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The effect of self-face on voice recognition in schizophrenia during audiovisual integration Zhou AiBao, Xie Pei, Cui Jiawei 2019, 27 (suppl.):  3-3.  Abstract ( 417 )   The ability of patients with schizophrenia to recognize itself has been a controversial issue. To explore schizophrenics' ability of self-face recognition and the influence of self-face on their voice identity recognition in audiovisual integration. Thirty-five patients with schizophrenia and 29 healthy participants were selected to complete a single- modality dynamic self-face recognition task and an audiovisual integration task of 2(group: schizophrenia group, healthy group) × 3(voice identity: self, others of the same sex, others of the opposite sex) in self-face condition. Results show：there was no significant difference between the single-modality self-face recognition ability and self-voice recognition ability of patients with schizophrenia and healthy participants (p >0.05), but in the audiovisual integration task, the voice recognition of patients with schizophrenia was affected by the self-face (p < 0.05). It is found that patients with schizophrenia have the ability of self-face recognition and self-voice recognition. In the overall audiovisual task, self-face would promote self-voice recognition, and inhibited the recognition of other voices of the same and opposite sex. Related Articles | Metrics

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Dynamic Features of Mental Rotation in Hypoxic Exposure - Evidence of EEG Activity 2019, 27 (suppl.):  4-4.  Abstract ( 308 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Competence Inference of Unfamiliar Faces: A Study on Chinese Politicians and CEOs Menglei Yao, Chunhui Sun, Yu Liao, Wenfeng Feng 2019, 27 (suppl.):  5-5.  Abstract ( 95 )   Competence inference from facial appearance affects the social outcomes including political election and CEOs success. But the question that whether there are the facial competences for politicians and CEOs are in common or occupational specific remains unknown. Two studies were carried out to investigate this question. In Study 1, participants were asked to rate the competence of three types of face (politicians, CEOs and non-leaders) on a 9-point scale. The results showed that competence ratings of politicians and CEOs were higher than non-leaders, whereas there was no significant difference between these two groups. In Study 2, participants were asked to choose the face with higher competence from each pair of faces (CEO/politician face pairs, CEO/non-leader face pairs and politician/non-leader face pairs) under government situation and company situation separately. We found both the CEOs and politicians were selected more frequently than non-leaders under both of two situations. However, the results also showed that facial competence of politicians and CEOs were more prominent in their corresponding occupational situation. These results suggest that facial competence may be consisted of both general features and professional specific features for politicians and CEOs. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Low Prevalence Effect in Unfamiliar Face-matching Task 2019, 27 (suppl.):  10-10.  Abstract ( 202 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The Positivity Effect in Facial Trustworthiness Judgment in Older Adults: Age Difference and the Effects of Cognitive Declines Ya-xuan Ang, Fang-fang Wang, Yong-na Li 2019, 27 (suppl.):  11-11.  Abstract ( 315 )   Previous studies have shown that older adults tend to evaluate faces as more trustworthy than do younger adults, which is referred to positivity effect in facial trustworthiness judgment. The positivity effect is due to age-related declines in cognitive capacity. We investigated the age difference in positivity effect for older adults judging young and old faces and whether cognitive declines caused greater positivity effect. Younger, young older, medium older, and old older adults in Experiment 1 rated trustworthiness of young and old faces with neutral expression on a 7-point Likert scale. Results showed a positivity effect for all three groups of older adults only when judging old faces but not young faces. No age difference in positivity effect was observed. Experiment 2 compared the positivity effect in older adults with high and low cognitive level. There was a positivity effect in older adults with high cognitive level in rating old faces, but no positivity effect in older adults with low cognitive level. The results indicate that the positivity effect in older adults relies on normal cognitive level. However, cognitive decline is not responsible for the occurence of positivity effect. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Positivity Effect of Facial Trustworthiness in Older Adults: The Influence of Facial Expressions and Face Age Ya-xuan Ang, Xin-yue Liu, Shi-wei Yang, Yong-na Li 2019, 27 (suppl.):  12-12.  Abstract ( 348 )   Older adults tend to favor positive over negative information more than do younger adults. This positivity effect may be due to greater emotion regulation of negative emotions based on socioemotional selection theory. The previous research has shown a positivity effect in older adults when judging trustworthiness of faces. We examined whether facial expressions and face age affected the positivity effect in a facial trustworthiness judgment task. Younger and older adults had to rated trustworthiness of young and old faces with happy, neutral, and sad expressions. The results revealed a significant 3-way interaction of face age, facial expression, and participant age. That is, there was a positivity effect when rating young sad faces and old neutral faces. Greater regulation of negative emotions in older adults than in younger adults cannot fully account for the current findings, specially for the positivity effect in rating old neutral faces, but not in old happy and old sad faces. Older adults might be more sensitive to cues of trustworthiness of own-age neutral faces as compared with younger adults. Related Articles | Metrics

