EyeLink fMRI / MEG Publications
All EyeLink fMRI and MEG research publications (with concurrent eye tracking) up until 2023 (with some early 2024s) are listed below by year. You can search the publications using keywords such as Visual Cortex, Neural Plasticity, MEG, etc. You can also search for individual author names. If we missed any EyeLink fMRI or MEG articles, please email us!
2024 |
Inbal Ziv; Inbar Avni; Ilan Dinstein; Gal Meiri; Yoram S. Bonneh Oculomotor randomness is higher in autistic children and increases with the severity of symptoms Journal Article In: Autism Research, pp. 1–17, 2024. @article{Ziv2024, A variety of studies have suggested that at least some children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) view the world differently. Differences in gaze patterns as measured by eye tracking have been demonstrated during visual exploration of images and natural viewing of movies with social content. Here we analyzed the temporal randomness of saccades and blinks during natural viewing of movies, inspired by a recent measure of “randomness” applied to micro-movements of the hand and head in ASD (Torres et al., 2013; Torres & Denisova, 2016). We analyzed a large eye-tracking dataset of 189 ASD and 41 typically developing (TD) children (1–11 years old) who watched three movie clips with social content, each repeated twice. We found that oculomotor measures of randomness, obtained from gamma parameters of inter-saccade intervals (ISI) and blink duration distributions, were significantly higher in the ASD group compared with the TD group and were correlated with the ADOS comparison score, reflecting increased “randomness” in more severe cases. Moreover, these measures of randomness decreased with age, as well as with higher cognitive scores in both groups and were consistent across repeated viewing of each movie clip. Highly “random” eye movements in ASD children could be associated with high “neural variability” or noise, poor sensory-motor control, or weak engagement with the movies. These findings could contribute to the future development of oculomotor biomarkers as part of an integrative diagnostic tool for ASD. |
Hong Zhou; Luhua Wei; Yanyan Jiang; Xia Wang; Yunchuang Sun; Fan Li; Jing Chen; Wei Sun; Lin Zhang; Guiping Zhao; Zhaoxia Wang Abnormal Ocular Movement in the Early Stage of Multiple-System Atrophy With Predominant Parkinsonism Distinct From Parkinson's Disease Journal Article In: Journal of Clinical Neurology, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 37–45, 2024. @article{Zhou2024, Background and Purpose The eye-movement examination can be applied as a noninvasive method to identify multiple-system atrophy (MSA). Few studies have investigated eye movements during the early stage of MSA with predominant parkinsonism (MSA-P). We aimed to determine the characteristic oculomotor changes in the early stage of MSA-P. Methods We retrospectively selected 17 patients with MSA-P and 40 with Parkinson's disease (PD) with disease durations of less than 2 years, and 40 age-matched healthy controls (HCs). Oculomotor performance in the horizontal direction was measured in detail using videonystagmography. Results We found that the proportions of patients with MSA-P and PD exhibiting abnormal eye movements were 82.4% and 77.5%, respectively, which were significantly higher than that in the HCs (47.5%, p<0.05). Compared with HCs, patients with MSA-P presented significantly higher abnormal proportions of fixation and gaze-holding (17.6% vs. 0%), without-fixation (47.1% vs. 0%), prolonged latency in reflexive saccades (29.4% vs. 5.0%), memory-guided saccades (93.3% vs. 10.0%), and catch-up saccades in smooth-pursuit movement (SPM, 41.2% vs. 0) (all p<0.05). Compared with those with PD, patients with MSA-P presented a signifi- cantly higher proportion of catch-up saccades in SPM (41.2% vs. 2.5%, p<0.001). Conclusions MSA-P presented the characteristic of catch-up saccades in SPM in the early stage, which may provide some value in differentiating MSA-P from PD. |
Laura Nuding; Linda Lukas; Belinda Platt; Gerd Schulte-Körne; Anca Sfärlea Look me in the eyes! A preliminary study on eye-contact in adolescents with anorexia nervosa Journal Article In: European Eating Disorders Review, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 13–19, 2024. @article{Nuding2024, Objective: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is often associated with impairments in the socio-emotional domain. Avoidance of eye-contact may underlie some of these difficulties and has been found in adults with AN in several studies. This study aimed to clarify whether adolescents with AN also show reduced eye-contact when viewing social stimuli, that is, faces. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, girls aged 12–18 years with AN (n = 38) were compared with a clinical (girls with depression and/or anxiety disorders; n = 30) and a healthy (n = 36) control group. Eye-contact was operationalised as maintenance of visual attention to the eye-area of faces showing different emotional expressions (happy, angry, afraid, sad, neutral), recorded via eye-tracking. Results: Contrary to our expectations, we did not find adolescents with AN to dwell less on the eye-area than control groups; instead, we found preliminary evidence for increased attention to the eye-area in the AN group compared to the healthy control group. Conclusions: The results suggest that reduced eye-contact found in adult AN samples is not (yet) present in adolescents with AN but may develop with the prolonged duration of the disorder. However, replication and longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this assumption. |
Eser Sendesen; Didem Turkyilmaz Listening handicap in tinnitus patients by controlling extended high frequencies - Effort or fatigue? Journal Article In: Auris Nasus Larynx, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 198–205, 2024. @article{Sendesen2024, Objective: In previous studies, the results regarding the presence of listening effort or fatigue in tinnitus patients were inconsistent. The reason for this inconsistency could be that extended high frequencies, which can cause listening handicap, were not considered. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the listening skills in tinnitus patients by matching the hearing thresholds at all frequencies, including the extended high frequency. Methods: Eighteen chronic tinnitus patients and thirty matched healthy controls having normal pure-tone average with symmetrical hearing thresholds was included. Subjects were evaluated with 0.125-20 kHz pure-tone audiometry, Montreal cognitive assessment test (MoCA), Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), Matrix Test, Pupillometry. Results: Pupil dilatation in the 'coding' phase of the sentence presented in tinnitus patients was less than in the control group (p<0.05). There was no difference between the groups for Matrix test scores (p> 0.05) Also, there was no statistically significant correlation between THI and Pupillometry components nor between MoCA (p>0.05). Conclusion: The results were interpreted for potential listening fatigue in tinnitus patients. Considering the possible listening handicap in tinnitus patients, reducing the listening difficulties especially in noisy environments, can be added to the goals of tinnitus therapy protocols. |
Andy Brendler; Max Schneider; Immanuel G. Elbau; Rui Sun; Taechawidd Nantawisarakul; Dorothee Pöhlchen; Tanja Brückl; A. K. Brem; E. B. Binder; A. Erhardt; J. Fietz; N. C. Grandi; Y. Kim; S. Ilić-Ćoćić; L. Leuchs; S. Lucae; T. Namendorf; J. Pape; L. Schilbach; I. Mücke-Heim; J. Ziebula; Michael Czisch; Philipp G. Sämann; Michael D. Lee; Victor I. Spoormaker In: Scientific Reports, vol. 14, no. 344, pp. 1–11, 2024. @article{Brendler2024, Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a devastating and heterogenous disorder for which there are no approved biomarkers in clinical practice. We recently identified anticipatory hypo-arousal indexed by pupil responses as a candidate mechanism subserving depression symptomatology. Here, we conducted a replication and extension study of these findings. We analyzed a replication sample of 40 unmedicated patients with a diagnosis of depression and 30 healthy control participants, who performed a reward anticipation task while pupil responses were measured. Using a Bayesian modelling approach taking measurement uncertainty into account, we could show that the negative correlation between pupil dilation and symptom load during reward anticipation is replicable within MDD patients, albeit with a lower effect size. Furthermore, with the combined sample of 136 participants (81 unmedicated depressed and 55 healthy control participants), we further showed that reduced pupil dilation in anticipation of reward is inversely associated with anhedonia items of the Beck Depression Inventory in particular. Moreover, using simultaneous fMRI, particularly the right anterior insula as part of the salience network was negatively correlated with depressive symptom load in general and anhedonia items specifically. The present study supports the utility of pupillometry in assessing noradrenergically mediated hypo-arousal during reward anticipation in MDD, a physiological process that appears to subserve anhedonia. |
Lei Yuan; Miriam Novack; David Uttal; Steven Franconeri Language systematizes attention: How relational language enhances relational representation by guiding attention Journal Article In: Cognition, vol. 243, pp. 1–14, 2024. @article{Yuan2024, Language can affect cognition, but through what mechanism? Substantial past research has focused on how labeling can elicit categorical representation during online processing. We focus here on a particularly powerful type of language-relational language-and show that relational language can enhance relational representation in children through an embodied attention mechanism. Four-year-old children were given a color-location conjunction task, in which they were asked to encode a two-color square, split either vertically or horizontally (e.g., red on the left, blue on the right), and later recall the same configuration from its mirror reflection. During the encoding phase, children in the experimental condition heard relational language (e.g., "Red is on the left of blue"), while those in the control condition heard generic non-relational language (e.g., "Look at this one, look at it closely"). At recall, children in the experimental condition were more successful at choosing the correct relational representation between the two colors compared to the control group. Moreover, they exhibited different attention patterns as predicted by the attention shift account of relational representation (Franconeri et al., 2012). To test the sustained effect of language and the role of attention, during the second half of the study, the experimental condition was given generic non-relational language. There was a sustained advantage in the experimental condition for both behavioral accuracies and signature attention patterns. Overall, our findings suggest that relational language enhances relational representation by guiding learners' attention, and this facilitative effect persists over time even in the absence of language. Implications for the mechanism of how relational language can enhance the learning of relational systems (e.g., mathematics, spatial cognition) by guiding attention will be discussed. |
Yordanka Zafirova; Anna Bognár; Rufin Vogels Configuration-sensitive face-body interactions in primate visual cortex Journal Article In: Progress in Neurobiology, vol. 232, pp. 1–16, 2024. @article{Zafirova2024, Traditionally, the neural processing of faces and bodies is studied separately, although they are encountered together, as parts of an agent. Despite its social importance, it is poorly understood how faces and bodies interact, particularly at the single-neuron level. Here, we examined the interaction between faces and bodies in the macaque inferior temporal (IT) cortex, targeting an fMRI-defined patch. We recorded responses of neurons to monkey images in which the face was in its natural location (natural face-body configuration), or in which the face was mislocated with respect to the upper body (unnatural face-body configuration). On average, the neurons did not respond stronger to the natural face-body configurations compared to the summed responses to their faces and bodies, presented in isolation. However, the neurons responded stronger to the natural compared to the unnatural face-body configurations. This configuration effect was present for face- and monkey-centered images, did not depend on local feature differences between configurations, and was present when the face was replaced by a small object. The face-body interaction rules differed between natural and unnatural configurations. In sum, we show for the first time that single IT neurons process faces and bodies in a configuration-specific manner, preferring natural face-body configurations. |
Lei Wang; Xufeng Zhou; Jie Yang; Fu Zeng; Shuzhen Zuo; Makoto Kusunoki; Huimin Wang; Yong-di Zhou; Aihua Chen; Sze Chai Kwok Mixed coding of content-temporal detail by dorsomedial posterior parietal neurons Journal Article In: Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 1–16, 2024. @article{Wang2024, The dorsomedial posterior parietal cortex (dmPPC) is part of a higher-cognition network implicated in elaborate processes under- pinning memory formation, recollection, episode reconstruction, and temporal information processing. Neural coding for complex episodic processing is however under-documented. Here, we recorded extracellular neural activities from three male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and revealed a set of neural codes of “neuroethogram” in the primate parietal cortex. Analyzing neural responses in macaque dmPPC to naturalistic videos, we discovered several groups of neurons that are sensitive to different categories of ethogram items, low-level sensory features, and saccadic eye movement. We also discovered that the processing of category and feature information by these neurons is sustained by the accumulation of temporal information over a long timescale of up to 30 s, corroborating its reported long temporal receptive windows. We performed an additional behavioral experiment with additional two male rhesus macaques and found that saccade-related activities could not account for the mixed neuronal responses elicited by the video stimuli. We further observed monkeys' scan paths and gaze consistency are modulated by video content. Taken altogether, these neural findings explain how dmPPC weaves fabrics of ongoing experiences together in real time. The high dimensionality of neural representations should motivate us to shift the focus of attention from pure selectivity neurons to mixed selectivity neurons, especially in increasingly complex naturalistic task designs. |
Inês S. Veríssimo; Zachary Nudelman; Christian N. L. Olivers Does crowding predict conjunction search? An individual differences approach Journal Article In: Vision Research, vol. 216, pp. 1–13, 2024. @article{Verissimo2024, Searching for objects in the visual environment is an integral part of human behavior. Most of the information used during such visual search comes from the periphery of our vision, and understanding the basic mechanisms of search therefore requires taking into account the inherent limitations of peripheral vision. Our previous work using an individual differences approach has shown that one of the major factors limiting peripheral vision (crowding) is predictive of single feature search, as reflected in response time and eye movement measures. Here we extended this work, by testing the relationship between crowding and visual search in a conjunction-search paradigm. Given that conjunction search involves more fine-grained discrimination and more serial behavior, we predicted it would be strongly affected by crowding. We tested sixty participants with regard to their sensitivity to both orientation and color-based crowding (as measured by critical spacing) and their efficiency in searching for a color/orientation conjunction (as indicated by manual response times and eye movements). While the correlations between the different crowding tasks were high, the correlations between the different crowding measures and search performance were relatively modest, and no higher than those previously observed for single-feature search. Instead, observers showed very strong color selectivity during search. The results suggest that conjunction search behavior relies more on top-down guidance (here by color) and is therefore relatively less determined by individual differences in sensory limitations as caused by crowding. |
Kristina Krasich; Kevin O'Neill; Samuel Murray; James R. Brockmole; Felipe De Brigard; Antje Nuthmann A computational modeling approach to investigating mind wandering-related adjustments to gaze behavior during scene viewing Journal Article In: Cognition, vol. 242, pp. 1–10, 2024. @article{Krasich2024, Research on gaze control has long shown that increased visual-cognitive processing demands in scene viewing are associated with longer fixation durations. More recently, though, longer durations have also been linked to mind wandering, a perceptually decoupled state of attention marked by decreased visual-cognitive processing. Toward better understanding the relationship between fixation durations and visual-cognitive processing, we ran simulations using an established random-walk model for saccade timing and programming and assessed which model parameters best predicted modulations in fixation durations associated with mind wandering compared to attentive viewing. Mind wandering-related fixation durations were best described as an increase in the variability of the fixation-generating process, leading to more variable—sometimes very long—durations. In contrast, past research showed that increased processing demands increased the mean duration of the fixation-generating process. The findings thus illustrate that mind wandering and processing demands modulate fixation durations through different mechanisms in scene viewing. This suggests that processing demands cannot be inferred from changes in fixation durations without understanding the underlying mechanism by which these changes were generated. |
Marianna Kyriacou Not batting an eye: Figurative meanings of L2 idioms do not interfere with literal uses Journal Article In: Languages, vol. 9, no. 32, pp. 1–15, 2024. @article{Kyriacou2024, Encountering idioms (hit the sack = “go to bed”) in a second language (L2) often results in a literal-first understanding (“literally hit a sack”). The figurative meaning is retrieved later, subject to idiom familiarity and L2 proficiency, and typically at a processing cost. Intriguingly recent findings report the overextension of idiom use in inappropriate contexts by advanced L2 users, with greater L2 proficiency somewhat mitigating this effect. In this study, we tested the tenability of this finding by comparing eye-movement patterns for idioms used literally, vs. literal control phrases (hit the dirt) in an eye-tracking-while-reading paradigm. We hypothesised that if idiom overextension holds, processing delays should be observed for idioms, as the (over)activated but contextually irrelevant figurative meanings would cause interference. In contrast, unambiguous control phrases should be faster to process. The results demonstrated undifferentiated processing for idioms used literally and control phrases across measures, with L2 proficiency affecting both similarly. Therefore, the findings do not support the hypothesis that advanced L2 users overextend idiom use in inappropriate contexts, nor that L2 proficiency modulates this tendency. The results are also discussed in light of potential pitfalls pertaining to idiom priming under typical experimental settings. WABBLE: |
Janina Hüer; Pankhuri Saxena; Stefan Treuea Pathway-selective optogenetics reveals the functional anatomy of top–down attentional modulation in the macaque visual cortex Journal Article In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 121, no. 3, pp. 1–9, 2024. @article{Hueer2024, Spatial attention represents a powerful top–down influence on sensory responses in primate visual cortical areas. The frontal eye field (FEF) has emerged as a key candidate area for the source of this modulation. However, it is unclear whether the FEF exerts its effects via its direct axonal projections to visual areas or indirectly through other brain areas and whether the FEF affects both the enhancement of attended and the suppression of unattended sensory responses. We used pathway- selective optogenetics in rhesus macaques performing a spatial attention task to inhibit the direct input from the FEF to area MT, an area along the dorsal visual pathway specialized for the processing of visual motion information. Our results show that the optogenetic inhibition of the FEF input specifically reduces attentional modulation in MT by about a third without affecting the neurons' sensory response component. We find that the direct FEF- to- MT pathway contributes to both the enhanced processing of target stimuli and the suppression of distractors. The FEF, thus, selectively modulates firing rates in visual area MT, and it does so via its direct axonal projections. |
