Tradicionalmente, el concepto de función ejecutiva se ha utilizado para hacer referencia a un comportamiento adaptativo (Mesulam, 2002), que integra y combina habilidades cognitivas que están dirigidas a meta (Welsh, Friedman, y Spieker, 2005). Durante los últimos años se ha asistido a un creciente interés en el estudio de la función ejecutiva en la infancia y niñez (Garon, Bryson, y Smith, 2008). Sin embargo, su exploración ha estado limitada por las dificultades para diseñar tareas adaptadas al nivel de desarrollo de los niños. En general, estas tareas se fundamentan principalmente en el seguimiento de reglas verbales abstractas y analizan el control ejecutivo de los niños en base a sus errores directos. Por el contrario, nuestras tareas permiten la construcción de unas reglas de actuación específicas a partir de las dinámicas que se establecen en el proceso de resolución entre la información perceptiva y la información de la acción, siendo un aspecto fundamental el feedback directo que el sujeto recibe de sus acciones. Asimismo, nuestro diseño metodológico trata de minimizar el papel del lenguaje en la construcción y consecución de la meta. El objetivo general de nuestro estudio fue analizar el desarrollo de la función ejecutiva en niños pequeños en base a las dinámicas entre percepción-acción que se establecen en la resolución de una tarea y que ponen de manifiesto la capacidad del niño para manipular ambas fuentes de información. La muestra estuvo integrada por 150 sujetos de 2.5, 3.5 y 4.5 años de edad, a los que se les administraron tres tareas de distinta dificultad, consistente en la inserción de piezas en unos ejes. Los resultados de este estudio ponen de manifiesto que no sólo la edad guarda una estrecha relación con la habilidad para discernir el criterio adecuado y en concreto, los procesos de cambio y control inhibitorio, sino que la complejidad de la tarea desempeña un papel fundamental. Evidentemente, se producen importantes mejoras con la edad en esas capacidades, pero es realmente la comprensión de la naturaleza de la tarea la que parece desempeñar un papel muy importante en la "voluntad" del niño para querer seguir buscando cómo llegar a la resolución del conflicto. / Traditionally, the concept of executive function has been used to refer to appropriate behaviours (Mesulam, 2002), that integrate and combine cognitive abilities oriented to a goal (Welsh, Friedman, & Spieker, 2005). In last years, a growing interest in the study of executive function in infancy and childhood has developed (Garon, Bryson, & Smith, 2008). However, its study has been limited due to difficulties in designing tasks that are adapted to the subjects' developmental level. In general, these tasks are mainly based in following abstract, verbal rules and analyze executive control based on direct errors. In contrast to this sort of tasks, our tasks allowed the subjects to build their own rules from the dynamics established between perceptual and action information in the resolution process, so that the direct feedback that children received from their action is crucial. Moreover, our procedure tries to minimize the role of language during goal construction and attainment. The general aim of this study was analysing the development of executive function in young children through the dynamics between perception and action established in the resolution of a task. These will show children's ability to work with both information sources. 150 children (2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 years of age) participated in this study. They were asked to complete three different tasks with an increasing difficulty based on inserting wooden pieces in their axes. Results showed that not only age is related to the ability to discriminate the right criterion to solve the task, but also the processes of change, inhibitory control and task complexity are key questions. Obviously, there's an improvement with age in these abilities, but what seems to be the most relevant aspect in this sort of tasks is that children were able to understand the nature of the task and this contribute to their "willing" to keep looking for a solution to the problem.

