Investigating the Relation between Imagery and Perception: Evidence from Face Priming

The relation between imagery and perception was investigated in face priming. Two experiments are reported in which subjects either saw or imagined the faces of celebrities. They were later given a speeded perceptual test (familiarity judgement to pictures of celebrities) or a speeded imagery test (in which they were told the names of celebrities and asked to make a decision about their appearance). Seeing faces primed the perceptual test, and imaging faces primed the imagery test; however, there was no priming between seeing and imaging faces. These results show that perception and imagery can be dissociated in normal subjects. In two further experiments, we examined the effects of imaging faces on a subsequent face-naming task and on a task requiring familiarity judgements to partial faces. Both these tasks were facilitated by prior imaging of faces. These results are discussed in relation to those of McDermott & Roediger (1994), who found that imagery promoted object priming in a perceptual test involving naming partial line drawings. The implications for models of face recognition are also discussed.     

Japanese television as a window on other cultures

Beginning with a brief review of issues regarding the effects of television on viewers in Japan, this paper examines how foreign programming and features relating to other countries are utilized on terrestrial television, the most influential of the mass media today. Foreign cultures are introduced either through importation of programs from abroad or through indigenous programs dealing with such topics. An overview of the changing role of imported programs emphasizes comparison of the public and commercial networks. News reporting and commercials are highlighted in a discussion of the treatment of foreign cultures in indigenous programs. Survey results show that Japanese people are favorably disposed toward foreign program imports, suggesting that the major reason for the failure of imported programs to flourish in Japan is the strong competition offered by domestic productions, not xenophobic attitudes on the part of viewers. I also consider the distinguishing characteristics of television and the cinema in order to explain the popularity of films as opposed to television dramas from abroad. In conclusion, studies that examine the effects of television on viewers' perceptions of foreign cultures are presented to suggest the importance of analyzing images of foreign cultures as depicted in programs that are domestically produced, rather than analyzing those that are imported.     

Is lesion of Exner's area linked to progressive agraphia in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with dementia? An autopsy case report

Agraphia, as a neuropsychological symptom of ALS, especially ALS with dementia (ALS-D), has recently attracted more attention. However, the brain lesion responsible has not been identified. Here we present an autopsy case of ALS-D of a patient with obvious agraphia, without aphasia, that also presented cerebrospinal degeneration with TDP-43-pathology compatible with ALS-D. Of the pre-motor frontal lobe cortices, degeneration and immuno-histochemical pathology were most obvious in the caudal area of the left middle frontal gyrus, or Exner's area. Assuring this area plays a pivotal role in the kanji and kana formation used in writing the Japanese language, this case of ALS-D showed both agraphia and Exner's area stressed pathological lesions. It may thus be the first case to indicate an intimate relationship between the neuropsychological symptoms and an associated lesion for ALS-D.     

Neuroscience and nanotechnologies in Japan--beyond the hope and hype of converging technologies

Nanotechnologies are often said to be "converging" with other technologies like biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science. And so-called "NBIC convergence" is thought to enable "enhancement" of human performance. First, I classify various kinds of enhancement. Second, I focus on the "cybernetic enhancement," to which nanotechnologies are supposed to contribute, and analyze the connection and integration of humans with machines, which could lead to the cyborgization of human beings. Third, I examine the portrayal of robot/cyborg technology in Japanese popular media, point out the tendency to empathy or ensoulment concerning robots/cyborgs, and raise the question of "ethical issues of ethical enhancement." Fourth, I compare nanotechnologies with neurotechnology and criticize the hype of "converging technologies."     

Visual discrimination of normal and drug induced behavior in quails (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Coturnix coturnix japonica</Emphasis>)

The ability to discriminate the physical states of others could be an adaptive behavior, especially for social animals. For example, the ability to discriminate illness behavior would be helpful for avoiding spoiled foods. We report on an experiment with Japanese quails testing whether these birds can discriminate the physical states of conspecifics. The quails were trained to discriminate between moving video images of quails injected with psychoactive drugs and those in a normal (not injected) condition. Methamphetamine (stimulant) or ketamine (anesthetic) were used to produce drug-induced behaviors in conspecifics. The former induced hyperactive behavior and the latter hypoactive behavior. The subject quails could learn the discrimination and showed generalization to novel images of the drug-induced behaviors. They did not, however, show discriminative behavior according to the type and dosage of the drugs. Thus, they categorized the behavior not on the basis of degree of activity, but on the basis of abnormality.     

