Visual Cues Research Articles

Communicating robots’ intent through visual cues enhances human anticipatory behavior in human–dual robot collaboration

The present study aims at exploring the effect of communicating robots’ intent through visual cues, to the human on a complex human-robot collaborative task. Specifically, it aims to investigate (i) whether the use of such “anticipatory cues” will have a positive effect on task efficiency, human safety and collaborating fluency, (ii) the degree of this effect with varying robots’ speed and (iii) whether a retention effect will be observed after the removal of the cues. For exploring these issues, a human - dual robot industrial assembly task was designed in a Virtual Reality simulation environment and testing was carried out by 64 volunteer participants. Results showed that communicating robots’ intent through visual cues enhanced human anticipatory behavior, resulting in a significant improvement in human safety, team efficiency and collaborative fluency, in conjunction with a favorable subjective tendency towards the robots. However, the positive effect of the anticipatory cues was not found to increase with higher robot speed. Finally, the findings suggest that prior exposure to the cues made participants more confident in coordinating with the robots, even when the cues were removed from them, thus retaining their prior efficiency but with a negative effect on safety. In summary, the study provides evidence that use of anticipatory visual cues accelerates the legibility of robot movement and fosters human confidence and familiarization. The use of anticipatory cues seems promising for high-pace, non-repetitive interactions with collaborative robots or as a training aid in more repetitive human-robot collaborative tasks.

Emotion Recognition Using EEG Signals and Audiovisual Features with Contrastive Learning.

Multimodal emotion recognition has emerged as a promising approach to capture the complex nature of human emotions by integrating information from various sources such as physiological signals, visual behavioral cues, and audio-visual content. However, current methods often struggle with effectively processing redundant or conflicting information across modalities and may overlook implicit inter-modal correlations. To address these challenges, this paper presents a novel multimodal emotion recognition framework which integrates audio-visual features with viewers' EEG data to enhance emotion classification accuracy. The proposed approach employs modality-specific encoders to extract spatiotemporal features, which are then aligned through contrastive learning to capture inter-modal relationships. Additionally, cross-modal attention mechanisms are incorporated for effective feature fusion across modalities. The framework, comprising pre-training, fine-tuning, and testing phases, is evaluated on multiple datasets of emotional responses. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed multimodal approach, which combines audio-visual features with EEG data, is highly effective in recognizing emotions, highlighting its potential for advancing emotion recognition systems.

Fish behavior recognition based on an audio-visual multimodal interactive fusion network

In light of the challenges imposed by fish behavior recognition, which arise from environmental noise and dim lighting in aquaculture environments and adversely affect the effectiveness of unimodal recognition methods based on either sound or visual cues, this paper proposes a fish behavior recognition model, Mul-SEResNet50, based on the fusion of audio and visual information. To address issues such as image blurring and indistinct sounds in aquaculture environments, which hinder the effectiveness of multimodal fusion and complementary modalities, a multimodal interaction fusion (MIF) module is introduced. This module integrates audio-visual modalities at multiple stages to achieve a more comprehensive joint feature representation. To enhance complementarity during the fusion process, we designed a U-shaped bilinear fusion structure to fully utilize multimodal information, capture cross-modal associations, and extract high-level features. Furthermore, to address the potential loss of key features, a temporal aggregation and pooling (TAP) layer is introduced to preserve more fine-grained features by extracting both the maximum and average values within pooling regions. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed model, both ablation experiments and comparative experiments are conducted. The results demonstrate that Mul-SEResNet50 achieves a 5.04 % accuracy improvement over SEResNet50 without sacrificing detection speed. Compared to the state-of-the-art U-FusionNet-ResNet50 +SENet model, Mul-SEResNet50 achieves accuracy and F1 score improvements of 0.47 % and 1.32 %, respectively. These findings confirm the efficacy of the proposed model in terms of accurately recognizing fish behavior, facilitating the precise monitoring of fish behavior.

Stress produces negative judgement bias in cuttlefish.

