Putting the Pieces Together: Mental Construction of Semantically Congruent and Incongruent Scenes in Dementia

Scene construction refers to the process by which humans generate richly detailed and spatially cohesive scenes in the mind’s eye. The cognitive processes that underwrite this capacity remain unclear, particularly when the envisaged scene calls for the integration of various types of contextual information. Here, we explored social and non-social forms of scene construction in Alzheimer’s disease (AD; n = 11) and the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD; n = 15) relative to healthy older control participants (n = 16) using a novel adaptation of the scene construction task. Participants mentally constructed detailed scenes in response to scene–object cues that varied in terms of their sociality (social; non-social) and congruence (congruent; incongruent). A significant group × sociality × congruence interaction was found whereby performance on the incongruent social scene condition was significantly disrupted in both patient groups relative to controls. Moreover, bvFTD patients produced significantly less contextual detail in social relative to non-social incongruent scenes. Construction of social and non-social incongruent scenes in the patient groups combined was significantly associated with independent measures of semantic processing and visuospatial memory. Our findings demonstrate the influence of schema-incongruency on scene construction performance and reinforce the importance of episodic–semantic interactions during novel event construction.

Building Virtual Scene Construction and Environmental Impact Analysis Based on Image Processing

With the rapid development of computer technology, the virtual scene construction technology of image processing has gradually become a hotspot in computer research. The application of virtual scene construction technology in the construction industry is also expanding, with the intelligentization of architectural design and construction. With the rapid development of the industry, virtual technology can better provide users with diversified services and experiences. The main content of the article is as follows: (1) The article introduces image construction technology and analyzes the three-dimensional presentation of virtual technology in construction design and the diversified application of virtual technology in construction design. (2) The article introduces two virtual scene construction techniques: one is to combine the real scene obtained by taking pictures with the virtual scene by image technology processing to construct a natural virtual scene; the other is the use of geometric construction by architects. The virtual building model is drawn by the model method, and the virtual building model is thus obtained. (3) The article chooses two representative buildings as cases. The virtual platform monitors and records the movement trajectory of volunteers in the virtual environment in real time. The experimental results show that the number and shape characteristics of the escalators in the building all have a little impact on volunteers’ awareness. (4) The article sets up three control groups of normal mode, fixed skin, and variable skin. It analyzes the environmental impact of buildings from three different aspects of wind environment, thermal environment, and light environment and proposes related control measures.

Unrestricted eye movements strengthen causal connectivity from hippocampal to oculomotor regions during scene construction

Scene construction is a key component of memory recall, navigation, and future imagining, and relies on the medial temporal lobes (MTL). A parallel body of work suggests that eye movements may enable the imagination and construction of scenes, even in the absence of external visual input. There are vast structural and functional connections between regions of the MTL and those of the oculomotor system. However, the directionality of connections between the MTL and oculomotor control regions, and how it relates to scene construction, has not been studied directly in human neuroimaging. In the current study, we used dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to investigate this relationship at a mechanistic level using a scene construction task in which participants' eye movements were either restricted (fixed-viewing) or unrestricted (free-viewing). By omitting external visual input, and by contrasting free- versus fixed- viewing, the directionality of neural connectivity during scene construction could be determined. As opposed to when eye movements were restricted, allowing free viewing during construction of scenes strengthened top-down connections from the MTL to the frontal eye fields, and to lower-level cortical visual processing regions, suppressed bottom-up connections along the visual stream, and enhanced vividness of the constructed scenes. Taken together, these findings provide novel, non-invasive evidence for the causal architecture between the MTL memory system and oculomotor system associated with constructing vivid mental representations of scenes.

Scene construction of nano particle system based on virtual technology

In view of the problems in traditional 3D scene simulation, such as the poor simulation effect and the inability to really feel the scene, this paper proposes the research of nano particle system scene construction based on virtual technology. By analyzing the advantages of virtual reality technology, the role of virtual reality in three-dimensional scene is determined; the method of three-dimensional geometry transformation is used to determine the scene building algorithm of virtual technology; the concept of nano particle system hierarchy is introduced to build nano particle subsystem with object-oriented concept. The functions of the system are mainly divided into system control module, user interaction module, scene management module, and nanoparticles management module. Based on the analysis of virtual technology and the construction of nano particle system, the construction of nano particle system scene based on virtual technology is realized. The experimental results show that: Based on the virtual technology, the nano particle system scene construction effect is better, and the scene construction time is less than 6 min, the work efficiency is higher, the scene is more realistic, and has a certain feasibility.

Selective Effects of Focusing on Spatial Details in Episodic Future Thinking for Self-Relevant Positive Events

Mental simulations of positive future events increase their detail/vividness and plausibility, with effects on cognitive-affective processes such as anticipated and anticipatory pleasure. More recently, spatial details have been distinguished as important in increasing detail and elaborating mental scene construction. Building on this research, this study (N=54; M age=26.9) compared simulations of positive, self-relevant future events spatial details (i.e. people, objects, sequences of actions) with simulations focused on content details. Cross-sectionally at baseline, spatial details uniquely predicted phenomenological characteristics of future events, including anticipatory pleasure. The guided simulations increased detail and vividness, mental imagery, and pre-experiencing in both conditions. The content simulation condition did not increase content details relative to the spatial simulation condition, however, the inverse was true. Relatedly, overall detail and vividness was higher in the spatial condition, as was perceived control. The findings are discussed in relation to future thinking and mental health.