Conscious Perception Research Articles

Human-guided motion planner with perception awareness for assistive aerial teleoperation

Assistive aerial teleoperation in unknown environments can be challenging due to the limited sensing range of cameras and the insufficient human–computer interaction. Obstacles occluding the field of view (FOV ) of camera reduce the visibility of unknown environments, and it coupled with insufficient pilot instructions directly affect human intention recognition. To address this issue, the planned trajectory generated by assistive teleoperation should align with human intention while considering perception awareness (PA) of the FOV. However, most of the existing works considering PA solely increase the FOV visibility while neglect the human intention constraints. As a result, the PA constraints can cause the heading of the quadrotor to deviate from human expectation, requiring more human–computer interactions to correct it. In this paper, we propose a human-guided motion planner with perception awareness to solve these issues. Specifically, in the path-finding stage, we introduce a spatio-temporal path similarity metric method. This method, combined with motion primitive propagation, finds an initial path that is collision-free and roughly aligned with human intention. In the subsequent trajectory optimization stage, we jointly consider PA with respect to occlusion and human intention constraints, effectively optimizing FOV visibility without deviating the heading of quadrotor from human intention. Extensive experiments and benchmark comparisons demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method in solving assistive aerial teleoperation for even novice operators.

Addressing Circadian Disruptions in Visually Impaired Paralympic Athletes.

Transmeridian travel is common for elite athletes participating in competitions and training. However, this travel can lead to circadian misalignment wherein the internal biological clock becomes desynchronized with the light-dark cycle of the new environment, resulting in performance decrement and potential negative health consequences. Existing literature extensively discusses recommendations for managing jet lag, predominantly emphasizing light-based interventions to synchronize the internal clock with the anticipated time at the destination. Nevertheless, visually impaired (VI) athletes may lack photoreceptiveness, diminishing or nullifying the effectiveness of this therapy. Consequently, this invited commentary explores alternative strategies for addressing jet lag in VI athletes. VI athletes with light perceptionbut reduced visual acuity or visual fields may still benefit from light interventions in managing jet lag. However, VI athletes lacking a conscious perception of light should rely on gradual shifts in behavioral factors, such as meal timing and exercise, to facilitate the entrainment of circadian rhythms to the destination time. Furthermore, interventions like melatonin supplementation may prove useful during and after travel. In addition, it is recommended that athlete guides adopt phase-forward or phase-back approaches to synchronize with the athlete, aiding in jet-lag management and optimizing performance.

The effect of MemoVigor 2 on recent-onset idiopathic tinnitus: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Background: Tinnitus is a common symptom associated with the conscious perception of sound in the absence of a corresponding external or internal sound source, which can severely impact quality of life. Because of the current limited understanding of the precise pathophysiological mechanism of idiopathic tinnitus, no curable treatment has been attained yet. A food supplement trading as MemoVigor 2, which contains a combination of therapeutic ingredients with mainly antioxidant activity, has been used in the treatment of tinnitus. The objective of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of MemoVigor 2 in the treatment of recent-onset idiopathic tinnitus. Methods: In a prospective single-centre randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial we studied 204 patients with idiopathic tinnitus divided into two groups: 104 patients who received MemoVigor 2 and 100 patients treated with placebo. To evaluate changes in tinnitus we used (1) audiometry/tympanometry; (2) specific measures of tinnitus perception, including tinnitus pitch, loudness at tinnitus pitch, loudness at 1kHz, minimum masking level, and residual inhibition; (3) questionnaires of tinnitus handicap inventory, mini tinnitus questionnaire and patients' global impression of change. All patients underwent this test battery at the beginning of the study and in a repeat post-3-month session. Results: All tinnitus measures, including pitch, loudness, minimum masking level and residual inhibition improved significantly in the intervention group. Most of these measures improved in the placebo group too, but in a lesser degree. All questionnaire scores diminished significantly in both groups, but the degree of decrease was greater in the intervention group. The participants' tinnitus outcome reported after treatment using the patients' global impression of change score differed significantly between the two groups, with greater improvement observed in the intervention group. Conclusion: We found that the use of MemoVigor 2 improved recent-onset tinnitus, as proved by a set of tests performed for its evaluation, including audiometric measures, specific measures of tinnitus perception and tinnitus questionnaires. Tinnitus in the placebo group improved too, but to a lesser degree. Clinical Trial Registration: isrctn.com, Identifier ISRCTN16025480.

