Feature Binding Research Articles

Lockdown: A Commentary

The Collins dictionary has elected lockdown as its word-of-the-yearn 2020. Defined as “the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction and access to public spaces”, decided by governments “to mitigate the spread of COVID-19”, for Collins’ lexicographers “lockdown” took the top spot because it is a unifying experience for billions of people across the world, who have had, collectively, to play their part in combating the spread of the virus. Faced with the unknown of a brand-new virus, governments all over the world reacted in a rather familiar way, by suspending the normal flow of social life through the implementation of measures that are usually categorised as a state of exception. This article is a commentary that aims at placing the practice of lockdown (as a governmental administrative measure) in the context of the theory of state and government. To the extent that emergencies are always revelatory, this paper will argue that the state of exception – of which the lockdown is a sub-category – in displaying state’s sovereign power is exposing the radical impotence in which it is grounded, and from which it takes its ultimate meaning and function.

Peripheral Cues Can Repulse Unbound Features Closer to Fixation

Previous work has shown that, in the absence of focal attention, simple features (e.g., colors) can be misbound to incorrect locations. Here we show that attention-demanding cues in the periphery can repulse these features to be incorrectly seen at locations closer to fixation. Participants were cued with a shape (circle or square) either in the left or right periphery before seeing a horizontal array of diamonds in the center of the screen (a pair of diamonds on each side of fixation, each with one gray and one colored diamond). Participants reported the shape of the cue, and which two colors appeared at which of the four diamond locations. When the cue was absent or at fixation, participants were accurate in reporting the locations of both colored diamonds. But attending to peripheral cues created a perceptual repulsion, where colors on that side of fixation were consistently misperceived closer to fixation (and farther away from the cue). This illusion was found to be even stronger when the cue was presented in the right hemifield compared to the left hemifield, revealing an attentional hemifield asymmetry for the binding of simple features.

Across-Area Synchronization Supports Feature Integration in a Biophysical Network Model of Working Memory.

Working memory function is severely limited. One key limitation that constrains the ability to maintain multiple items in working memory simultaneously is so-called swap errors. These errors occur when an inaccurate response is in fact accurate relative to a non-target stimulus, reflecting the failure to maintain the appropriate association or “binding” between the features that define one object (e.g., color and location). The mechanisms underlying feature binding in working memory remain unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that features are bound in memory through synchrony across feature-specific neural assemblies. We built a biophysical neural network model composed of two one-dimensional attractor networks – one for color and one for location – simulating feature storage in different cortical areas. Within each area, gamma oscillations were induced during bump attractor activity through the interplay of fast recurrent excitation and slower feedback inhibition. As a result, different memorized items were held at different phases of the network’s oscillation. These two areas were then reciprocally connected via weak cortico-cortical excitation, accomplishing binding between color and location through the synchronization of pairs of bumps across the two areas. Encoding and decoding of color-location associations was accomplished through rate coding, overcoming a long-standing limitation of binding through synchrony. In some simulations, swap errors arose: “color bumps” abruptly changed their phase relationship with “location bumps.” This model, which leverages the explanatory power of similar attractor models, specifies a plausible mechanism for feature binding and makes specific predictions about swap errors that are testable at behavioral and neurophysiological levels.

Contribution of interaction force to the sense of hand ownership and the sense of hand agency

When performing willed actions, we have the unified and coherent experience of owning and controlling our body. Body ownership is believed to emerge from the integration of coherent multisensory signals, while agency is believed to emerge from the coherence between predicted and perceived outcomes of actions. As a consequence, body ownership and agency can both be modulated by multisensory conflicts. The contribution of active movement generation to ownership and agency has not been parametrically explored. Here, we investigated the contribution of interaction force between the agent and the environment to the sense of hand ownership (SO) and the sense of hand agency (SA). By combining robotics and virtual reality, we manipulated the sensorimotor and visual information during immersive scenarios to induce and quantify altered states of SO and SA. First, we demonstrated that SO and SA could be successfully manipulated by our experimental paradigms. Second, we showed that interaction force strongly contributes to SA, but to a lesser extent to SO. Finally, we showed that SO and SA interact beyond their common multisensory basis. Our results, based on two independent studies, provide a direct link between sensorimotor interactions and subjective body experience and demonstrate a new dissociation between SO and SA.

