Grounded cognition

Are there unconscious visual images in aphantasia? Development of an implicit priming paradigm

For some people the experience of visual imagery is lacking, a condition recently referred to as aphantasia. So far, most of the studies on aphantasia rely on subjective reports, leaving the question of whether mental images can exist without reaching consciousness unresolved. In the present study, the formation of mental images was estimated in individuals with aphantasia without explicitly asking them to generate mental images. 151 Participants performed an implicit priming task where a probe is assumed to automatically reactivate a mental image. An explicit priming task, where participants were explicitly required to form a mental image after a probe, served as a control task. While control participants showed a priming effect in both the implicit and explicit tasks, aphantasics did not show any priming effects. These results suggest that aphantasia relies on a genuine inability to generate mental images rather than on a deficit in accessing these images consciously. Our priming paradigm might be a promising tool for characterizing mental images without relying on participant introspection.

Positive and negative touch differentially modulate metacognitive memory judgements for emotional stimuli

Touch plays a crucial role in providing humans with information from the external environment and can be perceived by humans as positively or negatively valenced. It is well documented that touch can differentially influence social functions, but very little is known about how touch can modulate (meta)cognition. Utilizing a within-subject design, participants were exposed to (a) positive, (b) negative, and (c) no touch, alongside encoding of emotionally valenced (positive and negative) images. After a 20-minute delay, participants completed a Yes/No recognition task to investigate how touch influenced memory-related decision components (e.g. criterion, confidence). Results showed that, compared to the control condition, both positive and negative touch were associated with overall lower confidence ratings, a less liberal response bias and slower response times. Interestingly, for correct recognitions, only negative touch (vs. no touch) led to inappropriately lower confidence and slower response times while both confidence and response time remained unaltered in positive touch. Our findings provide the first evidence that positive and negative touch differentially interact with metacognitive memory-related decisions. Altered metacognitive judgements after being touched could have significant consequences in applied settings, such as situations of eyewitness testimony.

Utilizing movement-related potentials to monitor cognitive rehabilitation in individuals with central nervous system disorders: A review

In current neuroscience, there is a pressing need to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments for motor and cognitive disorders. In addition, there is a gap in the literature on assessing this type of rehabilitation. This review proposes using Movement-Related Potentials (MRPs) as a relevant marker for such evaluations. The method employed involves administering a psychomotor task known as the Skilled Performance Task (SPT). Originally described in 1980 by Papakostopoulos, the SPT requires specific abilities, such as bimanual coordination, adaptive programming, and precise timing. Subjects must start and stop a sweep on an oscilloscope screen with accurate timing, receiving immediate feedback that aids in performance improvement. This self-paced, goal-directed, and interactive task ensures continuous engagement and learning. Suitable for all ages, the SPT provides real-time feedback and demands constant attention and reprogramming of movements, making it an effective tool for assessing and promoting cognitive rehabilitation through neuroplasticity. The originality of this task lies in the ability to obtain, with a single motor act, a series of potentials that represent different stages of the processing of a goal-directed and self-initiated action. The MRPs associated with this task are the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), the Motor Cortex Potential (MCP), the N100, the P200, the Skilled Performance Positivity (SPP) and the Post-Action Negativity (PAN). The present study reinterprets previous research conducted on children and adults with various central nervous system pathologies, from a cognitive rehabilitation perspective, to provide new insights into neurorehabilitation techniques utilizing MRPs.

Does smooth mean simple? The impact of tactile experience on judgments of difficulty

People often associate roughness with difficulty, as a figure of speech. Studies have shown that there is a metaphorical connection between the concept of rough versus smooth feel and the degree of difficulty. However, it has not been determined whether rough and smooth tactile experiences influence judgments of perceived task difficulty from the perspective of physical metaphors. This study used the Stroop experimental paradigm and the metaphorical experimental paradigm to investigate the effects of rough and smooth haptic experiences on difficulty judgments of perceptual tasks in two experiments. (1) There is a psychological reality of "difficult concept-rough touch" and "easy concept-smooth touch," linking the concept of roughness to the rough/smooth touch metaphor; (2) The physical tactile experience of roughness/smoothness had an effect on perceptual task difficulty judgments. After the experience of roughness, participants tended to judge the difficulty as high, while after the experience of smoothness, participants tended to judge the difficulty as low. Rough and smooth haptics affect perceptual task difficulty judgments, and rough and smooth haptic experiences polarize difficulty judgments in the embodied condition.

Evaluating the Evidence for Enclothed Cognition: Z-Curve and Meta-Analyses

Enclothed cognition refers to the systematic influence that clothes can have on the wearer's feelings, thoughts, and behaviors through their symbolic meaning. It has attracted considerable academic and nonacademic interest, with the 2012 article that coined the phrase cited more than 600 times and covered in more than 160 news outlets. However, a recent high-powered replication failed to replicate one of the original effects. To determine whether the larger body of research on enclothed cognition possesses evidential value and replicable effects, we performed z-curve and meta-analyses using 105 effects from 40 studies across 24 articles (N = 3,789). Underscoring the marked improvement of psychological research practices in the mid-2010s, our results raise concerns about the replicability of early enclothed cognition studies but affirm the evidential value for effects published after 2015. These later studies support the core principle of enclothed cognition-what we wear influences how we think, feel, and act.

Embodied Cognition and the Structure of Personality: An Exploratory Study of Longitudinal Pathways From Early Psychomotor Function

OBJECTIVE

To explore the developmental pathways linking infant psychomotor function with personality in late adolescence through cognitive, social, and self-regulation skills. The broader research question, seen through the lens of embodied cognition, is whether cognition and personality in youth develop from basic sensorimotor and communicative systems in infancy.

METHOD

The sample included 9202 participants from a representative UK birth cohort. A structural equation model examined the prospective associations between motor and communicative functions at age 9 months, cognition, self-regulation, and prosociality at 5 years, and the five-factor model of personality at 17 years. The associations between psychomotor function and the meta-traits of stability and plasticity were also explored.

RESULTS

Even after controlling for confounders and correcting for multiple paths, there was robust evidence that psychomotor development significantly predicts personality structure, with indirect pathways mediated by self-regulation skills and general or social cognitive skills in middle childhood. While infant communicative function was significantly associated with both meta-traits, gross motor function was significantly associated with plasticity but not stability.

CONCLUSIONS

Early psychomotor function may have long-term effects on personality, mediated by cognitive, social, and self-regulation skills. This finding can inform the development of socio-educational interventions and tailored curricula in early childhood education.

