Object Matching Task Research Articles

Exploring the impact of intensified multiple session tDCS over the left DLPFC on brain function in MCI: a randomized control trial

Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with cognitive training (tDCS-cog) represents a promising approach to combat cognitive decline among healthy older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In this 5-day-long double-blinded randomized trial, we investigated the impact of intensified tDCS-cog protocol involving two trains of stimulation per day on working memory (WM) enhancement in 35 amnestic and multidomain amnestic MCI patients. Specifically, we focused to improve WM tasks relying on top-down attentional control and hypothesized that intensified tDCS would enhance performance of visual object matching task (VOMT) immediately after the stimulation regimen and at a 1-month follow-up. Secondarily, we explored whether the stimulation would augment online visual working memory training. Using fMRI, we aimed to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the intervention effects by analyzing BOLD activations during VOMT. Our main finding revealed no superior after-effects of tDCS-cog over the sham on VOMT among individuals with MCI as indicated by insignificant immediate and long-lasting after-effects. Additionally, the tDCS-cog did not enhance online training as predicted. The fMRI analysis revealed brain activity alterations in right insula that may be linked to tDCS-cog intervention. In the study we discuss the insignificant behavioral results in the context of the current evidence in tDCS parameter space and opening the discussion of possible interference between trained cognitive tasks.

The novel object-matching test (NOM Test): A psychometric measure of visual comparison ability.

This paper presents a new test of object-matching ability: the Novel Object-Matching Test (NOM Test). Object-matching(or visual comparison) is a complex cognitive and perceptual visual comparison task undertaken by forensic scientists - yet no openly available, standardised and psychometrically validated test of object-matching ability exists. This is in contrast to other visual comparison domains like face-matching where many tests are widely available. In this paper, we present the development and psychometric validation of thefirst openly available object-matching test where people view two complex artificial visual patterns side-by-side and decide if they are from the same source or different sources. We provide normative data and psychometric properties for two long-form and two short-form versions of the test, and two additional versions designed to identify high and low-performers. We also provide evidence of discriminant validity and convergent validity that demonstrates the NOM Test correlates strongly with other object-matching tasks like fingerprint-matching - but not other tasks requiring cognitive-perceptual skill (e.g., visual intelligence). The NOM Test is free for research use with acknowledgment and is available at https://osf.io/pv6ye/ .

Inter-individual differences in baseline dynamic functional connectivity are linked to cognitive aftereffects of tDCS

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has the potential to modulate cognitive training in healthy aging; however, results from various studies have been inconsistent. We hypothesized that inter-individual differences in baseline brain state may contribute to the varied results. We aimed to explore whether baseline resting-state dynamic functional connectivity (rs-dFC) and/or conventional resting-state static functional connectivity (rs-sFC) may be related to the magnitude of cognitive aftereffects of tDCS. To achieve this aim, we used data from our double-blind randomized sham-controlled cross-over tDCS trial in 25 healthy seniors in which bifrontal tDCS combined with cognitive training had induced significant behavioral aftereffects. We performed a backward regression analysis including rs-sFC/rs-dFC measures to explain the variability in the magnitude of tDCS-induced improvements in visual object-matching task (VOMT) accuracy. Rs-dFC analysis revealed four rs-dFC states. The occurrence rate of a rs-dFC state 4, characterized by a high correlation between the left fronto-parietal control network and the language network, was significantly associated with tDCS-induced VOMT accuracy changes. The rs-sFC measure was not significantly associated with the cognitive outcome. We show that flexibility of the brain state representing readiness for top-down control of object identification implicated in the studied task is linked to the tDCS-enhanced task accuracy.