Conscious Experience of Stimulus Presence and Absence Is Actively Encoded by Neurons in the Crow Brain.

The emergence of consciousness from brain activity constitutes one of the great riddles in biology. It is commonly assumed that only the conscious perception of the presence of a stimulus elicits neuronal activation to signify a "neural correlate of consciousness," whereas the subjective experience of the absence of a stimulus is associated with a neuronal resting state. Here, we demonstrate that the two subjective states "stimulus present" and "stimulus absent" are represented by two specialized neuron populations in crows, corvid birds. We recorded single-neuron activity from the nidopallium caudolaterale of crows trained to report the presence or absence of images presented near the visual threshold. Because of the task design, neuronal activity tracking the conscious "present" versus "absent" percept was dissociated from that involved in planning a motor response. Distinct neuron populations signaled the subjective percepts of "present" and "absent" by increases in activation. The response selectivity of these two neuron populations was similar in strength and time course. This suggests a balanced code for subjective "presence" versus "absence" experiences, which might be beneficial when both conscious states need to be maintained active in the service of goal-directed behavior.

Finnegans is the Tolstoy of the Uitoto

The Word, as the creative principle of life, is a concept found in many cultures, from the Hebraic to the Uitotos (or Murui) of the Colombian Amazon. The author finds parallels between the immersion of Joyce´s Finnegans Wake in the Word as the key to unlocking different but interrelated dimensions of reality, and the cosmo-vision of the Murui. Finnegans Wake presents a panoptic view of practically the whole of life and history in the form of the dream world of a Dublin tavern owner. It deploys a complex use of word play, hidden meanings and mutations of language to depict both the conscious and subconscious perceptions of our primal humanity. Similarly, virtually every word of the Murui myths has multiple meanings and they embody a manual of correct thought and behavior ranging from spirituality to the practicalities of daily life. Their premier shamanic plants, mambe and ambil, derivatives of coca and tobacco, respectively, are the inspiration for the nightly colloquiums in their malocas (longhouses) where the meanings of their myths are teased out by the participants, guided by their medicine man, in a free-ranging conversation that, while it seems to be digressive, adheres, as does Joyce, to the inner logic of the Word. The author ends with some reflections on his own struggles, as a writer to grapple with the Word, which, as it communicates, also mystifies. For the Murui, this urge towards omniscience may have arisen because their survival depended on articulating all of the interrelated nuances of their environment.

Perception of near-threshold visual stimuli is influenced by prestimulus alpha-band amplitude but not by alpha phase.

Ongoing brain activity preceding visual stimulation has been suggested to shape conscious perception. According to the pulsed inhibition framework, bouts of functional inhibition arise in each alpha cycle (every ~100 ms), allowing information to be processed in a pulsatile manner. Consequently, it has been hypothesized that perceptual outcome can be influenced by the specific phase of alpha oscillations prior to the stimulus onset, although empirical findings are controversial. In this study, we aimed to shed light on the role of prestimulus alpha oscillations in visual perception. To this end, we recorded electroencephalographic activity, while participants performed three near-threshold visual detection tasks with different attentional involvement: a no-cue task, a noninformative cue task (50% validity), and an informative cue task (100% validity). Cluster-based permutation statistics were complemented with Bayesian analyses to test the effect of prestimulus oscillatory amplitude and phase on visual awareness. We additionally examined whether these effects differed in trials with low and high oscillatory amplitude, as expected from the pulsed inhibition theory. Our results show a clear effect of prestimulus alpha amplitude on conscious perception, but only when alpha fluctuated spontaneously. In contrast, we did not find any evidence that prestimulus alpha phase influenced perceptual outcome, not even when differentiating between low- and high-amplitude trials. Furthermore, Bayesian analysis provided moderate evidence in favor of the absence of phase effects. Taken together, our results challenge the central theoretical predictions of the pulsed inhibition framework, at least for the particular experimental conditions used here.

