Is a downwards head tilt a cross-cultural signal of dominance? Evidence for a universal visual illusion

The present pre-registered research provides the first evidence that a downwards head tilt is sufficient to communicate dominance from a neutral facial expression among the Mayangna, members of an unindustrialized, small-scale traditional society in Nicaragua who have had minimal exposure to North American culture. Consistent with the Action Unit imposter effect observed in North American populations (Witkower and Tracy in Psychol Sci 30:893–906, 2019), changes to the appearance of the upper face caused by a downwards head tilt were sufficient to elicit perceptions of dominance among this population. Given that the Mayangna are unlikely to associate a downwards head tilt or related apparent facial changes with dominance as a result of cross-cultural learning, the present results suggest that perceptions of dominance formed from a downwards head tilt, and the visual illusion shaping these perceptions, are a widely generalizable, and possibly universal, feature of human psychology.

Successful Nonsurgical Management of a Traumatic Dens Fracture in a Cat with Clinical and Radiographic Resolution

ABSTRACT An adult domestic shorthair presented with obtundation, vestibular ataxia, head tilt, and visible evidence of facial injury following motor vehicle trauma. Plain radiographs and computed tomography imaging revealed a complete minimally displaced transverse fracture of the caudal aspect of the dens of the C2 vertebra and multiple minimally displaced cranial fractures. The dens fracture was managed with 8 wk of strict rest, followed by 4 wk of supervised activity at home. No external immobilization was performed. Neurological examinations at 8 days, 10 wk, and 9 mo following initial presentation were normal. Repeat radiographic and computed tomography examinations at 10 wk and 9 mo following the traumatic event demonstrated progressive and eventual complete osseous union of the fractured dens. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of successful nonsurgical management of a traumatic dens fracture in an adult cat with documented radiographic and clinical resolution. This report suggests that nonsurgical management can be considered in such cats and that complete resolution with osseous union is feasible.

Decompensated Superior Oblique Palsy Secondary to Bilateral Nutritional Optic Neuropathy Following Bariatric Surgery

Optic neuropathy can occur secondary to nutritional deficiencies in patients who have undergone bariatric surgery. We present a unique case of a 39-year-old man, claiming to be generally healthy, who presented with intermittent vertical diplopia and bilateral decreased vision in each eye. Visual acuity was 6/18 in the right eye and 6/12 in the left eye. Ishihara testing was defective for both eyes. Automated visual fields showed a severe generalized reduction in sensitivity in both eyes. The patient had a left head tilt and a right intermittent hypertropia of 30 prism diopters in primary position. CT of the orbits revealed a right superior oblique of small caliber. On further questioning, the patient admitted to a history of bariatric surgery 7 years prior to presentation with failure to take any nutritional supplements. Blood work demonstrated deficiencies in folate, thiamine, and copper. Within 6 months of initiating nutritional supplements, the vision in each eye was markedly improved and the diplopia resolved. There was an associated normalization of thiamine and copper, but folate levels remained low. We believe that the nutritional deficiency caused a bilateral optic neuropathy and the resulting vision loss precipitated a manifestation of a congenital superior oblique palsy that had previously just been a phoria. The case emphasizes the importance of considering occult sensory etiologies of acquired strabismus.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Improve Head Tilt in Pediatric Torticollis Patients with the Use of Prism Glasses

