Perception Of Human Body Research Articles

Children’s perception of human body

AbstractThe subject of this article is the perception of the modern human body by young people, more specifically pupils of primary school. I based my research on the assumption that the human body, like the entire human being, is the result of a certain stage in the evolutionary process and it is entangled in social relationships. One may define it as nature functioning within culture. Throughout the centuries, various assets of the human body have been held in high esteem, according to the demands of the natural world and social norms imposed in a given society, arising out of the aesthetic canon. But the closer we get to the modern times, the less important is the value of the natural factor, and the more important is the cultural creation. The aim of my research was to answer the following questions: How do ten-year-olds perceive the modern human body of a woman and of a man, how do they describe it, what features do they pay attention to and in what order, and additionally, does this image correspond to the image of “ideal” body pursued by post-modern society and promoted in the mass media. The research encompassed 124 pupils.

Discrimination of biomechanically possible and impossible hand movements at birth.

The development of human body perception has long been investigated, but little is known about its early origins. This study focused on how a body part highly relevant to the human species, namely the hand, is perceived a few days after birth. Using a preferential-looking paradigm, 24- to 48-hr-old newborns watched biomechanically possible and impossible dynamic hand gestures (Experiment 1, N = 15) and static hand postures (Experiment 2, N = 15). In Experiment 1, newborns looked longer at the impossible, compared to the possible, hand movement, whereas in Experiment 2 no visual preference emerged. These findings suggest that early in life the representation of the human body may be shaped by sensory-motor experience.

The Establishment of the Human Body's Perception Current Threshold Model Based on BP Neural Network

EEG feature identification and body's sensing are used together to confirm that the current flowing through the human body reaches the perception threshold, since the existing test method is sensitive to the subject's subjective awareness and experimental data's reliability and consistency are not good. Based on the test method, the relationship is studied among the human body's perception current effect threshold and many influencing factors such as touch voltage, touch area, touch pressure, skin type, environmental temperature and humidity, the time period in which the current passes through the human body, current frequency, current waveform, current path, etc. to explore the combined effect of those factors on human body's perception current threshold. The model of the human body's perception current threshold is established based on BP neural network to evaluate comprehensively the leakage current effect on the human body's perception current threshold and the model accuracy is about 99%.

The Naked Truth: The Face and Body Sensitive N170 Response Is Enhanced for Nude Bodies

Recent event-related potential studies have shown that the occipitotemporal N170 component - best known for its sensitivity to faces - is also sensitive to perception of human bodies. Considering that in the timescale of evolution clothing is a relatively new invention that hides the bodily features relevant for sexual selection and arousal, we investigated whether the early N170 brain response would be enhanced to nude over clothed bodies. In two experiments, we measured N170 responses to nude bodies, bodies wearing swimsuits, clothed bodies, faces, and control stimuli (cars). We found that the N170 amplitude was larger to opposite and same-sex nude vs. clothed bodies. Moreover, the N170 amplitude increased linearly as the amount of clothing decreased from full clothing via swimsuits to nude bodies. Strikingly, the N170 response to nude bodies was even greater than that to faces, and the N170 amplitude to bodies was independent of whether the face of the bodies was visible or not. All human stimuli evoked greater N170 responses than did the control stimulus. Autonomic measurements and self-evaluations showed that nude bodies were affectively more arousing compared to the other stimulus categories. We conclude that the early visual processing of human bodies is sensitive to the visibility of the sex-related features of human bodies and that the visual processing of other people's nude bodies is enhanced in the brain. This enhancement is likely to reflect affective arousal elicited by nude bodies. Such facilitated visual processing of other people's nude bodies is possibly beneficial in identifying potential mating partners and competitors, and for triggering sexual behavior.

Seeing and identifying with a virtual body decreases pain perception

Pain and the conscious mind (or the self) are experienced in our body. Both are intimately linked to the subjective quality of conscious experience. Here, we used virtual reality technology and visuo-tactile conflicts in healthy subjects to test whether experimentally induced changes of bodily self-consciousness (self-location; self-identification) lead to changes in pain perception. We found that visuo-tactile stroking of a virtual body but not of a control object led to increased pressure pain thresholds and self-location. This increase was not modulated by the synchrony of stroking as predicted based on earlier work. This differed for self-identification where we found as predicted that synchrony of stroking increased self-identification with the virtual body (but not a control object), and positively correlated with an increase in pain thresholds. We discuss the functional mechanisms of self-identification, self-location, and the visual perception of human bodies with respect to pain perception.