Damian Koevoet; Marnix Naber; Stefan Stigchel The intensity of internal and external attention assessed with pupillometry Journal Article In: Journal of Cognition, vol. 7, pp. 1–10, 2024. @article{Koevoet2024, Not only is visual attention shifted to objects in the external world, attention can also be directed to objects in memory. We have recently shown that pupil size indexes how strongly items are attended externally, which was reflected in more precise encoding into visual working memory. Using a retro-cuing paradigm, we here replicated this finding by showing that stronger pupil constrictions during encoding were reflective of the depth of encoding. Importantly, we extend this previous work by showing that pupil size also revealed the intensity of internal attention toward content stored in visual working memory. Specifically, pupil dilation during the prioritization of one among multiple internally stored representations predicted the precision of the prioritized item. Furthermore, the dynamics of the pupillary responses revealed that the intensity of internal and external attention independently determined the precision of internalized visual representations. Our results show that both internal and external attention are not all-or-none processes, but should rather be thought of as continuous resources that can be deployed at varying intensities. The employed pupillometric approach allows to unravel the intricate interplay between internal and external attention and their effects on visual working memory. |
Ziva Korda; Sonja Walcher; Christof Korner; Mathias Benedek Decoupling of the pupillary light response during internal attention : The modulating effect of luminance intensity Journal Article In: Acta Psychologica, vol. 242, pp. 1–11, 2024. @article{Korda2024, In a world full of sensory stimuli, attention guides us between the external environment and our internal thoughts. While external attention involves processing sensory stimuli, internal attention is devoted to self-generated representations such as planning or spontaneous mind wandering. They both draw from common cognitive resources, thus simultaneous engagement in both often leads to interference between processes. In order to maintain internal focus, an attentional mechanism known as perceptual decoupling takes effect. This mechanism supports internal cognition by decoupling attention from the perception of sensory information. Two previous studies of our lab investigated to what extent perceptual decoupling is evident in voluntary eye movements. Findings showed that the effect is mediated by the internal task modality and workload (visuospatial > arithmetic and high > low, respectively). However, it remains unclear whether it extends to involuntary eye behavior, which may not share cognitive resources with internal activities. Therefore, the present experiment aimed to further elucidate attentional dynamics by examining whether internal attention affects the pupillary light response (PLR). Specifically, we consistently observed that workload and task modality of the internal task reduced the PLR to luminance changes of medium intensity. However, the PLR to strong luminance changes was less or not at all affected by the internal task. These results suggest that perceptual decoupling effects may be less consistent in involuntary eye behavior, particularly in the context of a salient visual stimulus. |
Omer Azriel; Gal Arad; Daniel S. Pine; Amit Lazarov; Yair Bar-Haim Attention bias vs. attention control modification for social anxiety disorder: A randomized controlled trial Journal Article In: Journal of Anxiety Disorders, vol. 101, pp. 1–10, 2024. @article{Azriel2024, Gaze-Contingent Music Reward Therapy (GC-MRT) is an eye-tracking-based attention bias modification protocol for social anxiety disorder (SAD) with established clinical efficacy. However, it remains unclear if improvement following GC-MRT hinges on modification of threat-related attention or on more general enhancement of attention control. Here, 50 patients with SAD were randomly allocated to GC-MRT using either threat faces or shapes. Results indicate comparable reductions in social anxiety and co-morbid depression symptoms in the two conditions. Patients in the shapes condition showed a significant increase in attention control and a reduction in attention to both the trained shapes and threat faces, whereas patients in the faces condition showed a reduction in attention to threat faces only. These findings suggest that enhancement of attention control, independent of valence-specific attention modification, may facilitate reduction in SAD symptoms. Alternative interpretations and clinical implications of the current findings are discussed. |
Alma Sophia Merscher; Matthias Gamer Fear lies in the eyes of the beholder—Robust evidence for reduced gaze dispersion upon avoidable threat Journal Article In: Psychophysiology, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 1–16, 2024. @article{Merscher2024, A rapid detection and processing of relevant information in our environment is crucial for survival. The human eyes are drawn to social or threatening stimuli as they may carry essential information on how to behave appropriately in a given context. Recent studies further showed a centralization of gaze that reminded of freezing behaviors in rodents. Probably constituting a component of an adaptive defense mode, centralized eye movements predicted the speed of motor actions. Here we conducted two experiments to examine if and how these presumably survival-relevant gaze patterns interact. Subjects viewed images including social, that is, faces (Experiment 1 |
Victoria I. Nicholls; Jan Wiener; Andrew Isaac Meso; Sebastien Miellet The impact of perceptual complexity on road crossing decisions in younger and older adults Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 14, no. 479, pp. 1–14, 2024. @article{Nicholls2024, Cognitive abilities decline with healthy ageing which can have a critical impact on day-to-day activities. One example is road crossing where older adults (OAs) disproportionally fall victim to pedestrian accidents. The current research examined two virtual reality experiments that investigated how the complexity of the road crossing situation impacts OAs (N = 19, ages 65–85) and younger adults (YAs |
Yunyun Mu; Anna Schubö; Jan Tünnermann Adapting attentional control settings in a shape-changing environment Journal Article In: Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, pp. 1–18, 2024. @article{Mu2024, In rich visual environments, humans have to adjust their attentional control settings in various ways, depending on the task. Especially if the environment changes dynamically, it remains unclear how observers adapt to these changes. In two experiments (online and lab-based versions of the same task), we investigated how observers adapt their target choices while searching for color singletons among shape distractor contexts that changed over trials. The two equally colored targets had shapes that differed from each other and matched a varying number of distractors. Participants were free to select either target. The results show that participants adjusted target choices to the shape ratio of distractors: even though the task could be finished by focusing on color only, participants showed a tendency to choose targets matching with fewer distractors in shape. The time course of this adaptation showed that the regularities in the changing environment were taken into account. A Bayesian modeling approach was used to provide a fine-grained picture of how observers adapted their behavior to the changing shape ratio with three parameters: the strength of adaptation, its delay relative to the objective distractor shape ratio, and a general bias toward specific shapes. Overall, our findings highlight that systematic changes in shape, even when it is not a target-defining feature, influence how searchers adjust their attentional control settings. Furthermore, our comparison between lab-based and online assessments with this paradigm suggests that shape is a good choice as a feature dimension in adaptive choice online experiments. WABBLE |
Nimrod Hertz-Palmor; Yam Yosef; Hadar Hallel; Inbar Bernat; Amit Lazarov Exploring the ‘mood congruency' hypothesis of attention allocation – An eye-tracking study Journal Article In: Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 347, pp. 619–629, 2024. @article{HertzPalmor2024, Background: The ‘mood-congruency' hypothesis of attention allocation postulates that individuals' current emotional states affect their attention allocation, such that mood-congruent stimuli take precedence over non-congruent ones. This hypothesis has been further suggested as an underlying mechanism of biased attention allocation in depression. Methods: The present research explored the mood-congruency hypothesis using a novel video-based mood elicitation procedure (MEP) and an established eye-tracking attention allocation assessment task, elaborating prior research in the field. Specifically, in Study 1 (n = 91), a video-based MEP was developed and rigorously validated. In study 2 (n = 60), participants' attention allocation to sad and happy face stimuli, each presented separately alongside neutral faces, was assessed before and after the video-based MEP, with happiness induced in one group (n = 30) while inducing sadness in the other (n = 30). Results: In Study 1, the MEP yielded the intended modification of participants' current mood states (eliciting either sadness or happiness). Study 2 showed that while the MEP modified mood in the intended direction in both groups, replicating the results of Study 1, corresponding changes in attention allocation did not ensue in either group. A Bayesian analysis of pre-to-post mood elicitation changes in attention allocation supported this null finding. Moreover, results revealed an attention bias to happy faces across both groups and assessment points, suggestive of a trait-like positive bias in attention allocation among non-selected participants. Conclusion: Current results provide no evidence supporting the mood-congruency hypothesis, which suggests that (biased) attention allocation may be better conceptualized as a depressive trait, rather than a mood-congruent state. |
Beatriz García-Carrión; Francisco Muñoz-Leiva; Salvador Del Barrio-García; Lucia Porcu The effect of online message congruence, destination-positioning, and emojis on users' cognitive effort and affective evaluation Journal Article In: Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, vol. 31, pp. 1–13, 2024. @article{GarciaCarrion2024, In today's digital world, it is crucial that Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) understand how tourists process and assimilate the information they receive through social media, whether this is posted online by the destination itself or by other users. When it comes to understanding the effectiveness of DMOs' integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies, it is important to examine the extent to which the congruence between those online messages posted by the destination and those posted by other users (electronic word-of-mouth) influences the effectiveness of the communication. Similarly, it is also of value to understand the degree to which the use of emojis in social media messages may enhance the effect of congruence on IMC effectiveness. The scientific literature has found that tourists' responses to the information published online by the destination will depend on the type of positioning it adopts on its social media. The novelty of the present study work lies in addressing these issues from a neuroscientific perspective, using eye-tracking technology, to study (i) the user's cognitive effort (based on ocular indicators) when processing social media content and (ii) their affective evaluation of that content. A factorial experiment is conducted on a sample of 58 Facebook users. The results point to the important role played by the level of message congruence in users' information-processing and demonstrate the contextualizing effect exerted by emojis. Additionally, this study highlights the need for further research into the cognitive processing of tourism messages relative to different positioning strategies. |
Nora Geiser; Brigitte Charlotte Kaufmann; Samuel Elia Johannes Knobel; Dario Cazzoli; Tobias Nef; Thomas Nyffeler Comparison of uni- and multimodal motion stimulation on visual neglect: A proof-of-concept study Journal Article In: Cortex, vol. 171, pp. 194–203, 2024. @article{Geiser2024, Spatial neglect is characterized by the failure to attend stimuli presented in the contralesional space. Typically, the visual modality is more severely impaired than the auditory one. This dissociation offers the possibility of cross-modal interactions, whereby auditory stimuli may have beneficial effects on the visual modality. A new auditory motion stimulation method with music dynamically moving from the right to the left hemispace has recently been shown to improve visual neglect. The aim of the present study was twofold: a) to compare the effects of unimodal auditory against visual motion stimulation, i.e., smooth pursuit training, which is an established therapeutical approach in neglect therapy and b) to explore whether a combination of auditory + visual motion stimulation, i.e., multimodal motion stimulation, would be more effective than unimodal auditory or visual motion stimulation. 28 patients with left-sided neglect due to a first-ever, right-hemispheric subacute stroke were included. Patients either received auditory, visual, or multimodal motion stimulation. The between-group effect of each motion stimulation condition as well as a control group without motion stimulation was investigated by means of a one-way ANOVA with the patient's visual exploration behaviour as an outcome variable. Our results showed that unimodal auditory motion stimulation is equally effective as unimodal visual motion stimulation: both interventions significantly improved neglect compared to the control group. Multimodal motion stimulation also significantly improved neglect, however, did not show greater improvement than unimodal auditory or visual motion stimulation alone. Besides the established visual motion stimulation, this proof-of-concept study suggests that auditory motion stimulation seems to be an alternative promising therapeutic approach to improve visual attention in neglect patients. Multimodal motion stimulation does not lead to any additional therapeutic gain. In neurorehabilitation, the implementation of either auditory or visual motion stimulation seems therefore reasonable. |
M. Ghorbani; F. S. Izadi; S. S. Roshan; R. Ebrahimpour Assessing prospective teachers' geometric transformations thinking: A Van Hiele Theory-based analysis with eye tracking cognitive science method Journal Article In: Technology of Education Journal, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 67–88, 2024. @article{Ghorbani2024, Background and Objectives: Geometric transformations have played a crucial role throughout history in various aspects of human life. Symmetry is one of the important concepts in school mathematics. Students' academic performance is intricately connected to the knowledge and skills of their educators. Recognizing the importance of prospective teachers )PTs( as future educators, in the initial stage, the aim of this research is to assess and analyze the levels of geometric thinking among prospective elementary teachers )PETs( utilizing Van Hiele's theory. Subsequently, the research seeks to delve into the thinking process and gaze patterns of prospective mathematics education teachers (PMETs) using the cognitive science method of eye tracking. Materials and Methods: This study focuses on investigating and evaluating the thinking of geometric transformations and problem-solving skills among prospective teachers (PTs(. The research method employed a combined survey method, encompassing two distinct tests conducted on two groups of PTs. The accessible statistical sample includes 50 participating PETs and 21 participating PEMTs from Iran. The PETs of Farhangian University of Isfahan were divided into two groups: 42 students who had not learned the concept of geometric transformations in their undergraduate program (NPGT), and 8 students who had learned this concept in their undergraduate program )PGT). To assess the level of geometric thinking among participants, a self-made geometric test based on Van Hiele's theory was utilized. The test reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which yielded a value of 0.68. Additionally, the validity of the test has been confirmed by some professors. In evaluating geometric thinking, a cognitive science method was performed. This method involved designing a psychophysical experiment and recording eye movements of the PMETs. The psychophysical experiment part was conducted in the computer laboratory of Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, and was performed by Eyelink device and MATLAB software on student teachers of mathematics education of this university. Findings: The results of the research show that students recognize the shape with symmetry as a symmetrical shape, but they perform poorly in determining the type of symmetry of symmetrical shapes, especially when a shape has rotational symmetry or oblique axial symmetry or a combination of several types of symmetry. In the first stage, the evaluation of PETs responses showed that 34% of them were in the first level and 18% in the second level of Van Hiele. The cognitive findings revealed that PMETs demonstrated superior performance in recognizing symmetries characterized by a single type of symmetry, in contrast to shapes involving combinations of various symmetries. Examining the recorded eye-tracking images of the students revealed a difference in gaze patterns between the groups that gave correct and incorrect answers. In addition, this difference is also evident among images with different symmetries (reflection, central, rotational). Conclusions: The current research confirms the weakness of students in identifying the type of symmetry in symmetrical shapes. It also emphasizes the need to pay more attention to the training of PTs during their academic years. To address this, it is suggested to revise the curriculum concerning geometric transformations in the university courses for PTs training, additionally, the utilization of software such as Augmented Reality (AR) and GeoGebra can contribute to enhancing cognitive and visual abilities of PTs in comprehending the concept of symmetry. |
Yufei Du; Haibo Yang The influence of subjective value on mobile payment security warnings: An eye movement study Journal Article In: Displays, vol. 82, pp. 1–11, 2024. @article{Du2024, Payment security has become a vital issue with the popularization of mobile payments among people and in various fields. Warnings are designed to alert users to potential risks but are only effective if users understand them. The current study aims to investigate whether the subjective value of colour formed by experiences influences the effectiveness of mobile payment security warnings. Using eye-tracking techniques, Experiment 1 compared the difference in user behaviour between the high-risk condition (red warnings) and the low-risk condition (green warnings). Experiment 2 detected whether the amounts transferred impacted users' behaviour that was affected by the subjective value of colour. The results showed that compared to a warning with a low-risk condition, warnings with a high-risk condition could capture the attention of participants more quickly, leading to more payment rejection. The results also showed that when making macro payments, the amounts may be prioritized over the subjective value of colour to drive attention and make the payment decision. This study shows the influence of users' characteristics on the interaction process and provides data to support interaction interface design and user behaviour research. |
H. Ershaid; M. Lizarazu; D. J. McLaughlin; M. Cooke; O. Simantiraki; M. Koutsogiannaki; M. Lallier Contributions of listening effort and intelligibility to cortical tracking of speech in adverse listening conditions Journal Article In: Cortex, vol. 172, pp. 54–71, 2024. @article{Ershaid2024, Cortical tracking of speech is vital for speech segmentation and is linked to speech intelligibility. However, there is no clear consensus as to whether reduced intelligibility leads to a decrease or an increase in cortical speech tracking, warranting further investigation of the factors influencing this relationship. One such factor is listening effort, defined as the cognitive resources necessary for speech comprehension, and reported to have a strong negative correlation with speech intelligibility. Yet, no studies have examined the relationship between speech intelligibility, listening effort, and cortical tracking of speech. The aim of the present study was thus to examine these factors in quiet and distinct adverse listening conditions. Forty-nine normal hearing adults listened to sentences produced casually, presented in quiet and two adverse listening conditions: cafeteria noise and re- verberant speech. Electrophysiological responses were registered with electroencephalogram, and listening effort was estimated subjectively using self-reported scores and objectively using pupillometry. Results indicated varying impacts of adverse conditions on intelligibility, listening effort, and cortical tracking of speech, depending on the preservation of the speech temporal envelope. The more distorted envelope in the reverberant condition led to higher listening effort, as reflected in higher subjective scores, increased pupil diameter, and stronger cortical tracking of speech in the delta band. These findings suggest that using measures of listening effort in addition to those of intelligibility is useful for interpreting cortical tracking of speech results. Moreover, reading and phonological skills of participants were positively correlated with listening effort in the cafeteria condition, suggesting a special role of expert language skills in processing speech in this noisy condition. Implications for future research and theories linking atypical cortical tracking of speech and reading disorders are further discussed. |
