scholarly journals Brain activity reflects perceptual learning of point-light biological motion

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 81-81
Author(s):  
E. D Grossman ◽  
C.-Y. Kim ◽  
R. Blake
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Point Light

scholarly journals Oxytocin treatment attenuates amygdala activity in autism: a treatment-mechanism study with long-term follow-up

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvie Bernaerts ◽  
Bart Boets ◽  
Jean Steyaert ◽  
Nicole Wenderoth ◽  
Kaat Alaerts
Keyword(s):  
Single Dose ◽  
Multiple Dose ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Dose Treatment ◽  
Amygdala Activity ◽  
Point Light

Abstract Intranasal administration of the neuropeptide oxytocin (IN-OT) is increasingly considered as a potential treatment for targeting the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the effects of continual use on neural substrates are fairly unexplored and long-term effects are unknown. In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, we investigated the effects of single-dose and multiple-dose IN-OT treatment (4 weeks of daily (24 IU) administrations) on brain activity related to processing emotional states. Thirty-eight adult men with ASD (aged between 18 and 35 years) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging of the posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTS) and amygdala regions while processing emotional states from point-light biological motion. In line with prior research, a single dose of IN-OT induced a reliable increase in pSTS brain activity during the processing of point-light biological motion, but no consistent long-term changes in pSTS activity were induced after the multiple-dose treatment. In terms of bilateral amygdala, the multiple-dose treatment induced a consistent attenuation in brain activity, which outlasted the period of actual administrations until four weeks and one year post-treatment. Critically, participants with stronger attenuations in amygdala-activity showed greater behavioral improvements, particularly in terms of self-reported feelings of avoidant attachment and social functioning. Together, these observations provide initial insights into the long-lasting neural consequences of chronic IN-OT use on amygdala functioning and provide first indications that the acute versus chronic effects of IN-OT administration may be qualitatively different. Larger studies are however warranted to further elucidate the long-term impact of IN-OT treatment on human neural substrates and its behavioral consequences.

scholarly journals Neural correlates of experience with CCTV surveillance of naturalistic prosocial and antisocial interactions: a reverse correlation analysis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia A. Gillard ◽  
Karin Petrini ◽  
Katie Noble ◽  
Jesus A. Rodriguez Perez ◽  
Frank E. Pollick
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Real Life ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Movement Data ◽  
Cctv Surveillance ◽  
Point Light

AbstractPrevious research using reverse correlation to explore the relationship between brain activity and presented image information found that Face Fusiform Area (FFA) activity could be related to the appearance of faces during free viewing of the Hollywood movie “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (Hasson, et al, 2004). We applied this approach to the naturalistic viewing of unedited footage of city-centre closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance. Two 300 second videos were used, one containing prosocial activities and the other antisocial activities. Brain activity revealed through fMRI as well as eye movements were recorded while fifteen expert CCTV operators with a minimum of 6 months experience of CCTV surveillance alongside an age and gender matched control group of fifteen novice viewers were scanned while watching the videos. Independent scans functionally localized FFA and posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus (pSTS) activity using faces/houses and intact/scrambled point-light biological motion displays respectively. Reverse correlation revealed peaks in FFA and pSTS brain activity corresponding to the expert and novice eye movements directed towards faces and biological motion across both videos. In contrast, troughs in activation corresponded to camera-induced motion when a clear view of visual targets were temporarily not available. Our findings, validated by the eye movement data, indicate that the predicted modulation of brain activity occurs as a result of salient features of faces and biological motion embedded within the naturalistic stimuli. The examination of expertise revealed that in both pSTS and FFA the novices had significantly more activated timeframes than the experienced observers for the prosocial video. However, no difference was found for the antisocial video. The modulation of brain activity, as well as the effect of expertise gives a novel insight into the underlying visual processes in an applied real-life task.

Learning to See Biological Motion: Brain Activity Parallels Behavior

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1669-1679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily D. Grossman ◽  
Randolph Blake ◽  
Chai-Youn Kim
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Perceptual Performance ◽  
Trained Observers ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Individuals improve with practice on a variety of perceptual tasks, presumably reflecting plasticity in underlying neural mechanisms. We trained observers to discriminate biological motion from scrambled (nonbiological) motion and examined whether the resulting improvement in perceptual performance was accompanied by changes in activation within the posterior superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform “face area,” brain areas involved in perception of biological events. With daily practice, initially naive observers became more proficient at discriminating biological from scrambled animations embedded in an array of dynamic “noise” dots, with the extent of improvement varying among observers. Learning generalized to animations never seen before, indicating that observers had not simply memorized specific exemplars. In the same observers, neural activity prior to and following training was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neural activity within the posterior superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform “face area” reflected the participants' learning: BOLD signals were significantly larger after training in response both to animations experienced during training and to novel animations. The degree of learning was positively correlated with the amplitude changes in BOLD signals.

Snap! Recognising Implicit Actions in Static Point-Light Displays

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p6320 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Reid ◽  
Anna Brooks ◽  
Duncan Blair ◽  
Rick van der Zwan
Keyword(s):  
Biological Motion ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Static Point ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Made In

Johansson (1973 Perception & Psychophysics14 201–211) suggested that point-light displays that are static—so-called ‘snapshots’—contain little or no information about the actor or their action. Here we present data that suggest even naive observers can perceive such information from static point-light arrays. Observers were able, at rates better than chance, to discriminate the directions of facing of sagittally viewed static point-light walkers. The data show also that, without feedback, performances improved with experience. Our data have implications for assumptions made in designing experiments with point-light displays and for models of the neural mechanisms mediating biological motion perceptions.

