerable advance in our understanding of how the brain synthesizes information arising from different sensory modalities. Indeed, many cortical and subcortical areas, beyond those traditionally considered to be ‘associative,’ have been shown to be involved in multisensory interaction and integration (Ghazanfar and Schroeder 2006). Visuo-tactile interaction is of particular interest, because of the prominent role played by vision in guiding our actions and anticipating their tactile consequences in everyday life. In this chapter, we focus on the functional role that visuo-tactile processing may play in driving two types of body-object interactions: avoidance and approach. We will first review some basic features of visuo-tactile interactions, as revealed by electrophysiological studies in monkeys. These will prove to be relevant for interpreting the subsequent evidence arising from human studies. A crucial point that will be stressed is that these visuo-tactile mechanisms have not only sensory, but also motor-related activity that qualifies them as multisensory-motor interfaces. Evidence will then be presented for the existence of functionally homologous processing in the human brain, both from neuropsychological research in brain-damaged patients and in healthy participants. The final part of the chapter will focus on some recent studies in humans showing that the human motor system is provided with a multisensory interface that allows for continuous monitoring of the space near the body (i.e., peripersonal space). We further demonstrate that multisensory processing can be modulated on-line as a consequence of interacting with objects. This indicates that, far from being passive, the monitoring of peripersonal space is an active process subserving actions between our body and objects located in the space around us.

History of eating disorder in mothers of children with early onset eating disorder or disturbance

The literature suggests that there is significant familial aggregation of eating disorders. A specific association has also been reported between childhood feeding problems and maternal eating disorder. This study investigates whether subgroups of children with early onset eating disturbance are distinguished by maternal eating disorder history. The mothers of 66 children with either anorexia nervosa (AN), food avoidance emotional disorder (FAED) or selective eating (SE) were interviewed to ascertain eating disorder history. Seventeen per cent of mothers reported a history of eating disorder, compared with 3%–5% reported for community samples. A history of eating disorder was reported by 5.9% of mothers of children with SE, 12.9% of mothers of children with AN and 33.3% of mothers of children with FAED. The findings, based on this small sample, suggest that children with FAED are especially likely to have grown up in a dysfunctional food environment.

Adult attachment orientation and implicit behavioral mimicry

We investigated whether adult attachment orientation predicted the extent to which individuals engaged in implicit behavioral mimicry of a confederate presented by video. Results demonstrated that following an attachment threat prime: (1) those low in attachment anxiety and high in attachment avoidance showed less mimicry of face-rubbing gestures than individuals low in both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety; (2) those high in attachment anxiety and low in attachment avoidance showed less mimicry of face-rubbing gestures than individuals low in both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety. Importantly, attachment orientation did not predict baseline levels of face-rubbing gesturing; demonstrating that attachment orientation had an effect on mimicry rather than overall behavior expression. Attachment anxiety was positively related to attraction to the confederate such that those higher in attachment anxiety rated the confederate as more attractive. The findings are discussed with reference to both the mimicry and attachment literatures.

Cognitive, affective and behavioural characteristics of mothers with anxiety disorders in the context of child anxiety disorder

Parental emotional distress, particularly high maternal anxiety, is one of the most consistent predictors of child anxiety treatment outcome. In order to identify the cognitive, affective and behavioural parenting characteristics of mothers of children with anxiety disorders who themselves have an anxiety disorder, we assessed the expectations and appraisals of 88 mothers of anxious children (44 not anxious (NONANX) and 44 with a current anxiety disorder (ANX)) before and after interacting with their 7-12 year old children. There were no observed differences in anxiety and avoidance among children of ANX and NONANX mothers, but, compared to NONANX mothers, ANX mothers held more negative expectations and differed on observations of intrusiveness, expressed anxiety, warmth and the quality of the relationship. Associations were moderated by the degree to which children expressed anxiety during the tasks. Maternal reported negative emotions during the task significantly mediated the association between maternal anxiety status and the observed quality of the relationship. These findings suggest that maternal anxiety disorder is associated with reduced tolerance of children’s negative emotions. This may interfere with the maintenance of a positive, supportive mother-child interaction under conditions of stress, and as such impede optimum treatment outcomes. The findings identify potential cognitive, affective and behavioural targets to improve treatment outcomes for children with anxiety disorders in the context of a current maternal anxiety disorder.

