Attention and the multiple stages of multisensory integration: A review of audiovisual studies

Multisensory integration and crossmodal attention have a large impact on how we perceive the world. Therefore, it is important to know under what circumstances these processes take place and how they affect our performance. So far, no consensus has been reached on whether multisensory integration and crossmodal attention operate independently and whether they represent truly automatic processes. This review describes the constraints under which multisensory integration and crossmodal attention occur and in what brain areas these processes take place. Some studies suggest that multisensory integration and crossmodal attention take place in higher heteromodal brain areas, while others show the involvement of early sensory specific areas. Additionally, the current literature suggests that multisensory integration and attention interact depending on what processing level integration takes place. To shed light on this issue, different frameworks regarding the level at which multisensory interactions takes place are discussed. Finally, this review focuses on the question whether audiovisual interactions and crossmodal attention in particular are automatic processes. Recent studies suggest that this is not always the case. Overall, this review provides evidence for a parallel processing framework suggesting that both multisensory integration and attentional processes take place and can interact at multiple stages in the brain.     

利用脑成像多体素模式分析解码认知的神经表征:原理和应用

多体素模式分析(multi-voxel pattern analysis,MVPA)是一种基于机器学习理论发展出来的新的功能磁共振数据分析技术。MVPA技术通过训练分类器,对由不同认知状态引起的多体素信号模式进行分类。与传统的基于单个体素的分析方法相比,该技术可更敏感地检测脑对认知状态的表征,并使得从神经信号解码认知状态成为可能。文章介绍MVPA技术的基本原理、分析步骤以及可以用MVPA来解决的科学问题,并对应用中可能面临的问题提供了参考建议。     

Retrieval of names in face and object naming in an interference study

Two experiments using the interference paradigm are reported. In the first experiment, the participants spoke aloud the names of celebrities and the names of objects when presented with pictures while hearing distractors. In the case of proper names, we replicated the data obtained by Izaute and Bonin (2001) using the interference paradigm with a proper name written naming task. In the case of common names, the results replicated those obtained by Shriefers, Meyer, and Levelt (1990). In the second experiment, the participants produced the names of celebrities when presented with their faces while hearing distractors that were either proper names associated with the celebrities (associate condition), that belonged to a different professional category (different condition), or that corresponded to the proper names of the celebrities (identical condition). For negative SOAs, “associate” distractors were found to increase latencies compared to the “different category” condition. The implications of the findings for proper name retrieval are briefly discussed.     

重新认识心衰机制中的心脏舒张期耗能

长期以来,对心衰和心衰机制的认识一直存在争议,所以心衰的治疗一直是国内外心血管领域中的一个挑战.为了澄清心衰机制的内涵,本文用弗兰克-斯塔灵定律以及能量守恒定律作为重建心脏理论以及心衰机制的依据,论证了心脏的做功是从动能向势能,又从势能向动能的转换过程.并根据临床事实等来证实心脏舒张是在作功,与收缩期作功是等同的.没有心脏的舒张就没有心脏的收缩,心脏功能下降实际上是舒张与收缩功能同时的下降.不存在有收缩功能正常的舒张功能下降.心功能的判定标准不能采用射血分数,而应该采取能量消耗的定量方法来测定.     

Use of verbal pain measurement in the detection of hidden psychological morbidity among low back pain patients with objective organic findings

Abstract

Patients with positive physical findings to explain low back pain arc believed lo belong to two organic subgroups. One group has organic disease alone: in the other, organic disease is accompanied by psychological disturbance. Separation of patients with medical findings into groups with varying levels of psychological disturbance is difficult, because emotional disturbance is often hidden. In this study, the pain report of 124 patients with organic findings alone, and 50 patients with organic and psychological findings was examined to determine whether pain measurement could he used to identify accurately patients belonging 10 the two groups. the pain groups differed in the use of 43 pain words from the Low Back Pain Symptom Check List. Using a set of weights derived From discriminant analysis. the 33 pain words predicted 99.2% of the patients with organic disease alone and 86.0% of the patients with organic disease and psychological disturbance. The results were replicated in a new sample of 140 patients. Cross-validation shrinkage in accuracy was 8.3%. The results of the two studies suggest that pain measurement may he a useful clinical indicator of psychological disturbance in patients with organic findings.     