ANALYSIS OF THE FOREIGN PRACTICE OF MODELLING RESEARCH ACTIVITIES OF PEDAGOGICAL EDUCATION SPECIALISTS

The article provides the results of the theoretical study of modelling research activities of pedagogical education specialists based on the analysis of foreign sources of information. The Ukrainian educational system seeks to join the European educational and research space. That is why the study of foreign experience in the implementation of research activities of specialists in the field of pedagogy is especially relevant. Given the fact that modelling is a universal means of conscious perception of reality, it is this aspect of the presentation of research activity that needs systematic consideration and requires detailed study. The purpose of the study is to carry out a theoretical study of examples of modelling research activities of pedagogical education specialists in foreign theory and practice. The object of the study is the process of research activity of pedagogical education specialists. The subject of the study is examples of modelling research activities of pedagogical education specialists in foreign theory and practice. Research methods: review of the literature on the research topic, systematization and generalization of information regarding the process and results of modelling research activities of pedagogical education specialists. The study of foreign sources of scientific information made it possible to determine that research activity is an important component of the professional activity of pedagogical education specialists. The generalized model of this activity is formed by the components: selection of the topic, definition of the problem, formulation of the research questions, creation of the research design (definition of the research purpose, definition of the methods of forming a sample, selection of the methods and procedures for collecting information, development of the strategy for analysing the collected data), presentation of the results. The perspective of further research involves the development of models of research activities of pedagogical education specialists based on declarative and procedural modelling.

Isolating Neural Signatures of Conscious Speech Perception with a No-Report Sine-Wave Speech Paradigm.

Identifying neural correlates of conscious perception is a fundamental endeavor of cognitive neuroscience. Most studies so far have focused on visual awareness along with trial-by-trial reports of task-relevant stimuli, which can confound neural measures of perceptual awareness with postperceptual processing. Here, we used a three-phase sine-wave speech paradigm that dissociated between conscious speech perception and task relevance while recording EEG in humans of both sexes. Compared with tokens perceived as noise, physically identical sine-wave speech tokens that were perceived as speech elicited a left-lateralized, near-vertex negativity, which we interpret as a phonological version of a perceptual awareness negativity. This response appeared between 200 and 300 ms after token onset and was not present for frequency-flipped control tokens that were never perceived as speech. In contrast, the P3b elicited by task-irrelevant tokens did not significantly differ when the tokens were perceived as speech versus noise and was only enhanced for tokens that were both perceived as speech and relevant to the task. Our results extend the findings from previous studies on visual awareness and speech perception and suggest that correlates of conscious perception, across types of conscious content, are most likely to be found in midlatency negative-going brain responses in content-specific sensory areas.

Effects of Breast Surgery on Interoceptive Awareness in Females.

The driving force for many seeking plastic surgery is comfort in one's body. Along with comfort come satisfaction, improved self-awareness, and potential change in interoceptive awareness-a term defined as the conscious perception of one's body. Although conscious perception of bodily signals is influenced by many factors, sense of self and body image play significant roles. Studies show diminished interoceptive awareness in those with negative body image, but no research has assessed the impact of change in body image on interoceptive awareness. The purpose of this study is to investigate how interoceptive awareness changes following elective breast surgery. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness Version 2 (MAIA-2) was administered to females undergoing breast surgery. A baseline survey was administered preoperatively, with follow-up surveys at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months postoperatively. Data were collected from 39 females and analyzed using paired t-tests to compare MAIA-2 overall and subscores over time. Significance was seen at 1 week for subcategories of "not distracting" and "trust," at 1 month for "trust," and 3 months for "not worrying," "emotional awareness," "self-regulation," and "trust." Overall survey averages were significantly increased at all postoperative intervals. From this study, it can be concluded that breast surgery positively impacts interoceptive awareness. These findings are clinically relevant as they offer providers' insight into the psychological effects of breast procedures. A comprehensive understanding of procedure outcomes enables providers to educate patients on both anticipated physical results and changes in sense of self.