Eye movements as a measure of word comprehension deficits in primary progressive aphasia

IntroductionEye movement studies can uncover subtle aspects of language processing impairment in individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), who may have difficulty understanding words. This study examined eye movement patterns on a word-object matching task in response to varying levels of word-knowledge in PPA. MethodsParticipants with semantic and non-semantic PPA completed an object-matching task, where a word was presented and participants then selected the corresponding pictured object from an array. Afterwards, participants defined words for trials to which they incorrectly pointed. Linear mixed-effects analyses examined fixation differences on targets and related and unrelated foils. ResultsOn incorrectly-pointed trials, participants demonstrated greater fixation duration on related foils, demonstrating intra-category blurring. For words that could not be defined, there was similar fixation duration on related and unrelated foils, demonstrating inter-category semantic blurring. DiscussionThis study demonstrated that fixation patterns reflect varying levels of word knowledge in PPA.

The fruits of our labour: Interpersonal coordination generates commitment by signalling a willingness to adapt.

Countless everyday activities require us to coordinate our actions and decisions with others. Coordination not only enables us to achieve instrumental goals, but has also been shown to boost commitment, leading people to persevere with an interaction even when their motivation wavers. So far, little is known about the mechanism by which coordination generates commitment. To investigate this, we conducted two experiments that represented very different coordination problems: coordination of movement timing on a joint drumming task (Experiment 1) and coordination of decision-making on a joint object matching task (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the similarity of the participant and partner was manipulated by varying whether or not they had perceptual access to the participant's workspace, and the participants' attribution of (un)willingness to invest effort into the joint action by adapting was manipulated by varying whether or not the participant believed their partner had perceptual access. As a measure of commitment, we registered how much participants' persisted on a boring and effortful task to earn points for their partners. Participants were significantly less committed to earning points for unadaptive partners than for adaptive partners, but only when they believed that their partner was unwilling to adapt rather than unable to adapt. This demonstrates that coordination can generate commitment insofar as it provides a cue that one's partner is willing to invest effort to adapt for the good of the interaction. Moreover, we demonstrate that this effect generalises across different kinds of coordination.

Enabling visually impaired people to learn three-dimensional tactile graphics with a 3DOF haptic mouse

BackgroundIn this work, we present a novel sensory substitution system that enables to learn three dimensional digital information via touch when vision is unavailable. The system is based on a mouse-shaped device, designed to jointly perceive, with one finger only, local tactile height and inclination cues of arbitrary scalar fields. The device hosts a tactile actuator with three degrees of freedom: elevation, roll and pitch. The actuator approximates the tactile interaction with a plane tangential to the contact point between the finger and the field. Spatial information can therefore be mentally constructed by integrating local and global tactile cues: the actuator provides local cues, whereas proprioception associated with the mouse motion provides the global cues.MethodsThe efficacy of the system is measured by a virtual/real object-matching task. Twenty-four gender and age-matched participants (one blind and one blindfolded sighted group) matched a tactile dictionary of virtual objects with their 3D-printed solid version. The exploration of the virtual objects happened in three conditions, i.e., with isolated or combined height and inclination cues. We investigated the performance and the mental cost of approximating virtual objects in these tactile conditions.ResultsIn both groups, elevation and inclination cues were sufficient to recognize the tactile dictionary, but their combination worked at best. The presence of elevation decreased a subjective estimate of mental effort. Interestingly, only visually impaired participants were aware of their performance and were able to predict it.ConclusionsThe proposed technology could facilitate the learning of science, engineering and mathematics in absence of vision, being also an industrial low-cost solution to make graphical user interfaces accessible for people with vision loss.

Conceptual relation preference: A matter of strategy or one of salience?

In order to determine whether preference in object matching tasks measures participants' strategy or tells us something about the salience of relations between corresponding concepts, we conducted three experiments. In Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, we approached this question by measuring the ease with which adult participants process different relations when they are under strategic instruction. When asked to group objects based on thematic or taxonomic relatedness, participants were slower (Experiment 2) and tended to make more errors (Experiment 1–2) when they had to find a taxonomically related pair than when they searched for a thematically related one. In Experiment 3, participants performed a standard matching task and their eye-movements were monitored throughout. In addition to the strong thematic preference in participants' choices, we measured longer fixations to thematically related objects than taxonomic competitors. Even though thematic and taxonomic information appear to compete for selection in early phases of observation, thematic conceptual relations appear to be more salient and preferred, independently of instruction.

