scholarly journals Neuroscientifically-grounded research for improved human-robot interaction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyveli Kompatsiari ◽  
Jairo Pérez-Osorio ◽  
Davide De Tommaso ◽  
Giorgio Metta ◽  
Agnieszka Wykowska
Keyword(s):  
Joint Attention ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Eeg Signal ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
Related Potentials

The present study highlights the benefits of using well-controlled experimental designs, grounded in experimental psychology research and objective neuroscientific methods, for generating progress in human-robot interaction (HRI) research. In this study, we implemented a well-studied paradigm of attentional cueing through gaze (the so-called “joint attention” or “gaze cueing”) in an HRI protocol involving the iCub robot. We replicated the standard phenomenon of joint attention both in terms of behavioral measures and event-related potentials of the EEG signal. Our methodology of combining neuroscience methods with an HRI protocol opens promising avenues both for a better design of robots which are to interact with humans, and also for increasing the ecological validity of research in social and cognitive neuroscience.

scholarly journals In natural interaction with embodied robots, we prefer it when they follow our gaze: a gaze-contingent mobile eyetracking study

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1771) ◽  
pp. 20180036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cesco Willemse ◽  
Agnieszka Wykowska
Keyword(s):  
Joint Attention ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
Natural Interaction ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Look Back ◽  
The Right

Initiating joint attention by leading someone's gaze is a rewarding experience which facilitates social interaction. Here, we investigate this experience of leading an agent's gaze while applying a more realistic paradigm than traditional screen-based experiments. We used an embodied robot as our main stimulus and recorded participants' eye movements. Participants sat opposite a robot that had either of two ‘identities’—‘Jimmy’ or ‘Dylan’. Participants were asked to look at either of two objects presented on screens to the left and the right of the robot. Jimmy then looked at the same object in 80% of the trials and at the other object in the remaining 20%. For Dylan, this proportion was reversed. Upon fixating on the object of choice, participants were asked to look back at the robot's face. We found that return-to-face saccades were conducted earlier towards Jimmy when he followed the gaze compared with when he did not. For Dylan, there was no such effect. Additional measures indicated that our participants also preferred Jimmy and liked him better. This study demonstrates (a) the potential of technological advances to examine joint attention where ecological validity meets experimental control, and (b) that social reorienting is enhanced when we initiate joint attention. This article is part of the theme issue ‘From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human–robot interaction’.

Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Food Decision-Making: A Brief Introduction

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca J. Lepping ◽  
Vlad B. Papa ◽  
Laura E. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Agricultural Science ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Decision Neuroscience ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
Advertising To Children

AbstractCognitive neuroscience methods have recently been employed to examine the neural underpinnings of food-related decision-making. The emerging field of food decision neuroscience uses cognitive neuroscience tools such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study how individuals make decisions regarding food intake, purchasing, branding, and advertising. These tools can be employed to inform marketing strategies, advertising, and product differentiation. Results can also be leveraged to aid in the design of food labeling and policy for obesity, advertising to children, and others. While these tools have the promise for advancing agricultural science as well as informing food related policy, there are some potential pitfalls when applying these techniques to new fields. The goal of this paper is to outline some of the major tools used by cognitive neuroscience – beginning with experimental design and behavioral measures, and then followed by a discussion of some of the neuroimaging tools (fMRI, electroencephalography and event-related potentials [EEG/ERP], and magnetoencephalography [MEG]) – and to highlight how those tools have been used to understand food decision-making.

scholarly journals ERP markers of action planning and outcome monitoring in human – robot interaction.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina-Alisa Hinz ◽  
Francesca Ciardo ◽  
Agnieszka Wykowska
Keyword(s):  
Social Presence ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
Outcome Monitoring ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Condition ◽  
The Way

The present study aimed to examine event-related potentials (ERPs) of action planning and outcome monitoring in human-robot interaction. To this end, participants were instructed to perform costly actions (i.e. losing points) to stop a balloon from inflating and to prevent its explosion. They performed the task alone (individual condition) or with a robot (joint condition). Similar to findings from human-human interactions, results showed that action planning was affected by the presence of another agent, robot in this case. Specifically, the early readiness potential (eRP) amplitude was larger in the joint, than in the individual, condition. The presence of the robot affected also outcome perception and monitoring. Our results showed that the P1/N1 complex was suppressed in the joint, compared to the individual condition when the worst outcome was expected, suggesting that the presence of the robot affects attention allocation to negative outcomes of one’s own actions. Similarly, results also showed that larger losses elicited smaller feedback-related negativity (FRN) in the joint than in the individual condition. Taken together, our results indicate that the social presence of a robot may influence the way we plan our actions and also the way we monitor their consequences. Implications of the study for the human-robot interaction field are discussed.

scholarly journals Automaticity of Early Sexual Attention: An Event-Related Potential Study