Speaking of a Good Death in the Language of Art

What is a good death and who deserves the experience? To answer this question, I decided to respond in the language in which I am most fluent. The language of art. The images here are a small portion of a body of work built from more than a decade spent photographing memorials and memorial spaces in an effort to document, interrogate, understand, and celebrate the universe’s second most unifying experience. Death. One hundred percent of all that is born…must die. My body of work focuses on Afro-Diasporic traditions and practices, but the themes illustrated are universal. In this visual conversation, a good death involves simple yet heartfelt experiences such as peace, comfort, space for tradition, celebration, and above all else…dignity.

The Association between the Binding Processes of Working Memory and Vascular Risk Profile in Adults.

Episodic buffer (EB), a key component of working memory, seems to have a rather complicated function as part of binding processes. Recent papers on the field claim that binding processes of working memory (WM) are assisted by attention and executive functions. On the same page, vascular pathology is gaining more ground as the main underlying cause for many brain pathologies. Hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, lack of exercise and smoking are the most common risk factors that people of all ages suffer from and constitute the main vascular risk factors responsible for a possible decline in executive functions and attention. Thus, this research is an attempt to examine the relation between the binding functions of WM and the existence of vascular risk factors via a computerized test focusing on feature binding. The study comprised adults (n = 229) with and without vascular risk factors. The main tools used were a biomarker questionnaire and a feature binding test (FBT). The results showed that participants who report suffering from one or more vascular risk factors had significantly lower performance on specific subtasks of the FBT in comparison to the participants who were healthy. This allows us to assume that there might be a positive association between feature binding and a vascular risk profile in adults, and such a test could be a useful diagnostic tool for early cognitive impairment due to incipient vascular pathology.

Steady state evoked potentials indicate changes in nonlinear neural mechanisms of vision in sight recovery individuals

Humans with a transient phase of congenital pattern vision deprivation have been observed to feature prevailing deficits, particularly in higher order visual functions. However, the neural correlates of these prevalent visual impairments remain unclear. To probe different visual processing stages, we measured steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) generated by luminance flicker stimuli at 6.1 Hz, with superimposed horizontal periodic motion at 2.1 Hz or 2.4 Hz. SSVEP responses at the fundamental and second harmonic of luminance flicker frequency, and at their intermodulation frequencies with motion information, were analyzed. Three groups were tested: (1) 15 individuals who had suffered a lack of pattern vision from birth due to the presence of bilateral total congenital cataracts (CC group), which were surgically removed between 4 months and 22 years of age, (2) 13 individuals with reversed developmental i.e., later developing cataracts (DC group), and (3) normally sighted control participants (SC group; n = 13) matched in age and sex to the CC individuals. SSVEPs at the second harmonic frequency (i.e., 12.2 Hz) and at the intermodulation frequencies (8.2 Hz, and 8.5 Hz) were attenuated in the CC group. In contrast, fundamental frequency responses (i.e., at 6.1 Hz) were not significantly altered in the CC group compared to the control groups (SC and DC groups). Based on previous evidence on the role of striate vs. extrastriate generators of fundamental vs. second harmonics of SSVEPs, these results provide evidence for a stronger experience dependence of extrastriate than striate cortical processing, and furthermore, suggest a sensitive period for the development of putative nonlinear neural mechanisms hypothesized to mediate visual feature binding.