Judgement bias tasks (JBTs) are used to assess the emotional state and welfare of animals in zoos, farms and laboratories, based on the interpretation of an ambiguous or intermediate cue. Animals in positive affective states are more likely to interpret the ambiguous cue positively, whereas animals experiencing negative affect are more likely to interpret ambiguous cues pessimistically. Here, we developed a modified JBT assay for the stumpy-spined cuttlefish, Sepia bandensis, to determine whether cuttlefish exhibit negative affective states resulting from external stressors. Positive and neutral visual cues were presented twice daily until animals learned to associate food with the reinforced visual cue. After training, one treatment group was exposed to combined exposure and handling stress produced by 6 days of impoverished housing and simulated net capture. Our control group received no stress experience. In test trials performed after the stress experience, stressed animals showed higher latencies to approach ambiguous cues, spent significantly less time in rooms with ambiguous cues once they entered, and were less likely to enter first into the ambiguous cue-paired room compared with controls. These behaviours suggest that stress induces pessimistic judgement bias in cuttlefish, the first indication of this capacity in cephalopods.

THE CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERATURE

This research will present findings from an experimental study, carried out at Abai Kazakh Na-tional Pedagogical University, focusing on how graphic novels influence the reading comprehen-sion Student’s abilities in the literature department. It will detail the implementation of activities before, during, and after reading for both groups engaging with traditional texts and graphic novels, along with the students' feedback on these practices. Consequently, we aim to demonstrate the po-tential of integrating graphic novels as a genuine resource within reading courses to enhance (criti-cal) reading skills.This article represents the positive influnence of graphic novels on reading comprehension by experimental study of students, comparing the results between traditional and graphic formats. This research allows to understand the importance of using graphic novels in the current ededucational framework. According to analysis the students' academic performance presented in their GPA scores, and their reading habits. The observation demonstrated that students with higher GPA scores as general rule exhibit a manifestly elevated frequency of engagement with Graphic Novels. Graphic novels use in the visual art and traditional test to motivate the reluctant readers.They permit deeper comprehension of mate-rials that offer to realize both narrative and visual cues.

Behavioral separation of liking and wanting in response to olfactory and visual food cues

In real-world settings, food rewards are processed in parallel across several sensory modalities, but paradigms that compare contributions of different modalities are lacking. While odor perception in particular is frequently implicated in appetite regulation, the mechanisms by which food odors differentially evoke experiences of wanting and liking remain poorly understood. This study addressed this gap by dissociating liking from wanting responses for olfactory stimuli, and establishing commonalities and differences relative to the visual modality. In two separate experiments, participants (n1=37, n2=43) rated content-matched batteries of odors and pictures, respectively, for their ability to elicit pleasure (liking) and the desire to eat (wanting). A third experiment (n3=39) utilized a combined olfactory-visual paradigm to test the separation of these dimensions in a multisensory context. Our results show that participants differentiated clearly and reliably between liking and wanting for both odors and pictures, as demonstrated by a high difference score between the two in non-food (high liking, low wanting), but not in food (both high) or disgusting stimuli (both low), and high within-session retest reliability. Higher variability for olfactory relative to visual assessments was observed and likely reflects well-established difficulties with odor object identification. Taken together, our study demonstrates that olfactory stimuli can be used in experimental settings to evoke separable experiences of liking and wanting for food and non-food stimuli. Manipulating these components independently across sensory modalities in experimental studies could generate novel insights into how olfactory and visual cues differentially contribute to anticipatory and consummatory food reward processing, in healthy and disordered eating.

Fifty Percent of the Time, Tones Come Every Time: Stronger Prediction Error Effects on Neurophysiological Sensory Attenuation for Self-generated Tones.