Eeva Eskola; Eeva-Leena Kataja; Jukka Hyönä; Hetti Hakanen; Saara Nolvi; Tuomo Häikiö; Juho Pelto; Hasse Karlsson; Linnea Karlsson; Riikka Korja Lower maternal emotional availability is related to increased attention toward fearful faces during infancy Journal Article In: Infant Behavior and Development, vol. 74, pp. 1–12, 2024. @article{Eskola2024, It has been suggested that infants' age-typical attention biases for faces and facial expressions have an inherent connection with the parent–infant interaction. However, only a few previous studies have addressed this topic. To investigate the association between maternal caregiving behaviors and an infant's attention for emotional faces, 149 mother–infant dyads were assessed when the infants were 8 months. Caregiving behaviors were observed during free-play interactions and coded using the Emotional Availability Scales. The composite score of four parental dimensions, that are sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness, and non-hostility, was used in the analyses. Attention disengagement from faces was measured using eye tracking and face-distractor paradigm with neutral, happy, and fearful faces and scrambled-face control pictures as stimuli. The main finding was that lower maternal emotional availability was related to an infant's higher attention to fearful faces (p = .042), when infant sex and maternal age, education, and concurrent depressive and anxiety symptoms were controlled. This finding indicates that low maternal emotional availability may sensitize infants' emotion processing system for the signals of fear at least during this specific age around 8 months. The significance of the increased attention toward fearful faces during infancy is an important topic for future research. |
Camille Fakche; Laura Dugué Perceptual cycles travel across retinotopic space Journal Article In: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 200–216, 2024. @article{Fakche2024, Visual perception waxes and wanes periodically over time at low frequencies (theta: 4–7 Hz; alpha: 8–13 Hz), creating “peceptual cycles.” These perceptual cycles can be induced when stimulating the brain with a flickering visual stimulus at the theta or alpha frequency. Here, we took advantage of the well-known organization of the visual system into retinotopic maps (topographic correspondence between visual and cortical spaces) to assess the spatial organization of induced perceptual cycles. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that they can propagate across the retinotopic space. A disk oscillating in luminance (inducer) at 4, 6, 8, or 10 Hz was presented in the periphery of the visual field to induce perceptual cycles at specific frequencies. EEG recordings verified that the brain responded at the corresponding inducer frequencies and their first harmonics. Perceptual cycles were assessed with a concurrent detection task—target stimuli were displayed at threshold contrast (50% detection) at random times during the inducer. Behavioral results confirmed that perceptual performance was modulated periodically by the inducer at each frequency. We additionally manipulated the distance between the target and the inducer (three possible positions) and showed that the optimal phase, that is, moment of highest target detection, shifted across target distance to the inducer, specifically when its flicker frequency was in the alpha range (8 and 10 Hz). These results demonstrate that induced alpha perceptual cycles travel across the retinotopic space in humans at a propagation speed of 0.3–0.5 m/sec, consistent with the speed of unmyelinated horizontal connections in the visual cortex. |
Cynthia Faurite; Louise Kauffmann; Benoit R. Cottereau Interaction between central and peripheral vision: Influence of distance and spatial frequencies Journal Article In: Journal of Vision, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 1–22, 2024. @article{Faurite2024, Visual scene perception is based on reciprocal interactions between central and peripheral information. Such interactions are commonly investigated through the semantic congruence effect, which usually reveals a congruence effect of central vision on peripheral vision as strong as the reverse. The aim of the present study was to further investigate the mechanisms underlying central-peripheral visual interactions using a central-peripheral congruence paradigm through three behavioral experiments. We presented simultaneously a central and a peripheral stimulus, that could be either semantically congruent or incongruent. To assess the congruence effect of central vision on peripheral vision, participants had to categorize the peripheral target stimulus while ignoring the central distractor stimulus. To assess the congruence effect of the peripheral vision on central vision, they had to categorize the central target stimulus while ignoring the peripheral distractor stimulus. Experiment 1 revealed that the physical distance between central and peripheral stimuli influences central-peripheral visual interactions: Congruence effect of central vision is stronger when the distance between the target and the distractor is the shortest. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that the spatial frequency content of distractors also influence central-peripheral interactions: Congruence effect of central vision is observed only when the distractor contained high spatial frequencies while congruence effect of peripheral vision is observed only when the distractor contained low spatial frequencies. These results raise the question of how these influences are exerted (bottom-up vs. top-down) and are discussed based on the retinocortical properties of the visual system and the predictive brain hypothesis. |
Eunice G. Fernandes; Benjamin W. Tatler; Gillian Slessor; Louise H. Phillips Age differences in gaze following: Older adults follow gaze more than younger adults when free-viewing scenes Journal Article In: Experimental Aging Research, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 84–101, 2024. @article{Fernandes2024, Previous research investigated age differences in gaze following with an attentional cueing paradigm where participants view a face with averted gaze, and then respond to a target appearing in a location congruent or incongruent with the gaze cue. However, this paradigm is far removed from the way we use gaze cues in everyday settings. Here we recorded the eye movements of younger and older adults while they freely viewed naturalistic scenes where a person looked at an object or location. Older adults were more likely to fixate and made more fixations to the gazed-at location, compared to younger adults. Our findings suggest that, contrary to what was observed in the traditional gaze-cueing paradigm, in a non-constrained task that uses contextualized stimuli older adults follow gaze as much as or even more than younger adults. |
Yawen Guo; Jon D. Elhai; Christian Montag; Yang Wang; Haibo Yang Problematic mobile gamers have attention bias toward game social information Journal Article In: Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 152, pp. 1–13, 2024. @article{Guo2024, Attention bias towards game information influences players' problematic mobile game usage (PMGU). Social experience is an important part of games. This study aimed to explore attention bias mechanisms of problematic mobile gamers for game social information. Experiments 1 and 2 recruited 68 participants (19.82 ± 1.38 years), and used the dot-probe task to investigate attention bias among problematic mobile gamers. Results showed that reaction time and trial-level bias scores (TL-BS) of socially anxious problematic mobile gamers toward game social information were not significantly different from those toward game non-social information. Experiment 3 recruited 35 participants (19.71 ± 1.18 years), and combined eye-tracking technology with the dot-probe task to investigate problematic mobile gamers' attention bias and dynamic visual processing. Results of this last experiment showed that socially anxious problematic mobile gamers' first fixation latency for game social information was significantly shorter than for game non-social information, and their gaze duration and total fixation duration were significantly longer for social than game non-social information. In summary, the eye tracking experiments give support for the idea that socially anxious problematic mobile gamers show attention bias towards game social information, which is presented as the vigilance-maintenance pattern. |
Jacob C. Tanner; Joshua Faskowitz; Lisa Byrge; Daniel P. Kennedy; Olaf Sporns; Richard F. Betzel Synchronous high-amplitude co-fluctuations of functional brain networks during movie-watching Journal Article In: Imaging Neuroscience, vol. 1, pp. 1–21, 2024. @article{Tanner2024, Recent studies have shown that functional connectivity can be decomposed into its exact frame- wise contributions, revealing short- lived, infrequent, and high- amplitude time points referred to as “events.” Events contribute disproportionately to the time- averaged connectivity pattern, improve identifiability and brain- behavior associations, and differences in their expression have been linked to endogenous hormonal fluctuations and autism. Here, we explore the characteristics of events while subjects watch movies. Using two independently acquired imaging datasets in which participants passively watched movies, we find that events synchronize across individuals and based on the level of synchronization, can be categorized into three distinct classes: those that synchronize at the boundaries between movies, those that synchronize during movies, and those that do not synchronize at all. We find that boundary events, compared to the other categories, exhibit greater amplitude, distinct co- fluctuation patterns, and temporal propagation. We show that underlying boundary events 1 is a specific mode of co-fluctuation involving the activation of control and salience systems alongside the deactivation of visual systems. Events that synchronize during the movie, on the other hand, display a pattern of co-fluctuation that is time- locked to the movie stimulus. Finally, we found that subjects' time-varying brain networks are most similar to one another during these synchronous events. |
Teresa Sousa; Alexandre Sayal; João V. Duarte; Gabriel N. Costa; Miguel Castelo-Branco A human cortical adaptive mutual inhibition circuit underlying competition for perceptual decision and repetition suppression reversal Journal Article In: NeuroImage, vol. 285, pp. 1–10, 2024. @article{Sousa2024, A model based on inhibitory coupling has been proposed to explain perceptual oscillations. This 'adapting reciprocal inhibition' model postulates that it is the strength of inhibitory coupling that determines the fate of competition between percepts. Here, we used an fMRI-based adaptation technique to reveal the influence of neighboring neuronal populations, such as reciprocal inhibition, in motion-selective hMT+/V5. If reciprocal inhibition exists in this region, the following predictions should hold: 1. stimulus-driven response would not simply decrease, as predicted by simple repetition-suppression of neuronal populations, but instead, increase due to the activity from adjacent populations; 2. perceptual decision involving competing representations, should reflect decreased reciprocal inhibition by adaptation; 3. neural activity for the competing percept should also later on increase upon adaptation. Our results confirm these three predictions, showing that a model of perceptual decision based on adapting reciprocal inhibition holds true. Finally, they also show that the net effect of the well-known repetition suppression phenomenon can be reversed by this mechanism. |
Larisa-maria Dinu; Alexandra-Livia Georgescu; Samriddhi N. Singh; Nicola C. Byrom; G. Overton; Bryan F. Singer; Eleanor J. Dommett Sign-tracking and goal-tracking in humans: Utilising eye-tracking in clinical and non-clinical populations Journal Article In: Behavioural Brain Research, vol. 461, pp. 1–10, 2024. @article{Dinu2024, Background: In Pavlovian conditioning, learned behaviour varies according to the perceived value of environmental cues. For goal-trackers (GT), the cue merely predicts a reward, whilst for sign-trackers (ST), the cue holds incentive value. The sign-tracking/goal-tracking model is well-validated in animals, but translational work is lacking. Despite the model's relevance to several conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), we are unaware of any studies that have examined the model in clinical populations. Methods: The current study used an eye-tracking Pavlovian conditioning paradigm to identify ST and GT in non- clinical (N = 54) and ADHD (N = 57) participants. Eye movements were recorded whilst performing the task. Dwell time was measured for two areas of interest: sign (i.e., cue) and goal (i.e., reward), and an eye-gaze index (EGI) was computed based on the dwell time sign-to-goal ratio. Higher EGI values indicate sign-tracking behaviour. ST and GT were determined using median and tertiary split approaches in both samples. Results: Despite greater propensity for sign-tracking in those with ADHD, there was no significant difference between groups. The oculomotor conditioned response was reward-specific (CS+) and present, at least partly, from the start of the task indicating dispositional and learned components. There were no differences in externalising behaviours between ST and GT for either sample. Conclusions: Sign-tracking is associated with CS+ trials only. There may be both dispositional and learned components to sign-tracking, potentially more common in those with ADHD. This holds translational potential for understanding individual differences in reward-learning. |
Vaibhav A. Diwadkar; Deborah Kashy; Jacqueline Bao; Katharine N. Thakkar Abnormal oculomotor corollary discharge signaling as a trans-diagnostic mechanism of psychosis Journal Article In: Schizophrenia Bulletin, pp. 1–11, 2024. @article{Diwadkar2024, Background and Hypothesis: Corollary discharge (CD) signals are “copies” of motor signals sent to sensory areas to predict the corresponding input. They are a posited mechanism enabling one to distinguish actions generated by oneself vs external forces. Consequently, altered CD is a hypothesized mechanism for agency disturbances in psychosis. Previous studies have shown a decreased influence of CD signals on visual perception in individuals with schizophrenia—particularly in those with more severe positive symptoms. We therefore hypothesized that altered CD may be a trans-diagnostic mechanism of psychosis. Study Design: We examined oculomotor CD (using the blanking task) in 49 participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SZ), 36 bipolar participants with psychosis (BPP), and 40 healthy controls (HC). Participants made a saccade to a visual target. Upon saccade initiation, the target disappeared and reappeared at a horizontally displaced position. Participants indicated the direction of displacement. With intact CD, participants can make accurate perceptual judgements. Otherwise, participants may use saccade landing site as a proxy of pre-saccadic target to inform perception. Thus, multi-level modeling was used to examine the influence of target displacement and saccade landing site on displacement judgements. Study Results: SZ and BPP were equally less sensitive to target displacement than HC. Moreover, regardless of diagnosis, SZ and BPP with more severe positive symptoms were more likely to rely on saccade landing site. Conclusions: These results suggest that altered CD may be a trans-diagnostic mechanism of psychosis. |
Carola Dolci; Einat Rashal; Elisa Santandrea; Suliann Ben; Leonardo Chelazzi; Emiliano Macaluso; C. Nico Boehler The dynamics of statistical learning in visual search and its interaction with salience processing: An EEG study Journal Article In: NeuroImage, vol. 286, pp. 1–12, 2024. @article{Dolci2024, Visual attention can be guided by statistical regularities in the environment, that people implicitly learn from past experiences (statistical learning, SL). Moreover, a perceptually salient element can automatically capture attention, gaining processing priority through a bottom-up attentional control mechanism. The aim of our study was to investigate the dynamics of SL and if it shapes attentional target selection additively with salience processing, or whether these mechanisms interact, e.g. one gates the other. In a visual search task, we therefore manipulated target frequency (high vs. low) across locations while, in some trials, the target was salient in terms of colour. Additionally, halfway through the experiment, the high-frequency location changed to the opposite hemifield. EEG activity was simultaneously recorded, with a specific interest in two markers related to target selection and post-selection processing, respectively: N2pc and SPCN. Our results revealed that both SL and saliency significantly enhanced behavioural performance, but also interacted with each other, with an attenuated saliency effect at the high-frequency target location, and a smaller SL effect for salient targets. Concerning processing dynamics, the benefit of salience processing was more evident during the early stage of target se- lection and processing, as indexed by a larger N2pc and early-SPCN, whereas SL modulated the underlying neural activity particularly later on, as revealed by larger late-SPCN. Furthermore, we showed that SL was rapidly acquired and adjusted when the spatial imbalance changed. Overall, our findings suggest that SL is flexible to changes and, combined with salience processing, jointly contributes to establishing attentional priority. |
Maya Campbell; Nicole Oppenheimer; Alex L. White Severe processing capacity limits for sub-lexical features of letter strings Journal Article In: Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, pp. 1–10, 2024. @article{Campbell2024, When reading, the visual system is confronted with many words simultaneously. How much of that information can a reader process at once? Previous studies demonstrated that low-level visual features of multiple words are processed in parallel, but lexical attributes are processed serially, for one word at a time. This implies that an internal bottleneck lies somewhere between early visual and lexical analysis. We used a dual-task behavioral paradigm to investigate whether this bottleneck lies at the stage of letter recognition or phonological decoding. On each trial, two letter strings were flashed briefly, one above and one below fixation, and then masked. In the letter identification experiment, participants indicated whether a vowel was present in a particular letter string. In the phonological decoding experiment, participants indicated whether the letter string was pronounceable. We compared accuracy in a focused attention condition, in which participants judged only one of the two strings, with accuracy in a divided attention condition, in which participants judged both strings independently. In both experiments, the cost of dividing attention was so large that it supported a serial model: participants were able to process only one letter string per trial. Furthermore, we found a stimulus processing trade-off that is characteristic of serial processing: When participants judged one string correctly, they were less likely to judge the other string correctly. Therefore, the bottleneck that constrains word recognition under these conditions arises at a sub-lexical level, perhaps due to a limit on the efficiency of letter recognition. |
Sarah C. Creel; Conor I. Frye Minimal gains for minimal pairs: Difficulty in learning similar-sounding words continues into preschool Journal Article In: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 240, pp. 1–27, 2024. @article{Creel2024, A critical indicator of spoken language knowledge is the ability to discern the finest possible distinctions that exist between words in a language—minimal pairs, for example, the distinction between the novel words beesh and peesh. Infants differentiate similar-sounding novel labels like “bih” and “dih” by 17 months of age or earlier in the context of word learning. Adult word learners readily distinguish similar-sounding words. What is unclear is the shape of learning between infancy and adulthood: Is there a nonlinear increase early in development, or is there protracted improvement as experience with spoken language amasses? Three experiments tested monolingual English-speaking children aged 3 to 6 years and young adults. Children underperformed when learning minimal-pair words compared with adults (Experiment 1), compared with learning dissimilar words even when speech materials were optimized for young children (Experiment 2), and when the number of word instances during learning was quadrupled (Experiment 3). Nonetheless, the youngest group readily recognized familiar minimal pairs (Experiment 3). Results are consistent with a lengthy trajectory for detailed sound pattern learning in one's native language(s), although other interpretations are possible. Suggestions for research on developmental trajectories across various age ranges are made. |
