We perceive the world through sensory experience. Sensory information is registered and processed by our brain in a modality specific fashion. Interestingly, studies have shown that the visual cortex of early but not late blind subjects is able to respond to touch or sound (Sadato et al., 1996; Buchel et al., 1998; Weeks et al., 2000; Gougoux et al., 2009). Here, we investigated whether sensory parcellation in adult cortex is innate or is acquired during early postnatal life in an experience-dependent manner. Furthermore, we studied the anatomical substrates and molecular pathways possibly involved in cross-modal activation and its plasticity. First, mice were reared from birth in total darkness until adulthood (DR) to replicate the human blind condition. Cross-modal activity and the underlying circuitry were analyzed. We found that DR visual cortex was strongly activated by sound stimulation using functional imaging, single-unit recording, and c-Fos immunohistochemistry. Functional analysis was followed by anatomical tracing studies, which showed ectopic projections from the auditory thalamus and auditory cortex into the secondary visual area in DR animals. The second half of our study looked at how visual experience affects cross-modal plasticity. We found that cross-modal activity and ectopic connectivity is present in normally reared young mice (25 postnatal days: P25). Normal sensory experience through the first two months of postnatal life was sufficient to decrease the number of ectopic inputs. Interestingly, exposing DR mice to visual experience as adults established transient functional sensory specificity in the visual cortex without eliminating the ectopic anatomical inputs. Lastly, we tested several molecular pathways that can potentially regulate cross-modal plasticity. We found that myelin signaling and cholinergic modulation controls the duration of cross-modal plasticity and consolidates sensory modularization. Overall, our work proposes a model of how cross-modal inputs into early sensory areas are pruned or retained depending on early life experience. This study provides insight into how the cortex develops functional specificity, and help approach disorders that exhibit abnormal sensory integration and disrupted neuronal connectivity such as Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Teoriniame darbe “Medijos ir juslinis patyrimas” nagrinėjamas sudėtingas technologinių medijų ir žmogaus kūno santykis. Apžvelgiamas naujųjų medijų, technokultūros identitetas, nagrinėjamas autoriaus ir kūrybiškumo klausimas mechanizuotame kūrybos procese. Taip pat analizuojamos žmogaus juslių sinestezijos apraiškos ir bandomi atrasti natūralumo bei dirbtinumo atskirtos taškai, nekūniškų patirčių patyrimo galimybės. Apžvelgiamas futuristinis raiškos būdas, svarstomos technologinės utopijos prognozės. Darbe taip pat fiksuojamas praktinio kūrybinio darbo, audiovideo instaliacijos “Maratonas” atlikimo procesas nuo koncpecijos sukūrimo iki realaus projekto įgyvendinimo. Darbe remiamasi lietuvių ir užsienio meno teoretikų darbais. / The theoretical work “Media and sensory experience” deals with complicated relationship between technological media and human body. Overviews new medias, technocultural identity, examines the question of author and creativity in the mechanical creative process. It also analazises manifestations of human senses synesthesia and tries to discover the points of difference in naturalness and artificiancy, opportunities of expierences not based on human body. The work also overviews the futuristical way of expression, considers the forecasts of technological utopia. The capture of creative work, audiovideo installation “Marathon” process from conception to actual implementation is also included. Work is based on Lithuanian and foreign art theorists jobs.

The loss of sight is usually associated with the loss of the visual outer world. Traditionally, total blindness has been defined by sighted people in a negative way. The stereotypical belief is that the totally blind inhabit a dark world in which mental images of the outer world no longer exist. However, gaining insight into an experience of blindness may help the sighted to understand more accurately what Michael Monbeck (1973) terms ‘the true meaning of blindness’. (Monbeck, 1973, p. 157) Blind Insight provides an insight into what is named ‘imagined blind seeing’ by exploring the systematic processes of sensing, selecting and perceiving. Through tracing and mapping two auditory experiences photographically, the resulting work, Blind Insight, seeks to give a visual voice to moments of perception and imagined images as described by the blind author and scholar John Hull who describes sound as equating with light: “This is my way of turning on the light. Sound is the equation to light. Rain has turned the light on.” (Hull, 2001, p. 10) Abstract black and white photography has been employed to convey a sensory experience and photo collage to make visible the dimensional complexity of imagined blind seeing. The design work argues for a fresh insight into the sensory and imagined world of the blind. By fostering a dialogue between the blind and the sighted, the research project aims at celebrating the many rich and diverse ways the senses, and in particular the sense of sound, are used in experiencing the phenomena of the physical world.