Deficits in access consciousness, integrative function, and consequent autonoetic thinking in schizophrenia

Alterations within consciousness in schizophrenia can be evidenced by impediments in self-awareness and loss of agency. Ned Block’s definition of access consciousness is applied in order to further delineate cognitive deficits involving reflective thought and autonoetic thinking in persons with schizophrenia. Current theories on the nature and functioning of consciousness are discussed, which include Global Workspace Theory and metarepresentational characterizations. These describe a recursive, integrative quality to consciousness, contributed to by the functions of access consciousness, that is relevant in examining cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. The integrative deficit that is described as operating in conscious process involves a failure to incorporate prior outputs from a separate cognitive task and integrate these into a novel working schema. The alterations in access consciousness in persons with schizophrenia appear to be a consequence of disrupted integrative cognitive functions. An anteceding problem with cortical circuits involving integrative functions related to access consciousness is therefore hypothesized to manifest as subsequent cognitive dysfunction that leads to symptoms of schizophrenia. Constitutive failures to integrate information in schizophrenia could lead to an inability to create experiential unity and manage content in autonoetic consciousness. Some of the aberrant reasoning manifested by persons with schizophrenia, including problems with hierarchical relational reasoning, model-based-learning, J-con, ipseity, and source monitoring, could also reflect alterations in access consciousness, and their investigation offers additional approaches for scientific inquiry.

Consciousness after split-brain surgery: The recent challenge to the classical picture

In a recent series of experiments, Pinto and colleagues found that the split-brain patient D.D.C. was able to respond accurately to stimuli in either visual field, whether using his right hand, his left hand, or verbally. Pinto and colleagues argue that this demonstrates that a split-brain patient remains a unitary agent and thus continues to possess a unified consciousness. This paper provides a critical evaluation of that claim. First, we argue that two conceptions of the unity of consciousness need to be distinguished: an agency-based conception and an experience-based conception. Second, we argue that it is an open question whether the data presented by Pinto and colleagues is best understood in terms of the unity of agency. Whether that interpretation is correct depends not only on the mechanisms that produce split-brain behaviour, but also on what is involved in being a single agent. Third, we argue that even if the behavioral data indicated that D.D.C has a unified consciousness in the agency-based sense of the term, it is difficult to reconcile them with the claim that his consciousness is fully unified in the experience-based sense.

Independent and unified consciousness co-existence in commissurotomy cases

Independent hemispheric consciousness was observed following complete commissurotomy under controlled laboratory conditions that restricted stimulus input and response output to a single hemisphere. Hemispheric specialization was investigated in this way. Consciousness of the self was tested directly as well and found to be represented in each of the hemispheres. Unified consciousness was evidenced in unaltered personality, character, humor, and past knowledge (autobiographical and knowledge of the world). Intact cortico-subcortical projections to intact subcortical regions are offered as explanation for why both unified and independent are possible in the same brain.

Deep learning helps EEG signals predict different stages of visual processing in the human brain

Analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to determine the nature of visual stimuli, being experienced by a person, is an active area of research. It is key to understand the link between human brain and behavior, especially for brain computer interface (BCI) applications and rehabilitation of patients suffering with neurological disorders. In this research, we conducted an experiment comparing two stages of visual processing, determined distinct EEG signals associated with them, and subsequently used a classifier to distinguish the two stages. EEG data was collected using a feature-binding experiment that required subjects to detect changes in color and shape binding after 100 ms and after 1500 ms. The two stages denoted by these study-test intervals were determined using features extracted from both time and frequency domains. These were used to separately train various machine learning classifiers. The time–frequency domain representation of the signal was used to train a convolutional neural network (CNN). Promising results were obtained. Thus, the contribution of the paper is two-fold. Firstly, we carry out EEG data analysis using deep learning to classify whether the EEG trial belongs to 100 ms class or 1500 ms class. Secondly, we connect these results to predict different stages of visual processing in human brain and visual feature binding. Thus, deep learning can help us predict the stages of visual processing and, hence, unlock important insights regarding the temporal dynamics of brain functioning. This can help in building relevant tools for BCI applications such as neuro-rehabilitation of subjects suffering impairments in visual feature binding.

Information Transmission in Delay-Coupled Neuronal Circuits in the Presence of a Relay Population.