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Direct mapping of affective pictures and taste sensations Jiayu Jiang, Pei Liang, Liuqing Wei 2019, 27 (suppl.):  15-15.  Abstract ( 100 )   PURPOSE: This study aims to map systematically the affective pictures with basic taste perception. METHODS: In this study, 118 college students (58 boys and 60 girls) were selected from Liaoning Normal University (LNU) and Changshu Institute of Technology (CIT).To do so pictures from Chinese Affective Picture System (CAPS) and from other online website are selected and reorganized according to the liking and arousal ratings of the participants. The pictures are divided into positive, neutral and negative groups according to the liking scores. Each group is divided into mild, medium, strong sub-groups according to the arousal scores. The participants were requested to choose one semantic taste from the four basic taste words (acid, sweet, bitter, salty) as quickly as possible when they were exposed to one picture in random order RESULTS: The results show that affective positive pictures are significantly associated with sweet taste. And the association gets stronger when hedonic rating increases. The affective negative pictures are significantly associated with bitter taste, particularly with strong negative pictures. The mild to medium negative pictures are associated significantly with acid taste. The neutral pictures are not particularly associated with any taste. CONCLUSIONS: Our observation in this study supports the conclusions that the emotional processing status induced by sensory stimuli such as vision can have a regulating effect on sensory perception like taste. In other words, the emotional status may contribute as an important regulator involved in the cross-modal interaction and modulate the perception. Related Articles | Metrics

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The effect of masked peripheral vision on visually-induced motion sickness in immersive virtual environment Zemin Liu, Yu-Hsin Chen 2019, 27 (suppl.):  16-16.  Abstract ( 271 )   PURPOSE: Investigating the role of peripheral vision on visually-induced motion sickness in an immersive virtual environment. METHODS: Participants were tasked to walk upon a specific trail in an immersive virtual environment. Each participant completed four trail walks in total; peripheral vision was subtly masked in two of the trail walks. Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) scores were recorded before and after each trial walk. RESULTS: The results showed that the Total Severity Score, Nausea, Oculomotor and Disorientation scores were significantly lower when peripheral vision was subtly masked in comparison to trail walks where peripheral vision was not masked. CONCLUSIONS: The theory of sensory mismatch posit when information inputs between vestibular, somatosensory, and visual conflict with each other; motion sickness symptoms begin to emerge. Reduction of information from the peripheral region of the retina may have alleviated the degree of conflict between visual and vestibular and/or somatosensory inputs, thus reported SSQ scores were significantly lower in masked peripheral vision conditions. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Endogenous Attention on Perceptual Appearance Wang-Nan Pan, Xiang-Jun Zeng, Liang-Yu Gong, Yong-Chun Cai 2019, 27 (suppl.):  17-17.  Abstract ( 158 )   PURPOSE: In the past, some scholars had found that the effect of exogenous attention on perceptual impression changes dynamically with stimulus contrast (Zhou, Buetti, Lu & Cai, 2018). When the stimulus contrast is low, exogenous attention enhances the subjective contrast of the stimulus, while when the stimulus contrast is high, exogenous attention weakens the subjective contrast. Here, we investigated the influence of endogenous attention on perceptual appearance of high- and low-contrast gratings. METHODS: In this experiment, we used a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task and a cue to direct endogenous spatial attention, and participants performed an equality judgment task, in which they reported whether two Gabors are of the same or different contrast. For the high contrast grating, the contrast of the test stimulus was 60%, and the contrast of the test stimulus was systematically varied in 11 log increments from 29% to 97%; For the low contrast grating, the contrast of the standard stimulus was 25%, and the contrast of the test stimulus was systematically varied in from 9% to 68%. RESULTS: For both high-contrast and low-contrast gratings, the average Point of Subjective Equality (PSE) for the test-cued condition (i.e., the test stimulus was cued) was lower than standard-cued condition (i.e., the standard stimulus was cued). CONCLUSIONS: Our result suggests that voluntary attention enhances perceptual contrast both at both low contrast level and high contrast level. This is in contrast with previous research of involuntary attention, in which contrast appearance was enhanced for low-contrast stimuli while reduced for high-contrast stimuli. Related Articles | Metrics

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The flash-lag effect during head rotation: Beyond the motion extrapolation hypothesis Xin He, Jianying Bai, Yi Jiang, Tao Zhang, Min Bao 2019, 27 (suppl.):  19-19.  Abstract ( 301 )   PURPOSE: The present study examined the roles of vestibular and visual motion signals in the head-rotation-induced flash-lag effect (FLE), and tested the validity of the motion extrapolation hypothesis for this type of FLE. METHODS: Participants kept rotating their heads in the horizontal plane during the experiments. Stimuli were presented on an HMD. A 3-Space Sensor, attached on top of the HMD, acquired the head motion data in real-time. In Experiment 1, subjects maintained a central fixation, while a vertical reference bar either remained stationary on the center of the screen or moved at the same speed as the observer's head rotation from one side of the screen to the other but in the opposite direction of the head rotation. The latter condition simulated a circumstance that the reference bar remained static in the environment with the retinal motion signal completely resulting from the head rotation. Horizontal FLEs were measured and compared between the two conditions. In Experiment 2, head rotation was associated with vertical drift of a full-field grating. Both horizontal and vertical FLEs were measured. RESULTS: We found reliable horizontal FLE in Experiment 1 whether the reference bar was stationary or moving on the screen. Moreover, the FLEs in the two conditions were in the same direction, showing comparable magnitudes. In Experiment 2, there was a weak but significant vertical FLE, though its magnitude was greatly smaller than the horizontal FLE. CONCLUSIONS: The motion extrapolation hypothesis predicts no horizontal FLE in Experiment 1 given that the reference bar is considered to be static in the environment. Besides, the hypothesis cannot explain the vertical FLE in Experiment 2. Taken together, the present findings do not support the motion extrapolation account for the FLE induced by head movement. Instead, the findings are discussed in relation to the modulation of vestibular signals on visual motion signal processing. Related Articles | Metrics

