Spatiotemporal frequency characteristics of cerebral oscillations during the perception of fundamental frequency contour changes in one-syllable intonation.

PubMed

Ueno, Sanae; Okumura, Eiichi; Remijn, Gerard B; Yoshimura, Yuko; Kikuchi, Mitsuru; Shitamichi, Kiyomi; Nagao, Kikuko; Mochiduki, Masayuki; Haruta, Yasuhiro; Hayashi, Norio; Munesue, Toshio; Tsubokawa, Tsunehisa; Oi, Manabu; Nakatani, Hideo; Higashida, Haruhiro; Minabe, Yoshio

2012-05-02

Accurate perception of fundamental frequency (F0) contour changes in the human voice is important for understanding a speaker's intonation, and consequently also his/her attitude. In this study, we investigated the neural processes involved in the perception of F0 contour changes in the Japanese one-syllable interjection "ne" in 21 native-Japanese listeners. A passive oddball paradigm was applied in which "ne" with a high falling F0 contour, used when urging a reaction from the listener, was randomly presented as a rare deviant among a frequent "ne" syllable with a flat F0 contour (i.e., meaningless intonation). We applied an adaptive spatial filtering method to the neuromagnetic time course recorded by whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) and estimated the spatiotemporal frequency dynamics of event-related cerebral oscillatory changes in the oddball paradigm. Our results demonstrated a significant elevation of beta band event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the right temporal and frontal areas, in time windows from 100 to 300 and from 300 to 500 ms after the onset of deviant stimuli (high falling F0 contour). This is the first study to reveal detailed spatiotemporal frequency characteristics of cerebral oscillations during the perception of intonational (not lexical) F0 contour changes in the human voice. The results further confirmed that the right hemisphere is associated with perception of intonational F0 contour information in the human voice, especially in early time windows. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

[The influence of conscious and unconcious perception of emotional acoustic stimuli on time characteristics of respiration].

PubMed

Vaisertreiger, A S-R; Ivanova, V Iu

2014-12-01

A set of physiological studies proves that conscious perception of affective stimuli influence on respiratory activity. Less is known about the effect of unconscious perception of emotional information on human breathing. The aim of current research is to compare time characteristics of respiration during unconscious and conscious perception of emotional stimuli. As emotionally provocative stimuli we used natural vocalizations of 3-month-old infants in different emotional state. Both ways of acoustic presentation--first-order unconscious and second-order conscious stimuli--were applied to the one subject within one experiment with a brief inter-trial interval. A comparative data analysis revealed significant changes in time characteristics of respiration in response to acoustic emotional stimuli perceived either consciously or unconsciously. The differences in respiratory dynamics during two conditions of emotional stimuli perception are discussed.

The perception of microsound and its musical implications.

PubMed

Roads, Curtis

2003-11-01

Sound particles or microsounds last only a few milliseconds, near the threshold of auditory perception. We can easily analyze the physical properties of sound particles either individually or in masses. However, correlating these properties with human perception remains complicated. One cannot speak of a single time frame, or a "time constant" for the auditory system. The hearing mechanism involves many different agents, each of which operates on its own timescale. The signals being sent by diverse hearing agents are integrated by the brain into a coherent auditory picture. The pioneer of "sound quanta," Dennis Gabor (1900-1979), suggested that at least two mechanisms are at work in microevent detection: one that isolates events, and another that ascertains their pitch. Human hearing imposes a certain minimum duration in order to establish a firm sense of pitch, amplitude, and timbre. This paper traces disparate strands of literature on the topic and summarizes their meaning. Specifically, we examine the perception of intensity and pitch of microsounds, the phenomena of tone fusion and fission, temporal auditory acuity, and preattentive perception. The final section examines the musical implications of microsonic analysis, synthesis, and transformation.

Emotional moments across time: a possible neural basis for time perception in the anterior insula

PubMed Central

Craig, A.D. (Bud)

2009-01-01

A model of awareness based on interoceptive salience is described, which has an endogenous time base that might provide a basis for the human capacity to perceive and estimate time intervals in the range of seconds to subseconds. The model posits that the neural substrate for awareness across time is located in the anterior insular cortex, which fits with recent functional imaging evidence relevant to awareness and time perception. The time base in this model is adaptive and emotional, and thus it offers an explanation for some aspects of the subjective nature of time perception. This model does not describe the mechanism of the time base, but it suggests a possible relationship with interoceptive afferent activity, such as heartbeat-related inputs. PMID:19487195

Rate-distortion theory and human perception.

PubMed

Sims, Chris R

2016-07-01

The fundamental goal of perception is to aid in the achievement of behavioral objectives. This requires extracting and communicating useful information from noisy and uncertain sensory signals. At the same time, given the complexity of sensory information and the limitations of biological information processing, it is necessary that some information must be lost or discarded in the act of perception. Under these circumstances, what constitutes an 'optimal' perceptual system? This paper describes the mathematical framework of rate-distortion theory as the optimal solution to the problem of minimizing the costs of perceptual error subject to strong constraints on the ability to communicate or transmit information. Rate-distortion theory offers a general and principled theoretical framework for developing computational-level models of human perception (Marr, 1982). Models developed in this framework are capable of producing quantitatively precise explanations for human perceptual performance, while yielding new insights regarding the nature and goals of perception. This paper demonstrates the application of rate-distortion theory to two benchmark domains where capacity limits are especially salient in human perception: discrete categorization of stimuli (also known as absolute identification) and visual working memory. A software package written for the R statistical programming language is described that aids in the development of models based on rate-distortion theory. Copyright © 2016 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Competitive Dynamics in MSTd: A Mechanism for Robust Heading Perception Based on Optic Flow

PubMed Central

Layton, Oliver W.; Fajen, Brett R.

2016-01-01

Human heading perception based on optic flow is not only accurate, it is also remarkably robust and stable. These qualities are especially apparent when observers move through environments containing other moving objects, which introduce optic flow that is inconsistent with observer self-motion and therefore uninformative about heading direction. Moving objects may also occupy large portions of the visual field and occlude regions of the background optic flow that are most informative about heading perception. The fact that heading perception is biased by no more than a few degrees under such conditions attests to the robustness of the visual system and warrants further investigation. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether recurrent, competitive dynamics among MSTd neurons that serve to reduce uncertainty about heading over time offer a plausible mechanism for capturing the robustness of human heading perception. Simulations of existing heading models that do not contain competitive dynamics yield heading estimates that are far more erratic and unstable than human judgments. We present a dynamical model of primate visual areas V1, MT, and MSTd based on that of Layton, Mingolla, and Browning that is similar to the other models, except that the model includes recurrent interactions among model MSTd neurons. Competitive dynamics stabilize the model’s heading estimate over time, even when a moving object crosses the future path. Soft winner-take-all dynamics enhance units that code a heading direction consistent with the time history and suppress responses to transient changes to the optic flow field. Our findings support recurrent competitive temporal dynamics as a crucial mechanism underlying the robustness and stability of perception of heading. PMID:27341686

Time perception impairs sensory-motor integration in Parkinson’s disease

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

It is well known that perception and estimation of time are fundamental for the relationship between humans and their environment. However, this temporal information processing is inefficient in patients with Parkinson’ disease (PD), resulting in temporal judgment deficits. In general, the pathophysiology of PD has been described as a dysfunction in the basal ganglia, which is a multisensory integration station. Thus, a deficit in the sensorimotor integration process could explain many of the Parkinson symptoms, such as changes in time perception. This physiological distortion may be better understood if we analyze the neurobiological model of interval timing, expressed within the conceptual framework of a traditional information-processing model called “Scalar Expectancy Theory”. Therefore, in this review we discuss the pathophysiology and sensorimotor integration process in PD, the theories and neural basic mechanisms involved in temporal processing, and the main clinical findings about the impact of time perception in PD. PMID:24131660

Using analogy to learn about phenomena at scales outside human perception.

PubMed

Resnick, Ilyse; Davatzes, Alexandra; Newcombe, Nora S; Shipley, Thomas F

2017-01-01

Understanding and reasoning about phenomena at scales outside human perception (for example, geologic time) is critical across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Thus, devising strong methods to support acquisition of reasoning at such scales is an important goal in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. In two experiments, we examine the use of analogical principles in learning about geologic time. Across both experiments we find that using a spatial analogy (for example, a time line) to make multiple alignments, and keeping all unrelated components of the analogy held constant (for example, keep the time line the same length), leads to better understanding of the magnitude of geologic time. Effective approaches also include hierarchically and progressively aligning scale information (Experiment 1) and active prediction in making alignments paired with immediate feedback (Experiments 1 and 2).

Losing track of time through delayed body representations.

PubMed

Fritz, Thomas H; Steixner, Agnes; Boettger, Joachim; Villringer, Arno

2015-01-01

The ability to keep track of time is perceived as crucial in most human societies. However, to lose track of time may also serve an important social role, associated with recreational purpose. To this end a number of social technologies are employed, some of which may relate to a manipulation of time perception through a modulation of body representation. Here, we investigated an influence of real-time or delayed videos of own-body representations on time perception in an experimental setup with virtual mirrors. Seventy participants were asked to either stay in the installation until they thought that a defined time (90 s) had passed, or they were encouraged to stay in the installation as long as they wanted and after exiting were asked to estimate the duration of their stay. Results show that a modulation of body representation by time-delayed representations of the mirror-video displays influenced time perception. Furthermore, these time-delayed conditions were associated with a greater sense of arousal and intoxication. We suggest that feeding in references to the immediate past into working memory could be the underlying mental mechanism mediating the observed modulation of time perception. We argue that such an influence on time perception would probably not only be achieved visually, but might also work with acoustic references to the immediate past (e.g., with music).

A Comparative View of Face Perception

PubMed Central

Leopold, David A.; Rhodes, Gillian

2010-01-01

Face perception serves as the basis for much of human social exchange. Diverse information can be extracted about an individual from a single glance at their face, including their identity, emotional state, and direction of attention. Neuropsychological and fMRI experiments reveal a complex network of specialized areas in the human brain supporting these face-reading skills. Here we consider the evolutionary roots of human face perception by exploring the manner in which different animal species view and respond to faces. We focus on behavioral experiments collected from both primates and non-primates, assessing the types of information that animals are able to extract from the faces of their conspecifics, human experimenters, and natural predators. These experiments reveal that faces are an important category of visual stimuli for animals in all major vertebrate taxa, possibly reflecting the early emergence of neural specialization for faces in vertebrate evolution. At the same time, some aspects of facial perception are only evident in primates and a few other social mammals, and may therefore have evolved to suit the needs of complex social communication. Since the human brain likely utilizes both primitive and recently evolved neural specializations for the processing of faces, comparative studies may hold the key to understanding how these parallel circuits emerged during human evolution. PMID:20695655

A comparative view of face perception.

PubMed

Leopold, David A; Rhodes, Gillian

2010-08-01

Face perception serves as the basis for much of human social exchange. Diverse information can be extracted about an individual from a single glance at their face, including their identity, emotional state, and direction of attention. Neuropsychological and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments reveal a complex network of specialized areas in the human brain supporting these face-reading skills. Here we consider the evolutionary roots of human face perception by exploring the manner in which different animal species view and respond to faces. We focus on behavioral experiments collected from both primates and nonprimates, assessing the types of information that animals are able to extract from the faces of their conspecifics, human experimenters, and natural predators. These experiments reveal that faces are an important category of visual stimuli for animals in all major vertebrate taxa, possibly reflecting the early emergence of neural specialization for faces in vertebrate evolution. At the same time, some aspects of facial perception are only evident in primates and a few other social mammals, and may therefore have evolved to suit the needs of complex social communication. Because the human brain likely utilizes both primitive and recently evolved neural specializations for the processing of faces, comparative studies may hold the key to understanding how these parallel circuits emerged during human evolution. 2010 APA, all rights reserved

On the relativity and uncertainty of distance, time, and energy measurements by man. (1) Derivation of the Weber psychophysical law from the Heisenberg uncertainty principle applied to a superconductive biological detector. (2) The reverse derivation. (3) A human theory of relativity.

PubMed

Cope, F W

1981-01-01

The Weber psychophysical law, which describes much experimental data on perception by man, is derived from the Heisenberg uncertainty principle on the assumption that human perception occurs by energy detection by superconductive microregions within man . This suggests that psychophysical perception by man might be considered merely a special case of physical measurement in general. The reverse derivation-i.e., derivation of the Heisenberg principle from the Weber law-may be of even greater interest. It suggest that physical measurements could be regarded as relative to the perceptions by the detectors within man. Thus one may develop a "human" theory of relativity that could have the advantage of eliminating hidden assumptions by forcing physical theories to conform more completely to the measurements made by man rather than to concepts that might not accurately describe nature.

Roughness modelling based on human auditory perception for sound quality evaluation of vehicle interior noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Y. S.; Shen, G. Q.; Guo, H.; Tang, X. L.; Hamade, T.

2013-08-01

In this paper, a roughness model, which is based on human auditory perception (HAP) and known as HAP-RM, is developed for the sound quality evaluation (SQE) of vehicle noise. First, the interior noise signals are measured for a sample vehicle and prepared for roughness modelling. The HAP-RM model is based on the process of sound transfer and perception in the human auditory system by combining the structural filtering function and nonlinear perception characteristics of the ear. The HAP-RM model is applied to the measured vehicle interior noise signals by considering the factors that affect hearing, such as the modulation and carrier frequencies, the time and frequency maskings and the correlations of the critical bands. The HAP-RM model is validated by jury tests. An anchor-scaled scoring method (ASM) is used for subjective evaluations in the jury tests. The verification results show that the novel developed model can accurately calculate vehicle noise roughness below 0.6 asper. Further investigation shows that the total roughness of the vehicle interior noise can mainly be attributed to frequency components below 12 Bark. The time masking effects of the modelling procedure enable the application of the HAP-RM model to stationary and nonstationary vehicle noise signals and the SQE of other sound-related signals in engineering problems.

Taking time seriously. A theory of socioemotional selectivity.

PubMed

Carstensen, L L; Isaacowitz, D M; Charles, S T

1999-03-01

Socioemotional selectivity theory claims that the perception of time plays a fundamental role in the selection and pursuit of social goals. According to the theory, social motives fall into 1 of 2 general categories--those related to the acquisition of knowledge and those related to the regulation of emotion. When time is perceived as open-ended, knowledge-related goals are prioritized. In contrast, when time is perceived as limited, emotional goals assume primacy. The inextricable association between time left in life and chronological age ensures age-related differences in social goals. Nonetheless, the authors show that the perception of time is malleable, and social goals change in both younger and older people when time constraints are imposed. The authors argue that time perception is integral to human motivation and suggest potential implications for multiple subdisciplines and research interests in social, developmental, cultural, cognitive, and clinical psychology.

Goal Orientation, Learning Self-Efficacy, and Climate Perceptions in a Post-Acquisition Corporate Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Potosky, Denise

2010-01-01

The present investigation offers some insight for human resource development (HRD) practitioners and researchers focused on helping employees pursue learning goals as they adapt to organizational changes. Using a repeated measurement over a five-year time period, this study examined goal orientation, learning self-efficacy, climate perceptions,…

Is it the real deal? Perception of virtual characters versus humans: an affective cognitive neuroscience perspective

PubMed Central

de Borst, Aline W.; de Gelder, Beatrice

2015-01-01

Recent developments in neuroimaging research support the increased use of naturalistic stimulus material such as film, avatars, or androids. These stimuli allow for a better understanding of how the brain processes information in complex situations while maintaining experimental control. While avatars and androids are well suited to study human cognition, they should not be equated to human stimuli. For example, the uncanny valley hypothesis theorizes that artificial agents with high human-likeness may evoke feelings of eeriness in the human observer. Here we review if, when, and how the perception of human-like avatars and androids differs from the perception of humans and consider how this influences their utilization as stimulus material in social and affective neuroimaging studies. First, we discuss how the appearance of virtual characters affects perception. When stimuli are morphed across categories from non-human to human, the most ambiguous stimuli, rather than the most human-like stimuli, show prolonged classification times and increased eeriness. Human-like to human stimuli show a positive linear relationship with familiarity. Secondly, we show that expressions of emotions in human-like avatars can be perceived similarly to human emotions, with corresponding behavioral, physiological and neuronal activations, with exception of physical dissimilarities. Subsequently, we consider if and when one perceives differences in action representation by artificial agents versus humans. Motor resonance and predictive coding models may account for empirical findings, such as an interference effect on action for observed human-like, natural moving characters. However, the expansion of these models to explain more complex behavior, such as empathy, still needs to be investigated in more detail. Finally, we broaden our outlook to social interaction, where virtual reality stimuli can be utilized to imitate complex social situations. PMID:26029133

An Accuracy--Response Time Capacity Assessment Function that Measures Performance against Standard Parallel Predictions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Townsend, James T.; Altieri, Nicholas

2012-01-01

Measures of human efficiency under increases in mental workload or attentional limitations are vital in studying human perception, cognition, and action. Assays of efficiency as workload changes have typically been confined to either reaction times (RTs) or accuracy alone. Within the realm of RTs, a nonparametric measure called the "workload…

Beliefs and Perceptions about the Future: A Measurement of Future Time Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Husman, Jenefer; Shell, Duane F.

2008-01-01

Human's ability to consider the future, willingness to make sacrifices in the present to obtain something better in the future has been a significant part of our success as a species (Suddendorf, T., & Corballis, M. C. (1997). "Mental time travel and the evolution of the human mind." "Genetic, social, and general psychology monographs" 123,…

An exploration of the perception of time from the perspective of the Science of Unitary Human Beings.

PubMed

Ring, Marcia E

2009-01-01

What is time? The science of unitary human beings describes pandimensional reality as a domain without spatial or temporal attributes. As part of this pandimensional reality, unitary human beings experience time as passing, and involving the past, present, and future. The theory of accelerating evolution describes changes in human and environmental energy fields that are always accelerating and are manifested as differences in the experience of time as being slow, fast, and still. Time, be it measured or experienced, has no meaning in and of itself, but can only be understood in terms of the ever-evolving life process.

The influence of social stress on time perception and psychophysiological reactivity.

PubMed

van Hedger, Kathryne; Necka, Elizabeth A; Barakzai, Anam K; Norman, Greg J

2017-05-01

Time perception is a fundamental component of everyday life. Although time can be measured using standard units, the relationship between an individual's experience of perceived time and a standard unit is highly sensitive to context. Stressful and threatening stimuli have been previously shown to produce time distortion effects, such that individuals perceive the stimuli as lasting for different amounts of time as compared to a standard unit. As a highly social species, humans are acutely sensitive to social stressors; however, time distortion effects have not been studied in the context of social stress. We collected psychophysiological (electrocardiogram and impedance cardiography) and time perception data before, during, and after a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test for 42 participants. Based on prior theories and evidence from the time perception literature, we hypothesized that experiencing a stressful event would result in time distortion. This hypothesis was supported by the data, with individuals on average reproducing short and long duration negative and positive stimuli as lasting longer after experiencing social stress, t(41) = -3.55, p = .001, and t(41) = -4.12, p < .001 for negative stimuli, and t(41) = -2.43, p = .02, and t(41) = -3.07, p = .004 for positive stimuli. However, changes in time perception were largely unrelated to psychophysiological reactivity to social stress. These findings are in line with some other studies of time distortion, and provide evidence for the interoceptive salience model of time perception. Implications for mechanisms of time distortion are discussed. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Contributions of visual and embodied expertise to body perception.

PubMed

Reed, Catherine L; Nyberg, Andrew A; Grubb, Jefferson D

2012-01-01

Recent research has demonstrated that our perception of the human body differs from that of inanimate objects. This study investigated whether the visual perception of the human body differs from that of other animate bodies and, if so, whether that difference could be attributed to visual experience and/or embodied experience. To dissociate differential effects of these two types of expertise, inversion effects (recognition of inverted stimuli is slower and less accurate than recognition of upright stimuli) were compared for two types of bodies in postures that varied in typicality: humans in human postures (human-typical), humans in dog postures (human-atypical), dogs in dog postures (dog-typical), and dogs in human postures (dog-atypical). Inversion disrupts global configural processing. Relative changes in the size and presence of inversion effects reflect changes in visual processing. Both visual and embodiment expertise predict larger inversion effects for human over dog postures because we see humans more and we have experience producing human postures. However, our design that crosses body type and typicality leads to distinct predictions for visual and embodied experience. Visual expertise predicts an interaction between typicality and orientation: greater inversion effects should be found for typical over atypical postures regardless of body type. Alternatively, embodiment expertise predicts a body, typicality, and orientation interaction: larger inversion effects should be found for all human postures but only for atypical dog postures because humans can map their bodily experience onto these postures. Accuracy data supported embodiment expertise with the three-way interaction. However, response-time data supported contributions of visual expertise with larger inversion effects for typical over atypical postures. Thus, both types of expertise affect the visual perception of bodies.

Effects of playing video games on perceptions of one's humanity.

PubMed

Greitemeyer, Tobias

2013-01-01

According to self-perception theory, individuals infer their characteristics by observing their own behavior. In the present research, the hypothesis is examined whether helping behavior increases perceptions of one's own humanity even when help is given that does not benefit a real person. In fact, two studies revealed that playing a prosocial video game (where the goal is to help and care for other game characters) led to increased perceptions of the player's own humanity (in particular, for positive humanity traits). Results also revealed that playing a violent, relative to a neutral, video game decreased perceptions of humanity on positive humanity traits and increased perceptions of humanity on negative humanity traits. Taken together, it appears that being helpful while playing video games leads to the perception of being more human, whereas being harmful while playing video games leads players to perceive themselves negatively.

Action and Perception Are Temporally Coupled by a Common Mechanism That Leads to a Timing Misperception

PubMed Central

Astefanoaei, Corina; Daye, Pierre M.; FitzGibbon, Edmond J.; Creanga, Dorina-Emilia; Rufa, Alessandra; Optican, Lance M.

2015-01-01

We move our eyes to explore the world, but visual areas determining where to look next (action) are different from those determining what we are seeing (perception). Whether, or how, action and perception are temporally coordinated is not known. The preparation time course of an action (e.g., a saccade) has been widely studied with the gap/overlap paradigm with temporal asynchronies (TA) between peripheral target onset and fixation point offset (gap, synchronous, or overlap). However, whether the subjects perceive the gap or overlap, and when they perceive it, has not been studied. We adapted the gap/overlap paradigm to study the temporal coupling of action and perception. Human subjects made saccades to targets with different TAs with respect to fixation point offset and reported whether they perceived the stimuli as separated by a gap or overlapped in time. Both saccadic and perceptual report reaction times changed in the same way as a function of TA. The TA dependencies of the time change for action and perception were very similar, suggesting a common neural substrate. Unexpectedly, in the perceptual task, subjects misperceived lights overlapping by less than ∼100 ms as separated in time (overlap seen as gap). We present an attention-perception model with a map of prominence in the superior colliculus that modulates the stimulus signal's effectiveness in the action and perception pathways. This common source of modulation determines how competition between stimuli is resolved, causes the TA dependence of action and perception to be the same, and causes the misperception. PMID:25632126

A general theory of intertemporal decision-making and the perception of time.

PubMed

Namboodiri, Vijay M K; Mihalas, Stefan; Marton, Tanya M; Hussain Shuler, Marshall G

2014-01-01

Animals and humans make decisions based on their expected outcomes. Since relevant outcomes are often delayed, perceiving delays and choosing between earlier vs. later rewards (intertemporal decision-making) is an essential component of animal behavior. The myriad observations made in experiments studying intertemporal decision-making and time perception have not yet been rationalized within a single theory. Here we present a theory-Training-Integrated Maximized Estimation of Reinforcement Rate (TIMERR)-that explains a wide variety of behavioral observations made in intertemporal decision-making and the perception of time. Our theory postulates that animals make intertemporal choices to optimize expected reward rates over a limited temporal window which includes a past integration interval-over which experienced reward rate is estimated-as well as the expected delay to future reward. Using this theory, we derive mathematical expressions for both the subjective value of a delayed reward and the subjective representation of the delay. A unique contribution of our work is in finding that the past integration interval directly determines the steepness of temporal discounting and the non-linearity of time perception. In so doing, our theory provides a single framework to understand both intertemporal decision-making and time perception.

A general theory of intertemporal decision-making and the perception of time

PubMed Central

Namboodiri, Vijay M. K.; Mihalas, Stefan; Marton, Tanya M.; Hussain Shuler, Marshall G.

2014-01-01

Animals and humans make decisions based on their expected outcomes. Since relevant outcomes are often delayed, perceiving delays and choosing between earlier vs. later rewards (intertemporal decision-making) is an essential component of animal behavior. The myriad observations made in experiments studying intertemporal decision-making and time perception have not yet been rationalized within a single theory. Here we present a theory—Training-Integrated Maximized Estimation of Reinforcement Rate (TIMERR)—that explains a wide variety of behavioral observations made in intertemporal decision-making and the perception of time. Our theory postulates that animals make intertemporal choices to optimize expected reward rates over a limited temporal window which includes a past integration interval—over which experienced reward rate is estimated—as well as the expected delay to future reward. Using this theory, we derive mathematical expressions for both the subjective value of a delayed reward and the subjective representation of the delay. A unique contribution of our work is in finding that the past integration interval directly determines the steepness of temporal discounting and the non-linearity of time perception. In so doing, our theory provides a single framework to understand both intertemporal decision-making and time perception. PMID:24616677

Self-directed learning in gross human anatomy: assessment outcomes and student perceptions.

PubMed

Smythe, Gayle; Hughes, Diane

2008-01-01

Speech pathology students enrolled in a lecture-based gross human anatomy program completed two out of nine topics in self-directed mode. Student performance in quizzes was compared for the two modes, and the students completed questionnaires on their perceptions of the self-directed mode of delivery. Students performed as well in the first self-directed topic as they did in lecture-based material, but performance declined significantly on the second self-directed topic. Correlations showed that students who performed well in lecture-based topics also performed well on self-directed topics. The major issues that arose in the student questionnaires were primarily related to the amount of content in the topics and the length of time required for completion. We conclude that there is a strong need for appropriate design of distance education materials to reflect student perceptions of length, content, and time investment, and more importantly that there is a need to ensure extensive communication and support of students studying in distance education/self-directed modes for the first time.

Perception of animacy in dogs and humans.

PubMed

Abdai, Judit; Ferdinandy, Bence; Terencio, Cristina Baño; Pogány, Ákos; Miklósi, Ádám

2017-06-01

Humans have a tendency to perceive inanimate objects as animate based on simple motion cues. Although animacy is considered as a complex cognitive property, this recognition seems to be spontaneous. Researchers have found that young human infants discriminate between dependent and independent movement patterns. However, quick visual perception of animate entities may be crucial to non-human species as well. Based on general mammalian homology, dogs may possess similar skills to humans. Here, we investigated whether dogs and humans discriminate similarly between dependent and independent motion patterns performed by geometric shapes. We projected a side-by-side video display of the two patterns and measured looking times towards each side, in two trials. We found that in Trial 1, both dogs and humans were equally interested in the two patterns, but in Trial 2 of both species, looking times towards the dependent pattern decreased, whereas they increased towards the independent pattern. We argue that dogs and humans spontaneously recognized the specific pattern and habituated to it rapidly, but continued to show interest in the 'puzzling' pattern. This suggests that both species tend to recognize inanimate agents as animate relying solely on their motions. © 2017 The Author(s).

Caloric primary rewards systematically alter time perception.

PubMed

Fung, Bowen J; Murawski, Carsten; Bode, Stefan

2017-11-01

Human time perception can be influenced by contextual factors, such as the presence of reward. Yet, the exact nature of the relationship between time perception and reward has not been conclusively characterized. We implemented a novel experimental paradigm to measure estimations of time across a range of suprasecond intervals, during the anticipation and after the consumption of fruit juice, a physiologically relevant primary reward. We show that average time estimations were systematically affected by the consumption of reward, but not by the anticipation of reward. Compared with baseline estimations of time, reward consumption was associated with subsequent overproductions of time, and this effect increased for larger magnitudes of reward. Additional experiments demonstrated that the effect of consumption did not extend to a secondary reward (money), a tasteless, noncaloric primary reward (water), or a sweet, noncaloric reward (aspartame). However, a tasteless caloric reward (maltodexrin) did induce overproductions of time, although this effect did not scale with reward magnitude. These results suggest that the consumption of caloric primary rewards can alter time perception, which may be a psychophysiological mechanism by which organisms regulate homeostatic balance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Reported off-leash frequency and perception of risk for gastrointestinal parasitism are not associated in owners of urban park-attending dogs: A multifactorial investigation.

PubMed

Smith, Anya F; Semeniuk, Christina A D; Rock, Melanie J; Massolo, Alessandro

2015-07-01

Associations between park use and infections with gastrointestinal (GI) parasites in dogs (Canis familiaris) have been previously observed, suggesting park use may pose risks for infection in dogs, and potentially, in humans. This study was conducted to establish the overall level of perceived risk of parasitism in dogs, the frequency of unleashing dogs in parks, and to determine if dog owners' risk perceptions of parasite transmission among humans and dogs are associated with the reported frequency of unleashing dogs. From June to September 2010, 635 surveys were administered to dog owners in nine city parks in Calgary, Alberta, by the lead author to explore dog-walking behaviors in parks under differing leashing regulations. From these, a subset of 316 questionnaires were analyzed to examine associations between behavioral and dog demographic factors, risk perception and acceptability of perceived risks of dog and human parasitism, and education regarding parasitism in dogs and humans. Multivariate statistics were conducted using three separate Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) decision trees to model risk perception of dogs becoming parasitized while in the park, risk perception of zoonotic transmission, and off-leash frequency. Predictors included recreational behaviors, dog demographics, risk perception of park-based and zoonotic transmission, education regarding parasites, and leashing regulations (e.g. on-leash, off-leash, or mixed management parks). The perceived risk of park-based transmission was relatively higher than perception of zoonotic transmission and the majority of people unleashed their dogs at least some of the time. Risk perception was not associated with off-leash frequency in dogs and risk perception and off-leash frequency were associated with factors other than each other. The results suggest owners may underestimate the potential risks for parasitism related to some dog-walking behaviours, and are relevant for public and animal health. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Androstadienone's influence on the perception of facial and vocal attractiveness is not sex specific.

PubMed

Ferdenzi, Camille; Delplanque, Sylvain; Atanassova, Reni; Sander, David

2016-04-01

The androgen steroid androstadienone, an odorous compound emitted from the human axillary region, has recurrently been considered as a candidate compound involved in human chemical communication and mate choice. Although perception of androstadienone has been shown to influence several affective (mood), attentional, physiological and neural parameters, studies investigating its impact on human attractiveness remain unpersuasive because of incomplete designs (e.g., only female participants) and contradictory results. The aim of this study was to investigate how androstadienone may influence others' attractiveness. Specifically, we used a complete design (male and female raters, male and female faces and voices) to determine whether androstadienone influences the perception of social stimuli in a sex-specific manner, which would favor pheromonal-like properties of the compound, or in a more general manner, which would suggest that the compound has broader influences on human psychological responses. After comparing the ratings of men and women who were exposed to androstadienone masked in clove oil with those of men and women who were exposed to clove oil alone, we found that androstadienone enhanced the perceived attractiveness of emotionally relevant stimuli (opposite-sex stimuli in men and in fertile women). Response times for categorizing the stimuli as attractive or not were also affected by androstadienone, with longer response times in men and in fertile women and shorter response times in non-fertile women, irrespective of the stimulus sex. The results favor the hypothesis of general effects over sex-specific effects of androstadienone, thus questioning the relevance of focusing on that particular compound in the study of human attractiveness through body odor and encouraging the search for other semiochemicals that might be significant for human mate choice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Time perception of visual motion is tuned by the motor representation of human actions

PubMed Central

Gavazzi, Gioele; Bisio, Ambra; Pozzo, Thierry

2013-01-01

Several studies have shown that the observation of a rapidly moving stimulus dilates our perception of time. However, this effect appears to be at odds with the fact that our interactions both with environment and with each other are temporally accurate. This work exploits this paradox to investigate whether the temporal accuracy of visual motion uses motor representations of actions. To this aim, the stimuli were a dot moving with kinematics belonging or not to the human motor repertoire and displayed at different velocities. Participants had to replicate its duration with two tasks differing in the underlying motor plan. Results show that independently of the task's motor plan, the temporal accuracy and precision depend on the correspondence between the stimulus' kinematics and the observer's motor competencies. Our data suggest that the temporal mechanism of visual motion exploits a temporal visuomotor representation tuned by the motor knowledge of human actions. PMID:23378903

Biomimetic MEMS to assist, enhance, and expand human sensory perceptions: a survey on state-of-the-art developments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makarczuk, Teresa; Matin, Tina R.; Karman, Salmah B.; Diah, S. Zaleha M.; Davaji, Benyamin; Macqueen, Mark O.; Mueller, Jeanette; Schmid, Ulrich; Gebeshuber, Ille C.

2011-06-01

The human senses are of extraordinary value but we cannot change them even if this proves to be a disadvantage in modern times. However, we can assist, enhance and expand these senses via MEMS. Current MEMS cover the range of the human sensory system, and additionally provide data about signals that are too weak for the human sensory system (in terms of signal strength) and signal types that are not covered by the human sensory system. Biomimetics deals with knowledge transfer from biology to technology. In our interdisciplinary approach existing MEMS sensor designs shall be modified and adapted (to keep costs at bay), via biomimetic knowledge transfer of outstanding sensory perception in 'best practice' organisms (e.g. thermoreception, UV sensing, electromagnetic sense). The MEMS shall then be linked to the human body (mainly ex corpore to avoid ethics conflicts), to assist, enhance and expand human sensory perception. This paper gives an overview of senses in humans and animals, respective MEMS sensors that are already on the market and gives a list of possible applications of such devices including sensors that vibrate when a blind person approaches a kerb stone edge and devices that allow divers better orientation under water (echolocation, ultrasound).

[Short-term memory characteristics of vibration intensity tactile perception on human wrist].

PubMed

Hao, Fei; Chen, Li-Juan; Lu, Wei; Song, Ai-Guo

2014-12-25

In this study, a recall experiment and a recognition experiment were designed to assess the human wrist's short-term memory characteristics of tactile perception on vibration intensity, by using a novel homemade vibrotactile display device based on the spatiotemporal combination vibration of multiple micro vibration motors as a test device. Based on the obtained experimental data, the short-term memory span, recognition accuracy and reaction time of vibration intensity were analyzed. From the experimental results, some important conclusions can be made: (1) The average short-term memory span of tactile perception on vibration intensity is 3 ± 1 items; (2) The greater difference between two adjacent discrete intensities of vibrotactile stimulation is defined, the better average short-term memory span human wrist gets; (3) There is an obvious difference of the average short-term memory span on vibration intensity between the male and female; (4) The mechanism of information extraction in short-term memory of vibrotactile display is to traverse the scanning process by comparison; (5) The recognition accuracy and reaction time performance of vibrotactile display compares unfavourably with that of visual and auditory. The results from this study are important for designing vibrotactile display coding scheme.

A comparison of form processing involved in the perception of biological and nonbiological movements

PubMed Central

Thurman, Steven M.; Lu, Hongjing

2016-01-01

Although there is evidence for specialization in the human brain for processing biological motion per se, few studies have directly examined the specialization of form processing in biological motion perception. The current study was designed to systematically compare form processing in perception of biological (human walkers) to nonbiological (rotating squares) stimuli. Dynamic form-based stimuli were constructed with conflicting form cues (position and orientation), such that the objects were perceived to be moving ambiguously in two directions at once. In Experiment 1, we used the classification image technique to examine how local form cues are integrated across space and time in a bottom-up manner. By comparing with a Bayesian observer model that embodies generic principles of form analysis (e.g., template matching) and integrates form information according to cue reliability, we found that human observers employ domain-general processes to recognize both human actions and nonbiological object movements. Experiments 2 and 3 found differential top-down effects of spatial context on perception of biological and nonbiological forms. When a background does not involve social information, observers are biased to perceive foreground object movements in the direction opposite to surrounding motion. However, when a background involves social cues, such as a crowd of similar objects, perception is biased toward the same direction as the crowd for biological walking stimuli, but not for rotating nonbiological stimuli. The model provided an accurate account of top-down modulations by adjusting the prior probabilities associated with the internal templates, demonstrating the power and flexibility of the Bayesian approach for visual form perception. PMID:26746875

Interactively human: Sharing time, constructing materiality.

PubMed

Roepstorff, Andreas

2013-06-01

Predictive processing models of cognition are promising an elegant way to unite action, perception, and learning. However, in the current formulations, they are species-unspecific and have very little particularly human about them. I propose to examine how, in this framework, humans can be able to massively interact and to build shared worlds that are both material and symbolic.

Prospective and retrospective time perception are related to mental time travel: evidence from Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

El Haj, Mohamad; Moroni, Christine; Samson, Séverine; Fasotti, Luciano; Allain, Philippe

2013-10-01

Unlike prospective time perception paradigms, in which participants are aware that they have to estimate forthcoming time, little is known about retrospective time perception in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our paper addresses this shortcoming by comparing prospective and retrospective time estimation in younger adults, older adults, and AD patients. In four prospective tasks (lasting 30s, 60s, 90s, or 120s) participants were asked to read a series of numbers and to provide a verbal estimation of the reading time. In four other retrospective tasks, they were not informed about time judgment until they were asked to provide a verbal estimation of four elapsed time intervals (lasting 30s, 60s, 90s, or 120s). AD participants gave shorter verbal time estimations than older adults and younger participants did, suggesting that time is perceived to pass quickly in these patients. For all participants, the duration of the retrospective tasks was underestimated as compared to the prospective tasks and both estimations were shorter than the real time interval. Prospective time estimation was further correlated with mental time travel, as measured with the Remember/Know paradigm. Mental time travel was even higher correlated with retrospective time estimation. Our findings shed light on the relationship between time perception and the ability to mentally project oneself into time, two skills contributing to human memory functioning. Finally, time perception deficits, as observed in AD patients, can be interpreted in terms of dramatic changes occurring in frontal lobes and hippocampus. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Human Perceptions Mirror Realities of Carnivore Attack Risk for Livestock: Implications for Mitigating Human-Carnivore Conflict

PubMed Central

Miller, Jennifer R. B.; Jhala, Yadvendradev V.; Schmitz, Oswald J.

2016-01-01

Human-carnivore conflict is challenging to quantify because it is shaped by both the realities and people’s perceptions of carnivore threats. Whether perceptions align with realities can have implications for conflict mitigation: misalignments can lead to heightened and indiscriminant persecution of carnivores whereas alignments can offer deeper insights into human-carnivore interactions. We applied a landscape-scale spatial analysis of livestock killed by tigers and leopards in India to model and map observed attack risk, and surveyed owners of livestock killed by tigers and leopards for their rankings of threats across habitats to map perceived attack risk. Observed tiger risk to livestock was greatest near dense forests and at moderate distances from human activity while leopard risk was greatest near open vegetation. People accurately perceived spatial differences between tiger and leopard hunting patterns, expected greater threat in areas with high values of observed risk for both carnivores. Owners’ perception of threats largely did not depend on environmental conditions surrounding their village (spatial location, dominant land-use or observed carnivore risk). Surveys revealed that owners who previously lost livestock to carnivores used more livestock protection methods than those who had no prior losses, and that owners who had recently lost livestock for the first time expressed greater interest in changing their protection methods than those who experienced prior losses. Our findings suggest that in systems where realities and perceptions of carnivore risk align, conservation programs and policies can optimize conservation outcomes by (1) improving the effectiveness of livestock protection methods and (2) working with owners who have recently lost livestock and are most willing to invest effort in adapting protection strategies to mitigate human-carnivore conflict. PMID:27617831

Human Perceptions Mirror Realities of Carnivore Attack Risk for Livestock: Implications for Mitigating Human-Carnivore Conflict.

PubMed

Miller, Jennifer R B; Jhala, Yadvendradev V; Schmitz, Oswald J

2016-01-01

Human-carnivore conflict is challenging to quantify because it is shaped by both the realities and people's perceptions of carnivore threats. Whether perceptions align with realities can have implications for conflict mitigation: misalignments can lead to heightened and indiscriminant persecution of carnivores whereas alignments can offer deeper insights into human-carnivore interactions. We applied a landscape-scale spatial analysis of livestock killed by tigers and leopards in India to model and map observed attack risk, and surveyed owners of livestock killed by tigers and leopards for their rankings of threats across habitats to map perceived attack risk. Observed tiger risk to livestock was greatest near dense forests and at moderate distances from human activity while leopard risk was greatest near open vegetation. People accurately perceived spatial differences between tiger and leopard hunting patterns, expected greater threat in areas with high values of observed risk for both carnivores. Owners' perception of threats largely did not depend on environmental conditions surrounding their village (spatial location, dominant land-use or observed carnivore risk). Surveys revealed that owners who previously lost livestock to carnivores used more livestock protection methods than those who had no prior losses, and that owners who had recently lost livestock for the first time expressed greater interest in changing their protection methods than those who experienced prior losses. Our findings suggest that in systems where realities and perceptions of carnivore risk align, conservation programs and policies can optimize conservation outcomes by (1) improving the effectiveness of livestock protection methods and (2) working with owners who have recently lost livestock and are most willing to invest effort in adapting protection strategies to mitigate human-carnivore conflict.

Human body perception and higher-level person perception are dissociated in early development.

PubMed

Slaughter, Virginia

2011-01-01

Abstract Developmental data support the proposal that human body perceptual processing is distinct from other aspects of person perception. Infants are sensitive to human bodily motion and attribute goals to human arm movements before they demonstrate recognition of human body structure. The developmental data suggest the possibility of bidirectional linkages between EBA- and FBA-mediated representations and these higher-level elements of person perception.

Changing perceptions of protected area benefits and problems around Kibale National Park, Uganda.

PubMed

MacKenzie, Catrina A; Salerno, Jonathan; Hartter, Joel; Chapman, Colin A; Reyna, Rafael; Tumusiime, David Mwesigye; Drake, Michael

2017-09-15

Local residents' changing perceptions of benefits and problems from living next to a protected area in western Uganda are assessed by comparing household survey data from 2006, 2009, and 2012. Findings are contextualized and supported by long-term data sources for tourism, protected area-based employment, tourism revenue sharing, resource access agreements, and problem animal abundance. We found decreasing perceived benefit and increasing perceived problems associated with the protected area over time, with both trends dominated by increased human-wildlife conflict due to recovering elephant numbers. Proportions of households claiming benefit from specific conservation strategies were increasing, but not enough to offset crop raiding. Ecosystem services mitigated perceptions of problems. As human and animal populations rise, wildlife authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa will be challenged to balance perceptions and adapt policies to ensure the continued existence of protected areas. Understanding the dynamic nature of local people's perceptions provides a tool to adapt protected area management plans, prioritize conservation resources, and engage local communities to support protected areas. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Planning perception and action for cognitive mobile manipulators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaschler, Andre; Nogina, Svetlana; Petrick, Ronald P. A.; Knoll, Alois

2013-12-01

We present a general approach to perception and manipulation planning for cognitive mobile manipulators. Rather than hard-coding single purpose robot applications, a robot should be able to reason about its basic skills in order to solve complex problems autonomously. Humans intuitively solve tasks in real-world scenarios by breaking down abstract problems into smaller sub-tasks and use heuristics based on their previous experience. We apply a similar idea for planning perception and manipulation to cognitive mobile robots. Our approach is based on contingent planning and run-time sensing, integrated in our knowledge of volumes" planning framework, called KVP. Using the general-purpose PKS planner, we model information-gathering actions at plan time that have multiple possible outcomes at run time. As a result, perception and sensing arise as necessary preconditions for manipulation, rather than being hard-coded as tasks themselves. We demonstrate the e ectiveness of our approach on two scenarios covering visual and force sensing on a real mobile manipulator.

Neural correlates of risk perception during real-life risk communication.

PubMed

Schmälzle, Ralf; Häcker, Frank; Renner, Britta; Honey, Christopher J; Schupp, Harald T

2013-06-19

During global health crises, such as the recent H1N1 pandemic, the mass media provide the public with timely information regarding risk. To obtain new insights into how these messages are received, we measured neural data while participants, who differed in their preexisting H1N1 risk perceptions, viewed a TV report about H1N1. Intersubject correlation (ISC) of neural time courses was used to assess how similarly the brains of viewers responded to the TV report. We found enhanced intersubject correlations among viewers with high-risk perception in the anterior cingulate, a region which classical fMRI studies associated with the appraisal of threatening information. By contrast, neural coupling in sensory-perceptual regions was similar for the high and low H1N1-risk perception groups. These results demonstrate a novel methodology for understanding how real-life health messages are processed in the human brain, with particular emphasis on the role of emotion and differences in risk perceptions.

Neural Correlates of Risk Perception during Real-Life Risk Communication

PubMed Central

Häcker, Frank; Renner, Britta; Honey, Christopher J.; Schupp, Harald T.

2013-01-01

During global health crises, such as the recent H1N1 pandemic, the mass media provide the public with timely information regarding risk. To obtain new insights into how these messages are received, we measured neural data while participants, who differed in their preexisting H1N1 risk perceptions, viewed a TV report about H1N1. Intersubject correlation (ISC) of neural time courses was used to assess how similarly the brains of viewers responded to the TV report. We found enhanced intersubject correlations among viewers with high-risk perception in the anterior cingulate, a region which classical fMRI studies associated with the appraisal of threatening information. By contrast, neural coupling in sensory-perceptual regions was similar for the high and low H1N1-risk perception groups. These results demonstrate a novel methodology for understanding how real-life health messages are processed in the human brain, with particular emphasis on the role of emotion and differences in risk perceptions. PMID:23785147

The brain in time: insights from neuromagnetic recordings.

PubMed

Hari, Riitta; Parkkonen, Lauri; Nangini, Cathy

2010-03-01

The millisecond time resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) is instrumental for investigating the brain basis of sensory processing, motor planning, cognition, and social interaction. We review the basic principles, recent progress, and future potential of MEG in noninvasive tracking of human brain activity. Cortical activation sequences from tens to hundreds of milliseconds can be followed during, e.g., perception, motor action, imitation, and language processing by recording both spontaneous and evoked brain signals. Moreover, tagging of sensory input can be used to reveal neuronal mechanisms of binaural interaction and perception of ambiguous images. The results support the emerging ideas of multiple, hierarchically organized temporal scales in human brain function. Instrumentation and data analysis methods are rapidly progressing, enabling attempts to decode the four-dimensional spatiotemporal signal patterns to reveal correlates of behavior and mental contents.

Perception of biological motion from size-invariant body representations.

PubMed

Lappe, Markus; Wittinghofer, Karin; de Lussanet, Marc H E

2015-01-01

The visual recognition of action is one of the socially most important and computationally demanding capacities of the human visual system. It combines visual shape recognition with complex non-rigid motion perception. Action presented as a point-light animation is a striking visual experience for anyone who sees it for the first time. Information about the shape and posture of the human body is sparse in point-light animations, but it is essential for action recognition. In the posturo-temporal filter model of biological motion perception posture information is picked up by visual neurons tuned to the form of the human body before body motion is calculated. We tested whether point-light stimuli are processed through posture recognition of the human body form by using a typical feature of form recognition, namely size invariance. We constructed a point-light stimulus that can only be perceived through a size-invariant mechanism. This stimulus changes rapidly in size from one image to the next. It thus disrupts continuity of early visuo-spatial properties but maintains continuity of the body posture representation. Despite this massive manipulation at the visuo-spatial level, size-changing point-light figures are spontaneously recognized by naive observers, and support discrimination of human body motion.

Contrasting accounts of direction and shape perception in short-range motion: Counterchange compared with motion energy detection.

PubMed

Norman, Joseph; Hock, Howard; Schöner, Gregor

2014-07-01

It has long been thought (e.g., Cavanagh & Mather, 1989) that first-order motion-energy extraction via space-time comparator-type models (e.g., the elaborated Reichardt detector) is sufficient to account for human performance in the short-range motion paradigm (Braddick, 1974), including the perception of reverse-phi motion when the luminance polarity of the visual elements is inverted during successive frames. Human observers' ability to discriminate motion direction and use coherent motion information to segregate a region of a random cinematogram and determine its shape was tested; they performed better in the same-, as compared with the inverted-, polarity condition. Computational analyses of short-range motion perception based on the elaborated Reichardt motion energy detector (van Santen & Sperling, 1985) predict, incorrectly, that symmetrical results will be obtained for the same- and inverted-polarity conditions. In contrast, the counterchange detector (Hock, Schöner, & Gilroy, 2009) predicts an asymmetry quite similar to that of human observers in both motion direction and shape discrimination. The further advantage of counterchange, as compared with motion energy, detection for the perception of spatial shape- and depth-from-motion is discussed.

Positive interactions between irrawaddy dolphins and artisanal fishers in the Chilika Lagoon of eastern India are driven by ecology, socioeconomics, and culture.

PubMed

D'Lima, Coralie; Marsh, Helene; Hamann, Mark; Sinha, Anindya; Arthur, Rohan

2014-09-01

In human-dominated landscapes, interactions and perceptions towards wildlife are influenced by multidimensional drivers. Understanding these drivers could prove useful for wildlife conservation. We surveyed the attitudes and perceptions of fishers towards threatened Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) at Chilika Lagoon India. To validate the drivers of fisher perceptions, we : (1) observed dolphin foraging behavior at stake nets, and (2) compared catch per unit effort (CPUE) and catch income of fishers from stake nets in the presence and absence of foraging dolphins. We found that fishers were mostly positive towards dolphins, believing that dolphins augmented their fish catch and using culture to express their perceptions. Foraging dolphins were observed spending half their time at stake nets and were associated with significantly higher catch income and CPUE of mullet (Liza sp.), a locally preferred food fish species. Wildlife conservation efforts should use the multidimensional drivers of human-wildlife interactions to involve local stakeholders in management.

Differential temporal dynamics during visual imagery and perception.

PubMed

Dijkstra, Nadine; Mostert, Pim; Lange, Floris P de; Bosch, Sander; van Gerven, Marcel Aj

2018-05-29

Visual perception and imagery rely on similar representations in the visual cortex. During perception, visual activity is characterized by distinct processing stages, but the temporal dynamics underlying imagery remain unclear. Here, we investigated the dynamics of visual imagery in human participants using magnetoencephalography. Firstly, we show that, compared to perception, imagery decoding becomes significant later and representations at the start of imagery already overlap with later time points. This suggests that during imagery, the entire visual representation is activated at once or that there are large differences in the timing of imagery between trials. Secondly, we found consistent overlap between imagery and perceptual processing around 160 ms and from 300 ms after stimulus onset. This indicates that the N170 gets reactivated during imagery and that imagery does not rely on early perceptual representations. Together, these results provide important insights for our understanding of the neural mechanisms of visual imagery. © 2018, Dijkstra et al.

Collaborative autonomous sensing with Bayesians in the loop

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmed, Nisar

2016-10-01

There is a strong push to develop intelligent unmanned autonomy that complements human reasoning for applications as diverse as wilderness search and rescue, military surveillance, and robotic space exploration. More than just replacing humans for `dull, dirty and dangerous' work, autonomous agents are expected to cope with a whole host of uncertainties while working closely together with humans in new situations. The robotics revolution firmly established the primacy of Bayesian algorithms for tackling challenging perception, learning and decision-making problems. Since the next frontier of autonomy demands the ability to gather information across stretches of time and space that are beyond the reach of a single autonomous agent, the next generation of Bayesian algorithms must capitalize on opportunities to draw upon the sensing and perception abilities of humans-in/on-the-loop. This work summarizes our recent research toward harnessing `human sensors' for information gathering tasks. The basic idea behind is to allow human end users (i.e. non-experts in robotics, statistics, machine learning, etc.) to directly `talk to' the information fusion engine and perceptual processes aboard any autonomous agent. Our approach is grounded in rigorous Bayesian modeling and fusion of flexible semantic information derived from user-friendly interfaces, such as natural language chat and locative hand-drawn sketches. This naturally enables `plug and play' human sensing with existing probabilistic algorithms for planning and perception, and has been successfully demonstrated with human-robot teams in target localization applications.

The Limits of Human Stereopsis in Space and Time

PubMed Central

Kane, David; Guan, Phillip

2014-01-01

To encode binocular disparity, the visual system determines the image patches in one eye that yield the highest correlation with patches in the other eye. The computation of interocular correlation occurs after spatiotemporal filtering of monocular signals, which leads to restrictions on disparity variations that can support depth perception. We quantified those restrictions by measuring humans' ability to see disparity variation at a wide range of spatial and temporal frequencies. Lower-disparity thresholds cut off at very low spatiotemporal frequencies, which is consistent with the behavior of V1 neurons. Those thresholds are space–time separable, suggesting that the underlying neural mechanisms are separable. We also found that upper-disparity limits were characterized by a spatiotemporal, disparity-gradient limit; to be visible, disparity variation cannot exceed a fixed amount for a given interval in space–time. Our results illustrate that the disparity variations that humans can see are very restricted compared with the corresponding luminance variations. The results also provide insight into the neural mechanisms underlying depth from disparity, such as why stimuli with long interocular delays can still yield clear depth percepts. PMID:24453329

Development of Fuzzy Logic and Soft Computing Methodologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zadeh, L. A.; Yager, R.

1999-01-01

Our earlier research on computing with words (CW) has led to a new direction in fuzzy logic which points to a major enlargement of the role of natural languages in information processing, decision analysis and control. This direction is based on the methodology of computing with words and embodies a new theory which is referred to as the computational theory of perceptions (CTP). An important feature of this theory is that it can be added to any existing theory - especially to probability theory, decision analysis, and control - and enhance the ability of the theory to deal with real-world problems in which the decision-relevant information is a mixture of measurements and perceptions. The new direction is centered on an old concept - the concept of a perception - a concept which plays a central role in human cognition. The ability to reason with perceptions perceptions of time, distance, force, direction, shape, intent, likelihood, truth and other attributes of physical and mental objects - underlies the remarkable human capability to perform a wide variety of physical and mental tasks without any measurements and any computations. Everyday examples of such tasks are parking a car, driving in city traffic, cooking a meal, playing golf and summarizing a story. Perceptions are intrinsically imprecise. Imprecision of perceptions reflects the finite ability of sensory organs and ultimately, the brain, to resolve detail and store information. More concretely, perceptions are both fuzzy and granular, or, for short, f-granular. Perceptions are f-granular in the sense that: (a) the boundaries of perceived classes are not sharply defined; and (b) the elements of classes are grouped into granules, with a granule being a clump of elements drawn together by indistinguishability, similarity. proximity or functionality. F-granularity of perceptions may be viewed as a human way of achieving data compression. In large measure, scientific progress has been, and continues to be, driven by a quest to progress from perceptions to measurements. Pursuit of this aim has led to brilliant successes. But alongside the successes stand problems whose solutions are not in sight. Representative of such problems is the problem of automation of driving in city traffic. In this case, as in many others, what can be done with ease by humans - without any measurements and a computations - is an intractable task for machines.

Involvement of the larynx motor area in singing-voice perception: a TMS study†

PubMed Central

Lévêque, Yohana; Muggleton, Neil; Stewart, Lauren; Schön, Daniele

2013-01-01

Recent evidence has reported that the motor system has a role in speech or emotional vocalization discrimination. In the present study we investigated the involvement of the larynx motor representation in singing perception. Twenty-one non-musicians listened to short tones sung by a human voice or played by a machine and performed a categorization task. Thereafter continuous theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied over the right larynx premotor area or on the vertex and the test administered again. Overall, reaction times (RTs) were shorter after stimulation over both sites. Nonetheless and most importantly, RTs became longer for sung than for “machine” sounds after stimulation on the larynx area. This effect suggests that the right premotor region is functionally involved in singing perception and that sound humanness modulates motor resonance. PMID:23874314

User’s Guide Engineering Data Compendium Human Perception and Performance

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-01-01

covered (CRef. 1.222) by large wedges of sound-absorbing material to minimize Achromatic. (1) Characterized by an absence of chroma reflections and...walk model. A model of the perception and Risley prism. A prism assembly comprised of two thin decision response components in reaction time tasks... wedge prisms (generally identical) arranged in series. According to the model, an ideal detector accumulates Rotating the two prisms in opposite

Adaptation aftereffects in the perception of gender from biological motion.

PubMed

Troje, Nikolaus F; Sadr, Javid; Geyer, Henning; Nakayama, Ken

2006-07-28

Human visual perception is highly adaptive. While this has been known and studied for a long time in domains such as color vision, motion perception, or the processing of spatial frequency, a number of more recent studies have shown that adaptation and adaptation aftereffects also occur in high-level visual domains like shape perception and face recognition. Here, we present data that demonstrate a pronounced aftereffect in response to adaptation to the perceived gender of biological motion point-light walkers. A walker that is perceived to be ambiguous in gender under neutral adaptation appears to be male after adaptation with an exaggerated female walker and female after adaptation with an exaggerated male walker. We discuss this adaptation aftereffect as a tool to characterize and probe the mechanisms underlying biological motion perception.

Intermittent behavior in the brain neuronal network in the perception of ambiguous images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hramov, Alexander E.; Kurovskaya, Maria K.; Runnova, Anastasiya E.; Zhuravlev, Maxim O.; Grubov, Vadim V.; Koronovskii, Alexey A.; Pavlov, Alexey N.; Pisarchik, Alexander N.

2017-03-01

Characteristics of intermittency during the perception of ambiguous images have been studied in the case the Necker cube image has been used as a bistable object for demonstration in the experiments, with EEG being simultaneously measured. Distributions of time interval lengths corresponding to the left-oriented and right-oriented Necker cube perception have been obtain. EEG data have been analyzed using continuous wavelet transform which was shown that the destruction of alpha rhythm with accompanying generation of high frequency oscillations can serve as a electroencephalographical marker of Necker cube recognition process in human brain.

Evaluation of the traffic parameters in a metropolitan area by fusing visual perceptions and CNN processing of webcam images.

PubMed

Faro, Alberto; Giordano, Daniela; Spampinato, Concetto

2008-06-01

This paper proposes a traffic monitoring architecture based on a high-speed communication network whose nodes are equipped with fuzzy processors and cellular neural network (CNN) embedded systems. It implements a real-time mobility information system where visual human perceptions sent by people working on the territory and video-sequences of traffic taken from webcams are jointly processed to evaluate the fundamental traffic parameters for every street of a metropolitan area. This paper presents the whole methodology for data collection and analysis and compares the accuracy and the processing time of the proposed soft computing techniques with other existing algorithms. Moreover, this paper discusses when and why it is recommended to fuse the visual perceptions of the traffic with the automated measurements taken from the webcams to compute the maximum traveling time that is likely needed to reach any destination in the traffic network.

Perception of social interaction compresses subjective duration in an oxytocin-dependent manner

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Communication through body gestures permeates our daily life. Efficient perception of the message therein reflects one’s social cognitive competency. Here we report that such competency is manifested temporally as shortened subjective duration of social interactions: motion sequences showing agents acting communicatively are perceived to be significantly shorter in duration as compared with those acting noncommunicatively. The strength of this effect is negatively correlated with one’s autistic-like tendency. Critically, intranasal oxytocin administration restores the temporal compression effect in socially less proficient individuals, whereas the administration of atosiban, a competitive antagonist of oxytocin, diminishes the effect in socially proficient individuals. These findings indicate that perceived time, rather than being a faithful representation of physical time, is highly idiosyncratic and ingrained with one’s personality trait. Moreover, they suggest that oxytocin is involved in mediating time perception of social interaction, further supporting the role of oxytocin in human social cognition. PMID:29784084

Low intensity magnetic field influences short-term memory: A study in a group of healthy students.

PubMed

Navarro, Enrique A; Gomez-Perretta, Claudio; Montes, Francisco

2016-01-01

This study analyzes if an external magnetic stimulus (2 kHz and approximately 0.1 μT applied near frontal cortex) influences working memory, perception, binary decision, motor execution, and sustained attention in humans. A magnetic stimulus and a sham stimulus were applied to both sides of the head (frontal cortex close to temporal-parietal area) in young and healthy male test subjects (n = 65) while performing Sternberg's memory scanning task. There was a significant change in reaction time. Times recorded for perception, sustained attention, and motor execution were lower in exposed subjects (P < 0.01). However, time employed in binary decision increased for subjects exposed to magnetic fields. From results, it seems that a low intensity 2 kHz exposure modifies short-term working memory, as well as perception, binary decision, motor execution, and sustained attention. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Perception of social interaction compresses subjective duration in an oxytocin-dependent manner.

PubMed

Liu, Rui; Yuan, Xiangyong; Chen, Kepu; Jiang, Yi; Zhou, Wen

2018-05-22

Communication through body gestures permeates our daily life. Efficient perception of the message therein reflects one's social cognitive competency. Here we report that such competency is manifested temporally as shortened subjective duration of social interactions: motion sequences showing agents acting communicatively are perceived to be significantly shorter in duration as compared with those acting noncommunicatively. The strength of this effect is negatively correlated with one's autistic-like tendency. Critically, intranasal oxytocin administration restores the temporal compression effect in socially less proficient individuals, whereas the administration of atosiban, a competitive antagonist of oxytocin, diminishes the effect in socially proficient individuals. These findings indicate that perceived time, rather than being a faithful representation of physical time, is highly idiosyncratic and ingrained with one's personality trait. Moreover, they suggest that oxytocin is involved in mediating time perception of social interaction, further supporting the role of oxytocin in human social cognition. © 2018, Liu et al.

Human perception testing methodology for evaluating EO/IR imaging systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graybeal, John J.; Monfort, Samuel S.; Du Bosq, Todd W.; Familoni, Babajide O.

2018-04-01

The U.S. Army's RDECOM CERDEC Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) Perception Lab is tasked with supporting the development of sensor systems for the U.S. Army by evaluating human performance of emerging technologies. Typical research questions involve detection, recognition and identification as a function of range, blur, noise, spectral band, image processing techniques, image characteristics, and human factors. NVESD's Perception Lab provides an essential bridge between the physics of the imaging systems and the performance of the human operator. In addition to quantifying sensor performance, perception test results can also be used to generate models of human performance and to drive future sensor requirements. The Perception Lab seeks to develop and employ scientifically valid and efficient perception testing procedures within the practical constraints of Army research, including rapid development timelines for critical technologies, unique guidelines for ethical testing of Army personnel, and limited resources. The purpose of this paper is to describe NVESD Perception Lab capabilities, recent methodological improvements designed to align our methodology more closely with scientific best practice, and to discuss goals for future improvements and expanded capabilities. Specifically, we discuss modifying our methodology to improve training, to account for human fatigue, to improve assessments of human performance, and to increase experimental design consultation provided by research psychologists. Ultimately, this paper outlines a template for assessing human perception and overall system performance related to EO/IR imaging systems.

Beat Perception and Sociability: Evidence from Williams Syndrome

PubMed Central

Lense, Miriam D.; Dykens, Elisabeth M.

2016-01-01

Beat perception in music has been proposed to be a human universal that may have its origins in adaptive processes involving temporal entrainment such as social communication and interaction. We examined beat perception skills in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic, neurodevelopmental disorder. Musical interest and hypersociability are two prominent aspects of the WS phenotype although actual musical and social skills are variable. On a group level, beat and meter perception skills were poorer in WS than in age-matched peers though there was significant individual variability. Cognitive ability, sound processing style, and musical training predicted beat and meter perception performance in WS. Moreover, we found significant relationships between beat and meter perception and adaptive communication and socialization skills in WS. Results have implications for understanding the role of predictive timing in both music and social interactions in the general population, and suggest music as a promising avenue for addressing social communication difficulties in WS. PMID:27378982

Contact and perspective taking improve humanness standards and perceptions of humanness of older adults and people with dementia: a cross-sectional survey study.

