Individual Differences in Sensory Substitution

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 579-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Arnold ◽  
Jacques Pesnot-Lerousseau ◽  
Malika Auvray
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Multisensory Experience

Sensory substitution devices were developed in the context of perceptual rehabilitation and they aim at compensating one or several functions of a deficient sensory modality by converting stimuli that are normally accessed through this deficient sensory modality into stimuli accessible by another sensory modality. For instance, they can convert visual information into sounds or tactile stimuli. In this article, we review those studies that investigated the individual differences at the behavioural, neural, and phenomenological levels when using a sensory substitution device. We highlight how taking into account individual differences has consequences for the optimization and learning of sensory substitution devices. We also discuss the extent to which these studies allow a better understanding of the experience with sensory substitution devices, and in particular how the resulting experience is not akin to a single sensory modality. Rather, it should be conceived as a multisensory experience, involving both perceptual and cognitive processes, and emerging on each user’s pre-existing sensory and cognitive capacities.

scholarly journals Training-induced plasticity enables visualizing sounds with a visual-to-auditory conversion device

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Pesnot Lerousseau ◽  
Gabriel Arnold ◽  
Malika Auvray
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Visual Functions ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Visual Distractors ◽  
Auditory Processes

AbstractSensory substitution devices aim at restoring visual functions by converting visual information into auditory or tactile stimuli. Although these devices show promise in the range of behavioral abilities they allow, the processes underlying their use remain underspecified. In particular, while an initial debate focused on the visual versus auditory or tactile nature of sensory substitution, since over a decade, the idea that it reflects a mixture of both has emerged. In order to investigate behaviorally the extent to which visual and auditory processes are involved, participants completed a Stroop-like crossmodal interference paradigm before and after being trained with a conversion device which translates visual images into sounds. In addition, participants' auditory abilities and their phenomenologies were measured. Our study revealed that, after training, when asked to identify sounds, processes shared with vision were involved, as participants’ performance in sound identification was influenced by the simultaneously presented visual distractors. In addition, participants’ performance during training and their associated phenomenology depended on their auditory abilities, revealing that processing finds its roots in the input sensory modality. Our results pave the way for improving the design and learning of these devices by taking into account inter-individual differences in auditory and visual perceptual strategies.

scholarly journals Visualizing sounds: training-induced plasticity with a visual-to-auditory conversion device

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Pesnot Lerousseau ◽  
Gabriel Arnold ◽  
Malika Auvray
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
List Type ◽  
Visual Functions ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Auditory Processes

AbstractSensory substitution devices aim at restoring visual functions by converting visual information into auditory or tactile stimuli. Although these devices show promises in the range of behavioral abilities they allow, the processes underlying their use remains underspecified. In particular, while an initial debate focused on the visual versus auditory or tactile nature of sensory substitution, since over a decade, the idea that it reflects a mixture of both has emerged. In order to investigate behaviorally the extent to which visual and auditory processes are involved, participants completed a Stroop-like crossmodal interference paradigm before and after being trained with a conversion device which translates visual images into sounds. In addition, participants’ auditory abilities and their phenomenologies were measured. Our study revealed that, after training, when asked to identify sounds, processes shared with vision were involved, as participants’ performance in sound identification was influenced by the simultaneously presented visual distractors. In addition, participants’ performance during training and their associated phenomenology depended on their auditory abilities, revealing that processing finds its roots in the input sensory modality. Our results pave the way for improving the design and learning of these devices by taking into account inter-individual differences in auditory and visual perceptual strategies.HighlightsTrained people spontaneously use processes shared with vision when hearing sounds from the deviceProcesses with conversion devices find roots both in vision and auditionTraining with a visual-to-auditory conversion device induces perceptual plasticity

The Processing of What, Where, and How

2018 ◽  
pp. 150-166
Author(s):  
Michael J. Proulx ◽  
David J. Brown ◽  
Achille Pasqualotto
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Spatial Navigation ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Action Processing ◽  
Extrapersonal Space ◽  
Detection Of Objects ◽  
Processing Of Visual Information

Vision is the default sensory modality for normal spatial navigation in humans. Touch is restricted to providing information about peripersonal space, whereas detecting and avoiding obstacles in extrapersonal space is key for efficient navigation. Hearing is restricted to the detection of objects that emit noise, yet many obstacles such as walls are silent. Sensory substitution devices provide a means of translating distal visual information into a form that visually impaired individuals can process through either touch or hearing. Here we will review findings from various sensory substitution systems for the processing of visual information that can be classified as what (object recognition), where (localization), and how (perception for action) processing. Different forms of sensory substitution excel at some tasks more than others. Spatial navigation brings together these different forms of information and provides a useful model for comparing sensory substitution systems, with important implications for rehabilitation, neuroanatomy, and theories of cognition.

Information-Seeking Behavior in the Tactile Modality

1980 ◽  
Vol 50 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1179-1191
Author(s):  
Dan L. Rogers ◽  
Austin Jones
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Sensory Deprivation ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Information Value ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Male Undergraduate ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Tactile Modality

In two experiments male undergraduate students ( ns = 24 and 28) were placed in a sensory deprivation environment to assess operationally defined drive properties of statistically defined information in the tactile sensory modality. In the first experiment it was demonstrated that there is a relationship between rate of responding for tactile information and duration of sensory deprivation, and a positive linear relationship between response rate and the relative information value of tactile stimuli. In the second experiment it was observed that information satiation in the tactile modality reduces drive for visual information. These results were discussed in relation to previous studies of auditory and visual information drives and were taken to support the existence of a generalized drive for information.