Background Although trainers and athletes consider ‘good timing skills’ to be critical for optimal sport performance, little is known in regard to how sport-specific skills may benefit from timing training. Thus, assuming that all motor performances are mediated by an internal timing mechanism, enhanced motor timing is expected to have positive effects on both planning and execution of movement performance, and consequently on complex sports actions as golf or soccer. Accordingly, in order to increase our knowledge of the importance of motor timing and possible effects of timing training, this thesis examines the effects of synchronized metronome training (SMT), thought to improve the execution of motor programs and to enhance motor skills in golf and soccer players. Methods Study I examined the effects of SMT on motor timing abilities and its potential effect on golf shot accuracy and consistency in 25 experienced male golfers. Additionally, Study II examined the effects of SMT on the spatiotemporal movement organisation and dynamics of the golf swing performance, as captured by kinematic measurements and analyses in thirteen male golfers. Study III examined the effect of SMT on accuracy and variability in a soccer specific, cross-pass task in elite and sub-elite female soccer players. Moreover, the underlying brain activity was assessed by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the corresponding neural activity when passively observing the cross-pass task, and the possible pre- to post training effects. Results SMT was shown to improve motor timing ability, by means of less timing asynchrony and with associated changes in timing variability, in both golf- and soccer-players. Additionally, significant improvements in golf shot and soccer cross-pass performance, by means of significant increase in outcome accuracy combined with a decrease in outcome variability was found. From the kinematic investigation in Study II, results indicate that improved motor timing, as an effect of SMT, lead to a more coordinated and dynamic swing performance, and with decreased variability in the temporal structure of the swing motion. Finally, it was found that SMT induces changes in the activity of the action observation network (AON), underpinning action observation and action prediction, by means of decreased activation within bilateral cerebellum, fusiform gyrus and superior temporal gyrus. These findings hint at a more efficient pattern of neural recruitment during action observation, after SMT. Conclusion In summary, this thesis provides evidence that four weeks of SMT improved the participant’s motor timing and synchronization abilities, and showed influence on both behavioral and neurophysiological motor programs and skill performance in golf and soccer players. Thus, by improved outcome accuracy and decreased variability, affecting the coordinated movement pattern and organisation, as well as affecting the associated underlying brain activation.

This thesis is a contribution to the formalisation of the notion of an agent within the class of finite multivariate Markov chains. In accordance with the literature agents are are seen as entities that act, perceive, and are goaldirected. We present a new measure that can be used to identify entities (called i-entities). The intuition behind this is that entities are spatiotemporal patterns for which every part makes every other part more probable. The measure, complete local integration (CLI), is formally investigated within the more general setting of Bayesian networks. It is based on the specific local integration (SLI) which is measured with respect to a partition. CLI is the minimum value of SLI over all partitions. Upper bounds are constructively proven and a possible lower bound is proposed. We also prove a theorem that shows that completely locally integrated spatiotemporal patterns occur as blocks in specific partitions of the global trajectory. Conversely we can identify partitions of global trajectories for which every block is completely locally integrated. These global partitions are the finest partitions that achieve a SLI less or equal to their own SLI. We also establish the transformation behaviour of SLI under permutations of the nodes in the Bayesian network. We then go on to present three conditions on general definitions of entities. These are most prominently not fulfilled by sets of random variables i.e. the perception-action loop, which is often used to model agents, is too restrictive a setting. We instead propose that any general entity definition should in effect specify a subset of the set of all spatiotemporal patterns of a given multivariate Markov chain. Any such definition will then define what we call an entity set. The set of all completely locally integrated spatiotemporal patterns is one example of such a set. Importantly the perception-action loop also naturally induces such an entity set. We then propose formal definitions of actions and perceptions for arbitrary entity sets. We show that these are generalisations of notions defined for the perception-action loop by plugging the entity-set of the perception-action loop into our definitions. We also clearly state the properties that general entity-sets have but the perception-action loop entity set does not. This elucidates in what way we are generalising the perception-action loop. Finally we look at some very simple examples of bivariate Markov chains. We present the disintegration hierarchy, explain it via symmetries, and calculate the i-entities. Then we apply our definitions of perception and action to these i-entities.