Jacek Bielas; Damian Przybycień; Łukasz Michalczyk Temperament affected visuospatial orienting on discrimination tasks Journal Article In: Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1–15, 2024. @article{Bielas2024, In the Posner cueing paradigm, the early attentional capture and subsequent inhibition of return (IOR) of attention to the same location, although they are microscale phenomena measured in milliseconds, seem to encapsulate the interaction between two fundamental dimensions of behavior - engaging in and sustaining activity versus withdrawing from and inhibiting activity. In the field of differential psychology, the dynamics of reciprocal relations between these behavioral dimensions have been thought to be determined by central nervous system properties that constitute an individual's temperament. Yet the research on any differential effects of temperament on visuospatial orienting is rather sparse and has produced ambiguous results. Here, we used saccadic responses to measure whether individual differences in reactivity as a temperamental trait might affect orienting of visuospatial attention on discrimination cueing tasks. Our results suggested that, in individuals with lower reactivity, attentional capture took place at a short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), producing a facilitatory cueing effect, which was not the case in those who were higher in reactivity. We explain and discuss these results with the Regulative Theory of Temperament. |
Zoé Bollen; Arthur Pabst; Nicolas Masson; Reinout W. Wiers; Matt Field; Pierre Maurage Craving modulates attentional bias towards alcohol in severe alcohol use disorder: An eye-tracking study Journal Article In: Addiction, vol. 119, no. 1, pp. 1–11, 2024. @article{Bollen2024, Background and aims: Competing models disagree on three theoretical questions regarding alcohol-related attentional bias (AB), a key process in severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD): (1) is AB more of a trait (fixed, associated with alcohol use severity) or state (fluid, associated with momentary craving states) characteristic of SAUD; (2) does AB purely reflect the over-activation of the reflexive/reward system or is it also influenced by the activity of the reflective/control system and (3) does AB rely upon early or later processing stages? We addressed these issues by investigating the time-course of AB and its modulation by subjective craving and cognitive load in SAUD. Design: A free-viewing eye-tracking task, presenting pictures of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, combined with a concurrent cognitive task with three difficulty levels. Setting: A laboratory setting in the detoxification units of three Belgian hospitals. Participants: We included 30 patients with SAUD self-reporting craving at testing time, 30 patients with SAUD reporting a total absence of craving and 30 controls matched on sex and age. All participants from SAUD groups met the DSM-5 criteria for SAUD. Measurements: We assessed AB through early and late eye-tracking indices. We evaluated the modulation of AB by craving (comparison between patients with/without craving) and cognitive load (variation of AB with the difficulty level of the concurrent task). Findings: Dwell time measure indicated that SAUD patients with craving allocated more attention towards alcohol-related stimuli than patients without craving (P < 0.001 |
Mariya V. Cherkasova; Luke Clark; Jason J. S. Barton; A. Jon Stoessl; A. Winstanley Risk-promoting effects of reward-paired cues in human sign- and goal-trackers Journal Article In: Behavioural Brain Research, vol. 461, pp. 1–13, 2024. @article{Cherkasova2024, Animal research suggests trait-like individual variation in the degree of incentive salience attribution to reward- predictive cues, defined phenotypically as sign-tracking (high) and goal-tracking (low incentive salience attri- bution). While these phenotypes have been linked to addiction features in rodents, their translational validity is less clear. Here, we examined whether sign- and goal-tracking in healthy human volunteers modulates the effects of reward-paired cues on decision making. Sign-tracking was measured in a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm as the amount of eye gaze fixation on the reward-predictive cue versus the location of impending reward delivery. In Study 1 (Cherkasova et al., 2018), participants were randomly assigned to perform a binary choice task in which rewards were either accompanied (cued |
Claudio M. Privitera; Sean Noah; Thom Carney; Stanley A. Klein; Agatha Lenartowicz; Stephen P. Hinshaw; James T. McCracken; Joel T. Nigg; Sarah L. Karalunas; Rory C. Reid; Mercedes T. Oliva; Samantha S. Betts; Gregory V. Simpson Pupillary dilations in a Target/Distractor visual task paradigm and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Journal Article In: Neuroscience Letters, vol. 818, pp. 1–6, 2024. @article{Privitera2024, ADHD is a neurocognitive disorder characterized by attention difficulties, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, often persisting into adulthood with substantial personal and societal consequences. Despite the importance of neurophysiological assessment and treatment monitoring tests, their availability outside of research settings remains limited. Cognitive neuroscience investigations have identified distinct components associated with ADHD, including deficits in sustained attention, inefficient enhancement of attended Targets, and altered suppression of ignored Distractors. In this study, we examined pupil activity in control and ADHD subjects during a sustained visual attention task specifically designed to evaluate the mechanisms underlying Target enhancement and Distractor suppression. Our findings revealed some distinguishing factors between the two groups which we discuss in light of their neurobiological implications. |
Xu Liu; Yu Li; Lihua Xu; Tianhong Zhang; Huiru Cui; Yanyan Wei; Mengqing Xia; Wenjun Su; Yingying Tang; Xiaochen Tang; Dan Zhang; Lothar Spillmann; Ian Max Andolina; Niall McLoughlin; Wei Wang; Jijun Wang Spatial and temporal abnormalities of spontaneous fixational saccades and their correlates with positive and cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia Journal Article In: Schizophrenia Bulletin, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 78–88, 2024. @article{Liu2024, BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Visual fixation is a dynamic process, with the spontaneous occurrence of microsaccades and macrosaccades. These fixational saccades are sensitive to the structural and functional alterations of the cortical-subcortical-cerebellar circuit. Given that dysfunctional cortical-subcortical-cerebellar circuit contributes to cognitive and behavioral impairments in schizophrenia, we hypothesized that patients with schizophrenia would exhibit abnormal fixational saccades and these abnormalities would be associated with the clinical manifestations. STUDY DESIGN: Saccades were recorded from 140 drug-naïve patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 160 age-matched healthy controls during ten separate trials of 6-second steady fixations. Positive and negative symptoms were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Cognition was assessed using the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB). STUDY RESULTS: Patients with schizophrenia exhibited fixational saccades more vertically than controls, which was reflected in more vertical saccades with angles around 90° and a greater vertical shift of horizontal saccades with angles around 0° in patients. The fixational saccades, especially horizontal saccades, showed longer durations, faster peak velocities, and larger amplitudes in patients. Furthermore, the greater vertical shift of horizontal saccades was associated with higher PANSS total and positive symptom scores in patients, and the longer duration of horizontal saccades was associated with lower MCCB neurocognitive composite, attention/vigilance, and speed of processing scores. Finally, based solely on these fixational eye movements, a K-nearest neighbors model classified patients with an accuracy of 85%. Conclusions: Our results reveal spatial and temporal abnormalities of fixational saccades and suggest fixational saccades as a promising biomarker for cognitive and positive symptoms and for diagnosis of schizophrenia. |
Juan D. Guevara Pinto; Megan H. Papesh High target prevalence may reduce the spread of attention during search tasks Journal Article In: Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, vol. 86, no. 1, pp. 62–83, 2024. @article{Pinto2024, Target prevalence influences many cognitive processes during visual search, including target detection, search efficiency, and item processing. The present research investigated whether target prevalence may also impact the spread of attention during search. Relative to low-prevalence searches, high-prevalence searches typically yield higher fixation counts, particularly during target-absent trials. This may emerge because the attention spread around each fixation may be smaller for high than low prevalence searches. To test this, observers searched for targets within object arrays in Experiments 1 (free-viewing) and 2 (gaze-contingent viewing). In Experiment 3, observers searched for targets in a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) stream at the center of the display while simultaneously processing occasional peripheral objects. Experiment 1 used fixation patterns to estimate attentional spread, and revealed that attention was narrowed during high, relative to low, prevalence searches. This effect was weakened during gaze-contingent search (Experiment 2) but emerged again when eye movements were unnecessary in RSVP search (Experiment 3). These results suggest that, although task demands impact how attention is allocated across displays, attention may also narrow when searching for frequent targets. |
Siobhan M. McAteer; Anthony McGregor; Daniel T. Smith Precision in spatial working memory examined with mouse pointing Journal Article In: Vision Research, vol. 215, pp. 1–10, 2024. @article{McAteer2024, ABSTRACT memory (VSWM) is limited. However, there is continued debate surrounding the nature of this capacity limitation. The resource model (Bays et al., 2009) proposes that VSWM capacity is limited by the precision with which visuospatial features can be retained. In one of the few studies of spatial working memory, Schneegans and Bays (2016) report that memory guided pointing responses show a monotonic decrease in precision as set size increases, consistent with resource models. Here we report two conceptual replications of this study that use mouse responses rather than pointing responses. Overall results are consistent with the resource model, as there was an exponential increase in localisation error and monotonic increases in the probability of misbinding and guessing with increases in set size. However, an unexpected result of Experiment One was that, unlike Schneegans and Bays (2016), imprecision did not increase between set sizes of 2 and 8. Experiment Two replicated this effect and ruled out the possibility that the invariance of imprecision at set sizes greater than 2 was a product of oculomotor strategies during recall. We speculate that differences in imprecision are related to additional visuomotor transformations required for memory-guided mouse localisation compared to memory-guided manual pointing localisation. These data demonstrate the importance of consid- ering the nature of the response modality when interpreting VSWM data. 1. |
Arthur Pabst; Zoé Bollen; Nicolas Masson; Mado Gautier; Christophe Geus; Pierre Maurage Altered attentional processing of facial expression features in severe alcohol use disorder: An eye-tracking study. Journal Article In: Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, vol. 133, no. 1, pp. 103–114, 2024. @article{Pabst2024, Social cognition impairments, and notably emotional facial expression (EFE) recognition difficulties, as well as their functional and clinical correlates, are increasingly documented in severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD). However, insights into their underlying mechanisms are lacking. Here, we tested if SAUD was associated with alterations in the attentional processing of EFEs. In a preregistered study, 40 patients with SAUD and 40 healthy controls (HCs) had to identify the emotional expression conveyed by faces while having their gaze recorded by an eye-tracker. We assessed indices of initial (first fixation locations) and later (number of fixations and dwell-time) attention with reference to regions of interest corresponding to the eyes, mouth, and nose, which carry key information for EFE recognition. We centrally found that patients had less first fixations to key facial features in general, as well as less fixations and dwell time to the eyes specifically, relative to the rest of the face, compared to controls. These effects were invariant across emotional expressions. Additional exploratory analyses revealed that patients with SAUD had a less structured viewing pattern than controls. These results offer novel, direct, evidence that patients with SAUD's socioaffective difficulties already emerge at the facial attentional pro- cessing stage, along with precisions regarding the nature and generalizability of the effects. Potential implications for the mechanistic conceptualization and treatment of social cognition difficulties in SAUD are discussed. |
2023 |
Chuanli Zang; Zhichao Zhang; Manman Zhang; Federica Degno; Simon P. Liversedge; Zhang Manman; Federica Degno; Simon P. Liversedge Examining semantic parafoveal-on-foveal effects using a Stroop boundary paradigm Journal Article In: Journal of Memory and Language, vol. 128, pp. 1–14, 2023. @article{Zang2023, The issue of whether lexical processing occurs serially or in parallel has been a central and contentious issue in respect of models of eye movement control in reading for well over a decade. A critical question in this regard concerns whether lexical parafoveal-on-foveal effects exist in reading. Because Chinese is an unspaced and densely packed language, readers may process parafoveal words to a greater extent than they do in spaced alphabetic languages. In two experiments using a novel Stroop boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975), participants read sentences containing a single-character color-word whose preview was manipulated (identity or pseudocharacter, printed in black [no-color], or in a color congruent or incongruent with the character meaning). Two boundaries were used, one positioned two characters before the target and one immediately to the left of the target. The previews changed from black to color and then back to black as the eyes crossed the first and then the second boundary respectively. In Experiment 1 four color-words (red, green, yellow and blue) were used and in Experiment 2 only red and green color-words were used as targets. Both experiments showed very similar patterns such that reading times were increased for colored compared to no-color previews indicating a parafoveal visual interference effect. Most importantly, however, there were no robust interactive effects. Preview effects were comparable for congruent and incongruent color previews at the pretarget region when the data were combined from both experiments. These results favour serial processing accounts and indicate that even under very favourable experimental conditions, lexical semantic parafoveal-on-foveal effects are minimal. |
Wenwen Yu; Yiwei Li; Xueying Cao; Licheng Mo; Yuming Chen; Dandan Zhang The role of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex on voluntary emotion regulation of social pain Journal Article In: Human Brain Mapping, vol. 44, no. 13, pp. 4710–4721, 2023. @article{Yu2023b, The right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) is highly engaged in emotion regulation of social pain. However, there is still lack of both inhibition and excitement evidence to prove the causal relationship between this brain region and voluntary emotion regulation. This study used high-frequency (10 Hz) and low-frequency (1 Hz) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to separately activate or inhibit the rVLPFC in two groups of participants. We recorded participants' emotion ratings as well as their social attitude and prosocial behaviors following emotion regulation. Also, we used eye tracker to record the changes of pupil diameter to measure emotional feelings objectively. A total of 108 healthy participants were randomly assigned to the activated, inhibitory or sham rTMS groups. They were required to accomplish three sequential tasks: the emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal) task, the favorability rating task, and the donation task. Results show that the rVLPFC-inhibitory group reported more negative emotions and showed larger pupil diameter while the rVLPFC-activated group showed less negative emotions and reduced pupil diameter during emotion regulation (both compared with the sham rTMS group). In addition, the activated group gave more positive social evaluation to peers and donated more money to a public welfare activity than the rVLPFC-inhibitory group, among which the change of social attitude was mediated by regulated emotion. Taken together, these findings reveal that the rVLPFC plays a causal role in voluntary emotion regulation of social pain and can be a potential brain target in treating deficits of emotion regulation in psychiatric disorders. |
Mengxi Yun; Masafumi Nejime; Takashi Kawai; Jun Kunimatsu; Hiroshi Yamada; Hyung Goo R. Kim; Masayuki Matsumoto Distinct roles of the orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, and dopamine neurons in counterfactual thinking of decision outcomes Journal Article In: Science Advances, vol. 9, no. 32, pp. 1–14, 2023. @article{Yun2023, Individuals often assess past decisions by comparing what was gained with what would have been gained had they acted differently. Thoughts of past alternatives that counter what actually happened are called “counterfactuals.” Recent theories emphasize the role of the prefrontal cortex in processing counterfactual outcomes in decision-making, although how subcortical regions contribute to this process remains to be elucidated. Here we report a clear distinction among the roles of the orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum and midbrain dopamine neurons in processing counterfactual outcomes in monkeys. Our findings suggest that actually gained and counterfactual outcome signals are both processed in the cortico-subcortical network constituted by these regions but in distinct manners and integrated only in the orbitofrontal cortex in a way to compare these outcomes. This study extends the prefrontal theory of counterfactual thinking and provides key insights regarding how the prefrontal cortex cooperates with subcortical regions to make decisions using counterfactual information. |
Tom Zalmenson; Omer Azriel; Yair Bar-Haim Enhanced recognition of disgusted expressions occurs in spite of attentional avoidance at encoding Journal Article In: Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 13, pp. 1–8, 2023. @article{Zalmenson2023, Introduction: Negative emotional content is prioritized in memory. Prioritized attention to negative stimuli has been suggested to mediate this valence-memory association. However, research suggests only a limited role for attention in this observed memory advantage. We tested the role of attention in memory for disgusted facial expressions, a powerful social–emotional stimulus. Methods: We measured attention using an incidental, free-viewing encoding task and memory using a surprise memory test for the viewed expressions. Results and Discussion: Replicating prior studies, we found increased attentional dwell-time for neutral over disgusted expressions at encoding. However, contrary to the attention-memory link hypothesis, disgusted faces were better remembered than neutral faces. Although dwell-time was found to partially mediate the association between valence and memory, this effect was much weaker than the opposite direct effect. These findings point to independence of memory for disgusted faces from attention during encoding. |
Tania S. Zamuner; Theresa Rabideau; Margarethe McDonald; H. Henny Yeung Developmental change in children's speech processing of auditory and visual cues: An eyetracking study Journal Article In: Journal of Child Language, vol. 50, pp. 27–51, 2023. @article{Zamuner2023, This study investigates how children aged two to eight years (N = 129) and adults (N = 29) use auditory and visual speech for word recognition. The goal was to bridge the gap between apparent successes of visual speech processing in young children in visual-looking tasks, with apparent difficulties of speech processing in older children from explicit behavioural measures. Participants were presented with familiar words in audio-visual (AV), audio-only (A-only) or visual-only (V-only) speech modalities, then presented with target and distractor images, and looking to targets was measured. Adults showed high accuracy, with slightly less target-image looking in the V-only modality. Developmentally, looking was above chance for both AV and A-only modalities, but not in the V-only modality until 6 years of age (earlier on /k/-initial words). Flexible use of visual cues for lexical access develops throughout childhood. |
Alessandro Zanini; Audrey Dureux; Janahan Selvanayagam; Stefan Everling Ultra-high field fMRI identifies an action-observation network in the common marmoset Journal Article In: Communications Biology, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1–11, 2023. @article{Zanini2023, The observation of others' actions activates a network of temporal, parietal and premotor/prefrontal areas in macaque monkeys and humans. This action-observation network (AON) has been shown to play important roles in social action monitoring, learning by imitation, and social cognition in both species. It is unclear whether a similar network exists in New-World primates, which separated from Old-Word primates ~35 million years ago. Here we used ultra-high field fMRI at 9.4 T in awake common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) while they watched videos depicting goal-directed (grasping food) or non-goal-directed actions. The observation of goal-directed actions activates a temporo-parieto-frontal network, including areas 6 and 45 in premotor/prefrontal cortices, areas PGa-IPa, FST and TE in occipito-temporal region and areas V6A, MIP, LIP and PG in the occipito-parietal cortex. These results show overlap with the humans and macaques' AON, demonstrating the existence of an evolutionarily conserved network that likely predates the separation of Old and New-World primates. |
