Picture Blocks Research Articles

Syntactic priming as implicit learning in German child language.

We investigated syntactic priming in German children to explore crosslinguistic evidence for implicit learning accounts of language production and acquisition. Adult descriptions confirmed that German speakers (N=27) preferred to spontaneously produce active versus passive transitive and DO versus PO dative forms. We tested whether German-speaking children (N=29, M age =5.3, 15 girls/14 boys) could be primed to produce these dispreferred forms and whether such priming effects would persist across a target phase. Children first heard a block of priming sentences and then described a block of target pictures. They demonstrated significant priming effects for passive and PO dative structures, and these priming effects did not differ between the first and second halves of the block of target trials. These patterns of German child language production are consistent with implicit learning accounts of syntactic priming.

An improved crowd detection system using text and image filtration methods for precautions from COVID-19

The text feature is an important descriptive feature of many image analysis applications. Objectives of this study aim to determine the different texture characteristics of them estimation and calculation of population density. In this paper, we have various reviews of the texture and their own have been extensively reviewed, a different combination that is possible to test their effectiveness in crowds of pedestrians. Divide into two categories and retreat. A framework has been proposed to evaluate performance of all aspects of the density coefficient of human density as well to count. According to the framework, the input images are categorized into blocks and blocks into cells of different sizes, having various levels of overcrowding. Because of a distorted view of people, people's visibility near the camera contributes greatly to this feature vector than distant people. Therefore, the features released are usually using a standard visual map of the scene. In the first stage, picture blocks are classified using multiple classes SVM has been at a different level of congestion. In the second phase Gaussian Process Deactivation is used to restore undoing low-level features for calculation. Various texture features and their possible combinations checked on publicly available dataset.

Pictures of social interaction prompt a sustained increase of the smile expression and induce sociability

Viewing pictures of social interaction can facilitate approach behaviors. We conducted two studies to investigate if social interaction cues, empathy, and/or social touch modulate facial electromyographic (EMG) reactivity (as evidenced by the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles) and mood states. We presented bonding pictures (depicting social interaction) and control pictures (without social interaction) while continuously recording zygomatic and corrugator EMG activities. In both studies, picture blocks were paired by valence and arousal. All participants were college students. In study 1, participants (n = 80, 47 women) read relevant priming texts immediately before viewing each block of 14 pictures. In study 2, participants did not read (n = 82, 63 women) priming texts before each block of 28 pictures. In study 1 and study 2, participants also completed mood states questionnaires to assess sociability and altruistic behavior. Empathy and social touch frequency were also assessed by self-reported questionnaires. In both studies, bonding pictures increased the zygomatic activity and the self-reported sociability feeling compared to control pictures. Only in study 2, bonding pictures decreased median corrugator activity compared to control pictures. We concluded that social interaction cues were efficient to increase sociability and prompt a sustained smile expression regardless of priming texts.

S50. COGNITION AND EMOTION REGULATION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA PATIENTS WITH A HISTORY OF AGGRESSION