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Source information is inherently linked to working memory representation for auditory but not for visual stimuli Mengjiao Xu, Yingtao Fu, Jiahan Yu, Ping Zhu, Mowei Shen, Hui Chen 2019, 27 (suppl.):  24-24.  Abstract ( 86 )   PURPOSE: Failing to remember the source of retrievable information is known as source amnesia. This phenomenon has been extensively investigated in long-term memory but rarely in working memory, as we share the intuition that the source information of an item that we have encountered in the immediate past is always available. However, a recent study (Chen, Carlson, & Wyble, 2018) challenged this common sense by showing the source amnesia for simple visual stimuli (e.g., colored square) in the context of working memory when participants did not expect having to report source information, which indicated that the source information of visual stimuli was not automatically encoded into working memory. The current study sought to explore the boundaries of the newly discovered striking phenomenon of short-term source amnesia reported by Chen et al. (2018). METHODS: The current study adopted the surprise memory test to examine whether short-term source amnesia could persist with complex and meaningful stimuli in the visual modality (Experiment 1), cross-visual-and-auditory modalities (Experiments 2a & 2b), and within-auditory modality (Experiment 3). RESULTS: The results revealed that short-term source amnesia was a robust effect in the visual modality even for complex and meaningful stimuli, whereas it was absent in the cross-visual-and-auditory or within-auditory modalities, regardless of reporting expectation. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicates differences in working memory representations of visual and auditory stimuli, namely, the representation of auditory stimuli was stored together with the corresponding original sources, while that of visual stimuli was stored independently of its source information. These findings have crucial implications for further clarifying the longstanding debate regarding whether or not there is a modality-independent working memory storage system for different modalities. Related Articles | Metrics

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Lower contrast discrimination sensitivity in subthreshold depression: a longitudinal study Shiyu Chen, Mofen Cen, Gaoxing Mei 2019, 27 (suppl.):  28-28.  Abstract ( 106 )   PURPOSE: See everything gray when in depressed mood. Previous studies have shown that visual perception in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) is altered. Whether individuals with subthreshold depression (StD), who have significant depressive symptoms but do not meet the diagnostic criteria of MDD, experience abnormalities in visual perception remains largely unknown. Here we aimed to investigate whether contrast sensitivity in StD could be altered, and whether these alterations could be stable across time, using a longitudinal design. METHODS: Thirty two subjects with StD and thirty one subjects with non-depressed were screened out to perform two tasks: contrast absolute sensitivity task (task 1) and contrast discrimination task (task 2). Using a QUEST adaptive procedure and a four- alterative-forced-choice task, we instructed the subjects to judge at which of the four alternative positions a Gabor stimulus appeared (task 1) or which of the four Gabor stimuli had higher contrast (task 2). These subjects were retested after an average time interval of about four months. RESULTS: No difference in contrast absolute sensitivity between StD and non-depressed controls was found. However, individuals with StD demonstrated lower contrast discrimination sensitivity (i.e. higher contrast discrimination threshold) than non-depressed controls in all pedestal contrast levels across test time. Furthermore, individuals who demonstrated lower contrast discrimination sensitivity at the initial test were less likely to improve in depressive symptoms at the follow-up test. CONCLUSIONS: Contrast discrimination sensitivity in StD was reduced, and this alteration was associated with individuals' clinical state. Related Articles | Metrics

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Gaze Cues Stored in Working Memory Trigger Automatic Attentional Orienting Haoyue Ji, Li Wang, Yi Jiang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  29-29.  Abstract ( 152 )   PURPOSE: Previous research has shown that social cues including eye gaze can readily guide our focus of attention. However, it remains unknown whether such effect hinges on the cues being ‘online'. Here, we demonstrate that merely maintaining social cues in working memory (WM) can elicit a similar attentional orienting effect. METHODS: In Experiment 1, using the delayed-match-to-sample paradigm combined with the dot-probe task, participants were first required to memorize a face with averted eye gaze (leftward or rightward) for an identity recognition test at the end of trial. Then, participants were instructed to localize a periphery target following the face. Experiment 2 replicated the design and procedure employed in Experiment 1, except that participants were asked to hold arrows pointing leftward or rightward in WM. RESULTS: We found that holding a face image with task-irrelevant averted eye gaze in WM could automatically induce attentional orienting to the gazed-at location. Importantly, such WM-induced attention effect could not be explained by the perceptual attentional process, because the identical gaze cues that were only passively viewed and not memorized in WM didn't trigger attentional orienting beyond the time window of typical social attention. Furthermore, non-social cues (i.e., arrows) held in WM also failed to elicit the automatic attentional orienting effect. CONCLUSIONS: The current study provides clear evidence that social but not non-social cues stored in WM can guide spatial attention akin to that with actual presentation of stimuli, and highlights the uniqueness of brain mechanisms underlying social attention as compared to non-social attention. Related Articles | Metrics

