Press release and media coverages
Some of our findings (see below for detail) have been press released and covered by popular medias.
The grape hanging high up on the tree is indeed perceived as unripe?: Decision making and the effort to express the decision
- Hagura N, Haggard P, Diedrichsen J.
Perceptual decisions are biased by the cost to act. eLife, pii: e18422. 2017
Press release
https://www.nict.go.jp/press/2017/02/22-1.html
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2017/feb/humans-are-hard-wired-follow-path-least-resistance
Perceptual decision making refers to a decision based on the feature of the sensory input, such as the redness of the apple while choosing the reddest apple from the basket. Previous studies have mainly focused on the neuronal mechanisms of how the sensory feature is transformed into the decision. Instead, we focused on the effort required to express after the decision, and found that the effort is also incorporated in the decision-making process, and can even change the interpretation of the feature (i.e. apple requiring more effort to pick does not look red).
The study shows the inter-dependency of perception and action and gained attention in the media.
“Spotlight” paper in Trends in Cognitive Sciences
https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(17)30049-9Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinebeaton/2017/02/22/new-research-shows-that-were-wired-to-take-the-path-of-least-resistance/?sh=4267271366d3Neuroscience News
https://neurosciencenews.com/path-of-least-resistance-6139/Is the ball really slowing down when about to hit the ball?: Time dilation effect during motor preparation
- Hagura N, Kanai R, Orgs G, Haggard P.
Ready steady slow: action preparation slows the subjective passage of time. Proceedings of the Royal Society B; Biological Sciences. 279: 4399-4406. 2012
Press release
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2012/sep/ready-steady-slow-why-top-sportsmen-might-have-more-time-ball
Legendary Japanese baseball player, Tetsuharu Kawakami, said that the “ball slows down when about to hit it”. John McEnroe, a famous tennis player, has also said similar things. Inspired by these anecdotes, we show that this experience is not unique to the superstars. When the participants are preparing to move their hands to the target, visual processing towards the target increases, and the time if felt slowed down. This shows that the visual processing is not simply about processing of the input but is modulated by the state of the process to generate action.
Since this captures the mechanism underlying the anecdotes of the athletes, it was covered by the media world-wide.
BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-19477623LeFigaro
https://sante.lefigaro.fr/actualite/2012/09/06/19002-comment-grands-sportifs-arrivent-ralentir-tempsNational Geographic
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/ready-steady-slow-time-slows-down-when-we-prepare-to-moveIs Szechuan pepper spicy?: The reason why Szechuan pepper makes buzz on your tongue
- Cataldo A*, Hagura N*, Hyder Y, Haggard P.
Touch inhibits touch: sanshool-induced paradoxical tingling reveals perceptual interaction between somatosensory submodalities. Proceedings of the Royal Society B; Biological Sciences. 288:20202914. 2021 - Kuroki S*, Hagura N*, Nishida S, Haggard P, Watanabe J. Sanshool on the fingertip interferes with vibration detection in a rapidly-adapting (RA) tactile channel. PloS One, 11: e0165842. 2016
- Hagura N*, Barber H, Haggard P. Food vibrations: Asian spice sets lips trembling. Proceedings of the Royal Society B; Biological Sciences. 280: 20131680. 2013.
Press release
People believe that Szechuan pepper used in Chinese cuisine is hot and spicy. However, physiological studies have revealed that the main component of this pepper, sanshool, activates the light-touch sensors on the skin. In the series of studies, we showed that the sanshool seems to activate the sets of fibres that specifically process the flatter-range vibratory input; in other words, putting sanshool on the lips is somehow equivalent to putting a 30-50Hz vibrator on the lips. We also proposed that the sanshool can be used to study the interaction between light-touch fibres which responds to different input frequencies.
Due to the general interest to our daily culinary experiences, the study was captured attention of the medias.