The N1/P2 amplitude reduction for self-generated tones in comparison to external tones in EEG, which has recently also been described for action observation, is an example of the so-called sensory attenuation. Whether this effect is dependent on motor-based or general predictive mechanisms is unclear. Using a paradigm, in which actions (button presses) elicited tones in only half the trials, this study examined how the processing of the tones is modulated by the prediction error in each trial in a self-performed action compared with action observation. In addition, we considered the effect of temporal predictability by adding a third condition, in which visual cues were followed by external tones in half the trials. The attenuation result patterns differed for N1 and P2 amplitudes, but neither showed an attenuation effect beyond temporal predictability. Interestingly, we found that both N1 and P2 amplitudes reflected prediction errors derived from a reinforcement learning model, in that larger errors coincided with larger amplitudes. This effect was stronger for tones following button presses compared with cued external tones, but only for self-performed and not for observed actions. Taken together, our results suggest that attenuation effects are partially driven by general predictive mechanisms irrespective of self-performed actions. However, the stronger prediction-error effects for self-generated tones suggest that distinct motor-related factors beyond temporal predictability, potentially linked to reinforcement learning, play a role in the underlying mechanisms. Further research is needed to validate these initial findings as the calculation of the prediction errors was limited by the design of the experiment.

Cross-modal recipe retrieval based on unified text encoder with fine-grained contrastive learning

Cross-modal recipe retrieval is vital for transforming visual food cues into actionable cooking guidance, making culinary creativity more accessible. Existing methods separately encode the recipe Title, Ingredient, and Instruction using different text encoders, then aggregate them to obtain recipe feature, and finally match it with encoded image feature in a joint embedding space. These methods perform well but require significant computational cost. In addition, they only consider matching the entire recipe and the image but ignore the fine-grained correspondence between recipe components and the image, resulting in insufficient cross-modal interaction. To this end, we propose Unified Text Encoder with Fine-grained Contrastive Learning (UTE-FCL) to achieve a simple but efficient model. Specifically, in each recipe, UTE-FCL first concatenates each of the Ingredient and Instruction texts composed of multiple sentences as a single text. Then, it connects these two concatenated texts with the original single-phrase Title to obtain the concatenated recipe. Finally, it encodes these three concatenated texts and the original Title by a Transformer-based Unified Text Encoder (UTE). This proposed structure greatly reduces the memory usage and improves the feature encoding efficiency. Further, we propose fine-grained contrastive learning objectives to capture the correspondence between recipe components and the image at Title, Ingredient, and Instruction levels by measuring the mutual information. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of UTE-FCL compared to existing methods.

High correlated color temperature white light-emitting diodes disrupt refractive development in guinea pigs

Ubiquitous white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) possess optical properties that differ from those of natural light. This difference can impact visual perception and biological functions, thus potentially affecting eye health. Myopia, which leads to visual impairments and potentially irreversible vision loss or blindness, is the most prevalent refractive error worldwide. Ambient light has been found to be a significant factor in refractive development. The overlap between the commonly utilized of white LEDs and the rapid increase in the prevalence of myopia raises suspicions that white LEDs may represent hidden visual cues. To clarify the potential effects of white LEDs on refractive development, we exposed guinea pigs to different forms of artificial lighting over a period of eight weeks. We found that exposure to white LEDs with a high correlated color temperature (CCT) of approximately 5000 K can induce significant myopic shifts in guinea pigs, along with a decrease in collagen accumulation in the sclera. Additionally, this exposure was found to significantly reduce choroidal tissue thickness in guinea pigs. Our study findings indicate that high CCT white LEDs disrupt refractive development in guinea pigs. These results suggest that high CCT white LEDs might similarly affect refractive development in humans, highlighting the need for further clinical investigation.

