The Anatomy of Action Systems: Task Differentiation When Learning an EMG Controlled Game

What affords being creative? Opportunities for novelty in light of perception, embodied activity, and imaginative skill

An affordance perspective highlights how resourceful the ecology is for creative actions of all sorts; it captures how creativity is grounded in materiality. In contrast to "canonical affordances" (i.e., "ready-to-hand," mundane instances), creative affordances point to unconventional or surprising action opportunities that are nonetheless valued. Our initial aim is to discuss how to frame the affordance concept to make it attractive for the study of creativity. We propose a dialectic position that reconciles aspects of the realism of ecological psychology with the constructivist view more typical of creativity scholars. We stress that novel options frequently depend on constructive actions; novelty cannot always simply be "found" or just waits to be used. Many creative opportunities only emerge from how person actively engages with the ecology. Our second aim is to explore specific ways that creativity is mediated through affordances, based on illustrations from crafts and dance. These suggest that affordances span various timescales and mediate in multiple ways, from noticing existing potentials, via active affordance shaping, to background activities that indirectly invite or enable novelty. In conclusion we discuss how a person's creative "vision," imagination and combinatoric ability, all fundamental creativity mechanisms, relate to affordances and how fruitful creative directions may be perceptually hinted at.

Interactions between emotions and eating behaviors: Main issues, neuroimaging contributions, and innovative preventive or corrective strategies

Emotional eating is commonly defined as the tendency to (over)eat in response to emotion. Insofar as it involves the (over)consumption of high-calorie palatable foods, emotional eating is a maladaptive behavior that can lead to eating disorders, and ultimately to metabolic disorders and obesity. Emotional eating is associated with eating disorder subtypes and with abnormalities in emotion processing at a behavioral level. However, not enough is known about the neural pathways involved in both emotion processing and food intake. In this review, we provide an overview of recent neuroimaging studies, highlighting the brain correlates between emotions and eating behavior that may be involved in emotional eating. Interaction between neural and neuro-endocrine pathways (HPA axis) may be involved. In addition to behavioral interventions, there is a need for a holistic approach encompassing both neural and physiological levels to prevent emotional eating. Based on recent imaging, this review indicates that more attention should be paid to prefrontal areas, the insular and orbitofrontal cortices, and reward pathways, in addition to regions that play a major role in both the cognitive control of emotions and eating behavior. Identifying these brain regions could allow for neuromodulation interventions, including neurofeedback training, which deserves further investigation.

Actor-network theory and ethnography: Sociomaterial approaches to researching medical education

Medical education is a messy tangle of social and material elements. These material entities include tools, like curriculum guides, stethoscopes, cell phones, accreditation standards, and mannequins; natural elements, like weather systems, disease vectors, and human bodies; and, objects, like checklists, internet connections, classrooms, lights, chairs and an endless array of others.We propose that sociomaterial approaches to ethnography can help us explore taken for granted, or under-theorized, elements of a situation under study, thereby enabling us to think differently. In this article, we describe ideas informing Actor-Network Theory approaches, and how these ideas translate into how ethnographic research is designed and conducted. We investigate epistemological (what we can know, and how) positioning of the researcher in an actor-network theory informed ethnography, and describe how we tailor ethnographic methods-document and artefact analysis; observation; and interviews-to align with a sociomaterial worldview.Untangling sociomaterial scenarios can offer a novel perspective on myriad contemporary medical education issues. These issues include examining how novel tools (e.g. accreditation standards, assessment tools, mannequins, videoconferencing technologies) and spaces (e.g. simulation suites, videoconferenced lecture theatres) used in medical education impact how teaching and learning actually happen in these settings.