scholarly journals Imagery agnosia and its phenomenology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wlodzislaw Duch
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
The Other ◽  
Auditory Imagery ◽  
Autobiographical Memories ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Active Subject ◽  
First Person Perspective ◽  
Sensory Imagery

Lack of vivid sensory imagery has recently become an active subject of research, under the name of aphantasia. Extremely vivid imagery, or hyperphantasia, is at the other end of the spectrum of individual differences. While most research has focused on visual imagery in this paper I argue that from a neuropsychological perspective this phenomenon is much more widespread, and should be categorized as imagery sensory agnosia. After over twenty years of learning to play music phenomenology of auditory imagery agnosia is described from the first-person perspective. Reflections on other forms of imagery agnosia and deficits of autobiographical memories are presented and a hypothesis about putative brain processes that can account for such phenomena is discussed. Extreme individual differences in imagery and in autobiographical memory have implications for many fields of study, from consciousness research to education.

scholarly journals Differentiating Real-World Autobiographical Experiences without Recourse to Behaviour

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 521
Author(s):  
Jonathan Erez ◽  
Marie-Eve Gagnon ◽  
Adrian M. Owen
Keyword(s):  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Brain Injuries ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
First Person ◽  
Autobiographical Memories ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Machine Learning Model ◽  
First Person Perspective

Investigating human consciousness based on brain activity alone is a key challenge in cognitive neuroscience. One of its central facets, the ability to form autobiographical memories, has been investigated through several fMRI studies that have revealed a pattern of activity across a network of frontal, parietal, and medial temporal lobe regions when participants view personal photographs, as opposed to when they view photographs from someone else’s life. Here, our goal was to attempt to decode when participants were re-experiencing an entire event, captured on video from a first-person perspective, relative to a very similar event experienced by someone else. Participants were asked to sit passively in a wheelchair while a researcher pushed them around a local mall. A small wearable camera was mounted on each participant, in order to capture autobiographical videos of the visit from a first-person perspective. One week later, participants were scanned while they passively viewed different categories of videos; some were autobiographical, while others were not. A machine-learning model was able to successfully classify the video categories above chance, both within and across participants, suggesting that there is a shared mechanism differentiating autobiographical experiences from non-autobiographical ones. Moreover, the classifier brain maps revealed that the fronto-parietal network, mid-temporal regions and extrastriate cortex were critical for differentiating between autobiographical and non-autobiographical memories. We argue that this novel paradigm captures the true nature of autobiographical memories, and is well suited to patients (e.g., with brain injuries) who may be unable to respond reliably to traditional experimental stimuli.

scholarly journals Human Enhancements and Voting: Towards a Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities of Beings

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
S. J. Blodgett-Ford
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Person ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
First Person Perspective ◽  
To Come ◽  
Additional Option

The phenomenon and ethics of “voting” will be explored in the context of human enhancements. “Voting” will be examined for enhanced humans with moderate and extreme enhancements. Existing patterns of discrimination in voting around the globe could continue substantially “as is” for those with moderate enhancements. For extreme enhancements, voting rights could be challenged if the very humanity of the enhanced was in doubt. Humans who were not enhanced could also be disenfranchised if certain enhancements become prevalent. Voting will be examined using a theory of engagement articulated by Professor Sophie Loidolt that emphasizes the importance of legitimization and justification by “facing the appeal of the other” to determine what is “right” from a phenomenological first-person perspective. Seeking inspiration from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948, voting rights and responsibilities will be re-framed from a foundational working hypothesis that all enhanced and non-enhanced humans should have a right to vote directly. Representative voting will be considered as an admittedly imperfect alternative or additional option. The framework in which voting occurs, as well as the processes, temporal cadence, and role of voting, requires the participation from as diverse a group of humans as possible. Voting rights delivered by fiat to enhanced or non-enhanced humans who were excluded from participation in the design and ratification of the governance structure is not legitimate. Applying and extending Loidolt’s framework, we must recognize the urgency that demands the impossible, with openness to that universality in progress (or universality to come) that keeps being constituted from the outside.

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Embodied Mental Imagery Improves Memory

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110092
Author(s):  
Quentin Marre ◽  
Nathalie Huet ◽  
Elodie Labeye
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
First Person ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Memory Efficiency ◽  
Third Person ◽  
First Person Perspective ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Emotional Systems

According to embodied cognition theory, cognitive processes are grounded in sensory, motor and emotional systems. This theory supports the idea that language comprehension and access to memory are based on sensorimotor mental simulations, which does indeed explain experimental results for visual imagery. These results show that word memorization is improved when the individual actively simulates the visual characteristics of the object to be learned. Very few studies, however, have investigated the effectiveness of more embodied mental simulations, that is, simulating both the sensory and motor aspects of the object (i.e., motor imagery) from a first-person perspective. The recall performances of 83 adults were analysed in four different conditions: mental rehearsal, visual imagery, third-person motor imagery, and first-person motor imagery. Results revealed a memory efficiency gradient running from low-embodiment strategies (i.e., involving poor perceptual and/or motor simulation) to high-embodiment strategies (i.e., rich simulation in the sensory and motor systems involved in interactions with the object). However, the benefit of engaging in motor imagery, as opposed to purely visual imagery, was only observed when participants adopted the first-person perspective. Surprisingly, visual and motor imagery vividness seemed to play a negligible role in this effect of the sensorimotor grounding of mental imagery on memory efficiency.

