All EyeLink Eye Tracker Publications
All 14,000+ peer-reviewed EyeLink research publications up until 2025 (with some early 2026s) are listed below by year. You can search the publications library using keywords such as Visual Search, Smooth Pursuit, Parkinson’s, etc. You can also search for individual author names. Eye-tracking studies grouped by research area can be found on the solutions pages. If we missed any EyeLink eye-tracking papers, please email us!
2025 |
Samuel Shaki; Oria Pitem; Martin H. Fischer Lexical priming of space depends on how deeply you think about it Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 2025. @article{Shaki2025,There is a long debate about how the meaning of words cues our spatial attention. For implicitly spatial words such as “ROOF” or “BASEMENT”, it was recently shown that processing both the cue word and a subsequent spatial target stimulus was necessary for spatial congruity effects to emerge. Here we challenge this work by documenting that word cues alone suffice to induce congruity effects if they are processed deeply. Sixty-three healthy adults detected vertically displaced targets after looking at centrally presented cue words under three counterbalanced instructions, imposing increasing processing depth: Lexical decision, non-spatial categorization, and spatial categorization. Target detection speed revealed spatial congruity effects for both spatial and non-spatial categorization but not for lexical decision. An interpretation in terms of covert attention deployment was corroborated by concomitant vertical displacements of eye gaze. Our results reveal minimal requirements for covert and overt semantic cueing of spatial attention. |
Fatemeh Shahnabati; Atefeh Sabourifard; S. Hamid Amiri; Alireza Bosaghzadeh; Reza Ebrahimpour Cognitive load and visual attention assessment using physiological eye tracking measures in multimedia learning Journal Article In: PLoS One, vol. 20, pp. 1–26, 2025. @article{Shahnabati2025,Effective multimedia content design can boost performance, capture visual attention, and optimize cognitive load. The current study employs eye-tracking technology to establish metrics to measure cognitive load, analyze visual attention allocation, and evaluate learners' performance in English language learning. The study focuses on creating and comparing two different multimedia presentations. The differentiation between them lies in their adherence to or deviation from Mayer's educational multimedia design principles: coherence, signaling, and spatial contiguity. participants were randomly assigned to two groups. The first group viewed with principles version, while the second group viewed without principles version, during which their eye movement data were collected. Subsequently, both groups participated in a recall test and completed the NASA-TLX questionnaire. The research establishes connections between specific eye-tracking parameters, subjective cognitive load scores, and recall test results through regression models and analyzes fixation distributions. The study also delves into microsaccades rate and changes in pupil size, each analyzed within times of interest. The study's findings indicate that the examined metrics can significantly help distinguish between the two conditions: principles and no principles. These metrics are pertinent for assessing individuals' cognitive load and visual attention and serve as beneficial indicators for gauging the efficacy of the designed multimedia content. |
Yelda Semizer; Ruth Rosenholtz The effect of background clutter on visual search in video conferencing Journal Article In: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–16, 2025. @article{Semizer2025,The use of video conferencing tools has become increasingly common recently. The visual displays in these tools are highly complex, being composed of multiple faces with varying image quality and lighting conditions. On top of this, users have the ability to choose their own backgrounds. Some choose simple artificial backgrounds, some appear in front of a real or simulated room, and some use something more abstract. How do these choices affect the user's ability to use the tool, for example, finding the current speaker or a reaction symbol? Vision science can certainly provide answers to these questions; however, most search studies use simple displays with a uniform background, or more recently, real-world scenes. How does what we know about search generalize to these more complex displays? The current study sought to examine how our understanding of visual search applies to well-controlled video conferencing displays. Specifically, we investigated the effect of display clutter (i.e., background complexity and variability) on perceptual tasks relevant for video conferencing. In an eye-tracking set-up, participants searched either for the speaker whose image was highlighted (Experiment 1) or for a reaction symbol (raised-hand) embedded on one of the attendees' background. Results showed a significant effect of background complexity and variability, suggesting that search performance declined as the display clutter increased. Image-based analysis showed that the choice of backgrounds mediated these effects, suggesting that some virtual backgrounds were not optimal for perceptual processes. |
Alia Seedat; Alex Lepauvre; Jay Jeschke; Urszula Gorska-Klimowska; Marcelo Armendariz; Katarina Bendtz; Simon Henin; Rony Hirschhorn; Tanya Brown; Erika Jensen; Csaba Kozma; David Mazumder; Stephanie Montenegro; Leyao Yu; Niccolò Bonacchi; Diptyajit Das; Kyle Kahraman; Praveen Sripad; Fatemeh Taheriyan; Orrin Devinsky; Patricia Dugan; Werner Doyle; Adeen Flinker; Daniel Friedman; Wendell Lake; Michael Pitts; Liad Mudrik; Melanie Boly; Sasha Devore; Gabriel Kreiman; Lucia Melloni Open multi-center intracranial electroencephalography dataset with task probing conscious visual perception Journal Article In: Scientific Data, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1–14, 2025. @article{Seedat2025,We introduce an intracranial EEG (iEEG) dataset collected as part of an adversarial collaboration between proponents of two theories of consciousness: Global Neuronal Workspace Theory and Integrated Information Theory. The data were recorded from 38 patients undergoing intracranial monitoring of epileptic seizures across three research centers using the same experimental protocol. Participants were presented with suprathreshold visual stimuli belonging to four different categories (faces, objects, letters, false fonts) in three orientations (front, left, right view), and for three durations (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 s). Participants engaged in a non-speeded Go/No-Go target detection task to identify infrequent targets with some stimuli becoming task-relevant and others task-irrelevant. Participants also engaged in a motor localizer task. The data were checked for its quality and converted to Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS). The de-identified dataset contains demographics, clinical information, electrode reconstruction, behavioral performance, and eye-tracking data. We also provide code to preprocess and analyze the data. This dataset holds promise for reuse in consciousness science and vision neuroscience to answer questions related to stimulus processing, target detection, and task-relevance, among many others. |
Lara Stella Marie Schroth; Wim Fias; Muhammet Ikbal Sahan Eye movements follow the dynamic shifts of attention through serial order in verbal working memory Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–11, 2025. @article{Schroth2025,How are arbitrary sequences of verbal information retained and manipulated in working memory? Increasing evidence suggests that serial order in verbal WM is spatially coded and that spatial attention is involved in access and retrieval. Based on the idea that brain areas controlling spatial attention are also involved in oculomotor control, we used eye tracking to reveal how the spatial structure of serial order information is accessed in verbal working memory. In two experiments, participants memorized a sequence of auditory words in the correct order. While their eye movements were being measured, they named the memorized items in a self-determined order in Experiment 1 and in a cued order in Experiment 2. We tested the hypothesis that serial order in verbal working memory interacts with the spatial attention system whereby gaze patterns in visual space closely follow attentional shifts in the internal space of working memory. In both experiments, we found that the gaze shifts in visual space correlated with the spatial shifts of attention along the left-to-right one-dimensional mapping of serial order positions in verbal WM. These findings suggest that spatial attention is employed for dynamically searching through verbal WM and that eye movements reflect the spontaneous association of order and space even in the absence of visuospatial input. |
Eda Sarı; Furkan Dindaroğlu; Belkıs Durmuş; Sonia Amado Exploring mandibular asymmetry: Insights from visual perception using eye-tracking technology Journal Article In: BMC Oral Health, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 1–10, 2025. @article{Sar2025,Background: The visual attention provides an objective perspective on how a stimulus take attention. In dentistry, one of the important facial determinants in esthetic perception is the mandibular asymmetry. The study aimed to evaluate the eye movements of the orthodontists and non-professionals on the images with different severity of mandibular asymmetry using eye tracking technology. Methods: The eye movements of 26 orthodontists and 30 non-professionals were captured. Thirty images were visually evaluated for the presence of mandibular asymmetry by two orthodontists. 2 mm, 4 mm, 6 mm, and 8 mm chin deviation were simulated on the images and the images without asymmetry were considered as control group. A total of 50 photographs from 10 individuals were included in the study. Participants' eye movements were recorded using an Eyelink 1000 plus eye-tracking device (Sr-Research, Canada). Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used for statistical comparisons. Results: The number of fixations on the lower lip-chin area in either the right or left direction did not show a statistically significant difference. (F(1,000;59,000) = 2.133, p > 0.05,). Time to first fixation was faster to the lower lip-chin area in 8 mm asymmetry condition compared to 2 mm (F(1,2) = 31.423, p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.940). Orthodontists made less fixations before the lower lip-chin area in 8 mm condition compared to 2 mm (F(1,2) = 20.758, p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.912). Conclusions: While the direction of mandibular asymmetry did not affect voluntary attention, an increase in asymmetry, regardless of profession, attracted more attention to the lower lip-chin area. While the 8 mm asymmetry caught the involuntary attention of orthodontists, the same did not occur in non-professionals. |
Arunava Samaddar; Brooke S. Jackson; Nicole A. Lazar; Jennifer E. McDowell; Cheolwoo Park Brainpack: A suite of advanced statistical techniques for multi-subject and multi-group fMRI data analysis Journal Article In: Journal of the Korean Statistical Society, vol. 54, pp. 1076–1100, 2025. @article{Samaddar2025,Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data based on blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal have become widely available, leading to exponential growth in the number of published studies reporting on human brain function. fMRI data have also posed challenges, including a low signal to noise ratio, various noise sources, correlation between observations, and size of the data set. Also, researchers are interested in drawing conclusions from a sample of subjects to a relevant population, and in comparing the performance between groups of people. Our motivating fMRI data involve both block and event-related runs, multiple tasks, scanning sessions, and groups of subjects. The objective of this study is to identify brain regions associated with performance of cognitive tasks and to observe the effects of practice as measured by BOLD signal across different tasks and contexts. To accomplish the goal, we develop a suite of reliable and robust statistical tools, called BrainPack, that is composed of aggregation, decorrelation, data volume reduction, cluster analysis, and comparison of group clustered maps. The proposed approach does not require a specific model, can detect signals from noisy data, and take temporal correlations into account compared to model-based analysis. Through use of the BrainPack suite, we find practice-induced BOLD signal attenuation across groups and tasks in regions associated with sensorimotor and cognitive control processes. The BrainPack application improves existing between-group analysis methods to solve persistent problems in fMRI data analysis using the following advancements: (i) robust, effective, and powerful analyses for identifying neural circuits across any group using statistical learning methods and (ii) optimized multiple group analysis methods using simultaneous comparison of group maps. |
Anthony W. Sali; Madison P. Shaver; Anna B. Toledo; Austin L. Torain; Isabel N. Flicker Learned saccade readiness varies with fluctuations in sustained attention Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2025. @article{Sali2025,Both the focus of sustained attention and an individual's readiness to shift attention among spatial locations fluctuate over time. However, the interaction of these ongoing changes in attentional states remains unknown. In the current study, participants completed a modified gradual continuous performance task during which they monitored one of two lateralized streams of black and white images for the appearance of frequent target stimuli, withholding responses to foils. Periodically, a visual cue signaled participants to either maintain fixation at the current stream or to make a saccade to the opposing stream, and participants made a parity categorization for a digit appearing at the cued location. Trial-by-trial variation in pupil size, an indicator of arousal, accounted for both fluctuations in sustained attention and shift readiness but fluctuations in sustained attention were not associated with general modulations of shift readiness. Furthermore, we manipulated the frequency of gaze shift cues over time and observed that unexpected shift cues were most disruptive when participants lacked sustained focus, yielding a greater cost in saccade latencies than when the efficacy of sustained attention was high. Our results suggest that ongoing changes in sustained attention occur independently from gaze shifting readiness but carry consequences for learned saccade preparation. |
Cristina Rubino; Adam T. Harrison; Lara A. Boyd Oculomotor learning is evident during implicit motor sequence learning Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 2025. @article{Rubino2025,Motor sequence learning involves both oculomotor and manual motor systems, yet the role of the oculomotor system in the learning and execution of skilled arm movements remains underexplored. In the current work, the influence of sequence learning on the oculomotor system was investigated by testing 20 healthy adults for 3 days as they practiced an implicit motor learning task, the serial targeting task (STT). The STT contained a repeated sequence, which was interleaved with random sequences. This task was practiced on a KINARM robot that tracked both saccades and reaches. A delayed, 24-h retention test assessed sequence-specific motor learning. Sequence-specific changes across practice and learning were observed for both saccades and reaches; this was demonstrated by faster saccade and arm motor reaction times for the repeated sequence compared to random sequences. Notably, change in the oculomotor system occurred earlier in practice as compared to the manual motor system. Reaches were executed more quickly when led by express saccades (rapid eye movements occurring within 90–120 ms) compared to when they were preceded by regular latency (> 120 ms) saccades early in practice. Our findings highlight distinct yet interconnected functions between oculomotor and manual motor systems associated with implicit motor sequence learning. |
Gonzalo Ruarte; Gaston Bujia; Damián Care; Matias Julian Ison; Juan Esteban Kamienkowski Integrating Bayesian and neural networks models for eye movement prediction in hybrid search Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2025. @article{Ruarte2025,Visual search is crucial in daily human interaction with the environment. Hybrid search extends this by requiring observers to find any item from a given set. Recently, a few models were proposed to simulate human eye movements in visual search tasks within natural scenes, but none were implemented for Hybrid search under similar conditions. We present an enhanced neural network Entropy Limit Minimization (nnELM) model, grounded in a Bayesian framework and signal detection theory, and the Hybrid Search Eye Movements (HSEM) Dataset, containing thousands of human eye movements during hybrid tasks. A key Hybrid search challenge is that participants have to look for different objects at the same time. To address this, we developed several strategies involving the posterior probability distributions after each fixation. Adjusting peripheral visibility improved early-stage efficiency, aligning it with human behavior. Limiting the model's memory reduced success in longer searches, mirroring human performance. We validated these improvements by comparing our model with a held-out set within the HSEM and with other models in a separate visual search benchmark. Overall, the new nnELM model not only handles Hybrid search in natural scenes but also closely replicates human behavior, advancing our understanding of search processes while maintaining interpretability. |
Martin Rolfs; Richard Schweitzer; Eric Castet; Tamara L. Watson; Sven Ohl Lawful kinematics link eye movements to the limits of high-speed perception Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–17, 2025. @article{Rolfs2025,Perception requires active sampling of the environment. What part of the physical world can be perceived is limited by the sensory system's biophysical setup, but might be further constrained by the kinematic bounds of the motor actions used to acquire sensory information. Here, we tested this fundamental idea for humans' fastest and most frequent behavior—saccadic eye movements—which entail incidental sensory consequences (i.e., swift retinal motion) that rarely reach awareness in natural vision. Using high-speed video projection, we display rapidly moving stimuli that faithfully reproduce, or deviate from, saccades' lawful relation of velocity, duration, and amplitude. For each stimulus, observers perform perceptual tasks for which performance is contingent on consciously seeing the stimulus' motion trajectory. We uncover that visibility of the stimulus' movement is well predicted by the specific kinematics of saccades and their sensorimotor contingencies, reflecting even variability between individual observers. Computational modeling shows that spatiotemporal integration during early visual processing predicts this lawful relation in a tight range of biologically plausible parameters. These results suggest that the visual system takes into account motor kinematics when omitting an action's incidental sensory consequences, thereby preserving visual sensitivity to high-speed object motion. |
Jonathan Edward Robinson; Andrew W. Corcoran; Christopher J. Whyte; András Sárközy; Anil K. Seth; Gyula Kovács; Karl J. Friston; Cyriel M. A. Pennartz; Giulio Tononi; Jakob Hohwy The role of active inference in conscious awareness Journal Article In: PLoS One, vol. 20, no. 12, pp. 1–20, 2025. @article{Robinson2025,Active inference, a first-principles framework for modelling the behaviour of sentient agents, is beginning to be applied in consciousness research. One hypothesis arising from the framework is that active inference is necessary for changes in conscious content. As one component of an extensive adversarial collaboration among competing theories of consciousness, active inference will be contrasted with two other theories of consciousness, neither of which posit that active inference is necessary for consciousness. Here, we thus present a Study Protocol designed to test the active inference hypothesis using a carefully controlled adaptation of the motion-induced blindness paradigm, where an 'active' condition with richer active inference is contrasted with a 'passive' condition. In the active condition, participants direct their gaze towards a target stimulus following its disappearance from consciousness, and report on its subsequent reappearance. In the passive condition, participants maintain central fixation, while the stimulus array is moved across the visual field (in a replay of the active condition based on eye-tracking data acquired during active trials). In two experiments, we plan to investigate target reappearance across active and passive conditions to evaluate the contribution of active inference to conscious awareness. Results will eventually be considered in the context of all the experiments conducted as part of the overall adversarial collaboration. |
