Visual Cues Research Articles

Effectiveness of Visual Cues and Auditory Cues on Gait Parameters in Individuals with Parkinson’s disease: An Experimental Study

Effectiveness of Visual Cues and Auditory Cues on Gait Parameters in Individuals with Parkinson’s disease: An Experimental Study

A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of Visual Cues, Signage, and Spaced-Retrieval for Wayfinding within Long-Term Care Communities.

Wayfinding can be challenging in many long-term care communities (LTCCs) due to size, poor visibility, inadequate wayfinding design, as well as cognitive impairment of some residents. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of distinctive cues and signage placed at key points within care communities, with and without a trained memory strategy called spaced retrieval (SR), on wayfinding ability and life-space. Fifteen LTCCs were randomized to control (arm 1), cues (arm 2), or cues+SR (arm 3). Data were collected at baseline, and months 1, 3, 6 and 12. Wayfinding speed and accuracy (co-primary outcomes) were tested on three routes (simple, moderate, and complex) in each site. The secondary outcome was self-reported life-space. Longitudinal linear mixed effects and generalized linear mixed effects models were used to analyze repeated measures of the outcomes in relation to trial arm. Wayfinding speed was significantly greater on the simple route for the cues condition compared to control. On the moderate and complex routes, there were no differences in speed among trial arms. In terms of errors, participants in cues and cues+SR conditions performed significantly better than control participants, and arm cues+SR performed better than cues alone. There were no differences in life-space among arms. The addition of age-friendly signs and art cues assisted residents of LTCCs to find their way more effectively than no intervention, and there were fewer errors with spaced retrieval.

Presenting Natural Continuous Speech in a Multisensory Immersive Environment Improves Speech Comprehension and Reflects the Allocation of Processing Resources in Neural Speech Tracking.

Successful speech comprehension, though seemingly effortless, involves complex interactions between sensory and cognitive processing and is predominantly embedded in a multisensory context, providing acoustic and visual speech cues. Adding the perspective of ageing, the interaction becomes even more manyfold. The impact of cognitive load on speech processing has been investigated, however, characterized by a lack of realistic speech material and multimodality. In this study, we therefore investigated the effects of memory load on naturalistic immersive audiovisual speech comprehension in older adults with varying degrees of hearing impairment and cognitive capacities. By providing natural continuous multisensory speech, provided through virtual reality, we created an immersive three-dimensional visual of the speaker and manipulated the memory load of the natural running speech inspired by a traditional n-back task. This allowed us to quantify neural speech envelope tracking via EEG and behavioral speech comprehension in varying modalities and memory loads in a highly controllable environment, while offering a realistic conversational experience. Neural speech tracking depends on an interaction between modality and memory load, moderated by auditory working memory capacity. Under low memory load, there is an increase in neural speech tracking in the immersive modality, particularly strong for individuals with low auditory working memory. Visually induced performance improvement is observed similarly in high and low memory load settings on a behavioral level. We argue that this dynamic reflects an allocation process of sensory- and cognitive processing resources depending on the presented sensory- and cognitive load of natural continuous speech and individual capacities.

The Role of Sensory Cues in Collective Dynamics: A Study of Three-Dimensional Vicsek Models

This study presents a three-dimensional collective motion model that integrates auditory and visual sensing modalities, inspired by organisms like bats that rely on these senses for navigation. Most existing models of collective motion consider vision-based sensing, likely reflecting an inherent human bias towards visual perception. However, many organisms utilize multiple sensory modalities, and this study explores how the integration of these distinct sensory inputs influences group behavior. We investigate a generalized scenario of three-dimensional motion, an area not previously explored for combining sensory information. Through numerical simulations, we investigate the combined impact of auditory and visual sensing on group behavior, contrasting these effects with those observed when relying solely on vision or audition. The results demonstrate that composite sensing allows particles to interact with more neighbors, thereby gaining more information. This interaction allows the formation of a single, large, perfectly aligned group using a narrow sensing region, achievable by taking advantage of the mechanics of both auditory and visual sensing. Our findings demonstrate the importance of integrating multiple sensory modalities in shaping emergent group behavior, with potential applications in both biological studies and the development of robotic swarms.

