Spatial Cues Research Articles

On the Relevance of Posterior and Midfrontal Theta Activity for Visuospatial Attention.

The aim of this study was to examine whether oscillatory activity in the theta-band is relevant for selective visuospatial attention when there is a strong need for the suppression of interfering and distracting information. A variant of the Eriksen flanker task was employed with bilateral arrays: one array consisting of a target and congruent or incongruent flankers and the second array consisting of neutral distractors. The bilateral arrays were preceded either by a 100% valid spatial cue or by a neutral cue. In the cue-target interval, a major burst in medial frontal theta power was observed, which was largest in the spatial cue condition. In the latter condition, additionally a posterior theta increase was observed that was larger over sites ipsilateral to the forthcoming target array. Functional connectivity analyses revealed that this pretarget posterior theta was related to the midfrontal theta. No such effects were observed in the neutral cue condition. After onset of the bilateral arrays, a major burst in posterior theta activity was observed in both cue conditions, which again was larger above sites ipsilateral to the target array. Furthermore, this posterior theta was in all cases related to the midfrontal theta. Taken together, the findings suggest that a fronto-posterior theta network plays an important role in the suppression of irrelevant and conflicting visual information. The results also suggest that the reciprocal relation between visuospatial attention and executive response control may be closer than commonly thought.

PartLabeling: A Label Management Framework in 3D Space

In this work, we focus on the label layout problem: specifying the positions of overlaid virtual annotations in Virtual/Augmented Reality scenarios. Designing a layout of labels that does not violate domain-specific design requirements, while at the same time satisfying aesthetic and functional principles of good design, can be a daunting task even for skilled visual designers. Presenting the annotations in 3D object space instead of projection space, allows for the preservation of spatial and depth cues. This results in stable layouts in dynamic environments, since the annotations are anchored in 3D space. In this paper we make two major contributions. First, we propose a technique for managing the layout and rendering of annotations in Virtual/Augmented Reality scenarios by manipulating the annotations directly in 3D space. For this, we make use of Artificial Potential Fields and use 3D geometric constraints to adapt them in 3D space. Second, we introduce PartLabeling: an open source platform in the form of a web application that acts as a much-needed generic framework allowing to easily add labeling algorithms and 3D models. This serves as a catalyst for researchers in this field to make their algorithms and implementations publicly available, as well as ensure research reproducibility. The PartLabeling framework relies on a dataset that we generate as a subset of the original PartNet dataset [17] consisting of models suitable for the label management task. The dataset consists of 1,000 3D models with part annotations.

Video Visual Relation Detection With Contextual Knowledge Embedding

Video visual relation detection (VidVRD) aims at abstracting structured relations in the form of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$&lt; $</tex-math></inline-formula> <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">subject-predicate-object</i> <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$&gt;$</tex-math></inline-formula> from videos. The triple formation makes the search space extremely huge and the distribution unbalanced. Usually, existing works predict the relationships from visual, spatial, and semantic cues. Among them, semantic cues are responsible for exploring the semantic connections between objects, which is crucial to transfer knowledge across relations. However, most of these works extract semantic cues via simply mapping the object labels to classified features, which ignore the contextual surroundings, resulting in poor performance for low-frequency relations. To alleviate these issues, we propose a novel network, termed Contextual Knowledge Embedded Relation Network (CKERN), to facilitate VidVRD through establishing contextual knowledge embeddings for detected object pairs in relations from two aspects: commonsense attributes and prior linguistic dependencies. Specifically, we take the pair as a query to extract relational facts in the commonsense knowledge base, then encode them to explicitly construct semantic surroundings for relations. In addition, the statistics of object pairs with different predicates distilled from large-scale visual relations are taken into account to represent the linguistic regularity of relations. Extensive experimental results on benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our proposed model.

Event Related Brain Responses Reveal the Impact of Spatial Augmented Reality Predictive Cues on Mental Effort.