Gioia Riboni-Verri; Christopher E. McMurran; Trisha Mukherjee; Cyrus Daruwalla; Jonathon Holland; Riddhima Gautam; Benson S. Chen; Emma Cutting; Wendi Qian; David MacManus; Declan T. Chard; J. William L. Brown; Alasdair J. Coles; Nick G. Cunniffe In: Trials, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 1–19, 2025. @article{Riboni-Verri2025,Background In multiple sclerosis (MS), progressive disability occurs following degeneration of demyelinated axons. A tractable approach to delay, prevent or reverse disability progression is through enhancement of endogenous remyelination. Clinical trials have deployed drugs, such as clemastine, to target the rate‑limiting step in this process: differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). Preclinical research has shown that metformin can reverse an age‑associated deficit in the responsiveness of OPCs to pro‑differentiation factors. The purpose of the Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair trial Two (CCMR Two) is to evaluate the efficacy of the combination of metformin and clemastine to promote remyelination in people with MS. Methods Participants with relapsing‑remitting MS (RRMS) will be randomised 1:1 to the combination of metformin and clemastine or matched placebos and followed for 24 weeks of treatment. All participants must be stable on a disease‑modifying therapy and have evidence of chronic stable optic neuropathy in at least one eye (defined by P100 latency of the visual evoked potential (VEP) ≥ 118 ms, and the absence of a history of acute optic neuritis in the preceding 2 years). The primary outcome measure will be the change in the P100 latency of the full‑field VEP between baseline and week 26. It is planned to recruit a total of 70 participants. This will have 80% power to detect a reduction of 3 ms in VEP P100 latency between the two treatment groups. Secondary outcome measures will examine the change in multifocal VEP and the change in lesional magnetisation transfer ratio (MTR) for lesions stratified by location and tissue‑specific cohort baseline lesional MTR values. Discussion We set out the trial design, the rationale for participant and outcome measure selection, and the pre‑specified analyses. With this trial, we expect to be able to detect the structural and functional consequences of remy‑elination within a sample size feasible for our single‑centre trial. |
Ping Ran; Meng Ying Sun; Qian Sun; Qi Sun Effects of local information and egocentric reference frames on estimation of biological motion direction Journal Article In: Psychological Research, vol. 89, no. 6, pp. 1–17, 2025. @article{Ran2025a,Previous studies have established that coarse discrimination (e.g., left/right, forward/backward) of point-light walker (PLW) direction is modulated by multiple factors including global/local motion information, biological/social factors, and egocentric reference frames. However, the specific contributions of local motion information and egocentric referencing to fine-grained PLW direction estimation remain unclear. Drawing upon principles of biomechanical asymmetry and right-lateralized motor dominance, we hypothesized a systematic overall rightward bias in PLW direction estimation. Through three carefully controlled experiments, we demonstrated that: (1) right-handed participants showed consistently overall rightward estimation bias; (2) this bias was selectively enhanced by right-sided body stimuli while remaining unaffected by left-sided stimuli; and (3) spatial decoupling of stimulus center from egocentric coordinates revealed persistent egocentric coding in the direction estimation. Moreover, prolonged stimulus exposure led to expanded gaze distribution alongside heightened local information processing, underscoring the pivotal role of local information. These findings suggest that biomechanical asymmetries may shape PLW direction perception and reveal the interplay between local information analysis and egocentric referencing in fine-grained biological motion estimation. |
Rajani Raman; Anna Bognár; Ghazaleh Ghamkhari Nejad; Albert Mukovskiy; Lucas Martini; Martin Giese; Rufin Vogels Keypoint-based modeling reveals fine-grained body pose tuning in superior temporal sulcus neurons Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–16, 2025. @article{Raman2025,Body pose and orientation serve as vital visual signals in primate non-verbal social communication. Leveraging deep learning algorithms that extract body poses from videos of behaving monkeys, applied to a monkey avatar, we investigated neural tuning for pose and viewpoint, targeting fMRI-defined mid and anterior Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS) body patches. We modeled the pose and viewpoint selectivity of the units with keypoint-based principal component regression with cross-validation and applied model inversion as a key approach to identify effective body parts and views. Mid STS units were effectively modeled using view-dependent 2D keypoint representations, revealing that their responses were driven by specific body parts that differed among neurons. Some anterior STS units exhibited better predictive performances with a view-dependent 3D model. On average, anterior STS units were better fitted by a keypoint-based model incorporating mirror-symmetric viewpoint tuning than by view-dependent 2D and 3D keypoint models. However, in both regions, a view-independent keypoint model resulted in worse predictive performance. This keypoint-based approach provides insights into how the primate visual system encodes socially relevant body cues, deepening our understanding of body pose representation in the STS. |
Estelle Raffin; Michele Bevilacqua; Fabienne Windel; Pauline Menoud; Roberto F. Salamanca-Giron; Sarah Feroldi; Sarah B. Zandvliet; Nicola Ramdass; Laurijn Draaisma; Patrik Vuilleumier; Adrian G Guggisberg; Christophe Bonvin; Lisa Fleury; Krystel R. Huxlin; Elena Beanato; Friedhelm C. Hummel Boosting hemianopia recovery: The power of interareal cross-frequency brain stimulation Journal Article In: Brain, vol. 148, pp. 4548–4561, 2025. @article{Raffin2025,Visual field loss is a common consequence of stroke and manifests in approximatively one-third of patients in the chronic stage. Such loss can significantly impact daily life activities, compromising tasks such as reading, navigating or driving. Although slow and labour intensive, evidence suggests that early interventions with tailored rehabilitation programmes might stimulate visual recovery and improve quality of life in stroke survivors.To enhance the effects of such rehabilitation programmes, we designed a novel, non-invasive, pathway-specific, physiology-inspired cross-frequency brain stimulation protocol, where complex oscillatory signal integration was inferred from phase–amplitude coupling of oscillatory signals between the primary visual cortex and the motion-sensitive medio-temporal area. Sixteen stroke patients were enrolled in a double-blind, randomized, cross-over trial, during which they performed two blocks of 10 daily training sessions of a direction discrimination task, combined with one of the two cross-frequency transcranial alternative brain stimulation (cf-tACS versus control cf-tACS) conditions.We found that the cf-tACS condition promoting feedforward visual inputs to the medio-temporal area significantly enhanced motion discrimination performance and shifted visual field borders (i.e. through localized enlargement of isopters). Behavioural improvements associated with a change in oscillatory activity within motion processing pathways were proportional to the amount of residual structural fibres along these pathways and perilesional primary visual cortex activity. In sum, we report, for the first time, that cf-tACS, a novel, pathway-specific, physiology-inspired brain stimulation approach, is able to boost the efficacy of perceptual training, restoring visual motion processing and reducing the severity of visual impairments in adult stroke patients. |
Vanessa C. Radtke; Wanja Wolff; Corinna S. Martarelli How effortful is boredom? Studying self-control demands through pupillometry Journal Article In: Collabra: Psychology, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1–24, 2025. @article{Radtke2025,Self-control is essential for managing actions, yet its exertion is perceived as effortful. Performing a task may require effort not only because of its inherent difficulty but also due to its potential for inducing boredom, as boredom has been shown to be self-control demanding itself. So far, the extent of self-control demands during boredom and its temporal dynamics remain elusive. We employed a multimethod approach to address this knowledge gap. Ninety-five participants took part in an easy and hard version of the Stroop task. During both tasks, they indicated several times their perceived task difficulty, boredom, boredom-related effort, difficulty-related effort, overall effort, and fatigue. We tested whether pupil size, as a physiological indicator of cognitive effort, was predicted more accurately by difficulty- and boredom-related effort together than by task-difficulty-related effort alone. The best model fit included boredom-, difficulty-related effort, and their interactions with task type (easy, hard Stroop). Tonic pupil size increased during the easy Stroop, while phasic pupil size decreased with greater boredom-related effort in both tasks. Greater difficulty-related effort was linked to increases in tonic and phasic pupil size in the easy, but not in the hard Stroop. Finally, boredom-related effort in the Stroop predicted performance in a subsequent flanker task. Our results provide preliminary support that enduring boredom may not only be perceived as effortful but also be reflected in psychophysiological changes. Moreover, it may influence subsequent behavior. This underscores the importance of considering boredom as a potential confound in self-control research and broader study designs. |
Katrina R. Quinn; Florian Sandhaeger; Nima Noury; Ema Zezelic; Markus Siegel Abstract choice representations during stable choice-response associations Journal Article In: Communications Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1–8, 2025. @article{Quinn2025,An increasing body of evidence has demonstrated neural representations of choices independent of the motor actions used to report them – so-called abstract choices. However, it remains unclear whether such representations arise due to dynamic changes in choice-response associations or reflect a general property of decision-making. Here, we show that in the human brain, choices are represented abstractly even when choice-response associations remain stable over time. We recorded neural activity using magnetoencephalography while participants performed a motion discrimination task, with choice-response mappings held constant within blocks. We found neural information about participants' perceptual choices independent of both motor response and visual stimulus. Choice information increased during the stimulus and peaked after the response. Moreover, choice and response information showed distinct cortical distributions, with choice-related signals strongest in frontoparietal regions. Thus, abstract choice representations are not limited to dynamic or action-independent contexts and may be a general feature of decision-making. |
Ying Que; Yueyuan Zheng; Janet H. Hsiao; Xiao Hu Using eye movements, electrodermal activities, and heart rates to predict different types of cognitive load during reading with background music Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Que2025a,The triarchic model of cognitive load postulates three types of cognitive load—extraneous, intrinsic, and germane load. While various approaches have been proposed to measure the three types of cognitive load, most measurements are intrusive. To address this issue, we leveraged multimodal learning analytics to collect eye movement (EM), electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV) from non-intrusive sensors and investigate whether they could predict the three types of cognitive load. We examined extraneous load (created by adding background music (BGM)), intrinsic load (created by text complexity), and germane load (reflected by comprehension accuracy) in a novel reading context with self-selected preferred BGM. One hundred and two (102) non-native English speakers were recruited. Half of them read English passages with BGM, while the other half read in silence. Results of logistic regression indicated that EM measures were predictive of the three load types, while HR/HRV measures predicted extraneous and germane load. Our findings provide evidence supporting the triarchic structure of cognitive load theory and implications for the design of non-intrusive measurement of cognitive load. |
Claire Prendergast What young children's processing and understanding of compound words can tell us about their pragmatic development Journal Article In: Psychology of Language and Communication, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 1–34, 2025. @article{Prendergast2025,What can we learn by observing how children process and interpret compound terms? By integrating both linguistic and pragmatic factors, typically studied in isolation, the current study revealed children's growing adherence to linguistic norms, but also their increasing openness to unconventional reference. Across three experiments employing a picture selection task for referent selection, young children were presented with lexicalized and novel exocentric and endocentric compound nouns. Examining age-related differences in referent selection, Experiment 1 (baseline), found a preference for conventional and semantically transparent referents, increasing with age. Experiment 2 showed that an individual speaker influenced referent selection across both age groups, with 5-year-olds showing more accommodation of the speaker's intended meaning. Experiment 3, examining gaze behaviour, indicated that both 3- and 5-year-olds decompose lexicalized compound terms similarly to novel compounds. This research highlights the interplay between language and social development, showcasing key stages in children's pragmatic development. |
Sorin Pojoga; Ariana Andrei; Valentin Dragoi Unsupervised learning of temporal regularities in visual cortical populations Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Pojoga2025,The brain's ability to extract temporal information from dynamic stimuli in the environment is essential for everyday behavior. To extract temporal statistical regularities, neural circuits must possess the ability to measure, produce, and anticipate sensory events. Here we report that when neural populations in macaque primary visual cortex are triggered to exhibit a periodic response to a repetitive sequence of optogenetic laser flashes, they learn to accurately reproduce the temporal sequence even when light stimulation is turned off. Despite the fact that individual cells had a poor capacity to extract temporal information, the population of neurons reproduced the periodic sequence in a temporally precise manner. The same neural population could learn different frequencies of external stimulation, and the ability to extract temporal information was found in all cortical layers. These results demonstrate a remarkable ability of sensory cortical populations to extract and reproduce complex temporal structure from unsupervised external stimulation even when stimuli are perceptually irrelevant. |
Marek Placiński; Theresa Matzinger Structural alignment leads to lower cognitive load in a collaborative task Journal Article In: Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 102–129, 2025. @article{Placinski2025,<p>One of the characteristics of dialogue is that interlocutors tend to converge on the same linguistic choices, called alignment. In this paper, we aim to investigate whether structural alignment — the tendency to use the same syntactic structures — has a positive effect on cognitive load and task completion in a task-based conversation. To do so, we engage participants in a collaborative task where they have to interact with another interlocutor (actually a bot) and inform each other about the location of landmarks on a map. In one condition the bot aligns with the participant and in the other it does not. Participants are recorded with an eye tracker during the experiment so that we can evaluate cognitive load and performance in the task. We found that when participants interact with an aligning bot, their cognitive load decreases and task completion is facilitated, but only to a certain degree. The results of the study suggest that alignment is a strategy that can be used in order to facilitate task performance.</p> |
Oria Pitem; Yaniv Mama Predicting long-term memory via pupillometry Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 2025. @article{Pitem2025,Pupillometry research has established that pupil size reflects cognitive processes through autonomic nervous system activity, with high arousal triggering pupil dilation. Studies examining pupil size during encoding have yielded conflicting results regarding its relationship with subsequent memory performance, and few have investigated baseline pupil size. This study examined whether pupil diameter before and during stimulus presentation predicts memory performance. We hypothesized that successfully recalled words would be associated with larger pupils than forgotten words, based on the role of arousal and attention in memory formation. To test these hypotheses, we conducted two experiments in which we tracked ninety-five psychology students' eyes while they performed a long-term memory test. The results depict larger pupil size while studying later successfully retrieved words. Interestingly, this phenomenon also occurs before word presentation (during baseline), which supports the “readiness to remember” (R2R) framework. This implies that pupillary changes while preparing to encode information can indicate later memory performance. |
Zhongling Pi; Jingjing Dong; Jiayu Wang; Xiying Li; Xin Zhao Modality matters: How combining oral and written instructional explanations improves STEM learning from video lectures Journal Article In: International Journal of STEM Education, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1–19, 2025. @article{Pi2025a,Background and purpose of the study: STEM learning often involves a multitude of complex and abstract concepts and ideas that can be challenging for students to comprehend. Research suggests that the oral and visual representations in video lectures can maximize students' cognitive infrastructure, helping them to organize knowledge more effectively. However, compared to traditional learning methods, video lectures may lack interaction and feedback, which can lead to ineffective learning strategies (e.g., passive viewing) and reduced learning engagement. Instructional explanations serve as a generative strategy, enabling students to create oral and written pieces based on the knowledge gained from video lectures and their prior knowledge. This study recruited a total of 87 undergraduate students and explored how the modality of instructional explanations generated by these students for a fictious student influenced their learning. Specifically, the study explored the effects on students' learning performance, attention, behavioral patterns of preparing-to-explain, the quality of notes, and the quality of instructional explanations in video lectures on a STEM subject. Results: The results revealed that students who adopted a combination of oral and written instructional explanations showed better immediate retention and transfer than those adopted just one type of explanation. In addition, both oral-only and combined oral-and-written explanations promoted more self-regulated learning behaviors during the phase of preparing-to-explain. The study also found that the quality of instructional explanations played a mediating role in the effects of modality. Conclusions and potential implications: Our findings suggest that combining oral and written instructional explanations is more effective in supporting students' STEM learning from video lectures compared to using a single form of explanation. These findings have significant implications for teaching and learning STEM subjects through video lectures. Students and educators should recognize the complementary roles of oral and written instructional explanations and opt for a combined oral-and-written approach during STEM learning activities. |
