Priming effect of colour on aiding the attentional reorientation in sequential presentations of temporal data vizualisation: evidence from eye-tracking

The paper by Ningyue Peng, Chengqi Xue, Haiyan Wang, Yafeng Niu and Lei Wu, published in Interacting with Computers (August 2021), explores the use of colour to influence behavioural performance using eye-tracking.

Distractibility and impulsivity neural states are distinct from attention states and modulate the implementation of attention

In the context of visual attention, it has been classically assumed that missing the response to a target or erroneously selecting a distractor occurs as a consequence of the (miss)allocation of attention in space. In the present paper, we challenge this view and provide evidence that, in addition to encoding spatial attention, prefrontal neurons also encode a distractibility-to-impulsivity state. Using supervised dimensionality reduction techniques, we identify two partially overlapped neuronal subpopulations associated either with attention or overt behaviour. The degree of overlap accounts for the behavioural gain associated with the good allocation of attention. We further describe the neural variability accounting for distractibility-to-impulsivity behaviour by a two dimensional state associated with optimality in task and responsiveness. Overall, we thus show that behavioural performance arises from the integration of task-specific neuronal processes and pre-existing neuronal states describing task-independent behavioural states, shedding new light on attention disorders such as ADHD.

How does occupational stress affect individuals employed in textiles? An exploratory study from Pakistan

Occupational stress among the employees has become a major concern for the organizations without exemption for the textile and clothing industry, a major manufacturing industry of the developing countries. In Pakistan, it contributes 8.5% to the GDP and is a source of employment for 30% of the workforce. This research aims at exploring the effects of job stress amongst the individuals employed in textiles. For the purpose, data was collected from 1212 textile industry employees. Deployment of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the information collected resulted four stress impact factors, namely psychological, behavioural, performance and effectiveness, and physical. The factors described an overall accumulative variance of 60.87%, with psychological as the most significant, explaining 40% of the total. Results of this work disclose that how Occupational Stress affect the employees of textile and clothing industry. There is a need to understand the complexity of stress phenomenon so that the stress management intervention strategies could be designed and implemented accordingly. Findings of this research may be helpful in unfolding the complexity of stress phenomenon and these can be used as a guideline for the design and promotion of more acceptable and viable approaches or strategies for real-time benefits realization at individual and organizational level in terms of higher job satisfaction, motivation and productivity.

Temporal lobe activation during episodic memory encoding following traumatic brain injury

The temporal lobes are critical for encoding and retrieving episodic memories. The temporal lobes are preferentially disrupted following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), likely contributing to the difficulties observed in episodic memory. However, the underlying neural changes that precipitate or maintain these difficulties in individuals with TBI remains poorly understood. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to interrogate the relationship between temporal lobe activation and encoding of episodic stimuli. Participants encoded face, scene, and animal stimuli during an fMRI run. In an out-of-scanner task, participants were required to correctly identify previously displayed stimuli over two presentation runs (each in-scanner stimuli presented twice). Forty-three patients with moderate-severe TBI were recruited and compared with 38 demographically similar healthy controls. The pattern of behavioural performance between groups depended on the stimuli presentation run. The TBI group demonstrated poorer episodic memory for faces and scenes during the first presentation, but not the second presentation. When episodic memory was analysed across all presentation runs, behavioural deficits were only apparent for faces. Interestingly, processing of faces emerged as the only between group-difference on fMRI, whereby TBI participants had an increased signal in the middle temporal gyrus extending to the superior temporal sulcus. These findings provide evidence to suggest that following TBI: (a) episodic memory is preferentially impaired for complex stimuli such as faces, and (b) robust behavioural inefficiencies are reflected in increased activation in specific temporal lobe structures during encoding.

The Analysis of Cognitive Moral in Bridging the Gap Between Internal Marketing and B2B Salespeople Performance

This study seeks to confirm and analyse the effect of cross-level cognitive morals on internal marketing and business sales force performance (i.e. behavioural performance and outcome performance). The concepts of relationship marketing and marketing theory of ethics underpin the relationship among variables. This study adopted a quantitative approach through a survey of 460 respondents from 13 company services and manufacturers. Internal marketing variables were measured at the unit level and tested using interrater agreement and the intraclass correlation. In contrast, the cognitive moral variables, behavioural performance, and sales force performance results were measured individually. Hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) was used to test the effect of the cross-level research variables. The results showed that internal marketing empirically supports cognitive morals. However, the effect of internal marketing does not support the two-dimensional performances of the sales force. Theoretically, the contributions, internal marketing and cognitive morals have shown the relationship between marketing and marketing theory of ethics. Received: 28 April 2021 / Accepted: 15 July 2021 / Published: 5 September 2021

Neural attentional-filter mechanisms of listening success in middle-aged and older individuals

Successful listening crucially depends on intact attentional filters that separate relevant from irrelevant information. Research into their neurobiological implementation has focused on two potential auditory filter strategies: the lateralization of alpha power and selective neural speech tracking. However, the functional interplay of the two neural filter strategies and their potency to index listening success in an ageing population remains unclear. Using electroencephalography and a dual-talker task in a representative sample of listeners (N = 155; age=39–80 years), we here demonstrate an often-missed link from single-trial behavioural outcomes back to trial-by-trial changes in neural attentional filtering. First, we observe preserved attentional–cue-driven modulation of both neural filters across chronological age and hearing levels. Second, neural filter states vary independently of one another, demonstrating complementary neurobiological solutions of spatial selective attention. Stronger neural speech tracking but not alpha lateralization boosts trial-to-trial behavioural performance. Our results highlight the translational potential of neural speech tracking as an individualized neural marker of adaptive listening behaviour.

