BISIO , Ambra

Several studies have shown that the observation of a rapidly moving stimulus dilates our perception of time. However, this effect appears to be at odds with the fact that our interactions both with environment and with each other are temporally accurate. This work exploits this paradox to investigate whether the temporal accuracy of visual...

The present study tested whether and how motor experience with a specific tool affects motor representation of a specific movement. To this aim, we considered a group of expert tennis players and a control group of athletic individuals without tennis experience. Participants were asked to execute 20 single forehands into the wall with a tennis...

Volitional motor control generally involves deciding 'where to go' and 'how to go there'. Understanding how these two constituent pieces of motor decision coordinate is an important issue in neuroscience. Although the two processes could be intertwined, they are generally thought to occur in series, whereby visuomotor planning begins with the...

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The present study was designed to explore the changes in motor performance and motor resonance after multiple sessions of action observation (AO) training. Subjects were exposed to the observation of a video showing finger tapping movements executed at 3Hz, a frequency higher than the spontaneous one (2Hz) for four consecutive days. Motor...

AO-PNS is a stimulation protocol combining action observation (AO) and peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) to induce plasticity in the primary motor cortex (M1) (increased excitability). Another method to increase M1 excitability is motor training. The combination of two protocols, which individually induce long-term potentiation (LTP)-like...

Automatic imitation is the tendency to reproduce observed actions involutarily. Though this topic has been widely treated, at present little is known about the automatic imitation of the kinematic features of an observed movement. The present study was designed to understand if the kinematics of a previously seen stimulus primes the executed...

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Several investigations suggest that actual and mental actions trigger similar neural substrates. Motor learning via physical practice results in long-term potentiation (LTP)-like plasticity processes, namely potentiation of M1 and a temporary occlusion of additional LTP-like plasticity. However, whether this neuroplasticity process contributes...

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The hand blink reflex is a subcortical defensive response, known to dramatically increase when the stimulated hand is statically positioned inside the defensive peripersonal space (DPPS) of the face. Here, we tested in a group of healthy human subjects the hand blink reflex in dynamic conditions, investigating whether the direction of the hand...

Spontaneous movement tempo (SMT) was a popular field of study of the Gestalt psychologists It can be determined from subjects freely tapping out a rhythm with their finger, and it has been found to average about 2 Hz. A previous study showed that SMT changed after the observation of rhythmical movements performed at frequency different from the...

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This study aimed to better characterize the sensorimotor mechanisms underlying motor resonance, namely the relationship between motion perception and movement production in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD). This work first gives a kinematic description of AD patients' upper limb movements, then it presents a simple paradigm in...

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Although Alzheimer's disease (AD) primarily manifests as cognitive deficits, the implicit sensorimotor processes that underlie social interactions, such as automatic imitation, seem to be preserved in mild and moderate stages of the disease, as is the ability to communicate with other persons. Nevertheless, when AD patients face more...