Cross-modal plasticity and deafferentation

To interact successfully with the environment and to compensate for environmental challenges, the human brain must integrate information originating in different sensory modalities. Such integration occurs in non-primary associative regions of the human brain. Additionally, recent investigations have documented the involvement of the primary visual cortex in processing tactile information in blind humans to a larger extent than in sighted controls. This form of cross-modal plasticity highlights the capacity of the human central nervous system to reorganize after chronic visual deprivation.Edited by: Marie-Hélène Giard and Mark Wallace     

Seeing with ears: Sightless humans' perception of dog bark provides a test for structural rules in vocal communication

Prerecorded family dog (Canis familiaris) barks were played back to groups of congenitally sightless, sightless with prior visual experience, and sighted people (none of whom had ever owned a dog). We found that blind people without any previous canine visual experiences can categorize accurately various dog barks recorded in different contexts, and their results are very close to those of sighted people in characterizing the emotional content of barks. These findings suggest that humans can recognize some of the most important motivational states reflecting, for example, fear or aggression in a dog's bark without any visual experience. It is very likely that this result can be generalized to other mammalian species—that is, no visual experience of another individual is needed for recognizing some of the most important motivational states of the caller.     

Irrelevant speech does not interfere with serial recall in early blind listeners

Phonological working memory is known be (a) inversely related to the duration of the items to be learned (word-length effect), and (b) impaired by the presence of irrelevant speech-like sounds (irrelevant-speech effect). As it is discussed controversially whether these memory disruptions are subject to attentional control, both effects were studied in sighted participants and in a sample of early blind individuals who are expected to be superior in selectively attending to auditory stimuli. Results show that, while performance depended on word length in both groups, irrelevant speech interfered with recall only in the sighted group, but not in blind participants. This suggests that blind listeners may be able to effectively prevent irrelevant sound from being encoded in the phonological store, presumably due to superior auditory processing. The occurrence of a word-length effect, however, implies that blind and sighted listeners are utilizing the same phonological rehearsal mechanism in order to maintain information in the phonological store.     

Ethics in Research

Summary

This article presents an overview of the history of efforts to protect human subjects in research. It discusses the establishment of international, national, organizational, and institutional procedures designed to protect human participants. The article provides a detailed summary of the principal ethical codes for research and their origins. It includes discussions of the most frequently encountered ethical issues ranging from the initial decision to undertake the project, through the selection and application of the various research procedures, to the analysis and interpretation of the data.     

Performances on Symbol Digit Modalities Test,Color Trails Test,and modified Stroop test in a healthy,elderly Danish sample

ABSTRACT

This study presents Danish data for the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Color Trails Test (CTT), and a modified Stroop test from 100 subjects aged 60–87 years. Among the included demographic variables, age had the highest impact on test performances. Thus, the study presents separate data for different age groups. For SDMT and CTT1, Danish Adult Reading Test (DART) score also had a significant impact on test performances. The incongruent version of the modified Stroop test was significantly correlated to education. Moderate and significant correlations were found between the three tests. Even though the three tests are commonly used, few normative data for elderly exists. SDMT and CTT performances from this study were in the same range as previously published international norms, but the validity of the result from the modified Stroop test could not be investigated.     

JEAB Research Over Time: Species Used,Experimental Designs,Statistical Analyses,and Sex of Subjects

We examined the species used as subjects in every article published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) from 1958 through 2013. We also determined the sex of subjects in every article with human subjects (N = 524) and in an equal number of randomly selected articles with nonhuman subjects, as well as the general type of experimental designs used. Finally, the percentage of articles reporting an inferential statistic was determined at 5-year intervals. In all, 35,317 subjects were studied in 3,084 articles; pigeons ranked first and humans second in number used. Within-subject experimental designs were more popular than between-subjects designs regardless of whether human or nonhuman subjects were studied but were used in a higher percentage of articles with nonhumans (75.4 %) than in articles with humans (68.2 %). The percentage of articles reporting an inferential statistic has increased over time, and more than half of the articles published in 2005 and 2010 reported one. Researchers who publish in JEAB frequently depart from Skinner’s preferred research strategy, but it is not clear whether such departures are harmful. Finally, the sex of subjects was not reported in a sizable percentage of articles with both human and nonhuman subjects. This is an unfortunate oversight.     

