Intrinsic Object Research Articles

Look Here, Eye Movements Play a Functional Role in Memory Retrieval

Research on episodic memory has established that spontaneous eye movements occur to spaces associated with retrieved information even if those spaces are blank at the time of retrieval. Although it has been claimed that such looks to “nothing” can function as facilitatory retrieval cues, there is currently no conclusive evidence for such an effect. In the present study, we addressed this fundamental issue using four direct eye manipulations in the retrieval phase of an episodic memory task: (a) free viewing on a blank screen, (b) maintaining central fixation, (c) looking inside a square congruent with the location of the to-be-recalled objects, and (d) looking inside a square incongruent with the location of the to-be-recalled objects. Our results provide novel evidence of an active and facilitatory role of gaze position during memory retrieval and demonstrate that memory for the spatial relationship between objects is more readily affected than memory for intrinsic object features.

Intrinsic Structure of Visual Exemplar and Category Representations in Macaque Brain

One of the most remarkable properties of the visual system is the ability to identify and categorize a wide variety of objects effortlessly. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain elusive. Specifically, the question of how individual object information is represented and intrinsically organized is still poorly understood. To address this question, we presented images of isolated real-world objects spanning a wide range of categories to awake monkeys using a rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design and analyzed the responses of multiple areas involved in object processing. We found that the multivoxel response patterns to individual exemplars in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex, especially area TE, encoded the animate-inanimate categorical division, with a subordinate cluster of faces within the animate category. In contrast, the individual exemplar representations in V4, the amygdala, and prefrontal cortex showed either no categorical structure, or a categorical structure different from that in IT cortex. Moreover, in the IT face-selective regions ("face patches"), especially the anterior face patches, (1) the multivoxel response patterns to individual exemplars showed a categorical distinction between faces and nonface objects (i.e., body parts and inanimate objects), and (2) the regionally averaged activations to individual exemplars showed face-selectivity and within-face exemplar-selectivity. Our findings demonstrate that, at both the single-exemplar and the population level, intrinsic object representation and categorization are organized hierarchically as one moves anteriorly along the ventral pathway, reflecting both modular and distributed processing.

Impression management and legitimacy strategies: The BP case

The aim of this paper is to study if and how impression management varies during different phases of the legitimation process, in particular during the legitimacy building and legitimacy repairing phases (Suchman, 1995). We aim at understanding whether and how the disclosure tone adopted by a company in the two different moments is diverse and thus functional to the intrinsic objective of the each phase. The empirical analysis focuses on the case of British Petroleum Plc. We investigated the impression management practices undertaken by the company both during the preparation of the rebranding operation, i.e. a situation in which the company is trying to build legitimacy; and during the happenings of two legitimacy crises, like the explosion of the refinery in Texas City and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The evidence appears in line with the theoretical prediction of legitimacy theory. Results show that while the company tends to privilege image enhancement techniques during the legitimacy-building phase, it uses more obfuscation techniques when managing a legitimacy-repairing process. Moreover, the analysis suggests that the company makes more extensive use of impression management techniques in the disclosures addressed to shareholders, investors and other market operators than in the disclosures addressed to the wide range of other stakeholders.

Kinematic analysis of grasping in focal dystonia of the face and neck

The kinematics of hand transport and grasp formation when reaching for and grasping cubes of different sizes were investigated in subjects with blepharospasm, subjects with torticollis and healthy subjects. Patients scaled peak grasp aperture accurately to object size, reflecting accurate sensorimotor integration of the intrinsic object characteristics. Likewise, the timing of peak grasp aperture in relation to the time of hand transport did not differ between patients and controls. In contrast, patients with blepharospasm and torticollis produced longer movement times and smaller peak velocities of hand transport. Increased movement times and slowed hand transport correlated significantly with symptom severity as assessed by the Unified Dystonia Rating Scale. The observation that the processing of peak grasp aperture was unaffected by blepharospasm or torticollis does not support the current concept of impaired sensorimotor integration. The slowing of hand transport appears to reflect a strategic response to compensate for insecurities in the execution of reaching movements to be found in focal dystonia of the face and neck.