Implicit Learning of Parity and Magnitude Associations with Number Color

Associative learning can occur implicitly for stimuli that occur together probabilistically. It is debated whether probabilistic, implicit learning occurs not only at the item level, but also at the category level. Here, we investigated whether associative learning would occur between color and numerical categories, while participants performed a color task. In category-level experiments for each parity and magnitude, high-probability pairings of four numbers with one color were categorically consistent (e.g., the Arabic numerals 2,4,6, and 8 appeared in blue with a high probability, p = .9). Associative learning was measured as higher performance for high-probability vs. low-probability color/number pairings. For both parity and magnitude, performance was significantly better for high- vs. low-probability trials (parity: 3.1% more accurate; magnitude: 1.3% more accurate; 9 ms faster). Category-level learning was also evident in a subsequent color association report task with novel double-digit numbers (parity: 63% accuracy; magnitude: 55%). In control, item-level experiments, in which high-probability pairings were not categorically consistent (e.g., 2,3,6, and 7 appeared in blue with a high probability, p = .9), no significant differences between high- vs. low-probability trials were present. These results are in line with associative learning occurring at the category level, and, further, suggest automatic semantic processing of symbolic numerals in terms of parity and magnitude.

Negated actions are simulated within the primary motor cortex

Controversy persists regarding the representation of linguistically negated actions, specifically concerning activation and inhibitory mechanisms in the motor system, and whether negated action sentences evoke an initial motor simulation of the action to be negated. We conducted two experiments probing corticospinal excitability (CSE) and short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) in the primary motor cortex at different latencies while reading affirmative and negative action sentences. In experiment one, twenty-six participants read action and non-action sentences in affirmative or negative forms. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, we probed CSE in hand muscles at rest and at several latencies after verb presentation. We observed a greater CSE for action sentences compared to non-action sentences, regardless of verb form. In experiment two, nineteen participants read affirmative and negative action sentences. We measured CSE and SICI at short and long latencies after verb presentation. CSE was greater for affirmative and negative action sentences at both latencies compared to rest. SICI did not change at the short latency but increased at longer latencies, regardless of verb form. Negated action sentences showed the same motor excitability as affirmed action sentences with no additional inhibition at early latencies. These results lend support for the idea that actions to be negated are initially simulated within the motor system. Neural differences between affirmative and negative action sentences may occur outside the primary motor cortex.

Immersive exposure to simulated visual hallucinations modulates high-level human cognition

Psychedelic drugs offer valuable insights into consciousness, but disentangling their causal effects on perceptual and high-level cognition is nontrivial. Technological advances in virtual reality (VR) and machine learning have enabled the immersive simulation of visual hallucinations. However, comprehensive experimental data on how these simulated hallucinations affects high-level human cognition is lacking. Here, we exposed human participants to VR panoramic videos and their psychedelic counterparts generated by the DeepDream algorithm. Participants exhibited reduced task-switching costs after simulated psychedelic exposure compared to naturalistic exposure, consistent with increased cognitive flexibility. No significant differences were observed between naturalistic and simulated psychedelic exposure in linguistic automatic association tasks at word and sentence levels. Crucially, visually grounded high-level cognitive processes were modulated by exposure to simulated hallucinations. Our results provide insights into the interdependence of bottom-up and top-down cognitive processes and altered states of consciousness without pharmacological intervention, potentially informing both basic neuroscience and clinical applications.

Grounded cognition and the representation of momentum: abstract concepts modulate mislocalization

Literature on grounded cognition argues that mental representations of concepts, even abstract concepts, involve modal simulations. These modalities are typically assumed to reside within the body, such as in the sensorimotor system. A recent proposal argues that physical invariants, such as momentum or gravity, can also be substrates in which concepts can be grounded, expanding the assumed limits of grounding beyond the body. We here experimentally assessed this proposal by exploiting the representational momentum effect and the abstract concept of success. If success is grounded in the physical invariant momentum, the representational momentum effect should be larger for successful targets. We tested this hypothesis across four experiments (three pre-registered). In a surprising finding, we find hints that large trial numbers may hinder being able to find a representational momentum effect, which should be further investigated in future research. Regarding the central hypothesis, although only one experiment found statistically significant support, the effect tended toward the same direction in the three others as well. In order to draw robust conclusions about the results, we performed a mini meta, which aggregates the effects and inference statistics across the N = 271 participants. Across the four experiments, this effect was statistically significant, suggesting evidence in favor of the central hypothesis. These results should be interpreted with caution as there was inconsistency across experiments, suggesting the magnitude of the effect is small, and when asked who they believe moved faster, participants did not reliably indicate the successful target.

Continuous goal representations: Distance in representational space affects goal switching

Theorists across all fields of psychology consider goals crucial for human action control. Still, the question of how precisely goals are represented in the cognitive system is rarely addressed. Here, we explore the idea that goals are represented as distributed patterns of activation that coexist within continuous mental spaces. In doing so, we discuss and extend popular models of cognitive control and goal-directed behavior, which implicitly convey an image of goals as discrete representational units. To differentiate empirically between discrete and continuous formats of goal representation, we employed a set-shifting paradigm in which participants switched between color goals that varied systematically in their distance in representational space. Across three experiments, we found that previous goals biased behavior during goal switches and that the extent of this bias decreased gradually with the previous goal's distance in color space from color information in the current trial. These graded effects of goal distance on performance are difficult to reconcile with the assumption that goals are discrete representational entities. Instead, they suggest that goals are represented as distributed, partly overlapping patterns of activation within continuous mental spaces. Moreover, the monotonous effects of distance in representational space on performance observed across all conditions in all experiments imply that the spreading of goal activation in representational space follows a monotonous (e.g., bell-shaped) distribution and not a nonmonotonous (e.g., Mexican-hat shaped) one. Our findings ask for a stronger consideration of the continuity of goal representations in models and investigations of goal-directed behavior.

Effect of spatial training on space-number mapping: a situated cognition account

From an embodied perspective of cognition, number processing influences the spatial organization of motor responses showing faster left/right responses to small/large numbers. Recent evidence suggests that such spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) along the transverse and sagittal planes are mutually exclusive with respect to the spatial reference frames used by the participant. Specifically, in egocentric and allocentric frames, SNAs appear along the sagittal and transverse plane, respectively. The first aim of this study was to replicate previous findings. The second aim was to explore the role of switching spatial reference frames in SNAs occurrence according to the processed plane. Consequently, during a referential frame switching (RFS) training, participants were required to identify targets based on an embodied avatar's perspective. Using a random number generation (RNG) task after observing an avatar's displacement, we investigated the effect of RFS training on SNAs organization across the different planes (Experiment 1 & 2 for the egocentric and allocentric perspectives, respectively). Both experiments replicated previous results, but more importantly, RFS training enables the development of new situated cognition strategies from egocentric perspectives and the generalization of transverse SNAs to other planes from allocentric perspectives.