This article presents the results from a Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR) study which evaluated the cognitive cost of several predictive cues. Participants performed a validated procedural button pressing task, where the predictive cue annotations guided them to the upcoming task. While existing research has evaluated predictive cues based on their performance and self-rated mental effort, actual cognitive cost has yet to be investigated. To measure the user's brain activity, this study utilized electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. Cognitive load was evaluated by measuring brain responses for a secondary auditory oddball task, with reduced brain responses to oddball tones expected when cognitive load in the primary task is highest. A simple monitor n-back task and procedural task comparing monitor versus SAR were conducted, followed by a version of the procedural task comparing the SAR predictive cues. Results from the brain responses were able to distinguish between performance enhancing cues with a high and low cognitive load. Electrical brain responses also revealed that having an arc or arrow guide towards the upcoming task required the least amount of mental effort.

MFTSC: A Semantically Constrained Method for Urban Building Height Estimation Using Multiple Source Images

The use of remote sensing imagery has significantly enhanced the efficiency of building extraction; however, the precise estimation of building height remains a formidable challenge. In light of ongoing advancements in computer vision, numerous techniques leveraging convolutional neural networks and Transformers have been applied to remote sensing imagery, yielding promising outcomes. Nevertheless, most existing approaches directly estimate height without considering the intrinsic relationship between semantic building segmentation and building height estimation. In this study, we present a unified architectural framework that integrates the tasks of building semantic segmentation and building height estimation. We introduce a Transformer model that systematically merges multi-level features with semantic constraints and leverages shallow spatial detail feature cues in the encoder. Our approach excels in both height estimation and semantic segmentation tasks. Specifically, the coefficient of determination (R2) in the height estimation task attains a remarkable 0.9671, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.1733 m. The mean intersection over union (mIoU) for building semantic segmentation reaches 0.7855. These findings underscore the efficacy of multi-task learning by integrating semantic segmentation with height estimation, thereby enhancing the precision of height estimation.

Reducing alertness does not affect line bisection bias in neurotypical participants

Alertness, or one’s general readiness to respond to stimulation, has previously been shown to affect spatial attention. However, most of this previous research focused on speeded, laboratory-based reaction tasks, as opposed to the classical line bisection task typically used to diagnose deficits of spatial attention in clinical settings. McIntosh et al. (Cogn Brain Res 25:833–850, 2005) provide a form of line bisection task which they argue can more sensitively assess spatial attention. Ninety-eight participants were presented with this line bisection task, once with and once without spatial cues, and both before and after a 50-min vigilance task that aimed to decrease alertness. A single participant was excluded due to potentially inconsistent behaviour in the task, leaving 97 participants for the full analyses. While participants were, on a group level, less alert after the 50-min vigilance task, they showed none of the hypothesised effects of reduced alertness on spatial attention in the line bisection task, regardless of with or without spatial cues. Yet, they did show the proposed effect of decreased alertness leading to a lower level of general attention. This suggests that alertness has no effect on spatial attention, as measured by a line bisection task, in neurotypical participants. We thus conclude that, in neurotypical participants, the effect of alertness on spatial attention can be examined more sensitively with tasks requiring a speeded response compared to unspeeded tasks.

Children with dyslexia show no deficit in exogenous spatial attention but show differences in visual encoding.

In the search for mechanisms that contribute to dyslexia, the term "attention" has been invoked to explain performance in a variety of tasks, creating confusion since all tasks do, indeed, demand "attention." Many studies lack an experimental manipulation of attention that would be necessary to determine its influence on task performance. Nonetheless, an emerging view is that children with dyslexia have an impairment in the exogenous (automatic/reflexive) orienting of spatial attention. Here we investigated the link between exogenous attention and reading ability by presenting exogenous spatial cues in the multi-letter processing task-a task relevant for reading. The task was gamified and administered online to a large sample of children (N=187) between 6 and 17 years. Children with dyslexia performed worse overall at rapidly recognizing and reporting strings of letters. However, we found no evidence for a difference in the utilization of exogenous spatial cues, resolving two decades of ambiguity in the field. Previous studies that claimed otherwise may have failed to distinguish attention effects from overall task performance or found spurious group differences in small samples. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We manipulated exogenous visual spatial attention using pre-cues in a task that is relevant for reading and we see robust task effects of exogenous attention. We found no evidence for a deficit in utilizing exogenous spatial pre-cues in children with dyslexia. However, children with dyslexia showed reduced recognition ability for all letter positions. Children with dyslexia were just as likely to make letter transposition errors as typical readers.