Engagement in computerized cognitive training instructions by older people. A within-subject design to evaluate comprehension and acceptability of serious games instructions

This article emphasizes the advantages of using a within-subject experimental design to assess the impact of salient visual cues on the comprehension and acceptability of computerized cognitive training (CCT) instructions among older adults. The study would involve participants aged 65 and above, who will engage in an online experiment presenting two sets of instructions for serious games: one with salient visual cues and one without. This within-subject design eliminates the need for random assignment, improves internal consistency, and enhances statistical power. Participants serve as their own controls, providing a more robust comparison of how visual cues affect instruction comprehension and software acceptance. The primary objective is to identify indicators of acceptability for CCT serious games and to evaluate how well participants comprehend the instructions, influencing their intention to use the software. The hypothesis suggests that salient visual cues will improve instruction comprehension and foster greater software acceptability. By focusing on this design method, the study aims to enhance the engagement of older adults in cognitive training programs, reducing dropout rates. This research offers valuable insights into methodological strengths that can be applied in future studies to improve the usability and acceptance of CCT tools for older adults without cognitive impairments.

Dynamic Augmented Reality Cues for Telementoring in Minimally Invasive Surgeries: Scoping Review.

Remote surgeons use telementoring technologies to provide real-time guidance during minimally invasive surgeries (MIS). Such technologies are continuously improving with the integration of dynamic augmented reality (AR) cues. This includes virtual overlays of hand gestures, pointers, and surgical tools onto the operating surgeon's view. The operating surgeon comprehends this augmented information to operate on the patient. Thus, understanding these dynamic AR cues (either during surgical training or live surgery) is crucial. In this paper, we aimed to review the existing telementoring technologies that use dynamic AR cues during MIS. This review describes the MIS (including surgery type, specialty, procedure, and clinical trial), the telementoring system, the dynamic AR cues generated by these systems, and evaluation of the technology in terms of technical aspects, user perceptions, skills gained, and patient outcomes. A scoping review was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, and ACM Digital Library databases. The search terms included "telementoring," "minimally invasive surgery," and "augmented reality" without restrictions imposed on the publication year. Articles covering telementoring using dynamic AR cues during MIS, including laparoscopic and robot-assisted, were identified. A total of 21 articles were included and categorized based on type of surgery, the telementoring technology used, and evaluation of the technology. Most of the articles reported on laparoscopic suturing performed using synthetic phantoms. Hand gestures and surgical tools were the most frequently used dynamic AR cues (10 articles on each cue), while the mentors and mentees primarily consisted of experienced surgeons and medical students. The studies assessing the telementoring technologies were either descriptive (7 articles) or analytical (14 articles) where it was compared against no cue, prerecorded visual cue, in-person guidance, audio cue, or static AR cue. Outcomes were measured mostly using skills gained (13 articles) and user perception about the telementoring system. In general, telementoring using dynamic AR cues resulted in positive outcomes during MIS. In some cases, they were considered on par with conventional methods such as audio cues and in-person guidance. Further randomized controlled trials are required to objectively assess its clinical benefits.

Eyes on Newborns: How NICU Staff's Attention and Emotions Shape Neonatal Pain Assessment.

Assessing pain in neonates is crucial for their management but is inherently subjective. This study investigated the effects of visual attention, gaze patterns, and empathic responses of neonatal healthcare professionals on their assessments of neonatal pain. Conducted at the Department of Neonatology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, we employed eye-tracking to monitor staff's responses to videos depicting neonates experiencing non-noxious thermal, brief noxious, and prolonged noxious stimuli. Videos were presented in two formats: full body view, providing contextual information, and face-only view, lacking contextual details. Pain assessments were measured using a Faces Pain Rating Scale (FPRS), exploring the impacts of contextual cues, professional experience, and job roles. The study found brief and prolonged noxious stimuli eliciting significantly higher FPRS scores compared to non-painful stimuli, with the full body view resulting in higher pain ratings than the face-only view. The mouth region attracted focused attention. Nurses generally reported higher pain scores and exhibited larger pupil diameters compared to physicians, suggesting a stronger empathic response. This research highlights the essential role of visual cues and empathic responses in neonatal pain assessment, demonstrating how professional roles and stimulus presentation format impact evaluations, and underlining the need for standardised protocols to improve neonatal pain management accuracy. The study emphasises the importance of visual cues and empathy in neonatal pain assessment, highlighting the roles of healthcare professionals and stimulus presentation formats. It addresses challenges in understanding neonatal pain, advocating for standardised protocols. Using eye-tracking technology, the research explores how professionals' visual attention and empathy affect pain evaluations, suggesting more objective assessment methods.