Can Rachman’s indirect pathways be used to un-learn fear? A prospective paradigm to test whether children’s fears can be reduced using positive information and modelling a non-anxious response

This study investigated whether children’s fears could be un-learned using Rachman’s indirect pathways for learning fear. We hypothesised that positive information and modelling a non-anxious response are effective methods of un-learning fears acquired through verbal information. One hundred and seven children aged 6–8 years received negative information about one animal and no information about another. Fear beliefs and behavioural avoidance were measured. Children were randomised to receive positive verbal information, modelling, or a control task. Fear beliefs and behavioural avoidance were measured again. Positive information and modelling led to lower fear beliefs and behavioural avoidance than the control condition. Positive information was more effective than modelling in reducing fear beliefs and both methods significantly reduced behavioural avoidance. The results support Rachman’s indirect pathways as viable fear un-learning pathways and supports associative learning theories.

Keeping the world at hand: rapid visuomotor processing for hand-object interactions

The existence of hand-centred visual processing has long been established in the macaque premotor cortex. These hand-centred mechanisms have been thought to play some general role in the sensory guidance of movements towards objects, or, more recently, in the sensory guidance of object avoidance movements. We suggest that these hand-centred mechanisms play a specific and prominent role in the rapid selection and control of manual actions following sudden changes in the properties of the objects relevant for hand-object interactions. We discuss recent anatomical and physiological evidence from human and non-human primates, which indicates the existence of rapid processing of visual information for hand-object interactions. This new evidence demonstrates how several stages of the hierarchical visual processing system may be bypassed, feeding the motor system with hand-related visual inputs within just 70 ms following a sudden event. This time window is early enough, and this processing rapid enough, to allow the generation and control of rapid hand-centred avoidance and acquisitive actions, for aversive and desired objects, respectively

Fetal programming effects of testosterone on the reward system and behavioral approach tendencies in humans

BACKGROUND: Sex differences are present in many neuropsychiatric conditions that affect emotion and approach-avoidance behavior. One potential mechanism underlying such observations is testosterone in early development. Although much is known about the effects of testosterone in adolescence and adulthood, little is known in humans about how testosterone in fetal development influences later neural sensitivity to valenced facial cues and approach-avoidance behavioral tendencies. METHODS: With functional magnetic resonance imaging we scanned 25 8-11-year-old children while viewing happy, fear, neutral, or scrambled faces. Fetal testosterone (FT) was measured via amniotic fluid sampled between 13 and 20 weeks gestation. Behavioral approach-avoidance tendencies were measured via parental report on the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Rewards questionnaire. RESULTS: Increasing FT predicted enhanced selectivity for positive compared with negatively valenced facial cues in reward-related regions such as caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens but not the amygdala. Statistical mediation analyses showed that increasing FT predicts increased behavioral approach tendencies by biasing caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens but not amygdala to be more responsive to positive compared with negatively valenced cues. In contrast, FT was not predictive of behavioral avoidance tendencies, either through direct or neurally mediated paths. CONCLUSIONS: This work suggests that testosterone in humans acts as a fetal programming mechanism on the reward system and influences behavioral approach tendencies later in life. As a mechanism influencing atypical development, FT might be important across a range of neuropsychiatric conditions that asymmetrically affect the sexes, the reward system, emotion processing, and approach behavior.

