Sensory Channels Research Articles

The Bayesian causal inference model benefits from an informed prior to predict proprioceptive drift in the rubber foot illusion.

Bayesian cognitive modeling has become a prominent tool for the cognitive sciences aiming at a deeper understanding of the human mind and applications in cognitive systems, e.g., humanoid or wearable robotics. Such approaches can capture human behavior adequately with a focus on the crossmodal processing of sensory information. The rubber foot illusion is a paradigm in which such integration is relevant. After experimental stimulation, many participants perceive their real limb closer to an artificial replicate than it actually is. A measurable effect of this recalibration on localization is called the proprioceptive drift. We investigate whether the Bayesian causal inference model can estimate the proprioceptive drift observed in empirical studies. Moreover, we juxtapose two models employing informed prior distributions on limb location against an existing model assuming uniform prior distribution. The model involving empirically informed prior information yields better predictions of the proprioceptive drift regarding the rubber foot illusion when evaluated with separate experimental data. Contrary, the uniform model produces implausibly narrow position estimates that seem due to the precision ratio between the contributing sensory channels. We conclude that an informed prior on limb localization is a plausible and necessary modification to the Bayesian causal inference model when applied to limb illusions. Future research could overcome the remaining discrepancy between model predictions and empirical observation by investigating the changes in sensory precision as a function of distance between the eyes and respective limbs.

AUDIODESKRYPCJA JAKO PUNKT WYJŚCIA DLA WIELOSENSUALNEGO POZNAWANIA HISTORII I SZTUKI – PROJEKT „OBRAZY BEZ BARIER”

Cel badań. Celem badania jest ukazanie dydaktycznego charakteru audiodeskrypcji, tj. jej zastosowania jako środka dydaktycznego w nauce niewidomej i niedowidzącej młodzieży. Audiodeskrypcja jest więc w tym kontekście rozumiana jako usługa oraz element wspierający naukę i poznawanie rzeczywistości.
 Metodologia. Po wprowadzeniu teoretycznym dotyczącym badań nad dydaktyką audiodeskrypcji (Zabrocka 2014, Paplińska 2016) oraz jej emocjonalizmem (Künstler 2014), potencjał dydaktyczny audiodeskrypcji zostaje omówiony na przykładzie projektu „Obrazy bez barier” zorganizowanego dla niewidomych i niedowidzących uczniów z wielkopolskiego ośrodka szkolno-wychowawczego. Celem projektu było udostępnienie niewidomym odbiorcom muzealnych eksponatów historii i sztuki. Młodzież wysłuchiwała w tym celu emocjonalnie zabarwionych audiodeskrypcji oraz uczyła się wielosensualnie, tj. poprzez różne kanały zmysłowe (słuch, dotyk, węch).
 Wyniki. Przeprowadzone w ramach projektu „Obrazy bez barier” zajęcia, warsztaty oraz odbyte wizyty w muzeach pokazały, że przemyślana audiodeskrypcja, ukierunkowująca niewidomych uczniów na wielosensualne poznawanie eksponatów i przedmiotów, jest znakomitym środkiem dydaktycznym. Młodzież ze specjalnymi potrzebami edukacyjnymi była przez cały czas zainteresowana przekazywanymi treściami, a ich prace artystyczne wykonane pod koniec projektu były złożone, bogate w szczegóły i nietuzinkowe, co świadczy o tym, że zebrane przez nich w trakcie projektu doświadczenia były równie wielobarwne.
 Wnioski. Warto tworzyć audiodeskrypcje zaangażowane, przemyślane i ukierunkowane na wielozmysłowość doświadczania sztuki i historii. Takie audiodeskrypcje powinny stanowić podstawowy środek dydaktyczny w nauce niewidomych uczniów.

Tactile sensory channels over-ruled by frequency decoding system that utilizes spike pattern regardless of receptor type.