Cognitive representation of auditory space in blind football experts

ObjectivesWe compared the mental representation of sound directions in blind football players, blind non-athletes and sighted individuals.DesignStanding blindfolded in the middle of a circle with 16 loudspeakers, participants judged whether the directions of two subsequently presented sounds were similar or not.MethodStructure dimensional analysis (SDA) was applied to reveal mean cluster solutions for the groups.ResultsHierarchical cluster analysis via SDA resulted in distinct representation structures of sound directions. The blind football players' mean cluster solution consisted of pairs of neighboring directions. The blind non-athletes also clustered the directions in pairs, but included non-adjacent directions. In the sighted participants' structure, frontal directions were clustered pairwise, the absolute back was singled out, and the side regions accounted for more directions.ConclusionsOur results suggest that the mental representation of egocentric auditory space is influenced by sight and by the level of expertise in auditory-based orientation and navigation.     

“Paid to Endure”: Paid Research Participation,Passivity, and the Goods of Work

A growing literature documents the existence of individuals who make a living by participating in phase I clinical trials for money. Several scholars have noted that the concerns about risks, consent, and exploitation raised by this phenomenon apply to many (other) jobs, too, and therefore proposed improving subject protections by regulating phase I trial participation as work. This article contributes to the debate over this proposal by exploring a largely neglected worry. Unlike most (other) workers, subjects are not paid to produce or achieve anything but to have things done to them. I argue that this passivity is problematic for reasons of distributive justice. Specifically, it fails to enable subjects to realize what Gheaus and Herzog call “the goods of work”—a failure not offset by adequate opportunities to realize these goods outside of the research context. I also consider whether granting subjects worker-type protections would accommodate this concern.     

Reassessing the Ethics of Molecular HIV Surveillance in the Era of Cluster Detection and Response: Toward HIV Data Justice

Abstract

In the United States, clinical HIV data reported to surveillance systems operated by jurisdictional departments of public health are re-used for epidemiology and prevention. In 2018, all jurisdictions began using HIV genetic sequence data from clinical drug resistance tests to identify people living with HIV in “clusters” of others with genetically similar strains. This is called “molecular HIV surveillance” (MHS). In 2019, “cluster detection and response” (CDR) programs that re-use MHS data became the “fourth pillar” of the national HIV strategy. Public health re-uses of HIV data are done without consent and are a source of concern among stakeholders. This article presents three cases that illuminate bioethical challenges associated with re-uses of clinical HIV data for public health. We focus on evidence-base, risk-benefit ratio, determining directionality of HIV transmission, consent, and ethical re-use. The conclusion offers strategies for “HIV data justice.” The essay contributes to a “bioethics of the oppressed.”     

Efficacy of haptic blind spot warnings applied through a steering wheel or a seatbelt

This study evaluates the efficacy of haptic feedback for the Blind Spot Warnings (BSWs) that are delivered to a driver through a steering wheel or a seatbelt. To this end, we developed a virtual driving simulator that implemented potential side collision scenarios. Haptic BSWs were issued as a vibrotactile alert during lane changes if a car in the target lane approached from the participant’s blind spot at a faster speed. The two haptic warning types were assessed through a human factors experiment with participants of two age groups: younger (30–40 years) and older (50–60 years). No warning condition was also included as the control condition. As performance measures, the Collision Prevention Rate (CPR) and the Minimum Distance by which a collision was Avoided (MDA) were collected. As preference measures, the participants’ perception of usefulness of the haptic warnings and their overall satisfaction were used. Experimental results showed that the highest CPR, the longest MDA, and the highest preference were achieved when BSWs were delivered through the steering wheel. For the seatbelt BSW, the CPR and MDA did not increase with statistical significance than those of the no-warning condition, but the participants felt that the haptic seatbelt was useful with high satisfaction. Interestingly, the scores of perceived usefulness and satisfaction were higher with the older group, suggesting that older drivers can be more willing to accept these new types of warning. In addition, the experiment suggested several factors that need to be studied to further improve the performance and preference of haptic BSW, such as warning issue timing and vibration intensity.