Human Movement Responses Research Articles

Rorschach Human Movement and Psychotherapy: Relationship with the Therapist’s Emotional Responses

The emotional responses of psychotherapists to their patients, known as countertransference, can yield valuable insights into the patient’s psychological functioning. Albeit from a different perspective, the Rorschach test also provides information about the patient’s psychological processes. In particular, the Rorschach human movement response (M) has been shown to be a useful measure of higher-level psychological functioning. In an attempt to bridge these two largely different perspectives, the aim of this study was to explore the association between M responses in the Rorschach protocols of psychotherapy patients and emotional responses exhibited by their therapists. To this end, a convenience sample of 149 outpatients were administered the Rorschach according to the Comprehensive System, and their therapists completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire. Through a series of regression models, controlling for response style, response complexity, and degree of psychopathology, M demonstrated a significant association with the therapists’ emotional responses. A lower number of M responses was associated with the therapists’ feelings of disengagement, and a higher number of M responses was associated with the therapists’ feelings of being more involved with the patient. Taken together, these results suggest a potential relationship between the number of M responses the respondent gives in the Rorschach and the subsequent development of the therapeutic alliance between the respondent and their therapist.

Excursions in Rorschachlandia: Surveying the scientific and philosophical landscape of Hermann Rorschach's Psychodiagnostics.

This article examines the milieu of Hermann Rorschach's Psychodiagnostics (1921/2021) under development between 1911 and his death in 1922 and explores new evidence about the direction Rorschach's test might have taken after publication of Psychodiagnostics. This includes direct and indirect influences from turn of the century continental philosophy and science and innovative colleagues in the Swiss psychiatric and psychoanalytic societies. The availability of newly translated scholarship, including the correspondence between Ludwig Binswanger and Hermann Rorschach following the 1921 publication of Psychodiagnostics, Binswanger's posthumous 1923 commentary in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and recent new translation of Psychodiagnostics, permits a fresh appraisal of the milieu and foundations of Rorschach's development. Understanding these sources and influences opens new vistas in reappraising the nature of Rorschach's "test theory" which Rorschach considered undeveloped at the time of his death. This paper presents new evidence that, under the influence of Rorschach's close colleague, Ludwig Binswanger, the Geisteswissenschaften and phenomenology might have figured prominently in future developments. The paper concludes that Rorschach, preoccupied with considerations of kinesthetic subjectivity in his innovative conceptualization of human movement responses, was a nascent phenomenologist whose untimely death cut short further developments in his theory of the test.

Channel-Aware Gait-Cycle-Based Transmission in Wireless Body Area Networks

The use of the Internet of Things has proven to be an alternative for health monitoring, providing less discomfort to patients and good cost-benefit. To fully exploit the benefits of wireless technologies in e-health, the IEEE 802.15.6 standard for Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) has been created. However, technical and social challenges must be addressed to enable their adoption. Some factors, such as the use of the human body as a propagation media, and human body movements, make WBAN a new paradigm of wireless communication networks. The human body movement and posture affect the wireless channel quality, which may result in poor communication performance. To meet the requirements of WBAN applications, while preserving the energy efficiency, this paper proposes a Channel Aware Gait-cycle-based transmission mechanism (CAG), a mechanism that uses human body movement and channel response correlation to transmit during good channel conditions, ensuring reliability and energy savings. Our proposal was analyzed in the Castalia Simulator and compared against TDMA-based scheduling and the IEEE 802.15.6 CSMA/CA protocol. Simulation results show CAG significantly improves packet delivery ratio and energy efficiency.

Can Neuroscience Provide a New Foundation for the Rorschach Variables?

Abstract. Recent progress in neuroscience has made it possible to use neurophysiological techniques to validate and deepen the interpretation of Rorschach variables. The aim of this article is to review the results from Rorschach studies using the neurophysiological approach to discuss the consistencies and inconsistencies between the different results, and then to consider the future direction of Rorschach research in this area. We also provide unpublished data to complement the picture from peer-reviewed studies. Two main approaches to neuropsychological studies on the Rorschach exist. One approach is to measure brain activities directly during the Rorschach administration; a series of studies using multiple neurophysiological methods revealed activation of the mirror neuron system with relation to human movement responses. Another possible approach is to investigate whether individual differences in Rorschach scores can be explained by neurophysiological measurements during the administration of another psychological task. This article reviews how these two approaches provide novel insights into the Rorschach Test.