The established view is that vibrotactile stimuli evoke two qualitatively distinctive cutaneous sensations, flutter (frequencies < 60 Hz) and vibratory hum (frequencies > 60 Hz), subserved by two distinct receptor types (Meissner's and Pacinian corpuscle, respectively), which may engage different neural processing pathways or channels and fulfil quite different biological roles. In psychological and physiological literature, those two systems have been labelled as Pacinian and non-Pacinian channels. However, we present evidence that low-frequency spike trains in Pacinian afferents can readily induce a vibratory percept with the same low frequency attributes as sinusoidal stimuli of the same frequency, thus demonstrating a universal frequency decoding system. We achieved this using brief low-amplitude pulsatile mechanical stimuli to selectively activate Pacinian afferents. This indicates that spiking pattern, regardless of receptor type, determines vibrotactile frequency perception. This mechanism may underlie the constancy of vibrotactile frequency perception across different skin regions innervated by distinct afferent types.

Mice Do Not Have a Thermoneutral 'Zone': Revising the Definition of Thermoneutrality

The thermal physiology of humans and mice is radically different due to their 3000-fold difference in body size. In a cool environment, mice expend energy to maintain body temperature, while this is limited in adult humans. Here we map the mouse thermoneutral zone (TNZ) using indirect calorimetry with continuous body temperature monitoring. Unexpectedly, we found no range of environmental temperatures over which both metabolic rate and body temperature were constant. Rather, body temperature increased when the ambient temperature was warm enough that cold-induced thermogenesis was no longer required. This result was reproduced in male, female, C57BL/6J, 129, chow-fed, diet-induced obese, and ob/ob mice as well as Trpv1-/-;Trpm8-/-;Trpa1-/- mice with thermal sensory channel deletions. We propose a new upper limit of the TNZ in mice, the point at which body temperature increases, and a new general definition of the TNZ. Thus, the mouse TNZ is not the “zone” of textbooks, but rather a thermoneutral point of 29 °C in the light phase. These observations suggest changes for how mice are used to model human energy physiology and drug development.

Quantifying Facial Expression Intensity and Signal Use in Deaf Signers.

We live in a world of rich dynamic multisensory signals. Hearing individuals rapidly and effectively integrate multimodal signals to decode biologically relevant facial expressions of emotion. Yet, it remains unclear how facial expressions are decoded by deaf adults in the absence of an auditory sensory channel. We thus compared early and profoundly deaf signers (n= 46) with hearing nonsigners (n= 48) on a psychophysical task designed to quantify their recognition performance for the six basic facial expressions of emotion. Using neutral-to-expression image morphs and noise-to-full signal images, we quantified the intensity and signal levels required by observers to achieve expression recognition. Using Bayesian modeling, we found that deaf observers require more signal and intensity to recognize disgust, while reaching comparable performance for the remaining expressions. Our results provide a robust benchmark for the intensity and signal use in deafness and novel insights into the differential coding of facial expressions of emotion between hearing and deaf individuals.

Type-2 Fuzzy Hybrid Controller Network for Robotic Systems.

Dynamic control, including robotic control, faces both the theoretical challenge of obtaining accurate system models and the practical difficulty of defining uncertain system bounds. To facilitate such challenges, this paper proposes a control system consisting of a novel type of fuzzy neural network and a robust compensator controller. The new fuzzy neural network is implemented by integrating a number of key components embedded in a Type-2 fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) and a brain emotional learning controller (BELC) network, thereby mimicking an ideal sliding mode controller. The system inputs are fed into the neural network through a Type-2 fuzzy inference system (T2FIS), with the results subsequently piped into sensory and emotional channels which jointly produce the final outputs of the network. That is, the proposed network estimates the nonlinear equations representing the ideal sliding mode controllers using a powerful compensator controller with the support of T2FIS and BELC, guaranteeing robust tracking of the dynamics of the controlled systems. The adaptive dynamic tuning laws of the network are developed by exploiting the popular brain emotional learning rule and the Lyapunov function. The proposed system was applied to a robot manipulator and a mobile robot, demonstrating its efficacy and potential; and a comparative study with alternatives indicates a significant improvement by the proposed system in performing the intelligent dynamic control.

