Search Results (106)

Multisensory behavioral research is increasingly aiming to move beyond traditional laboratories and into real-world settings. Smartphones offer a promising platform for this purpose, but their use in psychophysical experiments requires rigorous validation of their ability to precisely present multisensory stimuli and record reaction times (RTs). To date, no study has systematically assessed the feasibility of conducting RT-based multisensory paradigms on smartphones. In this study, we developed a reproducible validation method to quantify smartphones’ temporal precision in synchronized auditory–tactile stimulus delivery and RT logging. Applying this method to five Android devices, we identified two with sufficient precision. We also introduced a technique to enhance RT measurement by combining touchscreen and accelerometer data, effectively doubling the measure resolution—from 8.33 ms (limited by a 120 Hz refresh rate) to 4 ms. Using a top-performing device identified through our validation, we conducted an audio–tactile RT experiment with 20 healthy participants. Looming sounds were presented through headphones during a tactile detection task. Results showed that looming sounds reduced tactile RTs by 20–25 ms compared to static sounds, replicating a well-established multisensory effect linked to peripersonal space. These findings present a robust method for validating smartphones for cognitive research and demonstrate that high-precision audio–tactile paradigms can be reliably implemented on mobile devices. This work lays the groundwork for rigorous, scalable, and ecologically valid multisensory behavioral studies in naturalistic environments, expanding participant reach and enhancing the relevance of multisensory research. Full article

This document proposes a new evaluation model to be applied to a training course on health and safety at work based on virtual reality. The model refers to three macro-levels (design, delivery, and evaluation), which extend throughout the training life cycle. At macro level 1, design, the quality of the model intended for the virtual reality experience is evaluated, as well as its adaptation to the work environment and its compliance with applicable voluntary and mandatory standards; in macro level 2, delivery, the performance of the model, the individual reactions of users with headsets, their performance and psycho-physical state, the time, and the score achieved are evaluated; in macro level 3, evaluation, the long-term effects of subjective training and the social and economic impact that virtual reality training has had on the organisation are evaluated. The study investigates assessment models for virtual-reality-based occupational health and safety courses and identifies a model outlining general criteria that can be adapted to several types of courses and different work sectors. By examining the typical stages of the training life cycle and drawing on training evaluation models such as Kirkpatrick or Molenda and Information and Communication Technology metrics, the study identifies the key elements for assessing the effectiveness of virtual reality training in occupational health and safety. Full article

Backgorund. Multiple sclerosis (MS) profoundly affects the lives of patients and their families. The experience of the disease is shaped not only by its progression and specific characteristics but also by the quality of medical and caregiving support received. The diagnosis of MS represents a transformative event that may lead to job loss, the need for continuous care, and a significant reorganization of family roles. In Italy, more than 140,000 people are affected by MS (AISM data, 2024). The impact of the disease is multifaceted and complex, involving various aspects of the patient’s life. Dependence on external assistance often becomes an unavoidable necessity, highlighting the importance of exploring the quality of life of people with MS in the Italian context. The main objective is to assess the quality of life of individuals affected by MS, both before diagnosis and during the course of the disease. A secondary aim is to identify related psycho-physical consequences, including care-related needs. Methods: An online survey was conducted through various associations operating across Italy, involving a sample of 99 individuals diagnosed with MS. Results: The results show a predominance of female participants, with a mean age of 41 years. The disease was reported to be at an early stage in 66.7% of cases and advanced in 33.3%, with none of the respondents being in a terminal phase. The most frequent clinical form was relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS), which accounted for 78.8% of the cases. In terms of employment and daily activities, more than half of the participants reported underperforming (59.6%) or limiting specific tasks (51.5%) due to disability caused by the disease. Emotional distress had even more pronounced effects, with 63.6% reporting a decline in performance and 62.6% experiencing concentration difficulties. Quality of life was significantly affected, particularly in the physical and emotional domains. Vitality, physical pain, perceived health, and psychological well-being emerged as compromised dimensions, pointing to the need for a multidimensional care model that integrates therapeutic, rehabilitative, and psychosocial interventions. Individuals in the early stages of MS tended to maintain better work relationships and demonstrated higher levels of professional engagement. Conclusions: The findings underscore the importance of a continuous and personalized care approach, addressing not only clinical treatment but also psychological and social support. These aspects are crucial for monitoring patients’ needs, promoting quality of life, facilitating disease acceptance, and mitigating psychological distress. Full article