Picturing Success: The Informational Role of Visual Cues in Initial Coin Offerings

Picturing Success: The Informational Role of Visual Cues in Initial Coin Offerings

Spitz-like tail carriage in two domestic cats

Domestic cats use visual cues to communicate with conspecifics and humans. This includes the position and movement of the tail. The tail up signal (i.e. tail held vertically with the tip curled) has been identified as a friendly greeting signal between cats and from cats to humans. We present here a report of two cats unable to display the classic tail up signal due to Spitz-like (curled) tail characteristics, a morphology not previously reported in the scientific literature. The cats, a British Shorthair (Mn, 2 y) and Domestic Longhair (Fn, 8.5 y), belonged to different households and were participants in a study of intraspecific social interactions. Video recordings show the cats displaying normal tail movements (waving, swishing, twitching) and position when the tail was hanging down. However, once the tail was raised to a vertical position, it immediately curled over the back. This Spitz-like tail posture was displayed both when greeting people and other cats. It had reportedly been present since adoption. There was no underlying medical history of injury or pain to indicate this was an acquired state. We suggest this Spitz-like tail is a spontaneously occurring anomaly, that does not seem to noticeably impair the cats’ communicative abilities, as normal affiliative behaviours were observed during interactions with the cohoused cat. We discuss the significance of this finding in relation to the formation of social bonds and the signalling of affiliative intent.

Drosophila require both green and UV wavelengths for sun orientation but lack a time-compensated sun compass.

Celestial orientation and navigation are performed by many organisms in contexts as diverse as migration, nest finding and straight-line orientation. The vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, performs menotaxis in response to celestial cues during tethered flight and can disperse more than 10 km under field conditions. However, we still do not understand how spectral components of celestial cues and pauses in flight impact heading direction in flies. To assess individual heading, we began by testing flies in a rotating tether arena using a single green LED as a stimulus. We found that flies robustly perform menotaxis and fly straight for at least 20 min. Flies maintain their preferred heading directions after experiencing a period of darkness or stopping flight, even up to 2 h, but reset their heading when the LED changes position, suggesting that flies do not treat this stimulus as the sun. Next, we assessed the flies' responses to a UV spot alone or a paired UV-green stimulus - two dots situated 180deg apart to simulate the solar and antisolar hemispheres. We found that flies respond to UV much as they do to green light; however, when the stimuli are paired, flies adjust for sudden 90deg movements, performing sun orientation. Lastly, we found no evidence of a time-compensated sun compass when we moved the paired stimuli at 15degh-1 for 6 h. This study demonstrates that wavelength influences how flies respond to visual cues during flight, shaping the interpretation of visual information to execute an appropriate behavioral response.

Weighting of sensory cues reflect changing patterns of visual investment during ecological divergence in Heliconius butterflies.

Integrating information across sensory modalities enables animals to orchestrate a wide range of complex behaviours. The relative importance placed on one sensory modality over another reflects the reliability of cues in a particular environment and corresponding differences in neural investment. As populations diverge across environmental gradients, the reliability of sensory cues may shift, favouring divergence in neural investment and the weight given to different sensory modalities. During their divergence across closed-forest and forest-edge habitats, closely related butterflies Heliconius cydno and Heliconius melpomene evolved distinct brain morphologies, with the former investing more in vision. Quantitative genetic analyses suggest that selection drove these changes, but their behavioural consequences remain uncertain. We hypothesized that divergent neural investment may alter sensory weighting. We trained individuals in an associative learning experiment using multimodal colour and odour cues. When positively rewarded stimuli were presented in conflict, i.e. pairing positively trained colour with negatively trained odour and vice versa, H. cydno favoured visual cues more strongly than H. melpomene. Hence, differences in sensory weighting may evolve early during divergence and are predicted by patterns of neural investment. These findings, alongside other examples, imply that differences in sensory weighting stem from divergent investment as adaptations to local sensory environments.

Dynamics of Saccade Trajectory Modulation by Distractors: Neural Activity Patterns in the Frontal Eye Field.