Revisiting NASA as a High Reliability Organization

The implementation and sustainment of High Reliability Organization (HRO) operations for large organizations, such as NASA, is problematic. Using NASA as a case study, the consistency of the intrinsic objectives of large public organizations is assessed with respect to HROs. A novel HRO model is described in terms of ten characteristic dimensions. The intrinsic public organizational objectives are found to be consistent with the HRO model only with respect to effectiveness. Additionally, NASA exhibits characteristics of a HRO only with respect to the degree of complexity and risk involved in operations.

Detecting changes in high-resolution satellite coastal imagery using an image object detection approach

This article presents a spatial contrast-enhanced image object-based change detection approach (SICA) to identify changed areas using shape differences between bi-temporal high-resolution satellite images. Each image was segmented and intrinsic image objects were extracted from their hierarchic candidates by the proposed image object detection approach (IODA). Then, the dominant image object (DIO) presentation was labelled from the results of optimal segmentation. Comparing the form and the distribution of bi-temporal DIOs by using the raster overlay function, ground objects were recognized as being spatially changed where the corresponding image objects were detected as merged or split into geometric shapes. The result of typical spectrum-based change detection between two images was enhanced by using changed spatial information of image objects. The result showed that the change detection accuracies of the pixels with both attribute and shape changes were improved from 84% to 94% for the strong attribute pixel, and from 36% to 81% for the weak attribute pixel in study area. The proposed approach worked well on high-resolution satellite coastal images.

Nonvisual learning of intrinsic object properties in a reaching task dissociates grasp from reach

The Dual Visuomotor Channel theory proposes that skilled reaching is composed of a Reach that directs the hand in relation to the extrinsic properties of an object (e.g., location) and a Grasp that opens and closes the hand in relation to the intrinsic properties of an object (e.g., size). While Reach and Grasp movements are often guided by vision, they can also be performed without vision when reaching for a body part or an object on one's own body. Memory of a recently touched but unseen object can also be used to guide Reach and Grasp movements although the touch-response memory durations described are extremely brief (Karl et al. in Exp Brain Res 219:59-74, 2012a). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether repeated nonvisual reaching for a consistent object could calibrate Reach and Grasp movements in a way similar to those guided by vision. The nonvision group wore vision-occluding goggles and reached for fifty consecutive trials for a round donut ball placed on a pedestal. The control group performed the same task with vision. Frame-by-frame video analysis and linear kinematics revealed that nonvision participants consistently used an elevated Reach trajectory, in which the hand, rather than being directed toward the target in the horizontal plane, was first elevated above the target before being lowered to touch and locate it. First contact was established with the dorsal surface of the target, and thus, adjustments in contact locations were often required for purchase. Although nonvision participants initially used an open and extended hand during transport, with practice they began to scale digit aperture to object size with an accuracy and temporal relation similar to vision participants. The different ways in which the Reach and Grasp movements respond to nonvisual learning are discussed in relation to support for the dual channel theory of reaching and to the idea that the Reach and Grasp channels may be differentially dependent on online visual guidance.

TLM request response channel in SystemAda

Hardware description languages or HDLs have started their way from transistor level to transaction level modeling up to now. Ada because of its intrinsic concurrency and object orientation is a good candidate to model hardware at transaction level modeling or TLM. In our previous papers we have implemented some special and necessary features of gate level and also some fundamentals of TLM in Ada language [1] [2] [3]. In this paper we have implemented Request Response channel (TLM_Req_Res) as another basic channel of TLM based on our TLM_FIFO channel in our last work. Also we have done some simulation time comparisons to show that there is no significant simulation time penalty in SystemAda over SystemC like our previous implementations.

Population structure and landscape genetics of two endangered frog species of genus Odorrana: different scenarios on two islands

Isolation by distance and landscape connectivity are fundamental factors underlying speciation and evolution. To understand how landscapes affect gene flow and shape population structures, island species provide intrinsic study objects. We investigated the effects of landscapes on the population structure of the endangered frog species, Odorrana ishikawae and O. splendida, which each inhabit an island in southwest Japan. This was done by examining population structure, gene flow and demographic history of each species by analyzing 12 microsatellite loci and exploring causal environmental factors through ecological niche modeling (ENM) and the cost-distance approach. Our results revealed that the limited gene flow and multiple-population structure in O. splendida and the single-population structure in O. ishikawae were maintained after divergence of the species through ancient vicariance between islands. We found that genetic distance correlated with geographic distance between populations of both species. Our landscape genetic analysis revealed that the connectivity of suitable habitats influences gene flow and leads to the formation of specific population structures. In particular, different degrees of topographical complexity between islands are the major determining factor for shaping contrasting population structures of two species. In conclusion, our results illustrate the diversification mechanism of organisms through the interaction with space and environment. Our results also present an ENM approach for identifying the key factors affecting demographic history and population structures of target species, especially endangered species.

