Attentional Orienting in Front and Rear Spaces in a Virtual Reality Discrimination Task

Recent studies on covert attention suggested that the visual processing of information in front of us is different, depending on whether the information is present in front of us or if it is a reflection of information behind us (mirror information). This difference in processing suggests that we have different processes for directing our attention to objects in front of us (front space) or behind us (rear space). In this study, we investigated the effects of attentional orienting in front and rear space consecutive of visual or auditory endogenous cues. Twenty-one participants performed a modified version of the Posner paradigm in virtual reality during a spaceship discrimination task. An eye tracker integrated into the virtual reality headset was used to make sure that the participants did not move their eyes and used their covert attention. The results show that informative cues produced faster response times than non-informative cues but no impact on target identification was observed. In addition, we observed faster response times when the target occurred in front space rather than in rear space. These results are consistent with an orienting cognitive process differentiation in the front and rear spaces. Several explanations are discussed. No effect was found on subjects’ eye movements, suggesting that participants did not use their overt attention to improve task performance.

Overdetermination and subjective revision in Dong Kena's "Small Grass on the Kunlun Mountain"

Unfairness of the world appears nearly everywhere. It can be said as daily in our life. All this unfairness comes from discrimination. For many people, discrimination is an everyday reality. Discrimination is the unfair and prejudicial treatment that people and groups receive based on characteristics. Discrimination is based upon the primary requirement of difference. Only when difference appear over a group of people, discrimination shows its place. Discrimination comes from natural gifts that people are born with. Gender is the different for everyone. Every human is born with a gender assigned to. It’s whether, man or woman. Nevertheless, women are proven physically weaker than men. Science has proven their bodies to anatomically difference in return. Women are not only weaker in physical strength, but also are spiritually weaker. Eve was targeted by the serpent simply because she was the weaker vessel spiritually. With the different brain function, women are easily deceived, fantasists, and more emotional. These terms can especially drop atop love. Empty words, imagine, dreaming, and expression of emotions. Walking on a different branch of emotion, women are mentally weaker. The bible says women are the weaker vessels for a reason, we are also fragile mentally, and we are to be treated with great care and love to avoid breaking. Containing these natural discriminations, women receive unfair treatments from the world and the society.

Psychosis: Between Dreams and Perceptual Reality

From the beginning of time, the layman always described and understood psychosis as a dream-like state. Researchers have characterized both psychosis and dreaming with common denominators, both displaying visuomotor hallucinations, loose associations, metacognitive deficit, impaired reality discrimination, strong emotional component, resulting in a general lack of insight. The association of psychosis with dreaming was present in literature centuries ago, in the works of great thinkers such as Kant and Schopenhauer, which prompted many modern specialists to delve deeper into studying this connection for a better understanding of psychosis and possible applications in the clinical practice. During REM sleep, which is the most associated with dreaming, visual and motor areas in the brain show increased activation, which is congruent with the presence of hallucinations, the hallmark of the dreaming state. Also, the amygdala, involved in emotion regulation, has a prominent role in the sleeping brain. The deactivation of parts of the prefrontal cortex translate in altered capacity for making decisions and critical thinking. Several neuroimaging studies have shown similar neural patterns in the wakeful state of psychotic patients, especially those associated with the presence or absence of insight. As insight is thought to play a major role in treatment compliance and quality of life in psychotic patients, it is the most studied element linking psychosis and REM sleep. Lucid dreaming is a state of awareness of dreaming, while the individual is still asleep. The dreamer has a degree of control of the narrative and capacity for self-reflection, aspects deemed as insight. Lucid dreaming is a rare occurrence, but has the potential to be trained, concept with great relevance in researching modalities for insight gain in psychotic patients. In conclusion, the research of insight present in lucid dreaming shows great prospect for developing better interventions that target the lack of it in psychotic patients, thus contributing to significant improvement in their prognosis, quality of life and treatment compliance.

Pareidolia-proneness, reality discrimination errors, and visual hallucination-like experiences in a non-clinical sample

Introduction: It has been proposed that hallucinations occur because of problems with reality discrimination (when internal, self-generated cognitions are misattributed to an external, non-self source) and because of elevated levels of top-down processing. In this study, we examined whether visual reality discrimination abilities and elevated top-down processing (assessed via face pareidolia-proneness) were associated with how often non-clinical participants report visual hallucination-like experiences. Methods: Participants (N = 82, mean age = 23.12 years) completed a visual reality discrimination task and a face pareidolia task, as well as self-report measures of schizotypy and of the frequency of visual hallucination-like experiences. Results: Regression analysis demonstrated that the number of false alarms made on the visual reality discrimination task and the number of hits made on the face pareidolia task were independent predictors of the frequency of visual hallucination-like experiences. Correlations between performance on the task and levels of schizotypy were not statistically significant.Conclusions: These findings suggest that weaker visual reality discrimination abilities and elevated levels of top-down processing are associated with visual hallucination-proneness and are discussed in terms of the idea that clinical visual hallucinations and non-clinical visual hallucination-like experiences share similar cognitive mechanisms. This is a preprint of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Cognitive Neuropsychiatry on 06/DEC/2019, available at the following doi: 10.1080/13546805.2019.1700789

Dissociation mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and hallucination-proneness

BackgroundIt has been proposed that the relationship between childhood trauma and hallucinations can be explained by dissociative processes. The present study examined whether the effect of childhood trauma on hallucination-proneness is mediated by dissociative tendencies. In addition, the influence of dissociative symptoms on a cognitive process believed to underlie hallucinatory experiences (i.e. reality discrimination; the capacity to discriminate between internal and external cognitive events) was also investigated.MethodPatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (n=45) and healthy controls (with no history of hallucinations;n=20) completed questionnaire measures of hallucination-proneness, dissociative tendencies and childhood trauma, as well as performing an auditory signal detection task.ResultsCompared to both healthy and non-hallucinating clinical controls, hallucinating patients reported both significantly higher dissociative tendencies and childhood sexual abuse. Dissociation positively mediated the effect of childhood trauma on hallucination-proneness. This mediational role was particularly robust for sexual abuse over other types of trauma. Signal detection abnormalities were evident in hallucinating patients and patients with a history of hallucinations, but were not associated with pathological dissociative symptoms.ConclusionsThese results are consistent with dissociative accounts of the trauma-hallucinations link. Dissociation, however, does not affect reality discrimination. Future research should examine whether other cognitive processes associated with both dissociative states and hallucinations (e.g. deficits in cognitive inhibition) may explain the relationship between dissociation and hallucinatory experiences.