Limitations on flexible allocation of visual short-term memory resources with multiple levels of goal-directed attentional prioritization.

Studies suggest that visual short-term memory (VSTM) is a continuous resource that can be flexibly allocated using probabilistic cues that indicate test likelihood (i.e., goal-directed attentional priority to those items). Previous studies using simultaneous cues have not examined this flexible allocation beyond two distinct levels of priority. Moreover, previous studies have not examined whether there are individual differences in the ability to flexibly allocate VSTM resources, as well as whether this ability benefits from practice. The current study used a continuous report procedure to examine whether participants can use up to three levels of attentional priority to allocate VSTM resources via simultaneous probabilistic spatial cues. Three experiments were performed with differing priority levels, cues, and cue presentation times. Group level analysis demonstrated flexible allocation of VSTM resources; however, there was limited evidence that participants could use three goal-directed priority levels. A temporal analysis suggested that task fatigue, rather than practice effects, may interact with item priority. A Bayesian individual-differences analysis revealed that a minority of participants were using three levels of attentional priority, demonstrating that, while possible, it is not the predominant pattern of behaviour. Thus, we provided evidence that flexible allocation to three attention levels is possible under simultaneous cuing conditions for a minority of participants. Flexible allocation to three categories may be interpreted as a skill of high-performing participants akin to high memory capacity.

Cue Predictability Modulates the Perceptual Load's Attentional Control on Threatening Facial Distractors

Background: According to the perceptual load theory, distractor processing is determined by the perceptual load. Alternatively, some explanations suggest that perceptual load and distractor salience may have opposing effects. Objectives: Although numerous studies have been conducted on the effect of distractor salience on attentional capture, even under conditions of high perceptual load, it is still unclear whether spatial cueing of the distractor interferes with the perceptual load. Methods: In two experiments, the effect of the predictability of distractor cueing on attentional capture due to threatening facial stimuli was studied using a modified flanker task. In experiment 2, unlike the first experiment, heterogeneous targets and distractors were used to mimic real-life experiences. Results: In experiment 1, the high perceptual load was associated with decreased distractor processing, whether the cueing was completely valid, invalid, or absent. However, the distractor processing between low and high perceptual loads was not different in ambiguous cueing. In the second experiment, contrary to the first experiment, no perceptual load effect was observed in the absence of spatial cueing. Conclusions: Even in displays with high perceptual load, some stimulus-driven features-inability to predict the distractor's location—can interfere with attentional control. Therefore, although the perceptual load is an influential factor in the selection, it clearly cannot be the only factor determining attentional control. Additionally, this study reveals that the effect of perceptual load on attentional control in everyday life should be further studied and questioned.

The moment of awareness influences the content of awareness in orientation repulsion

Through the neurally evolving process of dynamic contextual modulation of perceptual contents, it remains unclear how the content of awareness is determined. Here we quantified the visual illusion of orientation repulsion, wherein the target appears tilted against the surrounding’s orientation, and examined whether its extent changed when the target awareness was quickened by a preceding flanker. Independently of spatial cueing, repulsion was reduced when the flanker preceded the target by 100 ms compared with when they appeared simultaneously. We confirmed that the preceding flanker quickened the awareness of a nearby target relative to distant ones by 40 ms. Furthermore, the preceding flanker that was greater than 7 degrees away from the target still evoked such reduction of repulsion. These findings imply that the content of awareness is determined by the temporal interaction of two distinct processes: one controls the moment of awareness, and the other represents the perceptual content.