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-12-04Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:03:13Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 morais_sr_dr_mar.pdf: 1039071 bytes, checksum: ffdf99fb1c29e213a06ddde5c95dbbe7 (MD5) / Dois são os objetivos desta tese: o primeiro é discutir os pressupostos epistemológicos subjacentes à concepção internalista da mente que enfatiza a mediação representacional entre o sujeito do conhecimento e o mundo. O segundo consiste em propor e debater a hipótese epistemológica (H), de acordo com a qual há percepção direta das invariâncias no comportamento sócio-cultural. Inicialmente, discute-se o método de análise e síntese cartesiano, questionando sua adequação para o estudo da percepção-ação. Especial ênfase é dada às críticas de Ryle ao método cartesiano de análise que possibilita a geração de erros categoriais em sua aplicação no estudo do conhecimento perceptual. Uma alternativa à perspectiva representacionista da percepção é apresentada por meio da Teoria da Percepção Direta (TPD), proposta por Gibson, aplicando-a também à análise do comportamento sócio-cultural. Algumas dificuldades são encontradas na execução de tal intento; entre elas está a questão da autonomia dos indivíduos. Uma possível solução a este problema é elaborada, ressaltando os aspectos das variâncias relacionais dos indivíduos com o meio ambiente, encontradas juntamente com as invariantes estruturais e transformacionais. As invariantes como as variantes constituem as especificidades da interação entre indivíduo e meio ambiente delineando a personalidade individual. / This thesis has two aims: the first is to discuss epistemological presuppositions underlying the internalist conception of mind that emphasizes the representational mediation between a knowing subject and the world. The second consists in proposing and debating the Epistemological Hypothesis (H), according to which there is a Direct Perception of Invariances in Social-Cultural Behavior. At first the methodology of Cartesian analysis and synthesis is discussed, questioning its adequacy to the study of action-perception. Special attention is giving to Ryle s criticism of the Cartesian method of analysis that allows the generation of categorical mistakes, applied to the study of perceptual knowledge. An alternative to representational perception is shown to be the Theory of Direct Perception (TPD), proposed by Gibson, which will be applied to the analysis of socialcultural behavior. Some difficulties are discovered during this project; among them is the problem of personal autonomy. A possible solution for that problem is to emphasize the relational variances between individuals and their environment, these variances occur together with the structural and transformational invariances. The invariants as well as variants form the specifics of the interaction between individual and environment, and thereby shape the personal autonomy.

O objetivo desse estudo foi verificar os efeitos da manipulação de informação, visual proveniente de uma sala móvel, verbal fornecida sobre o movimento da sala e sobre uma ação solicitada, na oscilação corporal em crianças e adultos. Participaram deste estudo 20 crianças e 20 adultos jovens, que permaneceram na posição ereta dentro de uma sala móvel. Os resultados revelaram que a dinâmica intrínseca do sistema, referente ao relacionamento entre informação visual e oscilação corporal, não é facilmente modificada pela informação comportamental. A manipulação dos tipos de informação verbal, sobre movimento da sala e solicitação de uma ação, altera o relacionamento entre informação visual e oscilação corporal na situação da sala móvel. Entretanto, esta alteração requer atuação contínua do participante e, ainda, a solicitação de uma ação é mais efetiva nesta alteração do que somente a informação sobre o que está ocorrendo. Finalmente, há mudanças desenvolvimentais em como estas diferentes informações são utilizadas para o controle de uma ação motora. Enquanto adultos jovens utilizam as informações fornecidas de forma mais adequada para a ação solicitada, crianças apresentam dificuldade em utilizar a informação fornecida ou realizar uma ação solicitada frente à dinâmica intrínseca do sistema. / The purpose of this study was to verify the effects of the manipulation of information, visual from a moving room, verbal informing about the movement of the room and about a requested action, in body sway of children and adults. Participated of this study 20 children and 20 young adults, who stood upright inside of a moving room. The results revealed that the system intrinsic dynamics, regarding the relationship between visual information and body sway, is not easily modified by behavioral information. The manipulation of the types of verbal information, about the moving room?s movement and requesting a specific action, alters the relationship between visual information and body sway in the moving room situation. However, this change requires the participant\'s continuous attention and, moreover, requesting an action is more effective than only the information about what is happening. Finally, there are behavioral changes in how these different types of information are used for the control of a motor action. While young adults use the provided information in a more appropriate way to perform the requested action, children show difficulty in order to use the provided information or to accomplish an action requested due to the intrinsic dynamics of the system.

In the thesis submitted, I deal with the concepts of human physicality and image and their mutual relationship from the point of view of how physicality can be made present in the image and hence in the very dialogue between an artwork and the viewer. The other part is devoted to artistic contexts. I would like to give examples of various works of art which can be traced by means of confronting the contemporary concept of physicality and the appearance of a human figure coming from the earliest paintings to art actions of the present and contemporary art events. My goal is to try to grasp the relation between image and physicality, especially in the context of art education and possibilities of gallery and museum education. I designed and implemented a large educational project: Painting the flesh - the physicality of painting, that uses elements of visually dramatic conception of art education, emphasizing work with pupils physicality of their own, linked to the contexts of art history and also deals with the theme of interpretation, reproduction and manipulation of paintings. The visual part is called Interpretation as a shift from the painting of physicality to the physicality of painting and is also derived from the topic examined in the work.