Andrea M. Zawoyski; Scott P. Ardoin; Katherine S. Binder The impact of test-taking strategies on eye movements of elementary students during reading comprehension assessment Journal Article In: School Psychology, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 59–66, 2023. @article{Zawoyski2023, Teachers often encourage students to use test-taking strategies during reading comprehension assessments, but these strategies are not always evidence-based. One common strategy involves teaching students to read the questions before reading an associated passage. Research findings comparing the passage-first (PF) and questions-first (QF) strategies are mixed. The present study employed eye-tracking technology to record 84 third and fourth-grade participants' eye movements (EMs) as they read a passage and responded to multiple-choice (MC) questions using PF and QF strategies in a within-subject design. Although there were no significant differences between groups in accuracy on MC questions, EM measures revealed that the PF condition was superior to the QF condition for elementary readers in terms of efficiency in reading and responding to questions. These findings suggest that the PF strategy supports a more comprehensive understanding of the text. Ultimately, within the PF condition, students required less time to obtain the same accuracy outcomes they attained when reading in the QF condition. School psychologists can improve reading comprehension instruction by encouraging the importance of teaching children to gain meaning from the text rather than search the passage for answers to MC questions |
Ling Zhang; Naiqing Song; Guowei Wu; Jinfa Cai Understanding the cognitive processes of mathematical problem posing: Evidence from eye movements Journal Article In: Educational Studies in Mathematics, pp. 1–30, 2023. @article{Zhang2023b, This study concerns the cognitive process of mathematical problem posing, conceptualized in three stages: understanding the task, constructing the problem, and expressing the problem. We used the eye tracker and think-aloud methods to deeply explore students' behavior in these three stages of problem posing, especially focusing on investigating the influence of task situation format and mathematical maturity on students' thinking. The study was conducted using a 2 × 2 mixed design: task situation format (with or without specific numerical information) × subject category (master's students or sixth graders). Regarding the task situation format, students' performance on tasks with numbers was found to be significantly better than that on tasks without numbers, which was reflected in the metrics of how well they understood the task and the complexity and clarity of the posed problems. In particular, students spent more fixation duration on understanding and processing the information in tasks without numbers; they had a longer fixation duration on parts involving presenting uncertain numerical information; in addition, the task situation format with or without numbers had an effect on students' selection and processing of information related to the numbers, elements, and relationships rather than information regarding the context presented in the task. Regarding the subject category, we found that mathematical maturity did not predict the quantity of problems posed on either type of task. There was no significant main group difference found in the eye-movement metrics. |
Qiong Zhang; Weifeng Sun; Kailing Huang; Li Qin; Shirui Wen; Xiaoyan Long; Quan Wang; Li Feng Frontal lobe epilepsy: An eye tracking study of memory and attention Journal Article In: Frontiers in Neuroscience, vol. 17, pp. 1–11, 2023. @article{Zhang2023c, Objective: To explore the characteristics and mechanisms of working memory impairment in patients with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) through a memory game paradigm combined with eye tracking technology. Method: We included 44 patients with FLE and 50 healthy controls (HC). All participants completed a series of neuropsychological scale assessments and a short-term memory game on an automated computer-based memory evaluation platform with an eye tracker. Results: Memory scale scores of FLE patients including digit span (U = 747.50 |
Songzhu Zhang In: Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, vol. 52, no. 6, pp. 2919–2935, 2023. @article{Zhang2023d, This study is based on an experimental method of eye-tracking to investigate how translators perceive and understand translated literary texts and how different stylistic features influence their perception. This methodology allowed us to observe which parts of the text translators focused on the most, providing valuable data on their reading patterns and cognitive processes. Among English-Chinese translators, 95 out of 120 participants (79%) showed a tendency to prioritize faithfully conveying the source text's meaning over crafting a target text that aligns with Chinese stylistically. In the specific context of Chinese-English translation out of the 120 instances examined, the translators exhibited a reduced fixation duration on words in the source language, accounting for 34 instances (28%). This suggests a greater concern for preserving the source text's meaning rather than adapting it to the target culture. This research can assist translators and linguists in translating the stylistic features of English and Chinese literary texts more effectively. Future studies can explore other language stylistic features that may impact translation and compare translation styles across various literary genres and language pairs. |
Yi Zhang; Caixia Liu; Yana Xing; Zhongling Pi; Jiumin Yang How does drawing influence the effectiveness of oral self-explanation versus instructional explanation in video learning? Journal Article In: British Journal of Educational Technology, pp. 1–20, 2023. @article{Zhang2023e, This study investigated the effects of two types of oral explanations (ie, self-explanation vs. instructional explanation) and drawing activity (no drawing vs. drawing) on video learning outcomes. These outcomes were measured by visual attention to the video (indexed by fixation time on text and diagram areas), explanation quality (indexed by personal references, concepts, and elaborations), drawing quality, behaviour patterns and overall learning performance gain. A total of 116 undergraduate and graduate students watched a 4-min video on the human body's respiratory system. They were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (explanation generation: self-explanation vs. instructional explanation × drawing activity: no drawing vs. drawing). Results indicated that without a drawing requirement, students in the self-explanation condition displayed fewer personal references and exhibited a lower learning performance gain than those in the instructional explanation condition. Conversely, when drawing was required, self-explanation students demonstrated higher drawing quality and better learning performance gain. Additionally, students in the drawing condition directed more attention to the diagram area than those in the no drawing condition. These findings suggest that in video learning (1) educators should encourage students to produce oral instructional explanations and (2) if the goal is for students to generate self-explanations, they should also be prompted to draw to bolster their self-explanation efforts. |
Yi Zhang; Ke Xu; Yun Pan; Zhongling Pi; Jiumin Yang The effects of segmentation design and drawing on video learning: A mediation analysis Journal Article In: Active Learning in Higher Education, pp. 1–21, 2023. @article{Zhang2023f, The current study investigated the effects of segmentation design and drawing on college students' video learning. Participants were 158 college students randomly assigned to view either a segmented or continuous video lecture (video type: segmented vs continuous) and who either received instructed to draw while learning or no instructions at all (learning strategy: drawing vs passive viewing). Participants' eye movements were recorded as they viewed the video, and data was collected regarding their learning satisfaction, cognitive load, both immediate and 7-day delayed learning outcomes, and their perceptions regarding the instructional efficiency of the lectures. The results showed that the drawing activity moderated the segmentation effect in that students did not benefit from the segmented video design when viewing passively, but did when required to draw while viewing. Furthermore, the positive effect of segmentation was mediated by drawing accuracy. |
Yili Zhang; Tengfei Wang; Menglei Chen; Hai Lou; Jiangchuan Ye; Jiahui Shi; Xu Wen Effects of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on cognitive fatigue relief: A randomised self-controlled study Journal Article In: International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, pp. 1–19, 2023. @article{Zhang2023g, Although it was reported both rest and physical activity can alleviate cognitive fatigue to some extent, there is no direct scientific evidence determining which approach is more effective. This study aimed to investigate the effect of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on the alleviation of cognitive fatigue. A 30-min TloadDback task was used to induce cognitive fatigue in 20 healthy adults, and 12-min quiet rest and moderate-intensity aerobic exercise were performed in random order. During the cognitive task, standard deviation of the NN interval (SDNN), total frequency (TP, 0–0.4 Hz) and very low frequency (VLF, 0–0.15 Hz) of heart rate variability increased significantly. The blink duration and number, fixation number, saccade amplitude and number increased significantly with time, while fixation duration and pupil size decreased significantly. After 12-min intervention protocols, the participants' feeling of fatigue, vigour and boredom recovered significantly. The recovery of fixation duration was better after quiet rest, while the pupil size was significantly larger after aerobic exercise. It was found that both quiet rest and aerobic exercise can alleviate cognitive fatigue, but aerobic exercise may be more effective in the recovery of arousal levels. |
Yuyang Zhang; Jing Yang; Zhisheng Edward Wen Learners with low working memory capacity benefit more from the presence of an instructor 's face in video lectures Journal Article In: Journal of Intelligence, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 1–14, 2023. @article{Zhang2023, This current study explores the influence of learners' working memory capacity (WMC) on the facilitation effect of an instructor's presence during video lectures. Sixty-four undergraduates were classified into high and low WMC groups based on their performance in an operation span task. They watched three types of video lectures on unfamiliar topics in a random order: video lectures with an instructor's voiceover but without presence (VN), video lectures with the instructor's face picture (VP), and video lectures with the same instructor talking (VV). We collected their eye movement data during the video lectures and their learning performance in the comprehension tests following each video. Two-way ANOVA and post-hoc analyses showed that the instructor's presence significantly improved comprehension performance in only the low WMC group. They allocated more attention to the instructor's face picture and talking head than the high WMC group. Our results highlight the value of the instructor's presence as a social cue in video lectures, which is particularly beneficial for learners with a low WMC. |
Ziyao Zhang; Nancy B. Carlisle Assessing recoding accounts of negative attentional templates using behavior and eye tracking Journal Article In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 509–532, 2023. @article{Zhang2023h, Can we use attentional control to ignore known distractor features? Providing cues before a visual search trial about an upcoming distractor color (negative cue) can lead to reaction time benefits compared with no cue trials. This suggests top-down control may use negative templates to actively suppress distractor features, a notion that challenges the mechanisms of top-down control provided in many theories of attention. However, there is currently mixed support for this mechanism in the literature. Alternative explanations have been proposed, which do not require suppression within top-down control but instead involve recoding the negative cue into a positive template based on color or spatial layouts. In three experiments, we contrasted the predictions of active suppression and the recoding strategies. Across experiments, we found consistent evidence against a color recoding account. We also found evidence of accuracy, reaction time, and eye movement benefits when location recoding was not possible. These results suggest that prior benefits from negative cues cannot be explained exclusively by spatial or color recoding. The results indicate that active suppression likely plays a role in the attentional benefits following negative cues. |
Ziyue Zhao; Wei Su; Juan Hou The influence of resource-gaining capacity on mate preferences: An eye tracking study Journal Article In: BMC Psychology, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2023. @article{Zhao2023b, To investigate whether resource-gaining capacity influences mate preferences, explicit (self-report data) and implicit tasks (eye tracking data) were used to explore whether individuals' resource-gaining capacity influences mate preferences and whether there are sex differences in mate preferences under two different conditions (short-term and long-term strategies). A total of 59 college students completed a questionnaire collecting basic demographic information, the Resource-Gaining Capacity Scale and the two above tasks. The results showed that (1) in the short-term mating, individuals with higher resource-gaining capacity paid more attention to “good parent” than those with lower resource-gaining capacity, while individuals with lower resource-gaining capacity preferred “good provider” than those with higher resource-gaining capacity. (2) In the long-term mating, women valued “good provider” traits more than men, and they paid more attention to “good parent” traits than men in the short-term. In addition, no matter in the short-term or the long-term mating, men placed more value on “good genes” traits than women. (3) Compared with long-term mating, individuals of both sexes had preferences based on “good genes” in short-term mating, while they had preferences based on “good parent” and “good provider” in long-term mating compared with short-term mating. (4) Regarding explicit mate selection, “good parent” traits were most preferred by the participants, while the implicit eye tracking data indicated that participants preferred partners who were “good providers” and had “good genes”. |
Wei Zheng; Xiaolu Wang Humor experience facilitates ongoing cognitive tasks: Evidence from pun comprehension Journal Article In: Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 14, pp. 1–9, 2023. @article{Zheng2023, Empirical findings on embodied cognition have shown that bodily states (e.g., bodily postures and affective states) can influence how people appreciate humor. A case in point is that participants were reported to read pleasant sentences faster than the unpleasant controls when their muscles responsible for smiling were activated. However, little research has examined whether the feeling of amusement derived from humor processing like pun comprehension can exert a backward influence on ongoing cognitive tasks. In the present study, the participants' eye movements were tracked while they rated the comprehensibility of humorous sentences (homophone puns) and two types of unfunny control sentences (congruent and incongruent). Fixation measures showed an advantage in the critical homophone region for the congruent controls relative to the homophone puns; however, this pattern was reversed in terms of total sentence reading time. In addition, the humor rating scores acquired after the eye-tracking experiment were found negatively correlated to the overall sentence reading time, suggesting that the greater amusement the participant experienced the faster they would finish the rating task. Taken together, the current results indicate that the positive affect derived from humor can in turn provide immediate feedback to the cognitive system, which enhances text comprehension. As a result, the current finding provides more empirical evidence for the exploration of the interaction between the body and cognition. |
Yueyuan Zheng; Janet H. Hsiao Differential audiovisual information processing in emotion recognition: An eye-tracking study Journal Article In: Emotion, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 1028–1039, 2023. @article{Zheng2023a, Recent research has suggested that dynamic emotion recognition involves strong audiovisual association; that is, facial or vocal information alone automatically induces perceptual processes in the other modality. We hypothesized that different emotions may differ in the automaticity of audiovisual association, resulting in differential audiovisual information processing. Participants judged the emotion of a talking-head video under audiovisual, video-only (with no sound), and audio-only (with a static neutral face) conditions. Among the six basic emotions, disgust had the largest audiovisual advantage over the unimodal conditions in recognition accuracy. In addition, in the recognition of all the emotions except for disgust, participants' eye-movement patterns did not change significantly across the three conditions, suggesting mandatory audiovisual information processing. In contrast, in disgust recognition, participants' eye movements in the audiovisual condition were less eyes-focused than the video-only condition and more eyes-focused than the audio-only condition, suggesting that audio information in the audiovisual condition interfered with eye-movement planning for important features (eyes) for disgust. In addition, those whose eye-movement pattern was affected less by concurrent disgusted voice information benefited more in recognition accuracy. Disgust recognition is learned later in life and thus may involve a reduced amount of audiovisual associative learning. Consequently, audiovisual association in disgust recognition is less automatic and demands more attentional resources than other emotions. Thus, audiovisual information processing in emotion recognition depends on the automaticity of audiovisual association of the emotion resulting from associative learning. This finding has important implications for real-life emotion recognition and multimodal learning. |
Alexander Zhigalov; Ole Jensen Perceptual echoes as travelling waves may arise from two discrete neuronal sources Journal Article In: NeuroImage, vol. 272, pp. 1–9, 2023. @article{Zhigalov2023, Growing evidence suggests that travelling waves are functionally relevant for cognitive operations in the brain. Several electroencephalography (EEG) studies report on a perceptual alpha-echo, representing the brain response to a random visual flicker, propagating as a travelling wave across the cortical surface. In this study, we ask if the propagating activity of the alpha-echo is best explained by a set of discrete sources mixing at the sensor level rather than a cortical travelling wave. To this end, we presented participants with gratings modulated by random noise and simultaneously acquired the ongoing MEG. The perceptual alpha-echo was estimated using the temporal response function linking the visual input to the brain response. At the group level, we observed a spatial decay of the amplitude of the alpha-echo with respect to the sensor where the alpha-echo was the largest. Importantly, the propagation latencies consistently increased with the distance. Interestingly, the propagation of the alpha-echoes was predominantly centro-lateral, while EEG studies reported mainly posterior-frontal propagation. Moreover, the propagation speed of the alpha-echoes derived from the MEG data was around 10 m/s, which is higher compared to the 2 m/s reported in EEG studies. Using source modelling, we found an early component in the primary visual cortex and a phase-lagged late component in the parietal cortex, which may underlie the travelling alpha-echoes at the sensor level. We then simulated the alpha-echoes using realistic EEG and MEG forward models by placing two sources in the parietal and occipital cortices in accordance with our empirical findings. The two-source model could account for both the direction and speed of the observed alpha-echoes in the EEG and MEG data. Our results demonstrate that the propagation of the perceptual echoes observed in EEG and MEG data can be explained by two sources mixing at the scalp level equally well as by a cortical travelling wave. Importantly, these findings should not be directly extrapolated to intracortical recordings, where travelling waves gradually propagate at a sub-millimetre scale. |