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 107906322110242
Author(s):  
Anastasios Ziogas ◽  
Benedikt Habermeyer ◽  
Wolfram Kawohl ◽  
Elmar Habermeyer ◽  
Andreas Mokros
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Sexual Interest ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Forensic Assessment ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Sexual Preferences ◽  
Motor Responses ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Promising Line

A promising line of research on forensic assessment of paraphilic sexual interest focuses on behavioral measures of visual attention using sexual stimuli as distractors. The present study combined event-related potentials (ERPs) with behavioral measures to investigate whether detection of a hidden sexual preference can be improved with ERPs. Normal variants of sexual orientation were used for a proof-of-concept investigation. Accordingly, 40 heterosexual and 40 gay men participated in the study. Within each group, half of the participants were instructed to hide their sexual orientation. The results showed that a match between sexual orientation and stimulus delays responses and influences ERP before motor responses. Late ERP components showed higher potential in differentiating hidden sexual preferences than motor responses, thereby showing how ERPs can be used in combination with reaction time measures to potentially facilitate the detection of hidden sexual preferences.

scholarly journals Sustained inhibition of the native language in bilingual language production: A virtual reality approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1035-1061 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID PEETERS ◽  
TON DIJKSTRA
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Mixing Costs ◽  
Sustained Inhibition

Bilinguals often switch languages as a function of the language background of their addressee. The control mechanisms supporting bilinguals' ability to select the contextually appropriate language are heavily debated. Here we present four experiments in which unbalanced bilinguals named pictures in their first language Dutch and their second language English in mixed and blocked contexts. Immersive virtual reality technology was used to increase the ecological validity of the cued language-switching paradigm. Behaviorally, we consistently observed symmetrical switch costs, reversed language dominance, and asymmetrical mixing costs. These findings indicate that unbalanced bilinguals apply sustained inhibition to their dominant L1 in mixed language settings. Consequent enhanced processing costs for the L1 in a mixed versus a blocked context were reflected by a sustained positive component in event-related potentials. Methodologically, the use of virtual reality opens up a wide range of possibilities to study language and communication in bilingual and other communicative settings.

scholarly journals Design and Verification of a Dry Sensor-Based Multi-Channel Digital Active Circuit for Human Brain Electroencephalography Signal Acquisition Systems

Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 720
Author(s):  
Chin-Teng Lin ◽  
Chi-Hsien Liu ◽  
Po-Sheng Wang ◽  
Jung-Tai King ◽  
Lun-De Liao
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Computer Interface ◽  
Signal Acquisition ◽  
Eeg Signal ◽  
Eeg Signals ◽  
Preparation Time ◽  
Active Circuit ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Common Application

A brain–computer interface (BCI) is a type of interface/communication system that can help users interact with their environments. Electroencephalography (EEG) has become the most common application of BCIs and provides a way for disabled individuals to communicate. While wet sensors are the most commonly used sensors for traditional EEG measurements, they require considerable preparation time, including the time needed to prepare the skin and to use the conductive gel. Additionally, the conductive gel dries over time, leading to degraded performance. Furthermore, requiring patients to wear wet sensors to record EEG signals is considered highly inconvenient. Here, we report a wireless 8-channel digital active-circuit EEG signal acquisition system that uses dry sensors. Active-circuit systems for EEG measurement allow people to engage in daily life while using these systems, and the advantages of these systems can be further improved by utilizing dry sensors. Moreover, the use of dry sensors can help both disabled and healthy people enjoy the convenience of BCIs in daily life. To verify the reliability of the proposed system, we designed three experiments in which we evaluated eye blinking and teeth gritting, measured alpha waves, and recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to compare our developed system with a standard Neuroscan EEG system.

Neural Correlates of Subjective Awareness and Unconscious Processing: An ERP Study

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 1435-1446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Lamy ◽  
Moti Salti ◽  
Yair Bar-Haim
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Choice Response ◽  
Backward Masking ◽  
Unconscious Perception ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Subjective Awareness ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Physically Identical ◽  
P3 Component

The aim of the present study was to dissociate the ERP (Event Related Potentials) correlates of subjective awareness from those of unconscious perception. In a backward masking paradigm, participants first produced a forced-choice response to the location of a liminal target presented for an individually calibrated duration, and then reported on their subjective awareness of the target's presence. We recorded (Event-Related Potentials) ERPs and compared the ERP waves when observers reported being aware vs. unaware of the target but localized it correctly, thereby isolating the neural correlates of subjective awareness while controlling for differences in objective performance. In addition, we compared the ERPs when participants were subjectively unaware of the target's presence and localized it correctly versus incorrectly, thereby isolating the neural correlates of unconscious perception. All conditions involved stimuli that were physically identical and were presented for the same duration. Both behavioral measures were associated with modulation of the amplitude of the P3 component of the ERP. Importantly, this modulation was widely spread across all scalp locations for subjective awareness, but was restricted to the parietal electrodes for unconscious perception. These results indicate that liminal stimuli that do not affect performance undergo considerable processing and that subjective awareness is associated with a late wave of activation with widely distributed topography.

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