Sensory Substitution Devices as Advanced Sensory Tools

2018 ◽  
pp. 188-204
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Wright ◽  
Jamie Ward
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Considerable Effort ◽  
Conceptual Space ◽  
System P ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Magnetic Sense ◽  
Definition Of

There has been considerable effort devoted towards understanding sensory substitution devices in terms of their relationship to canonical sensory modalities. The approach taken in this essay is rather different, although complementary, in that we seek to define a broad conceptual space of ‘sensory tools’ in which sensory substitution devices can be situated. Such devices range from telescopes, to cochlear implants, to attempts to create a magnetic sense. One feature of these devices is that they operate at the level of ‘raw’ sensory information. As such, systems such as Braille which operate at a symbolic/conceptual level do not count as a sensory tool (or a sensory substitution device) and nor would a device such as CCTV which, although capturing raw sensory information, would not meet a conventional definition of a tool. With this approach, we hope to avoid the circularity inherent in previous attempts at defining sensory substitution and provide a better starting point to explore the effects of sensory tools, more generally, on the functioning of the nervous system.

What Neuroscience Can Tell about Intuitive Processes in the Context of Perceptual Discovery

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 2077-2087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten G. Volz ◽  
D. Yves von Cramon
Keyword(s):  
Initial Guess ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Direct Contrast ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
Lateral Portion ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Conscious Attention ◽  
Potential Content

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, intuition is “the ability to understand or know something immediately, without conscious reasoning.” Most people would agree that intuitive responses appear as ideas or feelings that subsequently guide our thoughts and behaviors. It is proposed that people continuously, without conscious attention, recognize patterns in the stream of sensations that impinge upon them. What exactly is being recognized is not clear yet, but we assume that people detect potential content based on only a few aspects of the input (i.e., the gist). The result is a vague perception of coherence which is not explicitly describable but instead embodied in a “gut feeling” or an initial guess, which subsequently biases thought and inquiry. To approach the nature of intuitive processes, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging when participants were working at a modified version of the Waterloo Gestalt Closure Task. Starting from our conceptualization that intuition involves an informed judgment in the context of discovery, we expected activation within the median orbito-frontal cortex (OFC), as this area receives input from all sensory modalities and has been shown to be crucially involved in emotionally driven decisions. Results from a direct contrast between intuitive and nonintuitive judgments, as well as from a parametric analysis, revealed the median OFC, the lateral portion of the amygdala, anterior insula, and ventral occipito-temporal regions to be activated. Based on these findings, we suggest our definition of intuition to be promising and a good starting point for future research on intuitive processes.

FC25-05 - Revise the revised? the neuroanatomical hypothesis of panic disorder

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1957-1957
Author(s):  
T. Dresler
Keyword(s):  
Panic Disorder ◽  
Spectroscopic Data ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Panic Attacks ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Task Specificity ◽  
Therapeutic Consequences ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Neuroendocrine Activation

Introduction/objectivesIn 2000 Gorman and colleagues published a widely cited revised version of their original neuroanatomical hypothesis of panic disorder from 1989. A “fear network” centered in the amygdala is supposed to be crucial in mediating fear-related responses. It is assumed that panic attacks result from a dysfunctional coordination of “upstream” (cortical) and “downstream” (brainstem) sensory information, resulting in heightened amygdalar activity with subsequent behavioral, autonomic, and neuroendocrine activation. The authors argue that many aspects of their revised neuroanatomical hypothesis are likely to prove incorrect, but hope it will stimulate research on anxiety disorders.MethodsWe reviewed neuroimaging studies on panic disorder to investigate in how far their results are in line with the neuroanatomical hypothesis and what inconsistencies emerge. Structural (CT, MRT), functional (PET, SPECT, fMRI, NIRS, EEG) and spectroscopic data (MRS) were considered.ResultsTo some extent studies investigating panic disorder found structurally and functionally altered brain areas that have been implicated in fear processing as supposed by the neuroanatomical hypothesis. However, inconsistencies regarding increased vs. decreased volume and increased vs. decreased activity in specific areas indicate aspects that cannot easily be explained by the hypothesis.ConclusionsThe neuroanatomical hypothesis is partially supported by empirical data that may have therapeutic consequences. However, inconsistencies should be a starting point to expand the hypothesis and modify some aspects. This may include the consideration of genetics, task-specificity and the definition of subgroups.