The perception of an action and its production are inextricably linked. This entails that, during development, the skills that children are able to perform influence their perception of others\\\'' actions. The present dissertation aimed to investigate the role of children’s experience on the perception of actions in three distinctive areas: manual actions performed by one person (individual action), manual actions performed by two people (joint action), and a conversation between two people. In order to succeed in each of the three areas, children have to acquire new skills and do so successively during their first three years of life. The methodological approach of this work was to measure the gaze behaviour of children, aged 6 months to 3 years, and adults during the observation of visually presented actions, which provided information on whether they were able to anticipate action goals. The findings obtained generally show an influence of experience on the anticipation of action goals in each of the three areas. First, a link between action and perception is not established as soon as an action emerges. There is at least some experience necessary for its development. Second, infants with no coordinated joint-action skills themselves anticipate the goals of joint action less well than those of individual action. Adults with considerable joint-action skills anticipate both equally well. And third, the course of a conversation can only be reliably anticipated by children aged 3 years and adults, whereas younger children shift their gaze between speakers randomly. Furthermore, only at the age of 3 years, did intonation support children’s anticipation of conversations.

Cette recherche a pour but d’évaluer le rôle de la vision et de la proprioception pour la perception et le contrôle de l’orientation spatiale de la main chez l’humain. L’orientation spatiale de la main est une composante importante des mouvements d’atteinte et de saisie. Toutefois, peu d’attention a été portée à l’étude de l’orientation spatiale de la main dans la littérature. À notre connaissance, cette étude est la première à évaluer spécifiquement l’influence des informations sensorielles et de l’expérience visuelle pour la perception et le contrôle en temps réel de l'orientation spatiale de la main pendant le mouvement d’atteinte naturel vers une cible stationnaire. Le premier objectif était d’étudier la contribution de la vision et de la proprioception dans des tâches de perception et de mouvement d’orientation de la main. Dans la tâche de perception (orientation-matching task), les sujets devaient passivement ou activement aligner une poignée de forme rectangulaire avec une cible fixée dans différentes orientations. Les rotations de l’avant-bras et du poignet étaient soit imposées par l’expérimentateur, soit effectuées par les sujets. Dans la tâche de mouvement d’orientation et d’atteinte simultanées (letter posting task 1), les sujets ont réalisé des mouvements d’atteinte et de rotation simultanées de la main afin d’insérer la poignée rectangulaire dans une fente fixée dans les mêmes orientations. Les tâches ont été réalisées dans différentes conditions sensorielles où l’information visuelle de la cible et de la main était manipulée. Dans la tâche perceptive, une augmentation des erreurs d’orientation de la main a été observée avec le retrait des informations visuelles concernant la cible et/ou ou la main. Lorsque la vision de la main n’était pas permise, il a généralement été observé que les erreurs d’orientation de la main augmentaient avec le degré de rotation nécessaire pour aligner la main et la cible. Dans la tâche de mouvement d’orientation et d’atteinte simultanées, les erreurs ont également augmenté avec le retrait des informations visuelles. Toutefois, les patrons d’erreurs étaient différents de ceux observés dans la tâche de perception, et les erreurs d’orientation n’ont pas augmenté avec le degré de rotation nécessaire pour insérer la poignée dans la fente. En absence de vision de la main, il a été observé que les erreurs d’orientation étaient plus petites dans la tâche de mouvement que de perception, suggérant l’implication de la proprioception pour le contrôle de l’orientation spatiale de la main lors des mouvements d’orientation et d’atteinte simultanées. Le deuxième objectif de cette recherche était d’étudier l’influence de la vision et de la proprioception dans le contrôle en temps réel de l’orientation spatiale de la main. Dans une tâche d’orientation de la main suivie d’une atteinte manuelle (letter posting task 2), les sujets devaient d’abord aligner l’orientation de la même poignée avec la fente fixée dans les mêmes orientations, puis réaliser un mouvement d’atteinte sans modifier l’orientation initiale de la main. Une augmentation des erreurs initiales et finales a été observée avec le retrait des informations visuelles. Malgré la consigne de ne pas changer l’orientation initiale de la main, une diminution des erreurs d’orientation a généralement été observée suite au mouvement d’atteinte, dans toutes les conditions sensorielles testées. Cette tendance n’a pas été observée lorsqu’aucune cible explicite