scholarly journals Perceptual timing precision with vibrotactile, auditory, and multisensory stimuli

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel F. Sussman ◽  
Mercedes B. Villalonga ◽  
Robert Sekuler
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Temporal Processing ◽  
Cell Phones ◽  
Optimal Performance ◽  
Temporal Acuity ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
Timing Precision ◽  
Psychometric Modeling ◽  
Perceptual Timing ◽  
Perceptual Limits

It is important to understand the perceptual limits on vibrotactile information-processing because of the increasing use of vibrotactile signals in common technologies like cell phones. To advance such an understanding, we examined vibrotactile temporal acuity and compared it to auditory and bimodal (synchronous vibrotactile and auditory) temporal acuity. In a pair of experiments, subjects experienced a series of empty intervals, demarcated by stimulus pulses from one of the three modalities. One trial contained up to 5 intervals, where the first intervals were isochronous at 400 ms, and the last interval varied from 400 by ±1-80 ms. If the final interval was < 400 ms, the last pulse seemed “early”, and if the final interval was > 400 ms, the last pulse seemed “late”. In Experiment One, each trial contained four intervals, where the first three were isochronous. Subjects judged the timing of the last interval by describing the final pulse as either “early” or “late”. In Experiment Two, the number of isochronous intervals in a trial varied from one to four. Psychometric modeling revealed that vibrotactile temporal processing was less acute than auditory or bimodal temporal processing, and that auditory inputs dominated bimodal perception. Additionally, varying the number of isochronous intervals did not affect temporal sensitivity in either modality, suggesting the formation of memory traces. Overall, these results suggest that vibrotactile temporal processing is worse than auditory or bimodal temporal processing, which are similar. Also, subjects need no more than one isochronous reminder per trial for optimal performance.

Stress, Operator Error, and Transportation Accidents

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1453-1458
Author(s):  
Caroline Crump ◽  
Stephen Walenchok ◽  
Chris Johnson ◽  
Joseph Pauszek ◽  
Douglas Young
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Optimal Performance ◽  
Motor Execution ◽  
Human Errors ◽  
Operator Error ◽  
Vehicle Operation

Psychological and physiological stress impacts information processing at many levels, from attention and perceptual processes to reasoning and decision-making to motor execution. These effects can be highly adaptive, resulting in optimal performance. However, these effects can also result in serious degradation of performance, leading to human errors that often contribute to accidents. In this paper we review the variety of detrimental effects stress can have on different stages of information processing and provide examples of how these deficits can lead to accidents in motor vehicle operation and aviation.

Aging

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-112
Author(s):  
Risto Näätänen ◽  
Teija Kujala ◽  
Gregory Light
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Temporal Processing ◽  
Brain Aging ◽  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Brain

This chapter shows that MMN and its magnetoencephalographic (MEG) equivalent MMNm are sensitive indices of aging-related perceptual and cognitive decline. Importantly, the age-related neural changes are associated with a decrease of general brain plasticity, i.e. that of the ability of the brain to form and maintain sensory-memory traces, a necessary basis for veridical perception and appropriate cognitive brain function. MMN/MMNm to change in stimulus duration is particularly affected by aging, suggesting the increased vulnerability of temporal processing to brain aging and accounting, for instance, for a large part of speech-perception difficulties of the aged beyond the age-related peripheral hearing loss.

Auditory Temporal Acuity in Normally Achieving and Learning-Disabled College Students

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betty U. Watson
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Reading Disability ◽  
Temporal Processing ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Temporal Acuity ◽  
Auditory Temporal Processing ◽  
Normally Achieving ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Reading Disabled