Perspective: Complexities of flavour

Is flavour an intrinsic objective property, or a subjective experience that varies from person to person? Barry Smith sorts out the implications.

The bottle and the glass say to me: “Pour!”

The present study aimed at determining whether the observation of two functionally compatible artefacts, that is which potentially concur in achieving a specific function, automatically activates a motor programme of interaction between the two objects. To this purpose, an interference paradigm was used during which an artefact (a bottle filled with orange juice), target of a reaching-grasping and lifting sequence, was presented alone or with a non-target object (distractor) of the same or different semantic category and functionally compatible or not. In experiment 1, the bottle was presented alone or with an artefact (a sphere), or a natural (an apple) distractor. In experiment 2, the bottle was presented with either the apple or a glass (an artefact) filled with orange juice, whereas in experiment 3, either an empty or a filled glass was presented. In the control experiment 4, we compared the kinematics of reaching-grasping and pouring with those of reaching-grasping and lifting. The kinematics of reach, grasp and lift was affected by distractor presentation. However, no difference was observed between two distractors that belonged to different semantic categories. In contrast, the presence of the empty rather filled glass affected the kinematics of the actual grasp. This suggests that an actually functional compatibility between target (the bottle) and distractor (the empty glass) was necessary to activate automatically a programme of interaction (i.e. pouring) between the two artefacts. This programme affected the programme actually executed (i.e. lifting). The results of the present study indicate that, in addition to affordances related to intrinsic object properties, "working affordances" related to a specific use of an artefact with another object can be activated on the basis of functional compatibility.

Learning the shape manifold to improve object recognition

This paper presents an approach for object recognition and shape retrieval in binary images. Object description is accomplished by contour and region-based solutions. Fusion of two categories of shape descriptors causes a considerable performance improvement in retrieval. In order to improve the recognition rate, it is important to extract the intrinsic object feature vectors in such a way that the geometrical distance between two such vectors matches the semantic relation between the two objects from which they were extracted. The main contribution in this paper is learning how to map the samples in high-dimensional observation space into the new manifold space so that the geometrically closer vectors belong to near semantics. Feature extraction is done by Isomap that belongs to a non-linear feature extraction algorithm. In the proposed method, the shortest path in the dissimilarity graph leads to less value between the samples in the same category by denoising the edge values. Experiments show that the geometrical distance between the samples on the manifold space are more compatible to the semantic distance of them. The proposed method has been compared to some well-known approaches by a variety of shape databases which includes MPEG-7 Part B, Kimia silhouettes, and Fish. The results show the effectiveness and validity of the method.

How Happy Is Too Happy? Euphoria, Neuroethics, and Deep Brain Stimulation of the Nucleus Accumbens

Recent studies on deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the nucleus accumbens (NA)—a center of the brain well known to mediate reward, pleasure, and addiction—have provided proof of principle evidence that DBS might be able to induce euphoria in a rapid, well-modulated manner, with potentially much higher efficacy than previous neuropsychiatric interventions. This development evokes two lines of fundamental ethical questions: If happiness were indeed easily inducible by a button press, are there any ethical, psychological, or social limits of DBS-induced happiness? If happiness might be easily inducible not just in persons suffering from psychiatric disease, but also in healthy persons, are there any intrinsic objections against such an enhancement use of DBS? This study uses systematic ethical analysis of recent observations in NA DBS, illustrated by a case vignette and by published reports on other patients. It was found that the benefit of DBS-induced modulation of affective and motivational states comes in degrees: A change in the DBS settings can transform a salutary state of hedonia into a hypomanic or manic state and turn an enhanced affective state into a maladaptive one. Thus, DBS-induced happiness requires an individual, domain-specific functional analysis, which might reveal context-dependent beneficial and detrimental consequences for a person's life. These consequences warrant careful observation of mood states in persons with NA DBS. There are no convincing intrinsic objections against an enhancement use of DBS. However, the lack of evidence about potential benefits, the risk of severe harm, and the high intervention costs currently pose important extrinsic arguments against use of DBS for enhancement purposes.