Valentina N. Pescuma; Kohei Haneda; Aine Ito; Katja Maquate; Pia Knoeferle Eye-tracking context formality effects in German and Japanese sentence processing Journal Article In: Scientific reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 44030, 2025. @article{Pescuma2025,Context information can rapidly affect language processing. Yet, whether this holds for social information like respect and formality (e.g., talking to a teacher vs. student), and across languages adhering differently to social hierarchy (German vs. Japanese) is unclear. We manipulated (in)congruence of formality (match vs. mismatch) in German and formality-style (matching or mismatching social respect) in Japanese. Participants encountered context-target sentence pairs (mis)matching in formality (German), or within-sentence formality-style (mis)match (Japanese). For Japanese, another factor 'style' (exalted vs. humble) created this mismatch (e.g., exalted style matches actions by a teacher but not student). For German, (in)congruence between subject and verb inflection served as a morphosyntactic baseline: we expected rapid effects. Longer first-pass times for mismatches than matches at the first mismatching word would indicate immediate formality processing. In German, formality mismatch effects emerged later, and in later measures, compared to first-pass morphosyntactic mismatch effects. In Japanese, formality-style effects emerged at the first mismatching word in a "late" measure (only for exalted style), in first fixation duration, post-verbally. Our results contribute to characterizing formality effects across languages that differ in their adherence to social hierarchy, and in which social markers in language are (Japanese) versus are not (German) part of grammar. |
Joris Perra; Bénédicte Poulin-Charronnat; Thierry Baccino; Patrick Bard; Philippe Pfister; Philippe Lalitte; Melissa Zerbib; Véronique Drai-Zerbib In: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 78, no. 12, pp. 2660–2680, 2025. @article{Perra2025,Expertise is associated with a knowledge-driven information-processing approach. Experts benefit from long-term knowledge structures—chunks and retrieval structures/templates—leading them to formulate expectations about local stimulus characteristics and to extract information projected onto distant areas from the fixation location. In an attempt to shed light on the way knowledge-driven processing impacts eye movements during music reading, this study aimed to determine how expert musicians deal with local complexity in a sight-reading task. Thirty musicians from two expertise levels had to sight read 4 bar score excerpts. Local analyses were conducted to investigate how the gaze behaves prior to and during the sight reading of different score characteristics, such as alteration, location of the notes on the staff, note count, and heterogeneity of notes. The more experts (1) were less affected by the foveal load induced by local complexity, showing a lower increase in fixation durations between noncomplex features and local complexity compared to the less experts; (2) presented a saccadic flexibility towards the local complexity projected onto the parafoveal area, being the only group to exhibit shorter progressive incoming saccade sizes on accidentals and larger progressive incoming saccade sizes on new notes compared to noncomplex features; and (3) presented a visuo-motor flexibility depending on the played complexity, being the only group to exhibit a shorter eye-hand span when playing accidentals or distant notes compared to noncomplex features. Overall, this study highlights the usefulness of local analyses as a relevant tool to investigate foveal and parafoveal processing skills during music reading. |
Adam J. Parker; Muchan Tao; Martin R. Vasilev In: Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 3055–3066, 2025. @article{Parker2025c,Return-sweeps, which move the reader's gaze from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, typically result in shorter line-final fixations and longer accurate line-initial fixations compared to intra-line fixations. The mechanisms underlying these differences have been the subject of debate. To assess the linguistic and oculomotor contributions to these return-sweep fixation differences, we compared the eye movements of 41 participants during reading and z-string scanning, an oculomotor control condition that is devoid of useful linguistic content. Our results indicate that line-final fixations are shorter than intra-line fixations, while accurate line-initial fixations are longer than intra-line fixations, under both tasks, underscoring the significant role of the oculomotor system in determining fixation durations across tasks. Notably, the reduction in line-final fixation durations compared to intra-line fixations did not differ between tasks. This suggests that oculomotor coordination or visual processing, rather than linguistic processing, drives shorter line-final fixations. In contrast, the difference in the increase in duration for accurate line-initial fixations between reading and z-string scanning implies that longer accurate line-initial fixations are likely a result of lexical processing, oculomotor coordination, and visual processing. These findings advance our understanding of eye movement control by highlighting the combined influence of linguistic and oculomotor processes on return-sweep fixation durations. |
Hame Park; Ayelet Arazi; Bharath Chandra Talluri; Marco Celotto; Stefano Panzeri; Alan A. Stocker; Tobias H. Donner Confirmation bias through selective readout of information encoded in human parietal cortex Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2025. @article{Park2025,Decision-makers often process new evidence selectively, depending on their current beliefs about the world. We asked whether such confirmation biases result from biases in wthe encoding of sensory evidence in the brain, or alternatively in the utilization of encoded evidence for behavior. Human participants estimated the source of a sequence of visual-spatial evidence samples while we measured cortical population activity with magnetoencephalography. Halfway through the sequence, participants were prompted to judge the more likely source category. We find that processing of subsequent evidence depends on its consistency with the previously chosen category. Evidence encoded in parietal cortex contributes more to the estimation report when that evidence is consistent with the previous choice compared to when it contradicts that choice. Our results indicate that information contradicting pre-existing beliefs has little impact on subsequent behavior, despite being precisely encoded in the brain. This provides room for deliberative control to counteract confirmation biases. |
Elisabet Parés-Pujolràs; Simon P. Kelly; Peter R. Murphy Dissociable encoding of evolving beliefs and momentary belief updates in distinct neural decision signals Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–14, 2025. @article{ParesPujolras2025,Making accurate decisions in noisy environments requires integrating evidence over time. Studies of simple perceptual decisions in static environments have identified two human neurophysiological signals that evolve with similar integration dynamics, with one - the centroparietal positivity - appearing to compute the running integral and continuously feed it to the other - motor beta lateralisation. However, it remains unknown whether and how these signals serve more distinct functional roles in more complex scenarios. Here, we use a volatile expanded judgement task that dissociates raw sensory information, belief updates, and the evolving belief itself. We find that motor beta lateralisation traces the evolving belief across stimuli, while the centroparietal positivity locally encodes the belief updates associated with each individual stimulus. These results suggest a flexible computational hierarchy where context-dependent belief updates can be computed sample-by-sample at an intermediate processing level to modify downstream belief representations for protracted decisions about discrete stimuli. |
Yangpan Ou; Zhaobin Chen; Ying Wang; Huabing Li; Feng Liu; Ping Li; Dongsheng Lv; Yong Liu; Bing Lang; Jingping Zhao; Wenbin Guo In: BMC Psychiatry, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2025. @article{Ou2025,Background: Clinical high-risk (CHR) refers to prodromal phase before schizophrenia onset, characterized by attenuated psychotic symptoms and functional decline. They exhibit similar but milder cognitive impairments, brain abnormalities and eye movement change compared with first-episode schizophrenia (FSZ). These alterations may increase vulnerability to transitioning to the disease. This study explores cognitive-related functional connectivity (FC) and eye movement abnormalities to examine differences in the progression of schizophrenia. Methods: Thirty drug-naive FSZ, 28 CHR, and 30 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited to undergo resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) was employed to extract cognitive-related brain regions, which were then selected as seeds to form FC networks. Support vector machine (SVM) was used to distinguish FSZ from CHR. Smooth pursuit eye-tracking tasks were conducted to assess eye movement features. Results: FSZ displayed decreased cognitive-related FC between right posterior cingulate cortex and right superior frontal gyrus compared with HCs and between right amygdala and left inferior parietal gyrus (IPG) compared with CHR. SVM analysis indicated a combination of BACS-SC and CFT-A scores, and FC between right amygdala and left IPG could serve as a potential biomarker for distinguishing FSZ from CHR with high sensitivity. FSZ also exhibited a wide range of eye movement abnormalities compared with HCs, which were associated with alterations in cognitive-related FC. Conclusions: FSZ and CHR exhibited different patterns of cognitive-related FC and eye movement alteration. Our findings illustrate potential neuroimaging and cognitive markers for early identification of psychosis that could help in the intervention of schizophrenia in high-risk groups. |
Ulises Orbe; Hinze Hogendoorn; Stefan Bode; Gereon R. Fink; Ralph Weidner; Simone Vossel Load-dependent processing of prediction violations in task-irrelevant space Journal Article In: Journal of Vision, vol. 25, no. 14, pp. 1–13, 2025. @article{Orbe2025,Attentive and predictive mechanisms crucially shape perception, but the interplay between these fundamental processes remains poorly understood. Studies on interactions between attention and prediction have yielded discrepant results, potentially because of differences in task demands. The present study examined whether the perceptual load (i.e., task difficulty) affects predictive processing in task-relevant and task-irrelevant hemifields. To this end, we developed a novel delayed match-to-reference task that orthogonally manipulated task-relevance, prediction, and perceptual load. We hypothesized that a low-load condition should facilitate the processing of prediction violations (oddball effects) in task-irrelevant space because of the availability of spare processing resources. We analyzed accuracy and response time (RT) data from 28 healthy young participants with separate repeated measures analyses of variance. The results confirmed the effectiveness of the load manipulation because a high perceptual load significantly increased RTs and decreased accuracy. Notably, the accuracy analysis yielded a significant three-way interaction between task-relevance, prediction, and load. Post-hoc tests revealed that load modulated the processing of prediction violations in the task-irrelevant hemifield. Importantly, the prediction violation, induced by a low-frequency and task-irrelevant feature (orientation), reduced accuracy in the low-load but not in the high-load condition. This finding suggests that predictive processing in task-irrelevant space is contingent on the availability of processing resources, with high perceptual load inhibiting the processing of unexpected events in task-irrelevant regions. The present study shows that load is a crucial factor in the interaction between task-relevance and prediction. |
Claire O'Callaghan; Frank H. Hezemans; Naresh Subramaniam; Rong Ye; Kamen A. Tsvetanov; Alexander G. Murley; Negin Holland; Isabella F. Orlando; Ralf Regenthal; Roger A. Barker; Caroline H. Williams-Gray; Luca Passamonti; Trevor W. Robbins; James B. Rowe Pharmacological and pupillary evidence for the noradrenergic contribution to reinforcement learning in Parkinson's disease Journal Article In: Communications Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2025. @article{OCallaghan2025,Noradrenaline plays an integral role in learning by optimising behavioural strategies and facilitating choice execution. Testing the noradrenergic framework of learning in the context of human diseases offers a test bed for current normative neuroscience theories and may also indicate therapeutic potential. Parkinson's disease is often considered as a model of dopamine deficits, including dopamine's role in reinforcement learning. However, noradrenergic function is also severely impaired by Parkinson's disease, contributing to cognitive deficits. Using a single dose of the noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor atomoxetine in people with Parkinson's disease (in a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design), we show improvements in learning compared to placebo. Computational cognitive modelling confirmed a substantial shift in the decision noise parameter, indicative of more exploitative choices. This response pattern closely resembled that of age-matched controls and simulations of optimal response strategies. Pupillometry revealed increased baseline pupil diameter under atomoxetine, which correlated with behavioural improvements, and a heightened phasic pupillary response to feedback. Our findings confirm the noradrenergic contribution to reinforcement learning, and in doing so they challenge the simple interpretation of tonic-phasic locus coeruleus firing patterns based on pupillometry. Noradrenergic modulation is a potential treatment strategy for cognitive symptoms in Parkinson's disease and related disorders. |
Dorsa Mir Norouzi; Norah M. Nyangau; Yi Zhong Wang; Lori M. Dao; Cynthia L. Beauchamp; David R. Stager; Jeffrey S. Hunter; Krista R. Kelly Slow binocular reading during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) in children with amblyopia and the role of fixation instability Journal Article In: Vision Research, vol. 237, pp. 1–7, 2025. @article{Norouzi2025,Children with amblyopia read slower than their peers during binocular viewing. Ocular motor dysfunction typical of amblyopia may cause slow reading. It is unclear whether this is due to fixation instability or increased forward saccades. We examined whether removing the requirement of inter-word saccades helps children with amblyopia read at a similar rate as controls using a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. We also assessed whether reading rate was related to fixation instability. Children with amblyopia (n = 32) and control (n = 30) children ages 8–12 years silently read sentences presented in RSVP (single word presentation at screen center) during binocular viewing. Exposure time per sentence changed with a 2 − down 1 − up staircase to obtain reading speed thresholds (log words/minute [WPM]). Eye movements were tracked to determine fellow eye (FE) and amblyopic eye (AE) fixation stability during RSVP reading. Children with amblyopia read slower than controls (2.75 ± 0.47 log WPM vs 3.06 ± 0.40 log WPM), and had increased AE fixation instability (0.21 ± 0.39 log deg2 vs − 0.20 ± 0.18 log deg2) and increased FE fixation instability (−0.03 ± 0.34 log deg2 vs − 0.20 ± 0.15 log deg2) during RSVP reading. Reading rate in amblyopic children with good FE stability (n = 11) did not differ from controls and was faster than those with poor FE stability (n = 21). Children with poor FE stability read slower than controls. Removing the need for inter-word saccades (i.e., RSVP reading) did not help children with amblyopia read at control speeds. Our data support FE fixation instability as a source of slow reading in amblyopia. |
Ewa Niechwiej-Szwedo; Susana Wu; Deborah Giaschi; Linda Colpa; Agnes M. F. Wong; Lisa Christian Eye-hand coordination during a precision grasping and placement task in children with a history of amblyopia Journal Article In: Vision Research, vol. 237, pp. 1–11, 2025. @article{NiechwiejSzwedo2025a,Eye-hand coordination is a key aspect of visuomotor control essential for performing most daily activities. Disruption in visuomotor control, characterized by slower arm movements and grasping errors, has been documented in children with amblyopia. This study aimed to characterize the effects of amblyopia on the temporal pattern of eye and hand coordination during the performance of a task that involves reaching, precision grasping, and placement. The study recruited 28 children with a history of amblyopia and 56 typically developing peers (age range 6–14 years). Children performed a bead-threading task while their eyes and hand movements were recorded concurrently. As hypothesized, children with amblyopia demonstrated poorer task performance, with greater deficits for the object manipulation compared to the reaching (transport) components. In comparison to their peers with normal vision, children with amblyopia had shorter reaction time for initiating eye and hand movement, longer object fixation duration to guide grasp execution and object placement, and lower eye-hand latency difference for the second movement indicating that the hand movement preceded eye initiation. These results suggest that children with amblyopia have poorer motor planning ability, which impacts movement execution. Longer fixations during object manipulations indicate that more time is required to transform the noisy visual input into a motor response. Overall, the study adds to the growing body of evidence highlighting deficits in visuomotor control in amblyopia. |
Matthias Nau; Austin Greene; Hannah Tarder-Stoll; Juan Antonio Lossio-Ventura; Francisco Pereira; Janice Chen; Christopher Baldassano; Chris I. Baker Neural and behavioral reinstatement jointly reflect retrieval of narrative events Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2025. @article{Nau2025,When recalling past events, patterns of gaze position and neural activity resemble those observed during the original experience. We hypothesized that these two phenomena, known as gaze reinstatement and neural reactivation, are linked through a common process that underlies the reinstatement of past experiences during memory retrieval. Here, we tested this proposal based on the viewing and recall of a narrative movie, which we assessed through functional magnetic resonance imaging, deep learning-based gaze prediction, and language modeling of spoken recall. In line with key predictions, gaze behavior adhered to the same principles as neural activity; it was event-specific, robust across individuals, and generalized across viewing and recall. Additionally, gaze-dependent brain activity overlapped substantially across tasks. Collectively, these results suggest that retrieval engages mechanisms similar to those that direct our eyes during natural vision, reflecting common constraints within the functional organization of the nervous system. Moreover, they highlight the importance of considering behavioral and neural reinstatement together in our understanding of remembering. |
Krishna S. Nair; Nicholas Hedger; Roana Liz George; Goutam Chandra; Kochupurackal P. Mohanakumar; Bhismadev Chakrabarti; Usha Rajamma Eye tracking demonstrates the influence of autistic traits on social attention in a community sample from India Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 2025. @article{Nair2025,The ability to attend to social stimuli is fundamental for processing social cues and shaping social behavior, yet cultural variability in this capacity remains relatively unexplored. Social attention is typically tested using preferential-looking paradigms in labs, which have demonstrated that autistic individuals attend less to social stimuli. Such studies are limited, by the fact that they have almost all been conducted in Western Europe and the USA. To address this gap, our objective was to test the cultural generalizability of these results by investigating whether autistic symptoms are negatively associated with social attention in a traditionally understudied sample: Indian adults. Additionally, we tested the specificity of this relation by investigating whether a similar association exists with the traits of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Our study involved 121 young adults from Kerala, India. Autistic and ADHD traits were evaluated using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS), respectively. The participants' gaze behavior was recorded during a preferential-looking task, where pairs of social and non-social images were presented simultaneously. Individuals with higher autistic traits exhibited a reduced preference for social stimuli. No such association of social attention was noted with ADHD traits. Follow-up analysis of AQ subscales indicated that the association between gaze duration and autistic traits was driven by the social, and not the attention to detail factor of autistic traits. Our results provide new evidence for the cultural generalizability of the social attention task and offer the potential for culture-agnostic phenotypic assessments for adults with autism. |