A New Approach to Modeling the Prediction of Movement Time

Fitts’ law predicts the human movement response time for a specific task through a simple linear formulation, in which the intercept and the slope are estimated from the task’s empirical data. This research was motivated by our pilot study, which found that the linear regression’s essential assumptions are not satisfied in the literature. Furthermore, the keystone hypothesis in Fitts’ law, namely that the movement time per response will be directly proportional to the minimum average amount of information per response demanded by the particular amplitude and target width, has never been formally tested. Therefore, in this study we developed an optional formulation by combining the findings from the fields of psychology, physics, and physiology to fulfill the statistical assumptions. An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis in Fitts’ law and to validate the proposed model. To conclude, our results indicated that movement time could be related to the index of difficulty at the same amplitude. The optional formulation accompanies the index of difficulty in Shannon form and performs the prediction better than the traditional model. Finally, a new approach to modeling movement time prediction was deduced from our research results.

Responses of neurons in macaque MT to unikinetic plaids.

Response properties of MT neurons are often studied with "bikinetic" plaid stimuli, which consist of two superimposed sine wave gratings moving in different directions. Oculomotor studies using "unikinetic plaids" in which only one of the two superimposed gratings moves suggest that the eyes first move reflexively in the direction of the moving grating and only later converge on the perceived direction of the moving pattern. MT has been implicated as the source of visual signals that drives these responses. We wanted to know whether stationary gratings, which have little effect on MT cells when presented alone, would influence MT responses when paired with a moving grating. We recorded extracellularly from neurons in area MT and measured responses to stationary and moving gratings, and to their sums: bikinetic and unikinetic plaids. As expected, stationary gratings presented alone had a very modest influence on the activity of MT neurons. Responses to moving gratings and bikinetic plaids were similar to those previously reported and revealed cells selective for the motion of plaid patterns and of their components (pattern and component cells). When these neurons were probed with unikinetic plaids, pattern cells shifted their direction preferences in a way that revealed the influence of the static grating. Component cell preferences shifted little or not at all. These results support the notion that pattern-selective neurons in area MT integrate component motions that differ widely in speed, and that they do so in a way that is consistent with an intersection-of-constraints model.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Human perceptual and eye movement responses to moving gratings are influenced by adding a second, static grating to create a "unikinetic" plaid. Cells in MT do not respond to static gratings, but those gratings still influence the direction selectivity of some MT cells. The cells influenced by static gratings are those tuned for the motion of global patterns, but not those tuned only for the individual components of moving targets.

„Movement reactions” in the Hermann Rorschach Test. Part 2 Testing parents of a child suffering from schizophrenia and parents of healthy children

Abstract Introduction: The specific character of Rorschach test responses of parents who had a child with schizophrenia has been reported many times. The analysis presented in this paper is focused on responses commenting on movement seen in the inkblots. According to Zygmunt Piotrowski, these responses reflect the prototypal role – self-concepts and a certain pattern of responding that can be understood as phenomena related to the concept of self. Material and method: I used the Rorschach test to examine 32 couples of parents who had a child suffering from paranoid schizophrenia (as defined in DSM-IV) and 21 couples of parents who had only healthy children. Results: Parents of schizophrenic children gave significantly fewer human movement responses than parents of healthy children, and some features of these responses give them a specific character. The groups of fathers differed from each other to a greater degree than the groups of mothers. The analysis of relationships between movement responses and shading (chiaroscuro) responses, which are regarded as a measure of anxiety, revealed significant associations in the case of some movement qualities. The exception was that movement quality which is referred to as blocked movement and blocked-posture movement in Piotrowski’s interpretive scheme. All movement qualities globally considered were significantly correlated with anxiety, the exceptions being the group of parents of healthy children and the group of all fathers. Discussion: The smaller number of human movement responses found in the group of parents of schizophrenic children may attest to these people’s lower psychological maturity, which is associated with a less distinctly formed prototypal role. Moreover, certain specific features of these responses can be interpreted as a sign of difficulties in expressing this role. The cooccurrence of movement responses with shading responses, which are treated as a sign of anxiety, was not always consistent with expectations; this should be considered a reason to reflect on the psychological meaning of these responses and on the possible return to Rorschach’s original views. Conclusions: The results of the study suggest lower maturity in the case of parents of schizophrenic children, manifesting itself in a less strongly developed prototypal role and certain difficulties in expressing this role. Based on the analysis of the cooccurrence of movement responses and responses commenting on the shading present in the inkblots, it is possible to conclude that there is a need for a new psychological interpretation of these responses.