Neural specialization for 'visual' concepts emerges in the absence of vision

The 'different-body/different-concepts hypothesis' central to some embodiment theories proposes that the sensory capacities of our bodies shape the cognitive and neural basis of our concepts. We tested this hypothesis by comparing behavioral semantic similarity judgments and neural signatures (fMRI) of 'visual' categories ('living things,' or animals, e.g., tiger, and light events, e.g., sparkle) across congenitally blind (n = 21) and sighted (n = 22) adults. Words referring to 'visual' entities/nouns and events/verbs (animals and light events) were compared to less vision-dependent categories from the same grammatical class (animal vs. place nouns, light vs. sound, mouth, and hand verbs). Within-category semantic similarity judgments about animals (e.g., sparrow vs. finch) were partially different across groups, consistent with the idea that sighted people rely on visually learned information to make such judgments about animals. However, robust neural specialization for living things in temporoparietal semantic networks, including in the precuneus, was observed in blind and sighted people alike. For light events, which are directly accessible only through vision, behavioral judgments were indistinguishable across groups. Neural responses to light events were also similar across groups: in both blind and sighted people, the left middle temporal gyrus (LMTG+) responded more to event concepts, including light events, compared to entity concepts. Multivariate patterns of neural activity in LMTG+ distinguished among different event types, including light events vs. other event types. In sum, we find that neural signatures of concepts previously attributed to visual experience do not require vision. Across a wide range of semantic types, conceptual representations develop independent of sensory experience.

From "isolation" to "me-time": linguistic shifts enhance solitary experiences

Spending time alone is a virtually inevitable part of daily life that can promote or undermine well-being. Here, we explore how the language used to describe time alone - such as "me-time", "solitude", or "isolation" - influences how it is perceived and experienced. In Study 1 (N = 500 U.S adults), participants evaluated five common labels for time alone. Descriptive and narrative evidence revealed robust interindividual variability and significant mean differences in how these labels were evaluated. Overall, "me-time" was rated most positively, and "isolation" was rated least positively (but not negatively). In Study 2, we experimentally manipulated the linguistic framing of time alone, describing it as either "me-time" or "isolation". Participants (N = 176 U.S undergraduates) then spent 30 min physically alone without in-person or digital interaction. Notably, positive affect increased for "me-time" participants but decreased for "isolation" participants. Negative affect decreased in both conditions, but the magnitude of the decrease was greater after "me-time". People's beliefs about being alone improved after "me-time" but not after "isolation". Further, we explored participants' behaviours and thoughts while alone. These findings demonstrate meaningful variation in how people perceive different time alone labels and provide preliminary evidence that simple linguistic shifts may enhance subjective experiences of time alone.

Pain and the perception of space in fibromyalgia

The Economy of action hypothesis postulates that bodily states rescale the perception of the individual's environment's spatial layout. The estimation of distances and slopes in navigation space (i.e. the space reachable by locomotion) is influenced by sensations relating to body condition and the metabolic cost of the actions. The results of the studies investigating the impact of pain on distance estimation remain inconclusive. 28 women suffering from chronic pain and fibromyalgia (FM), and 24 healthy women (HC) were assessed for musculoskeletal, neuropathic, and visceral pain by means of the Widespread Pain Index, the Symptom Severity Scale and an ad-hoc devised questionnaire for pain (the Verona Pain Questionnaire). In a VR-mediated task, they observed a 3D scenario and estimated the distance of a flag positioned at different distances (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 m) on virtual ramps with either a 4% or 24% inclination in two different conditions: sitting and standing. Overestimation of distances in the steeper ramp condition was expected, if participants executed the task by internally simulating the movement. The results showed a dissociation between the effects of musculoskeletal and visceral-neuropathic pain on distance estimations. While, according to the Economy of Action hypothesis, the HCs estimated the distances as being farther away when the ramp was more inclined (i.e. with a 24% inclination), there was no effect related to the different ramp inclinations in the FM group. Furthermore, visceral and neuropathic pain were found to affect the performance of the FM group. These results suggest that chronic and widespread pain conditions, that typically characterize fibromyalgia, can affect space representations. In line with the Economy of Action hypothesis, bodily based estimation of distances is compromised in these patients.

Grounding of abstract concepts related to power

Grounded cognition assumes that language and concepts are understood using simulations in different modalities. Evidence for this assumption mainly stems from studies using concrete concepts. Less evidence for grounding exists for abstract concepts, which are assumed to be grounded via metaphors associated with them or via experiences with them in specific situations. In the present study, we developed a new paradigm and investigated grounding of abstract concepts related to power or the exercise of power. As stimulus material, we chose pairs of concepts, for example, democracy and dictatorship. Participants were presented each concept separately and were asked to create a visual image in their mind. Then they were asked to rate images on several aspects. Afterwards they were asked to draw a sketch of the image. Results showed that drawings of high-power concepts had a larger vertical extension than low-power concepts. Results of the questions depended on the specific concepts. For instance, wealth (high-power) was rated as more colorful than poverty (low-power), but democracy (low-power) was rated as more colorful than dictatorship (high-power). These results may partly be explained by the valence of the concepts. Drawings often contained persons, objects, and situations, but were rarely abstract. Sometimes drawings contained metaphorical content and sometimes the content of drawings related to specific experiences. In conclusion, abstract concepts related to power can be depicted visually via grounding in different ways, such as using metaphors, experiences, and actions.

Body as First Teacher: The Role of Rhythmic Visceral Dynamics in Early Cognitive Development

Embodied cognition-the idea that mental states and processes should be understood in relation to one's bodily constitution and interactions with the world-remains a controversial topic within cognitive science. Recently, however, increasing interest in predictive processing theories among proponents and critics of embodiment alike has raised hopes of a reconciliation. This article sets out to appraise the unificatory potential of predictive processing, focusing in particular on embodied formulations of active inference. Our analysis suggests that most active-inference accounts invoke weak, potentially trivial conceptions of embodiment; those making stronger claims do so independently of the theoretical commitments of the active-inference framework. We argue that a more compelling version of embodied active inference can be motivated by adopting a diachronic perspective on the way rhythmic physiological activity shapes neural development in utero. According to this visceral afferent training hypothesis, early-emerging physiological processes are essential not only for supporting the biophysical development of neural structures but also for configuring the cognitive architecture those structures entail. Focusing in particular on the cardiovascular system, we propose three candidate mechanisms through which visceral afferent training might operate: (a) activity-dependent neuronal development, (b) periodic signal modeling, and (c) oscillatory network coordination.

To Be a Tough Guy: Social-Categorical Thinking about Gender in a Chinese Primitive Patriarchal Tribe

Previous research has shown that people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can be embodied within their sensorimotor experiences. For example, people tend to associate "toughness" with males and "tenderness" with females in their spoken and mental metaphors. In the current research, we investigated the role of culture in this embodied categorization of gender, focusing specifically on the role of social system and organization. Based on sociological findings that highlight the dominance of men in patriarchy, we hypothesized that Geba, a primitive patriarchal tribe in southwest China, were more likely to use the sensory experience of toughness for representations of gender categories than matched groups of Kham Tibetans. Across two studies, both groups of participants who were primed with the proprioceptive experience of toughness were more prone to categorize sex-ambiguous faces as male (vs. female) than those who received sensory feedback about the relative tenderness, which replicated prior finding in Western participants. Notably, the embodied effect of toughness on categorical judgments of gender was more pronounced in Geba Tibetans than Kham Tibetans, which suggests that social system may be an important determinant of social-categorical thinking about gender. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of cultural dynamic in accounting for embodied cognition.

