Perception最新文献

Although synaesthesia has been linked to increased creativity and engagement with the arts, most of the evidence has come from visual arts rather than music. Here we show for the first time that synaesthesia is far more prevalent in musicians than non-musicians (an odds ratio of about 4). We show that this result holds true for all three different kinds of synaesthesia that we considered (grapheme-colour, sequence-space, sound-colour) including for types of synaesthesia unrelated to music. That is, it is not simply the case that the ability to 'see' music drives the higher prevalence, although this may have a role. Instead, we speculate that the cognitive profile of synaesthetes is conducive to musicality. We provide an estimate of the prevalence of sound-colour synaesthesia in non-musicians of between 0.3% and 1.3%, depending on the threshold applied, with comparable figures for musicians of 1.3% to 7.3%.

Processing limitations necessitate the selection and prioritization of parts of the visual input-that is visual attention. Visual attention cannot just shift in space, but also changes in size, so-called attentional breadth. A common paradigm to assess attentional breadth is the Navon task wherein participants are instructed to attend global or local features in ambiguous figures. Differences in response times and accuracy then allow inferences about attentional breadth. Here we tested an alternative, overt-behavior free marker of attentional breadth in the Navon task: pupil size changes. Participants were asked to report the parity of either the global or the local number making up an adjusted Navon stimulus. Global and local numbers differed in luminance. We found no differences in pupil size when either a bright or dark feature was attended. However, we did find a larger pupil size when the global compared with when the local number was attended. This effect could be attributed to multiple factors. First, as accuracy was lower when reporting global compared with local features, task difficulty likely affected pupil size. Second, the observed effect possibly reflects higher effort necessary for a wide compared with a narrow attentional breadth-in our specific task layout. Third, we speculate that attentional breadth may effort-independently contribute to this difference in pupil size. Future work could tease apart these factors by changing task layout and stimulus sizes. Together, our data show that pupil size may serve as a physiological marker of attentional breadth in the Navon task.

This study examined the effects of facial color on emotion recognition in individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder compared to typically developing individuals. A total of 34 participants with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and 39 typically developing individuals underwent two cognitive facial expression tasks using images altered to have a reddish color representing anger. Task 1 required participants to categorize images as either fear or anger as the emotion corresponding to the image, while Task 2 required ranking the images along a continuum from anger to fear. Results showed that individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder exhibited a facial color effect similar to typically developing participants but had lower accuracy in recognizing facial emotions. Interestingly, the color effect was less pronounced in Japanese individuals with autism spectrum disorder when viewing faces of the same race, but more pronounced for unfamiliar European faces. This suggests that individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder may develop compensatory strategies for recognizing facial expressions, and that cultural and racial factors influence emotion perception in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Functional Cognitive Disorder ("FCD") is a type of Functional Neurological Disorder characterised by subjective cognitive complaints not fully attributable to brain injury, disease, or other neuropathological or psychiatric conditions. FCD is a cognitive impairment but does not necessarily "convert" to cognitive decline. However, FCD is common in Memory Clinics worldwide, and currently there is a lack of tests to objectively assess FCD. Establishing whether memory complaints are functional or not is vital for clinicians and objective tests are required. Previous research indicates that early-stage Alzheimer's disease can be differentiated from healthy individuals by antisaccade eye-movement. Therefore, eye movements may be able to objectively ascertain whether self-reported memory complaints are functional in nature. In this study, FCD participants were Memory Clinic patients who self-reported memory complaints but showed internal inconsistency regarding memory issues on memory tests. Participants with FCD were compared to Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients and healthy controls (HC) on antisaccadic and prosaccade eye movement tasks. The parameters obtained were reaction-time (RT) mean and SD and antisaccade error rate. MCI differed significantly from HC in antisaccade RT-mean, RT-SD, error-rate, and from FCD antisaccade RT-mean, RT-SD, and error-rate. FCD did not differ significantly from HC for antisaccade parameters. However, FCD differed significantly from HC for prosaccade RT-mean and RT-SD. MCI did not differ significantly from HC or FCD in prosaccade parameters. These results indicate that eye movement tasks could ultimately aid clinicians in the diagnosis of FCD. With additional research into sensitivity and specificity, eye movement tasks could become an important feature of memory clinics.