Surpiya Murali; Beshoy Agayby; Michael C. Schmid; Barbara F. Händel Multiunit and oscillatory activity in macaque V1 is modulated by blinking in a context-dependent way Journal Article In: Cerebral Cortex, vol. 35, no. 12, pp. 1–14, 2025. @article{Murali2025,Eye blinks modulate neural activity in visual areas even if the visual input is unchanged. Is the influence of blinking defined by the motor output of the blink? We analyzed blink-related neural activity with laminar resolution in V1 of two macaque monkeys in two conditions, viewing a video and at rest. During free viewing a video, blinks induced a modulation of the local field potential (LFP) in the theta, beta, and gamma band with a granular/infragranular focus. The multiunit activity (MUA) decreased around blink execution. Surprisingly, when comparing the results to blinks executed during the rest condition, we found that MUA increased around blinks. The blink-related LFP power changes, while increasing after a blink in both conditions, were significantly different in amplitude and latency. Our findings show that the blink induced modulation of V1 activity is not determined by the motor execution but depends on the condition in which the movement is executed. This suggests that interactions between movement and neural processes in sensory areas are context-dependent. These interactions may play an important role in predictive coding within the framework of active sensing. |
Sebastián Muñoz; Vladimir Maksimenko; Bastian Henriquez-Jara; Prateek Bansal; Omar David Perez In: Behavior Research Methods, vol. 57, no. 12, pp. 1–30, 2025. @article{Munoz2025,Eye-tracking has gained considerable attention across multiple research domains. Recently, web-based eye-tracking has become feasible, demonstrating reliable performance in perceptual and cognitive tasks. However, its systematic evaluation in decision-making remains unknown. Here we compare a laboratory-based eye tracker (the EyeLink 1000 Plus) with a webcam-based method (WebGazer) across two discrete-choice experiments. We systematically manipulated display size to approximate common device classes (monitor, laptop, tablet, mobile) and task complexity (simple vs. complex choice matrices). We find that on larger displays and simpler tasks, WebGazer produces gaze patterns and parameter inferences from computational models of behavior comparable to EyeLink. However, reliability diminishes on smaller displays and with more complex choice matrices. These results provide the first systematic evaluation of web-based eye tracking for decision-making research and offer practical guidance regarding its viability for online behavioral studies. |
Gabriela Mueller de Melo; Isabella Oliveira Pitorri; Gustavo Rohenkohl Presaccadic modulation of lateral interactions Journal Article In: Journal of Vision, vol. 25, no. 14, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{MuellerdeMelo2025,Lateral interactions are pervasive in early visual processing, contributing directly to processes such as object grouping and segregation. This study examines whether saccade preparation — known to affect visual perception —modulates lateral interactions. In a psychophysical task, participants were instructed to detect a Gabor target flanked by two adjacent Gabors, while they either prepared a saccade to the target or maintained central fixation. Flanker gratings could be iso- or orthogonally oriented to the target and were positioned at three different distances (4λ,8λ,and 16λ). Contrast thresholds for target detection were estimated in each condition using a 3-down/1-up staircase procedure. The results showed that in both presaccadic and fixation conditions, the target was suppressed at the shortest flanker distance (4λ), revealed by markedly higher thresholds in iso-oriented compared to orthogonal flanker configurations. Lateral interaction effects were completely abolished at their largest separation (16λ). Interestingly, at the intermediate flanker distance (8λ), target suppression seemed to increase during the presaccadic period, whereas no such effect was observed during fixation. This result suggests that saccade preparation can modulate lateral interactions, promoting suppressive effects over larger distances. These findings are consistent with the visual remapping phenomenon observed before saccade execution, especially the convergent remapping of receptive fields in oculomotor and visual areas. Finally, this presaccadic expansion of inhibitory lateral interactions could assist target selection by suppressing homogeneous peripheral signals — such as iso-oriented collinear patterns —while prioritizing the processing of more salient visual information. |
Arasch Mostauli; Jonas Rauh; Matthias Gamer; Christian Büchel; Winfried Rief; Stefanie Brassen Placebo treatment entails resource-dependent downregulation of negative inputs Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Mostauli2025,Clinical trials with antidepressants reveal significant improvements in placebo groups, with effects of up to 80% compared to real treatment. While it has been suggested that treatment expectations rely on cognitive control, direct evidence for affective placebo effects is sparse. Here, we investigated how cognitive resources at both the behavioral and neural levels influence the effects of positive expectations on emotional processing. Forty-nine healthy volunteers participated in a cross-over fMRI study where positive expectations were induced through an alleged oxytocin nasal spray and verbal instruction. Participants completed a spatial cueing task that manipulated attention to emotional face distractors while being scanned and were characterized regarding their general attention control ability. Placebo treatment improved mood and reduced distractibility from fearful compared to happy faces, particularly when more attentional resources were available for processing face distractors. This aligned with changes in activation and functional coupling within prefrontal-limbic networks, suggesting that expectations induce top-down regulation of aversive inputs. Additionally, neurobehavioral effects correlated with individual control ability. Our findings highlight the critical role of cognitive resources in verbally instructed placebo effects. This may be particularly relevant in patients with major depressive disorder, who often demonstrate enhanced negativity processing but have limited cognitive control capacity. |
Nasrin Mortazavi; Puneet Talwar; Ekaterina Koshmanova; Roya Sharifpour; Elise Beckers; Alexandre Berger; Islay Campbell; Ilenia Paparella; Fermin Balda; Ismael Dardour Hamzaoui; Christian Berthomier; Christine Bastin; Christophe Phillips; Pierre Maquet; Fabienne Collette; Mikhail Zubkov; Laurent Lamalle; Gilles Vandewalle REM sleep quality is associated with balanced tonic activity of the locus coeruleus during wakefulness Journal Article In: Journal of Biomedical Science, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2025. @article{Mortazavi2025,Background: Animal studies established that the locus coeruleus (LC) plays important roles in sleep and wakefulness regulation. Whether it contributes to sleep variability in humans is not yet established. Here, we investigated if the in vivo activity of the LC is related to the variability in the quality of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Methods: We assessed the LC activity of 34 healthy younger (~ 22y) and 18 older (~ 61y) individuals engaged in bottom-up and top-down cognitive tasks using 7-Tesla functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). We further recorded their sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) to evaluate associations between LC fMRI measures and REM sleep EEG metrics. Results: Theta oscillation energy during REM sleep was positively associated with LC response in the top-down task. In contrast, REM sleep theta energy was negatively associated with LC activity in older individuals during the bottom-up task. Importantly, sigma oscillations power immediately preceding a REM sleep episode was positively associated with LC activity in the top-down task. Conclusions: LC activity during wakefulness was related to REM sleep intensity and to a transient EEG change preceding REM sleep, a feature causally related to LC activity in animal studies. The associations depend on the cognitive task, suggesting that a balanced level of LC tonic activity during wakefulness is required for optimal expression of REM sleep. The findings may have implications for the high prevalence of sleep complaints reported in aging and for disorders such as insomnia, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease, for which the LC may play pivotal roles through sleep. |
Joonsik Moon; Peter Bex Distinctive feature sensitivity of ocular following initiation during global motion perception Journal Article In: Communications Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Moon2025,We investigate how sensory and motor components of the visual system respond to carrier (first-order) and envelope (second-order) motion features for global motion perception. While both ocular following responses (OFRs) and perceptual judgments exhibit higher responsivity to envelope motion, carrier motion alone was insufficient, leading to large perceptual direction errors and speed biases and minimal OFRs. Shorter presentation times selectively impaired perceptual speed discriminability by decreasing the signal and increasing noise, with no corresponding effect on oculomotor responses. In direction discriminability analysis, in contrast, OFRs and perceptual responses have a similar relative noise pattern to motion features, suggesting shared noise sources in global motion processing. Trial-by-trial correlation analysis confirmed the dissociation where perceptual speed was uncorrelated with OFR speed, whereas perceptual direction showed a delayed correlation with eye direction relative to movement onset. This delayed correlation timing for direction suggests global motion modulates both systems via feedback control processes. |
Haneieh Molaei; Reza Abbas Farishta; Reza Farivar Letter distortion mapping in amblyopia: Spatial patterns, stability, and relationship to visual acuity Journal Article In: Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, vol. 66, no. 15, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Molaei2025,PURPOSE. To investigate whether letter-based perceptual distortions in amblyopia follow spatially consistent patterns across different letters and to determine if these spatial distortion maps are letter specific or reflect a common underlying spatial organization of visual distortion in the amblyopic eye. METHODS. Twenty-one individuals with amblyopia completed a distortion mapping task using the letters A, D, and E, shown at 36 visual field locations. Each letter was first viewed with the fellow eye and then with the amblyopic eye. Participants reported distortions, which were recorded to generate binary spatial maps. The task was repeated over three sessions to assess within-subject consistency, and spatial correlations were analyzed across letters and subjects. RESULTS. Letter distortions were reported by 95% of participants and remained consistent across sessions. Within subjects, spatial distortion maps were significantly correlated across letters in 62% of cases (P ≤ 0.028), suggesting shared spatial patterns. However, across subjects, maps were largely uncorrelated, indicating individualized distortion profiles. No single letter consistently showed more distortion across the group, χ2(2) = 1.279 |
Sarah Michel; Céline Pozniak; Saveria Colonna Reading new morpho-syntactic forms: The case of gender-inclusive writing in French Journal Article In: Journal of French Language Studies, vol. 35, pp. 1–30, 2025. @article{Michel2025,This study investigates the reading of novel morpho-syntactic forms, specifically gender-inclusive writing in French. Inclusive writing aims to address the generic use of the masculine form, which often encourages male mental representations over female or non-binary ones. The study focuses on contracted forms using the mid-dot, such as étudiant·e·s, which have become widespread in French despite ongoing public debate. Four experiments using eye-tracking and self-paced reading methods compared reading times for inclusive, masculine, and feminine forms. Experiment 1 found no robust difference in reading times between inclusive forms ending in “·e” and their feminine counterparts, suggesting familiarity with this form. Experiment 2 showed that inclusive forms ending in “·ne”, such as comédien·ne·s, were read more slowly than their feminine counterparts, possibly due to phonological effects. Experiment 3 tested highly pronounceable inclusive forms like auteur·rice·s, which were read more slowly initially, but this effect was short-lasting. Experiment 4 compared more or less pronounceable forms, such as chanteur·euse·s and chanteur·se·s, respectively, confirming that the degree of pronounceability affects reading times. Overall, the study concluded that the reading time for contracted inclusive forms depends on familiarity and the degree of pronounceability. |
Anna Metzger; Callie Dugan; Matteo Toscani The similarity with a face presented in central vision improves face recognition in peripheral vision Journal Article In: Perception, vol. 54, no. 12, pp. 975–985, 2025. @article{Metzger2025,The fovea, with its high concentration of cone photoreceptors, results in increased sensitivity and visual acuity, while the periphery, with its lower contrast sensitivity and resolution, provides better spatial summation. Despite these differences, our experience of the visual field remains detailed and uniform, supported by the influence of central vision on peripheral vision. There is evidence that recognition of simple shapes in the periphery is enhanced by the presence of a similar shape in central vision. However, it is unclear whether such mechanisms generalise to more complex stimuli, such as faces. In a face matching task, we found that having a similar face in central vision improved face matching performance in the periphery. This suggests that general mechanisms govern the interaction between central and peripheral vision in recognising faces. |
Rebecca Jane Mcclements; Julie-Ann Jordan; David Curran; Donncha Hanna; John Paul Corrigan; Kevin F. W. Dyer The role of pre-existing assumptions and cognitive flexibility in the development of post-trauma cognitive processes - an analogue study Journal Article In: Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, vol. 53, pp. 349–364, 2025. @article{Mcclements2025,Objective: This experimental study investigated whether the trait factors of world assumptions and cognitive flexibility were predictive of levels of attentional bias to threat stimuli, memory integration, and data-driven processing. Methods: An opportunity sample of 74 participants took part in the investigation. Participants viewed a virtual reality film to induce mild distress to mimic processes that can occur in individuals when experiencing a traumatic event. A prospective experimental design was conducted involving measurements at pre-trauma exposure (Time 1), post-exposure (Time 2) and one-week follow-up (Time 3). Self-report measures of world assumptions, cognitive flexibility, and cognitive processing were administered. Eye-tracking equipment was used to assess attentional bias towards threat images, and a free recall task to assess memory integration. Results: A mixed effects linear model found increased cognitive bias towards trauma-related threat images pre/post-exposure, specifically for a maintenance attentional bias. Significantly greater data-driven processing was observed post-exposure, with greater conceptually driven processing observed at one-week follow-up. No significant findings were observed for memory integration. World assumptions were predictive of increased data-driven processing; the relative use of data-driven to conceptually driven processing; and trait anxiety. Cognitive flexibility was predictive of state anxiety. Conclusion: These results provide additional support for the role of maintained attention, data-driven processing, and conceptually driven processing in post-trauma reactions as per established cognitive theories of post-traumatic stress disorder. More research is required to fully explore the roles of core beliefs, assumptions and cognitive flexibility in this area. |
Emma Krane Mathisen; Nicholas Allott; Camilo R. Ronderos Cognitive mechanisms in simile and metaphor comprehension Journal Article In: Language and Cognition, vol. 17, pp. 1–19, 2025. @article{Mathisen2025,This study investigates whether metaphors and similes are processed the same way or not. Comparison accounts of metaphor claim that metaphors and similes use the same cognitive mechanisms because metaphors are implicit similes, while Categorization accounts claim that the two figures of speech require different cognitive mechanisms. It is unclear which position has the most support. We address this by introducing the distinction between single and extended metaphors to this debate. Several experiments have shown that a metaphor preceded by another metaphor is read faster than a single metaphor. If similes in extended and non-extended contexts display a similar processing difference, this would support views saying that metaphors and similes are processed the same way. If not, it would be more in line with the view that they are processed differently. Using an eye-tracking reading paradigm, we find that the difference between processing single and extended metaphors does not hold in the case of simile comprehension. This is more compatible with Categorization accounts than with Comparison accounts; if the cognitive mechanism behind metaphor and simile processing is the same, we would expect there to be a comparable processing difference between metaphors and similes in the single and extended conditions. |
Christina L. Master; Mitchell Scheiman; Olivia E. Podolak; Matthew F. Grady; David R. Howell In: Journal of Sport and Health Science, vol. 14, pp. 1–8, 2025. @article{Master2025,Background: Early identification of concussion-related vision disorders (CRVDs) may improve outcomes by enabling earlier management, referral, and treatment. Objective eye tracking may provide additional data to support the diagnose of CRVDs. The purpose of this study was to determine the utility of objective infrared eye tracking in identifying CRVDs among adolescents experiencing persisting post-concussive symptoms (PPCS) more than 28 days after injury. Methods: This was a prospective study of adolescents with PPCS evaluated with visio–vestibular examination (VVE), comprehensive vision examination, and an eye tracking device. Results: Of the 108 adolescents enrolled, 67 (62%) were diagnosed with a CRVD by comprehensive vision examination. On VVE, the near point of convergence break (5.5 ± 3.2 cm vs. 3.9 ± 1.7 cm (mean ± SD), p < 0.001) and recovery (8.1 ± 3.3 cm vs. 6.8 ± 2.3 cm |
Andrea Massironi; Carlotta Lega; Luca Ronconi; Emanuela Bricolo Statistical learning re-shapes the center-surround inhibition of the visuo-spatial attentional focus Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–18, 2025. @article{Massironi2025,To effectively navigate a crowded and dynamic visual world, our neurocognitive system possesses the remarkable ability to extract and learn its statistical regularities to implicitly guide the allocation of spatial attention resources in the immediate future. The way through which we deploy attention in the visual space has been consistently outlined by a “center-surround inhibition” pattern, wherein a ring of sustained inhibition is projected around the center of the attentional focus to optimize the signal–noise ratio between goal-relevant targets and interfering distractors. While it has been observed that experience-dependent mechanisms could disrupt the inhibitory ring, whether statistical learning of spatial contingencies has an effect on such a surround inhibition and – if any – through which exact mechanisms it unravels are hitherto unexplored questions. Therefore, in a visual search psychophysical experiment, we aimed to fill this gap by entirely mapping the visuo-spatial attentional profile, asking subjects (N = 26) to detect and report the gap orientation of a ‘C' letter appearing either as a color singleton (Baseline Condition) or as a non-salient probe (Probe Condition) – among other irrelevant objects – at progressively increasing probe-to-singleton distances. Critically, we manipulated the color singleton spatial contingency so as to make it appear more frequently adjacent to the probe, specifically at a spatial distance where attending the color singleton generates surround-inhibition on the probe, hindering attentional performance. Results showed that statistical learning markedly reshaped the attentional focus, transforming the center-surround inhibition profile into a non-linear gradient one through a performance gain over the high probability probe-to-singleton distance. Noteworthy, such reshaping was uneven in time and asymmetric, as it varied across blocks and specifically appeared only within manipulated visual quadrants, leaving unaltered the unmanipulated ones. Our findings offer insights of theoretical interest in understanding how environmental regularities orchestrate the way we allocate attention in space through plastic re-weighting of spatial priority maps. Additionally, going beyond the physical dimension, our data provide interesting implications about how visual information is coded within working memory representations, especially under scenarios of heightened uncertainty. |