BackgroundStudies have shown a convergence of neural systems implicated in cognitive control and social emotional functions with mechanisms involved in emotion regulation, awareness, and impulsive aggression. In a sample of patients with a history of aggression, we examined the association of cognitive and social cognitive functions with emotion regulation capacity, emotional awareness, impulse control, and aggression.MethodsParticipants were 78 individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder that participated in a cognitive training study. Emotion regulation capacity was indexed by obtaining participants’ heart rate variability (HRV), respiration, and skin conductance while participants viewed pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Three blocks of pictures were presented—a neutral block depicting pictures of everyday objects preceded by audio recordings of their description; an emotionally-evocative block preceded by their description, and a reappraisal block of emotionally-evocative pictures preceded by reappraisal statements. A subset of participants (N=37) completed the emotion regulation task. The MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (Eyes Task), and the Emotion Recognition-40 (ER-40) were administered to assess cognitive functioning, mentalizing, and facial affect recognition respectively. Negative affectivity was captured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) whereas aggression was measured with the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP) and the Overt Aggression Scale Modified (OAS-M).In a smaller subsample of 12 individuals, we performed analyses of activation patterns during the performance of the emotion regulation task. Regions of interest (ROI) included the dACC, DLPFC, VLPFC, vmPFC, left and right amygdala, and the subcallosal cingulate. We created a regional mask of the cognitive control and emotional appraisal regions for event-related fMRI.ResultsThere were inverse associations between performance on the MCCB and the Eyes Task and indices of emotion regulation capacity—in particular, significant associations were obtained with Low Frequency/High Frequency HRV ratio (r=-0.324, p<0.05) and SCL (r=-0.331, p<0.05). Both HRV and respiration measures were inversely correlated with aggression measured with the TAP suggesting an association between reduced emotion regulation capacity and a risk for aggression.There were inverse associations between activation within the event-related regional mask and low frequency/high frequency heart rate variability ratio at rest (r=-0.504, p=0.095) and during the viewing of emotionally-evocative pictures (r = -0.264, p=0.36). Associations with HRV were especially remarkable for the dorsomedial, ventrolateral, and right amygdala regions.Remarkably, increased activation in the regional mask when reappraisal statements were provided with emotionally-evocative pictures was inversely correlated with the life history of aggression LHA (r=-0.32, p=0.28, n=14) and OAS (r=-0.284, p=0.34, n=14) aggression scores. This pattern was present when the dACC, right and left amygdala, DLPFC, VLPFC, and the subcallosal cingulate were set as the seed region.DiscussionThe results show an association between cognitive functions and emotion regulation capacity indexed by measuring physiological arousal during the performance of the picture viewing task. Emotion regulation capacity also showed significant association with aggression. Deficits in cognitive and social cognitive abilities may contribute to and be viable targets for improving emotion regulation capacity and decreasing aggression risk.

Pavement Crack Detection Algorithm Based on Densely Connected and Deeply Supervised Network

Road cracks may form as a result of climatic changes and low-quality building materials, which is important for maintenance as well as the fact that continual exposure would seriously harm the environment. The automated identification and classification of fractures in the surface of a road's paving, without the need for manually labelled samples. This idea seeks to reduce human subjectivity that results from conventional visual surveys. The fracture identification process is initially carried out using learning from example photos extracted from the dataset. Non-overlapping picture blocks are categorised by the algorithm as either having crack pixels or not. The road photos can be used to find fractures in the pavement. With the aid of feature extraction from the photos, a supervised model is created for the detection of fractures in road photographs. The features were extracted, normalised, and then classified as either crack or non-crack based on the feature values produced. The picture is classified as cracked or not cracked based on the characteristics that were retrieved. During the testing phase, the pictures' characteristics were retrieved and image fractures were located. By comparing the retrieved feature values with the suggested threshold, the fractures were then further divided into several categories. Finally, the process' performance is assessed.

Compression of smart contents with classification between text and picture blocks using sub-pixel gradient information

This paper presents a novel algorithm to classify complex-rendered text images by examining the color levels of the adjacent sub-pixels. The proposed algorithm is different from the previous approaches in that it uses the combined characteristics of RGB sub-channels, whereas the previous approaches use independent characteristics of RGB sub-channels. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm improves the classification accuracy over the previous best algorithm by 15.9% for complex-rendered texts. Furthermore, the compression method optimized for text sub-images significantly reduces the computational complexity without degradation in compression efficiency.

Externalizing proneness and brain response during pre-cuing and viewing of emotional pictures.

Externalizing proneness, or trait disinhibition, is a concept relevant to multiple high-impact disorders involving impulsive-aggressive behavior. Its mechanisms remain disputed: major models posit hyperresponsive reward circuitry or heightened threat-system reactivity as sources of disinhibitory tendencies. This study evaluated alternative possibilities by examining relations between trait disinhibition and brain reactivity during preparation for and processing of visual affective stimuli. Forty females participated in a functional neuroimaging procedure with stimuli presented in blocks containing either pleasurable or aversive pictures interspersed with neutral, with each picture preceded by a preparation signal. Preparing to view elicited activation in regions including nucleus accumbens, whereas visual regions and bilateral amygdala were activated during viewing of emotional pictures. High disinhibition predicted reduced nucleus accumbens activation during preparation within pleasant/neutral picture blocks, along with enhanced amygdala reactivity during viewing of pleasant and aversive pictures. Follow-up analyses revealed that the augmented amygdala response was related to reduced preparatory activation. Findings indicate that participants high in disinhibition are less able to process implicit cues and mentally prepare for upcoming stimuli, leading to limbic hyperreactivity during processing of actual stimuli. This outcome is helpful for integrating findings from studies suggesting reward-system hyperreactivity and others suggesting threat-system hyperreactivity as mechanisms for externalizing proneness.

