TY  - JOUR
VL  - 7
IS  - 866
Y1  - 2016///
TI  - When Neuroscience 'Touches' Architecture: From Hapticity to a Supramodal Functioning of the Human Brain.
UR  - http://eprints.imtlucca.it/3558/
PB  - Frontiers in
A1  - Papale, Paolo
A1  - Chiesi, Leonardo
A1  - Rampinini, Alessandra Cecilia
A1  - Pietrini, Pietro
A1  - Ricciardi, Emiliano
AV  - public
SN  - 1664-1078
JF  - Frontiers in Psychology
KW  - neuroscience
KW  -  architecture and design
KW  -  sensory perception
KW  -  vision
KW  -  touch
KW  -  hapticity
KW  -  supramodality
KW  -  review
ID  - eprints3558
N2  - In the last decades, the rapid growth of functional brain imaging methodologies allowed cognitive neuroscience to address open questions in philosophy and social sciences. At the same time, novel insights from cognitive neuroscience research have begun to influence various disciplines, leading to a turn to cognition and emotion in the fields of planning and architectural design. Since 2003, the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture has been supporting 'neuro-architecture' as a way to connect neuroscience and the study of behavioral responses to the built environment. Among the many topics related to multisensory perceptual integration and embodiment, the concept of hapticity was recently introduced, suggesting a pivotal role of tactile perception and haptic imagery in architectural appraisal. Arguments have thus risen in favor of the existence of shared cognitive foundations between hapticity and the supramodal functional architecture of the human brain. Precisely, supramodality refers to the functional feature of defined brain regions to process and represent specific information content in a more abstract way, independently of the sensory modality conveying such information to the brain. Here, we highlight some commonalities and differences between the concepts of hapticity and supramodality according to the distinctive perspectives of architecture and cognitive neuroscience. This comparison and connection between these two different approaches may lead to novel observations in regard to people-environment relationships, and even provide empirical foundations for a renewed evidence-based design theory.
ER  -