“There Is No (Where a) Face Like Home”: Recognition and Appraisal Responses to Masked Facial Dialects of Emotion in Four Different National Cultures

The theory of universal emotions suggests that certain emotions such as fear, anger, disgust, sadness, surprise and happiness can be encountered cross-culturally. These emotions are expressed using specific facial movements that enable human communication. More recently, theoretical and empirical models have been used to propose that universal emotions could be expressed via discretely different facial movements in different cultures due to the non-convergent social evolution that takes place in different geographical areas. This has prompted the consideration that own-culture emotional faces have distinct evolutionary important sociobiological value and can be processed automatically, and without conscious awareness. In this paper, we tested this hypothesis using backward masking. We showed, in two different experiments per country of origin, to participants in Britain, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, backward masked own and other-culture emotional faces. We assessed detection and recognition performance, and self-reports for emotionality and familiarity. We presented thorough cross-cultural experimental evidence that when using Bayesian assessment of non-parametric receiver operating characteristics and hit-versus-miss detection and recognition response analyses, masked faces showing own cultural dialects of emotion were rated higher for emotionality and familiarity compared to other-culture emotional faces and that this effect involved conscious awareness.

Backward masking in mice requires visual cortex

Visual masking is used extensively to infer the timescale of conscious perception in humans; yet the underlying circuit mechanisms are not understood. We describe a robust backward masking paradigm in mice, in which the location of a briefly flashed grating is effectively masked within a 50 ms window after stimulus onset. Optogenetic silencing of visual cortex likewise reduces performance in this window, but response rates and accuracy do not match masking, demonstrating cortical silencing and masking are distinct phenomena. Spiking responses recorded in primary visual cortex (V1) are consistent with masked behavior when quantified over long, but not short, time windows, indicating masking involves further downstream processing. Accuracy and performance can be quantitatively recapitulated by a dual accumulator model constrained by V1 activity. The model and the animal”s performance for the earliest decisions imply that the initial spike or two arriving from the periphery trigger a correct response, but subsequent V1 spikes, evoked by the mask, degrade performance for later decisions. To test the necessity of visual cortex for backward masking, we optogenetically silenced mask-evoked cortical activity which fully restored discrimination of target location. Together, these results demonstrate that mice, like humans, are susceptible to backward visual masking and that visual cortex causally contributes to this process.

EXPRESS: Adaptive Assessment of the Capacity of Cognitive Control

Cognitive control, although it has limited capacity, serves an essential role in supporting a broad range of cognitive functions. The backward masking majority function task (MFT-M) is a commonly used and validated behavioral method for measuring the capacity of cognitive control (CCC), but the administration is lengthy. We tested the relative efficiency of administering the MFT-M using an adaptive method based on the principles of computerized adaptive testing (CAT). Participants were 40 healthy young adults aged 18-26. Scores on the adaptive version were highly correlated with scores based on the original approach to administration and showed high test-retest reliability. In addition, the original 864 trials were reduced to 216, and administration time was reduced from 86 minutes to less than 20 minutes. The results suggest that computerized adaptive testing is a valid and more efficient method for assessing CCC than the MFT-M. This study provides an example of adaptive trial selection in task administration, an approach that can advance the methodology of behavioral science.

Perception of invisible masked objects in early infancy

Recurrent loops in the visual cortex play a critical role in visual perception, which is likely not mediated by purely feed-forward pathways. However, the development of recurrent loops is poorly understood. The role of recurrent processing has been studied using visual backward masking, a perceptual phenomenon in which a visual stimulus is rendered invisible by a following mask, possibly because of the disruption of recurrent processing. Anatomical studies have reported that recurrent pathways are immature in early infancy. This raises the possibility that younger infants process visual information mainly in a feed-forward manner, and thus, they might be able to perceive visual stimuli that adults cannot see because of backward masking. Here, we show that infants under 7 mo of age are immune to visual backward masking and that masked stimuli remain visible to younger infants while older infants cannot perceive them. These results suggest that recurrent processing is immature in infants under 7 mo and that they are able to perceive objects even without recurrent processing. Our findings indicate that the algorithm for visual perception drastically changes in the second half of the first year of life.

Saccadic suppression in schizophrenia

About 40% of schizophrenia patients report discrete visual disturbances which could occur if saccadic suppression, the decrease of visual sensitivity around saccade onset, is impaired. Two mechanisms contribute to saccadic suppression: efference copy processing and backwards masking. Both are reportedly altered in schizophrenia. However, saccadic suppression has not been investigated in schizophrenia. 17 schizophrenia patients and 18 healthy controls performed a saccadic suppression task using a Gabor stimulus with individually adjusted contrast, which was presented within an interval 300 ms around saccade onset. Visual disturbance scores were higher in patients than controls, but saccadic suppression strength and time course were similar in both groups with lower saccadic suppression rates being similarly related to smaller saccade amplitudes. Saccade amplitudes in the saccadic suppression task were reduced in patients, in contrast to unaltered amplitudes during a saccade control task. Notably, smaller saccade amplitudes were related to higher visual disturbances scores in patients. Saccadic suppression performance was unrelated to symptom expression and antipsychotic medication. Unaltered saccadic suppression in patients suggests sufficiently intact efference copy processing and backward masking as required for this task. Instead, visual disturbances in patients may be related to restricted saccadic amplitudes arising from cognitive load while completing a task.