Attraction of Lygus lineolaris (Hemiptera: Miridae) to a ubiquitous floral volatile in the field.

Herbivorous insects utilize olfactory and visual cues to orient on suitable host plants, and such cues can be employed to facilitate insect monitoring. Lygus lineolaris Palisot de Beauvois is a polyphagous pest throughout North America. Monitoring this pest as it moves between crop and non-crop hosts remains challenging, and a lack of effective monitoring tools complicates management of this insect. In this study, we examined the electrophysiological and behavioral responses of L. lineolaris to the volatile emissions of 2 crop hosts: alfalfa and strawberry. Gas chromatography with electroantennographic detection was applied to identify antennally active compounds in headspace extracts of flowering host plants, before responses to individual compounds were examined in the field. Five compounds consistently elicited antennal depolarizations in adults of L. lineolaris and, of these, (±)-linalool increased the capture rate of L. lineolaris females in the field. Subsequent experiments examined the influence of visual cues and stereochemistry on capture rate, revealing that lures containing (±)-linalool and (S)-(+)-linalool significantly increased the capture rate of L. lineolaris females compared with traps baited with (R)-(-)-linalool and controls, indicating that L. lineolaris is attracted to (S)-(+)-linalool. While lures increased capture on red traps, this was not the case for white traps, emphasizing the importance of visual cues in the movements and monitoring of L. lineolaris. This study demonstrates that L. lineolaris is attracted to (S)-(+)-linalool in the field, and that attraction depends on trap color. This knowledge is expected to improve monitoring strategies for L. lineolaris in agricultural systems.

Oviposition Dynamics and Niche Utilization in Two Sympatric Drosophila Species.

Many Drosophila species coexist by sharing their feeding and breeding sites, which may influence their oviposition choices in an interspecies social context. Whether and where to lay eggs is a crucial decision for female flies as it influences the success of their offspring, by minimizing the risk of predation, competition, or cannibalism. Significant gaps exist in our understanding of Drosophila oviposition dynamics in co-occurring species. Here we tested oviposition strategies of Drosophila melanogaster and its close relative Drosophila simulans under different conditions, to assess whether a single female would prefer to oviposit separately or together with another female, be it a conspecific or not. We find that ovipositing females, regardless whether they are conspecifics or not, prefer to oviposit at the same site. This might suggest that the flies regard the benefits of sharing oviposition sites as higher than the potential risks of competition or cannibalism. The willingness to share oviposition sites was lower when the nutritional value of the medium was increased by adding yeast, and was lost when flies were allowed to lay the eggs consecutively, instead of being tested together. The latter might be explained by our additional finding that females become attracted by the presence of other females on oviposition substrates and that this attraction is partly driven by visual cues. Ovipositing in groups might facilitate intra- and interspecific social feeding of same age offspring, as well as enrichment of microbes. However, this cooperation dynamic might change if another female's offspring is already present, as it might be perceived as danger of competition or cannibalism.

Are you tuned in to others' mind? A cross-modal evaluation of affective theory of mind in people with Parkinson's disease.

Affective Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand other peoples' emotional states and feelings. Several studies showed impaired affective ToM abilities in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, most studies tested this ability by using single-stimulus modality tasks (visual cues). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether affective ToM abilities are impaired in PD using multiple stimulus modalities and whether they are related to disease duration and cognitive/emotional abilities. Twenty mid-stage, non-demented people with PD and 20 matched controls were evaluated by means of two tasks requiring subjects to infer others' mental states from the eyes' expression - the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test, and from the emotional prosody - a modified version of the Reading the Mind in the Voice (RMV) test. In people with PD, cognitive function and emotional processes were assessed through cognitive tasks and batteries of facial and prosodic emotion recognition tests. Compared to controls, the PD group showed significantly impaired performances in both RME and RMV tests (p<0.0001). Affective ToM abilities in people with PD were not correlated with cognitive function or disease duration. Visual recognition of anger and auditory recognition of fear were positively correlated with RME (p=0.0028) and RMV (p<0.0001) test scores, respectively. Cross-modal impairment of affective ToM abilities is a non-motor feature of PD, unrelated to disease stage or cognitive status. A dysfunctional amygdala-centred network might represent the shared bases for impairments in fear and anger recognition and affective ToM abilities in PD.

Enhancing the Quality of kMI for Complex Motor Skills through Simulated Muscle Activation Color Visualization: Evidence from Time-Frequency and Functional Connectivity Analyses.

