scholarly journals Cross-modal temporal biases emerge during early sensitive periods

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Badde ◽  
Pia Ley ◽  
Siddhart S Rajendran ◽  
Idris Shareef ◽  
Ramesh Kekunnaya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Visual Events ◽  
Sustained Effects ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Transient Loss

AbstractHuman perception features stable biases, such as perceiving visual events as later than synchronous auditory events. The origin of such perceptual biases is unknown, they could be innate or shaped by sensory experience during a sensitive period. To investigate the role of sensory experience, we tested whether a congenital, transient loss of vision, caused by bilateral dense cataracts, has sustained effects on the ability to order events spatio-temporally within and across sensory modalities. Most strikingly, individuals with reversed congenital cataracts showed a bias towards perceiving visual stimuli as occurring earlier than auditory (Exp. 1) and tactile (Exp. 2) stimuli. In contrast, both normally sighted controls and individuals who could see at birth but developed cataracts during childhood reported the typical bias of perceiving vision as delayed compared to audition. Thus, we provide strong evidence that cross-modal temporal perceptual biases depend on sensory experience and emerge during an early sensitive period.

scholarly journals Sensory experience during early sensitive periods shapes cross-modal temporal biases

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Badde ◽  
Pia Ley ◽  
Siddhart S Rajendran ◽  
Idris Shareef ◽  
Ramesh Kekunnaya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Visual Events ◽  
Sustained Effects ◽  
Transient Loss

Typical human perception features stable biases such as perceiving visual events as later than synchronous auditory events. The origin of such perceptual biases is unknown. To investigate the role of early sensory experience, we tested whether a congenital, transient loss of pattern vision, caused by bilateral dense cataracts, has sustained effects on audio-visual and tactile-visual temporal biases and resolution. Participants judged the temporal order of successively presented, spatially separated events within and across modalities. Individuals with reversed congenital cataracts showed a bias towards perceiving visual stimuli as occurring earlier than auditory (Expt. 1) and tactile (Expt. 2) stimuli. This finding stood in stark contrast to normally sighted controls and sight-recovery individuals who had developed cataracts later in childhood: both groups exhibited the typical bias of perceiving vision as delayed compared to audition. These findings provide strong evidence that cross-modal temporal biases depend on sensory experience during an early sensitive period.

scholarly journals Function of a multimodal signal: a multiple-hypotheses test using an electromechanical robot

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinícius Caldart ◽  
Mauricio Beux dos Santos ◽  
Glauco Machado
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
Signal Transmission ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Multimodal Signals ◽  
Heterogeneous Habitats ◽  
Territory Defence ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Aggressive Calls

1. Many animal species communicate using multimodal signals, which are composed of two or more components emitted and interpreted through different sensory modalities. The main types of selective pressures leading to the evolution of multimodal signals are: (1) content-based, when combined components convey information about the signaller, (2) efficacy-based, when combined components increase the efficacy of signal transmission or processing, and (3) inter-signal interaction, when combined components act in concert to elicit a receiver’s response that differs from the response to either components alone.2. We experimentally tested predictions of five competing hypotheses about the selective pressures leading to the evolution of an audiovisual display (aggressive calls + toe flags) emitted during agonistic male-male interactions of the Neotropical frog Crossodactylus schmidti. 3. To simulate these agonistic interactions in the field, we built an electromechanical robot that emitted acoustic and visual stimuli, either combined or in isolation. We assessed male receiver’s responses to the stimuli types in terms of occurrence and frequency of signals emission.4. The hypothesis that received most support was the context hypothesis, which states that one signal provides a context in which a receiver can interpret and respond to a second signal. The main findings supporting this hypothesis are: (1) the receiver’s response to the acoustic and visual stimuli were non-redundant; (2) the multimodal stimulus magnified the receiver’s response; and (3) the frequency of aggressive notes and toe flags covaried in the receiver’s response to the multimodal stimulus.5. We suggest that the addition of toe flags to aggressive calls modulates male-male interactions by providing to the receiver a new context for the interpretation and response to the acoustic signal. This new context may be motivation to fight for territory possession, level of aggressiveness, or intent of territory defence or invasion. Our study provides one of the few evidences of a context function of a multimodal signal with a modulation effect in animal contests. Moreover, our results draw attention to the role of inter-signal selection on the evolution of multimodal signals in species living in heterogeneous habitats, where efficacy-based selection is often considered as a major driver.