Recent research has suggested that deficits in several metalinguistic/phonological abilities, such as short-term verbal memory and phoneme segmentation, may be etiologic factors in specific reading disability, and it has been speculated that these weaknesses may result from a more fundamental deficit in the processing of temporal, auditory stimuli. This study examined the auditory temporal processing skills of reading-disabled, math-disabled, and normally achieving college students. The math-disabled group was included to control for the possibility that poor temporal processing is a "marker" variable for learning disability rather than being related specifically to reading disability. Subjects were assessed on a battery of psychophysical tasks that included five tests of temporal processing. The reading-disabled group performed significantly more poorly on the temporal tasks but performed as well as the other groups on the simple pitch and loudness discrimination tasks. In spite of the significant difference on the temporal tasks, the majority of reading-disabled subjects performed within the same range as the subjects in the other two groups, and there were also some normally reading subjects who performed poorly on the temporal processing tasks. These findings suggest that poor temporal processing is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of reading disability, but that there is a modest association between the two domains.

scholarly journals Temporal event-structure coding in developmental dyslexia: Evidence from explicit and implicit temporal processes

Psihologija ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Elliott ◽  
Louise Shanagher
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Temporal Processing ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Experimental Task ◽  
Matched Sample ◽  
Phonological Deficits ◽  
Whole Systems

As an alternative to theories positing visual or phonological deficits it has been suggested that the aetiology of dyslexia takes the form of a temporal processing deficit that may refer to impairment in the functional connectivity of the processes involved in reading. Here we investigated this idea in an experimental task designed to measure simultaneity thresholds. Fifteen children diagnosed with developmental dyslexia, alongside a matched sample of 13 normal readers undertook a series of threshold determination procedures designed to locate visual simultaneity thresholds and to assess the influence of subthreshold synchrony or asynchrony upon these thresholds. While there were no significant differences in simultaneity thresholds between dyslexic and normal readers, indicating no evidence of an altered perception, or temporal quantization of events, the dyslexic readers reported simultaneity significantly less frequently than normal readers, with the reduction largely attributable presentation of a subthreshold asynchrony. The results are discussed in terms of a whole systems approach to maintaining information processing integrity.

scholarly journals Diversity improves performance in excitable networks

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo L. Gollo ◽  
Mauro Copelli ◽  
James A. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Phase Transition ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Information Transmission ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
General Model ◽  
Heterogeneous Systems ◽  
Optimal Performance ◽  
Excitable Systems ◽  
Neuronal Systems

As few real systems comprise indistinguishable units, diversity is a hallmark of nature. Diversity among interacting units shapes properties of collective behavior such as synchronization and information transmission. However, the benefits of diversity on information processing at the edge of a phase transition, ordinarily assumed to emerge from identical elements, remain largely unexplored. Analyzing a general model of excitable systems with heterogeneous excitability, we find that diversity can greatly enhance optimal performance (by two orders of magnitude) when distinguishing incoming inputs. Heterogeneous systems possess a subset of specialized elements whose capability greatly exceeds that of the nonspecialized elements. We also find that diversity can yield multiple percolation, with performance optimized at tricriticality. Our results are robust in specific and more realistic neuronal systems comprising a combination of excitatory and inhibitory units, and indicate that diversity-induced amplification can be harnessed by neuronal systems for evaluating stimulus intensities.

Research on Current Situations for Functional Classification of Timing

2016 ◽  
pp. 222-235
Author(s):  
Zhihan Xu ◽  
Qiong Wu ◽  
Chunlin Li ◽  
Yujie Li ◽  
Hongbin Han ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Processing ◽  
Motor Response ◽  
Functional Classification ◽  
Explicit Timing ◽  
Implicit Timing ◽  
Timing Task ◽  
The Neural Networks ◽  
Perceptual Timing ◽  
Different Time Scales

Time is a fundamental variable that must be quantified by organisms to survive. Depending on the previous functional definition, timing can be divided into explicit timing and implicit timing. For an explicit timing task, the estimation of the stimulus duration is given in the form of perceptual discrimination (perceptual timing) or a motor response (motor timing). For implicit timing, participants can subconsciously (exogenous) or consciously (endogenous) establish temporal expectation. However, the ability of humans to explicitly or implicitly direct attention in time varies with age. Moreover, specific brain mechanisms have been suggested for temporal processing of different time scales (microseconds, hundreds of milliseconds, seconds to minutes, and circadian rhythms). Furthermore, there have been numerous research studies on the neural networks involved in explicit timing during the measurement of sub-second and supra-second intervals.