The neural-muscular activation pathways of quasi-sensory, quasi-perceptual and low "enslavement" kinesthetic motor imagery contribute to the construction of internal cognitive representations of complex motor skills. Based on the perspective that the relative duration and force of muscle activation in the generalized motor program theory facilitate the long-term perceptual memory of motor skills learning, there exists a potential possibility of enhancing the quality of Kinesthetic motor imagery by providing muscle force information in the demonstration models of complex motor skills. Therefore, this study used motion simulation technology (AnyBody Modeling System) to create complex motor skill demonstration materials and compared the EEG rhythms and functional connectivity differences between the key interest brain regions during the kinesthetic motor imagery period with and without muscle force information visual cues. In addition, the results of the VMIQ-2 measurement of the vividness of motor imagery were also measured. The research findings indicated that, under the baseline condition where there was no difference in the kinesthetic motor imagery ability before the experiment, the vividness of kinesthetic motor imagery in the experimental group during the experiment was significantly higher than that in the control group. The ERSP results revealed that both groups exhibited the ERS phenomenon in the frontal, central, and temporal brain regions, and the ERD phenomenon in the parieto-occipital brain regions. However, the ERS value of the experimental group was lower than that of the control group, while the ERD value was higher than that of the control group. The functional connectivity results indicated that the experimental group enhanced the connectivity of the occipital-right parietal (V1-R PPC) and right frontal-right parietal (R DLPFC-R PPC) brain regions. Conclusion: The muscle force information enhanced the vividness of kinesthetic motor imagery, which was associated with the weakened selective inhibition in the frontal-central-temporal brain regions and the enhanced activation in the occipital-parietal brain regions in the brain rhythm information, and it also strengthened the information circulation between the occipital-parietal and frontal-parietal brain regions.

The neural substrate of navigation using hydrostatic cues in goldfish.

Hydrostatic pressure is a global sensory cue exploited by fish to navigate in the vertical dimension. Unlike other navigational cues in the horizontal plane that usually require learning and memory to determine location, hydrostatic pressure signals the absolute position along the vertical axis. Recently, it was shown that fish can use hydrostatic signals to navigate. It remains unclear, however, which brain regions are involved in processing this signal. Here, we tested whether the dorsomedial and lateral parts of the pallium, two regions that were found to be critical in horizontal navigation, are also critical for hydrostatic cue detection in goldfish. The results show that lesions to both these regions cause fish performance to deteriorate to chance values, indicating that both regions play an important role in processing hydrostatic pressure cues. These findings thus contribute to the rapidly growing body of knowledge on teleost navigation in space.

Effect of HRTFs and head motion on auditory-visual localization in real and virtual studio environments

When localizing sound sources in natural or virtual environments, multisensory integration that combines auditory and visual cues is often involved. This study aims to determine the effect of (non-)individual head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) on sound source localization in the presence of visual cues. Participants ($N=16$) were seated in a hemispherical loudspeaker arrangement, and their task was to indicate the perceived direction of pink-noise bursts. The conditions included localization of real loudspeakers and virtualized loudspeakers based on binaural rendering with (non-)individual HRTFs. The horizontal spacing of the visible loudspeakers was 30 degrees or larger and the vertical spacing was varied between 30 degrees and 15 degrees, to focus on vertical discrimination. The results of a static localization experiment (no head movements during playback) demonstrated an increased rate of vertical local confusions using non-individual binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) of the KU100 dummy head compared to individual BRIRs. Dynamic auditory-visual localization with non-individual HRTFs suffered from vertical uncertainty and bias in the frontal area, where local confusion rates were consistent with the static experiment. In conclusion, the horizontal localization mapping of dynamic binaural rendering with non-individual HRTFs was comparable to real loudspeaker reproduction, while the vertical mapping was significantly impaired.

Chemical Ecology and Management of the Small Hive Beetle, Aethina tumida (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae).

Over the last 28years, the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), a colony pest of wild and managed honey bees (Apis mellifera), and native to sub-Saharan Africa, has been recorded as an invasive and damaging pest of diverse bee species, especially managed honeybee colonies in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. It poses an indirect threat to pollination services and global food security. Efforts to manage the beetle has yielded no permanent solution. However, several studies demonstrate that the small hive beetle uses various sensory cues to locate hosts including chemical and visual cues in the visible wavelength. Here, we review the chemical ecology of the beetle and discuss implications for its future management.

