Exploiting multisensory encoding of names via name tags facilitates remembering

Associating names to faces can be challenging, but it is an important task that we engage in throughout our lives. An interesting feature of this task is the lack of an inherent, semantic relationship between a face and name. Previous scientific research, as well as common lay theories, offer strategies that can aid in this task (e.g., mnemonics, semantic associations). However, these strategies are either impractical (e.g., spaced repetition) or cumbersome (e.g., mnemonics). The current study seeks to understand whether bolstering names with cross-modal cues—specifically, name tags—may aid memory for face and name pairings. In a series of five experiments, we investigated whether the presentation of congruent auditory (vocal) and written names at encoding might benefit subsequent cued recall and recognition memory tasks. The first experiment consisted of short video clips of individuals verbally introducing themselves (auditory cue), presented with or without a name tag (visual cue). The results showed that participants, cued with a picture of a face, were more likely to recall the associated name when those names were encoded with a name tag (i.e. a congruent visual cue) compared to when no supporting cross-modal cue was available. Subsequent experiments probed the underlying mechanism for this facilitation of memory. The findings were consistent with a benefit of multisensory encoding, above and beyond any effect from the availability of multiple independent unisensory traces. Overall, these results extend previous findings of a benefit of multisensory encoding in learning and memory, to a naturalistic associative memory task.

Effects of intra-hippocampal corticosterone and sleep on consolidation of complex memory of aversive experience in rats

Formation and consolidation of memories for highly stressful (traumatic) events is a complex process that involves interplay between multiple memory systems and has implications for etiology and treatment of stress- and trauma-related disorders. Here we study effects of sleep/wake state and high intra-hippocampal corticosterone on consolidation of aversive contextual memories as well as consolidation of association between simple trauma-related cues and fear response in rats. Animals were implanted with EEG and EMG electrodes for sleep assessment and cannulas for intra-hippocampal corticosterone application. They were familiarized to a “safe box” and then trained in fear conditioning paradigm in a distinct “shock box” with a prominent simple auditory cue serving as a phasic background cue. Immediately after conditioning, animals received bilateral intra-hippocampal saline (1μl) or corticosterone (10ng in 1μl saline) injection and were either allowed to sleep or were kept awake for a following two-hour consolidation period. Memory test twenty-four hours later revealed that the saline-injected animals with sleep during consolidation had significantly stronger freezing response in the shock box compared to the safe box as well as increased freezing in response to the tone. Lack of post-learning sleep in saline injected animals led to generalization of fear response to the safe context, while association between simple cue and fear response was preserved. High intra-hippocampal corticosterone level during memory consolidation led to generalization of fear response to the safe context, regardless of sleep/wake state, while enhancement of response to single stimulus was not observed. Our results show how manipulation of conditions during consolidation can lead to greatly variable complex memories for a traumatic episode and distinct behavioral outcomes.HighlightsWe studied effect of sleep and intrahippocampal corticosterone on consolidation of memories surrounding stressful event modeled by fear conditioning in rats.Sleep following traumatic fear conditioning event is important for subsequent manifestation of fear response (freezing) specifically in the context of traumatic event but not in a neutral safe context.Lack of sleep or high intra-hippocampal corticosterone level during memory consolidation leads to generalization of fear response to both the traumatic and safe context.Increased freezing in response to a trauma-related auditory cue was observed in saline injected rats regardless of wake/sleep state during consolidation.Post-learning intra-hippocampal corticosterone injection blocked response to a trauma-related auditory cue regardless of wake/sleep state during consolidation.

Memory-Guided Saccades in Psychosis: Effects of Medication and Stimulus Location

The memory-guided saccade task requires the remembrance of a peripheral target location, whilst inhibiting the urge to make a saccade ahead of an auditory cue. The literature has explored the endophenotypic deficits associated with differences in target laterality, but less is known about target amplitude. The data presented came from Crawford et al. (1995), employing a memory-guided saccade task among neuroleptically medicated and non-medicated patients with schizophrenia (n = 31, n = 12), neuroleptically medicated and non-medicated bipolar affective disorder (n = 12, n = 17), and neurotypical controls (n = 30). The current analyses explore the relationships between memory-guided saccades toward targets with different eccentricities (7.5° and 15°), the discernible behaviour exhibited amongst diagnostic groups, and cohorts distinguished based on psychotic symptomatology. Saccade gain control and final eye position were reduced among medicated-schizophrenia patients. These metrics were reduced further among targets with greater amplitudes (15°), indicating greater deficit. The medicated cohort exhibited reduced gain control and final eye positions in both amplitudes compared to the non-medicated cohort, with deficits markedly observed for the furthest targets. No group differences in symptomatology (positive and negative) were reported, however, a greater deficit was observed toward the larger amplitude. This suggests that within the memory-guided saccade paradigm, diagnostic classification is more prominent in characterising disparities in saccade performance than symptomatology.

Cross-modal orienting of exogenous attention results in visual-cortical facilitation, not suppression

Attention may be oriented exogenously (i.e., involuntarily) to the location of salient stimuli, resulting in improved perception. However, it is unknown whether exogenous attention improves perception by facilitating processing of attended information, suppressing processing of unattended information, or both. To test this question, we measured behavioral performance and cue-elicited neural changes in the electroencephalogram as participants (N = 19) performed a task in which a spatially non-predictive auditory cue preceded a visual target. Critically, this cue was either presented at a peripheral target location or from the center of the screen, allowing us to isolate spatially specific attentional activity. We find that both behavior and attention-mediated changes in visual-cortical activity are enhanced at the location of a cue prior to the onset of a target, but that behavior and neural activity at an unattended target location is equivalent to that following a central cue that does not direct attention (i.e., baseline). These results suggest that exogenous attention operates via facilitation of information at an attended location.