scholarly journals Assessing the Role of Emotional Mediation in Explaining Crossmodal Correspondences Involving Musical Stimuli

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Spence
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Crossmodal Correspondences ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Crossmodal Associations ◽  
Simple Features

Abstract A wide variety of crossmodal correspondences, defined as the often surprising connections that people appear to experience between simple features, attributes, or dimensions of experience, either physically present or else merely imagined, in different sensory modalities, have been demonstrated in recent years. However, a number of crossmodal correspondences have also been documented between more complex (i.e., multi-component) stimuli, such as, for example, pieces of music and paintings. In this review, the extensive evidence supporting the emotional mediation account of the crossmodal correspondences between musical stimuli (mostly pre-recorded short classical music excerpts) and visual stimuli, including colour patches through to, on occasion, paintings, is critically evaluated. According to the emotional mediation account, it is the emotional associations that people have with stimuli that constitutes one of the fundamental bases on which crossmodal associations are established. Taken together, the literature that has been published to date supports emotional mediation as one of the key factors underlying the crossmodal correspondences involving emotionally-valenced stimuli, both simple and complex.

Concurrent Electrodermal and Eyeblink Conditioning With Masked and Unmasked Stimuli

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
José Luis Marcos ◽  
Azahara Marcos
Keyword(s):  
Unconditioned Stimulus ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Eyeblink Conditioning ◽  
Noise Burst ◽  
Conditioning Phase ◽  
Contingency Awareness ◽  
Blank Screen ◽  
Neutral Face ◽  
Fearful Face

Abstract. The aim of this study was to determine if contingency awareness between the conditioned (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) is necessary for concurrent electrodermal and eyeblink conditioning to masked stimuli. An angry woman’s face (CS+) and a fearful face (CS−) were presented for 23 milliseconds (ms) and followed by a neutral face as a mask. A 98 dB noise burst (US) was administered 477 ms after CS+ offset to elicit both electrodermal and eyeblink responses. For the unmasking conditioning a 176 ms blank screen was inserted between the CS and the mask. Contingency awareness was assessed using trial-by-trial ratings of US-expectancy in a post-conditioning phase. The results showed acquisition of differential electrodermal and eyeblink conditioning in aware, but not in unaware participants. Acquisition of differential eyeblink conditioning required more trials than electrodermal conditioning. These results provided strong evidence of the causal role of contingency awareness on differential eyeblink and electrodermal conditioning.

BLOCKADE OF THE SURGE OF PROLACTIN AT PRO-OESTRUS BY ADMINISTRATION OF ANTI-OESTROGENIC SUBSTANCE, MER-25

1973 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Yokoyama ◽  
Hiroshi Tomogane ◽  
Katuaki Ôta
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand

ABSTRACT A non-steroidal oestrogen antagonist, MER-25, was administered to cycling rats for elucidating the role of oestrogen in the surge of prolactin observed on the afternoon of pro-oestrus (POe). In animals injected with 20 mg of MER-25 intramuscularly on the afternoon (16.30 h) of the first day of dioestrus (D-1), the surge of prolactin was blocked while the level of prolactin on the afternoon of POe of these animals was significantly higher than that of the corresponding controls injected with oil. Ovulation was also blocked in these animals treated with the drug on the afternoon of D-l. On the other hand, treatment on the morning (10.30 h) of the 2nd day of dioestrus failed to prevent not only the surge of prolactin but also ovulation. These observations provide strong evidence for the view that oestrogen is responsible for the surge of prolactin on the afternoon of POe, and that the surge is accompanied by that of LH.

Literature and the Senses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Dugan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Study ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Culture And Language ◽  
Sensory Studies

Sensory studies is an interdisciplinary field connecting insights from history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion, literature, and art to the scientific study of human perception. Though research in this field draws upon a wide variety of methodologies and focuses on different historical periods and geographical areas, it is unified through a core tenet: that the human sensorium is as much a cultural, historical, and aesthetic phenomenon as it is an environmental and a biological one. Social mores, geographies, religious beliefs, and individual abilities shape perception in uniquely cultural ways. Put more succinctly, sensory studies, as a field, argues for the cultural study of the senses and the sensuous study of culture. And language is squarely at the center of scholarly questions about perception; literary studies thus provides useful methodological tools for understanding not only how we represent visceral experiences (such as sensation) to others through language but also how these strategies have changed over time. The study of literature and the senses emphasizes the important role of language in representing visceral experience and the important role of aesthetics and history in shaping literary representations.