Background: Infants with head tilts are most often diagnosed with torticollis and are referred to a pediatric physical therapist for evaluation and treatment. Determining if the head position is muscular or non-muscular when assessing these infants is key in making the appropriate referrals to other specialists and determining the best treatment approach. Most pediatric physical therapists treat patients with head tilts with manual therapy (i.e. massage, myofascial release, and passive/active range of motion). Many physical therapists only consider a visual etiology as a possibility after other treatment options have been exhausted and the head tilt persists. Although the incidence of torticollis has increased, based on the author’s experience, the number of cases of non-muscular etiology has also increased. There is a lack of current research on the use of prism glasses for treating head tilts in young children and infants carrying a diagnosis of torticollis, especially those presenting without any active/passive motion limitations. Traditionally, these patients undergo years of treatment without resolution of the head tilt. Case Report: A two-year-old patient initially presented with a diagnosis of torticollis with an intermittent and alternating head tilt for physical therapy. After several months of manual therapy, with little improvement in her head posture, the patient’s physical therapist referred her to a behavioral optometrist for a comprehensive vision examination and to pursue alternative treatment options. The optometric evaluation revealed ocular misalignment causing poor depth perception skills and prism glasses were prescribed full-time with the recommendation of continuing physical therapy for gross motor development. Conclusion: Prism glasses are an appropriate treatment consideration for some pediatric patients with persistent head tilts because they can provide immediate improvement in head position and depth perception. It is important to include optometrists in the multi-disciplinary team when working with patients with head tilts. Pediatric physical therapists would benefit from training on how to properly screen visual skills when evaluating children with head tilts. With such training, an appropriate optometric referral could be initiated early on in treatment.

Deteksi Serangan Spoofing Wajah Menggunakan Convolutional Neural Network

Facial recognition-based biometric authentication is increasingly frequently employed. However, a facial recognition system should not only recognize an individual's face, but it should also be capable of detecting spoofing attempts using printed faces or digital photographs. There are now various methods for detecting spoofing, including blinking, lip movement, and head tilt detection. However, this approach has limitations when dealing with dynamic video spoofing assaults. On the other hand, these types of motion detection systems can diminish user comfort. As a result, this article presents a method for identifying facial spoofing attacks through Convolutional Neural Networks. The anti-spoofing technique is intended to be used in conjunction with deep learning models without using extra tools or equipment. Our CNN classification dataset can be derived from the NUAA photo imposter and CASIA v2. The collection contains numerous examples of facial spoofing, including those created with posters, masks, and smartphones. In the pre-processing stage, image augmentation is carried out with brightness adjustments and other filters so that the model to adapt to various environmental conditions. We evaluate the number of epochs, optimizer types, and the learning rate during the testing process. The test results show that the proposed model achieves an accuracy value of 91.23% and an F1 score of 92.01%.

Gravity Influences How We Expect a Cursor to Move

We expect a cursor to move upwards when we push our computer mouse away. Do we expect it to move upwards on the screen, upwards with respect to our body, or upwards with respect to gravity? To find out, we asked participants to perform a simple task that involved guiding a cursor with a mouse. It took participants that were sitting upright longer to reach targets with the cursor if the screen was tilted, so not only directions on the screen are relevant. Tilted participants’ performance was indistinguishable from that of upright participants when the screen was tilted slightly in the same direction. Thus, the screen's orientation with respect to both the body and gravity are relevant. Considering published estimates of the ocular counter-roll induced by head tilt, it is possible that participants actually expect the cursor to move in a certain direction on their retina.

Positioning Head Tilt in Canine Lysosomal Storage Disease: A Retrospective Observational Descriptive Study

Positioning head tilt is a neurological sign that has recently been described in dogs with congenital cerebellar malformations. This head tilt is triggered in response to head movement and is believed to be caused by a lack of inhibition of the vestibular nuclei by the cerebellar nodulus and ventral uvula (NU), as originally reported cases were dogs with NU hypoplasia. We hypothesized that other diseases, such as lysosomal storage diseases that cause degeneration in the whole brain, including NU, may cause NU dysfunction and positioning head tilt. Videos of the clinical signs of canine lysosomal storage disease were retrospectively evaluated. In addition, post-mortem NU specimens from each dog were histopathologically evaluated. Nine dogs were included, five with lysosomal storage disease, two Chihuahuas with neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL), two Border Collies with NCL, one Shikoku Inu with NCL, two Toy Poodles with GM2 gangliosidosis, and two Shiba Inus with GM1 gangliosidosis. Twenty-eight videos recorded the clinical signs of the dogs. In these videos, positioning head tilt was observed in seven of nine dogs, two Chihuahuas with NCL, one Border Collie with NCL, one Shikoku Inu with NCL, one Toy Poodle with GM2 gangliosidosis, and two Shiba Inus with GM1 gangliosidosis. Neuronal degeneration and loss of NU were histopathologically confirmed in all diseases. As positioning head tilt had not been described until 2016, it may have been overlooked and may be a common clinical sign and pathophysiology in dogs with NU dysfunction.