Perceptual recalibration in sensory substitution and perceptual modification

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan C. González ◽  
Paul Bach-y-Rita ◽  
Steven J. Haase
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Spatial Perception ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Dynamic Character ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Theoretical Issues

This paper analyzes the process of perceptual recalibration (PR) in light of two cases of technologically-mediated cognition: sensory substitution and perceptual modification. We hold that PR is a very useful concept — perhaps necessary — for explaining the adaptive capacity that natural perceptive systems display as they respond to functional demands from the environment. We also survey critically related issues, such as the role of learning, training, and nervous system plasticity in the recalibrating process. Attention is given to the interaction between technology and cognition, and the case of epistemic prostheses is presented as an illustration. Finally, we address the following theoretical issues: (1) the dynamic character of spatial perception; (2) the role of functional demands in perception; (3) the nature and interaction of sensory modalities. We aim to show that these issues may be addressed empirically and conceptually — hence, the usefulness of sensory-substitution and perceptual-modification studies in the analysis of perception, technologically-mediated cognition, and cognition in general.

scholarly journals Backward spatial perception can be augmented through a novel visual-to-auditory sensory substitution algorithm

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ophir Netzer ◽  
Benedetta Heimler ◽  
Amir Shur ◽  
Tomer Behor ◽  
Amir Amedi
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Perception ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Sensory Systems ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Sensory Augmentation ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Human Perceptions ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Spatial Fields

AbstractCan humans extend and augment their natural perceptions during adulthood? Here, we address this fascinating question by investigating the extent to which it is possible to successfully augment visual spatial perception to include the backward spatial field (a region where humans are naturally blind) via other sensory modalities (i.e., audition). We thus developed a sensory-substitution algorithm, the “Topo-Speech” which conveys identity of objects through language, and their exact locations via vocal-sound manipulations, namely two key features of visual spatial perception. Using two different groups of blindfolded sighted participants, we tested the efficacy of this algorithm to successfully convey location of objects in the forward or backward spatial fields following ~ 10 min of training. Results showed that blindfolded sighted adults successfully used the Topo-Speech to locate objects on a 3 × 3 grid either positioned in front of them (forward condition), or behind their back (backward condition). Crucially, performances in the two conditions were entirely comparable. This suggests that novel spatial sensory information conveyed via our existing sensory systems can be successfully encoded to extend/augment human perceptions. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to spatial perception, sensory augmentation and sensory rehabilitation.

Sensory Substitution: From Sensations to Phenomenology

2018 ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Laurent Renier
Keyword(s):  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Original Sense ◽  
New Form ◽  
Definition Of

Sensory substitution refers to the use of one sensory modality (e.g. hearing) to supply environmental information normally gathered by another sense (e.g. vision) while still preserving some of the key functions of the original sense. For example, the use of auditory signals might give information about visual scenes. The development of sensory substitution devices has profoundly changed the classical definition of sensory modalities and contributed to the emergence of a new form of perception. In the last decade, our knowledge about cognitive and brain mechanisms involved in sensory substitution has grown considerably, bringing new insights into human perception. The phenomenological experience of perceiving via a sensory substitution device can now be discussed in the light of current scientific knowledge. Thanks to technological advances and scientific achievements, sensory substitution has become a real alternative for restoring some functions of a defective sensory organ (e.g. sight in the case of blindness or hearing in the case of deafness). This essay addresses some of the major questions raised by sensory substitution, including discussions regarding the nature of perception arising from the use of such devices, demonstrates how the study of sensory substitution enhances our understanding of human perception and brain plasticity and provides a short overview of rehabilitation potentialities.

