Sight Research Articles

Visual softness perception can be manipulated through exploratory procedures.

Both visual and haptic softness perception have recently been shown to have multiple dimensions, such as deformability, granularity, fluidity, surface softness, and roughness. During haptic exploration, people adjust their hand motions (exploratory procedures, EPs) based on the material qualities of the object and the particular information they intend to acquire. Some of these EPs are also shown to be associated with perceived softness dimensions, for example, stroking a silk blouse or applying pressure to a pillow. Here, we aimed to investigate whether we can manipulate observers' judgments about softness attributes through exposure to videos of others performing various EPs on everyday soft materials. In two experiments, participants watched two videos of the same material: one with a corresponding EP and the other without correspondence; then, they judged these materials based on 12 softness-related adjectives (semantic differentiation method). The results of the second experiment suggested that when the EP is congruent with the dimension from which the material is chosen, the ratings for the adjectives from the same dimension are higher than the incongruent EP. This study provides evidence that participants can assess material properties from optic and mechanical cues without needing haptic signals. Additionally, our findings indicate that manipulating the hand motion can selectively facilitate material-related judgments.

The formation of visual thinking of students in technical universities in the context of higher mathematics education

Abstract The visualisation of teaching higher mathematics as a development of information and communication technologies determines the transition of the educational process to a new level of its development. As a result, it should focus on the visual orientation and modern practice of its use. The question arises as to the formation of students’ visual thinking as a necessary component of the training of a modern specialist. In this context, a study has been conducted on the problem of using visual information and its visual perception in teaching higher mathematics on the example of individual sections, as well as techniques of justification based on visual information. The examples offered in the article form the skills of working with graphic information. Developing visual thinking, they fix attention during the learning process, implicitly and indirectly contributing to the conversion of mental content into a visual image, ensuring the formation of a more complete picture of an image or concept. The article analyses the results of using visualisation in the educational process of students of technical universities. The influence of visualisation on the level of students’ knowledge is analysed. In particular, the ability of a certain contingent of students to perceive and use visual images, their ability to think and express thoughts in images, perceive the content of logic, emotions contained in visual information, as well as the ability to operate with visual images in communication, establish cause and effect relationships and relations between concepts, as well as memorise and reproduce ideas about objects is noted.

Experimental study on effect of pavement background on obstacle visibility in LED lighting environment of road tunnel

The tunnel pavement is generally made of asphalt or concrete. Due to the relatively fixed material of pavement, the effect of tunnel pavement setting on the lighting environment and visual performance of drivers has not received sufficient attention, especially the impact on the visual performance of drivers during driving has not been revealed. Therefore, experimental research on the visual recognition performance of an obstacle on asphalt and concrete pavements inside tunnels during dynamic driving was conducted in this study. The results indicate that under the same pavement illumination, the luminance on concrete pavement is higher than that on asphalt pavement due to the higher reflectance of concrete. The visible distance of the human eyes for a gray obstacle with a reflectance of 0.2 on the concrete pavement is greater than that on the asphalt pavement, and the visible distance of the obstacle on the concrete pavement increases by more than 28%. When the color of the obstacle and the pavement are close, it can be challenging for observers to recognize the obstacle, and the pavement and obstacle need to have a higher level of luminance for the recognition. During dynamic driving, the visible distance at a speed of 60 km/h is 1.2 to 1.4 times that at a speed of 80 km/h, which means the influence of vehicle speed on the human eye’s recognition of obstacles on asphalt and concrete pavements should be taken into consideration in the design of road tunnel lighting. The correlated color temperature and S/P value of LED light have little impact on the visible distance of human eyes to the obstacle on the asphalt and concrete pavements, but it does create different visual perceptions. As the correlated color temperature and S/P value increase, the lighting environment of the tunnel gradually gives a brighter feeling to drivers.