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Same category don't blink in selective attention Yuanyu Shi, Zhentao Zuo 2019, 27 (suppl.):  30-30.  Abstract ( 77 )   PURPOSE: When viewing a rapid successive sequence of items, the second target (T2) was often missed if it presents 200-400ms after the first target (T1) onset—known as the atten- tional blink (AB)(Raymond,1992). A number of failed experiments that attempt to eliminate AB have led to the belief that it is impossible to get rid of the capacity limit associated with AB. However, Hoon Choia (2012) reported AB can be eliminated by short-term training with a color-salient T2. In this study, RSVP paradigm and categorical feature-controlled symbols(targets) were used to manipulate subjects' attention and they were asked to perform a categorization task. We wondered whether AB can be overcome without train- ing. METHODS: Digits (2-9) or letters were randomly factitiously classified into three categories, such as furniture, electrical-equipment, and stationary. Letters or digits were used as dis- tractors. Subjects were asked to respond two classification questions (Which categories does T1 and T2 belong to?). RESULTS: In Exp1, when T1 and T2 belonged to the same category, AB was absent. However, when they were in different categories, there was a strong AB. We changed the categories into self, friends and others (Exp2), increased items into six within each category (Exp3), or increased the number of categories into 6 (Exp4) while keeping other conditions. The results were extremely consistent with Exp1. No significant differences were observed among these results. CONCLUSIONS: These experiments show a clear evidence that when T1 and T2 belongs to the same category, the AB disappears. It seems that if T1 and T2 are in different artificially defined categories, it will trigger AB. This may help to provide a new window for eliminate AB in selective attention. Related Articles | Metrics

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Visual working memory load does not affect the overall stimulus processing time in visual search Keyun Xin, Zhi Li 2019, 27 (suppl.):  33-33.  Abstract ( 172 )   PURPOSE: The dual-task paradigm is widely used in studying the interaction between visual search and working memory. Lots of studies showed that holding items in working memory delays the overall response time (RT) in visual search, but not affect the search efficiency. Some researchers proposed that the difference in overall RT may be caused by factors that only affect the response selection process, while others argued it may reflect the involvement of working memory in visual search. The present study examined the two competing hypotheses by measuring the threshold stimulus exposure duration (TSED) for successfully fulfilling a search task. Since the TSED is not affected by the factors of response selection stage, it provides an excellent way to examine whether the delayed response selection account or the working memory account is correct. METHODS: In the TSED paradigm, the exposure duration of the search array was adjusted according to a 1-up 3-down staircase procedure. Experiment 1 replicated the procedure of Woodman et al. (2001, Exp. 2) with both the RT and TSED paradigm. Participants were instructed to performing a visual search task while holding items in visual working memory. The procedure of Experiment 2 was similar to that of Experiment 1, except for a mixed-design of visual working memory load and a longer consolidation time for memory items. RESULTS: Experiment 1 replicated the substantial overall RT difference with the RT method but only found a small (though reliable) overall TSED difference with the TSED method. Experiment 2, with better controls, found no TSED difference when manipulating visual working memory load. CONCLUSIONS: Virtually no overall TSED difference was observed when manipulating visual working memory load, which suggested the difference of overall RT in visual search was due to factors only affecting response selection but not the involvement of visual working memory. Related Articles | Metrics

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Happy is stronger than sad: emotional modulation of the attentional effect elicited by biological motion cues 2019, 27 (suppl.):  35-35.  Abstract ( 307 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Detection of Orientation Columns in Cat Visual Cortex via Experimental Paradigm Guided Blind Source Separation Yan Zhang, Ming Li, Dewen Hu 2019, 27 (suppl.):  36-36.  Abstract ( 91 )   PURPOSE: Optical imaging based on intrinsic signals (OI) is widely used for the functional architecture studies of cat primary visual cortex. In such applications, a powerful tool to detect orientation columns is blind source separation (BSS) technique. Being data-driven methods, BSS approaches do not require any prior information. However, incorporating prior information such as experimental paradigm can be helpful for the accurate detection of activations. In our study, prior information is incorporated to the canonical correlation analysis (CCA), and an experimental paradigm information guided BSS method was proposed for the analysis of cat primary visual cortex OI data. METHODS: The amplitude of the response signal change significantly after stimulus, therefore a mean difference before and after stimulus can be used as a temporal constraint to guide the separation of response signal. The proposed method is obtained by imposing the temporal constraint to the estimated time courses of CCA using experimental paradigm. RESULTS: The proposed method is evaluated and validated by comparisons with the conventional method on cat primary visual cortex OI data. Comparing with the conventional method, our approach detected more accurate orientation columns and achieved more consistent performance among different trials. The results obtained by the proposed method is more reasonable and interpretable. CONCLUSIONS: Incorporating experimental paradigm information into BSS can improve the accuracy and robustness of pure data-driven method. The proposed method is suitable for the analysis of cat visual cortex OI data and can obtain a more accurate and interpretable activation for the detection of orientation columns. Related Articles | Metrics

