Reality in a sphere: A direct comparison of social attention in the laboratory and the real world

Humans often show reduced social attention in real situations, a finding rarely replicated in controlled laboratory studies. Virtual reality is supposed to allow for ecologically valid and at the same time highly controlled experiments. This study aimed to provide initial insights into the reliability and validity of using spherical videos viewed via a head-mounted display (HMD) to assess social attention. We chose five public places in the city of Würzburg and measured eye movements of 44 participants for 30 s at each location twice: Once in a real environment with mobile eye-tracking glasses and once in a virtual environment playing a spherical video of the location in an HMD with an integrated eye tracker. As hypothesized, participants demonstrated reduced social attention with less exploration of passengers in the real environment as compared to the virtual one. This is in line with earlier studies showing social avoidance in interactive situations. Furthermore, we only observed consistent gaze proportions on passengers across locations in virtual environments. These findings highlight that the potential for social interactions and an adherence to social norms are essential modulators of viewing behavior in social situations and cannot be easily simulated in laboratory contexts. However, spherical videos might be helpful for supplementing the range of methods in social cognition research and other fields. Data and analysis scripts are available at https://osf.io/hktdu/.

Social attention in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder: Role of social motivation

Research suggests a relationship between anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder. The aim of the current study was to examine social attention in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder compared with age- and sex-matched typically developing groups, and to examine whether lowered social motivation could explain reductions in social attention across the two disorders. Participants’ eye movements were tracked while watching a dynamic social scene. The proportion of fixation duration to faces, bodies and non-social areas of interest were compared across groups. Participants with autism spectrum disorder looked at faces significantly less often than controls, however, there were no differences between anorexia nervosa and controls in attention to faces. Typically developing -normed z-scores indicated that attention to faces showed the greatest deviation from normative data compared with body or non-social areas of interest in both autism spectrum disorder and anorexia nervosa, however, differences were larger in autism spectrum disorder than in anorexia nervosa. Social motivation scores did not predict attention to faces in either autism spectrum disorder or anorexia nervosa. Our results do not support the hypothesis that differences in social motivation underlie reduced social attention in both anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder. Lay abstract Research suggests a relationship between autism and anorexia nervosa. For example, rigid and inflexible behaviour, a preference for routine and social difficulties are seen in both conditions. In this study, we examined whether people with anorexia and people with autism show similarities in social attention (where they look while engaging in social interactions or watching a scene with people interacting). This could help us understand why people with anorexia and autism experience difficulties in social situations. Participants with either anorexia or autism, as well as participants with no mental health problems watched a video of a social scene while we recorded which parts of the scene they looked at with an eye-tracker. Participants also completed questionnaires to assess characteristics of autism. We found that autistic participants looked at faces less than typically developing participants. However, participants with anorexia did not show a similar reduction in attention to faces, contrary to our predictions. Autistic features were not related to attention in either group. The results suggest that autistic people may miss important social cues (like facial expressions), potentially contributing to social difficulties. However, this mechanism does not appear explain social difficulties in people with anorexia.

Combining of Narrative News and VR Games: Comparison of Various Forms of News Games

The information explosion makes it easier to ignore information that requires social attention, and news games can make that information stand out. There is also considerable research that shows that people are more likely to remember narrative content. Virtual environments can also increase the amount of information a person can recall. If these elements are blended together, it may help people remember important information. This research aims to provide directional results for researchers interested in combining VR and narrative, enumerating the advantages and limitations of using text or non-text plot prompts in news games. It also provides hints for the use of virtual environments as learning platforms in news games. The research method is to first derive a theoretical derivation, then create a sample of news games, and then compare the experimental data of the sample to prove the theory. The research compares the survey data of a VR game that presents a story in non-text format (Group VR), a game that presents the story in non-text format (Group NVR), a VR game that presents the story in text (Group VRIT), and a game that presents the story in text (Group NVRIT) will be compared and analyzed. This paper describes the experiment. The results of the experiment show that among the four groups, the means that can make subjects remember the most information is a VR news game with a storyline. And there is a positive correlation between subjects' experience and confidence in recognizing memories, and empathy is positively correlated with the correctness of memories. In addition, the effects of "VR," "experience," and "presenting a story from text or video" on the percentage of correct answers differed depending on the type of question.

Management and Plan of Undergraduates’ Mental Health Based on Keyword Extraction

Mental health issues are alarmingly on the rise among undergraduates, which have gradually become the focus of social attention. With the emergence of some abnormal events such as more and more undergraduates’ suspension, and even suicide due to mental health issues, the social attention to undergraduates’ mental health has reached a climax. According to the questionnaire of undergraduates’ mental health issues, this paper uses keyword extraction to analyze the management and plan of undergraduates’ mental health. Based on the classical TextRank algorithm, this paper proposes an improved TextRank algorithm based on upper approximation rough data-deduction. The experimental results show that the accurate rate, recall rate, and F1 of proposed algorithm have been significantly improved, and the experimental results also demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has good performance in running time and physical memory occupation.

Altered Salience Network Connectivity in 6-Week-Old Infants at Risk for Autism

Converging evidence implicates disrupted brain connectivity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, the mechanisms linking altered connectivity early in development to the emergence of ASD symptomatology remain poorly understood. Here we examined whether atypicalities in the Salience Network (SN) -- an early-emerging neural network involved in orienting attention to the most salient aspects of one's internal and external environment -- may predict the development of ASD markers such as reduced social attention and atypical sensory processing. Six-week-old infants at high-risk for ASD exhibited stronger SN connectivity with sensorimotor regions; low-risk infants demonstrated stronger SN connectivity with prefrontal regions involved in social attention. Infants with higher connectivity with sensorimotor regions had lower connectivity with prefrontal regions, suggesting a direct tradeoff between attention to basic sensory versus socially-relevant information. Early alterations in SN connectivity predicted subsequent ASD symptomatology, providing a plausible mechanistic account for the unfolding of atypical developmental trajectories associated with ASD risk.