This project explores notions of seeing and knowing, underpinned by performative and phenomenological fields of enquiry that relate this exploration to the sensate experience of the viewer. A specific interest considers ideas of embodied vision with an aim at generating events that vacillate in the bodies of the audience. A primary focus is on the arena of encounter as a multi-sensory experiential event, and within this context this project proposes a temporal and spatial framework for exploration. Studio methods develop a cinematic-body of video work negotiating performative practice involving video projection and temporality. Pivotal goals are to explore the significance of the ‘chiasm’ between seeing and knowing, raising questions about how humans see, and how humans make how they see matter. Therefore, this thesis project progresses along experimental approaches to video installation, particularly in relation to the phenomena of encounter, the viewer, and film experience. The central motivation of this video practice is aimed at corporeal affect in the body/s of the audience. This thesis project is constituted as 80% practice-based work accompanied by a 20% exegesis.

Chez les insectes phytophages, la sélection de la plante-hôte qui constitue un site de ponte et d'alimentation est cruciale pour la survie et le bon développement de la descendance. Les sens chimiques – olfaction et gustation - sont déterminants pour un insecte lors du choix de sa plante hôte. Ainsi, une expérience olfacto-gustative des signaux chimiques d'une plante permet aux insectes d'optimiser la période de recherche et d'identification de celle-ci. Dans ce travail, nous avons testé l'effet d'une expérience pré-imaginale et imaginale pour un nouveau substrat de développement (enrichi en vanilline) sur l'induction de préférence olfactive et alimentaire à ce substrat chez trois espèces de lépidoptères foreurs de graminées ayant des spectres alimentaires différents, Sesamia nonagrioides (polyphage), Busseola fusca (oligophage) et Busseola nairobica (monophage). Il s'est avéré que la préférence olfactive des femelles pour les odeurs de ce substrat peut être induite par une expérience préalable pré-imaginale et imaginale pour ce nouveau substrat et que cette induction est transmise de façon transgénérationnelle. Elle n'est cependant pas liée à une augmentation de la sensitivité des antennes des femelles à la vanilline. De plus, elle dépend de l'espèce étudiée. Elle se manifeste plus rapidement chez l'espèce la plus polyphage (au bout de deux générations), plus tardivement chez l'espèce monophage (au bout de cinq générations) et est, par contre, absente chez l'espèce oligophage. Même si plusieurs mécanismes peuvent être impliqués dans cette induction, nos résultats valident à la fois la théorie d'Hopkins, le principe néo-Hopkins et l'héritage chimique chez les espèces qui ont présenté cette induction. Concernant les larves, nous avons pu montrer que celles-ci suivent, en général, la préférence olfactive des femelles pour les odeurs d'un nouveau substrat mais que cette préférence n'est pas corrélée avec leurs préférences alimentaires. / Among herbivorous insects, the selection of the host plant as an egg laying site and food is crucial for the survival and development of the offspring. The chemical senses - olfaction and gustation – of an insect are crucial in host plant selection. An olfactory-gustatory experience of plant chemical signals allows insects to optimize their search period and host identification. In this study, we tested the effect of pre-imaginal and imaginal experience for a new artificial diet (enriched in vanillin) on the induction of olfactory and food preference for this diet in three species of lepidopteran stem borers with different food spectra, namely Sesamia nonagrioides (polyphagous), Busseola fusca (oligophagous) and Busseola nairobica (monophagous). It was shown that the olfactory preference of females for the odor of the new diet could be induced by pre-imaginal and imaginal experience for this new diet and that this induction was transmitted transgenerationally. It was however not linked to an increase in the sensitivity of the female antennae to vanillin. In addition, it depended on the species studied. It occurred after two generations only in the polyphagous species, after five generations in the monophagous species, and it was absent in the oligophagous species. Although several mechanisms may be involved in this induction, our results validate both the theory of Hopkins, neo-Hopkins principle and the chemical legacy in the species in which the induction occurred. The larvae exhibited generally the same olfactory preference than the adult females for the odors of the new diet but this preference was not correlated with their food preferences, indicating in larvae a discrepancy between olfaction and gustation.