61 Robustness of Attention Networks Across Multiple Sessions: Behavioral and ERP Findings

Objective:Attention is the backbone of cognitive systems and is requisite for many cognitive processes vital to everyday functioning, including memory, problem solving, and the cognitive control of behavior. Attention is commonly impaired following traumatic brain injury and is a critical focus of rehabilitation efforts. The development of reliable methods to assess rehabilitation-related changes are paramount. The Attention Network Test (ANT) has been used previously to identify 3 independent, yet interactive attention networks—alerting, orienting, and executive control (EC). We examined the behavioral and neurophysiological robustness and temporal stability of these networks across multiple sessions to assess the ANT’s potential utility as an effective measure of change during attention rehabilitative interventions.Participants and Methods:15 healthy young adults completed 4 sessions of the ANT (1 session/7-day period). ANT networks were assessed within the task by contrasting opposing stimulus conditions: cued vs. non-cued trials probed alerting, valid vs. invalid spatial cues probed orienting, and congruent vs. incongruent targets probed EC. Differences in median correct-trial reaction times (RTs) and error rates (ERs) between the condition pairs were assessed to determine attention network scores; robustness of networks effects, as determined by one-sample t-tests at each session, against a mean of 0, determining the presence of significant network effects at each session. Sixty-four-channel electroencephalography (EEG) data were acquired concurrently and processed using Matlab to create condition-related event-related potentials (ERPs)—particularly the cue- and probe-related P1, N1, and P3 deflection amplitudes, measured by using signed-area calculation in regions of interest (ROIs) determined by observation of spherical-spline voltages. This enabled us to examine the robustness of cue- and probe-attention-network ERPs.Results:All three attention networks showed robust effects. However, only the EC RT and ER network scores remained significantly robust [t(14)s&gt;13.9,ps&lt;.001] across all sessions, indicating that EC is robust in the face of repeated exposure. Session 1 showed the greatest EC-RT robustness effect which became smaller during the subsequent sessions per ANOVAs on Session x Congruency [F(3,42)=10.21,p&lt;.0001], reflecting persistence despite practice effects. RT robustness of the other networks varied across sessions. Alerting and EC ERs were similarly robust across all 4 sessions, but were more variable for the orienting network. ERP results: The cue-locked P1-orienting (valid vs. invalid) was generally larger to valid- than invalid-cues, but the robustness across sessions was variable (significant in only sessions 1 and 4 [t(14)s&gt;2.13,ps&lt;.04], as reflected in a significant main effect of session [p=.0042]. Next, target-locked EC P3s were generally smaller to congruent than incongruent targets [F(1,14)=9.40,p=.0084], showing robust effects only in sessions 3 and 4 [ps&lt;.005].Conclusions:The EC network RT and ER scores were consistently robust across all sessions, suggesting that this network may be less vulnerable to practice effects across session than the other networks and may be the most reliable probe of attentional rehabilitation. ERP measures were more variable across attention networks with respect to robustness. Behavioral measures of EC-network may be most reliable for assessing progress related to attentional-rehabilitation efforts.

The specificity of feature-based attentional guidance is equivalent under single- and dual-target search.

Individuals actively maintain attentional templates to prioritize target-matching inputs. While previous works have established that multiple templates can be held simultaneously, current understanding is limited with respect to the representational quality of such templates. We thus investigated: (a) whether the maintenance of two templates is limited to broad, coarse-grained representations, and if not, (b) whether there is nonetheless a decline in the achievable level of specificity when multiple attentional templates are held simultaneously. Using a spatial cueing procedure, we probed the breadth of attentional templates while participants maintained either one (Experiment 1) or two target colors (Experiment 2) under conditions of low- or high-similarity search and found specific template maintenance during high-similarity search for both single- and dual-target conditions. We then directly compared template specificity during single- and dual-target maintenance in Experiment 3, probing at the point of differentiation between target and nontarget feature values observed during single-target search. Here we found no difference in the selectivity of cue validity effects between single- and dual-target search, suggesting equivalent template specificity regardless of whether one or two features are relevant to search. Lastly, in Experiment 4, we established that such template specificity is dependent on access to visual working memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamic attention augmented graph network for video accident anticipation