Antoqn Malko; Sasha Wilmoth; Thivina Thanabalan; Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky; Rachel Nordlinger; Matthias Schlesewsky; Evan Kidd Real-time thematic role assignment in Pitjantjatjara: An eye-tracking study Journal Article In: Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, pp. 1–21, 2025. @article{Malko2025,Languages differ in how core argument roles are marked and in the cues guiding their real-time comprehension. This study investigated thematic role assignment in Pitjantjatjara – an Australian Pama-Nyungan ergative language with free word-order. Using visual world eye- tracking, we analysed whether a noun phrase's humanness, case marking and position in the sentence guide its interpretation as agent or patient of an event. Confirmatory analyses indicated that these properties do not affect thematic role processing at the noun phrase itself. Exploratory analyses suggested that transitivity expectations play an important role. When the visual scene depicted more typical human agents, the influence of linguistic factors was observed later in the trial: speakers committed to the thematic role faster when all cues pointed toward the same interpretation. However, visual events that violated expectations (animals/ inanimate objects acting on humans) strongly attracted participants' visual attention, attenuating the influence of linguistic input. |
Rotem Mairon; Ohad Ben-Shahar Stimulus center bias persists irrespective of its position on the display Journal Article In: Journal of Eye Movement Research, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 1–17, 2025. @article{Mairon2025a,Since the earliest studies on human eye movements, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that observers fixate the center of visual stimuli more than their periphery, regardless of visual content. Subsequent research suggested only little effect of typical biases in experimental setups, such as observer's position relative to the screen or the relative location of the cue marker. While comparative studies of the screen center vs. stimulus center revealed that both conspire in the process, much of the prior art is still confounded by experimental details that leave the origins of the center-bias debatable. We thus propose methodological novelties to rigorously test the effect of the stimulus center, isolated from other factors. In particular, eye movements were tracked in a free-viewing experiment in which stimuli were presented at a wide range of horizontal displacements from a counterbalanced cue marker in a wide visual field. Stimuli spanned diverse natural scene images to allow inherent biases to surface in the pooled data. Various analyses of the first few fixations show a robust bias toward the center of the stimulus, independent of its position on the display, but affected by its distance to the cue marker. Center bias is thus a tangible phenomenon related to the stimulus. |
Lauren Luther; Rebecca F. Mathis; William R. Keller; Robert W. Buchanan; James M. Gold; James I. Koeing; Gregory P. Strauss Aberrant visual attention is associated with social judgements of attractiveness and negative symptoms in schizophrenia Journal Article In: Schizophrenia Research, vol. 286, pp. 1–8, 2025. @article{Luther2025,Accurate perception of facial attractiveness supports normative social motivation and approach behaviors, in part via its association with endogenous oxytocin levels. Individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) display impaired social functioning that is associated with endogenous oxytocin levels. However, it is unclear whether judgements of facial attractiveness and the attentional processes that support them contribute to social abnormalities in SZ. The current study examined whether judgements of facial attractiveness and gaze behavior were associated with negative symptoms, social functioning, and oxytocin. Forty-one individuals with SZ and 23 healthy controls (CN) rated male and female facial stimuli for levels of attractiveness while gaze behavior was recorded via eye-tracking. Fixation count and gaze duration in facial regions of interest were used to evaluate facial scanning behavior. Plasma oxytocin concentrations were derived via radioimmunoassay. CN and SZ did not significantly differ on perceptions of facial attractiveness; however, SZ displayed an aberrant visual scan pattern characterized by reduced attention to salient facial features on both male and female faces. Further, this aberrant scanning pattern was associated with greater negative symptoms and reduced social functioning in SZ. Oxytocin was not associated with attractiveness perceptions or gaze behavior. Findings suggest that negative symptoms and social functioning are associated with diminished judgements of facial attractiveness and corresponding patterns of aberrant gaze behavior. Attention training programs focused on increasing gaze to salient facial features may support better social functioning and lower negative symptoms in SZ. |
Marie Loescher; Patrick Haggard; Catherine Tallon-Baudry Interoception vs. exteroception: Cardiac interoception competes with tactile perception, yet also facilitates self-relevance encoding Journal Article In: PNAS, vol. 122, no. 49, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Loescher2025,Internal bodily signals, notably the heartbeat, influence our perception of the external world—but the nature of this influence remains unclear. Different frameworks, originating in opposing views of the function of interoception, have developed largely in parallel. One line of evidence (Internal/External Competition) indicates that interoceptive and exteroceptive inputs compete for neural resources. Another line (Self-related Facilitation) shows a link between interoceptive and self-related processing, which might include computing the self-relevance of exteroceptive inputs. We contrasted these accounts within a single experimental task for which they yielded distinct predictions. We measured heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEPs, a measure of cardiac interoception) with electroencephalogram and manipulated the self-relevance of an audio-tactile stimulus by placing the audio source either inside or outside the peripersonal space immediately around the body. On the one hand, prestimulus HEP amplitudes over the somatosensory cortex were linked to slower reaction times and affected audio-tactile stimulus-evoked responses in the same area, indicating competition for shared neural resources. On the other hand, prestimulus HEPs over integrative sensorimotor and default-mode network regions facilitated stimulus self-relevance encoding, both in reaction times and audio-tactile evoked responses. Importantly, Competition and Facilitation effects were spatially and statistically independent from each other. We therefore reconcile the two views by showing the coexistence of two independent mechanisms: one that allocates neural resources to either internal bodily signals or the external world, and another by which interoception and exteroception are combined to determine the self-relevance of external signals. Our results highlight the multidimensionality of HEPs and of internal states more generally. |
Tina T. Liu; Michael C. Granovetter; Anne Margarette Anne; Sophia Robert; Jason Z Fu; Christina Patterson; David C. Plaut; Marlene Behrmann Cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in category selectivity in visual cortex following pediatric cortical resection Journal Article In: Communications Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1–18, 2025. @article{Liu2025p,The topographic organization of category-selective responses in human ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) and its relationship to regions subserving language functions is remarkably uniform across individuals. This arrangement is thought to result from the clustering of neurons responding to similar inputs, constrained by intrinsic architecture and tuned by experience. We examine the malleability of this organization in individuals with unilateral resection of VOTC during childhood for the management of drug-resistant epilepsy. In cross-sectional and longitudinal functional imaging studies, we compare the topography and neural representations of 17 category-selective regions in individuals with a VOTC resection, a ‘control patient' with a resection outside VOTC, and typically developing matched controls. We demonstrate both adherence to and deviation from the standard topography, particularly with respect to the hemispheric lateralization of category-selective regions, and uncover fine-grained competitive dynamics between word- and face-selectivity over time in the single, preserved VOTC. The findings elucidate the nature and extent of cortical plasticity and highlight the potential for remodeling of extrastriate architecture and function. |
Shun Liu; Wenpeng Hu; Xiqin Liu Different effects of verbal and visual working memory loads on language prediction Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–11, 2025. @article{Liu2025o,Mounting studies suggest that working memory (WM) plays a crucial role in language prediction, but how varying types of WM loads influence language prediction remains unclear. This study investigated whether verbal and visual WM loads differentially impact language predictions during speech comprehension. Using a dual-task paradigm combined with eye-tracking in a visual world setting, we asked 48 participants to complete a sentence comprehension task under concurrent WM load conditions. Participants were divided into two groups, one of which performed a visual dots memory task and the other completed a visual words memory task, with memory load being applied in half of the trials. Results revealed anticipatory gaze towards target objects, suggesting the prediction of upcoming linguistic information. Notably, early fixations during the tonal cue window indicated tonal prediction in spoken sentence processing. Furthermore, WM load significantly disrupted participants' language prediction effects, highlighting the involvement of working memory resources in this process. Importantly, the verbal memory task imposed a more severe disruption to language prediction than the visual memory task, suggesting differential roles of WM subtypes in linguistic prediction. This offers novel insights into how verbal WM and visual-spatial WM differentially influence predictive language processing. |
Guoyang Liu; Yueyuan Zheng; Michelle Hei Lam Tsang; Yazhou Zhao; Janet H. Hsiao Understanding the role of eye movement pattern and consistency during face recognition through EEG decoding Journal Article In: npj Science of Learning, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2025. @article{Liu2025i,Eye movement patterns and consistency during face recognition are both associated with recognition performance. We examined whether they reflect different mechanisms through EEG decoding. Eighty-four participants performed an old-new face recognition task with eye movement pattern and consistency quantified using eye movement analysis with hidden Markov models (EMHMM). Temporal dynamics of neural representation quality for face recognition were assessed through decoding old vs new faces using a support vector machine classifier. Results showed that a more eye-focused pattern was associated with higher decoding accuracy in the high-alpha band, reflecting better neural representation quality. In contrast, higher eye movement consistency was associated with shorter latency of peak decoding accuracy in the high-alpha band, which suggested more efficient neural representation development, in addition to higher ERP decoding accuracy. Thus, eye movement patterns are associated with neural representation effectiveness, whereas eye movement consistency reflects neural representation development efficiency, unraveling different aspects of cognitive processes. |
Chunyu Liang; Yili Chen; Yongyun Zhu; Yangfan Zhu; Jieyu Chen; Chenxi Liu; Fang Wang; Xinglong Yang Construction of a mild cognitive impairment prediction model for Parkinson's disease patients on the basis of multimodal data Journal Article In: npj Parkinson's Disease, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2025. @article{Liang2025b,This research aimed to establish a model predicting mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease patients (PDMCI) by integrating multimodal indicators. We prospectively collected general demographic data, clinical scales, gait parameters, eye tracking parameters, and neuroimaging parameters from 50 PDMCI patients, 50 Parkinson's disease patients with normal cognition (PDNCs), and 20 healthy controls (HCs). Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers and nested cross-validation were used to evaluate 31 feature combinations. Results demonstrated that the combination of clinical, gait, eye tracking, Diffusion Tensor Image Analysis along the Perivascular Space (DTI-ALPS), and Global Functional Connectivity Density (gFCD) features achieved an average accuracy of 0.9135 and an average area under the curve of 0.9602 on the test dataset. Notably, the combination of eye tracking and gait features also showed superior performance. These findings indicate that multimodal data integrated with machine learning (ML) can effectively distinguish between PDMCI and PDNC patients. |
Siwei Li; Jingwen Chen; Cong Zhang; Shiming Tang; Yang Xie; Liping Wang Flexible use of limited resources for sequence working memory in macaque prefrontal cortex Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–18, 2025. @article{Li2025m,Our brain is remarkably limited in how many items it can hold simultaneously, but it can also represent unbounded novel items through generalization. How the brain rationally uses limited resources in working memory (WM) remains unexplored. We investigated mechanisms of WM resource allocation using calcium imaging and electrophysiological recording in the prefrontal cortex of monkeys performing sequence WM (SWM) tasks. We found that changes in the neural representation of SWM, including geometry, generalizable and separate rank subspaces, reflected WM load. SWM resources, represented by neurons' signal strength and spatial tuning projected onto each rank subspace, were shared flexibly between ranks. Crucially, the prefrontal cortex dynamically utilized shared tuning neurons to ensure generalization, while engaging disjoint and spatially shifted neurons to minimize interference, thus achieving a trade-off between behavioral and neural costs within capacity. The allocated resources can predict monkeys' behavior. Thus, the geometry of compositionality underlies the flexible use of limited resources in SWM. |
Lin Li; Min Gao; Xue Sui; Xiaolei Gao; Ralph Radach Retrieval of information to the left of the current fixation during reading Chinese Journal Article In: BMC Psychology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2025. @article{Li2025h,This study investigates whether readers can extract the glyphs and lexical information of Chinese words from the left area of the current fixation. This study uses the eye-tracking technique with a boundary paradigm to explore this question. Participants were asked to read Chinese sentences carefully, with an invisible boundary between an adjective and a noun of a well-matched attributive clause. As readers' fixation crossed the boundary, the adjective to the left of the boundary was replaced with a similar or a dissimilar pseudoword (Experiment 1), or a word with an appropriate meaning at different frequency (Experiment 2). We found that readers spent more time reading the target word under the dissimilar mask condition than the similar condition in both early- and late-stage processing indexes of eye movement. In addition, readers spent more time on processing different-frequency adjective mask conditions at the late stage processing measures of eye movement. The results suggested that readers can begin to acquire glyph information from early stages and can acquire lexical information at the late stage, from the left of the current fixation during Chinese sentence reading. The implication for oculomotor gradient processing models was discussed. |
Hongxiao Li; Jiashen Li; Xin Hao; Wei Liu Behavioral and eye-tracking investigation of event segmentation following short video watching Journal Article In: npj Science of Learning, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2025. @article{Li2025c,The proliferation of short-video platforms prompts critical investigation of their effects on human cognitive functions. We hypothesized that the frequent, user-driven content shifts inherent to short-video watching impair event segmentation, a cognitive process critical for continuous memory encoding. Combining behavioral, eye-tracking, and self-report data, we revealed that acute exposure to randomly selected short videos was associated with poorer memory for continuous movies, particularly in participants with more frequent daily short-video viewing. This effect was absent after viewing personalized short videos and did not apply to static image encoding tasks. Intersubject correlation analysis of eye movements revealed that random short video watching attenuated eye synchronization at event boundaries. Furthermore, Hidden Markov Model analysis indicated that personalized and random short videos induced qualitatively different latent event structures. These findings indicate that the algorithmic curation of content, not merely the short-video format, is a crucial factor shaping event segmentation and subsequent memory. |
Bao Li; Li Tong; Chi Zhang; Panpan Chen; Long Cao; Hui Gao; Zi Ya Yu; Lin Yuan Wang; Bin Yan An fMRI dataset on occluded image interpretation for human amodal completion research Journal Article In: Scientific Data, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1–10, 2025. @article{Li2025b,In everyday environments, partially occluded objects are more common than fully visible ones. Despite their visual incompleteness, the human brain can reconstruct these objects to form coherent perceptual representations, a phenomenon referred to as amodal completion. However, current computer vision systems still struggle to accurately infer the hidden portions of occluded objects. While the neural mechanisms underlying amodal completion have been partially explored, existing findings often lack consistency, likely due to limited sample sizes and varied stimulus materials. To address these gaps, we introduce a novel fMRI dataset,the Occluded Image Interpretation Dataset (OIID), which captures human perception during image interpretation under different levels of occlusion. This dataset includes fMRI responses and behavioral data from 65 participants. The OIID enables researchers to identify the brain regions involved in processing occluded images and examines individual differences in functional responses. Our work contributes to a deeper understanding of how the human brain interprets incomplete visual information and offers valuable insights for advancing both theoretical research and related practical applications in amodal completion fields. |
Jad Laaboudi; Anne Hillairet de Boisferon; Céline Paeye Pre-saccadic attention (and not arousal) modulates the size-eccentricity effect Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Laaboudi2025,Peripherally located objects are often perceived to be smaller than centrally located objects. This perceptual phenomenon, known as the Size-Eccentricity Effect (SEE), is mainly due to the structural properties of the visual system and is further modulated by covert attention. In this study, we evaluated whether pre-saccadic attention could also compensate for this effect. Participants performed a judgment task where they compared a test disk of varying size, briefly presented in peripheral vision, to a reference disk appearing 450 ms later in foveal vision. When no saccade was made towards the location of the test disk, the SEE was observed. However, when participants initiated saccades about 200 ms after the test disk extinction, points of subjective equality were close to objective equality. The second experiment aimed at excluding an explanation involving non-specific arousal mechanisms, also known to enhance visual perception. Participants executed a keypress or an antisaccade instead of a saccade. The SEE disappeared only in the saccade condition, confirming the crucial role of pre-saccadic attention shifts in this SEE compensation. Therefore, pre-saccadic attention improves not only the processing of orientation, contrast and spatial frequency (as previously demonstrated), but also the processing of peripheral object size. |
