scholarly journals Eye contact during joint attention with a humanoid robot modulates oscillatory brain activity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyveli Kompatsiari ◽  
Francesco Bossi ◽  
Agnieszka Wykowska
Keyword(s):  
Joint Attention ◽  
Humanoid Robot ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Mu Rhythm ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Gaze Cueing ◽  
Human Partner ◽  
Oscillatory Brain Activity

Eye contact established by a human partner has been shown to affect various cognitive processes of the receiver. However, little is known about humans’ responses to eye contact established by a humanoid robot. Here, we aimed at examining humans’ oscillatory brain response to eye contact with a humanoid robot. Eye contact (or lack thereof) was embedded in a gaze cueing task and preceded the phase of gaze-related attentional orienting. In addition to examining the effect of eye contact on the recipient, we also tested its impact on gaze cueing effects. Results showed that participants rated eye contact as more engaging and responded with higher desynchronization of alpha-band activity in left fronto-central and central electrode clusters when the robot established eye contact with them, compared to no eye contact condition. However, eye contact did not modulate gaze cueing effects. The results are interpreted in terms of the functional roles involved in alpha central rhythms (potentially interpretable also as mu rhythm), including joint attention and engagement in social interaction.

Intramodal and crossmodal refractory effects: Evidence from oscillatory brain activity

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 192
Author(s):  
Davide Bottari ◽  
Sophie Rohlf ◽  
Marlene Hense ◽  
Boukje Habets ◽  
Brigitte Roeder
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Random Order ◽  
Oddball Paradigm ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Oscillatory Brain Activity ◽  
Auditory Cortices

Event-related potentials (ERP) to the second stimulus of a pair are known to be reduced in amplitude. The magnitude of this ‘refractoriness’ is modulated by both the interstimulus interval and the similarity between the two stimuli. Intramodal refractoriness is interpreted as an index of a temporary decrement in neural responsiveness. So, cross-modal refractoriness might be an indicator of shared neural generators between modalities. We analysed oscillatory neuronal activity while participants were engaged in an oddball paradigm with auditory (4000 Hz, 50 ms-long, 90 db, bilateral) and tactile stimuli (50 ms-long, 125 Hz-vibrations, index fingers) presented in a random order with an ISI of either 1000 or 2000 ms. Participants were required to detect rare tactile (middle fingers) and auditory deviants (600 Hz). A time–frequency analysis of the brain response to the second stimulus of each pair (T-T, A-A, T-A and A-T) contrasting Short and Long ISIs revealed a reduced refractory effect after Long ISI with respect to Short ISI, in all pairs (both intramodal and cross-modal). This emerged as a broadly distributed increase of evoked theta activity (3–7 Hz, 100–500 ms). Only in intramodal tactile pairs and cross-modal tactile-auditory pairs we also observed that Long ISI with respect to Short ISI determined a decrease of induced alpha (8–12 Hz, 200–700 ms), a typical sign of enhanced neural excitability and thus decreased refractoriness. These data suggest that somatosensory and auditory cortices display different neural markers of refractoriness and that the auditory cortex might have a stronger low level degree of influence on the tactile cortex than vice-versa.

Eye contact during live social interaction modulates infants’ oscillatory brain activity

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Hoehl ◽  
Christine Michel ◽  
Vincent M. Reid ◽  
Eugenio Parise ◽  
Tricia Striano
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Oscillatory Brain Activity

scholarly journals On the role of eye contact in gaze cueing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyveli Kompatsiari ◽  
Francesca Ciardo ◽  
Vadim Tikhanoff ◽  
Giorgio Metta ◽  
Agnieszka Wykowska
Keyword(s):  
Humanoid Robot ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Reflexive Orienting ◽  
Gaze Cueing ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Experimental Protocols ◽  
Human Eyes

Most experimental protocols examining joint attention with the gaze cueing paradigm are “observational” and “offline”, thereby not involving social interaction. We examined whether within a naturalistic online interaction, real-time eye contact influences the gaze cueing effect (GCE). We embedded gaze cueing in an interactive protocol with the iCub humanoid robot. This has the advantage of ecological validity combined with excellent experimental control. Critically, before averting the gaze, iCub either established eye contact or not, a manipulation enabled by an algorithm detecting position of the human eyes. For non-predictive gaze cueing procedure (Experiment 1), only the eye contact condition elicited GCE, while for counter-predictive procedure (Experiment 2), only the condition with no eye contact induced GCE. These results reveal an interactive effect of strategic (gaze validity) and social (eye contact) top-down components on the reflexive orienting of attention induced by gaze cues. More generally, we propose that naturalistic protocols with an embodied presence of an agent can cast a new light on mechanisms of social cognition.