Movement responses in the Rorschach test. Part 1 Testing healthy and schizophrenic individuals

Abstract Introduction: The theoretical basis for the present article is Zygmunt Piotrowski’s concept of prototypal role. This role is understood as a self-concept and as a mechanism guiding and stabilizing relations with the environment. The concept of prototypal role can be regarded as similar to the concept of self. It is possible to assess the prototypal role by analyzing the movement responses obtained during an examination using the Rorschach test. Empirical data suggest that patients with schizophrenia have an insufficiently developed or peculiarly formed prototypal role and experience certain difficulties in expressing this role. Material and method: The number of 32 individuals with schizophrenia and 21 healthy individuals were examined using the Rorschach test. Apart from the analysis of movement and posture responses; responses interpreting the shading (chiaroscuro) visible in the inkblots were taken into consideration. Responses of the latter kind are considered to be a measure of anxiety. Results: There found no differences in the most significant variables, the number of human movement responses was not lower in the group of subjects with schizophrenia, and the number of human movement responses not adequately reflecting the form of the inkblots was not higher in schizophrenic individuals. Some of the movement qualities distinguished by Piotrowski were significantly correlated with anxiety, but these associations were not always consistent with the predictions. Discussion: Data analysis revealed no specificity in the development of prototypal role in schizophrenic individuals; difficulties in the expression of this role were not frequent and occurred mainly in schizophrenic women as compared to healthy ones. More differences occurred between schizophrenic women and schizophrenic men, what may attest to the influence of gender on the experience of adaptation to disease. Conclusions: The analysis of movement responses and shading responses provides the basis not so much for differentiating health and disease as for better insight into the very psychological significance of movement and shading responses.

Persistence in postural dynamics is dependent on constraints of vision, postural orientation, and the temporal structure of support surface translations.

Activities of daily living require maintaining upright posture within a variety of environmental constraints. A healthy postural control system can adapt to different environmental constraints. Afferent sensory information is used to determine where the body is in relation to the gravitational vertical and efferent motor commands make corrections with the goal of keeping the center of mass within the base of support. The purpose of this research was to understand how vision, direction of translation, and the temporal correlation of the support surface stimuli affected the persistence characteristics of postural dynamics on short and long time scales. Ten healthy young adults performed a standing task with either eyes open or closed, oriented anteriorly or mediolaterally while the support surface underwent structured translations based on different levels of temporal correlation-white noise (no correlation), pink noise (moderate correlation), and red noise and sinusoidal movements (strong correlations). Center of pressure velocity was analyzed using fractal analysis to determine the dynamics of postural control. On the short time scale, persistence was shown to be stronger with eyes closed, in the mediolateral direction, and when the structure of translation contained stronger temporal correlation. On the long time scale, anti-persistence was stronger with eyes closed, in the mediolateral direction, and for all structures of movement except red noise. This study provides deeper insight into the flexibility existing in human movement responses to structured environmental stimuli through the fractal analysis of movement variability.

Human Movement Responses to the Rorschach and Mirroring Activity: An fMRI Study.

It has been suggested that the Rorschach human movement (M) response could be associated with an embodied simulation mechanism mediated by the mirror neuron system (MNS). To date, evidence for this hypothesis comes from two electroencephalogram studies and one repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study. To provide additional data on this topic, the Rorschach was administered during fMRI to a sample of 26 healthy adult volunteers. Activity in MNS-related brain areas temporally associated with M responses was compared with such activity for other, non-M Rorschach responses. Data analyses focused on MNS regions of interest identified by Neurosynth, a web-based platform for large scale, automated meta-analysis of fMRI data. Consistent with the hypothesis that M responses involve embodied simulation and MNS activity, univariate region of interest analyses showed that production of M responses associated with significantly greater activity in MNS-related brain areas when compared with non-M Rorschach responses. This finding is consistent with the traditional interpretation of the M code.