Temporal Information Processing and Psychopathology

1975 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Crain ◽  
Sanford Goldstone ◽  
William T. Lhamon
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Information Transmission ◽  
Temporal Processing ◽  
Temporal Discrimination ◽  
Temporal Information ◽  
The Other ◽  
Organic Group ◽  
Temporal Information Processing ◽  
Neurologic Impairment ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients

Prior studies showed impaired temporal discrimination by schizophrenic and neurologic patients reflected in decreased information transmission. This report describes a study of 8 more carefully diagnosed schizophrenic patients, separating those with neurologic signs. Using temporal discrimination tasks involving two psychophysical methods, 8 schizophrenic patients with no organic signs did not differ from 17 nonpsychotic, nonorganic patients; an organic group ( n = 5) transmitted less information than the other patient samples. It is suggested that prior results were a product of casual diagnosis that ignored organic factors; reduced efficiency of temporal processing is associated predominantly with neurologic impairment.

scholarly journals Memory consolidation is linked to spindle-mediated information processing during sleep

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.A. Cairney ◽  
A. Guttesen ◽  
N. El Marj ◽  
B.P. Staresina
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Nrem Sleep ◽  
Associative Memories ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Retrieval Performance ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
Up States ◽  
Eeg Pattern

AbstractHow are brief encounters transformed into lasting memories? Previous research has established the role of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, along with its electrophysiological signatures of slow oscillations (SOs) and spindles, for memory consolidation. More recently, experimental manipulations have demonstrated that NREM sleep provides a window of opportunity to selectively strengthen particular memory traces via the delivery of sensory cues. It has remained unclear, however, whether experimental memory cueing triggers the brain’s endogenous consolidation mechanisms (linked to SOs and/or spindles) and whether those mechanisms in turn mediate effective processing of the cue information. Here we devised a novel paradigm in which associative memories (adjective-object and adjective-scene pairs) were selectively cued during a post-learning nap, successfully stabilising next-day retention relative to non-cued memories. First, we found that compared to novel control adjectives, memory cues were accompanied by an increase in fast spindles coupled to SO up states. Critically, EEG pattern decodability of the associated memory category (object vs. scene) was temporally linked to cue-induced spindles and predicted next-day retrieval performance across participants. These results provide highly controlled empirical evidence for an information processing role of sleep spindles in service of memory consolidation.

scholarly journals A role of oligodendrocytes in information processing independent of conduction velocity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharlen Moore ◽  
Martin Meschkat ◽  
Torben Ruhwedel ◽  
Iva D. Tzvetanova ◽  
Andrea Trevisiol ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Conduction Velocity ◽  
Auditory Information ◽  
Speech Understanding ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Temporal Acuity ◽  
Axonal Conduction ◽  
Stimulus Perception ◽  
Auditory Information Processing

AbstractMyelinating oligodendrocytes enable fast impulse propagation along axons as revealed through studies of homogeneously myelinated white matter tracts. However, gray matter myelination patterns are different, with sparsely myelinated sections leaving large portions of the axons naked. The consequences of this patchy myelination for oligodendrocyte function are not understood but suggest other roles in information processing beyond the regulation of axonal conduction velocity. Here, we analyzed the contribution of myelin to auditory information processing using paradigms that are good predictors of speech understanding in humans. We compared mice with different degrees of dysmyelination using acute cortical multiunit recordings in combination with behavioral readouts. We identified complex alterations of neuronal responses that reflect fatigue and temporal acuity deficits. Partially discriminable but overall similar deficits were observed in mice with oligodendrocytes that can myelinate but cannot fully support axons metabolically. Thus, myelination contributes to sustained stimulus perception in temporally complex paradigms, revealing a role of oligodendrocytes in the CNS beyond the increase of axonal conduction velocity.

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