Search Results (2)

One significant obstacle to gaining a widespread awareness of the ongoing climate change is the nature of its manifestations in relation to our perception: climate change effects are gradual, distributed, and sometimes seemingly contradictory. These features result in a lag in collective climate action and sometimes foster climate skepticism and climate denial. While the literature on climate change perception and belief has thoroughly explored its sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects, research on the potential contribution of psychophysiological factors remains scarce. In this perspective paper, we outline evidence and arguments for the involvement of psychophysiological systems such as thermoception, hygroreception, and interoception in modulating climate change awareness. We discuss psychophysiological mechanisms of climate change awareness in animals and humans, as well as possible sources of individual variance in climate change perception. We conclude by suggesting novel research questions which would be worthwhile to pursue in future studies. Full article

Prosthetic hand systems aim at restoring lost functionality in amputees. Manipulation and grasping are the main functions of the human hand, which are provided by skin sensitivity capable of protecting the hand from damage and perceiving the external environment. The present study aims at proposing a novel control strategy which improves the ability of the prosthetic hand to interact with the external environment by fostering the interaction of tactile (forces and slipping) and thermoceptive sensory information and by using them to guarantee grasp stability and improve user safety. The control strategy is based on force control with an internal position loop and slip detection, which is able to manage temperature information thanks to the interaction with objects at different temperatures. This architecture has been tested on a prosthetic hand, i.e., the IH2 Azzurra developed by Prensilia s.r.l, in different temperature and slippage conditions. The prosthetic system successfully performed the grasping tasks by managing the tactile and thermal information simultaneously. In particular, the system is able to guarantee a stable grasp during the execution of the tasks. Additionally, in the presence of an external stimulus (thermal or slippage), the prosthetic hand is able to react and always reacts to the stimulus instantaneously (reaction times ≤ 0.04 s, comparable to the one of the human being), regardless of its nature and in accordance with the control strategy. In this way, the prosthetic device is protected from damaging temperatures, the user is alerted of a dangerous situation and the stability of the grasp is restored in the event of a slip. Full article