Ricerc@Sapienza

Over the last decades, virtual reality (VR) emerged as a potential tool for developing new rehabilitation treatments in neurological patients. However, despite the increasing number of studies, a clear comprehension about the impact of immersive VR-treatment on balance and posture is still scarce. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effects of VR cues on balance performances of subjects affected by stroke, age-matched healthy subjects, and young healthy subjects.

The control of one’s own movements and of their impact on the external world generates a feeling of control referred to as Sense of Agency (SoA). SoA is experienced when actions match predictions and is reduced by unpredicted events. The present study investigated the contribution of monitoring two fundamental components of action—movement execution and goal achievement—that have been most often explored separately in previous research. We have devised a new paradigm in which participants performed goal-directed actions while viewing an avatar’s hand in a mixed-reality scenario.

The Sense of Agency (SoA) is the experience of controlling one’s movements and their external consequences. Accumulating evidence suggests that freedom to act enhances SoA, while prediction errors are known to reduce it. Here, we investigated if prediction errors related to movement or to the achievement of the goal of the action exert the same influence on SoA during free and cued actions.

In the study of the electrophysiological correlates of attention, a phasic change in alertness has been classically related to a negative frontal-central shift called Contingent Negative Variation (CNV). Studies investigating the effects of meditation on the CNV in participants reporting frequent transcendental experiences (TE) reported reduced CNV in choice reaction time task (CRT), and increased CNV in simple reaction time task (SRT), suggesting that meditation can induce a more balanced attentional state.

The scope of this mini review is to show as neuromotor control often applies mathematical principles and properties improving efficiency of movements. We reported four examples: harmony of human walking is based on the fractal property of self-similarity because based on the golden ratio, anatomy of human hand follows Fibonacci’s sequence for optimizing grasping, the 2/3 power-law at which curvilinear movements obey, and the possibility of brain to predict the movement of falling objects applying an implicit knowledge of the Newton’s gravitational law

In this note I discuss Pierre-Marie Morel’s article L’argomento della ‘venerabilità dell’essere’ e la sua fortuna published in this same volume (see pp. 11-26) on Soph. 248e-249a, trying to develop his interpretation of this passage and the conception of being it implies. I also examine Morel’s reconstruction of some steps of the exegetical history and reception of this passage in the history of Ancient Platonism, with reference to Aristotle and Plotinus.