Nicola Bruno

Università degli Studi di Parma (Italy), Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Faculty Member

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Full professor of General Psychology at University of Parma, Italy.

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Papers by Nicola Bruno

Face masks modulate non-verbal communication in selfies, but do not affect beauty ratings

Research Square (Research Square), Sep 29, 2022

Widespread use of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated interest in their effect... more Widespread use of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated interest in their effect on interpersonal communication. We asked whether face masks modulate posing during sel e-taking and whether they affect the attractiveness of the poser. We collected a dataset of sel e pairs (one with and one without the mask) from a population of university community members. Results replicated wellknown posing biases in sel es, including a preference for displaying the left cheek and a sex-related difference in facial prominence. However, these biases were modulated by face masks, which caused a marked increase of frontal poses in comparison to three-quarter poses (for both left-and right-cheek face rotations), and a weaker but still signi cant increase in facial prominence of both male and female takers. In contrast, beauty ratings did not differ between mask and no-mask sel es by the same individuals. These results support models of sel es as means of non-verbal communication, whereas do not support recent reports that face masks enhance facial beauty. (word count = 170

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Perception and action in unimodal and crossmodal illusions: Towards a resolution of a long-standing debate in behavioural cognitive neuroscience

Behavioral perception-action dissociations are widely used to test models of high-level vision1,2... more Behavioral perception-action dissociations are widely used to test models of high-level vision1,2, but debates concerning their interpretation have neglected a key issue. Environmental determinants of behavior are fundamentally multisensory3, and sensorimotor tasks can engage multisensory processing in fundamentally different ways in comparison to perceptual tasks. To test this idea, we compared perception and action with a well-understood size-contrast illusion, manipulating both unimodal and crossmodal stimulation as well conditions that are known to favor or hinder multisensory integration. Results demonstrate that varying such conditions can cause a visual task to be affected by the illusion, or remain fully unaffected, whereas a visuomotor task can be affected by the illusion, remain immune from the illusion, or, unexpectedly, even show a robust reverse effect. Thus, similar or dissociable effects on perception and action can be observed depending on factors that are known to a...

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Asymmetric Effect of Distractor Graspable Objects on Successive Actual Grasps

Cognition

Psychological Concepts, 2020

Perception. Perceiving Space in Pictures

Throughout history, humans have used pictures to convey information about the three-dimensional l... more Throughout history, humans have used pictures to convey information about the three-dimensional layout of the environment and the volumetric structure of objects. There is little doubt that this form of visual communication can be useful practically (e.g. in technical drawings or maps) as well as aesthetically pleasing (e.g. in artistic paintings, prints, or photographs). Yet, pictures are two-dimensional, dimensionally limited, and constrained in intensity and chromaticity. By construction, visual information in pictures undersamples visual information available in the three-dimensional environment. This being the case, how can we perceive space in pictures? In this chapter, I propose a conceptual scheme for understanding visual information about space. The scheme is based on the concept of ambient optic array developed by J. J. Gibson, and on the key idea that information is available in space-time for an embodied moving observer. I then show how this scheme can be used to identif...

Neuroscienze cognitive. L'essenziale

Colored backgrounds and perceptual sensitivity

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Action preparation in grasping reveals generalization of precision between implicit and explicit motor processes

Neuropsychologia, 2020

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

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Perception

Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018

Perception: A Multisensory Perspective examines multisensory interactions as the key process behi... more Perception: A Multisensory Perspective examines multisensory interactions as the key process behind how we perceive our own body, control its movements, perceive and recognize objects, respond to edible objects, perceive space, and perceive time. In addition, the book discusses multisensory processing in synaesthesia, multisensory attention, and the role of multisensory processing in learning. Multisensory phenomena in these domains are used to identify general principles, to introduce formal models, to present experimental methods, to discuss pathologies, and to illustrate applications within the domain of multisensory processing. The book is written to be understandable to the educated non-specialist and will be of interest to professionals who need to take into account multisensory processing in domains such as, for instance, physiotherapy and neurological rehabilitation, human–computer interfaces, or marketing. As the chapters address topics that are mostly left out of standard ...