Peculiarities of Functional Connectivity—including Cross-Modal Patterns—in Professional Karate Athletes: Correlations with Cognitive and Motor Performances

Professional karate is a sport activity requiring both physical and psychological skills that have been associated with a better “global neural efficacy.” By means of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), we investigated the neural correlates of cognitive and kinematic abilities in a group of 14 professional karateka and 14 heathy matched controls. All subjects underwent an extensive cognitive test battery for the identification of individual multidimensional cognitive profile and rs-fMRI scans investigating functional connectivity (FC). Moreover, kinematic performances in athletes were quantified by the Ergo-Mak, an integrated system developed for measuring motor reactivity, strength, and power of athletic gestures. Karateka performed significantly better than controls in the visual search task, an ability linked with increased positive correlations in FC between the right superior parietal lobe and bilateral occipital poles. Kinematic performances of athletic feats were sustained by increased positive correlations between subcortical (cerebellum and left thalamus) and cortical (inferior frontal cortex, superior parietal cortex, superior temporal cortex) regions. An unexpected FC increase between auditory and motor-related areas emerged in karateka, possibly reflecting a cross-modal coupling due to the continuous exposure to either internal or external auditory cues, positing this sensory channel as a possible target for novel training strategies. Results represent a further step in defining brain correlates of “neural efficiency” in these athletes, whose brain can be considered a model of continuous plastic train-related adaptation.

Olfactory flow in the sturgeon is externally driven

Fluid dynamics plays an important part in olfaction. Using the complementary techniques of dye visualisation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), we investigated the hydrodynamics of the nasal region of the sturgeon Huso dauricus. H. dauricus offers several experimental advantages, including a well-developed, well-supported, radial array (rosette) of visible-by-eye olfactory sensory channels. We represented these features in an anatomically accurate rigid model derived from an X-ray scan of the head of a preserved museum specimen. We validated the results from the CFD simulation by comparing them with data from the dye visualisation experiments. We found that flow through both the nasal chamber and, crucially, the sensory channels could be induced by an external flow (caused by swimming in vivo) at a physiologically relevant Reynolds number. Flow through the nasal chamber arises from the anatomical arrangement of the incurrent and excurrent nostrils, and is assisted by the broad, cartilage-supported, inner wall of the incurrent nostril. Flow through the sensory channels arises when relatively high speed flow passing through the incurrent nostril encounters the circular central support of the olfactory rosette, decelerates, and is dispersed amongst the sensory channels. Vortices within the olfactory flow may assist odorant transport to the sensory surfaces. We conclude that swimming alone is sufficient to drive olfactory flow in H. dauricus, and consider the implications of our results for the three other extant genera of sturgeons (Acipenser, Pseudoscaphirhynchus and Scaphirhynchus), and for other fishes with olfactory rosettes.

Continuous Emotional Responding to Audio, Video, and Audiovisual Sensory Channels during Television Viewing

An experiment was conducted to examine the independent and interactive influence of the audio and visual channels of information in television on viewers’ emotional experience. Audio-only, video-only, and audiovisual television content was presented as psychological stimuli, while participants completed continuous-response measures (CRMs) to index over-time changes in emotional experience of positive valence, negative valence, and arousal. Positive valence and arousal means were significantly influenced by channel over time. Participants reported the most positive emotional experience during audiovisual exposure. The channel and time interaction did not significantly affect negative valence ratings. However, positive valence, negative valence, and arousal ratings were significantly influenced by the interaction of channel and specific message content.

