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Articles by Anina Rich
The experience of tickling and ticklishness is the same across cultures: new research Original
We’ve all been tickled. We all know our ticklish spots, and we all know how we respond when these are tickled: helpless laughter, attempts at escape, perhaps screaming and retaliation. Is this a universal response among humans, or – like some other physical sensations and reactions – does it depend on culture? And for that matter, why do we react this way at all to this particular kind of touch?
Vous avez des difficultés de concentration ? Voici quelques astuces pour améliorer vos capacités d’attention
Sollicités en permanence par les notifications de nos ordinateurs ou de nos téléphones, nous avons l’impression que notre attention se morcelle. Et à raison, car notre cerveau n’est pas vraiment « multitâche ». Heureusement, il est possible de reprendre la main sur notre concentration. « Ding ! » – ce son de notification, conçu pour capter notre attention, ne nous est que trop familier.
Struggle to pay attention? How to tweak your life to help you focus
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Ding—that's an all-too-familiar sound, designed to instantly capture your attention. The average adult receives at least 46 push notifications a day from their smartphone—roughly one every 20 minutes during waking hours. These interruptions might seem like a small price to pay for staying connected. However, research shows these attention-grabbing features increase stress and reduce productivity.
Struggle to pay attention? How to tweak your life to help you focus Original
Ding – that’s an all too familiar sound, designed to instantly capture your attention. The average adult receives at least 46 push notifications a day from their smartphone – roughly one every 20 minutes during waking hours. These interruptions might seem like a small price to pay for staying connected. However, research shows these attention-grabbing features increase stress and reduce productivity.
Sentir le goût des mots, entendre le son des couleurs… Comment la science explique‑t‑elle la synesthésie ?
De 1 % à 4 % de la population mondiale présenterait une synesthésie. Ce phénomène, qui se traduit par l’association de plusieurs sens, fascine et intrigue les scientifiques. [Un article de The Conversation écrit par Sophie Smit - Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Sydney & Anina Rich - Professor and Head of Synaesthesia Research Group, Macquarie University] Avez-vous déjà « goûté » un mot, ou vu des couleurs en écoutant de la musique ?
Up to 4% of People Can Hear Colors or Taste Words. Here's Why.
Have you ever tasted a word, or seen colors while listening to music? If you have, you may be among the 1% to 4% of people who have a fascinating trait known as synaesthesia. Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where the activation of one sense, such as hearing, triggers the activation of another, usually unrelated sense, such as sight. This means people with synaesthesia often experience additional sensations compared to the rest of us.
Sentir le goût des mots, entendre le son des couleurs… Comment la science explique‑t‑elle la synesthésie ?
De 1 % à 4 % de la population mondiale présenterait une synesthésie. Ce phénomène, qui se traduit par l’association de plusieurs sens, fascine et intrigue les scientifiques. Avez-vous déjà « goûté » un mot, ou vu des couleurs en écoutant de la musique ? Si c’est le cas, vous faites peut-être partie des 1 % à 4 % de personnes dotées d’une fascinante particularité : la synesthésie.
Do you taste words or hear colors? Here's the neuroscience behind synesthesia
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Have you ever tasted a word, or seen colors while listening to music? If you have, you may be among the 1% to 4% of people who have a fascinating trait known as synesthesia. Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where the activation of one sense, such as hearing, triggers the activation of another usually unrelated sense, such as sight. This means people with synesthesia often experience additional sensations compared to the rest of us.
Do you taste words or hear colours? Here’s the neuroscience behind synaesthesia
Have you ever tasted a word, or seen colours while listening to music? If you have, you may be among the 1% to 4% of people who have a fascinating trait known as synaesthesia. Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where the activation of one sense, such as hearing, triggers the activation of another usually unrelated sense, such as sight. This means people with synaesthesia often experience additional sensations compared to the rest of us.
Characteristics of vicarious touch reports in a general population
Abstract Vicarious touch broadly refers to sensory, neural, or affective responses to observing touch on another person. In this study, we focus on the conscious experience of these sensations. We collected vicarious touch reports from 422 undergraduate students who viewed videos from the Validated Touch-Video Database (VTD), a stimulus set systematically rated for hedonic qualities, arousal, and perceived threat levels.
Spatiotemporal characterisation of information coding and exchange in the multiple demand network
Abstract The multiple-demand network (MDN), a brain-wide system with nodes near sensory and higher-order cognitive regions, has been suggested to integrate and exchange task-related information across the brain, supporting cognitive task performance. However, the profile of information coding and the role of each node within this network in information exchange remain unclear. To address this, we combined fMRI and MEG data in a challenging stimulus-response mapping task.
Characteristics of vicarious touch reports in a general population
Abstract Vicarious touch refers to the phenomenon where individuals experience tactile sensations when observing another person being touched. This study explored vicarious touch reports in 422 undergraduate students using videos from the Validated Touch-Video Database (VTD), rated for hedonic qualities, arousal, and perceived threat levels.
Characteristics of vicarious touch reports in a general population
Abstract Vicarious sensory perception occurs when one feels touch or pain while observing others experiencing these sensations. Here we examined vicarious sensory perception in a large sample of undergraduate students (N = 422) using videos from the Validated Touch-Video Database, which depict various tactile interactions and have been independently rated for hedonic qualities, arousal levels, and perceived threat.
Selective attention and decision-making have separable neural bases in space and time
Abstract Attention and decision-making processes are fundamental to cognition. However, they are usually experimentally confounded, making it difficult to link neural observations to specific processes. Here we separated the effects of selective attention from the effects of decision-making on human brain activity, using a two-stage task where the attended stimulus and decision were orthogonal and separated in time.
Vicarious touch: overlapping neural patterns between seeing and feeling touch
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Chocolate smells pink and stripy: Exploring olfactory-visual synesthesia
Cogn Neurosci. 2015 Jul 3; 6(2-3): 77–88. Chocolate smells pink and stripy: Exploring olfactory-visual synesthesiaAlex Russell aSchool of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia bCentre for Gambling Education and Research, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia Richard J. Stevenson cPerception & Action Research Centre, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia dDepartment of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia Anina N.
Curious Kids: Why are we ticklish?
This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky! Hi Magali. Thanks for your great question. People have asked this question for years. Lots of scientists have thought they knew the answer but then other scientists have found they were wrong. The real answer is that scientists still don’t really know why we are ticklish.
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