Acta Psychologica, 2018

Perception is relational: object properties are perceived in comparison to the spatiotemporal con... more Perception is relational: object properties are perceived in comparison to the spatiotemporal context rather than absolutely. This principle predicts well known contrast effects: For instance, the same sphere will feel smaller after feeling a larger sphere and larger after feeling a smaller sphere (the Uznadze effect). In a series of experiments, we used a visual version of the Uznadze effect to test whether such contrast effects can be modulated by organizational factors, such as the similarity between the contrasting inducer stimulus and the contrasted induced stimulus. We report that this is indeed the case: size contrast is attenuated for inducer-inducing pairs having different 3D shapes, orientations, and evensurprisinglycolor and lightness, in comparison to equivalent conditions where these features are the same. These findings complement related work in revealing basic mechanisms for fine-tuning local interactions in space-time in accord to the global stimulus context.

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The Three-Dimensional Necker Cube

Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017

The Necker cube is a widely known example of a reversible figure. Perceptual reversals were first... more The Necker cube is a widely known example of a reversible figure. Perceptual reversals were first observed in engravings of crystals by the Swiss geologist Louis Albert Necker in 1832. Although Necker’s engravings were not exactly of regular cubes, the figure as it is used now can be perceived in two alternative arrangements of a three-dimensional (3D) cube. Although less widely known than the popular two-dimensional version, the 3D Necker cube is a surprisingly rich model for psychophysical investigation. This chapter summarizes relevant main results and their implications for diverse theoretical issues such as the definition of visual illusions, the role of global three-dimensional interpretations in the integration of local sensory signals, and the exploratory and multisensory nature of perceptual processes.

Visual Illusions in Action

Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017

This chapter presents a review of the evidence supporting the notion that motor responses may res... more This chapter presents a review of the evidence supporting the notion that motor responses may resist visual illusions. It asks the question of whether actions will be affected by illusions. The review is selective, as dictated by space constraints, and highly critical because the interpretation of the relevant evidence remains controversial. The conclusions underscore the theoretical relevance, as well as the heuristic value, of studies of illusion effects on action responses. At the same time, however, they offer a warning concerning past interpretations of this literature and suggest that the proposed immunity of actions from visual illusions may be much more limited than proposed in earlier accounts.

Shareability: novel perspective on human-media interaction

Frontiers in Computer Science

Interpersonal communication in the twenty-first century is increasingly taking place within digit... more Interpersonal communication in the twenty-first century is increasingly taking place within digital media. This poses the problem of understanding the factors that may facilitate or hinder communication processes in virtual contexts. Digital media require a human-machine interface, and the analysis of human-machine interfaces traditionally focuses on the dimension of usability. However, interface usability pertains to the interaction of users with digital devices, not to the interaction of users with other users. Here we argue that there is another dimension of human-media interaction that has remained largely unexplored, but plays a key role in interpersonal communication within digital media: shareability. We define shareability as the resultant of a set of interface features that: (i) make sharing of materials with fellow users easy, efficient, and timely (sharing-related usability); (ii) include features that intuitively invite users to share materials (sharing-related affordanc...

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The role of binocular disparity in depth-inversion illusions studied with synopters and pseudoscopes

Journal of Vision, 2018

Precision in grasping: Consistent with Weber's law, but constrained by “safety margins”

Neuropsychologia, 2021

Whether the visuomotor coding of size in grasping obeys Weber's law is currently debated. Fol... more Whether the visuomotor coding of size in grasping obeys Weber's law is currently debated. Following up on previous work from our laboratory, here we investigated the precision associated with the maximum in-flight index-thumb aperture (MGA) in grasping small-to-medium sized objects. We report three main findings. First, grasp preparation was longer with 5 mm objects and became increasingly faster as object size increased from 10 to 20-40 mm. Second, MGA variable errors increased as sizes increased from 5 to 10-20 mm, whereas they decreased as size reached 40 mm. Third, MGA distributions were symmetrical with 5 mm objects, but became increasingly right-skewed as size increased. These results, as well as a re-analysis of previous findings, suggest that the precision of visuomotor representations varies as a function of size, consistent with the key principle underlying Weber's law. However, a fundamental constraint on precision grips (the MGA must always exceed physical size) changes the skew of the distribution and reduces the variability of MGAs as size increases from very small to medium.