To overcome the complexity of yarn color measurement using spectrophotometry with yarn winding techniques and to enhance consistency with human visual perception, a yarn color measurement method based on digital photography is proposed. This study employs a photographic colorimetry system to capture digital images of single yarns. The yarn and background are segmented using the K-means clustering algorithm, and the centerline of the yarn is extracted using a skeletonization algorithm. Spectral reconstruction and colorimetric principles are then applied to calculate the color values of pixels along the centerline. Considering the nonlinear characteristics of human brightness perception, the final yarn color is obtained through a nonlinear texture-adaptive weighted computation. The method is validated through psychophysical experiments using six yarns of different colors and compared with spectrophotometry and five other photographic measurement methods. Results indicate that among the seven yarn color measurement methods, including spectrophotometry, the proposed method—based on centerline extraction and nonlinear texture-adaptive weighting—yields results that more closely align with actual visual perception. Furthermore, among the six photographic measurement methods, the proposed method produces most similar to those obtained using spectrophotometry. This study demonstrates the inconsistency between spectrophotometric measurements and human visual perception of yarn color and provides methodological support for developing visually consistent color measurement methods for textured textiles. Full article

In recent years, cosmetic science has adopted a more integrative approach to skincare, in which sensory experience and psychophysical well-being are increasingly valued. In this context, plant-derived ingredients, particularly those from officinal species, are gaining attention for their multifunctional bioactivities. This review explores a curated selection of medicinal plants widely used or emerging in dermocosmetics, highlighting their phytochemical composition, mechanisms of action, and experimental support. A narrative literature review was conducted using databases such as PubMed and Scopus, targeting studies on topical cosmetic applications. Results show that many officinal plants, including Camellia sinensis, Panax ginseng, and Mentha piperita, offer antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, photoprotective, and anti-aging benefits. Less conventional species, such as Drosera ramentacea and Kigelia africana, demonstrated depigmenting and wound-healing potential. In particular, bioactive constituents like flavonoids, iridoids, saponins, and polyphenols act on key skin targets such as COX-2, MMPs, tyrosinase, and the Nrf2 pathway. These findings underscore the potential of botanical extracts to serve as effective, natural, and multifunctional agents in modern skincare. While only Mentha piperita is currently recognized as a traditional herbal medicinal product for dermatological use, this research supports the broader dermocosmetic integration of these species. Full article

Background/Objectives: Sensory attenuation refers to the reduced perceptual intensity of self-generated stimuli and is considered a key marker of the sense of agency. While this phenomenon has been widely documented in individual contexts, less is known about how it operates during cooperative actions. In this study, we adopted a psychophysical approach to investigate sensory attenuation for auditory stimuli in both individual and interactive action contexts and examined the role of empathic traits in shaping the experience of agency. Methods: A two-forced choices perceptual judgement task with auditory stimuli was adopted in healthy participants (n = 57), who judged the loudness of tones generated either by themselves or another person, across individual and cooperative conditions. To control for the factor of gender that might potentially influence prosocial attitudes, only cisgender women were included in this study. Our findings confirmed sensory attenuation for self-generated sounds in cooperative actions. However, contrary to previous reports, we did not observe enhanced attenuation in interactive contexts; instead, other-generated sounds were perceived as louder when embedded in cooperative actions. Notably, higher levels of empathic concern and perspective-taking were associated with reduced sensory attenuation in individual contexts, suggesting that empathy may modulate perceived self–other boundaries in agency experience. Conclusions: These results challenge the view of sensory attenuation as a strict functional signature of self-agency and support a sensorimotor equivalence model, in which social and psychological variables shape the perception of action outcomes. This evidence is also supported by the convergence of neural networks involved in agency, perspective-taking, and empathy. Full article

