This research investigates sensory-somatic awareness based approaches to the conditioning, training and performance of Odissi dance in India. Through a multidisciplinary and embodied methodology it analyses the practices of three contemporary Odissi dance institutes and a selection of individual dancers in India, who are moving beyond the traditional methodology. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in India, this research explores how sensory-somatic approaches incorporated by these dancers generate meaning-making and in what ways this enriches the dancers’ experience of dancing Odissi. As an outcome of the fieldwork, the term sensory-somatic is proposed and analysed in line with the dancers’ embodied experience of dancing Odissi. The analysis entails a paradigm that embraces the corporeal, sentient and socio-cultural bodymind, and the sensory aspects of senses, sensation, perception, sensibility and sensuality. These form two layers: the somatic and sensory which merge together as the sensory-somatic awareness. It takes into consideration the sensory perception and awareness leading to an agentic, enactive and embodied meaning-making and emotional engagement of the dancers. It also examines how the changing socio-cultural situation has been continuously affecting the Odissi dance embodiment. This thesis does not address the religious aspect and the experience of the audience in Odissi performance. The main focus remains the dancers’ individual experience of learning and performing Odissi dance. Moving away from the study of Odissi dance just as a reflection of the state, regional culture and representation of mythologies, this thesis is an investigation of the Odissi dancer’s meaningful, embodied and lived experience of Odissi dancing. It contributes to the debates on body-mind relationship, emotional engagement, place of the ‘self’, the student-oriented learning, psychophysical training and performance, and rasa-bhāva aesthetics. This study reveals that the sensory-somatic awareness is based upon reflexivity, independent enquiry, psychophysical health, bodymind awareness and leads to empowerment, agency, autonomy, plurality, confidence and responsibility, a level of relief from gender biases, and an inclusive approach to learning and performing.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:11:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 898655 bytes, checksum: da0dcd2488921a9f83fe8abb462c70a5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This essay aims to discourse on the concept of infinite in Baruch Spinoza, taking as main theoretical reference two of his works, the Metaphysical Thoughts and The Letter 12. The objective is to show that the concept of infinite represents a key idea to Spinoza s system, where all his theses concerning immanent causality and psychophysical parallelism are based on. The research begins with a historical approach about the matter of infinite, discussed by a tradition of thinkers who preceded Spinoza, since the Greeks until Descartes in modernity. In a second moment, the analysis turns to the matter of infinite understood by Spinoza who, as he defends the idea of current infinite, ends up retaking the theory of Anaxagoras, Nicolau of Cusa and Giordano Bruno, where, according to them, God is not separated of his creatures, but keeps a relation of immanency with them. In this case, according to Spinoza, to affirm that God is infinite means saying that He comprehends all things and nothing can exist separated from Him, and moreover, being substance, God cannot be separate of his conditions (modes), what is explained by the immanency of his causality, in what cause (God) and effect (modes) occur simultaneously. The habit of separate the substance from his conditions comes from the misunderstanding between the way how the mind understands the substance through the beings of Reason (time, measure, number) and the essence of the own substance. Through the beings of Reason, the substance is composed of parts and, therefore, it is divisible; however, considering its essential aspect, it is indivisible. This explains the thesis of parallelism as well since mind and body, due to inseparability of conditions, cannot be considered independent substances, but expressions of a single and same substance, either conceived by the attribute of thinking, or conceived by the attribute of extension. According to Spinoza, the dualism proposed by his main interlocutor, Descartes, precisely appeared due to the fact of his misunderstanding concerning the real aspect of substance (indivisible attributes) with his modal aspect (divisible modes). / Esta dissertação tem o objetivo de discorrer sobre o conceito de infinito em Baruch Spinoza, tomando como referencial teórico principal duas de suas obras, Os Pensamentos Metafísicos e a Carta 12. A tarefa aqui é mostrar que o conceito de infinito representa uma ideia chave para o sistema de Spinoza, sobre