Structural alterations in a rumination-related network in patients with major depressive disorder

Rumination is a common symptom in major depressive disorder (MDD). Previous work has connected individual differences in rumination to structural properties in various brain regions. Some of these, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), have also been highlighted as being altered in MDD, suggesting a connection between structural changes and ruminative symptoms. Although informative, such localised relations have limitations in the context of a network view of the brain. To further investigate rumination-related structural changes in depression, and to situate these within potential functional networks, we acquired T1-weighted structural MRI data from patients with MDD (n=32) and controls (n=69). Rumination was measured with the Rumination Response Scale. Surface-based, whole-brain analysis of cortical grey-matter identified group differences in the dlPFC that were, however, not related to rumination. Instead, rumination was correlated with grey-matter properties in the right precuneus. Using normative functional connectivity analysis on an independent sample (n = 100), we show these two regions to be interconnected. Further developing a network-based perspective, it was shown that the rumination-related precuneus region is connected with networks associated with processes such as executive function, autobiographical memory, and visual perception. Notably, these processes have been connected to rumination. These results suggest that rumination in depression may be linked to focal structural changes. The effects of these focal changes on rumination may then be connected to their influence on distributed functional networks.

Normative data for tests of visuo-spatial, visuo-constructional skills, and visual memory for Spanish-speaking adults in the United States.

The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT) and the Clock Drawing Test (CDT) are commonly used in clinical practice. The ROCFT measures constructional praxis, visual perception, and visuospatial learning and memory, and the CDT assesses for visuospatial, constructional, and executive difficulties. Several neurological disorders are associated with visuospatial and visuo-constructional impairments, yet reliable normative data accounting for sociodemographic and acculturative variables are scarce for Hispanics living in the U.S. To generate normative data for the ROCFT and CDT in a Spanish-speaking adult population living in the U.S. The sample consisted of 245 cognitively healthy adults recruited from several states in the U.S. Each participant was administered the ROCFT and CDT as part of a larger cognitive battery. The ROCFT and CDT were normed using a Bayesian approach. Age, age2, education, sex, acculturation, and language proficiency were included as predictors in the analyses. ROCFT performance was associated with education and age, particularly as they interacted with Spanish language proficiency and time spent in the U.S. Education was significantly associated with recall abilities and a lower memory recall on the ROCFT. Age was found to vary depending on a person's bilingual abilities. Sex did not emerge as a predictor of performance, and it did not interact significantly with other variables. This is the first study to include acculturation and language proficiency variables in the creation of norms for the assessment of visuo-constructional abilities. This study will have a large impact on the practice of neuropsychology in the U.S.

Using Eye Movement to Determine Whether Closed-Frame Shots Attract Viewers’ Attention

There is a large variety of photographic composition, and these compositions can illicit different visual and psychological responses in the audience. However, there is limited knowledge of the key factors in these compositions in photography that actually affect the viewing process, and also no empirical support for the relationship between emotional responses and visual cognition. This research applied eye-tracking to calculate the degree of fixation distribution in the process of viewing photographic works through the quantitative characteristics of fixation trajectory in the investigation of the influence of eye-movement information on closed and open image compositions. This research attempts to understand the psychological differences in viewing framed and unframed images and identify the crucial factors that affect the composition of photographic images. Results from the eye movement data found that closed text and photos displayed traits of the principle of closure, and that different compositions can significantly affect the fixation point and sightline distribution. Image compositions with property of closure tend to be more attractive, generating higher number of fixation and longer fixation duration, indicative of easier focus on the primary object in the picture frame and regulating the viewer’s field of view. Photographers try to make good use of frame composition to herd viewer focus as well as increase their interest, making their image composition as complete, concise, pleasant, and pleasurable to the eye, typically applied to landscape, still life or portrait photography. This study has the potential to become a reference that contributes to photography educational and visual communication.

Clinical Performance of an Extended Range of Vision Intraocular Lens After LASIK.