Embodying anticipated affect enhances proactive behavior in 5-year-old children

Imagining anticipated affects can foster future-oriented behavior in adults. However, children often still have difficulties in vividly imagining how they will feel in a specific episode (affective episodic future thinking [EFT]). We investigated whether enacting anticipated affects helps children to imagine how they will feel and whether this enhances proactive behavior in turn. A total of 90 5-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of three groups. In the embodiment group, children were instructed to imagine and physically enact how positive and negative they would feel in an upcoming performance test. Children in the EFT-only group underwent a similar procedure but did not enact their future affect. In the control group, children were reminded of the upcoming test only without receiving a prompt to imagine the upcoming test. After the manipulation, children had the opportunity to play one of three games. One game was relevant for the test. Children's choice to play the relevant game in advance of the test served as an indicator for proactive behavior. Mechanisms (e.g., detailedness of the envisioned event) and moderators (theory of mind and neuroticism) of the link between embodied EFT and proactive behavior were explored. Children in the embodiment group chose the relevant game above chance level, but they did not choose the relevant game more often than children in the EFT-only group and the control group. Those results were independent of the assumed mediators and moderators.

Parent-Reported Relations Between Vocabulary and Motor Development in Infancy: Differences Between Verbs and Nouns

During early development, increases in vocabulary are related to gains in motor ability, above and beyond the effects of maturation alone. However, little is known about the association between motor development and children's early acquisition of different types of words. We examined whether motor development is differentially associated with concurrent verb and noun vocabulary in 83 infants aged 6- to 24-months-old. We asked caregivers to complete parent-report measures of vocabulary acquisition and motor development. Analyses revealed that the association between word comprehension and motor development significantly differed for verb and nouns. Infants' verb comprehension was more strongly associated with motor development than noun comprehension. We discuss how infants' own motor actions may provide cues that are especially important for narrowing down the meaning of novel verbs.

Re-examining cognitive load measures in real-world learning: Evidence from both subjective and neurophysiological data

BACKGROUND

Cognitive load theory is widely used in educational research and instructional design, which relies heavily on conceptual constructs and measurement instruments of cognitive load. Due to its implicit nature, cognitive load is usually measured by other related instruments, such as commonly-used self-report scales of mental effort or task difficulty. However, these concepts are different in nature, as they emphasize distinct perspectives on cognitive processing. In addition, real-world learning is more complex than simplified experimental conditions. Simply assuming that these variables will change in a monotonic way with workload may be misleading.

AIMS

This study aims to examine whether these measures are consistent with each other, and to discover the neurophysiological basis underlying the potential discrepancy.

SAMPLE

The study collected data in both a real-world (Study 1, 22 high school students in 13 math classes) and a laboratory setting (Study 2, 30 students in 6 lab-based math tasks).

METHODS

In addition to self-report measures, the study also collected multimodal neurophysiological data, such as electroencephalography (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and photoplethysmography (PPG).

RESULTS

The results show that although the difficulty level can be perceived with difficulty ratings, it does not lead to the corresponding level of mental effort. Only within an appropriate level of load, can we observe a positive correlation between self-report difficulty and mental effort. Neurophysiological evidence also supports the conceptual discrepancies and group differences, indicating distinct neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these 'similar' constructs.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings also emphasize the need for combining these concepts to better evaluate students' cognitive load.

Bidirectional embodied association between debt and physical burden

There is a Chinese proverb saying that "when the debts are paid, the body feels light." From the perspective of embodied cognition, there may be a connection between indebtedness and the sensation of physical burden. However, the relationship between the two aspects has not been fully examined. The present research investigated the bidirectionality between indebtedness and physical burden through two studies. In Study 1, we examined the effect of the manipulation of indebtedness on the judgment of a hill slant, which varies by physical burden. Results revealed that participants in the indebted condition judged the hill as steeper than those in the control condition, while repaying the debt eliminated this effect. In Study 2, we found that physical burden enhanced the participants' perception of debt. Consistent with an embodied perspective on cognition, findings suggested the bidirectionality between indebtedness and physical burden and supported embodied simulation theory.

Tactile imagery affects cortical responses to vibrotactile stimulation of the fingertip

Mental imagery is a crucial cognitive process, yet its underlying neural mechanisms remain less understood compared to perception. Furthermore, within the realm of mental imagery, the somatosensory domain is particularly underexplored compared to other sensory modalities. This study aims to investigate the influence of tactile imagery (TI) on cortical somatosensory processing. We explored the cortical manifestations of TI by recording EEG activity in healthy human subjects. We investigated event-related somatosensory oscillatory dynamics during TI compared to actual tactile stimulation, as well as somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in response to short vibrational stimuli, examining their amplitude-temporal characteristics and spatial distribution across the scalp. EEG activity exhibited significant changes during TI compared to the no-imagery baseline. TI caused event-related desynchronization (ERD) of the contralateral μ-rhythm, with a notable correlation between ERD during imagery and real stimulation across subjects. TI also modulated several SEP components in sensorimotor and frontal areas, showing increases in the contralateral P100 and P300, contra- and ipsilateral P300, frontal P200, and parietal P600 components. The results clearly indicate that TI affects cortical processing of somatosensory stimuli, impacting EEG responses in various cortical areas. The assessment of SEPs in EEG could serve as a versatile marker of tactile imagery in practical applications. We propose incorporating TI in imagery-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to enhance sensorimotor restoration and sensory substitution. This approach underscores the importance of somatosensory mental imagery in cognitive neuroscience and its potential applications in neurorehabilitation and assistive technologies.

Evaluation of Potential Developmental Precursors to Executive Function in Young Children with Motor Delays: Exploratory Study

This study aimed to explore whether early developmental abilities are related to future executive function (EF) in children with motor delays. Fourteen children with motor delays (Mean age = 10.76, SD = 2.55) were included from a larger study. Object interaction and developmental outcomes (Bayley-III) were evaluated at baseline and 3, 6, and 12 months post-baseline. Bayley-III and EF assessments (Minnesota Executive Function Scale) were conducted at 36 months post-baseline. Children with high EF demonstrated advanced early bimanual, visual-bimanual, receptive language, expressive language, and fine motor skills compared to children with low EF. Significant positive correlations between later Bayley-III and EF scores were found for cognitive, expressive language, and fine motor scores. These preliminary results suggest that early developmental skills support the emergence of EF in children with motor delays.

Do motor representations influence declarative memory for graspable objects? A test with action priming and short-term hand nonuse

This study addressed the role of motor representations in declarative memory (i.e., semantic and episodic). Based on embodied and grounded theories of cognition, it is often suggested that motor representations contribute to declarative memory. According to the action priming effect, graspable objects are categorised faster when primed by pictures of a congruent hand grip, as motor representations (how to grasp it) and semantic information (what it is) are closely related. Moreover, motor representations may contribute to episodic memory functioning. We immobilised participants' dominant hand for 24 hr to impair their processing of hand-related motor representations. This method is known to elicit rapid updating of cortical hand representations, and a slowdown in cognitive tasks linked to hand-related motor cognition. We expected to observe a decreased action priming effect following short-term hand nonuse. We further predicted that in a subsequent recognition task, objects that had been encoded following congruent action priming would be recognised faster by controls, but not by previously immobilised participants. Results did not show any effect of hand nonuse on action priming, suggesting that motor representations are not a decisive factor for this effect. Nonetheless, prime congruence influenced subsequent recognition. Immobilised participants were slower to recognise objects previously seen with an unrelated hand grip prime compared with a congruent one. This result suggests a contribution of motor representation to declarative memory, in particular when the sensorimotor system has previously been impaired.

