Biomedical subjects

Sara Forti

Publications and source records attributed to Sara Forti.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Cross-modal visuo-tactile matching in a patient with a semantic disorder.

This study is concerned with the nature of object representations coded within and between vision and touch, assessed through a study of perceptual matching abilities in a patient with impaired semantic knowledge for objects: JP. Prior work with JP has indicated that she has a category-specific deficit that is particularly severe for tools (see the Case report and Humphreys, G. W., Vernier, M. -P., & Riddoch, M. J. A semantic deficit for tools, in preparation). Here, we test whether, despite this semantic deficit, JP can perform object matching under various conditions. We demonstrate that JP could perform matching across sensory modalities (between touch and vision) when objects appeared in the same view, but this did not generalise across views. In addition, JP was able to match from 3D felt representations to 2D visual representations provided the stimuli were real (previously familiar) objects. The data support the idea that matching between touch and vision can be based on common view-specific, perceptual representations, sensitive to the familiarity of individual objects.

Aged↗

PubMed2004

Visuomotor cuing through tool use in unilateral visual neglect.

In the present study, the authors examined the effect of tool use in a patient, MP, with neglect of peripersonal space. They found that target detection improved when the patient searched with his arm outstretched, when both visual and motor cues were present. Motor cues (arm outstretched but hidden from view) and visual cues alone (shining a torch on the objects) were less effective. In a final experiment, the authors reported that MP established a better memory for the objects that were searched for when a combined visual and motor cue was present. The authors argue that search was improved by combined visuomotor cuing, which was effective when the action could affect the objects present. Visuomotor cuing also led to stronger memories for searched locations, which reduced any tendency to reexamine positions that had been searched previously. The data are discussed in terms of the interaction between perception and action.

Arm↗

PubMed2003

A brief and unobtrusive instrument to detect simulation and exaggeration in patients with whiplash syndrome.

The objective of this study was to develop and test a brief and unobtrusive instrument to detect exaggeration and simulation in whiplash syndrome. The instrument consists of eight scenarios with ten response options that have to be ordered according to how easy a behavior is to perform. Twenty-five simulating and 25 non-simulating patients with whiplash syndrome of grades 2 and 3 according to the Quebec Task Force classification as well as 25 simulating and 25 non-simulating controls completed the instrument. In a cross-validation study 20 controls and 20 patients participated. Malingering and exaggeration scores were determined for each subject and patient. The scores were summed up and compared across malingering and exaggerating subjects and controls and cut-off values were determined to classify the patients. T-tests and a discriminant analysis were used to determine classification accuracy. The instrument correctly identified 94% of the simulators and 84% of the exaggerators in both samples. This brief and unobtrusive instrument can detect exaggeration and simulation in whiplash syndrome.

Adult↗