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Affecting Postdictive Effect of Choice by Altering Attention Yiling Zhou, Mowei Shen, Hui Chen 2019, 27 (suppl.):  37-37.  Abstract ( 91 )   PURPOSE: Our conscious perception of the world is not an instantaneous moment-by-moment construction, but rather the information subsequent in time seems to affect the percept of the prior event, which was known as postdictive effect. This effect has traditionally been studied in the field of perception. However, a recent study even reported this postdictive effect in decision making, by showing that participants were more likely than chance to selected a certain option when a stimulus was presented soon after the perceived time of choice. The main purpose of the present study sought to directly test the underlying mechanism of this newly discovered postdictive effect. METHODS: We proposed that attention might be the cause of this effect and conducted two experiments to test this hypothesis. In Experiment 1, participants were shown two circles and were asked to quickly choose one of them mentally. After a variable delay, one of circles turned red, and the other turned another different color, so as to eliminate attentional bias to any of two circles. Participants were then asked to indicate whether they had chosen the circle that turned red. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1 except that attention was directly manipulated by using a spatial cue. RESULTS: Experiment 1 showed that participants no longer preferred to choose the red circle (i.e., the postdictive effect disappeared) when the attentional bias to the red circle was eliminated. However, when participants' attention was oriented to a certain circle by a cue, their probability of reporting having chosen that circle increased, indicating a postdictive effect on choice. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that attention plays a crucial role in producing this postdicted choice effect. Related Articles | Metrics

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The effect of group status on face recognition Bingjie Hu, Linlin Yan, Wenling Xia 2019, 27 (suppl.):  38-38.  Abstract ( 238 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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LSF-related facilitation of threat detection induced by anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of right TPJ Shengnan Zhu, Lihong Chen 2019, 27 (suppl.):  40-40.  Abstract ( 77 )   PURPOSE: Fast detection of threatening information is crucial for survival. There is still controversy regarding the roles of low- and high-spatial-frequency information (LSF and HSF) in the fast detection of threat. METHODS: Here we probed this issue by using a prime procedure together with the transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) technique. Participants were prior exposed to LSF or HSF faces before the detection of approaching or receding spheres. In the meantime, tDCS was applied to the left or right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), which has been preferentially associated with the processing of the LSF and HSF information, respectively. RESULTS: Significant LSF-related facilitation of threat detection was observed when anodal tDCS was applied to the right TPJ. However, HSF-related facilitation of threat detection was not observed when anodal tDCS was applied to the left TPJ. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the idea that LSF information can facilitate threat detection, and provide direct evidence that right TPJ is vital for the LSF-related facilitation of threat detection. Related Articles | Metrics

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Temporal dynamics of heading perception and identification of scene-relative object motion from optic flow Mingyang Xie, Li Li 2019, 27 (suppl.):  41-41.  Abstract ( 96 )   PURPOSE: During self-motion, the visual system can perceive the direction of self-motion (heading) and identify scene-relative object motion from optic flow (flow parsing). However, little is known about the temporal dynamics of heading perception and flow parsing. Here we addressed this question by examining how the accuracy of heading perception and flow parsing changes with exposure time to optic flow. METHODS: A stereo display simulated forward translation at 0.3m/s through a cloud of 58 red wireframe objects (depth: 0.69-1.03m) placed on one side of the image plane (56ºx33º). Five display durations (100ms, 200ms, 400ms, 700ms, & 1000ms) were tested. For heading perception, on each trial, heading was randomly chosen from -10° (left) to 10° (right). Participants were asked to indicate perceived heading at the end of the trial using a mouse-controlled probe. For flow parsing, on each trial, heading was fixed at 0° and a yellow dot probe (diameter: 0.25º; depth: 0.86m) moved vertically for 100ms in the scene. Objects were placed on the opposite side of the probe in the image plane to remove local motion cues around the probe. The speed (2º/s) and eccentricity (4º) at the midpoint of the probe's motion were equated across display durations. A nulling motion component was added to the probe's motion using an adaptive staircase to determine when the probe was perceived to move vertically in the scene. This nulling motion component was used to compute the accuracy of flow parsing. RESULTS: Across 12 participants, while the accuracy of heading perception increased with exposure time, the accuracy of flow parsing decreased with exposure time to optic flow. CONCLUSIONS: The opposite trend of temporal dynamics of heading perception and flow parsing suggests that although these two processes both rely on optic flow, they involve separate neural substrates and compete for the same limited attention resource. Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between racial ratio and holistic face processing 2019, 27 (suppl.):  43-43.  Abstract ( 173 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation over the prefrontal cortex reveals its role in prospective memory and working memory dual-task Jing Zhou, Ling Li 2019, 27 (suppl.):  51-51.  Abstract ( 262 )   PURPOSE: Based on the early research evidence, both the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of the frontopolar cortex play a crucial role in prospective memory (PM) and working memory (WM). However, the specific involvement of both regions in PM and WM is still unclear. The current study aimed to investigate the role of distinct regions in the human prefrontal lobe in PM and WM functioning, and to find out which parts of the prefrontal lobe are particularly involved in supporting them. METHODS: We used inhibitory continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) to interfere with the functions of the right aPFC or the right DLPFC, and the vertex (serving as a control site). There were four kinds of tasks to carry out, including oddball task (OB), 1-back WM task (1B), 3-back WM task (3B), and dual-task (PM-1B). The performance of 18 healthy volunteers was evaluated on different days after cTBS over three sites. RESULTS: Compared with the control site (vertex), the application of cTBS over the right aPFC as well as right DLPFC significantly increased the response times (RTs) of 1-back target detection within dual-task, and 1-back task's accuracy was lower after cTBS over the right DLPFC compared with the vertex. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide evidence for a key role of the aPFC and the DLPFC in cognitive control, in particular, the role of DLPFC is more prominent. Related Articles | Metrics