This study offers a comparative analysis of preparatory practices in Buddhist meditation, focusing on the Tiantai tradition of medieval China and the Nyingma tradition of tenth-century Tibet. Challenging the view of meditation as solely a mental experience, it highlights the critical role of the body in shaping contemplative training. Drawing on recent Buddhist studies and cultural embodiment theory, the paper argues that preparatory practices are essential stages of psychophysical transformation, not just preliminary steps. The study explores early Chinese Tiantai texts, particularly Zhiyi’s meditation manuals, which present twenty-five preparatory practices involving posture, diet, breath control, and ethical restraint. In parallel, the paper examines Nupchen Sangye Yeshe’s bSam gtan mig sgron from the Tibetan Nyingma tradition, highlighting its emphasis on physical integrity, ritual purity, four supportive conditions, and environmental harmony. While Tiantai sources provide a structured methodology, Nyingma practices integrate these elements within broader tantric and visionary frameworks. The paper concludes that these practices are not only supportive of meditation, but also performative enactments of Buddhist cosmology and ethics, positioning the body as central to meditation’s transformative potential. Full article

Numeracy, the ability to use basic mathematical skills in everyday life, is essential in modern society. Recent studies have shown a connection between numeracy and visual numerosity perception, yet traditional 2D screen-based assessment methods often lack ecological validity and participant engagement. This study evaluates the viability of conducting numerosity estimation tasks in virtual reality (VR) and to determine whether hallmarks of numerosity processing, typically observed in laboratory settings, can be replicated in immersive environments. Six participants completed a psychophysical evaluation in VR, comparing the numerosity of visual stimuli consisting of two sets of spheres. The VR experiment successfully replicated two distinctive patterns found in traditional psychophysical studies: increased precision and decreased response times at high numerosities. Specifically, Weber fractions drop by approximately a factor of two, with values ranging from ~15% for low and intermediate conditions to ~8% in high numerosities, and response times decreases from ~663 ms for low numerosities to ~593 ms for high numerosities. These findings highlight that VR can be effectively used for numerosity estimation tasks, providing a controlled and immersive environment that traditional methods cannot achieve, while significantly expanding methodological possibilities in psychophysical research. Full article

Vision Science is an area of study that focuses on specific aspects of visual perception and is conducted mainly in the restricted and controlled context of laboratories. In so doing, the methodological procedures adopted necessarily reduce the variables of natural perception. For the time being, it is extremely difficult to perform psychophysical, neurophysiological, and phenomenological experiments in open scenery, even if that is our natural visual experience. This study discusses four points whose status in Vision Science is still controversial. Namely, the copresence of distinct visual phenomena of primary and secondary processes in natural vision; the role of visual imagination in seeing; the factors ruling the perception of global ambiguity and enigmatic and emotional atmosphere in the visual experience of a scene; and if the phenomena of subjective vision are considered, what kind of new laboratories are available for studying visual perception in open scenery. In the framework of experimental phenomenology and the use of pictorial art as a complement and test for perceptual phenomena, a case study from painting showing the copresence of perceptual and mental visual processes is also discussed and analyzed. This has involved measuring color and light in specific zones of the painting chosen for analysis, relative to visual templates, using Natural Color System notation cards. Full article

Digital imaging can cause the perception of an appearance that is different from the real object. This study first confirmed that the glossiness and roughness of reproduced images are altered by directly comparing real and colorimetrically reproduced images (CRIs). Then, psychophysical experiments comparing real and modulated images were performed, and the physical features that influence the alteration of the real object were analyzed. Furthermore, we analyzed the image features to recover the altered glossiness and roughness by image reproduction. In total, 67 samples belonging to 11 material categories, including metals, resins, etc., were used as stimuli. Analysis of the physical surface roughness of real objects showed that the low skewness and high kurtosis of samples were associated with alterations in glossiness and roughness, respectively. It was shown that these can be recovered by modulating the contrast for glossiness and the angular second moment in the gray level co-occurrence matrix for roughness, reproducing perceptually equivalent images. These results suggest that although the glossiness and roughness of real objects and their CRIs are perceived differently, reproducing perceptually equivalent glossiness and roughness may be facilitated by measuring the physical features of real objects and reflecting them in image features. Full article