o qual estão assentadas as teses da causalidade imanente e do paralelismo psicofísico. O estudo se inicia com uma abordagem histórica acerca da questão do infinito, discutido por uma tradição de pensadores que antecederam Spinoza, desde os gregos até Descartes na modernidade. Em um segundo momento, a análise se volta para questão do infinito entendido por Spinoza que, ao defender a ideia do infinito atual, acaba retomando as teorias de Anaxágoras, Nicolau de Cusa e Giordano Bruno, segundo as quais Deus não está separado de suas criaturas, mas mantém uma relação de imanência com elas. Nesse caso, para Spinoza, afirmar que Deus é infinito significa dizer que Ele abrange todas as coisas e nada pode existir separado Dele, ou melhor, sendo substância, Deus não pode ser separado de suas afecções (os modos), o que é explicado pela imanência de sua causalidade, na qual causa (Deus) e o efeito (as afecções) ocorrem conjuntamente. O hábito de separar a substância de suas afecções vem da confusão entre o modo como a mente percebe a substância através dos entes de Razão (tempo, medida, número) e a essência da própria substância. Pelos entes de Razão, a substância é composta de partes e, portanto divisível; todavia, considerando o seu aspecto essencial, ela é indivisível. Isso explica também a tese do paralelismo já que a mente e o corpo, devido à indissociabilidade das afecções, não podem ser consideradas substâncias independentes, mas expressões de uma única e mesma substância, ora concebida pelo atributo pensamento, ora concebida pelo atributo extensão. De acordo com Spinoza, o dualismo proposto pelo seu principal interlocutor, Descartes, surgiu justamente pelo fato deste confundir o aspecto real da substância (atributos indivisíveis) com seu aspecto modal (modos divisíveis).

O dito popular afirma que quando uma pessoa perde um dos sentidos há uma compensação por parte dos outros sentidos para suprir a perda. Através de três experimentos psicofísicos baseados no modelo de Posner (Inibição de Retorno) e técnicas de Ressonância Magnética Funcional, surdos congênitos foram comparados a pessoas ouvintes com o objetivo de verificar se os surdos possuem processos atencionais diferentes dos ouvintes, e se as mesmas áreas corticais como a área de Wernicke, Broca e Córtex auditivo - eram ativadas em ambos os grupos. A tarefa consistia em pressionar um botão todas as vezes que os sujeitos detectassem a presença de um quadrado maior (alvo) apresentado em uma tela, enquanto também eram apresentados quadrados menores (pista) ora do mesmo lado, ora do lado oposto ao alvo. Através do Experimento I se pôde verificar que ambos os grupos apresentaram os fenômenos clássicos do Paradigma de Posner: Facilitação ou Inibição de Retorno, o que denotou a possibilidade de mecanismos atencionais semelhantes para ambos os grupos. Foi observado, porém, que os ouvintes eram mais rápidos que os surdos para responder à tarefa quando o intervalo temporal entre pista e alvo era longo (800ms), comparado ao tempo que levavam para responder quando o intervalo entre pista e alvo era curto (100 ms). O Experimento I suscitou a hipótese de que os surdos possivelmente apresentassem uma diferença de processamento temporal. No Experimento I todas as condições eram apresentadas de forma randômica. O Experimento II foi elaborado com o objetivo de por em evidência a 22 diferença dos TRM para intervalos curtos e longos, portanto os intervalos entre pista e alvo passaram a ser apresentados de forma fixa. Ao comparar os resultados do Experimento I com os do Experimento II (Intervalos Temporais Fixos), se pode verificar que os ouvintes apresentaram Tempos de Reação Manual mais lentos, enquanto os surdos apresentaram as mesmas médias a despeito da vantagem temporal, o que levou a sugerir a hipótese de que os surdos apresentem um déficit no processamento temporal. O experimento III consistiu na utilização do Paradigma de Posner enquanto os sujeitos eram submetidos ao exame de Ressonância Magnética Funcional com o objetivo de investigar se as regiões corticais ativadas poderiam ser semelhantes nos dois grupos. As imagens por Ressonância Magnética Funcional (RMF) demonstraram ativações nas áreas de Wernickie, Broca, e córtex auditivo em ambos os grupos enquanto executavam a tarefa, que embora não possuísse nenhum contexto semântico explícito, possuía o tempo como o principal parâmetro físico no qual os sujeitos pudessem se basear para melhorar o desempenho na tarefa. O tempo é um dos parâmetros físicos primários da língua oral, diferente da língua de sinais que possui o parâmetro visual e espacial como primário. Os resultados sugerem que as ativações corticais nos centros de audição e fala podem indicar uma plasticidade cruzada no grupo de surdos. Ainda, a participação do córtex auditivo no processamento da elaboração de estratégias para responder a uma tarefa que não contenha um contexto semântico explicito possivelmente indica sua participação no