Should Citizenship be Conditional? Denationalization and Liberal Principles

While political theorists have recently paid a great deal of attention to the question of whether states have a moral duty to grant citizenship to non-citizen residents, this paper examines the normative issues associated with the state’s withdrawal of citizenship. My discussion focuses on whether the practice of denationalization, as a punishment for certain types of behaviour (e.g., disloyalty) or to protect the vital interests of the state (against terrorists, for example), can be compatible with liberal principles. The ethical issues raised by denationalization have not been explored in great depth hitherto, despite that fact that citizenship stripping (in the form of banishment) was endorsed by many of liberalism’s foundational thinkers, including Kant, Montesquieu, Vattel and Beccaria. More recently, denationalization powers have emerged as a controversial political issue in the UK, France, the US, and a number of other liberal states. This paper begins by considering the prehistory of denationalization by briefly tracing the evolution of banishment as an idea and as a practice. It then turns to consider how denationalization power emerged and became consolidated in the UK and the US in the first half of the twentieth century. Its focus then shifts to the nature of liberal objections to the power, in particular to concerns about denationalisation’s link to statelessness, its creation of two classes of citizenship, and its arbitrariness. In an effort to disentangle contingent from intrinsic objections to the practice, the revocation of citizenship provisions in the UK’s Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act of 2002, which attempted to create a denationalization power that takes account of liberal objections, are considered. In the final section of the paper, I consider the effectiveness of this Act in accommodating liberal concerns in order to shed light on the likelihood of reconciling liberal principles with forms of conditional citizenship.

Grasping-Related Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Brain Responses in the Macaque Monkey

Research in recent decades has suggested the existence of a dedicated brain network devoted to the organization and execution of grasping, one of the most important and skilled movements of primates. Grasping an object requires the transformation of intrinsic object properties such as size, orientation, and shape into an appropriate motor scheme shaping the hand. Although electrophysiological recordings in the monkey model have proven invaluable for gaining insights into the neuronal substrate underlying this complex behavior, knowledge concerning the existence and organization of a similar system in the human brain is derived mainly from imaging studies. Here, we present for the first time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of brain activity while macaque monkeys performed reaching and grasping movements in a 3 tesla MR scanner. Grasping in the dark (compared with reaching) yielded significant activations in anterior intraparietal area and ventral premotor area F5, in addition to area PFG in the rostral inferior parietal lobule, somatosensory areas (SI, SII, area 5), and the hand field of F1. Whole-brain macaque fMRI motor studies will be instrumental in establishing possible homologies concerning grasping organization in the human and monkey brains, bridging the gap between human imaging and monkey electrophysiology.

A New Role for the Parahippocampal Cortex in Representing Space

The debate surrounding the function of the human posterior parahippocampal cortex (PHC) is currently dominated by two competing theories. The spatial layout hypothesis proposes that PHC processes information about the shape of space embodied in layout-defining scene features. The contextual association hypothesis rejects this notion, proposing instead that PHC responds to highly contextualized, but not necessarily spatial, stimuli. Here we present a novel concept that suggests PHC is primarily concerned with any representation that depicts three-dimensional local space, be it scenes or even single objects. Specifically, we identified space-defining (SD) and space-ambiguous (SA) single objects, where SD objects consistently evoke a strong sense of the surrounding space while SA objects do not, in the absence of any background, spatial layout, or context. We found that participants could easily identify and distinguish between SD and SA objects. This distinction was subsequently affirmed at a neural level, where visualizing or viewing single SD objects compared with SA objects engaged PHC, despite these single SD objects offering no information about the shape or layout of the space. Moreover, this PHC response was robust and not accounted for by other factors, including contextual associations. Instead, it was linked to intrinsic object properties, specifically a combination of perceived object size and portability. By showing that PHC is responsive to the awareness of surrounding local space suggests its role in scene processing is basic and fundamental, such that it is not dependent on complex scene properties such as geometric structure, scene schema, or contextual associations.