High background risk induces risk allocation rather than generalized neophobia in the fathead minnow

AbstractTo cope with the heterogeneous nature of predation and the trade-off between predator avoidance and foraging, prey animals have evolved several cognitive rules. One of these is the risk allocation hypothesis, which predicts that in environments with long periods of sustained high risk, individuals should decrease their antipredator effort to satisfy their metabolic requirements. The neophobia hypothesis, in turn, predicts increased avoidance of novel cues in high-risk habitats. Despite the recent interest in predator-induced neophobia across different sensory channels, tests of such generalized neophobia are restricted to a single fish taxon, the Cichlidae. Hence, we retested the generalized neophobia hypothesis in fathead minnows Pimephales promelas, a small schooling North American cyprinid fish. From hatching onward, minnows were exposed to conspecific alarm cues, which indicate predation risk, or distilled water in a split-clutch design. After 1 month, shoaling behavior was examined prior and subsequent to a mechanical predator disturbance. Fish previously exposed to elevated background risk formed compact shoals for a shorter time interval after the stimulus compared with controls. These results contrast previous studies of generalized neophobia but match the risk allocation hypothesis. Consequently, risk allocation and generalized neophobia are not ubiquitous cognitive rules but instead evolved adaptations of different taxa to their respective environments.

Distracted decision makers: ship noise and predation risk change shell choice in hermit crabs

Abstract Human-induced rapid environmental change such as noise pollution alters the ability of animals to integrate information cues. Many studies focus on how noise impacts single sensory channels but in reality animals rely on multimodal sources of information. In this study, we investigated the effect of anthropogenic noise and the visual presence of a predator on tactile information gathering during gastropod shell assessment in the European hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus. For hermit crabs, empty gastropod shells are a crucial resource affecting growth, reproduction, and survival. We measured shell assessment behavior and manipulated 1) the shell size (50% or 80% of the optimal), 2) sound condition (ship or ambient), and 3) visual predator cue (absence/presence). Overall we found that crabs were less likely to accept an optimal shell in the presence of ship noise, suggesting that exposure to ship noise disrupted the information gathering ability of the crabs. We also found a significant interaction between noise, predator presence, and shell size on the mean duration for the final decision to accept or reject the optimal shell. Hermit crabs in 50% shells took less time for their final decision when exposed to both ship noise and predator cue while crabs in 80% shells showed shorter decision time only when the predator cue was absent. Our results indicate that anthropogenic noise can interact with predation threat and resource quality to change resource acquisition, suggesting that noise pollution can disrupt behavior in a nonadditive way, by disrupting information use across multiple sensory channels.

Heteromodal Motion Coding in the Associative Parietal Cortex in Rats

Motion perception is facilitated by the interplay of various sensory channels. In rodents, the cortical areas involved in multisensory motion coding remains to be identified. Using voltage-sensitive-dye imaging, we revealed a visuo-tactile convergent region which anatomically corresponds to the associative parietal cortex (APC). Our electrophysiological unit recordings provide the first single-unit evidence of direction and speed tuning of APC visual neurons during moving visual gratings which suggest the APC as a motion processing area. Strikingly, using whisker deflections, we also found somatosensory neurons exhibiting selectivity to motion characteristics. Using a classification procedure, we revealed that APC population carries information about motion features in both sensory modalities. The presence of a large proportion of bimodal neurons underpins potential integrative functions of APC and suggests its role in the elaboration of a multimodal motion percept.

Augmented Reality in Education, AR Globe Project Assessment in Actual Teaching-Learning Environment

Over the years, technology has revolutionized our world and the utilization of advanced technologies in any industry has recorded better results. The usability of cutting-edge technologies in the teaching-learning process is redefining the role of educators and reshaping learning experiences. Augmented Reality (AR), a technology that augments the real world with realistic virtual information, in various form of multimedia content, provides new possibilities for the educational domain. The information delivery with Augmented Reality (AR) engages most of the sensory channels that intensifies the effectiveness of teaching-learning process and creates a more appealing learning environment. This paper, with the discussion of the AR Globe project, aims to provide an introduction to the Augmented Reality (AR) technology’s implementation into real-life environment, to assess the potential of the technology in educational settings by outlining the attitude of learners towards the use of immersive multimedia content in their learning mediums. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.3.1

Enhanced executive attention efficiency after adaptive force control training: Behavioural and physiological results