Yuna Kwak; Nina M. Hanning; Marisa Carrasco Saccade direction modulates the temporal dynamics of presaccadic attention Journal Article In: Journal of Vision, vol. 25, no. 14, pp. 1–15, 2025. @article{Kwak2025,Presaccadic attention enhances visual perception at the upcoming saccade target location. While this enhancement is often described as obligatory and temporally stereotyped, recent studies indicate that its strength varies depending on saccade direction. Here, we investigated whether the time course of presaccadic attention also differs across saccade directions. Participants performed a two-alternative forced-choice orientation discrimination task during saccade preparation. Tilt angles were individually titrated in a fixation baseline condition to equate task difficulty across the upper and lower vertical meridians. Sensitivity was then assessed at different time points relative to saccade onset and cue onset, allowing us to characterize the temporal dynamics of attentional enhancement. We found that presaccadic attention built up faster and reached higher levels preceding downward than upward saccades. Linear model fits revealed significant slope differences but no differences in intercepts, suggesting that the observed asymmetries reflect differences in attentional deployment during saccade preparation rather than preexisting differences in sensitivity. Saccade parameters did not account for these asymmetries. Our findings demonstrate that the temporal dynamics of presaccadic attention vary with saccade direction, which may be a potential mechanism underlying previously observed differences in presaccadic benefit at the upper and lower vertical meridians. This temporal flexibility challenges the view of a uniform presaccadic attention mechanism and suggests that presaccadic attentional deployment is shaped by movement goals. Our results provide new insights into how the visual and oculomotor systems coordinate under direction-specific demands. |
Jan W. Kurzawski; Brenda S. Qiu; Najib J. Majaj; Noah C. Benson; Denis G. Pelli; Jonathan Winawer Human V4 size predicts crowding distance Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–11, 2025. @article{Kurzawski2025,Visual recognition is limited by both object size (acuity) and spacing. The spacing limit, called “crowding”, is the failure to recognize an object in the presence of other objects. Here, we take advantage of individual differences in crowding to investigate its biological basis. Crowding distance, the minimum object spacing needed for recognition, varies 2-fold among healthy adults. We test the conjecture that this variation in psychophysical crowding distance is due to variation in cortical map size. To test this, we make paired measurements of brain and behavior in 49 observers. We use psychophysics to measure crowding distance and calculate λ, the number of letters that fit into each observer's visual field without crowding. In the same observers, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the surface area A of retinotopic maps V1, V2, V3, and V4. Across observers, λ is proportional to the surface area of V4 but is uncorrelated with the surface area of V1 to V3. The proportional relationship of λ to area of V4 indicates conservation of cortical crowding distance across individuals: letters can be recognized if they are spaced by at least 1.4 mm on the V4 map, irrespective of map size and psychophysical crowding distance. We conclude that the size of V4 predicts the spacing limit of visual perception. |
Sharif I. Kronemer; Victoria E. Gobo; Shruti Japee; Elisha P. Merriam; Benjamin Osborne; Peter A. Bandettini; Tina T. Liu Eye metrics often reflect visual conscious awareness, conscious content, and neural processing in cerebral blindness Journal Article In: Communications Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1724, 2025. @article{Kronemer2025a,<p>Cerebral blindness is caused by damage to the primary visual pathway. Some people with cerebral blindness retain degraded vision and non-visual sensations and can perform visually guided behaviors within their blind visual field. These cases raise questions about visual conscious perception and residual neural processing in cerebral blindness. A major challenge in this research is that subjective reporting on experiences in the blind field can be unreliable. Alternatively, eye metrics offer a promising objective marker of conscious awareness, conscious content, and brain activity. In this study, we recorded visual stimulus-evoked pupil size, blink, and microsaccade responses in neurotypical participants and both the sighted and blind fields of cerebrally blind participants. For most patients, we found that eye metrics inferred conscious awareness in the blind field. Also, pupil size responded to both real and illusory stimulus luminance in the sighted field but not in the blind field. Furthermore, eye metrics were linked to visual stimulus-evoked occipital cortical field potentials in the blind field, suggesting residual cortical processing. These findings support eye metrics as an indicator of visual conscious perception and neural processing in cerebral blindness, with potential applications for tracking vision recovery following damage to the primary visual pathway.</p> |
Diana Kollenda; Anna Sophia Reher; Benjamin Haas Individual gaze predicts individual scene descriptions Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–9, 2025. @article{Kollenda2025,Do different people looking at the same scene perceive individual versions of what's in front of them? If perception is individual, which mechanisms mediate our particular view of the world? Recent findings have shown systematic observer differences in gaze, but it is unclear whether individual fixation biases translate to divergent impressions of the same scene. Here, we find systematic differences in the scene descriptions individual observers provide for identical complex scenes. Crucially, observer differences in fixation patterns predicted pairwise differences in scene descriptions, particularly the use of nouns, even for out-of-sample images. Part of this could be explained by the individual tendency to fixate text and people predicting corresponding description references. Our results strongly suggest that subjective scene perception is shaped by individual gaze. |
Jamie Koerner; Erin Zou; Jessica A. Karl; Cynthia Poon; Leo Verhagen Metman; Charles G. Sodini; Vivienne Sze; Fabian J. David; Thomas Heldt In: npj Parkinson's Disease, vol. 11, no. 1, 2025. @article{Koerner2025,Early detection and monitoring of Parkinson's disease (PD) remain challenging, highlighting the need for accessible, cost-effective tools. Saccadic eye movement abnormalities are promising noninvasive biomarkers for PD screening and monitoring. Here, we present an iPad-based system that uses a deep learning algorithm to extract saccade metrics and validate these metrics against the clinical-grade EyeLink 1000 Plus. Twenty-five participants (10 with PD, 15 controls) completed pro-saccade, anti-saccade, memory-guided-saccade, and self-generated-saccade tasks. Relative to the EyeLink, the iPad system achieved average subject-level errors of 2 ms for latency and 0.7∘ for amplitude in pro-, anti-, and memory-guided saccades, and 0.003 s−1 for inter-saccadic rate and 1.6∘ for amplitude in self-generated saccades. A review of 22 studies on PD-related saccadic impairments established benchmarks for clinically meaningful effects. The iPad-based system meets or exceeds these benchmarks, supporting its use as a scalable and cost-effective tool for screening and monitoring PD. |
Dirk Kerzel Electrophysiological evidence for the optimal tuning of attention Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–14, 2025. @article{Kerzel2025,Optimal tuning of attention refers to shifts in goal-driven attention that increase the difference between the representation of the target and nontarget features. Evidence for optimal tuning comes from studies measuring the memory representation of the target and, to a lesser degree, from studies measuring attentional selectivity. In one study on attentional selectivity, cueing effects were found to be greater for cue colors deviating away from the nontarget color compared to cue colors deviating toward the nontarget color, suggesting that participants' search goal was optimally tuned. To address alternative accounts, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by different cue colors at posterior electrodes PO7/PO8. We found that ERPs associated with attentional orienting (N1pc) or selection (N2pc) were larger for cue colors deviating away from the nontarget color, which is consistent with the optimal tuning of attention. In contrast, the results are difficult to reconcile with alternative accounts such as rapid disengagement or object updating. Further, we aimed to evaluate contributions from sensory adaptation by analyzing the Ppc component, a lateralized ERP in the P1 time range. Two control conditions, however, suggested that the Ppc was more likely driven by imbalanced saliency than sensory adaptation. |
Krista R. Kelly; Mina Nouradanesh; Reed M. Jost; Christina S. Cheng-Patel; Eileen E. Birch; Serena X. Wang; James Y. Tung; Ewa Niechwiej-Szwedo Eye-hand coordination during visually-guided reaching in children with monocular deprivation amblyopia Journal Article In: Vision Research, vol. 237, pp. 1–10, 2025. @article{Kelly2025,Monocular deprivation (MD) amblyopia caused by a dense unilateral congenital or infantile cataract leads to both sensory and ocular motor deficits, which can in turn affect motor performance. Previous research shows reduced fine motor skills in children with MD amblyopia on standardized tasks. Here, we evaluate eye-hand coordination during visually-guided reaching in MD amblyopia. A group of 17 children aged 7–15 years with MD amblyopia resulting from a unilateral cataract and a group of 41 age-similar control children were enrolled. During binocular viewing, children's reaching movements (LEAP Motion Controller) and eye movements (EyeLink 1000 binocular eye tracker) were recorded as they reached to touch a dot displayed at one of four locations (±5 deg or ±10 deg) on a computer monitor. Saccade and reach kinematic measures were assessed between groups, and factors associated with impairments in the MD amblyopia group were evaluated. The MD amblyopia group as a whole had impaired saccade (lower saccade gain, reduced saccade precision, more reach-related saccades) and reach (longer total reach duration, slower peak velocity, reduced touch accuracy) kinematics compared to controls. However, performance was worse in those with a poorer visual acuity outcome (≥0.7 logMAR) compared to good visual acuity outcome (≤0.6 logMAR). MD amblyopia impacts the development of eye-hand coordination during reaching, particularly in those with a poorer visual acuity outcome. Longer deceleration in the final approach and more reach-related saccades may suggest an inability to adapt or form an efficient compensatory strategy and may also be indicative of impaired on-line control. |
Srijita Karmakar; Miguel P. Eckstein The psychophysics of dynamic gaze-following saccades during search Journal Article In: Journal of Vision, vol. 25, no. 14, pp. 1–33, 2025. @article{Karmakar2025,The ability to quickly and precisely follow another person's gaze reflects critical evolutionary mechanisms underlying social interactions, such as attention modulation and the prediction of others' future actions. Recent studies show that observers use another person's gaze direction and peripheral scene information to make anticipatory saccades toward the gaze goal. However, it remains unclear how these eye movements are influenced by complex features of natural scenes, such as a foveal gazer, multiple peripheral gaze goals, and the relative distance between gazer and goal. We presented dynamic stimuli (videos) of real-world scenes with or without a gazer shifting their head to gaze at other individuals (gaze goals). Participants were instructed to search for a specific target individual in the videos while their eye movements were recorded. We measured the accuracy of the first saccade in locating the gaze goal. First, we found that the absence of a foveal gazer significantly increased saccade error, but only when the goal was at least approximately 9 degrees of visual angle from the initial fixation. First saccade amplitude and onset latency were higher in the gazer-present condition. Second, when there were multiple potential gaze goals in the periphery, the first saccade was directed to the individual closer to the initial fixation (gazer) location. Finally, the presence of multiple peripheral gaze goals shortened saccade latencies and increased the frequency of anticipatory saccades made before the gazer completed their head movement. These findings extend our understanding of gaze following in complex, naturalistic scenes and inform theories of attention and real-world decision-making. |
Oren Kadosh; Benjamin Menashe; Yael Gera; Michal Ben-Shachar; Yoram S. Bonneh Oculomotor chronometry of spoken word structure processing Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–9, 2025. @article{Kadosh2025,Oculomotor inhibition (OMI) is the momentary inhibition of involuntary eye movements, such as saccades and blinks, following sensory stimulation. Higher-level cognitive processes, such as processing the structure of written words, have been shown to affect the duration and magnitude of the OMI. In this study we tested whether OMI measures are influenced by the processing of spoken word structures. Participants listened to Hebrew words and pseudowords presented auditorily while we recorded their microsaccades, eye blinks, and pupil dilation. Spoken pseudowords were divided into two groups based on their underlying linguistic structure, with one half containing real roots and the other half containing invented roots. Results show a greater OMI for Real-root pseudowords as compared to Invented-root pseudowords, replicating the morpheme interference effect found previously for written stimuli. OMI measures, including microsaccade and eye blink latencies, as well as pupil dilation peak latency, were consistently greater for real-root pseudowords compared to invented-root pseudowords. These findings demonstrate the sensitivity of OMI to the cognitive processing of spoken word structure, even in the absence of visual stimuli or visually directed task. The results highlight the potential role of oculomotor responses as a marker of higher-order linguistic processing. |
Maryam Nouri Kadijani; Theda Backen; Kaustubh Manchanda; Sandeep K. Mody; Stefan Treue; Julio C. Martinez-Trujillo Bilateral field advantage of spatial attention in macaque lateral prefrontal cortex Journal Article In: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 37, no. 12, pp. 2430–2444, 2025. @article{Kadijani2025,Allocating visual attention to behaviorally relevant stimuli is easier when distractors are in the opposite visual hemifield relative to when they are in the same hemifield. The neural mechanisms underlying this bilateral field advantage remains unclear. We documented this effect in two macaques performing a covert spatial attention task in two different conditions: when the target and distracter were positioned in different hemifields (across condition), and when they were positioned on the top and bottom quadrants within the same visual hemifield (within condition). The animals' behavioral performance at detecting a change in the attended stimulus was higher in the across relative to the within condition. We recorded the responses of lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC, area 8A) neurons in one animal. The proportion of LPFC neurons encoding the allocation of attention was larger in the across relative to the within condition. The latter was accompanied by an increase in the ability of single neurons to discriminate the allocation of attention in the across relative to the within condition. Finally, we used linear classifiers to decode the allocation of attention from the activity of neuronal ensembles and found a similar bilateral field advantage in decoding performance in the across relative to the within condition that generalized to different integration time windows and number of neurons used by the classifier. Our finding provides a neural correlate of the bilateral field advantage reported in behavioral studies of attention and suggest a role of the LPFC circuitry in its origin. |
Jookyoung Jung; Andrea Révész; Matthew J. Stainer; Ana Pellicer-Sánchez; Yoojin Chung; Danni Shi The impact of gaze-contingent textual enhancement on L2 collocation learning from computer-mediated reading tasks Journal Article In: TESOL Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 2035–2060, 2025. @article{Jung2025a,This study examined if gaze-contingent textual enhancement could be used as an interactive focus-on-form device to promote learning of second language (L2) collocations from computer-mediated reading tasks. Seventy-five Chinese ESL users read three English texts that contained twelve target collocations, presented under one of three conditions: no highlighting, proactive highlighting (target collocations highlighted in advance), and gaze-contingent highlighting (target collocations highlighted when looked at). Participants' eye movements were captured during the reading task, and collocation form recall and recognition tests were administered immediately after and 2 weeks later. Additionally, five participants from each group took part in a stimulated recall session, eliciting their thoughts while reading. The results indicated that both highlighting techniques increased total fixation duration and count on the target collocations and improved collocation form recall and recognition scores in the posttests. Gaze-contingent highlighting demonstrated a more durable impact on the collocation recall test compared to proactive highlighting. The stimulated recall comments also revealed that gaze-contingent highlighting tended to promote attentive processing of the target collocations. These findings suggest that highlighting is a useful focus-on-form technique in task-based reading contexts, with gaze-contingent highlighting yielding potential benefits in terms of L2 collocation learning. |
Nathalie John; Sebastian P. Korinth; Mareike Kunter; Franziska Baier-Mosch Gaze cluster analysis reveals heterogeneity in attention allocation and predicts learning outcomes Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–14, 2025. @article{John2025,Instructional videos need to maintain learners' attention to foster learning, therefore, a fine-grained measurement of attention is required. Existing gaze measures like inter-subject correlation (ISC) assume a singular focal point deemed meaningful for indicating attention. We argue that multiple meaningful foci can exist and propose an automatically generated gaze measure labeled gaze cluster membership (GCM). By applying the density-based clustering in spatial databases (DBSCAN) algorithm to gaze position data from over 100 participants, we categorize viewers as attentive when they are part of a cluster and as inattentive when they are not. Using two videos, we demonstrate that our settings of DBSCAN generate meaningful clusters. We show that low ISC values (neuronal and eye tracking data) during multiple meaningful foci do not necessarily indicate a lack of attention. Additionally, GCM predicts participants' self-reported mental effort and their tested knowledge. Our innovative approach is of high value for assessing learner attention and designing instructional videos. |
Akram Jamali; Tourandokht Baluchnejadmojarad; Hajar Mehdizadeh; Seyede Zohreh Jazaeri; Soheila Fallah; Ghorban Taghizadeh Impact of post stroke fatigue on saccadic eye movement control and learning through inflammatory mechanisms Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Jamali2025,This study aimed to (1) examine the impact of post-stroke fatigue (PSF) on saccadic control, (2) assess the effect of PSF on saccade adaptation, and (3) explore the correlation between serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) with saccade control and adaptation in chronic stroke survivors. Fatigue was assessed in stroke survivors with high fatigue (HF-stroke |
Liat Israeli-Ran; Tamar Kadosh Laor; Florina Uzefovsky Emotion regulation dynamics in empathy in young children Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2025. @article{IsraeliRan2025,The capacity to empathize plays a pivotal role in most forms of social interaction, contributing significantly to adaptive social behavior. Empathy entails experiencing others' emotions, making the ability to regulate one's emotional reactions to both positive and negative emotions of others crucial for effective empathy. Both empathy and emotion regulation are capacities that develop within the context of parenting, yet the dynamics of this process are not well understood. Moreover, while there has been considerable research on empathy towards others' distress, there is less understanding of how people regulate their emotions in response to the positive emotions of others. This lack of knowledge is particularly pronounced in childhood. To address these gaps, our study focused on young children (, years and 8 months, months, female), observing their attention patterns through eye-tracking as they watched video clips designed to elicit empathic responses, both positive and negative. Additionally, we collected mothers' reports on the children's behavioral symptoms. Our findings revealed a decline in the children's attention to the face over time. However, this decline was slower in situations eliciting positive empathy and faster in those eliciting negative empathy. Interestingly, this pattern varied with the children's behavioral problems. Specifically, children with higher internalizing problems maintained their attention in positive empathy situations, whereas those with medium to high levels of externalizing symptoms initially showed a decline, followed by an increase in attention to other's negative emotional expressions. These results indicate that individual differences in behavioral issues are linked to distinct approaches to regulating emotions in empathic contexts. |