processamento de linguagem. / It is popularly said that when a person loses one sense, there is a compensation by the other remaining senses to suppress the loss. Throughout three Phsycophysic Experiments based on Inhibition of Return Posners Paradigm and Functional Magnetic Resonance (fMRI) Techniques, congenital deaf people were compared to normal hearing people in order to check if deaf people possess different attentional pattern compared to normal hearing people, and if the same cortical areas Wernicke and Brocas area and Hearing Cortex were activated in both groups. Experiment I consisted on pressing a button every time the presence of a big square (target) was detected by subjects while non-predictive small squares (cue) were also presented at the same or opposite side of the target. At Experiment I it was observed that both groups presented Posners Paradigm classical phenomena: Facilitation or Inhibition of Return, what suggested the possibility that attentional pattern may be similar to both groups. Therefore, it was observed that normal hearing people were faster than deaf people to respond to the task when time interval between cue and target was long (800 ms) when compared to the time they spent to respond when time interval between cue and target as short (100 ms). 24 Experiment I raised the hypotheses that possibly deaf people may present a temporal processing difference. At Experiment I every condition was randomly presented. Experiment II was elaborated to highlight MRT differences between short and long time intervals, so every time interval was presented on a fixed order. Comparison of Experiment I and II (Fixed Time Intervals) showed that normal hearing people presented shorter Manual Reaction Times (MRT), while deaf people kept the same averages despite the temporal advantage, what suggested that deaf people may present a deficit on temporal processing. Experiment III used Posners Paradigm while subjects were submitted to fMRI scanning in order to check if activated cortical regions could be similar in both groups. fMRI images demonstrate Wernicke and Brocas area and hearing cortex activations in both groups while executing the task, which, although did not have any explicit semantic content, had time as the main physical parameter on which subjects could be based to increase performance to respond to the task. Time is one of the oral language primary physical parameter, different of signed language which has visual and spatial parameters as primaries. Results suggest that cortical audition center activations may indicate a cross-modal plasticity at the deaf group. Yet, participation of hearing cortex on strategy elaboration to respond to a task which does not have any explicit semantic content possibly indicates the participation of hearing cortex on language processing.

Nesta tese de doutorado abordamos modelos cognitivos de percepção da métrica musical e entrainment a partir de questões musicológicas, como a ambiguidade métrica decorrente de exemplos da literatura. Partindo de uma verificação do estado da arte em pesquisas rítmicas que envolvem o estudo de anacruses, realizamos um percurso experimental que investiga a efetividade da chamada percepção da acentuação subjetiva revelada por Povel e Okkerman (1981), por acreditarmos que o fenômeno da acentuação subjetiva esteja envolvido na desambiguação da percepção de referenciais métricos dúbios. Para tanto, desenvolvemos uma metodologia de quantificação das similaridades entre os padrões de acentuação coletados em grupo universitário da cidade de São Paulo e os padrões de referência da literatura, sobretudo de Povel e Essens (1985). Estes experimentos revelaram que há uma tendência significativa à percepção da acentuação subjetiva predominantemente em grupo sem estudo formal de música. Por outro lado, os estudantes de música revelaram uma tendência de acentuação mais relacionada à pulsação musical. / In this doctoral thesis we address cognitive models of perception of musical meter and entrainment from musicological issues, such as the metric ambiguity arising from examples of literature. Based on a state-of-the-art check on rhythmic researches involving the study of anacruses, we conducted an experimental study that investigates the effectiveness of the so-called subjective accent revealed by Povel and Okkerman (1981), because we believe that the phenomenon of subjective accent is Involved in the disambiguation of dubious beat references perception. Therefore, we developed a methodology to quantify the similarities between the accentuation patterns collected in university group of São Paulo and the literature reference standards, especially Povel and Essens (1985). These experiments revealed that there is a significant tendency to subjective perception of accent predominantly in people without formal music study. On the other hand, the students of music revealed a tendency of accentuation more related to the musical beat.