To evaluate the clinical and patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) of cataract surgery with implantation of a wavefront-shaping extended depth of focus (EDOF) intraocular lens (IOL) in eyes with previous laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) for myopia correction. This prospective observational study enrolled 50 eyes with previous LASIK from 25 patients (age: 46 to 70 years) who underwent cataract surgery with implantation of the AcrySof IQ Vivity IOL (Alcon Laboratories, Inc). Visual and refractive outcomes were evaluated during a 3-month follow-up. PROMs were evaluated with the Intraocular Lens Satisfaction (IOLSAT; Alcon Vision, LLC) (general satisfaction), Catquest-9SF (difficulty in doing vision-related activities), and Questionnaire for Visual Disturbances (QUVID; Alcon Vision, LLC) (photic phenomena) questionnaires. Mean 3-month postoperative binocular uncorrected distance, intermediate, and near visual acuities were 0.02 ± 0.11, -0.02 ± 0.09, and 0.14 ± 0.13 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR), respectively. Mean binocular distance-corrected intermediate and near visual acuities were 0.05 ± 0.11 and 0.32 ± 0.14 logMAR, respectively. All eyes had a postoperative spherical equivalent within ±0.75 diopters (D). The mean defocus curve showed visual acuity values better than 0.20 logMAR for defocus levels from +0.50 to -1.50 D. Most patients (92.0%) confirmed that they had no vision-related difficulties limiting their normal daily life. Perception of starbursts, halos, glare, hazy vision, blurry vision, and double vision was referred by 24%, 24%, 28%, 28%, 8%, and 4% of patients, respectively. Most of symptoms were described as mild and not or a little bothersome. The wavefront-shaping EDOF IOL evaluated provides efficacious distance, intermediate, and near visual restoration in eyes with previous LASIK, with minimal photic phenomena associated. [J Refract Surg. 2024;40(10):e742-e753.].

Cognitive differences in the perception of metaphorical images among Taiwanese high school students

Cognitive differences in the perception of metaphorical images among Taiwanese high school students

Physical Activity And Perceptions Of Body Image Among Patients Diagnosed With Early-Onset Cancers

Physical Activity And Perceptions Of Body Image Among Patients Diagnosed With Early-Onset Cancers

How animal metaphors increase tourists’ waste classification intention?

Abstract Previous researches have shown that animal metaphors play an important role in promoting specific behavioral dispositions of individuals. However, we are not well aware of the role of animal metaphors in tourists' waste classification intentions. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of animal metaphors advertising for waste classification in scenic spots (vs. non-animal metaphors advertising) on tourists' waste classification intentions. Four experiments (N=1051) were conducted in this study to examine the impacts of animal metaphors advertising in scenic spots, on tourists' waste classification intentions, which enriches the literature on the animal metaphors and tourists' pro-environmental behaviors. The results show that the animal metaphors advertising about waste classification in scenic spots can effectively increase tourists' waste classification intentions. We explored the mediating role of tourists' perceptions of cute animal images in animal metaphors advertising, and the moderating role of visual imagery for animal metaphors advertising, on the relationship between animal metaphors advertising and tourists' waste classification intentions. The results show that there is a significant interaction effect between visual imagery and animal metaphors advertising. In conclusion, this study reveals the different impacts of animal metaphors, cute images and visual imagery on individual tourists, which provides new insights for scenic spot managers to choose waste classification strategies and the looks of bins.

Perception on body image and its associated factors among undergraduates in selected faculties of a state university in Sri Lanka