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Why spatial perception has astonishing biases: An explanation from the perspective of motor control 2019, 27 (suppl.):  52-52.  Abstract ( 235 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Self-perception induces visual size illusion Ying Zhang, Li Wang, Yi Jiang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  54-54.  Abstract ( 112 )   PURPOSE: Previous studies have demonstrated that visual size perception is highly context-dependent and involves multiple neural computations. However, it is heretofore unknown whether visual size perception can be modulated by self - referential information . METHODS: The present study aimed to probe this issue by adopting self-referential stimuli (self-face and self-associated cartoon face), for use in a size discrimination paradigm. Famous faces were also employed to ensure that the modulation of self-face on size perception, if observed, reflect a genuine “self-effect” rather than a familiarity effect. RESULTS: We found that self-face was perceived as significantly larger than other faces of the same size, and this size overestimation effect was not observed when a famous face was compared with other faces. Moreover, such illusion effect could extend to a cartoon face repeatedly associated with one's own face and further exert contextual influences on visual size perception of other objects. CONCLUSIONS: These findings together highlight the role of self-awareness in visual size perception, and point to a special mechanism of size perception tuned to self-referential information. Related Articles | Metrics

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“Adaptation-Training Switch” in Vision System: Hierarchical Progressive Short-term Bi-directional Plasticity in dLGN, Area 17 and Area 21a of Cats Shang FENG, Zhichang CUI, Hongbo YU 2019, 27 (suppl.):  56-56.  Abstract ( 207 )   PURPOSE: Short-term neural plasticity plays a key role in learning and working memory. Investigation on visual adaptation across different brain regions reveals interesting functional progressive short-term plasticity patterns, which will be helpful to understand how information is processed dynamically along visual streams. METHODS: Combining biased adaptation protocol and in vivo electrophysiology single unit recording, we observed bi-directional switch of adaptive depression and training potentiation at single-cell level in dLGN, area 17 and area 21a of cats (Felis catus). RESULTS: Induction of training potentiation requires different probability times of training direction: 8~80 in dLGN, 2~8 in area 17, and 1~4 in area 21a. Probability times under the lower limit could not induce significant change of response features, while exceeding the upper limit leads to adaptive depression. Further investigation suggests that for single cell, switch of adaptive depression and training potentiation is stimuli-parameter specific and cell-type related. CONCLUSIONS: The short-term bi-directional plasticity patterns show progressive differences along dLGN and the visual ventral stream, suggesting inter-level propagation and intra-level uniqueness co-exist during visual information process. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Competition between External and Internal Guidance in Entering Focus of Attention of Working Memory Jiaofeng Li, Huayu Liao, Mowei Shen, Zaifeng Gao 2019, 27 (suppl.):  57-57.  Abstract ( 86 )   PURPOSE: Representations in focus of attention (FoA) of working memory (WM) have the highest activation state and processing privilege. Currently it has been claimed that there were two pathways for the representations entering FoA: external guidance and internal guidance. External guidance works on memorized stimuli at the encoding phase of WM, while internal guidance acts on representations stored in WM. Previous WM studies predominately addressed the two pathways separately. However, in daily cognitive processing, there are situations that the two pathways co-exist and may have distinct targets. Few studies have addressed the mechanism of competition between external and internal guidance when guiding the related target into FoA. The current study aimed at closing this gap. METHODS: In a change detection task, we presented a set of memorized stimuli, which contains a color singleton serving as an external guidance. Additionally, we displayed a retro-cue in the maintenance phase of WM serving as an internal guidance. We examined whether the singleton effect could be modulated by the retro-cue. Experiment 1 investigated when a retro-cue started to take place in our task setting . Experiment 2 investigated the interaction between external and internal guidance when having distinct targets. Experiments 3 and 4 further examined this issue by enhancing the strength of internal guidance, tapping the processing time and validity of retro-cue, respectively. RESULTS: We found that the singleton effect was modulated by the strength of the retro-cue: the singleton effect and retro-cue effect could co-exist when the strength of retro-cue was at a weak-to-medium level, yet the singleton effect diminished when the retro-cue was strong. CONCLUSIONS: External and internal guidance competed for the limited resource, and the stronger one will guide the representation into FoA. Related Articles | Metrics