The Effects of Neurological Priming on the Rorschach

Abstract. This article introduces a new scientific paradigm that might allow the investigation of the neurological correlates of the Rorschach test without using expensive and time consuming tools such as the fMRI or the EEG. Based on the literature on the Mozart effect, we anticipated that preactivation of a given brain network before exposure to the Rorschach cards would associate with the increased production of responses (or determinants) presumed to be associated with that same network. To pilot test this hypothesis, we focused on the postulated link between human movement (M) responses and mirror neuron system (MNS) activity, and investigated whether preactivation of the MNS would associate with the increased production of M responses. Specifically, 30 students were administered a subset of Rorschach cards immediately after watching three short videos aimed at activating the MNS at three different levels (no/low/high activation). Although no statistically significant differences among the three conditions were found, a linear trend in the expected direction (p = .107), with medium effect size (η² = .087) was observed. In addition to providing information on the M response, this article introduces a new scientific paradigm to investigate the neurological correlates of the Rorschach.

The “Feeling of Movement”: Notes on the Rorschach Human Movement Response

ABSTRACTHuman movement responses (M) on the Rorschach have been traditionally viewed as lying neither completely in the inkblot (external reality) nor within the subject's mind (inner world). The authors contend that M is not reducible to the “body that I have” but to the “body that I am,” which is a higher level organization of bottom-up and top-down brain networks, integrating body implicit awareness, psychological functioning, and social cognition. Two sources of evidence suggest the close relationship among M, psychological functions, and brain mechanisms. One comes from meta-analytical evidence supporting the close association between M and higher level cognitive functioning or empathy. The second comes from some preliminary studies showing that M activates brain circuits included in the mirror neuron system (MNS). Two conclusions can be drawn: (a) M is related to the effective use of the mentalization function; and (b) future neuroscientific investigations could lead to an understanding of the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying Rorschach responses and variables.

Mental Imagery and Movement Responses to the Rorschach Test Among Young Violent Offenders

Abstract. We studied the relationship between the self-reported mental imagery and movement responses in the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) in 26 young violent offenders. The modified version of the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ-method by Marks, 1972 , 1973 ) and the Rorschach CS were used. We found a positive association between the movement responses, especially human movement responses, and the ability to create and to control images. The violent offenders seemed to have an adequate ability to imagine future events and scenarios, but they had deficits in their situation specific mental imagery. The Rorschach Form Quality minus responses showed that the subjects’ ability to use mental imagery was inadequate; it was non-adaptive and the reality orientation vulnerable. We suggest that the causes of decreased imagery vividness and increased need to control mental images are negative emotions and intrusive ideations emerging in intimate relationships.

Mirroring Activity in the Brain and Movement Determinant in the Rorschach Test

Human movement (M) responses to the Rorschach are related to cognitive sophistication, creativity, and empathy. Recent studies also link Ms to EEG-mu suppression, an index of mirroring activity in the brain. In this article, we further investigate the link between Ms and mu suppression by testing some clinical interpretative distinctions. Previously collected EEG data recorded during the administration of the Rorschach were reanalyzed. We hypothesized that (a) among several responses investigated, only M would be associated with mu suppression, and (b) Ms with active movement, ordinary form quality, or whole human figures would be most strongly associated with mu suppression. Hypothesis 1 was fully confirmed, thus supporting that the traditional interpretation of M has a neurobiological foundation. Hypothesis 2 was partially confirmed; that is, active Ms were associated with mu suppression more strongly than passive Ms (p < .05), but no other significant differences emerged. Clinical implications are discussed.

Mentalization and the Rorschach

The concept of mentalization – the ability to think about mental states (e.g., feelings, intentions, motivations) of self and others – has become increasingly influential in psychoanalysis ( Bateman &amp; Fonagy, 2004 ; Fischer-Kern et al., 2010 ; Fonagy, 1991 ). Unfortunately, the clinical application and further exploration of the construct has been limited by the time-consuming and highly specialized methods used to assess it ( Choi-Kain &amp; Gunderson, 2008 ; Meehan, Levy, Reynoso, Hill, &amp; Clarkin, 2009 ). In that mentalization operates predominantly outside of conscious awareness and involves the assessment of mental representations of self and other, projective measures such as the Rorschach are possibly the most efficient to evaluate and further explore this construct. In this paper we present a conceptual framework for how texture responses (T) as they relate to the ability to form attachments, and human and human movement responses (M+/M–, GHR:PHR) as they relate to empathy, social understanding, and boundary formation, may be utilized in the assessment of mentalization.