scholarly journals Image schemas, mimetic schemas and children's gestures

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Zlatev
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
First Person ◽  
Natural Interaction ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Cognitive Linguistic ◽  
Third Person ◽  
First Person Perspective ◽  
Third Person Perspective ◽  
The One

Abstract Mimetic schemas, unlike the popular cognitive linguistic notion of image schemas, have been characterized in earlier work as explicitly representational, bodily structures arising from imitation of culture-specific practical actions (Zlatev 2005, 2007a, 2007b). We performed an analysis of the gestures of three Swedish and three Thai children at the age of 18, 22 and 26 months in episodes of natural interaction with caregivers and siblings in order to analyze the hypothesis that iconic gestures emerge as mimetic schemas. In accordance with this hypothesis, we predicted that the children's first iconic gestures would be (a) intermediately specific, (b) culture-typical, (c) falling in a set of recurrent types, (d) predominantly enacted from a first-person perspective (1pp) rather than performed from a third-person perspective (3pp), with (e) 3pp gestures being more dependent on direct imitation than 1pp gestures and (f) more often co-occurring with speech. All specific predictions but the last were confirmed, and differences were found between the children's iconic gestures on the one side and their deictic and emblematic gestures on the other. Thus, the study both confirms earlier conjectures that mimetic schemas “ground” both gesture and speech and implies the need to qualify these proposals, limiting the link between mimetic schemas and gestures to the iconic category.

Individual Differences in Reported Visual Imagery and Cognitive Performance

1978 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 451-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart J. McKelvie ◽  
Mary M. Rohrberg
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Abstract Reasoning ◽  
Numerical Ability ◽  
And Control

Selected on the basis of their scores on the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire, 16 High Visualizers and 14 Low Visualizers (equally divided by sex) completed various cognitive tasks thought to involve visual (Space Relations, Watch Rotation) and non-visual (Verbal Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning, Numerical Ability) processes. Although Low Visualizers (particularly males) were superior to High Visualizers in Numerical Ability, both groups performed equally well on the other tests. Since correlational analyses indicated that scores on the vividness questionnaire and the Gordon Controllability of Imagery Questionnaire were not independent, particularly for females, it was suggested that questionnaires ought to be developed better to differentiate the abilities to generate and control visual images.

scholarly journals Serious Gaming for Virtual Archaeoastronomy

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-74
Author(s):  
Georg Zotti ◽  
Bernard Frischer ◽  
John Fillwalk
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Game Engine ◽  
Sacred Architecture ◽  
Star Data ◽  
Virtual Archaeology ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Interactive Walkthrough ◽  
First Person Perspective ◽  
Illumination Models ◽  
Rendering Engine

Many cultures worldwide have left traces of sacred architecture and monuments which often show correlation to astronomical events like solstitial sunrises. Virtual archaeology can be used to explore such orientation patterns using digital reconstructions and positions of celestial objects computed from modern astronomical models. Most 3D editing systems used to build virtual reconstructions of such monuments however fail to provide astronomically accurate solar illumination models which can recreate the slightly different solar positions of antiquity or even prehistory, and even worse, any usable representation of the night sky. In recent years, two systems created independently by the authors of this study have been utilized for investigations into the orientation of architecture with respect to celestial processes. Both had their advantages and shortcomings compared to each other. One extended a dedicated open-source desktop astronomy program with a 3D rendering engine where such monuments can be investigated in the first-person perspective by interactive walkthrough. The other system uses a game engine and external online resources which provides only solar or planetary positions, but no star data. This study presents ways of connecting both systems in an attempt to take advantage of the best of both approaches.

scholarly journals Constructing a Narrative in the Standard Unexpected Transfer Test in Adolescence and Adulthood

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Białecka-Pikul ◽  
Marta Rynda ◽  
Daria Syrecka
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Transfer Test ◽  
Transfer Task ◽  
Mental States ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Person ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
First Person Perspective ◽  
Way Of Thinking