Synchronization between neuronal populations is hypothesized to play a crucial role in the communication between brain networks. The binding of features, or the association of computations occurring in spatially segregated areas, is supposed to take place when a stable synchronization between cortical areas occurs. While a direct cortico-cortical connection typically fails to support this mechanism, the participation of a third area, a relay element, mediating in the communication was proposed to overcome this limitation. Among the different structures that could play the role of coordination during the binding process, the thalamus is the best placed region to carry out this task. In this paper we study how information flows in a canonical motif that mimics a cortico-thalamo-cortical circuit composed by three mutually coupled neuronal populations (also called the V-motif). Through extensive numerical simulations, we found that the amount of information transferred between the oscillating neuronal populations is determined by the delay in their connections and the mismatch in their oscillation frequencies (detuning). While the transmission from a cortical population is mostly restricted to positive detuning, transmission from the relay (thalamic) population to the cortical populations is robust for a broad range of detuning values, including negative values, while permitting feedback communication from the cortex at high frequencies, thus supporting robust bottom up and top down interaction. In this case, a strong feedback transmission between the cortex to thalamus supports the possibility of robust bottom-up and top-down interactions in this motif. Interestingly, adding a cortico-cortical bidirectional connection to the V-motif (C-motif) expands the dynamics of the system with distinct operation modes. While overall transmission efficiency is decreased, new communication channels establish cortico-thalamo-cortical association loops. Switching between operation modes depends on the synaptic strength of the cortico-cortical connections. Our results support a role of the transthalamic V-motif in the binding of spatially segregated cortical computations, and suggest an important regulatory role of the direct cortico-cortical connection.

The Influence of Cognitive Load on Distractor-Response Bindings

Binding theories postulate an integration of stimulus and response features into temporary episodic traces or event files. In general, in the visual binding literature, attention is considered to be necessary to feature binding, and a higher cognitive load can lead to worse performance. On the other hand, in stimulus-response binding theories, central attention is not regarded as necessary in binding effects. A possible discrepancy between the visual feature binding findings and the findings in stimulus-response binding studies could lie in the amount of central load implemented, whereas another discrepancy was related to a specific type of process that was manipulated. In the present study, load was manipulated in three levels, such as no load, low load, and high load, and the binding effects were tested under each condition. Load was manipulated by using a secondary task, which was to be carried out simultaneously with the primary task. Additionally, the influence of targeting different working memory processes (maintenance and updating) was examined by varying the time point of the presentation of the secondary task. The results indicate that, under high load, binding effects are observed if memory contents are merely maintained, but not observed when memory contents are actively updated.

Des réfugiés pour éduquer les enfants réfugiés d’Europe? Trajectoires de participants étrangers au Cours international de moniteurs pour homes d’enfants victimes de la guerre Genève 1944–1945

ABSTRACT At the heart of refuge in Switzerland during the Second World War, a singular training experience was set up in Geneva in order to train a complete educational staff in charge of children placed in homes in that country but also in the rest of Europe. In November 1944, an “International Course for Monitors of Homes for Child Victims of War” was inaugurated, in which the pupils would follow a six-month session of teaching, mainly in pedagogy and psychology, as well as practical exercises in real-life situations. Half of the students on the course came from Swiss internment camps and the other half were Swiss nationals, with the same proportion during the second session, which began in the spring of 1945. This article traces the history of the beginnings of the Monitors’ Course through the careers of the pupils of the first two classes, mainly through the individual records kept in the Federal Archives in Bern of monitors who had been in Switzerland since 1942. The idea for this course was first conceived in Geneva’s educational circles from the Institute of Educational Sciences (formerly the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute) accompanied by several educators who had found refuge in Switzerland. The result is a model of future international education, including the profile of these future actors in reconstruction. The project resulted in the use of all available manpower through students who would come from the country’s internment camps. Freed for a time from their internment status, these young women and men all came out of the mass refuge, having fled persecution because they were Jews, and arrived in Switzerland between the summer of 1942 and the spring of 1944. Far from being merely an opportunity to escape from the logic of confinement and the constraint of placements, sometimes experienced even before the war, entry into the course was for many the result of joining networks and collectives that were gradually being formed, particularly within the humanitarian organisations which looked after these refugees. The files also make it possible to evaluate the place of the Monitors’ Course in the individual trajectories of the students. Although few had previously had educational experience with children, except for having themselves been children rescued from homes, some of them continued in this way after leaving the course, exporting their skills acquired in their country or their country of emigration, thus contributing to the significant movement in the field of education in the post-war period. Conversely, the Geneva Course was for all of them a “transitional space”, between their past of exile and their future.