The use of Body-Mind Centering® to support training in Michael Chekhov’s acting technique

This article discusses the confluence of Body-Mind Centering (BMC)® practices with elements of Michael Chekhov’s technique as foundations for an integrated psychophysical approach to acting that does not build divisions between the actor’s body, psyche, and mind. For Chekhov, actors embody their characters from creative work, driven by embodied imagination and awareness of sensory perception. BMC® proposes ‘embodiment’, which is seen as an awareness process, at the cellular level, which occurs through the participant’s experience itself, not through intellectual understanding. Linking sensory perception to imagination the author emphasizes the respect for the singularity in both approaches: for BMC® any self-perception of the body is valued and for Chekhov, actor’s creative individuality must be respected. The author has investigated, in research-led workshops, experiences of the actor’s living anatomy from body systems and patterns as new grounds for Michael Chekhov’s acting technique. This work has explored a relationships between specific imaginary centres to correspondent organs and tissues of the body and particular movement qualities to specific body systems. The practice research revealed that BMC® broadens the perception of internal physical aspects, as a mental state, which supports the development of the skills sought by Chekhov for what he called ‘inspired acting’. Furthermore, the systematization achieved in this research can be applied to sectors beyond the theatre, resonating with Fleming and Cornford et al.’s argument for a use of Chekhov Technique in applied, community and therapeutic contexts (2020).

Interaction between top-down decision-driven congruency effect and bottom-up input-driven congruency effect is correlated with conscious awareness.

In a conventional (Stroop) priming paradigm, it was well documented that objective prime-target incongruency delays response time (RT) to target compared to prime-target congruent condition. Recent evidence suggests that incongruency between the target and subjectively reported prime identity also delays RT over and above the classic congruency effect. When the prime is rendered invisible, the former effect is fundamentally a bottom-up (BU) stimulus-driven congruency effect and the latter a top-down (TD) guess-driven congruency effect. An influential theory of consciousness, global neuronal workspace theory, postulates that the long-lasting simultaneous and reciprocal interaction between TD decision network and BU input network is preserved during conscious processing and disabled during unconscious processing. Current study is focused on testing this theoretical postulation using two behavioral experiments. Our results showed that indeed TD-congruency and BU-congruency produced additive RT effects on prime-invisible trials, which implies that TD and BU prime representations are activated in independent neuronal populations. Meanwhile, an underadditive interaction effect was observed as prime visibility rose, which is a signature that TD and BU prime representations recruited overlapping neuronal populations during conscious perception. In addition, we suggest that current behavioral paradigm might be a financially friendly alternative to detect the presence of representational overlap in the brain between a wide range of mental representations, such as expectation, prediction, conscious/unconscious perception, and conscious/unconscious working memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Social Life After Hip Fracture: A Qualitative Study.

The return to social life after a hip fracture is a major concern for patients and a determinant factor in their recovery. However, patients' perceptions of social life after hip fracture are variable and context-dependent. By identifying these perceptions and strategies of patients, interventions can be strengthened and modified. The aim of this study was to identify patients' perceptions of their social life after hip fracture. This qualitative study used inductive content analysis. Twenty patients with hip fractures who were referred to Tehran University of Medical Sciences hospitals were purposefully selected and included in the study. Data were collected through individual, face-to-face, in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted by a researcher experienced in carrying out such interviews. The interviews were recorded, immediately transcribed verbatim, and analyzed in MAXQDA-10. The interviewing process continued until data saturation was reached. The data analysis led to the extraction of three categories: Disruption of normal social life, Minimal social life, and Social isolation. The results indicated that the social life of these patients is influenced by physical conditions and contextual factors and progresses over time. All patients experienced meaningful disruption of their social life after experiencing hip fractures and movement limitations. The interdisciplinary perspectives provided by these findings can increase awareness of patients' post-fracture social life perceptions and conditions. These findings can also be used to design future programs for interdisciplinary interventions (involving sociology and medical sciences) to improve social life and increase the ability to return to a normal social life. Recovery management for patients with hip fractures should be preventive and organized by an all-around team (involving medicine, psychology, and sociology) based on patient-centered, community-based, and modern care strategies.