The domain-specificity of face matching impairments in 40 cases of developmental prosopagnosia

A prevailing debate in the psychological literature concerns the domain-specificity of the face recognition system, where evidence from typical and neurological participants has been interpreted as evidence that faces are “special”. Although several studies have investigated the same question in cases of developmental prosopagnosia, the vast majority of this evidence has recently been discounted due to methodological concerns. This leaves an uncomfortable void in the literature, restricting our understanding of the typical and atypical development of the face recognition system. The current study addressed this issue in 40 individuals with developmental prosopagnosia, completing a sequential same/different face and biological (hands) and non-biological (houses) object matching task, with upright and inverted conditions. Findings support domain-specific accounts of face-processing for both hands and houses: while significant correlations emerged between all the object categories, no condition correlated with performance in the upright faces condition. Further, a categorical analysis demonstrated that, when face matching was impaired, object matching skills were classically dissociated in six out of 15 individuals (four for both categories). These findings provide evidence about domain-specificity in developmental disorders of face recognition, and present a theoretically-driven means of partitioning developmental prosopagnosia.

Early sensitivity of evoked potentials to surface and volumetric structure during the visual perception of three-dimensional object shape.

This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to elucidate how the human visual system processes three-dimensional (3-D) object shape structure. In particular, we examined whether the perceptual mechanisms that support the analysis of 3-D shape are differentially sensitive to higher order surface and volumetric part structure. Observers performed a whole-part novel object matching task in which part stimuli comprised sub-regions of closed edge contour, surfaces or volumetric parts. Behavioural response latency data showed an advantage in matching surfaces and volumetric parts to whole objects over contours, but no difference between surfaces and volumes. ERPs were analysed using a convergence of approaches based on stimulus dependent amplitude modulations of evoked potentials, topographic segmentation, and spatial frequency oscillations. The results showed early differential perceptual processing of contours, surfaces, and volumetric part stimuli. This was first reliably observed over occipitoparietal electrodes during the N1 (140-200ms) with a mean peak latency of 170ms, and continued on subsequent P2 (220-260ms) and N2 (260-320ms) components. The differential sensitivity in perceptual processing during the N1 was accompanied by distinct microstate patterns that distinguished among contours, surfaces and volumes, and predominant theta band activity around 4-7Hz over right occipitoparietal and orbitofrontal sites. These results provide the first evidence of early differential perceptual processing of higher order surface and volumetric shape structure within the first 200ms of stimulus processing. The findings challenge theoretical models of object recognition that do not attribute functional significance to surface and volumetric object structure during visual perception.

TMS demonstrates that both right and left superior temporal sulci are important for facial expression recognition

Prior studies demonstrate that a face-responsive region in the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is involved in facial expression recognition. Although this region can be identified in both hemispheres, studies more commonly report it in the right hemisphere. However, the extent to which expression recognition is lateralised in pSTS remains unclear. In the current study, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to systematically compare the causal contribution of the right pSTS (rpSTS) with the left pSTS (lpSTS) during facial expression recognition. TMS was delivered over the functionally localised rpSTS, lpSTS and the control vertex site while participants (N = 30) performed an expression matching task and a control object matching task. TMS delivered over the rpSTS impaired expression recognition more than TMS delivered over the lpSTS. Crucially, TMS delivered over the rpSTS and lpSTS impaired task performance more than TMS delivered over the control site. TMS had no effect on the control task. This causally demonstrates that while task disruption was greater in the rpSTS, both the rpSTS and the lpSTS were engaged in facial expression recognition. Our results indicate that cognitive functions that are seemingly lateralised in neuroimaging studies, still rely on computations performed in both hemispheres for optimum task performance.