Visual Attributes of Wayfinding in Care Facilities by Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).

Navigating unfamiliar environments poses significant challenges, especially for individuals with cognitive impairments. These individuals often struggle with maintaining orientation, recalling routines, and traveling through new environments due to their limited cognitive capacity. The current state of research on visual environmental attributes of wayfinding reveals a gap, particularly regarding individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), compared to healthy older adults. Few studies have objectively identified the visual cues and environmental factors that influence wayfinding in those with cognitive impairments. This study addresses this research gap by objectively identifying the visual environmental attributes influencing wayfinding among MCI subjects in a memory care facility compared to healthy older adults. Using eye-tracking technology, we investigated which visual environmental attributes attract eye fixation during wayfinding in care facilities. Forty-eight subjects, categorized into MCI and non-MCI groups, navigated through unfamiliar indoor environments while their eye movements were tracked. The results, in agreement with previous research, showed that MCI group exhibit significant reduced success rates and longer navigation times compared to non-MCI group. Findings of the eye-fixation rank-order analysis showed that MCI subjects prioritized directional signs and architectural features, while non-MCI subjects focused on identifying signs and informative elements. These findings emphasize the importance of tailored design practices for care facilities, highlighting specific visual cues crucial for guiding navigation in individuals with MCI. The study provides insight to guide architects and healthcare professionals in creating inclusive environments that support independence and well-being for older adults with cognitive impairments, advocating for interventions to enhance wayfinding in care facilities.

Few-shot transfer learning for individualized braking intent detection on neuromorphic hardware.

This work explores use of a few-shot transfer learning method to train and implement a convolutional spiking neural network (CSNN) on a BrainChip Akida AKD1000 neuromorphic system-on-chip for developing individual-level, instead of traditionally used group-level, models using electroencephalographic data. The efficacy of the method is studied on an advanced driver assist system related task of predicting braking intention. &#xD;\emph{Approach}: Data are collected from participants operating an NVIDIA JetBot on a testbed simulating urban streets for three different scenarios. Participants receive a braking indicator in the form of: 1) an audio countdown in a nominal baseline, stress-free environment; 2) an audio countdown in an environment with added elements of physical fatigue and active cognitive distraction; 3) a visual cue given through stoplights in a stress-free environment. These datasets are then used to develop individual-level models from group-level models using a few-shot transfer learning method, which involves: 1) creating a group-level model by training a CNN on group-level data followed by quantization and recouping any performance loss using quantization-aware retraining; 2) converting the CNN to be compatible with Akida AKD1000 processor; and 3) training the final decision layer on individual-level data subsets to create individual-customized models using an online Akida edge-learning algorithm.&#xD;Main Results: Efficacy of the above methodology to develop individual-specific braking intention predictive models by rapidly adapting the group-level model in as few as three training epochs while achieving at least 90\% accuracy, true positive rate and true negative rate is presented. Further, results show the energy-efficiency of the neuromorphic hardware through a power reduction of over 97\% with only a $1.3\times$ increase in latency when using the Akida AKD1000 processor for network inference compared to an Intel Xeon central processing unit. Similar results were obtained in a subsequent ablation study using a subset of five out of 19 channels. &#xD;Significance: Especially relevant to real-time applications, this work presents an energy-efficient, few-shot transfer learning method that is implemented on a neuromorphic processor capable of training a CSNN as new data becomes available, operating conditions change, or to customize group-level models to yield personalized models unique to each individual.

Evaluating the effectiveness of rhythmic visual guidance technology for mitigating driving risks in highway tunnel groups: A simulation study.