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Unveiling general learning ability in perceptual learning Jia Yang, Pan Zhang, Fangfang Yan, Jin Zhao, Zhong-Lin Lu, Chang-Bing Huang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  60-60.  Abstract ( 98 )   PURPOSE: Perceptual learning (PL), known as a basic and implicit learning form, has been demonstrated in almost all perceptual tasks, with pattern differed across tasks and learners. However, what determined learning ability and whether a general learning factor underlies this widespread plasticity remain largely unknown. METHODS: We trained forty-nine subjects on seven different visual or audiovisual tasks in a continual learning paradigm. Training lasts for 35 sessions, with 5 sessions/task, allocated in separated days. Each session consisted of 7 blocks and each block has ~100 trials. In total, each subject completed ~24,500 trials. The training sequence was counterbalanced among subjects. Achievement of motivation, big-five personality, and non-verbal IQ were also assessed. RESULTS: Learning varied with tasks, subjects and initial performance. Only extraversion was found to be correlated with average learning rate across tasks. We then developed a statistical model to dissect tasks-, subjects-, and initial performance- related components in learning ability, which explained 59.7% variance of the 343 drastically different learning curves. More importantly, the isolated estimators of subjects were now positively correlated with learners' score in non-verbal IQ test. CONCLUSIONS: We successfully dissected learning ability and unveiled a general learning component that related to learner's inherent intellectual component in perceptual learning. Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on the Effectiveness of the Self-adaptive Gaze-based Bubble Cursor 2019, 27 (suppl.):  62-62.  Abstract ( 206 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The average attraction of a set of faces is not equal to the attraction of average face of the set 2019, 27 (suppl.):  63-63.  Abstract ( 156 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The Strength of Numeric Representation Modulates the Occurring Phase of SNARC Effect 2019, 27 (suppl.):  64-64.  Abstract ( 298 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Assimilation and Contrast Effects of Face Attractiveness 2019, 27 (suppl.):  65-65.  Abstract ( 577 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Revisiting the components of value-driven attentional capture Xiuli Yang, Yanyan Tu, Zhuo Zhang, Huimin Cao, Yanju Ren 2019, 27 (suppl.):  68-68.  Abstract ( 89 )   PURPOSE: Traditionally, attentional control has been driven primarily by top-down (target-directed) and bottom-up (stimulus-driven) ways. Recent research has proposed a new attentional control mode, that is, value-driven attentional capture and mainly focused on reward association and selection history. Previous studies have focused on whether value association can really drive the attentional capture of individual, because in the literature with opposing views, similar results can also be obtained without reward learning. Current study attempts to reinvestigate the capture effects of accuracy-based feedback, internal feedback, and previous targets mixed in the VDAC paradigm. METHODS: The present study explores the components of VDAC effects by a variant of VDAC paradigm. The study consisted of three experiments and each experiment was conducted in two phases: the training phase and the test phase. In Experiment 1, the accuracy feedback was presented during feedback display in training phase to investigate whether the accuracy-associated stimulus captures the attention of the participants during the test phase. The training phase of the Experiment 2 removed the accuracy-based feedback, and a self-report question (“Do you think the response you just made is correct?”) would be presented after the response of participants to explore the effect of internal feedback. The training phase of Experiment 3 completely removed the feedback display to explore the roles of the stimulus only as previous targets in the attentional capture. The test phases are the same in all three experiments. RESULTS: Significant distractor-capture effects were found in all three experiments, that is, RTs in distractor-present condition were significantly longer than distractor-absent condition, indicating that accuracy-based feedback, internal feedback, and even previous targets can drive attentional capture. CONCLUSIONS: Current study suggests that the traditional VDAC effects are at least mixed with value, accuracy-based feedback, internal feedback and the previous targets four components. Related Articles | Metrics

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Confirmation with Optical Imaging of Self-organization Model in the Functional Organization of Primary Visual Cortex Anqi Jin, Hongbo Yu 2019, 27 (suppl.):  69-69.  Abstract ( 164 )   PURPOSE: Neurons in primary visual cortex are organized into multiple functional maps. Self-organization model is highly consistent with the experiment results in some aspect. We applied experimental data with self-organization model and established the interface between experimental data and theoretical model for further study of mechanism in brain function map. METHODS: Self-organization model(SOM). SOM can simulate multiple functional maps in primary visual cortex of different species. Optical Imaging. Wavelengths for illuminant were 540nm(green) and 627nm(red). RESULTS: Function map in primary visual cortex of different species (cat, monkey, ferret) can be substituted into SOM and stayed stable by adjusting the model parameters and ratio of experimental map. The prefered orientation maps obtained at 540nm with heavy vascular artifacts can be corrected by the model, the results were consistent with maps in 627nm.The low signal-to-noise ratio in functional maps with less repetitions imaging function image can be enhanced by SOM and also confirmed by experiment. CONCLUSIONS: The self-organizing model was substitutable and compatible among different species. SOM had the ability to modify vascular artifact and noise. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of head and body orientations on center bias and serial dependence in heading perception Qi Sun, Li Li 2019, 27 (suppl.):  71-71.  Abstract ( 109 )   PURPOSE: Previous studies have shown that self-motion (heading) perception is biased toward display center (center bias) and affected by recently-seen stimuli (serial dependence). Here, we examined effects of head and body orientations on center bias and serial dependence in heading perception. METHODS: The display (80°x80°) simulated observer translation (3m/s) through a 3D random-dot cloud (depth range: 0.57-2.0m) consisting of 200 dots. On each 500-ms trial, heading direction was randomly chosen from -24° (left) to +24° (right) with respect to display center (0°) in steps of 4°. Participants judged heading with a mouse-controlled probe under three conditions: (1) head and body orientations were aligned with display center, (2) head was rotated 10° away from body midline that was aligned with display center, and (3) head and body midline were aligned and rotated 10° from display center. To evaluate center bias, we performed a linear regression between perceived and actual heading. To evaluate serial dependence, we combined a first derivative of Gaussian function with a sinusoidal function to fit residual heading error (difference between perceived and predicted heading with center bias in the current trial) as a function of relative heading offset (difference in actual heading of previous trial and current trial). RESULTS: We found: (1) an overall bias in heading judgments toward head and body orientation direction; when head and body orientations were not aligned with display center, (2) a decrease in center bias, (3) an increase in the range of central attractive serial dependence, and (4) an increase in the amplitude of peripheral repulsive serial dependence in heading judgments. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show both egocentric and world-centric centers contribute to center bias in heading perception. When world-centric center is not aligned with egocentric center, people increase their reliance on recently-seen heading directions for heading judgments. Related Articles | Metrics