PubMed

Miron, Anca M; McFadden, Susan H; Hermus, Nathan J; Buelow, Jennifer; Nazario, Amanda S; Seelman, Katarena

2017-10-01

No empirical work has systematically explored perceptions of humanness of people with dementia and of older adults and the variables that could improve these perceptions. We thus investigated the role of contact and perspective taking in improving perceptions of humanness of these social groups. To do so, we developed a new concept, humanness standards, defined as the amount of evidence of ability impairment needed to conclude that elderly people and those with dementia have lost personhood. We used a cross-sectional survey design (n = 619) to assess participants' humanness standards and perceptions of uniquely human characteristics and human nature characteristics of two social groups (people with dementia and older adults). Half the participants (n = 311) completed a survey about people with dementia and half (n = 308) assessed older adults. People with dementia were perceived as possessing humanness characteristics to a lesser extent than were older adults. For both groups, contact predicted enhanced perceptions of humanness characteristics. Participants' degree of contact with individuals with dementia also predicted humanness standards, but only under low perspective-taking conditions. As predicted, for older adults, participants set the highest humanness impairment thresholds in the high contact/high perspective-taking condition. We conclude that while social programs that bring persons with dementia and other individuals in contact could change humanness standards and perceptions of humanness characteristics of people with dementia, in the case of elderly adults, the contact must be supplemented by variables that facilitate taking the perspective of the person.

75 FR 33515 - Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Electric-Powered Vehicles; Electrolyte Spillage and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-14

..., and made a simple comparison. Based on the IEC report, the human body can withstand up to four times....\\3\\ The flow of this amount of AC through the human body may result in perception of the current and... considered to be safe) corresponds to 8 mA of DC (that is also considered to be safe for the human body).\\4...

Toward a Social Psychophysics of Face Communication.

PubMed

Jack, Rachael E; Schyns, Philippe G

2017-01-03

As a highly social species, humans are equipped with a powerful tool for social communication-the face. Although seemingly simple, the human face can elicit multiple social perceptions due to the rich variations of its movements, morphology, and complexion. Consequently, identifying precisely what face information elicits different social perceptions is a complex empirical challenge that has largely remained beyond the reach of traditional methods. In the past decade, the emerging field of social psychophysics has developed new methods to address this challenge, with the potential to transfer psychophysical laws of social perception to the digital economy via avatars and social robots. At this exciting juncture, it is timely to review these new methodological developments. In this article, we introduce and review the foundational methodological developments of social psychophysics, present work done in the past decade that has advanced understanding of the face as a tool for social communication, and discuss the major challenges that lie ahead.

Neurolinguistic Relativity: How Language Flexes Human Perception and Cognition

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

The time has come, perhaps, to go beyond merely acknowledging that language is a core manifestation of the workings of the human mind and that it relates interactively to all aspects of thinking. The issue, thus, is not to decide whether language and human thought may be ineluctably linked (they just are), but rather to determine what the characteristics of this relationship may be and to understand how language influences—and may be influenced by—nonverbal information processing. In an attempt to demystify linguistic relativity, I review neurolinguistic studies from our research group showing a link between linguistic distinctions and perceptual or conceptual processing. On the basis of empirical evidence showing effects of terminology on perception, language‐idiosyncratic relationships in semantic memory, grammatical skewing of event conceptualization, and unconscious modulation of executive functioning by verbal input, I advocate a neurofunctional approach through which we can systematically explore how languages shape human thought. PMID:27642191

Neurolinguistic Relativity: How Language Flexes Human Perception and Cognition.

PubMed

Thierry, Guillaume

2016-09-01

The time has come, perhaps, to go beyond merely acknowledging that language is a core manifestation of the workings of the human mind and that it relates interactively to all aspects of thinking. The issue, thus, is not to decide whether language and human thought may be ineluctably linked (they just are), but rather to determine what the characteristics of this relationship may be and to understand how language influences-and may be influenced by-nonverbal information processing. In an attempt to demystify linguistic relativity, I review neurolinguistic studies from our research group showing a link between linguistic distinctions and perceptual or conceptual processing. On the basis of empirical evidence showing effects of terminology on perception, language-idiosyncratic relationships in semantic memory, grammatical skewing of event conceptualization, and unconscious modulation of executive functioning by verbal input, I advocate a neurofunctional approach through which we can systematically explore how languages shape human thought.

Dealing with Big Numbers: Representation and Understanding of Magnitudes outside of Human Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Resnick, Ilyse; Newcombe, Nora S.; Shipley, Thomas F.

2017-01-01

Being able to estimate quantity is important in everyday life and for success in the STEM disciplines. However, people have difficulty reasoning about magnitudes outside of human perception (e.g., nanoseconds, geologic time). This study examines patterns of estimation errors across temporal and spatial magnitudes at large scales. We evaluated the…

Developmental study of visual perception of handwriting movement: influence of motor competencies?

PubMed

Bidet-Ildei, Christel; Orliaguet, Jean-Pierre

2008-07-25

This paper investigates the influence of motor competencies for the visual perception of human movements in 6-10 years old children. To this end, we compared the kinematics of actual performed and perceptual preferred handwriting movements. The two children's tasks were (1) to write the letter e on a digitizer (handwriting task) and (2) to adjust the velocity of an e displayed on a screen so that it would correspond to "their preferred velocity" (perceptive task). In both tasks, the size of the letter (from 3.4 to 54.02 cm) was different on each trial. Results showed that irrespective of age and task, total movement time conforms to the isochrony principle, i.e., the tendency to maintain constant the duration of movement across changes of amplitude. However, concerning movement speed, there is no developmental correspondence between results obtained in the motor and the perceptive tasks. In handwriting task, movement time decreased with age but no effect of age was observed in the perceptive task. Therefore, perceptual preference of handwriting movement in children could not be strictly interpreted in terms of motor-perceptual coupling.

Impairment of holistic face perception following right occipito-temporal damage in prosopagnosia: converging evidence from gaze-contingency.

PubMed

Van Belle, Goedele; Busigny, Thomas; Lefèvre, Philippe; Joubert, Sven; Felician, Olivier; Gentile, Francesco; Rossion, Bruno

2011-09-01

Gaze-contingency is a method traditionally used to investigate the perceptual span in reading by selectively revealing/masking a portion of the visual field in real time. Introducing this approach in face perception research showed that the performance pattern of a brain-damaged patient with acquired prosopagnosia (PS) in a face matching task was reversed, as compared to normal observers: the patient showed almost no further decrease of performance when only one facial part (eye, mouth, nose, etc.) was available at a time (foveal window condition, forcing part-based analysis), but a very large impairment when the fixated part was selectively masked (mask condition, promoting holistic perception) (Van Belle, De Graef, Verfaillie, Busigny, & Rossion, 2010a; Van Belle, De Graef, Verfaillie, Rossion, & Lefèvre, 2010b). Here we tested the same manipulation in a recently reported case of pure prosopagnosia (GG) with unilateral right hemisphere damage (Busigny, Joubert, Felician, Ceccaldi, & Rossion, 2010). Contrary to normal observers, GG was also significantly more impaired with a mask than with a window, demonstrating impairment with holistic face perception. Together with our previous study, these observations support a generalized account of acquired prosopagnosia as a critical impairment of holistic (individual) face perception, implying that this function is a key element of normal human face recognition. Furthermore, the similar behavioral pattern of the two patients despite different lesion localizations supports a distributed network view of the neural face processing structures, suggesting that the key function of human face processing, namely holistic perception of individual faces, requires the activity of several brain areas of the right hemisphere and their mutual connectivity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mechanisms of migraine aura revealed by functional MRI in human visual cortex

PubMed Central

Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Sanchez del Rio, Margarita; Wu, Ona; Schwartz, Denis; Bakker, Dick; Fischl, Bruce; Kwong, Kenneth K.; Cutrer, F. Michael; Rosen, Bruce R.; Tootell, Roger B. H.; Sorensen, A. Gregory; Moskowitz, Michael A.

2001-01-01

Cortical spreading depression (CSD) has been suggested to underlie migraine visual aura. However, it has been challenging to test this hypothesis in human cerebral cortex. Using high-field functional MRI with near-continuous recording during visual aura in three subjects, we observed blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes that demonstrated at least eight characteristics of CSD, time-locked to percept/onset of the aura. Initially, a focal increase in BOLD signal (possibly reflecting vasodilation), developed within extrastriate cortex (area V3A). This BOLD change progressed contiguously and slowly (3.5 ± 1.1 mm/min) over occipital cortex, congruent with the retinotopy of the visual percept. Following the same retinotopic progression, the BOLD signal then diminished (possibly reflecting vasoconstriction after the initial vasodilation), as did the BOLD response to visual activation. During periods with no visual stimulation, but while the subject was experiencing scintillations, BOLD signal followed the retinotopic progression of the visual percept. These data strongly suggest that an electrophysiological event such as CSD generates the aura in human visual cortex. PMID:11287655

The development of pointing perception in infancy: effects of communicative signals on covert shifts of attention.

PubMed

Daum, Moritz M; Ulber, Julia; Gredebäck, Gustaf

2013-10-01

The present study aims to investigate the interplay of verbal and nonverbal communication with respect to infants' perception of pointing gestures. Infants were presented with still images of pointing hands (cue) in combination with an acoustic stimulus. The communicative content of this acoustic stimulus was varied from being human and communicative to artificial. Saccadic reaction times (SRTs) from the cue to a peripheral target were measured as an indicator of the modulation of covert attention. A significant cueing effect (facilitated SRTs for congruent compared with incongruent trials) was only present in a condition with additional communicative and referential speech. In addition, the size of the cueing effect increased the more human and communicative the acoustic stimulus was. This indicates a beneficial effect of verbal communication on the perception of nonverbal communicative pointing gestures, emphasizing the important role of verbal communication in facilitating social understanding across domains. These findings additionally suggest that human and communicative (ostensive) signals are not qualitatively different from other less social signals but just quantitatively the most attention grabbing among a number of other signals.

Risk perceptions, sexual attitudes, and sexual behavior after HPV vaccination in 11-12 year-old girls.

PubMed

Mullins, Tanya L Kowalczyk; Widdice, Lea E; Rosenthal, Susan L; Zimet, Gregory D; Kahn, Jessica A

2015-07-31

Among 11-12 year-old girls who received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, we explored, over the subsequent 30 months: (1) trajectories of knowledge about HPV/HPV vaccines and vaccine-related risk perceptions; (2) whether knowledge and risk perceptions impacted sexual attitudes and sexual experience; (3) whether mothers, clinicians, and media influenced girls' risk perceptions, attitudes, and behavior. Girls and mothers (n=25dyads) completed separate, semi-structured interviews within 2 days of, and 6, 18, and 30 months after, their first HPV vaccine dose. Knowledge, risk perceptions related to HPV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and attitudes about sexual behaviors were assessed. Sexual experience was assessed at girls' 30 month interviews. Clinicians completed interviews at baseline. Transcribed interviews were analyzed using framework analysis. Girls' baseline knowledge was poor but often improved with time. Most girls (n=18) developed accurate risk perceptions about HPV but only half (n=12) developed accurate risk perceptions about other STIs by 30 months. The vast majority of girls thought that safer sex was still important, regardless of knowledge, risk perceptions, or sexual experience. Girls whose HPV knowledge was high at baseline or increased over time tended to articulate accurate risk perceptions; those who were able to articulate accurate risk perceptions tended to report not having initiated sexual activity. Girls whose mothers demonstrated higher knowledge and/or communication about HPV vaccination tended to articulate accurate risk perceptions, whereas clinicians and media exposure did not appear to influence risk perceptions. Higher knowledge about HPV vaccines among mothers and girls was linked with more accurate risk perceptions among girls. Clinicians may play an important role in providing education about HPV vaccines to mothers and girls. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding human perception by human-made illusions

PubMed Central

Carbon, Claus-Christian

2014-01-01

It may be fun to perceive illusions, but the understanding of how they work is even more stimulating and sustainable: They can tell us where the limits and capacity of our perceptual apparatus are found—they can specify how the constraints of perception are set. Furthermore, they let us analyze the cognitive sub-processes underlying our perception. Illusions in a scientific context are not mainly created to reveal the failures of our perception or the dysfunctions of our apparatus, but instead point to the specific power of human perception. The main task of human perception is to amplify and strengthen sensory inputs to be able to perceive, orientate and act very quickly, specifically and efficiently. The present paper strengthens this line of argument, strongly put forth by perceptual pioneer Richard L. Gregory (e.g., Gregory, 2009), by discussing specific visual illusions and how they can help us to understand the magic of perception. PMID:25132816

Age, Health and Attractiveness Perception of Virtual (Rendered) Human Hair

PubMed Central

Fink, Bernhard; Hufschmidt, Carla; Hirn, Thomas; Will, Susanne; McKelvey, Graham; Lankhof, John

2016-01-01

The social significance of physical appearance and beauty has been documented in many studies. It is known that even subtle manipulations of facial morphology and skin condition can alter people’s perception of a person’s age, health and attractiveness. While the variation in facial morphology and skin condition cues has been studied quite extensively, comparably little is known on the effect of hair on social perception. This has been partly caused by the technical difficulty of creating appropriate stimuli for investigations of people’s response to systematic variation of certain hair characteristics, such as color and style, while keeping other features constant. Here, we present a modeling approach to the investigation of human hair perception using computer-generated, virtual (rendered) human hair. In three experiments, we manipulated hair diameter (Experiment 1), hair density (Experiment 2), and hair style (Experiment 3) of human (female) head hair and studied perceptions of age, health and attractiveness. Our results show that even subtle changes in these features have an impact on hair perception. We discuss our findings with reference to previous studies on condition-dependent quality cues in women that influence human social perception, thereby suggesting that hair is a salient feature of human physical appearance, which contributes to the perception of beauty. PMID:28066276

Auditory Pattern Memory: Mechanisms of Tonal Sequence Discrimination by Human Observers.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-09-30

different task, and Macmillan, Kaplan, and Creelman (1977) in a study of categorica l percept ion. Tanrr ’s model included a short-term decaying...components, J. Acoust. Soc. of Am., 76, 1037-1044. 34 Macmillan, N. A., Kaplan H. L., and Creelman , C. D. The psychophysics of categorical perception... Psychological Review, 1977, 84, 452-471. Sankoff, D., and Kruskal, J. B. (1983). Time Warps, String Edits, and Macromolecules: The Theory and Practice of

The relationship between employees' perceptions of human resource systems and organizational performance: examining mediating mechanisms and temporal dynamics.

PubMed

Piening, Erk P; Baluch, Alina M; Salge, Torsten Oliver

2013-11-01

Given the limited understanding of temporal issues in extant theorizing about the link between human resource management (HRM) and performance, in this study we aim to shed light on how, when, and why HR interventions affect organizational performance. On the basis of longitudinal, multi-informant and multisource data from public hospital services in England, we provide new insights into the complex interplay between employees' perceptions of HR systems, job satisfaction, and performance outcomes over time. The dynamic panel data analyses provide support for changes in employees' experience of an HR system being related to subsequent changes in customer satisfaction, as mediated by changes in job satisfaction, albeit these effects decrease over time. Moreover, our longitudinal analyses highlight the importance of feedback effects in the HRM-performance chain, which otherwise appears to evolve in a cyclical manner. (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Modeling human behaviors and reactions under dangerous environment.

PubMed

Kang, J; Wright, D K; Qin, S F; Zhao, Y

2005-01-01

This paper describes the framework of a real-time simulation system to model human behavior and reactions in dangerous environments. The system utilizes the latest 3D computer animation techniques, combined with artificial intelligence, robotics and psychology, to model human behavior, reactions and decision making under expected/unexpected dangers in real-time in virtual environments. The development of the system includes: classification on the conscious/subconscious behaviors and reactions of different people; capturing different motion postures by the Eagle Digital System; establishing 3D character animation models; establishing 3D models for the scene; planning the scenario and the contents; and programming within Virtools Dev. Programming within Virtools Dev is subdivided into modeling dangerous events, modeling character's perceptions, modeling character's decision making, modeling character's movements, modeling character's interaction with environment and setting up the virtual cameras. The real-time simulation of human reactions in hazardous environments is invaluable in military defense, fire escape, rescue operation planning, traffic safety studies, and safety planning in chemical factories, the design of buildings, airplanes, ships and trains. Currently, human motion modeling can be realized through established technology, whereas to integrate perception and intelligence into virtual human's motion is still a huge undertaking. The challenges here are the synchronization of motion and intelligence, the accurate modeling of human's vision, smell, touch and hearing, the diversity and effects of emotion and personality in decision making. There are three types of software platforms which could be employed to realize the motion and intelligence within one system, and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed.

The cognitive neuroscience of time perception: how psychological studies might help to dissect the timing system.

PubMed

Wearden, John H

2013-01-01

It is argued that the cognitive neuroscience of time perception does not make sufficient use of a range of experimental techniques and theoretical approaches which might be useful in "dissecting" the human timing system, and thus helping to uncover its neural basis. These techniques are mostly inspired by scalar expectancy theory, but do not depend on acceptance of that model. Most of the methods result in the same physical stimuli giving rise to systematically different time judgements, thus they avoid problems of control which have haunted some areas of the cognitive neuroscience of timing. Among the possibilities are (a) changing the basic duration judgement of stimuli and events, (b) manipulating working memory and reference memories for duration, and (c) changing temporal decision processes. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Impaired perceived timing of falls in the elderly.

PubMed

Lupo, Julian; Barnett-Cowan, Michael

2018-01-01

Falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths and hospitalizations, with older adults at an increased risk. As humans age, physical changes and health conditions make falls more likely. While we know how the body reflexively responds to prevent injury during a fall, we know little about how people perceive the fall itself. We previously found that young adults required a fall to precede a comparison sound stimulus by approximately 44ms to perceive the two events as simultaneous. This may relate to common anecdotal reports suggesting that humans often describe distortions in their perception of time - time seems to slow down during a fall - with very little recollection of how and when the fall began. Here we examine whether fall perception changes with age. Young (19-25y) and older (61-72y) healthy adults made temporal order judgments identifying whether the onset of their fall or the onset of a comparison sound came first to measure the point of subjective simultaneity. Results show that fall perception is nearly twice as slow for older adults, where perturbation onset has to precede sound onset by ∼88ms to appear coincident, compared to younger adults (∼44ms). We suggest that such age-related differences in fall perception may relate to increased fall rates in older adults. We conclude that a better understanding of how younger versus older adults perceive falls may identify important factors for innovative fall prevention strategies and rehabilitative training exercises to improve fall awareness. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Machine Understanding of Human Implicit Intention

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-18

Cognitive Neurodynamics , Hokkaido, Japan, June 2011, Hokkaido, Japan (Plenary Talk) - Soo-Young Lee, Implicit Intention Recognition and Hierarchical...subject’s response with the accuracy of about 80% by SVM. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Brain Science and Engineering; Cognitive Neuroscience; Human-Computer...oscillations have been related to a variety of functions such as perception, cognition , sleep, etc. For a long time, researchers have found the sensory and

Model Cortical Association Fields Account for the Time Course and Dependence on Target Complexity of Human Contour Perception

PubMed Central

Gintautas, Vadas; Ham, Michael I.; Kunsberg, Benjamin; Barr, Shawn; Brumby, Steven P.; Rasmussen, Craig; George, John S.; Nemenman, Ilya; Bettencourt, Luís M. A.; Kenyon, Garret T.

2011-01-01

Can lateral connectivity in the primary visual cortex account for the time dependence and intrinsic task difficulty of human contour detection? To answer this question, we created a synthetic image set that prevents sole reliance on either low-level visual features or high-level context for the detection of target objects. Rendered images consist of smoothly varying, globally aligned contour fragments (amoebas) distributed among groups of randomly rotated fragments (clutter). The time course and accuracy of amoeba detection by humans was measured using a two-alternative forced choice protocol with self-reported confidence and variable image presentation time (20-200 ms), followed by an image mask optimized so as to interrupt visual processing. Measured psychometric functions were well fit by sigmoidal functions with exponential time constants of 30-91 ms, depending on amoeba complexity. Key aspects of the psychophysical experiments were accounted for by a computational network model, in which simulated responses across retinotopic arrays of orientation-selective elements were modulated by cortical association fields, represented as multiplicative kernels computed from the differences in pairwise edge statistics between target and distractor images. Comparing the experimental and the computational results suggests that each iteration of the lateral interactions takes at least ms of cortical processing time. Our results provide evidence that cortical association fields between orientation selective elements in early visual areas can account for important temporal and task-dependent aspects of the psychometric curves characterizing human contour perception, with the remaining discrepancies postulated to arise from the influence of higher cortical areas. PMID:21998562

Prisms to travel in time: Investigation of time-space association through prismatic adaptation effect on mental time travel.

PubMed

Anelli, Filomena; Ciaramelli, Elisa; Arzy, Shahar; Frassinetti, Francesca

2016-11-01

Accumulating evidence suggests that humans process time and space in similar veins. Humans represent time along a spatial continuum, and perception of temporal durations can be altered through manipulations of spatial attention by prismatic adaptation (PA). Here, we investigated whether PA-induced manipulations of spatial attention can also influence more conceptual aspects of time, such as humans' ability to travel mentally back and forward in time (mental time travel, MTT). Before and after leftward- and rightward-PA, participants projected themselves in the past, present or future time (i.e., self-projection), and, for each condition, determined whether a series of events were located in the past or the future with respect to that specific self-location in time (i.e., self-reference). The results demonstrated that leftward and rightward shifts of spatial attention facilitated recognition of past and future events, respectively. These findings suggest that spatial attention affects the temporal processing of the human self. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

CPA Perceptions of Human Skills for Professional Competency Development Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Day, Kari C.

2017-01-01

This study addressed CPA perceptions about the need for human skill competencies as professional development. The problem was identified as the undetermined assessment of state level CPA perceptions about human skill competencies as developmental needs. CPAs and education providers may be impacted by this problem. The purpose of this study was to…

Perception of Human-Derived Risk Influences Choice at Top of the Food Chain

PubMed Central

Cristescu, Bogdan; Stenhouse, Gordon B.; Boyce, Mark S.

2013-01-01

On human-used landscapes, animal behavior is a trade-off between maximizing fitness and minimizing human-derived risk. Understanding risk perception in wildlife can allow mitigation of anthropogenic risk, with benefits to long-term animal fitness. Areas where animals choose to rest should minimize risk from predators, which for large carnivores typically equate to humans. We hypothesize that high human activity leads to selection for habitat security, whereas low activity enables trading security for forage. We investigated selection of resting (bedding) sites by GPS radiocollared adult grizzly bears (n = 10) in a low density population on a multiple-use landscape in Canada. We compared security and foods at resting and random locations while accounting for land use, season, and time of day. On reclaimed mines with low human access, bears selected high horizontal cover far from trails, but did not avoid open (herbaceous) areas, resting primarily at night. In protected areas bears also bedded at night, in areas with berry shrubs and Hedysarum spp., with horizontal cover selected in the summer, during high human access. On public lands with substantial human recreation, bears bedded at day, selected resting sites with high horizontal cover in the summer and habitat edges, with bedding associated with herbaceous foods. These spatial and temporal patterns of selection suggest that bears perceive human-related risk differentially in relation to human activity level, season and time of day, and employ a security-food trade-off strategy. Although grizzly bears are presently not hunted in Alberta, their perceived risks associated with humans influence resting-site selection. PMID:24367549

An Intrinsic Role of Beta Oscillations in Memory for Time Estimation.

PubMed

Wiener, Martin; Parikh, Alomi; Krakow, Arielle; Coslett, H Branch

2018-05-22

The neural mechanisms underlying time perception are of vital importance to a comprehensive understanding of behavior and cognition. Recent work has suggested a supramodal role for beta oscillations in measuring temporal intervals. However, the precise function of beta oscillations and whether their manipulation alters timing has yet to be determined. To accomplish this, we first re-analyzed two, separate EEG datasets and demonstrate that beta oscillations are associated with the retention and comparison of a memory standard for duration. We next conducted a study of 20 human participants using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), over frontocentral cortex, at alpha and beta frequencies, during a visual temporal bisection task, finding that beta stimulation exclusively shifts the perception of time such that stimuli are reported as longer in duration. Finally, we decomposed trialwise choice data with a drift diffusion model of timing, revealing that the shift in timing is caused by a change in the starting point of accumulation, rather than the drift rate or threshold. Our results provide evidence for the intrinsic involvement of beta oscillations in the perception of time, and point to a specific role for beta oscillations in the encoding and retention of memory for temporal intervals.

Illusory Motion Reproduced by Deep Neural Networks Trained for Prediction

PubMed Central

Watanabe, Eiji; Kitaoka, Akiyoshi; Sakamoto, Kiwako; Yasugi, Masaki; Tanaka, Kenta

2018-01-01

The cerebral cortex predicts visual motion to adapt human behavior to surrounding objects moving in real time. Although the underlying mechanisms are still unknown, predictive coding is one of the leading theories. Predictive coding assumes that the brain's internal models (which are acquired through learning) predict the visual world at all times and that errors between the prediction and the actual sensory input further refine the internal models. In the past year, deep neural networks based on predictive coding were reported for a video prediction machine called PredNet. If the theory substantially reproduces the visual information processing of the cerebral cortex, then PredNet can be expected to represent the human visual perception of motion. In this study, PredNet was trained with natural scene videos of the self-motion of the viewer, and the motion prediction ability of the obtained computer model was verified using unlearned videos. We found that the computer model accurately predicted the magnitude and direction of motion of a rotating propeller in unlearned videos. Surprisingly, it also represented the rotational motion for illusion images that were not moving physically, much like human visual perception. While the trained network accurately reproduced the direction of illusory rotation, it did not detect motion components in negative control pictures wherein people do not perceive illusory motion. This research supports the exciting idea that the mechanism assumed by the predictive coding theory is one of basis of motion illusion generation. Using sensory illusions as indicators of human perception, deep neural networks are expected to contribute significantly to the development of brain research. PMID:29599739

Illusory Motion Reproduced by Deep Neural Networks Trained for Prediction.

PubMed

Watanabe, Eiji; Kitaoka, Akiyoshi; Sakamoto, Kiwako; Yasugi, Masaki; Tanaka, Kenta

2018-01-01

The cerebral cortex predicts visual motion to adapt human behavior to surrounding objects moving in real time. Although the underlying mechanisms are still unknown, predictive coding is one of the leading theories. Predictive coding assumes that the brain's internal models (which are acquired through learning) predict the visual world at all times and that errors between the prediction and the actual sensory input further refine the internal models. In the past year, deep neural networks based on predictive coding were reported for a video prediction machine called PredNet. If the theory substantially reproduces the visual information processing of the cerebral cortex, then PredNet can be expected to represent the human visual perception of motion. In this study, PredNet was trained with natural scene videos of the self-motion of the viewer, and the motion prediction ability of the obtained computer model was verified using unlearned videos. We found that the computer model accurately predicted the magnitude and direction of motion of a rotating propeller in unlearned videos. Surprisingly, it also represented the rotational motion for illusion images that were not moving physically, much like human visual perception. While the trained network accurately reproduced the direction of illusory rotation, it did not detect motion components in negative control pictures wherein people do not perceive illusory motion. This research supports the exciting idea that the mechanism assumed by the predictive coding theory is one of basis of motion illusion generation. Using sensory illusions as indicators of human perception, deep neural networks are expected to contribute significantly to the development of brain research.

Categorical Perception of Sound Frequency by Crickets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wyttenbach, Robert A.; May, Michael L.; Hoy, Ronald R.

1996-09-01

Partitioning continuously varying stimuli into categories is a fundamental problem of perception. One solution to this problem, categorical perception, is known primarily from human speech, but also occurs in other modalities and in some mammals and birds. Categorical perception was tested in crickets by using two paradigms of human psychophysics, labeling and habituation-dishabituation. The results show that crickets divide sound frequency categorically between attractive (<16 kilohertz) and repulsive (>16 kilohertz) sounds. There is sharp discrimination between these categories but no discrimination between different frequencies of ultrasound. This demonstration of categorical perception in an invertebrate suggests that categorical perception may be a basic and widespread feature of sensory systems, from humans to invertebrates.

Rhythmic cognition in humans and animals: distinguishing meter and pulse perception

PubMed Central

Fitch, W. Tecumseh

2013-01-01

This paper outlines a cognitive and comparative perspective on human rhythmic cognition that emphasizes a key distinction between pulse perception and meter perception. Pulse perception involves the extraction of a regular pulse or “tactus” from a stream of events. Meter perception involves grouping of events into hierarchical trees with differing levels of “strength”, or perceptual prominence. I argue that metrically-structured rhythms are required to either perform or move appropriately to music (e.g., to dance). Rhythms, from this metrical perspective, constitute “trees in time.” Rhythmic syntax represents a neglected form of musical syntax, and warrants more thorough neuroscientific investigation. The recent literature on animal entrainment clearly demonstrates the capacity to extract the pulse from rhythmic music, and to entrain periodic movements to this pulse, in several parrot species and a California sea lion, and a more limited ability to do so in one chimpanzee. However, the ability of these or other species to infer hierarchical rhythmic trees remains, for the most part, unexplored (with some apparent negative results from macaques). The results from this animal comparative research, combined with new methods to explore rhythmic cognition neurally, provide exciting new routes for understanding not just rhythmic cognition, but hierarchical cognition more generally, from a biological and neural perspective. PMID:24198765

The inner experience of time

PubMed Central

Wittmann, Marc

2009-01-01

The striking diversity of psychological and neurophysiological models of ‘time perception’ characterizes the debate on how and where in the brain time is processed. In this review, the most prominent models of time perception will be critically discussed. Some of the variation across the proposed models will be explained, namely (i) different processes and regions of the brain are involved depending on the length of the processed time interval, and (ii) different cognitive processes may be involved that are not necessarily part of a core timekeeping system but, nevertheless, influence the experience of time. These cognitive processes are distributed over the brain and are difficult to discern from timing mechanisms. Recent developments in the research on emotional influences on time perception, which succeed decades of studies on the cognition of temporal processing, will be highlighted. Empirical findings on the relationship between affect and time, together with recent conceptualizations of self- and body processes, are integrated by viewing time perception as entailing emotional and interoceptive (within the body) states. To date, specific neurophysiological mechanisms that would account for the representation of human time have not been identified. It will be argued that neural processes in the insular cortex that are related to body signals and feeling states might constitute such a neurophysiological mechanism for the encoding of duration. PMID:19487197

Are mirror neurons the basis of speech perception? Evidence from five cases with damage to the purported human mirror system

PubMed Central

Rogalsky, Corianne; Love, Tracy; Driscoll, David; Anderson, Steven W.; Hickok, Gregory

2013-01-01

The discovery of mirror neurons in macaque has led to a resurrection of motor theories of speech perception. Although the majority of lesion and functional imaging studies have associated perception with the temporal lobes, it has also been proposed that the ‘human mirror system’, which prominently includes Broca’s area, is the neurophysiological substrate of speech perception. Although numerous studies have demonstrated a tight link between sensory and motor speech processes, few have directly assessed the critical prediction of mirror neuron theories of speech perception, namely that damage to the human mirror system should cause severe deficits in speech perception. The present study measured speech perception abilities of patients with lesions involving motor regions in the left posterior frontal lobe and/or inferior parietal lobule (i.e., the proposed human ‘mirror system’). Performance was at or near ceiling in patients with fronto-parietal lesions. It is only when the lesion encroaches on auditory regions in the temporal lobe that perceptual deficits are evident. This suggests that ‘mirror system’ damage does not disrupt speech perception, but rather that auditory systems are the primary substrate for speech perception. PMID:21207313

A comparative analysis of auditory perception in humans and songbirds: a modular approach.

PubMed

Weisman, Ronald; Hoeschele, Marisa; Sturdy, Christopher B

2014-05-01

We propose that a relatively small number of perceptual skills underlie human perception of music and speech. Humans and songbirds share a number of features in the development of their auditory communication systems. These similarities invite comparisons between species in their auditory perceptual skills. Here, we summarized our experimental comparisons between humans (and other mammals) and songbirds (and other birds) in their use of pitch height and pitch chroma perception and discuss similarities and differences in other auditory perceptual abilities of these species. Specifically, we introduced a functional modular view, using pitch chroma and pitch height perception as examples, as a theoretical framework for the comparative study of auditory perception and perhaps all of the study of comparative cognition. We also contrasted phylogeny and adaptation as causal mechanisms in comparative cognition using examples from auditory perception. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Human gamma band activity and perception of a gestalt.

PubMed

Keil, A; Müller, M M; Ray, W J; Gruber, T; Elbert, T

1999-08-15

Neuronal oscillations in the gamma band (above 30 Hz) have been proposed to be a possible mechanism for the visual representation of objects. The present study examined the topography of gamma band spectral power and event-related potentials in human EEG associated with perceptual switching effected by rotating ambiguous (bistable) figures. Eleven healthy human subjects were presented two rotating bistable figures: first, a face figure that allowed perception of a sad or happy face depending on orientation and therefore caused a perceptual switch at defined points in time when rotated, and, second, a modified version of the Rubin vase, allowing perception as a vase or two faces whereby the switch was orientation-independent. Nonrotating figures served as further control stimuli. EEG was recorded using a high-density array with 128 electrodes. We found a negative event-related potential associated with the switching of the sad-happy figure, which was most pronounced at central prefrontal sites. Gamma band activity (GBA) was enhanced at occipital electrode sites in the rotating bistable figures compared with the standing stimuli, being maximal at vertical stimulus orientations that allowed an easy recognition of the sad and happy face or the vase-faces, respectively. At anterior electrodes, GBA showed a complementary pattern, being maximal when stimuli were oriented horizontally. The findings support the notion that formation of a visual percept may involve oscillations in a distributed neuronal assembly.

Neural mechanisms of rhythm perception: current findings and future perspectives.

PubMed

Grahn, Jessica A

2012-10-01

Perception of temporal patterns is fundamental to normal hearing, speech, motor control, and music. Certain types of pattern understanding are unique to humans, such as musical rhythm. Although human responses to musical rhythm are universal, there is much we do not understand about how rhythm is processed in the brain. Here, I consider findings from research into basic timing mechanisms and models through to the neuroscience of rhythm and meter. A network of neural areas, including motor regions, is regularly implicated in basic timing as well as processing of musical rhythm. However, fractionating the specific roles of individual areas in this network has remained a challenge. Distinctions in activity patterns appear between "automatic" and "cognitively controlled" timing processes, but the perception of musical rhythm requires features of both automatic and controlled processes. In addition, many experimental manipulations rely on participants directing their attention toward or away from certain stimulus features, and measuring corresponding differences in neural activity. Many temporal features, however, are implicitly processed whether attended to or not, making it difficult to create controlled baseline conditions for experimental comparisons. The variety of stimuli, paradigms, and definitions can further complicate comparisons across domains or methodologies. Despite these challenges, the high level of interest and multitude of methodological approaches from different cognitive domains (including music, language, and motor learning) have yielded new insights and hold promise for future progress. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Verticality perception during and after galvanic vestibular stimulation.

PubMed

Volkening, Katharina; Bergmann, Jeannine; Keller, Ingo; Wuehr, Max; Müller, Friedemann; Jahn, Klaus

2014-10-03

The human brain constructs verticality perception by integrating vestibular, somatosensory, and visual information. Here we investigated whether galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) has an effect on verticality perception both during and after application, by assessing the subjective verticals (visual, haptic and postural) in healthy subjects at those times. During stimulation the subjective visual vertical and the subjective haptic vertical shifted towards the anode, whereas this shift was reversed towards the cathode in all modalities once stimulation was turned off. Overall, the effects were strongest for the haptic modality. Additional investigation of the time course of GVS-induced changes in the haptic vertical revealed that anodal shifts persisted for the entire 20-min stimulation interval in the majority of subjects. Aftereffects exhibited different types of decay, with a preponderance for an exponential decay. The existence of such reverse effects after stimulation could have implications for GVS-based therapy. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners’ Bonding Behavior

PubMed Central

Algoe, Sara B.; Kurtz, Laura E.; Grewen, Karen

2017-01-01

In this research, we tested hypotheses about the role of oxytocin in adult human bonding. Inspired by revisiting the research on pair bonding in microtine voles that fueled psychologists’ interest in the role of oxytocin in social life, we drew on recent theory from affective and relationship science to identify a well-defined bonding context for human romantic relationships. We then paired these behaviors and subjective psychological responses with a measure of naturally circulating oxytocin. In 129 romantically involved adults whose partner expressed gratitude to them in the lab, greater oxytocin over the prior 24 hr was associated with greater perceptions of the expresser’s responsiveness and gratitude, as well as greater experienced love, but not general affective reward. Moreover, in this one-time conversation, higher oxytocin acted like rose-colored glasses, attenuating the effect of a partner’s behaviorally coded expressive behavior on perceptions of the expresser’s responsiveness. These results justify future research on the role of oxytocin in psychological aspects of growth processes. PMID:28968183

Oxytocin and Social Bonds: The Role of Oxytocin in Perceptions of Romantic Partners' Bonding Behavior.

PubMed

Algoe, Sara B; Kurtz, Laura E; Grewen, Karen

2017-12-01

In this research, we tested hypotheses about the role of oxytocin in adult human bonding. Inspired by revisiting the research on pair bonding in microtine voles that fueled psychologists' interest in the role of oxytocin in social life, we drew on recent theory from affective and relationship science to identify a well-defined bonding context for human romantic relationships. We then paired these behaviors and subjective psychological responses with a measure of naturally circulating oxytocin. In 129 romantically involved adults whose partner expressed gratitude to them in the lab, greater oxytocin over the prior 24 hr was associated with greater perceptions of the expresser's responsiveness and gratitude, as well as greater experienced love, but not general affective reward. Moreover, in this one-time conversation, higher oxytocin acted like rose-colored glasses, attenuating the effect of a partner's behaviorally coded expressive behavior on perceptions of the expresser's responsiveness. These results justify future research on the role of oxytocin in psychological aspects of growth processes.

Extension Educators' Perceptions of Community Readiness, Knowledge of Prevention Science, and Experience with Collaboration

PubMed Central

Perkins, Daniel F.; Mincemoyer, Claudia C.; Lillehoj, Catherine J.

2011-01-01

This investigation compared Extension educators' perceptions of community readiness, knowledge of prevention science, and experience with community collaborations with the perceptions of community human service professionals. First, Cooperative Extension System (CES) educators and human service professionals were found to hold similar perceptions of community readiness for prevention programs. Second, CES educators demonstrated less awareness of prevention programs in the community, but a greater knowledge of research-based community risk and protective factors than the human service professionals. Third, CES educators and human service professionals were similar in terms of community collaborative involvement, success, and personal effectiveness. PMID:24143063

Plasticity in Human Pitch Perception Induced by Tonotopically Mismatched Electro-Acoustic Stimulation

PubMed Central

Reiss, Lina A.J.; Turner, Christopher W.; Karsten, Sue A.; Gantz, Bruce J.

2013-01-01

Under normal conditions, the acoustic pitch percept of a pure tone is determined mainly by the tonotopic place of the stimulation along the cochlea. Unlike acoustic stimulation, electric stimulation of a cochlear implant (CI) allows for the direct manipulation of the place of stimulation in human subjects. CI sound processors analyze the range of frequencies needed for speech perception and allocate portions of this range to the small number of electrodes distributed in the cochlea. Because the allocation is assigned independently of the original resonant frequency of the basilar membrane associated with the location of each electrode, CI users who have access to residual hearing in either or both ears often have tonotopic mismatches between the acoustic and electric stimulation. Here we demonstrate plasticity of place pitch representations of up to 3 octaves in Hybrid CI users after experience with combined electro-acoustic stimulation. The pitch percept evoked by single CI electrodes, measured relative to acoustic tones presented to the non-implanted ear, changed over time in directions that reduced the electro-acoustic pitch mismatch introduced by the CI programming. This trend was particularly apparent when the allocations of stimulus frequencies to electrodes were changed over time, with pitch changes even reversing direction in some subjects. These findings show that pitch plasticity can occur more rapidly and on a greater scale in the mature auditory system than previously thought possible. Overall, the results suggest that the adult auditory system can impose perceptual order on disordered arrays of inputs. PMID:24157931

Spike Timing Matters in Novel Neuronal Code Involved in Vibrotactile Frequency Perception.

PubMed

Birznieks, Ingvars; Vickery, Richard M

2017-05-22

Skin vibrations sensed by tactile receptors contribute significantly to the perception of object properties during tactile exploration [1-4] and to sensorimotor control during object manipulation [5]. Sustained low-frequency skin vibration (<60 Hz) evokes a distinct tactile sensation referred to as flutter whose frequency can be clearly perceived [6]. How afferent spiking activity translates into the perception of frequency is still unknown. Measures based on mean spike rates of neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex are sufficient to explain performance in some frequency discrimination tasks [7-11]; however, there is emerging evidence that stimuli can be distinguished based also on temporal features of neural activity [12, 13]. Our study's advance is to demonstrate that temporal features are fundamental for vibrotactile frequency perception. Pulsatile mechanical stimuli were used to elicit specified temporal spike train patterns in tactile afferents, and subsequently psychophysical methods were employed to characterize human frequency perception. Remarkably, the most salient temporal feature determining vibrotactile frequency was not the underlying periodicity but, rather, the duration of the silent gap between successive bursts of neural activity. This burst gap code for frequency represents a previously unknown form of neural coding in the tactile sensory system, which parallels auditory pitch perception mechanisms based on purely temporal information where longer inter-pulse intervals receive higher perceptual weights than short intervals [14]. Our study also demonstrates that human perception of stimuli can be determined exclusively by temporal features of spike trains independent of the mean spike rate and without contribution from population response factors. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural Integration of Information Specifying Human Structure from Form, Motion, and Depth

PubMed Central

Jackson, Stuart; Blake, Randolph

2010-01-01

Recent computational models of biological motion perception operate on ambiguous two-dimensional representations of the body (e.g., snapshots, posture templates) and contain no explicit means for disambiguating the three-dimensional orientation of a perceived human figure. Are there neural mechanisms in the visual system that represent a moving human figure’s orientation in three dimensions? To isolate and characterize the neural mechanisms mediating perception of biological motion, we used an adaptation paradigm together with bistable point-light (PL) animations whose perceived direction of heading fluctuates over time. After exposure to a PL walker with a particular stereoscopically defined heading direction, observers experienced a consistent aftereffect: a bistable PL walker, which could be perceived in the adapted orientation or reversed in depth, was perceived predominantly reversed in depth. A phase-scrambled adaptor produced no aftereffect, yet when adapting and test walkers differed in size or appeared on opposite sides of fixation aftereffects did occur. Thus, this heading direction aftereffect cannot be explained by local, disparity-specific motion adaptation, and the properties of scale and position invariance imply higher-level origins of neural adaptation. Nor is disparity essential for producing adaptation: when suspended on top of a stereoscopically defined, rotating globe, a context-disambiguated “globetrotter” was sufficient to bias the bistable walker’s direction, as were full-body adaptors. In sum, these results imply that the neural signals supporting biomotion perception integrate information on the form, motion, and three-dimensional depth orientation of the moving human figure. Models of biomotion perception should incorporate mechanisms to disambiguate depth ambiguities in two-dimensional body representations. PMID:20089892

Quantifying the Metrics That Characterize Safety Culture of Three Engineered Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tucker, Julie; Ernesti, Mary; Tokuhiro, Akira

2002-07-01

With potential energy shortages and increasing electricity demand, the nuclear energy option is being reconsidered in the United States. Public opinion will have a considerable voice in policy decisions that will 'road-map' the future of nuclear energy in this country. This report is an extension of the last author's work on the 'safety culture' associated with three engineered systems (automobiles, commercial airplanes, and nuclear power plants) in Japan and the United States. Safety culture, in brief is defined as a specifically developed culture based on societal and individual interpretations of the balance of real, perceived, and imagined risks versus themore » benefits drawn from utilizing a given engineered systems. The method of analysis is a modified scale analysis, with two fundamental Eigen-metrics, time- (t) and number-scales (N) that describe both engineered systems and human factors. The scale analysis approach is appropriate because human perception of risk, perception of benefit and level of (technological) acceptance are inherently subjective, therefore 'fuzzy' and rarely quantifiable in exact magnitude. Perception of risk, expressed in terms of the psychometric factors 'dread risk' and 'unknown risk', contains both time- and number-scale elements. Various engineering system accidents with fatalities, reported by mass media are characterized by t and N, and are presented in this work using the scale analysis method. We contend that level of acceptance infers a perception of benefit at least two orders larger magnitude than perception of risk. The 'amplification' influence of mass media is also deduced as being 100- to 1000-fold the actual number of fatalities/serious injuries in a nuclear-related accident. (authors)« less

Why Some Humanoid Faces Are Perceived More Positively Than Others: Effects of Human-Likeness and Task.

PubMed

Prakash, Akanksha; Rogers, Wendy A

2015-04-01

Ample research in social psychology has highlighted the importance of the human face in human-human interactions. However, there is a less clear understanding of how a humanoid robot's face is perceived by humans. One of the primary goals of this study was to investigate how initial perceptions of robots are influenced by the extent of human-likeness of the robot's face, particularly when the robot is intended to provide assistance with tasks in the home that are traditionally carried out by humans. Moreover, although robots have the potential to help both younger and older adults, there is limited knowledge of whether the two age groups' perceptions differ. In this study, younger ( N = 32) and older adults ( N = 32) imagined interacting with a robot in four different task contexts and rated robot faces of varying levels of human-likeness. Participants were also interviewed to assess their reasons for particular preferences. This multi-method approach identified patterns of perceptions across different appearances as well as reasons that influence the formation of such perceptions. Overall, the results indicated that people's perceptions of robot faces vary as a function of robot human-likeness. People tended to over-generalize their understanding of humans to build expectations about a human-looking robot's behavior and capabilities. Additionally, preferences for humanoid robots depended on the task although younger and older adults differed in their preferences for certain humanoid appearances. The results of this study have implications both for advancing theoretical understanding of robot perceptions and for creating and applying guidelines for the design of robots.

Bayesian versus politically motivated reasoning in human perception of climate anomalies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ripberger, Joseph T.; Jenkins-Smith, Hank C.; Silva, Carol L.; Carlson, Deven E.; Gupta, Kuhika; Carlson, Nina; Dunlap, Riley E.

2017-11-01

In complex systems where humans and nature interact to produce joint outcomes, mitigation, adaptation, and resilience require that humans perceive feedback—signals of health and distress—from natural systems. In many instances, humans readily perceive feedback. In others, feedback is more difficult to perceive, so humans rely on experts, heuristics, biases, and/or identify confirming rationalities that may distort perceptions of feedback. This study explores human perception of feedback from natural systems by testing alternate conceptions about how individuals perceive climate anomalies, a form of feedback from the climate system. Results indicate that individuals generally perceive climate anomalies, especially when the anomalies are relatively extreme and persistent. Moreover, this finding is largely robust to political differences that generate predictable but small biases in feedback perception at extreme ends of the partisan spectrum. The subtlety of these biases bodes well for mitigation, adaptation, and resilience as human systems continue to interact with a changing climate system.

Next gen perception and cognition: augmenting perception and enhancing cognition through mobile technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goma, Sergio R.

2015-03-01

In current times, mobile technologies are ubiquitous and the complexity of problems is continuously increasing. In the context of advancement of engineering, we explore in this paper possible reasons that could cause a saturation in technology evolution - namely the ability of problem solving based on previous results and the ability of expressing solutions in a more efficient way, concluding that `thinking outside of brain' - as in solving engineering problems that are expressed in a virtual media due to their complexity - would benefit from mobile technology augmentation. This could be the necessary evolutionary step that would provide the efficiency required to solve new complex problems (addressing the `running out of time' issue) and remove the communication of results barrier (addressing the human `perception/expression imbalance' issue). Some consequences are discussed, as in this context the artificial intelligence becomes an automation tool aid instead of a necessary next evolutionary step. The paper concludes that research in modeling as problem solving aid and data visualization as perception aid augmented with mobile technologies could be the path to an evolutionary step in advancing engineering.

Direct electrical stimulation of human cortex evokes high gamma activity that predicts conscious somatosensory perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muller, Leah; Rolston, John D.; Fox, Neal P.; Knowlton, Robert; Rao, Vikram R.; Chang, Edward F.

2018-04-01

Objective. Direct electrical stimulation (DES) is a clinical gold standard for human brain mapping and readily evokes conscious percepts, yet the neurophysiological changes underlying these percepts are not well understood. Approach. To determine the neural correlates of DES, we stimulated the somatosensory cortex of ten human participants at frequency-amplitude combinations that both elicited and failed to elicit conscious percepts, meanwhile recording neural activity directly surrounding the stimulation site. We then compared the neural activity of perceived trials to that of non-perceived trials. Main results. We found that stimulation evokes distributed high gamma activity, which correlates with conscious perception better than stimulation parameters themselves. Significance. Our findings suggest that high gamma activity is a reliable biomarker for perception evoked by both natural and electrical stimuli.

Development and Validation of an Instrument to Assess Social Work Students' Perceptions, Knowledge, and Attitudes about Human Trafficking Questionnaire (PKA-HTQ): An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nsonwu, Maura Busch; Welch-Brewer, Chiquitia; Heffron, Laurie Cook; Lemke, Melinda A.; Busch-Armendariz, Noel; Sulley, Caitlin; Cook, Sharon Warren; Lewis, Mary; Watson, Elizabeth; Moore, Wayne; Li, Jilan

2017-01-01

Objective: This study sought to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a tool designed to assess social work students' knowledge of and perceptions and attitudes toward human trafficking. To achieve this aim, the Perceptions, Knowledge, and Attitudes toward Human Trafficking Questionnaire (PKA-HTQ) was developed and its psychometric…

Perceptual telerobotics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ligomenides, Panos A.

1989-01-01

A sensory world modeling system, congruent with a human expert's perception, is proposed. The Experiential Knowledge Base (EKB) system can provide a highly intelligible communication interface for telemonitoring and telecontrol of a real time robotic system operating in space. Paradigmatic acquisition of empirical perceptual knowledge, and real time experiential pattern recognition and knowledge integration are reviewed. The cellular architecture and operation of the EKB system are also examined.

Probing interval timing with scalp-recorded electroencephalography (EEG).

PubMed

Ng, Kwun Kei; Penney, Trevor B

2014-01-01

Humans, and other animals, are able to easily learn the durations of events and the temporal relationships among them in spite of the absence of a dedicated sensory organ for time. This chapter summarizes the investigation of timing and time perception using scalp-recorded electroencephalography (EEG), a non-invasive technique that measures brain electrical potentials on a millisecond time scale. Over the past several decades, much has been learned about interval timing through the examination of the characteristic features of averaged EEG signals (i.e., event-related potentials, ERPs) elicited in timing paradigms. For example, the mismatch negativity (MMN) and omission potential (OP) have been used to study implicit and explicit timing, respectively, the P300 has been used to investigate temporal memory updating, and the contingent negative variation (CNV) has been used as an index of temporal decision making. In sum, EEG measures provide biomarkers of temporal processing that allow researchers to probe the cognitive and neural substrates underlying time perception.

Acoustic pressure waves induced in human heads by RF pulses from high-field MRI scanners.

PubMed

Lin, James C; Wang, Zhangwei

2010-04-01

The current evolution toward greater image resolution from magnetic resonance image (MRI) scanners has prompted the exploration of higher strength magnetic fields and use of higher levels of radio frequencies (RFs). Auditory perception of RF pulses by humans has been reported during MRI with head coils. It has shown that the mechanism of interaction for the auditory effect is caused by an RF pulse-induced thermoelastic pressure wave inside the head. We report a computational study of the intensity and frequency of thermoelastic pressure waves generated by RF pulses in the human head inside high-field MRI and clinical scanners. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) guides limit the local specific absorption rate (SAR) in the body-including the head-to 8 W kg(-1). We present results as functions of SAR and show that for a given SAR the peak acoustic pressures generated in the anatomic head model were essentially the same at 64, 300, and 400 MHz (1.5, 7.0, and 9.4 T). Pressures generated in the anatomic head are comparable to the threshold pressure of 20 mPa for sound perception by humans at the cochlea for 4 W kg(-1). Moreover, results indicate that the peak acoustic pressure in the brain is only 2 to 3 times the auditory threshold at the U.S. FDA guideline of 8 W kg(-1). Even at a high SAR of 20 W kg(-1), where the acoustic pressure in the brain could be more than 7 times the auditory threshold, the sound pressure levels would not be more than 17 db above threshold of perception at the cochlea.

Why Some Humanoid Faces Are Perceived More Positively Than Others: Effects of Human-Likeness and Task

PubMed Central

Rogers, Wendy A.

2015-01-01

Ample research in social psychology has highlighted the importance of the human face in human–human interactions. However, there is a less clear understanding of how a humanoid robot's face is perceived by humans. One of the primary goals of this study was to investigate how initial perceptions of robots are influenced by the extent of human-likeness of the robot's face, particularly when the robot is intended to provide assistance with tasks in the home that are traditionally carried out by humans. Moreover, although robots have the potential to help both younger and older adults, there is limited knowledge of whether the two age groups' perceptions differ. In this study, younger (N = 32) and older adults (N = 32) imagined interacting with a robot in four different task contexts and rated robot faces of varying levels of human-likeness. Participants were also interviewed to assess their reasons for particular preferences. This multi-method approach identified patterns of perceptions across different appearances as well as reasons that influence the formation of such perceptions. Overall, the results indicated that people's perceptions of robot faces vary as a function of robot human-likeness. People tended to over-generalize their understanding of humans to build expectations about a human-looking robot's behavior and capabilities. Additionally, preferences for humanoid robots depended on the task although younger and older adults differed in their preferences for certain humanoid appearances. The results of this study have implications both for advancing theoretical understanding of robot perceptions and for creating and applying guidelines for the design of robots. PMID:26294936

Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Dynamic Human Information Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Minsoo

2013-01-01

Introduction: This study aims to understand the interactions of perception, effort, emotion, time and performance during the performance of multiple information tasks using Web information technologies. Method: Twenty volunteers from a university participated in this study. Questionnaires were used to obtain general background information and…

Demodulation processes in auditory perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feth, Lawrence L.

1994-08-01

The long range goal of this project is the understanding of human auditory processing of information conveyed by complex, time-varying signals such as speech, music or important environmental sounds. Our work is guided by the assumption that human auditory communication is a 'modulation - demodulation' process. That is, we assume that sound sources produce a complex stream of sound pressure waves with information encoded as variations ( modulations) of the signal amplitude and frequency. The listeners task then is one of demodulation. Much of past. psychoacoustics work has been based in what we characterize as 'spectrum picture processing.' Complex sounds are Fourier analyzed to produce an amplitude-by-frequency 'picture' and the perception process is modeled as if the listener were analyzing the spectral picture. This approach leads to studies such as 'profile analysis' and the power-spectrum model of masking. Our approach leads us to investigate time-varying, complex sounds. We refer to them as dynamic signals and we have developed auditory signal processing models to help guide our experimental work.

Health risk perception, optimistic bias, and personal satisfaction.

PubMed

Bränström, Richard; Brandberg, Yvonne

2010-01-01

To examine change in risk perception and optimistic bias concerning behavior-linked health threats and environmental health threats between adolescence and young adulthood and how these factors related to personal satisfaction. In 1996 and 2002, 1624 adolescents responded to a mailed questionnaire. Adolescents showed strong positive optimistic bias concerning behaviorlinked risks, and this optimistic bias increased with age. Increase in optimistic bias over time predicted increase in personal satisfaction. The capacity to process and perceive potential threats in a positive manner might be a valuable human ability positively influencing personal satisfaction and well-being.

Formal education, previous interaction and perception influence the attitudes of people toward the conservation of snakes in a large urban center of northeastern Brazil.

PubMed

Pinheiro, Luan Tavares; Rodrigues, João Fabrício Mota; Borges-Nojosa, Diva Maria

2016-06-20

The attitudes and perceptions of people toward animals are influenced by sociodemographic factors, such as formal education and gender, and by personal experience. Understanding these interactions is critical for the establishment of conservation strategies for animals that have conflictual relationships with humans, such as snakes. Our study aims to explain how perceptions and the human fear of snakes vary and are influenced by formal education and gender. In addition, it aims to show how prior interaction with these animals influence these perceptions and the human fear toward snakes and how these perceptions and fear influence the importance of conservation of these animals. We collected data from June 2010 to December 2013 using questionnaires given to 1142 visitors of a scientific serpentarium (Núcleo Regional de Ofiologia da Universidade Federal do Ceará) in the municipality of Fortaleza, northeastern Brazil. Negative perceptions toward snakes were less frequent according to an increase in levels of schooling. Women had more negative perceptions and were more afraid of snakes than were men. Prior interaction with snakes decreased the occurrence of negative perceptions and reduced the level of human fear of these animals. People with negative perceptions classified the conservation of snakes as not important and were more afraid of these animals. Understanding the relationship between sociodemographic factors, prior experiences, perceptions, fear, and the importance given to conservation can help to better understand human attitudes toward snakes. Environmental education activities considering gender differences, involving preliminary interaction with snakes and focusing on priority targets identified in our study, such as people with low formal education, can increase the efficiency of measures for the conservation of these animals.

The persuasiveness of synthetic speech versus human speech.

PubMed

Stern, S E; Mullennix, J W; Dyson, C; Wilson, S J

1999-12-01

Is computer-synthesized speech as persuasive as the human voice when presenting an argument? After completing an attitude pretest, 193 participants were randomly assigned to listen to a persuasive appeal under three conditions: a high-quality synthesized speech system (DECtalk Express), a low-quality synthesized speech system (Monologue), and a tape recording of a human voice. Following the appeal, participants completed a posttest attitude survey and a series of questionnaires designed to assess perceptions of speech qualities, perceptions of the speaker, and perceptions of the message. The human voice was generally perceived more favorably than the computer-synthesized voice, and the speaker was perceived more favorably when the voice was a human voice than when it was computer synthesized. There was, however, no evidence that computerized speech, as compared with the human voice, affected persuasion or perceptions of the message. Actual or potential applications of this research include issues that should be considered when designing synthetic speech systems.

The Psychology of Music: Rhythm and Movement.

PubMed

Levitin, Daniel J; Grahn, Jessica A; London, Justin

2018-01-04

The urge to move to music is universal among humans. Unlike visual art, which is manifest across space, music is manifest across time. When listeners get carried away by the music, either through movement (such as dancing) or through reverie (such as trance), it is usually the temporal qualities of the music-its pulse, tempo, and rhythmic patterns-that put them in this state. In this article, we review studies addressing rhythm, meter, movement, synchronization, entrainment, the perception of groove, and other temporal factors that constitute a first step to understanding how and why music literally moves us. The experiments we review span a range of methodological techniques, including neuroimaging, psychophysics, and traditional behavioral experiments, and we also summarize the current studies of animal synchronization, engaging an evolutionary perspective on human rhythmic perception and cognition.

Monocular Advantage for Face Perception Implicates Subcortical Mechanisms in Adult Humans

PubMed Central

Gabay, Shai; Nestor, Adrian; Dundas, Eva; Behrmann, Marlene

2014-01-01

The ability to recognize faces accurately and rapidly is an evolutionarily adaptive process. Most studies examining the neural correlates of face perception in adult humans have focused on a distributed cortical network of face-selective regions. There is, however, robust evidence from phylogenetic and ontogenetic studies that implicates subcortical structures, and recently, some investigations in adult humans indicate subcortical correlates of face perception as well. The questions addressed here are whether low-level subcortical mechanisms for face perception (in the absence of changes in expression) are conserved in human adults, and if so, what is the nature of these subcortical representations. In a series of four experiments, we presented pairs of images to the same or different eyes. Participants’ performance demonstrated that subcortical mechanisms, indexed by monocular portions of the visual system, play a functional role in face perception. These mechanisms are sensitive to face-like configurations and afford a coarse representation of a face, comprised of primarily low spatial frequency information, which suffices for matching faces but not for more complex aspects of face perception such as sex differentiation. Importantly, these subcortical mechanisms are not implicated in the perception of other visual stimuli, such as cars or letter strings. These findings suggest a conservation of phylogenetically and ontogenetically lower-order systems in adult human face perception. The involvement of subcortical structures in face recognition provokes a reconsideration of current theories of face perception, which are reliant on cortical level processing, inasmuch as it bolsters the cross-species continuity of the biological system for face recognition. PMID:24236767

Outdoor human thermal perception in various climates: A comprehensive review of approaches, methods and quantification.

PubMed

Potchter, Oded; Cohen, Pninit; Lin, Tzu-Ping; Matzarakis, Andreas

2018-08-01

Over the past century, many research studies have been conducted in an attempt to define thermal conditions for humans in the outdoor environment and to grade thermal sensation. Consequently, a large number of indices have been proposed. The examination of human thermal indices by thermal subjective perception has become recently a methodical issue to confirm the accuracy, applicability and validation of human thermal indices. The aims of this study are: (a) to review studies containing both calculated human thermal conditions and subjective thermal perception in the outdoor environment (b) to identify the most used human thermal indices for evaluating human thermal perception (c) to examine the relation between human thermal comfort range and outdoor thermal environment conditions and (d) to compare between categories of thermal sensation in different climatic zones based on subjective perception and levels of thermal strain. A comprehensive literature review identified 110 peer-reviewed articles which investigated in-situ thermal conditions versus subjective thermal perception during 2001-2017. It seems that out of 165 human thermal indices that have been developed, only 4 (PET, PMV, UTCI, SET*) are widely in use for outdoor thermal perception studies. Examination of the relation between human thermal comfort range and outdoor thermal environment conditions for selective indices in different climatic zones shows that the range of the thermal comfort or dis-comfort is affected by the outdoor thermal environment. For the PET index, the "neutral" range for hot climates of 24-26°C is agreed by 95% of the studies where for cold climate, the "neutral" range of 15-20°C is agreed by 89% of the studies. For the UTCI, the "no thermal stress" category is common to all climates. The "no stress category" of 16-23°C is agreed by 80% of the case studies, while 100% of the case studies agreed that the range is between 18 and 23°C. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Brain Response to a Humanoid Robot in Areas Implicated in the Perception of Human Emotional Gestures

PubMed Central

Chaminade, Thierry; Zecca, Massimiliano; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne; Takanishi, Atsuo; Frith, Chris D.; Micera, Silvestro; Dario, Paolo; Rizzolatti, Giacomo; Gallese, Vittorio; Umiltà, Maria Alessandra

2010-01-01

Background The humanoid robot WE4-RII was designed to express human emotions in order to improve human-robot interaction. We can read the emotions depicted in its gestures, yet might utilize different neural processes than those used for reading the emotions in human agents. Methodology Here, fMRI was used to assess how brain areas activated by the perception of human basic emotions (facial expression of Anger, Joy, Disgust) and silent speech respond to a humanoid robot impersonating the same emotions, while participants were instructed to attend either to the emotion or to the motion depicted. Principal Findings Increased responses to robot compared to human stimuli in the occipital and posterior temporal cortices suggest additional visual processing when perceiving a mechanical anthropomorphic agent. In contrast, activity in cortical areas endowed with mirror properties, like left Broca's area for the perception of speech, and in the processing of emotions like the left anterior insula for the perception of disgust and the orbitofrontal cortex for the perception of anger, is reduced for robot stimuli, suggesting lesser resonance with the mechanical agent. Finally, instructions to explicitly attend to the emotion significantly increased response to robot, but not human facial expressions in the anterior part of the left inferior frontal gyrus, a neural marker of motor resonance. Conclusions Motor resonance towards a humanoid robot, but not a human, display of facial emotion is increased when attention is directed towards judging emotions. Significance Artificial agents can be used to assess how factors like anthropomorphism affect neural response to the perception of human actions. PMID:20657777

Short-Term Memory; An Annotated Bibliography. Supplement 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Dennis F.

A compilation of 165 references dealing with short term memory, this bibliography supplements "Short-Term Memory: An Annotated Bibliography" (August 1968). The time period covered is predominantly June 1968 to June 1969. Such aspects and topics as psychometrics, motivation, human engineering, vision, auditory perception, verbal and nonverbal…

Experience, Context, and the Visual Perception of Human Movement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Alissa; Pinto, Jeannine; Shiffrar, Maggie

2004-01-01

Why are human observers particularly sensitive to human movement? Seven experiments examined the roles of visual experience and motor processes in human movement perception by comparing visual sensitivities to point-light displays of familiar, unusual, and impossible gaits across gait-speed and identity discrimination tasks. In both tasks, visual…

A Neural Dynamic Architecture for Reaching and Grasping Integrates Perception and Movement Generation and Enables On-Line Updating.