'Out Vile Jelly': Sarah Kane's 'Blasted' & Shakespeare's 'King Lear'

Sarah Kane's notorious 1995 debut, Blasted, has been widely though belatedly recognized as a defining example of experiential or ‘in-yer-face’ theatre. However, Graham Saunders here argues that the best playwrights not only innovate in use of language and dramatic form, but also rewrite the classic plays of the past. He believes that too much stress has been placed on the play's radical structure and contemporary sensibility, with the effect of obscuring the influence of Shakespearean tradition on its genesis and content. He clarifies Kane's gradually dawning awareness of the influence of Shakespeare's King Lear on her work and how elements of that tragedy were rewritten in terms of dialogue, recast thematically, and reworked in terms of theatrical image. He sees Blasted as both a response to contemporary reality and an engagement with the history of drama. Graham Saunders is Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of the West of England, Bristol, and author of the first full-length study of Kane's work: ‘Love Me or Kill Me’: Sarah Kane and the Theatre of Extremes (Manchester University Press, 2002). An earlier version of this article was given as a paper at the ‘Crucible of Cultures: Anglophone Drama at the Dawn of a New Millennium’ conference in Brussels, May 2001. Saunders is currently working on articles about Samuel Beckett and Edward Bond

Multi-vehicle planning using RRT-connect

The problem of planning multiple vehicles deals with the design of an effective algorithm that can cause multiple autonomous vehicles on the road to communicate and generate a collaborative optimal travel plan. Our modelling of the problem considers vehicles to vary greatly in terms of both size and speed, which makes it suboptimal to have a faster vehicle follow a slower vehicle or for vehicles to drive with predefined speed lanes. It is essential to have a fast planning algorithm whilst still being probabilistically complete. The Rapidly Exploring Random Trees (RRT) algorithm developed and reported on here uses a problem specific coordination axis, a local optimization algorithm, priority based coordination, and a module for deciding travel speeds. Vehicles are assumed to remain in their current relative position laterally on the road unless otherwise instructed. Experimental results presented here show regular driving behaviours, namely vehicle following, overtaking, and complex obstacle avoidance. The ability to showcase complex behaviours in the absence of speed lanes is characteristic of the solution developed.

Motion planning of autonomous vehicles in a non-autonomous vehicle environment without speed lanes

Planning is one of the key problems for autonomous vehicles operating in road scenarios. Present planning algorithms operate with the assumption that traffic is organised in predefined speed lanes, which makes it impossible to allow autonomous vehicles in countries with unorganised traffic. Unorganised traffic is though capable of higher traffic bandwidths when constituting vehicles vary in their speed capabilities and sizes. Diverse vehicles in an unorganised exhibit unique driving behaviours which are analysed in this paper by a simulation study. The aim of the work reported here is to create a planning algorithm for mixed traffic consisting of both autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles without any inter-vehicle communication. The awareness (e.g. vision) of every vehicle is restricted to nearby vehicles only and a straight infinite road is assumed for decision making regarding navigation in the presence of multiple vehicles. Exhibited behaviours include obstacle avoidance, overtaking, giving way for vehicles to overtake from behind, vehicle following, adjusting the lateral lane position and so on. A conflict of plans is a major issue which will almost certainly arise in the absence of inter-vehicle communication. Hence each vehicle needs to continuously track other vehicles and rectify plans whenever a collision seems likely. Further it is observed here that driver aggression plays a vital role in overall traffic dynamics, hence this has also been factored in accordingly. This work is hence a step forward towards achieving autonomous vehicles in unorganised traffic, while similar effort would be required for planning problems such as intersections, mergers, diversions and other modules like localisation.

Planning autonomous vehicles in the absence of speed lanes using lateral potentials

Chaotic traffic, prevalent in many countries, is marked by a large number of vehicles driving with different speeds without following any predefined speed lanes. Such traffic rules out using any planning algorithm for these vehicles which is based upon the maintenance of speed lanes and lane changes. The absence of speed lanes may imply more bandwidth and easier overtaking in cases where vehicles vary considerably in both their size and speed. Inspired by the performance of artificial potential fields in the planning of mobile robots, we propose here lateral potentials as measures to enable vehicles to decide about their lateral positions on the road. Each vehicle is subjected to a potential from obstacles and vehicles in front, road boundaries, obstacles and vehicles to the side and higher speed vehicles to the rear. All these potentials are lateral and only govern steering the vehicle. A speed control mechanism is also used for longitudinal control of vehicle. The proposed system is shown to perform well for obstacle avoidance, vehicle following and overtaking behaviors.