Abdominal fat is associated with a greater brain reward response to high‐calorie food cues in hispanic women

ObjectiveExposure to high-calorie foods may promote overeating by stimulating brain reward pathways and appetite. Abdominal fat has particularly adverse metabolic consequences and may alter brain pathways that regulate feeding behavior. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to test the hypothesis that high-calorie food cues activate brain reward regions and increase appetite, and to examine relationships between abdominal fat and brain reward responsiveness in Hispanic women.Design and MethodsfMRI was performed while thirteen volunteers viewed twelve blocks of pictures of food and non-food items. Participants rated hunger and food desire after each block of pictures. Brain activation to high-calorie foods was determined by calculating a contrast of high-calorie food minus non-food images. Pearson’s correlations were used to test the relationship between brain reward activation and waist circumference.ResultsHigh-calorie food images activated brain reward regions (Z>2.3, p<0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons) and increased hunger (p=0.001), desire for sweet (p=0.012) and savory (p=0.009) foods. The striatal response to high-calorie foods positively correlated with waist circumference, independent of BMI (r=0.621, p=0.031).ConclusionsExposure to high-calorie food images activates brain reward pathways and increases appetitive drive in Hispanic females. Abdominal fat, independent of BMI, parallels striatal responsiveness to high-calorie food images.

Salivary alpha‐amylase changes promoted by sustained exposure to affective pictures

We studied the changes in salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and other psychophysiological indices (heart rate, skin conductance, and corrugator supercilii activity) elicited by sustained exposure to affective pictures. Thirty-nine subjects viewed five blocks of pictures depicting mutilations, human attack, neutral scenes, sport/adventure, and erotica. Each block comprised 12 pictures of the same content. Saliva samples were collected before and after each block of pictures. The results showed that mutilation pictures promoted the greatest increase in sAA activity and output, as well as greater corrugator supercilii activity than pleasant pictures. Skin conductance response did not differ among high arousal picture contents. Changes in sAA varied with the affective valence but not with the arousal ratings of the pictures. Our results point to sAA as an index directly related to the unpleasantness elicited by sustained exposure to affective stimuli.

Moving Target Detection and Segmentation Method Research in Intelligent Transportation System

This paper proposes a new algorithm for the detection of moving objects based on picture blocks and HVS color space of image differences techniques. The experimental results show that this algorithm can overcome the weakness of image background differencing and coterminous frame differencing method and suppress shadows effectively with advantages of self-adaptation and high speed. It can be used to detect the high-speed moving objects in the complex.

Robust and efficient authentication of video stream broadcasting

We present a novel video stream authentication scheme which combines signature amortization by means of hash chains and an advanced watermarking technique. We propose a new hash chain construction, the Duplex Hash Chain, which allows us to achieve bit-by-bit authentication that is robust to low bit error rates. This construction is well suited for wireless broadcast communications characterized by low packet losses such as in satellite networks. Moreover, neither hardware upgrades nor specific end-user equipment are needed to enjoy the authentication services. The computation overhead experienced on the receiver only sums to two hashes per block of pictures and one digital signature verification for the whole received stream. This overhead introduces a provably negligible decrease in video quality. A thorough analysis of the proposed solution is provided in conjunction with extensive simulations.