Biomarkers for uranium risk assessment for the development of a molecular epidemiological protocol

We used a functional MRI paradigm involving conventional vs. unconventional views of objects to assess bottom-up vs. top-down visual processing in Parkinson's disease (PD) with normal cognition, PD with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and MCI due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) as compared to healthy controls. We particularly aimed at determining whether the task discriminated between PD with and without MCI and between two MCI groups due to distinct pathologies (AD and PD).116 right-handed subjects (21 MCI due to AD; 16 PD with normal cognition; 24 PD with MCI; 55 healthy controls) performed a visual object-matching task in a T MR scanner. T statistic maps were computed to contrast task-based activation during unconventional vs. conventional view conditions. One-way ANOVAs and post hoc tests were performed to assess differences across and between groups.Both MCI groups performed worse than controls in the unconventional views condition and showed reduced activation of right anterior cingulate cortex and right superior parietal lobule (PD with MCI), and right middle and inferior frontal gyri (MCI due to AD). Neural responses in cortical areas within the ventral and dorsal visual pathway appeared to be preserved in both MCI groups. Receiver operating characteristic analysis of MRI contrast in the right superior parietal lobule distinguished PD with and without MCI with 87.50% sensitivity and 86.98% specificity.Impaired recognition of objects presented in unconventional orientations in MCI due to PD and AD was associated with decreased activation of frontoparietal regions, consistent with defective top-down regulation of visual processing. Aberrant activation of superior parietal cortex may serve as an early imaging biomarker of impending cognitive impairment in PD.

Neural evidence for defective top-down control of visual processing in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease

IntroductionWe used a functional MRI paradigm involving conventional vs. unconventional views of objects to assess bottom-up vs. top-down visual processing in Parkinson's disease (PD) with normal cognition, PD with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and MCI due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) as compared to healthy controls. We particularly aimed at determining whether the task discriminated between PD with and without MCI and between two MCI groups due to distinct pathologies (AD and PD). Methods116 right-handed subjects (21 MCI due to AD; 16 PD with normal cognition; 24 PD with MCI; 55 healthy controls) performed a visual object-matching task in a T MR scanner. T statistic maps were computed to contrast task-based activation during unconventional vs. conventional view conditions. One-way ANOVAs and post hoc tests were performed to assess differences across and between groups. ResultsBoth MCI groups performed worse than controls in the unconventional views condition and showed reduced activation of right anterior cingulate cortex and right superior parietal lobule (PD with MCI), and right middle and inferior frontal gyri (MCI due to AD). Neural responses in cortical areas within the ventral and dorsal visual pathway appeared to be preserved in both MCI groups. Receiver operating characteristic analysis of MRI contrast in the right superior parietal lobule distinguished PD with and without MCI with 87.50% sensitivity and 86.98% specificity. ConclusionsImpaired recognition of objects presented in unconventional orientations in MCI due to PD and AD was associated with decreased activation of frontoparietal regions, consistent with defective top-down regulation of visual processing. Aberrant activation of superior parietal cortex may serve as an early imaging biomarker of impending cognitive impairment in PD.