Xin Huang; Hezul Tin Yan Ng; Chien Ho Lin; Ming Yan; Olaf Dimigen; Werner Sommer; Urs Maurer How the dominant reading direction changes parafoveal processing: A combined EEG/eye-tracking study Journal Article In: Psychophysiology, vol. 62, no. 12, pp. 1–22, 2025. @article{Huang2025e,Reading directions vary across writing systems. Through long-term experience, readers adjust their visual systems to the dominant reading direction in their writing systems. However, little is known about the neural correlates underlying these adjustments because different writing systems do not just differ in reading direction, but also in visual and linguistic properties. Here, we took advantage of the fact that Chinese is read to different degrees in left-to-right or top-to-bottom directions in different regions. We investigated visual word processing in participants from Taiwan (both top-to-bottom and left-to-right directions) and from mainland China (only left-to-right direction). We used combined EEG/eye-tracking with a saccade-contingent parafoveal preview manipulation to investigate how the dominant reading direction shapes neural visual processing while participants read 5-word lists. Fixation-related potentials (FRPs) showed a reduced late N1 effect (preview positivity), but this effect was modulated by prior experience with a specific reading direction. Results replicated previous findings that valid previews facilitate visual word processing, as indicated by reduced FRP activation. Critically, the results provide the first neuroelectric evidence that this facilitation effect depends on experience with a given reading direction. The findings provide insight into how cultural experience shapes the way people process visual information and demonstrate how a person's everyday visual experience can influence how the brain processes parafoveal information. |
Cenlou Hu; Ziwen Luo; Sai Huang; Bao Zhang Coarse matching was sufficient to capture attention by working memory representations unless matching features with the target Journal Article In: BMC Psychology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1–11, 2025. @article{Hu2025,Background: In most theoretical frameworks, the effectiveness of attentional selection relies significantly on the perceptual similarity between the target template and visual input. Nevertheless, ambiguity exists surrounding whether attentional capture triggered by irrelevant representations in Working Memory (WM) is influenced by the perceptual similarity levels of features between WM content and its matching distractors. Methods: We designed a hybrid WM and visual search task, varying such perceptual similarity of colors across three levels: exact, high-similar, and low-similar matching. To quantify the extent of the capture effect, we compared these conditions against a neutral baseline (i.e., completely different color) using eye movement and behavioral data in two experiments. Results: We consistently observed robust attentional capture effects across two experiments, evident in both eye movement indices and manual reaction times. In Experiment 1, where WM representations solely matched features to visual search distractors (task-irrelevant scenario), we found that changes in perceptual similarity did not influence attentional capture. Conversely, in Experiment 2, where WM representations had the potential to match the visual search target (task-relevant scenario), we observed a significantly more robust attentional capture effect for high-similar matching compared to low-similar matching conditions. Conclusions: These findings imply that coarse matching between distractors and WM contents is sufficient to capture attention, unless the matching features potentially correspond to the visual target. Furthermore, task relevance sharpens perceptual sensitivity to visual input, highlighting distinct mechanisms underlying attentional capture by irrelevant representations and target templates within WM. |
Alexandra Hibble; Hannah Smithson; Paul Azzopardi Visual motion thresholds mapped to midget and parasol ganglion cell topography in the human retina Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2025. @article{Hibble2025,Motion in visual images can be described in terms of changes in phases of Fourier components (phase cues), or displacements in the position of specific features (position cues) over time. Human observers are able to perceive motion using both cues, where perceived direction of motion is biased in favour of phase cues at higher spatial and temporal frequencies, and in favour of position cues at lower spatial and temporal frequencies. This suggests the existence of separable mechanisms for processing phase and position cues. We propose that these mechanisms receive separate inputs from the parasol (magnocellular) and midget (parvocellular) retinal ganglion cells. Using two-frame apparent motion Gabor stimuli that isolated phase and position cues, we measured displacement thresholds for motion direction discrimination across the visual field (from 0 to 15 degrees eccentricity) for 7 observers. Thresholds for positional displacements decreased significantly more steeply with eccentricity than those for phase displacements, mirroring precisely the decline with increasing eccentricity of the linear densities of the midget and parasol retinal ganglion cell populations respectively. These results suggest that the magnocellular and parvocellular visual pathways could constitute separable neural substrates for first-order (Fourier) and third-order (feature-tracking) motion perception. |
Dorottya Hetenyi; Joost Haarsma; Peter Kok Contents of visual predictions oscillate at alpha frequencies Journal Article In: The Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 45, no. 49, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Hetenyi2025,Predictions of future events have a major impact on how we process sensory signals. However, it remains unclear how the brain keeps predictions online in anticipation of future inputs. Here, we combined magnetoencephalography (MEG) and multivariate decoding techniques to investigate the content of perceptual predictions and their frequency characteristics. Thirty-two participants (23 female) were engaged in a shape discrimination task, while auditory cues predicted which specific shape would likely appear. Frequency analysis revealed significant oscillatory fluctuations of predicted shape representations in the pre-stimulus window in the alpha band (10–11 Hz). Furthermore, we found that this stimulus-specific alpha power was linked to expectation effects on shape discrimination behavior. Our findings demonstrate that sensory predictions are embedded in pre-stimulus alpha oscillations and modulate subsequent perceptual performance, providing a neural mechanism through which the brain deploys perceptual predictions. |
Jason Helbing; Dejan Draschkow; Melissa L. H. Võ Incidental encoding of objects during search is stronger than intentional memorization due to increased recollection rather than familiarity Journal Article In: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 37, no. 12, pp. 2538–2557, 2025. @article{Helbing2025,Most memory is not formed deliberately but as a by-product of natural behavior. These incidental representations, when generated during visual search, can be stronger than intentionally memorized content (search superiority effect). However, it is unknown if the search superiority effect is purely quantitative (stronger memory) or also driven by differences in the degrees of recollection and familiarity, two hallmark processes supporting recognition memory. Here, we use signal detection modeling, introspective judgments, event-related EEG potentials, and eye tracking measures to answer this question. In a preregistered study, 30 participants searched for objects in scenes and intentionally memorized others before completing a surprise recognition memory test. Behavioral data from remember-know judgments and receiver operating characteristics indicate that search targets were more often recollected compared with intentionally memorized objects, whereas the two tasks did not lead to differences in familiarity. Surprisingly, the neural signatures did not fully align with the behavioral findings regarding recollection and familiarity. That is, both search targets and intentionally memorized objects elicited a more positive-going mid-frontal negativity peaking at around 400 msec post stimulus onset (FN400), which is associated with familiarity, as well as a more positive-going parietal late component (LPC), indicative of recollection. Both components showed no differences between tasks, indicating equal contributions of recollection and familiarity to remembering searched and memorized objects. Furthermore, the LPC was, as expected, sensitive to differences between recollected and familiar objects when these were intentionally memorized, but it was not affected by these differences for searched objects. Overall, our findings indicate that search superiority relies predominantly on increased recollection. The fact that established neural markers of recollection (LPC) behaved as anticipated for intentionally memorized objects but carried no predictive power for incidentally memorized objects implies that memories established in more ecologically valid tasks might involve neural processes different from those activated in commonly used settings that are more reductionist. |
Seyed-Reza Hashemirad; Mojtaba Abbaszadeh; Ali Ghazizadeh Prefrontal cortex temporally multiplexes slow and fast dynamics in value learning and memory Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–17, 2025. @article{Hashemirad2025,Seyed-Reza Hashemirad 1,Mojtaba Abbaszadeh 1 & Ali Ghazizadeh 2 Balancing stability and flexibility is a fundamental challenge in value-based learning: how does the brain maintain long-term value memories while adapting to new environmental contingencies? To address this, we propose a reinforcement learning model composed of two distinct processes with fast and slow dynamics for updating and forgetting object values. Using a combined theoretical and experimental approach in male macaque monkeys, we validate a key behavioral prediction of this two-rate system—spontaneous recovery of prior value memories following value reversal. At the neural level, we show that single neurons in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) temporally multiplex these dynamics, with distinct firing components reflecting fast and slow learning processes. Together, these findings suggest that reward learning and memory are supported by a two-rate system that enables both flexibility and stability, and identify the vlPFC as a critical neural substrate for this mechanism. Foods, |
Zirui Gu; Christian N. L. Olivers; Mieke Donk Distinguishing a central selection bias from a central fixation bias: The role of retinal eccentricity in visual selection Journal Article In: Vision Research, vol. 237, pp. 1–12, 2025. @article{Gu2025c,Earlier work has shown that the eyes preferably select stimuli that are presented close to central fixation over stimuli presented further away, suggesting the existence of a central selection bias. However, so far studies have confounded retinal eccentricity with distance from the center of a display, and the observed effects may thus have been driven by what is known as the central fixation bias, which is the preference for items near the center of a display rather than the center of the retina. This study aimed to dissociate the central selection bias from the central fixation bias, and to uncover its time course. In two experiments, participants were instructed to make a single eye movement to one of two simultaneously presented singletons. The singletons were always presented at the same distance from the center of the display (thus controlling for the central fixation bias) but their eccentricity relative to the initial fixation point was varied (thus allowing for a central selection bias to operate). When the two singletons were displayed at different eccentricities, participants preferred selecting the nearest item. This central selection bias occurred rapidly and transiently, peaking around 230 ms and lasting until approximately 320 ms after display onset. Together, these results suggest that retinal eccentricity is a major factor when multiple objects compete for selection. |
Chanyuan Gu; Samuel A. Nastase; Zaid Zada; Ping Li Reading comprehension in L1 and L2 readers: Neurocomputational mechanisms revealed through large language models Journal Article In: npj Science of Learning, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2025. @article{Gu2025,While evidence has accumulated to support the argument of shared computational mechanisms underlying language comprehension between humans and large language models (LLMs), few studies have examined this argument beyond native-speaker populations. This study examines whether and how alignment between LLMs and human brains captures the homogeneity and heterogeneity in both first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) readers. We recorded brain responses of L1 and L2 English readers of texts and assessed reading performance against individual difference factors. At the group level, the two groups displayed comparable model-brain alignment in widespread regions, with similar unique contributions from contextual embeddings. At the individual level, multiple regression models revealed the effects of linguistic abilities on alignment for both groups, but effects of attentional ability and language dominance status for L2 readers only. These findings provide evidence that LLMs serve as cognitively plausible models in characterizing homogeneity and heterogeneity in reading across human populations. |
Charlotte Grosse Wiesmann; Katrin Rothmaler; Esra Hasan; Kathrine Habdank; Chen Yang; Emanuela Yeung; Victoria Southgate The self-reference memory bias is preceded by an other-reference bias in infancy Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–8, 2025. @article{GrosseWiesmann2025,One of the most established biases in human memory is that we remember information better when it refers to ourselves. We investigated the development of this self-reference effect and its relationship with the emergence of a self-concept. We presented 18-month-old infants with objects that were assigned either to them, or to another agent. Infants were then tested on their memory for the objects by presenting them with an image of each object, alongside a modified version of it. Mirror self-recognition served as an index of self-concept emergence. Infants who recognize themselves in the mirror remember objects assigned to themselves better than those assigned to the other. In contrast, non-self-recognizers only remember the objects assigned to the other rather than themselves. This difference is not explained by differences in infants' age or inhibitory abilities. This suggests that the self-reference effect emerges with the development of self-concept in the second year. Prior to the emergence of a self-concept, however, infants instead seem to exhibit an other-reference effect. This reversal of the classic self-reference effect suggests that early in life, when infants are heavily reliant on others for information, they may be biased towards encoding the world as it relates to others. |
Whitney S. Griggs; Sumner L. Norman; Mickael Tanter; Charles Liu; Vasileios Christopoulos; Mikhail G. Shapiro; Richard A. Andersen Functional ultrasound neuroimaging reveals mesoscopic organization of saccades in the lateral intraparietal area Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–19, 2025. @article{Griggs2025,The lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP), contained within the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), is crucial for transforming spatial information into saccadic eye movements, yet its functional organization for movement direction remains unclear. Here, we used functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI), a technique with high sensitivity, large spatial coverage, and good spatial resolution, to map movement direction encoding across the PPC by recording local changes in cerebral blood volume within PPC as two male monkeys performed memory-guided saccades. Our analysis revealed a heterogeneous organization where small patches of neighboring LIP cortex encoded different directions. These subregions demonstrated consistent tuning across several months to years. A rough topography emerged where anterior LIP represented more contralateral downward movements and posterior LIP represented more contralateral upward movements. These results address two fundamental gaps in our understanding of LIP's functional organization: the neighborhood organization of patches and the stability of these populations across long periods of time. By tracking LIP populations over extended periods, we developed mesoscopic maps of direction specificity previously unattainable with fMRI or electrophysiology methods. |
Marius Grandjean; Louise Kauffmann; Alexia Roux-Sibilon; Valérie Goffaux Does radial bias contribute to fast saccades toward faces in the periphery? Journal Article In: Journal of Vision, vol. 25, no. 14, pp. 1–22, 2025. @article{Grandjean2025,Saccadic choice studies have shown that humans initiate faster saccades toward faces than other visual categories. Here, we tested whether the saccadic advantage for faces observed in past studies is partly due to stimuli being typically presented along the horizontal meridian (HM). Our previous work suggests that the radial bias along the HM facilitates access to the horizontal structure of faces, which optimally drives human face-specialized processing. We expected to corroborate the saccadic advantage for faces along the HM, where the radial bias facilitates access to horizontal content, and to observe a reduction of this advantage along the vertical meridian (VM), especially in participants showing a strong horizontal tuning for face recognition. Fifty participants performed a saccadic choice task targeting faces or vehicles presented at 15° eccentricity along the HM and VM. We also assessed the strength of the radial bias and the horizontal tuning for face identity recognition in each individual. As expected, saccades were faster and more accurate toward faces than vehicles; they were also faster along the HM than the VM. Contrary to our hypothesis, the saccadic face advantage did not differ between meridians, suggesting the robustness of face saccadic advantage. However, the saccadic face advantage along the VM correlated with the strength of the horizontal tuning of face identity recognition. Additionally, the radial bias predicted saccade latency toward faces along the HM. These findings indicate that low-level radial biases and high-level face-specialized mechanisms independently contribute to distinct functional aspects of the ultra-fast saccadic responses toward faces. |
Luise P. Graichen; Magdalena S. Linder; Lars Keuter; Ole Jensen; Christian F. Doeller; Claus Lamm; Tobias Staudigl; Isabella C. Wagner Entorhinal grid-like codes for visual space during memory formation Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2025. @article{Graichen2025,Eye movements, such as saccades, allow us to gather information about the environment and, in this way, can shape memory. In non-human primates, saccades are associated with the activity of grid cells in the entorhinal cortex. Grid cells are essential for spatial navigation, but whether saccade-based grid-like signals play a role in human memory formation is currently unclear. Here, human participants undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging and continuous eye gaze monitoring while studying scene images. Recognition memory is probed immediately thereafter. Results reveal saccade-based grid-like codes in the left entorhinal cortex that are specific to later remembered trials during study, a finding that we replicate with an independent data set. The grid-related effects are time-locked to activation increases in the frontal eye fields. Unexpectedly, lower saccade-based grid-like codes are associated with better subsequent recognition memory performance. Our findings suggest an entorhinal map of visual space that is timed with neural activity in oculomotor regions, and negatively associated with subsequent memory. Grid-like codes, entorhinal cortex, saccades, frontal eye fields (FEF), memory, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) |