The M curve and the performance of Spanish international new ventures

In this paper we address three challenges. First, we discuss how international new ventures (INVs) are probably not explained by the Uppsala model as there is no time for learning about foreign markets in newly born and small firms. Only in the longer term can INVs develop experiential learning to overcome the liability of foreignness as they expand abroad. Second, we advance theoretically on previous research demonstrating that the multinationality−performance relationship of INVs follows a traditional S-shaped relationship, but they first experience a ‘born global illusion’ which leads to a non-traditional M curve. Third, using a panel data analysis for the period 1994–2008 we find empirically that Spanish INVs follow an inverted U curve in the very short term, where no learning takes place, but that experience gained over time yields an M-curve relationship once learning takes place.

Planning autonomous vehicles in the absence of speed lanes using an elastic strip

Planning of autonomous vehicles in the absence of speed lanes is a less-researched problem. However, it is an important step toward extending the possibility of autonomous vehicles to countries where speed lanes are not followed. The advantages of having nonlane-oriented traffic include larger traffic bandwidth and more overtaking, which are features that are highlighted when vehicles vary in terms of speed and size. In the most general case, the road would be filled with a complex grid of static obstacles and vehicles of varying speeds. The optimal travel plan consists of a set of maneuvers that enables a vehicle to avoid obstacles and to overtake vehicles in an optimal manner and, in turn, enable other vehicles to overtake. The desired characteristics of this planning scenario include near completeness and near optimality in real time with an unstructured environment, with vehicles essentially displaying a high degree of cooperation and enabling every possible(safe) overtaking procedure to be completed as soon as possible. Challenges addressed in this paper include a (fast) method for initial path generation using an elastic strip, (re-)defining the notion of completeness specific to the problem, and inducing the notion of cooperation in the elastic strip. Using this approach, vehicular behaviors of overtaking, cooperation, vehicle following,obstacle avoidance, etc., are demonstrated.

Waltz and the world: neorealism as international political theory?

The recent recovery of an empirically and ethically richer realist tradition involves an explicit contrast with neorealism's more scientistic explanatory aspirations. This contrast is, however, incomplete. Although Waltz's theoretical work is shaped by his understanding of the requirements of scientific adequacy, his empirical essays are normatively quite rich: he defends bipolarity, and criticizes US adventurism overseas, because he believes bipolarity to be conducive to effective great power management of the international system, and hence to the avoidance of nuclear war. He is, in this sense, a theorist divided against himself: much of his oeuvre exhibits precisely the kind of pragmatic sensibility that is typically identified as distinguishing realism from neorealism. His legacy for a reoriented realism is therefore more complex than is usually realized. Indeed, the nature of Waltz's own analytical endeavour points towards a kind of international political theory in which explanatory and normative questions are intertwined.

Attempts to control pain prioritize attention to signals of pain: an experimental study

Clinical evidence suggests that a persistent search for solutions for chronic pain may bring along costs at the cognitive, affective, and behavioral level. Specifically, attempts to control pain may fuel hypervigilance and prioritize attention towards pain-related information. This hypothesis was investigated in an experiment with 41 healthy volunteers. Prioritization of attention towards a signal for pain was measured using an adaptation of a visual search paradigm in which participants had to search for a target presented in a varying number of colored circles. One of these colors (Conditioned Stimulus) became a signal for pain (Unconditioned Stimulus: electrocutaneous stimulus at tolerance level) using a classical conditioning procedure. Intermixed with the visual search task, participants also performed another task. In the pain-control group, participants were informed that correct and fast responses on trials of this second task would result in an avoidance of the Unconditioned Stimulus. In the comparison group, performance on the second task was not instrumental in controlling pain. Results showed that in the pain-control group, attention was more prioritized towards the Conditioned Stimulus than in the comparison group. The theoretical and clinical implications of these results are discussed.