Multicriteria Classification with Unknown Categories: A Clustering–Sorting Approach and an Application to Conflict Management

This work proposes an approach to cluster and sort a set of alternatives considering multi‐criteria categories with a partial order structure. It can be considered a heuristic approach because it does not attempt to derive an optimal partial order among all conceivable clusters of alternatives. Rather than this, it intends to be a simple approach that is transparent to the Decision Maker (DM) whose assistance is sought to help shaping the results. The approach proposed arises from the conjugation of traditional Clustering analysis and Multi‐criteria sorting tools. At the outset, the number of categories and their characteristics is unknown. First, we need to detect only the clusters themselves on the basis of a similarity measure independent of the preferences of the DM. Next, we detect potential partial order relations that might exist between them, according to the subjective preferences of the DM. Such preferences are elicited only after the DM has examined the clusters detected and deemed that these categories made sense. The new approach performs very well in a real‐world problem of management of intragroup conflicts and conflict handling strategies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mind-reading without the scanner: Behavioural decoding of working memory content

ABSTRACT

Sophisticated machine learning algorithms have been successfully applied to functional neuroimaging data in order to characterize internal cognitive states. But is it possible to “mind-read” without the scanner? Capitalizing on the robust finding that the contents of working memory guide visual attention toward memory-matching objects, we trained a multivariate pattern classifier on behavioural indices of attentional guidance. Working memory representations were successfully decoded from behaviour alone, both within and between individuals. The current study provides a proof-of-concept for applying machine learning techniques to simple behavioural outputs (e.g., response times) in order to decode information about specific internal cognitive states.     

Koran reading and negotiation with jinn: strategies to deal with mental ill health among Swedish Somalis

In this paper, we discuss traditional Somali concepts of mental ill health. Qualitative interviews were conducted with some 20 Swedish Somali interviewees about factors causing mental ill health, traditional classification, strategies to deal with mental ill health, and attitudes to the mental health care services in Sweden. Social mobilisation and religious healing are cornerstones of traditional Somali measures to deal with mental suffering. Traditional Somali views of mental ill health stand in stark contrast to classification of mental ill health in the western biomedical model. These views deserve attention since they may have an impact on health-seeking behaviour among Somali immigrants in western countries. Yet a too strong focus on cultural aspects may over-shadow the fact that much mental suffering among Somali migrants must be understood within social, economic, and political contexts.     

Sport and the obligation of solidarity

The paper departs from an analysis of the case of Michelle Dumaresq, a transgender female downhill mountain biker who experienced marginalization within her sport. The analysis is based on Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition. The Dumaresq case is particularly relevant to Honneth’s ideas of solidarity, which provide insight into the dynamics of social integration. Honneth’s theory of recognition also provides a conceptual framework and a methodology that gives new perspectives on the ethical significance of sport. In the paper, an analysis is presented of the lack of solidarity experienced by Dumaresq. The argument is made that sport has a particular potential for realizing solidarity among its practitioners. Realizing solidarity however depends to a large degree upon that the rules of sport are perceived as fair and just. In the Dumaresq case, challenges to solidarity came from what her competitors considered to be unfair classification rules. Summing up, it is argued that, as long as the rules of a sport is perceived as fair and just, voluntary engagement gives rise not only to obligations on fair play but to a moral obligation on solidarity as well.     

易学的推类逻辑

易学中的逻辑问题,是一个在易学和逻辑学研究中被忽视的问题,但又是一个关系到对中国文化史、思想史和逻辑史的再认识的重要问题。易学中的逻辑是推类逻辑,本文给出了理由,同时以现代逻辑的方法给出了易学推类逻辑的形式系统,并作了讨论。指出易学逻辑是在中国文化背景下的以汉字表述的特有逻辑形式,建立了中国古代的普遍语言,形成了自我满足的语义系统,其在为人们提供正确的认识方法和为古代科学提供认识工具方面与西方逻辑是一致的。