scholarly journals Early Electrophysiological Markers of Navigational Affordances in Scenes

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Assaf Harel ◽  
Jeffery D. Nador ◽  
Michael F. Bonner ◽  
Russell A. Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Scene Perception ◽  
Spatial Navigation ◽  
Time Windows ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
Research Reporting ◽  
Cortical Areas

Abstract Scene perception and spatial navigation are interdependent cognitive functions, and there is increasing evidence that cortical areas that process perceptual scene properties also carry information about the potential for navigation in the environment (navigational affordances). However, the temporal stages by which visual information is transformed into navigationally relevant information are not yet known. We hypothesized that navigational affordances are encoded during perceptual processing and therefore should modulate early visually evoked ERPs, especially the scene-selective P2 component. To test this idea, we recorded ERPs from participants while they passively viewed computer-generated room scenes matched in visual complexity. By simply changing the number of doors (no doors, 1 door, 2 doors, 3 doors), we were able to systematically vary the number of pathways that afford movement in the local environment, while keeping the overall size and shape of the environment constant. We found that rooms with no doors evoked a higher P2 response than rooms with three doors, consistent with prior research reporting higher P2 amplitude to closed relative to open scenes. Moreover, we found P2 amplitude scaled linearly with the number of doors in the scenes. Navigability effects on the ERP waveform were also observed in a multivariate analysis, which showed significant decoding of the number of doors and their location at earlier time windows. Together, our results suggest that navigational affordances are represented in the early stages of scene perception. This complements research showing that the occipital place area automatically encodes the structure of navigable space and strengthens the link between scene perception and navigation.

Neural Mechanisms of Spatial Attention in the Visual Thalamus

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri B. Saalmann ◽  
Sabine Kastner
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Thalamic Nucleus ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
First Order ◽  
Visual Thalamus ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Visual Cortical

Neural mechanisms of selective attention route behaviourally relevant information through brain networks for detailed processing. These attention mechanisms are classically viewed as being solely implemented in the cortex, relegating the thalamus to a passive relay of sensory information. However, this passive view of the thalamus is being revised in light of recent studies supporting an important role for the thalamus in selective attention. Evidence suggests that the first-order thalamic nucleus, the lateral geniculate nucleus, regulates the visual information transmitted from the retina to visual cortex, while the higher-order thalamic nucleus, the pulvinar, regulates information transmission between visual cortical areas, according to attentional demands. This chapter discusses how modulation of thalamic responses, switching the response mode of thalamic neurons, and changes in neural synchrony across thalamo-cortical networks contribute to selective attention.

Conscious access to fear-relevant information is mediated by threshold

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remigiusz Szczepanowski
Keyword(s):  
Present Report ◽  
Intrinsic Property ◽  
Roc Curves ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
High Threshold ◽  
Operating Characteristics ◽  
Emotional Perception ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
The Subject

Conscious access to fear-relevant information is mediated by thresholdThe present report proposed a model of access consciousness to fear-relevant information according to which there is a threshold for emotional perception beyond that the subject makes hits with no false alarm. The model was examined by having the participants performed a confidence-ratings masking task with fearful faces. Measures of the thresholds for conscious access were taken by looking at the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves generated from a three-state low- and high-threshold (3-LHT) model by Krantz. Indeed, the analysis of the masking data revealed that the ROCs had threshold-like-nature (a two-limb shape) rather continuous (a curvilinear shape) challenging in this fashion the classical signal-detection view on perceptual processing. Moreover, the threshold ROC curve exhibited the specific y-intercepts relevant to conscious access performance. The study suggests that the threshold can be an intrinsic property of conscious access, mediating emotional contents between perceptual states and consciousness.

scholarly journals Striatal and hippocampal contributions to flexible navigation in rats and humans

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 239821282097977
Author(s):  
Christoffer J. Gahnstrom ◽  
Hugo J. Spiers
Keyword(s):  
Caudate Nucleus ◽  
Spatial Navigation ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Learning Models ◽  
Transition Structure ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Reinforcement Learning Models ◽  
Human Neuroimaging

The hippocampus has been firmly established as playing a crucial role in flexible navigation. Recent evidence suggests that dorsal striatum may also play an important role in such goal-directed behaviour in both rodents and humans. Across recent studies, activity in the caudate nucleus has been linked to forward planning and adaptation to changes in the environment. In particular, several human neuroimaging studies have found the caudate nucleus tracks information traditionally associated with that by the hippocampus. In this brief review, we examine this evidence and argue the dorsal striatum encodes the transition structure of the environment during flexible, goal-directed behaviour. We highlight that future research should explore the following: (1) Investigate neural responses during spatial navigation via a biophysically plausible framework explained by reinforcement learning models and (2) Observe the interaction between cortical areas and both the dorsal striatum and hippocampus during flexible navigation.

scholarly journals Do Valenced Odors and Trait Body Odor Disgust Affect Evaluation of Emotion in Dynamic Faces?