Novel optical image encryption scheme based on fractional Mellin transform

A novel nonlinear image encryption scheme is proposed by introducing the fractional Mellin transform (FrMT) into the field of image security. As a nonlinear transform, FrMT is employed to get rid of the potential insecurity of the optical image encryption system caused by the intrinsic object–image relationship between the plaintext and the ciphertext. Different annular domains of the original image are transformed by FrMTs of different orders, and then the outputs are further encrypted by comprehensively using fractional Fourier transform (FrFT), amplitude encoding and phase encoding. The keys of the encryption algorithm include the orders of the FrMTs, the radii of the FrMT domains, the order of the FrFT and the phases generated in the further encryption process, thus the key space is extremely large. An optoelectronic hybrid structure for the proposed scheme is also introduced. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is robust with noise immunity, sensitive to the keys, and outperforms the conventional linear encryption methods to counteract some attacks.

Cashing in on climate change: political theory and global emissions trading

Global climate change raises profound questions for social and political theorists. The human impacts of climate change are sufficiently broad, and generally adverse, to threaten the rights and freedoms of existing and future members of all countries. These impacts will also exacerbate inequalities between rich and poor countries despite the limited role of the latter in their origins. Responding to these impacts will require the implementation of environmental and social policies that are both environmentally effective and consistent with the equality and liberty of populations to which they are applied. This article considers whether global emissions trading, namely, the creation of a global market for tradable allowances conferring the right to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gas over a specified time period, is normatively defensible from a liberal egalitarian perspective. After a brief review of the theory and practice of emissions trading, a number of normative objections to the international trade in emissions allowances are analysed. These objections appeal to one, or a combination, of two claims. First, emissions trading schemes are likely to produce undesirable outcomes, such as environmental neglect, in the further future. I call these ‘instrumental objections’. Second, emissions trading schemes violate non‐consequential norms of justice and fairness. I call these ‘intrinsic objections’. It is argued that, when combined, instrumental and intrinsic objections indicate that instituting a global network of emissions trading schemes, as envisioned by a number of parties to the Kyoto Protocol and Copenhagen Accord, would be illegitimate in absence of significant procedural and consequential safeguards.

Categorical perception of morphed objects using a free-naming experiment

Morphed figures entail a dominant and nondominant interpretation. Testing perception of morphed objects using forced-choice methods demonstrates that morphed figures are perceived as their dominant interpretation (“categorical perception”, or CP). Using a more natural free-naming response could reveal whether CP is an effect independent of method. In Experiment 1, therefore, series of morphed figures were tested for CP using free naming. Half of the morph series were identified as CP patterns. In Experiment 2, we used forced choice to investigate CP, resulting in an increase of number of CP series compared to free naming. The overlap between CP series of Experiments 1 and 2 was small, however. Experiment 3 revealed that higher perceptual similarity between the extremes of the series was strongly related to CP for the free-naming method, in contrast to the forced-choice method. We conclude that the observation of CP depends on the intactness of the intrinsic object structure caused by the morphing procedure.

Rhetoric in industrial design

Based on some of the current proposals interpreting users as the centre of creation in design (Norman, Jordan or Krippendorff), this article raises the question as to what the author defines as the conceptual possibilities and impossibilities (ponderables and imponderables) of industrial design. It explores possible interpretations between the rhetoric world of increasingly competitive and economy-oriented markets and the rhetorical artifices that can be used by the industrial designer in order to accomplish the functional and emotional requirements of products (transformed into a dream come true for the user). In this approach (and through the visitation of some rhetorical phenomena of consumerism underlying the current social, economical and behavioural context of developed countries) the author underlines the intention behind actions of marketing, design, management and mainly economy-oriented policies that guide those countries responsible for the cyclical creation, in the user, of self-identification with a new necessity: attaining a greater happiness through the consumption of a given product. Linked to this phenomenon, there is the framing of several possible balance strategies, for example: the satisfaction of needs of companies/markets and the careful and sensitive suppression or super-suppression of user-consumer needs. Within this issue, and by resorting to the general notion of rhetoric in design and specifically to the notion of biomorphological rhetoric applied to design, emphasis is drawn to the importance nature may have to industrial design as an inspiring entity of project methodological praxes, which are both efficient from a commercial standpoint and from a functional-emotional standpoint for the user. In short, considering the above mentioned scope of limitation of different contexts where the new rhetorical-semantic dimension of design is established, this article proposes that the functional-emotional humanization of solutions developed by designers are a result of the harmonization between the subjectivity inherent to professional ethical deontological values, considering the human-user being, and the intrinsic objectivity of strategic-profitable values supporting producing companies, considering the human-user being. This is because (in the author's perspective), today, more than in the past, both actions must always function as a whole.