Mu suppression and human movement responses to the Rorschach test

Electroencephalographic μ wave suppression was investigated using all 10 static, ambiguous Rorschach stimuli. In an earlier study using four Rorschach stimuli, the two stimuli that elicited feelings of movement were associated with μ suppression. In this study, we replicated this relationship using all 10 Rorschach stimuli while overcoming a number of other earlier limitations. The results strongly support the hypothesis that internal representation of the feeling of movement is sufficient to suppress the μ rhythm even when minimal external cues are present. This outcome increases the generalizability and ecological validity of this approach and gives support to the traditional interpretation of the Rorschach human movement responses as being associated with cognitive functioning, empathy, and social cognition.

The feeling of movement: EEG evidence for mirroring activity during the observations of static, ambiguous stimuli in the Rorschach cards

The mirror neuron system (MNS) is considered the best explanation for the neural basis of embodied simulation. To date no study has investigated if it may be activated not only by actual but by the “feeling of movement”. The Rorschach test cards were used to investigate evidence of EEG mu wave suppression at central areas, an index of MNS activity, since human movement responses (M) to the Rorschach elicit such feelings of movement. Nineteen healthy volunteers observed different sets of Rorschach stimuli during attribution, identification, and observation of human movements and different scenarios while their EEG were recorded. Significant mu suppression occurred when subjects perceived movement, regardless of the experimental condition. These results show that mirroring can be activated by static, ambiguous stimuli such as Rorschach cards, suggesting that internal representation of the “feeling of movement” may be sufficient to trigger MNS activity even when minimal external cues are present.

Modulation of Visually Evoked Movement Responses in Moving Virtual Environments

Virtual-reality technology is being increasingly used to understand how humans perceive and act in the moving world around them. What is currently not clear is how virtual reality technology is perceived by human participants and what virtual scenes are effective in evoking movement responses to visual stimuli. We investigated the effect of virtual-scene context on human responses to a virtual visual perturbation. We hypothesised that exposure to a natural scene that matched the visual expectancies of the natural world would create a perceptual set towards presence, and thus visual guidance of body movement in a subsequently presented virtual scene. Results supported this hypothesis; responses to a virtual visual perturbation presented in an ambiguous virtual scene were increased when participants first viewed a scene that consisted of natural landmarks which provided 'real-world' visual motion cues. Further research in this area will provide a basis of knowledge for the effective use of this technology in the study of human movement responses.

Correlation Between the Rorschach Test Coded and Interpreted According to the Comprehensive Exner System and the Eysenck Personality Inventory

The relationships between the Rorschach test and the self-reported personality questionnaires are an important and unresolved issue in confirming structural and clinical hypotheses. In a sample of healthy volunteers (n = 47) we conducted a study to investigate the correlation between the Italian version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck Personality Inventory, EPI) and some selected Rorschach variables defined according to the Exner Comprehensive System. The results showed that the Extroversion Scale of the EPI corresponds with the calculated difference between the Human Movement responses and the Weighted Sum of the Color response (M-WSumC, r = –.42, p &lt; .01), the Weighted Sum of Color responses (WSumC, r = .40, p &lt; .01) as a single variable, and the Sum of Shading responses (SumShd, r = .29, p &lt; .05), but had no relationship with the Human Movement responses. None of the hypothesized Rorschach variables showed a significant correlation with the Neuroticism scale of the EPI. Furthermore, the Psychoticism scale of the EPI was negatively correlated with the Rorschach index Zsum (r –.33, p &lt; .05). Finally, the comparison between the subgroups defined by the Erlebnistypus categories showed that Rorschach Extratensive subjects scored higher on the Extroversion scale of the EPI than Introversive (Mann-Whitney U = 30.5, p &lt; .01) or Ambitent subjects (Mann-Whitney U = 76, p &lt; .01). These results indicate that Rorschach’s concept of Erlebnistypus as a holistic dimension and Eysenck’s construct of Extroversion-Introversion are sufficiently homogeneous for psychometric assessment, but the single determinants of Rorschach responses have no correspondence with the EPI scores.

Psychotherapy of an Adolescent with Dissociative Identity Disorder

A female adolescent with dissociative identity disorder was assessed using structured interviews and the Rorschach test before and after one year of individual psychotherapy. In addition to improvement in several comorbid psychiatric disorders, according to the structured evaluation, criteria for neither dissociative identity disorder nor borderline personality disorder were met at the second evaluation. The main differences on the Rorschach assessments before and after integration were in the development of form-dominated color and human movement responses and a diminution in the externally focused coping style. The differences were interpreted as improvement in aggressiveness, impulsivity, anxiety, and better identification with social environment. This case study suggests that the Rorschach test can be used to evaluate the change of patients with dissociative identity disorder in psychotherapy.