The effects of arousal and valence on facial electromyographic asymmetry during blocked picture viewing

The effect of stimulus valence and arousal on facial electromyographic (EMG) asymmetry was investigated to inform the debate about two contrasting hypotheses of emotion: the right hemisphere dominance hypothesis and the valence hypothesis. EMG was recorded from the left and right corrugator and zygomaticus muscles while participants (N=21) viewed blocks of negative and positive pictures that were high or low in arousal. Ratings of valence and arousal were taken before and after each of the four emotion blocks. Corrugator muscle activity yielded evidence for left hemi-face dominance during high and low arousal negative picture blocks whereas zygomaticus muscle activity yielded evidence for right hemi-face dominance during high arousal positive picture blocks, especially early during the picture sequence. This pattern of results is consistent with the valence hypothesis.

Bradygastric activity of the stomach predicts disgust sensitivity and perceived disgust intensity

The aim of this study was to investigate gastric and non-gastric autonomic responses to disgusting pictures and to assess the relationship between autonomic changes, disgust sensitivity, and perceived disgust intensity. Healthy participants viewed pictures with affectively neutral or disgusting content of either a high or moderate arousal level. Electrogastrogram, electrocardiogram, and electrodermal activity were recorded, and participants’ disgust sensitivity and disgust intensity were assessed. No main effect of condition on gastric myoelectrical activity was found. However, stepwise regression analyses indicated that the percentage of bradygastria predicted disgust ratings in case of the highly arousing disgust pictures. When moderately arousing pictures were shown, disgust ratings were predicted by disgust sensitivity, which in turn was predicted by the percentage of bradygastria. Heart periods and respiratory sinus arrhythmia increased to a similar extent during both the highly arousing and moderately arousing picture blocks, while a tendency for larger skin conductance responses during the highly arousing picture block was shown. The results suggest that feelings of disgust may be specifically related to increased bradygastria, which may represent a prodromal sign of vomiting.

Freezing reaction in panic disorder patients associated with anticipatory anxiety

Anticipatory anxiety can be described as a conditioned response with a defensive posture of freezing and autonomic activation. The purpose of this study was to assess the postural control analysis and autonomic activation in panic disorder (PD) patients presented with visual stimuli. PD patients (n=29) and healthy controls (n=27) stood on a force platform while viewing a series of anxiogenic, mutilation, and neutral pictures. Skin conductance responses and the displacements of the center of pressure were measured. Overall, the PD patients demonstrated significantly reduced body sway, increased mean power frequency, and increased skin conductance compared to control group throughout the experiment (P<.05). PD patients also showed a negative correlation between anticipatory anxiety and mean sway area throughout the experiment. However, there was no significant difference in body sway velocity compared to healthy controls while viewing the anxiogenic block of pictures or the neutral block. Our data shows that PD patients experiencing anticipatory anxiety may present with lower mobility, consistent with the freezing behavior of the defense cascade. The data also shows that PD patients do not have a postural instability when confronted with specific anxiogenic context. The importance of this study is that it objectively demonstrates freezing-like behavior in PD patients.

Emotion-dependent modulation of interference processes: an fMRI study.

We studied the effects of experimentally induced emotions on inhibitory control using functional magnetic resonance tomography (fMRI). The Simon task used involves two conditions with different attentional demands and is a well established paradigm for studying inhibitory control. Incompatible trials demand cognitive control for resolving interference. Compatible trials need no inhibitory control. Twelve participants viewed a series of affective pictures inducing positive, negative or neutral affects. Between the picture blocks, participants performed either incompatible or compatible trials. Behavioral and fMRI data revealed an impact of negative emotions only on the processing of ncompatible trials. Subjects made more errors and showed less activation of brain areas associated with task performance. There was no effect of positive emotions neither on compatible nor incompatible trials. The results first showed that especially the processing of negative emotions is resource competing and secondly that the competition concerns only the controlled route of cognitive processing.