The sudden appearance of a visual distractor shortly before saccade initiation can capture spatial attention and modulate the saccade trajectory in spite of the ongoing execution of the initial plan to shift gaze straight to the saccade target. To elucidate the neural correlates underlying these curved saccades, we recorded from single neurons in the frontal eye field (FEF) of two male rhesus monkeys shifting gaze to a target while a distractor with the same eccentricity appeared either left or right of the target at various delays after target presentation. We found that the population level of pre-saccadic activity of neurons representing the distractor location encoded the direction of the saccade trajectory. Stronger activity occurred when saccades curved toward the distractor, and weaker when saccades curved away. This relationship held whether the distractor was ipsilateral or contralateral to the recorded neurons. Meanwhile, visually responsive neurons showed asymmetrical patterns of excitatory responses that varied with the location of the distractor and the duration of distractor processing relating to attentional capture and distractor inhibition. During earlier distractor processing, neurons encoded curvature towards the distractor. During later distractor processing, neurons encoded curvature away from the distractor. This was observed when saccades curved away from distractors contralateral to the recording site and when saccades curved towards distractors ipsilateral to the recording site. These findings indicate that saccadic motor planning involves dynamic push-pull hemispheric interactions producing attraction or repulsion for potential but unselected saccade targets.Significant Statement This study not only advances our understanding of oculomotor function in dynamic environments but also has potential clinical relevance for diagnosing and understanding disorders characterized by abnormal saccade trajectories. Our research elucidates the neural mechanisms behind saccade trajectories that are not always linear due to the brain's integration of multiple visual cues and/or motor plans. By analyzing the frontal eye field (FEF) activity in rhesus monkeys, we found that saccade directionality and timing are influenced by the interaction between FEF visual neurons representing target and distractor stimuli. The FEF's role extends beyond a winner-takes-all approach, incorporating saccade vector averaging computations that produce curved saccades. Furthermore, ipsilateral visual neurons encode distractor suppression that drives curvature away from the distractor.

Quality improvement scorecards driving innovation and best practice in a large community oncology practice.

417 Background: Lean Six Sigma Visual Management dashboards, or scorecards, are visual tools designed to drive and improve quality patient care, operationalize best practices, and promote a culture of operational excellence. Practice scorecards create a disciplined problem-solving culture where root causes are identified, and systemic process-based improvements are implemented. Scorecards are created to show full practice data transparency, allowing all employees and sites to see each other’s data. Scorecards are designed so that providers can efficiently review the maximum amount of data, following a Green, Yellow, Red visual cue to signify goal adherence. Methods: Phase 1 (2018 – 2019): Clinical scorecards were created and introduced to all staff on a weekly basis focusing on a few key patient metrics (ex: pain scale, pain care plan, ACP, PHQ-9, teaching/consents, patient portal access). Phase 2 (2020 – 2022): Clinical scorecards were expanded with additional patient care initiatives. New nurse navigator scorecards created (ex: patient teaching and survivorship visits). New physician and APP scorecards created with practice-specific provider metrics. Phase 3 (2023 – 2024): Scorecards updated yearly to match practice quality initiatives. New dashboards for non-clinical employees initiated. Physician and APP compensation changed to include quality metric performance tied to financial incentive. Results: Over the course of 5 years, OHC quality scorecard metrics improved from below national averages (red) to exceeding top-tier threshold goals (green). Scorecard utilization increased across all areas of the business, expanding from one scorecard in 2018 to eight in 2024. Scorecards increased overall practice data transparency leading to increase practice quality metric performance. OHC staff utilize scorecards on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis to drive quality improvement adherence. Improved outcomes through full data transparency increased staff participation and ownership in quality metrics and led to achieved shared savings in managed care programs. Example of metrics and results: Patient NCCN Staging 36% (2588/7263) to 96% (10299/10749), Teaching/Consents 37% (423/1147) to 97% (3067/3160), and Oral regimen NCCN entry 69% (586/845) to 98% (1037/1055). Conclusions: Visual Management dashboards or practice scorecards are instrumental in driving and supporting practice change. Scorecards allowed OHC staff to efficiently visualize practice-wide actionable data with eye-catching colors to promote optimal clinical performance. As increased data procurement is on the rise, practices can empower their staff to drive change through data utilization. OHC’s scorecards have proven to bridge the gap to goal, facilitate transparent data sharing, and empower providers and staff toward collaboration and embracing operational excellence.