Firefly. Aesthetics of transition

This essay starts with the assumption that philosophical practice is defined as an exercise of linguistic clarification. Whether in oral or written form, philosophy stems from the need to explicate and objectify the logós, formulating concepts. In the particular case of artistic practice, on the other hand, the signifier is more visible than the signified and the impermanence of objectivity is more clearly shown. In art, language is thus open to multiplicity and inexpressibility and the word is no longer logically or syntactically objectified. The truth which develops within art is not universal but the embodiment of an engaging and embryonic form. Art is the place where truth is in motion, a form of resistance, an all-embracing, unifying experience intimately close to world- changing practices.

Stimulus variability and task relevance modulate binding-learning.

Classical theories of attention posit that integration of features into object representation (or feature binding) requires engagement of focused attention. Studies challenging this idea have demonstrated that feature binding can happen outside of the focus of attention for familiar objects, as well as for arbitrary color-orientation conjunctions. Detection performance for arbitrary feature conjunction improves with training, suggesting a potential role of perceptual learning mechanisms in the integration of features, a process called "binding-learning". In the present study, we investigate whether stimulus variability and task relevance, two critical determinants of visual perceptual learning, also modulate binding-learning. Transfer of learning in a visual search task to a pre-exposed color-orientation conjunction was assessed under conditions of varying stimulus variability and task relevance. We found transfer of learning for the pre-exposed feature conjunctions that were trained with high variability (Experiment1). Transfer of learning was not observed when the conjunction was rendered task-irrelevant during training due to pop-out targets (Experiment2). Our findings show that feature binding is determined by principles of perceptual learning, and they support the idea that functions traditionally attributed to goal-driven attention can be grounded in the learning of the statistical structure of the environment.

Single-chain Fragment variable antibody targeting cholecystokinin-B receptor for pain reduction

The cholecystokinin B receptor and its neuropeptide ligand are upregulated in chronic neuropathic pain models. Single-chain Fragment variable antibodies were generated as preferred non-opioid targeting therapy blocking the cholecystokinin B receptor to inhibit chronic neuropathic pain models in vivo and in vitro. Engineered antibodies of this type feature binding activity similar to monoclonal antibodies but with stronger affinity and increased tissue penetrability due to their smaller size. More importantly, single-chain Fragment variable antibodies have promising biotherapeutic applications for both nervous and immune systems, now recognized as interactive in chronic pain. A mouse single-chain Fragment variable antibody library recognizing a fifteen amino acid extracellular peptide fragment of the cholecystokinin B receptor was generated from immunized spleens. Ribosome display, a powerful cell-free technology, was applied for recombinant antibody selection. Antibodies with higher affinity, stability, solubility, and binding specificity for cholecystokinin B not A receptor were selected and optimized for in vivo and in vitro efficacy. A single dose of the lead candidate reduced mechanical and cold hypersensitivity in two rodent models of neuropathic pain for at least seven weeks. Continuing efficacy was evident with either intraperitoneal or intranasal dosing. Likewise, the lead single-chain Fragment variable antibody totally prevented development of anxiety- and depression-like behaviors and cognitive deficits typical in the models. Reduction of neuronal firing frequency was evident in trigeminal ganglia primary neuronal cultures treated in vitro with the cholecystokinin B receptor antibody. Immunofluorescent staining intensity in the trigeminal neuron primary cultures was significantly reduced incrementally after overnight binding with increasingly higher dilutions of the single-chain Fragment variable antibody. While it is reported that single-chain Fragment variable antibodies are removed systemically within 2–6 h, Western blot evidence indicates the His-tag marker remained after 7 weeks in the trigeminal ganglia and in the dorsolateral medulla, providing evidence of brain and ganglia penetrance known to be compromised in overactivated states. This project showcases the in vivo efficacy of our lead single-chain Fragment variable antibody indicating its potential for development as a non-opioid, non-addictive therapeutic intervention for chronic pain. Importantly, studies by others have indicated treatments with cholecystokinin B receptor antagonists suppress maintenance and reactivation of morphine dependence in place preference tests while lowering tolerance and dose requirements. Our future studies remain to address these potential benefits that may accompany the cholecystokinin B receptor biological therapy. Both chronic sciatic and orofacial pain can be unrelenting and excruciating, reducing quality of life as well as diminishing physical and mental function. An effective non-opiate, non-addictive therapy with potential to reduce chronic neuropathic pain long term is greatly needed.