USE OF SMARTPHONE AMONG ANAESTHESIOLOGIST DURING ANAESTHESIA INTERFERES WITH PATIENT CARE: A SURVEY

Introduction: Usage of smart phones have become an integral part of the professional and personal lives of the population worldwide. Though the usage of smart phones applications has increased the efciency in the workplace, it can also be a signicant distraction to the patient care. Objective: The objective of this study is to determine whether the use of smart phone among anesthetists during patient care improves or provides distraction in patient care. Results: The present study has shown that the prevalence of smart phone usage was 85.7%. The purpose of smart phone usage in increasing order of their frequency was internet surng, phone calls, Messaging and usage of social media. Only 33.3% of the hospitals in which the study participants work had smart phone usage restriction inside the operation theatre and 27.6% had restriction except for communications. Conclusion: Smartphone usage result in increased reaction time, decreased focus and reduced behavioural performance during cognitive tasks. Hence its usage has to be strictly needed basis during the intraoperative period.

Social and Professional Adaptation: From Conceptualization To Measurement

The article deals with the need to analyze social and professional adaptation under digital transformation in the labour market and the renewal of various professional activities resulted in developing new technology. The first part of the article considers the conceptual approaches to understanding the features of social and professional adaptation as an independent phenomenon, which have required the integration of conceptual developments in various branches of socio-humanitarian knowledge: sociology of adaptation, sociology of professions and social psychology. Based on the conceptual ideas presented, there defined social and professional adaptation, which is the inclusion of an actor in his profession through the formation of professional identity within the development of a professional role. This definition contains references to reconciling the internal needs of an actor in his professional self-realization and requiring the professional environment, which enunciates the interaction among the parties of adaptive relations in their professional sphere. Taking into account the adaptation situation, the features of social and professional adaptation are locally and globally analyzed and a clarification is made in the interpretation of «labour adaptation», which is similar in its content. The second part of the work enunciates the subjective and objective indicators of social and professional adaptation in the context of structural operationalization, which allows us to empirically study this phenomenon. The subjective indicators of social and professional adaptation are distinguished on the basis of an interpretive approach, according to which the effectiveness of adaptation should be studied through the self-assessment of an adaptor’s satisfaction with various aspects of his professional self-realization. The objective criteria of social and professional adaptation indentify the behavioural performance of an adaptation actor, which can acquire active and passive forms. The article introduces the general characteristics of methodological approaches to the analysis of social and professional adaptation in quantitative and qualitative research. The results are planned to be used in the future for a sociological study based on the developed conceptual and methodological framework.

Age-related declines in neural distinctiveness correlate across brain areas and result from both decreased reliability and increased confusability

According to the neural dedifferentiation hypothesis, age-related reductions in the distinctiveness of neural representations contribute to sensory, cognitive, and motor declines associated with aging: neural activity associated with different stimulus categories becomes more confusable with age and behavioural performance suffers as a result. Initial studies investigated age-related dedifferentiation in the visual cortex, but subsequent research has revealed declines in other brain regions, suggesting that dedifferentiation may be a general feature of the aging brain. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate age-related dedifferentiation in the visual, auditory, and motor cortices. Participants were 58 young adults and 79 older adults. The similarity of activation patterns across different blocks of the same condition was calculated (within-condition correlation, a measure of reliability) as was the similarity of activation patterns elicited by different conditions (between-category correlations, a measure of confusability). Neural distinctiveness was defined as the difference between the mean within- and between-condition similarity. We found age-related reductions in neural distinctiveness in the visual, auditory, and motor cortices, which were driven by both decreases in within-category similarity and increases in between-category similarity. There were significant positive cross-region correlations between neural distinctiveness in different regions. These correlations were driven by within-category similarities, a finding that indicates that declines in the reliability of neural activity appear to occur in tandem across the brain. These findings suggest that the changes in neural distinctiveness that occur in healthy aging result from changes in both the reliability and confusability of patterns of neural activity.

Topographic numerosity maps cover subitizing and estimation ranges

Numerosity, the set size of a group of items, helps guide behaviour and decisions. Non-symbolic numerosities are represented by the approximate number system. However, distinct behavioural performance suggests that small numerosities, i.e. subitizing range, are implemented differently in the brain than larger numerosities. Prior work has shown that neural populations selectively responding (i.e. hemodynamic responses) to small numerosities are organized into a network of topographical maps. Here, we investigate how neural populations respond to large numerosities, well into the ANS. Using 7 T fMRI and biologically-inspired analyses, we found a network of neural populations tuned to both small and large numerosities organized within the same topographic maps. These results demonstrate a continuum of numerosity preferences that progressively cover both the subitizing range and beyond within the same numerosity map, suggesting a single neural mechanism. We hypothesize that differences in map properties, such as cortical magnification and tuning width, underlie known differences in behaviour.