Consumer Food Safety Awareness and Demand for Fluid Milk: A Case Study from India

ABSTRACT: Despite significant improvements in consumers’ food safety awareness, the literature provides little or no evidence of the impact of food safety awareness on the quantity of fluid milk consumers purchased. This is especially true for India’s consumers, where the economy is changing rapidly regarding food marketing, incomes, urbanization, and increased demand for food safety.The study is based on primary data from a survey of consumers from urban and peri-urban districts in India. The survey collected information on socioeconomic characteristics, dairy consumption, purchasing patterns, and food safety awareness. This study first creates a food safety awareness (FSA) index to measure consumers’ awareness of food safety attitudes and perceptions. It investigates the factors affecting consumers’ food safety awareness and FSA’s impact on fluid milk demand. The study uses a newly developed impact evaluation method, continuous treatment matching estimation, and dose-response functions (DRFs) to assess the impact of FSA on consumers’ fluid milk purchases. Findings show that educational attainment, sources of information on food safety, age, and gender of the head of the household significantly influenced consumers’ food safety awareness. Further, the study finds that food safety awareness positively impacts the demand for fluid milk. After controlling for milk prices and family income, Indian consumers aware of and adopt seven or more food safety habits or practices are likely to demand more fluid milk. Results are robust to specifications, income levels, and the location of households. The link between food safety awareness and the quantity of milk purchased implies a latent consumer demand for food safety. Any consumer awareness programs and policies supporting milk and its products’ hygienic production will likely increase demand for milk and dairy products. At a policy level, credible systems can be put in place for food certification and labeling, which enhance the availability of safe and hygienic food.

ՀՊՏՀ ուսանողների բավարարվածության գնահատում / Assessment of student satisfaction of ASUE

In the current market saturation, studying the factors affecting consumer behavior and evaluating their impact has become imperative for any manufacturer. The key to success lies in greater awareness of consumers' psychographic characteristics, opinions, attitudes, inner world, aspirations, perceptions and satisfaction. The field of educational services is no exception. The quality of the educational process is directly related to the students' motivation, which is formed as a result of their satisfaction. In particular, in universities, it is necessary to conduct research among students to identify the factors affecting their satisfaction, evaluate these factors, and develop strategies to increase satisfaction. The paper is dedicated to studying and evaluating the factors affecting the satisfaction of undergraduate students at ASUE. Information about factors characterizing almost all aspects of the university life of students in all majors and faculties of the university was collected and analyzed. Using the method of factor analysis , these factors were grouped into three basic categories. The value of each category was clarified by course and faculty. In the paper, with the help of the Net Promoter Score method, student satisfaction was investigated The NPS index was calculated, and measures aimed at increasing student satisfaction were proposed.

Sensory Processing of Cutaneous Temperature in the Peripheral and Central Nervous System.

Thermal perception is critical for sensing environmental temperature, keeping body temperature consistent, and avoiding thermal danger. Central to thermal perception is the detection of cutaneous (skin) temperature information by the peripheral nerves and its transmission to the spinal cord, thalamus, and downstream cortical areas including the insular cortex, primary somatosensory cortex, and secondary somatosensory cortex. Although much is still unknown about this process, advances in technology have enabled significant progress to be made in recent years.This chapter summarizes our current understanding of how the peripheral nerves, spinal cord, and brain process cutaneous temperature information to give rise to conscious thermal perception.

Fractal Similarity of Pain Brain Networks.

The conscious perception of pain is the result of dynamic interactions of neural activities from local brain regions to distributed brain networks. Mapping out the networks of functional connections between brain regions that form and disperse when an experimental participant received nociceptive stimulations allow to characterize the pattern of network connections related to the pain experience.Although the pattern of intra- and inter-areal connections across the brain are incredibly complex, they appear also largely scale free, with "fractal" connectivity properties reproducing at short and long-time scales. Our results combining intracranial recordings and functional imaging in humans during pain indicate striking similarities in the activity and topological representation of networks at different orders of temporality, with reproduction of patterns of activation from the millisecond to the multisecond range. The connectivity analyzed using graph theory on fMRI data was organized in four sets of brain regions matching those identified through iEEG (i.e., sensorimotor, default mode, central executive, and amygdalo-hippocampal).Here, we discuss similarities in brain network organization at different scales or "orders," in participants as they feel pain. Description of this fractal-like organization may provide clues about how our brain regions work together to create the perception of pain and how pain becomes chronic when its organization is altered.