Beautiful Deaths and Heard Gazes

Viewers frequently encounter “normative” prescriptions and perceptions through photographs of how images depicting death and dying should loo and, cognitively, how those images ought to be received. In such encounters, varying fundamental views or cultural myths surrounding death and dying, how it is envisioned, how it is, literally, pictured dictate a particular way of seeing and being. This article considers visual representations made of individuals who choose to enact Death With Dignity provisions to end their lives on their own terms and on their own time line. By an interrogation of a corpus of DWD images, the author investigates how such representations challenge a particular cultural logic. This reconsideration may lead to an awareness; a reasoning, creating a space in which reality is constructed beneath the viewer’s gaze. Such a reality, relies on an embodied or pragmatic aesthetic and is co-constituted by expressions of power that emanate from image and viewer. The author dubs this modality the heard gaze; a vision in which the past, present, and future are fused and subject becomes object or vessel of understanding by perceiving a visual, auditory “cue”.

Auditory Cue Based on the Golden Ratio Can Improve Gait Patterns in People with Parkinson’s Disease

The harmonic structure of walking relies on an irrational number called the golden ratio (ϕ): in healthy subjects, it coincides with the stride-to-stance ratio, and it is associated with a smooth gait modality. This smoothness is lost in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), due to deficiencies in the execution of movements. However, external auditory cues seem to facilitate movement, by enabling the timing of muscle activation, and helping in initiating and modulating motor output. Based on a harmonic fractal structure of gait, can the administration of an auditory cue based on individual’s ϕ-rhythm improve, in acute, gait patterns in people with PD? A total of 20 participants (16 males, age 70.9 ± 8.4 years, Hoehn and Yahr stage-II) were assessed through stereophotogrammetry: gait spatio-temporal parameters, and stride-to-stance ratio were computed before, during, and after the ϕ-rhythm administration. Results show improvements in terms of stride length (p = 0.018), walking speed (p = 0.014), and toe clearance (p = 0.013) when comparing gait patterns before and after the stimulus. Furthermore, the stride-to-stance ratio seems to correlate with almost all spatio-temporal parameters, but it shows the main changes in the before–during rhythm comparison. In conclusion, ϕ-rhythm seems an effective cue able to compensate for defective internal rhythm of the basal ganglia in PD.

A New Sensory Skill Shows Automaticity and Integration Features in Multisensory Interactions

ABSTRACTPeople can learn new sensory skills that augment their perception, such as human echolocation. However, it is not clear to what extent these can become an integral part of the perceptual repertoire. Can they show automatic use, integrated with the other senses, or do they remain cognitively-demanding, cumbersome, and separate? Here, participants learned to judge distance using an echo-like auditory cue. We show that use of this new skill met three key criteria for automaticity and sensory integration: (1) enhancing the speed of perceptual decisions; (2) processing through a non-verbal route and (3) integration with vision in an efficient, Bayes-like manner. We also show some limits following short training: integration was less-than-optimal, and there was no mandatory fusion of signals. These results demonstrate key ways in which new sensory skills can become automatic and integrated, and suggest that sensory augmentation systems may have benefits beyond current applications for sensory loss.

A Comparison of Eye Tracking Latencies Among Several Commercial Head-Mounted Displays

A number of virtual reality head-mounted displays (HMDs) with integrated eye trackers have recently become commercially available. If their eye tracking latency is low and reliable enough for gaze-contingent rendering, this may open up many interesting opportunities for researchers. We measured eye tracking latencies for the Fove-0, the Varjo VR-1, and the High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC) Vive Pro Eye using simultaneous electrooculography measurements. We determined the time from the occurrence of an eye position change to its availability as a data sample from the eye tracker (delay) and the time from an eye position change to the earliest possible change of the display content (latency). For each test and each device, participants performed 60 saccades between two targets 20° of visual angle apart. The targets were continuously visible in the HMD, and the saccades were instructed by an auditory cue. Data collection and eye tracking calibration were done using the recommended scripts for each device in Unity3D. The Vive Pro Eye was recorded twice, once using the SteamVR SDK and once using the Tobii XR SDK. Our results show clear differences between the HMDs. Delays ranged from 15 ms to 52 ms, and the latencies ranged from 45 ms to 81 ms. The Fove-0 appears to be the fastest device and best suited for gaze-contingent rendering.

EFFECT OF PHASE-SHIFTED AUDITORY CUE ON GAIT SYMMETRY AND TRUNK DISPLACEMENT DURING TREADMILL WALKING

This study investigated changes in gait symmetry with trunk displacement during phase-shifted auditory paced treadmill walking for effective training with auditory cueing provided in conventional gait training. Eighteen able-bodied participants walked at a comfortable speed on a treadmill and the measured cadence was set at 100% (baseline). The phase-shifted auditory cue was set to both phase advance and delay of 20% at 5% intervals based on the baseline with respect to matching foot contact to the auditory cue. Trunk displacement increased with the phase-shifted auditory cue, and the largest value was found in the 120% condition compared to baseline ([Formula: see text]). Step length, step time, and swing phase time symmetry ratio gradually increased with increasing phase delay and gradually decreased with increasing phase advance on the linear model. However, single support time and stance phase time symmetry ratio showed contrasting characteristics compared to above parameters. The results indicate that the phase-shifted auditory cue significantly changes gait symmetry and trunk displacement. Particularly, the 20% phase advance and delay cues yielded about a 5% change in the step length symmetry ratio. These results could be used to induce a symmetric gait pattern when an asymmetric gait appears in hemiplegia.