Brain network fingerprints of Alzheimer's disease risk factors in mouse models with humanized APOE alleles

Alzheimer's disease (AD) presents complex challenges due to its multifactorial nature, poorly understood etiology, and late detection. The mechanisms through which genetic and modifiable risk factors influence disease susceptibility are under intense investigation, with APOE being the major genetic risk factor for late onset AD. Yet the impact of unique risk factors on brain networks is difficult to disentangle, and their interactions remain unclear.To model multiple risk factors, including APOE genotype, age, sex, diet, and immunity we used a cross sectional design, leveraging mice expressing human APOE and NOS2 genes, conferring a reduced immune response compared to mouse Nos2. We used network topological and GraphClass analyses of brain connectomes derived from accelerated diffusion-weighted MRI to assess the global and local impact of risk factors, in the absence of AD pathology.Aging and a high-fat diet impacted extensive networks comprising AD-vulnerable regions, including the temporal association cortex, amygdala, and the periaqueductal gray, involved in stress responses. Sex impacted networks including sexually dimorphic regions (thalamus, insula, hypothalamus) and key memory-processing areas (fimbria, septum). APOE genotypes modulated connectivity in memory, sensory, and motor regions, while diet and immunity both impacted the insula and hypothalamus. Notably, these risk factors converged on a circuit comprising 63 of 54,946 total connections (0.11% of the connectome), highlighting shared vulnerability amongst multiple AD risk factors in regions essential for sensory integration, emotional regulation, decision making, motor coordination, memory, homeostasis, and interoception. APOE genotype specific immune signatures support the design of interventions tailored to risk profiles. Sparse Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) including spatial memory as a risk factor resulted in a network comprising 80 edges, showing significant overlap with risk-associated networks from GraphClass. The largest overlaps were observed with networks impacted by diet (47 edges), immunity (39 edges), APOE3 vs 4 (26 edges), sex (23 edges), and age (19 edges), the resulting networks supporting the use of sensory cues in spatial memory retrieval.These network-based biomarkers hold translational value for distinguishing high-risk versus low-risk participants at preclinical AD stages, suggest circuits as potential therapeutic targets, and advance our understanding of network fingerprints associated with AD risk.

Weak overcomes strong in sensory integration: shading warps the disparity field

Human perception is often based on the integration of multiple sensory cues, where more statistically reliable cues are considered to have stronger influence on the percept. For example, in three-dimensional shape perception, binocular disparity is considered the most reliable cue at close distances, while pictorial cues like shading are considered less reliable. In three within-subject experiments, we instead show that shading can override disparity, a result that cannot be explained by its measured reliability, cue vetoing or cue promotion. Observers judged the shape of a disparity surface that was combined with different shading patterns. In all tests, shading altered the perceived shape specified by a strong disparity signal in a way that could not be predicted by standard accounts of three-dimensional perception. We find an example of unaccounted for cue cooperation, where shading becomes strong when it interacts with disparity.

Visual Perceptual Learning of Form-Motion Integration: Exploring the Involved Mechanisms with Transfer Effects and the Equivalent Noise Approach.