Junyi Zhou; Zhanshuang Bai In: Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 14, pp. 1–8, 2023. @article{Zhou2023, Introduction: Previous studies have shown that brief moderate-intensity aerobic exercise can improve the executive function of healthy adults. The present study sought to examine and compare the effects of brief moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on the executive functions of undergraduates with and without mobile phone addiction. Method: Thirty-two healthy undergraduates with mobile phone addiction were recruited and randomly assigned to either an exercise or control group. Likewise, 32 healthy undergraduates without mobile phone addiction were recruited and randomly assigned to either an exercise or control group. Participants were asked to perform moderate-intensity aerobic exercise for 15 minutes for the exercise groups. The executive functions of all participants were assessed via the antisaccade task twice (i.e., pre-test and post-test). Results: The results showed that the saccade latency, variability of saccade latency, and error rate decreased significantly from pre-test to post-test for all participants. More importantly, after the 15-min moderate-intensity aerobic exercise intervention, participants in the exercise groups showed significantly shorter saccade latency than their counterparts in the control groups, regardless of whether they are with mobile phone addiction. Discussion: This result is consistent with previous studies demonstrating that brief moderate-intensity aerobic exercise can improve one's executive function. Furthermore, the absence of significant interaction among Time, Group, and Intervention implies that the effects of brief moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on executive function are comparable between participants with and without mobile phone addiction. The present study supports the previous conclusion that brief moderate-intensity aerobic exercise can improve one's executive function effectively, and extends it to the population with mobile phone addiction. In summary, the present study has some implications for understanding of the relationship between exercise, executive function, and mobile phone addiction. |
Junyi Zhou; Wenjie Zhuang Physically active undergraduates perform better on executive-related oculomotor control: Evidence from the antisaccade task and pupillometry Journal Article In: PsyCh Journal, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 17–24, 2023. @article{Zhou2023e, Previous studies have shown that exercise can improve executive function in young and older adults. However, it remains controversial whether a sufficient amount of physical activity leads to higher-level executive function. To examine the effect of physical activity on executive function, we used eye-tracking technology and the antisaccade task in 41 young undergraduates with various levels of physical activity. Moreover, we also investigated their differences in cognitive ability by examining their pupil size during the antisaccade task. Eye-tracking results showed that physically active individuals showed shorter saccade latency and higher accuracy in the antisaccade task than their physically inactive counterparts. Furthermore, the former showed larger pupil size during the preparatory period of antisaccade. These findings suggest that individuals with higher-level physical activity have higher-level executive function. The larger pupil sizes of physically active individuals may imply that their locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system and executive-related prefrontal cortex are more active, which contributes to their higher-level cognitive ability. |
Peng Zhou; Huimin Ma; Bochao Zou; Xiaowen Zhang; Shuyan Zhao; Yuxin Lin; Yidong Wang; Lei Feng; Gang Wang A conceptual framework of cognitive-affective theory of mind: Towards a precision identification of mental disorders Journal Article In: npj Mental Health Research, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–11, 2023. @article{Zhou2023a, To explore the minds of others, which is traditionally referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM), is perhaps the most fundamental ability of humans as social beings. Impairments in ToM could lead to difficulties or even deficits in social interaction. The present study focuses on two core components of ToM, the ability to infer others' beliefs and the ability to infer others' emotions, which we refer to as cognitive and affective ToM respectively. Charting both typical and atypical trajectories underlying the cognitive-affective ToM promises to shed light on the precision identification of mental disorders, such as depressive disorders (DD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, most prior studies failed to capture the underlying processes involved in the cognitive-affective ToM in a fine-grained manner. To address this problem, we propose an innovative conceptual framework, referred to as visual theory of mind (V-ToM), by constructing visual scenes with emotional and cognitive meanings and by depicting explicitly a four-stage process of how humans make inferences about the beliefs and emotions of others. Through recording individuals' eye movements while looking at the visual scenes, our model enables us to accurately measure each stage involved in the computation of cognitive-affective ToM, thereby allowing us to infer about potential difficulties that might occur in each stage. Our model is based on a large sample size ( n > 700) and a novel audio-visual paradigm using visual scenes containing cognitive-emotional meanings. Here we report the obtained differential features among healthy controls, DD and ASD individuals that overcome the subjectivity of conventional questionnaire-based assessment, and therefore could serve as valuable references for mental health applications based on AI-aided digital medicine. |
Xing Zhou; Yuxiang Hao; Shuangxing Xu; Qi Zhang Statistical learning of target location and distractor location rely on different mechanisms during visual search Journal Article In: Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, vol. 85, no. 2, pp. 342–365, 2023. @article{Zhou2023g, More studies have demonstrated that people have the capacity to learn and make use of environmental regularities. This capacity is known as statistical learning (SL). Despite rich empirical findings, it is not clear how the two forms of SL (SL of target location and SL of distractor location) influence visual search and whether they rely on the shared cognitive mechanism. In Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, we manipulated the probability of target location and the probability of distractor location, respectively. The results suggest that attentional guidance (they referred to overt attention) may mainly contribute to the SL effect of the target location and the distractor location, which is in line with the notion of priority mapping. To a small extent, facilitation of response selection may also contribute to the SL effect of the target location but does not contribute to the SL effect of the distractor location. However, the main difference between the two kinds of SL occurred in the early stage (it involved covert attention). Together, our findings indicate that the two forms of SL reflect partly shared and partly independent cognitive mechanisms. |
Christian Wienke; Marcus Grueschow; Aiden Haghikia; Tino Zaehle In: Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 43, no. 36, pp. 6306–6319, 2023. @article{Wienke2023, Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has been proposed to activate the locus ceruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA) system. However, previous studies failed to find consistent modulatory effects of taVNS on LC-NA biomarkers. Previous studies suggest that phasic taVNS may be capable of modulating LC-NA biomarkers such as pupil dilation and alpha oscillations. However, it is unclear whether these effects extend beyond pure sensory vagal nerve responses. Critically, the potential of the pupillary light reflex as an additional taVNS biomarker has not been explored so far. Here, we applied phasic active and sham taVNS in 29 subjects (16 female, 13 male) while they performed an emotional Stroop task (EST) and a passive pupil light reflex task (PLRT). We recorded pupil size and brain activity dynamics using a combined Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and pupillometry design. Our results show that phasic taVNS significantly increased pupil dilation and performance during the EST. During the PLRT, active taVNS reduced and delayed pupil constriction. In the MEG, taVNS increased frontal-midline theta and alpha power during the EST, whereas occipital alpha power was reduced during both the EST and PLRT. Our findings provide evidence that phasic taVNS systematically modulates behavioral, pupillary, and electrophysiological parameters of LC-NA activity during cognitive processing. Moreover, we demonstrate for the first time that the pupillary light reflex can be used as a simple and effective proxy of taVNS efficacy. These findings have important implications for the development of noninvasive neuromodulation interventions for various cognitive and clinical applications. |
Sobanawartiny Wijeakumar; Samuel H. Forbes; Vincent A. Magnotta; Sean Deoni; Kiara Jackson; Vinay P. Singh; Madhuri Tiwari; Aarti Kumar; John P. Spencer Stunting in infancy is associated with atypical activation of working memory and attention networks Journal Article In: Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 7, no. 12, pp. 2199–2211, 2023. @article{Wijeakumar2023, Stunting is associated with poor long-term cognitive, academic and economic outcomes, yet the mechanisms through which stunting impacts cognition in early development remain unknown. In a first-ever neuroimaging study conducted on infants from rural India, we demonstrate that stunting impacts a critical, early-developing cognitive system—visual working memory. Stunted infants showed poor visual working memory performance and were easily distractible. Poor performance was associated with reduced engagement of the left anterior intraparietal sulcus, a region involved in visual working memory maintenance and greater suppression in the right temporoparietal junction, a region involved in attentional shifting. When assessed one year later, stunted infants had lower problem-solving scores, while infants of normal height with greater left anterior intraparietal sulcus activation showed higher problem-solving scores. Finally, short-for-age infants with poor physical growth indices but good visual working memory performance showed more positive outcomes suggesting that intervention efforts should focus on improving working memory and reducing distractibility in infancy. |
Louis Williams; Kelsey J. Mulder; Andrew Charlton-Perez; Matthew Lickiss; Alison Black; Rachel McCloy; Eugene McSorley; Joe Young Understanding representations of uncertainty, an eye-tracking study-part 2: The effect of expertise Journal Article In: Geoscience Communication, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 111–123, 2023. @article{Williams2023, As the ability to make predictions regarding uncertainty information representing natural hazards increases, an important question for those designing and communicating hazard forecasts is how visualizations of uncertainty influence understanding amongst the intended, potentially varied, target audiences. End-users have a wide range of differing expertise and backgrounds, possibly influencing the decision-making process they undertake for a given forecast presentation. Our previous, Part 1 study (Mulder et al., 2023) examined how the presentation of uncertainty information influenced end-user decision making. Here, we shift the focus to examine the decisions and reactions of participants with differing areas of expertise (meteorology, psychology, and graphic-communication students) when presented with varied hypothetical forecast representations (boxplot, fan plot, or spaghetti plot with and without median lines) using the same eye-tracking methods and experiments. Participants made decisions about a fictional scenario involving the choices between ships of different sizes in the face of varying ice thickness forecasts. Eye movements to the graph area and key and how they changed over time (early, intermediate, and later viewing periods) were examined. More fixations (maintained gaze on one location) and more fixation time were spent on the graph and key during early and intermediate periods of viewing, particularly for boxplots and fan plots. The inclusion of median lines led to less fixations being made on all graph types during early and intermediate viewing periods. No difference in eye movement behaviour was found due to expertise; however, those with greater expertise were more accurate in their decisions, particularly during more difficult scenarios. Where scientific producers seek to draw users to the central estimate, an anchoring line can significantly reduce cognitive load, leading both experts and non-experts to make more rational decisions. When asking users to consider extreme scenarios or uncertainty, different prior expertise can lead to significantly different cognitive loads for processing information, with an impact on one's ability to make appropriate decisions. |
Craig A. Williamson; Jari J. Morganti; Hannah E. Smithson Bright-light distractions and visual performance Journal Article In: Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 14, pp. 1–11, 2023. @article{Williamson2023, Visual distractions pose a significant risk to transportation safety, with laser attacks against aircraft pilots being a common example. This study used a research-grade High Dynamic Range (HDR) display to produce bright-light distractions for 12 volunteer participants performing a combined visual task across central and peripheral visual fields. The visual scene had an average luminance of 10 cd∙m−2 with targets of approximately 0.5° angular size, while the distractions had a maximum luminance of 9,000 cd∙m−2 and were 3.6° in size. The dependent variables were the mean fixation duration during task execution (representative of information processing time), and the critical stimulus duration required to support a target level of performance (representative of task efficiency). The experiment found a statistically significant increase in mean fixation duration, rising from 192 ms without distractions to 205 ms with bright-light distractions (p = 0.023). This indicates a decrease in visibility of the low contrast targets or an increase in cognitive workload that required greater processing time for each fixation in the presence of the bright-light distractions. Mean critical stimulus duration was not significantly affected by the distraction conditions used in this study. Future experiments are suggested to replicate driving and/or piloting tasks and employ bright-light distractions based on real-world data, and we advocate the use of eye-tracking metrics as sensitive measures of changes in performance. |
Hanna E. Willis; I. Betina Ip; Archie Watt; Jon Campbell; Saad Jbabdi; William T. Clarke; Matthew R. Cavanaugh; Krystel R. Huxlin; Kate E. Watkins; Marco Tamietto; Holly Bridge GABA and glutamate in hMT+ link to individual differences in residual visual function after occipital stroke Journal Article In: Stroke, vol. 54, no. 9, pp. 2286–2295, 2023. @article{Willis2023, BACKGROUND: Damage to the primary visual cortex following an occipital stroke causes loss of conscious vision in the contralateral hemifield. Yet, some patients retain the ability to detect moving visual stimuli within their blind field. The present study asked whether such individual differences in blind field perception following loss of primary visual cortex could be explained by the concentration of neurotransmitters γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate or activity of the visual motion processing, human middle temporal complex (hMT+). METHODS: We used magnetic resonance imaging in 19 patients with chronic occipital stroke to measure the concentration of neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate (proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and functional activity in hMT+ (functional magnetic resonance imaging). We also tested each participant on a 2-interval forced choice detection task using high-contrast, moving Gabor patches. We then measured and assessed the strength of relationships between participants' residual vision in their blind field and in vivo neurotransmitter concentrations, as well as visually evoked functional magnetic resonance imaging activity in their hMT+. Levels of GABA and glutamate were also measured in a sensorimotor region, which served as a control. RESULTS: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy-derived GABA and glutamate concentrations in hMT+ (but not sensorimotor cortex) strongly predicted blind-field visual detection abilities. Performance was inversely related to levels of both inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters in hMT+ but, surprisingly, did not correlate with visually evoked blood oxygenation level-dependent signal change in this motion-sensitive region. CONCLUSIONS: Levels of GABA and glutamate in hMT+ appear to provide superior information about motion detection capabilities inside perimetrically defined blind fields compared to blood oxygenation level-dependent signal changes - in essence, serving as biomarkers for the quality of residual visual processing in the blind-field. Whether they also reflect a potential for successful rehabilitation of visual function remains to be determined. |
Joost De Winter; Toine Koelmans; Maarten Kokshoorn; Kars Van Der Valk A role of peripheral vision in chess? Evidence from a gaze-contingent method Journal Article In: Journal of Expertise, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 23–38, 2023. @article{Winter2023, Chunking theory and previous eye-tracking studies suggest that expert chess players use peripheral vision to judge chess positions and determine the best moves to play. However, the role of peripheral vision in chess has largely been inferred rather than tested through controlled experimentation. In this study, we used a gaze-contingent paradigm in a reconstruction task, similar to the one initially used by De Groot (1946). It was hypothesized that the smaller the gaze-contingent window while memorizing a chess position, the smaller the differences in reconstruction accuracy between novice and expert players. Participants viewed 30 chess positions for 20 seconds, after which they reconstructed this position. This was done for four different window sizes as well as for full visibility of the board. The results, as measured by Cohen's d effect sizes between experts and novices of the proportion of correctly placed pieces, supported the above hypothesis, with experts performing much better but losing much of their performance advantage for the smallest window size. A complementary find-the-best-move task and additional eye-movement analyses showed that experts had a longer median fixation duration and more spatially concentrated scan patterns than novice players. These findings suggest a key contribution of peripheral vision and are consistent with the prevailing chunking theory. |
Christian Wolf; Markus Lappe Motivation by reward jointly improves speed and accuracy, whereas task-relevance and meaningful images do not Journal Article In: Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, vol. 85, no. 3, pp. 930–948, 2023. @article{Wolf2023, Visual selection is characterized by a trade-off between speed and accuracy. Speed or accuracy of the selection process can be affected by higher level factors—for example, expecting a reward, obtaining task-relevant information, or seeing an intrinsically relevant target. Recently, motivation by reward has been shown to simultaneously increase speed and accuracy, thus going beyond the speed–accuracy-trade-off. Here, we compared the motivating abilities of monetary reward, task-relevance, and image content to simultaneously increase speed and accuracy. We used a saccadic distraction task that required suppressing a distractor and selecting a target. Across different blocks successful target selection was followed either by (i) a monetary reward, (ii) obtaining task-relevant information, or (iii) seeing the face of a famous person. Each block additionally contained the same number of irrelevant trials lacking these consequences, and participants were informed about the upcoming trial type. We found that postsaccadic vision of a face affected neither speed nor accuracy, suggesting that image content does not affect visual selection via motivational mechanisms. Task relevance increased speed but decreased selection accuracy, an observation compatible with a classical speed–accuracy trade-off. Motivation by reward, however, simultaneously increased response speed and accuracy. Saccades in all conditions deviated away from the distractor, suggesting that the distractor was suppressed, and this deviation was strongest in the reward block. Drift-diffusion modelling revealed that task-relevance affected behavior by affecting decision thresholds, whereas motivation by reward additionally increased the rate of information uptake. The present findings thus show that the three consequences differ in their motivational abilities. |
