Differences between Early-Blind, Late-Blind, and Blindfolded-Sighted People in Haptic Spatial-Configuration Learning and Resulting Memory Traces

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p5441 ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1253-1265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Postma ◽  
Sander Zuidhoek ◽  
Matthijs L Noordzij ◽  
Astrid M L Kappers

The roles of visual and haptic experience in different aspects of haptic processing of objects in peripersonal space are examined. In three trials, early-blind, late-blind, and blindfolded-sighted individuals had to match ten shapes haptically to the cut-outs in a board as fast as possible. Both blind groups were much faster than the sighted in all three trials. All three groups improved considerably from trial to trial. In particular, the sighted group showed a strong improvement from the first to the second trial. While superiority of the blind remained for speeded matching after rotation of the stimulus frame, coordinate positional-memory scores in a non-speeded free-recall trial showed no significant differences between the groups. Moreover, when assessed with a verbal response, categorical spatial-memory appeared strongest in the late-blind group. The role of haptic and visual experience thus appears to depend on the task aspect tested.


Author(s):  
Ryoji Nishiyama ◽  
Jun Ukita

This study examined whether additional articulatory rehearsal induced temporary durability of phonological representations, using a 10-s delayed nonword free recall task. Three experiments demonstrated that cumulative rehearsal between the offset of the last study item and the start of the filled delay (Experiments 1 and 3) and a fixed rehearsal of the immediate item during the subsequent interstimulus interval (Experiments 2 and 3) improved free recall performance. These results suggest that an additional rehearsal helps to stabilize phonological representations for a short period. Furthermore, the analyses of serial position curves suggested that the frequency of the articulation affected the durability of the phonological representation. The significance of these findings as clues of the mechanism maintaining verbal information (i.e., verbal working memory) is discussed.



2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aisha P. Siddiqui ◽  
Nash Unsworth
Keyword(s):  


2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Talya Sadeh ◽  
Rani Moran ◽  
Yonatan Goshen-Gottstein
Keyword(s):  


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (14) ◽  
pp. 7713
Author(s):  
Alyssa Tidmore ◽  
Sucharita M. Dutta ◽  
Arriyam S. Fesshaye ◽  
William K. Russell ◽  
Vania D. Duncan ◽  
...  

Exposure of rodents to <20 cGy Space Radiation (SR) impairs performance in several hippocampus-dependent cognitive tasks, including spatial memory. However, there is considerable inter-individual susceptibility to develop SR-induced spatial memory impairment. In this study, a robust label-free mass spectrometry (MS)-based unbiased proteomic profiling approach was used to characterize the composition of the hippocampal proteome in adult male Wistar rats exposed to 15 cGy of 1 GeV/n 48Ti and their sham counterparts. Unique protein signatures were identified in the hippocampal proteome of: (1) sham rats, (2) Ti-exposed rats, (3) Ti-exposed rats that had sham-like spatial memory performance, and (4) Ti-exposed rats that impaired spatial memory performance. Approximately 14% (159) of the proteins detected in hippocampal proteome of sham rats were not detected in the Ti-exposed rats. We explored the possibility that the loss of the Sham-only proteins may arise as a result of SR-induced changes in protein homeostasis. SR-exposure was associated with a switch towards increased pro-ubiquitination proteins from that seen in Sham. These data suggest that the role of the ubiquitin-proteome system as a determinant of SR-induced neurocognitive deficits needs to be more thoroughly investigated.



2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 888-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Tamietto ◽  
Franco Cauda ◽  
Luca Latini Corazzini ◽  
Silvia Savazzi ◽  
Carlo A. Marzi ◽  
...  

Following destruction or deafferentation of primary visual cortex (area V1, striate cortex), clinical blindness ensues, but residual visual functions may, nevertheless, persist without perceptual consciousness (a condition termed blindsight). The study of patients with such lesions thus offers a unique opportunity to investigate what visual capacities are mediated by the extrastriate pathways that bypass V1. Here we provide evidence for a crucial role of the collicular–extrastriate pathway in nonconscious visuomotor integration by showing that, in the absence of V1, the superior colliculus (SC) is essential to translate visual signals that cannot be consciously perceived into motor outputs. We found that a gray stimulus presented in the blind field of a patient with unilateral V1 loss, although not consciously seen, can influence his behavioral and pupillary responses to consciously perceived stimuli in the intact field (implicit bilateral summation). Notably, this effect was accompanied by selective activations in the SC and in occipito-temporal extrastriate areas. However, when instead of gray stimuli we presented purple stimuli, which predominantly draw on S-cones and are thus invisible to the SC, any evidence of implicit visuomotor integration disappeared and activations in the SC dropped significantly. The present findings show that the SC acts as an interface between sensory and motor processing in the human brain, thereby providing a contribution to visually guided behavior that may remain functionally and anatomically segregated from the geniculo-striate pathway and entirely outside conscious visual experience.



2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Proulx ◽  
Achille Pasqualotto ◽  
Shuichiro Taya

The topographic representation of space interacts with the mental representation of number. Evidence for such number–space relations have been reported in both synaesthetic and non-synaesthetic participants. Thus far most studies have only examined related effects in sighted participants. For example, the mental number line increases in magnitude from left to right in sighted individuals (Loetscher et al., 2008, Curr. Biol.). What is unclear is whether this association arises from innate mechanisms or requires visual experience early in life to develop in this way. Here we investigated the role of visual experience for the left to right spatial numerical association using a random number generation task in congenitally blind, late blind, and blindfolded sighted participants. Participants orally generated numbers randomly whilst turning their head to the left and right. Sighted participants generated smaller numbers when they turned their head to the left than to the right, consistent with past results. In contrast, congenitally blind participants generated smaller numbers when they turned their head to the right than to the left, exhibiting the opposite effect. The results of the late blind participants showed an intermediate profile between that of the sighted and congenitally blind participants. Visual experience early in life is therefore necessary for the development of the spatial numerical association of the mental number line.



1970 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Richard Puff
Keyword(s):  


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole X Han ◽  
Puneeth N. Chakravarthula ◽  
Miguel P. Eckstein

Face processing is a fast and efficient process due to its evolutionary and social importance. A majority of people direct their first eye movement to a featureless point just below the eyes that maximizes accuracy in recognizing a person's identity and gender. Yet, the exact properties or features of the face that guide the first eye movements and reduce fixational variability are unknown. Here, we manipulated the presence of the facial features and the spatial configuration of features to investigate their effect on the location and variability of first and second fixations to peripherally presented faces. Results showed that observers can utilize the face outline, individual facial features, and feature spatial configuration to guide the first eye movements to their preferred point of fixation. The eyes have a preferential role in guiding the first eye movements and reducing fixation variability. Eliminating the eyes or altering their position had the greatest influence on the location and variability of fixations and resulted in the largest detriment to face identification performance. The other internal features (nose and mouth) also contribute to reducing fixation variability. A subsequent experiment measuring detection of single features showed that the eyes have the highest detectability (relative to other features) in the visual periphery providing a strong sensory signal to guide the oculomotor system. Together, the results suggest a flexible multiple-cue approach that might be a robust solution to cope with how the varying eccentricities in the real world influence the ability to resolve individual feature properties and the preferential role of the eyes.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Nishio ◽  
Kenji Hayashi ◽  
Ayako Wendy Ishikawa ◽  
Yumiko Yoshimura


1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 140-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Mueller Simone ◽  
Gordon C. Baylis


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