O sistema visual é considerado o mais complexo de todos os sistemas sensoriais do ser humano. O objetivo da visão é construir uma representação dos objetos extraindo informações do ambiente, transformando-as em um código neural que origina a percepção. A compreensão dos fatores sensoriais que alteram a percepção é necessária para uma teoria adequada da percepção visual. Evidências sobre os efeitos do contexto ambiental ainda são limitadas, mas sabe-se que alterações no plano de fundo, criação de lacunas e mudanças de textura alteram a percepção de profundidade. Esse estudo teve como objetivo principal investigar quais fatores sensoriais básicos alteram a estimativa de magnitude (EM) de tamanho de círculos nos sujeitos saudáveis, verificando se existiu correlação entre a variação de parâmetros do estímulo físico com os respectivos julgamentos para diferentes condições visuais, além da possibilidade de desenvolver um instrumento para avaliação de algumas psicopatologias. O método da EM se refere a um procedimento no qual o observador faz um julgamento numérico direto de uma magnitude psicológica de uma série de percepções. Para isso, desenvolvemos um programa de computador como uma ferramenta psicofísica para medidas de EM que nos permitiu gerar 15 diferentes condições experimentais separadas em quatro protocolos (P1, P2, P3 e P4). O projeto consistiu em dois blocos: (1) de experimentos básicos, cujo objetivo foi abordar como elementos sensoriais visuais básicos interferiram no julgamento para estímulos simples, usando o P2, cujas variáveis luminância e o P4 no qual a disposição espacial para diferenças na lateralização do processamento visual foram alteradas; e (2) de exploração metodológica, que buscou manipular o valor de referência (P1) e a indução de sensações de profundidade (P3). Foram avaliados 78 indivíduos típicos (m = 27,55, dp = 4,69) com nível superior completo ou incompleto, todos com visão normal ou devidamente corrigida, distribuídos aleatoriamente em os quatro grupos 8 experimentais. Os protocolos 1 e 2 apresentaram os resultados mais satisfatórios que nos permitirão a utilização do programa em indivíduos com psicopatologias para investigação de diferenças da população normal. Ainda que os protocolos 3 e 4 tenham gerado dados controversos, levou-se em consideração que se tratou de um estudo de investigação metodológica, cuja continuidade nos permitirá uma melhor contribuição teórica alcançada com a retomada de estudos no campo da Psicofísica Clássica, principalmente devido a escassez de publicações nas últimas décadas acerca do tema aqui proposto / The visual system is considered the most complex human sensory system. The purpose of the vision is to create a representation of the objects by gathering information of the environment and converting it into a neural code that generates perception. The comprehension of sensory factors that influence the perception is necessary to an adequate theory of visual perception. Evidences about the effects of the context remain still limited, but it is known that some facts such as variations on backgrounds, creation of gaps and texture changes modify the perception of depth. This study aimed to investigate which are the basic sensory factors that change the Magnitude Estimation (ME) of the size of circles in healthy subjects, in order to verify if there was a correlation between parameter variations of physical stimulus and its respective judgments about different visual condition, in addition to the possibility of development of a screening test to assess some psychopathologies. The ME method is the procedure in which the observer makes a direct numeric judgment of a psychological magnitude of a series of perceptions. For this purpose, we developed a computer software which was used as a psychophysical tool in order to measure ME that allowed us to generate 15 different experimental conditions allocated into four protocols (P1, P2, P3 and P4). The project was composed of two blocs: (1) basic experiments, in whichthe objective was to investigate how basic sensory visual elements interfere on the judgment of simple stimulus, using P2 in which the variable luminance was changed and P4 in which spatial position to evaluate differences on lateralization of visual process was altered; and (2) methodological exploration, that aimed to manipulate the reference value (P1) and the induction of depth sensory perception (P3). Seventy-eight healthy subjects were tested (m = 27.55, sd = 4.69), that had a complete or incomplete graduation course, they all had normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity, and they were randomly distributed into the four experimental groups. The protocols 1 and 2 10 had shown the most satisfactory results that will allow us to use the software in people with psychopathologies in attention to screen differences of the general population. Despite the protocols 3 and 4 had generated controversial data, it is important to consider this as a study about methodological investigation, and its follow up will lead us to an improvement of the theoretical contribution reached by the recovery of Classic Psychophysics experiments, mainly due to the last decades lack of publishing about this purposed topic