Turning stories into learning journeys: the principles and methods of Immersive Education

This paper describes the theoretical and practical aspects of Immersive Education, an educational methodology based on interactive narratives, articulated as emotional journeys, to develop competencies. It has been developed throughout three school years (2021-2024) with more than 400 students (8-12 years old) in Public Schools in Italy and Spain. Immersive Education can be integrated with curricular school activities and can be used to target both curricular and transversal learning objectives, specifically the ones connected with the Personal, Social and Learning to learn Key Competence (LifeComp European framework). The paper describes the inspirations that led to the creation of the methodology, including similar experiential learning approaches. It then analyses the theoretical principles of the methodology, dividing them in four key-concepts, along with psychological evidence supporting them. The four key-concepts describe how immersive education aims at being a motivation trigger, featuring a dramatic structure, how it is based on the involvement of the self, and how it focuses on fostering a continuous engagement. It continues with a detailed analysis of implementation strategies, specifically about the management of emotional triggers and reactions, enriched by numerous examples taken from the projects implemented with the students. The conclusions open the way to future research directions to measure the impact of this approach on the development of transversal and specific competences.

Neural dynamics underlying coordination between training-induced habitual and goal-directed responses

Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms that govern the coordination of habitual and goal-directed behaviors is important, because impaired coordination will cause various behavioral disorders. However, inducing habitual responses in human beings through repetitive stimuli-response training in a laboratory setting is a challenge. Well-trained sports athletes, who have automatic perception-action associations toward expertise-related stimuli, provide a natural sample to address this critical knowledge gap. We recorded electroencephalograms (EEG) of well-trained sports athletes while they performed a Simon task with expertise-related stimuli. By manipulating the congruency between the location of expertise-related stimuli and the response hand, we dissociated automatic habitual response and goal-directed inhibition control. We observed a stronger behavioral congruency effect on expertise-related stimuli than neutral stimuli in sports athletes but not healthy controls. Furthermore, sports athletes exhibited larger response-locked lateralized readiness potentials and stronger frontocentral beta band (15-25 Hz) activity in the congruent condition than the incongruent condition, which indicate an enhanced response tendency toward expertise-related stimuli. In contrast, prominent mid-frontal theta (3-7 Hz) activity observed in the incongruent condition signaled the involvement of response inhibition. Additionally, lateralized readiness potentials amplitude and theta power showed significant correlation with performance efficiency. Taken together, these results suggest that sports athletes exhibit an enhanced coordination for expertise-related stimuli, involving automatic response preparation and proficient response inhibition through extensive training.

Activity in Occipito-Temporal Cortex Is Involved in Tool-Use Planning and Contributes to Tool-Related Semantic Neural Representations

Tool use and language are highly refined human abilities which may show neural commonalities due to their potential reciprocal interaction during evolution. Recent work provided evidence for shared neural resources between tool use and syntax. However, whether activity within the tool-use network also contributes to semantic neural representations of tool nouns remains untested. To this aim, we identified the tool-use planning network with functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants used pliers. The very same participants underwent a semantic priming task including two categories, tool nouns and animal nouns, to highlight the respective underlying networks. With multivariate analyses of the activation neural patterns, we tested whether activity in tool-use brain clusters takes part in the neural representation of tool nouns as compared with animal nouns. The results revealed that word semantic categories were decoded within the left occipito-temporal cortex activated by preparing to use a tool, with similar patterns of brain activity for words within the same category. In addition, in the same area, neural activations for tool nouns were found to be higher than those for animal nouns. These findings suggest that activity in tool-use related brain areas encodes semantic information separately for tool nouns and animal nouns, thus supporting the embodiment of tool-noun processing in the tool-use sensorimotor network.

Front Is High and Back Is Low: Sound-Space Iconicity in Finnish

Previous investigations have shown various interactions between spatial concepts and speech sounds. For instance, the front-high vowel [i] is associated with the concept of forward, and the back-high vowel [o] is associated with the concept of backward. Three experiments investigated whether the concepts of forward/front and backward/back are associated with high- and low-pitched vocalizations, respectively, in Finnish. In Experiments 1 and 2, the participants associated the high-pitched vocalization with the forward-directed movement and the low-pitched vocalizations with the backward-directed movement. In Experiment 3, the same effect was observed in relation to the concepts of front of and back of. We propose that these observations present a novel sound-space symbolism phenomenon in which spatial concepts of forward/front and backward/back are iconically associated with high- and low-pitched speech sounds. This observation is discussed in relation to the grounding of semantic knowledge of these spatial concepts in the movements of articulators such as relative front/back-directed movements of the tongue.

Masked distress: The mediated effects of face masks on physical and emotional suffocation

This study explores the effects of bodily states on emotions based on embodied cognition theories of conceptual metaphor and feelings-as-information theory. Specifically, it investigates how physical suffocation induced by mask-wearing affects perceptions of emotional suffocation related to one's romantic relationship and financial situation. In this quantitative online experiment, we employed a convenience sampling method through a crowdsourcing platform. Adult participants (N = 180, 25 years or older and involved in a romantic relationship) were randomly assigned to three conditions: wearing COVID-19 masks properly, wearing masks on their chins, or not wearing masks. After completing a puzzle meant to prolong mask-wear, participants filled out digital questionnaires assessing their experiences of physical and psychological distress. The results supported our proposed mechanisms, revealing that increased feeling of physical suffocation while wearing masks properly, compared to the other conditions, was linked to heightened feelings of financial and romantic distress, supporting the conceptual metaphor account. This link was partially mediated by elevated state anxiety, aligning with the feelings-as-information theory. This study demonstrates how bodily experiences can impact emotional states, and highlights the complex interplay between everyday behaviours like mask-wearing and emotions.

Invariant representations in abstract concept grounding - the physical world in grounded cognition

Grounded cognition states that mental representations of concepts consist of experiential aspects. For example, the concept "cup" consists of the sensorimotor experiences from interactions with cups. Typical modalities in which concepts are grounded are: The sensorimotor system (including interoception), emotion, action, language, and social aspects. Here, we argue that this list should be expanded to include physical invariants (unchanging features of physical motion; e.g., gravity, momentum, friction). Research on physical reasoning consistently demonstrates that physical invariants are represented as fundamentally as other grounding substrates, and therefore should qualify. We assess several theories of concept representation (simulation, conceptual metaphor, conceptual spaces, predictive processing) and their positions on physical invariants. We find that the classic grounded cognition theories, simulation and conceptual metaphor theory, have not considered physical invariants, while conceptual spaces and predictive processing have. We conclude that physical invariants should be included into grounded cognition theories, and that the core mechanisms of simulation and conceptual metaphor theory are well suited to do this. Furthermore, conceptual spaces and predictive processing are very promising and should also be integrated with grounded cognition in the future.