Clare Wright; Jun Wang The role of visual processing in learning Mandarin characters Journal Article In: Journal of the European Second Language Association, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 31–45, 2023. @article{Wright2023, This study explored whether beginner-level learners use radicals to learn written Chinese characters in making form-meaning paired-associate mappings, one of the key components in written character acquisition and word learning (Chan et al., 2020; Kintsch, 1988). Eyegaze patterns during new word-learning was measured to indicate visual focus, along with visual working memory (VWM) capacity, hitherto unexamined at beginner-level for Chinese (Chen et al., 2018; Godfroid, 2019). The experiment compared ease of recall across three groups of characters with different semantic radicals (nominal and verbal) and different visual salience. Greater visual salience rather than semantic class was predicted to foster ease of recall (Bax, 2013; Godfroid, 2019). Thirty-five adult Anglophone ab-initio learners of Chinese took part, recruited after five weeks at a language institute in China. Participants completed a computer- based self-paced character learning test and a VWM shape recall test. They then took a randomized character recall test; eyegaze patterns measured fixations on target radical areas during learning and testing phases. During testing, nominal recall was significantly the fastest and most accurate of the three types (p < .001). There were no significant correlations for accuracy of recall with VWM or eyegaze patterns. These findings, although tentative, suggest that some linguistic element of noun-learning comes “for free” (e.g., Gentner, 1982) even at beginner-level level. The study has timely implications for theoretical and pedagogical understanding of Chinese word learning processes, given the rapidly expanding area of Mandarin Chinese language learning in both taught and self-study app-based contexts. |
Chenjing Wu; Hongyan Zhu; Yameng Zhang; Wei Zhang; Xianyou He Sensitivity to moral goodness under different aesthetic contexts Journal Article In: Ethics and Behavior, pp. 1–15, 2023. @article{Wu2023, Does context influence our appreciation of beauty? To answer this question, two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of contextual aesthetics on the recognition of moral behavior. Experiment 1 demonstrated that individuals in a high-aesthetic context had a quicker recognition time for moral behavior than those in a low-aesthetic context. In a low-aesthetic context, individuals recognize immoral behavior more quickly than in a high aesthetic context. Individuals showed greater recognition rates for moral behavior in a high aesthetic context and higher recognition for immoral behaviors in a low aesthetic context for behavior with unclear information. Experiment 2 revealed that individual fixation counts were smaller under the conditions of high aesthetic context and moral behavior than under the conditions of low aesthetic context and moral behavior, indicating a correlation between low aesthetic context and immoral behavior. This study shows that high aesthetic context facilitates the recognition of moral behavior, which has implications for moral education. |
Fei Wu; Zhibing Gao; Changlin Luo; Tuo Zhang; Xiangling Zhuang; Guojie Ma The effect of unit number and inter-unit distance on perceived food portion size Journal Article In: Food Quality and Preference, vol. 107, no. 199, pp. 1–12, 2023. @article{Wu2023a, Previous studies have demonstrated that perceived portion size of food influences consumption, so modifying perceived portion size may affect food intake. The present study evaluated the effects of unit number and inter-unit distance on perceived food portion size through eye-tracking and behavioral experiments. After observing one reference portion size picture, 34 participants in Experiment 1 and 29 participants in Experiment 2 evaluated 60 chocolate pictures with 10 different total portion sizes, with a unit number of 9 or 16 and an inter-unit distance of 100%, 120%, or 130%. The results demonstrated that unit number and inter-unit distance independently influenced the perception of overall portion size, while only the unit number could influence the perception of unit portion size. Making estimations about unit portion size requires more cognitive resources than that of overall portion size. These findings imply that we can adjust people's perceived portion sizes by varying the inter-unit distance or unit number of foods, thus nudging individuals to make more rational portion size decisions. |
Hao Wu; Yuding Zhang; Qiong Luo; Zhengzhou Zhu The magnitude representations of fractions of Chinese students: Evidence from behavioral experiment and eye-tracking Journal Article In: Current Psychology, pp. 1–16, 2023. @article{Wu2023b, Early knowledge of fractions can largely predict later mathematical performance, and a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of fractions is fundamental to learning more advanced mathematics. The study aimed to explore the influencing factors and age characteristics of magnitude representations of fractions by a fraction comparison task, using subjects' eye-movement measures as direct evidence and the results of linear regression analyses as indirect evidence. The results found that the number of digits of fractions' components and types of fraction pairs jointly influence the magnitude representations of fractions. For one-digit fraction pairs with and without common components, componential representation is favored; for two-digit fraction pairs with common components, componential representation is preferred, while for two-digit fraction pairs without common components, holistic representation is selected. The representation styles are consistent across university students, junior high school students and primary school students, and there are significant age differences in representation levels, with university students being more flexible in their use of representation strategies of fractions than the other two ages, and junior high school students showing the same level with the primary school students. These results suggest that not only Chinese university students, but also Chinese primary and junior high school students can select and adapt representation strategies of fractions according to the characteristics and complexity of fraction processing tasks. The eye-movement technique can largely compensate for the shortcomings of the regression analysis paradigm and better reveal the critical cognitive processes involved in the processing of fractions. |
Hao Wu; Zhentao Zuo; Zejian Yuan; Tiangang Zhou; Yan Zhuo; Nanning Zheng; Badong Chen Neural representation of gestalt grouping and attention effect in human visual cortex Journal Article In: Journal of Neuroscience Methods, vol. 399, no. 28, pp. 1–11, 2023. @article{Wu2023c, Background: The brain aggregates meaningless local sensory elements to form meaningful global patterns in a process called perceptual grouping. Current brain imaging studies have found that neural activities in V1 are modulated during visual grouping. However, how grouping is represented in each of the early visual areas, and how attention alters these representations, is still unknown. New method: We adopted MVPA to decode the specific content of perceptual grouping by comparing neural activity patterns between gratings and dot lattice stimuli which can be grouped with proximity law. Furthermore, we quantified the grouping effect by defining the strength of grouping, and assessed the effect of attention on grouping. Results: We found that activity patterns to proximity grouped stimuli in early visual areas resemble these to grating stimuli with the same orientations. This similarity exists even when there is no attention focused on the stimuli. The results also showed a progressive increase of representational strength of grouping from V1 to V3, and attention modulation to grouping is only significant in V3 among all the visual areas. Comparison with existing methods: Most of the previous work on perceptual grouping has focused on how activity amplitudes are modulated by grouping. Using MVPA, the present work successfully decoded the contents of neural activity patterns corresponding to proximity grouping stimuli, thus shed light on the availability of content-decoding approach in the research on perceptual grouping. Conclusions: Our work found that the content of the neural activity patterns during perceptual grouping can be decoded in the early visual areas under both attended and unattended task, and provide novel evidence that there is a cascade processing for proximity grouping through V1 to V3. The strength of grouping was larger in V3 than in any other visual areas, and the attention modulation to the strength of grouping was only significant in V3 among all the visual areas, implying that V3 plays an important role in proximity grouping. |
Junru Wu; Min Li; Wenbo Ma; Zhihao Zhang; Mingsha Zhang; Xuemei Li In: Gerontology, vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 321–335, 2023. @article{Wu2023d, Background: Among the elderly, dementia is a common and disabling disorder with primary manifestations of cognitive impairments. Diagnosis and intervention in its early stages is the key to effective treatment. Nowadays, the test of cognitive function relies mainly on neuropsychological tests, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). However, they have noticeable shortcomings, e.g., the biases of subjective judgments from physicians and the cost of the labor of these well-trained physicians. Thus, advanced and objective methods are urgently needed to evaluate cognitive functions. Methods: We developed a cognitive assessment system through measuring the saccadic eye movements in three tasks. The cognitive functions were evaluated by both our system and the neuropsychological tests in 310 subjects, and the evaluating results were directly compared. Results: In general, most saccadic parameters correlate well with the MMSE and MoCA scores. Moreover, some subjects with high MMSE and MoCA scores have high error rates in performing these three saccadic tasks due to various errors. The primary error types vary among tasks, indicating that different tasks assess certain specific brain functions preferentially. Thus, to improve the accuracy of evaluation through saccadic tasks, we built a weighted model to combine the saccadic parameters of the three saccadic tasks, and our model showed a good diagnosis performance in detecting patients with cognitive impairment. Conclusion: The comprehensive analysis of saccadic parameters in multiple tasks could be a reliable, objective, and sensitive method to evaluate cognitive function and thus to help diagnose cognitive impairments. |
Nicholas J. Wyche; Mark Edwards; Stephanie C. Goodhew An updating-based working memory load alters the dynamics of eye movements but not their spatial extent during free viewing of natural scenes Journal Article In: Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, pp. 1–22, 2023. @article{Wyche2023, The relationship between spatial deployments of attention and working memory load is an important topic of study, with clear implications for real-world tasks such as driving. Previous research has generally shown that attentional breadth broadens under higher load, while exploratory eye-movement behaviour also appears to change with increasing load. However, relatively little research has compared the effects of working memory load on different kinds of spatial deployment, especially in conditions that require updating of the contents of working memory rather than simple retrieval. The present study undertook such a comparison by measuring participants' attentional breadth (via an undirected Navon task) and their exploratory eye-movement behaviour (a free-viewing recall task) under low and high updating working memory loads. While spatial aspects of task performance (attentional breadth, and peripheral extent of image exploration in the free-viewing task) were unaffected by the load manipulation, the exploratory dynamics of the free-viewing task (including fixation durations and scan-path lengths) changed under increasing load. These findings suggest that temporal dynamics, rather than the spatial extent of exploration, are the primary mechanism affected by working memory load during the spatial deployment of attention. Further, individual differences in exploratory behaviour were observed on the free-viewing task: all metrics were highly correlated across working memory load blocks. These findings suggest a need for further investigation of individual differences in eye-movement behaviour; potential factors associated with these individual differences, including working memory capacity and persistence versus flexibility orientations, are discussed. |
Tobiasz Trawiński; Natalie Mestry; Nick Donnelly The effect of prior viewing position and spatial scale on the viewing of paintings Journal Article In: Vision, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 36–39, 2023. @article{Trawinski2023, The visual inspection of scenes is disrupted when participants are forced to begin inspection away from the centre of an image. The present study explored the effect of the starting point on the visual inspection of paintings. Eye movements were recorded while participants viewed paintings for later identification in a yes/no discrimination task. The viewing of each painting was preceded by the presentation of a pseudo-randomly positioned Navon figure. Participants were instructed using a cue to attend to either the local or global level of the Navon figure. Each painting was split into regions of interest (ROIs) defined by face, theme, and context to allow the analysis of eye movements. These data were directly compared with a subset of those initially reported in our previous study in which the same experiment was run but without the inclusion of the Navon figure. The inclusion of the Navon task lowered the discrimination accuracy in the yes/no discrimination task. More importantly, eye movements to the paintings were disrupted across the entire period over which they were viewed and not just in the period following the offset of the Navon figure. The results show the sensitivity of eye movements to the conditions present at the beginning of viewing. The results have implications for the viewing of paintings (and other images) in the real world, where the starting conditions for inspection cannot be controlled. |
Sébastien Tremblay; Camille Testard; Ron W. Ditullio; Jeanne Inchauspé; Michael Petrides Neural cognitive signals during spontaneous movements in the macaque Journal Article In: Nature Neuroscience, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 295–305, 2023. @article{Tremblay2023, The single-neuron basis of cognitive processing in primates has mostly been studied in laboratory settings where movements are severely restricted. It is unclear, therefore, how natural movements might affect neural signatures of cognition in the brain. Moreover, studies in mice indicate that body movements, when measured, account for most of the neural dynamics in the cortex. To examine these issues, we recorded from single-neuron ensembles in the prefrontal cortex in moving monkeys performing a cognitive task and characterized eye, head and body movements using video tracking. Despite considerable trial-to-trial movement variability, single-neuron tuning could be precisely measured and decision signals accurately decoded on a single-trial basis. Creating or abolishing spontaneous movements through head restraint and task manipulations had no measurable impact on neural responses. However, encoding models showed that uninstructed movements explained as much neural variance as task variables, with most movements aligned to task events. These results demonstrate that cognitive signals in the cortex are robust to natural movements, but also that unmeasured movements are potential confounds in cognitive neurophysiology experiments. |
Caterina Trentin; Heleen A. Slagter; Christian N. L. Olivers Visual working memory representations bias attention more when they are the target of an action plan Journal Article In: Cognition, vol. 230, pp. 1–10, 2023. @article{Trentin2023, Attention has frequently been regarded as an emergent property of linking sensory representations to action plans. It has recently been proposed that similar mechanisms may operate within visual working memory (VWM), such that linking an object in VWM to an action plan strengthens its sensory memory representation, which then expresses as an attentional bias. Here we directly tested this hypothesis by comparing attentional biases induced by VWM representations which were the target of a future action, to those induced by VWM representations that were equally task-relevant, but not the direct target of action. We predicted that the first condition would result in a more prioritized memory state and hence stronger attentional biases. Specifically, participants memorized a geometric shape for a subsequent memory test. At test, in case of a match, participants either had to perform a grip movement on the matching object (action condition), or perform the same movement, but on an unrelated object (control condition). To assess any attentional biases, during the delay period between memorandum and test, participants performed a visual selection task in which either the target was surrounded by the memorized shape (congruent trials) or a distractor (incongruent trials). Eye movements were measured as a proxy for attentional priority. We found a significant interaction for saccade latencies between action condition and shape congruency, reflecting more pronounced VWM-based attentional biases in the action condition. Our results are consistent with the idea that action plans prioritize sensory representations in VWM. |
Tawny Tsang; Adam J. Naples; Erin C. Barney; Minhang Xie; Raphael Bernier; Geraldine Dawson; James Dziura; Susan Faja; Shafali Spurling Jeste; James C. McPartland; Charles A. Nelson; Michael Murias; Helen Seow; Catherine Sugar; Sara J. Webb; Frederick Shic; Scott P. Johnson Attention allocation during exploration of visual arrays in ASD: Results from the ABC-CT feasibility study Journal Article In: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 53, no. 8, pp. 3220–3229, 2023. @article{Tsang2023, Visual exploration paradigms involving object arrays have been used to examine salience of social stimuli such as faces in ASD. Recent work suggests performance on these paradigms may associate with clinical features of ASD. We evaluate metrics from a visual exploration paradigm in 4-to-11-year-old children with ASD (n = 23; 18 males) and typical development (TD; n = 23; 13 males). Presented with arrays containing faces and nonsocial stimuli, children with ASD looked less at (p = 0.002) and showed fewer fixations to (p = 0.022) faces than TD children, and spent less time looking at each object on average (p = 0.004). Attention to the screen and faces correlated positively with social and cognitive skills in the ASD group (ps <.05). This work furthers our understanding of objective measures of visual exploration in ASD and its potential for quantifying features of ASD. |
Yoshiyuki Ueda; Tsung-Ren Huang; Zixin Shen; Chifumi Sakata; Su-Ling Yeh; Satoru Saito Sequential processing facilitates Hebb repetition learning in visuospatial domains Journal Article In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, vol. 152, no. 9, pp. 2559–2577, 2023. @article{Ueda2023, Exposure to the same information improves auditory/verbal short-term memory performance, but such improvement is not always observed in visual short-term memory. In this study, we demonstrate that sequential processing makes visuospatial repetition learning efficient in a paradigm that employs a similar design previously used for an auditory/verbal domain. When we presented sets of color patches simultaneously in Experiments 1–4, recall accuracy did not increase with repetition; however, once color patches were presented sequentially in Experiment 5, accuracy did increase rapidly with repetition, even when participants engaged in articulatory suppression. Moreover, these learning dynamics matched those in Experiment 6, which used verbal materials. These findings suggest that (a) sequential focus on each item facilitates a repetition learning effect, indicating a temporal bottleneck is involved early in this process and (b) repetition learning is mechanistically similar across sensory modalities even though these modalities differently specialize in processing spatial or temporal information. |
Aditya Upadhyayula; John M. Henderson Spatiotemporal jump detection during continuous film viewing Journal Article In: Journal of Vision, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 1–17, 2023. @article{Upadhyayula2023, Prior research on film viewing has demonstrated that participants frequently fail to notice spatiotemporal disruptions, such as scene edits in the movies.Whether such insensitivity to spatiotemporal disruptions extends beyond scene edits in film viewing is not well understood. Across three experiments, we created spatiotemporal disruptions by presenting participants with minute long movie clips, and occasionally jumping the movie clips ahead or backward in time. Participants were instructed to press a button when they noticed any disruptions while watching the clips. The results from experiments 1 and 2 indicate that participants failed to notice the disruptions in continuity about 10% to 30% of the time depending on the magnitude of the jump. In addition, detection rates were lower by approximately 10% when the videos jumped ahead in time compared to the backward jumps across all jump magnitudes, suggesting a role of knowledge about the future affects jump detection. An additional analysis used optic flow similarity during these disruptions. Our findings suggest that insensitivity to spatiotemporal disruptions during film viewing is influenced by knowledge about future states. |