Constructing a Narrative in the Standard Unexpected Transfer Test in Adolescence and Adulthood The aim of the presented research was the replication and extension of the research by Nelson, Plesa and Henseler (1998), which was the basis for examining the nature of the theory of mind or mentalizing ability (that is, the ability to attribute mental states to other people in order to explain and predict their behaviors) in adolescents and adults. Specifically, its experience-like versus theory-like character. The test, an unexpected transfer task (the Max story), was completed by 827 people aged 13 to 75 (average 21.9). Half of them were supposed to solve the task with a shorter version of the story (including only the facts), and the other half were given the longer version (including descriptions of emotions, beliefs of the protagonist and explanations of ongoing events). All of the answers were then categorized applying Nelson's classification and two other types of analysis. Gender, age and fields of interest were taken into account during analysis of the participants' answers. The Polish respondents rarely answered in a narrative way (only 13%, in contrast to Nelson's result of 46%). Despite the fact that age was not a factor corresponding to a narrative answer, it was proven that older respondents did indeed assume the first person perspective when justifying Max's behavior. Women, more often than men, appealed to the knowledge and the protagonist's way of thinking. The respondents' fields of interest did not seem to diversify the obtained results, nor did the version of the story. The results do not allow us to draw unambiguous conclusions about the nature of the adult's theory of mind, but they form the basis for analyzing the methodology of research on theory of mind.

scholarly journals Specifying a causal role for angular gyrus in autobiographical memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi M. Bonnici ◽  
Lucy G. Cheke ◽  
Deborah A.E. Green ◽  
Thomas H.B. FitzGerald ◽  
Jon S. Simons
Keyword(s):  
Free Recall ◽  
Word Pair ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
First Person ◽  
Autobiographical Memories ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
First Person Perspective

AbstractConsiderable recent evidence indicates that angular gyrus dysfunction does not result in amnesia, but does impair a number of aspects of episodic memory. Patients with parietal lobe lesions have been reported to exhibit a deficit when freely recalling autobiographical events from their pasts, but can remember details of the events when recall is cued by specific questions. In apparent contradiction, inhibitory brain stimulation targeting angular gyrus in healthy volunteers has been found to have no effect on free recall or cued recall of word pairs. The present study sought to resolve this inconsistency by testing free and cued recall of both autobiographical memories and word pair memories in the same healthy participants following continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) of angular gyrus and a vertex control location. Angular gyrus cTBS resulted in a selective reduction in the free recall but not cued recall of autobiographical memories, whereas free and cued recall of word pair memories were unaffected. Additionally, participants reported fewer autobiographical episodes as being experienced from a first-person perspective following angular gyrus cTBS. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that a function of angular gyrus within the network of brain regions responsible for episodic recollection is to integrate memory features within an egocentric framework into the kind of first-person perspective representation that enables the subjective experience of remembering events from our personal pasts.

scholarly journals Endogenous emotion generation ability is associated with capacity to form multimodal internal representations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haakon Engen ◽  
Philipp Kanske ◽  
Tania Singer
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Auditory Imagery ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Internal Representations ◽  
Multiple Modalities ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
Emotion Generation

Training the capacity to self-generate emotions can be a potent “vaccine” against negative stressors and be an effective intervention for affective psychopathology. However, due to a lack of knowledge about sources of individual differences in generation abilities, it is unclear how to optimally design such interventions. We investigated one potential source of variation, namely preference for using different information modalities (Visual Imagery, Auditory Imagery, Bodily Interoception, and Semantic Analysis). A representative sample of 293 participants self-induced positive and negative emotional states, freely choosing to use these modalities singly or in combination. No evidence was found for modality usage being associated with differential efficacy at generating of positive or negative emotion. Rather, usage of all modalities (except Auditory Imagery) predicted success at generation of both positive and negative emotional states. Increasing age predicted capacity to generate, especially negative, emotions. While no specific combinations of modalities were superior, the overall degree to which participants adopted multimodal implementations did predict generation efficacy. These findings inform interventions aimed at improving emotional self-generation, suggesting these must be mindful of individual differences in generation abilities and implementation tendencies, and that they should focus on enhancing the capacity to use multiple modalities.

scholarly journals Pronouns and Visual Perspective-Taking: Two Replication Results

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tad Brunye ◽  
Tali Ditman ◽  
Caroline Mahoney ◽  
Jason Augustyn ◽  
Holly A. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Visual Perspective ◽  
External Observer ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
First Person Perspective

In 2007, our laboratory conducted a series of experiments examining whether pronouns embedded in short sentences (e.g., I am/You are/He is peeling the cucumber.) modulate reaction times when participants are tasked to verify whether a picture depicts a described action. Critically, the picture depicted an actor performing the action (e.g., peeling a cucumber) from either the actor’s internal perspective, or the perspective of an external observer. Our results demonstrated that description pronouns do indeed interact with picture perspectives; response times showed faster verifications when the implied perspectives of the pronouns and pictures matched rather than mismatched. As expected the grammatical persons I am and You are promoted faster response times when verifying internal rather than external perspective pictures; in contrast, He is promoted faster response times when verifying external rather than internal perspective pictures. We interpreted these findings as indicating that readers use pronouns to differentiate perspectives, and are more likely to internalize the action when they are directly addressed as the protagonist (You are) or the sentence uses the first-person perspective (I am). These findings were published in Psychological Science in 2009. In this replication attempt, we conducted two experiments to understand the robustness and reliability of our original effects, with an emphasis on individual differences in pronominal perspective-taking.

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