Alice Chirico

The Potential of Virtual Reality for the Investigation of Awe

The emotion of awe is characterized by the perception of vastness and a need for accommodation, which can include a positive and/or negative valence. While a number of studies have successfully manipulated this emotion, the issue of how to elicit particularly intense awe experiences in laboratory settings remains. We suggest that virtual reality (VR) is a particularly effective mood induction tool for eliciting awe. VR provides three key assets for improving awe. First, VR provides users with immersive and ecological yet controlled environments that can elicit a sense of “presence,” the subjective experience of “being there” in a simulated reality. Further, VR can be used to generate complex, vast stimuli, which can target specific theoretical facets of awe. Finally, VR allows for convenient tracking of participants’ behavior and physiological responses, allowing for more integrated assessment of emotional experience. We discussed the potential and challenges of the proposed approach with an emphasis on VR’s capacity to raise the signal of reactions to emotions such as awe in laboratory settings.

Effectiveness of Immersive Videos in Inducing Awe: An Experimental Study

Awe, a complex emotion composed by the appraisal components of vastness and need for accommodation, is a profound and often meaningful experience. Despite its importance, psychologists have only recently begun empirical study of awe. At the experimental level, a main issue concerns how to elicit high intensity awe experiences in the lab. To address this issue, Virtual Reality (VR) has been proposed as a potential solution. Here, we considered the highest realistic form of VR: immersive videos. 42 participants watched at immersive and normal 2D videos displaying an awe or a neutral content. After the experience, they rated their level of awe and sense of presence. Participants’ psychophysiological responses (BVP, SC, sEMG) were recorded during the whole video exposure. We hypothesized that the immersive video condition would increase the intensity of awe experienced compared to 2D screen videos. Results indicated that immersive videos significantly enhanced the self-reported intensity of awe as well as the sense of presence. Immersive videos displaying an awe content also led to higher parasympathetic activation. These findings indicate the advantages of using VR in the experimental study of awe, with methodological implications for the study of other emotions.

When music “flows”. State and trait in musical performance, composition and listening: a systematic review

It is not unusual to experience a sense of total absorption, concentration, action-awareness, distortion of time and intrinsic enjoyment during an activity that involves music. Indeed, it is noted that there is a special relationship between these two aspects (i.e., music and flow experience). In order to deeply explore flow in the musical domain, it is crucial to consider the complexity of the flow experience—both as a “state” and as a “trait.” Secondly, since music is a multifaceted domain, it is necessary to concentrate on specific music settings, such as (i) musical composition; (ii) listening; and (iii) musical performance. To address these issues, the current review aims to outline flow experience as a “trait” and as a “state” in the three above-mentioned musical domains. Clear and useful guidelines to distinguish between flow as a “state” and as a “trait” are provided by literature concerning flow assessment. For this purpose, three aspects of the selected studies are discussed and analyzed: (i) the characteristics of the flow assessments used; (ii) the experimental design; (iii) the results; and (iv) the interrelations between the three domains. Results showed that the dispositional approach is predominant in the above-mentioned settings, mainly regarding music performance. Several aspects concerning musical contexts still need to be deeply analyzed. Future challenges could include the role of a group level of analysis, overcoming a frequency approach toward dispositional flow, and integrating both state and dispositional flow perspectives in order to deepen comprehension of how flow takes place in musical contexts. Finally, to explain the complex relationship between these two phenomena, we suggest that music and flow could be seen as an emergent embodied system.