Attention plays an important role in perception and cognition, and developing an effective method to train and improve attention is an essential and challenging task. In this study, fingertip-based adaptive force control tasks (AFCT) were explored for attention training, and the visual-channel task called an attention network test (ANT) was used to measure the level of attention before and after AFCT. The purposes of this study were to investigate whether AFCT can enhance the attention level on the ANT task and to elucidate the underlying electrophysiological mechanisms. The results showed that the efficiency of the executive control network during ANT was significantly improved by the AFCT training, indicating that the AFCT training may enhance the executive attention level during visual-channel tasks. To measure the behavioural performance during the AFCT training, we used tolerance, variance and duration of the forces to design a comprehensive score of behavioural performance (CSBP), and the electrophysiological mechanisms were also explored using electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. The AFCT and ANT results showed consistency in medial frontal theta activity and in connectivity strength at frontal-parietal regions in the alpha band. These results indicated that the observed attention improvement across tasks executed using different sensory channels may be due to the training of overlapping components of the relevant attention networks. Thus, this study provides further insight into the design of training tasks that stimulate multi-sensory channels, which can be used to improve attention and treat various attention deficit disorders.

Feature-selective encoding of substrate vibrations in the forelimb somatosensory cortex.

The spectral content of skin vibrations, produced by either displacing the finger across a surface texture1 or passively sensing external movements through the solid substrate2,3, provides fundamental information about our environment. Low-frequency flutter (below 50Hz) applied locally to the primate fingertip evokes cyclically entrained spiking in neurons of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), and thus spike rates in these neurons increase linearly with frequency4,5. However, the same local vibrations at high frequencies (over 100Hz) cannot be discriminated on the basis of differences in discharge rates of S1 neurons4,6, because spiking is only partially entrained at these frequencies6. Here we investigated whether high-frequency substrate vibrations applied broadly to the mouse forelimb rely on a different cortical coding scheme. We found that forelimb S1 neurons encode vibration frequency similarly to sound pitch representation in the auditory cortex7,8: their spike rates are selectively tuned to a preferred value of a low-level stimulus feature without any temporal entrainment. This feature, identified as the product of frequency and a power function of amplitude, was also found to be perceptually relevant as it predicted behaviour in a frequency discrimination task. Using histology, peripheral deafferentation and optogenetic receptor tagging, we show that these selective responses are inherited from deep Pacinian corpuscles located adjacent to bones, most densely around the ulna and radius and only sparsely along phalanges. This mechanoreceptor arrangement and the tuned cortical rate code suggest that the mouse forelimb constitutes a sensory channel best adapted for passive 'listening' to substrate vibrations, rather than for active texture exploration.

Cognitive processes development of future interpreters in the course of the professional training

The paper deals with the specifics of interpretation skills development. The authors review the role of an interpreter in the act of communication, point out different aspects of interpretation, the success of which is determined by the ability for cross-cultural dialogue. As far as several sensory channels in the work of the interpreter are used, the necessity of special training of concentration, memory, thinking and oral skills and abilities is stated. Moreover the ways of cognitive processes development of future interpreters are described. It should be noted that a set of special exercises for cognitive processes perfection is given. The technique was tested during the training of third-year students studied interpreting. The paper contains a comparative analysis of results taken from diagnostics of both student groups training by the mentioned system of tasks and student groups training without this system. The studies carried out show that students training with special set of exercises focused on cognitive processes development demonstrate higher results. The data obtained can be used for further theoretical studies and for search of progressive methodical decisions.