O objetivo do estudo foi entender a influência da marca na percepção de sabor do chocolate pelos consumidores. Foram avaliados 16 sujeitos (31,8 anos, ± 4,2 anos, 8 mulheres) medindo suas avaliações sobre os sabores de chocolates de diferentes marcas, com e sem o conhecimento da marca, e também sobre as marcas sem degustação do produto, como expectativa de sabor, utilizando Escalonamento Psicofísico de Estimativa de Magnitude Direta (EMD). Este método obtém do sujeito a sua impressão subjetiva direta do estímulo físico. Um chocolate foi escolhido como referencia (módulo) e recebeu o valor numérico de 100. A tarefa dos sujeitos foi degustar os chocolates, comparando com a degustação do módulo, e atribuir notas de acordo com a diferença de percepção de sabor, se a percepção de sabor fosse duas vezes melhor do que o módulo, ele deveria designar uma nota duas vezes o valor de referência. O procedimento foi o mesmo para as duas outras condições experimentais, marca e sabor conhecendo a marca. O expoente da curva de potência foi utilizado como a quantificação da magnitude da percepção dos sujeitos. O expoente obtido na avaliação somente do chocolate foi de 0,389 (Coeficiente de Correlação de Pearson r2=0,94) enquanto que somente da marca foi de 0,581 (r2=0,96). Teoricamente pode-se determinar o expoente da percepção de sabor com conhecimento da marca que seria 0,389/0,581 = 0,669, sendo que o expoente obtido empiricamente foi de 0,675 (r2=0,92). Assim concluí-se que a utilização da metodologia de Estimativa de Magnitude Direta para quantificar a preferência subjetiva dos sujeitos por chocolates considerando 2 variáveis, sabor e marca, foi bem sucedida. Os resultados sugerem que a associação de marca e sabor contribui para um efeito mais poderoso sobre a decisão sobre quanto o chocolate é mais saboroso. E como o expoente da percepção do sabor sabendo a marca é maior que os outros dois expoentes isolados pode-se sugerir que a marca possui uma grande influência na decisão / The aim of study was understand brand influence on consumer perception of chocolate flavor. 16 subjects (31.8 years, ± 4.2 years, 8 women) were evaluated by measuring their reviews of the flavors of different brands of chocolates, with and without the knowledge of the brand, and also about the brands without tasting the product, as expectation of flavor, using Psychophysical Scaling of Direct Ratio Magnitude Estimation (RME). This method gets the subject direct subjective impression of the physical stimulus. A chocolate was chosen as reference (modulus) and received the numerical value of 100. The task of subjects was tasting the chocolates, compare to the tasting of the module and assign grades according to the difference in taste perception, if perception of flavor was twice better than module, he should assign a score twice the reference value. The procedure was the same for the other two experimental conditions brand and flavor knowing the brand. The exponent of power law was used to quantify the magnitude of the perception of the subjects. The obtained exponent when examining only chocolate was 0.389 (Pearson correlation coefficient r2=0.94) while only the brand was 0.581 (r2=0.96). Theoretically, we can determine the exponent of the perception of flavor with brand awareness that would be 0.389/0.581=0.669, where the exponent obtained empirically was 0.675 (r2=0.92). Thus we conclude that the use of the methodology of Direct Ratio Magnitude Estimation to quantify the subject subjective preference for chocolate, considering two variables, flavor and brand, was successful. The results suggest that the association of brand and flavor makes for a more powerful effect on the decision about how much chocolate is tastier. And as the exponent of flavor perception knowing the brand is bigger than the other two isolates exponents can suggest that the brand has a great influence on the decision

The experiments reported within this thesis use psychophysical techniques to examine the factors which determine perceived multisensory timing in humans. Chapters 1 and 2 describe anatomical and psychophysical features of temporal processing, respectively, whilst Chapter 3 introduces the reader to psychophysical methods. Chapter 4 examines the relationship between two measures of sensory latency, reaction time (RT) and crossmodal temporal order judgment (TOJ). Despite task and attentional manipulations the two measures do not correlate, suggesting that they measure some fundamentally different aspect(s) of temporal perception. Chapter 5 examines the effects of adaptation to asynchronous stimulus pairs on perceived audiovisual (AV), audiotactile (AT) and visuotactile (VT) temporal order. Significant temporal shifts are recorded in all three conditions. Evidence is also presented showing that crossmodal TOJs are intransitive. Chapter 6 shows that concurrent adaptation to two sets of asynchronous AV stimulus pairs causes perceived AV temporal order to recalibrate at two locations simultaneously, and that AV asynchrony adaptation effects are significantly affected by observers¿ attention during adaptation. Finally, Chapter 7 shows that when observers are accustomed to a physical delay between motor actions and sensory events, an event presented at a reduced delay appears to precede the causative motor action. The data are well-described by a simple model based on a strong prior assumption of physical synchrony between motor actions and their sensory consequences.