scholarly journals Conditional Entropy: A Potential Digital Marker for Stress

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
Soheil Keshmiri
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Solution Concept ◽  
Conditional Entropy ◽  
K Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Eeg Recordings ◽  
The Brain

Recent decades have witnessed a substantial progress in the utilization of brain activity for the identification of stress digital markers. In particular, the success of entropic measures for this purpose is very appealing, considering (1) their suitability for capturing both linear and non-linear characteristics of brain activity recordings and (2) their direct association with the brain signal variability. These findings rely on external stimuli to induce the brain stress response. On the other hand, research suggests that the use of different types of experimentally induced psychological and physical stressors could potentially yield differential impacts on the brain response to stress and therefore should be dissociated from more general patterns. The present study takes a step toward addressing this issue by introducing conditional entropy (CE) as a potential electroencephalography (EEG)-based resting-state digital marker of stress. For this purpose, we use the resting-state multi-channel EEG recordings of 20 individuals whose responses to stress-related questionnaires show significantly higher and lower level of stress. Through the application of representational similarity analysis (RSA) and K-nearest-neighbor (KNN) classification, we verify the potential that the use of CE can offer to the solution concept of finding an effective digital marker for stress.

scholarly journals Detection of event-related modulations of oscillatory brain activity with multivariate statistical analysis of MEG data

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1922-1934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan L.P. Soto ◽  
Dimitrios Pantazis ◽  
Karim Jerbi ◽  
Jean-Phillipe Lachaux ◽  
Line Garnero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Multivariate Statistical Analysis ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Oscillatory Brain Activity

scholarly journals Daytime micro-naps in a nocturnal migrant: an EEG analysis

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Fuchs ◽  
D Maury ◽  
F.R Moore ◽  
V.P Bingman
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Sleep Loss ◽  
Eeg Analysis ◽  
Observable Effect ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Avian Migration ◽  
Unihemispheric Sleep ◽  
Daytime Behaviour ◽  
Behavioural Evidence

Many species of typically diurnal songbirds experience sleep loss during the migratory seasons owing to their nocturnal migrations. However, despite substantial loss of sleep, nocturnally migrating songbirds continue to function normally with no observable effect on their behaviour. It is unclear if and how avian migrants compensate for sleep loss. Recent behavioural evidence suggests that some species may compensate for lost night-time sleep with short, uni- and bilateral ‘micro-naps’ during the day. We provide electrophysiological evidence that short episodes of sleep-like daytime behaviour (approx. 12 s) are accompanied by sleep-like changes in brain activity in an avian migrant. Furthermore, we present evidence that part of this physiological brain response manifests itself as unihemispheric sleep, a state during which one brain hemisphere is asleep while the other hemisphere remains essentially awake. Episodes of daytime sleep may represent a potent adaptation to the challenges of avian migration and offer a plausible explanation for the resilience to sleep loss in nocturnal migrants.

scholarly journals Effects of rhythmic stimulus presentation on oscillatory brain activity: the physiology of cueing in Parkinson’s disease

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 300-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik S. te Woerd ◽  
Robert Oostenveld ◽  
Bastiaan R. Bloem ◽  
Floris P. de Lange ◽  
Peter Praamstra
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Oscillatory Brain Activity

Pathomechanisms in hepatic encephalopathy

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Häussinger ◽  
Markus Butz ◽  
Alfons Schnitzler ◽  
Boris Görg
Keyword(s):  
Hepatic Encephalopathy ◽  
Nitrosative Stress ◽  
Cortical Excitability ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
System Level ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Motor Impairments ◽  
Chronic Liver Failure ◽  
Oscillatory Brain Activity ◽  
Neuronal Functions

Abstract Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a frequent neuropsychiatric complication in patients with acute or chronic liver failure. Symptoms of HE in particular include disturbances of sensory and motor functions and cognition. HE is triggered by heterogeneous factors such as ammonia being a main toxin, benzodiazepines, proinflammatory cytokines and hyponatremia. HE in patients with liver cirrhosis is triggered by a low-grade cerebral edema and cerebral oxidative/nitrosative stress which bring about a number of functionally relevant alterations including posttranslational protein modifications, oxidation of RNA, gene expression changes and senescence. These alterations are suggested to impair astrocyte/neuronal functions and communication. On the system level, a global slowing of oscillatory brain activity and networks can be observed paralleling behavioral perceptual and motor impairments. Moreover, these changes are related to increased cerebral ammonia, alterations in neurometabolite and neurotransmitter concentrations and cortical excitability in HE patients.

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