PubMed

Knips, Guido; Zibner, Stephan K U; Reimann, Hendrik; Schöner, Gregor

2017-01-01

Reaching for objects and grasping them is a fundamental skill for any autonomous robot that interacts with its environment. Although this skill seems trivial to adults, who effortlessly pick up even objects they have never seen before, it is hard for other animals, for human infants, and for most autonomous robots. Any time during movement preparation and execution, human reaching movement are updated if the visual scene changes (with a delay of about 100 ms). The capability for online updating highlights how tightly perception, movement planning, and movement generation are integrated in humans. Here, we report on an effort to reproduce this tight integration in a neural dynamic process model of reaching and grasping that covers the complete path from visual perception to movement generation within a unified modeling framework, Dynamic Field Theory. All requisite processes are realized as time-continuous dynamical systems that model the evolution in time of neural population activation. Population level neural processes bring about the attentional selection of objects, the estimation of object shape and pose, and the mapping of pose parameters to suitable movement parameters. Once a target object has been selected, its pose parameters couple into the neural dynamics of movement generation so that changes of pose are propagated through the architecture to update the performed movement online. Implementing the neural architecture on an anthropomorphic robot arm equipped with a Kinect sensor, we evaluate the model by grasping wooden objects. Their size, shape, and pose are estimated from a neural model of scene perception that is based on feature fields. The sequential organization of a reach and grasp act emerges from a sequence of dynamic instabilities within a neural dynamics of behavioral organization, that effectively switches the neural controllers from one phase of the action to the next. Trajectory formation itself is driven by a dynamical systems version of the potential field approach. We highlight the emergent capacity for online updating by showing that a shift or rotation of the object during the reaching phase leads to the online adaptation of the movement plan and successful completion of the grasp.

A Neural Dynamic Architecture for Reaching and Grasping Integrates Perception and Movement Generation and Enables On-Line Updating

PubMed Central

Knips, Guido; Zibner, Stephan K. U.; Reimann, Hendrik; Schöner, Gregor

2017-01-01

Reaching for objects and grasping them is a fundamental skill for any autonomous robot that interacts with its environment. Although this skill seems trivial to adults, who effortlessly pick up even objects they have never seen before, it is hard for other animals, for human infants, and for most autonomous robots. Any time during movement preparation and execution, human reaching movement are updated if the visual scene changes (with a delay of about 100 ms). The capability for online updating highlights how tightly perception, movement planning, and movement generation are integrated in humans. Here, we report on an effort to reproduce this tight integration in a neural dynamic process model of reaching and grasping that covers the complete path from visual perception to movement generation within a unified modeling framework, Dynamic Field Theory. All requisite processes are realized as time-continuous dynamical systems that model the evolution in time of neural population activation. Population level neural processes bring about the attentional selection of objects, the estimation of object shape and pose, and the mapping of pose parameters to suitable movement parameters. Once a target object has been selected, its pose parameters couple into the neural dynamics of movement generation so that changes of pose are propagated through the architecture to update the performed movement online. Implementing the neural architecture on an anthropomorphic robot arm equipped with a Kinect sensor, we evaluate the model by grasping wooden objects. Their size, shape, and pose are estimated from a neural model of scene perception that is based on feature fields. The sequential organization of a reach and grasp act emerges from a sequence of dynamic instabilities within a neural dynamics of behavioral organization, that effectively switches the neural controllers from one phase of the action to the next. Trajectory formation itself is driven by a dynamical systems version of the potential field approach. We highlight the emergent capacity for online updating by showing that a shift or rotation of the object during the reaching phase leads to the online adaptation of the movement plan and successful completion of the grasp. PMID:28303100

Finding the beat: a neural perspective across humans and non-human primates.

PubMed

Merchant, Hugo; Grahn, Jessica; Trainor, Laurel; Rohrmeier, Martin; Fitch, W Tecumseh

2015-03-19

Humans possess an ability to perceive and synchronize movements to the beat in music ('beat perception and synchronization'), and recent neuroscientific data have offered new insights into this beat-finding capacity at multiple neural levels. Here, we review and compare behavioural and neural data on temporal and sequential processing during beat perception and entrainment tasks in macaques (including direct neural recording and local field potential (LFP)) and humans (including fMRI, EEG and MEG). These abilities rest upon a distributed set of circuits that include the motor cortico-basal-ganglia-thalamo-cortical (mCBGT) circuit, where the supplementary motor cortex (SMA) and the putamen are critical cortical and subcortical nodes, respectively. In addition, a cortical loop between motor and auditory areas, connected through delta and beta oscillatory activity, is deeply involved in these behaviours, with motor regions providing the predictive timing needed for the perception of, and entrainment to, musical rhythms. The neural discharge rate and the LFP oscillatory activity in the gamma- and beta-bands in the putamen and SMA of monkeys are tuned to the duration of intervals produced during a beat synchronization-continuation task (SCT). Hence, the tempo during beat synchronization is represented by different interval-tuned cells that are activated depending on the produced interval. In addition, cells in these areas are tuned to the serial-order elements of the SCT. Thus, the underpinnings of beat synchronization are intrinsically linked to the dynamics of cell populations tuned for duration and serial order throughout the mCBGT. We suggest that a cross-species comparison of behaviours and the neural circuits supporting them sets the stage for a new generation of neurally grounded computational models for beat perception and synchronization. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Finding the beat: a neural perspective across humans and non-human primates

PubMed Central

Merchant, Hugo; Grahn, Jessica; Trainor, Laurel; Rohrmeier, Martin; Fitch, W. Tecumseh

2015-01-01

Humans possess an ability to perceive and synchronize movements to the beat in music (‘beat perception and synchronization’), and recent neuroscientific data have offered new insights into this beat-finding capacity at multiple neural levels. Here, we review and compare behavioural and neural data on temporal and sequential processing during beat perception and entrainment tasks in macaques (including direct neural recording and local field potential (LFP)) and humans (including fMRI, EEG and MEG). These abilities rest upon a distributed set of circuits that include the motor cortico-basal-ganglia–thalamo-cortical (mCBGT) circuit, where the supplementary motor cortex (SMA) and the putamen are critical cortical and subcortical nodes, respectively. In addition, a cortical loop between motor and auditory areas, connected through delta and beta oscillatory activity, is deeply involved in these behaviours, with motor regions providing the predictive timing needed for the perception of, and entrainment to, musical rhythms. The neural discharge rate and the LFP oscillatory activity in the gamma- and beta-bands in the putamen and SMA of monkeys are tuned to the duration of intervals produced during a beat synchronization–continuation task (SCT). Hence, the tempo during beat synchronization is represented by different interval-tuned cells that are activated depending on the produced interval. In addition, cells in these areas are tuned to the serial-order elements of the SCT. Thus, the underpinnings of beat synchronization are intrinsically linked to the dynamics of cell populations tuned for duration and serial order throughout the mCBGT. We suggest that a cross-species comparison of behaviours and the neural circuits supporting them sets the stage for a new generation of neurally grounded computational models for beat perception and synchronization. PMID:25646516

Quantum theory and human perception of the macro-world.

PubMed

Aerts, Diederik

2014-01-01

We investigate the question of 'why customary macroscopic entities appear to us humans as they do, i.e., as bounded entities occupying space and persisting through time', starting from our knowledge of quantum theory, how it affects the behavior of such customary macroscopic entities, and how it influences our perception of them. For this purpose, we approach the question from three perspectives. Firstly, we look at the situation from the standard quantum angle, more specifically the de Broglie wavelength analysis of the behavior of macroscopic entities, indicate how a problem with spin and identity arises, and illustrate how both play a fundamental role in well-established experimental quantum-macroscopical phenomena, such as Bose-Einstein condensates. Secondly, we analyze how the question is influenced by our result in axiomatic quantum theory, which proves that standard quantum theory is structurally incapable of describing separated entities. Thirdly, we put forward our new 'conceptual quantum interpretation', including a highly detailed reformulation of the question to confront the new insights and views that arise with the foregoing analysis. At the end of the final section, a nuanced answer is given that can be summarized as follows. The specific and very classical perception of human seeing-light as a geometric theory-and human touching-only ruled by Pauli's exclusion principle-plays a role in our perception of macroscopic entities as ontologically stable entities in space. To ascertain quantum behavior in such macroscopic entities, we will need measuring apparatuses capable of its detection. Future experimental research will have to show if sharp quantum effects-as they occur in smaller entities-appear to be ontological aspects of customary macroscopic entities. It remains a possibility that standard quantum theory is an incomplete theory, and hence incapable of coping ultimately with separated entities, meaning that a more general theory will be needed.

Enrolment Purposes, Instructional Activities, and Perceptions of Attitudinal Learning in a Human Trafficking MOOC

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Sunnie Lee; Kim, Woori

2016-01-01

This study examines learner enrolment purposes, perceptions on instructional activities and their relationship to learning gains in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for attitudinal change regarding human trafficking. Using an author-developed survey, learners reported their perceptions on instructional activities and learning gains within the…

Analysis of Handwriting based on Rhythm Perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saito, Kazuya; Uchida, Masafumi; Nozawa, Akio

Humanity fluctuation was reported in some fields. In handwriting process, fluctuation appears on handwriting-velocity. In this report, we focused attention on human rhythm perception and analyzed fluctuation in handwriting process. As a result, 1/f noise related to rhythm perception and features may caused by Kahneman's capacity model were measured on handwriting process.

Men's Perceptions and Knowledge of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Infection and Cervical Cancer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McPartland, Tara S.; Weaver, Bethany A.; Lee, Shu-Kuang; Koutsky, Laura A.

2005-01-01

The authors assessed young men's knowledge and perceptions of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection to identify factors that predict intention to make positive behavioral changes. Male university students aged 18 to 25 years completed a self-report instrument to assess knowledge and perceptions of genital HPV infection. If diagnosed with…

Time distortions in Alzheimer’s disease: a systematic review and theoretical integration

PubMed Central

El Haj, Mohamad; Kapogiannis, Dimitrios

2016-01-01

Time perception is an essential function of the human brain, which is compromised in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Here, we review empirical findings on time distortions in AD and provide a theoretical framework that integrates time and memory distortions in AD and explains their bidirectional modulation. The review was based on a literature survey performed on the PubMed and PsycInfo databases. According to our theoretical framework, time distortions may induce decline in the ability to mentally project oneself in time (i.e., mental time travel), and consequently may contribute to an episodic memory compromise in AD. Conversely, episodic memory compromise in AD may result in a loss of the ability to retrieve information about time and/or the ability to project oneself in subjective time. The relationship between time distortions and memory decline in AD can be jointly attributed to hippocampus involvement, as this brain area supports both time perception and memory and is preferentially targeted by the neuropathological processes of AD. Clinical implications of time distortions are discussed and directions for future research are suggested. PMID:28721270

Two-D results on human operator perception

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Siapkara, A. A.; Sheridan, T. B.

1981-01-01

The application of multidimensional scaling methodology in human factors engineering is presented. The nonorthogonality of internally perceived task variables is exhibited for first and second order plants with both dependent and independent task variables. Directions of operator preference are shown for actual performance, pilot opinion rating, and subjective measures of fatigue, adaptability, and system recognition. Improvement of performance in second order systems is exhibited by the use of bang-bang feedback information. Dissimilarity measures for system comparison are suggested in order to account for human operator rotations and subjective sense of time.

Use of parallel computing for analyzing big data in EEG studies of ambiguous perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maksimenko, Vladimir A.; Grubov, Vadim V.; Kirsanov, Daniil V.

2018-02-01

Problem of interaction between human and machine systems through the neuro-interfaces (or brain-computer interfaces) is an urgent task which requires analysis of large amount of neurophysiological EEG data. In present paper we consider the methods of parallel computing as one of the most powerful tools for processing experimental data in real-time with respect to multichannel structure of EEG. In this context we demonstrate the application of parallel computing for the estimation of the spectral properties of multichannel EEG signals, associated with the visual perception. Using CUDA C library we run wavelet-based algorithm on GPUs and show possibility for detection of specific patterns in multichannel set of EEG data in real-time.

How Decisions Emerge: Action Dynamics in Intertemporal Decision Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dshemuchadse, Maja; Scherbaum, Stefan; Goschke, Thomas

2013-01-01

In intertemporal decision making, individuals prefer smaller rewards delivered sooner over larger rewards delivered later, often to an extent that seems irrational from an economical perspective. This behavior has been attributed to a lack of self-control and reflection, the nonlinearity of human time perception, and several other sources.…

77 FR 39716 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-05

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5... Emphasis Panel; Member conflict: Neurobiology of Perception, Learning and Memory. Date: July 24, 2012. Time...

Human Rights: 1948-1978--Changing Perceptions. A Wingspread Conference.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sohn, Louis B.; Roosevelt, Curtis

Conference participants examined the attitudes toward human rights which led to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as compared to today's perceptions of the meaning of human rights. Using Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" as a point of departure--freedom of speech and expression, freedom of every…

Role of Cerebellum in Motion Perception and Vestibulo-ocular Reflex—Similarities and Disparities

PubMed Central

Shaikh, Aasef G.; Palla, Antonella; Marti, Sarah; Olasagasti, Itsaso; Optican, Lance M.; Zee, David S.; Straumann, Dominik

2012-01-01

Vestibular velocity storage enhances the efficacy of the angular vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) during relatively low-frequency head rotations. This function is modulated by GABA-mediated inhibitory cerebellar projections. Velocity storage also exists in perceptual pathway and has similar functional principles as VOR. However, it is not known whether the neural substrate for perception and VOR overlap. We propose two possibilities. First, there is the same velocity storage for both VOR and perception; second, there are nonoverlapping neural networks: one might be involved in perception and the other for the VOR. We investigated these possibilities by measuring VOR and perceptual responses in healthy human subjects during whole-body, constant-velocity rotation steps about all three dimensions (yaw, pitch, and roll) before and after 10 mg of 4-aminopyridine (4-AP). 4-AP, a selective blocker of inward rectifier potassium conductance, can lead to increased synchronization and precision of Purkinje neuron discharge and possibly enhance the GABAergic action. Hence 4-AP could reduce the decay time constant of the perceived angular velocity and VOR. We found that 4-AP reduced the decay time constant, but the amount of reduction in the two processes, perception and VOR, was not the same, suggesting the possibility of nonoverlapping or partially overlapping neural substrates for VOR and perception. We also noted that, unlike the VOR, the perceived angular velocity gradually built up and plateau prior to decay. Hence, the perception pathway may have additional mechanism that changes the dynamics of perceived angular velocity beyond the velocity storage. 4-AP had no effects on the duration of build-up of perceived angular velocity, suggesting that the higher order processing of perception, beyond the velocity storage, might not occur under the influence of mechanism that could be influenced by 4-AP. PMID:22777507

Human Occipital and Parietal GABA Selectively Influence Visual Perception of Orientation and Size.

PubMed

Song, Chen; Sandberg, Kristian; Andersen, Lau Møller; Blicher, Jakob Udby; Rees, Geraint

2017-09-13

GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in human brain. The level of GABA varies substantially across individuals, and this variability is associated with interindividual differences in visual perception. However, it remains unclear whether the association between GABA level and visual perception reflects a general influence of visual inhibition or whether the GABA levels of different cortical regions selectively influence perception of different visual features. To address this, we studied how the GABA levels of parietal and occipital cortices related to interindividual differences in size, orientation, and brightness perception. We used visual contextual illusion as a perceptual assay since the illusion dissociates perceptual content from stimulus content and the magnitude of the illusion reflects the effect of visual inhibition. Across individuals, we observed selective correlations between the level of GABA and the magnitude of contextual illusion. Specifically, parietal GABA level correlated with size illusion magnitude but not with orientation or brightness illusion magnitude; in contrast, occipital GABA level correlated with orientation illusion magnitude but not with size or brightness illusion magnitude. Our findings reveal a region- and feature-dependent influence of GABA level on human visual perception. Parietal and occipital cortices contain, respectively, topographic maps of size and orientation preference in which neural responses to stimulus sizes and stimulus orientations are modulated by intraregional lateral connections. We propose that these lateral connections may underlie the selective influence of GABA on visual perception. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT GABA, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in human visual system, varies substantially across individuals. This interindividual variability in GABA level is linked to interindividual differences in many aspects of visual perception. However, the widespread influence of GABA raises the question of whether interindividual variability in GABA reflects an overall variability in visual inhibition and has a general influence on visual perception or whether the GABA levels of different cortical regions have selective influence on perception of different visual features. Here we report a region- and feature-dependent influence of GABA level on human visual perception. Our findings suggest that GABA level of a cortical region selectively influences perception of visual features that are topographically mapped in this region through intraregional lateral connections. Copyright © 2017 Song, Sandberg et al.

Microsoft kinect-based artificial perception system for control of functional electrical stimulation assisted grasping.

PubMed

Strbac, Matija; Kočović, Slobodan; Marković, Marko; Popović, Dejan B

2014-01-01

We present a computer vision algorithm that incorporates a heuristic model which mimics a biological control system for the estimation of control signals used in functional electrical stimulation (FES) assisted grasping. The developed processing software acquires the data from Microsoft Kinect camera and implements real-time hand tracking and object analysis. This information can be used to identify temporal synchrony and spatial synergies modalities for FES control. Therefore, the algorithm acts as artificial perception which mimics human visual perception by identifying the position and shape of the object with respect to the position of the hand in real time during the planning phase of the grasp. This artificial perception used within the heuristically developed model allows selection of the appropriate grasp and prehension. The experiments demonstrate that correct grasp modality was selected in more than 90% of tested scenarios/objects. The system is portable, and the components are low in cost and robust; hence, it can be used for the FES in clinical or even home environment. The main application of the system is envisioned for functional electrical therapy, that is, intensive exercise assisted with FES.

Microsoft Kinect-Based Artificial Perception System for Control of Functional Electrical Stimulation Assisted Grasping

PubMed Central

Kočović, Slobodan; Popović, Dejan B.

2014-01-01

We present a computer vision algorithm that incorporates a heuristic model which mimics a biological control system for the estimation of control signals used in functional electrical stimulation (FES) assisted grasping. The developed processing software acquires the data from Microsoft Kinect camera and implements real-time hand tracking and object analysis. This information can be used to identify temporal synchrony and spatial synergies modalities for FES control. Therefore, the algorithm acts as artificial perception which mimics human visual perception by identifying the position and shape of the object with respect to the position of the hand in real time during the planning phase of the grasp. This artificial perception used within the heuristically developed model allows selection of the appropriate grasp and prehension. The experiments demonstrate that correct grasp modality was selected in more than 90% of tested scenarios/objects. The system is portable, and the components are low in cost and robust; hence, it can be used for the FES in clinical or even home environment. The main application of the system is envisioned for functional electrical therapy, that is, intensive exercise assisted with FES. PMID:25202707

Connotative Meaning of Military Chat Communications

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-01

humans recognize connotative cues expressing uncertainty, perception of personal threat, and urgency; formulate linguistic and non-linguistic means for...built a matrix of speech “cues” representative of uncertainty, perception of personal threat, and urgency, but also applied maximum entropy analysis...results. This project proposed to: (1) conduct a study of how humans recognize connotative cues expressing uncertainty, perception of personal

School Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes, Perceptions of Role as Opinion Leader, and Professional Practice Regarding Human Papillomavirus Vaccine for Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosen, Brittany L.; Goodson, Patricia; Thompson, Bruce; Wilson, Kelly L.

2015-01-01

Background: Because human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine rates remain low, we evaluated US school nurses' knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of their role as opinion leaders, and professional practice regarding HPV vaccine, and assessed whether knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of being an opinion leader influenced their professional…

Examining Social Perceptions between Arab and Jewish Children through Human Figure Drawings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yedidia, Tova; Lipschitz-Elchawi, Rachel

2012-01-01

This study examined social perceptions among 191 Arab and Jewish children who live in mixed neighborhoods in Israel. Human Figure Drawing assessment was used to examine the children's social perceptions. The drawings that the Jewish Israeli children created portrayed Arabs as the enemy, whereas the Arab Israeli children expressed a more positive…

Visual cues for data mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogowitz, Bernice E.; Rabenhorst, David A.; Gerth, John A.; Kalin, Edward B.

1996-04-01

This paper describes a set of visual techniques, based on principles of human perception and cognition, which can help users analyze and develop intuitions about tabular data. Collections of tabular data are widely available, including, for example, multivariate time series data, customer satisfaction data, stock market performance data, multivariate profiles of companies and individuals, and scientific measurements. In our approach, we show how visual cues can help users perform a number of data mining tasks, including identifying correlations and interaction effects, finding clusters and understanding the semantics of cluster membership, identifying anomalies and outliers, and discovering multivariate relationships among variables. These cues are derived from psychological studies on perceptual organization, visual search, perceptual scaling, and color perception. These visual techniques are presented as a complement to the statistical and algorithmic methods more commonly associated with these tasks, and provide an interactive interface for the human analyst.

At the Limit: Introducing Energy with Human Senses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stinken, Lisa; Heusler, Stefan; Carmesin, Hans-Otto

2016-12-01

Energy belongs to the core ideas of the physics curriculum. But at the same time, energy is one of the most complex topics in science education since it occurs in multiple ways, such as motion, sound, light, and thermal energy. It can neither be destroyed nor created, but only converted. Due to the variety of relevant scales and abstractness of the term energy, the question arises how to introduce energy at the introductory physics level. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how the concept of energy can become meaningful in the context of the human senses. Three simple experiments to investigate the minimal amount of energy that is required to generate a sensory perception are presented. In this way students can learn that even different sensory perceptions can be compared by using energy as the unifying concept.

Volumic visual perception: principally novel concept

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrov, Valery

1996-01-01

The general concept of volumic view (VV) as a universal property of space is introduced. VV exists in every point of the universe where electromagnetic (EM) waves can reach and a point or a quasi-point receiver (detector) of EM waves can be placed. Classification of receivers is given for the first time. They are classified into three main categories: biological, man-made non-biological, and mathematically specified hypothetical receivers. The principally novel concept of volumic perception is introduced. It differs chiefly from the traditional concept which traces back to Euclid and pre-Euclidean times and much later to Leonardo da Vinci and Giovanni Battista della Porta's discoveries and practical stereoscopy as introduced by C. Wheatstone. The basic idea of novel concept is that humans and animals acquire volumic visual data flows in series rather than in parallel. In this case the brain is free from extremely sophisticated real time parallel processing of two volumic visual data flows in order to combine them. Such procedure seems hardly probable even for humans who are unable to combine two primitive static stereoscopic images in one quicker than in a few seconds. Some people are unable to perform this procedure at all.

Not all trust is created equal: dispositional and history-based trust in human-automation interactions.

PubMed

Merritt, Stephanie M; Ilgen, Daniel R

2008-04-01

We provide an empirical demonstration of the importance of attending to human user individual differences in examinations of trust and automation use. Past research has generally supported the notions that machine reliability predicts trust in automation, and trust in turn predicts automation use. However, links between user personality and perceptions of the machine with trust in automation have not been empirically established. On our X-ray screening task, 255 students rated trust and made automation use decisions while visually searching for weapons in X-ray images of luggage. We demonstrate that individual differences affect perceptions of machine characteristics when actual machine characteristics are constant, that perceptions account for 52% of trust variance above the effects of actual characteristics, and that perceptions mediate the effects of actual characteristics on trust. Importantly, we also demonstrate that when administered at different times, the same six trust items reflect two types of trust (dispositional trust and history-based trust) and that these two trust constructs are differentially related to other variables. Interactions were found among user characteristics, machine characteristics, and automation use. Our results suggest that increased specificity in the conceptualization and measurement of trust is required, future researchers should assess user perceptions of machine characteristics in addition to actual machine characteristics, and incorporation of user extraversion and propensity to trust machines can increase prediction of automation use decisions. Potential applications include the design of flexible automation training programs tailored to individuals who differ in systematic ways.

Toward One Health: are public health stakeholders aware of the field of animal health?

PubMed

Dórea, Fernanda C; Dupuy, Céline; Vial, Flavie; Reynolds, Tera L; Akkina, Judy E

2014-01-01

Motivated by the perception that human and veterinary medicines can cooperate in more ways than just fighting zoonoses, the authors organized a roundtable during the 2013 annual meeting of the International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS). Collaborations between human and animal health sectors were reported to often rise in response to zoonotic outbreaks (during crisis time) and be mainly based on personal networks. Ways to maintain and strengthen these links were discussed.

Scanpath-based analysis of objects conspicuity in context of human vision physiology.

PubMed

Augustyniak, Piotr

2007-01-01

This paper discusses principal aspects of objects conspicuity investigated with use of an eye tracker and interpreted on the background of human vision physiology. Proper management of objects conspicuity is fundamental in several leading edge applications in the information society like advertisement, web design, man-machine interfacing and ergonomics. Although some common rules of human perception are applied since centuries in the art, the interest of human perception process is motivated today by the need of gather and maintain the recipient attention by putting selected messages in front of the others. Our research uses the visual tasks methodology and series of progressively modified natural images. The modifying details were attributed by their size, color and position while the scanpath-derived gaze points confirmed or not the act of perception. The statistical analysis yielded the probability of detail perception and correlations with the attributes. This probability conforms to the knowledge about the retina anatomy and perception physiology, although we use noninvasive methods only.

Interoceptive signals impact visual processing: Cardiac modulation of visual body perception.

PubMed

Ronchi, Roberta; Bernasconi, Fosco; Pfeiffer, Christian; Bello-Ruiz, Javier; Kaliuzhna, Mariia; Blanke, Olaf

2017-09-01

Multisensory perception research has largely focused on exteroceptive signals, but recent evidence has revealed the integration of interoceptive signals with exteroceptive information. Such research revealed that heartbeat signals affect sensory (e.g., visual) processing: however, it is unknown how they impact the perception of body images. Here we linked our participants' heartbeat to visual stimuli and investigated the spatio-temporal brain dynamics of cardio-visual stimulation on the processing of human body images. We recorded visual evoked potentials with 64-channel electroencephalography while showing a body or a scrambled-body (control) that appeared at the frequency of the on-line recorded participants' heartbeat or not (not-synchronous, control). Extending earlier studies, we found a body-independent effect, with cardiac signals enhancing visual processing during two time periods (77-130 ms and 145-246 ms). Within the second (later) time-window we detected a second effect characterised by enhanced activity in parietal, temporo-occipital, inferior frontal, and right basal ganglia-insula regions, but only when non-scrambled body images were flashed synchronously with the heartbeat (208-224 ms). In conclusion, our results highlight the role of interoceptive information for the visual processing of human body pictures within a network integrating cardio-visual signals of relevance for perceptual and cognitive aspects of visual body processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hand Path Priming in Manual Obstacle Avoidance: Evidence that the Dorsal Stream Does Not Only Control Visually Guided Actions in Real Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jax, Steven A.; Rosenbaum, David A.

2007-01-01

According to a prominent theory of human perception and performance (M. A. Goodale & A. D. Milner, 1992), the dorsal, action-related stream only controls visually guided actions in real time. Such a system would be predicted to show little or no action priming from previous experience. The 3 experiments reported here were designed to determine…

Complex pitch perception mechanisms are shared by humans and a New World monkey.

PubMed

Song, Xindong; Osmanski, Michael S; Guo, Yueqi; Wang, Xiaoqin

2016-01-19

The perception of the pitch of harmonic complex sounds is a crucial function of human audition, especially in music and speech processing. Whether the underlying mechanisms of pitch perception are unique to humans, however, is unknown. Based on estimates of frequency resolution at the level of the auditory periphery, psychoacoustic studies in humans have revealed several primary features of central pitch mechanisms. It has been shown that (i) pitch strength of a harmonic tone is dominated by resolved harmonics; (ii) pitch of resolved harmonics is sensitive to the quality of spectral harmonicity; and (iii) pitch of unresolved harmonics is sensitive to the salience of temporal envelope cues. Here we show, for a standard musical tuning fundamental frequency of 440 Hz, that the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), a New World monkey with a hearing range similar to that of humans, exhibits all of the primary features of central pitch mechanisms demonstrated in humans. Thus, marmosets and humans may share similar pitch perception mechanisms, suggesting that these mechanisms may have emerged early in primate evolution.

Making Time for Nature: Visual Exposure to Natural Environments Lengthens Subjective Time Perception and Reduces Impulsivity

PubMed Central

Berry, Meredith S.; Repke, Meredith A.; Nickerson, Norma P.; Conway, Lucian G.; Odum, Amy L.; Jordan, Kerry E.

2015-01-01

Impulsivity in delay discounting is associated with maladaptive behaviors such as overeating and drug and alcohol abuse. Researchers have recently noted that delay discounting, even when measured by a brief laboratory task, may be the best predictor of human health related behaviors (e.g., exercise) currently available. Identifying techniques to decrease impulsivity in delay discounting, therefore, could help improve decision-making on a global scale. Visual exposure to natural environments is one recent approach shown to decrease impulsive decision-making in a delay discounting task, although the mechanism driving this result is currently unknown. The present experiment was thus designed to evaluate not only whether visual exposure to natural (mountains, lakes) relative to built (buildings, cities) environments resulted in less impulsivity, but also whether this exposure influenced time perception. Participants were randomly assigned to either a natural environment condition or a built environment condition. Participants viewed photographs of either natural scenes or built scenes before and during a delay discounting task in which they made choices about receiving immediate or delayed hypothetical monetary outcomes. Participants also completed an interval bisection task in which natural or built stimuli were judged as relatively longer or shorter presentation durations. Following the delay discounting and interval bisection tasks, additional measures of time perception were administered, including how many minutes participants thought had passed during the session and a scale measurement of whether time "flew" or "dragged" during the session. Participants exposed to natural as opposed to built scenes were less impulsive and also reported longer subjective session times, although no differences across groups were revealed with the interval bisection task. These results are the first to suggest that decreased impulsivity from exposure to natural as opposed to built environments may be related to lengthened time perception. PMID:26558610

Mind-blanking: when the mind goes away

PubMed Central

Ward, Adrian F.; Wegner, Daniel M.

2013-01-01

People often feel like their minds and their bodies are in different places. Far from an exotic experience, this phenomenon seems to be a ubiquitous facet of human life (e.g., Killingsworth and Gilbert, 2010). Many times, people's minds seem to go “somewhere else”—attention becomes disconnected from perception, and people's minds wander to times and places removed from the current environment (e.g., Schooler et al., 2004). At other times, however, people's minds may seem to go nowhere at all—they simply disappear. This mental state—mind-blanking—may represent an extreme decoupling of perception and attention, one in which attention fails to bring any stimuli into conscious awareness. In the present research, we outline the properties of mind-blanking, differentiating this mental state from other mental states in terms of phenomenological experience, behavioral outcomes, and underlying cognitive processes. Seven experiments suggest that when the mind seems to disappear, there are times when we have simply failed to monitor its whereabouts—and there are times when it is actually gone. PMID:24098287

Do you see what I see? The difference between dog and human visual perception may affect the outcome of experiments.

PubMed

Pongrácz, Péter; Ujvári, Vera; Faragó, Tamás; Miklósi, Ádám; Péter, András

2017-07-01

The visual sense of dogs is in many aspects different than that of humans. Unfortunately, authors do not explicitly take into consideration dog-human differences in visual perception when designing their experiments. With an image manipulation program we altered stationary images, according to the present knowledge about dog-vision. Besides the effect of dogs' dichromatic vision, the software shows the effect of the lower visual acuity and brightness discrimination, too. Fifty adult humans were tested with pictures showing a female experimenter pointing, gazing or glancing to the left or right side. Half of the pictures were shown after they were altered to a setting that approximated dog vision. Participants had difficulty to find out the direction of glancing when the pictures were in dog-vision mode. Glances in dog-vision setting were followed less correctly and with a slower response time than other cues. Our results are the first that show the visual performance of humans under circumstances that model how dogs' weaker vision would affect their responses in an ethological experiment. We urge researchers to take into consideration the differences between perceptual abilities of dogs and humans, by developing visual stimuli that fit more appropriately to dogs' visual capabilities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Humans treat unreliable filled-in percepts as more real than veridical ones

PubMed Central

Ehinger, Benedikt V; Häusser, Katja; Ossandón, José P; König, Peter

2017-01-01

Humans often evaluate sensory signals according to their reliability for optimal decision-making. However, how do we evaluate percepts generated in the absence of direct input that are, therefore, completely unreliable? Here, we utilize the phenomenon of filling-in occurring at the physiological blind-spots to compare partially inferred and veridical percepts. Subjects chose between stimuli that elicit filling-in, and perceptually equivalent ones presented outside the blind-spots, looking for a Gabor stimulus without a small orthogonal inset. In ambiguous conditions, when the stimuli were physically identical and the inset was absent in both, subjects behaved opposite to optimal, preferring the blind-spot stimulus as the better example of a collinear stimulus, even though no relevant veridical information was available. Thus, a percept that is partially inferred is paradoxically considered more reliable than a percept based on external input. In other words: Humans treat filled-in inferred percepts as more real than veridical ones. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21761.001 PMID:28506359

Role of Right Posterior Parietal Cortex in Maintaining Attention to Spatial Locations over Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malhotra, Paresh; Coulthard, Elizabeth J.; Husain, Masud

2009-01-01

Recent models of human posterior parietal cortex (PPC) have variously emphasized its role in spatial perception, visuomotor control or directing attention. However, neuroimaging and lesion studies also suggest that the right PPC might play a special role in maintaining an alert state. Previously, assessments of right-hemisphere patients with…

Superculture? Thoughts Prompted by Roland S. Persson's Essay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tebbs, Trevor J.

2012-01-01

The author finds Roland S. Persson's (2012a) paper to be timely, fascinating, important and powerful. At risk of mixing metaphors, it provides much food for thought and a penetrating lens through which all those vested in the optimal realisation of human potential would be prudent to review their own perceptions, boundaries of belief and…

Development of Multisensory Spatial Integration and Perception in Humans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neil, Patricia A.; Chee-Ruiter, Christine; Scheier, Christian; Lewkowicz, David J.; Shimojo, Shinsuke

2006-01-01

Previous studies have shown that adults respond faster and more reliably to bimodal compared to unimodal localization cues. The current study investigated for the first time the development of audiovisual (A-V) integration in spatial localization behavior in infants between 1 and 10 months of age. We observed infants' head and eye movements in…

James Madison's Practical Ideals for the 1990s.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delattre, Edwin J.

This paper examines recent behavior of public officials at various levels of government in the United States, finds a systemic failure to meet ethical standards, and concludes that the wisdom of James Madison has much applicability to current times. Given his keen perception of human nature, Madison would not be too surprised at today's poor…

Space and time scales in human-landscape systems.

PubMed

Kondolf, G Mathias; Podolak, Kristen

2014-01-01

Exploring spatial and temporal scales provides a way to understand human alteration of landscape processes and human responses to these processes. We address three topics relevant to human-landscape systems: (1) scales of human impacts on geomorphic processes, (2) spatial and temporal scales in river restoration, and (3) time scales of natural disasters and behavioral and institutional responses. Studies showing dramatic recent change in sediment yields from uplands to the ocean via rivers illustrate the increasingly vast spatial extent and quick rate of human landscape change in the last two millennia, but especially in the second half of the twentieth century. Recent river restoration efforts are typically small in spatial and temporal scale compared to the historical human changes to ecosystem processes, but the cumulative effectiveness of multiple small restoration projects in achieving large ecosystem goals has yet to be demonstrated. The mismatch between infrequent natural disasters and individual risk perception, media coverage, and institutional response to natural disasters results in un-preparedness and unsustainable land use and building practices.

Oral Digestion and Perception of Starch: Effects of Cooking, Tasting Time, and Salivary α-Amylase Activity.

PubMed

Lapis, Trina J; Penner, Michael H; Balto, Amy S; Lim, Juyun

2017-10-01

Since starch is a significant part of human diet, its oral detection would be highly beneficial. This study was designed to determine whether starch or its degradation products can be tasted and what factors influence its perception. Subjects were asked 1) to taste 8% raw and cooked starch samples for 5, 15, and 35 s and rate perceived intensities of sweetness and "other" taste (i.e., other than sweet), 2) to donate saliva to obtain salivary flow rate (mg/s) and salivary α-amylase activity (per mg saliva), and 3) to fill out a carbohydrate consumption survey. Subsequently, in vitro hydrolysis of starch was performed; saliva was collected from 5 subjects with low and high amylase activities and reacted with 8% raw and cooked starch at 2, 15, and 30 s. Hydrolysis products were then quantified using a High performance liquid chromatography. The results showed cooking increased the digestibility of starch such that the amount of hydrolysis products increased with reaction time. However, cooking did not influence taste ratings, nor were they influenced by tasting time. Subjects' salivary amylase activities were associated with the efficacy of their saliva to degrade starch, in particular cooked starch, and thus the amount of maltooligosaccharide products generated. Effective α-amylase activity [i.e. α-amylase activity (per mg saliva) × salivary flow rate (mg/s)] and carbohydrate consumption score (i.e. consumption frequency × number of servings) were also independently associated with sensory taste ratings. Human perception of starch is undoubtedly complex as shown in this study; the data herein point to the potential roles of salivary α-amylase activity and carbohydrate consumption in the perception of cooked starch. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The role of lipolysis in human orosensory fat perception

PubMed Central

Voigt, Nadine; Stein, Julia; Galindo, Maria Mercedes; Dunkel, Andreas; Raguse, Jan-Dirk; Meyerhof, Wolfgang; Hofmann, Thomas; Behrens, Maik

2014-01-01

Taste perception elicited by food constituents and facilitated by sensory cells in the oral cavity is important for the survival of organisms. In addition to the five basic taste modalities, sweet, umami, bitter, sour, and salty, orosensory perception of stimuli such as fat constituents is intensely investigated. Experiments in rodents and humans suggest that free fatty acids represent a major stimulus for the perception of fat-containing food. However, the lipid fraction of foods mainly consists of triglycerides in which fatty acids are esterified with glycerol. Whereas effective lipolysis by secreted lipases (LIPs) liberating fatty acids from triglycerides in the rodent oral cavity is well established, a similar mechanism in humans is disputed. By psychophysical analyses of humans, we demonstrate responses upon stimulation with triglycerides which are attenuated by concomitant LIP inhibitor administration. Moreover, lipolytic activities detected in minor salivary gland secretions directly supplying gustatory papillae were correlated to individual sensitivities for triglycerides, suggesting that differential LIP levels may contribute to variant fat perception. Intriguingly, we found that the LIPF gene coding for lingual/gastric LIP is not expressed in human lingual tissue. Instead, we identified the expression of other LIPs, which may compensate for the absence of LIPF. PMID:24688103

Spontaneous Decoding of the Timing and Content of Human Object Perception from Cortical Surface Recordings Reveals Complementary Information in the Event-Related Potential and Broadband Spectral Change

PubMed Central

Miller, Kai J.; Schalk, Gerwin; Hermes, Dora; Ojemann, Jeffrey G.; Rao, Rajesh P. N.

2016-01-01

The link between object perception and neural activity in visual cortical areas is a problem of fundamental importance in neuroscience. Here we show that electrical potentials from the ventral temporal cortical surface in humans contain sufficient information for spontaneous and near-instantaneous identification of a subject’s perceptual state. Electrocorticographic (ECoG) arrays were placed on the subtemporal cortical surface of seven epilepsy patients. Grayscale images of faces and houses were displayed rapidly in random sequence. We developed a template projection approach to decode the continuous ECoG data stream spontaneously, predicting the occurrence, timing and type of visual stimulus. In this setting, we evaluated the independent and joint use of two well-studied features of brain signals, broadband changes in the frequency power spectrum of the potential and deflections in the raw potential trace (event-related potential; ERP). Our ability to predict both the timing of stimulus onset and the type of image was best when we used a combination of both the broadband response and ERP, suggesting that they capture different and complementary aspects of the subject’s perceptual state. Specifically, we were able to predict the timing and type of 96% of all stimuli, with less than 5% false positive rate and a ~20ms error in timing. PMID:26820899

Speech perception: Some new directions in research and theory

PubMed Central

Pisoni, David B.

2012-01-01

The perception of speech is one of the most fascinating attributes of human behavior; both the auditory periphery and higher centers help define the parameters of sound perception. In this paper some of the fundamental perceptual problems facing speech sciences are described. The paper focuses on several of the new directions speech perception research is taking to solve these problems. Recent developments suggest that major breakthroughs in research and theory will soon be possible. The current study of segmentation, invariance, and normalization are described. The paper summarizes some of the new techniques used to understand auditory perception of speech signals and their linguistic significance to the human listener. PMID:4031245

The Possible Effects of Potential Key Technological Developments on the Force Structure of the Australian Army in 2040

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

time as detection abilities improve. • There is a danger of a loss of human skills in collection that becomes evident when the network connection...perceptions.”[3]. The WS elements in this area are weighted to human populations due to the nature of the operations conducted in this area and the...structures. Before too much weight is placed on the tentative conclusions that are presented in this section it would be necessary to talk with

Predictive coding links perception, action, and learning to emotions in music. Comment on "The quartet theory of human emotions: An integrative and neurofunctional model" by S. Koelsch et al.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gebauer, L.; Kringelbach, M. L.; Vuust, P.

2015-06-01

The review by Koelsch and colleagues [1] offers a timely, comprehensive, and anatomically detailed framework for understanding the neural correlates of human emotions. The authors describe emotion in a framework of four affect systems, which are linked to effector systems, and higher order cognitive functions. This is elegantly demonstrated through the example of music; a realm for exploring emotions in a domain, that can be independent of language but still highly relevant for understanding human emotions [2].

Instrumental intelligent test of food sensory quality as mimic of human panel test combining multiple cross-perception sensors and data fusion.

PubMed

Ouyang, Qin; Zhao, Jiewen; Chen, Quansheng

2014-09-02

Instrumental test of food quality using perception sensors instead of human panel test is attracting massive attention recently. A novel cross-perception multi-sensors data fusion imitating multiple mammal perception was proposed for the instrumental test in this work. First, three mimic sensors of electronic eye, electronic nose and electronic tongue were used in sequence for data acquisition of rice wine samples. Then all data from the three different sensors were preprocessed and merged. Next, three cross-perception variables i.e., color, aroma and taste, were constructed using principal components analysis (PCA) and multiple linear regression (MLR) which were used as the input of models. MLR, back-propagation artificial neural network (BPANN) and support vector machine (SVM) were comparatively used for modeling, and the instrumental test was achieved for the comprehensive quality of samples. Results showed the proposed cross-perception multi-sensors data fusion presented obvious superiority to the traditional data fusion methodologies, also achieved a high correlation coefficient (>90%) with the human panel test results. This work demonstrated that the instrumental test based on the cross-perception multi-sensors data fusion can actually mimic the human test behavior, therefore is of great significance to ensure the quality of products and decrease the loss of the manufacturers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Incorrect Reliability Information on Expectations, Perceptions, and Use of Automation.

PubMed

Barg-Walkow, Laura H; Rogers, Wendy A

2016-03-01

We examined how providing artificially high or low statements about automation reliability affected expectations, perceptions, and use of automation over time. One common method of introducing automation is providing explicit statements about the automation's capabilities. Research is needed to understand how expectations from such introductions affect perceptions and use of automation. Explicit-statement introductions were manipulated to set higher-than (90%), same-as (75%), or lower-than (60%) levels of expectations in a dual-task scenario with 75% reliable automation. Two experiments were conducted to assess expectations, perceptions, compliance, reliance, and task performance over (a) 2 days and (b) 4 days. The baseline assessments showed initial expectations of automation reliability matched introduced levels of expectation. For the duration of each experiment, the lower-than groups' perceptions were lower than the actual automation reliability. However, the higher-than groups' perceptions were no different from actual automation reliability after Day 1 in either study. There were few differences between groups for automation use, which generally stayed the same or increased with experience using the system. Introductory statements describing artificially low automation reliability have a long-lasting impact on perceptions about automation performance. Statements including incorrect automation reliability do not appear to affect use of automation. Introductions should be designed according to desired outcomes for expectations, perceptions, and use of the automation. Low expectations have long-lasting effects. © 2015, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Perceiving groups: The people perception of diversity and hierarchy.

PubMed

Phillips, L Taylor; Slepian, Michael L; Hughes, Brent L

2018-05-01

The visual perception of individuals has received considerable attention (visual person perception), but little social psychological work has examined the processes underlying the visual perception of groups of people (visual people perception). Ensemble-coding is a visual mechanism that automatically extracts summary statistics (e.g., average size) of lower-level sets of stimuli (e.g., geometric figures), and also extends to the visual perception of groups of faces. Here, we consider whether ensemble-coding supports people perception, allowing individuals to form rapid, accurate impressions about groups of people. Across nine studies, we demonstrate that people visually extract high-level properties (e.g., diversity, hierarchy) that are unique to social groups, as opposed to individual persons. Observers rapidly and accurately perceived group diversity and hierarchy, or variance across race, gender, and dominance (Studies 1-3). Further, results persist when observers are given very short display times, backward pattern masks, color- and contrast-controlled stimuli, and absolute versus relative response options (Studies 4a-7b), suggesting robust effects supported specifically by ensemble-coding mechanisms. Together, we show that humans can rapidly and accurately perceive not only individual persons, but also emergent social information unique to groups of people. These people perception findings demonstrate the importance of visual processes for enabling people to perceive social groups and behave effectively in group-based social interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Staff members' perceptions of an animal-assisted activity.

PubMed

Bibbo, Jessica

2013-07-01

To examine the perceptions of staff members toward the implementation of an animal-assisted activity (AAA) in an outpatient regional cancer center. Quasi-experimental, post-test design. An adult outpatient regional cancer center in northern California. 34 facility staff members. Self-report questionnaire following four weeks of AAA visitation. Visits took place three times a week for a total of 12 visits. Perceptions of the AAA. Previous perceptions toward AAA influenced the perceptions of the visitation's efficacy. Direct and indirect interaction with the visiting AAA teams was positively associated with perceptions of the AAA. A disagreement occurred that the AAA had caused extra stress or work for staff. Enjoyment of interacting with the dog handler was not significantly different from interacting with the dog; however, it was more positively correlated to acceptance of the AAA. The study provided evidence that the AAA was generally accepted by staff members. Individual staff members' perceptions of dogs and AAAs can influence their receptivity to AAA interventions. Interaction with AAA teams should be voluntary and available for patients and staff members. AAA may be introduced into facilities without creating the perception of extra stress or work for staff members. Providing staff the opportunity to interact with visiting AAA teams may be beneficial for the success of such programs. The human handler in AAA teams may play a vital role in the staff acceptance of such programs.

Is the Face-Perception System Human-Specific at Birth?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Di Giorgio, Elisa; Leo, Irene; Pascalis, Olivier; Simion, Francesca

2012-01-01

The present study investigates the human-specificity of the orienting system that allows neonates to look preferentially at faces. Three experiments were carried out to determine whether the face-perception system that is present at birth is broad enough to include both human and nonhuman primate faces. The results demonstrate that the newborns…

DOT/FAA Human Factors Workshop on Aviation. Transcript. Volume II.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-11-25

impact of accelerated time perception produced by the emanations of any modern jetport s one such phenomenon which raises traveler’s anxieties...enough. Social responsi- bility, commitment to the education of school children , providing on-site experiences for university students, sensitive...for a long, long time. The original automated chart displays were developed in the 󈧶’ s , 󈨀’ s . They have been flown in Europe and in the

Dogs' (Canis familiaris) attention to human perception: Influence of breed groups and life experiences.

PubMed

Heberlein, Marianne T E; Turner, Dennis C; Manser, Marta B

2017-02-01

Attending to the perception of others may help individuals gaining information from conspecifics, or help in competitive situations. Dogs (Canis familiaris) are attentive to humans' signals and their attentional state. We investigated whether dogs of different breed groups differ in their ability to pay attention to human's perception, first according to the genetic relatedness between dog breeds, and second according to working style differences. Once dogs had learned to leave forbidden food on the floor, they were confronted with 2 food items to which only they had unrestricted visual access. The owners saw either none or 1 food item through a transparent barrier. Our results showed that dogs pay attention to the perception of humans, whereby differences between breed groups became obvious. Within different genetic groups, ancient and hunting type dogs performed similarly, they were more attentive to their owners' perception than shepherd and the mastiff type dogs. When comparing dogs classified according to their working style, independent workers and family dogs were attentive to the owner's perception, while cooperative workers seemed not. The dogs' choice could not be explained by a general or training induced preference for eating behind an opaque screen, or by an influence of the owner's possible intention to prevent the dog from taking the food item he could see. Our study confirms that dogs are attentive/sensitive to human's perception, but genetic and working style differences among the breeds, as well as dog sport experiences explain part of the variation seen in their performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Animal Pitch Perception: Melodies and Harmonies

PubMed Central

Hoeschele, Marisa

2017-01-01

Pitch is a percept of sound that is based in part on fundamental frequency. Although pitch can be defined in a way that is clearly separable from other aspects of musical sounds, such as timbre, the perception of pitch is not a simple topic. Despite this, studying pitch separately from other aspects of sound has led to some interesting conclusions about how humans and other animals process acoustic signals. It turns out that pitch perception in humans is based on an assessment of pitch height, pitch chroma, relative pitch, and grouping principles. How pitch is broken down depends largely on the context. Most, if not all, of these principles appear to also be used by other species, but when and how accurately they are used varies across species and context. Studying how other animals compare to humans in their pitch abilities is partially a reevaluation of what we know about humans by considering ourselves in a biological context. PMID:28649291

Perception-based 3D tactile rendering from a single image for human skin examinations by dynamic touch.

PubMed

Kim, K; Lee, S

2015-05-01

Diagnosis of skin conditions is dependent on the assessment of skin surface properties that are represented by more tactile properties such as stiffness, roughness, and friction than visual information. Due to this reason, adding tactile feedback to existing vision based diagnosis systems can help dermatologists diagnose skin diseases or disorders more accurately. The goal of our research was therefore to develop a tactile rendering system for skin examinations by dynamic touch. Our development consists of two stages: converting a single image to a 3D haptic surface and rendering the generated haptic surface in real-time. Converting to 3D surfaces from 2D single images was implemented with concerning human perception data collected by a psychophysical experiment that measured human visual and haptic sensibility to 3D skin surface changes. For the second stage, we utilized real skin biomechanical properties found by prior studies. Our tactile rendering system is a standalone system that can be used with any single cameras and haptic feedback devices. We evaluated the performance of our system by conducting an identification experiment with three different skin images with five subjects. The participants had to identify one of the three skin surfaces by using a haptic device (Falcon) only. No visual cue was provided for the experiment. The results indicate that our system provides sufficient performance to render discernable tactile rendering with different skin surfaces. Our system uses only a single skin image and automatically generates a 3D haptic surface based on human haptic perception. Realistic skin interactions can be provided in real-time for the purpose of skin diagnosis, simulations, or training. Our system can also be used for other applications like virtual reality and cosmetic applications. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Temporal Instabilities in Amblyopic Perception: A Quantitative Approach.

PubMed

Thiel, Aylin; Iftime, Adrian

2016-04-01

The purpose of this study is to quantify the temporal characteristics of spatial misperceptions in human amblyopia. Twenty-two adult participants with strabismus, strabismic, anisometropic, or mixed amblyopia were asked to describe their subjective percept of static geometrical patterns with different spatial frequencies and shapes, as seen with their non-dominant eye. We generated digital reconstructions of their perception (static images or movies) that were subsequently validated by the subjects using consecutive matching sessions. We calculated the Shannon entropy variation in time for each recorded movie, as a measure of temporal instability. Nineteen of the 22 subjects perceived temporal instabilities that can be broadly classified in two categories. We found that the average frequency of the perceived temporal instabilities is ∼1 Hz. The stimuli with higher spatial frequencies yielded more often temporally unstable perceptions with higher frequencies. We suggest that type and amount of temporal instabilities in amblyopic vision are correlated with the etiology and spatial frequency of the stimulus.

People at Risk of Influenza Pandemics: The Evolution of Perception and Behavior.

PubMed

Xu, Jianhua; Peng, Zongchao

2015-01-01

Influenza pandemics can severely impact human health and society. Understanding public perception and behavior toward influenza pandemics is important for minimizing the effects of such events. Public perception and behavior are expected to change over the course of an influenza pandemic, but this idea has received little attention in previous studies. Our study aimed to understand the dynamics of public perception and behavior over the course of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Three consecutive cross-sectional surveys were administered among Beijing residents with random-digit dialing techniques in March 2008 and August and November 2009. Effective samples of 507, 508 and 1006 respondents were interviewed in each of the three surveys, respectively. The mean scores of risk perception were low to moderate across the three surveys. The perceived risk of infection of self was significantly lower than that of the community, revealing an optimistic bias. Longitudinally, the perceived risk of contracting H1N1 increased, whereas the perceived risk of being unable to obtain medicine and medical care once influenza permeated the community first increased and then decreased. Responsive actions toward influenza varied. Most respondents took actions that required little extra effort, such as ventilating rooms; these actions did not change over time. Comparatively, a smaller number of respondents took actions for coping with influenza, such as vaccination; however, these actions were taken by an increasing number of respondents over time. The association between risk perception and behavior was unstable. Positive, insignificant, and negative associations were obtained in the three surveys. In conclusion, the evolving patterns of risk perception and responsive behavior over the course of an influenza pandemic are sensitive to how risk and behavior are defined and scoped.

People at Risk of Influenza Pandemics: The Evolution of Perception and Behavior

PubMed Central

Xu, Jianhua; Peng, Zongchao

2015-01-01

Influenza pandemics can severely impact human health and society. Understanding public perception and behavior toward influenza pandemics is important for minimizing the effects of such events. Public perception and behavior are expected to change over the course of an influenza pandemic, but this idea has received little attention in previous studies. Our study aimed to understand the dynamics of public perception and behavior over the course of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Three consecutive cross-sectional surveys were administered among Beijing residents with random-digit dialing techniques in March 2008 and August and November 2009. Effective samples of 507, 508 and 1006 respondents were interviewed in each of the three surveys, respectively. The mean scores of risk perception were low to moderate across the three surveys. The perceived risk of infection of self was significantly lower than that of the community, revealing an optimistic bias. Longitudinally, the perceived risk of contracting H1N1 increased, whereas the perceived risk of being unable to obtain medicine and medical care once influenza permeated the community first increased and then decreased. Responsive actions toward influenza varied. Most respondents took actions that required little extra effort, such as ventilating rooms; these actions did not change over time. Comparatively, a smaller number of respondents took actions for coping with influenza, such as vaccination; however, these actions were taken by an increasing number of respondents over time. The association between risk perception and behavior was unstable. Positive, insignificant, and negative associations were obtained in the three surveys. In conclusion, the evolving patterns of risk perception and responsive behavior over the course of an influenza pandemic are sensitive to how risk and behavior are defined and scoped. PMID:26658371

Effects of spectral and temporal disruption on cortical encoding of gerbil vocalizations

PubMed Central

Ter-Mikaelian, Maria; Semple, Malcolm N.

2013-01-01

Animal communication sounds contain spectrotemporal fluctuations that provide powerful cues for detection and discrimination. Human perception of speech is influenced both by spectral and temporal acoustic features but is most critically dependent on envelope information. To investigate the neural coding principles underlying the perception of communication sounds, we explored the effect of disrupting the spectral or temporal content of five different gerbil call types on neural responses in the awake gerbil's primary auditory cortex (AI). The vocalizations were impoverished spectrally by reduction to 4 or 16 channels of band-passed noise. For this acoustic manipulation, an average firing rate of the neuron did not carry sufficient information to distinguish between call types. In contrast, the discharge patterns of individual AI neurons reliably categorized vocalizations composed of only four spectral bands with the appropriate natural token. The pooled responses of small populations of AI cells classified spectrally disrupted and natural calls with an accuracy that paralleled human performance on an analogous speech task. To assess whether discharge pattern was robust to temporal perturbations of an individual call, vocalizations were disrupted by time-reversing segments of variable duration. For this acoustic manipulation, cortical neurons were relatively insensitive to short reversal lengths. Consistent with human perception of speech, these results indicate that the stable representation of communication sounds in AI is more dependent on sensitivity to slow temporal envelopes than on spectral detail. PMID:23761696

Video quality assessment method motivated by human visual perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Meiling; Jiang, Gangyi; Yu, Mei; Song, Yang; Peng, Zongju; Shao, Feng

2016-11-01

Research on video quality assessment (VQA) plays a crucial role in improving the efficiency of video coding and the performance of video processing. It is well acknowledged that the motion energy model generates motion energy responses in a middle temporal area by simulating the receptive field of neurons in V1 for the motion perception of the human visual system. Motivated by the biological evidence for the visual motion perception, a VQA method is proposed in this paper, which comprises the motion perception quality index and the spatial index. To be more specific, the motion energy model is applied to evaluate the temporal distortion severity of each frequency component generated from the difference of Gaussian filter bank, which produces the motion perception quality index, and the gradient similarity measure is used to evaluate the spatial distortion of the video sequence to get the spatial quality index. The experimental results of the LIVE, CSIQ, and IVP video databases demonstrate that the random forests regression technique trained by the generated quality indices is highly correspondent to human visual perception and has many significant improvements than comparable well-performing methods. The proposed method has higher consistency with subjective perception and higher generalization capability.

Risk attitude in small timesaving decisions.

PubMed

Munichor, Nira; Erev, Ido; Lotem, Arnon

2006-09-01

Four experiments are presented that explore situations in which a decision maker has to rely on personal experience in an attempt to minimize delays. Experiment 1 shows that risk-attitude in these timesaving decisions is similar to risk-attitude in money-related decisions from experience: A risky prospect is more attractive than a safer prospect with the same expected value only when it leads to a better outcome most of the time. Experiment 2 highlights a boundary condition: It suggests that a difficulty in ranking the relevant delays moves behavior toward random choice. Experiments 3 and 4 show that when actions must be taken during the delay (thereby helping compare delays), this increases the similarity of timesaving decisions to money-related decisions. In these settings the results reflect an increase in risk aversion with experience. The relationship of the results to the study of non-human time-related decisions, human money-related decisions and human time perception is discussed.

Dynamic Characteristics and Human Perception of Vibration Aboard a Military Propeller Aircraft

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

a significant reduction in the X-axis seat pan vibration as compared to the original operational seat cushion at the blade passage frequency ( BPF ...system characteristics at higher frequencies. A body region perception survey suggested that the subjects were most sensitive to the BPF component of...perception of the exposure. Current human exposure guidelines may not optimally reflect these relationships for assessing higher frequency propeller

Human perceptual overestimation of whole body roll tilt in hypergravity

PubMed Central

Newman, Michael C.; Oman, Charles M.; Merfeld, Daniel M.; Young, Laurence R.

2014-01-01

Hypergravity provides a unique environment to study human perception of orientation. We utilized a long-radius centrifuge to study perception of both static and dynamic whole body roll tilt in hypergravity, across a range of angles, frequencies, and net gravito-inertial levels (referred to as G levels). While studies of static tilt perception in hypergravity have been published, this is the first to measure dynamic tilt perception (i.e., with time-varying canal stimulation) in hypergravity using a continuous matching task. In complete darkness, subjects reported their orientation perception using a haptic task, whereby they attempted to align a hand-held bar with their perceived horizontal. Static roll tilt was overestimated in hypergravity, with more overestimation at larger angles and higher G levels, across the conditions tested (overestimated by ∼35% per additional G level, P < 0.001). As our primary contribution, we show that dynamic roll tilt was also consistently overestimated in hypergravity (P < 0.001) at all angles and frequencies tested, again with more overestimation at higher G levels. The overestimation was similar to that for static tilts at low angular velocities but decreased at higher angular velocities (P = 0.006), consistent with semicircular canal sensory integration. To match our findings, we propose a modification to a previous Observer-type canal-otolith interaction model. Specifically, our data were better modeled by including the hypothesis that the central nervous system treats otolith stimulation in the utricular plane differently than stimulation out of the utricular plane. This modified model was able to simulate quantitatively both the static and the dynamic roll tilt overestimation in hypergravity measured experimentally. PMID:25540216

Human dynamic orientation model applied to motion simulation. M.S. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Borah, J. D.

1976-01-01

The Ormsby model of dynamic orientation, in the form of a discrete time computer program was used to predict non-visually induced sensations during an idealized coordinated aircraft turn. To predict simulation fidelity, the Ormsby model was used to assign penalties for incorrect attitude and angular rate perceptions. It was determined that a three rotational degree of freedom simulation should remain faithful to attitude perception even at the expense of incorrect angular rate sensations. Implementing this strategy, a simulation profile for the idealized turn was designed for a Link GAT-1 trainer. A simple optokinetic display was added to improve the fidelity of roll rate sensations.

Electromagnetic perception and individual features of human beings.

PubMed

Lebedeva, N N; Kotrovskaya, T I

2001-01-01

An investigation was made of the individual reactions of human subjects exposed to electromagnetic fields. We performed the study on 86 volunteers separated into two groups. The first group was exposed to the electromagnetic field of infralow frequencies, whereas the second group was exposed to the electromagnetic field of extremely high frequencies. We found that the electromagnetic perception of human beings correlated with their individual features, such as EEG parameters, the critical frequency of flash merging, and the electric current sensitivity. Human subjects who had a high-quality perception of electromagnetic waves showed an optimal balance of cerebral processes, an excellent functional state of the central nervous system, and a good decision criterion.

Computation of emotions in man and machines.

PubMed

Robinson, Peter; el Kaliouby, Rana

2009-12-12

The importance of emotional expression as part of human communication has been understood since Aristotle, and the subject has been explored scientifically since Charles Darwin and others in the nineteenth century. Advances in computer technology now allow machines to recognize and express emotions, paving the way for improved human-computer and human-human communications. Recent advances in psychology have greatly improved our understanding of the role of affect in communication, perception, decision-making, attention and memory. At the same time, advances in technology mean that it is becoming possible for machines to sense, analyse and express emotions. We can now consider how these advances relate to each other and how they can be brought together to influence future research in perception, attention, learning, memory, communication, decision-making and other applications. The computation of emotions includes both recognition and synthesis, using channels such as facial expressions, non-verbal aspects of speech, posture, gestures, physiology, brain imaging and general behaviour. The combination of new results in psychology with new techniques of computation is leading to new technologies with applications in commerce, education, entertainment, security, therapy and everyday life. However, there are important issues of privacy and personal expression that must also be considered.

Voyages Guided by the Skies: Ancient Concepts of Exploring and Domesticating Time and Space across Cultures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rappenglück, Michael A.

2015-05-01

Persistence and change are necessary for the stability and development of both the human individual and the human society, since the beginnings of human history. Man needs a static framework which, related to his self-awareness, defines a topocentric system of perception, evaluation, order, and meaning. He also requires a dynamic impetus, which allows exceeding the limits of special world views, shifting of perspectives and transformations of individual as well as social approaches to life. Travelling especially helped to broaden man's horizon and mind. Across cultures voyages guided by the skies are linked with practical concepts of exploring and domesticating time and space, but also figuratively with the life's journey and with other worlds, being expressed by mythic, ritual and later scientific language.

3D Viewing: Odd Perception - Illusion? reality? or both?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kisimoto, K.; Iizasa, K.