Matthias Grabenhorst; David Poeppel; Georgios Michalareas Neural signatures of temporal anticipation in human cortex represent event probability density Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–17, 2025. @article{Grabenhorst2025,Temporal prediction is a fundamental function of neural systems. Recent results show that humans anticipate future events by calculating probability density functions, rather than hazard rates. However, direct neural evidence for this hypothesized mechanism is lacking. We recorded neural activity using magnetoencephalography as participants anticipated auditory and visual events distributed in time. We show that temporal anticipation, measured as reaction times, approximates the event probability density function, but not hazard rate. Temporal anticipation manifests as spatiotemporally patterned activity in three anatomically and functionally distinct parieto-temporal and sensorimotor cortical areas. Each of these areas revealed a marked neural signature of anticipation: Prior to sensory cues, activity in a specific frequency range of neural oscillations, spanning alpha and beta ranges, encodes the event probability density function. These neural signals predicted reaction times to imminent sensory cues. These results demonstrate that supra-modal representations of probability density across cortex underlie the anticipation of future events. |
Dongyu Gong; Dejan Draschkow; Anna C. Nobre Focusing attention in working and long-term memory through dissociable mechanisms Journal Article In: Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–14, 2025. @article{Gong2025a,We developed an experimental approach to compare how attentional orienting facilitates retrieval from spatial working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM), and how selective attention within these two memory types impacts incoming sensory information processing. In three experiments with healthy young adults, retrospective attention cues prioritize an item represented in WM or LTM. Participants then retrieve a memory item or perform a perceptual task. The retrocue is informative for the retrieval task but not for the perceptual task. We show that attentional orienting benefits performance for both WM and LTM, with stronger effects for WM. Eye-tracking reveals significant gaze shifts and microsaccades correlated with attention in WM, but no statistically significant gaze biases were found for LTM. Visual discrimination of unrelated visual stimuli is consistently improved for items matching attended WM locations. Similar effects occur at LTM locations but less consistently. The findings suggest at least partly dissociable attention-orienting processes for different memory types. Although our conclusions are necessarily constrained to the type of WM and LTM representations relevant to our task, they suggest that, under certain conditions, attentional prioritization in LTM can operate independently from WM. Future research should explore whether similar dissociations extend to non-spatial or more complex forms of LTM. |
Jessica N. Goetz; Mark B. Neider MATCH: A toolbox to assess the primary color of real-world objects and generate color-matching stimuli Journal Article In: Behavior Research Methods, vol. 57, no. 12, pp. 1–22, 2025. @article{Goetz2025,Real-world stimuli can be difficult to manipulate and control in experimental psychology studies. Color information is frequently used as a variable, and researchers often rely on subjective color labels that imprecisely describe the color information within real-world objects. Here, we describe a new toolbox called MATCH (Matching And Transforming Closely Hued objects) that can easily and objectively quantify and manipulate color information within real-world objects to generate object pairs that match in color. MATCH was designed incorporating theoretical frameworks and conceptual understanding from visual cognition research. Additionally, MATCH provides critical information on the distribution of color and the specific color values of any stimulus set. We also present two experimental studies to validate whether MATCH produces images that are consistent with human visual perception. In the first study, we provide evidence that the stimuli generated by MATCH are perceptually closer in color to a reference object compared to human categorization of object–color pairs. In the second study, we investigated the search for real-world objects with distractors generated by MATCH that matched the target object's color. We found patterns of data that are consistent with current theories of human search behavior. In summary, MATCH allows researchers to carefully control the color of real-world stimuli used in their studies. |
Jessica Galli; Marika Vezzoli; Erika Loi; Serena Micheletti; Anna Molinaro; Lucia Tagliavento; Stefano Calza; Alexander N. Sokolov; Marina A. Pavlova; Elisa Fazzi Alterations in looking at face-pareidolia images in autism Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 2025. @article{Galli2025,Face tuning is vital for adaptive and effective social cognition and interaction. This capability is impaired in a wide range of mental conditions including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet the origins of this deficit are largely unknown. Here, an eye-tracking methodology had been implemented in adolescents with high-functioning ASD and in typically developing (TD) matched controls while administering a face-pareidolia task. The spatial distributions of eye fixation in five regions of interest [face, eyes, mouth, CFA (complementary face area, a face area beyond eyes and mouth) and non-face area (a screen area outside a face)] were recorded during spontaneous recognition of a set of Arcimboldo-like Face-n-Food images presented in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. Individuals with ASD gave significantly fewer face responses and looked more often at the mouth, CFA, and non-face areas. By contrast, TD controls mostly fixated the face and eyes areas. The atypical visual scanning strategies could, at least partly, account for the lower face tuning in ASD, supporting the eye avoidance hypothesis, according to which ASD individuals concentrate less on the eyes because the eyes represent a source of emotional information that may make them feel uncomfortable. |
Bachman P. Fulmer; Gregory J. Gerard In: International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, vol. 56, pp. 1–16, 2025. @article{Fulmer2025,The widespread availability of digital financial statements across different platforms presents challenges related to potentially misdirecting visual cues and inconsistent terminology. This study employs a quasi-experimental design to analyze the influence of misdirecting visual cues and alternative terminology on attention during information search behavior, while also examining how accounting domain knowledge moderates these effects. All participants demonstrated more efficient search behavior over time, but the effect was moderated by accounting domain knowledge. Those with high accounting domain knowledge showed significantly greater performance improvements, underscoring the role of domain knowledge in the search process. Participants with high accounting domain knowledge searched more efficiently and adapted better to irrelevant cues and inconsistent terminology, illustrating the advantage of a cognitive schema even in a basic tabular search task. |
Davide Frattini; Mariagrazia Benassi; Tobias Wibble; Mattias Nilsson; Roberto Bolzani; Tony Pansell Temporal visual processing deficits in post concussion syndrome Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–11, 2025. @article{Frattini2025,Post-concussive (PCS) motion hypersensitivity represents a common sequela of mild traumatic brain injury. This study investigated whether PCS alters visual temporal resolution thresholds in psychophysical measures that sustain motion detection. Fifteen PCS patients and fifteen age-matched controls underwent critical flicker fusion (CFF) threshold assessments across visual-field eccentricities. A Generalized linear mixed model tested group differences in CFF thresholds, treating eccentricity as a repeated factor and including CFF variability as a covariate. Pupil measurements and catch trials controlled for fatigue and alertness. Nonparametric correlations assessed relationships among time from injury, symptom severity, and CFF measures. Results showed CFF variability heightening CFF thresholds in the PCS group to a significantly larger extent compared to controls. Absence of significant CFF variability differences between groups, and modulation by eccentricity, suggests perceptual noise more strongly influences the overall visual temporal sensitivity in PCS. Days since injury negatively correlated with variability, indicating compensatory stabilization of temporal sensitivity over time. Symptom severity did not correlate with CFF measures. In conclusion, PCS motion hypersensitivity may reflect disturbances in visual temporal processing parameters, potentially involving altered internal neural noise. Although some recalibration occurs post-injury, persistent abnormalities underscore the need for further research into early, clinical interventions targeting perceptual noise. |
Justin T. Fleming; Matthew B. Winn Seeing a talker's mouth reduces the effort of perceiving speech and repairing perceptual mistakes for listeners with cochlear implants Journal Article In: Ear and Hearing, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 1502–1518, 2025. @article{Fleming2025,Objectives: Seeing a talker's mouth improves speech intelligibility, particularly for listeners who use cochlear implants (CIs). However, the impacts of visual cues on listening effort for listeners with CIs remain poorly understood, as previous studies have focused on listeners with typical hearing (TH) and featured stimuli that do not invoke effortful cognitive speech perception challenges. This study directly compared the effort of perceiving audiovisual speech between listeners who use CIs and those with TH. Visual cues were hypothesized to yield more relief from listening effort in a cognitively challenging speech perception condition that required listeners to mentally repair a missing word in the auditory stimulus. Eye gaze was simultaneously measured to examine whether the tendency to look toward a talker's mouth would increase during these moments of uncertainty about the speech stimulus. Design: Participants included listeners with CIs and an age-matched group of participants with typical age-adjusted hearing (N = 20 in both groups). The magnitude and time course of listening effort were evaluated using pupillometry. In half of the blocks, phonetic visual cues were severely degraded by selectively blurring the talker's mouth, which preserved stimulus luminance so visual conditions could be compared using pupillometry. Each block included a mixture of trials in which the sentence audio was intact, and trials in which a target word in the auditory stimulus was replaced by noise; the latter required participants to mentally reconstruct the target word upon repeating the sentence. Pupil and gaze data were analyzed using generalized additive mixed-effects models to identify the stretches of time during which effort or gaze strategy differed between conditions. Results: Visual release from effort was greater and lasted longer for listeners with CIs compared with those with TH. Within the CI group, visual cues reduced effort to a greater extent when a missing word needed to be repaired than when the speech was intact. Seeing the talker's mouth also improved speech intelligibility for listeners with CIs, including reducing the number of incoherent verbal responses when repair was required. The two hearing groups deployed different gaze strategies when perceiving audiovisual speech. CI listeners looked more at the mouth overall, even when it was blurred, while TH listeners tended to increase looks to the mouth in the moment following a missing word in the auditory stimulus. Conclusions: Integrating visual cues from a talker's mouth not only improves speech intelligibility but also reduces listening effort, particularly for listeners with CIs. For listeners with CIs (but not those with TH), these visual benefits are magnified when a missed word needs to be mentally corrected—a common occurrence during everyday speech perception for individuals with hearing loss. These results underscore the importance of including participants with hearing loss in listening effort studies and suggest caution in assuming results from TH listeners will generalize to those with hearing loss. They also highlight the potential clinical relevance of visual speech information, for counseling patients and families and potentially for the development of audiovisual strategies to reduce listening effort. |
Johannes B. Finke; Anna M. Schippers; Tim Klucken Intra-individual comparison of appetitive trace and delay conditioning in humans across acquisition and extinction Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–14, 2025. @article{Finke2025a,Temporal contiguity between conditioned (CS) and unconditioned stimuli (US) is a crucial factor in Pavlovian learning, yet little is known about its role in appetitive conditioning and extinction. In a within-subject design, 60 participants underwent both a delay (DC) and trace conditioning (TC) session with partial reinforcement (75%) by monetary rewards (US) and varying interval between CS offset and US onset (DC: 0s; TC: 4s). In addition to self-report indices (reward expectancy, arousal, valence), psychophysiological markers (pupil dilation, heart-period and startle reflex modulation) were recorded during acquisition and extinction training. For most measures, significant differential conditioned responses emerged, irrespective of temporal contiguity, with no major differences observed between TC and DC during acquisition (except for potentially diminished startle attenuation in TC). Despite overall similar patterns in conditioned responding (with small to moderate effects on physiological measures), there was no intraindividual concordance between sessions, yet evidence for differential TC effects on extinction learning. Specifically, smaller reductions in differential reward expectancy, heart-period deceleration and startle modulation after extinction in TC suggested relatively diminished extinction learning. Conditioned pupil dilation (0–2 s after CS onset) remained comparatively stable. Taken together, our findings extend evidence of differences in underlying learning mechanisms between TC and DC to the context of reward learning. |
Mariana Ferreira; João Pedro Marques; Miguel Raimundo; Hugo Quental; Miguel Castelo-Branco Improvements induced by retinal gene therapy with voretigene neparvovec depend on visual cortical hemispheric dominance mechanisms Journal Article In: Communications Medicine, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1–9, 2025. @article{Ferreira2025,Background: RPE65-associated retinal degeneration (RPE65-RD) causes severe visual deficits. Gene therapy with AAV2-hRPE65v2 is a breakthrough but it is currently unknown which visual pathways benefit from treatment and if cortical mechanisms can amplify retinal improvements. Methods: In this within-subject design, ten patients with biallelic RPE65-RD underwent sub-retinal injection of AAV2-hRPE65v2. Psychophysical full-field stimulus threshold determination and functional magnetic resonance imaging were performed before and 12 months after treatment. Population receptive fields (pRF) were computed in V1 and visual responses assessed using contrast-reversed checkerboards (3 contrast levels). Results: Here we show significant improvement in light sensitivity at low-luminance and neural response enhancements under low-luminance conditions specifically in the right hemisphere, which is known to show dominance in attentional and visual pooling of spatial information. Changes in pRF size also reflect known hemispheric spatial asymmetries (left/right biased for local/global analysis, respectively). Conclusions: Our findings show a contribution of known early and high-level cortical dominance mechanisms on improvement, which constrain the effects of therapy and are therefore a target for neurorehabilitation. These findings provide insight into the limits of clinical benefits of gene therapy and suggest that neurorehabilitation approaches may be needed to enhance improvements, similarly to cochlear implants. |
Madison Fenner; Brian Szekely; Kristen G. Quigley; Philip Pavilionis; Nicholas G. Murray Oculomotor dysfunction May not subside upon clinical resolution of sport related concussion Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 2025. @article{Fenner2025,Sport-related concussion (SRC) is a public health crisis that results in growing diagnoses each year. Recent evidence suggests that there are oculomotor deficits present in patients with SRC. It is unclear if this oculomotor deficit is linked to other clinical outcomes or lingers beyond clinical symptom resolution. The purpose of this study is to investigate the progression of oculomotor and clinical deficits following SRC at the acute stage of injury and again when they are clinically considered fully symptom-free for at least 24 h. 13 NCAA athletes completed a multifaceted concussion battery that included postural (tandem gait), symptom provocation (Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening), and oculomotor assessments (eye-tracking) once within 48 h of diagnosis of SRC (AC) and again once free of symptoms (SF). Significant group differences were observed in several oculomotor metrics. Both AC and SF groups exhibited elevated peak saccadic velocity and acceleration compared to controls (p < 0.01), with no significant difference between AC and SF. Saccadic amplitude was significantly reduced in both AC and SF groups relative to controls (p < 0.001). The number of masked saccades during SP was lower in the AC group than in controls (p = 0.05), but this difference was not observed in the SF group. No significant group differences were found for saccade duration or SP velocity. There are still oculomotor deficits that persist when SRC student-athlete patients' injuries are deemed clinically resolved. Lingering issues are not uncommon; however, these functional eye movement deficits are concerning and warrant additional research. |
Tingting Feng; Yun Zhang; Wenhao Han; Xiaoling Luo; Yifei Han; Wenjie Wei; Hong Qu; Shenbing Kuang; Tao Zhang; Yi Zhang Hierarchical and distinct biological motion processing in macaque visual cortical areas MT and MST Journal Article In: Communications Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1–14, 2025. @article{Feng2025,It is widely accepted that biological motion (BM) perception involves the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS). Yet, how individual neurons and neural circuits in pSTS encode BM remains unclear. Here we combined electrophysiological recordings with neural network modeling to elucidate BM computations in two subregions of pSTS. We recorded single-cell activity from the middle temporal area (MT) and the medial superior temporal area (MST) of three macaque monkeys when they viewed point-light displays portraying BM walking in different directions (left vs. right), orientations (upright vs. inverted), and forms (intact vs. scrambled). We found that, while individual neurons in both MT and MST showed selectivity for these features, neural populations in MST but not MT exhibit BM-specific encoding, i.e., preferential representation of intact upright BM—the defining characteristic of BM recognition. A neural network model trained to replicate these neurophysiological findings implicated that, BM-specific encoding in MST may arise from feedforward connectivity patterns, i.e., MT subpopulations selective for linear translational motion and nonlinear optic flow projected preferentially to distinct MST cells. Taken together, our findings highlight hierarchical and distinct BM processing in MT and MST, advancing our understanding of BM computations in pSTS at the single-cell and neural circuit levels in the primate brain. |
Esmaeil Farhang; Ramin Toosi; Behnam Karami; Roxana Koushki; Narges Kheirkhah; Farideh Shakerian; Jalaledin Noroozi; Ehsan Rezayat; Abdol Hossein Vahabie; Mohammad Reza A. Dehaqani The impact of spatial frequency on hierarchical category representation in macaque temporal cortex Journal Article In: Communications Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2025. @article{Farhang2025,Objects are recognized in three hierarchical levels: superordinate, mid-level, and subordinate. Psychophysics shows that mid-level categories and low spatial frequency (LSF) information are rapidly recognized. However, the interaction between spatial frequency (SF) and abstraction is not well understood. To address this, we examine neural responses in the inferior temporal cortex and superior temporal sulcus of two male macaque monkeys. Our findings reveal that mid-level categories are well represented at both LSF and high SF (HSF), suggesting robust mid-level boundary maps in these areas, unaffected by SF changes. Conversely, superordinate category representation depends on HSF, indicating its crucial role in encoding global category information. The absence of subordinate representation in both LSF and HSF compared to intact stimuli further implies that full SF content is essential for fine-category processing. A supporting human psychophysics task confirms that superordinate categorization relies on HSF, while subordinate object recognition requires both LSF and HSF. |