Modulation depth discrimination by cochlear implant users

Cochlear implants (CIs) convey the amplitude envelope of speech by modulating high-rate pulse-trains. However, not all of the envelope may be necessary to perceive amplitude modulations (AM); the effective envelope depth may be limited by forward and backward masking from the envelope peaks. Three experiments used modulated pulse-trains to measure which portions of the envelope can be effectively processed by CI users as a function of AM frequency. Experiment 1 used a three-interval forced-choice task to test the ability of CI users to discriminate less-modulated pulse trains from a fully-modulated standard, without controlling for loudness. The stimuli in Experiment 2 were identical, but a two-interval task was used in which participants were required to choose the less-modulated interval, ignoring loudness. Catch trials, in which judgements based on level or modulation depth would give opposing answers were included. Experiment 3 employed novel stimuli whose modulation envelope could be modified below a variable point in the dynamic range, without changing the loudness of the stimulus. Overall, results showed that substantial portions of the envelope are not accurately encoded by CI users. Experiment 1, where loudness cues were available, participants on average were insensitive to changes in the bottom 30% of their dynamic range. In Experiment 2, where loudness was controlled, participants appeared insensitive to changes in the bottom 50% of the dynamic range. In Experiment 3, participants were insensitive to changes in the bottom 80% of the dynamic range. We discuss potential reasons for this insensitivity and implications for CI speech-processing strategies.

Semantic and spatial congruency mould audiovisual integration depending on perceptual awareness

Information integration is considered a hallmark of human consciousness. Recent research has challenged this tenet by showing multisensory interactions in the absence of awareness. This psychophysics study assessed the impact of spatial and semantic correspondences on audiovisual binding in the presence and absence of visual awareness by combining forward–backward masking with spatial ventriloquism. Observers were presented with object pictures and synchronous sounds that were spatially and/or semantically congruent or incongruent. On each trial observers located the sound, identified the picture and rated the picture’s visibility. We observed a robust ventriloquist effect for subjectively visible and invisible pictures indicating that pictures that evade our perceptual awareness influence where we perceive sounds. Critically, semantic congruency enhanced these visual biases on perceived sound location only when the picture entered observers’ awareness. Our results demonstrate that crossmodal influences operating from vision to audition and vice versa are interactively controlled by spatial and semantic congruency in the presence of awareness. However, when visual processing is disrupted by masking procedures audiovisual interactions no longer depend on semantic correspondences.

Visual Magnocellular Deficits In Dyslexia : Are These Deficits Due To Co-morbidity With ADHD?

Some cases of dyslexia may be accounted for by a visual problem involving the magnocellular pathways. Research on dyslexia and problems in the magnocellular pathway has been controversial. Some studies indicate that individuals with dyslexia have problems in this pathway whereas other studies have not. It may be that only the individuals with both dyslexia and ADHD have problems in this pathway while individuals with dyslexia only are spared. In support of this, research has shown that individuals with schizophrenia have attention deficits (similar to those seen in individuals with ADHD) and problems in the magnocellular pathway. In the present study, controls, participants with dyslexia only, participants with both dyslexia and ADHD, and participants with ADHD only completed central and peripheral backward masking experiments. It was predicted that the two groups of participants with ADHD would have problems in the magnocellular pathway. Some evidence was found in support of this.

Visual Magnocellular Deficits In Dyslexia : Are These Deficits Due To Co-morbidity With ADHD?

Some cases of dyslexia may be accounted for by a visual problem involving the magnocellular pathways. Research on dyslexia and problems in the magnocellular pathway has been controversial. Some studies indicate that individuals with dyslexia have problems in this pathway whereas other studies have not. It may be that only the individuals with both dyslexia and ADHD have problems in this pathway while individuals with dyslexia only are spared. In support of this, research has shown that individuals with schizophrenia have attention deficits (similar to those seen in individuals with ADHD) and problems in the magnocellular pathway. In the present study, controls, participants with dyslexia only, participants with both dyslexia and ADHD, and participants with ADHD only completed central and peripheral backward masking experiments. It was predicted that the two groups of participants with ADHD would have problems in the magnocellular pathway. Some evidence was found in support of this.

Competing and Interfering Conflict: Insights from Decision-Making Tasks

Cognitive control, the most distinguishing characteristic of human behavior, is typically studied by conflict paradigms, in which conflicts are induced by goal-irrelevant stimuli (interfering conflict). We argue that competing conflict, where all stimuli need to be processed, is more basic and can also be measured using a decision-making task. In the current study, participants completed modified versions of the backward masking majority function task and the Flanker task to compare the two types of conflict in several dimensions, including reaction and resolving time, effects related to cognitive control (conflict adaption and error-related slowing), inter-stimuli distance, and uncertainty of the location. The results of these comparisons illustrate the unity and diversity of these two types of conflict. The potential application of the computational model in competing conflict is also discussed. The results will not only deepen our understanding of cognitive control and decision-making but also contribute to other areas like artificial intelligence.