2008-12-01

We live in the three dimensional space, don't we? It could be at least four dimensions, but that is another story. In either way our perceptual capability of 3D-Viewing is constrained by our 2D-perception (our intrinsic tools of perception). I carried out a few visual experiments using topographic data to show our intrinsic (or biological) disability (or shortcoming) in 3D-recognition of our world. Results of the experiments suggest: (1) 3D-surface model displayed on a 2D-computer screen (or paper) always has two interpretations of the 3D- surface geometry, if we choose one of the interpretation (in other word, if we are hooked by one perception of the two), we maintain its perception even if the 3D-model changes its viewing perspective in time shown on the screen, (2) more interesting is that 3D-real solid object (e.g.,made of clay) also gives above mentioned two interpretations of the geometry of the object, if we observe the object with one-eye. Most famous example of this viewing illusion is exemplified by a magician, who died in 2007, Jerry Andrus who made a super-cool paper crafted dragon which causes visual illusion to one-eyed viewer. I, by the experiments, confirmed this phenomenon in another perceptually persuasive (deceptive?) way. My conclusion is that this illusion is intrinsic, i.e. reality for human, because, even if we live in 3D-space, our perceptional tool (eyes) is composed of 2D sensors whose information is reconstructed or processed to 3D by our experience-based brain. So, (3) when we observe the 3D-surface-model on the computer screen, we are always one eye short even if we use both eyes. One last suggestion from my experiments is that recent highly sophisticated 3D- models might include too many information that human perceptions cannot handle properly, i.e. we might not be understanding the 3D world (geospace) at all, just illusioned.

Attractiveness Is Multimodal: Beauty Is Also in the Nose and Ear of the Beholder.

PubMed

Groyecka, Agata; Pisanski, Katarzyna; Sorokowska, Agnieszka; Havlíček, Jan; Karwowski, Maciej; Puts, David; Roberts, S Craig; Sorokowski, Piotr

2017-01-01

Attractiveness plays a central role in human non-verbal communication and has been broadly examined in diverse subfields of contemporary psychology. Researchers have garnered compelling evidence in support of the evolutionary functions of physical attractiveness and its role in our daily lives, while at the same time, having largely ignored the significant contribution of non-visual modalities and the relationships among them. Acoustic and olfactory cues can, separately or in combination, strongly influence the perceived attractiveness of an individual and therefore attitudes and actions toward that person. Here, we discuss the relative importance of visual, auditory and olfactory traits in judgments of attractiveness, and review neural and behavioral studies that support the highly complex and multimodal nature of person perception. Further, we discuss three alternative evolutionary hypotheses aimed at explaining the function of multiple indices of attractiveness. In this review, we provide several lines of evidence supporting the importance of the voice, body odor, and facial and body appearance in the perception of attractiveness and mate preferences, and therefore the critical need to incorporate cross-modal perception and multisensory integration into future research on human physical attractiveness.

Social Relation Networks in UT-Online Community Forum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farisi, Mohammad Imam

2012-01-01

So far, the existence of a virtual community forum has become a reality and social necessity in an era cybertech. It was also viewed as the electronic frontier of 21st century society that was undoubtedly for reorganizing and redefining to awareness of human being, that ways of their perceptions and explorations no longer limited by time, space,…

Lack of Precision of Burn Surface Area Calculation by UK Armed Forces Medical Personnel

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-03-01

computer screen or tablet , and therefore the variability in perception and representation inherent in having a human assess and draw the burn remains...Potential solutions to this source of error include 3D MRI and TeraHertz scanning technologies [40], but at the time of writing, these are not yet

Changes in Situation Models Modulate Processes of Event Perception in Audiovisual Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huff, Markus; Meitz, Tino G. K.; Papenmeier, Frank

2014-01-01

Humans understand text and film by mentally representing their contents in situation models. These describe situations using dimensions like time, location, protagonist, and action. Changes in 1 or more dimensions (e.g., a new character enters the scene) cause discontinuities in the story line and are often perceived as boundaries between 2…

Visual adaptation of the perception of "life": animacy is a basic perceptual dimension of faces.

PubMed

Koldewyn, Kami; Hanus, Patricia; Balas, Benjamin

2014-08-01

One critical component of understanding another's mind is the perception of "life" in a face. However, little is known about the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying this perception of animacy. Here, using a visual adaptation paradigm, we ask whether face animacy is (1) a basic dimension of face perception and (2) supported by a common neural mechanism across distinct face categories defined by age and species. Observers rated the perceived animacy of adult human faces before and after adaptation to (1) adult faces, (2) child faces, and (3) dog faces. When testing the perception of animacy in human faces, we found significant adaptation to both adult and child faces, but not dog faces. We did, however, find significant adaptation when morphed dog images and dog adaptors were used. Thus, animacy perception in faces appears to be a basic dimension of face perception that is species specific but not constrained by age categories.

Motion illusions in optical art presented for long durations are temporally distorted.

PubMed

Nather, Francisco Carlos; Mecca, Fernando Figueiredo; Bueno, José Lino Oliveira

2013-01-01

Static figurative images implying human body movements observed for shorter and longer durations affect the perception of time. This study examined whether images of static geometric shapes would affect the perception of time. Undergraduate participants observed two Optical Art paintings by Bridget Riley for 9 or 36 s (group G9 and G36, respectively). Paintings implying different intensities of movement (2.0 and 6.0 point stimuli) were randomly presented. The prospective paradigm in the reproduction method was used to record time estimations. Data analysis did not show time distortions in the G9 group. In the G36 group the paintings were differently perceived: that for the 2.0 point one are estimated to be shorter than that for the 6.0 point one. Also for G36, the 2.0 point painting was underestimated in comparison with the actual time of exposure. Motion illusions in static images affected time estimation according to the attention given to the complexity of movement by the observer, probably leading to changes in the storage velocity of internal clock pulses.

Action-based effects on music perception

PubMed Central

Maes, Pieter-Jan; Leman, Marc; Palmer, Caroline; Wanderley, Marcelo M.

2013-01-01

The classical, disembodied approach to music cognition conceptualizes action and perception as separate, peripheral processes. In contrast, embodied accounts of music cognition emphasize the central role of the close coupling of action and perception. It is a commonly established fact that perception spurs action tendencies. We present a theoretical framework that captures the ways in which the human motor system and its actions can reciprocally influence the perception of music. The cornerstone of this framework is the common coding theory, postulating a representational overlap in the brain between the planning, the execution, and the perception of movement. The integration of action and perception in so-called internal models is explained as a result of associative learning processes. Characteristic of internal models is that they allow intended or perceived sensory states to be transferred into corresponding motor commands (inverse modeling), and vice versa, to predict the sensory outcomes of planned actions (forward modeling). Embodied accounts typically refer to inverse modeling to explain action effects on music perception (Leman, 2007). We extend this account by pinpointing forward modeling as an alternative mechanism by which action can modulate perception. We provide an extensive overview of recent empirical evidence in support of this idea. Additionally, we demonstrate that motor dysfunctions can cause perceptual disabilities, supporting the main idea of the paper that the human motor system plays a functional role in auditory perception. The finding that music perception is shaped by the human motor system and its actions suggests that the musical mind is highly embodied. However, we advocate for a more radical approach to embodied (music) cognition in the sense that it needs to be considered as a dynamical process, in which aspects of action, perception, introspection, and social interaction are of crucial importance. PMID:24454299

Action-based effects on music perception.

PubMed

Maes, Pieter-Jan; Leman, Marc; Palmer, Caroline; Wanderley, Marcelo M

2014-01-03

The classical, disembodied approach to music cognition conceptualizes action and perception as separate, peripheral processes. In contrast, embodied accounts of music cognition emphasize the central role of the close coupling of action and perception. It is a commonly established fact that perception spurs action tendencies. We present a theoretical framework that captures the ways in which the human motor system and its actions can reciprocally influence the perception of music. The cornerstone of this framework is the common coding theory, postulating a representational overlap in the brain between the planning, the execution, and the perception of movement. The integration of action and perception in so-called internal models is explained as a result of associative learning processes. Characteristic of internal models is that they allow intended or perceived sensory states to be transferred into corresponding motor commands (inverse modeling), and vice versa, to predict the sensory outcomes of planned actions (forward modeling). Embodied accounts typically refer to inverse modeling to explain action effects on music perception (Leman, 2007). We extend this account by pinpointing forward modeling as an alternative mechanism by which action can modulate perception. We provide an extensive overview of recent empirical evidence in support of this idea. Additionally, we demonstrate that motor dysfunctions can cause perceptual disabilities, supporting the main idea of the paper that the human motor system plays a functional role in auditory perception. The finding that music perception is shaped by the human motor system and its actions suggests that the musical mind is highly embodied. However, we advocate for a more radical approach to embodied (music) cognition in the sense that it needs to be considered as a dynamical process, in which aspects of action, perception, introspection, and social interaction are of crucial importance.

The Comparison of Visual Working Memory Representations with Perceptual Inputs

PubMed Central

Hyun, Joo-seok; Woodman, Geoffrey F.; Vogel, Edward K.; Hollingworth, Andrew

2008-01-01

The human visual system can notice differences between memories of previous visual inputs and perceptions of new visual inputs, but the comparison process that detects these differences has not been well characterized. This study tests the hypothesis that differences between the memory of a stimulus array and the perception of a new array are detected in a manner that is analogous to the detection of simple features in visual search tasks. That is, just as the presence of a task-relevant feature in visual search can be detected in parallel, triggering a rapid shift of attention to the object containing the feature, the presence of a memory-percept difference along a task-relevant dimension can be detected in parallel, triggering a rapid shift of attention to the changed object. Supporting evidence was obtained in a series of experiments that examined manual reaction times, saccadic reaction times, and event-related potential latencies. However, these experiments also demonstrated that a slow, limited-capacity process must occur before the observer can make a manual change-detection response. PMID:19653755

Auditory perception of temporal order in centenarians in comparison with young and elderly subjects.

PubMed

Kołodziejczyk, Iwona; Szelsg, Elzbieta

2008-01-01

Temporal information processing controls many aspects of human mental activity and may be assessed by examining perception of temporal order in the tens of milliseconds time range. Although existing studies suggest an age-related decline in mental abilities, the data on the deterioration of temporal order perception seems inconsistent. Moreover, any evidence on subjects aged over 70 years is lacking. The present experiment aimed to extend the existing data to extremely old people. Temporal order judgment (TOJ) for auditory stimuli was tested across the life span of approx. 80 years, i.e. in young (mean age 22 years) elderly (66 years) and very old (101 years) subjects. Age-related deterioration of performance was observed, with slight changes in elderly subjects and significant deterioration in centenarians which was more distinct in women than in men. The results confirm age-related decrease in temporal resolution which may be explained by slowing of information processing or of a hypothetical internal-timing mechanism. These effects may be influenced by different strategies used in particular age groups.

How Haptic Size Sensations Improve Distance Perception

PubMed Central

Battaglia, Peter W.; Kersten, Daniel; Schrater, Paul R.

2011-01-01

Determining distances to objects is one of the most ubiquitous perceptual tasks in everyday life. Nevertheless, it is challenging because the information from a single image confounds object size and distance. Though our brains frequently judge distances accurately, the underlying computations employed by the brain are not well understood. Our work illuminates these computions by formulating a family of probabilistic models that encompass a variety of distinct hypotheses about distance and size perception. We compare these models' predictions to a set of human distance judgments in an interception experiment and use Bayesian analysis tools to quantitatively select the best hypothesis on the basis of its explanatory power and robustness over experimental data. The central question is: whether, and how, human distance perception incorporates size cues to improve accuracy. Our conclusions are: 1) humans incorporate haptic object size sensations for distance perception, 2) the incorporation of haptic sensations is suboptimal given their reliability, 3) humans use environmentally accurate size and distance priors, 4) distance judgments are produced by perceptual “posterior sampling”. In addition, we compared our model's estimated sensory and motor noise parameters with previously reported measurements in the perceptual literature and found good correspondence between them. Taken together, these results represent a major step forward in establishing the computational underpinnings of human distance perception and the role of size information. PMID:21738457

Cosmetics as a feature of the extended human phenotype: modulation of the perception of biologically important facial signals.

PubMed

Etcoff, Nancy L; Stock, Shannon; Haley, Lauren E; Vickery, Sarah A; House, David M

2011-01-01

Research on the perception of faces has focused on the size, shape, and configuration of inherited features or the biological phenotype, and largely ignored the effects of adornment, or the extended phenotype. Research on the evolution of signaling has shown that animals frequently alter visual features, including color cues, to attract, intimidate or protect themselves from conspecifics. Humans engage in conscious manipulation of visual signals using cultural tools in real time rather than genetic changes over evolutionary time. Here, we investigate one tool, the use of color cosmetics. In two studies, we asked viewers to rate the same female faces with or without color cosmetics, and we varied the style of makeup from minimal (natural), to moderate (professional), to dramatic (glamorous). Each look provided increasing luminance contrast between the facial features and surrounding skin. Faces were shown for 250 ms or for unlimited inspection time, and subjects rated them for attractiveness, competence, likeability and trustworthiness. At 250 ms, cosmetics had significant positive effects on all outcomes. Length of inspection time did not change the effect for competence or attractiveness. However, with longer inspection time, the effect of cosmetics on likability and trust varied by specific makeup looks, indicating that cosmetics could impact automatic and deliberative judgments differently. The results suggest that cosmetics can create supernormal facial stimuli, and that one way they may do so is by exaggerating cues to sexual dimorphism. Our results provide evidence that judgments of facial trustworthiness and attractiveness are at least partially separable, that beauty has a significant positive effect on judgment of competence, a universal dimension of social cognition, but has a more nuanced effect on the other universal dimension of social warmth, and that the extended phenotype significantly influences perception of biologically important signals at first glance and at longer inspection.

Cosmetics as a Feature of the Extended Human Phenotype: Modulation of the Perception of Biologically Important Facial Signals

PubMed Central

Etcoff, Nancy L.; Stock, Shannon; Haley, Lauren E.; Vickery, Sarah A.; House, David M.

2011-01-01

Research on the perception of faces has focused on the size, shape, and configuration of inherited features or the biological phenotype, and largely ignored the effects of adornment, or the extended phenotype. Research on the evolution of signaling has shown that animals frequently alter visual features, including color cues, to attract, intimidate or protect themselves from conspecifics. Humans engage in conscious manipulation of visual signals using cultural tools in real time rather than genetic changes over evolutionary time. Here, we investigate one tool, the use of color cosmetics. In two studies, we asked viewers to rate the same female faces with or without color cosmetics, and we varied the style of makeup from minimal (natural), to moderate (professional), to dramatic (glamorous). Each look provided increasing luminance contrast between the facial features and surrounding skin. Faces were shown for 250 ms or for unlimited inspection time, and subjects rated them for attractiveness, competence, likeability and trustworthiness. At 250 ms, cosmetics had significant positive effects on all outcomes. Length of inspection time did not change the effect for competence or attractiveness. However, with longer inspection time, the effect of cosmetics on likability and trust varied by specific makeup looks, indicating that cosmetics could impact automatic and deliberative judgments differently. The results suggest that cosmetics can create supernormal facial stimuli, and that one way they may do so is by exaggerating cues to sexual dimorphism. Our results provide evidence that judgments of facial trustworthiness and attractiveness are at least partially separable, that beauty has a significant positive effect on judgment of competence, a universal dimension of social cognition, but has a more nuanced effect on the other universal dimension of social warmth, and that the extended phenotype significantly influences perception of biologically important signals at first glance and at longer inspection. PMID:21991328

The many faces of research on face perception.

PubMed

Little, Anthony C; Jones, Benedict C; DeBruine, Lisa M

2011-06-12

Face perception is fundamental to human social interaction. Many different types of important information are visible in faces and the processes and mechanisms involved in extracting this information are complex and can be highly specialized. The importance of faces has long been recognized by a wide range of scientists. Importantly, the range of perspectives and techniques that this breadth has brought to face perception research has, in recent years, led to many important advances in our understanding of face processing. The articles in this issue on face perception each review a particular arena of interest in face perception, variously focusing on (i) the social aspects of face perception (attraction, recognition and emotion), (ii) the neural mechanisms underlying face perception (using brain scanning, patient data, direct stimulation of the brain, visual adaptation and single-cell recording), and (iii) comparative aspects of face perception (comparing adult human abilities with those of chimpanzees and children). Here, we introduce the central themes of the issue and present an overview of the articles.

Sticking with the nice guy: trait warmth information impairs learning and modulates person perception brain network activity.

PubMed

Lee, Victoria K; Harris, Lasana T

2014-12-01

Social learning requires inferring social information about another person, as well as evaluating outcomes. Previous research shows that prior social information biases decision making and reduces reliance on striatal activity during learning (Delgado, Frank, & Phelps, Nature Neuroscience 8 (11): 1611-1618, 2005). A rich literature in social psychology on person perception demonstrates that people spontaneously infer social information when viewing another person (Fiske & Taylor, 2013) and engage a network of brain regions, including the medial prefrontal cortex, temporal parietal junction, superior temporal sulcus, and precuneus (Amodio & Frith, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(4), 268-277, 2006; Haxby, Gobbini, & Montgomery, 2004; van Overwalle Human Brain Mapping, 30, 829-858, 2009). We investigate the role of these brain regions during social learning about well-established dimensions of person perception-trait warmth and trait competence. We test the hypothesis that activity in person perception brain regions interacts with learning structures during social learning. Participants play an investment game where they must choose an agent to invest on their behalf. This choice is guided by cues signaling trait warmth or trait competence based on framing of monetary returns. Trait warmth information impairs learning about human but not computer agents, while trait competence information produces similar learning rates for human and computer agents. We see increased activation to warmth information about human agents in person perception brain regions. Interestingly, activity in person perception brain regions during the decision phase negatively predicts activity in the striatum during feedback for trait competence inferences about humans. These results suggest that social learning may engage additional processing within person perception brain regions that hampers learning in economic contexts.

Perception of linear acceleration in weightlessness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arrott, A. P.; Young, L. R.

1987-01-01

Eye movements and subjective detection of acceleration were measured on human experimental subjects during vestibular sled acceleration during the D1 Spacelab Mission. Methods and results are reported on the time to detection of small acceleration steps, the threshold for detection of linear acceleration, perceived motion path, and CLOAT. A consistently shorter time to detection of small acceleration steps is found. Subjective reports of perceived motion during sinusoidal oscillation in weightlessness were qualitatively similar to reports on earth.

Motion Cueing Algorithm Development: Human-Centered Linear and Nonlinear Approaches

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houck, Jacob A. (Technical Monitor); Telban, Robert J.; Cardullo, Frank M.

2005-01-01

While the performance of flight simulator motion system hardware has advanced substantially, the development of the motion cueing algorithm, the software that transforms simulated aircraft dynamics into realizable motion commands, has not kept pace. Prior research identified viable features from two algorithms: the nonlinear "adaptive algorithm", and the "optimal algorithm" that incorporates human vestibular models. A novel approach to motion cueing, the "nonlinear algorithm" is introduced that combines features from both approaches. This algorithm is formulated by optimal control, and incorporates a new integrated perception model that includes both visual and vestibular sensation and the interaction between the stimuli. Using a time-varying control law, the matrix Riccati equation is updated in real time by a neurocomputing approach. Preliminary pilot testing resulted in the optimal algorithm incorporating a new otolith model, producing improved motion cues. The nonlinear algorithm vertical mode produced a motion cue with a time-varying washout, sustaining small cues for longer durations and washing out large cues more quickly compared to the optimal algorithm. The inclusion of the integrated perception model improved the responses to longitudinal and lateral cues. False cues observed with the NASA adaptive algorithm were absent. The neurocomputing approach was crucial in that the number of presentations of an input vector could be reduced to meet the real time requirement without degrading the quality of the motion cues.

Dialect Distance Assessment Based on 2-Dimensional Pitch Slope Features and Kullback Leibler Divergence

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-04-08

to changes on input data is quantified. It is also shown in a perceptive evaluation that the presented objective approach of dialect distance...of Arabic dialects are discussed. We also show the repeatability of presented mea- sure, and its correlation with human perception . Conclusions are...in the strict sense of metric spaces. PREPRINT 1 2. Proposed Method Human perception tests indicate that prosodic cues, including pitch movements

Rabbit Neonates and Human Adults Perceive a Blending 6-Component Odor Mixture in a Comparable Manner

PubMed Central

Sinding, Charlotte; Thomas-Danguin, Thierry; Chambault, Adeline; Béno, Noelle; Dosne, Thibaut; Chabanet, Claire; Schaal, Benoist; Coureaud, Gérard

2013-01-01

Young and adult mammals are constantly exposed to chemically complex stimuli. The olfactory system allows for a dual processing of relevant information from the environment either as single odorants in mixtures (elemental perception) or as mixtures of odorants as a whole (configural perception). However, it seems that human adults have certain limits in elemental perception of odor mixtures, as suggested by their inability to identify each odorant in mixtures of more than 4 components. Here, we explored some of these limits by evaluating the perception of three 6-odorant mixtures in human adults and newborn rabbits. Using free-sorting tasks in humans, we investigated the configural or elemental perception of these mixtures, or of 5-component sub-mixtures, or of the 6-odorant mixtures with modified odorants' proportion. In rabbit pups, the perception of the same mixtures was evaluated by measuring the orocephalic sucking response to the mixtures or their components after conditioning to one of these stimuli. The results revealed that one mixture, previously shown to carry the specific odor of red cordial in humans, was indeed configurally processed in humans and in rabbits while the two other 6-component mixtures were not. Moreover, in both species, such configural perception was specific not only to the 6 odorants included in the mixture but also to their respective proportion. Interestingly, rabbit neonates also responded to each odorant after conditioning to the red cordial mixture, which demonstrates their ability to perceive elements in addition to configuration in this complex mixture. Taken together, the results provide new insights related to the processing of relatively complex odor mixtures in mammals and the inter-species conservation of certain perceptual mechanisms; the results also revealed some differences in the expression of these capacities between species putatively linked to developmental and ecological constraints. PMID:23341948

Bilateral Theta-Burst TMS to Influence Global Gestalt Perception

PubMed Central

Ritzinger, Bernd; Huberle, Elisabeth; Karnath, Hans-Otto

2012-01-01

While early and higher visual areas along the ventral visual pathway in the inferotemporal cortex are critical for the recognition of individual objects, the neural representation of human perception of complex global visual scenes remains under debate. Stroke patients with a selective deficit in the perception of a complex global Gestalt with intact recognition of individual objects – a deficit termed simultanagnosia – greatly helped to study this question. Interestingly, simultanagnosia typically results from bilateral lesions of the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). The present study aimed to verify the relevance of this area for human global Gestalt perception. We applied continuous theta-burst TMS either unilaterally (left or right) or bilateral simultaneously over TPJ. Healthy subjects were presented with hierarchically organized visual stimuli that allowed parametrical degrading of the object at the global level. Identification of the global Gestalt was significantly modulated only for the bilateral TPJ stimulation condition. Our results strengthen the view that global Gestalt perception in the human brain involves TPJ and is co-dependent on both hemispheres. PMID:23110106

Bilateral theta-burst TMS to influence global gestalt perception.

PubMed

Ritzinger, Bernd; Huberle, Elisabeth; Karnath, Hans-Otto

2012-01-01

While early and higher visual areas along the ventral visual pathway in the inferotemporal cortex are critical for the recognition of individual objects, the neural representation of human perception of complex global visual scenes remains under debate. Stroke patients with a selective deficit in the perception of a complex global Gestalt with intact recognition of individual objects - a deficit termed simultanagnosia - greatly helped to study this question. Interestingly, simultanagnosia typically results from bilateral lesions of the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). The present study aimed to verify the relevance of this area for human global Gestalt perception. We applied continuous theta-burst TMS either unilaterally (left or right) or bilateral simultaneously over TPJ. Healthy subjects were presented with hierarchically organized visual stimuli that allowed parametrical degrading of the object at the global level. Identification of the global Gestalt was significantly modulated only for the bilateral TPJ stimulation condition. Our results strengthen the view that global Gestalt perception in the human brain involves TPJ and is co-dependent on both hemispheres.

GWAS of human bitter taste perception identifies new loci and reveals additional complexity of bitter taste genetics.

PubMed

Ledda, Mirko; Kutalik, Zoltán; Souza Destito, Maria C; Souza, Milena M; Cirillo, Cintia A; Zamboni, Amabilene; Martin, Nathalie; Morya, Edgard; Sameshima, Koichi; Beckmann, Jacques S; le Coutre, Johannes; Bergmann, Sven; Genick, Ulrich K

2014-01-01

Human perception of bitterness displays pronounced interindividual variation. This phenotypic variation is mirrored by equally pronounced genetic variation in the family of bitter taste receptor genes. To better understand the effects of common genetic variations on human bitter taste perception, we conducted a genome-wide association study on a discovery panel of 504 subjects and a validation panel of 104 subjects from the general population of São Paulo in Brazil. Correction for general taste-sensitivity allowed us to identify a SNP in the cluster of bitter taste receptors on chr12 (10.88- 11.24 Mb, build 36.1) significantly associated (best SNP: rs2708377, P = 5.31 × 10(-13), r(2) = 8.9%, β = -0.12, s.e. = 0.016) with the perceived bitterness of caffeine. This association overlaps with-but is statistically distinct from-the previously identified SNP rs10772420 influencing the perception of quinine bitterness that falls in the same bitter taste cluster. We replicated this association to quinine perception (P = 4.97 × 10(-37), r(2) = 23.2%, β = 0.25, s.e. = 0.020) and additionally found the effect of this genetic locus to be concentration specific with a strong impact on the perception of low, but no impact on the perception of high concentrations of quinine. Our study, thus, furthers our understanding of the complex genetic architecture of bitter taste perception.

Pitch perception prior to cortical maturation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lau, Bonnie K.

Pitch perception plays an important role in many complex auditory tasks including speech perception, music perception, and sound source segregation. Because of the protracted and extensive development of the human auditory cortex, pitch perception might be expected to mature, at least over the first few months of life. This dissertation investigates complex pitch perception in 3-month-olds, 7-month-olds and adults -- time points when the organization of the auditory pathway is distinctly different. Using an observer-based psychophysical procedure, a series of four studies were conducted to determine whether infants (1) discriminate the pitch of harmonic complex tones, (2) discriminate the pitch of unresolved harmonics, (3) discriminate the pitch of missing fundamental melodies, and (4) have comparable sensitivity to pitch and spectral changes as adult listeners. The stimuli used in these studies were harmonic complex tones, with energy missing at the fundamental frequency. Infants at both three and seven months of age discriminated the pitch of missing fundamental complexes composed of resolved and unresolved harmonics as well as missing fundamental melodies, demonstrating perception of complex pitch by three months of age. More surprisingly, infants in both age groups had lower pitch and spectral discrimination thresholds than adult listeners. Furthermore, no differences in performance on any of the tasks presented were observed between infants at three and seven months of age. These results suggest that subcortical processing is not only sufficient to support pitch perception prior to cortical maturation, but provides adult-like sensitivity to pitch by three months.

Exploring the Effects of Working Memory on Time Perception in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

PubMed

Lee, Hom-Yi; Yang, En-Lin

2018-01-01

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often reported to have deficits of time perception. However, there is a strong relation between performance on tasks of working memory and time perception. Thus, it is possible that the poor performance of children with ADHD on time perception results from their deficit of working memory. In this study, the working memory of participants was separately assessed; therefore, we could explore the relationship between working memory and time perception of children with ADHD. Fifty-six children with ADHD and those of healthy controls completed tasks measuring working memory and time perception. The results showed that the time discrimination ability of children with ADHD was poorer than that of controls. However, there was a strong association between time perception and working memory. After controlling working memory and intelligence, the time discrimination ability of children with ADHD was not significantly poorer than that of controls. We suggest that there is an interdependent relationship between time perception and working memory for children with ADHD.

Pilot Task Profiles, Human Factors, And Image Realism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCormick, Dennis

1982-06-01

Computer Image Generation (CIG) visual systems provide real time scenes for state-of-the-art flight training simulators. The visual system reauires a greater understanding of training tasks, human factors, and the concept of image realism to produce an effective and efficient training scene than is required by other types of visual systems. Image realism must be defined in terms of pilot visual information reauirements. Human factors analysis of training and perception is necessary to determine the pilot's information requirements. System analysis then determines how the CIG and display device can best provide essential information to the pilot. This analysis procedure ensures optimum training effectiveness and system performance.

Controlling attentional priority by preventing changes in oculomotor programs: a job for the premotor cortex?

PubMed

Michael, G A; Kleitz, C; Sellal, F; Hirsch, E; Marescaux, C

2001-01-01

Abruptly presented items capture attention automatically so they constitute the first items to be examined [Yantis and Jonides, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1984;10:601; Jonids and Yantis, Perception and Psychophysics, 1988;43:346; Theeuwes, Perception and Psychophysics, 1992;51:599; Theeuwes, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1994;20:799]. This attentional priority can be controlled in a top-down manner by directing attention towards the locus of interest [Yantis and Johnson, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1990;16:812; Theeuwes. Perception and Psychophysics, 1991;49:83; Miller, Perception and Psychophysics, 1989;45:567; Folk et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1992; 18:1030]. The premotor theory of attention [Rizzolatti et al., Neuropsychologia 1987;25:31; Rizzolatti et al., Attention and Performance XV, 1994, p. 231] assumes that the mechanism responsible for the attentional shifts is strictly linked to that responsible for eye movements, and several studies [Corbetta et al., Society of Neuroscience Abstracts 1997;23:122.12; Nobre et al., Brain 1997;120:515; Theeuwes et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1999;25:1595] suggested that the premotor cortex plays a role in the control of attention. However, the nature of this involvement is still unclear. We have been asking a patient (RJ) with a damage of the right premotor cortex to decide whether a target had a discontinuity on its right or left side. The absolute location of the target was pre-cued. In Section 2, an interference was observed when a sudden onset occurred in the visual space, suggesting that RJ was not able to control attentional capture. The possibility to attribute this interference to an insufficient focalization of attention or a grouping effect were discarded by Sections 3 and 4, respectively. Section 5 revealed that this interference followed exclusively the onset occurring in the hemifield opposite the one containing the target (meridian effect [Rizzolatti et al., Neuropsychologia 1987;25:31]). The results suggest that the control of attentional capture may be achieved by keeping constant the parameters of the appropriate oculomotor program.

Sensorimotor Interactions in the Haptic Perception of Virtual Objects

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-01-01

the human user. 2 Compared to our understanding of vision and audition , our knowledge of the human haptic perception is very limited. Many basic...modalities such as vision and audition on haptic perception of viscosity or mass, for example. 116 Some preliminary work has already been done in this...string[3]; *posx="x" *forf="f’ *velv="v" * acca ="a" trial[64]; resp[64]; /* random number */ /* trial number */ /* index */ /* array holding stim

Acquiring neural signals for developing a perception and cognition model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Wei; Li, Yunyi; Chen, Genshe; Shen, Dan; Blasch, Erik; Pham, Khanh; Lynch, Robert

2012-06-01

The understanding of how humans process information, determine salience, and combine seemingly unrelated information is essential to automated processing of large amounts of information that is partially relevant, or of unknown relevance. Recent neurological science research in human perception, and in information science regarding contextbased modeling, provides us with a theoretical basis for using a bottom-up approach for automating the management of large amounts of information in ways directly useful for human operators. However, integration of human intelligence into a game theoretic framework for dynamic and adaptive decision support needs a perception and cognition model. For the purpose of cognitive modeling, we present a brain-computer-interface (BCI) based humanoid robot system to acquire brainwaves during human mental activities of imagining a humanoid robot-walking behavior. We use the neural signals to investigate relationships between complex humanoid robot behaviors and human mental activities for developing the perception and cognition model. The BCI system consists of a data acquisition unit with an electroencephalograph (EEG), a humanoid robot, and a charge couple CCD camera. An EEG electrode cup acquires brainwaves from the skin surface on scalp. The humanoid robot has 20 degrees of freedom (DOFs); 12 DOFs located on hips, knees, and ankles for humanoid robot walking, 6 DOFs on shoulders and arms for arms motion, and 2 DOFs for head yaw and pitch motion. The CCD camera takes video clips of the human subject's hand postures to identify mental activities that are correlated to the robot-walking behaviors. We use the neural signals to investigate relationships between complex humanoid robot behaviors and human mental activities for developing the perception and cognition model.

Finding the Beat: From Socially Coordinated Vocalizations in Songbirds to Rhythmic Entrainment in Humans.

PubMed

Benichov, Jonathan I; Globerson, Eitan; Tchernichovski, Ofer

2016-01-01

Humans and oscine songbirds share the rare capacity for vocal learning. Songbirds have the ability to acquire songs and calls of various rhythms through imitation. In several species, birds can even coordinate the timing of their vocalizations with other individuals in duets that are synchronized with millisecond-accuracy. It is not known, however, if songbirds can perceive rhythms holistically nor if they are capable of spontaneous entrainment to complex rhythms, in a manner similar to humans. Here we review emerging evidence from studies of rhythm generation and vocal coordination across songbirds and humans. In particular, recently developed experimental methods have revealed neural mechanisms underlying the temporal structure of song and have allowed us to test birds' abilities to predict the timing of rhythmic social signals. Surprisingly, zebra finches can readily learn to anticipate the calls of a "vocal robot" partner and alter the timing of their answers to avoid jamming, even in reference to complex rhythmic patterns. This capacity resembles, to some extent, human predictive motor response to an external beat. In songbirds, this is driven, at least in part, by the forebrain song system, which controls song timing and is essential for vocal learning. Building upon previous evidence for spontaneous entrainment in human and non-human vocal learners, we propose a comparative framework for future studies aimed at identifying shared mechanism of rhythm production and perception across songbirds and humans.

Physical attraction to reliable, low variability nervous systems: Reaction time variability predicts attractiveness.

PubMed

Butler, Emily E; Saville, Christopher W N; Ward, Robert; Ramsey, Richard

2017-01-01

The human face cues a range of important fitness information, which guides mate selection towards desirable others. Given humans' high investment in the central nervous system (CNS), cues to CNS function should be especially important in social selection. We tested if facial attractiveness preferences are sensitive to the reliability of human nervous system function. Several decades of research suggest an operational measure for CNS reliability is reaction time variability, which is measured by standard deviation of reaction times across trials. Across two experiments, we show that low reaction time variability is associated with facial attractiveness. Moreover, variability in performance made a unique contribution to attractiveness judgements above and beyond both physical health and sex-typicality judgements, which have previously been associated with perceptions of attractiveness. In a third experiment, we empirically estimated the distribution of attractiveness preferences expected by chance and show that the size and direction of our results in Experiments 1 and 2 are statistically unlikely without reference to reaction time variability. We conclude that an operating characteristic of the human nervous system, reliability of information processing, is signalled to others through facial appearance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Alternative E-Mail Contact Timing Strategies on Response Rates in a Self-Administered Web Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Taylor; Hess, Karl

2017-01-01

The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey is an annual survey of over 800,000 permanently employed civilian personnel from 87 agencies. First administered in 2002, the web-based survey measures a broad range of employee perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, serving as a valuable tool for human resources managers to determine which aspects of an…

Real-Time Mutual Gaze Perception Enhances Collaborative Learning and Collaboration Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, Bertrand; Pea, Roy

2013-01-01

In this paper we present the results of an eye-tracking study on collaborative problem-solving dyads. Dyads remotely collaborated to learn from contrasting cases involving basic concepts about how the human brain processes visual information. In one condition, dyads saw the eye gazes of their partner on the screen; in a control group, they did not…

The Nature and Meaning of Body Concepts in Everyday Language and Theoretical Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pollio, Howard R.; Finn, Mike; Custer, Morgun

2016-01-01

Within phenomenological philosophy four topics, (1) Body, (2) Time, (3) Others and the Social Order and (4) World serve as the major contexts in which human perception, action and reflection take place. At present only three of these domains have been studied from an empirical perspective, leaving Body as the one domain requiring further analysis.…

Attracting Attention for the Cause. The Reporting of Three Indices in the UK National Press

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morse, Stephen

2011-01-01

Indicators and indices (a collection of indicators into a single value) have been promoted for some time as convenient devices for the presentation of complex datasets to a more general audience. Examples of indices are the corruption perception index (CPI), human development index (HDI) and ecological footprint (EF). The research reported in this…

Science versus (?) Art: Human Perception of Other Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartmann, William K.

1998-09-01

At the time of the Renaissance, science and art were mixed together as a way to understand the human relation to the larger cosmos. Leonardo da Vinci exemplifies this approach. In modern times, the two have become separate, and even antagonistic, ``two cultures." Scientists have increasingly been satisfied to present quantitative measures of phenomena, without ever asking what the measures mean in human terms. Examples include the nature of the lunar surface, asteroid colors and brightness of the Io aurora, as will be discussed. However, in presenting the "big picture" to the public, and even to other working scientists, it is useful to revisit the Renaissance paradigm. Artists are increasingly working with scientists to translate the understanding of other worlds to the public, and this creates many opportunities for education projects in schools, and for careers in public outreach and science journalism.

Perceptual consequences of disrupted auditory nerve activity.

PubMed

Zeng, Fan-Gang; Kong, Ying-Yee; Michalewski, Henry J; Starr, Arnold

2005-06-01

Perceptual consequences of disrupted auditory nerve activity were systematically studied in 21 subjects who had been clinically diagnosed with auditory neuropathy (AN), a recently defined disorder characterized by normal outer hair cell function but disrupted auditory nerve function. Neurological and electrophysical evidence suggests that disrupted auditory nerve activity is due to desynchronized or reduced neural activity or both. Psychophysical measures showed that the disrupted neural activity has minimal effects on intensity-related perception, such as loudness discrimination, pitch discrimination at high frequencies, and sound localization using interaural level differences. In contrast, the disrupted neural activity significantly impairs timing related perception, such as pitch discrimination at low frequencies, temporal integration, gap detection, temporal modulation detection, backward and forward masking, signal detection in noise, binaural beats, and sound localization using interaural time differences. These perceptual consequences are the opposite of what is typically observed in cochlear-impaired subjects who have impaired intensity perception but relatively normal temporal processing after taking their impaired intensity perception into account. These differences in perceptual consequences between auditory neuropathy and cochlear damage suggest the use of different neural codes in auditory perception: a suboptimal spike count code for intensity processing, a synchronized spike code for temporal processing, and a duplex code for frequency processing. We also proposed two underlying physiological models based on desynchronized and reduced discharge in the auditory nerve to successfully account for the observed neurological and behavioral data. These methods and measures cannot differentiate between these two AN models, but future studies using electric stimulation of the auditory nerve via a cochlear implant might. These results not only show the unique contribution of neural synchrony to sensory perception but also provide guidance for translational research in terms of better diagnosis and management of human communication disorders.

Computational model of lightness perception in high dynamic range imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krawczyk, Grzegorz; Myszkowski, Karol; Seidel, Hans-Peter

2006-02-01

An anchoring theory of lightness perception by Gilchrist et al. [1999] explains many characteristics of human visual system such as lightness constancy and its spectacular failures which are important in the perception of images. The principal concept of this theory is the perception of complex scenes in terms of groups of consistent areas (frameworks). Such areas, following the gestalt theorists, are defined by the regions of common illumination. The key aspect of the image perception is the estimation of lightness within each framework through the anchoring to the luminance perceived as white, followed by the computation of the global lightness. In this paper we provide a computational model for automatic decomposition of HDR images into frameworks. We derive a tone mapping operator which predicts lightness perception of the real world scenes and aims at its accurate reproduction on low dynamic range displays. Furthermore, such a decomposition into frameworks opens new grounds for local image analysis in view of human perception.

Do rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) perceive illusory motion?

PubMed

Agrillo, Christian; Gori, Simone; Beran, Michael J

2015-07-01

During the last decade, visual illusions have been used repeatedly to understand similarities and differences in visual perception of human and non-human animals. However, nearly all studies have focused only on illusions not related to motion perception, and to date, it is unknown whether non-human primates perceive any kind of motion illusion. In the present study, we investigated whether rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) perceived one of the most popular motion illusions in humans, the Rotating Snake illusion (RSI). To this purpose, we set up four experiments. In Experiment 1, subjects initially were trained to discriminate static versus dynamic arrays. Once reaching the learning criterion, they underwent probe trials in which we presented the RSI and a control stimulus identical in overall configuration with the exception that the order of the luminance sequence was changed in a way that no apparent motion is perceived by humans. The overall performance of monkeys indicated that they spontaneously classified RSI as a dynamic array. Subsequently, we tested adult humans in the same task with the aim of directly comparing the performance of human and non-human primates (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, we found that monkeys can be successfully trained to discriminate between the RSI and a control stimulus. Experiment 4 showed that a simple change in luminance sequence in the two arrays could not explain the performance reported in Experiment 3. These results suggest that some rhesus monkeys display a human-like perception of this motion illusion, raising the possibility that the neurocognitive systems underlying motion perception may be similar between human and non-human primates.

[Disturbances in time perception in relation to changes in experiencing music in experimental psychosis].

PubMed

Weber, K

1977-01-01

Music is a structure ('Gestalt') in time. The recognition of disturbances of the perception of music enhances the knowledge of disorders of perception of time. Disturbances of perception of music and time in experimental psychoses (psilocybine) are discussed in relation to the studies by Piaget on the development of the notion of time in childhood. The results allow a new interpretation of the disturbances of the perception of time in diencephalic disorders as described in the literature.

Impact of d-limonene synthase up- or down-regulation on sweet orange fruit and juice odor perception.

PubMed

Rodríguez, Ana; Peris, Josep E; Redondo, Ana; Shimada, Takehiko; Costell, Elvira; Carbonell, Inmaculada; Rojas, Cristina; Peña, Leandro

2017-02-15

Citrus fruits are characterized by a complex mixture of volatiles making up their characteristic aromas, being the d-limonene the most abundant one. However, its role on citrus fruit and juice odor is controversial. Transgenic oranges engineered for alterations in the presence or concentration of few related chemical groups enable asking precise questions about their contribution to overall odor, either positive or negative, as perceived by the human nose. Here, either down- or up-regulation of a d-limonene synthase allowed us to infer that a decrease of as much as 51 times in d-limonene and an increase of as much as 3.2 times in linalool in juice were neutral for odor perception while an increase of only 3 times in ethyl esters stimulated the preference of 66% of the judges. The ability to address these questions presents exciting opportunities to understand the basic principles of selection of food. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individualistic weight perception from motion on a slope

PubMed Central

Zintus-art, K.; Shin, D.; Kambara, H.; Yoshimura, N.; Koike, Y.

2016-01-01

Perception of an object’s weight is linked to its form and motion. Studies have shown the relationship between weight perception and motion in horizontal and vertical environments to be universally identical across subjects during passive observation. Here we show a contradicting finding in that not all humans share the same motion-weight pairing. A virtual environment where participants control the steepness of a slope was used to investigate the relationship between sliding motion and weight perception. Our findings showed that distinct, albeit subjective, motion-weight relationships in perception could be identified for slope environments. These individualistic perceptions were found when changes in environmental parameters governing motion were introduced, specifically inclination and surface texture. Differences in environmental parameters, combined with individual factors such as experience, affected participants’ weight perception. This phenomenon may offer evidence of the central nervous system’s ability to choose and combine internal models based on information from the sensory system. The results also point toward the possibility of controlling human perception by presenting strong sensory cues to manipulate the mechanisms managing internal models. PMID:27174036

The nature and perception of fluctuations in human musical rhythms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hennig, Holger; Fleischmann, Ragnar; Fredebohm, Anneke; Hagmayer, York; Nagler, Jan; Witt, Annette; Theis, Fabian; Geisel, Theo

2012-02-01

Although human musical performances represent one of the most valuable achievements of mankind, the best musicians perform imperfectly. Musical rhythms are not entirely accurate and thus inevitably deviate from the ideal beat pattern. Nevertheless, computer generated perfect beat patterns are frequently devalued by listeners due to a perceived lack of human touch. Professional audio editing software therefore offers a humanizing feature which artificially generates rhythmic fluctuations. However, the built-in humanizing units are essentially random number generators producing only simple uncorrelated fluctuations. Here, for the first time, we establish long-range fluctuations as an inevitable natural companion of both simple and complex human rhythmic performances [1]. Moreover, we demonstrate that listeners strongly prefer long-range correlated fluctuations in musical rhythms. Thus, the favorable fluctuation type for humanizing interbeat intervals coincides with the one generically inherent in human musical performances. [1] HH et al., PLoS ONE,6,e26457 (2011)

Perceptions of Diversity Training Needs in High Tech Business.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lieberman, Devorah A.; Gurtov, Ellene

A study questioned 12 human resource personnel, corporation managers, and diversity trainers about their perceptions of diversity training needs in Pacific Northwest high tech organizations. The overarching research questions for the study were as follows: (1) What are the most frequently reported diversity training needs among human resource…

Quantification of visual clutter using a computation model of human perception : an application for head-up displays

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2004-03-20

A means of quantifying the cluttering effects of symbols is needed to evaluate the impact of displaying an increasing volume of information on aviation displays such as head-up displays. Human visual perception has been successfully modeled by algori...

Clinically Normal Stereopsis Does Not Ensure Performance Benefit from Stereoscopic 3D Depth Cues

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-28

Stereopsis, Binocular Vision, Optometry , Depth Perception, 3D vision, 3D human factors, Stereoscopic displays, S3D, Virtual environment 16...Binocular Vision, Optometry , Depth Perception, 3D vision, 3D human factors, Stereoscopic displays, S3D, Virtual environment 1 Distribution A: Approved

The place of human psychophysics in modern neuroscience.

PubMed

Read, J C A

2015-06-18

Human psychophysics is the quantitative measurement of our own perceptions. In essence, it is simply a more sophisticated version of what humans have done since time immemorial: noticed and reflected upon what we can see, hear, and feel. In the 21st century, when hugely powerful techniques are available that enable us to probe the innermost structure and function of nervous systems, is human psychophysics still relevant? I argue that it is, and that in combination with other techniques, it will continue to be a key part of neuroscience for the foreseeable future. I discuss these points in detail using the example of binocular stereopsis, where human psychophysics in combination with physiology and computational vision, has made a substantial contribution. Copyright © 2014 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Effects of psilocybin on time perception and temporal control of behaviour in humans.

PubMed

Wittmann, Marc; Carter, Olivia; Hasler, Felix; Cahn, B Rael; Grimberg, Ulrike; Spring, Philipp; Hell, Daniel; Flohr, Hans; Vollenweider, Franz X

2007-01-01

Hallucinogenic psilocybin is known to alter the subjective experience of time. However, there is no study that systematically investigated objective measures of time perception under psilocybin. Therefore, we studied dose-dependent effects of the serotonin (5-HT)2A/1A receptor agonist psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine) on temporal processing, employing tasks of temporal reproduction, sensorimotor synchronization and tapping tempo. To control for cognitive and subjective changes, we assessed spatial working memory and conscious experience. Twelve healthy human volunteers were tested under placebo, medium (115 microg/kg), and high (250 microg/kg) dose conditions, in a double-blind experimental design. Psilocybin was found to significantly impair subjects' ability to (1) reproduce interval durations longer than 2.5 sec, (2) to synchronize to inter-beat intervals longer than 2 sec and (3) caused subjects to be slower in their preferred tapping rate. These objective effects on timing performance were accompanied by working-memory deficits and subjective changes in conscious state, namely increased reports of 'depersonalization' and 'derealization' phenomena including disturbances in subjective 'time sense.' Our study is the first to systematically assess the impact of psilocybin on timing performance on standardized measures of temporal processing. Results indicate that the serotonin system is selectively involved in duration processing of intervals longer than 2 to 3 seconds and in the voluntary control of the speed of movement. We speculate that psilocybin's selective disruption of longer intervals is likely to be a product of interactions with cognitive dimensions of temporal processing -presumably via 5-HT2A receptor stimulation.

GWAS of human bitter taste perception identifies new loci and reveals additional complexity of bitter taste genetics

PubMed Central

Ledda, Mirko; Kutalik, Zoltán; Souza Destito, Maria C.; Souza, Milena M.; Cirillo, Cintia A.; Zamboni, Amabilene; Martin, Nathalie; Morya, Edgard; Sameshima, Koichi; Beckmann, Jacques S.; le Coutre, Johannes; Bergmann, Sven; Genick, Ulrich K.

2014-01-01

Human perception of bitterness displays pronounced interindividual variation. This phenotypic variation is mirrored by equally pronounced genetic variation in the family of bitter taste receptor genes. To better understand the effects of common genetic variations on human bitter taste perception, we conducted a genome-wide association study on a discovery panel of 504 subjects and a validation panel of 104 subjects from the general population of São Paulo in Brazil. Correction for general taste-sensitivity allowed us to identify a SNP in the cluster of bitter taste receptors on chr12 (10.88– 11.24 Mb, build 36.1) significantly associated (best SNP: rs2708377, P = 5.31 × 10−13, r2 = 8.9%, β = −0.12, s.e. = 0.016) with the perceived bitterness of caffeine. This association overlaps with—but is statistically distinct from—the previously identified SNP rs10772420 influencing the perception of quinine bitterness that falls in the same bitter taste cluster. We replicated this association to quinine perception (P = 4.97 × 10−37, r2 = 23.2%, β = 0.25, s.e. = 0.020) and additionally found the effect of this genetic locus to be concentration specific with a strong impact on the perception of low, but no impact on the perception of high concentrations of quinine. Our study, thus, furthers our understanding of the complex genetic architecture of bitter taste perception. PMID:23966204

Comfort evaluation as the example of anthropotechnical furniture design.

PubMed

Vlaović, Zoran; Bogner, Andrija; Grbac, Ivica

2008-03-01

Human health is becoming an increasingly important issue in contemporary hectic lifestyle imposed at work and by struggle to save time and money. Sitting comfort and quality of chairs which we use for the most of our time have, thus, become essential for healthy lifestyle. Sitting discomforts arise from prolonged sitting on the inappropriate chairs, which failing to provide sufficient support to the body cause discomfort and tiring. The studies of the office chair constructions have identified differences in perception of comfort provided by different types of seats. Four seat constructions and the comfort they provide to the sitters were compared by means of subjective indicators. After a two-day sitting on each of the studied chairs the subjects scored their perception of comfort and discomfort, using the questionnaire with 17 statements. Constructional forms and materials which contributed more to the sense of comfort by minimizing fatigue and pains developed by sitting were determined.

Human factors in the emergency department: Is physician perception of time to intubation and desaturation rate accurate?

PubMed

Cemalovic, Nail; Scoccimarro, Anthony; Arslan, Albert; Fraser, Robert; Kanter, Marc; Caputo, Nicholas

2016-06-01

The main objective of the present study was to examine the perceived versus actual time to intubation (TTI) as an indication to help determine the situational awareness of Emergency Physicians during rapid sequence intubation and, additionally, to determine the physician's perception of desaturation events. A timed, observation prospective cohort study was conducted. A post-intubation survey was administered to the intubating physician. Each step of the procedure was timed by an observer in order to determine actual TTI. The number of desaturation events was also recorded. One hundred individual intubations were included. The provider perceived TTI was significantly different and underestimated when compared with the actual TTI (23 s, 95% confidence interval (CI) 20.4-25.49 vs 45.5 s, 95% CI 40.2-50.7, P < 0.001, respectively). Pearson correlation coefficient of perceived TTI to actual TTI was r(2)  = 0.39 (95% CI 0.21-0.54, P < 0.001). The provider perceived desaturation rate was also significantly different from actual desaturation rate (13, 95% CI 3-12 vs 23, 95% CI 13-29, P = 0.05, respectively). The overall time to desaturation was 65.1 s. Our findings have shown that provider's perception of TTI occurs sooner than actually observed. Also, the providers were less aware of desaturation during the procedure. © 2016 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

The cerebral signature for pain perception and its modulation.

PubMed

Tracey, Irene; Mantyh, Patrick W

2007-08-02

Our understanding of the neural correlates of pain perception in humans has increased significantly since the advent of neuroimaging. Relating neural activity changes to the varied pain experiences has led to an increased awareness of how factors (e.g., cognition, emotion, context, injury) can separately influence pain perception. Tying this body of knowledge in humans to work in animal models of pain provides an opportunity to determine common features that reliably contribute to pain perception and its modulation. One key system that underpins the ability to change pain intensity is the brainstem's descending modulatory network with its pro- and antinociceptive components. We discuss not only the latest data describing the cerebral signature of pain and its modulation in humans, but also suggest that the brainstem plays a pivotal role in gating the degree of nociceptive transmission so that the resultant pain experienced is appropriate for the particular situation of the individual.

A multidisciplinary approach of workload assessment in real-job situations: investigation in the field of aerospace activities.

PubMed

Mélan, Claudine; Cascino, Nadine

2014-01-01

The present contribution presents two field studies combining tools and methods from cognitive psychology and from occupational psychology in order to perform a thorough investigation of workload in employees. Cognitive load theory proposes to distinguish different load categories of working memory, in a context of instruction. Intrinsic load is inherent to the task, extraneous load refers to components of a learning environment that may be modified to reduce total load, and germane load enables schemas construction and thus efficient learning. We showed previously that this theoretical framework may be successfully extended to working memory tasks in non-instructional designs. Other theoretical models, issued from the field of occupational psychology, account for an individual's perception of work demands or requirements in the context of different psychosocial features of the (work) environment. Combining these approaches is difficult as workload assessment by job-perception questionnaires explore an individual's overall job-perception over a large time-period, whereas cognitive load investigations in working memory tasks are typically performed within short time-periods. We proposed an original methodology enabling investigation of workload and load factors in a comparable time-frame. We report two field studies investigating workload on different shift-phases and between work-shifts, with two custom-made tools. The first one enabled workload assessment by manipulating intrinsic load (task difficulty) and extraneous load (time pressure) in a working-memory task. The second tool was a questionnaire based on the theoretical concepts of work-demands, control, and psychosocial support. Two additional dimensions suspected to contribute to job-perception, i.e., work-family conflicts and availability of human and technical resources were also explored. Results of workload assessments were discussed in light of operators' alertness and job-performance.

A multidisciplinary approach of workload assessment in real-job situations: investigation in the field of aerospace activities

PubMed Central

Mélan, Claudine; Cascino, Nadine

2014-01-01

The present contribution presents two field studies combining tools and methods from cognitive psychology and from occupational psychology in order to perform a thorough investigation of workload in employees. Cognitive load theory proposes to distinguish different load categories of working memory, in a context of instruction. Intrinsic load is inherent to the task, extraneous load refers to components of a learning environment that may be modified to reduce total load, and germane load enables schemas construction and thus efficient learning. We showed previously that this theoretical framework may be successfully extended to working memory tasks in non-instructional designs. Other theoretical models, issued from the field of occupational psychology, account for an individual’s perception of work demands or requirements in the context of different psychosocial features of the (work) environment. Combining these approaches is difficult as workload assessment by job-perception questionnaires explore an individual’s overall job-perception over a large time-period, whereas cognitive load investigations in working memory tasks are typically performed within short time-periods. We proposed an original methodology enabling investigation of workload and load factors in a comparable time-frame. We report two field studies investigating workload on different shift-phases and between work-shifts, with two custom-made tools. The first one enabled workload assessment by manipulating intrinsic load (task difficulty) and extraneous load (time pressure) in a working-memory task. The second tool was a questionnaire based on the theoretical concepts of work-demands, control, and psychosocial support. Two additional dimensions suspected to contribute to job-perception, i.e., work–family conflicts and availability of human and technical resources were also explored. Results of workload assessments were discussed in light of operators’ alertness and job-performance. PMID:25232346

Velocity storage contribution to vestibular self-motion perception in healthy human subjects.

PubMed

Bertolini, G; Ramat, S; Laurens, J; Bockisch, C J; Marti, S; Straumann, D; Palla, A

2011-01-01

Self-motion perception after a sudden stop from a sustained rotation in darkness lasts approximately as long as reflexive eye movements. We hypothesized that, after an angular velocity step, self-motion perception and reflexive eye movements are driven by the same vestibular pathways. In 16 healthy subjects (25-71 years of age), perceived rotational velocity (PRV) and the vestibulo-ocular reflex (rVOR) after sudden decelerations (90°/s(2)) from constant-velocity (90°/s) earth-vertical axis rotations were simultaneously measured (PRV reported by hand-lever turning; rVOR recorded by search coils). Subjects were upright (yaw) or 90° left-ear-down (pitch). After both yaw and pitch decelerations, PRV rose rapidly and showed a plateau before decaying. In contrast, slow-phase eye velocity (SPV) decayed immediately after the initial increase. SPV and PRV were fitted with the sum of two exponentials: one time constant accounting for the semicircular canal (SCC) dynamics and one time constant accounting for a central process, known as velocity storage mechanism (VSM). Parameters were constrained by requiring equal SCC time constant and VSM time constant for SPV and PRV. The gains weighting the two exponential functions were free to change. SPV were accurately fitted (variance-accounted-for: 0.85 ± 0.10) and PRV (variance-accounted-for: 0.86 ± 0.07), showing that SPV and PRV curve differences can be explained by a greater relative weight of VSM in PRV compared with SPV (twofold for yaw, threefold for pitch). These results support our hypothesis that self-motion perception after angular velocity steps is be driven by the same central vestibular processes as reflexive eye movements and that no additional mechanisms are required to explain the perceptual dynamics.

The Triple-Flash Illusion Reveals a Driving Role of Alpha-Band Reverberations in Visual Perception.

PubMed

Gulbinaite, Rasa; İlhan, Barkın; VanRullen, Rufin

2017-07-26

The modulatory role of spontaneous brain oscillations on perception of threshold-level stimuli is well established. Here, we provide evidence that alpha-band (∼10 Hz) oscillations not only modulate perception of threshold-level sensory inputs but also can drive perception and generate percepts without a physical stimulus being present. We used the "triple-flash" illusion: Occasional perception of three flashes when only two spatially coincident veridical ones, separated by ∼100 ms, are presented. The illusion was proposed to result from superposition of two hypothetical oscillatory impulse response functions generated in response to each flash: When the delay between flashes matches the period of the oscillation, the superposition enhances a later part of the oscillation that is normally damped; when this enhancement crosses perceptual threshold, a third flash is erroneously perceived (Bowen, 1989). In Experiment 1, we varied stimulus onset asynchrony and validated Bowen's theory: The optimal stimulus onset asynchrony for illusion to occur was correlated, across human subjects (both genders), with the subject-specific impulse response function period determined from a separate EEG experiment. Experiment 2 revealed that prestimulus parietal, but no occipital, alpha EEG phase and power, as well as poststimulus alpha phase-locking, together determine the occurrence of the illusion on a trial-by-trial basis. Thus, oscillatory reverberations create something out of nothing: A third flash where there are only two. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We highlight a novel property of alpha-band (∼10 Hz) oscillations based on three experiments (two EEG and one psychophysics) by demonstrating that alpha-band oscillations do not merely modulate perception, but can also drive perception. We show that human participants report seeing a third flash when only two are presented (the "triple-flash" illusion) most often when the interflash delay matches the period of participant's oscillatory impulse response function reverberating in alpha. Within-subject, the phase and power of ongoing parietal, but not occipital, alpha-band oscillations at the time of the first flash determine illusory percept on a trial-by-trial basis. We revealed a physiologically plausible mechanism that validates and extends the original theoretical account of the triple-flash illusion proposed by Bowen in 1989. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/377219-12$15.00/0.

Human perception considerations for 3D content creation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Green, G. Almont

2011-03-01

Observation and interviews with people viewing autostereoscopic 3D imagery provides evidence that there are many human perception considerations required for 3D content creation. A study was undertaken whereby it was witnessed that certain test autostereoscopic imagery elicited a highly emotional response and engagement, while other test autostereoscopic imagery was given only a passing glance. That an image can be viewed with a certain level of stereopsis does not make it compelling. By taking into consideration the manner in which humans perceive depth and the space between objects, 3D content can achieve a level of familiarity and realness that is not possible with single perspective imagery. When human perception issues are ignored, 3D imagery can be undesirable to viewers and a negative bias against 3D imagery can occur. The preparation of 3D content is more important than the display technology. Where human perception, as it is used to interpret reality, is not mimicked in the creation of 3D content, the general public typically express a negative bias against that imagery (where choices are provided). For some, the viewing of 3D content that could not exist naturally, induces physical discomfort.

The biology of skin wetness perception and its implications in manual function and for reproducing complex somatosensory signals in neuroprosthetics.

PubMed

Filingeri, Davide; Ackerley, Rochelle

2017-04-01

Our perception of skin wetness is generated readily, yet humans have no known receptor (hygroreceptor) to signal this directly. It is easy to imagine the sensation of water running over our hands or the feel of rain on our skin. The synthetic sensation of wetness is thought to be produced from a combination of specific skin thermal and tactile inputs, registered through thermoreceptors and mechanoreceptors, respectively. The present review explores how thermal and tactile afference from the periphery can generate the percept of wetness centrally. We propose that the main signals include information about skin cooling, signaled primarily by thinly myelinated thermoreceptors, and rapid changes in touch, through fast-conducting, myelinated mechanoreceptors. Potential central sites for integration of these signals, and thus the perception of skin wetness, include the primary and secondary somatosensory cortices and the insula cortex. The interactions underlying these processes can also be modeled to aid in understanding and engineering the mechanisms. Furthermore, we discuss the role that sensing wetness could play in precision grip and the dexterous manipulation of objects. We expand on these lines of inquiry to the application of the knowledge in designing and creating skin sensory feedback in prosthetics. The addition of real-time, complex sensory signals would mark a significant advance in the use and incorporation of prosthetic body parts for amputees in everyday life. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Little is known about the underlying mechanisms that generate the perception of skin wetness. Humans have no specific hygroreceptor, and thus temperature and touch information combine to produce wetness sensations. The present review covers the potential mechanisms leading to the perception of wetness, both peripherally and centrally, along with their implications for manual function. These insights are relevant to inform the design of neuroengineering interfaces, such as sensory prostheses for amputees. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

From computing with numbers to computing with words. From manipulation of measurements to manipulation of perceptions.

PubMed

Zadeh, L A

2001-04-01

Interest in issues relating to consciousness has grown markedly during the last several years. And yet, nobody can claim that consciousness is a well-understood concept that lends itself to precise analysis. It may be argued that, as a concept, consciousness is much too complex to fit into the conceptual structure of existing theories based on Aristotelian logic and probability theory. An approach suggested in this paper links consciousness to perceptions and perceptions to their descriptors in a natural language. In this way, those aspects of consciousness which relate to reasoning and concept formation are linked to what is referred to as the methodology of computing with words (CW). Computing, in its usual sense, is centered on manipulation of numbers and symbols. In contrast, computing with words, or CW for short, is a methodology in which the objects of computation are words and propositions drawn from a natural language (e.g., small, large, far, heavy, not very likely, the price of gas is low and declining, Berkeley is near San Francisco, it is very unlikely that there will be a significant increase in the price of oil in the near future, etc.). Computing with words is inspired by the remarkable human capability to perform a wide variety of physical and mental tasks without any measurements and any computations. Familiar examples of such tasks are parking a car, driving in heavy traffic, playing golf, riding a bicycle, understanding speech, and summarizing a story. Underlying this remarkable capability is the brain's crucial ability to manipulate perceptions--perceptions of distance, size, weight, color, speed, time, direction, force, number, truth, likelihood, and other characteristics of physical and mental objects. Manipulation of perceptions plays a key role in human recognition, decision and execution processes. As a methodology, computing with words provides a foundation for a computational theory of perceptions: a theory which may have an important bearing on how humans make--and machines might make--perception-based rational decisions in an environment of imprecision, uncertainty, and partial truth. A basic difference between perceptions and measurements is that, in general, measurements are crisp, whereas perceptions are fuzzy. One of the fundamental aims of science has been and continues to be that of progressing from perceptions to measurements. Pursuit of this aim has led to brilliant successes. We have sent men to the moon; we can build computers that are capable of performing billions of computations per second; we have constructed telescopes that can explore the far reaches of the universe; and we can date the age of rocks that are millions of years old. But alongside the brilliant successes stand conspicuous underachievements and outright failures. We cannot build robots that can move with the agility of animals or humans; we cannot automate driving in heavy traffic; we cannot translate from one language to another at the level of a human interpreter; we cannot create programs that can summarize non-trivial stories; our ability to model the behavior of economic systems leaves much to be desired; and we cannot build machines that can compete with children in the performance of a wide variety of physical and cognitive tasks. It may be argued that underlying the underachievements and failures is the unavailability of a methodology for reasoning and computing with perceptions rather than measurements. An outline of such a methodology--referred to as a computational theory of perceptions--is presented in this paper. The computational theory of perceptions (CTP) is based on the methodology of CW. In CTP, words play the role of labels of perceptions, and, more generally, perceptions are expressed as propositions in a natural language. CW-based techniques are employed to translate propositions expressed in a natural language into what is called the Generalized Constraint Language (GCL). In this language, the meaning of a proposition is expressed as a generalized constraint, X isr R, where X is the constrained variable, R is the constraining relation, and isr is a variable copula in which r is an indexing variable whose value defines the way in which R constrains X. Among the basic types of constraints are possibilistic, veristic, probabilistic, random set, Pawlak set, fuzzy graph, and usuality. The wide variety of constraints in GCL makes GCL a much more expressive language than the language of predicate logic. In CW, the initial and terminal data sets, IDS and TDS, are assumed to consist of propositions expressed in a natural language. These propositions are translated, respectively, into antecedent and consequent constraints. Consequent constraints are derived from antecedent constraints through the use of rules of constraint propagation. The principal constraint propagation rule is the generalized extension principle. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

Predicting Adolescent Perceptions of the Risks and Benefits of Cigarette Smoking: A Longitudinal Investigation

PubMed Central

Morrell, Holly E. R.; Song, Anna V.; Halpern-Felsher, Bonnie L.