NEURAL EVIDENCE FOR DEFECTIVE TOP-DOWN CONTROL OF VISUAL PROCESSING IN PARKINSON’S AND ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Visual processing is impaired in patients with Parkinson's disease and in mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease. We used a functional MRI paradigm involving conventional vs. unconventional views of objects to assess bottom-up vs. top-down visual processing in Parkinson's disease (PD) with normal cognition, PD with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and MCI due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) as compared to healthy controls. We particularly aimed at determining whether the task discriminated between PD with and without MCI and between two MCI groups due to distinct pathologies (AD and PD). 116 right-handed subjects (21 MCI due to AD; 16 PD with normal cognition; 24 PD with MCI; 55 healthy controls) performed a visual object-matching task in a 3T MR scanner. T statistic maps were computed to contrast task-based activation during unconventional vs. conventional view conditions. One-way ANOVAs and post hoc tests were performed to assess differences across and between groups. Both MCI groups performed worse than controls in the unconventional views condition and showed reduced activation of right anterior cingulate cortex and right superior parietal lobule (PD with MCI), and right middle and inferior frontal gyri (MCI due to AD). Neural responses in cortical areas within the ventral and dorsal visual pathway appeared to be preserved in both MCI groups. Receiver operating characteristic analysis of MRI contrast in the right superior parietal lobule distinguished PD with and without MCI with 87.50% sensitivity and 86.98% specificity. Impaired recognition of objects presented in unconventional orientations in MCI due to PD and AD was associated with decreased activation of domain-general frontoparietal regions, consistent with defective top-down regulation of visual processing. Aberrant activation of superior parietal cortex may serve as an early imaging biomarker of impending cognitive impairment in PD.

Talking About SOME and ALL: What Determines the Usage of Quantity-Denoting Expressions?

ABSTRACTReference production is often studied through single dimensions of contrast (e.g., “tall glass” when there are one or two glasses of varying height). Yet real-world communication is rarely so simple, raising questions about the factors guiding more complex referents. The current study examines decisions to mention set relations (e.g., using quantity-denoting expressions like “some of the houses” to refer to two of five houses) versus object categories only (e.g., using bare plurals like “houses”). Two experiments used vignettes to vary discourse focus on objects (prominent vs. nonprominent) and scenes to vary the set type described (subset vs. total set). Speakers were more likely to communicate set relations of prominent objects, particularly when they elicit high name agreement in the case of total sets. Speakers’ use of quantity-denoting expressions also increased listeners’ sensitivity to set relations in an object-matching task. This suggests that unlike simpler forms of modification that often decrease with greater focus, quantity-denoting expressions provide additional information about the set relations of prominent referents.

Plural Mass Nouns and the Construal of Individuation: Crosslinguistic Evidence from Verbal and Nonverbal Behaviour in Labelling and Non-labelling Contexts

Considering the third time frame of the thinking-for-speaking hypothesis (tfs), online language use affects subsequent nonverbal categorical perception preferences (Slobin 2003); according to the universalist view, nonverbal cognitive thinking is arranged in universal conceptual structures underlying surface crosslinguistic differentiations (Imai & Gentner 1997). In the present study, we examined crosslinguistic differences in the expression of noun countability in Greek and English speakers. In a verbal task, Greek speakers pluralized mass nouns more than English speakers; consistent with the universal object/substance ontological distinction, both Greek and English speakers differentiated between objects and substances in a nonverbal object matching task, selecting shape for objects and material for substances. However, only in Greek speakers pluralizing mass nouns in the verbal task significantly predicted their preferences for matching substances by shape in the nonverbal task. The findings are discussed considering whether linguistic context differentially affects the performance of speakers crosslinguistically and in specific tasks.

A visual processing advantage for young-adolescent deaf observers: Evidence from face and object matching tasks

It is unresolved whether the permanent auditory deprivation that deaf people experience leads to the enhanced visual processing of faces. The current study explored this question with a matching task in which observers searched for a target face among a concurrent lineup of ten faces. This was compared with a control task in which the same stimuli were presented upside down, to disrupt typical face processing, and an object matching task. A sample of young-adolescent deaf observers performed with higher accuracy than hearing controls across all of these tasks. These results clarify previous findings and provide evidence for a general visual processing advantage in deaf observers rather than a face-specific effect.