n’était présentée et que les sujets devaient conserver l’orientation de départ de la main pendant le mouvement d’atteinte (mouvement intransitif; letter-posting task 3). La diminution des erreurs pendant l’atteinte manuelle transitive vers une cible explicite (letter-posting task 2), malgré la consigne de ne pas changer l’orientation de la main pendant le mouvement, suggère un mécanisme de corrections automatiques pour le contrôle en temps réel de l’orientation spatiale de la main pendant le mouvement d’atteinte naturel vers une cible stationnaire. Le troisième objectif de cette recherche était d’évaluer la contribution de l’expérience visuelle pour la perception et le contrôle de l’orientation spatiale de la main. Des sujets aveugles ont été testés dans les mêmes tâches de perception et de mouvement. De manière générale, les sujets aveugles ont présenté les mêmes tendances que les sujets voyants testés dans la condition proprioceptive (sans vision), suggérant que l’expérience visuelle n’est pas nécessaire pour le développement d’un mécanisme de correction en temps réel de l’orientation spatiale de la main basé sur la proprioception. / The goal of this research was to study the contribution of vision and proprioception to the perception and control of hand orientation in human subjects. Spatial orientation of the hand is an important component of reaching and grasping movements. However, not much attention has been given to spatial hand orientation in the literature. To our knowledge, this study is the first to specifically investigate the influence of sensory information for the perception and on-line control of hand orientation during natural reaching movement to stationary targets. The first objective of this research was to study the contribution of vision and proprioception in perceptual orientation-matching and motor letter posting tasks. In the perceptual orientation-matching task, subjects attempted to passively or actively align a match handle, to a target that was fixed in different orientations. In the passive perceptual task, passive rotations of the forearm and wrist were imposed by the experimenter; whereas in the active perceptual task, the rotations were actively executed by the subjects. In letter posting task 1, subjects simultaneously reached and rotated the right hand to insert a match handle into a target slot fixed in the same orientations. The tasks were performed in different sensory conditions where the visual information about the target and the hand was manipulated. In the perceptual orientation-matching task, augmentation of hand orientation errors was observed with the withdrawal of visual information related to either the target and/or the hand. When full vision was not allowed, hand orientation errors were larger overall when larger rotations of the wrist were required to match the target, whether the rotations were made actively by the subject or were imposed passively by the experimenter. In letter posting task 1, augmentation of hand orientation errors was also observed with the withdrawal of visual information related to either the target and/or the hand. However, errors patterns were different from those observed in the perceptual task, and hand orientation errors were not larger for larger target orientations. Without vision of the hand, final hand orientation errors were smaller overall in letter-posting task 1 than in the orientation-matching task. This suggests the implication of the proprioceptive information for the control of spatial hand orientation during reach-and-orient movements. The second objective of this research was to study the influence of vision and proprioception in on-line control of spatial hand orientation. In letter posting task 2, subjects first aligned their hand to the angle of the target and then reached to it with the instruction not to change their initial hand orientation. The augmentation of initial and final errors was observed with the withdrawal of vision. Although subjects were instructed to not change their hand orientation, in all sensory condition tested, hand orientation changed overall during reaching in a way that reduced the initial orientation errors. This trend did not occur when there was no explicitly defined target toward which the subjects reached (letter-posting task 3; intransitive movement). The reduction in hand orientation errors during transitive reach in letter-posting task 2, even when told not to change it, suggests the engagement of an automatic error correction mechanism for hand orientation during natural reaching movements toward stationary targets. The third objective of this research was to investigate the contribution of visual experience to the perception and control of spatial orientation of the hand. Blind subjects were tested in the same perceptual and motor tasks. Overall, no differences were observed between performance of blind subjects and normally-sighted subjects tested without vision (proprioceptive condition), suggesting that prior visual experience is not necessary for the development of an on-line error correction mechanism for hand orientation guided by proprioceptive inputs.