Accident anticipation (or the prediction of abnormal events in general) aims to forecast accidents before they occur by assessing risks based on the preceding frames in videos. The risk assessment heavily relies on understanding the semantics of the scene context and predicting the interactions among the involved subjects. Indeed, the comprehensive utilization of spatial relationships among the subjects of immediate interest in a single frame and temporal dependencies across consecutive frames is crucial for video accident anticipation. To address this challenge, we propose a novel approach called Dynamic Attention Augmented Graph Network (DAA-GNN), which leverages underlying spatial cues and models’ relationships among detected subjects of immediate interest. Specifically, our approach employs a graph neural network that is enhanced by global context clues, allowing effective message propagation and the discovery of interactions among the subjects of interest in the scene. The DAA-GNN includes a temporal attention module designed to identify long-term dependencies along the temporal axis, contributing to an end-to-end deep network solution for accurate accident anticipation. We extensively evaluate our method on the publicly available Dashcam Accident Dataset (DAD) and Epic Fail (EF) datasets, by conducting comprehensive experiments to assess its performance. The results unequivocally demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art accident anticipation methods. Our source code and datasets are available at https://github.com/ZxyLinkstart/DAA-GNN.

Evidence of long-term allocentric spatial memory in the Terrestrial Hermit Crab Coenobita compressus.

Spatial learning is a complex cognitive skill and ecologically important trait scarcely studied in crustaceans. We investigated the ability of the Pacific (Ecuadorian) hermit crab Coenobita compressus, to learn an allocentric spatial task using a palatable novel food as reward. Crabs were trained to locate the reward in a single session of eleven consecutive trials and tested subsequently, for short- (5 min) and long-term memory 1, 3 and 7 days later. Our results indicate that crabs were able to learn the location of the reward as they showed a reduction in the time required to find the food whenever it was present, suggesting a visuo-spatial and olfactory cue-guided task resolution. Moreover, crabs also remember the location of the reward up to 7 days after training using spatial cues only (without the food), as evidenced by the longer investigation time they spent in the learned food location than in any other part of the experimental arena, suggesting a visuo-spatial memory formation. This study represents the first description of allocentric spatial long-term memory in a terrestrial hermit crab.

Spatial contextual cues that help predict how a target will accelerate can be used to guide interception.

Objects in one's environment do not always move at a constant velocity but often accelerate or decelerate. People are very poor at visually judging acceleration and normally make systematic errors when trying to intercept accelerating objects. If the acceleration is perpendicular to the direction of motion, it gives rise to a curved path. Can spatial contextual cues help one predict such accelerations and thereby help interception? To answer this question, we asked participants to hit a target that moved as if it were attached to a rolling disk, like a valve (target) on a bicycle wheel (disk) moves when cycling: constantly accelerating toward the wheel's center. On half the trials, the disk was visible such that participants could use the spatial relations between the target and the rolling disk to guide their interception. On the other half, the disk was not visible, so participants had no help in predicting the target's complicated pattern of accelerations and decelerations. Importantly, the target's path was the same in both cases. Participants hit more targets when the disk was visible than when it was invisible, even when using a strategy that can compensate for neglecting acceleration. We conclude that spatial contextual cues that help predict the target's accelerations can help intercept it.

Spatial transcriptomics map of the embryonic mouse brain - a tool to explore neurogenesis.

The developing brain has a well-organized anatomical structure comprising different types of neural and non-neural cells. Stem cells, progenitors and newborn neurons tightly interact with their neighbouring cells and tissue microenvironment, and this intricate interplay ultimately shapes the output of neurogenesis. Given the relevance of spatial cues during brain development, we acknowledge the necessity for a spatial transcriptomics map accessible to the neurodevelopmental community. To fulfil this need, we generated spatially resolved RNA sequencing (RNAseq) data from embryonic day 13.5 mouse brain sections immunostained for mitotic active neural and vascular cells. Unsupervised clustering defined specific cell type populations of diverse lineages and differentiation states. Differential expression analysis revealed unique transcriptional signatures across specific brain areas, uncovering novel features inherent to particular anatomical domains. Finally, we integrated existing single-cell RNAseq datasets into our spatial transcriptomics map, adding tissue context to single-cell RNAseq data. In summary, we provide a valuable tool that enables the exploration and discovery of unforeseen molecular players involved in neurogenesis, particularly in the crosstalk between different cell types.