A fruição estética envolve um processo ativo de percepção visual e interpretação de informação capaz de evocar sensações, emoções, e sentimentos. A estética experimental busca entender como artistas utilizam elementos visuais em suas obras e como esses elementos são processados à nível consciente no indivíduo. Diversos experimentos psicológicos e pesquisas recentes em neuroestética permitiram acesso quantitativo sobre julgamento estético. O presente trabalho realizou dois experimentos psicofísicos que permitiram medir julgamento emocional em obras de arte abstrata. Experimento 1. Objetivo: realizar uma tarefa de ordenamento de obras de arte para adjetivos de emoção. 55 participantes (55% sexo feminino, idade média: 31; SD: 11). Foram calculadas as correlações entre as emoções, podendo compará-las com o modelo circular afetivo, e os resultados se mostraram satisfatórios. Experimento 2. Objetivo: desenvolver uma escala psicofísica utilizando o caso V da lei do julgamento comparativo a fim de estabelecer as distâncias subjetivas dos julgamentos emocionais para obras de arte abstrata. 39 participantes (52% sexo feminino, idade média: 28; SD: 10). A formulação psicofísica feita idealmente para julgamento discriminatório de estímulos físicos simples pôde ser aplicada em julgamento discriminatório subjetivo e de bastante complexidade. O uso do escalonamento psicofísico permitiu um eficiente acesso quantitativo das distâncias dos julgamentos das emoções em cada obra de arte. 10 Espera-se que o trabalho proposto permita, através de uma reconciliação interdisciplinar entre neurociência e psicologia, novas abordagens e métodos livres de vieses subjetivos para o estudo de julgamento estético / Aesthetic appreciation involves a process of visual perception and interpretation capable of evoking sensations, emotions and feelings. Experimental aesthetics seeks to understand how artists use elements in their works and how these elements are processed in the individual in a conscientious level. Several psychological experiments and recent researches in neuroesthetics allowed quantitative access on aesthetic judgment. The present work carried out two psychophysical experiments that allow measuring emotional judgment in works of abstract art. Experiment 1. Objective: to carry out a task of ordering works of art for adjectives of emotion. 55 participants (55% female, mean age: 31; SD: 11). They were calculated as correlations between emotions, being able to compare them with the affective circular model, and the results were satisfactory. Experiment 2. Objective: to develop a psychophysical scale using case V the law of comparative judgment in order to establish as subjective distances from emotional judgments to abstract works of art. 39 participants (52% female, mean age: 28; SD: 10). A psychophysical formulation ideally made for discriminatory judgment of simple physical stimuli was applied in subjective and complex discriminatory judgment. The use of psychophysical scaling allowed an efficient access to the distances of the judgments of the emotions in each work of art. It is expected that the proposed work will allow, through an interdisciplinary reconciliation between neuroscience and psychology, new approaches and methods free of bias for the study of aesthetic judgment.