Cette recherche a pour but d’évaluer le rôle de la vision et de la proprioception pour la perception et le contrôle de l’orientation spatiale de la main chez l’humain. L’orientation spatiale de la main est une composante importante des mouvements d’atteinte et de saisie. Toutefois, peu d’attention a été portée à l’étude de l’orientation spatiale de la main dans la littérature. À notre connaissance, cette étude est la première à évaluer spécifiquement l’influence des informations sensorielles et de l’expérience visuelle pour la perception et le contrôle en temps réel de l'orientation spatiale de la main pendant le mouvement d’atteinte naturel vers une cible stationnaire. Le premier objectif était d’étudier la contribution de la vision et de la proprioception dans des tâches de perception et de mouvement d’orientation de la main. Dans la tâche de perception (orientation-matching task), les sujets devaient passivement ou activement aligner une poignée de forme rectangulaire avec une cible fixée dans différentes orientations. Les rotations de l’avant-bras et du poignet étaient soit imposées par l’expérimentateur, soit effectuées par les sujets. Dans la tâche de mouvement d’orientation et d’atteinte simultanées (letter posting task 1), les sujets ont réalisé des mouvements d’atteinte et de rotation simultanées de la main afin d’insérer la poignée rectangulaire dans une fente fixée dans les mêmes orientations. Les tâches ont été réalisées dans différentes conditions sensorielles où l’information visuelle de la cible et de la main était manipulée. Dans la tâche perceptive, une augmentation des erreurs d’orientation de la main a été observée avec le retrait des informations visuelles concernant la cible et/ou ou la main. Lorsque la vision de la main n’était pas permise, il a généralement été observé que les erreurs d’orientation de la main augmentaient avec le degré de rotation nécessaire pour aligner la main et la cible. Dans la tâche de mouvement d’orientation et d’atteinte simultanées, les erreurs ont également augmenté avec le retrait des informations visuelles. Toutefois, les patrons d’erreurs étaient différents de ceux observés dans la tâche de perception, et les erreurs d’orientation n’ont pas augmenté avec le degré de rotation nécessaire pour insérer la poignée dans la fente. En absence de vision de la main, il a été observé que les erreurs d’orientation étaient plus petites dans la tâche de mouvement que de perception, suggérant l’implication de la proprioception pour le contrôle de l’orientation spatiale de la main lors des mouvements d’orientation et d’atteinte simultanées. Le deuxième objectif de cette recherche était d’étudier l’influence de la vision et de la proprioception dans le contrôle en temps réel de l’orientation spatiale de la main. Dans une tâche d’orientation de la main suivie d’une atteinte manuelle (letter posting task 2), les sujets devaient d’abord aligner l’orientation de la même poignée avec la fente fixée dans les mêmes orientations, puis réaliser un mouvement d’atteinte sans modifier l’orientation initiale de la main. Une augmentation des erreurs initiales et finales a été observée avec le retrait des informations visuelles. Malgré la consigne de ne pas changer l’orientation initiale de la main, une diminution des erreurs d’orientation a généralement été observée suite au mouvement d’atteinte, dans toutes les conditions sensorielles testées. Cette tendance n’a pas été observée lorsqu’aucune cible explicite n’était présentée et que les sujets devaient conserver l’orientation de départ de la main pendant le mouvement d’atteinte (mouvement intransitif; letter-posting task 3). La diminution des erreurs pendant l’atteinte manuelle transitive vers une cible explicite (letter-posting task 2), malgré la consigne de ne pas changer l’orientation de la main pendant le mouvement, suggère un mécanisme de corrections automatiques pour le contrôle en temps réel de l’orientation spatiale de la main pendant le mouvement d’atteinte naturel vers une cible stationnaire. Le troisième objectif de cette recherche était d’évaluer la contribution de l’expérience visuelle pour la perception et le contrôle de l’orientation spatiale de la main. Des sujets aveugles ont été testés dans les mêmes tâches de perception et de mouvement. De manière générale, les sujets aveugles ont présenté les mêmes tendances que les sujets voyants testés dans la condition proprioceptive (sans vision), suggérant que l’expérience visuelle n’est pas nécessaire pour le développement d’un mécanisme de correction en temps réel de l’orientation spatiale de la main basé sur la proprioception. / The goal of this research was to study the contribution of vision and proprioception to the perception and control of hand orientation in human subjects. Spatial orientation of the hand is an important component of reaching and grasping movements. However, not much attention has been given to spatial hand orientation in the literature. To our knowledge, this study is the first to specifically investigate the influence of sensory information for the perception and on-line control of hand orientation during natural reaching movement to stationary targets. The first objective of this research was to study the contribution