Background: Visual perceptual learning plays a crucial role in shaping our understanding of how the human brain integrates visual cues to construct coherent perceptual experiences. The visual system is continually challenged to integrate a multitude of visual cues, including form and motion, to create a unified representation of the surrounding visual scene. This process involves both the processing of local signals and their integration into a coherent global percept. Over the past several decades, researchers have explored the mechanisms underlying this integration, focusing on concepts such as internal noise and sampling efficiency, which pertain to local and global processing, respectively. Objectives and Methods: In this study, we investigated the influence of visual perceptual learning on non-directional motion processing using dynamic Glass patterns (GPs) and modified Random-Dot Kinematograms (mRDKs). We also explored the mechanisms of learning transfer to different stimuli and tasks. Specifically, we aimed to assess whether visual perceptual learning based on illusory directional motion, triggered by form and motion cues (dynamic GPs), transfers to stimuli that elicit comparable illusory motion, such as mRDKs. Additionally, we examined whether training on form and motion coherence thresholds improves internal noise filtering and sampling efficiency. Results: Our results revealed significant learning effects on the trained task, enhancing the perception of dynamic GPs. Furthermore, there was a substantial learning transfer to the non-trained stimulus (mRDKs) and partial transfer to a different task. The data also showed differences in coherence thresholds between dynamic GPs and mRDKs, with GPs showing lower coherence thresholds than mRDKs. Finally, an interaction between visual stimulus type and session for sampling efficiency revealed that the effect of training session on participants' performance varied depending on the type of visual stimulus, with dynamic GPs being influenced differently than mRDKs. Conclusion: These findings highlight the complexity of perceptual learning and suggest that the transfer of learning effects may be influenced by the specific characteristics of both the training stimuli and tasks, providing valuable insights for future research in visual processing.

Role of the Nucleus Accumbens in Signaled Avoidance Actions.

Animals, humans included, navigate their environments guided by sensory cues, responding adaptively to potential dangers and rewards. Avoidance behaviors serve as adaptive strategies in the face of signaled threats, but the neural mechanisms orchestrating these behaviors remain elusive. Current circuit models of avoidance behaviors indicate that the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the ventral striatum plays a key role in signaled avoidance behaviors, but the nature of this engagement is unclear. Evolving perspectives propose the NAc as a pivotal hub for action selection, integrating cognitive and affective information to heighten the efficiency of both appetitive and aversive motivated behaviors. To unravel the engagement of the NAc during active and passive avoidance, we used calcium imaging fiber photometry to examine NAc GABAergic neuron activity in ad libitum moving mice performing avoidance behaviors. We then probed the functional significance of NAc neurons using optogenetics and genetically targeted or electrolytic lesions. We found that NAc neurons code contraversive orienting movements and avoidance actions. However, direct optogenetic inhibition or lesions of NAc neurons did not impair active or passive avoidance behaviors, challenging the notion of their purported pivotal role in adaptive avoidance. The findings emphasize that while the NAc encodes avoidance movements, it is not required for avoidance behaviors, highlighting the distinction between behavior encoding or representation and mediation or generation.

Multi-Modal Emotional Understanding in AI Virtual Characters: Integrating Micro-Expression-Driven Feedback within Context-Aware Facial Micro-Expression Processing Systems

To engage users, AI Virtual Characters must comprehend emotions. The paper develops and evaluates Chinese-specific context-aware facial micro-expression processing algorithms and feedback mechanisms to improve AI virtual characters' multi-modal emotional comprehension in Chinese culture. Specialized algorithms were used to collect and evaluate Chinese micro-expressions and assess AI virtual characters' emotional comprehension in user interactions. Chinese participants of various ages, genders, and places were recruited for micro-expression recognition to ensure cultural inclusion. A comprehensive method collected quantitative and qualitative data. We integrated interview and AI virtual character feedback with quantitative indicators like emotion recognition accuracy, user engagement, and micro-expression intensity. In the study, demographics affect emotion recognition accuracy and age, gender, and location-specific virtual avatars increase emotional resonance. A study demonstrated that context influences micro-expression interpretation, particularly in distinguishing urban and rural surprise and grief. Textual micro-expression recommendations and real-time AI character expression modifications increased accuracy and user experience. Micro-expressions, visual and auditory cues, and physiological reactions are linked, requiring multimodal signal processing for emotional awareness. Interactive virtual help, gaming, and education may benefit from culturally appropriate AI characters. Deep learning, multimodal fusion, and explainable AI are used in AI emotional interaction theory and technique. Finally, using Chinese cultural intricacies, our study improves AI virtual character multi-modal emotional comprehension. Culturally sensitive AI personalities and emotional AI technologies are developed using context-aware face micro-expression analysis algorithms and feedback systems.