Listen to the beat: Behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of slow and fast heartbeat sounds

BACKGROUND

Listening to heartbeat sounds have been found to affect cardiac activity and behavior. However, less is known about the effects of these stimuli on brain activity and cognition. Alpha oscillations (8-13 Hz) are considered markers of cortical activation. Frontal alpha Asymmetry (FαA) reflects the valence attributed to the stimulus and the tendency to approach/avoid it.

AIM

This study investigates the effects of sounds mimicking heart pulsations at different rhythms on reaction times and neurophysiological activity.

METHOD

EEG data were collected during a resting-state condition and two Simple Reaction Time tasks (SRT), during which artificially generated heartbeat sounds at fast (120 bpm, FastBeat condition) or slow (60 bpm, SlowBeat condition) rhythms were administered. Alpha power was compared across the three conditions. Differences in the SRT and FαA values were examined between the FastBeat and SlowBeat conditions.

RESULTS

Compared to the resting-state condition, decreased alpha activity over bilateral frontocentral regions was observed in both tasks. The comparison between the FastBeat and the SlowBeat conditions revealed faster response times, a pattern of alpha suppression over right frontal regions, and lower FαA values in the former.

CONCLUSIONS

The similarity of alpha reductions elicited in the comparison between the resting-state and the two task conditions suggests that these patterns were ascribable to processes common to both conditions (SRT task, auditory stimulation). In contrast, the differences between the two conditions suggest that fast heartbeat sounds are perceived as more adverse and stressful stimuli, inducing cortical activation over regions associated with negative states and avoidant tendencies.

The sound of thought: Form matters-The prosody of inner speech

This paper offers a new perspective on inner speech based on the theoretical framework of embodiment, focusing on the embodiment of structure rather than content. We argue that inner speech is used to simulate the acoustic aspects of overt speech including prosody. Prosody refers to the rhythm, intonation, and stress of spoken language, which is closely related to structural aspects of phrases, sentences, and larger language contexts such as discourse and narrative. We propose that inner speech gives form and structure to thought, and that this form is a necessary component of mental life. Thus, our paper opens with a review of the varieties of inner speech, followed by evidence concerning the form of inner speech, and finally, we discuss the functionality of inner speech. We consider cognitive and socio-emotional functions in which inner speech is involved and posit that inner speech serves as a simulation that maintains form and that this form serves different aspects of thought - attention, memory, emotion and self- regulation, social conceptualization, and narrative of self. In concluding, we address future research asking how inner speech contributes to making mental processes accessible to conscious thought, and whether accessibility to consciousness is related to form and structure.

A function-based mapping of sensory integration along the cortical hierarchy

Sensory information mainly travels along a hierarchy spanning unimodal to transmodal regions, forming multisensory integrative representations crucial for higher-order cognitive functions. Here, we develop an fMRI based two-dimensional framework to characterize sensory integration based on the anchoring role of the primary cortex in the organization of sensory processing. Sensory magnitude captures the percentage of variance explained by three primary sensory signals and decreases as the hierarchy ascends, exhibiting strong similarity to the known hierarchy and high stability across different conditions. Sensory angle converts associations with three primary sensory signals to an angle representing the proportional contributions of different sensory modalities. This dimension identifies differences between brain states and emphasizes how sensory integration changes flexibly in response to varying cognitive demands. Furthermore, meta-analytic functional decoding with our model highlights the close relationship between cognitive functions and sensory integration, showing its potential for future research of human cognition through sensory information processing.

Movement Sensing Opportunities for Monitoring Dynamic Cognitive States

In occupational domains such as sports, healthcare, driving, and military, both individuals and small groups are expected to perform challenging tasks under adverse conditions that induce transient cognitive states such as stress, workload, and uncertainty. Wearable and standoff 6DOF sensing technologies are advancing rapidly, including increasingly miniaturized yet robust inertial measurement units (IMUs) and portable marker-less infrared optical motion tracking. These sensing technologies may offer opportunities to track overt physical behavior and classify cognitive states relevant to human performance in diverse human-machine domains. We describe progress in research attempting to distinguish cognitive states by tracking movement behavior in both individuals and small groups, examining potential applications in sports, healthcare, driving, and the military. In the context of military training and operations, there are no generally accepted methods for classifying transient mental states such as uncertainty from movement-related data, despite its importance for shaping decision-making and behavior. To fill this gap, an example data set is presented including optical motion capture of rifle trajectories during a dynamic marksmanship task that elicits variable uncertainty; using machine learning, we demonstrate that features of weapon trajectories capturing the complexity of motion are valuable for classifying low versus high uncertainty states. We argue that leveraging metrics of human movement behavior reveals opportunities to complement relatively costly and less portable neurophysiological sensing technologies and enables domain-specific human-machine interfaces to support a wide range of cognitive functions.

Interoceptive Ability and Emotion Regulation in Mind-Body Interventions: An Integrative Review

It is increasingly recognized that interoceptive ability, the capacity to detect, interpret, and consciously integrate signals related to the physiological condition of the body, is central to emotion experience and regulation. Interoceptive ability can be trained and improved through mind-body interventions. This article attempts to provide an integrative review of the link between interoceptive ability and emotion regulation in mind-body interventions. To this aim, (1) we address the constructs of interoceptive ability and mind-body interventions in relation to the double pathway of emotion regulation, and (2) we include a review of selected empirical and qualitative studies. These show that mindfulness meditation affects the brain-body axis through top-down processing, improving both interoceptive ability and emotion regulation. Interventions based on bottom-up processing through body movement and emotional expression are illustrated, but it is argued that they are still under-investigated. In light of the literature reviewed, we contend that interoceptive ability is a crucial aspect associated with the effects of mind-body interventions on emotion regulation. Additionally, we suggest that if studied through both quantitative and qualitative methods, interoceptive ability may serve as a general construct that allows a more integrated view of the polarities related to the spectrum of embodied experience: top-down and bottom-up emotion processing, observational and non-observational body awareness, conscious and unconscious level of interoception.

Neural Representations of Concreteness and Concrete Concepts Are Specific to the Individual

Different people listening to the same story may converge upon a largely shared interpretation while still developing idiosyncratic experiences atop that shared foundation. What linguistic properties support this individualized experience of natural language? Here, we investigate how the "concrete-abstract" axis-the extent to which a word is grounded in sensory experience-relates to within- and across-subject variability in the neural representations of language. Leveraging a dataset of human participants of both sexes who each listened to four auditory stories while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that neural representations of "concreteness" are both reliable across stories and relatively unique to individuals, while neural representations of "abstractness" are variable both within individuals and across the population. Using natural language processing tools, we show that concrete words exhibit similar neural representations despite spanning larger distances within a high-dimensional semantic space, which potentially reflects an underlying representational signature of sensory experience-namely, imageability-shared by concrete words but absent from abstract words. Our findings situate the concrete-abstract axis as a core dimension that supports both shared and individualized representations of natural language.