Affective certainty and congruency of touch modulate the experience of the rubber hand illusion

Our sense of body ownership relies on integrating different sensations according to their temporal and spatial congruency. Nevertheless, there is ongoing controversy about the role of affective congruency during multisensory integration, i.e. whether the stimuli to be perceived by the different sensory channels are congruent or incongruent in terms of their affective quality. In the present study, we applied a widely used multisensory integration paradigm, the Rubber Hand Illusion, to investigate the role of affective, top-down aspects of sensory congruency between visual and tactile modalities in the sense of body ownership. In Experiment 1 (N = 36), we touched participants with either soft or rough fabrics in their unseen hand, while they watched a rubber hand been touched synchronously with the same fabric or with a ‘hidden’ fabric of ‘uncertain roughness’. In Experiment 2 (N = 50), we used the same paradigm as in Experiment 1, but replaced the ‘uncertainty’ condition with an ‘incongruent’ one, in which participants saw the rubber hand being touched with a fabric of incongruent roughness and hence opposite valence. We found that certainty (Experiment 1) and congruency (Experiment 2) between the felt and vicariously perceived tactile affectivity led to higher subjective embodiment compared to uncertainty and incongruency, respectively, irrespective of any valence effect. Our results suggest that congruency in the affective top-down aspects of sensory stimulation is important to the multisensory integration process leading to embodiment, over and above temporal and spatial properties.

An Improved Fuzzy Brain Emotional Learning Model Network Controller for Humanoid Robots.

The brain emotional learning (BEL) system was inspired by the biological amygdala-orbitofrontal model to mimic the high speed of the emotional learning mechanism in the mammalian brain, which has been successfully applied in many real-world applications. Despite of its success, such system often suffers from slow convergence for online humanoid robotic control. This paper presents an improved fuzzy BEL model (iFBEL) neural network by integrating a fuzzy neural network (FNN) to a conventional BEL, in an effort to better support humanoid robots. In particular, the system inputs are passed into a sensory and emotional channels that jointly produce the final outputs of the network. The non-linear approximation ability of the iFBEL is achieved by taking the BEL network as the emotional channel. The proposed iFBEL works with a robust controller in generating the hand and gait motion of a humanoid robot. The updating rules of the iFBEL-based controller are composed of two parts, including a sensory channel followed by the updating rules of the conventional BEL model, and the updating rules of the FNN and the robust controller which are derived from the “Lyapunov” function. The experiments on a three-joint robot manipulator and a six-joint biped robot demonstrated the superiority of the proposed system in reference to a conventional proportional-integral-derivative controller and a fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller, based on the more accurate and faster control performance of the proposed iFBEL.

TMC1 Forms the Pore of the Mechanosensitive Transduction Channels in Inner Ear Hair Cells

The TMC1 and TMC2 proteins are critical components of the mechanotransduction complex in vertebrate inner-ear hair cells. To understand TMC proteins, we sought insight into the structural properties of TMC1. First, we performed a variety of tests—including size-exclusion chromatography, chemical crosslinking, multi-angle light scattering and cryo electron microscopy— all of which suggest that TMC1 assembles as a dimer. Further, TMC predicted secondary structure and hydrophobicity suggest an architecture with ten transmembrane domains. The dimeric stoichiometry, and topology similarity between TMCs and the TMEM16 family of anion channels and lipid scramblases, suggest that TMCs may have a similar fold. We used I-TASSER to align TMC1 with TMEM16A, for which the atomic structure has been solved. TMEM16A dimerizes at an interface involving the tenth transmembrane domain, and each subunit of the dimer has an separate ion conducting pore, bounded by transmembrane domains S4-S7—a configuration strikingly different from well-known ion channels with a central pore bounded by three to six subunits. To ask whether S4-S7 of TMC1 might also enclose a functional pore, we designed and prepared AAV constructs of TMC1, bearing cysteine mutations, for expression in inner ear hair cells of Tmc1/2-null mice. Through our collaboration with Holt lab, we found that cysteine-modification reagents, when applied acutely, altered mechanosensory currents through these mutant channels in expected ways. Our data together provide evidence that TMC1 forms the pore of sensory transduction channels in auditory hair cells with a permeation pathway lined by residues on S4-S7.

Cysteine Substitution Reveals the Pore-Forming Region of TMC1 in Hair Cell Sensory Transduction Channels

Cysteine Substitution Reveals the Pore-Forming Region of TMC1 in Hair Cell Sensory Transduction Channels