Where’s Wally? Audio–visual mismatch directs ocular saccades in sensory substitution

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Wright ◽  
Jamie Ward ◽  
Sarah Simonon ◽  
Aaron Margolis
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Thermal Imaging ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Visual Field Loss ◽  
Field Of View ◽  
Visual Signals ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Covert Visual Attention ◽  
Small Image

Sensory substitution is the representation of information from one sensory modality (e.g., vision) within another modality (e.g., audition). We used a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device (SSD) to explore the effect of incongruous (true-)visual and substituted-visual signals on visual attention. In our multisensory sensory substitution paradigm, both visual and sonified-visual information were presented. By making small alterations to the sonified image, but not the seen image, we introduced audio–visual mismatch. The alterations consisted of the addition of a small image (for instance, the Wally character from the ‘Where’s Wally?’ books) within the original image. Participants were asked to listen to the sonified image and identify which quadrant contained the alteration. Monitoring eye movements revealed the effect of the audio–visual mismatch on covert visual attention. We found that participants consistently fixated more, and dwelled for longer, in the quadrant corresponding to the location (in the sonified image) of the target. This effect was not contingent on the participant reporting the location of the target correctly, which indicates a low-level interaction between an auditory stream and visual attention. We propose that this suggests a shared visual workspace that is accessible by visual sources other than the eyes. If this is indeed the case, it would support the development of other, more esoteric, forms of sensory substitution. These could include an expanded field of view (e.g., rear-view cameras), overlaid visual information (e.g., thermal imaging) or restoration of partial visual field loss (e.g., hemianopsia).

Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

scholarly journals Characterizing Bilingual Effects on Cognition: The Search for Meaningful Individual Differences

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Kristina C. Backer ◽  
Heather Bortfeld
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
The Past ◽  
General Movement ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

A debate over the past decade has focused on the so-called bilingual advantage—the idea that bilingual and multilingual individuals have enhanced domain-general executive functions, relative to monolinguals, due to competition-induced monitoring of both processing and representation from the task-irrelevant language(s). In this commentary, we consider a recent study by Pot, Keijzer, and de Bot (2018), which focused on the relationship between individual differences in language usage and performance on an executive function task among multilingual older adults. We discuss their approach and findings in light of a more general movement towards embracing complexity in this domain of research, including individuals’ sociocultural context and position in the lifespan. The field increasingly considers interactions between bilingualism/multilingualism and cognition, employing measures of language use well beyond the early dichotomous perspectives on language background. Moreover, new measures of bilingualism and analytical approaches are helping researchers interrogate the complexities of specific processing issues. Indeed, our review of the bilingualism/multilingualism literature confirms the increased appreciation researchers have for the range of factors—beyond whether someone speaks one, two, or more languages—that impact specific cognitive processes. Here, we highlight some of the most salient of these, and incorporate suggestions for a way forward that likewise encompasses neural perspectives on the topic.

Individual Uniqueness in the Neonatal Functional Connectome

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiushi Wang ◽  
Yuehua Xu ◽  
Tengda Zhao ◽  
Zhilei Xu ◽  
Yong He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Identification ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Functional Connectome ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
Human Connectome Project ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Identification Analysis ◽  
The Brain

Abstract The functional connectome is highly distinctive in adults and adolescents, underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior. However, it remains unknown whether the individual uniqueness of the functional connectome is present in neonates, who are far from mature. Here, we utilized the multiband resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 40 healthy neonates from the Developing Human Connectome Project and a split-half analysis approach to characterize the uniqueness of the functional connectome in the neonatal brain. Through functional connectome-based individual identification analysis, we found that all the neonates were correctly identified, with the most discriminative regions predominantly confined to the higher-order cortices (e.g., prefrontal and parietal regions). The connectivities with the highest contributions to individual uniqueness were primarily located between different functional systems, and the short- (0–30 mm) and middle-range (30–60 mm) connectivities were more distinctive than the long-range (>60 mm) connectivities. Interestingly, we found that functional data with a scanning length longer than 3.5 min were able to capture the individual uniqueness in the functional connectome. Our results highlight that individual uniqueness is present in the functional connectome of neonates and provide insights into the brain mechanisms underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior later in life.

Predictors of Positive Psychological Capital: An Attempt Among the Teacher Communities in Rural Jharkhand, India

2021 ◽  
pp. 0258042X2199101
Author(s):  
Mukti Clarence ◽  
Viju P. D. ◽  
Lalatendu Kesari Jena ◽  
Tony Sam George
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Organizational Support ◽  
Psychological Capital ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Positive Psychological Capital ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

In the recent times, researchers have shown an increased interest in positive psychological capital (PsyCap). However, it is acknowledged that due to the limited number of studies conducted on the antecedents of psychological capital, there is a lack of sufficient data for conclusively proving the antecedents of PsyCap. Consequently, this article aims to explore the potential antecedents of PsyCap as a reliable source of data in the context of rural school teachers. The focus is to investigate both the individual differences and the contextual factors as desirable variables that constitute PsyCap among the school teachers of rural Jharkhand, India. Samples of 1,120 respondents from different rural schools were collected and analysed with Structural Equation Modeling (AMOS 20.0). The findings of the study explained that both the individual differences ( proactive personality and emotional intelligence) and the contextual factors ( perceived organizational support, servant leadership and meaningful work) have a positive relationship with PsyCap. The impact of PsyCap on teacher performance can form the basis for further research on the subject. JEL Codes: M12, M53

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