A Novel Technique for Improving Bodily Experience in a Non-operable Super–Super Obesity Case

Introduction: The available clinical guidelines for super-super obese patients (i.e., with body mass index (BMI) > 60 kg/m2) that are not suitable for bariatric surgery mandate a palliative multidisciplinary treatment (i.e., production and maintenance of weight loss) provided in a center of excellence. However, the modality and the impact of this approach are still controversial. Moreover, it is not able to address the high level of body dissatisfaction and body distortions that are common among these patients. Clinical Presentation: We report the case of a non-operable super–super obesity – a 37 year old woman with a BMI of 62 kg/m2 – receiving a specialized treatment for her obstructive sleep apnea. She entered a multidisciplinary program that promoted healthy behaviors, including physical activities and psychological intervention. To improve body dissatisfaction, which was linked to a significant multisensory impairment of body perception, she also entered a virtual reality (VR) body-swapping illusion protocol. At the end of the current investigation, the patient continued her multidisciplinary program, reporting an increase in the motivation for undertaking healthy behavior and a decrease in the anxiety feelings associated with her clinical condition. Conclusion: This case provides preliminary evidence that both body dissatisfaction and body-size distortions of non-operable super-super obesity patients could be addressed by a VR body-swapping protocol, which is important because the palliative multidisciplinary treatment recommended for these patients is not able to address them. Interestingly, the use of a VR body-swapping illusion protocol seems to be able to improve not only the experience of the body in these patients but their motivation for change, too.

Testing Augmented Reality for Cue Exposure in Obese Patients: An Exploratory Study

Binge eating is one of the key behaviors in relation to the etiology and severity of obesity. Cue exposure with response prevention consists of exposing patients to binge foods while actual eating is not allowed. Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to change the way cue exposure is administered, but very few prior studies have been conducted so far. Starting from these premises, this study was aimed to (a) investigate whether AR foods elicit emotional responses comparable to those produced by the real stimuli, (b) study differences between obese and control participants in terms of emotional responses to food, and (c) compare emotional responses to different categories of foods. To reach these goals, we assess in 15 obese (age, 44.6 ± 13 years; body mass index [BMI], 44.2 ± 8.1) and 15 control participants (age, 43.7 ± 12.8 years; BMI, 21.2 ± 1.4) the emotional responses to high-calorie (savory and sweet) and low-calorie food stimuli, presented through different exposure conditions (real, photographic, and AR). The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was used for the assessment of state anxiety, and it was administered at the beginning and after the exposure to foods, along with the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for Hunger and Happiness. To assess the perceived pleasantness, the VAS for Palatability was administered after the exposure to food stimuli. Heart rate, skin conductance response, and facial corrugator supercilii muscle activation were recorded. Although preliminary, the results showed that (a) AR food stimuli were perceived to be as palatable as real stimuli, and they also triggered a similar arousal response; (b) obese individuals showed lower happiness after the exposure to food compared to control participants, with regard to both psychological and physiological responses; and (c) high-calorie savory (vs. low-calorie) food stimuli were perceived by all the participants to be more palatable, and they triggered a greater arousal response.

Designing Awe in Virtual Reality: An Experimental Study

Awe is a little-studied emotion with a great transformative potential. Therefore, the interest toward the study of awe’s underlying mechanisms has been increased. Specifically, researchers have been interested in how to reproduce intense feelings of awe within laboratory conditions. It has been proposed that the use of virtual reality (VR) could be an effective way to induce awe in controlled experimental settings, thanks to its ability of providing participants with a sense of “presence,” that is, the subjective feeling of being displaced in another physical or imaginary place. However, the potential of VR as awe-inducing medium has not been fully tested yet. In the present study, we provided an evidence-based design and a validation of four immersive virtual environments (VEs) involving 36 participants in a within-subject design. Of these, three VEs were designed to induce awe, whereas the fourth VE was targeted as an emotionally neutral stimulus. Participants self-reported the extent to which they felt awe, general affect and sense of presence related to each environment. As expected, results showed that awe-VEs could induce significantly higher levels of awe and presence as compared to the neutral VE. Furthermore, these VEs induced significantly more positive than negative affect. These findings supported the potential of immersive VR for inducing awe and provide useful indications for the design of awe-inspiring virtual environments.