Facemasks Block Lower Visual Field in Youth Ice Hockey

Wearing a facemask (FM) reduces the spread of COVID-19, but it also blocks a person's lower visual field. Many new public safety rules were created in response to COVID-19, including mandated FM wearing in some youth sports like youth ice hockey. We hypothesized that FM wearing in youth hockey players obstructs the lower field of view and may impact safety. Youth hockey players (n = 33) aged 12.03 (1.6) years button press when they saw an LED on the floor turn on in two conditions (wearing FM or no FM) in random order. An interleaved one-up/one-down two-alternative-forced-choice adaptive staircase design was used. Visual thresholds were calculated for each condition and participant. The visual angle threshold (VAT) was determined using standing eye height and the linear distance from the tip of the skates to the visual threshold. Paired t-tests determined whether mask wearing changed the VAT. We modeled the probability a player could see the puck on their stick in four distinct scenarios to estimate the potential impact of FM wearing during hockey play. The average unmasked VAT (11.4 degrees) was significantly closer to the skates than the masked VAT (20.3 degrees) (p < 0.001). Our model indicated a significant reduction in ability to visualize the puck using peripheral vision when more upright while wearing a FM. FM wearing compromised their lower visual field, suggesting a downward head tilt may be necessary to see the puck. Playing ice hockey while wearing a FM may lead to unsafe on-ice playing conditions due to downward head tilt to see the puck.

Evaluation of autonomic nervous system in children with spastic cerebral palsy: clinical and electophysiological study

Background Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most prevalent severe motor disability among children. The aim of this work was to assess autonomic dysfunction in children with cerebral palsy clinically and electrophysiologically. Results Age of the studied children ranged from 4 to 12 years. Quadriplegic type of spastic cerebral palsy constituted 82.5% of CP children while diplegic type constituted 17.5%. Based on Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), the majority of children were in levels 4 and 5. The prevalence of autonomic dysfunction symptoms were 80% for thermoregulatory abnormalities (cold extremities), 65% for chronic constipation, 52.5% for sleep disturbance, 47.5% for loss of appetite, 40% for sweating abnormalities, 25% for recurrent nausea and/or vomiting, 22.5% for increased sensitivity to light or dark and 15% for bloating. As regards sympathetic skin response, 19 CP children had unobtainable response in both upper and lower limbs while 5 children had unobtainable response in lower limbs only. All of them were in levels 4 and 5 of GMFCS. Postural hypotension was present in 20% of CP children. Mean Heart rate of CP children was significantly increased more than healthy children upon head tilt test. Conclusions Autonomic dysfunction has been objectively proven in CP children through absent sympathetic skin response, presence of orthostatic tachycardia and postural hypotension.

Bilateral Asymmetry in Ocular Counter-Rolling Reflex Is Associated With Individual Motion Sickness Susceptibility

Accumulating evidence suggests that individual variations in vestibular functions are associated with motion sickness (MS) susceptibility. We investigated whether vestibular functions in the reflex and cortical pathways could predict the susceptibility of individuals to MS. MS-susceptible and control adults were recruited according to the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ) score. Otolith reflex and cortical functions were assessed using the ocular counter rolling test and the head-tilt subjective visual vertical (HT-SVV) test, respectively. The bilateral asymmetry of each function was compared between the MS-susceptible and the control groups. Although the two tests for otolith functions were conducted using the same stimulation (lateral head tilt), bilateral asymmetry of otolith reflex rather than cortical function was significantly associated with MS susceptibility. Our data suggests that bilateral asymmetry in the otolith reflex pathway is capable of predicting susceptibility to MS to some extent. Our data also suggest that the association between vestibular function and MS susceptibility can vary based on the vehicle types. Future vehicles, such as self-driving cars, will make us aware of other vestibular functions associated with MS susceptibility.