Currency recognition using a smartphone: Comparison between color SIFT and gray scale SIFT algorithms

Banknote recognition means classifying the currency (coin and paper) to the correct class. In this paper, we developed a dataset for Jordanian currency. After that we applied automatic mobile recognition system using a smartphone on the dataset using scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm. This is the first attempt, to the best of the authors knowledge, to recognize both coins and paper banknotes on a smartphone using SIFT algorithm. SIFT has been developed to be the most robust and efficient local invariant feature descriptor. Color provides significant information and important values in the object description process and matching tasks. Many objects cannot be classified correctly without their color features. We compared between two approaches colored local invariant feature descriptor (color SIFT approach) and gray image local invariant feature descriptor (gray SIFT approach). The evaluation results show that the color SIFT approach outperforms the gray SIFT approach in terms of processing time and accuracy.

Rapid learning of minimally different words in five- to six-year-old children: effects of acoustic salience and hearing impairment.

This study investigates the role of acoustic salience and hearing impairment in learning phonologically minimal pairs. Picture-matching and object-matching tasks were used to investigate the learning of consonant and vowel minimal pairs in five- to six-year-old deaf children with a cochlear implant (CI), and children of the same age with normal hearing (NH). In both tasks, the CI children showed clear difficulties with learning minimal pairs. The NH children also showed some difficulties, however, particularly in the picture-matching task. Vowel minimal pairs were learned more successfully than consonant minimal pairs, particularly in the object-matching task. These results suggest that the ability to encode phonetic detail in novel words is not fully developed at age six and is affected by task demands and acoustic salience. CI children experience persistent difficulties with accurately mapping sound contrasts to novel meanings, but seem to benefit from the relative acoustic salience of vowel sounds.

45. A novel cognitive fMRI task to assess brain mechanisms underlying visual processing and attention

Introduction Visual processing and attentional deficits can be found in early Alzheimer's disease (AD). Study objectives We aimed at developing a visual cognitive task to study brain mechanisms underlying visual processing in early AD using functional MRI (fMRI). To achieve our goal we developed a novel visual object matching task using conventional and unconventional (spatially rotated) views of object pairs. Here we present the fMRI results of a pilot study performed in healthy subjects (HS). Methods Twenty-two right-handed HS (11 men; age 25.3±2.8years) performed a cognitive task in a 1.5T MR scanner. The task consisted of 60 pairs of emotionally neutral images and 30 pairs of dots with a symbol placed on the right or left side (a control task). Participants viewed successive paired images, separated by a visual mask. The second image of each pair was either: same (identical) as the first image (canonical condition 1); different in identity (canonical condition 2); same as the first image but spatially rotated (unconventional condition 3); different in identity and spatially rotated (unconventional condition 4) (Schendan and Stern, 2008). Participants were instructed to respond as quickly as possible by pressing a YES (left) button if the second object of the paired images was the same as the first object (regardless of spatial orientation) or by pressing NO (right) button if they were different. In the control task participants responded with buttons depending on the side of a dot symbol placement. fMRI data were processed using SPM8 and the standard pipeline. The significance level was set to p Results At the group level, we found major activation of bilateral temporo-occipital areas, precuneus and inferior frontal gyri during the canonical conditions as compared to the control task. The unconventional conditions revealed additional activation of the posterior parietal areas including the superior parietal lobule and intraparietal sulcus as compared to the canonical conditions. Conclusion In the visual object matching task with conventional views of objects we observed major engagement of the ventral visual pathway. The task with spatially unconventional views of objects revealed additional recruitment of the dorsal visual pathway and the dorsal attentional network which is involved in the top-down attentional control of visual processing (Vincent et al., 2008). Our fMRI paradigm shows promise for assessing task-dependent attentional modulation of visual processing in early AD.

Increase Efficiency of SURF using RGB Color Space

SURF is one of the most robust local invariant feature descriptors. SURF is implemented mainly for gray images. However, color presents important information in the object description and matching tasks as it clearly in the human vision system. Many objects can be unmatched if their color contents are ignored. To overcome this drawback this paper proposed a method CSURF (Color SURF) that combines features of Red, Green and blue layers to detect color objects. It edits matched process of SURF to be more efficient with color space. Experimental results show that CSURF is more precious than traditional SURF and CSURF invariant to RGB color space