Automatic imitation of the arm kinematic profile in interacting partners

Abstract Cognitive neuroscience, traditionally focused on individual brains, is just beginning to investigate social cognition through realistic interpersonal interaction. However, quantitative investigation of the dynamical sensorimotor communication among interacting individuals in goal-directed ecological tasks is particularly challenging. Here, we recorded upper-body motion capture of 23 dyads, alternating their leader/follower role, in a tower-building task. Either a strategy of joining efforts or a strategy of independent action could in principle be used. We found that arm reach velocity profiles of participants tended to converge across trials. Automatic imitation of low-level motor control parameters demonstrates that the task is achieved through continuous action coordination as opposed to independent action planning. Moreover, the leader produced more consistent and predictable velocity profiles, suggesting an implicit strategy of signaling to the follower. This study serves as a validation of our joint goal-directed non-verbal task for future applications. In fact, the quantification of human-to-human continuous sensorimotor interaction, in a way that can be predicted and controlled, is probably one of the greatest challenges for the future of human–robot interaction.

Networked Flow in musical bands

This study aimed at using the Networked Flow (NF) model to investigate group collaboration in the context of musical bands. We analyzed the relationship between flow, social presence, structural dynamics and performance as they related to 15 bands in a rehearsal room. Flow was measured using the Flow State Scale; social presence was assessed with the Networked Minds Social Presence scale; and interpersonal communication structure (exchange of gazes and verbal orders) was assessed by means of Social Network Analysis (SNA). In addition, we considered: (a) a subjective measure of performance, rated by each member on an ad-hoc questionnaire; and (b) an expert rating of performance, based on the evaluation of audio-video recordings of each group. Findings showed the multifaceted nature of the relationship between social presence and flow. Group flow score was a significant predictor of self-reported performance, but not of expert-evaluated performance. Moreover, several correlations were found between flow, social presence and patterns of interpersonal coordination (both implicit and explicit). Specifically, SNA reveals that flow was positively related to exchanges of gazes and negatively associated with exchanges of orders. Overall, this study contributes to further elucidating the complex interplay between group flow and intersubjective dynamics in music collaboration.

Multilevel Behavioral Synchronization in a Joint Tower-Building Task

Human to human sensorimotor interaction can only be fully understood by modeling the patterns of bodily synchronization and reconstructing the underlying mechanisms of optimal cooperation. We designed a tower-building task to address such a goal. We recorded upper body kinematics of dyads and focused on the velocity profiles of the head and wrist. We applied recurrence quantification analysis to examine the dynamics of synchronization within, and across the experimental trials, to compare the roles of leader and follower. Our results show that the leader was more auto-recurrent than the follower to make his/her behavior more predictable. When looking at the cross-recurrence of the dyad, we find different patterns of synchronization for head and wrist motion. On the wrist, dyads synchronized at short lags, and such a pattern was weakly modulated within trials, and invariant across them. Head motion, instead, synchronized at longer lags and increased both within and between trials: a phenomenon mostly driven by the leader. Our findings point at a multilevel nature of human to human sensorimotor synchronization, and may provide an experimentally solid benchmark to identify the basic primitives of motion, which maximize behavioral coupling between humans and artificial agents.

New Technologies as Opportunities for Flow Experience: A Framework for the Analysis

New technologies present remarkable opportunities for flow experience. We provide an integrated theoretical framework for the study of flow in Human-Technologies Interaction referring to two specific cognitive processes – presence and social presence – whose goals are the control of the activity of the Self (presence) and the understanding of the activity of the Other (social presence). On the individual level, the chance for a technology user to enter a state of flow depends on how much the technology addresses the user’s hierarchy of intentions (presence): I am present in a real or virtual space if I manage to put my intentions into action (enacting them). On this basis, we elaborate on a new model aimed to describe how a “Perfect Interaction” (P.I.M.) takes place. On the collective level, research shows that a peculiar type of flow state could be reached by creative groups. Central to the presented model is the definition of a shared intersubjective space, which we identify with (highest level of) social presence. When this is achieved, participants can experience networked flow, an optimal state that maximizes the creative potential of the group.