Background: Perception on body image; the way individuals see or feel about their physical appearance, can influence one's mental well-being, self-esteem and lifestyle. Since there is a dearth of research on this in Sri Lanka, the perception of body image among undergraduates, who are an active social group, demands a com-prehensive understanding.Objective: To describe the perception on body-image and its associated factors among undergraduates in selected faculties of a state university in Sri Lanka.Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 389 undergraduates selected through convenience sampling from the faculties of Applied Sciences, Medical Sciences, Management and Commerce and Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Data was collected through a validated, pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire circulated as a Google form via social media. Perception on body image, mental well-being and self-esteem were assessed using the Body-focused shame and guilt scale (minimum 0, maximum 88, cut-off 37), WHO-5 well-being index (minimum 0, maximum 100, cut-off 40) and Rosenberg self-esteem scale (minimum 10, maximum 40, cut-off 28) respectively. All attributes were dichotomized using the means obtained from the pilot test.Results: Majority of the participants were females (n=270, 69.4%). Median age was 23 years (IQR=4). Majority (n=242, 62.2%) showed normal BMI (18.5-24.9). Two of every five undergraduates tend to have a negative perception on their body image.Among the participants who had negative per-ceptions on their body image, 69.0% had poor mental well-being, 72.3% had low self-esteem and 61.3% were highly concerned about fashion and cosmetics to improve their appearance.Conclusions: TNegative perception on body image is a hidden problem among undergraduates in Sri Lanka. The association of one’s gender, mental well-being, self-esteem and fashion with body-image perception is significant.

Effects of scenery frame on visual depth perception in classical Chinese gardens: A case study of the Lvyin Pavilion in Lingering Garden

Visual depth (distance) perception is a fundamental aspect of environmental cognition, as it allows people to judge the spatial scale of their surroundings. However, estimating the depth of classical Chinese gardens is challenging, especially from static viewpoints that frame the scenery. Previous studies have examined how the internal components of the scenery frame affect depth perception. Still, the role of the frame and its peripheral information as environmental background have been largely overlooked. This study investigates how depth perception at viewpoints is influenced by viewing position displacement, frame geometry, and environmental context. The authors created nine stimulus materials in a cave virtual reality environment (three image treatments × three positions). Seventy-one participants were asked to evaluate depth perception using the magnitude estimation and adjustment methods. Their eye movement behavior was also recorded using an eye-movement instrument (SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) eye-tracking glasses, 120 Hz). The results showed that participants could perceive spatial depth differences between viewing positions even when the internal viewpoint displacement was small; frame shape did not significantly affect depth perception and gaze behavior; and peripheral visual information of the frame enhanced depth perception significantly. Moreover, the form of the environmental background, especially the position of the scenery window, strongly guided the participants’ gaze. These findings suggest that ambient visual information significantly impacts environmental experience, which landscape designers should consider.

Shared subcortical arousal systems across sensory modalities during transient modulation of attention.

Subcortical arousal systems are known to play a key role in controlling sustained changes in attention and conscious awareness. Recent studies indicate that these systems have a major influence on short-term dynamic modulation of visual attention, but their role across sensory modalities is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated shared subcortical arousal systems across sensory modalities during transient changes in attention using block and event-related fMRI paradigms. We analyzed massive publicly available fMRI datasets collected while 1,561 participants performed visual, auditory, tactile, and taste perception tasks. Our analyses revealed a shared circuit of subcortical arousal systems exhibiting early transient increases in activity in midbrain reticular formation and central thalamus across perceptual modalities, as well as less consistent increases in pons, hypothalamus, basal forebrain, and basal ganglia. Identifying these networks is critical for understanding mechanisms of normal attention and consciousness and may help facilitate subcortical targeting for therapeutic neuromodulation.

Aesthetic image cropping meets VLP: Enhancing good while reducing bad

Aesthetic Image Cropping (AIC) enhances the visual appeal of an image by adjusting its composition and aesthetic elements. People make these adjustments based on these elements, aiming to enhance appealing aspects while minimizing detrimental factors. Motivated by these observations, we propose a novel approach called CLIPCropping, which simulates the human decision-making process in AIC. CLIPCropping leverages Contrastive Language-Image Pre-training (CLIP) to align visual perception with textual description. It consists of three branches: composition embedding, aesthetic embedding, and image cropping. The composition embedding branch learns principles based on Composition Knowledge Embedding (CKE), while the aesthetic embedding branch learns principles based on Aesthetic Knowledge Embedding (AKE). The image cropping branch evaluates the quality of candidate crops by aggregating knowledge from CKE and AKE; an MLP produces the best result. Extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets—GAICD-1236, GAICD-3336, and FCDB—show that CLIPCropping outperforms state-of-the-art methods and provides insightful interpretations.