Le comportement empathique d’autrui peut avoir un effet positif sur le ressenti douloureux. Dans le milieu médical, cette stratégie est encouragée par les soignants pour interagir et soutenir les patients. A l’inverse, la non-empathie c’est-à-dire une attitude négative envers la personne qui souffre est proscrite par crainte d’effets délétères. Comment l’empathie et la non-empathie d’autrui influencent-elles la perception douloureuse ? Investiguer cette problématique est l’objectif de ce travail de thèse. Dans la première partie de ce travail, nous avons construit et validé une manipulation expérimentale nous permettant de délivrer des feedbacks empathiques à des sujets recevant des stimulations nociceptives. Les commentaires empathiques ont réduit significativement l’intensité douloureuse des sujets (-12%). En revanche, les commentaires non-empathiques n’ont pas changé la cotation douloureuse, comparativement à une situation neutre. Ils sont néanmoins suffisants pour influencer la réponse autonomique à la douleur. Les analyses d’imagerie cérébrale (IRMf) ont montré que la modulation de l’intensité douloureuse par l’empathie passerait par des interactions entre les structures du réseau par défaut (vmPFC et CCP/Prec), le DLPFC et l’insula postérieure. Seule l’activité du CCP/Prec est capable d’intégrer le contenu des feedbacks empathiques. Cette structure en changeant sa connectivité fonctionnelle engagerait des mécanismes de contrôle (vmPFC) capables d’interagir avec l’insula postérieure et antérieure pour réduire la perception douloureuse. L’étude d’un tel système de modulation à l’échelle du réseau fonctionnel de la douleur a apporté des résultats concordants. / Other’s empathetic behavior can have a positive effect on pain perception. In medical setting it is a known strategy from caregivers to support and interact with their patients. Conversely, unempathy, having a negative attitude towards the suffering person is outlawed out of fear of induce deleterious effects. How do empathy and unempathy from others influence pain perception? Investigating this issue is the aim of this thesis. First, we built and approved an experiment delivering different types of empathetic feedbacks to subjects who received nociceptive stimulations. The empathetic comments significantly alleviated subjects’ pain ratings (-12 %). The unempathetic comments did not influence the subjects’ pain ratings in comparison with neutral situation. However, they influenced autonomic response related to pain. Neuro-imaging studies shown that the pain intensity modulation related to empathetic feedbacks involved interactions between the core structures of the default network (vmPFC and PCC/Prec), the DLPFC and the posterior insula. Functional activations revealed that only the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus activity was able to integrate the empathetic feedbacks’ content. Changing its functional connectivity, this structure would engage control mechanisms (vmPFC) able to interact with the posterior and anterior insula to reduce pain perception. The study of such modulation system at the level of the pain functional network provided consistent results.

Objective: The goal of this research was to explore how the design of clothing, specifically the design of the suit, can create height illusions. Background: Taller people enjoy many advantages, such as increased income and perceived attractiveness. These advantages motivate people to try to appear taller than they actually are, and clothing experts provide advice on how to accomplish this. However, there is little empirical evidence to validate the illusory effects clothing might have on overall height perception. The few studies that have explored illusions of body size created by clothing design have been limited in two important ways – the test stimuli have included unnatural body shapes and have failed to include naturalistic context (i.e., surrounding depth and size cues available in real scenes). Method: In the first phase, participants (nonexperts in clothing design) provided suggestions for how to appear taller by changing clothes. In the second phase, participants 1) viewed photographs of a variety of targets wearing suit designs that are commonly believed to manipulate viewers’ perceptions of height, 2) rated the targets on traits associated with height such as income and attractiveness, and 3) estimated the heights of these individuals. This study focused on the potential effects of suit color, specifically overall lightness (light vs. dark) and monochromaticity (monochromatic vs. lightness blocking). The effects of these designs were tested with and without contextual information by presenting targets within a natural streetscape or on a white background. Results: In the first phase, we found that nonexperts provided similar suggestions as experts in clothing design, including those pertaining to monochromaticity and lightness. In the second phase, we found that estimates were more accurate with more contextual information, and that clothing can impact height estimations, where monochromatic outfits yielded taller height estimates, although other outfit comparisons did not have effects. Outfits overall did not impact ratings such as income and attractiveness, although estimated height did correlate with these same social attributes. In an exploration of the impact of contextual and target-specific cues other than clothing on height estimations, we found that height perception was potentially dependent on a variety of factors such as the target's race, location (indoors vs. outdoors), stance, and the presence of nearby people. Scientific merit: This study increased our understanding of the conditions under which illusions of size in simple geometric stimuli generalize to the manipulation of size perception in real-world scenes. Broader impact: A better understanding of biases in height perception is relevant to domains in which such estimates are used to identify individuals (e.g., criminal justice) as well as domains in which visual characteristics of individuals are associated with errors in judgments of performance-based merit. (e.g., personnel selection and promotion).