Art and the Senses for Ocean Conservation

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosabelle Boswell
Keyword(s):  
World Ocean ◽  
Effective Communication ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The One ◽  
Conservation Plans ◽  
Ocean Conservation

This paper considers the role of art in ocean conservation. Drawing on the presentations and work of two artists featured in the One Ocean Hub Art and Emotions webinar hosted during the UN World Ocean Week, the paper focuses specifically on the sensorial nature of art and of human beings and the role that art can play in advancing ocean conservation. The main argument offered is that ocean conservation plans and policies should consider the importance of humans to ocean conservation, the importance of human artistic endeavour to ocean activism and finally the importance of the sensory to human experience. Acknowledging and recognising the importance of human sensory experience in relation to the sea, can nuance existing discourses of ocean use and benefits, revealing human priorities and potential obstacles to conservation. Third, by leveraging human sensory expression through art, ocean conservation advocates may be able to refine and produce more effective communication for ocean conservation. Finally, recognising the sensory (and the artistic) is key to reorienting humanity as it enters a post-anthropocentric age, marked by dramatic ecological change.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Role of Place in Geographic Information Science

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Merschdorf ◽  
Thomas Blaschke
Keyword(s):  
Information Science ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Geographic Information Science ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Subjective Data ◽  
Main Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Although place-based investigations into human phenomena have been widely conducted in the social sciences over the last decades, this notion has only recently transgressed into Geographic Information Science (GIScience). Such a place-based GIS comprises research from computational place modeling on one end of the spectrum, to purely theoretical discussions on the other end. Central to all research that is concerned with place-based GIS is the notion of placing the individual at the center of the investigation, in order to assess human-environment relationships. This requires the formalization of place, which poses a number of challenges. The first challenge is unambiguously defining place, to subsequently be able to translate it into binary code, which computers and geographic information systems can handle. This formalization poses the next challenge, due to the inherent vagueness and subjectivity of human data. The last challenge is ensuring the transferability of results, requiring large samples of subjective data. In this paper, we re-examine the meaning of place in GIScience from a 2018 perspective, determine what is special about place, and how place is handled both in GIScience and in neighboring disciplines. We, therefore, adopt the view that space is a purely geographic notion, reflecting the dimensions of height, depth, and width in which all things occur and move, while place reflects the subjective human perception of segments of space based on context and experience. Our main research questions are whether place is or should be a significant (sub)topic in GIScience, whether it can be adequately addressed and handled with established GIScience methods, and, if not, which other disciplines must be considered to sufficiently account for place-based analyses. Our aim is to conflate findings from a vast and dynamic field in an attempt to position place-based GIS within the broader framework of GIScience.

scholarly journals Some Regions within Broca's Area Do Respond More Strongly to Sentences than to Linguistically Degraded Stimuli: A Comment on Rogalsky and Hickok ()

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 2632-2635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelina Fedorenko ◽  
Nancy Kanwisher
Keyword(s):  
Random Effects ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Review Of The Literature

On the basis of their review of the literature, Rogalsky and Hickok [Rogalsky, C., & Hickok, G. The role of Broca's area in sentence comprehension. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 1664–1680, 2011] conclude that there is currently no strong evidence for the existence of “sentence-specific processing regions within Broca's area” (p. 1664). Their argument is based, in part, on the observation that many previous studies have failed to detect an effect in the left inferior frontal regions for contrasts between sentences and linguistically degraded control conditions (e.g., lists of unconnected words, lists of nonwords, or acoustically degraded sentence stimuli). Our data largely replicate this lack of activation in inferior frontal regions when traditional random-effects group analyses are conducted but crucially show robust activations in the same data for the same contrasts in almost every subject individually. Thus, it is the use of group analyses in studies of language processing, not the idea that sentences robustly activate frontal regions, that needs to be reconsidered. This reconsideration has important methodological and theoretical implications.

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