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<p>Decision-making groups use various resources that individual members possess such as knowledge, expertise, and information. Yet, little research addresses how individual members’ sensory experiences affect group deliberation processes. The current dissertation examines the effects of an individual’s prior sensory experience on group decision making. Drawing upon social decision schemes, it was hypothesized that the experiencedmember would be more influential in the group decision-making process than unexperienced members and that the experienced member’s decision is predictive of their group’s decision, referring to this decision scheme as the sensoryexperience rule. Two remote lab-based experiments were conducted in which participants met over Zoom and were asked to select an auditory option given a specific purpose (e.g., as background music for a hotel site). Each member was provided a verbal description of each of the provided auditory alternatives. Unlike the unexperienced members, the experienced member could also listen to the provided audio samples. In both studies, the sensory experience ruledescribed group choices well including situations in which the experienced member’s choice contradicted the majority’s choice in the group. Experienced members were perceived to use more credible, but not more vivid, narratives. Analyses of group discussions revealed that experienced members spoke more and were using a larger number of auditory expressions and metaphors than unexperienced members. Their narratives contained a smaller number of first-person singular pronouns and tended reflect lower spontaneity and cognitive processing. The studies underline the impact of sensory experience in group decision making that is different from general knowledge and expertise studied in previous research.</p>

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att förstå hur sinnesmarknadsföring påverkar konsumentens köpupplevelse i klädbutikers kassaområde. Metod: Studien bygger på fyra fokusgrupper av ostrukturerad intervjuform. Den är av kvalitativ karaktär och har ett induktivt synsätt med inslag av det deduktiva synsättet. Slutsats: Efter genomförd studie kan det konstateras att sinnenas samspel i olika kombinationer skapar olika köpupplevelser i kassaområdet. Konsumentens köpupplevelse påverkas av över- och understimulering av sinnena.

According to popular and academic sources, home cooking is in decline. Nutrition and public health scholars concern that a loss of cooking abilities may diminish individuals' control over their food choices, thus contributing to poor health outcomes. Yet, there are still many unanswered questions. What skills, strategies, and knowledge sets are required to cook a meal on any given occasion? What capacity separates those who cook with ease from those who struggle to incorporate cooking into their daily routines? I propose that this difference is determined by an individual's capacity to employ a range of cognitive and technical skills related to meal preparation. I call this capacity 'food agency'. Drawing upon discourses of human agency developed in the social sciences, this food-specific theory considers how a home cook employs cognitive skills and sensory perceptions, while navigating'and shaping'various societal structures (e.g., schedule, budget, transportation, etc.) in the course of preparing a meal. Thus, to have food agency is to be empowered to act throughout the course of planning and preparing meals. To better understand the form and function of food agency in everyday contexts, this thesis has pursued two ethnographic explorations. The first study explored food agency from the vantage of routine performance by looking at the everyday practices of twenty-seven home cooks in the Northeastern United States. Data was collected through videotaping and observing the home cooks as they prepared typical dinnertime meals, followed-up with semi-structured interviews. The data has revealed a working model of the interrelated components seen as essential to consistent cooking practice, and thus to food agency'a conglomeration of skills, techniques, and strategies; structural and sensory guidelines; confidence and self-efficacy. All the home cooks were found to possess a basic scaffolding for food agency, yet the degree to which each had developed fluency in any given area was contingent upon personal experience. This supports the view that food agency is an actively acquired and dynamic capacity best understood as fluid rather than dichotomous. The second study explored food agency through guided progression, by following a cohort of eight college students at the University of Vermont as they learned how to cook during a semester-long food and culture course. Data was collected through videotaping the students as they cooked, and by interviewing them about their food behaviors and experiences at the beginning and end of the semester. The findings outlined the students' various trajectories as they progressed in many of the component areas involved in food agency'for example, skills, techniques, organizational strategies, sensory engagement, and a sense of individual and collective efficacy around meal preparation. While the longitudinal scope of this study was limited, these results suggest a need to develop similar curricula for hands-on cooking interventions that can be offered in a more diverse range of settings and contexts.

Archaeology is a field which has been impacted greatly by digital technology; the new technological instruments are developing both academic research and public mediation. Digital archaeology has been available at the museum for some time, but immersive technologies are recent introductions, which offer new experiences for museum visitors. Even though digital archaeology/virtual heritage have been studied for their technological virtues, the learning opportunities presented to the museum visitor has not yet been examined from a visitor’s perspective. In this dissertation, the visitor experience is the basis of analysis for determining how we can critically assess digital exhibitions using immersive technologies. This study examines if and how critical museology can be successfully applied to immersive digital displays; a detailed analysis of two case studies using VR (high immersion) and AR (low immersion) show that digital experiences are fully capable of communicating cultural content and that these multi-sensory technologies can successfully engage users in the creation of knowledge. The extent of sensory stimuli affecting the visitor is not accounted for in current critical museology, therefore the analysis of this study suggests a number of suggestions for future designs of digital displays using immersive technologies.