2010-01-01

Objective To evaluate developmental changes, personal smoking experiences, and vicarious smoking experiences as predictors of adolescents’ perceptions of the risks and benefits of cigarette smoking over time, in order to identify new and effective targets for youth smoking prevention programs. Design 395 adolescents were surveyed every six months for two school years, from the beginning of 9th grade to the end of 10th grade. Main Outcome Measures Time, participant smoking, friend smoking, parental smoking, and sex were evaluated as predictors of smoking-related short-term risk perceptions, long-term risk perceptions, and benefits perceptions using multilevel modeling techniques. Results Perceptions of benefits did not change over time. Perceptions of risk decreased with time, but not after sex and parental smoking were included in the model. Adolescents with personal smoking experience reported decreasing perceptions of risk and increasing perceptions of benefits over time. Adolescents with more than 6 friends who smoked also reported increasing perceptions of benefits over time. Conclusions Changes in risk perceptions may not purely be the result of developmental processes, but may also be influenced by personal and vicarious experience with smoking. Findings highlight the importance of identifying and targeting modifiable factors that may influence perceptions. PMID:20939640

A chimpanzee recognizes synthetic speech with significantly reduced acoustic cues to phonetic content.

PubMed

Heimbauer, Lisa A; Beran, Michael J; Owren, Michael J

2011-07-26

A long-standing debate concerns whether humans are specialized for speech perception, which some researchers argue is demonstrated by the ability to understand synthetic speech with significantly reduced acoustic cues to phonetic content. We tested a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) that recognizes 128 spoken words, asking whether she could understand such speech. Three experiments presented 48 individual words, with the animal selecting a corresponding visuographic symbol from among four alternatives. Experiment 1 tested spectrally reduced, noise-vocoded (NV) synthesis, originally developed to simulate input received by human cochlear-implant users. Experiment 2 tested "impossibly unspeechlike" sine-wave (SW) synthesis, which reduces speech to just three moving tones. Although receiving only intermittent and noncontingent reward, the chimpanzee performed well above chance level, including when hearing synthetic versions for the first time. Recognition of SW words was least accurate but improved in experiment 3 when natural words in the same session were rewarded. The chimpanzee was more accurate with NV than SW versions, as were 32 human participants hearing these items. The chimpanzee's ability to spontaneously recognize acoustically reduced synthetic words suggests that experience rather than specialization is critical for speech-perception capabilities that some have suggested are uniquely human. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of visual path information on human heading perception during rotation.

PubMed

Li, Li; Chen, Jing; Peng, Xiaozhe

2009-03-31

How does visual path information influence people's perception of their instantaneous direction of self-motion (heading)? We have previously shown that humans can perceive heading without direct access to visual path information. Here we vary two key parameters for estimating heading from optic flow, the field of view (FOV) and the depth range of environmental points, to investigate the conditions under which visual path information influences human heading perception. The display simulated an observer traveling on a circular path. Observers used a joystick to rotate their line of sight until deemed aligned with true heading. Four FOV sizes (110 x 94 degrees, 48 x 41 degrees, 16 x 14 degrees, 8 x 7 degrees) and depth ranges (6-50 m, 6-25 m, 6-12.5 m, 6-9 m) were tested. Consistent with our computational modeling results, heading bias increased with the reduction of FOV or depth range when the display provided a sequence of velocity fields but no direct path information. When the display provided path information, heading bias was not influenced as much by the reduction of FOV or depth range. We conclude that human heading and path perception involve separate visual processes. Path helps heading perception when the display does not contain enough optic-flow information for heading estimation during rotation.

Explicit Encoding of Multimodal Percepts by Single Neurons in the Human Brain

PubMed Central

Quiroga, Rodrigo Quian; Kraskov, Alexander; Koch, Christof; Fried, Itzhak

2010-01-01

Summary Different pictures of Marilyn Monroe can evoke the same percept, even if greatly modified as in Andy Warhol’s famous portraits. But how does the brain recognize highly variable pictures as the same percept? Various studies have provided insights into how visual information is processed along the “ventral pathway,” via both single-cell recordings in monkeys [1, 2] and functional imaging in humans [3, 4]. Interestingly, in humans, the same “concept” of Marilyn Monroe can be evoked with other stimulus modalities, for instance by hearing or reading her name. Brain imaging studies have identified cortical areas selective to voices [5, 6] and visual word forms [7, 8]. However, how visual, text, and sound information can elicit a unique percept is still largely unknown. By using presentations of pictures and of spoken and written names, we show that (1) single neurons in the human medial temporal lobe (MTL) respond selectively to representations of the same individual across different sensory modalities; (2) the degree of multimodal invariance increases along the hierarchical structure within the MTL; and (3) such neuronal representations can be generated within less than a day or two. These results demonstrate that single neurons can encode percepts in an explicit, selective, and invariant manner, even if evoked by different sensory modalities. PMID:19631538

Hearing Scenes: A Neuromagnetic Signature of Auditory Source and Reverberant Space Separation

PubMed Central

Oliva, Aude

2017-01-01

Abstract Perceiving the geometry of surrounding space is a multisensory process, crucial to contextualizing object perception and guiding navigation behavior. Humans can make judgments about surrounding spaces from reverberation cues, caused by sounds reflecting off multiple interior surfaces. However, it remains unclear how the brain represents reverberant spaces separately from sound sources. Here, we report separable neural signatures of auditory space and source perception during magnetoencephalography (MEG) recording as subjects listened to brief sounds convolved with monaural room impulse responses (RIRs). The decoding signature of sound sources began at 57 ms after stimulus onset and peaked at 130 ms, while space decoding started at 138 ms and peaked at 386 ms. Importantly, these neuromagnetic responses were readily dissociable in form and time: while sound source decoding exhibited an early and transient response, the neural signature of space was sustained and independent of the original source that produced it. The reverberant space response was robust to variations in sound source, and vice versa, indicating a generalized response not tied to specific source-space combinations. These results provide the first neuromagnetic evidence for robust, dissociable auditory source and reverberant space representations in the human brain and reveal the temporal dynamics of how auditory scene analysis extracts percepts from complex naturalistic auditory signals. PMID:28451630

Visual texture perception via graph-based semi-supervised learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Qin; Dong, Junyu; Zhong, Guoqiang

2018-04-01

Perceptual features, for example direction, contrast and repetitiveness, are important visual factors for human to perceive a texture. However, it needs to perform psychophysical experiment to quantify these perceptual features' scale, which requires a large amount of human labor and time. This paper focuses on the task of obtaining perceptual features' scale of textures by small number of textures with perceptual scales through a rating psychophysical experiment (what we call labeled textures) and a mass of unlabeled textures. This is the scenario that the semi-supervised learning is naturally suitable for. This is meaningful for texture perception research, and really helpful for the perceptual texture database expansion. A graph-based semi-supervised learning method called random multi-graphs, RMG for short, is proposed to deal with this task. We evaluate different kinds of features including LBP, Gabor, and a kind of unsupervised deep features extracted by a PCA-based deep network. The experimental results show that our method can achieve satisfactory effects no matter what kind of texture features are used.

Operator-coached machine vision for space telerobotics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bon, Bruce; Wilcox, Brian; Litwin, Todd; Gennery, Donald B.

1991-01-01

A prototype system for interactive object modeling has been developed and tested. The goal of this effort has been to create a system which would demonstrate the feasibility of high interactive operator-coached machine vision in a realistic task environment, and to provide a testbed for experimentation with various modes of operator interaction. The purpose for such a system is to use human perception where machine vision is difficult, i.e., to segment the scene into objects and to designate their features, and to use machine vision to overcome limitations of human perception, i.e., for accurate measurement of object geometry. The system captures and displays video images from a number of cameras, allows the operator to designate a polyhedral object one edge at a time by moving a 3-D cursor within these images, performs a least-squares fit of the designated edges to edge data detected with a modified Sobel operator, and combines the edges thus detected to form a wire-frame object model that matches the Sobel data.

Hierarchical neurocomputations underlying concurrent sound segregation: connecting periphery to percept.

PubMed

Bidelman, Gavin M; Alain, Claude

2015-02-01

Natural soundscapes often contain multiple sound sources at any given time. Numerous studies have reported that in human observers, the perception and identification of concurrent sounds is paralleled by specific changes in cortical event-related potentials (ERPs). Although these studies provide a window into the cerebral mechanisms governing sound segregation, little is known about the subcortical neural architecture and hierarchy of neurocomputations that lead to this robust perceptual process. Using computational modeling, scalp-recorded brainstem/cortical ERPs, and human psychophysics, we demonstrate that a primary cue for sound segregation, i.e., harmonicity, is encoded at the auditory nerve level within tens of milliseconds after the onset of sound and is maintained, largely untransformed, in phase-locked activity of the rostral brainstem. As then indexed by auditory cortical responses, (in)harmonicity is coded in the signature and magnitude of the cortical object-related negativity (ORN) response (150-200 ms). The salience of the resulting percept is then captured in a discrete, categorical-like coding scheme by a late negativity response (N5; ~500 ms latency), just prior to the elicitation of a behavioral judgment. Subcortical activity correlated with cortical evoked responses such that weaker phase-locked brainstem responses (lower neural harmonicity) generated larger ORN amplitude, reflecting the cortical registration of multiple sound objects. Studying multiple brain indices simultaneously helps illuminate the mechanisms and time-course of neural processing underlying concurrent sound segregation and may lead to further development and refinement of physiologically driven models of auditory scene analysis. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Colour Perception in Ancient World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nesterov, D. I.; Fedorova, M. Yu

2017-11-01

How did the human thought form the surrounding color information into the persistent semantic images of a mythological, pseudoscientific and religious nature? The concepts associated with colour perception are suggested. The existence of colour environment does not depend on the human consciousness. The colour culture formation is directly related to the level of the human consciousness development and the possibility to influence the worldview and culture. The colour perception of a person goes through the stages similar to the development of colour vision in a child. Like any development, the colour consciousness has undergone stages of growth and decline, evolution and stagnation. The way of life and difficult conditions for existence made their own adjustments to the development of the human perception of the surrounding world. Wars have been both a powerful engine of progress in all spheres of life and a great destructive force demolishing the already created and preserved heritage. The surrounding world has always been interesting for humans, evoked images and fantasies in the consciousness of ancient people. Unusual and inexplicable natural phenomena spawned numerous legends and myths which was reflected in the ancient art and architecture and, accordingly, in a certain manifestation of colour in the human society. The colour perception of the ancient man, his pragmatic, utilitarian attitude to colour is considered as well as the influence of dependence on external conditions of existence and their reflection in the colour culture of antiquity. “Natural Science” conducts research in the field of the colour nature and their authorial interpretation of the Hellenic period. Several authorial concepts of the ancient world have been considered.

Human-resource professionals' perceptions of organizational politics as a function of experience, organizational size, and perceived independence.

PubMed

Conner, Deondra S

2006-12-01

The author examined human-resource professionals' occupation-related and general work experience, socialization from participation in professional activities, organizational size, and perceived independence as predictors of perceptions of organizational politics (POPS). Results varied with the author's use of the overall POPS scale (K. M. Kacmar & G. R. Ferris, 1991) vs. a more specific subscale that measured perceptions related to such issues as pay- and promotion-related politics. It was most notable that work experience appeared to have an inverse relationship with POPS among human-resource professionals in the area of pay and promotions. The author discussed results in relation to the implications and directions for future research.

Association of trait emotional intelligence and individual fMRI-activation patterns during the perception of social signals from voice and face.

PubMed

Kreifelts, Benjamin; Ethofer, Thomas; Huberle, Elisabeth; Grodd, Wolfgang; Wildgruber, Dirk

2010-07-01

Multimodal integration of nonverbal social signals is essential for successful social interaction. Previous studies have implicated the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in the perception of social signals such as nonverbal emotional signals as well as in social cognitive functions like mentalizing/theory of mind. In the present study, we evaluated the relationships between trait emotional intelligence (EI) and fMRI activation patterns in individual subjects during the multimodal perception of nonverbal emotional signals from voice and face. Trait EI was linked to hemodynamic responses in the right pSTS, an area which also exhibits a distinct sensitivity to human voices and faces. Within all other regions known to subserve the perceptual audiovisual integration of human social signals (i.e., amygdala, fusiform gyrus, thalamus), no such linked responses were observed. This functional difference in the network for the audiovisual perception of human social signals indicates a specific contribution of the pSTS as a possible interface between the perception of social information and social cognition. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The Role of Familiarity, Priming and Perception in Similarity Judgments

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-01

Goldstone, & Markman, 1995), and memory (Roediger, 1990). As with many aspects of human cognition, however, the mechanisms that determine similarity are...activation, which disperses activation be- tween different, associated concepts in declarative memory (Anderson, 1983; Harrison & Trafton, 2010). In...over time the model builds up declarative memories that may contribute to spreading activation in later trials. This explains the two main effects

The role of sleep in aesthetic perception and empathy: A mediation analysis.

PubMed

Peretti, Sara; Tempesta, Daniela; Socci, Valentina; Pino, Maria C; Mazza, Monica; Valenti, Marco; De Gennaro, Luigi; Di Dio, Cinzia; Marchetti, Antonella; Ferrara, Michele

2018-02-06

The ability to experience aesthetics plays a fundamental role in human social interactions, as well as the capacity to feel empathy. Some studies have shown that beauty perception shares part of the neural network underlying emotional and empathic abilities, which are also known to affect sleep quality and duration. In this study, we evaluated for the first time the effects of sleep on the relation between aesthetic perception and empathic abilities in healthy subjects using a mediation analysis approach. One-hundred and twenty-six subjects participated in this study. One-hundred and one subjects slept at home (Sleep Group). The remaining 25 subjects were tested as controls after 1 night of sleep deprivation to assess the effects of lack of sleep on aesthetic perception and empathy (Sleep-Deprived Group). All participants underwent one testing session in which they performed a battery of empathy tests and an aesthetic perception task (Golden Beauty). The results showed that sleep duration mediates the relationship between empathy and aesthetic perception in the sleep group. The mediation effect of sleep was more evident on the emotional empathy measures. Conversely, in the sleep deprivation group the lack of correlations among empathy, aesthetic perception and sleep variables did not allow to perform the mediation analysis. These results suggest that adequate sleep duration may play a significant role in improving cognitive and emotional empathic abilities as well as the capability to give accurate aesthetic judgements. © 2018 European Sleep Research Society.

Factors affecting perception thresholds of vertical whole-body vibration in recumbent subjects: Gender and age of subjects, and vibration duration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsumoto, Y.; Maeda, S.; Iwane, Y.; Iwata, Y.

2011-04-01

Some factors that may affect human perception thresholds of the vertical whole-body vibrations were investigated in two laboratory experiments with recumbent subjects. In the first experiment, the effects of gender and age of subjects on perception were investigated with three groups of 12 subjects, i.e., young males, young females and old males. For continuous sinusoidal vibrations at 2, 4, 8, 16, 31.5 and 63 Hz, there were no significant differences in the perception thresholds between male and female subjects, while the thresholds of young subjects tended to be significantly lower than the thresholds of old subjects. In the second experiment, the effect of vibration duration was investigated by using sinusoidal vibrations, at the same frequencies as above, modulated by the Hanning windows with different lengths (i.e., 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 s) for 12 subjects. It was found that the peak acceleration at the threshold tended to decrease with increasing duration of vibration. The perception thresholds were also evaluated by the running root-mean-square (rms) acceleration and the fourth power acceleration method defined in the current standards. The differences in the threshold of the transient vibrations for different durations were less with the fourth power acceleration method. Additionally, the effect of the integration time on the threshold was investigated for the running rms acceleration and the fourth power acceleration. It was found that the integration time that yielded less differences in the threshold of vibrations for different durations depended on the frequency of vibration.

Human Papillomavirus Vaccine-Related Risk Perceptions and Subsequent Sexual Behaviors and Sexually Transmitted Infections among Vaccinated Adolescent Women

PubMed Central

Mullins, Tanya L. Kowalczyk; Zimet, Gregory D.; Rosenthal, Susan L.; Morrow, Charlene; Ding, Lili; Huang, Bin; Kahn, Jessica A.

2016-01-01

Objective To examine the association between risk perceptions after human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and sexual behaviors and sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis over 30 months following vaccination. Methods Participants included 112 sexually experienced girls aged 13–21 years who were enrolled at the time of first HPV vaccination and completed ≥2 of 4 follow-up visits at 2, 6, 18, 30 months and including 30 months. At each visit, participants completed surveys assessing risk perceptions (perceived need for safer sexual behaviors, perceived risk of STIs other than HPV) and sexual behaviors. STI testing was done at 6, 18, and 30 months. Outcomes were condom use at last intercourse with main male partner, number of sexual partners since last study visit, and STI diagnosis. Associations between risk perceptions and sexual behaviors/STIs were examined using generalized linear mixed models. Results Mean age was 17.9 years; 88% were Black; 49% had a history of STI at baseline. Scale scores for perceived need for safer sexual behaviors did not change significantly over time. Scale scores for perceived risk of STIs other than HPV significantly changed (p=0.027), indicating that girls perceived themselves to be more at risk of STIs other than HPV over 30 months following vaccination. Multivariable models demonstrated that greater perceived need for safer sexual behaviors following vaccination was associated with condom use (p=0.002) but not with number of partners or STI diagnosis. Perceived risk of STIs other than HPV was not associated with the three outcomes. Conclusions The finding that perceived risk for STIs other than HPV was not associated with subsequent sexual behaviors or STI diagnosis is reassuring. The association between perceived need for safer sexual behaviors and subsequent condom use suggests that the HPV vaccination visit is an important opportunity to reiterate the importance of safer sexual behaviors to sexually experienced girls. PMID:27291086

Trading of dynamic interaural time and level difference cues and its effect on the auditory motion-onset response measured with electroencephalography.

PubMed

Altmann, Christian F; Ueda, Ryuhei; Bucher, Benoit; Furukawa, Shigeto; Ono, Kentaro; Kashino, Makio; Mima, Tatsuya; Fukuyama, Hidenao

2017-10-01

Interaural time (ITD) and level differences (ILD) constitute the two main cues for sound localization in the horizontal plane. Despite extensive research in animal models and humans, the mechanism of how these two cues are integrated into a unified percept is still far from clear. In this study, our aim was to test with human electroencephalography (EEG) whether integration of dynamic ITD and ILD cues is reflected in the so-called motion-onset response (MOR), an evoked potential elicited by moving sound sources. To this end, ITD and ILD trajectories were determined individually by cue trading psychophysics. We then measured EEG while subjects were presented with either static click-trains or click-trains that contained a dynamic portion at the end. The dynamic part was created by combining ITD with ILD either congruently to elicit the percept of a right/leftward moving sound, or incongruently to elicit the percept of a static sound. In two experiments that differed in the method to derive individual dynamic cue trading stimuli, we observed an MOR with at least a change-N1 (cN1) component for both the congruent and incongruent conditions at about 160-190 ms after motion-onset. A significant change-P2 (cP2) component for both the congruent and incongruent ITD/ILD combination was found only in the second experiment peaking at about 250 ms after motion onset. In sum, this study shows that a sound which - by a combination of counter-balanced ITD and ILD cues - induces a static percept can still elicit a motion-onset response, indicative of independent ITD and ILD processing at the level of the MOR - a component that has been proposed to be, at least partly, generated in non-primary auditory cortex. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving Faculty Perceptions of and Intent to Use Simulation: An Intervention Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tucker, Charles

2013-01-01

Human patient simulation is an innovative teaching strategy that can facilitate practice development and preparation for entry into today's healthcare environment for nursing students. Unfortunately, the use of human patient simulation has been limited due to the perceptions of nursing faculty members. This project sought to explore those…

Perceptions of Online Credentials for School Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richardson, Jayson W.; McLeod, Scott; Dikkers, Amy Garrett

2011-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of human resource directors in the USA about online credentials earned by K-12 school principals and principal candidates. Design/methodology/approach: In this mixed methods study, a survey was sent to a random sample of 500 human resource directors in K-12 school districts…

Fostering Kinship with Animals: Animal Portraiture in Humane Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalof, Linda; Zammit-Lucia, Joe; Bell, Jessica; Granter, Gina

2016-01-01

Visual depictions of animals can alter human perceptions of, emotional responses to, and attitudes toward animals. Our study addressed the potential of a slideshow designed to activate emotional responses to animals to foster feelings of kinship with them. The personal meaning map measured changes in perceptions of animals. The participants were…

Excitability of the motor system: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study on singing and speaking.

PubMed

Royal, Isabelle; Lidji, Pascale; Théoret, Hugo; Russo, Frank A; Peretz, Isabelle

2015-08-01

The perception of movements is associated with increased activity in the human motor cortex, which in turn may underlie our ability to understand actions, as it may be implicated in the recognition, understanding and imitation of actions. Here, we investigated the involvement and lateralization of the primary motor cortex (M1) in the perception of singing and speech. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied independently for both hemispheres over the mouth representation of the motor cortex in healthy participants while they watched 4-s audiovisual excerpts of singers producing a 2-note ascending interval (singing condition) or 4-s audiovisual excerpts of a person explaining a proverb (speech condition). Subjects were instructed to determine whether a sung interval/written proverb, matched a written interval/proverb. During both tasks, motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from the contralateral mouth muscle (orbicularis oris) of the stimulated motor cortex compared to a control task. Moreover, to investigate the time course of motor activation, TMS pulses were randomly delivered at 7 different time points (ranging from 500 to 3500 ms after stimulus onset). Results show that stimulation of the right hemisphere had a similar effect on the MEPs for both the singing and speech perception tasks, whereas stimulation of the left hemisphere significantly differed in the speech perception task compared to the singing perception task. Furthermore, analysis of the MEPs in the singing task revealed that they decreased for small musical intervals, but increased for large musical intervals, regardless of which hemisphere was stimulated. Overall, these results suggest a dissociation between the lateralization of M1 activity for speech perception and for singing perception, and that in the latter case its activity can be modulated by musical parameters such as the size of a musical interval. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Systematic review of compound action potentials as predictors for cochlear implant performance.

PubMed

van Eijl, Ruben H M; Buitenhuis, Patrick J; Stegeman, Inge; Klis, Sjaak F L; Grolman, Wilko

2017-02-01

The variability in speech perception between cochlear implant users is thought to result from the degeneration of the auditory nerve. Degeneration of the auditory nerve, histologically assessed, correlates with electrophysiologically acquired measures, such as electrically evoked compound action potentials (eCAPs) in experimental animals. To predict degeneration of the auditory nerve in humans, where histology is impossible, this paper reviews the correlation between speech perception and eCAP recordings in cochlear implant patients. PubMed and Embase. We performed a systematic search for articles containing the following major themes: cochlear implants, evoked potentials, and speech perception. Two investigators independently conducted title-abstract screening, full-text screening, and critical appraisal. Data were extracted from the remaining articles. Twenty-five of 1,429 identified articles described a correlation between speech perception and eCAP attributes. Due to study heterogeneity, a meta-analysis was not feasible, and studies were descriptively analyzed. Several studies investigating presence of the eCAP, recovery time constant, slope of the amplitude growth function, and spatial selectivity showed significant correlations with speech perception. In contrast, neural adaptation, eCAP threshold, and change with varying interphase gap did not significantly correlate with speech perception in any of the identified studies. Significant correlations between speech perception and parameters obtained through eCAP recordings have been documented in literature; however, reporting was ambiguous. There is insufficient evidence for eCAPs as a predictive factor for speech perception. More research is needed to further investigate this relation. Laryngoscope, 2016 127:476-487, 2017. © 2016 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

An intact action-perception coupling depends on the integrity of the cerebellum.

PubMed

Christensen, Andrea; Giese, Martin A; Sultan, Fahad; Mueller, Oliver M; Goericke, Sophia L; Ilg, Winfried; Timmann, Dagmar

2014-05-07

It is widely accepted that action and perception in humans functionally interact on multiple levels. Moreover, areas originally suggested to be predominantly motor-related, as the cerebellum, are also involved in action observation. However, as yet, few studies provided unequivocal evidence that the cerebellum is involved in the action perception coupling (APC), specifically in the integration of motor and multisensory information for perception. We addressed this question studying patients with focal cerebellar lesions in a virtual-reality paradigm measuring the effect of action execution on action perception presenting self-generated movements as point lights. We measured the visual sensitivity to the point light stimuli based on signal detection theory. Compared with healthy controls cerebellar patients showed no beneficial influence of action execution on perception indicating deficits in APC. Applying lesion symptom mapping, we identified distinct areas in the dentate nucleus and the lateral cerebellum of both hemispheres that are causally involved in APC. Lesions of the right ventral dentate, the ipsilateral motor representations (lobules V/VI), and most interestingly the contralateral posterior cerebellum (lobule VII) impede the benefits of motor execution on perception. We conclude that the cerebellum establishes time-dependent multisensory representations on different levels, relevant for motor control as well as supporting action perception. Ipsilateral cerebellar motor representations are thought to support the somatosensory state estimate of ongoing movements, whereas the ventral dentate and the contralateral posterior cerebellum likely support sensorimotor integration in the cerebellar-parietal loops. Both the correct somatosensory as well as the multisensory state representations are vital for an intact APC.

Common Premotor Regions for the Perception and Production of Prosody and Correlations with Empathy and Prosodic Ability

PubMed Central

Aziz-Zadeh, Lisa; Sheng, Tong; Gheytanchi, Anahita

2010-01-01

Background Prosody, the melody and intonation of speech, involves the rhythm, rate, pitch and voice quality to relay linguistic and emotional information from one individual to another. A significant component of human social communication depends upon interpreting and responding to another person's prosodic tone as well as one's own ability to produce prosodic speech. However there has been little work on whether the perception and production of prosody share common neural processes, and if so, how these might correlate with individual differences in social ability. Methods The aim of the present study was to determine the degree to which perception and production of prosody rely on shared neural systems. Using fMRI, neural activity during perception and production of a meaningless phrase in different prosodic intonations was measured. Regions of overlap for production and perception of prosody were found in premotor regions, in particular the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Activity in these regions was further found to correlate with how high an individual scored on two different measures of affective empathy as well as a measure on prosodic production ability. Conclusions These data indicate, for the first time, that areas that are important for prosody production may also be utilized for prosody perception, as well as other aspects of social communication and social understanding, such as aspects of empathy and prosodic ability. PMID:20098696

The inferior colliculus encodes the Franssen auditory spatial illusion

PubMed Central

Rajala, Abigail Z.; Yan, Yonghe; Dent, Micheal L.; Populin, Luis C.

2014-01-01

Illusions are effective tools for the study of the neural mechanisms underlying perception because neural responses can be correlated to the physical properties of stimuli and the subject’s perceptions. The Franssen illusion (FI) is an auditory spatial illusion evoked by presenting a transient, abrupt tone and a slowly rising, sustained tone of the same frequency simultaneously on opposite sides of the subject. Perception of the FI consists of hearing a single sound, the sustained tone, on the side that the transient was presented. Both subcortical and cortical mechanisms for the FI have been proposed, but, to date, there is no direct evidence for either. The data show that humans and rhesus monkeys perceive the FI similarly. Recordings were taken from single units of the inferior colliculus in the monkey while they indicated the perceived location of sound sources with their gaze. The results show that the transient component of the Franssen stimulus, with a shorter first spike latency and higher discharge rate than the sustained tone, encodes the perception of sound location. Furthermore, the persistent erroneous perception of the sustained stimulus location is due to continued excitation of the same neurons, first activated by the transient, by the sustained stimulus without location information. These results demonstrate for the first time, on a trial-by-trial basis, a correlation between perception of an auditory spatial illusion and a subcortical physiological substrate. PMID:23899307

Human dignity: a philosophical and theological approach.

PubMed

Tomasević, Luka

2010-09-01

We all use the term "human dignity" both often and gladly. This term exists also in legislation, such as declarations and constitutions of some countries, beginning from UNESCO, WHO, Council of Europe, and they all have the same inspiration to achieve the same goal: protection of human dignity. Human dignity seems as a principle connected with the protection of life itself, protection of health, and is also connected with research. But, today it is far more difficult to determine the meaning of this term and on what grounds it is based. Is human dignity something objective or is it grounded on cultural values that vary throughout history? Is the primary finding of human dignity in its self-determination against the power of the community, i.e. state? What do philosophy, and Christian theology have to say on dignity and what are the bioethical implications of our time? The author first introduces us to the development of the meaning of the term "human dignity", starting from the pre-Christian time, through the Christian perception of person and one's dignity, philosophical notion and grounds of human dignity, to then give the idea of dignity according to bioethical standards.

The role of vision in auditory distance perception.

PubMed

Calcagno, Esteban R; Abregú, Ezequiel L; Eguía, Manuel C; Vergara, Ramiro

2012-01-01

In humans, multisensory interaction is an important strategy for improving the detection of stimuli of different nature and reducing the variability of response. It is known that the presence of visual information affects the auditory perception in the horizontal plane (azimuth), but there are few researches that study the influence of vision in the auditory distance perception. In general, the data obtained from these studies are contradictory and do not completely define the way in which visual cues affect the apparent distance of a sound source. Here psychophysical experiments on auditory distance perception in humans are performed, including and excluding visual cues. The results show that the apparent distance from the source is affected by the presence of visual information and that subjects can store in their memory a representation of the environment that later improves the perception of distance.

Signed language and human action processing: evidence for functional constraints on the human mirror-neuron system.

PubMed

Corina, David P; Knapp, Heather Patterson

2008-12-01

In the quest to further understand the neural underpinning of human communication, researchers have turned to studies of naturally occurring signed languages used in Deaf communities. The comparison of the commonalities and differences between spoken and signed languages provides an opportunity to determine core neural systems responsible for linguistic communication independent of the modality in which a language is expressed. The present article examines such studies, and in addition asks what we can learn about human languages by contrasting formal visual-gestural linguistic systems (signed languages) with more general human action perception. To understand visual language perception, it is important to distinguish the demands of general human motion processing from the highly task-dependent demands associated with extracting linguistic meaning from arbitrary, conventionalized gestures. This endeavor is particularly important because theorists have suggested close homologies between perception and production of actions and functions of human language and social communication. We review recent behavioral, functional imaging, and neuropsychological studies that explore dissociations between the processing of human actions and signed languages. These data suggest incomplete overlap between the mirror-neuron systems proposed to mediate human action and language.

Applied estimation for hybrid dynamical systems using perceptional information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plotnik, Aaron M.

This dissertation uses the motivating example of robotic tracking of mobile deep ocean animals to present innovations in robotic perception and estimation for hybrid dynamical systems. An approach to estimation for hybrid systems is presented that utilizes uncertain perceptional information about the system's mode to improve tracking of its mode and continuous states. This results in significant improvements in situations where previously reported methods of estimation for hybrid systems perform poorly due to poor distinguishability of the modes. The specific application that motivates this research is an automatic underwater robotic observation system that follows and films individual deep ocean animals. A first version of such a system has been developed jointly by the Stanford Aerospace Robotics Laboratory and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). This robotic observation system is successfully fielded on MBARI's ROVs, but agile specimens often evade the system. When a human ROV pilot performs this task, one advantage that he has over the robotic observation system in these situations is the ability to use visual perceptional information about the target, immediately recognizing any changes in the specimen's behavior mode. With the approach of the human pilot in mind, a new version of the robotic observation system is proposed which is extended to (a) derive perceptional information (visual cues) about the behavior mode of the tracked specimen, and (b) merge this dissimilar, discrete and uncertain information with more traditional continuous noisy sensor data by extending existing algorithms for hybrid estimation. These performance enhancements are enabled by integrating techniques in hybrid estimation, computer vision and machine learning. First, real-time computer vision and classification algorithms extract a visual observation of the target's behavior mode. Existing hybrid estimation algorithms are extended to admit this uncertain but discrete observation, complementing the information available from more traditional sensors. State tracking is achieved using a new form of Rao-Blackwellized particle filter called the mode-observed Gaussian Particle Filter. Performance is demonstrated using data from simulation and data collected on actual specimens in the ocean. The framework for estimation using both traditional and perceptional information is easily extensible to other stochastic hybrid systems with mode-related perceptional observations available.

Visual difference metric for realistic image synthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolin, Mark R.; Meyer, Gary W.

1999-05-01

An accurate and efficient model of human perception has been developed to control the placement of sample in a realistic image synthesis algorithm. Previous sampling techniques have sought to spread the error equally across the image plane. However, this approach neglects the fact that the renderings are intended to be displayed for a human observer. The human visual system has a varying sensitivity to error that is based upon the viewing context. This means that equivalent optical discrepancies can be very obvious in one situation and imperceptible in another. It is ultimately the perceptibility of this error that governs image quality and should be used as the basis of a sampling algorithm. This paper focuses on a simplified version of the Lubin Visual Discrimination Metric (VDM) that was developed for insertion into an image synthesis algorithm. The sampling VDM makes use of a Haar wavelet basis for the cortical transform and a less severe spatial pooling operation. The model was extended for color including the effects of chromatic aberration. Comparisons are made between the execution time and visual difference map for the original Lubin and simplified visual difference metrics. Results for the realistic image synthesis algorithm are also presented.

Tactile Evaluation Feedback System for Multi-Layered Structure Inspired by Human Tactile Perception Mechanism.

PubMed

Hashim, Iza Husna Mohamad; Kumamoto, Shogo; Takemura, Kenjiro; Maeno, Takashi; Okuda, Shin; Mori, Yukio

2017-11-11

Tactile sensation is one type of valuable feedback in evaluating a product. Conventionally, sensory evaluation is used to get direct subjective responses from the consumers, in order to improve the product's quality. However, this method is a time-consuming and costly process. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel tactile evaluation system that can give tactile feedback from a sensor's output. The main concept of this system is hierarchically layering the tactile sensation, which is inspired by the flow of human perception. The tactile sensation is classified from low-order of tactile sensation (LTS) to high-order of tactile sensation (HTS), and also to preference. Here, LTS will be correlated with physical measures. Furthermore, the physical measures that are used to correlate with LTS are selected based on four main aspects of haptic information (roughness, compliance, coldness, and slipperiness), which are perceived through human tactile sensors. By using statistical analysis, the correlation between each hierarchy was obtained, and the preference was derived in terms of physical measures. A verification test was conducted by using unknown samples to determine the reliability of the system. The results showed that the system developed was capable of estimating preference with an accuracy of approximately 80%.

An approach to integrate the human vision psychology and perception knowledge into image enhancement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Hui; Huang, Xifeng; Ping, Jiang

2009-07-01

Image enhancement is very important image preprocessing technology especially when the image is captured in the poor imaging condition or dealing with the high bits image. The benefactor of image enhancement either may be a human observer or a computer vision process performing some kind of higher-level image analysis, such as target detection or scene understanding. One of the main objects of the image enhancement is getting a high dynamic range image and a high contrast degree image for human perception or interpretation. So, it is very necessary to integrate either empirical or statistical human vision psychology and perception knowledge into image enhancement. The human vision psychology and perception claims that humans' perception and response to the intensity fluctuation δu of visual signals are weighted by the background stimulus u, instead of being plainly uniform. There are three main laws: Weber's law, Weber- Fechner's law and Stevens's Law that describe this phenomenon in the psychology and psychophysics. This paper will integrate these three laws of the human vision psychology and perception into a very popular image enhancement algorithm named Adaptive Plateau Equalization (APE). The experiments were done on the high bits star image captured in night scene and the infrared-red image both the static image and the video stream. For the jitter problem in the video stream, this algorithm reduces this problem using the difference between the current frame's plateau value and the previous frame's plateau value to correct the current frame's plateau value. Considering the random noise impacts, the pixel value mapping process is not only depending on the current pixel but the pixels in the window surround the current pixel. The window size is usually 3×3. The process results of this improved algorithms is evaluated by the entropy analysis and visual perception analysis. The experiments' result showed the improved APE algorithms improved the quality of the image, the target and the surrounding assistant targets could be identified easily, and the noise was not amplified much. For the low quality image, these improved algorithms augment the information entropy and improve the image and the video stream aesthetic quality, while for the high quality image they will not debase the quality of the image.

[Perception, mimesis and consciousness].

PubMed

Emrich, H M

1998-02-01

Questions as to the fundamentals of "consciousness" are envisaged, first of all, from the viewpoint of quantifying experiments on visual perception in humans, focussed on "internal censorship", the role of intrapsychic mechanisms processing and correcting perception, and secondly based on recent theories on "mimesis" in the sense of R. Girard's concept of psychosocial transfer of aims and values between humans. The paper demonstrates a convergence between these two strategies of understanding, pointing to the view that "consciousness" may be interpreted as the performance of the intrapsychic "translation" between "cognitive" and "assessing" (or "valuating") emotional processes.

Psychobiology and Food Perception

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neilson, A.

1985-01-01

Psychobiology is a scientific discipline which encompasses the phenomena known to be important as regards nutrition and food consumption in space. Specifically, it includes those areas of biology which are clearly related to behavior, human subjective experience and problems of coping and adapting to stress. Taste and odor perception; perception (knowledge gaps); perception (needs); food preference and menu selection; and choosing of acceptable diets are discussed.

Real-time classification of auditory sentences using evoked cortical activity in humans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moses, David A.; Leonard, Matthew K.; Chang, Edward F.

2018-06-01

Objective. Recent research has characterized the anatomical and functional basis of speech perception in the human auditory cortex. These advances have made it possible to decode speech information from activity in brain regions like the superior temporal gyrus, but no published work has demonstrated this ability in real-time, which is necessary for neuroprosthetic brain-computer interfaces. Approach. Here, we introduce a real-time neural speech recognition (rtNSR) software package, which was used to classify spoken input from high-resolution electrocorticography signals in real-time. We tested the system with two human subjects implanted with electrode arrays over the lateral brain surface. Subjects listened to multiple repetitions of ten sentences, and rtNSR classified what was heard in real-time from neural activity patterns using direct sentence-level and HMM-based phoneme-level classification schemes. Main results. We observed single-trial sentence classification accuracies of 90% or higher for each subject with less than 7 minutes of training data, demonstrating the ability of rtNSR to use cortical recordings to perform accurate real-time speech decoding in a limited vocabulary setting. Significance. Further development and testing of the package with different speech paradigms could influence the design of future speech neuroprosthetic applications.

Effects of color combination and ambient illumination on visual perception time with TFT-LCD.

PubMed

Lin, Chin-Chiuan; Huang, Kuo-Chen

2009-10-01

An empirical study was carried out to examine the effects of color combination and ambient illumination on visual perception time using TFT-LCD. The effect of color combination was broken down into two subfactors, luminance contrast ratio and chromaticity contrast. Analysis indicated that the luminance contrast ratio and ambient illumination had significant, though small effects on visual perception. Visual perception time was better at high luminance contrast ratio than at low luminance contrast ratio. Visual perception time under normal ambient illumination was better than at other ambient illumination levels, although the stimulus color had a confounding effect on visual perception time. In general, visual perception time was better for the primary colors than the middle-point colors. Based on the results, normal ambient illumination level and high luminance contrast ratio seemed to be the optimal choice for design of workplace with video display terminals TFT-LCD.

Allegheny College Hosts Neuroscience and Humanities Summer Institute

PubMed Central

Macel, Emily M.

2004-01-01

The Neuroscience and Humanities Summer Institute, hosted by Allegheny College, opened doors of opportunity, perception, and creativity for faculty and students across the nation. Offered first in 2002, and a second time in June of 2004, this weeklong event was designed to provide a medium for fostering development of interdisciplinary courses linking neuroscience and the humanities (e.g., the fine arts, philosophy and language). During the Institute, participants attended presentations by Allegheny faculty introducing the six courses of this type that they have developed starting in 2000, lectures by guest speakers, workshops, and discussion modules. Participants were encouraged to gather ideas about Allegheny’s neuroscience and humanities courses and formulate specific plans to take back to their schools. These opportunities and experiences resulted in the formation of valuable connections and the development of ideas around the links between neuroscience and humanities. PMID:23493745

A Unified Model of Heading and Path Perception in Primate MSTd

PubMed Central

Layton, Oliver W.; Browning, N. Andrew

2014-01-01

Self-motion, steering, and obstacle avoidance during navigation in the real world require humans to travel along curved paths. Many perceptual models have been proposed that focus on heading, which specifies the direction of travel along straight paths, but not on path curvature, which humans accurately perceive and is critical to everyday locomotion. In primates, including humans, dorsal medial superior temporal area (MSTd) has been implicated in heading perception. However, the majority of MSTd neurons respond optimally to spiral patterns, rather than to the radial expansion patterns associated with heading. No existing theory of curved path perception explains the neural mechanisms by which humans accurately assess path and no functional role for spiral-tuned cells has yet been proposed. Here we present a computational model that demonstrates how the continuum of observed cells (radial to circular) in MSTd can simultaneously code curvature and heading across the neural population. Curvature is encoded through the spirality of the most active cell, and heading is encoded through the visuotopic location of the center of the most active cell's receptive field. Model curvature and heading errors fit those made by humans. Our model challenges the view that the function of MSTd is heading estimation, based on our analysis we claim that it is primarily concerned with trajectory estimation and the simultaneous representation of both curvature and heading. In our model, temporal dynamics afford time-history in the neural representation of optic flow, which may modulate its structure. This has far-reaching implications for the interpretation of studies that assume that optic flow is, and should be, represented as an instantaneous vector field. Our results suggest that spiral motion patterns that emerge in spatio-temporal optic flow are essential for guiding self-motion along complex trajectories, and that cells in MSTd are specifically tuned to extract complex trajectory estimation from flow. PMID:24586130

How Object, Situation and Personality Shape Human Attitude in Learning: An Activity Perspective and a Multilevel Modeling Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Jun

2009-01-01

Based on Activity Theory, this article examines attitude formation in human learning as shaped by the experiences of individual learners with various learning objects in particular learning contexts. It hypothesizes that a learner's object-related perceptions, personality traits and situational perceptions may have different relationships with the…

Understanding Human Perception of Building Categories in Virtual 3d Cities - a User Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tutzauer, P.; Becker, S.; Niese, T.; Deussen, O.; Fritsch, D.

2016-06-01

Virtual 3D cities are becoming increasingly important as a means of visually communicating diverse urban-related information. To get a deeper understanding of a human's cognitive experience of virtual 3D cities, this paper presents a user study on the human ability to perceive building categories (e.g. residential home, office building, building with shops etc.) from geometric 3D building representations. The study reveals various dependencies between geometric properties of the 3D representations and the perceptibility of the building categories. Knowledge about which geometries are relevant, helpful or obstructive for perceiving a specific building category is derived. The importance and usability of such knowledge is demonstrated based on a perception-guided 3D building abstraction process.

Classification of underwater target echoes based on auditory perception characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xiukun; Meng, Xiangxia; Liu, Hang; Liu, Mingye

2014-06-01

In underwater target detection, the bottom reverberation has some of the same properties as the target echo, which has a great impact on the performance. It is essential to study the difference between target echo and reverberation. In this paper, based on the unique advantage of human listening ability on objects distinction, the Gammatone filter is taken as the auditory model. In addition, time-frequency perception features and auditory spectral features are extracted for active sonar target echo and bottom reverberation separation. The features of the experimental data have good concentration characteristics in the same class and have a large amount of differences between different classes, which shows that this method can effectively distinguish between the target echo and reverberation.

Human-Robot Control Strategies for the NASA/DARPA Robonaut

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Diftler, M. A.; Culbert, Chris J.; Ambrose, Robert O.; Huber, E.; Bluethmann, W. J.

2003-01-01

The Robotic Systems Technology Branch at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is currently developing robot systems to reduce the Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) and planetary exploration burden on astronauts. One such system, Robonaut, is capable of interfacing with external Space Station systems that currently have only human interfaces. Robonaut is human scale, anthropomorphic, and designed to approach the dexterity of a space-suited astronaut. Robonaut can perform numerous human rated tasks, including actuating tether hooks, manipulating flexible materials, soldering wires, grasping handrails to move along space station mockups, and mating connectors. More recently, developments in autonomous control and perception for Robonaut have enabled dexterous, real-time man-machine interaction. Robonaut is now capable of acting as a practical autonomous assistant to the human, providing and accepting tools by reacting to body language. A versatile, vision-based algorithm for matching range silhouettes is used for monitoring human activity as well as estimating tool pose.

Autonomy and dignity of patients with dementia: Perceptions of multicultural caretakers.

PubMed

Bentwich, Miriam Ethel; Dickman, Nomy; Oberman, Amitai

2018-02-01

A key message in the World Health Organization's report on dementia emphasizes the need to improve public and professional attitudes to dementia and its understanding, while acknowledging the fact that the workforce in dementia care is becoming increasingly diverse culturally. To explore possible differences among formal caretakers from varied cultural background in their attitudes toward the autonomy and human dignity of patients with dementia. Semi-structured interviews and content analysis, utilizing two fictional vignettes for eliciting caretakers' attitudes toward dignity and autonomy of their patients. Participants and context: A total of 20 formal caretakers of patients with dementia from three different cultural groups in Israel ("Sabras," "Arabs," and "Russians"), working in nursing homes and a hospital. Ethical consideration: Approvals of relevant research ethics committees were obtained and followed. In comparison with the other groups, most Arab caretakers offer markedly richer perceptions of human dignity and autonomy. Their human dignity's conceptualization emphasizes "person-centered approach," and their perception of patients' autonomy includes provision of explanations and preservation and encouragement of independence. The differences found in the attitudes toward the meaning of autonomy and human dignity between the Arab caretakers and the other caretakers stand in contrast to previous studies regarding human dignity, emphasizing the common nature of these attitudes. Offering a linkage (theoretical and empirical) between the Arab perceptions of dignity and autonomy, the study strengthen and further the importance attributed in existing literature to person-centered care in enhancing the quality of care for patients with dementia. The conceptualization of human dignity may vary among different cultural groups. It may also influence the extent to which the caretaker holds a full-fledged perception of the patients' autonomy.

Action perception in individuals with congenital blindness or deafness: how does the loss of a sensory modality from birth affect perception-induced motor facilitation?

PubMed

Alaerts, Kaat; Swinnen, Stephan P; Wenderoth, Nicole

2011-05-01

Seeing or hearing manual actions activates the mirror neuron system, that is, specialized neurons within motor areas which fire when an action is performed but also when it is passively perceived. Using TMS, it was shown that motor cortex of typically developed subjects becomes facilitated not only from seeing others' actions, but also from merely hearing action-related sounds. In the present study, TMS was used for the first time to explore the "auditory" and "visual" responsiveness of motor cortex in individuals with congenital blindness or deafness. TMS was applied over left primary motor cortex (M1) to measure cortico-motor facilitation while subjects passively perceived manual actions (either visually or aurally). Although largely unexpected, congenitally blind or deaf subjects displayed substantially lower resonant motor facilitation upon action perception compared to seeing/hearing control subjects. Moreover, muscle-specific changes in cortico-motor excitability within M1 appeared to be absent in individuals with profound blindness or deafness. Overall, these findings strongly argue against the hypothesis that an increased reliance on the remaining sensory modality in blind or deaf subjects is accompanied by an increased responsiveness of the "auditory" or "visual" perceptual-motor "mirror" system, respectively. Moreover, the apparent lack of resonant motor facilitation for the blind and deaf subjects may challenge the hypothesis of a unitary mirror system underlying human action recognition and may suggest that action perception in blind and deaf subjects engages a mode of action processing that is different from the human action recognition system recruited in typically developed subjects.

Shared sensory estimates for human motion perception and pursuit eye movements.

PubMed

Mukherjee, Trishna; Battifarano, Matthew; Simoncini, Claudio; Osborne, Leslie C

2015-06-03

Are sensory estimates formed centrally in the brain and then shared between perceptual and motor pathways or is centrally represented sensory activity decoded independently to drive awareness and action? Questions about the brain's information flow pose a challenge because systems-level estimates of environmental signals are only accessible indirectly as behavior. Assessing whether sensory estimates are shared between perceptual and motor circuits requires comparing perceptual reports with motor behavior arising from the same sensory activity. Extrastriate visual cortex both mediates the perception of visual motion and provides the visual inputs for behaviors such as smooth pursuit eye movements. Pursuit has been a valuable testing ground for theories of sensory information processing because the neural circuits and physiological response properties of motion-responsive cortical areas are well studied, sensory estimates of visual motion signals are formed quickly, and the initiation of pursuit is closely coupled to sensory estimates of target motion. Here, we analyzed variability in visually driven smooth pursuit and perceptual reports of target direction and speed in human subjects while we manipulated the signal-to-noise level of motion estimates. Comparable levels of variability throughout viewing time and across conditions provide evidence for shared noise sources in the perception and action pathways arising from a common sensory estimate. We found that conditions that create poor, low-gain pursuit create a discrepancy between the precision of perception and that of pursuit. Differences in pursuit gain arising from differences in optic flow strength in the stimulus reconcile much of the controversy on this topic. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/358515-16$15.00/0.

Shared Sensory Estimates for Human Motion Perception and Pursuit Eye Movements

PubMed Central

Mukherjee, Trishna; Battifarano, Matthew; Simoncini, Claudio

2015-01-01

Are sensory estimates formed centrally in the brain and then shared between perceptual and motor pathways or is centrally represented sensory activity decoded independently to drive awareness and action? Questions about the brain's information flow pose a challenge because systems-level estimates of environmental signals are only accessible indirectly as behavior. Assessing whether sensory estimates are shared between perceptual and motor circuits requires comparing perceptual reports with motor behavior arising from the same sensory activity. Extrastriate visual cortex both mediates the perception of visual motion and provides the visual inputs for behaviors such as smooth pursuit eye movements. Pursuit has been a valuable testing ground for theories of sensory information processing because the neural circuits and physiological response properties of motion-responsive cortical areas are well studied, sensory estimates of visual motion signals are formed quickly, and the initiation of pursuit is closely coupled to sensory estimates of target motion. Here, we analyzed variability in visually driven smooth pursuit and perceptual reports of target direction and speed in human subjects while we manipulated the signal-to-noise level of motion estimates. Comparable levels of variability throughout viewing time and across conditions provide evidence for shared noise sources in the perception and action pathways arising from a common sensory estimate. We found that conditions that create poor, low-gain pursuit create a discrepancy between the precision of perception and that of pursuit. Differences in pursuit gain arising from differences in optic flow strength in the stimulus reconcile much of the controversy on this topic. PMID:26041919

Pollution going multimodal: the complex impact of the human-altered sensory environment on animal perception and performance

PubMed Central

Halfwerk, Wouter; Slabbekoorn, Hans

2015-01-01

Anthropogenic sensory pollution is affecting ecosystems worldwide. Human actions generate acoustic noise, emanate artificial light and emit chemical substances. All of these pollutants are known to affect animals. Most studies on anthropogenic pollution address the impact of pollutants in unimodal sensory domains. High levels of anthropogenic noise, for example, have been shown to interfere with acoustic signals and cues. However, animals rely on multiple senses, and pollutants often co-occur. Thus, a full ecological assessment of the impact of anthropogenic activities requires a multimodal approach. We describe how sensory pollutants can co-occur and how covariance among pollutants may differ from natural situations. We review how animals combine information that arrives at their sensory systems through different modalities and outline how sensory conditions can interfere with multimodal perception. Finally, we describe how sensory pollutants can affect the perception, behaviour and endocrinology of animals within and across sensory modalities. We conclude that sensory pollution can affect animals in complex ways due to interactions among sensory stimuli, neural processing and behavioural and endocrinal feedback. We call for more empirical data on covariance among sensory conditions, for instance, data on correlated levels in noise and light pollution. Furthermore, we encourage researchers to test animal responses to a full-factorial set of sensory pollutants in the presence or the absence of ecologically important signals and cues. We realize that such approach is often time and energy consuming, but we think this is the only way to fully understand the multimodal impact of sensory pollution on animal performance and perception. PMID:25904319

Associations Among Individuals' Perceptions of Future Time, Individual Resources, and Subjective Well-Being in Old Age.

PubMed

Hoppmann, Christiane A; Infurna, Frank J; Ram, Nilam; Gerstorf, Denis

2017-05-01

Perceptions of future time are of key interest to aging research because of their implications for subjective well-being. Interestingly, perceptions about future time are only moderately associated with age when looking at the second half of life, pointing to a vast heterogeneity in future time perceptions among older adults. We examine associations between future time perceptions, age, and subjective well-being across two studies, including moderations by individual resources. Using data from the Berlin Aging Study (N = 516; Mage = 85 years), we link one operationalization (subjective nearness to death) and age to subjective well-being. Using Health and Retirement Study data (N = 2,596; Mage = 77 years), we examine associations of another future time perception indicator (subjective future life expectancy) and age with subjective well-being. Consistent across studies, perceptions of limited time left were associated with poorer subjective well-being (lower life satisfaction and positive affect; more negative affect and depressive symptoms). Importantly, individual resources moderated future time perception-subjective well-being associations with those of better health exhibiting reduced future time perception-subjective well-being associations. We discuss our findings in the context of the Model of Strength and Vulnerability Integration. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Emotional Modulation of Interval Timing and Time Perception

PubMed Central

Lake, Jessica I.; LaBar, Kevin S.; Meck, Warren H.

2017-01-01

Like other senses, our perception of time is not veridical, but rather, is modulated by changes in environmental context. Anecdotal experiences suggest that emotions can be powerful modulators of time perception; nevertheless, the functional and neural mechanisms underlying emotion-induced temporal distortions remain unclear. Widely accepted pacemaker-accumulator models of time perception suggest that changes in arousal and attention have unique influences on temporal judgments and contribute to emotional distortions of time perception. However, such models conflict with current views of arousal and attention suggesting that current models of time perception do not adequately explain the variability in emotion-induced temporal distortions. Instead, findings provide support for a new perspective of emotion-induced temporal distortions that emphasizes both the unique and interactive influences of arousal and attention on time perception over time. Using this framework, we discuss plausible functional and neural mechanisms of emotion-induced temporal distortions and how these temporal distortions may have important implications for our understanding of how emotions modulate our perceptual experiences in service of adaptive responding to biologically relevant stimuli. PMID:26972824

Influence of educational status and other variables on human immunodeficiency virus risk perception among military personnel: a large cohort finding.

PubMed

Essien, E James; Ogungbade, Gbadebo O; Ward, Doriel; Ekong, Ernest; Ross, Michael W; Meshack, Angela; Holmes, Laurens

2007-11-01

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk perception remains an effective determinant of HIV transmission. Although higher educational attainment has been associated with increased HIV risk perception, this predictor remains to be assessed among Nigerian military personnel (NMP). In a prospective cohort of 2,213 NMP, the effects of education and other factors on HIV risk perception were assessed at baseline by using the X2 statistic and unconditional logistic regression. There was an inverse correlation between higher educational attainment and HIV risk perception in the univariate model (prevalence odds ratio, 0.64; 95% confidence interval, 0.52-0.79). This association persisted after adjustment for relevant covariates in the multivariate model (prevalence odds ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval, 0.56-0.88). Similarly, there was a direct correlation between use of alcohol and marijuana and HIV risk perception (p < 0.05). In contrast, casual sex and gender were not statistically significantly associated with HIV risk perception (p > 0.05). This study indicates an inverse correlation between educational attainment and HIV risk perception, as well as a direct correlation between alcohol and marijuana use and HIV risk perception, among NMP. Therefore, HIV prevention interventions targeted at NMP need to include multiple factors that may affect risk perception regardless of the educational status of the participants.

Intersubjective Culture: The Role of Intersubjective Perceptions in Cross-Cultural Research.

PubMed

Chiu, Chi-Yue; Gelfand, Michele J; Yamagishi, Toshio; Shteynberg, Garriy; Wan, Ching

2010-07-01

Intersubjective perceptions refer to shared perceptions of the psychological characteristics that are widespread within a culture. In this article, we propose the intersubjective approach as a new approach to understanding the role that culture plays in human behavior. In this approach, intersubjective perceptions, which are distinct from personal values and beliefs, mediate the effect of the ecology on individuals' responses and adaptations. We review evidence that attests to the validity and utility of the intersubjective approach in explicating culture's influence on human behaviors and discuss the implications of this approach for understanding the interaction between the individual, ecology, and culture; the nature of cultural competence; management of multicultural identities; cultural change; and measurement of culture. © The Author(s) 2010.

Aesthetic perception of visual textures: a holistic exploration using texture analysis, psychological experiment, and perception modeling.

PubMed

Liu, Jianli; Lughofer, Edwin; Zeng, Xianyi

2015-01-01

Modeling human aesthetic perception of visual textures is important and valuable in numerous industrial domains, such as product design, architectural design, and decoration. Based on results from a semantic differential rating experiment, we modeled the relationship between low-level basic texture features and aesthetic properties involved in human aesthetic texture perception. First, we compute basic texture features from textural images using four classical methods. These features are neutral, objective, and independent of the socio-cultural context of the visual textures. Then, we conduct a semantic differential rating experiment to collect from evaluators their aesthetic perceptions of selected textural stimuli. In semantic differential rating experiment, eights pairs of aesthetic properties are chosen, which are strongly related to the socio-cultural context of the selected textures and to human emotions. They are easily understood and connected to everyday life. We propose a hierarchical feed-forward layer model of aesthetic texture perception and assign 8 pairs of aesthetic properties to different layers. Finally, we describe the generation of multiple linear and non-linear regression models for aesthetic prediction by taking dimensionality-reduced texture features and aesthetic properties of visual textures as dependent and independent variables, respectively. Our experimental results indicate that the relationships between each layer and its neighbors in the hierarchical feed-forward layer model of aesthetic texture perception can be fitted well by linear functions, and the models thus generated can successfully bridge the gap between computational texture features and aesthetic texture properties.

Perception of Urban Environmental Risks and the Effects of Urban Green Infrastructures (UGIs) on Human Well-being in Four Public Green Spaces of Guangzhou, China.

PubMed

Duan, Junya; Wang, Yafei; Fan, Chen; Xia, Beicheng; de Groot, Rudolf

2018-05-28

Cities face many challenging environmental problems that affect human well-being. Environmental risks can be reduced by Urban Green Infrastructures (UGIs). The effects of UGIs on the urban environment have been widely studied, but less attention has been given to the public perception of these effects. This paper presents the results of a study in Guangzhou, China, on UGI users' perceptions of these effects and their relationship with sociodemographic variables. A questionnaire survey was conducted in four public green spaces. Descriptive statistics, a binary logistic regression model and cross-tabulation analysis were applied on the data from 396 valid questionnaires. The results show that UGI users were more concerned about poor air quality and high temperature than about flooding events. Their awareness of environmental risks was partly in accordance with official records. Regarding the perception of the impacts of environmental risks on human well-being, elderly and female respondents with higher education levels were the most sensitive to these impacts. The respondents' perceptions of these impacts differed among the different green spaces. The effects of UGIs were well perceived and directly observed by the UGI users, but were not significantly influenced by most sociodemographic variables. Moreover, tourists had a lower perception of the impacts of environmental risks and the effects of UGI than residents did. This study provides strong support for UGIs as an effective tool to mitigate environmental risks. Local governments should consider the role of UGIs in environmental risk mitigation and human well-being with regard to urban planning and policy making.

Wading through Perceptions: Understanding Human Perceptions of Water Quality in Coastal Waters

EPA Science Inventory

Water quality perceptions influence people’s preferences for visiting coastal areas and willingness to participate in activities on or near the water. They also influence people’s social values for a waterbody, sense of place, support for protection of a waterbody, an...

Education to Action: Improving Public Perception of Bats

PubMed Central

Hoffmaster, Eric; Vonk, Jennifer; Mies, Rob

2016-01-01

Public perception of bats has historically been largely negative with bats often portrayed as carriers of disease. Bats are commonly associated with vampire lore and thus elicit largely fearful reactions despite the fact that they are a vital and valuable part of the ecosystem. Bats provide a variety of essential services from pest control to plant pollination. Despite the benefits of bats to the environment and the economy, bats are suffering at the hands of humans. They are victims of turbines, human encroachment, pesticides, and, most recently, white nose syndrome. Because of their critical importance to the environment, humans should do what they can to help protect bats. We propose that humans will be more likely to do so if their perceptions and attitudes toward bats can be significantly improved. In a preliminary study we found some support for the idea that people can be educated about bats through bat oriented events and exhibits, and that this greater knowledge can inspire humans to act to save bats. PMID:26784239

Complex Behavior of Contaminant Flux and the Ecology of the Lower Mississippi River

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barton, C. C.; Manheim, F. T.; De Cola, L.; Bollinger, J. E.; Jenkins, J. A.

2001-12-01

This presentation is an overview of a collaborative NSF/USGS/Tulane funded multi-scale study of the Lower Mississippi River system. The study examines the system in three major dimensional realms: space, time, and complexity (systems and their hierarchies). Researchers at Tulane University and the U.S. Geological Survey have initiated a collaborative effort to undertake the study of interacting elements which directly or indirectly affect the water quality, ecology and physical condition of the Mississippi River. These researchers include experts in the fields of water quality chemistry, geochemistry, hydrologic modeling, bioengineering, biology, fish ecology, statistics, complexity analysis, epidemiology, and computer science. Underlying this research are large databases that permit quantitative analysis of the system over the past 40 years. Results to date show that the variation in discharge and the contaminant flux scale independently both exhibit fractal scaling, the signature geometry of nonlinear dynamical and complex systems. Public perception is that the Lower Mississippi River is a health hazard, but for the past decade, traditional water quality measurements show that contaminants are within current regulatory guidelines for human consumption. This difference between public perception and scientific reality represents a complex scientific and social issue. The connections and feedback within the ecological system and the Mississippi River are few because engineering structures isolate the lower Mississippi River from its surroundings. Investigation of the connections and feedback between human health and the ecological health of the River and the surrounding region as well as perceptions of these states of health - holds promise for explaining epidemiological patterns of human disease.

Workforce Characteristics, Perceptions, Stress, and Satisfaction among Staff in Green House and Other Nursing Homes.

PubMed

Brown, Patrick B; Hudak, Sandra L; Horn, Susan D; Cohen, Lauren W; Reed, David Allen; Zimmerman, Sheryl

2016-02-01

To compare workforce characteristics and staff perceptions of safety, satisfaction, and stress between Green House (GH) and comparison nursing homes (CNHs). Primary data on staff perceptions of safety, stress, and satisfaction from 13 GHs and 8 comparison NHs in 11 states; secondary data from human resources records on workforce characteristics, turnover, and staffing from 01/01/2011-06/30/2012. Observational study. Workforce data were from human resources offices; staff perceptions were from surveys. Few significant differences were found between GH and CNHs. Exceptions were GH direct caregivers were older, provided twice the normalized hours per week budgeted per resident than CNAs in CNHs or Legacy NHs, and trended toward lower turnover. GH environment may promote staff longevity and does not negatively affect worker's stress, safety perceptions, or satisfaction. Larger studies are needed to confirm findings. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Human detection and discrimination of tactile repeatability, mechanical backlash, and temporal delay in a combined tactile-kinesthetic haptic display system.

