Showing papers by "Alessandro D'Ausilio published in 2012"

Arduino: a low-cost multipurpose lab equipment.

Abstract: Typical experiments in psychological and neurophysiological settings often require the accurate control of multiple input and output signals. These signals are often generated or recorded via computer software and/or external dedicated hardware. Dedicated hardware is usually very expensive and requires additional software to control its behavior. In the present article, I present some accuracy tests on a low-cost and open-source I/O board (Arduino family) that may be useful in many lab environments. One of the strengths of Arduinos is the possibility they afford to load the experimental script on the board’s memory and let it run without interfacing with computers or external software, thus granting complete independence, portability, and accuracy. Furthermore, a large community has arisen around the Arduino idea and offers many hardware add-ons and hundreds of free scripts for different projects. Accuracy tests show that Arduino boards may be an inexpensive tool for many psychological and neurophysiological labs.

Leadership in orchestra emerges from the causal relationships of movement kinematics.

Abstract: Non-verbal communication enables efficient transfer of information among people In this context, classic orchestras are a remarkable instance of interaction and communication aimed at a common aesthetic goal: musicians train for years in order to acquire and share a non-linguistic framework for sensorimotor communication To this end, we recorded violinists' and conductors' movement kinematics during execution of Mozart pieces, searching for causal relationships among musicians by using the Granger Causality method (GC) We show that the increase of conductor-to-musicians influence, together with the reduction of musician-to-musician coordination (an index of successful leadership) goes in parallel with quality of execution, as assessed by musical experts' judgments Rigorous quantification of sensorimotor communication efficacy has always been complicated and affected by rather vague qualitative methodologies Here we propose that the analysis of motor behavior provides a potentially interesting tool to approach the rather intangible concept of aesthetic quality of music and visual communication efficacy

Communication in Orchestra Playing as Measured with Granger Causality

Abstract: Coordinated action between music orchestra performance, driven by a conductor, is a remarkable instance of interaction/communication. However, a rigorous testing of inter-individual coordination in an ecological scenario poses a series of technical problems. Here we recorded violinists’ and conductor’s movements kinematics in an ecological interactive scenario. We searched for directed influences between conductor and musicians and among musicians by using the Granger Causality method. Our results quantitatively show the dynamic pattern of communication among conductors and musicians. Interestingly, we found evidence that the aesthetic appreciation of music orchestras’ performance is based on the concurrent increase of conductor-to-musicians causal influence and reduction of musician-to-musician information flow.