Driving in highway tunnel groups necessitates frequent adaptation to drastic changes in the traffic environment, thereby increasing driving difficulty and risk. This study integrates drivers' preferences for rhythmic information with the inherent rhythmic characteristics of tunnel group structures to propose a new and adaptive method to mitigate driving risks using rhythmic visual guidance (RVG) technology. Unlike traditional visual guidance systems, which often rely on static signals, RVG utilizes dynamic, rhythmically varying cues to capture drivers' attention and improve situational awareness more effectively. By employing principles of fuzzy mathematics, the study quantifies the applicability of various rhythmic forms in visual guidance technology and establishes priority application principles for undulating and staggered rhythms. After verifying the accuracy of the simulation model, the effectiveness of RVG technology in mitigating driving risks in highway tunnel groups was analyzed using lateral offset, driving speed, and vehicle acceleration as evaluation metrics. The findings reveal that RVG technology significantly reduces vehicle lateral offset and enhances drivers' perception and control of tunnel sidewalls and driving trajectories. This effect is particularly pronounced under limited lighting conditions or in large tunnel groups with extended driving distances. Regardless of whether the lighting level is set at 0% or 100% of the standard brightness, the implementation of RVG results in reduced vehicle driving speeds. The variation in the 25th to 75th percentile distribution of driving speeds was insignificant, demonstrating that RVG technology effectively regulates driving speed and is not significantly affected by lighting conditions. Furthermore, when the lighting level is set at 100% of the standard brightness, the 25th to 75th percentile distribution interval of driving speeds is [89.576, 102.416], indicating the highest and least stable driving speeds suggests that blindly increasing tunnel lighting levels not only raises operating costs but may also adversely affect driving safety. This study provides novel insights into applying dynamic visual cues for highway tunnel groups' traffic operation and safety management. It has significant practical engineering value for guiding the low-carbon design of tunnel groups.

Effects of a home-based pelvic floor muscle training with and without action and cue observation on urinary incontinence after prostatectomy: A randomized controlled trial.

To investigate the effects of a home-based pelvic floor muscle training with and without action and cue observation on urinary incontinence after prostatectomy. Two-armed single-blind randomized controlled trial. Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan, Italy. Ninety-two participants with age between 40 and 80 years and urinary incontinence after robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy. Participants were randomized into an action and cue observation (n = 46) or control (n = 46) group undergoing an 8-week home-based pelvic floor muscle training. Action and cue observation group observed video clips showing exercises synchronized with a visual cue indicating the correct pelvic floor muscle activation timing and imitated the observed tasks. Control group observed landscape video clips and performed the same exercises of experimental group. A blinded physiotherapist assessed participants for urinary leakages (24-h pad test), symptom severity (International Prostate Symptoms Score and International Prostate Symptoms Score - Quality of Life), quality of life (International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire - Short Form), and erectile dysfunction (International Index of Erectile Function) before and after the training. All participants improved urinary leakages, symptom severity, and quality of life after training. Action and cue observation group revealed significantly larger improvements in 24-h pad test (mean difference: 106.1 g, 95% CI: 13.4 g, 199.1 g, p = .037) than control group. Home-based pelvic floor muscle training with action and cue observation led to larger improvements in urinary continence compared to the same training without action and cue observation after prostatectomy.

Cues inducing non‐sexual conspecific attraction in an invasive shrimp

AbstractThe aggregation of conspecifics in the invasive shrimp Palaemon macrodactylus could be driven by either patchy environmental conditions or conspecific attraction. This study aimed to determine whether the observed grouped distribution in natural conditions results from gregarious behavior and the type of cue used by shrimp to locate conspecifics. Four experiments were conducted during the non‐reproductive season in which a focal shrimp was given the choice between a zone with cues of conspecifics or an empty zone. The cues permitted in each experiment encompassed visual and chemical cues, exclusively visual cues, exclusively chemical cues and a control devoid of any visual or chemical cues. The results indicated that focal shrimps exhibited a preference for conspecific zones when exposed to chemical cues alone or in combination with visual cues. However, visual cues alone were insufficient to induce grouping with their peers. The value of this trait is discussed along with other behavioral characteristics of the species as a possible explanation for its success as an invader.

Perception and Longevity Control in Invertebrate Model Organisms—A Mini-Review of Recent Advances

Perception alone can, in some cases, be sufficient to modulate aging and longevity. These influences on aging are perhaps mediated by changes in motivational states that regulate metabolism and physiology to impact health. Simple invertebrate models uniquely enable detailed dissection of integrative pathways linking perceptions to aging and remain the leading systems for advancing this field. Over the past 25 years, studies using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have demonstrated that sensory cues, such as those related to food or mating, can influence aging independently of the physical acts associated with them. In this review, we highlight recent advancements in these invertebrate models, focusing on two key areas of progress: (i) the discovery of lifespan modulation driven by novel sensory cues across multiple modalities, including non-sexual social experience, light, and dietary choices; and (ii) the assignment of new aging-regulation functions to specific neurons downstream of sensory perception. The latter offers an exciting first glimpse at the neuronal circuits integrating sensory cues, motivational states, physiology, and aging.