What Is Existence?

AbstractThis paper argues that being there, actually existing, is a notion that cannot be explicated by formal logicians, cannot be defined in terms of conscious perception, and cannot be satisfactorily explained using the theories of mathematics or natural science. So, must we turn to theology to make up for the deficiencies of the methods so far canvassed? The paper concludes by considering the Thomistic identification of God with existence itself, but argues that it would be a mistake to suppose that the mystery of actual existence is thereby dispelled.

Image Quality Assessment: Measuring Perceptual Degradation via Distribution Measures in Deep Feature Spaces.

This study aims to develop advanced and training-free full-reference image quality assessment (FR-IQA) models based on deep neural networks. Specifically, we investigate measures that allow us to perceptually compare deep network features and reveal their underlying factors. We find that distribution measures enjoy advanced perceptual awareness and test the Wasserstein distance (WSD), Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD), and symmetric Kullback-Leibler divergence (SKLD) measures when comparing deep features acquired from various pretrained deep networks, including the Visual Geometry Group (VGG) network, SqueezeNet, MobileNet, and EfficientNet. The proposed FR-IQA models exhibit superior alignment with subjective human evaluations across diverse image quality assessment (IQA) datasets without training, demonstrating the advanced perceptual relevance of distribution measures when comparing deep network features. Additionally, we explore the applicability of deep distribution measures in image super-resolution enhancement tasks, highlighting their potential for guiding perceptual enhancements. The code is available on website. (https://github.com/Buka-Xing/Deep-network-based-distribution-measures-for-full-reference-image-quality-assessment).

Demographic influences on perception of aging, appearance-related consciousness, and negative self-perception among young and middle-aged adult women

With global life expectancy increasing, societal views on aging—especially its negative impact on women's self-image, intensified by social media—demand urgent attention. These norms affect self-perception and overall well-being. Therefore, this demographic study was conducted with the objective of exploring the relationships between age perceptions, appearance-related social media consciousness (ASMC), and self-perception. This pilot study, carried out in Lahore, Pakistan, involved 100 women either engaged in academic or professional work who were selected through purposive sampling. The data were collected via face-to-face interviews utilizing a questionnaire in English, comprising the Brief Aging Perceptions Questionnaire (B-APQ), the ASMC scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), to evaluate the participants’ perceptions and self-view. Our study revealed a significant positive correlation between perceptions of aging and negative self-perception (r = 0.98, p < 0.01), indicating that concerns about aging contribute to more negative self-views, a trend mainly attributed to middle-aged women. Moreover, marital status notably affected appearance-related consciousness, with married women exhibiting greater concerns (p = 0.03). The findings underscore the nuanced effect of education on appearance concerns—postgraduates showed greater concern (mean = 57.24 ± 16.45) than those with lower educational levels (mean = 47.94 ± 19.73, p = 0.04). Despite this, education did not significantly impact perceptions of aging or overall negative self-perception, indicating its selective influence on aspects of self-perception. Our study reveals the multifaceted relationship between perceptions of aging, appearance consciousness, and self-perception in women, emphasizing the substantial role of social media. It shows that social media exposure and engagement intensify appearance concerns and aging anxieties, especially among middle-aged and married women, concluding in more pronounced negative self-views. While the influence of educational background remains mixed, the findings support initiatives for educational and awareness campaigns to redefine aging and appearance perceptions, advocating for diverse beauty representations to improve women's self-image and counteract negative stereotypes.

What Current Theories of Consciousness are Missing

Notwithstanding the power of the cell assembly concept, which holds that specific patterns of neuronal activity constitute the substrate of perceptual awareness that rises into consciousness, a explanatory gap remains between the phenomenological experience of consciousness and the brain processes from which that experience arises. A number of compelling and insightful theories have been offered that attempt to bridge that gap, but most of them fall short by failing to [a] specify which of many options other than hard-wired cell assemblies carry the information that becomes conscious, or [b] identify the brain mechanism for monitoring the functional events that become conscious. This Viewpoint article points to a number of possibilities that could be considered for both the substrate and monitor that give rise to consciousness.