Implicit semantics gates visual awareness

The current study asked whether impoverished peripheral vision led to perception immune from word-based semantic influences. We leveraged a peripheral sound-induced flash illusion. In each trial, two or three Mandarin characters were flashed quickly in the periphery with number-congruent or -incongruent beeps. We first successfully replicated the original illusions, showing auditory dominance. For example, when three characters were presented together with two beeps, the observer reported perceiving only two characters. Similarly, an additional beep induced an illusory visual percept. Crucially, when the three characters formed a meaningful word, the lack of a concurrent beep suppressed the awareness to a greater extent. A separate experiment replicated the effect on participants who were unable to recognize the words. When the reading was disrupted by reversing the presentation order, the effect disappeared. These findings demonstrate the capacity of our visual system to extract peripheral linguistic information without conscious word recognition.

Mixed-scale cross-modal fusion network for referring image segmentation

Referring image segmentation aims to segment the target by a given language expression. Recently, the bottom-up fusion network utilizes language features to highlight the most relevant regions during the visual encoder stage. However, it is not comprehensive that establish only the relationship between pixels and words. To alleviate this problem, we propose a mixed-scale cross-modal fusion method that widens the interaction between vision and language. Specially, at each stage, pyramid pooling is used to augment visual perception and improve the interaction between visual and linguistic features, thereby highlighting relevant regions in the visual data. Additionally, we employ a simple multi-scale feature fusion module to effectively combine multi-scale aligned features. Experiments conducted on Standard RIS benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed method achieves favorable performance against state-of-the- art approaches. Moreover, we conducted experiments on different visual backbones respectively, and the proposed method yielded better and significantly improved performance results.

Rectangling and enhancing underwater stitched image via content-aware warping and perception balancing

Single underwater images often face limitations in field-of-view and visual perception due to scattering and absorption. Numerous image stitching techniques have attempted to provide a wider viewing range, but the resulting stitched images may exhibit unsightly irregular boundaries. Unlike natural landscapes, the absence of reliable high-fidelity references in water complicates the replicability of these deep learning-based methods, leading to unpredictable distortions in cross-domain applications. To address these challenges, we propose an Underwater Wide-field Image Rectangling and Enhancement (UWIRE) framework that incorporates two procedures, i.e., the R-procedure and E-procedure, both of which employ self-coordinated modes, requiring only a single underwater stitched image as input. The R-procedure rectangles the irregular boundaries in stitched images by employing the initial shape resizing and mesh-based image preservation warping. Instead of local linear constraints, we use complementary optimization of boundary-structure-content to ensure a natural appearance with minimal distortion. The E-procedure enhances the rectangled image by employing parameter-adaptive correction to balance information distribution across channels. We further propose an attentive weight-guided fusion method to balance the perception of color restoration, contrast enhancement, and texture sharpening in a complementary manner. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate the superior performance of our UWIRE framework over state-of-the-art image rectangling and enhancement methods, both in quantitative and qualitative evaluation.

Blindness due to the third eye: Sudden visual loss in pineal gland tumor

We report a rare case of sudden visual loss in a 9-year-old child with a pineal gland tumor. At presentation, examination revealed nil light perception in both eyes, features suggestive of Parinaud’s syndrome and one-and-a-half syndrome, and a normal fundus. Neuroimaging revealed a pineal region mass compressing the midbrain, aqueduct of Sylvius, and third ventricle, with the latter being displaced anteriorly. The patient underwent ventriculoperitoneal shunting, after which the visual perception recovered and was followed by mass excision. Although the mechanism of brainstem symptoms is typical, pineal gland tumors are not a known cause of sudden vision loss.

Feedback needs experience

Visual perception requires aligned feedforward and feedback processing, yet the role of experience remains unclear. The study by Dias etal.1 in this issue of Neuron shows that the retinotopic organization of orientation-tuned feedback from higher to primary visual cortex is learned in mice.

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

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