A look at how we look at others: Orientation inversion and photographic negation disrupt the perception of human bodies

Although disproportionate inversion effects have often been considered manifestations of the special processes recruited by upright faces, several papers using sequential matching tasks have reported that body postures also produce sizeable inversion effects. However, comparison of inversion effects observed with transient body postures and effects elicited by judgements of facial structure is complicated by qualitative differences between the stimuli and the tasks. Here we report a series of experiments that use attractiveness judgements to provide a better comparison of the effect of inversion as well as contrast negation on face and body perception. Significant effects of inversion and negation were observed for both face and body stimuli. While the magnitude of the inversion effects was broadly comparable, the negation effect was considerably larger for faces. These effects converge with evidence from cognitive neuroscience to suggest that both faces and bodies recruit similar orientation-specific processes distinct from processes used for generic objects.

理察˙塞拉雕塑作品─場域及空間定位探討

American Post-Minimalism artist and steel sculptor, Richard Serra has had 40 years of experience. His works were undertaken the influence of Abstract Sculpture and Minimalism in conjunction with his personal literature background. After proposed Verb List in 1967, Serra continually published various stages of work, such as Splash, Prop, Elevate, and Arc. Serra was the pioneer of contemporary sculpture as he interfered art with social sites for critical thinking. During the development of Post- Minimalism, Serra created a series of works based on the perception of human body. His early years were influenced by ontology, combining linguistic and philosophical thinking. Serra used steel in his works, integrating form structures to replace traditional hand-made labor work and to remove referential themes. In his later years, Serra returned to the essence of his works to focus on the exploration of time and space.This article focuses on ”site” to pinpoint the visual perception in Serra's works by using three topics. There are: 1) expansion of site awareness, 2) establishment of visual perception, and 3) spirit of spatial orientation. Serra explored the interrelation between space and time created through his works in particular sites by examining urban and rural atmospheres, the contract between organic ground change and dull industrial materials, and indoor and outdoor spaces. Serra created his works by integrated iron and steel materials; he aimed to highlight the existence of body in the space and the spirit associated with the particular site.

Beyond extrastriate body area (EBA) and fusiform body area (FBA): context integration in the meaning of actions

Beyond extrastriate body area (EBA) and fusiform body area (FBA): context integration in the meaning of actions

Neural Correlates of Human Body Perception

The objective of this study was to investigate potential sex differences in the neural response to human bodies using fMRI carried out in healthy young adults. We presented human bodies in a block-design experiment to identify body-responsive regions of the brain, namely, extrastriate body area (EBA) and fusiform body area (FBA). In a separate event-related "adaptation" experiment, carried out in the same group of subjects, we presented sets of four human bodies of varying body size and shape. Varying levels of body morphing were introduced to assess the degree of morphing required for adaptation release. Analysis of BOLD signal in the block-design experiment revealed significant Sex x Hemisphere interactions in the EBA and the FBA responses to human bodies. Only women showed greater BOLD response to bodies in the right hemisphere compared with the left hemisphere for both EBA and FBA. The BOLD response in right EBA was higher in women compared with men. In the adaptation experiment, greater right versus left hemisphere response for EBA and FBA was also identified among women but not men. These findings are particularly novel in that they address potential sex differences in the lateralization of EBA and FBA responses to human body images. Although previous studies have found some degree of right hemisphere dominance in body perception, our results suggest that such a functional lateralization may differ between men and women.

Multisensory Integration: A Late Bloomer

Under many circumstances, human adults integrate information from different sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing, in a statistically optimal fashion. New results suggest that optimal multisensory integration only develops in middle childhood.

Occipitotemporal activation evoked by the perception of human bodies is modulated by the presence or absence of the face

We investigated the degree to which activation in regions of the brain known to participate in social perception is influenced by the presence or absence of the face and other body parts. Subjects continuously viewed a static image of a lecture hall in which actors appeared briefly in various poses. There were three conditions: Body-Face, in which the actor appeared with limbs, torso, and face clearly visible; Body-Only, in which the actor appeared with his or her face occluded by a book; and Face-Only, in which the actor appeared behind a podium with only face and shoulders visible. Using event-related functional MRI, we obtained strong activation in those regions previously identified as important for face and body perception. These included portions of the fusiform (FFG) and lingual gyri within ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC), and portions of the middle occipital gyrus (corresponding to the previously defined extrastriate body area, or EBA) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) within lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC). Activation of the EBA was strongest for the Body-Only condition; indeed, exposing the face decreased EBA activation evoked by the body. In marked contrast, activation in the pSTS was largest when the face was visible, regardless of whether the body was also visible. Activity within the lateral lingual gyrus and adjacent medial FFG was strongest for the Body-Only condition, while activation in the lateral FFG was greatest when both the face and body were visible. These results provide new information regarding the importance of a visible face in both the relative activation and deactivation of brain structures engaged in social perception.

Action Perception: Seeing the World through a Moving Body

Recent evidence suggests that the acquisition of new motor skills can directly influence later visual perception even when an observer's eyes remain 'wide shut' during learning.

Perception of human body poses: view dependency and search efficiency

Perception of human body poses: view dependency and search efficiency