Twelve normal controls, twelve left-brain-damaged patients, and thirty-six right-brain-damaged patients with or without tactile extinction or tactile neglect were asked to report light touches delivered to the left or the right hand or simultaneously to both hands. The hands could be in anatomic position or one hand could cross over the other. Moreover, the two hands could be in the left or the right hemispace or across the corporeal midline. Controls and nontactile-extinction groups performed better when the hands were in anatomical than in crossed position. By contrast, patients with tactile extinction detected contralesional stimuli with higher accuracy in crossed than in anatomical position. This result suggests that, in these patients, impairments in detecting contralesional stimuli can be due not only to sensory but also to spatial factors contingent upon the position of the hands. There was no interaction between the effect of crossing the hands and the hemispace where the crossing took place. This suggests that coding the position of a hand as left or right does not necessarily occur in relation to the bodily midline, but it may arise from the computation of the position of the other hand.

Almost uniquely, a full inclusion model spanning all educational levels has been present in the Italian school for more than 30 years. However, the availability of empirical data is still very limited, meaning that we know little about the social and academic outcomes of students with special educational needs (SEN). This study attempts to bridge the gap. The social position and inherent sense of belonging of 418 (122 SEN) primary school pupils, aged 8–11, was analysed using The social inclusion survey and The belonging scale. Within the group of typically developing students, the findings demonstrate that it pays to be proficient. Indeed, the higher the proficiency, the higher the peer acceptance and the sense of belonging to their own school. Within the group of SEN students, the results support the idea that they struggle to gain a good social position, are less accepted and more peripheral within the class and feel quite distant from their school. These findings are strongly consistent with data from countries following a significantly different approach towards inclusion, thus suggesting that the full inclusion of SEN students into ordinary schools is not sufficient, per se, to increase their social abilities.