Towards a “virtual pigeon”: A new technique for investigating avian social perception

The purpose of the present study is to examine the applicability of a computer-generated, virtual animal to study animal cognition. Pigeons were trained to discriminate between movies of a real pigeon and a rat. Then, they were tested with movies of the computer-generated (CG) pigeon. Subjects showed generalization to the CG pigeon, however, they also responded to modified versions in which the CG pigeon was showing impossible movement, namely hopping and walking without its head bobbing. Hence, the pigeons did not attend to these particular details of the display. When they were trained to discriminate between the normal and the modified version of the CG pigeon, they were able to learn the discrimination. The results of an additional partial occlusion test suggest that the subjects used head movement as a cue for the usual vs. unusual CG pigeon discrimination.This contribution is part of the special issue ‘Animal Logics’ (Watanabe and Huber 2006)     

Modulation of physical understanding by common marmosets (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Callithrix jacchus</Emphasis>)

The understanding of physical causality in common marmosets was tested using support problems in which a pair of sheets was presented to determine whether subjects would choose the sheet that had a food item on it (i.e., the sheet was supporting the food item). In two experiments, the conditions were manipulated in terms of the length of the sheet, the distance between the sheet and the food item, the presence of a gap separating the two sheets, and the size of the food item. In Experiment 1, the marmosets had difficulty rejecting an irretrievable food item when it was located closer to them than a retrievable item. Although their performance was strongly affected by the size of the irretrievable food item, they quickly learned to reject that alternative. In contrast, no improvement was found when one sheet was divided into two pieces such that the food item could not be retrieved when its near side was pulled. A similar response tendency was observed in Experiment 2, in which the effects of the large food item were examined in three different conditions. Thus, common marmosets were influenced by the perceptual features of the food in solving the support problems, as are other non-human primates. In addition, they consistently failed to appreciate the presence of a gap and, therefore, failed to reject the distracter alternative. However, all animals rapidly learned that the size of the food item was an irrelevant variable, and some showed an elementary conceptual understanding of support. These findings suggest that marmosets’ physical understanding may improve with experience.     

Feeling bad about screwing up: emotion regulation and action monitoring in the anterior cingulate cortex

This study examined neural features of emotional responses to errors. We specifically examined whether directed emotion regulation of negative emotion associated with error modulates action-monitoring functions of anterior cingulate cortex, including conflict monitoring, error processing, and error prevention. Seventeen healthy adults performed a continuous performance task during assessment by fMRI. In each block, participants were asked either to increase or decrease their negative emotional responses or to react naturally after error commission. Emotion regulation instructions were associated with modulation of rostral and dorsal anterior activity and of their effective connectivity following errors and conflict. Cingulate activity and connectivity predicted subsequent errors. These data may suggest that responses to errors are affected by emotion and that aspects of emotion and cognition are inextricably linked, even during a nominally cognitive task.     

Span of attention,backward masking,and reaction time

A test pattern consisting of 0 to 15 dots and a following random dot masking pattern were presented for 5 msec each with SOAs varying between 30 and 200 msec. The subject was asked to report the perceived number of dots in the test pattern as soon as possible and to assign a confidence rating to each report. The span of attention (upper limit for 50% correct numerosity judgments) increased from 2.4 to 9.5 as the SOA increased. Backward masking reduced the reported number of dots from the actual number in the test pattern, especially with small SOAs. Reaction time increased linearly at a low rate (approximately 40 msec/dot) up to 4 dots in the test pattern and then increased linearly at a high rate (approximately 370 msec/dot) as thereported, orperceived, number of dots increased. The two different branches of the reaction time curve were considered to represent two separate processes,subitizing andcounting, as suggested by Klahr (1973), who found similar dual increase rates as a function of the actual number of dots. These findings, as well as causal inference based on partial correlations and path analysis, indicated that the reported (perceived) number of dots and confidence rating were both determined by the number of stimulus dots and the SOA and that the reaction time was determined by the so-determined perceived number of dots and level of confidence. A multistage model is proposed.     

Verbal and visual recall span curves between 1 ms and 1 min

Summary The recall spans for verbal and visual information were represented, respectively, in terms of the number of digits and the number of dots in a 5×5 matrix. They were measured independently by the method of limits as functions of presentation times which ranged from 1 ms to 64 s. The curves were very similar: each had two plateaus, one at 10 to 100 ms and one at 2 to 8 s presentation levels. These plateaus suggest two kinds of capacity limitation on information processing. The first limitation is concerned with the transfer of information from iconic memory to short-term memory (STM); the second indicates the saturation of the limited capacity short-term store. Short-term and long-term mechanisms are involved not only in verbal memory but also in visual memory, since the second plateau followed by an increasing portion appears in the visual span curve as well as in the verbal one. Finally, the distinction between verbal and visual STM is discussed, based on a) the selective interference effects of distracting tasks upon the retention of verbal and visual materials, and b) the weak correlation between verbal and visual spans.