How deep is your art: An experimental study on the limits of artistic understanding in a single-task, single-modality neural network

Computational modeling of artwork meaning is complex and difficult. This is because art interpretation is multidimensional and highly subjective. This paper experimentally investigated the degree to which a state-of-the-art Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN), a popular Machine Learning approach, can correctly distinguish modern conceptual art work into the galleries devised by art curators. Two hypotheses were proposed to state that the DCNN model uses Exhibited Properties for classification, like shape and color, but not Non-Exhibited Properties, such as historical context and artist intention. The two hypotheses were experimentally validated using a methodology designed for this purpose. VGG-11 DCNN pre-trained on ImageNet dataset and discriminatively fine-tuned was trained on handcrafted datasets designed from real-world conceptual photography galleries. Experimental results supported the two hypotheses showing that the DCNN model ignores Non-Exhibited Properties and uses only Exhibited Properties for artwork classification. This work points to current DCNN limitations, which should be addressed by future DNN models.

Space as a mental toolbox in the representation of meaning

The experience of meaning has been found to be mapped onto spatial proximity whereby coherent-in contrast to incoherent-elements in a set are mentally represented as closer together in physical space. In a series of four experiments, we show that spatial representation of coherence is malleable and can employ other meaningful concrete dimensions of space that are made salient. When given task instructions cueing verticality, participants represented coherence in the upper vertical location when making judgements about the logical validity of realistic (Experiments 1 and 4) and unrealistic syllogistic scenarios (Experiment 3). When the task instruction made the spatial proximity between the stimuli materials and the participant salient (subjective proximity), participants represented coherence as spatially close to themselves (Experiment 2). We also found that being accurate in judging the validity of syllogisms was associated with representing coherence in the upper visual field or close to oneself. Overall, our findings show that identifying semantic links between an abstract concept and a given spatial dimension involves using that dimension to create spatial metaphoric mappings of the concept.

Ecological brain: reframing the study of human behaviour and cognition

The last decade has seen substantial advances in the capacity to record behaviour and neural activity in humans in real-world settings, to simulate real-world situations in laboratory settings and to apply sophisticated analyses to large-scale data. Along with these developments, a growing number of groups has begun to advocate for real-world neuroscience and cognitive science. Here, we review the arguments and the available methods for real-world research and outline an overarching framework that embeds key ideas proposed in the literature integrating them into a cyclic process of 'bringing the lab to the real world' (recording behavioural and neural activity in real-world settings) and 'bringing the real-world to the lab' (manipulating the environments in which behaviours occur in the laboratory) that combines exploratory and confirmatory research and is interdisciplinary (including those sciences concerned with the natural, built or virtual environment). We highlight the benefits brought by this framework emphasizing the greater potential for novel discovery, theory development and human-centred applications to the environment.

Embodied cognition driven Qigong: a cross-sectional study and a pilot randomized controlled trial on managing depression and preventing relapse in substance dependence

Objective

Substance use disorders (SUDs) pose a significant challenge to public health systems worldwide, with persistent high relapse rates underscoring the urgency for innovative intervention strategies. This study embarked on a systematic exploration of the factors influencing relapse among individuals with SUDs, alongside the implementation of targeted Health Qigong intervention to mitigate these effects based on the embodied cognition.

Methods

In the cross-sectional survey, a total of 398 male substance users were recruited to complete the questionnaires assessing depression, self-esteem, resilience, and relapse inclination. Subsequently, 60 participants diagnosed with depression were selected for a Pilot RCT, randomly divided into an intervention group, which underwent a 12-week Health Qigong program designed to combat depression through embodied cognition principles, and a control group, which maintained their daily routines.

Results

Structural equation modeling demonstrated that depression not only had a direct effect on substance users' relapse, but also exerted an indirect effect through three paths: firstly, via the mediating role of self-esteem; secondly, via the mediating role of resilience; and thirdly, via the chain-mediated role of self-esteem and resilience. Two-factor mixed-design ANOVA showed that the 12-week targeted Health Qigong training not only mitigated depression in individuals with SUDs, but also enhanced self-esteem and mental resilience, and reducing the propensity for relapse.

Conclusion

This research identifies critical factors influencing relapse in individuals with SUDs and introduces a novel, non-pharmacological intervention that significantly diminishes relapse rates and enhances recovery outcomes. It highlights the importance of physical activity in promoting mental health improvement and integrates traditional Chinese exercises with contemporary psychological insights, offering a comprehensive approach to drug rehabilitation and the integration of cultural practices in holistic health interventions.

Mental simulation of colour properties during language comprehension: influence of context and comprehension stages

Many studies have shown that mental simulation may occur during language comprehension. Supporting evidence is derived from the matching effects in the sentence-picture verification (SPV) task often used to assess mental simulations of object properties, such as size, orientation, and shape. However, mixed results have been obtained regarding object colour, with researchers reporting matching or mismatching effects. This study investigated the impact of colour information clarity within sentences on the process of mental simulation during language comprehension. Employing the SPV task and using novel objects, we examined whether there is a mental simulation of colour after excluding typical/atypical colour bias and how varying levels of colour information clarity in sentences influence the emergence of matching effects at different stages of comprehension. To address these issues, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, the participants read normal sentences and subsequently engaged in picture verification with a novel object after a 500 ms delay. In Experiment 2, the participants encountered sentences containing both clear and unclear colour information and, after either a 0 ms or 1500 ms interval, completed picture verification tasks with a novel object. Null effects were found in the 500 ms condition for normal sentences and the 0 ms condition for unclear colour information sentences. A mismatching effect appeared in the 0 ms condition after clear colour information sentences, and a matching effect appeared in the 1500 ms condition for all sentences. The results indicated that after excluding colour bias, the participants still formed mental simulations of colour during language comprehension. Our results also indicated that ongoing colour simulation with time pressure impacted the participant responses. The participants ignored unclear colour information under time pressure, but without time pressure, they constructed simulations that were as detailed as possible, regardless of whether the implicit colour information in the sentence was clear.

Organization of conceptual tool knowledge following left and right brain lesions: Evidence from neuropsychological dissociations and multivariate disconnectome symptom mapping

The aim of this work was to better understand the organization of conceptual tool knowledge following stroke. We explored specifically the link between manipulation kinematics and manipulation hand posture; and the link between manipulation kinematics and function relations in left brain-damaged (n = 30) and right brain-damaged (n = 30) patients. We examined the performance of brain-damaged patients in conceptual tool tasks using neuropsychological dissociations and disconnectome symptom mapping. Our results suggest that manipulation kinematics is more impaired than function relations, following left or right brain lesions. We also observed that manipulation kinematics and manipulation hand posture are dissociable dimensions but are still highly interrelated, particularly in left brain-damaged patients. We also found that the corpus callosum and bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus are involved in action and semantic tool knowledge following left brain lesions. Our results provide evidence that the right hemisphere contains conceptual tool representations. Further studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms supporting the cognitive recovery of conceptual tool knowledge. An emerging hypothesis is that the right hemisphere may support functional recovery through interhemispheric transfer following a left hemisphere stroke.

