The experience of body-ownership may represent a critical component of self-specificity as evidenced by the different ways in which multisensory integration in interaction with internal models of the body can actually manipulate important physical and psychological aspects of the self (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The impacts on energy gains of two aspects of ant

lion pit architecture were investigated in a natural population of pit-building ant lion larvae (Myrmeleon sp.) in Costa Rica. Field and laboratory settings were used to examine the impacts of circumference and depth of the pit on net energy learn more gain rate. An optimization model predicted a point optimum circumference and angle of depression in an unconstrained system, and positive correlations between body mass, pit circumference, and pit angle of depression in the presence of physiological constraints on both measures. Such a physiological constraint is possible in this system due to a large one-time construction cost. All of these correlations were observed in a lab setting with filtered substrate and no competition; though none were significant in the field. selleck chemical Individuals additionally constructed wider, shallower pits in the field. These results are consistent with an angle of depression that is limited by the angle of repose

of the substrate in the field, rather than physiology. These results provided suggestive evidence for sub-optimal pit dimensions in Myrmeleon sp., and CRT0066101 molecular weight for the importance of substrate type in understanding the architecture of natural ant lion pits. The model predicted that the frequency of relocation would not affect the optimal angle of depression, but it would affect the optimal pit circumference to a degree proportional to the square root of the change in the average time an ant lion occupies a single pit. These findings challenge the widely held assumption of adaptive optimality in animal foraging. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All

rights reserved.”
“Body ownership for an artificial hand and the perceived position of one’s own hand can be manipulated in the so-called rubber hand illusion. To induce this illusion, typically an artificial hand is placed next to the participant’s body and stroked in synchrony with the real hand, which is hidden from view. Our first aim was to test if the crossmodal congruency task could be used to obtain a measure for the strength of body ownership in the rubber hand illusion. In this speeded location discrimination task participants responded to tactile targets presented to their index or middle finger, while trying to ignore irrelevant visual distracters; placed on the artificial hand either on the congruent finger or on the incongruent finger.