Perception ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (12) ◽  
pp. 1412-1426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmeri Syrjänen ◽  
Marco Tullio Liuzza ◽  
Håkan Fischer ◽  
Jonas K. Olofsson
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Body Odor ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Facial Perception ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Dynamic Faces ◽  
Unpleasant Odor

Disgust is a core emotion evolved to detect and avoid the ingestion of poisonous food as well as the contact with pathogens and other harmful agents. Previous research has shown that multisensory presentation of olfactory and visual information may strengthen the processing of disgust-relevant information. However, it is not known whether these findings extend to dynamic facial stimuli that changes from neutral to emotionally expressive, or if individual differences in trait body odor disgust may influence the processing of disgust-related information. In this preregistered study, we tested whether a classification of dynamic facial expressions as happy or disgusted, and an emotional evaluation of these facial expressions, would be affected by individual differences in body odor disgust sensitivity, and by exposure to a sweat-like, negatively valenced odor (valeric acid), as compared with a soap-like, positively valenced odor (lilac essence) or a no-odor control. Using Bayesian hypothesis testing, we found evidence that odors do not affect recognition of emotion in dynamic faces even when body odor disgust sensitivity was used as moderator. However, an exploratory analysis suggested that an unpleasant odor context may cause faster RTs for faces, independent of their emotional expression. Our results further our understanding of the scope and limits of odor effects on facial perception affect and suggest further studies should focus on reproducibility, specifying experimental circumstances where odor effects on facial expressions may be present versus absent.

Greater Visual Working Memory Capacity for Visually Matched Stimuli When They Are Perceived as Meaningful

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 902-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel E. Asp ◽  
Viola S. Störmer ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Neural Delay ◽  
Meaningful Stimuli

Abstract Almost all models of visual working memory—the cognitive system that holds visual information in an active state—assume it has a fixed capacity: Some models propose a limit of three to four objects, where others propose there is a fixed pool of resources for each basic visual feature. Recent findings, however, suggest that memory performance is improved for real-world objects. What supports these increases in capacity? Here, we test whether the meaningfulness of a stimulus alone influences working memory capacity while controlling for visual complexity and directly assessing the active component of working memory using EEG. Participants remembered ambiguous stimuli that could either be perceived as a face or as meaningless shapes. Participants had higher performance and increased neural delay activity when the memory display consisted of more meaningful stimuli. Critically, by asking participants whether they perceived the stimuli as a face or not, we also show that these increases in visual working memory capacity and recruitment of additional neural resources are because of the subjective perception of the stimulus and thus cannot be driven by physical properties of the stimulus. Broadly, this suggests that the capacity for active storage in visual working memory is not fixed but that more meaningful stimuli recruit additional working memory resources, allowing them to be better remembered.

scholarly journals Refixation Patterns of Mind-wandering during Real-world Scene Perception

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Zhang ◽  
Nicola C Anderson ◽  
Kevin Miller
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Real World ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Scene Perception ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Quantification Analysis ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Thought Probes

Recent studies have shown that mind-wandering (MW) is associated with changes in eye movement parameters, but have not explored how MW affects the sequential pattern of eye movements involved in making sense of complex visual information. Eye movements naturally unfold over time and this process may reveal novel information about cognitive processing during MW. The current study used Recurrence Quantification Analysis (Anderson, Bischof, Laidlaw, Risko, & Kingstone, 2013) to describe the pattern of refixations (fixations directed to previously-inspected regions) during MW. Participants completed a real-world scene encoding task and responded to thought probes assessing intentional and unintentional MW. Both types of MW were associated with worse memory of the scenes. Importantly, RQA showed that scanpaths during unintentional MW were more repetitive than during on-task episodes, as indicated by a higher recurrence rate and more stereotypical fixation sequences. This increased repetitiveness suggests an adaptive response to processing failures through re-examining previous locations. Moreover, this increased repetitiveness contributed to fixations focusing on a smaller spatial scale of the stimuli. Finally, we were also able to validate several traditional measures: both intentional and unintentional MW were associated with fewer and longer fixations; Eye-blinking increased numerically during both types of MW but the difference was only significant for unintentional MW. Overall, the results advanced our understanding of how visual processing is affected during MW by highlighting the sequential aspect of eye movements.

scholarly journals How does gaze to faces support face-to-face interaction? A review and perspective

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy S Hessels
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Observational Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Dynamic Systems Theory ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
Literature Overview ◽  
Social Gaze ◽  
Human Social Behaviour