Holism, Chinese Medicine and Systems Ideologies: Rewriting the Past to Imagine the Future

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Scheid
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Medical Humanities ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Us ◽  
Shared Objective ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter explores the articulations that have emerged over the last half century between various types of holism, Chinese medicine and systems biology. Given the discipline’s historical attachments to a definition of ‘medicine’ that rather narrowly refers to biomedicine as developed in Europe and the US from the eighteenth century onwards, the medical humanities are not the most obvious starting point for such an inquiry. At the same time, they do offer one advantage over neighbouring disciplines like medical history, anthropology or science and technology studies for someone like myself, a clinician as well as a historian and anthropologist: their strong commitment to the objective of facilitating better medical practice. This promise furthermore links to the wider project of critique, which, in Max Horkheimer’s definition of the term, aims at change and emancipation in order ‘to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them’. If we take the critical medical humanities as explicitly affirming this shared objective and responsibility, extending the discipline’s traditional gaze is not a burden but becomes, in fact, an obligation.

Neuromuscular Control of Movement

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Neuromuscular Control ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Locomotor Rhythm ◽  
Motor Responses ◽  
Reflex Pathways ◽  
Local Reflex ◽  
Local Circuits ◽  
And Control

The control of movement is essential for animals traversing complex environments and operating across a range of speeds and gaits. We consider how animals process sensory information and initiate motor responses, primarily focusing on simple motor responses that involve local reflex pathways of feedback and control, rather than the more complex, longer-term responses that require the broader integration of higher centers within the nervous system. We explore how local circuits facilitate decentralized coordination of locomotor rhythm and examine the fundamentals of sensory receptors located in the muscles, tendons, joints, and at the animal’s body surface. These sensors monitor the animal’s physical environment and the action of its muscles. The sensory information is then carried back to the animal’s nervous system by afferent neurons, providing feedback that is integrated at the level of the spinal cord of vertebrates and sensory-motor ganglia of invertebrates.

Glial Cells in the Auditory Brainstem

2018 ◽  
pp. 680-706
Author(s):  
Giedre Milinkeviciute ◽  
Karina S. Cramer
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Glial Cells ◽  
Sound Localization ◽  
Auditory Brainstem ◽  
Synaptic Function ◽  
System Function ◽  
Auditory Neurons ◽  
System P ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System Function

The auditory brainstem carries out sound localization functions that require an extraordinary degree of precision. While many of the specializations needed for these functions reside in auditory neurons, additional adaptations are made possible by the functions of glial cells. Astrocytes, once thought to have mainly a supporting role in nervous system function, are now known to participate in synaptic function. In the auditory brainstem, they contribute to development of specialized synapses and to mature synaptic function. Oligodendrocytes play critical roles in regulating timing in sound localization circuitry. Microglia enter the central nervous system early in development, and also have important functions in the auditory system’s response to injury. This chapter highlights the unique functions of these non-neuronal cells in the auditory system.

scholarly journals Neurocosmetics in Skincare—The Fascinating World of Skin–Brain Connection: A Review to Explore Ingredients, Commercial Products for Skin Aging, and Cosmetic Regulation

Cosmetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Vito Rizzi ◽  
Jennifer Gubitosa ◽  
Paola Fini ◽  
Pinalysa Cosma
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Inflammatory Responses ◽  
Skin Aging ◽  
Cosmetic Products ◽  
Sensitive Skin ◽  
Functional Ingredients ◽  
Major Application ◽  
Regulatory Aspect ◽  
Brain Connection ◽  
Definition Of

The “modern” cosmetology industry is focusing on research devoted to discovering novel neurocosmetic functional ingredients that could improve the interactions between the skin and the nervous system. Many cosmetic companies have started to formulate neurocosmetic products that exhibit their activity on the cutaneous nervous system by affecting the skin’s neuromediators through different mechanisms of action. This review aims to clarify the definition of neurocosmetics, and to describe the features of some functional ingredients and products available on the market, with a look at the regulatory aspect. The attention is devoted to neurocosmetic ingredients for combating skin stress, explaining the stress pathways, which are also correlated with skin aging. “Neuro-relaxing” anti-aging ingredients derived from plant extracts and neurocosmetic strategies to combat inflammatory responses related to skin stress are presented. Afterwards, the molecular basis of sensitive skin and the suitable neurocosmetic ingredients to improve this problem are discussed. With the aim of presenting the major application of Botox-like ingredients as the first neurocosmetics on the market, skin aging is also introduced, and its theory is presented. To confirm the efficacy of the cosmetic products on the market, the concept of cosmetic claims is discussed.

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