The links between experiential learning and 4E cognition

In this article, we explore the connections between two distinct approaches: experiential learning (EL) and 4E cognition. EL emphasizes the role of concrete experiences as the building blocks of learning, whereas 4E cognition views cognition as arising from the interactions that an individual has with their physical and social environment. Despite their divergent theoretical frameworks, methodologies, and interests, we argue that both frameworks share a common vision of cognition and that their integration could mutually enhance their respective fields. This article outlines the historical origins and underlying assumptions of both frameworks, highlighting the potential links that can be established between them. Specifically, we explore the significance of embodiment, embeddedness, extended cognition, and enactive processes in learning and cognition. To bridge these frameworks, we propose employing the concept of "concrete experience" as an active engagement of individuals with their physical and social surroundings. By encompassing the essential aspects assigned to concrete experiences in EL, as well as the embodiment, situatedness, extended cognition, and enactive features of 4E cognition, this notion serves as a unifying element. Ultimately, the article suggests that combining the insights from EL and 4E cognition can offer a richer, more holistic understanding of representation.

Axial rotation affects the cognitive characteristics of spatial ability

Purpose

To test spatial ability in athletes with different axial rotation experience and analyze their behavioral data to explain the cognitive mechanisms of spatial ability in athletes.

Methods

Experiment 1: A total of 147 athletes were selected for the paper-and-pencil mental rotation test (MRT). The athletes were separated according to three sport types: open high-spatial (OH) sport, closed high-spatial (CH) sport, closed low-spatial (CL) sport. Spatial ability testing with a two-factor mixed experimental design of 3 (sport type) × 2 (stimulus type). Experiment 2: In this study, 47 players were selected for computerized mental rotation test, with a three-factor mixed experimental design of 3 (sport type) × 2 (angle: 45°, 90°) × 3 (rotational axis: left-right axis, up-down axis, and front-back axis). Repeated-measures ANOVA was performed to evaluate the data.

Results

(1) The CH group and OH group outperformed the CL group in the non-embodied task (all ps < 0.003) and the CH group was better than the other groups in the embodied and tasks (all ps < 0.008). (2) Under 45° rotational conditions, the reaction time (RT) for the left-right (LR) and up-down (UD) axes were shorter than that for the front-back (FB) axis (all ps < 0.026). However, under 90° conditions, the RT for FB < LR < UD, with superior accuracy and rotational speed for the FB axis than for the LR and UD axes (all ps < 0.034). (3) Male players from the CH and CL groups had shorter RTs than did those from the OH group at both angles (all ps < 0.047). For female players, the CH group presented a shorter RT than the OH and CL groups did at 90° (all ps < 0.006). (4) No sex difference was found for paper and pencil MRTs, but a male advantage existed only in the CL group for computerized MRTs (p = 0.005).

Conclusion

The motor skills associated with axial rotation could promote mental rotation performance and compensate for sex differences in mental rotation ability.

Motor and Cognitive Trajectories in Infants and Toddlers with and at Risk of Cerebral Palsy Following a Community-Based Intervention

BACKGROUND

Early motor development is fundamental in driving cognitive skill acquisition. Motor delays in children with cerebral palsy (CP) often limit exploratory behaviors, decreasing opportunities or the quality of cognitive development, emphasizing the importance of early intervention. This study aimed to assess immediate and 5-month motor and cognitive changes in infants and toddlers at risk of or with CP after participation in a community-based program.

METHODS

Twenty-two children (mean age: 22 ± 7 months) classified using the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) and mini-Manual Ability Classification System (mini-MACS) participated in a 6-day community-based activity program, with outcomes assessed using the Developmental Assessment of Young Children (DAYC-2).

RESULTS

Participants who met their motor goals post-participation had significantly higher cognitive scores (p = 0.006) 5 months after the program. Participants with higher functional motor abilities (GMFCS levels I-II, p = 0.052; mini-MACS levels I-II, p = 0.004) demonstrated better cognitive scores at 5 months, adjusted for baseline scores, than those with lower functional motor abilities.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights the impact of motor improvements following an evidence-based community program on later cognitive development. Prospective studies investigating the mechanisms and mediation of cognitive progress in children with CP should investigate the effects of early motor interventions on long-term developmental trajectories.

Electrophysiological signature of interoceptive attention: a spectral and source localization analysis

The ability to attend to and consciously process interoceptive signals is deemed critical for the development of minimal self, adaptive self-regulation and affective experience, and optimal expression of both instrumental and executive cognitive functions. Yet, notwithstanding the richness of theoretical proposals concerning inferential accounts of interoception, empirical evidence is still scarce. Building on such premises, this study was designed to investigate the electrophysiological signature of cognitive processes leading to aware coding of interoceptive signals via EEG source localization. Thirty-six healthy participants completed an interoceptive accuracy task, i.e., the Heartbeat Counting Task (HCT), while we collected task-related and resting state electrophysiological activity. eLORETA modelling and statistical nonparametric mapping were used to estimate intracortical current density and link such estimates to participants' performance at the task. Source analysis highlighted higher current density estimates for alpha frequencies during HCT with respect to rest, with the primary cortical generator in the right parahippocampal gyrus. Also, a set of medial cortical structures-primarily represented by the cingulate gyrus-showed significant relation between task-related changes in current density estimates for beta oscillations and HCT scores. Findings suggest the informativity of EEG task-related measures of neural activation when used to assess interoceptive skills, as well as of the potential of metrics and analysis based on source localization in the quest to improve our understanding of interoceptive accuracy and neurofunctional correlates of related active inferences.

Designing for Embodied Proximity

This paper draws on notions of embodied learning to inform exhibit design that fosters children's meaningful embodied engagement to successfully unveil science ideas. While children's interaction in the museum is often hands-on and speaks to the physical emphasis that embodiment brings, observation of children's spontaneous engagement at a museum's Water Zone revealed opportunities and barriers to engagement with, and access to, science ideas in terms of what we call 'embodied proximity' and 'embodied dislocation'. Drawing on design considerations from these findings a set of purpose-built prototype exhibits were developed and deployed to examine how they supported children's embodied exploration of science. The findings highlight key design dimensions that support children's accessing and making meaning about science through fostering embodied proximity: considering palette of embodied features; applying direct multisensorial experience; developing temporal-positional contiguity; and designing opportunities for communicating experiences through the body.

Teachers' Gestures and How They Matter

How do teachers' gestures influence students' learning? This article reviews research investigating the role of gestures in communication, focusing on teachers' communication with their students, primarily in mathematics and science instruction. We first briefly consider gesture's role in communication more generally as a backdrop for considering teaching as a special context for communication. We then describe teachers' spontaneous gesturing in teaching contexts, and we consider how teachers' spontaneous gestures might influence students' learning. We then consider experimental studies that provide causal support for the effects of teachers' gestures on students' learning. We conclude by discussing future directions and implications for educational practice.