of vision and proprioception in perceptual orientation-matching and motor letter posting tasks. In the perceptual orientation-matching task, subjects attempted to passively or actively align a match handle, to a target that was fixed in different orientations. In the passive perceptual task, passive rotations of the forearm and wrist were imposed by the experimenter; whereas in the active perceptual task, the rotations were actively executed by the subjects. In letter posting task 1, subjects simultaneously reached and rotated the right hand to insert a match handle into a target slot fixed in the same orientations. The tasks were performed in different sensory conditions where the visual information about the target and the hand was manipulated. In the perceptual orientation-matching task, augmentation of hand orientation errors was observed with the withdrawal of visual information related to either the target and/or the hand. When full vision was not allowed, hand orientation errors were larger overall when larger rotations of the wrist were required to match the target, whether the rotations were made actively by the subject or were imposed passively by the experimenter. In letter posting task 1, augmentation of hand orientation errors was also observed with the withdrawal of visual information related to either the target and/or the hand. However, errors patterns were different from those observed in the perceptual task, and hand orientation errors were not larger for larger target orientations. Without vision of the hand, final hand orientation errors were smaller overall in letter-posting task 1 than in the orientation-matching task. This suggests the implication of the proprioceptive information for the control of spatial hand orientation during reach-and-orient movements. The second objective of this research was to study the influence of vision and proprioception in on-line control of spatial hand orientation. In letter posting task 2, subjects first aligned their hand to the angle of the target and then reached to it with the instruction not to change their initial hand orientation. The augmentation of initial and final errors was observed with the withdrawal of vision. Although subjects were instructed to not change their hand orientation, in all sensory condition tested, hand orientation changed overall during reaching in a way that reduced the initial orientation errors. This trend did not occur when there was no explicitly defined target toward which the subjects reached (letter-posting task 3; intransitive movement). The reduction in hand orientation errors during transitive reach in letter-posting task 2, even when told not to change it, suggests the engagement of an automatic error correction mechanism for hand orientation during natural reaching movements toward stationary targets. The third objective of this research was to investigate the contribution of visual experience to the perception and control of spatial orientation of the hand. Blind subjects were tested in the same perceptual and motor tasks. Overall, no differences were observed between performance of blind subjects and normally-sighted subjects tested without vision (proprioceptive condition), suggesting that prior visual experience is not necessary for the development of an on-line error correction mechanism for hand orientation guided by proprioceptive inputs.

The integration of perception and action has long been studied in psychological science using overarching cognitive frameworks. Despite these being very successful in explaining perception-action integration, little is known about its neurophysiological and especially the functional neuroanatomical foundations. It is unknown whether distinct brain structures are simultaneously involved in the processing of perception-action integration codes and also to what extent demands on perception-action integration modulate activities in these structures. We investigate these questions in an EEG study integrating temporal and ICA-based EEG signal decomposition with source localization. For this purpose, we used data from 32 healthy participants who performed a ‘TEC Go/Nogo’ task. We show that the EEG signal can be decomposed into components carrying different informational aspects or processing codes relevant for perception-action integration. Importantly, these specific codes are processed independently in different brain structures, and their specific roles during the processing of perception-action integration differ. Some regions (i.e., the anterior cingulate and insular cortex) take a ‘default role’ because these are not modulated in their activity by demands or the complexity of event file coding processes. In contrast, regions in the motor cortex, middle frontal, temporal, and superior parietal cortices were not activated by ‘default’ but revealed modulations depending on the complexity of perception-action integration (i.e., whether an event file has to be reconfigured). Perception-action integration thus reflects a multi-region processing of specific fractions of information in the neurophysiological signal. This needs to be taken into account when further developing a cognitive science framework detailing perception-action integration.