PubMed

Doxon, Andrew J; Johnson, David E; Tan, Hong Z; Provancher, William R

2013-01-01

Many of the devices used in haptics research are over-engineered for the task and are designed with capabilities that go far beyond human perception levels. Designing devices that more closely match the limits of human perception will make them smaller, less expensive, and more useful. However, many device-centric perception thresholds have yet to be evaluated. To this end, three experiments were conducted, using one degree-of-freedom contact location feedback device in combination with a kinesthetic display, to provide a more explicit set of specifications for similar tactile-kinesthetic haptic devices. The first of these experiments evaluated the ability of humans to repeatedly localize tactile cues across the fingerpad. Subjects could localize cues to within 1.3 mm and showed bias toward the center of the fingerpad. The second experiment evaluated the minimum perceptible difference of backlash at the tactile element. Subjects were able to discriminate device backlash in excess of 0.46 mm on low-curvature models and 0.93 mm on high-curvature models. The last experiment evaluated the minimum perceptible difference of system delay between user action and device reaction. Subjects were able to discriminate delays in excess of 61 ms. The results from these studies can serve as the maximum (i.e., most demanding) device specifications for most tactile-kinesthetic haptic systems.

General anesthesia alters time perception by phase shifting the circadian clock.

PubMed

Cheeseman, James F; Winnebeck, Eva C; Millar, Craig D; Kirkland, Lisa S; Sleigh, James; Goodwin, Mark; Pawley, Matt D M; Bloch, Guy; Lehmann, Konstantin; Menzel, Randolf; Warman, Guy R

2012-05-01

Following general anesthesia, people are often confused about the time of day and experience sleep disruption and fatigue. It has been hypothesized that these symptoms may be caused by general anesthesia affecting the circadian clock. The circadian clock is fundamental to our well-being because it regulates almost all aspects of our daily biochemistry, physiology, and behavior. Here, we investigated the effects of the most common general anesthetic, isoflurane, on time perception and the circadian clock using the honeybee (Apis mellifera) as a model. A 6-h daytime anesthetic systematically altered the time-compensated sun compass orientation of the bees, with a mean anticlockwise shift in vanishing bearing of 87° in the Southern Hemisphere and a clockwise shift in flight direction of 58° in the Northern Hemisphere. Using the same 6-h anesthetic treatment, time-trained bees showed a delay in the start of foraging of 3.3 h, and whole-hive locomotor-activity rhythms were delayed by an average of 4.3 h. We show that these effects are all attributable to a phase delay in the core molecular clockwork. mRNA oscillations of the central clock genes cryptochrome-m and period were delayed by 4.9 and 4.3 h, respectively. However, this effect is dependent on the time of day of administration, as is common for clock effects, and nighttime anesthesia did not shift the clock. Taken together, our results suggest that general anesthesia during the day causes a persistent and marked shift of the clock effectively inducing "jet lag" and causing impaired time perception. Managing this effect in humans is likely to help expedite postoperative recovery.

Time limited field of regard search

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flug, Eric; Maurer, Tana; Nguyen, Oanh-Tho

2005-05-01

Recent work by the US Army RDECOM CERDEC Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) has led to the Time-Limited Search (TLS) model, which has given new formulations for the field of view (FOV) search times. The next step in the evaluation of the overall search model (ACQUIRE) is to apply these parameters to the field of regard (FOR) model. Human perception experiments were conducted using synthetic imagery developed at NVESD. The experiments were competitive player-on-player search tests with the intention of imposing realistic time constraints on the observers. FOR detection probabilities, search times, and false alarm data are analyzed and compared to predictions using both the TLS model and ACQUIRE.

Bayesian integration of position and orientation cues in perception of biological and non-biological forms.

PubMed

Thurman, Steven M; Lu, Hongjing

2014-01-01

Visual form analysis is fundamental to shape perception and likely plays a central role in perception of more complex dynamic shapes, such as moving objects or biological motion. Two primary form-based cues serve to represent the overall shape of an object: the spatial position and the orientation of locations along the boundary of the object. However, it is unclear how the visual system integrates these two sources of information in dynamic form analysis, and in particular how the brain resolves ambiguities due to sensory uncertainty and/or cue conflict. In the current study, we created animations of sparsely-sampled dynamic objects (human walkers or rotating squares) comprised of oriented Gabor patches in which orientation could either coincide or conflict with information provided by position cues. When the cues were incongruent, we found a characteristic trade-off between position and orientation information whereby position cues increasingly dominated perception as the relative uncertainty of orientation increased and vice versa. Furthermore, we found no evidence for differences in the visual processing of biological and non-biological objects, casting doubt on the claim that biological motion may be specialized in the human brain, at least in specific terms of form analysis. To explain these behavioral results quantitatively, we adopt a probabilistic template-matching model that uses Bayesian inference within local modules to estimate object shape separately from either spatial position or orientation signals. The outputs of the two modules are integrated with weights that reflect individual estimates of subjective cue reliability, and integrated over time to produce a decision about the perceived dynamics of the input data. Results of this model provided a close fit to the behavioral data, suggesting a mechanism in the human visual system that approximates rational Bayesian inference to integrate position and orientation signals in dynamic form analysis.

Observer Bias: An Interaction of Temperament Traits with Biases in the Semantic Perception of Lexical Material

PubMed Central

Trofimova, Ira

2014-01-01

The lexical approach is a method in differential psychology that uses people's estimations of verbal descriptors of human behavior in order to derive the structure of human individuality. The validity of the assumptions of this method about the objectivity of people's estimations is rarely questioned. Meanwhile the social nature of language and the presence of emotionality biases in cognition are well-recognized in psychology. A question remains, however, as to whether such an emotionality-capacities bias is strong enough to affect semantic perception of verbal material. For the lexical approach to be valid as a method of scientific investigations, such biases should not exist in semantic perception of the verbal material that is used by this approach. This article reports on two studies investigating differences between groups contrasted by 12 temperament traits (i.e. by energetic and other capacities, as well as emotionality) in the semantic perception of very general verbal material. Both studies contrasted the groups by a variety of capacities: endurance, lability and emotionality separately in physical, social-verbal and mental aspects of activities. Hypotheses of “background emotionality” and a “projection through capacities” were supported. Non-evaluative criteria for categorization (related to complexity, organization, stability and probability of occurrence of objects) followed the polarity of evaluative criteria, and did not show independence from this polarity. Participants with stronger physical or social endurance gave significantly more positive ratings to a variety of concepts, and participants with faster physical tempo gave more positive ratings to timing-related concepts. The results suggest that people's estimations of lexical material related to human behavior have emotionality, language- and dynamical capacities-related biases and therefore are unreliable. This questions the validity of the lexical approach as a method for the objective study of stable individual differences. PMID:24475048

Safety of street: The role of street design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rashid, Suhaila Abdul; Wahab, Mohammad Hussaini; Rani, Wan Nurul Mardiah Wan Mohd.; Ismail, Syuhaida

2017-10-01

Living in the cities poses many challenges for the vulnerable group of user especially women where they are exposed to many issues related to safety. With the changing of lifestyle and demands, women are expected to play multiple roles in the society and working is one of the tasks. When women are expected to be working as men do, they are no longer occupied at one place. Women nowadays travel on a daily basis and being in the streets is one of the important activities. With the influx of diverse group of people into the country, our streets are dominated by different types of people from different background. Due to these factors, there are possibilities of challenges and threats for users especially women. Therefore, city spaces especially the street become an important public realm for women. The design of the street should be able to make women feel safe as these are the public space where they spend time getting to and from work. The way women perceived their environment might be different from men especially when they fear of crime. Perception of safety will affect the quality of life where fear is an important psychological factor in human life. Living in fear will restrict human's freedom. Therefore, this study aimed to explore women's perception of safety in the streets of Kuala Lumpur. The study adopted a mixed-method approach of qualitative and quantitative in order to understand the safety perception among women that will later establish the relationship between built environment and human psychology. 120 respondents were selected randomly around Jalan Benteng, Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Melaka and Jalan Melayu. Questionnaire survey forms were distributed and structured observation was conducted at interval period at these streets to examined and assess women's behavior. Finding shows that fear does affect women's perception and physical design of the streets are important in affecting their behavior.

Visual Image Sensor Organ Replacement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maluf, David A.

2014-01-01

This innovation is a system that augments human vision through a technique called "Sensing Super-position" using a Visual Instrument Sensory Organ Replacement (VISOR) device. The VISOR device translates visual and other sensors (i.e., thermal) into sounds to enable very difficult sensing tasks. Three-dimensional spatial brightness and multi-spectral maps of a sensed image are processed using real-time image processing techniques (e.g. histogram normalization) and transformed into a two-dimensional map of an audio signal as a function of frequency and time. Because the human hearing system is capable of learning to process and interpret extremely complicated and rapidly changing auditory patterns, the translation of images into sounds reduces the risk of accidentally filtering out important clues. The VISOR device was developed to augment the current state-of-the-art head-mounted (helmet) display systems. It provides the ability to sense beyond the human visible light range, to increase human sensing resolution, to use wider angle visual perception, and to improve the ability to sense distances. It also allows compensation for movement by the human or changes in the scene being viewed.

Langley Air Force Base Marina Repair Environmental Assessment

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-08-16

of human perception for extended periods of time; cosmetic or structural damage could occur to buildings. Table 3-8 presents the minimum distance at...Hazardous Waste Storage Areas (HWSA) where they are stored until disposal is economically practicable or before 90 days has expired , whichever comes...Shop, where paintss paint thinners, ·paint mixing, and cleansing of paint equipment took place between 1950 md 1991. The other is the gasoline storage

Transformation-aware perceptual image metric

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellnhofer, Petr; Ritschel, Tobias; Myszkowski, Karol; Seidel, Hans-Peter

2016-09-01

Predicting human visual perception has several applications such as compression, rendering, editing, and retargeting. Current approaches, however, ignore the fact that the human visual system compensates for geometric transformations, e.g., we see that an image and a rotated copy are identical. Instead, they will report a large, false-positive difference. At the same time, if the transformations become too strong or too spatially incoherent, comparing two images gets increasingly difficult. Between these two extrema, we propose a system to quantify the effect of transformations, not only on the perception of image differences but also on saliency and motion parallax. To this end, we first fit local homographies to a given optical flow field, and then convert this field into a field of elementary transformations, such as translation, rotation, scaling, and perspective. We conduct a perceptual experiment quantifying the increase of difficulty when compensating for elementary transformations. Transformation entropy is proposed as a measure of complexity in a flow field. This representation is then used for applications, such as comparison of nonaligned images, where transformations cause threshold elevation, detection of salient transformations, and a model of perceived motion parallax. Applications of our approach are a perceptual level-of-detail for real-time rendering and viewpoint selection based on perceived motion parallax.

Are men better than women at acoustic size judgements?

PubMed

Charlton, Benjamin D; Taylor, Anna M; Reby, David

2013-08-23

Formants are important phonetic elements of human speech that are also used by humans and non-human mammals to assess the body size of potential mates and rivals. As a consequence, it has been suggested that formant perception, which is crucial for speech perception, may have evolved through sexual selection. Somewhat surprisingly, though, no previous studies have examined whether sexes differ in their ability to use formants for size evaluation. Here, we investigated whether men and women differ in their ability to use the formant frequency spacing of synthetic vocal stimuli to make auditory size judgements over a wide range of fundamental frequencies (the main determinant of vocal pitch). Our results reveal that men are significantly better than women at comparing the apparent size of stimuli, and that lower pitch improves the ability of both men and women to perform these acoustic size judgements. These findings constitute the first demonstration of a sex difference in formant perception, and lend support to the idea that acoustic size normalization, a crucial prerequisite for speech perception, may have been sexually selected through male competition. We also provide the first evidence that vocalizations with relatively low pitch improve the perception of size-related formant information.

New beginnings: evidence that the meditational regimen can lead to optimization of perception, attention, cognition, and other functions.

PubMed

Bushell, William C

2009-08-01

A "framework" is presented for understanding empirically confirmed and unconfirmed phenomena in the Indo-Tibetan meditation system, from an integrative perspective, and providing evidence that certain meditative practices enable meditators to realize the innate human potential to perceive light "at the limits imposed by quantum mechanics," on the level of individual photons. This is part of a larger Buddhist agenda to meditatitively develop perceptual/attentional capacities to achieve penetrating insight into the nature of phenomena. Such capacities may also allow advanced meditators to perceive changes in natural scenes that are "hidden" from persons with "normal" attentional capacities, according to research on "change blindness," and to enhance their visual system functioning akin to high-speed and time-lapse photography, in toto allowing for the perception, as well as sophisticated understanding, of the "moment to moment change or impermanence" universally characteristic of the phenomenal world but normally outside untrained attention and perception according to Buddhist doctrine.

The effects of alphabet and expertise on letter perception

PubMed Central

Wiley, Robert W.; Wilson, Colin; Rapp, Brenda

2016-01-01

Long-standing questions in human perception concern the nature of the visual features that underlie letter recognition and the extent to which the visual processing of letters is affected by differences in alphabets and levels of viewer expertise. We examined these issues in a novel approach using a same-different judgment task on pairs of letters from the Arabic alphabet with two participant groups—one with no prior exposure to Arabic and one with reading proficiency. Hierarchical clustering and linear mixed-effects modeling of reaction times and accuracy provide evidence that both the specific characteristics of the alphabet and observers’ previous experience with it affect how letters are perceived and visually processed. The findings of this research further our understanding of the multiple factors that affect letter perception and support the view of a visual system that dynamically adjusts its weighting of visual features as expert readers come to more efficiently and effectively discriminate the letters of the specific alphabet they are viewing. PMID:26913778

The “Visual Shock” of Francis Bacon: an essay in neuroesthetics

PubMed Central

Zeki, Semir; Ishizu, Tomohiro

2013-01-01

In this paper we discuss the work of Francis Bacon in the context of his declared aim of giving a “visual shock.”We explore what this means in terms of brain activity and what insights into the brain's visual perceptive system his work gives. We do so especially with reference to the representation of faces and bodies in the human visual brain. We discuss the evidence that shows that both these categories of stimuli have a very privileged status in visual perception, compared to the perception of other stimuli, including man-made artifacts such as houses, chairs, and cars. We show that viewing stimuli that depart significantly from a normal representation of faces and bodies entails a significant difference in the pattern of brain activation. We argue that Bacon succeeded in delivering his “visual shock” because he subverted the normal neural representation of faces and bodies, without at the same time subverting the representation of man-made artifacts. PMID:24339812

The "Visual Shock" of Francis Bacon: an essay in neuroesthetics.

PubMed

Zeki, Semir; Ishizu, Tomohiro

2013-01-01

In this paper we discuss the work of Francis Bacon in the context of his declared aim of giving a "visual shock."We explore what this means in terms of brain activity and what insights into the brain's visual perceptive system his work gives. We do so especially with reference to the representation of faces and bodies in the human visual brain. We discuss the evidence that shows that both these categories of stimuli have a very privileged status in visual perception, compared to the perception of other stimuli, including man-made artifacts such as houses, chairs, and cars. We show that viewing stimuli that depart significantly from a normal representation of faces and bodies entails a significant difference in the pattern of brain activation. We argue that Bacon succeeded in delivering his "visual shock" because he subverted the normal neural representation of faces and bodies, without at the same time subverting the representation of man-made artifacts.

Talker-specific learning in amnesia: Insight into mechanisms of adaptive speech perception

PubMed Central

Trude, Alison M.; Duff, Melissa C.; Brown-Schmidt, Sarah

2014-01-01

A hallmark of human speech perception is the ability to comprehend speech quickly and effortlessly despite enormous variability across talkers. However, current theories of speech perception do not make specific claims about the memory mechanisms involved in this process. To examine whether declarative memory is necessary for talker-specific learning, we tested the ability of amnesic patients with severe declarative memory deficits to learn and distinguish the accents of two unfamiliar talkers by monitoring their eye-gaze as they followed spoken instructions. Analyses of the time-course of eye fixations showed that amnesic patients rapidly learned to distinguish these accents and tailored perceptual processes to the voice of each talker. These results demonstrate that declarative memory is not necessary for this ability and points to the involvement of non-declarative memory mechanisms. These results are consistent with findings that other social and accommodative behaviors are preserved in amnesia and contribute to our understanding of the interactions of multiple memory systems in the use and understanding of spoken language. PMID:24657480

Perceptions about Homeless Elders and Community Responsibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Michael N.; Green, Diane; Jacobs, Robin

2013-01-01

Human service students were surveyed ("N" = 207) to determine their perceptions about homeless elders and communal responsibility for their well-being. Using a backward regression analysis, a final model ("F" = 15.617, "df" = 7, "p" < 0.001) for Perceptions about Homeless Persons and Community…

Cortical Bases of Speech Perception: Evidence from Functional Lesion Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boatman, Dana

2004-01-01

Functional lesion studies have yielded new information about the cortical organization of speech perception in the human brain. We will review a number of recent findings, focusing on studies of speech perception that use the techniques of electrocortical mapping by cortical stimulation and hemispheric anesthetization by intracarotid amobarbital.…

Perceptions of business skill development by graduates of the University of Michigan Dental School.

PubMed

Barber, Michael; Wiesen, Robert; Arnold, Sara; Taichman, Russell S; Taichman, Linda Susan

2011-04-01

Many graduating dentists leave dental school feeling that they are not prepared to start and run a dental practice. The aim of this pilot study was to explore the knowledge and perceptions dental graduates have in the area of practice management. A twenty-item survey was mailed in the fall of 2008 to nearly half of the University of Michigan dental school alumni who had graduated between the years of 1997 and 2007. Respondents were asked about their demographics, practice characteristics, and perceptions of knowledge/experience regarding practice management skills at the present time as well as at graduation. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The majority of respondents were general practitioners (84 percent) aged thirty to thirty-nine practicing between six and ten years with practice incomes reported to be greater than $300,000 per year (79 percent). Most dentists reported being either an owner or co-owner of the practice (57 percent), and 33 percent reported being an associate in the practice. Upon graduation, 7 percent of the respondents felt that they had a strong knowledge of accounting or human resource issues; this perception increased to 47 percent at the present time. Similarly, less than 6 percent of respondents felt they understood issues pertaining to dental insurance upon graduation; this perception increased to 68 percent after having spent time in the workforce. In contrast to the large increase in knowledge/experience in business aspects of dentistry that had accrued since graduation, most alumni reported only a 7 percent increase in their knowledge of the legal aspects of dental practice. Results from this study indicate that interventions are needed to increase graduating dentists' knowledge of practice management and close the gap between their knowledge and its application in real life. The majority of alumni believed there is a need to improve the curriculum focused on these aspects of dental practice.

Interteaching within a Human Physiology Course: A Comparison of First- and Second-Year Students' Learning Skills and Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrne, Bruce; Guy, Richard

2016-01-01

This article describes student perceptions and outcomes in relation to the use of a novel interteaching approach. The study sample (n = 260) was taken from a large human physiology class, which included both first- and second-year students. However, unlike the first-year students, the second-year students had significant prior knowledge, having…

Perception and Action Selection Dissociate Human Ventral and Dorsal Cortex

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ikkai, Akiko; Jerde, Trenton A.; Curtis, Clayton E.

2011-01-01

We test theories about the functional organization of the human cortex by correlating brain activity with demands on perception versus action selection. Subjects covertly searched for a target among an array of 4, 8, or 12 items (perceptual manipulation) and then, depending on the color of the array, made a saccade toward, away from, or at a right…

Causal capture effects in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

PubMed

Matsuno, Toyomi; Tomonaga, Masaki

2017-01-01

Extracting a cause-and-effect structure from the physical world is an important demand for animals living in dynamically changing environments. Human perceptual and cognitive mechanisms are known to be sensitive and tuned to detect and interpret such causal structures. In contrast to rigorous investigations of human causal perception, the phylogenetic roots of this perception are not well understood. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the susceptibility of nonhuman animals to mechanical causality by testing whether chimpanzees perceived an illusion called causal capture (Scholl & Nakayama, 2002). Causal capture is a phenomenon in which a type of bistable visual motion of objects is perceived as causal collision due to a bias from a co-occurring causal event. In our experiments, we assessed the susceptibility of perception of a bistable stream/bounce motion event to a co-occurring causal event in chimpanzees. The results show that, similar to in humans, causal "bounce" percepts were significantly increased in chimpanzees with the addition of a task-irrelevant causal bounce event that was synchronously presented. These outcomes suggest that the perceptual mechanisms behind the visual interpretation of causal structures in the environment are evolutionarily shared between human and nonhuman animals. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perception and Haptic Rendering of Friction Moments.

PubMed

Kawasaki, H; Ohtuka, Y; Koide, S; Mouri, T

2011-01-01

This paper considers moments due to friction forces on the human fingertip. A computational technique called the friction moment arc method is presented. The method computes the static and/or dynamic friction moment independent of a friction force calculation. In addition, a new finger holder to display friction moment is presented. This device incorporates a small brushless motor and disk, and connects the human's finger to an interface finger of the five-fingered haptic interface robot HIRO II. Subjects' perception of friction moment while wearing the finger holder, as well as perceptions during object manipulation in a virtual reality environment, were evaluated experimentally.

General practitioners' perceptions of the stigma of dementia and the role of reciprocity.

PubMed

Gove, Dianne; Small, Neil; Downs, Murna; Vernooij-Dassen, Myrra

2017-10-01

A qualitative exploration of the stigma of dementia reported that general practitioners described lack of reciprocity as one way in which people with dementia are perceived within society. This was closely linked to their perception of dementia as a stigma. In this article, we explore whether general practitioners perceive people with dementia as lacking reciprocity and, if so, if this is linked with societal opinions about dementia as a stigma. The implications of both perceptions of people with dementia failing to reciprocate and of stigma for timely diagnosis are explored. Our approach is to follow the thread of reciprocity in the data from our initial study. In this follow-up study, general practitioners' perceptions of societal views of people with dementia included a perception of a lack of reciprocity specifically linked with; failing to respond to human contact, the absence of an appropriate return on social investment and failing to contribute to, or being a burden on, society. General practitioners reported a link between societal perceptions of lack of reciprocity and stereotypes about advanced dementia, difficulties communicating with people with dementia, and lack of opportunities for people with dementia to reciprocate. General practitioners occupy a key position, they can challenge stereotypes and, with support and targeted training about communicating with people living with dementia, can emphasize the ways in which people with dementia can communicate, thereby enhancing their potential to reciprocate. Such changes have implications for improved care and quality of life through the continued maintenance of social inclusion and perceptions of personhood.

Extracted facial feature of racial closely related faces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liewchavalit, Chalothorn; Akiba, Masakazu; Kanno, Tsuneo; Nagao, Tomoharu

2010-02-01

Human faces contain a lot of demographic information such as identity, gender, age, race and emotion. Human being can perceive these pieces of information and use it as an important clue in social interaction with other people. Race perception is considered the most delicacy and sensitive parts of face perception. There are many research concerning image-base race recognition, but most of them are focus on major race group such as Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid. This paper focuses on how people classify race of the racial closely related group. As a sample of racial closely related group, we choose Japanese and Thai face to represents difference between Northern and Southern Mongoloid. Three psychological experiment was performed to study the strategies of face perception on race classification. As a result of psychological experiment, it can be suggested that race perception is an ability that can be learn. Eyes and eyebrows are the most attention point and eyes is a significant factor in race perception. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to extract facial features of sample race group. Extracted race features of texture and shape were used to synthesize faces. As the result, it can be suggested that racial feature is rely on detailed texture rather than shape feature. This research is a indispensable important fundamental research on the race perception which are essential in the establishment of human-like race recognition system.

The developmental origins of musicality.

PubMed

Trehub, Sandra E

2003-07-01

The study of musical abilities and activities in infancy has the potential to shed light on musical biases or dispositions that are rooted in nature rather than nurture. The available evidence indicates that infants are sensitive to a number of sound features that are fundamental to music across cultures. Their discrimination of pitch and timing differences and their perception of equivalence classes are similar, in many respects, to those of listeners who have had many years of exposure to music. Whether these perceptual skills are unique to human listeners is not known. What is unique is the intense human interest in music, which is evident from the early days of life. Also unique is the importance of music in social contexts. Current ideas about musical timing and interpersonal synchrony are considered here, along with proposals for future research.

Human-assisted sound event recognition for home service robots.

PubMed

Do, Ha Manh; Sheng, Weihua; Liu, Meiqin

This paper proposes and implements an open framework of active auditory learning for a home service robot to serve the elderly living alone at home. The framework was developed to realize the various auditory perception capabilities while enabling a remote human operator to involve in the sound event recognition process for elderly care. The home service robot is able to estimate the sound source position and collaborate with the human operator in sound event recognition while protecting the privacy of the elderly. Our experimental results validated the proposed framework and evaluated auditory perception capabilities and human-robot collaboration in sound event recognition.

From computing with numbers to computing with words-from manipulation of measurements to manipulation of perceptions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zadeh, Lotfi A.

2001-06-01

Computing, in its usual sense, is centered on manipulation of numbers and symbols. In contrast, computing with words, or CW for short, is a methodology in which the objects of computation are words and propositions drawn from a natural language, e.g., small, large, far, heavy, not very likely, the price of gas is low and declining, Berkeley is near San Francisco, it is very unlikely that there will be a significant increase in the price of oil in the near future, etc. Computing with words is inspired by the remarkable human capability to perform a wide variety of physical and mental tasks without any measurements and any computations. Familiar examples of such tasks are parking a car, driving in heavy traffic, playing golf, riding a bicycle, understanding speech and summarizing a story. Underlying this remarkable capability is the brain's crucial ability to manipulate perceptions-perceptions of distance, size, weight, color, speed, time, direction, force, number, truth, likelihood and other characteristics of physical and mental objects. Manipulation of perceptions plays a key role in human recognition, decision and execution processes. As a methodology, computing with words provides a foundation for a computational theory of perceptions-a theory which may have an important bearing on how humans make-and machines might make-perception-based rational decisions in an environment of imprecision, uncertainty and partial truth. A basic difference between perceptions and measurements is that, in general, measurements are crisp whereas perceptions are fuzzy. One of the fundamental aims of science has been and continues to be that of progressing from perceptions to measurements. Pursuit of this aim has led to brilliant successes. We have sent men to the moon; we can build computers that are capable of performing billions of computations per second; we have constructed telescopes that can explore the far reaches of the universe; and we can date the age of rocks that are millions of years old. But alongside the brilliant successes stand conspicuous underachievements and outright failures. We cannot build robots which can move with the agility of animals or humans; we cannot automate driving in heavy traffic; we cannot translate from one language to another at the level of a human interpreter; we cannot create programs which can summarize non-trivial stories; our ability to model the behavior of economic systems leaves much to be desired; and we cannot build machines that can compete with children in the performance of a wide variety of physical and cognitive tasks. It may be argued that underlying the underachivements and failures is the unavailability of a methodology for reasoning and computing with perceptions rather than measurements. An outline of such a methodology-referred to as a computational theory of perceptions-is presented in this paper. The computational theory of perceptions, or CTP for short, is based on the methodology of computing with words (CW). In CTP, words play the role of labels of perceptions and, more generally, perceptions are expressed as propositions in a natural language. CW-based techniques are employed to translate propositions expressed in a natural language into what is called the Generalized Constraint Language (GCL). In this language, the meaning of a proposition is expressed as a generalized constraint, X isr R, where X is the constrained variable, R is the constraining relation and isr is a variable copula in which r is a variable whose value defines the way in which R constrains X. Among the basic types of constraints are: possibilistic, veristic, probabilistic, random set, Pawlak singing then the emphasis is put on the action aspect, while if we want to say that the singing is loud then the emphasis is on the sound, which is treated as a thing since one hears it. The crucial point is that one seems to be forced to make such a distinction, as assists the determination of structure, but the origin of this distinction is probably related to the different ways actions and objects are represented in the brain generally. Here the relevant tool (for detecting groups) is one which takes note of which areas of the brain are active, and which in creating an agent from a group tries to respect existing patterns. The general pattern in the above has been the same as other instances that have been discussed: specific tools lead to the paradigms of activity being gradually extended. Certain characteristics of the resulting agents make this activity tend to the useful; thus the tools have a certain potential that can be fruitfully realised. As agents accumulate, the activity that they cooperate in becomes more and more complex, but the vetting of new additions to the system and of the overall activity of the system ensures that it remains useful and in control (ideally, of course; we know that in human societies, such regulatory activity does not always work very well). .

Comparing types of local public health agencies in North Carolina.

PubMed

Markiewicz, Milissa; Moore, Jill; Foster, Johanna H; Berner, Maureen; Matthews, Gene; Wall, Aimee

2013-01-01

Some states are considering restructuring local public health agencies (LPHAs) in hopes of achieving long-term efficiencies. North Carolina's experience operating different types of LPHAs, such as county health departments, district health departments, public health authorities, and consolidated human services agencies, can provide valuable information to policy makers in other states who are examining how best to organize their local public health system. To identify stakeholders' perceptions of the benefits and challenges associated with different types of LPHAs in North Carolina and to compare LPHA types on selected financial, workforce, and service delivery measures. Focus groups and key informant interviews were conducted to identify stakeholders' perceptions of different LPHA types. To compare LPHA types on finance, workforce, and service delivery measures, descriptive statistical analyses were performed on publicly available quantitative data. North Carolina. Current and former state and local public health practitioners, county commissioners, county managers, assistant managers, state legislators, and others. In addition to identifying stakeholders' perceptions of LPHA types, proportion of total expenditures by funding source, expenditures per capita by funding source, full-time equivalents per 1000 population, and percentage of 127 tracked services offered were calculated. Stakeholders reported benefits and challenges of all LPHA types. LPHA types differ with regard to source of funding, with county health departments and consolidated human services agencies receiving a greater percentage of their funding from county appropriations than districts and authorities, which receive a comparatively larger percentage from other revenues. Types of LPHAs are not entirely distinct from one another, and LPHAs of the same type can vary greatly from one another. However, stakeholders noted differences between LPHA types-particularly with regard to district health departments-that were corroborated by an examination of expenditures per capita and full-time equivalents per 1000 population.

Perspectives on domestication: the history of our relationship with man's best friend.

PubMed

Case, L

2008-11-01

We are a nation of dog lovers. Never before in our history have we spent more time, money, and emotional energy on a group of animals that are kept solely for companionship. Pet food sales are a multi-billion dollar industry, and pet owners are spending more than 11 billion dollars each year on veterinary care. This devotion is further illustrated by the exponential growth of the pet supply industry, including increasing numbers of pet superstores, play-parks, training centers, and doggie day care centers. During the 1980s, recognition of the human-animal bond led to serious study of the roles that dogs play in our lives. These studies have shown that pets provide significant benefits to our emotional, physical, and social well being. It is ironic then, that at a time when we recognize and appreciate our bonds with animal companions, dark elements of this relationship are equally pervasive. Animal shelters in the United States kill between 3 and 4 million dogs and cats annually. Dog fighting, although outlawed, has reached epidemic proportions in some areas of the country. Episodes of animal cruelty and neglect are reported with alarming frequency in the media; so frequently that discussions of the connection between animal cruelty and human violence have become daily parlance. How then did we come to have such paradoxical perceptions and treatment of our canine companions? This question is explored through an examination of the ancestry of the dog and the prevailing myths and facts about domestication. Historical and present-day perceptions of the wolf and the impact that these attitudes may have upon perceptions of dogs are examined.

Exploration of complex visual feature spaces for object perception

PubMed Central

Leeds, Daniel D.; Pyles, John A.; Tarr, Michael J.

2014-01-01

The mid- and high-level visual properties supporting object perception in the ventral visual pathway are poorly understood. In the absence of well-specified theory, many groups have adopted a data-driven approach in which they progressively interrogate neural units to establish each unit's selectivity. Such methods are challenging in that they require search through a wide space of feature models and stimuli using a limited number of samples. To more rapidly identify higher-level features underlying human cortical object perception, we implemented a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging method in which visual stimuli are selected in real-time based on BOLD responses to recently shown stimuli. This work was inspired by earlier primate physiology work, in which neural selectivity for mid-level features in IT was characterized using a simple parametric approach (Hung et al., 2012). To extend such work to human neuroimaging, we used natural and synthetic object stimuli embedded in feature spaces constructed on the basis of the complex visual properties of the objects themselves. During fMRI scanning, we employed a real-time search method to control continuous stimulus selection within each image space. This search was designed to maximize neural responses across a pre-determined 1 cm3 brain region within ventral cortex. To assess the value of this method for understanding object encoding, we examined both the behavior of the method itself and the complex visual properties the method identified as reliably activating selected brain regions. We observed: (1) Regions selective for both holistic and component object features and for a variety of surface properties; (2) Object stimulus pairs near one another in feature space that produce responses at the opposite extremes of the measured activity range. Together, these results suggest that real-time fMRI methods may yield more widely informative measures of selectivity within the broad classes of visual features associated with cortical object representation. PMID:25309408

The shaping of social perception by stimulus and knowledge cues to human animacy

PubMed Central

Ramsey, Richard; Liepelt, Roman; Prinz, Wolfgang; Hamilton, Antonia F. de C.

2016-01-01

Although robots are becoming an ever-growing presence in society, we do not hold the same expectations for robots as we do for humans, nor do we treat them the same. As such, the ability to recognize cues to human animacy is fundamental for guiding social interactions. We review literature that demonstrates cortical networks associated with person perception, action observation and mentalizing are sensitive to human animacy information. In addition, we show that most prior research has explored stimulus properties of artificial agents (humanness of appearance or motion), with less investigation into knowledge cues (whether an agent is believed to have human or artificial origins). Therefore, currently little is known about the relationship between stimulus and knowledge cues to human animacy in terms of cognitive and brain mechanisms. Using fMRI, an elaborate belief manipulation, and human and robot avatars, we found that knowledge cues to human animacy modulate engagement of person perception and mentalizing networks, while stimulus cues to human animacy had less impact on social brain networks. These findings demonstrate that self–other similarities are not only grounded in physical features but are also shaped by prior knowledge. More broadly, as artificial agents fulfil increasingly social roles, a challenge for roboticists will be to manage the impact of pre-conceived beliefs while optimizing human-like design. PMID:26644594

The shaping of social perception by stimulus and knowledge cues to human animacy.

PubMed

Cross, Emily S; Ramsey, Richard; Liepelt, Roman; Prinz, Wolfgang; de C Hamilton, Antonia F

2016-01-19

Although robots are becoming an ever-growing presence in society, we do not hold the same expectations for robots as we do for humans, nor do we treat them the same. As such, the ability to recognize cues to human animacy is fundamental for guiding social interactions. We review literature that demonstrates cortical networks associated with person perception, action observation and mentalizing are sensitive to human animacy information. In addition, we show that most prior research has explored stimulus properties of artificial agents (humanness of appearance or motion), with less investigation into knowledge cues (whether an agent is believed to have human or artificial origins). Therefore, currently little is known about the relationship between stimulus and knowledge cues to human animacy in terms of cognitive and brain mechanisms. Using fMRI, an elaborate belief manipulation, and human and robot avatars, we found that knowledge cues to human animacy modulate engagement of person perception and mentalizing networks, while stimulus cues to human animacy had less impact on social brain networks. These findings demonstrate that self-other similarities are not only grounded in physical features but are also shaped by prior knowledge. More broadly, as artificial agents fulfil increasingly social roles, a challenge for roboticists will be to manage the impact of pre-conceived beliefs while optimizing human-like design. © 2015 The Authors.

Characterizing noise in nonhuman vocalizations: Acoustic analysis and human perception of barks by coyotes and dogs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riede, Tobias; Mitchell, Brian R.; Tokuda, Isao; Owren, Michael J.

2005-07-01

Measuring noise as a component of mammalian vocalizations is of interest because of its potential relevance to the communicative function. However, methods for characterizing and quantifying noise are less well established than methods applicable to harmonically structured aspects of signals. Using barks of coyotes and domestic dogs, we compared six acoustic measures and studied how they are related to human perception of noisiness. Measures of harmonic-to-noise-ratio (HNR), percent voicing, and shimmer were found to be the best predictors of perceptual rating by human listeners. Both acoustics and perception indicated that noisiness was similar across coyote and dog barks, but within each species there was significant variation among the individual vocalizers. The advantages and disadvantages of the various measures are discussed.

Operator learning effects in teleoperated rendezvous & docking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilde, M.; Harder, J.; Purschke, R.

Teleoperation of spacecraft proximity operations and docking requires delicate timing and coordination of spacecraft maneuvers. Experience has shown that human operators show large performance fluctuations in these areas, which are a major factor to be addressed in operator training. In order to allow the quantification of the impact of these human fluctuations on control system performance and the human perception of this performance, a learning curve study was conducted with teleoperated final approach and docking scenarios. Over a period of ten experiment days, three test participants were tasked with repeatedly completing a set of three training scenarios. The scenarios were designed to contain different combinations of the major elements of any final approach and docking situation, and to feature an increasing difficulty level. The individual difficulty levels for the three operators furthermore differed in the level of operator support functions available in their human-machine interfaces. Operator performance in the test scenarios were evaluated in the fields approach success and precision, docking safety, and approach efficiency by a combination of recorded maneuver data and questionnaires. The results show that operator experience and the associated learning curves increase operator performance substantially, regardless of the support system used. The paper also shows that the fluctuations in operator performance and self-perception are substantial between as well as within experiment days, and must be reckoned with in teleoperation system design and mission planning.

Associations Among Individuals’ Perceptions of Future Time, Individual Resources, and Subjective Well-Being in Old Age

PubMed Central

Hoppmann, Christiane A.; Infurna, Frank J.; Ram, Nilam; Gerstorf, Denis

2015-01-01

Objectives Perceptions of future time are of key interest to aging research because of their implications for subjective well-being. Interestingly, perceptions about future time are only moderately associated with age, pointing to a vast heterogeneity in future time perceptions among older adults. We examine associations between future time perceptions, age, and subjective well-being across two studies, including moderations by individual resources. Method Using data from the Berlin Aging Study (N = 516; Mage = 85 years), we link one operationalization (subjective nearness to death) and age to subjective well-being. Using Health and Retirement Study data (N = 2,596; Mage = 77 years), we examine associations of another future time perception indicator (subjective future life expectancy) and age with subjective well-being. Results Consistent across studies, perceptions of limited time left were associated with poorer subjective well-being (lower life satisfaction and positive affect; more negative affect and depressive symptoms). Importantly, individual resources moderated future time perception–subjective well-being associations with those of better health exhibiting reduced future time perception–subjective well-being associations. Discussion We discuss our findings in the context of the Model of Strength and Vulnerability Integration. PMID:26437862

Control with an eye for perception: Precursors to an active psychophysics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flach, John M.

1991-01-01

The perception-action cycle is viewed within the context of research in manual control. A portrait of a perception-action system is derived from the primitives of control theory in order to evaluate the promise of this perspective of what Warren and McMillan (1984) have termed 'active psychophysics'. That is, a study of human performance that does justice to the intimate coupling between perception and action.

Modulation of gut perception in humans by spatial summation phenomena

PubMed Central

Serra, Jordi; Azpiroz, Fernando; Malagelada, Juan-R

1998-01-01

We have recently shown that perception of intestinal stimuli increases by spatial summation phenomena. Our aim was to determine in humans whether intestinal perception depends on (a) the length of gut stimulated, and (b) the distance between stimuli. In a first series of studies, we compared perception of isobaric intestinal distensions applied over a 3 cm segment and a 36 cm segment by means of two separate barostats (n = 8). In a second series of studies we compared perception of intestinal distensions applied simultaneously by two balloons sited 3, 12 or 48 cm apart (n = 6). Distension of the 36 cm segment induced significantly greater perception than distension of the 3 cm intestinal segment (discomfort perceived at 20 ± 2 mmHg and 31 ± 2 mmHg, respectively; P < 0.05). Perception of intestinal balloon distension increased when a second stimulus was simultaneously applied, independently of the distance between the two balloons (the discomfort thresholds were 30 ± 11, 20 ± 6 and 28 ± 7% lower with simultaneous distensions 3, 12 and 48 cm apart, respectively). We conclude that perception of intestinal distension is determined by the extension of the field of stimulation, and the summation effect is similar whether adjacent or distant fields are stimulated. PMID:9490880

School nurses' knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of role as opinion leader, and professional practice regarding human papillomavirus vaccine for youth.

PubMed

Rosen, Brittany L; Goodson, Patricia; Thompson, Bruce; Wilson, Kelly L

2015-02-01

Because human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine rates remain low, we evaluated US school nurses' knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of their role as opinion leaders, and professional practice regarding HPV vaccine, and assessed whether knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of being an opinion leader influenced their professional practice regarding the HPV vaccine. We used a cross-sectional design by recruiting members from the National Association of School Nurses. All participants (N = 505) were e-mailed a survey designed for this study. Structural equation modeling (SEM) tested direct and indirect effects. Overall, school nurses had knowledge about HPV and the vaccine, and positive attitudes toward the vaccine. They had less-than-enthusiastic perceptions of their role as opinion leaders regarding the vaccine and implemented few activities related to providing vaccine information. The model revealed a good fit (χ(2)=20.238 [df=8, p< .01]), with knowledge directly related to attitudes, attitudes directly related to perceptions and practice, and perceptions directly affecting practice. In our model, perceptions functioned as a partial mediator. To enhance school nurses' practice regarding the HPV vaccine, focus should be on increasing positive attitudes toward the vaccine and strengthening perceptions of their role as opinion leaders. © 2015, American School Health Association.

Sex differences in time perception during smoking abstinence.

PubMed

Ashare, Rebecca L; Kable, Joseph W

2015-04-01

Nicotine withdrawal leads to impulsive decision-making, which reflects a preference for smaller, immediate rewards and often prompts a relapse to smoking. The mechanism by which nicotine withdrawal leads to impulsive decision-making is not well known. An essential dimension of decision-making is time perception. Impulsive decisions reflect intolerance of temporal delays and the perception that time is passing more slowly. Sex may be an important factor in impulsive decision-making and time perception, but no studies have investigated whether sex moderates the effects of nicotine withdrawal on impulsive decision-making and time perception. Thirty-three (12 female) adult smokers completed 2 laboratory sessions: following 24-hr abstinence and once smoking-as-usual (order counterbalanced, abstinence biochemically verified). Participants completed 2 time perception tasks, a decision-making task, and self-report measures of craving, withdrawal, and mood. During time reproduction, males overestimated time during abstinence compared to smoking, whereas there was no session effect for females. On the time discrimination task, smokers were less accurate during abstinence, and this effect tended to be stronger among females. In general, males had higher discounting rates compared with females, but there was no effect of abstinence. The current data suggest that the effect of abstinence on time perception may be stronger in males and that males generally exhibit steeper delay discounting rates. Time perception may be an important mechanism in smoking abstinence. Our future work will investigate the role of time perception in smoking relapse and whether this is moderated by sex. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A temporal basis for Weber's law in value perception.

PubMed

Namboodiri, Vijay Mohan K; Mihalas, Stefan; Hussain Shuler, Marshall G

2014-01-01

Weber's law-the observation that the ability to perceive changes in magnitudes of stimuli is proportional to the magnitude-is a widely observed psychophysical phenomenon. It is also believed to underlie the perception of reward magnitudes and the passage of time. Since many ecological theories state that animals attempt to maximize reward rates, errors in the perception of reward magnitudes and delays must affect decision-making. Using an ecological theory of decision-making (TIMERR), we analyze the effect of multiple sources of noise (sensory noise, time estimation noise, and integration noise) on reward magnitude and subjective value perception. We show that the precision of reward magnitude perception is correlated with the precision of time perception and that Weber's law in time estimation can lead to Weber's law in value perception. The strength of this correlation is predicted to depend on the reward history of the animal. Subsequently, we show that sensory integration noise (either alone or in combination with time estimation noise) also leads to Weber's law in reward magnitude perception in an accumulator model, if it has balanced Poisson feedback. We then demonstrate that the noise in subjective value of a delayed reward, due to the combined effect of noise in both the perception of reward magnitude and delay, also abides by Weber's law. Thus, in our theory we prove analytically that the perception of reward magnitude, time, and subjective value change all approximately obey Weber's law.

Model Predictive Control Based Motion Drive Algorithm for a Driving Simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rehmatullah, Faizan

In this research, we develop a model predictive control based motion drive algorithm for the driving simulator at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Motion drive algorithms exploit the limitations of the human vestibular system to formulate a perception of motion within the constrained workspace of a simulator. In the absence of visual cues, the human perception system is unable to distinguish between acceleration and the force of gravity. The motion drive algorithm determines control inputs to displace the simulator platform, and by using the resulting inertial forces and angular rates, creates the perception of motion. By using model predictive control, we can optimize the use of simulator workspace for every maneuver while simulating the vehicle perception. With the ability to handle nonlinear constraints, the model predictive control allows us to incorporate workspace limitations.

Monocular zones in stereoscopic scenes: A useful source of information for human binocular vision?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harris, Julie M.

2010-02-01

When an object is closer to an observer than the background, the small differences between right and left eye views are interpreted by the human brain as depth. This basic ability of the human visual system, called stereopsis, lies at the core of all binocular three-dimensional (3-D) perception and related technological display development. To achieve stereopsis, it is traditionally assumed that corresponding locations in the right and left eye's views must first be matched, then the relative differences between right and left eye locations are used to calculate depth. But this is not the whole story. At every object-background boundary, there are regions of the background that only one eye can see because, in the other eye's view, the foreground object occludes that region of background. Such monocular zones do not have a corresponding match in the other eye's view and can thus cause problems for depth extraction algorithms. In this paper I will discuss evidence, from our knowledge of human visual perception, illustrating that monocular zones do not pose problems for our human visual systems, rather, our visual systems can extract depth from such zones. I review the relevant human perception literature in this area, and show some recent data aimed at quantifying the perception of depth from monocular zones. The paper finishes with a discussion of the potential importance of considering monocular zones, for stereo display technology and depth compression algorithms.

Surrenderers’ Relationships with Cats Admitted to Four Australian Animal Shelters

PubMed Central

Zito, Sarah; Paterson, Mandy; Rand, Jacquie; Phillips, Clive J. C.

2018-01-01

Simple Summary The surrender of cats to animal shelters results in financial, social and moral burdens for the community. Human caretaking of cats was explored in a sample of people surrendering cats to shelters in Australia. At the shelters surrenderers classified themselves as owners or non-owners and a questionnaire identified that this was related to their method of acquisition of the cat, their association time with the cat, the closeness of their relationship with the cat and their degree of responsibility for the cat’s care. A model of ownership perception was developed to provide a better understanding of factors influencing ownership perception. Understanding ownership perceptions in cats surrendered to shelters is important as these can inform the development of more targeted and effective intervention strategies to reduce numbers of unwanted cats. Abstract The surrender of cats to animal shelters results in financial, social and moral burdens for the community. Correlations of caretaking and interactions with surrendered cats were calculated, to understand more about humans’ relationships with surrendered cats and the contribution of semi-owned cats to shelter intakes. A questionnaire was used to collect detailed information about 100 surrenderers’ relationships with cats they surrendered to four animal shelters in Australia, with each surrenderer classifying themselves as being either the owner or a non-owner of the surrendered cat (ownership perception). Method of acquisition of the cat, association time, closeness of the relationship with the cat and degree of responsibility for the cat’s care were all associated with ownership perception. Many non-owners (59%) fed and interacted with the cat they surrendered but rarely displayed other caretaking behaviours. However, most surrenderers of owned and unowned cats were attached to and felt responsible for the cat. Based on these results and other evidence, a causal model of ownership perception was proposed to provide a better understanding of factors influencing ownership perception. This model consisted of a set of variables proposed as directly or indirectly influencing ownership perception, with connecting arrows to indicate proposed causal relationships. Understanding ownership perception and the contribution of semi-owned cats to shelter intake is important as these can inform the development of more targeted and effective intervention strategies to reduce numbers of unwanted cats. PMID:29414867

The overview effect: the impact of space exploration on the evolution of nursing science.

PubMed

Butcher, H K; Forchuk, C

1992-01-01

The purpose of this article is to explore the overview effect, an experience evoked by space travel that has the capacity to transform all patterns of human existence and evolution toward greater potentials in human diversity and creativity. As nurses migrate with humanity into the solar system and beyond, they will experience the overview effect. The core components of the effect include changed perceptions of space, time, sound, and weight which have the potential to transform the evolution of nursing science. Nursing paradigms will encompass a view of humanity as integral with an infinite evolutionary universe. After generations of living in space in a diversity of new environments, the physical body will undergo radical changes, and the meaning of health will be transformed. The article concludes with a discussion on the parallels between Rogers' science of unitary human beings and the overview effect.

Self-Perceptions of Mental Health and Attractiveness Status in the Interpersonal Marketplace.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pellegrini, Robert J.; And Others

The centrality of self-perceptions in the dynamics of human relationships and personality is a well-documented empirical fact. Feelings of personal happiness and psychological adjustment were studied in relation to self-perceptions of individual worth in the interpersonal marketplace. Male and female single college students between 17 and 30 years…

Citizenship Education in Context: Student Teacher Perceptions of Citizenship in Cyprus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koutselini, Mary

2008-01-01

This paper presents a phenomenographic study that was carried out at the University of Cyprus Department of Education, aiming at the investigation of student teacher perceptions of citizenship, nationality, community and their relationship with human rights. The study showed a continuum of perceptions about citizenship, which are discussed in line…

From Attire to Assault: Clothing, Objectification, and De-humanization - A Possible Prelude to Sexual Violence?

PubMed

Awasthi, Bhuvanesh

2017-01-01

In the context of objectification and violence, little attention has been paid to the perception neuroscience of how the human brain perceives bodies and objectifies them. Various studies point to how external cues such as appearance and attire could play a key role in encouraging objectification, dehumanization and the denial of agency. Reviewing new experimental findings across several areas of research, it seems that common threads run through issues of clothing, sexual objectification, body perception, dehumanization, and assault. Collating findings from several different lines of research, this article reviews additional evidence from cognitive and neural dynamics of person perception (body and face perception processes) that predict downstream social behavior. Specifically, new findings demonstrate cognitive processing of sexualized female bodies as object-like, a crucial aspect of dehumanized percept devoid of agency and personhood. Sexual violence is a consequence of a dehumanized perception of female bodies that aggressors acquire through their exposure and interpretation of objectified body images. Integrating these findings and identifying triggers for sexual violence may help develop remedial measures and inform law enforcement processes and policy makers alike.

From Attire to Assault: Clothing, Objectification, and De-humanization – A Possible Prelude to Sexual Violence?

PubMed Central

Awasthi, Bhuvanesh

2017-01-01

In the context of objectification and violence, little attention has been paid to the perception neuroscience of how the human brain perceives bodies and objectifies them. Various studies point to how external cues such as appearance and attire could play a key role in encouraging objectification, dehumanization and the denial of agency. Reviewing new experimental findings across several areas of research, it seems that common threads run through issues of clothing, sexual objectification, body perception, dehumanization, and assault. Collating findings from several different lines of research, this article reviews additional evidence from cognitive and neural dynamics of person perception (body and face perception processes) that predict downstream social behavior. Specifically, new findings demonstrate cognitive processing of sexualized female bodies as object-like, a crucial aspect of dehumanized percept devoid of agency and personhood. Sexual violence is a consequence of a dehumanized perception of female bodies that aggressors acquire through their exposure and interpretation of objectified body images. Integrating these findings and identifying triggers for sexual violence may help develop remedial measures and inform law enforcement processes and policy makers alike. PMID:28344565

Neocortical Rebound Depolarization Enhances Visual Perception

PubMed Central

Funayama, Kenta; Ban, Hiroshi; Chan, Allen W.; Matsuki, Norio; Murphy, Timothy H.; Ikegaya, Yuji

2015-01-01

Animals are constantly exposed to the time-varying visual world. Because visual perception is modulated by immediately prior visual experience, visual cortical neurons may register recent visual history into a specific form of offline activity and link it to later visual input. To examine how preceding visual inputs interact with upcoming information at the single neuron level, we designed a simple stimulation protocol in which a brief, orientated flashing stimulus was subsequently coupled to visual stimuli with identical or different features. Using in vivo whole-cell patch-clamp recording and functional two-photon calcium imaging from the primary visual cortex (V1) of awake mice, we discovered that a flash of sinusoidal grating per se induces an early, transient activation as well as a long-delayed reactivation in V1 neurons. This late response, which started hundreds of milliseconds after the flash and persisted for approximately 2 s, was also observed in human V1 electroencephalogram. When another drifting grating stimulus arrived during the late response, the V1 neurons exhibited a sublinear, but apparently increased response, especially to the same grating orientation. In behavioral tests of mice and humans, the flashing stimulation enhanced the detection power of the identically orientated visual stimulation only when the second stimulation was presented during the time window of the late response. Therefore, V1 late responses likely provide a neural basis for admixing temporally separated stimuli and extracting identical features in time-varying visual environments. PMID:26274866

The impact of systemic cortical alterations on perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zheng

2011-12-01

Perception is the process of transmitting and interpreting sensory information, and the primary somatosensory (SI) area in the human cortex is the main sensory receptive area for the sensation of touch. The elaborate neuroanatomical connectivity that subserves the neuronal communication between adjacent and near-adjacent regions within sensory cortex has been widely recognized to be essential to normal sensory function. As a result, systemic cortical alterations that impact the cortical regional interaction, as associated with many neurological disorders, are expected to have significant impact on sensory perception. Recently, our research group has developed a novel sensory diagnostic system that employs quantitative sensory testing methods and is able to non-invasively assess central nervous system healthy status. The intent of this study is to utilize quantitative sensory testing methods that were designed to generate discriminable perception to objectively and quantitatively assess the impacts of different conditions on human sensory information processing capacity. The correlation between human perceptions with observations from animal research enables a better understanding of the underlying neurophysiology of human perception. Additional findings on different subject populations provide valuable insight of the underlying mechanisms for the development and maintenance of different neurological diseases. During the course of the study, several protocols were designed and utilized. And this set of sensory-based perceptual metrics was employed to study the effects of different conditions (non-noxious thermal stimulation, chronic pain stage, and normal aging) on sensory perception. It was found that these conditions result in significant deviations of the subjects' tactile information processing capacities from normal values. Although the observed shift of sensory detection sensitivity could be a result of enhanced peripheral activity, the changes in the effects of adaptation most likely reflect changes in central nervous system. The findings in this work provide valuable information for better understanding the underlying mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of different neurological conditions.

Invariant recognition drives neural representations of action sequences

PubMed Central

Poggio, Tomaso

2017-01-01

Recognizing the actions of others from visual stimuli is a crucial aspect of human perception that allows individuals to respond to social cues. Humans are able to discriminate between similar actions despite transformations, like changes in viewpoint or actor, that substantially alter the visual appearance of a scene. This ability to generalize across complex transformations is a hallmark of human visual intelligence. Advances in understanding action recognition at the neural level have not always translated into precise accounts of the computational principles underlying what representations of action sequences are constructed by human visual cortex. Here we test the hypothesis that invariant action discrimination might fill this gap. Recently, the study of artificial systems for static object perception has produced models, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), that achieve human level performance in complex discriminative tasks. Within this class, architectures that better support invariant object recognition also produce image representations that better match those implied by human and primate neural data. However, whether these models produce representations of action sequences that support recognition across complex transformations and closely follow neural representations of actions remains unknown. Here we show that spatiotemporal CNNs accurately categorize video stimuli into action classes, and that deliberate model modifications that improve performance on an invariant action recognition task lead to data representations that better match human neural recordings. Our results support our hypothesis that performance on invariant discrimination dictates the neural representations of actions computed in the brain. These results broaden the scope of the invariant recognition framework for understanding visual intelligence from perception of inanimate objects and faces in static images to the study of human perception of action sequences. PMID:29253864

Examination of Information Technology (IT) Certification and the Human Resources (HR) Professional Perception of Job Performance: A Quantitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Horo, Neal O.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to test the Leontief input/output theory relating the input of IT certification to the output of the English-speaking U.S. human resource professional perceived IT professional job performance. Participants (N = 104) rated their perceptions of IT certified vs. non-IT certified professionals' job…

Computational Modeling of Emotions and Affect in Social-Cultural Interaction

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-02

acoustic and textual information sources. Second, a cross-lingual study was performed that shed light on how human perception and automatic recognition...speech is produced, a speaker’s pitch and intonational pattern, and word usage. Better feature representation and advanced approaches were used to...recognition performance, and improved our understanding of language/cultural impact on human perception of emotion and automatic classification. • Units

Piecing Together the Puzzle of Graduate Employment: Factors that Shape the Graduate Work Expectations of Human Resource Management Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parris, Melissa A.; Saville, Kerrie

2011-01-01

Providing graduates with a set of skills and attributes relevant to their future employment remains a key topic in both higher education policy and research. This paper reports findings from a pilot study of human resource management (HRM) students' perceptions of the graduate work experience. Specifically, it focuses on how these perceptions are…

What is Comprehensive Sexuality Education Really All About? Perceptions of Students Enrolled in an Undergraduate Human Sexuality Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldfarb, Eva S.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study was to use qualitative evaluation techniques to explore the perceptions of students enrolled in undergraduate human sexuality classes regarding their expectations for the course as well as outcomes. One hundred forty-eight students were surveyed at the beginning and again at the end of the semester long course. While…

Extending human perception of electromagnetic radiation to the UV region through biologically inspired photochromic fuzzy logic (BIPFUL) systems.

PubMed

Gentili, Pier Luigi; Rightler, Amanda L; Heron, B Mark; Gabbutt, Christopher D

2016-01-25

Photochromic fuzzy logic systems have been designed that extend human visual perception into the UV region. The systems are founded on a detailed knowledge of the activation wavelengths and quantum yields of a series of thermally reversible photochromic compounds. By appropriate matching of the photochromic behaviour unique colour signatures are generated in response differing UV activation frequencies.

The compression of perceived time in a hot environment depends on physiological and psychological factors.

PubMed

Tamm, Maria; Jakobson, Ainika; Havik, Merle; Burk, Andres; Timpmann, Saima; Allik, Jüri; Oöpik, Vahur; Kreegipuu, Kairi

2014-01-01

The human perception of time was observed under extremely hot conditions. Young healthy men performed a time production task repeatedly in 4 experimental trials in either a temperate (22 °C, relative humidity 35%) or a hot (42 °C, relative humidity 18%) environment and with or without a moderate-intensity treadmill exercise. Within 1 hour, the produced durations indicated a significant compression of short intervals (0.5 to 10 s) in the combination of exercising and high ambient temperature, while neither variable/condition alone was enough to yield the effect. Temporal judgement was analysed in relation to different indicators of arousal, such as critical flicker frequency (CFF), core temperature, heart rate, and subjective ratings of fatigue and exertion. The arousal-sensitive internal clock model (originally proposed by Treisman) is used to explain the temporal compression while exercising in heat. As a result, we suggest that the psychological response to heat stress, the more precisely perceived fatigue, is important in describing the relationship between core temperature and time perception. Temporal compression is related to higher core temperature, but only if a certain level of perceived fatigue is accounted for, implying the existence of a thermoemotional internal clock.

Getting the point across: exploring the effects of dynamic virtual humans in an interactive museum exhibit on user perceptions.

PubMed

Rivera-Gutierrez, Diego; Ferdig, Rick; Li, Jian; Lok, Benjamin

2014-04-01

We have created “You, M.D.”, an interactive museum exhibit in which users learn about topics in public health literacy while interacting with virtual humans. You, M.D. is equipped with a weight sensor, a height sensor and a Microsoft Kinect that gather basic user information. Conceptually, You, M.D. could use this user information to dynamically select the appearance of the virtual humans in the interaction attempting to improve learning outcomes and user perception for each particular user. For this concept to be possible, a better understanding of how different elements of the visual appearance of a virtual human affects user perceptions is required. In this paper, we present the results of an initial user study with a large sample size (n =333) ran using You, M.D. The study measured users’ reactions based on the user’s gender and body-mass index (BMI) when facing virtual humans with BMI either concordant or discordant from the user’s BMI. The results of the study indicate that concordance between the users’ BMI and the virtual human’s BMI affects male and female users differently. The results also show that female users rate virtual humans as more knowledgeable than male users rate the same virtual humans.

Perception of Fish Sentience, Welfare and Humane Slaughter by Highly Educated Citizens of Bogotá, Colombia and Curitiba, Brazil

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Discussions on farm animal welfare have become frequent, especially in developed countries. The aim of this research was to study the perception of fish sentience, welfare and slaughter by highly educated citizens from Bogotá, Colombia, and Curitiba, Brazil. An online survey with 12 questions presented as open-ended, multiple choice and 5-point Likert-type scale formats was available to respondents. Answers from 395 participants in Bogotá and 387 in Curitiba were analyzed, and results are presented in the order Bogotá followed by Curitiba. The percentage of participants who perceived fish as sentient animals was 79.7% and 71.8%. The classification of sentience perception among taxonomic groups seems in accordance with the phylogenetic proximity to humans, suggesting participants were more likely to perceive sentience in mammals than in other animals. The descending order related to the highest perception of fish suffering in different scenarios was fishing with hook and line (75.6%, 70.6%); municipal live fish fair (68.7%—only in Curitiba); fish-and-pay ponds (59.7%, 54.4%); fish kept as laboratory animals (58.0, 48.1%); fish farming (35.7, 36.8%); fish in pet stores (35.5%, 26.1%); production of ornamental fish (19.3%, 21.8%); fish in aquarium exhibits (18.8%,16.9%); and fish kept as pets (12.4%,12.3%). Lack of knowledge about the conditions of capture, handling, transport and sale of ornamental fish may justify the perception of low level of suffering in the last scenarios. Regarding humane slaughter, 57.0% and 55.0% of respondents were unaware of the issue. After reflection induced by the questionnaire, 76.0% and 72% of participants believed that fish should be included in humane slaughter regulations. This study presents original data suggesting that respondents from Bogotá and Curitiba consider fish as sentient beings. The perception of suffering in specific scenarios challenges common activities. Recognition of suffering also endorses humane slaughter regulations to reduce pain in a large number of individuals of fish slaughtered annually for human consumption in Colombia and Brazil. PMID:28068372

Perception of Fish Sentience, Welfare and Humane Slaughter by Highly Educated Citizens of Bogotá, Colombia and Curitiba, Brazil.

PubMed

Rucinque, Daniel Santiago; Souza, Ana Paula Oliveira; Molento, Carla Forte Maiolino

2017-01-01

Discussions on farm animal welfare have become frequent, especially in developed countries. The aim of this research was to study the perception of fish sentience, welfare and slaughter by highly educated citizens from Bogotá, Colombia, and Curitiba, Brazil. An online survey with 12 questions presented as open-ended, multiple choice and 5-point Likert-type scale formats was available to respondents. Answers from 395 participants in Bogotá and 387 in Curitiba were analyzed, and results are presented in the order Bogotá followed by Curitiba. The percentage of participants who perceived fish as sentient animals was 79.7% and 71.8%. The classification of sentience perception among taxonomic groups seems in accordance with the phylogenetic proximity to humans, suggesting participants were more likely to perceive sentience in mammals than in other animals. The descending order related to the highest perception of fish suffering in different scenarios was fishing with hook and line (75.6%, 70.6%); municipal live fish fair (68.7%-only in Curitiba); fish-and-pay ponds (59.7%, 54.4%); fish kept as laboratory animals (58.0, 48.1%); fish farming (35.7, 36.8%); fish in pet stores (35.5%, 26.1%); production of ornamental fish (19.3%, 21.8%); fish in aquarium exhibits (18.8%,16.9%); and fish kept as pets (12.4%,12.3%). Lack of knowledge about the conditions of capture, handling, transport and sale of ornamental fish may justify the perception of low level of suffering in the last scenarios. Regarding humane slaughter, 57.0% and 55.0% of respondents were unaware of the issue. After reflection induced by the questionnaire, 76.0% and 72% of participants believed that fish should be included in humane slaughter regulations. This study presents original data suggesting that respondents from Bogotá and Curitiba consider fish as sentient beings. The perception of suffering in specific scenarios challenges common activities. Recognition of suffering also endorses humane slaughter regulations to reduce pain in a large number of individuals of fish slaughtered annually for human consumption in Colombia and Brazil.