The successful use of a search strategy improves with visuospatial working memory in 2- to 4.5-year-olds

Using spatial cues such as shape, orientation, and pattern aids visuospatial working memory because it allows strategies that reduce the load on this cognitive resource. One such strategy, namely taking advantage of patterned spatial distributions, remains understudied to date. This strategy demands keeping track of already-searched locations and excluding them from further search and so correlates with visuospatial working memory. The use of such strategies should, in principle, develop in early childhood, but because most studies focus on chunking, the development of other strategies reducing the load on working memory is understudied in young children. Therefore, in this study we tested whether children aged 2 to 4.5 years (N = 97) could take advantage of spatial cues in their search and whether this ability correlated with their age, verbal ability, and visuospatial working memory. The results showed that the ability to use a patterned spatial distribution (searching a row of locations from one side to the other instead of a random search) significantly improved with visuospatial working memory but not with age or verbal ability. These results suggest that visuospatial abilities may rapidly develop from 2 to 4.5 years of age, and given their impact on later mathematic achievement, demand increased attention in cognitive developmental research and early childhood education.

Cdc42 couples septin recruitment to the axial landmark assembly via Axl2 in budding yeast.

Cell polarization generally occurs along a single axis that is directed by a spatial cue. Cells of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae undergo polarized growth and oriented cell division in a spatial pattern by selecting a specific bud site. Haploid a or α cells bud in the axial pattern in response to a transient landmark that includes Bud3, Bud4, Axl1, and Axl2. Septins, a family of filament-forming GTP-binding proteins, are also involved in axial budding and recruited to an incipient bud site, but the mechanism of recruitment remains unclear. Here, we show that Axl2 interacts with Bud3 and the Cdc42 GTPase in its GTP-bound state. Axl2 also interacts with Cdc10, a septin subunit, promoting efficient recruitment of septins near the cell division site. Furthermore, a cdc42 mutant defective in the axial budding pattern at a semi-permissive temperature had a reduced interaction with Axl2 and compromised septin recruitment in the G1 phase. We thus propose that active Cdc42 brings Axl2 to the Bud3-Bud4 complex and that Axl2 then interacts with Cdc10, linking septin recruitment to the axial landmark.

Deep Neutral Network-Based Electron Microscopy Image Recognition for Source Distinguishing of Anthropogenic and Natural Magnetic Particles.

Deep learning models excel at image recognition of macroscopic objects, but their applications to nanoscale particles are limited. Here, we explored their potential for source-distinguishing environmental particles. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images can reveal distinguishable features in particle morphology from various sources, but cluttered foreground objects and scale variations pose challenges to visual recognition models. In this proof-of-concept work, we proposed a novel instance segmentation model named CoMask to tackle these issues with atmospheric magnetic particles, a key species of PM2.5. CoMask features a densely connected feature extraction module to excavate multiscale spatial cues at the single-particle level and enlarges the receptive field size for improved representation capability. We also employed a collaborative learning strategy to further improve performance. Compared with other state-of-the-art models, CoMask was competitive on benchmark and TEM data sets. The application of CoMask not only enables the source-distinguishing of magnetic particles but also opens up a new vista for machine learning applications.

Subjective speech enhancement performance of a hearable with transparency and spatial frequency-weighted dereverberation

Preserving natural binaural cues combined with directionality and robust dereverberation is crucial for successful sound enhancement via hearables. In this study, we subjectively evaluate the performance of a real-time hearable prototype that aims to enhance frontal speech and spatial cues in complex environments using a new dereverberation algorithm and acoustic transparency. Our real-time algorithm exploits the spatial frequency-weighted coherence-to-diffuse ratio estimated between the conchal microphones and produces directional binaural gains using a Wiener filter for sound enhancement. The new hearable system can be customized or adapted to a given environment for optimum performance in different frequency bands and preserves natural binaural cues for all individuals by symmetrical spatial filtering. We use the real-time prototype to evaluate the perceived speech intelligibility in noise by a Matrix framework for normal-hearing subjects in a reverberant classroom. We also use a multi-stimulus with hidden reference and anchor-like framework to evaluate the perceived speech quality and listening comfort of several stimuli simulated for HATS in the same environment. Results show that speech intelligibility and listening comfort in noise can be significantly improved for the real-time hearable using the new algorithm with optimized parameters compared with several state-of-the-art coherence-based algorithms implemented in a similar device.