Talking with hands: body representation in British Sign Language users

Brusa, Federico; Kretzschmar, Lukas; Magnani, Francesca Giulia; Turner, Graham; Garraffa, Maria; Sedda, Anna

doi:10.1007/s00221-020-06013-4

Cited by 12 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Laterality judgements are more accurate and faster when body parts are shown in a position which is easy and comfortable to reach, mirroring the physical body constraints (Parsons, 1987;Sirigu et al, 1996): this behavioural evidence, known effect of biomechanical constraints (Parsons, 1987), supports a tight link between our ability to carry out actions and the corresponding representation of the body. Similar evidence emerges when a less implicit motor imagery task is used, such as the Mental Motor Chronometry Task (Brusa et al, 2021;Scarpina, Magnani, et al, 2019;Schwoebel & Coslett, 2005). In this task, individuals are asked to imagine performing movements with their limbs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Thus, in our control tasks, individuals were required to perform an object-based transformation, in an allocentric reference frame, with no bodily reference. When we focused on the explicit control task, the Mental Bars Movement Task, both groups of participants showed the expected experimental effect, meaning that the time taken to answer with the right hand and with the left hand matched (Brusa et al, 2021;Scarpina, Magnani, et al, 2019). In the more implicit Mental letter Discrimination Task, the experimental effect according to which stimuli showed in a canonical position should be recognised faster than those showed in mirror position was present only for our healthy-weight controls, while participants with obesity showed the same reaction time for mirror and canonical stimuli.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Does physical weight alter the mental representation of the body? Evidence from motor imagery in obesity

Scarpina

Paschino

Scacchi

et al. 2022

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Objective. Obesity is a clinical condition that impacts severely the physical body. However, evidence related to the mental representation of the body in action is scarce. The few available studies only focus on avoiding obstacles, rather than participants imagining their own body. Method. To advance knowledge in this field, we assessed the performance of twenty-two individuals with obesity compared to thirty individuals with a healthy weight in two tasks that implied different motor (more implicit vs. more explicit) imagery strategies. Two tasks were also administered to control for visual imagery skills, to rule out confounding factors. Moreover, we measured body uneasiness, through a standard questionnaire, as body image negativity could impact on other body representation components. Results. Our findings do not show differences in the motor imagery tasks between individuals with obesity and individuals with healthy weight. On the other hand, some differences emerge in visual imagery skills. Crucially, individuals with obesity did report a higher level of body uneasiness. Conclusions. Despite a negative body image and visual imagery differences, obesity per se does not impact on the representation of the body in action. Importantly, this result is independent from the level of awareness required to access the mental representation of the body.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Does physical weight alter the mental representation of the body? Evidence from motor imagery in obesity

Scarpina

Paschino

Scacchi

et al. 2022

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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“…Similarly, gains in proprioceptive localisation of body segments are only seen for highly trained postures in dancers, but these gains are not generalised to non-trained ones (Jola et al 2011;Schmitt et al 2005). Furthermore, a recent study with SL practitioners did not find improved performance in body imagery-related tasks, confirming that body representation may be affected differently depending on the tasks considered (Brusa et al 2021). This type of hand use may change the representation in comparison with controls, but may not necessarily cause an overall improved representation; rather, evidence suggests that it modulates representation in the direction that is linked to the function in hand.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…As seen with magicians (Cocchini et al 2018 ), prolonged manual practice can produce long-term changes in the representation of the body. However, these changes may not be related to actual general improvement of the representation but appear modulated by the type of expertise (Coelho et al 2019 ), space where the body action takes place, and the specific components of the body representation being measured (Brusa et al 2021 ). Hence, the direction of distortions differs between expert groups, body parts, and body representation tasks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…actual general improvement of the representation but appear modulated by the type of expertise (Coelho et al 2019), space where the body action takes place, and the specific components of the body representation being measured (Brusa et al 2021). Hence, the direction of distortions differs between expert groups, body parts, and body representation tasks.…”

Section: Declarationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The signing body: extensive sign language practice shapes the size of hands and face

et al. 2021

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The representation of the metrics of the hands is distorted, but is susceptible to malleability due to expert dexterity (magicians) and long-term tool use (baseball players). However, it remains unclear whether modulation leads to a stable representation of the hand that is adopted in every circumstance, or whether the modulation is closely linked to the spatial context where the expertise occurs. To this aim, a group of 10 experienced Sign Language (SL) interpreters were recruited to study the selective influence of expertise and space localisation in the metric representation of hands. Experiment 1 explored differences in hands’ size representation between the SL interpreters and 10 age-matched controls in near-reaching (Condition 1) and far-reaching space (Condition 2), using the localisation task. SL interpreters presented reduced hand size in near-reaching condition, with characteristic underestimation of finger lengths, and reduced overestimation of hands and wrists widths in comparison with controls. This difference was lost in far-reaching space, confirming the effect of expertise on hand representations is closely linked to the spatial context where an action is performed. As SL interpreters are also experts in the use of their face with communication purposes, the effects of expertise in the metrics of the face were also studied (Experiment 2). SL interpreters were more accurate than controls, with overall reduction of width overestimation. Overall, expertise modifies the representation of relevant body parts in a specific and context-dependent manner. Hence, different representations of the same body part can coexist simultaneously.

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More implicit and more explicit motor imagery tasks for exploring the mental representation of hands and feet in action

Brusa,

Erden,

Sedda

2023

Exp Brain Res

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The mental representation of the body in action can be explored using motor imagery (MI) tasks. MI tasks can be allocated along a continuum going from more implicit to more explicit tasks, where the discriminant is the degree of action monitoring required to solve the tasks (which is the awareness of using the mental representation of our own body to monitor our motor imagery). Tasks based on laterality judgments, such as the Hand Laterality Task (HLT) and the Foot Laterality Task (FLT), provide an example of more implicit tasks (i.e., less action monitoring is required). While, an example of a more explicit task is the Mental Motor Chronometry task (MMC) for hands and feet, where individuals are asked to perform or imagine performing movements with their limbs (i.e., more action monitoring is required). In our study, we directly compared hands and feet at all these tasks for the first time, as these body districts have different physical features as well as functions. Fifty-five participants were asked to complete an online version of the HLT and FLT (more implicit measure), and an online version of the MMC task for hands and feet (more explicit measure). The mental representation of hands and feet in action differed only when the degree of action monitoring decreased (HLT ≠ FLT); we observed the presence of biomechanical constraints only for hands. Differently, when the degree of action monitoring increased hands and feet did not show any difference (MMC hands = MMC feet). Our results show the presence of a difference in the mental representation of hands and feet in action that specifically depends on the degree of action monitoring.

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Talking with hands: body representation in British Sign Language users

Cited by 12 publications

References 60 publications

Does physical weight alter the mental representation of the body? Evidence from motor imagery in obesity

Does physical weight alter the mental representation of the body? Evidence from motor imagery in obesity

The signing body: extensive sign language practice shapes the size of hands and face

More implicit and more explicit motor imagery tasks for exploring the mental representation of hands and feet in action

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