Dynamic Dependence Analysis : Modeling and Inference of Changing Dependence Among Multiple Time-Series

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-01

isolation. In addition to being inherently multi-modal, human perception takes advantages of multiple sources of information within a single modality...restric- tion was reasonable for the applications we looked at. However, consider using a TIM to model a teacher student relationship among moving objects...That is, imagine one teacher object demonstrating a behavior for a student object. The student can observe the teacher and then recreate the behavior

Time Perception Mechanisms at Central Nervous System.

PubMed

Fontes, Rhailana; Ribeiro, Jéssica; Gupta, Daya S; Machado, Dionis; Lopes-Júnior, Fernando; Magalhães, Francisco; Bastos, Victor Hugo; Rocha, Kaline; Marinho, Victor; Lima, Gildário; Velasques, Bruna; Ribeiro, Pedro; Orsini, Marco; Pessoa, Bruno; Leite, Marco Antonio Araujo; Teixeira, Silmar

2016-04-01

The five senses have specific ways to receive environmental information and lead to central nervous system. The perception of time is the sum of stimuli associated with cognitive processes and environmental changes. Thus, the perception of time requires a complex neural mechanism and may be changed by emotional state, level of attention, memory and diseases. Despite this knowledge, the neural mechanisms of time perception are not yet fully understood. The objective is to relate the mechanisms involved the neurofunctional aspects, theories, executive functions and pathologies that contribute the understanding of temporal perception. Articles form 1980 to 2015 were searched by using the key themes: neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, theories, time cells, memory, schizophrenia, depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and Parkinson's disease combined with the term perception of time. We evaluated 158 articles within the inclusion criteria for the purpose of the study. We conclude that research about the holdings of the frontal cortex, parietal, basal ganglia, cerebellum and hippocampus have provided advances in the understanding of the regions related to the perception of time. In neurological and psychiatric disorders, the understanding of time depends on the severity of the diseases and the type of tasks.

Texture characterization for joint compression and classification based on human perception in the wavelet domain.

PubMed

Fahmy, Gamal; Black, John; Panchanathan, Sethuraman

2006-06-01

Today's multimedia applications demand sophisticated compression and classification techniques in order to store, transmit, and retrieve audio-visual information efficiently. Over the last decade, perceptually based image compression methods have been gaining importance. These methods take into account the abilities (and the limitations) of human visual perception (HVP) when performing compression. The upcoming MPEG 7 standard also addresses the need for succinct classification and indexing of visual content for efficient retrieval. However, there has been no research that has attempted to exploit the characteristics of the human visual system to perform both compression and classification jointly. One area of HVP that has unexplored potential for joint compression and classification is spatial frequency perception. Spatial frequency content that is perceived by humans can be characterized in terms of three parameters, which are: 1) magnitude; 2) phase; and 3) orientation. While the magnitude of spatial frequency content has been exploited in several existing image compression techniques, the novel contribution of this paper is its focus on the use of phase coherence for joint compression and classification in the wavelet domain. Specifically, this paper describes a human visual system-based method for measuring the degree to which an image contains coherent (perceptible) phase information, and then exploits that information to provide joint compression and classification. Simulation results that demonstrate the efficiency of this method are presented.

The art of seeing and painting.

PubMed

Grossberg, Stephen

2008-01-01

The human urge to represent the three-dimensional world using two-dimensional pictorial representations dates back at least to Paleolithic times. Artists from ancient to modern times have struggled to understand how a few contours or color patches on a flat surface can induce mental representations of a three-dimensional scene. This article summarizes some of the recent breakthroughs in scientifically understanding how the brain sees that shed light on these struggles. These breakthroughs illustrate how various artists have intuitively understood paradoxical properties about how the brain sees, and have used that understanding to create great art. These paradoxical properties arise from how the brain forms the units of conscious visual perception; namely, representations of three-dimensional boundaries and surfaces. Boundaries and surfaces are computed in parallel cortical processing streams that obey computationally complementary properties. These streams interact at multiple levels to overcome their complementary weaknesses and to transform their complementary properties into consistent percepts. The article describes how properties of complementary consistency have guided the creation of many great works of art.

Pulse-train Stimulation of Primary Somatosensory Cortex Blocks Pain Perception in Tail Clip Test

PubMed Central

Lee, Soohyun; Hwang, Eunjin; Lee, Dongmyeong

2017-01-01

Human studies of brain stimulation have demonstrated modulatory effects on the perception of pain. However, whether the primary somatosensory cortical activity is associated with antinociceptive responses remains unknown. Therefore, we examined the antinociceptive effects of neuronal activity evoked by optogenetic stimulation of primary somatosensory cortex. Optogenetic transgenic mice were subjected to continuous or pulse-train optogenetic stimulation of the primary somatosensory cortex at frequencies of 15, 30, and 40 Hz, during a tail clip test. Reaction time was measured using a digital high-speed video camera. Pulse-train optogenetic stimulation of primary somatosensory cortex showed a delayed pain response with respect to a tail clip, whereas no significant change in reaction time was observed with continuous stimulation. In response to the pulse-train stimulation, video monitoring and local field potential recording revealed associated paw movement and sensorimotor rhythms, respectively. Our results show that optogenetic stimulation of primary somatosensory cortex at beta and gamma frequencies blocks transmission of pain signals in tail clip test. PMID:28442945

Overweight and Body Image Perception in Adolescents with Triage of Eating Disorders

PubMed Central

Franceschini, Sylvia do Carmo Castro; Hermsdorff, Helen Hermana Miranda; Priore, Silvia Eloiza

2017-01-01

Purpose To verify the influence of overweight and alteration in the perception of the corporal image during the triage of eating disorders. Method A food disorder triage was performed in adolescents with 10 to 19 years of age using the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), Children's Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT), and Bulimic Investigatory Test Edinburgh (BITE), as well as a nutritional status evaluation. The perception of body image was evaluated in a subsample of adolescents with 10 to 14 years of age, using the Brazilian Silhouette Scale. The project was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Results The prevalence of eating disorder triage was 11.4% (n = 242) for the 2,123 adolescents evaluated. Overweight was present in 21.1% (n = 447) of the students, being more prevalent in the early adolescence phase, which presented levels of distortion of 56.9% (n = 740) and dissatisfaction of 79.3% (n = 1031). Body dissatisfaction was considered as a risk factor, increasing by more than 13 times the chance of TA screening. Conclusion Overweight was correlated with the ED triage and body dissatisfaction was considered as a risk factor, increasing the chances of these disorders by more than 13 times. PMID:28856236

Perceptual Distortions in Pitch and Time Reveal Active Prediction and Support for an Auditory Pitch-Motion Hypothesis

PubMed Central

Henry, Molly J.; McAuley, J. Devin

2013-01-01

A number of accounts of human auditory perception assume that listeners use prior stimulus context to generate predictions about future stimulation. Here, we tested an auditory pitch-motion hypothesis that was developed from this perspective. Listeners judged either the time change (i.e., duration) or pitch change of a comparison frequency glide relative to a standard (referent) glide. Under a constant-velocity assumption, listeners were hypothesized to use the pitch velocity (Δf/Δt) of the standard glide to generate predictions about the pitch velocity of the comparison glide, leading to perceptual distortions along the to-be-judged dimension when the velocities of the two glides differed. These predictions were borne out in the pattern of relative points of subjective equality by a significant three-way interaction between the velocities of the two glides and task. In general, listeners’ judgments along the task-relevant dimension (pitch or time) were affected by expectations generated by the constant-velocity standard, but in an opposite manner for the two stimulus dimensions. When the comparison glide velocity was faster than the standard, listeners overestimated time change, but underestimated pitch change, whereas when the comparison glide velocity was slower than the standard, listeners underestimated time change, but overestimated pitch change. Perceptual distortions were least evident when the velocities of the standard and comparison glides were matched. Fits of an imputed velocity model further revealed increasingly larger distortions at faster velocities. The present findings provide support for the auditory pitch-motion hypothesis and add to a larger body of work revealing a role for active prediction in human auditory perception. PMID:23936462

Perceptual distortions in pitch and time reveal active prediction and support for an auditory pitch-motion hypothesis.

PubMed

Henry, Molly J; McAuley, J Devin

2013-01-01

A number of accounts of human auditory perception assume that listeners use prior stimulus context to generate predictions about future stimulation. Here, we tested an auditory pitch-motion hypothesis that was developed from this perspective. Listeners judged either the time change (i.e., duration) or pitch change of a comparison frequency glide relative to a standard (referent) glide. Under a constant-velocity assumption, listeners were hypothesized to use the pitch velocity (Δf/Δt) of the standard glide to generate predictions about the pitch velocity of the comparison glide, leading to perceptual distortions along the to-be-judged dimension when the velocities of the two glides differed. These predictions were borne out in the pattern of relative points of subjective equality by a significant three-way interaction between the velocities of the two glides and task. In general, listeners' judgments along the task-relevant dimension (pitch or time) were affected by expectations generated by the constant-velocity standard, but in an opposite manner for the two stimulus dimensions. When the comparison glide velocity was faster than the standard, listeners overestimated time change, but underestimated pitch change, whereas when the comparison glide velocity was slower than the standard, listeners underestimated time change, but overestimated pitch change. Perceptual distortions were least evident when the velocities of the standard and comparison glides were matched. Fits of an imputed velocity model further revealed increasingly larger distortions at faster velocities. The present findings provide support for the auditory pitch-motion hypothesis and add to a larger body of work revealing a role for active prediction in human auditory perception.

Time perception: the bad news and the good

PubMed Central

Matthews, William J; Meck, Warren H

2014-01-01

Time perception is fundamental and heavily researched, but the field faces a number of obstacles to theoretical progress. In this advanced review, we focus on three pieces of ‘bad news’ for time perception research: temporal perception is highly labile across changes in experimental context and task; there are pronounced individual differences not just in overall performance but in the use of different timing strategies and the effect of key variables; and laboratory studies typically bear little relation to timing in the ‘real world’. We describe recent examples of these issues and in each case offer some ‘good news’ by showing how new research is addressing these challenges to provide rich insights into the neural and information-processing bases of timing and time perception. PMID:25210578

Distortion in time perception as a result of concern about appearing biased

PubMed Central

Moskowitz, Gordon B.; Olcaysoy Okten, Irmak; Gooch, Cynthia M.

2017-01-01

Two experiments illustrate that the perception of a given time duration slows when white participants observe faces of black men, but only if participants are concerned with appearing biased. In Experiment 1 the concern with the appearance of bias is measured as a chronic state using the external motivation to respond without prejudice scale (Plant & Devine, 1998). In Experiment 2 it is manipulated by varying the race of the experimenter (black versus white). Time perception is assessed via a temporal discrimination task commonly used in the literature. Models of time perception identify arousal as a factor that causes perceived time to slow, and we speculate that arousal arising in intergroup interactions can alter time perception. PMID:28792515

[Nose in the light of medical history].

PubMed

Holck, P

2001-06-30

Vanity, it seems, is one of the qualities that separate us from other species; indeed, we may said to possess it in excess. Decorating body and apparel with all kinds of objects in order to look attractive goes a long way back in time; even Stone Age man knew how to make himself look smart. This very human trait has not abated over the millennia, but the perception of what looks good has changed a great deal, just like fashion, and no part of the human body has probably been of such significance in this respect as the nose. This article presents a brief review of nasal fashion.

Uncertainty quantification in flood risk assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blöschl, Günter; Hall, Julia; Kiss, Andrea; Parajka, Juraj; Perdigão, Rui A. P.; Rogger, Magdalena; Salinas, José Luis; Viglione, Alberto

2017-04-01

Uncertainty is inherent to flood risk assessments because of the complexity of the human-water system, which is characterised by nonlinearities and interdependencies, because of limited knowledge about system properties and because of cognitive biases in human perception and decision-making. On top of the uncertainty associated with the assessment of the existing risk to extreme events, additional uncertainty arises because of temporal changes in the system due to climate change, modifications of the environment, population growth and the associated increase in assets. Novel risk assessment concepts are needed that take into account all these sources of uncertainty. They should be based on the understanding of how flood extremes are generated and how they change over time. They should also account for the dynamics of risk perception of decision makers and population in the floodplains. In this talk we discuss these novel risk assessment concepts through examples from Flood Frequency Hydrology, Socio-Hydrology and Predictions Under Change. We believe that uncertainty quantification in flood risk assessment should lead to a robust approach of integrated flood risk management aiming at enhancing resilience rather than searching for optimal defense strategies.

Prestimulus oscillatory activity in the alpha band predicts visual discrimination ability.

PubMed

van Dijk, Hanneke; Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs; Oostenveld, Robert; Jensen, Ole

2008-02-20

Although the resting and baseline states of the human electroencephalogram and magnetoencephalogram (MEG) are dominated by oscillations in the alpha band (approximately 10 Hz), the functional role of these oscillations remains unclear. In this study we used MEG to investigate how spontaneous oscillations in humans presented before visual stimuli modulate visual perception. Subjects had to report if there was a subtle difference in gray levels between two superimposed presented discs. We then compared the prestimulus brain activity for correctly (hits) versus incorrectly (misses) identified stimuli. We found that visual discrimination ability decreased with an increase in prestimulus alpha power. Given that reaction times did not vary systematically with prestimulus alpha power changes in vigilance are not likely to explain the change in discrimination ability. Source reconstruction using spatial filters allowed us to identify the brain areas accounting for this effect. The dominant sources modulating visual perception were localized around the parieto-occipital sulcus. We suggest that the parieto-occipital alpha power reflects functional inhibition imposed by higher level areas, which serves to modulate the gain of the visual stream.

A transformation-aware perceptual image metric

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellnhofer, Petr; Ritschel, Tobias; Myszkowski, Karol; Seidel, Hans-Peter

2015-03-01

Predicting human visual perception has several applications such as compression, rendering, editing and retargeting. Current approaches however, ignore the fact that the human visual system compensates for geometric transformations, e. g., we see that an image and a rotated copy are identical. Instead, they will report a large, false-positive difference. At the same time, if the transformations become too strong or too spatially incoherent, comparing two images indeed gets increasingly difficult. Between these two extrema, we propose a system to quantify the effect of transformations, not only on the perception of image differences, but also on saliency. To this end, we first fit local homographies to a given optical flow field and then convert this field into a field of elementary transformations such as translation, rotation, scaling, and perspective. We conduct a perceptual experiment quantifying the increase of difficulty when compensating for elementary transformations. Transformation entropy is proposed as a novel measure of complexity in a flow field. This representation is then used for applications, such as comparison of non-aligned images, where transformations cause threshold elevation, and detection of salient transformations.

The visual perception of distance ratios in physical space.

PubMed

Norman, J Farley; Adkins, Olivia C; Pedersen, Lauren E

2016-06-01

Past studies have consistently demonstrated that human observers cannot accurately perceive environmental distances. Even so, we obviously detect sufficient spatial information to meet the demands of everyday life. In the current experiment, ten younger adults (mean age was 21.8years) and ten older adults (mean age was 72.3years) estimated distance ratios in physical space. On any given trial, observers judged how long one distance interval was relative to another. The 18 stimulus ratios ranged from 1.0 to 9.5; the observers judged each stimulus ratio three times. The average correlation coefficient relating actual distance ratios to perceived ratios was identical (r=0.87) for both younger and older age groups. Despite this strong relationship between perception and reality, the judgments of many individual observers were inaccurate. For example, ten percent of the observers overestimated the stimulus ratios, while fifty percent underestimated the stimulus ratios. Although both under- and overestimation occurred in the current experiment, the results nevertheless demonstrate that human adults can reliably compare environmental distances in different directions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceptions of Life Changes: An Alternate Measure of Aging through Time.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suggs, Patricia K.; Kivett, Vira R.

Retrospective strategies measuring perceived life changes over time can further the advancement of life span developmental research. Researchers have neglected the individual's perception of his/her life changes over time. This study attempts to determine discriminators of change over time as operationalized by perceptions of change. Subjects…

Bridge Over an Aging Population: Examining Longitudinal Relations Among Human Resource Management, Social Support, and Employee Outcomes Among Bridge Workers.

PubMed

Veth, Klaske N; Van der Heijden, Beatrice I J M; Korzilius, Hubert P L M; De Lange, Annet H; Emans, Ben J M

2018-01-01

This two-wave complete panel study aims to examine human resource management (HRM) bundles of practices in relation to social support [i.e., leader-member exchange (LMX), coworker exchange (CWX)] and employee outcomes (i.e., work engagement, employability, and health), within a context of workers aged 65+. Based upon the social exchange theory and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework, it was hypothesized that HRM bundles at Time 1 would increase bridge workers' outcomes at Time 2, and that this relationship would be mediated by perceptions of LMX and CWX at Time 2. Using a longitudinal design, hypotheses were tested in a unique sample of Dutch bridge employees ( N = 228). Results of several structural equation modeling analyses revealed no significant associations between HRM bundles, and social support, moreover, no significant associations were found in relation to employee outcomes. However, the results of the best-fitting final model revealed the importance of the impact of social support on employee (65+) outcomes over time.

Engaging narratives evoke similar neural activity and lead to similar time perception.

PubMed

Cohen, Samantha S; Henin, Simon; Parra, Lucas C

2017-07-04

It is said that we lose track of time - that "time flies" - when we are engrossed in a story. How does engagement with the story cause this distorted perception of time, and what are its neural correlates? People commit both time and attentional resources to an engaging stimulus. For narrative videos, attentional engagement can be represented as the level of similarity between the electroencephalographic responses of different viewers. Here we show that this measure of neural engagement predicted the duration of time that viewers were willing to commit to narrative videos. Contrary to popular wisdom, engagement did not distort the average perception of time duration. Rather, more similar brain responses resulted in a more uniform perception of time across viewers. These findings suggest that by capturing the attention of an audience, narrative videos bring both neural processing and the subjective perception of time into synchrony.

Toward Reduced Aircraft Community Noise Impact Via a Perception-Influenced Design Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rizzi, Stephen A.

2016-01-01

This is an exciting time for aircraft design. New configurations, including small multi-rotor uncrewed aerial systems, fixed- and tilt-wing distributed electric propulsion aircraft, high-speed rotorcraft, hybrid-electric commercial transports, and low-boom supersonic transports, are being made possible through a host of propulsion and airframe technology developments. The resulting noise signatures may be radically different, both spectrally and temporally, than those of the current fleet. Noise certification metrics currently used in aircraft design do not necessarily reflect these characteristics and therefore may not correlate well with human response. Further, as operations and missions become less airport-centric, e.g., those associated with on-demand mobility or package delivery, vehicles may operate in closer proximity to the population than ever before. Fortunately, a new set of tools are available for assessing human perception during the design process in order to affect the final design in a positive manner. The tool chain utilizes system noise prediction methods coupled with auralization and psychoacoustic testing, making possible the inclusion of human response to noise, along with performance criteria and certification requirements, into the aircraft design process. Several case studies are considered to illustrate how this approach could be used to influence the design of future aircraft.

Welfare of apes in captive environments: comments on, and by, a specific group of apes.

PubMed

Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue; Wamba, Kanzi; Wamba, Panbanisha; Wamba, Nyota

2007-01-01

Accurately determining the proper captive environment for apes requires adequately assessing the psychological similarities between apes and humans. Scientists currently believe apes lack mental complexity (Millikan, 2006), raising questions concerning the evolution of human culture from ape-like societies (Tomasello, 1999). A long-term cultural study with bonobos suggests less intellectual divergence from humans than currently postulated (Savage-Rumbaugh, 2005). Because humans view apes as mentally limited, some current captive environments may appear idyllic while offering only an illusion of appropriate care, derived from a simplistic view of what apes are, rather than what they might be. This perception of apes determines their handling, which determines their mental development, which perpetuates the prevailing perception. Only breaking this cycle will allow the current perception of apes to change. Their usual captive environment limits any demonstration of culture. However, the bonobo study reveals what ape culture can become, which should affect future welfare considerations for at least those species genetically close to humans (bonobos and chimpanzees). Development of a languaged bonobo culture allows these nonhuman animals to provide their own responses regarding adequate ape welfare.

Time perception in patients with major depressive disorder during vagus nerve stimulation.

PubMed

Biermann, T; Kreil, S; Groemer, T W; Maihöfner, C; Richter-Schmiedinger, T; Kornhuber, J; Sperling, W

2011-07-01

Affective disorders may affect patients' time perception. Several studies have described time as a function of the frontal lobe. The activating eff ects of vagus nerve stimulation on the frontal lobe might also modulate time perception in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Time perception was investigated in 30 patients with MDD and in 7 patients with therapy-resistant MDD. In these 7 patients, a VNS system was implanted and time perception was assessed before and during stimulation. A time estimation task in which patients were asked "How many seconds have passed?" tested time perception at 4 defined time points (34 s, 77 s, 192 s and 230 s). The differences between the estimated and actual durations were calculated and used for subsequent analysis. Patients with MDD and healthy controls estimated the set time points relatively accurately. A general linear model revealed a significant main eff ect of group but not of age or sex. The passing of time was perceived as significantly slower in patients undergoing VNS compared to patients with MDD at all time points (T34: t = − 4.2; df = 35; p < 0.001; T77: t = − 4.8; df = 35; p < 0.001; T192: t = − 2.0; df = 35; p = 0.059; T230 t = −2.2; df = 35; p = 0.039) as well as compared to healthy controls (at only T77: t = 4.1; df = 35; p < 0.001). There were no differences in time perception with regard to age, sex or polarity of depression (uni- or bipolar). VNS is capable of changing the perception of time. This discovery furthers the basic research on circadian rhythms in patients with psychiatric disorders.

Human speckle perception threshold for still images from a laser projection system.

PubMed

Roelandt, Stijn; Meuret, Youri; Jacobs, An; Willaert, Koen; Janssens, Peter; Thienpont, Hugo; Verschaffelt, Guy

2014-10-06

We study the perception of speckle by human observers in a laser projector based on a 40 persons survey. The speckle contrast is first objectively measured making use of a well-defined speckle measurement method. We statistically analyse the results of the user quality scores, revealing that the speckle perception is not only influenced by the speckle contrast settings of the projector, but it is also strongly influenced by the type of image shown. Based on the survey, we derive a speckle contrast threshold for which speckle can be seen, and separately we investigate a speckle disturbance limit that is tolerated by the majority of test persons.

Role of kappa-opioid receptors in the effects of salvinorin A and ketamine on attention in rats.

PubMed

Nemeth, Christina L; Paine, Tracie A; Rittiner, Joseph E; Béguin, Cécile; Carroll, F Ivy; Roth, Bryan L; Cohen, Bruce M; Carlezon, William A

2010-06-01

Disruptions in perception and cognition are characteristic of psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia. Studies of pharmacological agents that alter perception and cognition in humans might provide a better understanding of the brain substrates of these complex processes. One way to study these states in rodents is with tests that require attention and visual perception for correct performance. We examined the effects of two drugs that cause disruptions in perception and cognition in humans-the kappa-opioid receptor (KOR) agonist salvinorin A (salvA; 0.125-4.0 mg/kg) and the non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine (0.63-20 mg/kg)-on behavior in rats using the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5CSRTT), a food-motivated test that quantifies attention. We also compared the binding profiles of salvA and ketamine at KORs and NMDA receptors. SalvA and ketamine produced the same pattern of disruptive effects in the 5CSRTT, characterized by increases in signs often associated with reduced motivation (omission errors) and deficits in processing (elevated latencies to respond correctly). Sessions in which rats were fed before testing suggest that reduced motivation produces a subtly different pattern of behavior. Pretreatment with the KOR antagonist JDTic (10 mg/kg) blocked all salvA effects and some ketamine effects. Binding and function studies revealed that ketamine is a full agonist at KORs, although not as potent or selective as salvA. SalvA and ketamine have previously under-appreciated similarities in their behavioral effects and pharmacological profiles. By implication, KORs might be involved in some of the cognitive abnormalities observed in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.

Pollution going multimodal: the complex impact of the human-altered sensory environment on animal perception and performance.

PubMed

Halfwerk, Wouter; Slabbekoorn, Hans

2015-04-01

Anthropogenic sensory pollution is affecting ecosystems worldwide. Human actions generate acoustic noise, emanate artificial light and emit chemical substances. All of these pollutants are known to affect animals. Most studies on anthropogenic pollution address the impact of pollutants in unimodal sensory domains. High levels of anthropogenic noise, for example, have been shown to interfere with acoustic signals and cues. However, animals rely on multiple senses, and pollutants often co-occur. Thus, a full ecological assessment of the impact of anthropogenic activities requires a multimodal approach. We describe how sensory pollutants can co-occur and how covariance among pollutants may differ from natural situations. We review how animals combine information that arrives at their sensory systems through different modalities and outline how sensory conditions can interfere with multimodal perception. Finally, we describe how sensory pollutants can affect the perception, behaviour and endocrinology of animals within and across sensory modalities. We conclude that sensory pollution can affect animals in complex ways due to interactions among sensory stimuli, neural processing and behavioural and endocrinal feedback. We call for more empirical data on covariance among sensory conditions, for instance, data on correlated levels in noise and light pollution. Furthermore, we encourage researchers to test animal responses to a full-factorial set of sensory pollutants in the presence or the absence of ecologically important signals and cues. We realize that such approach is often time and energy consuming, but we think this is the only way to fully understand the multimodal impact of sensory pollution on animal performance and perception. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Individual Differences in AMY1 Gene Copy Number, Salivary α-Amylase Levels, and the Perception of Oral Starch

PubMed Central

Mandel, Abigail L.; Peyrot des Gachons, Catherine; Plank, Kimberly L.; Alarcon, Suzanne; Breslin, Paul A. S.

2010-01-01

Background The digestion of dietary starch in humans is initiated by salivary α-amylase, an endo-enzyme that hydrolyzes starch into maltose, maltotriose and larger oligosaccharides. Salivary amylase accounts for 40 to 50% of protein in human saliva and rapidly alters the physical properties of starch. Importantly, the quantity and enzymatic activity of salivary amylase show significant individual variation. However, linking variation in salivary amylase levels with the oral perception of starch has proven difficult. Furthermore, the relationship between copy number variations (CNVs) in the AMY1 gene, which influence salivary amylase levels, and starch viscosity perception has not been explored. Principal Findings Here we demonstrate that saliva containing high levels of amylase has sufficient activity to rapidly hydrolyze a viscous starch solution in vitro. Furthermore, we show with time-intensity ratings, which track the digestion of starch during oral manipulation, that individuals with high amylase levels report faster and more significant decreases in perceived starch viscosity than people with low salivary amylase levels. Finally, we demonstrate that AMY1 CNVs predict an individual's amount and activity of salivary amylase and thereby, ultimately determine their perceived rate of oral starch viscosity thinning. Conclusions By linking genetic variation and its consequent salivary enzymatic differences to the perceptual sequellae of these variations, we show that AMY1 copy number relates to salivary amylase concentration and enzymatic activity level, which, in turn, account for individual variation in the oral perception of starch viscosity. The profound individual differences in salivary amylase levels and salivary activity may contribute significantly to individual differences in dietary starch intake and, consequently, to overall nutritional status. PMID:20967220

Perceptions of Social Responsibility of Prominent Animal Welfare Groups.

PubMed

Widmar, Nicole J Olynk; Morgan, Carissa J; Croney, Candace C

2018-01-01

Nonhuman animal welfare is an increasingly important component of consumer expectations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The extent to which prominent animal welfare or protection organizations may influence people's perceptions of food industry CSR may be related to an organization's perceived social responsibility. Data from an online survey of 300 U.S. residents were used to explore relationships between demographics/lifestyle choices and perceptions of prominent animal welfare organizations (using best-worst scaling methodology). Overall, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was perceived to be the most socially responsible organization analyzed, followed by the Humane Society of the United States and the American Humane Association (AHA). Results suggest that the perceived social responsibility of animal protection organizations in this study was not strongly linked to personally (financially) supporting them, with 2 exceptions: the perceptions of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and AHA. Improved understanding of the perception of animal welfare or protection organizations can inform decision making by organizations interested in furthering animal welfare causes.

A dual systems account of visual perception: Predicting candy consumption from distance estimates.

PubMed

Krpan, Dario; Schnall, Simone

2017-04-01

A substantial amount of evidence shows that visual perception is influenced by forces that control human actions, ranging from motivation to physiological potential. However, studies have not yet provided convincing evidence that perception itself is directly involved in everyday behaviors such as eating. We suggest that this issue can be resolved by employing the dual systems account of human behavior. We tested the link between perceived distance to candies and their consumption for participants who were tired or depleted (impulsive system), versus those who were not (reflective system). Perception predicted eating only when participants were tired (Experiment 1) or depleted (Experiments 2 and 3). In contrast, a rational determinant of behavior-eating restraint towards candies-predicted eating for non-depleted individuals (Experiment 2). Finally, Experiment 3 established that perceived distance was correlated with participants' self-reported motivation to consume candies. Overall, these findings suggest that the dynamics between perception and behavior depend on the interplay of the two behavioral systems. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pupillary responses reveal infants' discrimination of facial emotions independent of conscious perception.

PubMed

Jessen, Sarah; Altvater-Mackensen, Nicole; Grossmann, Tobias

2016-05-01

Sensitive responding to others' emotions is essential during social interactions among humans. There is evidence for the existence of subcortically mediated emotion discrimination processes that occur independent of conscious perception in adults. However, only recently work has begun to examine the development of automatic emotion processing systems during infancy. In particular, it is unclear whether emotional expressions impact infants' autonomic nervous system regardless of conscious perception. We examined this question by measuring pupillary responses while subliminally and supraliminally presenting 7-month-old infants with happy and fearful faces. Our results show greater pupil dilation, indexing enhanced autonomic arousal, in response to happy compared to fearful faces regardless of conscious perception. Our findings suggest that, early in ontogeny, emotion discrimination occurs independent of conscious perception and is associated with differential autonomic responses. This provides evidence for the view that automatic emotion processing systems are an early-developing building block of human social functioning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Structural relationships between work environment and service quality perceptions as a function of customer contact intensity: implications for human service strategy.

PubMed

Scotti, Dennis J; Harmon, Joel; Behson, Scott J

2009-01-01

This study assesses the importance of customer-contact intensity at the service encounter level as a determinant of service quality assessments. Using data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, it shows that performance-driven human resources practices play an important role as determinants of employee customer orientation and service capability in both high-contact (outpatient healthcare) and low-contact (benefits claim processing) human service contexts. However, there existed significant differences across service delivery settings in the salience of customer orientation and the congruence between employee and customer perceptions of service quality, depending on the intensity of customer contact. In both contexts, managerial attention to high-performance work systems and customer-orientation has the potential to favorably impact perceptions of service quality, amplify consumer satisfaction, and enhance operational efficiency.

Audience responses to television news coverage of medical advances: The mediating role of audience emotions and identification.

PubMed

Hong, Hyehyun

2015-08-01

Exemplifying a real person in news stories has become a popular journalistic technique to describe an event or issue. With the frequent appearance of medical news reports in local television in recent years, this news presentation style is widely believed to help audiences better engage in and understand complex medical information and to influence their perceptions and judgments. In terms of television news coverage of medical advances, this study investigates how audiences respond to embedded human examples (mainly patients who experience benefits from the advances) and to overall news stories, and how such responses are related to their perception of portrayed medical advances. The experimental results indicate that news stories with a human example were more likely to intensify the audience's positive emotions than those without, which in turn influenced favorable perceptions of the described medical advance. In addition, the extent to which the audience identified with a human example (in particular, sympathy) mediated the relationship between the audience's involvement in the news story and its perception of the portrayed medical advance. © The Author(s) 2014.

Human infrared vision is triggered by two-photon chromophore isomerization

PubMed Central

Palczewska, Grazyna; Vinberg, Frans; Stremplewski, Patrycjusz; Bircher, Martin P.; Salom, David; Komar, Katarzyna; Zhang, Jianye; Cascella, Michele; Wojtkowski, Maciej; Kefalov, Vladimir J.; Palczewski, Krzysztof

2014-01-01

Vision relies on photoactivation of visual pigments in rod and cone photoreceptor cells of the retina. The human eye structure and the absorption spectra of pigments limit our visual perception of light. Our visual perception is most responsive to stimulating light in the 400- to 720-nm (visible) range. First, we demonstrate by psychophysical experiments that humans can perceive infrared laser emission as visible light. Moreover, we show that mammalian photoreceptors can be directly activated by near infrared light with a sensitivity that paradoxically increases at wavelengths above 900 nm, and display quadratic dependence on laser power, indicating a nonlinear optical process. Biochemical experiments with rhodopsin, cone visual pigments, and a chromophore model compound 11-cis-retinyl-propylamine Schiff base demonstrate the direct isomerization of visual chromophore by a two-photon chromophore isomerization. Indeed, quantum mechanics modeling indicates the feasibility of this mechanism. Together, these findings clearly show that human visual perception of near infrared light occurs by two-photon isomerization of visual pigments. PMID:25453064

Managing forest disturbances and community responses: lessons from the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.

Treesearch

Courtney G. Flint; Richard Haynes

2006-01-01

Managing forest disturbances can be complicated by diverse human community responses. Interview and quantitative analysis of mail surveys were used to assess risk perceptions and community actions in response to forest disturbance by spruce bark beetles. Despite high risk perception of immediate threats to personal safety and property, risk perceptions of broader...

Physics holo.lab learning experience: using smartglasses for augmented reality labwork to foster the concepts of heat conduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strzys, M. P.; Kapp, S.; Thees, M.; Klein, P.; Lukowicz, P.; Knierim, P.; Schmidt, A.; Kuhn, J.

2018-05-01

Fundamental concepts of thermodynamics rely on abstract physical quantities such as energy, heat and entropy, which play an important role in the process of interpreting thermal phenomena and statistical mechanics. However, these quantities are not covered by human visual perception, and since heat sensation is purely qualitative and easy to deceive, an intuitive understanding often is lacking. Today immersive technologies like head-mounted displays of the newest generation, especially HoloLens, allow for high-quality augmented reality learning experiences, which can overcome this gap in human perception by presenting different representations of otherwise invisible quantities directly in the field of view of the user on the experimental apparatus, which simultaneously avoids a split-attention effect. In a mixed reality (MR) scenario as presented in this paper—which we call a holo.lab—human perception can be extended to the thermal regime by presenting false-color representations of the temperature of objects as a virtual augmentation directly on the real object itself in real-time. Direct feedback to experimental actions of the users in the form of different representations allows for immediate comparison to theoretical principles and predictions and therefore is supposed to intensify the theory–experiment interactions and to increase students’ conceptual understanding. We tested this technology for an experiment on thermal conduction of metals in the framework of undergraduate laboratories. A pilot study with treatment and control groups (N = 59) showed a small positive effect of MR on students’ performance measured with a standardized concept test for thermodynamics, pointing to an improvement of the understanding of the underlying physical concepts. These findings indicate that complex experiments could benefit even more from augmentation. This motivates us to enrich further experiments with MR.

The extreme relativity of perception: A new contextual effect modulates human resolving power.

PubMed

Namdar, Gal; Ganel, Tzvi; Algom, Daniel

2016-04-01

The authors report the discovery of a new effect of context that modulates human resolving power with respect to an individual stimulus. They show that the size of the difference threshold or the just noticeable difference around a standard stimulus depends on the range of the other standards tested simultaneously for resolution within the same experimental session. The larger this range, the poorer the resolving power for a given standard. The authors term this effect the range of standards effect (RSE). They establish this result both in the visual domain for the perception of linear extent, and in the somatosensory domain for the perception of weight. They discuss the contingent nature of stimulus resolution in perception and psychophysics and contrast it with the immunity to contextual influences of visually guided action. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Fast perceptual image hash based on cascade algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruchay, Alexey; Kober, Vitaly; Yavtushenko, Evgeniya

2017-09-01

In this paper, we propose a perceptual image hash algorithm based on cascade algorithm, which can be applied in image authentication, retrieval, and indexing. Image perceptual hash uses for image retrieval in sense of human perception against distortions caused by compression, noise, common signal processing and geometrical modifications. The main disadvantage of perceptual hash is high time expenses. In the proposed cascade algorithm of image retrieval initializes with short hashes, and then a full hash is applied to the processed results. Computer simulation results show that the proposed hash algorithm yields a good performance in terms of robustness, discriminability, and time expenses.

Human engineer's guide to auditory displays. Volume 1. Elements of perception and memory affecting auditory displays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mulligan, B. E.; Goodman, L. S.; McBride, D. K.; Mitchell, T. M.; Crosby, T. N.

1984-08-01

This work reviews the areas of auditory attention, recognition, memory and auditory perception of patterns, pitch, and loudness. The review was written from the perspective of human engineering and focuses primarily on auditory processing of information contained in acoustic signals. The impetus for this effort was to establish a data base to be utilized in the design and evaluation of acoustic displays.

The Interplay of Resources and Multiracialism in Small, Four-Year Residential Colleges: A Study of Perception of Multicultural and Human Resource Directors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farmer-Hanson, Ashley

2012-01-01

Colleges and universities in the United States need to find ways to meet the needs of the increasing number of multiracial students, faculty, and staff. The purpose of this survey research study was to compare the perceptions of multicultural directors/chief diversity officers and human resource offices about services and systems of support for…

[Effect of oxytocin on human pain perception].

PubMed

Pfeifer, A-C; Ditzen, B; Neubauer, E; Schiltenwolf, M

2016-10-01

Over the years the effect of the neuropeptide oxytocin and its possible utilization for pain management has been increasingly more investigated and discussed. Initial results emphasized the effects of oxytocin with respect to labor and breastfeeding. Diverse animals studies were also able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the peptide in attachment behavior and pain perception; however, it is still unclear how oxytocin affects pain perception in humans. The potential therapeutic effectiveness of oxytocin could be particularly important for primary and secondary treatment of pain patients because chronification of pain can occur more frequently in this area. For this review the databases PubMed, Medline und PsycINFO were searched using the terms oxytocin, pain, human and analgesic. The search resulted in a total of 89 original articles after excluding articles regarding labor pain, breastfeeding and animal studies. Only those studies were included which were carried out between 1994 and 2015. A total of 17 articles remained for inclusion in this review and included 13 studies on the exogenous application of oxytocin and 4 on measurement of oxytocin levels in plasma. This review article gives a summary of the current state of research on oxytocin and its direct and indirect association with human pain perception and emphasizes its relevance for the multimodal management of pain.

Depth perception not found in human observers for static or dynamic anti-correlated random dot stereograms.

PubMed

Hibbard, Paul B; Scott-Brown, Kenneth C; Haigh, Emma C; Adrain, Melanie

2014-01-01

One of the greatest challenges in visual neuroscience is that of linking neural activity with perceptual experience. In the case of binocular depth perception, important insights have been achieved through comparing neural responses and the perception of depth, for carefully selected stimuli. One of the most important types of stimulus that has been used here is the anti-correlated random dot stereogram (ACRDS). In these stimuli, the contrast polarity of one half of a stereoscopic image is reversed. While neurons in cortical area V1 respond reliably to the binocular disparities in ACRDS, they do not create a sensation of depth. This discrepancy has been used to argue that depth perception must rely on neural activity elsewhere in the brain. Currently, the psychophysical results on which this argument rests are not clear-cut. While it is generally assumed that ACRDS do not support the perception of depth, some studies have reported that some people, some of the time, perceive depth in some types of these stimuli. Given the importance of these results for understanding the neural correlates of stereopsis, we studied depth perception in ACRDS using a large number of observers, in order to provide an unambiguous conclusion about the extent to which these stimuli support the perception of depth. We presented observers with random dot stereograms in which correlated dots were presented in a surrounding annulus and correlated or anti-correlated dots were presented in a central circular region. While observers could reliably report the depth of the central region for correlated stimuli, we found no evidence for depth perception in static or dynamic anti-correlated stimuli. Confidence ratings for stereoscopic perception were uniformly low for anti-correlated stimuli, but showed normal variation with disparity for correlated stimuli. These results establish that the inability of observers to perceive depth in ACRDS is a robust phenomenon.

Depth Perception Not Found in Human Observers for Static or Dynamic Anti-Correlated Random Dot Stereograms

PubMed Central

Hibbard, Paul B.; Scott-Brown, Kenneth C.; Haigh, Emma C.; Adrain, Melanie

2014-01-01

One of the greatest challenges in visual neuroscience is that of linking neural activity with perceptual experience. In the case of binocular depth perception, important insights have been achieved through comparing neural responses and the perception of depth, for carefully selected stimuli. One of the most important types of stimulus that has been used here is the anti-correlated random dot stereogram (ACRDS). In these stimuli, the contrast polarity of one half of a stereoscopic image is reversed. While neurons in cortical area V1 respond reliably to the binocular disparities in ACRDS, they do not create a sensation of depth. This discrepancy has been used to argue that depth perception must rely on neural activity elsewhere in the brain. Currently, the psychophysical results on which this argument rests are not clear-cut. While it is generally assumed that ACRDS do not support the perception of depth, some studies have reported that some people, some of the time, perceive depth in some types of these stimuli. Given the importance of these results for understanding the neural correlates of stereopsis, we studied depth perception in ACRDS using a large number of observers, in order to provide an unambiguous conclusion about the extent to which these stimuli support the perception of depth. We presented observers with random dot stereograms in which correlated dots were presented in a surrounding annulus and correlated or anti-correlated dots were presented in a central circular region. While observers could reliably report the depth of the central region for correlated stimuli, we found no evidence for depth perception in static or dynamic anti-correlated stimuli. Confidence ratings for stereoscopic perception were uniformly low for anti-correlated stimuli, but showed normal variation with disparity for correlated stimuli. These results establish that the inability of observers to perceive depth in ACRDS is a robust phenomenon. PMID:24416195

Neck Proprioception Shapes Body Orientation and Perception of Motion

PubMed Central

Pettorossi, Vito Enrico; Schieppati, Marco

2014-01-01

This review article deals with some effects of neck muscle proprioception on human balance, gait trajectory, subjective straight-ahead (SSA), and self-motion perception. These effects are easily observed during neck muscle vibration, a strong stimulus for the spindle primary afferent fibers. We first remind the early findings on human balance, gait trajectory, SSA, induced by limb, and neck muscle vibration. Then, more recent findings on self-motion perception of vestibular origin are described. The use of a vestibular asymmetric yaw-rotation stimulus for emphasizing the proprioceptive modulation of motion perception from the neck is mentioned. In addition, an attempt has been made to conjointly discuss the effects of unilateral neck proprioception on motion perception, SSA, and walking trajectory. Neck vibration also induces persistent aftereffects on the SSA and on self-motion perception of vestibular origin. These perceptive effects depend on intensity, duration, side of the conditioning vibratory stimulation, and on muscle status. These effects can be maintained for hours when prolonged high-frequency vibration is superimposed on muscle contraction. Overall, this brief outline emphasizes the contribution of neck muscle inflow to the construction and fine-tuning of perception of body orientation and motion. Furthermore, it indicates that tonic neck-proprioceptive input may induce persistent influences on the subject’s mental representation of space. These plastic changes might adapt motion sensitiveness to lasting or permanent head positional or motor changes. PMID:25414660

Neck proprioception shapes body orientation and perception of motion.

PubMed

Pettorossi, Vito Enrico; Schieppati, Marco

2014-01-01

This review article deals with some effects of neck muscle proprioception on human balance, gait trajectory, subjective straight-ahead (SSA), and self-motion perception. These effects are easily observed during neck muscle vibration, a strong stimulus for the spindle primary afferent fibers. We first remind the early findings on human balance, gait trajectory, SSA, induced by limb, and neck muscle vibration. Then, more recent findings on self-motion perception of vestibular origin are described. The use of a vestibular asymmetric yaw-rotation stimulus for emphasizing the proprioceptive modulation of motion perception from the neck is mentioned. In addition, an attempt has been made to conjointly discuss the effects of unilateral neck proprioception on motion perception, SSA, and walking trajectory. Neck vibration also induces persistent aftereffects on the SSA and on self-motion perception of vestibular origin. These perceptive effects depend on intensity, duration, side of the conditioning vibratory stimulation, and on muscle status. These effects can be maintained for hours when prolonged high-frequency vibration is superimposed on muscle contraction. Overall, this brief outline emphasizes the contribution of neck muscle inflow to the construction and fine-tuning of perception of body orientation and motion. Furthermore, it indicates that tonic neck-proprioceptive input may induce persistent influences on the subject's mental representation of space. These plastic changes might adapt motion sensitiveness to lasting or permanent head positional or motor changes.

Time-Warp–Invariant Neuronal Processing

PubMed Central

Gütig, Robert; Sompolinsky, Haim

2009-01-01

Fluctuations in the temporal durations of sensory signals constitute a major source of variability within natural stimulus ensembles. The neuronal mechanisms through which sensory systems can stabilize perception against such fluctuations are largely unknown. An intriguing instantiation of such robustness occurs in human speech perception, which relies critically on temporal acoustic cues that are embedded in signals with highly variable duration. Across different instances of natural speech, auditory cues can undergo temporal warping that ranges from 2-fold compression to 2-fold dilation without significant perceptual impairment. Here, we report that time-warp–invariant neuronal processing can be subserved by the shunting action of synaptic conductances that automatically rescales the effective integration time of postsynaptic neurons. We propose a novel spike-based learning rule for synaptic conductances that adjusts the degree of synaptic shunting to the temporal processing requirements of a given task. Applying this general biophysical mechanism to the example of speech processing, we propose a neuronal network model for time-warp–invariant word discrimination and demonstrate its excellent performance on a standard benchmark speech-recognition task. Our results demonstrate the important functional role of synaptic conductances in spike-based neuronal information processing and learning. The biophysics of temporal integration at neuronal membranes can endow sensory pathways with powerful time-warp–invariant computational capabilities. PMID:19582146

Sound quality recognition using optimal wavelet-packet transform and artificial neural network methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xing, Y. F.; Wang, Y. S.; Shi, L.; Guo, H.; Chen, H.

2016-01-01

According to the human perceptional characteristics, a method combined by the optimal wavelet-packet transform and artificial neural network, so-called OWPT-ANN model, for psychoacoustical recognition is presented. Comparisons of time-frequency analysis methods are performed, and an OWPT with 21 critical bands is designed for feature extraction of a sound, as is a three-layer back-propagation ANN for sound quality (SQ) recognition. Focusing on the loudness and sharpness, the OWPT-ANN model is applied on vehicle noises under different working conditions. Experimental verifications show that the OWPT can effectively transfer a sound into a time-varying energy pattern as that in the human auditory system. The errors of loudness and sharpness of vehicle noise from the OWPT-ANN are all less than 5%, which suggest a good accuracy of the OWPT-ANN model in SQ recognition. The proposed methodology might be regarded as a promising technique for signal processing in the human-hearing related fields in engineering.

Objects of consciousness

PubMed Central

Hoffman, Donald D.; Prakash, Chetan

2014-01-01

Current models of visual perception typically assume that human vision estimates true properties of physical objects, properties that exist even if unperceived. However, recent studies of perceptual evolution, using evolutionary games and genetic algorithms, reveal that natural selection often drives true perceptions to extinction when they compete with perceptions tuned to fitness rather than truth: Perception guides adaptive behavior; it does not estimate a preexisting physical truth. Moreover, shifting from evolutionary biology to quantum physics, there is reason to disbelieve in preexisting physical truths: Certain interpretations of quantum theory deny that dynamical properties of physical objects have definite values when unobserved. In some of these interpretations the observer is fundamental, and wave functions are compendia of subjective probabilities, not preexisting elements of physical reality. These two considerations, from evolutionary biology and quantum physics, suggest that current models of object perception require fundamental reformulation. Here we begin such a reformulation, starting with a formal model of consciousness that we call a “conscious agent.” We develop the dynamics of interacting conscious agents, and study how the perception of objects and space-time can emerge from such dynamics. We show that one particular object, the quantum free particle, has a wave function that is identical in form to the harmonic functions that characterize the asymptotic dynamics of conscious agents; particles are vibrations not of strings but of interacting conscious agents. This allows us to reinterpret physical properties such as position, momentum, and energy as properties of interacting conscious agents, rather than as preexisting physical truths. We sketch how this approach might extend to the perception of relativistic quantum objects, and to classical objects of macroscopic scale. PMID:24987382

Effects of different sleep deprivation protocols on sleep perception in healthy volunteers.

PubMed

Goulart, Leonardo I; Pinto, Luciano R; Perlis, Michael L; Martins, Raquel; Caboclo, Luis Otavio; Tufik, Sergio; Andersen, Monica L

2014-10-01

To investigate whether different protocols of sleep deprivation modify sleep perception. The effects of total sleep deprivation (TD) and selective rapid eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation (RD) on sleep perception were analyzed in normal volunteers. Thirty-one healthy males with normal sleep were randomized to one of three conditions: (i) normal uninterrupted sleep; (ii) four nights of RD; or (iii) two nights of TD. Morning perception of total sleep time was evaluated for each condition. Sleep perception was estimated using total sleep time (in hours) as perceived by the volunteer divided by the total sleep time (in hours) measured by polysomnography (PSG). The final value of this calculation was defined as the perception index (PI). There were no significant differences among the three groups of volunteers in the total sleep time measured by PSG or in the perception of total sleep time at baseline condition. Volunteers submitted to RD exhibited lower sleep PI scores as compared with controls during the sleep deprivation period (P <0.05). Both RD and TD groups showed PI similar to controls during the recovery period. Selective REM sleep deprivation reduced the ability of healthy young volunteers to perceive their total sleep time when compared with time measured by PSG. The data reinforce the influence of sleep deprivation on sleep perception. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of contrast on human speed perception

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, Leland S.; Thompson, Peter

1992-01-01

This study is part of an ongoing collaborative research effort between the Life Science and Human Factors Divisions at NASA ARC to measure the accuracy of human motion perception in order to predict potential errors in human perception/performance and to facilitate the design of display systems that minimize the effects of such deficits. The study describes how contrast manipulations can produce significant errors in human speed perception. Specifically, when two simultaneously presented parallel gratings are moving at the same speed within stationary windows, the lower-contrast grating appears to move more slowly. This contrast-induced misperception of relative speed is evident across a wide range of contrasts (2.5-50 percent) and does not appear to saturate (e.g., a 50 percent contrast grating appears slower than a 70 percent contrast grating moving at the same speed). The misperception is large: a 70 percent contrast grating must, on average, be slowed by 35 percent to match a 10 percent contrast grating moving at 2 deg/sec (N = 6). Furthermore, it is largely independent of the absolute contrast level and is a quasilinear function of log contrast ratio. A preliminary parametric study shows that, although spatial frequency has little effect, the relative orientation of the two gratings is important. Finally, the effect depends on the temporal presentation of the stimuli: the effects of contrast on perceived speed appears lessened when the stimuli to be matched are presented sequentially. These data constrain both physiological models of visual cortex and models of human performance. We conclude that viewing conditions that effect contrast, such as fog, may cause significant errors in speed judgments.

Citizen science: A new perspective to evaluate spatial patterns in hydrology.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koch, J.; Stisen, S.

2016-12-01

Citizen science opens new pathways that can complement traditional scientific practice. Intuition and reasoning make humans often more effective than computer algorithms in various realms of problem solving. In particular, a simple visual comparison of spatial patterns is a task where humans are often considered to be more reliable than computer algorithms. However, in practice, science still largely depends on computer based solutions, which is inevitable giving benefits such as speed and the possibility to automatize processes. This study highlights the integration of the generally underused human resource into hydrology. We established a citizen science project on the zooniverse platform entitled Pattern Perception. The aim is to employ the human perception to rate similarity and dissimilarity between simulated spatial patterns of a hydrological catchment model. In total, the turnout counts more than 2,800 users that provided over 46,000 classifications of 1,095 individual subjects within 64 days after the launch. Each subject displays simulated spatial patterns of land-surface variables of a baseline model and six modelling scenarios. The citizen science data discloses a numeric pattern similarity score for each of the scenarios with respect to the reference. We investigate the capability of a set of innovative statistical performance metrics to mimic the human perception to distinguish between similarity and dissimilarity. Results suggest that more complex metrics are not necessarily better at emulating the human perception, but clearly provide flexibility and auxiliary information that is valuable for model diagnostics. The metrics clearly differ in their ability to unambiguously distinguish between similar and dissimilar patterns which is regarded a key feature of a reliable metric.

Individual and contextual factors associated to the self-perception of oral health in Brazilian adults.

PubMed

Silva, Janmille Valdivino da; Oliveira, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli da Costa

2018-04-09

To analyze how individual characteristics and the social context, together, are associated with self-perception of the oral health. A multilevel cross-sectional study with data from the Brazilian National Health Survey 2013, the United Nations Development Program, and the National Registry of Health Establishments. The explanatory variables for the "oral health perception" outcome were grouped, according to the study framework, into biological characteristics (sex, color, age), proximal social determinants (literacy, household crowding, and socioeconomic stratification), and distal (years of schooling expectancy at age 18, GINI, Human Development Index, and per capita income). The described analysis was performed, along with bivariate Poisson analysis and multilevel Poisson analysis for the construction of the explanatory model of oral health perception. All analyzes considered the sample weights. Both the biological characteristics and the proximal and distal social determinants were associated with the perception of oral health in the bivariate analysis. A higher prevalence of bad oral health was associated to lower years of schooling expectancy (PR = 1.31), lower per capita income (PR = 1.45), higher income concentration (PR = 1.41), and worse human development (PR = 1.45). Inversely, oral health services in both primary and secondary care were negatively associated with oral health perception. All the biological and individual social characteristics, except reading and writing, made up the final explanatory model along with the distal social determinants of the Human Development Index and coverage of basic care in the multilevel analysis. Biological factors, individual and contextual social determinants were associate synergistically with the population's perception of oral health. It is necessary to improve individual living conditions and the implementation of public social policies to improve the oral health of the population.

You Look Human, But Act Like a Machine: Agent Appearance and Behavior Modulate Different Aspects of Human-Robot Interaction.

PubMed

Abubshait, Abdulaziz; Wiese, Eva

2017-01-01

Gaze following occurs automatically in social interactions, but the degree to which gaze is followed depends on whether an agent is perceived to have a mind, making its behavior socially more relevant for the interaction. Mind perception also modulates the attitudes we have toward others, and determines the degree of empathy, prosociality, and morality invested in social interactions. Seeing mind in others is not exclusive to human agents, but mind can also be ascribed to non-human agents like robots, as long as their appearance and/or behavior allows them to be perceived as intentional beings. Previous studies have shown that human appearance and reliable behavior induce mind perception to robot agents, and positively affect attitudes and performance in human-robot interaction. What has not been investigated so far is whether different triggers of mind perception have an independent or interactive effect on attitudes and performance in human-robot interaction. We examine this question by manipulating agent appearance (human vs. robot) and behavior (reliable vs. random) within the same paradigm and examine how congruent (human/reliable vs. robot/random) versus incongruent (human/random vs. robot/reliable) combinations of these triggers affect performance (i.e., gaze following) and attitudes (i.e., agent ratings) in human-robot interaction. The results show that both appearance and behavior affect human-robot interaction but that the two triggers seem to operate in isolation, with appearance more strongly impacting attitudes, and behavior more strongly affecting performance. The implications of these findings for human-robot interaction are discussed.

Attentional Switching in Humans and Flies: Rivalry in Large and Miniature Brains

PubMed Central

Miller, Steven Mark; Ngo, Trung Thanh; van Swinderen, Bruno

2012-01-01

Human perception, and consequently behavior, is driven by attention dynamics. In the special case of rivalry, where attention alternates between competing percepts, such dynamics can be measured and their determinants investigated. A recent study in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, now shows that the origins of attentional rivalry may be quite ancient. Furthermore, individual variation exists in the rate of attentional rivalry in both humans and flies, and in humans this is under substantial genetic influence. In the pathophysiological realm, slowing of rivalry rate is associated with the heritable psychiatric condition, bipolar disorder. Fly rivalry may therefore prove a powerful model to examine genetic and molecular influences on rivalry rate, and may even shed light on human cognitive and behavioral dysfunction. PMID:22279432

Classic debates in selective attention: early vs late, perceptual load vs dilution, mean RT vs measures of capacity.

PubMed

Nelson, Michael D; Crisostomo, Marisa; Khericha, Alifiya; Russo, Francis; Thorne, Gary L

2012-01-01

We briefly summarize two important debates regarding selective attention (early vs late selection; perceptual load vs distractor dilution). Also, we report the results of an attempt to replicate Lavie (1995, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 21 451-468). We suggest that measures capable of characterizing the capacity of information processing systems (compared to reporting only mean reaction time) could add great clarity to this literature.

Evaluation of Super Voxel Methods for Early Video Processing (Author’s Manuscript)

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-07-26

supervoxels in space- time [22]. This property embodies many of the basic Gestalt principles—proximity, continuation, closure, and symmetry—and helps...streaming approach. The mean shift algorithm used in our paper is presented by Paris and Durand [29], who introduce Morse theory to interpret mean...maximum 86 fpv. This data set allows us to evaluate the supervoxel methods against human perception . The third data set is from Grundman et al. [15

A research on motion design for APP's loading pages based on time perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Huai; Hu, Xiaoyun

2018-04-01

Due to restrictions caused by objective reasons like network bandwidth, hardware performance and etc., waiting is still an inevitable phenomenon that appears in our using mobile-terminal products. Relevant researches show that users' feelings in a waiting scenario can affect their evaluations on the whole product and services the product provides. With the development of user experience and inter-facial design subjects, the role of motion effect in the interface design has attracted more and more scholars' attention. In the current studies, the research theory of motion design in a waiting scenario is imperfect. This article will use the basic theory and experimental research methods of cognitive psychology to explore the motion design's impact on user's time perception when users are waiting for loading APP pages. Firstly, the article analyzes the factors that affect waiting experience of loading APP pages based on the theory of time perception, and then discusses motion design's impact on the level of time-perception when loading pages and its design strategy. Moreover, by the operation analysis of existing loading motion designs, the article classifies the existing loading motions and designs an experiment to verify the impact of different types of motions on the user's time perception. The result shows that the waiting time perception of mobile's terminals' APPs is related to the loading motion types, the combination type of loading motions can effectively shorten the waiting time perception as it scores a higher mean value in the length of time perception.

Perceptions of nonhuman primates in human-wildlife conflict scenarios.

PubMed

Hill, Catherine M; Webber, Amanda D

2010-09-01

Nonhuman primates (referred to as primates in this study) are sometimes revered as gods, abhorred as evil spirits, killed for food because they damage crops, or butchered for sport. Primates' perceived similarity to humans places them in an anomalous position. While some human groups accept the idea that primates "straddle" the human-nonhuman boundary, for others this resemblance is a violation of the human-animal divide. In this study we use two case studies to explore how people's perceptions of primates are often influenced by these animals' apparent similarity to humans, creating expectations, founded within a "human morality" about how primates should interact with people. When animals transgress these social rules, they are measured against the same moral framework as humans. This has implications for how people view and respond to certain kinds of primate behaviors, their willingness to tolerate co-existence with primates and their likely support for primate conservation initiatives. 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Tactile orientation perception: an ideal observer analysis of human psychophysical performance in relation to macaque area 3b receptive fields

PubMed Central

Peters, Ryan M.; Staibano, Phillip

2015-01-01

The ability to resolve the orientation of edges is crucial to daily tactile and sensorimotor function, yet the means by which edge perception occurs is not well understood. Primate cortical area 3b neurons have diverse receptive field (RF) spatial structures that may participate in edge orientation perception. We evaluated five candidate RF models for macaque area 3b neurons, previously recorded while an oriented bar contacted the monkey's fingertip. We used a Bayesian classifier to assign each neuron a best-fit RF structure. We generated predictions for human performance by implementing an ideal observer that optimally decoded stimulus-evoked spike counts in the model neurons. The ideal observer predicted a saturating reduction in bar orientation discrimination threshold with increasing bar length. We tested 24 humans on an automated, precision-controlled bar orientation discrimination task and observed performance consistent with that predicted. We next queried the ideal observer to discover the RF structure and number of cortical neurons that best matched each participant's performance. Human perception was matched with a median of 24 model neurons firing throughout a 1-s period. The 10 lowest-performing participants were fit with RFs lacking inhibitory sidebands, whereas 12 of the 14 higher-performing participants were fit with RFs containing inhibitory sidebands. Participants whose discrimination improved as bar length increased to 10 mm were fit with longer RFs; those who performed well on the 2-mm bar, with narrower RFs. These results suggest plausible RF features and computational strategies underlying tactile spatial perception and may have implications for perceptual learning. PMID:26354318

D Visibility Analysis in Urban Environment - Cognition Research Based on Vge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, T. P.; Lin, H.; Hu, M. Y.

2013-09-01

The author in this research attempts to illustrate a measurable relationship between the physical environment and human's visual perception, including the distance, visual angle impact and visual field (a 3D isovist conception) against human's cognition way, by using a 3D visibility analysis method based on the platform of Virtual Geographic Environment (VGE). The whole project carries out in the CUHK campus (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), by adopting a virtual 3D model of the whole campus and survey in real world. A possible model for the simulation of human cognition in urban spaces is expected to be the output of this research, such as what the human perceive from the environment, how their feelings and behaviours are and how they affect the surrounding world. Kevin Lynch raised 5 elements of urban design in 1960s, which are "vitality, sense, fit, access and control". As the development of urban design, several problems around the human's cognitive and behaviour have come out. Due to the restriction of sensing knowledge in urban spaces, the research among the "sense" and the "fit" of urban design were not quite concerned in recent decades. The geo-spatial cognition field comes into being in 1997 and developed in recent 15 years, which made great effort in way-finding and urban behaviour simulation based on the platform of GIS (geographic information system) or VGE. The platform of VGE is recognized as a proper tool for the analysis of human's perception in urban places, because of its efficient 3D spatial data management and excellent 3D visualization for output result. This article will generally describe the visibility analysis method based on the 3D VGE platform. According to the uncertainty and variety of human perception existed in this research, the author attempts to arrange a survey of observer investigation and validation for the analysis results. Four figures related with space and human's perception will be mainly concerned in this proposal: openness, permeability, environmental pressure and visibility, and these will also be used as the identification for different type of spaces. Generally, the author is aiming at contributing a possible way to understand the reason of human's cognition in geo-spatial area, and provides efficient mathematical model between spatial information and visual perception to the related research field.

Saccadic Corollary Discharge Underlies Stable Visual Perception

PubMed Central

Berman, Rebecca A.; Joiner, Wilsaan M.; Wurtz, Robert H.