Gaze – where one looks, how long, and when – plays an essential part in human social behaviour. While many aspects of social gaze have been reviewed, there is no comprehensive review or theoretical framework that describes how gaze to faces supports face-to-face interaction. In this review, I address the following questions: (1) When does gaze need to be allocated to a particular region of a face in order to provide the relevant information for successful interaction; (2) How do humans look at other people, and faces in particular, regardless of whether gaze needs to be directed at a particular region to acquire the relevant visual information; (3) How does gaze support the regulation of interaction? The work reviewed spans psychophysical research, observational research and eye-tracking research in both lab-based and interactive contexts. Based on the literature overview, I sketch a framework for future research based on dynamic systems theory. The framework holds that gaze should be investigated in relation to sub-states of the interaction, encompassing sub-states of the interactors, the content of the interaction as well as the interactive context. The relevant sub-states for understanding gaze in interaction vary over different timescales from microgenesis to ontogenesis and phylogenesis. The framework has important implications for vision science, psychopathology, developmental science and social robotics.

Interhemispheric Transmission of Visuomotor Information in Humans: fMRI Evidence

2002 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 1051-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tettamanti ◽  
E. Paulesu ◽  
P. Scifo ◽  
A. Maravita ◽  
F. Fazio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Callosum ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Conduction Time ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Poffenberger Paradigm ◽  
Interhemispheric Transmission ◽  
Hemispheric Activation ◽  
Normal Human

Normal human subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a simple visual manual reaction-time (RT) task with lateralized brief stimuli, the so-called Poffenberger's paradigm. This paradigm was employed to measure interhemispheric transmission (IT) time by subtracting mean RT for the uncrossed hemifield-hand conditions, that is, those conditions not requiring an IT, from the crossed hemifield-hand conditions, that is, those conditions requiring an IT to relay visual information from the hemisphere of entry to the hemisphere subserving the response. The obtained difference is widely believed to reflect callosal conduction time, but so far there is no direct physiological evidence in humans. The aim of our experiment was twofold: first, to test the hypothesis that IT of visuomotor information requires the corpus callosum and to identify the cortical areas specifically activated during IT. Second, we sought to discover whether IT occurs mainly at premotor or perceptual stages of information processing. We found significant activations in a number of frontal, parietal, and temporal cortical areas and in the genu of the corpus callosum. These activations were present only in the crossed conditions and therefore were specifically related to IT. No selective activation was present in the uncrossed conditions. The location of the activated callosal and cortical areas suggests that IT occurs mainly, but not exclusively, at premotor level. These results provide clear cut evidence in favor of the hypothesis that the crossed-uncrossed difference in the Poffenberger paradigm depends on IT rather than on a differential hemispheric activation.

Tuning Perceptual Competition

2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (2) ◽  
pp. 1057-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund Wascher ◽  
Christian Beste
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Luminance Change ◽  
Orientation Change ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Dynamic Interplay ◽  
Relative Salience

The ability to notice relevant visual information has been assumed to be determined both by the relative salience of relevant information compared with distracters within a given display and by voluntary allocation of attention toward intended goals. A dominance of either of these two mechanisms in stimulus processing has been claimed by different theories. A central question in this context is to what degree and how task irrelevant signals can influence processing of target information. In the present study, participants had to detect a luminance change in various conditions among others against an irrelevant orientation change. The saliency of the latter was systematically varied and was found to be predictive for the proportion of detected information when relevant and irrelevant information were spatially separated but not when they overlapped. Weighting and competition of incoming signals was reflected in the amplitude of the N1pc component of the event-related potential. Initial orientation of attention toward the irrelevant element had to be followed by a reallocation process, reflected in an N2pc. The control of conflicting information additionally evoked a fronto-central N2 that varied with the amount of competition induced. Thus the data support models that assume that attention is a dynamic interplay of bottom-up and top-down processes that may be mediated via a common dynamic neural network.

scholarly journals The understanding of the text and images by teenagers with different levels of intelligence with eye tracking using

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 02006
Author(s):  
Oksana V. Zashchirinskaia ◽  
Elena Nikolaeva
Keyword(s):  
Mental Retardation ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Event Analysis ◽  
Mild Mental Retardation ◽  
Emotional Aspect ◽  
Specific Disorders ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Different Levels

The aim of this study was to identify and compare the characteristics of the recognition and understanding of verbal and nonverbal stimuli in the form of a text and drawing images of various degrees of definition applicable to students with mild mental retardation. The objects of the comparative study were graduates of schools with a varying degree of the intelligence decline (F83 – mixed specific disorders of psychological development and F70 – mild mental retardation). 85 subjects were participants. There were 49% boys and 51% girls. The study revealed specific features of perception and understanding of the texts and images of different degree of visual complexity by students with mild mental retardation. In the analysis of the visual information, they preferred to focus on the emotional aspect of the content both of the texts and pictures. Students with mild mental retardation demonstrated a lower level of cognitive development and volitional activity when viewing a stimulus of a high degree of visual complexity. A specific feature in the perception and understanding of the texts and images by these students is the lack of cognitive orientation on the procedural side event analysis.

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