Asymmetric effects of graspable distractor disks on motor preparation of successive grasps: A behavioural and event-related potential (ERP) study

International Journal of Psychophysiology, 2020

There is evidence that seeing a graspable object automatically elicits a preparatory motor proces... more There is evidence that seeing a graspable object automatically elicits a preparatory motor process. However, it is unclear whether this implicit visuomotor process might influence the preparation of a successive grasp for a different object. We addressed the issue by implementing a combined behavioural and electrophysiological paradigm. Participants performed pantomimed grasps directed to small or large disks with either a two (pincer) or a five-finger (pentapod) grip, after the presentation of congruent (same size) or incongruent (different size) distractor disks. Preview reaction times (PRTs) and response-locked lateralized readiness potentials (R-LRPs) were recorded as online indices of motor preparation. Results revealed asymmetric effects of the distractors on PRTs and R-LRPs. For pincer grip disks, incongruent distractors were associated with longer PRTs and a delayed R-LRP peak. For pentapod grip disks, conversely, incongruent distractors were associated with shorter PRTs and a delayed R-LRP onset. Supporting an interpretation of these effects as tapping into motor preparation, we did not observe modulations of stimulus-locked LRP's (sensitive to sensory processing), or of the P300 component (related to reallocating attentional resources). These results challenge models (i.e., the "dorsal amnesia" hypothesis) which assume that visuomotor information presented before a grasp will not affect how we later perform that grasp.

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A New Neurorehabilitative Postsurgery Intervention for Facial Palsy Based on Smile Observation and Hand-Mouth Motor Synergies

Neural Plasticity, 2021

Objective. To perform a preliminary test of a new rehabilitation treatment (FIT-SAT), based on mi... more Objective. To perform a preliminary test of a new rehabilitation treatment (FIT-SAT), based on mirror mechanisms, for gracile muscles after smile surgery. Method. A pre- and postsurgery longitudinal design was adopted to study the efficacy of FIT-SAT. Four patients with bilateral facial nerve paralysis (Moebius syndrome) were included. They underwent two surgeries with free muscle transfers, one year apart from each other. The side of the face first operated on was rehabilitated with the traditional treatment, while the second side was rehabilitated with FIT-SAT. The FIT-SAT treatment includes video clips of an actor performing a unilateral or a bilateral smile to be imitated (FIT condition). In addition to this, while smiling, the participants close their hand in order to exploit the overlapped cortical motor representation of the hand and the mouth, which may facilitate the synergistic activity of the two effectors during the early phases of recruitment of the transplanted muscles...

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The Uznadze illusion reveals similar effects of relative size on perception and action

Experimental Brain Research, 2019

Milner and Goodale (the visual brain in action, Oxford University Press Inc., Oxford, 1995) propo... more Milner and Goodale (the visual brain in action, Oxford University Press Inc., Oxford, 1995) proposed a functional dissociation between vision-for-action and vision-for-perception (i.e., the "two-visual system hypothesis", TVSH). Supporting the TVSH, it has been claimed that visual illusions affect perception but not actions. However, at least for the Ebbinghaus illusion, numerous studies have revealed consistent illusion effects on grasping. Thus, whether illusions affect actions remains controversial. To further investigate the dissociation predicted by the TVSH, we used a visual version of the Uznadze illusion (the same stimulus will feel smaller after feeling a larger stimulus and larger after feeling a smaller stimulus). Based on kinematic recordings of finger aperture in a motor (precision grip) and a perceptual task (manual estimation), we report two main findings. First, both action and perception are strongly affected by the Uznadze illusion. Second, the illusion decreases similarly in both tasks when inducing-induced pairs had different shape and color, in comparison to the equivalent condition where these features are the same. These results are inconsistent with a perception-action dissociation as predicted by the TVSH and suggest that, at least in the present conditions, vision-for-perception and vision-for-action are similarly affected by contextual cues.

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Both vision-for-perception and vision-for-action follow Weber's law at small object sizes, but violate it at larger sizes

Neuropsychologia, 2016

According to a previous report, the visual coding of size does not obey Weber&amp;amp;amp;amp... more According to a previous report, the visual coding of size does not obey Weber&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s law when aimed at guiding a grasp (Ganel et al., 2008a). This result has been interpreted as evidence for a fundamental difference between sensory processing in vision-for-perception, which needs to compress a wide range of physical objects to a restricted range of percepts, and vision-for-action when applied to the much narrower range of graspable and reachable objects. We compared finger aperture in a motor task (precision grip) and perceptual task (cross modal matching or &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;manual estimation&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; of the object&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s size). Crucially, we tested the whole range of graspable objects. We report that both grips and estimations clearly violate Weber&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s law with medium-to-large objects, but are essentially consistent with Weber&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s law with smaller objects. These results differ from previous characterizations of perception-action dissociations in the precision of representations of object size. Implications for current functional interpretations of the dorsal and ventral processing streams in the human visual system are discussed.

Nonverbal communication in selfies posted on Instagram: Another look at the effect of gender on vertical camera angle

PLOS ONE, 2020

SORANZO, Alessandro and BRUNO, Nicola (2020). Nonverbal communication in selfies posted on Instag... more

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