An event-coding account of attitudes

Attitudes (or opinions, preferences, biases, stereotypes) can be considered bindings of the perceptual features of the attitudes’ object to affective codes with positive or negative connotations, which effectively renders them “event files” in terms of the Theory of Event Coding. We tested a particularly interesting implication of this theoretical account: that affective codes might “migrate” from one event file to another (i.e., effectively function as a component of one while actually being part of another), if the two files overlap in terms of other features. We tested this feature-migration hypothesis by having participants categorize pictures of fictitious outer space characters as members of two fictitious races by pressing a left or right key, and to categorize positive and negative pictures of the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) as positive and negative by using the same two keys. When the outer space characters were later rated for likability, members of the race that was categorized by means of the same key as positive IAPS pictures were liked significantly more than members of the race that was categorized with the same key as negative IAPS pictures – suggesting that affective feature codes from the event files for the IAPS pictures effectively acted as an ingredient of event files for the outer space characters that shared the same key. These findings were fully replicated in a second experiment in which the two races were replaced by two unfamiliar fonts. These outcomes are consistent with the claim that attitudes, opinions, and preferences are represented in terms of event files and created by feature binding.

Goal-Based Binding of Irrelevant Stimulus Features for Action Slips.

. Binding between representations of stimuli and actions and later retrieval of these compounds provide efficient shortcuts in action control. Recent observations indicate that these mechanisms are not only effective when action episodes go as planned, but they also seem to be at play when actions go awry. Moreover, the human cognitive system even corrects traces of error commission on the fly because it binds the intended but not actually executed response to concurrent task-relevant stimuli, thus enabling retrieval of a correct, but not actually executed response when encountering the stimulus again. However, a plausible alternative interpretation of this finding is that error commission triggers selective strengthening of the instructed stimulus–response mapping instead, thus promoting its efficient application in the future. The experiment presented here makes an unequivocal case for episodic binding and retrieval in erroneous action episodes by showing binding between task-irrelevant stimuli and correct responses.

Сategories of analysis within activity-oriented counseling

This paper aims to provide an analysis of the theoretical and methodological grounds of Activity-oriented models of psychological counseling practice, along with an author's model of counseling interaction between a psychologist and a client within the framework of Activity theory.
 In contrast to majority of psychological theories, Activity theory has not yet been fully reflected in psychotherapeutic and counseling practice. As a consequence, we can see the gap in the relevant methodology of psychological care, despite of multiple theoretical and empirical research, conducted within Activity framework.
 The structure and procedure of Activity-oriented counselling is based on major categories of Activity theory, developed by S. Rubinstein, A. Leontiev, F. Vasilyuk, G. Schedrovitsky, namely: i) unity of consciousness and activity; ii) experiencing as a form of personal activity; iii) categories of activity analysis. Since the subject of counseling is the problem situation experienced by a client, the main purpose of psychological counseling is to convert the problem into achievable tasks, which requires setting a clear logic and sequencing stages of consultative process.
 It is shown that the consultant guides the client through a series of stages, which involve consistent changes.
 Those stages include following: situation scanning; positional analysis; problematizing and capturing of contradictions, repositioning and designing of new activity schemes.
 Activity-oriented counseling offers a comprehensive, context-sensitive method of client`s life story exploration and highly structured procedure, which allows psychologist and the client to retain its overall meaning and logic.
 Certainly, an active approach in the psychological practice of counselling requires further methodological developments: in particular, the development of protocols of counseling sessions and non-parametric methods of diagnosis of client advancement.