Efficient Prediction Structures for Multiview Video Coding

<para xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> An experimental analysis of multiview video coding (MVC) for various temporal and inter-view prediction structures is presented. The compression method is based on the multiple reference picture technique in the H.264/AVC video coding standard. The idea is to exploit the statistical dependencies from both temporal and inter-view reference pictures for motion-compensated prediction. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by an experimental analysis of temporal versus inter-view prediction in terms of the Lagrange cost function. The results show that prediction with temporal reference pictures is highly efficient, but for 20% of a picture's blocks on average prediction with reference pictures from adjacent views is more efficient. Hierarchical B pictures are used as basic structure for temporal prediction. Their advantages are combined with inter-view prediction for different temporal hierarchy levels, starting from simulcast coding with no inter-view prediction up to full level inter-view prediction. When using inter-view prediction at key picture temporal levels, average gains of 1.4-dB peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) are reported, while additionally using inter-view prediction at nonkey picture temporal levels, average gains of 1.6-dB PSNR are reported. For some cases, gains of more than 3 dB, corresponding to bit-rate savings of up to 50%, are obtained. </para>

Reciprocal Effects of Antidepressant Treatment on Activity and Connectivity of the Mood Regulating Circuit: An fMRI Study

Reciprocal Effects of Antidepressant Treatment on Activity and Connectivity of the Mood Regulating Circuit: An fMRI Study

Sex Differences in Neural Responses to Disgusting Visual Stimuli: Implications for Disgust-Related Psychiatric Disorders

A majority of patients with disgust-related psychiatric disorders such as animal phobias and contamination-related obsessive-compulsive disorder are women. The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to examine possible sex differences in neural responses to disgust-inducing stimuli that might help explain this female predominance. Thirty-four healthy adult volunteers (17 women, all right-handed) were scanned while viewing alternating blocks of disgusting and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System. Using a partially-silent fMRI sequence, the participants rated their level of discomfort after each block of pictures. Skin conductance responses (SCR) were measured throughout the experiment. All participants completed the Disgust Scale. Both women and men reported greater subjective discomfort and showed more SCR fluctuations during the disgusting picture blocks than during the neutral picture blocks. Women and men also demonstrated a similar pattern of brain response to disgusting compared with neutral pictures, showing activation in the anterior insula, ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, and visual regions. Compared with men, women had significantly higher disgust sensitivity scores, experienced more subjective discomfort, and demonstrated greater activity in left ventrolateral prefrontal regions. However, these differences were no longer significant when disgust sensitivity scores were controlled for. In healthy adult volunteers, there are significant sex-related differences in brain responses to disgusting stimuli that are irrevocably linked to greater disgust sensitivity scores in women. The implications for disgust-related psychiatric disorders are discussed.

Negative affect as a predisposing factor for cortisol release after an acute stress—the impact of unpleasant priming

Glucocorticoids have a key role in stress responses. There are, however, substantial differences in cortisol reactivity among individuals. We investigated if affective trait and mood induction influence the reactivity to psychological stress in a group of 63 young adults, male (n = 27) and female (n = 36), aged ca. 21 years. On the experimental day the participants viewed either a block of pleasant or unpleasant pictures for 5 min to induce positive or negative mood, respectively. Then, they had 5 min to prepare a speech to be delivered in front of a video-camera. Saliva samples were collected to measure cortisol, and questionnaire-based affective scales were used to estimate emotional states and traits. Compared to basal levels, a cortisol response to the acute speech stressor was only seen for those who had first viewed unpleasant pictures and scored above the average on the negative affect scale. There were no sex differences. In conclusion, high negative affect associated with exposure to an unpleasant context increased sensitivity to an acute stressor, and was critical to stimulation of cortisol release by the speech stressor.

Affective modulation of swallowing rates: Unpleasantness or arousal?

Objective It has been observed that spontaneous swallowing rates are modulated by the affective state. Affect-induced swallowing may be an important biobehavioral factor in gastrointestinal disorders. However, previous studies failed to distinguish between pleasantness and arousal effects and did not analyze gender effects. Method We analyzed swallowing rates in 42 participants (22 women) who viewed 3 blocks of 12 affective pictures preselected for inducing positive, negative, and neutral affect. Swallowing rate was measured by brief and rapid resistance increases in forced oscillation measurements indicating closure of the glottis. In addition, participants rated pleasantness and arousal for each individual picture. Results Cumulative swallowing rates were lower during positive and neutral than negative picture blocks. This effect was only observed in women. Ratings confirmed earlier findings with picture material. Conclusion Both pleasantness and arousal interact to modulate swallowing rates. The role of gender in moderating affect-induced swallowing requires further research.