scholarly journals Inverting the Facing-the-Viewer Bias for Biological Motion Stimuli

i-Perception ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 204166951775017
Author(s):  
Séamas Weech ◽  
Nikolaus F. Troje
Keyword(s):  
Biological Motion ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
Shape Information ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Stick Figure ◽  
Visual Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Ambiguous Point

Depth-ambiguous point-light walkers are most frequently seen as facing-the-viewer (FTV). It has been argued that the FTV bias depends on recognising the stimulus as a person. Accordingly, reducing the social relevance of biological motion by presenting stimuli upside down has been shown to reduce FTV bias. Here, we replicated the experiment that reported this finding and added stick figure walkers to the task in order to assess the effect of explicit shape information on facing bias for inverted figures. We measured the FTV bias for upright and inverted stick figure walkers and point-light walkers presented in different azimuth orientations. Inversion of the stimuli did not reduce facing direction judgements to chance levels. In fact, we observed a significant facing away bias in the inverted stimulus conditions. In addition, we found no difference in the pattern of data between stick figure and point-light walkers. Although the results are broadly consistent with previous findings, we do not conclude that inverting biological motion simply negates the FTV bias; rather, inversion causes stimuli to be seen facing away from the viewer more often than not. The results support the interpretation that primarily low-level visual processes are responsible for the biases produced by both upright and inverted stimuli.

scholarly journals A New Action Library for Localising Brain Activity Specific to Biological Motion

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 683-683
Author(s):  
F. Pollick ◽  
W. Steel ◽  
H. Tan ◽  
L. Piwek ◽  
F. Crabbe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Motion ◽  
Brain Activity

Biological Motion Detection in Rats

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura MacKinnon
Keyword(s):  
Biological Motion ◽  
Visual Cue ◽  
Ballistic Motion ◽  
Theory Versus ◽  
Local Movement ◽  
Life Detection ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Point Light Display ◽  
Innate Ability

This study will examine the rodent visual system by assessing whether they can discriminate between various biological motion point‐light displays. Pilot data suggests that rats can discriminate between a human walker point‐light display walking left and right. Therefore this study will investigate which kind of information rats use to differentiate biological motion; the overall shape of the moving body (conformational theory) versus the local movement of the feet (ballistic motion theory). First, we will train the rats to discriminate between human point‐light displays walking in opposite directions using a modified Morris water maze. Then we will observe their reactions to a backwards‐walking display. If the rats use shape as a visual cue for biological motion, they will swim towards the goal arm that corresponds to the direction the backwards walker is facing. However, if the rats use ballistic motion as a visual cue for biological motion, they will swim towards the goal arm that corresponds to the direction the backwards walker is moving. We hypothesize that rats use the ballistic motion of the feet as a cue for life detection. This is the first study to investigate whether rats can detect biological motion, and will contribute to the theory that animals have evolved an innate ability to quickly detect biological motion of vital importance.

scholarly journals Neural and Neuromimetic Perception: A Comparative Study of Gender Classification from Human Gait

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 10402-1-10402-11
Author(s):  
Viswadeep Sarangi ◽  
Adar Pelah ◽  
William Edward Hahn ◽  
Elan Barenholtz
Keyword(s):  
Biological Motion ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Movement Analysis ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Human Gait ◽  
Computational Performance ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Perceptual Characteristics ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Perception Of Biological Motion

Abstract Humans are adept at perceiving biological motion for purposes such as the discrimination of gender. Observers classify the gender of a walker at significantly above chance levels from a point-light distribution of joint trajectories. However, performance drops to chance level or below for vertically inverted stimuli, a phenomenon known as the inversion effect. This lack of robustness may reflect either a generic learning mechanism that has been exposed to insufficient instances of inverted stimuli or the activation of specialized mechanisms that are pre-tuned to upright stimuli. To address this issue, the authors compare the psychophysical performance of humans with the computational performance of neuromimetic machine-learning models in the classification of gender from gait by using the same biological motion stimulus set. Experimental results demonstrate significant similarities, which include those in the predominance of kinematic motion cues over structural cues in classification accuracy. Second, learning is expressed in the presence of the inversion effect in the models as in humans, suggesting that humans may use generic learning systems in the perception of biological motion in this task. Finally, modifications are applied to the model based on human perception, which mitigates the inversion effect and improves performance accuracy. The study proposes a paradigm for the investigation of human gender perception from gait and makes use of perceptual characteristics to develop a robust artificial gait classifier for potential applications such as clinical movement analysis.

Biological Motion Shown Backwards: The Apparent-Facing Effect

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3262 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Pavlova ◽  
Ingeborg Krägeloh-Mann ◽  
Niels Birbaumer ◽  
Alexander Sokolov
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Presentation Mode ◽  
Reverse Transformation ◽  
Perceptual Identification ◽  
Perceptual Development ◽  
Apparent Direction ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Perception Of Biological Motion ◽  
Order Of Presentation

We examined how showing a film backwards (reverse transformation) affects the visual perception of biological motion. Adults and 6-year-old children saw first a point-light quadruped moving normally as if on a treadmill, and then saw the same display in reverse transformation. For other groups the order of presentation was the opposite. Irrespective of the presentation mode (normal or reverse) and of the facing of the point-light figure (rightward or leftward), a pronounced apparent-facing effect was observed: the perceptual identification of a display was mainly determined by the apparent direction of locomotion. The findings suggest that in interpreting impoverished point-light biological-motion stimuli the visual system may neglect distortions caused by showing a film backwards. This property appears to be robust across perceptual development. Possible explanations of the apparent-facing effect are discussed.

scholarly journals Brain activity underlying auditory perceptual learning during short period training: simultaneous fMRI and EEG recording

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Cláudia Silva de Souza ◽  
Hani Camille Yehia ◽  
Masa-aki Sato ◽  
Daniel Callan
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Short Period
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