Research Topics

During social interactions, actions can be performed with different forms depending on the affective state driving them. These forms of action, known as Vitality Forms, play a significant role in human interactions, enabling people to instantly perceive the attitude of others.

The study of VFs also finds application in the robotic field, where it is used to improve the kinematics of humanoid agents (such as iCub) by making them increasingly human-like, and to study human-robot interactions.

This line of research investigates the role of VFs in the autism spectrum condition (ASC), which is characterized by some difficulties in social interaction and communication. In particular, studies conducted by our laboratory have shown that ASC children are able to recognize (Di Cesare et al., 2017) and express ( Di Cesare et al., 2024) VFs, but in a different way from neurotypicals (NT). We are working to combine these findings with the use of robotics and to improve clinical interventions .

These are some of the actions recorded in the 2024 study by Di Cesare and colleagues. In particular, the video shows the social condition in which ASD and TD children had to perform an action in a rude or gentle manner towards a person (a member of the research team). It is quite clear that TD children modulate their action, differentiating the kinematics of the rude action from the gentle one. On the other hand, the actions of ASD children are very similar in the two conditions and a greater impediment in execution can sometimes be observed. This may reflect a difficulty in modulating VF in the social context for ASD children.