Roman Vakhrushev; Felicia Pei-Hsin Cheng; Anne Schacht; Arezoo Pooresmaeili Differential effects of intra-modal and crossmodal reward value on perception: ERP evidence Journal Article In: PLoS ONE, vol. 18, pp. 1–25, 2023. @article{Vakhrushev2023, In natural environments objects comprise multiple features from the same or different sensory modalities but it is not known how perception of an object is affected by the value associations of its constituent parts. The present study compares intra- and cross-modal valuedriven effects on behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of perception. Human participants first learned the reward associations of visual and auditory cues. Subsequently, they performed a visual discrimination task in the presence of previously rewarded, task irrelevant visual or auditory cues (intra- and cross-modal cues, respectively). During the conditioning phase, when reward associations were learned and reward cues were the target of the task, high value stimuli of both modalities enhanced the electrophysiological correlates of sensory processing in posterior electrodes. During the post-conditioning phase, when reward delivery was halted and previously rewarded stimuli were task-irrelevant, cross-modal value significantly enhanced the behavioral measures of visual sensitivity, whereas intra-modal value produced only an insignificant decrement. Analysis of the simultaneously recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) of posterior electrodes revealed similar findings. We found an early (90-120 ms) suppression of ERPs evoked by high-value, intramodal stimuli. Cross-modal stimuli led to a later value-driven modulation, with an enhancement of response positivity for high- compared to low-value stimuli starting at the N1 window (180-250 ms) and extending to the P3 (300-600 ms) responses. These results indicate that sensory processing of a compound stimulus comprising a visual target and task-irrelevant visual or auditory cues is modulated by the reward value of both sensory modalities, but such modulations rely on distinct underlying mechanisms. |
Willem S. Boxtel; Briana N. Cox; Austin Keen; Jiyeon Lee Planning sentence production in aphasia: Evidence from structural priming and eye-tracking Journal Article In: Frontiers in Language Sciences, vol. 2, pp. 1–16, 2023. @article{Boxtel2023, Background: Grammatical encoding is impaired in many persons with aphasia (PWA), resulting in deficits in sentence production accuracies and underlying planning processes. However, relatively little is known on how these grammatical encoding deficits can be mediated in PWA. This study aimed to facilitate off-line (accuracy) and real-time (eye fixations) encoding of passive sentences through implicit structural priming, a tendency to better process a current sentence because of its grammatical similarity to a previously experienced (prime) sentence. Method: Sixteen PWA and Sixteen age-matched controls completed an eyetracking-while-speaking task, where they described a target transitive picture preceded by a comprehension prime involving either an active or passive form. We measured immediate and cumulative priming effects on proportions of passives produced for the target pictures and proportions of eye fixations made to the theme actor in the target scene before speech onset of the sentence production. Results and conclusion: Both PWA and controls produced cumulatively more passives as the experiment progressed despite an absence of immediate priming effects in PWA. Both groups also showed cumulative changes in the pre-speech eye fixations associated with passive productions, with this cumulative priming effect greater for the PWA group. These findings suggest that structural priming results in gradual adaptation of the grammatical encoding processes of PWA and that structural priming may be used as a treatment component for improving grammatical deficits in aphasia. |
Ruud L. Brink; Keno Hagena; Niklas Wilming; Peter R. Murphy; Christian Büchel; Tobias H. Donner Flexible sensory-motor mapping rules manifest in correlated variability of stimulus and action codes across the brain Journal Article In: Neuron, vol. 111, no. 4, pp. 571–584, 2023. @article{Brink2023, Humans and non-human primates can flexibly switch between different arbitrary mappings from sensation to action to solve a cognitive task. It has remained unknown how the brain implements such flexible sensory-motor mapping rules. Here, we uncovered a dynamic reconfiguration of task-specific correlated variability between sensory and motor brain regions. Human participants switched between two rules for reporting visual orientation judgments during fMRI recordings. Rule switches were either signaled explicitly or inferred by the participants from ambiguous cues. We used behavioral modeling to reconstruct the time course of their belief about the active rule. In both contexts, the patterns of correlations between ongoing fluctuations in stimulus- and action-selective activity across visual- and action-related brain regions tracked participants' belief about the active rule. The rule-specific correlation patterns broke down around the time of behavioral errors. We conclude that internal beliefs about task state are instantiated in brain-wide, selective patterns of correlated variability. |
Ine Van der Cruyssen; Gershon Ben-Shakhar; Yoni Pertzov; Bruno Verschuere Detecting concealed familiarity using eye movements: The effect of leakage of mock crime details to innocents Journal Article In: Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, pp. 1–10, 2023. @article{VanderCruyssen2023a, The present study examined the eye-tracking Concealed Information Test (CIT) in a mock crime scenario. Participants were instructed to either commit a mock crime on campus (guilty participants; n = 42), read an article about this mock crime (informed innocents; n = 45), or read an unrelated article (naïve innocent participants; n = 46). Afterward, all participants were presented with an eye-tracking CIT task. Based on preregistered analyses of participants' gaze behavior, we were able to distinguish the guilty participants from the naïve innocents (area under the curve [AUC] = .71, 95% CI [.60, .82]). Interestingly, we were also able to distinguish the guilty participants from the informed innocent ones (AUC = .65, 95% CI [.53, .77]). Although these results are promising, the observed detection efficiency was lower than both previous eye-tracking CIT studies that used highly familiar stimuli as well as mock crime CIT studies relying on physiological measures. |
Xinrui Wang; Hui Jing Lu; Hanran Li; Lei Chang Childhood environmental unpredictability and experimentally primed uncertainty in relation to intuitive versus deliberate visual search Journal Article In: Current Psychology, pp. 1–14, 2023. @article{Wang2023k, Visual search is an integral part of animal life. Two search strategies, intuitive vs. deliberate search, are adopted by almost all animals including humans to adapt to different extent of environmental uncertainty. In two eye-tracking experiments involving simple visual search (Study 1) and complex information search (Study 2), we used the evolutionary life history (LH) approach to investigate the interaction between childhood environmental unpredictability and primed concurrent uncertainty in enabling these two search strategies. The results indicate that when individuals with greater childhood unpredictability were exposed to uncertainty cues, they exhibited intuitive rather than deliberate visual search (i.e., fewer fixations, reduced dwell time, a larger saccade size, and fewer repetitive inspections relative to individuals with lower childhood unpredictability). We conclude that childhood environment is crucial in calibrating LH including visual and cognitive strategies to adaptively respond to current environmental conditions. |
Zi-yang Wang; Li Liu; Yu Liu A multi-source behavioral and physiological recording system for cognitive assessment Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1–12, 2023. @article{Wang2023n, Cognitive assessment has a broad application prospect, including estimate of childhood neuro development and maturation, diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, and selection for special profession. With the development of computer technique and behavioral recording sensors, the method of cognitive assessment has been replaced from paper scale test to human–computer interaction. We can not only obtain the results of tasks, but also make it possible to acquire multiple behavioral and physiological data during the task. However, there is still a strong challenge of recording multi-source data synchronously during multi-dimensional cognitive assessments. Therefore, we built a multi-source cognitive assessment system can record multi-pattern behavioral and physiological data and feedback at different spatiotemporal levels. Under this system, we developed a multi-source diagnostic toolset for cognitive assessment, including eye tracking, hand movement, EEG and human–computer interaction data during the cognitive task. 238 participants with different mental disorders were assessed using this system. The results showed that our diagnostic toolset can be used to study the behavioral abnormalities of patients with mental disorders through the characteristics of multi-source data. Furthermore, this system can provide some objective diagnostic criteria such as behavioral characters and EEG features for diagnosis of mental disorders. |
Noriya Watanabe; Kosuke Miyoshi; Koji Jimura; Daisuke Shimane; Ruedeerat Keerativittayayut; Kiyoshi Nakahara; Masaki Takeda Multimodal deep neural decoding reveals highly resolved spatiotemporal profile of visual object representation in humans Journal Article In: NeuroImage, vol. 275, pp. 1–19, 2023. @article{Watanabe2023, Perception and categorization of objects in a visual scene are essential to grasp the surrounding situation. Recently, neural decoding schemes, such as machine learning in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), has been employed to elucidate the underlying neural mechanisms. However, it remains unclear as to how spatially distributed brain regions temporally represent visual object categories and sub-categories. One promising strategy to address this issue is neural decoding with concurrently obtained neural response data of high spatial and temporal resolution. In this study, we explored the spatial and temporal organization of visual object representations using concurrent fMRI and electroencephalography (EEG), combined with neural decoding using deep neural networks (DNNs). We hypothesized that neural decoding by multimodal neural data with DNN would show high classification performance in visual object categorization (faces or non-face objects) and sub-categorization within faces and objects. Visualization of the fMRI DNN was more sensitive than that in the univariate approach and revealed that visual categorization occurred in brain-wide regions. Interestingly, the EEG DNN valued the earlier phase of neural responses for categorization and the later phase of neural responses for sub-categorization. Combination of the two DNNs improved the classification performance for both categorization and sub-categorization compared with fMRI DNN or EEG DNN alone. These deep learning-based results demonstrate a categorization principle in which visual objects are represented in a spatially organized and coarse-to-fine manner, and provide strong evidence of the ability of multimodal deep learning to uncover spatiotemporal neural machinery in sensory processing. |
Taylor D. Webb; Matthew G. Wilson; Henrik Odéen; Jan Kubanek Sustained modulation of primate deep brain circuits with focused ultrasonic waves Journal Article In: Brain Stimulation, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 798–805, 2023. @article{Webb2023, Background: Transcranial focused ultrasound has the potential to noninvasively modulate deep brain circuits and impart sustained, neuroplastic effects. Objective: Bring the approach closer to translations by demonstrating sustained modulation of deep brain circuits and choice behavior in task-performing non-human primates. Methods: Low-intensity transcranial ultrasound of 30 s in duration was delivered in a controlled manner into deep brain targets (left or right lateral geniculate nucleus; LGN) of non-human primates while the subjects decided whether a left or a right visual target appeared first. While the animals performed the task, we recorded intracranial EEG from occipital screws. The ultrasound was delivered into the deep brain targets daily for a period of more than 6 months. Results: The brief stimulation induced effects on choice behavior that persisted up to 15 minutes and were specific to the sonicated target. Stimulation of the left/right LGN increased the proportion of rightward/leftward choices. These effects were accompanied by an increase in gamma activity over visual cortex. The contralateral effect on choice behavior and the increase in gamma, compared to sham stimulation, suggest that the stimulation excited the target neural circuits. There were no detrimental effects on the animals' discrimination performance over the months-long course of the stimulation. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that brief, 30-s ultrasonic stimulation induces neuroplastic effects specifically in the target deep brain circuits, and that the stimulation can be applied daily without detrimental effects. These findings encourage repeated applications of transcranial ultrasound to malfunctioning deep brain circuits in humans with the goal of providing a durable therapeutic reset. |
Jelena M. Wehrli; Yanfang Xia; Benjamin Offenhammer; Birgit Kleim; Daniel Müller; Dominik R. Bach Effect of the matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor doxycycline on human trace fear memory Journal Article In: eNeuro, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 1–13, 2023. @article{Wehrli2023, Learning to predict threat is of adaptive importance, but aversive memory can also become disadvantageous and burdensome in clinical conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Pavlovian fear conditioning is a laboratory model of aversive memory and thought to rely on structural synaptic reconfiguration involving matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)9 signaling. It has recently been suggested that the MMP9-inhibiting antibiotic doxycycline, applied before acquisition training in humans, reduces fear memory retention after one week. This previous study used cued delay fear conditioning, in which predictors and outcomes overlap in time. However, temporal separation of predictors and outcomes is common in clinical conditions. Learning the association of temporally separated events requires a partly different neural circuitry, for which the role of MMP9 signaling is not yet known. Here, we investigate the impact of doxycycline on long-interval (15 s) trace fear conditioning in a randomized controlled trial with 101 (50 females) human participants. We find no impact of the drug in our preregistered analyses. Exploratory post hoc analyses of memory retention suggested a serum level-dependent effect of doxycycline on trace fear memory retention. However, effect size to distinguish CS+/CS in the placebo group turned out to be smaller than in previously used delay fear conditioning protocols, which limits the power of statistical tests. Our results suggest that doxycycline effect on trace fear conditioning in healthy individuals is smaller and less robust than anticipated, potentially limiting its clinical application potential. |
Zi-Han Wei; Yan Liang; Ci-Juan Liang; Hong-Zhi Liu Information search processing affects social decisions Journal Article In: Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, vol. 36, no. 5, pp. 1–11, 2023. @article{Wei2023a, Social decisions often require individuals to balance conflicts between their own selfish interests and the need for equality. The way information about available options is presented can have an impact on how people process information and make social decisions. In this study, we examined the effect of information presentation on social decisions in a mini-dictator game, where participants must make binary choices about how to allocate money between themselves and another participant. We conducted two tasks with different presentation styles: the attribute-based task, where attributes such as own payoffs or others' payoffs were displayed sequentially, and the alternative-based task, where alternatives were displayed sequentially. We found that participants in the attribute-based task made more selfish choices and were less sensitive to equality than those in the alternative-based task. The direction of information search and the complexity level of information processing played a mediating role in the effect of task on social decisions. Our findings highlight the relationship between information search and social decisions, shedding light on the mechanisms and processes that underlie social decision-making. |
Shirui Wen; Huangyemin Zhang; Kailing Huang; Xiaojie Wei; Ke Yang; Quan Wang; Li Feng Impaired orienting function detected through eye movements in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy Journal Article In: Frontiers in Neuroscience, vol. 17, pp. 1–10, 2023. @article{Wen2023, Objective: Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) often exhibit attention function impairment. The orienting network is the subsystem of the attention network that has not been fully studied. In this study, we used eye-tracking technology with an attention network test (ANT)-based task to assess the orienting function of TLE patients, aiming to characterize their eye movement patterns. Methods: A total of 37 TLE patients and 29 healthy controls (HCs) completed the ANT task based on eye-tracking technology. Orienting function damage was mainly assessed by the ANT orienting effect. Eye movement metrics, such as mean first goal-directed saccade latency (MGSL), total saccades, and saccade amplitudes, were compared between groups Results: The TLE patients had a significantly lower ANT orienting effect (HC, 54.05 ± 34.05; TLE, 32.29 ± 39.54) and lower eye-tracking orienting effect (HC, 116.98 ± 56.59; TLE, 86.72 ± 59.10) than those of the HCs. The larger orienting effects indicate that orienting responses are faster when receiving a spatial cue compared with a center cue. In the spatial cue condition, compared with HCs, the TLE group showed a longer first goal-directed saccade latency (HC, 76.77 ± 58.87ms; TLE, 115.14 ± 59.15ms), more total saccades (HC, 28.46 ± 12.30; TLE, 36.69 ± 15.13), and larger saccade amplitudes (HC, 0.75◦ ± 0.60◦; TLE, 1.36◦ ± 0.89◦). Furthermore, there was a positive correlation of the orienting-effect score between the ANT task and eye-tracking metrics (r = 0.58, p < 0.05). Conclusion: We innovatively developed a new detection method using eye-tracking technology in combination with an ANT-based task to detect the orienting function in TLE patients. The current research demonstrated that TLE patients had a significant orienting dysfunction with a specific saccade pattern characterized by a longer first goal-directed saccade latency, more total saccades, and larger saccade amplitudes. These oculomotor metrics are likely to be a better indicator of orienting function and may potentially be used for behavioral-based interventions and long-term cognition monitoring in TLE patients. |
Jacob A. Westerberg; Jeffrey D. Schall; Geoffrey F. Woodman; Alexander Maier Feedforward attentional selection in sensory cortex Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 1–17, 2023. @article{Westerberg2023, Salient objects grab attention because they stand out from their surroundings. Whether this phenomenon is accomplished by bottom-up sensory processing or requires top-down guidance is debated. We tested these alternative hypotheses by measuring how early and in which cortical layer(s) neural spiking distinguished a target from a distractor. We measured synaptic and spiking activity across cortical columns in mid-level area V4 of male macaque monkeys performing visual search for a color singleton. A neural signature of attentional capture was observed in the earliest response in the input layer 4. The magnitude of this response predicted response time and accuracy. Errant behavior followed errant selection. Because this response preceded top-down influences and arose in the cortical layer not targeted by top-down connections, these findings demonstrate that feedforward activation of sensory cortex can underlie attentional priority. |
Mirjam C. M. Wever; Lisanne A. E. M. Houtum; Loes H. C. Janssen; Wilma G. M. Wentholt; Iris M. Spruit; Marieke S. Tollenaar; Geert Jan Will; Bernet M. Elzinga In: Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 1598–1609, 2023. @article{Wever2023, One of the most prevalent nonverbal, social phenomena known to automatically elicit self- and other-referential processes is eye contact. By its negative effects on the perception of social safety and views about the self and others, childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) may fundamentally affect these processes. To investigate whether the socioaffective consequences of CEM may become visible in response to (prolonged) eye gaze, 79 adult participants (mean [M]age = 49.87, standard deviation [SD]age = 4.62) viewed videos with direct and averted gaze of an unfamiliar other and themselves while we recorded self-reported mood, eye movements using eye-tracking, and markers of neural activity using fMRI. Participants who reported higher levels of CEM exhibited increased activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex to one's own, but not to others', direct gaze. Furthermore, in contrast to those who reported fewer of such experiences, they did not report a better mood in response to a direct gaze of self and others, despite equivalent amounts of time spent looking into their own and other peoples' eyes. The fact that CEM is associated with enhanced neural activation in a brain area that is crucially involved in self-referential processing (i.e., vmPFC) in response to one's own direct gaze is in line with the chronic negative impact of CEM on a person's self-views. Interventions that directly focus on targeting maladaptive self-views elicited during eye gaze to self may be clinically useful. |