Incomplete communication networks (e.g., time delay and packet loss/switching) in haptic interaction and remote teleoperation systems can degrade both user performance and system stability. In this study, we hypothesized that human operator performance would decrease monotonically as network imperfections worsened. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two psychophysical experiments measuring the just-noticeable difference (JND), point of subjective equality (PSE), and perception time under varying conditions of packet separation time and packet loss. Our findings show that increasing packet separation time significantly elevated both JND and PSE, indicating a poorer discrimination ability and a systematic bias toward perceiving the environment as stiffer. By contrast, packet loss rates of up to 75% had no significant impact on perceptual performance, suggesting that, at sufficiently high sampling rates, human operators can compensate for substantial data loss. Overall, the results underscore that packet separation time, rather than packet loss, is the dominant factor affecting perceptual performance in haptic teleoperation. Full article

Augmented reality display performance depends strongly on features of the human visual system. This is especially true for retinal scan glasses, which use laser beam scanning and transparent holographic optical combiners. Human-centered approaches allow us to go beyond conventional optical metrology and evaluate display performance as it is perceived in actual augmented reality use cases. Here, we first present a theoretical formula for the retinal scan luminance and ambient contrast ratio calculated from optical powers, wavelengths, field of view, and human pupil diameter. As a promising insight, we found that the pupil diameter dependence is beneficial in assimilating the virtual image luminance to the ambient luminance. Second, we designed and performed a psychophysical experiment to assess perceived resolution in augmented reality settings using a fully functional retinal scan glasses prototype. We present the results of the trials and illustrate how this approach can be used in the further development of augmented reality smart glasses. Full article

This study investigated the two distinct perceptions (pleasantness and softness) of deformable stimuli with different degrees of compliance under conditions with and without a contextual task. Three tactile strategies—grasping, pinching, and pressing—were used to perceive the stimuli. In Experiment 1 (without a contextual task), participants estimated the perceived intensity of softness or pleasantness for each stimulus. In Experiment 2 (with a contextual task), the participants sequentially perceived two stimuli with different compliance levels and indicated which stimulus they perceived as softer and pleasant. The results showed that the psychophysical relationship between compliance and perceived softness was consistent across all tactile strategies in both experiments, with softness estimates increasing as compliance increased. However, the relationship between compliance and pleasantness differed between the two experiments. In Experiment 1, pleasantness estimates increased monotonically with increased compliance. However, in Experiment 2, across all tactile strategies, pleasantness began to decrease within the compliance range of 0.25–2.0 cm²/N, exhibiting an inverted U-shaped trend. These findings indicate that the relationship between compliance and pleasantness is task-dependent, particularly demonstrating significantly different trends when a contextual task is introduced. In contrast, the relationship between compliance and softness remained consistently monotonic. Full article

There are two key factors to consider before implementing a color discrimination experiment. First, a set of color patches should be selected or designed for the specific purpose of the experiment to be carried out. Second, the lighting conditions should be controlled to eliminate the impact of lighting instability on the experiment. This paper addresses both of these challenges. It proposes a method to print pairs of color patches with non-noticeable color differences. It also proposes a method to stabilize the Spectral Power Distributions (SPDs) of a Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lighting system. Finally, it introduces an experimental protocol for a color discrimination study that will be performed thanks to the contributions presented in this paper. Full article

A lower salt intake is an effective management strategy for hypertension and ultimately stroke. However, this strategy compromises the taste of food. To overcome this, a taste manipulation strategey using electronic taste simulation (ETS) has been established, but this has only been studied in healthy individuals. Therefore, this study aimed to demonstrate and quantitatively evaluate the taste enhancement effect of ETS in patients admitted to a hospital due to stroke. Twenty patients (mean = 67.8 ± 13.6 years) underwent two psychophysical experiments to assess the effects of ETS on salt taste perception using salt-impregnated filter paper. The patients’ stroke types included twelve ischemic and eight hemorrhagic strokes. The median salt taste thresholds without ETS and with ETS were 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively (p = 0.083). The perceived concentration for the 0.8% concentration increased from 0.8% to 1.0% with the ETS (p = 0.041), and for the 1.0% concentration, from 1.0% to 1.2% (p < 0.001). The findings suggest that ETS significantly enhances salty taste perception in patients who have experienced a stroke without altering salt concentration, potentially aiding in reducing daily salt intake. Further research is necessary to explore its broad applicability in dietary management and blood pressure control. Full article