Rotating colors (digitally within CIELAB color space) of an artistic painting is thought to keep constant all aspects of the painting except the hues. When observers are asked to select the preferred image among color-rotated images the "original" version of the artwork is typically selected, while the hue transformed images are rejected. We hypothesized that color contrast may be reduced after such digital rotations, which was supported by feature analyses. We also found that when the original painting or rotations were viewed individually, they did not differ in both hedonic ratings and pupil responses, though observers selected the original paintings in a forced-choice test. Hence, we generated versions of the paintings where color contrast was either enhanced or reduced and forced-choice experiments (online or in the lab) confirmed that the higher color contrast image within a pair was preferred (regardless of whether the image was an original painting or not). Eye tracking revealed that images with relatively higher contrast captured attention. We conclude that previous reports of a preference for the original artworks may have reflected reductions in color contrast of the color-rotated alternatives. These findings point to color contrast as a potential esthetic primitive feature but at the same time cast some doubts on relying exclusively on the results of forced choice tests for revealing genuine esthetic preferences.

It is well established that observers overestimate the surface orientation of geographical, virtual, and man-made hills. We investigated whether the v' theory-that observers use the angle of regard-or the relationship between the direction of gaze and the slope of the hill, to make their slope estimates. We tested whether the perceived steepness of hills changes across dramatic differences in eye heights across a wide range of surface orientations, while controlling for distance of the surface from the observer. We found that people use the angle of regard to make their slope estimates across a wide range of surface orientations and eye heights while controlling for distance, standing on the surface, and posture. The dramatic manipulation in eye height caused corresponding changes in slope perception as predicted by the angle of regard. The angle of regard seems to be a perceptual regularity that is constant across changes of position of the observer and surface slope, and also predicts observed changes in eye height and distance of the surface from the viewer.

This research investigates crossmodal correspondences between auditory stimuli, specifically musical modes, and olfactory mental imagery, represented by fragrance families. Building on the emerging literature on crossmodal correspondences, this research explores different mechanisms that might help to explain these crossmodal correspondences such as their shared connotative meaning and identity-based meaning. The first study evaluated the fragrance families and subfamilies and musical modes and assessed potential mechanisms behind these associations. The second study examined the associations between the musical modes and fragrance families and subfamilies through a matching task. The results revealed consistent matches between different musical modes and corresponding fragrance families and subfamilies, indicating a crossmodal association between auditory and olfactory mental imagery. What is more, major modes were perceived as brighter and less intense, and were more liked than minor modes, with floral and fresh fragrances similarly rated as brighter and more liked than oriental and woody fragrances. These results suggest that crossmodal correspondences between auditory and olfactory stimuli are influenced by brightness, intensity, and hedonic factors. Understanding such crossmodal associations can potentially benefit various fields, including marketing, product design, and those interested in creating multisensory experiences.

People across cultures engage in various practices that alter their appearance (e.g., makeup, tanning, facial aesthetic treatment). Theories in social and evolutionary psychology propose that the primary function of these practices is to create an appearance perceived more positively by others, ultimately resulting in more favorable outcomes in social, romantic, or professional relations. In two preregistered studies that improved upon and extended prior work, we tested the effect of popular types of minimally invasive facial aesthetic treatment on how people are perceived by others. Study 1 (2,720 raters, 114 targets) showed that treatment significantly increased perceived attractiveness (a 0.09-point change on a seven-point scale), but not perceived approachability (e.g., trustworthiness) or capability (e.g., competence). Study 2 (481 raters, 81 targets) showed that treatment significantly increased targets' desirability as a short-term romantic partner (a 0.10-point change on a seven-point scale) and as a platonic friend (a 0.08-point change on a seven-point scale), but not their desirability as a long-term romantic partner. Thus, our results suggest that a single session of minimally invasive facial aesthetic treatment leads to more positive perceptions on dimensions related to attractiveness, but these effects are relatively small.

Balance is controlled by visual, somatosensory, and vestibular sensory inputs. Older adults rely on visual information for balance control, and those with a history of falls have been reported to exhibit higher visual dependence. Additionally, high visual dependence may affect velocity-related parameters, such as gait speed. However, whether visual dependence is related to specific measures of postural control in older adults remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between visual dependence and balance in older adults. This was a single-center, cross-sectional, observational study involving 50 healthy older adults with a mean age of 72.0 ± 4.6 years. Visual dependence was assessed by measuring the static and dynamic subjective visual vertical (SVV) using a smartphone-based virtual reality method. Balance function was assessed using stabilometry and the mini-balance evaluation systems test (Mini-BESTest). The main outcome was medial-lateral sway velocity. Multivariate analysis was performed with each balance function (Mini-BESTest score, sway path, amplitude, and mean sway velocity) as the dependent variable and age, height, static SVV, and visual dependence as the independent variables. The results indicated that visual dependence was significantly associated with medial-lateral mean sway velocity in the eyes-closed foam surface condition (β = 0.41, p = .011, R² = 0.19). This suggests that older adults with high visual dependence may experience reduced static balance under conditions of limited visual and somatosensory inputs. These findings highlight the importance of considering visual dependence in balance assessment and rehabilitation programs for older adults with balance disorders.