2016-01-01

Saccadic eye movements direct the high-resolution foveae of our retinas toward objects of interest. With each saccade, the image jumps on the retina, causing a discontinuity in visual input. Our visual perception, however, remains stable. Philosophers and scientists over centuries have proposed that visual stability depends upon an internal neuronal signal that is a copy of the neuronal signal driving the eye movement, now referred to as a corollary discharge (CD) or efference copy. In the old world monkey, such a CD circuit for saccades has been identified extending from superior colliculus through MD thalamus to frontal cortex, but there is little evidence that this circuit actually contributes to visual perception. We tested the influence of this CD circuit on visual perception by first training macaque monkeys to report their perceived eye direction, and then reversibly inactivating the CD as it passes through the thalamus. We found that the monkey's perception changed; during CD inactivation, there was a difference between where the monkey perceived its eyes to be directed and where they were actually directed. Perception and saccade were decoupled. We established that the perceived eye direction at the end of the saccade was not derived from proprioceptive input from eye muscles, and was not altered by contextual visual information. We conclude that the CD provides internal information contributing to the brain's creation of perceived visual stability. More specifically, the CD might provide the internal saccade vector used to unite separate retinal images into a stable visual scene. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Visual stability is one of the most remarkable aspects of human vision. The eyes move rapidly several times per second, displacing the retinal image each time. The brain compensates for this disruption, keeping our visual perception stable. A major hypothesis explaining this stability invokes a signal within the brain, a corollary discharge, that informs visual regions of the brain when and where the eyes are about to move. Such a corollary discharge circuit for eye movements has been identified in macaque monkey. We now show that selectively inactivating this brain circuit alters the monkey's visual perception. We conclude that this corollary discharge provides a critical signal that can be used to unite jumping retinal images into a consistent visual scene. PMID:26740647

Multitalker Speech Perception with Ideal Time-Frequency Segregation: Effects of Voice Characteristics and Number of Talkers

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-03-23

Multitalker speech perception with ideal time-frequency segregation: Effects of voice characteristics and number of talkers Douglas S. Brungarta Air...INTRODUCTION Speech perception in multitalker listening environments is limited by two very different types of masking. The first is energetic...06 MAR 2009 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED 00-00-2009 to 00-00-2009 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Multitalker speech perception with ideal time

Enhancing Perceptibility of Barely Perceptible Targets

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-12-28

faster to low spatial frequencies (Breitmeyer, 1975; Tolhurst, 1975; Vassilev & Mitov , 1976;.Breitmeyer & Ganz, 1975; Watson & Nachimas, * 1977). If ground...response than those tuned to high spatial frequencies: they appear to have a shorter latency (Breitmeyer, 1975; Vassilev & Mitov , 1975; Lupp, Bauske, & Wolf...1958. Tolhurst, D. J. Sustained and transient channels in human vision. Vision Research, 1975, 15, 1151-1155. Vassilev, A., & Mitov , D. Perception

Pashtun Social Structure: Cultural Perceptions and Segmentary Lineage Organization

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-08-03

SOCIAL STRUCTURE: CULTURAL PERCEPTIONS...funded  by  the  Office  of  Naval   Research,  Human   Social  Cultural  Behavioral  Program,  under  Contract   Number...N00014-­‐09-­‐C-­‐0570  to  MacGregor  Bates,  Inc.   PASHTUN SOCIAL STRUCTURE: CULTURAL PERCEPTIONS AND

Predictive Modeling of Human Perception Subjectivity: Feasibility Study of Mammographic Lesion Similarity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Songhua; Tourassi, Georgia

2012-01-01

The majority of clinical content-based image retrieval (CBIR) studies disregard human perception subjectivity, aiming to duplicate the consensus expert assessment of the visual similarity on example cases. The purpose of our study is twofold: (i) discern better the extent of human perception subjectivity when assessing the visual similarity of two images with similar semantic content, and (ii) explore the feasibility of personalized predictive modeling of visual similarity. We conducted a human observer study in which five observers of various expertise were shown ninety-nine triplets of mammographic masses with similar BI-RADS descriptors and were asked to select the two masses withmore » the highest visual relevance. Pairwise agreement ranged between poor and fair among the five observers, as assessed by the kappa statistic. The observers' self-consistency rate was remarkably low, based on repeated questions where either the orientation or the presentation order of a mass was changed. Various machine learning algorithms were explored to determine whether they can predict each observer's personalized selection using textural features. Many algorithms performed with accuracy that exceeded each observer's self-consistency rate, as determined using a cross-validation scheme. This accuracy was statistically significantly higher than would be expected by chance alone (two-tailed p-value ranged between 0.001 and 0.01 for all five personalized models). The study confirmed that human perception subjectivity should be taken into account when developing CBIR-based medical applications.« less

A Dual-Stream Neuroanatomy of Singing

PubMed Central

Loui, Psyche

2015-01-01

Singing requires effortless and efficient use of auditory and motor systems that center around the perception and production of the human voice. Although perception and production are usually tightly coupled functions, occasional mismatches between the two systems inform us of dissociable pathways in the brain systems that enable singing. Here I review the literature on perception and production in the auditory modality, and propose a dual-stream neuroanatomical model that subserves singing. I will discuss studies surrounding the neural functions of feedforward, feedback, and efference systems that control vocal monitoring, as well as the white matter pathways that connect frontal and temporal regions that are involved in perception and production. I will also consider disruptions of the perception-production network that are evident in tone-deaf individuals and poor pitch singers. Finally, by comparing expert singers against other musicians and nonmusicians, I will evaluate the possibility that singing training might offer rehabilitation from these disruptions through neuroplasticity of the perception-production network. Taken together, the best available evidence supports a model of dorsal and ventral pathways in auditory-motor integration that enables singing and is shared with language, music, speech, and human interactions in the auditory environment. PMID:26120242

A Dual-Stream Neuroanatomy of Singing.

PubMed

Loui, Psyche

2015-02-01

Singing requires effortless and efficient use of auditory and motor systems that center around the perception and production of the human voice. Although perception and production are usually tightly coupled functions, occasional mismatches between the two systems inform us of dissociable pathways in the brain systems that enable singing. Here I review the literature on perception and production in the auditory modality, and propose a dual-stream neuroanatomical model that subserves singing. I will discuss studies surrounding the neural functions of feedforward, feedback, and efference systems that control vocal monitoring, as well as the white matter pathways that connect frontal and temporal regions that are involved in perception and production. I will also consider disruptions of the perception-production network that are evident in tone-deaf individuals and poor pitch singers. Finally, by comparing expert singers against other musicians and nonmusicians, I will evaluate the possibility that singing training might offer rehabilitation from these disruptions through neuroplasticity of the perception-production network. Taken together, the best available evidence supports a model of dorsal and ventral pathways in auditory-motor integration that enables singing and is shared with language, music, speech, and human interactions in the auditory environment.

Rise Time Perception and Detection of Syllable Stress in Adults with Developmental Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leong, Victoria; Hamalainen, Jarmo; Soltesz, Fruzsina; Goswami, Usha

2011-01-01

Introduction: The perception of syllable stress has not been widely studied in developmental dyslexia, despite strong evidence for auditory rhythmic perceptual difficulties. Here we investigate the hypothesis that perception of sound rise time is related to the perception of syllable stress in adults with developmental dyslexia. Methods: A…

Projection, introjection, and projective identification: a reformulation.

PubMed

Malancharuvil, Joseph M

2004-12-01

In this essay, the author recommends a reformulation of the psychoanalytic concept of projection. The author proposes that projective processes are not merely defensive maneuvers that interfere with perception, but rather an essential means by which human perception is rendered possible. It is the manner in which human beings test and-evaluate reality in terms of their experiential structure, and their needs for survival and nourishment. Projection is the early phase of introjection.

Understanding Visible Perception

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

One concern about human adaptation to space is how returning from the microgravity of orbit to Earth can affect an astronaut's ability to fly safely. There are monitors and infrared video cameras to measure eye movements without having to affect the crew member. A computer screen provides moving images which the eye tracks while the brain determines what it is seeing. A video camera records movement of the subject's eyes. Researchers can then correlate perception and response. Test subjects perceive different images when a moving object is covered by a mask that is visible or invisible (above). Early results challenge the accepted theory that smooth pursuit -- the fluid eye movement that humans and primates have -- does not involve the higher brain. NASA results show that: Eye movement can predict human perceptual performance, smooth pursuit and saccadic (quick or ballistic) movement share some signal pathways, and common factors can make both smooth pursuit and visual perception produce errors in motor responses.

Sensing Super-position: Visual Instrument Sensor Replacement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maluf, David A.; Schipper, John F.

2006-01-01

The coming decade of fast, cheap and miniaturized electronics and sensory devices opens new pathways for the development of sophisticated equipment to overcome limitations of the human senses. This project addresses the technical feasibility of augmenting human vision through Sensing Super-position using a Visual Instrument Sensory Organ Replacement (VISOR). The current implementation of the VISOR device translates visual and other passive or active sensory instruments into sounds, which become relevant when the visual resolution is insufficient for very difficult and particular sensing tasks. A successful Sensing Super-position meets many human and pilot vehicle system requirements. The system can be further developed into cheap, portable, and low power taking into account the limited capabilities of the human user as well as the typical characteristics of his dynamic environment. The system operates in real time, giving the desired information for the particular augmented sensing tasks. The Sensing Super-position device increases the image resolution perception and is obtained via an auditory representation as well as the visual representation. Auditory mapping is performed to distribute an image in time. The three-dimensional spatial brightness and multi-spectral maps of a sensed image are processed using real-time image processing techniques (e.g. histogram normalization) and transformed into a two-dimensional map of an audio signal as a function of frequency and time. This paper details the approach of developing Sensing Super-position systems as a way to augment the human vision system by exploiting the capabilities of the human hearing system as an additional neural input. The human hearing system is capable of learning to process and interpret extremely complicated and rapidly changing auditory patterns. The known capabilities of the human hearing system to learn and understand complicated auditory patterns provided the basic motivation for developing an image-to-sound mapping system.

Art & Space: the webbing projects of Eva Petrič

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrič, E.; Schlacht, I. L.; Foing, B.

2015-10-01

Art is considered a form of communication often related to the perception of personal emotion of the artist. Space is the most extreme environment that a human could approach, this environment affects the human body and the individual's personal perception with metamorphosis created by factors such as, isolation, radiation and difference of gravity. This alteration of the perception could be viewed as a potentiality from artists to acquire and communicate new emotions. To investigate the capacity of an artist to come faster and closer to emotions and to communicate their feeling, a mission simulation has been performed in the ExoLab module [1] from ILEWG [A] on the 29th of April 2015.

Perception of approaching and retreating floor-projected shapes in a large, immersive, multimedia learning environment.

PubMed

Dolgov, Igor; Birchfield, David A; McBeath, Michael K; Thornburg, Harvey; Todd, Christopher G

2009-04-01

Perception of floor-projected moving geometric shapes was examined in the context of the Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Laboratory (SMALLab), an immersive, mixed-reality learning environment. As predicted, the projected destinations of shapes which retreated in depth (proximal origin) were judged significantly less accurately than those that approached (distal origin). Participants maintained similar magnitudes of error throughout the session, and no effect of practice was observed. Shape perception in an immersive multimedia environment is comparable to the real world. One may conclude that systematic exploration of basic psychological phenomena in novel mediated environments is integral to an understanding of human behavior in novel human-computer interaction architectures.

Depicting 3D shape using lines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeCarlo, Doug

2012-03-01

Over the last few years, researchers in computer graphics have developed sophisticated mathematical descriptions of lines on 3D shapes that can be rendered convincingly as strokes in drawings. These innovations highlight fundamental questions about how human perception takes strokes in drawings as evidence of 3D structure. Answering these questions will lead to a greater scientific understanding of the flexibility and richness of human perception, as well as to practical techniques for synthesizing clearer and more compelling drawings. This paper reviews what is known about the mathematics and perception of computer-generated line drawings of shape and motivates an ongoing program of research to better characterize the shapes people see when they look at such drawings.

We perceive a mind in a robot when we help it

PubMed Central

Hashimoto, Takaaki; Karasawa, Kaori

2017-01-01

People sometimes perceive a mind in inorganic entities like robots. Psychological research has shown that mind perception correlates with moral judgments and that immoral behaviors (i.e., intentional harm) facilitate mind perception toward otherwise mindless victims. We conducted a vignette experiment (N = 129; Mage = 21.8 ± 6.0 years) concerning human-robot interactions and extended previous research’s results in two ways. First, mind perception toward the robot was facilitated when it received a benevolent behavior, although only when participants took the perspective of an actor. Second, imagining a benevolent interaction led to more positive attitudes toward the robot, and this effect was mediated by mind perception. These results help predict what people’s reactions in future human-robot interactions would be like, and have implications for how to design future social rules about the treatment of robots. PMID:28727735

Can the hippocampus tell time? The temporo-septal engram shift model.

PubMed

Lytton, W W; Lipton, P

1999-08-02

An essential feature of episodic memory, the type of memory dependent on hippocampus, is that individual memories belong to particular moments in time. Recent PET studies suggest that memory encoding and recall occur at different locations in human hippocampus. Coupled with other attributes of hippocampus, this suggested to us that the septo-temporal hippocampal axis may play an important role in time perception. We propose a temporo-septal engram shift model of hippocampal memory. The model posits that memories gradually move along the hippocampus from a temporal encoding site to ever more septal sites from which they are recalled. We propose that the sense of time is encoded by the location of the engram along the temporo-septal axis.

Using virtual reality to augment perception, enhance sensorimotor adaptation, and change our minds.

PubMed

Wright, W Geoffrey

2014-01-01

Technological advances that involve human sensorimotor processes can have both intended and unintended effects on the central nervous system (CNS). This mini review focuses on the use of virtual environments (VE) to augment brain functions by enhancing perception, eliciting automatic motor behavior, and inducing sensorimotor adaptation. VE technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in medical rehabilitation, training simulators, gaming, and entertainment. Although these VE applications have often been shown to optimize outcomes, whether it be to speed recovery, reduce training time, or enhance immersion and enjoyment, there are inherent drawbacks to environments that can potentially change sensorimotor calibration. Across numerous VE studies over the years, we have investigated the effects of combining visual and physical motion on perception, motor control, and adaptation. Recent results from our research involving exposure to dynamic passive motion within a visually-depicted VE reveal that short-term exposure to augmented sensorimotor discordance can result in systematic aftereffects that last beyond the exposure period. Whether these adaptations are advantageous or not, remains to be seen. Benefits as well as risks of using VE-driven sensorimotor stimulation to enhance brain processes will be discussed.

Talker-specific learning in amnesia: Insight into mechanisms of adaptive speech perception.

PubMed

Trude, Alison M; Duff, Melissa C; Brown-Schmidt, Sarah

2014-05-01

A hallmark of human speech perception is the ability to comprehend speech quickly and effortlessly despite enormous variability across talkers. However, current theories of speech perception do not make specific claims about the memory mechanisms involved in this process. To examine whether declarative memory is necessary for talker-specific learning, we tested the ability of amnesic patients with severe declarative memory deficits to learn and distinguish the accents of two unfamiliar talkers by monitoring their eye-gaze as they followed spoken instructions. Analyses of the time-course of eye fixations showed that amnesic patients rapidly learned to distinguish these accents and tailored perceptual processes to the voice of each talker. These results demonstrate that declarative memory is not necessary for this ability and points to the involvement of non-declarative memory mechanisms. These results are consistent with findings that other social and accommodative behaviors are preserved in amnesia and contribute to our understanding of the interactions of multiple memory systems in the use and understanding of spoken language. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An assessment of the knowledge, attitudes, and risk perceptions of pharmacy students regarding HIV/AIDS.

PubMed

Ahmed, Syed Imran; Hassali, Mohamed Azmi; Aziz, Noorizan Abdul

2009-02-19

To evaluate the level of knowledge, attitudes, and risk perceptions of University Sains Malaysia final-year pharmacy students regarding human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunity deficiency syndrome (AIDS). A cross-sectional study among pharmacy students. Data were analyzed with Chi-square to find difference at p value < 0.05. The majority of students (83.07%) responded showing a difference in gender and race. Students showed low willingness (9.2%) to assist patients and low confidence (36.1%) in their education about HIV/AIDS patients. Students recommended HIV testing for health care professionals (69.4%) and patients (75.9%) before surgical procedures. Students knew little about Post Exposure Prophylaxis (18.5%) or about the time for HIV to develop into AIDS (57.4%). About 40% of students were unaware of the inability of antivirals to treat HIV/AIDS. Students had low awareness for opportunistic infections (18.5%), and low agreement on competency to treat and counsel HIV patients (12.9%). The study highlighted students' misconceptions, negative attitudes, and risk perceptions towards HIV/AIDS.

An Assessment of the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Risk Perceptions of Pharmacy Students Regarding HIV/AIDS

PubMed Central

Hassali, Mohamed Azmi; Aziz, Noorizan Abdul

2009-01-01

Objective To evaluate the level of knowledge, attitudes, and risk perceptions of University Sains Malaysia final-year pharmacy students regarding human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunity deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Method A cross-sectional study among pharmacy students. Data were analyzed with Chi-square to find difference at p value < 0.05. Results The majority of students (83.07%) responded showing a difference in gender and race. Students showed low willingness (9.2%) to assist patients and low confidence (36.1%) in their education about HIV/AIDS patients. Students recommended HIV testing for health care professionals (69.4%) and patients (75.9%) before surgical procedures. Students knew little about Post Exposure Prophylaxis (18.5%) or about the time for HIV to develop into AIDS (57.4%). About 40% of students were unaware of the inability of antivirals to treat HIV/AIDS. Students had low awareness for opportunistic infections (18.5%), and low agreement on competency to treat and counsel HIV patients (12.9%). Conclusion The study highlighted students' misconceptions, negative attitudes, and risk perceptions towards HIV/AIDS. PMID:19513153

Blindsight modulation of motion perception.

PubMed

Intriligator, James M; Xie, Ruiman; Barton, Jason J S

2002-11-15

Monkey data suggest that of all perceptual abilities, motion perception is the most likely to survive striate damage. The results of studies on motion blindsight in humans, though, are mixed. We used an indirect strategy to examine how responses to visible stimuli were modulated by blind-field stimuli. In a 26-year-old man with focal striate lesions, discrimination of visible optic flow was enhanced about 7% by blind-field flow, even though discrimination of optic flow in the blind field alone (the direct strategy) was at chance. Pursuit of an imagined target using peripheral cues showed reduced variance but not increased gain with blind-field cues. Preceding blind-field prompts shortened reaction times to visible targets by about 10 msec, but there was no attentional crowding of visible stimuli by blind-field distractors. A similar efficacy of indirect blind-field optic flow modulation was found in a second patient with residual vision after focal striate damage, but not in a third with more extensive medial occipito-temporal damage. We conclude that indirect modulatory strategies are more effective than direct forced-choice methods at revealing residual motion perception after focal striate lesions.

Information processing. [in human performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wickens, Christopher D.; Flach, John M.

1988-01-01

Theoretical models of sensory-information processing by the human brain are reviewed from a human-factors perspective, with a focus on their implications for aircraft and avionics design. The topics addressed include perception (signal detection and selection), linguistic factors in perception (context provision, logical reversals, absence of cues, and order reversals), mental models, and working and long-term memory. Particular attention is given to decision-making problems such as situation assessment, decision formulation, decision quality, selection of action, the speed-accuracy tradeoff, stimulus-response compatibility, stimulus sequencing, dual-task performance, task difficulty and structure, and factors affecting multiple task performance (processing modalities, codes, and stages).

Perception of Human Papillomavirus Infection, Cervical Cancer and HPV Vaccination in North Indian Population

PubMed Central

Hussain, Showket; Nasare, Vilas; Kumari, Malasha; Sharma, Shashi; Khan, Mohammad Aijaz; Das, Bhudev C.; Bharadwaj, Mausumi

2014-01-01

Background Human Papillomavirus (HPV) -associated cervical cancer is the second-most common cancer in women worldwide but it is the most frequent gynaecological cancer and cancer associated death in India women. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge about cervical cancer, HPV, HPV vaccine, HPV vaccine acceptance among school and undergraduates students and their parent’s perception about acceptance of HPV vaccine in Northern part of India (Delhi and NCR regions). Materials and Methods A qualitative questionnaire based survey among 2500 urban/rural students aged 12–22 years was conducted. Results Overall, a low frequency (15%) of HPV and cervical cancer awareness was observed in students and their parents. However, the awareness was much higher in females belonging to urban setup compared to boys with a perception that HPV causes cervical cancer in women only. Additionally, only (13%) participants who were aware of cervical cancer and HPV) were willing to accept HPV vaccination. Apparently, parents of female students were two times more willing to accept HPV vaccination for their ward than male students (p<0.001; OR 95%CI = 2.09 (1.58–2.76). Conclusion Cervical cancer and HPV awareness among school, undergraduate students and also to their parents was found to be very low in this part of India. The level of awareness and education appears to be insignificant determinants in rural compared to urban setup. Better health education will be needed to maximize public awareness for cervical cancer prevention. PMID:25386964

Activity in human visual and parietal cortex reveals object-based attention in working memory.

PubMed

Peters, Benjamin; Kaiser, Jochen; Rahm, Benjamin; Bledowski, Christoph

2015-02-25

Visual attention enables observers to select behaviorally relevant information based on spatial locations, features, or objects. Attentional selection is not limited to physically present visual information, but can also operate on internal representations maintained in working memory (WM) in service of higher-order cognition. However, only little is known about whether attention to WM contents follows the same principles as attention to sensory stimuli. To address this question, we investigated in humans whether the typically observed effects of object-based attention in perception are also evident for object-based attentional selection of internal object representations in WM. In full accordance with effects in visual perception, the key behavioral and neuronal characteristics of object-based attention were observed in WM. Specifically, we found that reaction times were shorter when shifting attention to memory positions located on the currently attended object compared with equidistant positions on a different object. Furthermore, functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivariate pattern analysis of visuotopic activity in visual (areas V1-V4) and parietal cortex revealed that directing attention to one position of an object held in WM also enhanced brain activation for other positions on the same object, suggesting that attentional selection in WM activates the entire object. This study demonstrated that all characteristic features of object-based attention are present in WM and thus follows the same principles as in perception. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/353360-10$15.00/0.

Improving visual perception through neurofeedback

PubMed Central

Scharnowski, Frank; Hutton, Chloe; Josephs, Oliver; Weiskopf, Nikolaus; Rees, Geraint

2012-01-01

Perception depends on the interplay of ongoing spontaneous activity and stimulus-evoked activity in sensory cortices. This raises the possibility that training ongoing spontaneous activity alone might be sufficient for enhancing perceptual sensitivity. To test this, we trained human participants to control ongoing spontaneous activity in circumscribed regions of retinotopic visual cortex using real-time functional MRI based neurofeedback. After training, we tested participants using a new and previously untrained visual detection task that was presented at the visual field location corresponding to the trained region of visual cortex. Perceptual sensitivity was significantly enhanced only when participants who had previously learned control over ongoing activity were now exercising control, and only for that region of visual cortex. Our new approach allows us to non-invasively and non-pharmacologically manipulate regionally specific brain activity, and thus provide ‘brain training’ to deliver particular perceptual enhancements. PMID:23223302

Gaze perception in social anxiety and social anxiety disorder

PubMed Central

Schulze, Lars; Renneberg, Babette; Lobmaier, Janek S.

2013-01-01

Clinical observations suggest abnormal gaze perception to be an important indicator of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Experimental research has yet paid relatively little attention to the study of gaze perception in SAD. In this article we first discuss gaze perception in healthy human beings before reviewing self-referential and threat-related biases of gaze perception in clinical and non-clinical socially anxious samples. Relative to controls, socially anxious individuals exhibit an enhanced self-directed perception of gaze directions and demonstrate a pronounced fear of direct eye contact, though findings are less consistent regarding the avoidance of mutual gaze in SAD. Prospects for future research and clinical implications are discussed. PMID:24379776

Cortical Hierarchies Perform Bayesian Causal Inference in Multisensory Perception

PubMed Central

Rohe, Tim; Noppeney, Uta

2015-01-01

To form a veridical percept of the environment, the brain needs to integrate sensory signals from a common source but segregate those from independent sources. Thus, perception inherently relies on solving the “causal inference problem.” Behaviorally, humans solve this problem optimally as predicted by Bayesian Causal Inference; yet, the underlying neural mechanisms are unexplored. Combining psychophysics, Bayesian modeling, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and multivariate decoding in an audiovisual spatial localization task, we demonstrate that Bayesian Causal Inference is performed by a hierarchy of multisensory processes in the human brain. At the bottom of the hierarchy, in auditory and visual areas, location is represented on the basis that the two signals are generated by independent sources (= segregation). At the next stage, in posterior intraparietal sulcus, location is estimated under the assumption that the two signals are from a common source (= forced fusion). Only at the top of the hierarchy, in anterior intraparietal sulcus, the uncertainty about the causal structure of the world is taken into account and sensory signals are combined as predicted by Bayesian Causal Inference. Characterizing the computational operations of signal interactions reveals the hierarchical nature of multisensory perception in human neocortex. It unravels how the brain accomplishes Bayesian Causal Inference, a statistical computation fundamental for perception and cognition. Our results demonstrate how the brain combines information in the face of uncertainty about the underlying causal structure of the world. PMID:25710328

Comparison of two metrological approaches for the prediction of human haptic perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neumann, Annika; Frank, Daniel; Vondenhoff, Thomas; Schmitt, Robert

2016-06-01

Haptic perception is regarded as a key component of customer appreciation and acceptance for various products. The prediction of customers’ haptic perception is of interest both during product development and production phases. This paper presents the results of a multivariate analysis between perceived roughness and texture related surface measurements, to examine whether perceived roughness can be accurately predicted using technical measurements. Studies have shown that standardized measurement parameters, such as the roughness coefficients (e.g. Rz or Ra), do not show a one-dimensional linear correlation with the human perception (of roughness). Thus, an alternative measurement method was compared to standard measurements of roughness, in regard to its capability of predicting perceived roughness through technical measurements. To estimate perceived roughness, an experimental study was conducted in which 102 subjects evaluated four sets of 12 different geometrical surface structures regarding their relative perceived roughness. The two different metrological procedures were examined in relation to their capability to predict the perceived roughness of the subjects stated within the study. The standardized measurements of the surface roughness were made using a structured light 3D-scanner. As an alternative method, surface induced vibrations were measured by a finger-like sensor during robot-controlled traverse over a surface. The presented findings provide a better understanding of the predictability of human haptic perception using technical measurements.

New human-centered linear and nonlinear motion cueing algorithms for control of simulator motion systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Telban, Robert J.

While the performance of flight simulator motion system hardware has advanced substantially, the development of the motion cueing algorithm, the software that transforms simulated aircraft dynamics into realizable motion commands, has not kept pace. To address this, new human-centered motion cueing algorithms were developed. A revised "optimal algorithm" uses time-invariant filters developed by optimal control, incorporating human vestibular system models. The "nonlinear algorithm" is a novel approach that is also formulated by optimal control, but can also be updated in real time. It incorporates a new integrated visual-vestibular perception model that includes both visual and vestibular sensation and the interaction between the stimuli. A time-varying control law requires the matrix Riccati equation to be solved in real time by a neurocomputing approach. Preliminary pilot testing resulted in the optimal algorithm incorporating a new otolith model, producing improved motion cues. The nonlinear algorithm vertical mode produced a motion cue with a time-varying washout, sustaining small cues for longer durations and washing out large cues more quickly compared to the optimal algorithm. The inclusion of the integrated perception model improved the responses to longitudinal and lateral cues. False cues observed with the NASA adaptive algorithm were absent. As a result of unsatisfactory sensation, an augmented turbulence cue was added to the vertical mode for both the optimal and nonlinear algorithms. The relative effectiveness of the algorithms, in simulating aircraft maneuvers, was assessed with an eleven-subject piloted performance test conducted on the NASA Langley Visual Motion Simulator (VMS). Two methods, the quasi-objective NASA Task Load Index (TLX), and power spectral density analysis of pilot control, were used to assess pilot workload. TLX analysis reveals, in most cases, less workload and variation among pilots with the nonlinear algorithm. Control input analysis shows pilot-induced oscillations on a straight-in approach are less prevalent compared to the optimal algorithm. The augmented turbulence cues increased workload on an offset approach that the pilots deemed more realistic compared to the NASA adaptive algorithm. The takeoff with engine failure showed the least roll activity for the nonlinear algorithm, with the least rudder pedal activity for the optimal algorithm.

Neuroimaging somatosensory perception and masking.

PubMed

Meador, Kimford J; Revill, Kathleen Pirog; Epstein, Charles M; Sathian, K; Loring, David W; Rorden, Chris

2017-01-08

The specific cortical and subcortical regions involved in conscious perception and masking are uncertain. This study sought to identify brain areas involved in conscious perception of somatosensory stimuli during a masking task using functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) to contrast perceived vs. non-perceived targets. Electrical trains were delivered to the right index finger for targets and to the left index finger for masks. Target intensities were adjusted to compensate for threshold drift. Sham target trials were given in ~10% of the trials, and target stimuli without masks were delivered in one of the five runs (68 trials/run). When healthy dextral adult volunteers (n=15) perceived right hand targets, greater left- than right-cerebral activations were seen with similar patterns across the parietal cortex, thalamus, insula, claustrum, and midbrain. When targets were not perceived, left/right cerebral activations were similar overall. Directly comparing perceived vs. non-perceived stimuli with similar intensities in the masking task revealed predominate activations contralateral to masks. In contrast, activations were greater contralateral to perceived targets if no masks were given or if masks were given but target stimulus intensities were greater for perceived than non-perceived targets. The novel aspects of this study include: 1) imaging of cortical and subcortical activations in healthy humans related to somatosensory perception during a masking task, 2) activations in the human thalamus and midbrain related to perception of stimuli compared to matched non-perceived stimuli, and 3) similar left/right cerebral activation patterns across cortical, thalamic and midbrain structures suggesting interactions across all three levels during conscious perception in humans. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Early Binocular Input Is Critical for Development of Audiovisual but Not Visuotactile Simultaneity Perception.

PubMed

Chen, Yi-Chuan; Lewis, Terri L; Shore, David I; Maurer, Daphne

2017-02-20

Temporal simultaneity provides an essential cue for integrating multisensory signals into a unified perception. Early visual deprivation, in both animals and humans, leads to abnormal neural responses to audiovisual signals in subcortical and cortical areas [1-5]. Behavioral deficits in integrating complex audiovisual stimuli in humans are also observed [6, 7]. It remains unclear whether early visual deprivation affects visuotactile perception similarly to audiovisual perception and whether the consequences for either pairing differ after monocular versus binocular deprivation [8-11]. Here, we evaluated the impact of early visual deprivation on the perception of simultaneity for audiovisual and visuotactile stimuli in humans. We tested patients born with dense cataracts in one or both eyes that blocked all patterned visual input until the cataractous lenses were removed and the affected eyes fitted with compensatory contact lenses (mean duration of deprivation = 4.4 months; range = 0.3-28.8 months). Both monocularly and binocularly deprived patients demonstrated lower precision in judging audiovisual simultaneity. However, qualitatively different outcomes were observed for the two patient groups: the performance of monocularly deprived patients matched that of young children at immature stages, whereas that of binocularly deprived patients did not match any stage in typical development. Surprisingly, patients performed normally in judging visuotactile simultaneity after either monocular or binocular deprivation. Therefore, early binocular input is necessary to develop normal neural substrates for simultaneity perception of visual and auditory events but not visual and tactile events. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Human skin wetness perception: psychophysical and neurophysiological bases.

PubMed

Filingeri, Davide; Havenith, George

2015-01-01

The ability to perceive thermal changes in the surrounding environment is critical for survival. However, sensing temperature is not the only factor among the cutaneous sensations to contribute to thermoregulatory responses in humans. Sensing skin wetness (i.e. hygrosensation) is also critical both for behavioral and autonomic adaptations. Although much has been done to define the biophysical role of skin wetness in contributing to thermal homeostasis, little is known on the neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning the ability to sense skin wetness. Humans are not provided with skin humidity receptors (i.e., hygroreceptors) and psychophysical studies have identified potential sensory cues (i.e. thermal and mechanosensory) which could contribute to sensing wetness. Recently, a neurophysiological model of human wetness sensitivity has been developed. In helping clarifying the peripheral and central neural mechanisms involved in sensing skin wetness, this model has provided evidence for the existence of a specific human hygrosensation strategy, which is underpinned by perceptual learning via sensory experience. Remarkably, this strategy seems to be shared by other hygroreceptor-lacking animals. However, questions remain on whether these sensory mechanisms are underpinned by specific neuromolecular pathways in humans. Although the first study on human wetness perception dates back to more than 100 years, it is surprising that the neurophysiological bases of such an important sensory feature have only recently started to be unveiled. Hence, to provide an overview of the current knowledge on human hygrosensation, along with potential directions for future research, this review will examine the psychophysical and neurophysiological bases of human skin wetness perception.

Effect of perception irregularity on chain-reaction crash in low visibility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagatani, Takashi

2015-06-01

We present the dynamic model of the chain-reaction crash to take into account the irregularity of the perception-reaction time. When a driver brakes according to taillights of the forward vehicle, the perception-reaction time varies from driver to driver. We study the effect of the perception irregularity on the chain-reaction crash (multiple-vehicle collision) in low-visibility condition. The first crash may induce more collisions. We investigate how the first collision induces the chain-reaction crash numerically. We derive, analytically, the transition points and the region maps for the chain-reaction crash in traffic flow of vehicles with irregular perception times. We clarify the effect of the perception irregularity on the multiple-vehicle collision.

Production and perception rules underlying visual patterns: effects of symmetry and hierarchy.

PubMed

Westphal-Fitch, Gesche; Huber, Ludwig; Gómez, Juan Carlos; Fitch, W Tecumseh

2012-07-19

Formal language theory has been extended to two-dimensional patterns, but little is known about two-dimensional pattern perception. We first examined spontaneous two-dimensional visual pattern production by humans, gathered using a novel touch screen approach. Both spontaneous creative production and subsequent aesthetic ratings show that humans prefer ordered, symmetrical patterns over random patterns. We then further explored pattern-parsing abilities in different human groups, and compared them with pigeons. We generated visual plane patterns based on rules varying in complexity. All human groups tested, including children and individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), were able to detect violations of all production rules tested. Our ASD participants detected pattern violations with the same speed and accuracy as matched controls. Children's ability to detect violations of a relatively complex rotational rule correlated with age, whereas their ability to detect violations of a simple translational rule did not. By contrast, even with extensive training, pigeons were unable to detect orientation-based structural violations, suggesting that, unlike humans, they did not learn the underlying structural rules. Visual two-dimensional patterns offer a promising new formally-grounded way to investigate pattern production and perception in general, widely applicable across species and age groups.

Production and perception rules underlying visual patterns: effects of symmetry and hierarchy

PubMed Central

Westphal-Fitch, Gesche; Huber, Ludwig; Gómez, Juan Carlos; Fitch, W. Tecumseh

2012-01-01

Formal language theory has been extended to two-dimensional patterns, but little is known about two-dimensional pattern perception. We first examined spontaneous two-dimensional visual pattern production by humans, gathered using a novel touch screen approach. Both spontaneous creative production and subsequent aesthetic ratings show that humans prefer ordered, symmetrical patterns over random patterns. We then further explored pattern-parsing abilities in different human groups, and compared them with pigeons. We generated visual plane patterns based on rules varying in complexity. All human groups tested, including children and individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), were able to detect violations of all production rules tested. Our ASD participants detected pattern violations with the same speed and accuracy as matched controls. Children's ability to detect violations of a relatively complex rotational rule correlated with age, whereas their ability to detect violations of a simple translational rule did not. By contrast, even with extensive training, pigeons were unable to detect orientation-based structural violations, suggesting that, unlike humans, they did not learn the underlying structural rules. Visual two-dimensional patterns offer a promising new formally-grounded way to investigate pattern production and perception in general, widely applicable across species and age groups. PMID:22688636

Waterborne disease-related risk perceptions in the Sonora River basin, Mexico.

PubMed

Morua, Agustin Robles; Halvorsen, Kathleen E; Mayer, Alex S

2011-05-01

Waterborne disease is estimated to cause about 10% of all diseases worldwide. However, related risk perceptions are not well understood, particularly in the developing world where waterborne disease is an enormous problem. We focus on understanding risk perceptions related to these issues in a region within northern Mexico. Our findings show how waterborne disease problems and solutions are understood in eight small communities along a highly contaminated river system. We found major differences in risk perceptions between health professionals, government officials, and lay citizens. Health professionals believed that a high level of human-waste-related risk existed within the region. Few officials and lay citizens shared this belief. In addition, few officials and lay citizens were aware of poor wastewater-management-related disease outbreaks and water contamination. Finally, aside from health professionals, a few interviewees understood the importance of basic hygiene and water treatment measures that could help to prevent disease. Our results add to the literature on environmentally-related risk perceptions in the developing world. We discuss recommendations for improving future human-wastewater-related risk communication within the region. © 2011 Society for Risk Analysis.

Kansei, surfaces and perception engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosen, B.-G.; Eriksson, L.; Bergman, M.

2016-09-01

The aesthetic and pleasing properties of a product are important and add significantly to the meaning and relevance of a product. Customer sensation and perception are largely about psychological factors. There has been a strong industrial and academic need and interest for methods and tools to quantify and link product properties to the human response but a lack of studies of the impact of surfaces. In this study, affective surface engineering is used to illustrate and model the link between customer expectations and perception to controllable product surface properties. The results highlight the use of the soft metrology concept for linking physical and human factors contributing to the perception of products. Examples of surface applications of the Kansei methodology are presented from sauna bath, health care, architectural and hygiene tissue application areas to illustrate, discuss and confirm the strength of the methodology. In the conclusions of the study, future research in soft metrology is proposed to allow understanding and modelling of product perception and sensations in combination with a development of the Kansei surface engineering methodology and software tools.

Plasticity in the Human Speech Motor System Drives Changes in Speech Perception

PubMed Central

Lametti, Daniel R.; Rochet-Capellan, Amélie; Neufeld, Emily; Shiller, Douglas M.

2014-01-01

Recent studies of human speech motor learning suggest that learning is accompanied by changes in auditory perception. But what drives the perceptual change? Is it a consequence of changes in the motor system? Or is it a result of sensory inflow during learning? Here, subjects participated in a speech motor-learning task involving adaptation to altered auditory feedback and they were subsequently tested for perceptual change. In two separate experiments, involving two different auditory perceptual continua, we show that changes in the speech motor system that accompany learning drive changes in auditory speech perception. Specifically, we obtained changes in speech perception when adaptation to altered auditory feedback led to speech production that fell into the phonetic range of the speech perceptual tests. However, a similar change in perception was not observed when the auditory feedback that subjects' received during learning fell into the phonetic range of the perceptual tests. This indicates that the central motor outflow associated with vocal sensorimotor adaptation drives changes to the perceptual classification of speech sounds. PMID:25080594

Demonstration of brain noise on human EEG signals in perception of bistable images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grubov, Vadim V.; Runnova, Anastasiya E.; Kurovskaya, Maria K.; Pavlov, Alexey N.; Koronovskii, Alexey A.; Hramov, Alexander E.

2016-03-01

In this report we studied human brain activity in the case of bistable visual perception. We proposed a new approach for quantitative characterization of this activity based on analysis of EEG oscillatory patterns and evoked potentials. Accordingly to theoretical background, obtained experimental EEG data and results of its analysis we studied a characteristics of brain activity during decision-making. Also we have shown that decisionmaking process has the special patterns on the EEG data.

Facing Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace: A Qualitative Study of HR Managers' Perceptions of the Influences on Their Behavior and the Implications for Building an Ethical Culture in Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaMontagne, Ramona Marie

2012-01-01

This qualitative study examined the perceptions of human resource managers who had faced ethical dilemmas in the workplace, to gain an understanding of how they felt their life experiences shaped their values in making ethical decisions. The experiences of ten human resource managers who believed they chose a right course of action when faced with…

Perceptions of emergency nurses during the human swine influenza outbreak: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Lam, Kam Ki; Hung, Shuk Yu Maria

2013-10-01

The primary aim of this study was to explore the perception of Hong Kong emergency nurses regarding their work during the human swine influenza pandemic outbreak. In this exploratory, qualitative study, 10 emergency nurses from a regional hospital in Hong Kong were recruited using purposive sampling. Semi-structured, face-to-face individual interviews were conducted. Qualitative content analysis was utilized to analyze the transcripts. The three following categories emerged from the interview data: concerns about health, comments on the administration, and attitudes of professionalism. Nurses viewed the human swine influenza as a threat to their personal and families' health. However, nurses perceived that the severity of the disease was exaggerated by the public. Improvements in planning the circulation of information, allocation of manpower, and utilization of personal protective equipment were indicated. The emergency nurses demonstrated a sense of commitment and professional morale in promoting a high quality of nursing care. Various factors affecting the perceptions of emergency nurses toward their professional duties during the influenza pandemic were identified. By understanding these perceptions, appropriate planning, policies, and guidelines can be formulated to meet the healthcare needs of patients during future pandemic outbreaks. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Neuronal Network Model for Pitch Selectivity and Representation

PubMed Central

Huang, Chengcheng; Rinzel, John

2016-01-01

Pitch is a perceptual correlate of periodicity. Sounds with distinct spectra can elicit the same pitch. Despite the importance of pitch perception, understanding the cellular mechanism of pitch perception is still a major challenge and a mechanistic model of pitch is lacking. A multi-stage neuronal network model is developed for pitch frequency estimation using biophysically-based, high-resolution coincidence detector neurons. The neuronal units respond only to highly coincident input among convergent auditory nerve fibers across frequency channels. Their selectivity for only very fast rising slopes of convergent input enables these slope-detectors to distinguish the most prominent coincidences in multi-peaked input time courses. Pitch can then be estimated from the first-order interspike intervals of the slope-detectors. The regular firing pattern of the slope-detector neurons are similar for sounds sharing the same pitch despite the distinct timbres. The decoded pitch strengths also correlate well with the salience of pitch perception as reported by human listeners. Therefore, our model can serve as a neural representation for pitch. Our model performs successfully in estimating the pitch of missing fundamental complexes and reproducing the pitch variation with respect to the frequency shift of inharmonic complexes. It also accounts for the phase sensitivity of pitch perception in the cases of Schroeder phase, alternating phase and random phase relationships. Moreover, our model can also be applied to stochastic sound stimuli, iterated-ripple-noise, and account for their multiple pitch perceptions. PMID:27378900

A Neuronal Network Model for Pitch Selectivity and Representation.

PubMed

Huang, Chengcheng; Rinzel, John

2016-01-01

Pitch is a perceptual correlate of periodicity. Sounds with distinct spectra can elicit the same pitch. Despite the importance of pitch perception, understanding the cellular mechanism of pitch perception is still a major challenge and a mechanistic model of pitch is lacking. A multi-stage neuronal network model is developed for pitch frequency estimation using biophysically-based, high-resolution coincidence detector neurons. The neuronal units respond only to highly coincident input among convergent auditory nerve fibers across frequency channels. Their selectivity for only very fast rising slopes of convergent input enables these slope-detectors to distinguish the most prominent coincidences in multi-peaked input time courses. Pitch can then be estimated from the first-order interspike intervals of the slope-detectors. The regular firing pattern of the slope-detector neurons are similar for sounds sharing the same pitch despite the distinct timbres. The decoded pitch strengths also correlate well with the salience of pitch perception as reported by human listeners. Therefore, our model can serve as a neural representation for pitch. Our model performs successfully in estimating the pitch of missing fundamental complexes and reproducing the pitch variation with respect to the frequency shift of inharmonic complexes. It also accounts for the phase sensitivity of pitch perception in the cases of Schroeder phase, alternating phase and random phase relationships. Moreover, our model can also be applied to stochastic sound stimuli, iterated-ripple-noise, and account for their multiple pitch perceptions.

[Perception of UCI nurses in relation with satisfactory care: convergences and divergences with the perception of critical patients].

PubMed

Jover-Sancho, C; Romero-García, M; Delgado-Hito, P; de la Cueva-Ariza, L; Solà-Solé, N; Acosta-Mejuto, B; Ricart-Basagaña, M T; Solà-Ribó, M; Juandó-Prats, C L

2015-01-01

Explore convergences and divergences between perception of nurses and of critically ill patients, in relation to the satisfactory care given and received. It is part of a larger qualitative study, according to the Grounded Theory. Carried out in 3 intensive care units with 34 boxes. Sampling theoretical profiles with n=19 patients and n=7 nurses after data saturation. Recruitment of patients included in the profiles of elderly and long-stay got stretched over some time due to the low incidence of cases. Data collection consisted of: in-depth interview to critically ill patients, group discussion of expert nurses in the critical care patient and field diary. Analysis themed on Grounded Theory according Strauss and Corbin: open coding, axial and selective. Analysis followed criteria of Guba and Lincoln rigor, Calderón quality and Gastaldo and McKeever ethical reflexivity. There was a favorable report from the ethical committee of the Hospital and informed consent of the participants. Four matching categories were found: professional skills, human, technical and continued care. Combination of these elements creates feelings of security, calmness and feeling like a person, allowing the patient a close and trusting relationship with the nurse who takes individualized care. Not divergent categories were found. Perceptions of nurses in relation to care match perceptions of critically ill patients in both the definition and dimensions upon satisfactory care. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L.U. y SEEIUC. All rights reserved.

Chorusing, synchrony, and the evolutionary functions of rhythm.

PubMed

Ravignani, Andrea; Bowling, Daniel L; Fitch, W Tecumseh

2014-01-01

A central goal of biomusicology is to understand the biological basis of human musicality. One approach to this problem has been to compare core components of human musicality (relative pitch perception, entrainment, etc.) with similar capacities in other animal species. Here we extend and clarify this comparative approach with respect to rhythm. First, whereas most comparisons between human music and animal acoustic behavior have focused on spectral properties (melody and harmony), we argue for the central importance of temporal properties, and propose that this domain is ripe for further comparative research. Second, whereas most rhythm research in non-human animals has examined animal timing in isolation, we consider how chorusing dynamics can shape individual timing, as in human music and dance, arguing that group behavior is key to understanding the adaptive functions of rhythm. To illustrate the interdependence between individual and chorusing dynamics, we present a computational model of chorusing agents relating individual call timing with synchronous group behavior. Third, we distinguish and clarify mechanistic and functional explanations of rhythmic phenomena, often conflated in the literature, arguing that this distinction is key for understanding the evolution of musicality. Fourth, we expand biomusicological discussions beyond the species typically considered, providing an overview of chorusing and rhythmic behavior across a broad range of taxa (orthopterans, fireflies, frogs, birds, and primates). Finally, we propose an "Evolving Signal Timing" hypothesis, suggesting that similarities between timing abilities in biological species will be based on comparable chorusing behaviors. We conclude that the comparative study of chorusing species can provide important insights into the adaptive function(s) of rhythmic behavior in our "proto-musical" primate ancestors, and thus inform our understanding of the biology and evolution of rhythm in human music and language.

Public Inaccuracy in Meta-perceptions of Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swim, J.; Fraser, J.

2012-12-01

Public perceptions of climate change and meta-perceptions of the public and climate scientist's perceptions of climate change were assessed to benchmark the National Network for Climate Change Interpretation's impacts. Meta-perceptions are important to examine because they can have implications for willingness to take action to address climate change. For instance, recent research suggests a tendency to misperceive that there is disagreement among climate scientists is predictive of lack of support for climate change policies. Underestimating public concern about climate change could also be problematic: it could lead individuals to withdraw from personal efforts to reduce impact and engage others in discussions about climate change. Presented results will demonstrate that respondents in a national survey underestimated the percent of the public who were very concerned, concerned or cautious about climate change and overestimated the extent others were disengaged, doubted, or non-believers. They underestimated the percent of the public who likely believed that humans caused climate change and overestimate the percent that believed climate change was not happening nor human induced. Finally, they underestimated the percent of the public that believed climate change threatened ocean health. The results also explore sources of misperceptions. First, correlates with TV viewing habits suggest that inaccuracy is a result of too little attention to network news, with one exception: Greater attention to FOX among doubters reduced accuracy. Second, adding to other evidence that basic cognitive heuristics (such as availability heuristic) influence perceptions of climate change, we show that that false consensus effects account for meta-perceptions of the public and climate scientists beliefs. The false consensus effect, in combination with underestimating concern among the public, results in those most concerned about climate change and those who believe it to be human caused to be more accurate in their meta-perceptions than their disbelieving counterparts. Yet, even this group underestimates the public's concern about climate change and the presence of the false consensus effect suggests that greater accuracy is not a result of greater knowledge about other's beliefs but rather a result of personal cognitive or motivational biases counteracting a general trend toward underestimating the general public's concern. We conclude that there is need to inform the public about wide-spread agreement that human caused climate change and its impacts on oceans is believed by the majority of the public and to increase the public's confidence in climate scientist agreement about the existence, causes, and impacts of climate change.; Perceptions and metaperceptions of concern about climate change

Learning and Prediction of Relational Time Series

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

percept that describes “a ball hits the wall” becomes false immediately after it occurs. An interval timed percept occurs at the ‘+’ percept, persist...describes “a ball is in the box” is true until the ball is removed. A timed percept indicating the beginning of an interval state has a...CALEB), FATHER(CALEB, TIMOTHY), GRANDFATHER(JOHN, SHERYL), we can induce a rule: ∀x∀y∀ z , FATHER(x,y), 15 FATHER(y, z )  GRANDFATHER(x, z ). The main

Real-time interactive 3D computer stereography for recreational applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyazawa, Atsushi; Ishii, Motonaga; Okuzawa, Kazunori; Sakamoto, Ryuuichi

2008-02-01

With the increasing calculation costs of 3D computer stereography, low-cost, high-speed implementation of the latter requires effective distribution of computing resources. In this paper, we attempt to re-classify 3D display technologies on the basis of humans' 3D perception, in order to determine what level of presence or reality is required in recreational video game systems. We then discuss the design and implementation of stereography systems in two categories of the new classification.

Effects of Different Distributions of Training Time on the Acquisition of Contact Flying Skills

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-07-01

evaluate their own performance. PERCEPTION OF TRAINING. Based orn their general response to the Student Opinion Survey, the students in both programs felt...analy- sis. Dr. Jerry M. Childs and Mr. Edward Miller of Seville aided in the devel- oment of the pilot performance measurement instruments. Mr. E. Peter...J. B., Childs , J. M., Prophet, W. W., & Spears, W. L. Human factors problems in general aviation (Tech. Rep. FAA-CT-80-194). Washington, DC: Federal

Exploring responses to art in adolescence: a behavioral and eye-tracking study.

PubMed

Savazzi, Federica; Massaro, Davide; Di Dio, Cinzia; Gallese, Vittorio; Gilli, Gabriella; Marchetti, Antonella

2014-01-01

Adolescence is a peculiar age mainly characterized by physical and psychological changes that may affect the perception of one's own and others' body. This perceptual peculiarity may influence the way in which bottom-up and top-down processes interact and, consequently, the perception and evaluation of art. This study is aimed at investigating, by means of the eye-tracking technique, the visual explorative behavior of adolescents while looking at paintings. Sixteen color paintings, categorized as dynamic and static, were presented to twenty adolescents; half of the images represented natural environments and half human individuals; all stimuli were displayed under aesthetic and movement judgment tasks. Participants' ratings revealed that, generally, nature images are explicitly evaluated as more appealing than human images. Eye movement data, on the other hand, showed that the human body exerts a strong power in orienting and attracting visual attention and that, in adolescence, it plays a fundamental role during aesthetic experience. In particular, adolescents seem to approach human-content images by giving priority to elements calling forth movement and action, supporting the embodiment theory of aesthetic perception.

Exploring Responses to Art in Adolescence: A Behavioral and Eye-Tracking Study

PubMed Central

Savazzi, Federica; Massaro, Davide; Di Dio, Cinzia; Gallese, Vittorio; Gilli, Gabriella; Marchetti, Antonella

2014-01-01

Adolescence is a peculiar age mainly characterized by physical and psychological changes that may affect the perception of one's own and others' body. This perceptual peculiarity may influence the way in which bottom-up and top-down processes interact and, consequently, the perception and evaluation of art. This study is aimed at investigating, by means of the eye-tracking technique, the visual explorative behavior of adolescents while looking at paintings. Sixteen color paintings, categorized as dynamic and static, were presented to twenty adolescents; half of the images represented natural environments and half human individuals; all stimuli were displayed under aesthetic and movement judgment tasks. Participants' ratings revealed that, generally, nature images are explicitly evaluated as more appealing than human images. Eye movement data, on the other hand, showed that the human body exerts a strong power in orienting and attracting visual attention and that, in adolescence, it plays a fundamental role during aesthetic experience. In particular, adolescents seem to approach human-content images by giving priority to elements calling forth movement and action, supporting the embodiment theory of aesthetic perception. PMID:25048813

[Time perceptions and representations].

PubMed

Tordjman, S

2015-09-01

Representations of time and time measurements depend on subjective constructs that vary according to changes in our concepts, beliefs, societal needs and technical advances. Similarly, the past, the future and the present are subjective representations that depend on each individual's psychic time and biological time. Therefore, there is no single, one-size-fits-all time for everyone, but rather a different, subjective time for each individual. We need to acknowledge the existence of different inter-individual times but also intra-individual times, to which different functions and different rhythms are attached, depending on the system of reference. However, the construction of these time perceptions and representations is influenced by objective factors (physiological, physical and cognitive) related to neuroscience which will be presented and discussed in this article. Thus, studying representation and perception of time lies at the crossroads between neuroscience, human sciences and philosophy. Furthermore, it is possible to identify several constants among the many and various representations of time and their corresponding measures, regardless of the system of time reference. These include the notion of movements repeated in a stable rhythmic pattern involving the recurrence of the same interval of time, which enables us to define units of time of equal and invariable duration. This rhythmicity is also found at a physiological level and contributes through circadian rhythms, in particular the melatonin rhythm, to the existence of a biological time. Alterations of temporality in mental disorders will be also discussed in this article illustrated by certain developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders. In particular, the hypothesis will be developed that children with autism would need to create discontinuity out of continuity through stereotyped behaviors and/or interests. This discontinuity repeated at regular intervals could have been fundamentally lacking in their physiological development due to possibly altered circadian rhythms, including arhythmy and asynchrony. Time measurement, based on the repetition of discontinuity at regular intervals, involves also a spatial representation. It is our own trajectory through space-time, and thus our own motion, including the physiological process of aging, that affords us a representation of the passing of time, just as the countryside seems to be moving past us when we travel in a vehicle. Chinese and Indian societies actually have circular representations of time, and linear representations of time and its trajectory through space-time are currently a feature of Western societies. Circular time is collective time, and its metaphysical representations go beyond the life of a single individual, referring to the cyclical, or at least nonlinear, nature of time. Linear time is individual time, in that it refers to the scale of a person's lifetime, and it is physically represented by an arrow flying ineluctably from the past to the future. An intermediate concept can be proposed that acknowledges the existence of linear time involving various arrows of time corresponding to different lifespans (human, animal, plant, planet lifespans, etc.). In fact, the very notion of time would depend on the trajectory of each arrow of time, like shooting stars in the sky with different trajectory lengths which would define different time scales. The time scale of these various lifespans are very different (for example, a few decades for humans and a few days or hours for insects). It would not make sense to try to understand the passage of time experienced by an insect which may live only a few hours based on a human time scale. One hour in an insect's life cannot be compared to one experienced by a human. Yet again, it appears that there is a coexistence of different clocks based here on different lifespans. Finally, the evolution of our society focused on the present moment and choosing the cesium atom as the international reference unit of time measurement (cesium has a transition frequency of 9.192.631.77000 oscillations per second), will be questioned. We can consider that focusing on the present moment, in particular on instantaneity rather than infinity, prevents us from facing our own finitude. In conclusion, the question is raised that the current representation of time might be a means of managing our fear of death, giving us the illusion of controlling the uncontrollable, in particular the passage of time, and a means of avoiding to represent what many regard as non-representable, namely our own demise. Copyright © 2015 L’Encéphale. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.

Perception and eye movements in simulated traffic situations.

PubMed

Luoma, J

1984-01-01

In an experiment to simulate the perception task of a driver, subjects were shown uninterrupted series of colour slides of different kinds of highway scenes. The dependent variables were eye fixations, fixation times and conscious perceptions for the part of the traffic signs and roadside advertisements. Perceptions were achieved mostly as a result of fixation, but partly also by using peripheral vision. On the other hand fixation did not always cause perception. The lengthening of fixation time increased the number of correct perceptions. When the traffic sign and the roadside advertisement were in the same slide, the advertisement disturbed the perception of the sign, but in the daylight conditions this effect was not noticed as an alteration of the fixation of the sign, but as prevention of further information processing. The disturbing influence of the advertisement was increased by its bad information ergonomics which caused a long fixation time.

Modulation of neural circuits underlying temporal production by facial expressions of pain.

PubMed

Ballotta, Daniela; Lui, Fausta; Porro, Carlo Adolfo; Nichelli, Paolo Frigio; Benuzzi, Francesca

2018-01-01

According to the Scalar Expectancy Theory, humans are equipped with a biological internal clock, possibly modulated by attention and arousal. Both emotions and pain are arousing and can absorb attentional resources, thus causing distortions of temporal perception. The aims of the present single-event fMRI study were to investigate: a) whether observation of facial expressions of pain interferes with time production; and b) the neural network subserving this kind of temporal distortions. Thirty healthy volunteers took part in the study. Subjects were asked to perform a temporal production task and a concurrent gender discrimination task, while viewing faces of unknown people with either pain-related or neutral expressions. Behavioural data showed temporal underestimation (i.e., longer produced intervals) during implicit pain expression processing; this was accompanied by increased activity of right middle temporal gyrus, a region known to be active during the perception of emotional and painful faces. Psycho-Physiological Interaction analyses showed that: 1) the activity of middle temporal gyrus was positively related to that of areas previously reported to play a role in timing: left primary motor cortex, middle cingulate cortex, supplementary motor area, right anterior insula, inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral cerebellum and basal ganglia; 2) the functional connectivity of supplementary motor area with several frontal regions, anterior cingulate cortex and right angular gyrus was correlated to the produced interval during painful expression processing. Our data support the hypothesis that observing emotional expressions distorts subjective time perception through the interaction of the neural network subserving processing of facial expressions with the brain network involved in timing. Within this frame, middle temporal gyrus appears to be the key region of the interplay between the two neural systems.

Multi-time resolution analysis of speech: evidence from psychophysics

PubMed Central

Chait, Maria; Greenberg, Steven; Arai, Takayuki; Simon, Jonathan Z.; Poeppel, David

2015-01-01

How speech signals are analyzed and represented remains a foundational challenge both for cognitive science and neuroscience. A growing body of research, employing various behavioral and neurobiological experimental techniques, now points to the perceptual relevance of both phoneme-sized (10–40 Hz modulation frequency) and syllable-sized (2–10 Hz modulation frequency) units in speech processing. However, it is not clear how information associated with such different time scales interacts in a manner relevant for speech perception. We report behavioral experiments on speech intelligibility employing a stimulus that allows us to investigate how distinct temporal modulations in speech are treated separately and whether they are combined. We created sentences in which the slow (~4 Hz; Slow) and rapid (~33 Hz; Shigh) modulations—corresponding to ~250 and ~30 ms, the average duration of syllables and certain phonetic properties, respectively—were selectively extracted. Although Slow and Shigh have low intelligibility when presented separately, dichotic presentation of Shigh with Slow results in supra-additive performance, suggesting a synergistic relationship between low- and high-modulation frequencies. A second experiment desynchronized presentation of the Slow and Shigh signals. Desynchronizing signals relative to one another had no impact on intelligibility when delays were less than ~45 ms. Longer delays resulted in a steep intelligibility decline, providing further evidence of integration or binding of information within restricted temporal windows. Our data suggest that human speech perception uses multi-time resolution processing. Signals are concurrently analyzed on at least two separate time scales, the intermediate representations of these analyses are integrated, and the resulting bound percept has significant consequences for speech intelligibility—a view compatible with recent insights from neuroscience implicating multi-timescale auditory processing. PMID:26136650

Human Inferences about Sequences: A Minimal Transition Probability Model

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

The brain constantly infers the causes of the inputs it receives and uses these inferences to generate statistical expectations about future observations. Experimental evidence for these expectations and their violations include explicit reports, sequential effects on reaction times, and mismatch or surprise signals recorded in electrophysiology and functional MRI. Here, we explore the hypothesis that the brain acts as a near-optimal inference device that constantly attempts to infer the time-varying matrix of transition probabilities between the stimuli it receives, even when those stimuli are in fact fully unpredictable. This parsimonious Bayesian model, with a single free parameter, accounts for a broad range of findings on surprise signals, sequential effects and the perception of randomness. Notably, it explains the pervasive asymmetry between repetitions and alternations encountered in those studies. Our analysis suggests that a neural machinery for inferring transition probabilities lies at the core of human sequence knowledge. PMID:28030543

Limited communication capacity unveils strategies for human interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miritello, Giovanna; Lara, Rubén; Cebrian, Manuel; Moro, Esteban

2013-06-01

Connectivity is the key process that characterizes the structural and functional properties of social networks. However, the bursty activity of dyadic interactions may hinder the discrimination of inactive ties from large interevent times in active ones. We develop a principled method to detect tie de-activation and apply it to a large longitudinal, cross-sectional communication dataset (~19 months, ~20 million people). Contrary to the perception of ever-growing connectivity, we observe that individuals exhibit a finite communication capacity, which limits the number of ties they can maintain active in time. On average men display higher capacity than women, and this capacity decreases for both genders over their lifespan. Separating communication capacity from activity reveals a diverse range of tie activation strategies, from stable to exploratory. This allows us to draw novel relationships between individual strategies for human interaction and the evolution of social networks at global scale.

Limited communication capacity unveils strategies for human interaction

PubMed Central

Miritello, Giovanna; Lara, Rubén; Cebrian, Manuel; Moro, Esteban

2013-01-01

Connectivity is the key process that characterizes the structural and functional properties of social networks. However, the bursty activity of dyadic interactions may hinder the discrimination of inactive ties from large interevent times in active ones. We develop a principled method to detect tie de-activation and apply it to a large longitudinal, cross-sectional communication dataset (≈19 months, ≈20 million people). Contrary to the perception of ever-growing connectivity, we observe that individuals exhibit a finite communication capacity, which limits the number of ties they can maintain active in time. On average men display higher capacity than women, and this capacity decreases for both genders over their lifespan. Separating communication capacity from activity reveals a diverse range of tie activation strategies, from stable to exploratory. This allows us to draw novel relationships between individual strategies for human interaction and the evolution of social networks at global scale. PMID:23739519

Sliding Mode Control of Real-Time PNU Vehicle Driving Simulator and Its Performance Evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Min Cheol; Park, Min Kyu; Yoo, Wan Suk; Son, Kwon; Han, Myung Chul

This paper introduces an economical and effective full-scale driving simulator for study of human sensibility and development of new vehicle parts and its control. Real-time robust control to accurately reappear a various vehicle motion may be a difficult task because the motion platform is the nonlinear complex system. This study proposes the sliding mode controller with a perturbation compensator using observer-based fuzzy adaptive network (FAN). This control algorithm is designed to solve the chattering problem of a sliding mode control and to select the adequate fuzzy parameters of the perturbation compensator. For evaluating the trajectory control performance of the proposed approach, a tracking control of the developed simulator named PNUVDS is experimentally carried out. And then, the driving performance of the simulator is evaluated by using human perception and sensibility of some drivers in various driving conditions.

Variation in umami perception and in candidate genes for the umami receptor in mice and humans1234

PubMed Central

Shirosaki, Shinya; Ohkuri, Tadahiro; Sanematsu, Keisuke; Islam, AA Shahidul; Ogiwara, Yoko; Kawai, Misako; Yoshida, Ryusuke; Ninomiya, Yuzo

2009-01-01

The unique taste induced by monosodium glutamate is referred to as umami taste. The umami taste is also elicited by the purine nucleotides inosine 5′-monophosphate and guanosine 5′-monophosphate. There is evidence that a heterodimeric G protein–coupled receptor, which consists of the T1R1 (taste receptor type 1, member 1, Tas1r1) and the T1R3 (taste receptor type 1, member 3, Tas1r3) proteins, functions as an umami taste receptor for rodents and humans. Splice variants of metabotropic glutamate receptors, mGluR1 (glutamate receptor, metabotropic 1, Grm1) and mGluR4 (glutamate receptor, metabotropic 4, Grm4), also have been proposed as taste receptors for glutamate. The taste sensitivity to umami substances varies in inbred mouse strains and in individual humans. However, little is known about the relation of umami taste sensitivity to variations in candidate umami receptor genes in rodents or in humans. In this article, we summarize current knowledge of the diversity of umami perception in mice and humans. Furthermore, we combine previously published data and new information from the single nucleotide polymorphism databases regarding variation in the mouse and human candidate umami receptor genes: mouse Tas1r1 (TAS1R1 for human), mouse Tas1r3 (TAS1R3 for human), mouse Grm1 (GRM1 for human), and mouse Grm4 (GRM4 for human). Finally, we discuss prospective associations between variation of these genes and umami taste perception in both species. PMID:19625681