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Contributions of Reward- and Punishment-Association to Attentional Shifting and Disengagement Ran Zhuang, Yanyan Tu, Hui Li, Huimin Cao, Yanju Ren 2019, 27 (suppl.):  72-72.  Abstract ( 75 )   PURPOSE: The spatial attention can be divided into three major steps: attentional disengagement, attentional shift and attentional engagement. In the case of the effects of reward and punishment on the components of selective visual attention, previous studies not only have found controversial results, but also have known disadvantages in their paradigms. Therefore, the present study investigate the effect of reward and punishment on attentional shift and disengagement by using a variant of the GAP paradigm. METHODS: Ninety six undergraduates participated in the present study which was composed of four experiments which included training phase and test phase. In training phases, the different colors were associated with different reward (experiments 1 and 2) or punishment (experiments 3 and 4) levels respectively. In test phases, the targets (experiments 1 and 3) or fixation markers (experiments 2 and 4) had different colors and the prosaccade task (participants were instructed to make a saccade towards the targets) was employed to disassociate attentional shift from attentional disengagement. RESULTS: In experiment 1 (experiment 3), response times (here also known as saccadic latencies) were significantly faster (slower) when the targets were high-reward color than when those were low-reward/no-reward. In experiment 2 (experiment 4), response times were significantly slower (faster) when the fixation markers were high-reward color than when those were low-reward/no-reward. CONCLUSIONS: The above findings suggest that reward can either facilitate the attentional shift or inhabit the attentional disengagement, and punishment can either inhabit the attentional shift or facilitate the attentional disengagement. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effects of Position and Familiarity on Word Recognition for Children and Adults 2019, 27 (suppl.):  73-73.  Abstract ( 197 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The cognitive mechanism for the recognition of rapid facial expression Fan Mo, Yun Zhuang, Ke Zhao, Xiaolan Fu 2019, 27 (suppl.):  77-77.  Abstract ( 92 )   PURPOSE: To investigate the cognitive mechanism of facial expression recognition in patients with depression and healthy people, using the paradigm of pairwise comparisons. METHODS: The face stimuli included images of six types of facial expressions posed by 10 individual human models from the Ekman database (Ekman & Friesen, 1976). 42 patients with depression (20 women) and 30 healthy subjects (equally prevalent in women and men) were recruited for the experiments. RESULTS: After analyzing the discriminative index of facial expression recognition, the results showed that the recognition of different expressions varied significantly. According to the Euclidean cluster analysis, 15 pairs of basic expressions were classified into three categories, among which fear/surprise, sadness/disgust, disgust/anger, fear/sadness, fear/disgust were the most difficult to discriminate, and fear/happiness, sadness/happiness, happiness/disgust, happiness/anger were relatively easier to discriminate. Meanwhile, on the basis of these expression categorizations, we compared the differences of facial expression recognition between patients with depression and healthy people. The results showed that patients with depression had significantly lower performance than healthy people in anger/surprise, sadness/anger, fear/anger, fear/disgust, fear/sadness, disgust/anger, sadness/disgust discriminations, which indicates that recognition disorders of patients with patients mainly showed in relation to negative facial expressions. CONCLUSIONS: New paradigm provides more evidence about the rapid facial expression recognition. Difficulty differences are existed in categorizing facial expressions. Recognition disorders of patients with patients mainly showed in relation to negative facial expressions. Related Articles | Metrics

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Pop-out of Crowds Without Awareness: Invisible Fear Captures Attention in High Trait-Anxiety Individuals Yujie Chen, Ying Wang, Yi Jiang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  78-78.  Abstract ( 94 )   PURPOSE: Rapid orienting to threat signals within a crowded environment is of great biological significance. Previous research has revealed an attentional bias to threat-related faces, which was most significant when the faces were invisible, especially in clinical and non-clinical high-anxious individuals. In the current study, we investigated whether a fearful face, as a signal of potential threats, can capture attention without awareness, and examined the role of individual trait anxiety in this effect. METHODS: A fearful face target was embedded in a neutral or a fearful distracting face array, forming a pop-out or a non-pop-out condition. To control for the effect of low-level confounds, we also included two control conditions where the face displays were otherwise the same but inverted. Using the sandwich-masking method, the face displays were rendered invisible, followed by a detection phase where the target face was no longer masked while the other faces remained invisible. Participants were required to indicate the perceived direction of the target face (upright or inverted). After the test, they completed two 2AFC tasks to ensure that they were completely unaware of the suppressed faces. Moreover, participants were divided into high and low trait-anxiety groups according to their scores on the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). RESULTS: Despite being totally suppressed, the invisible fearful face popped out of the crowd and speeded up target detection at the pop-out location, yielding faster responses in the pop-out condition relative to the non-pop-out condition. Crucially, such influence was only observed in the upright but eliminated in the inverted condition, with a significant pop-out effect only for the high trait-anxiety group. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrated a non-conscious pop-out effect elicited by threat-related faces. Such effect was strongly modulated by trait-anxiety, pinpointing the intrinsic interaction between fear-driven attentional responses and personality traits. Related Articles | Metrics

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Conscious and Unconscious Privileges of Temporal Structures in Visual Competition Ruichen Hu, Peijun Yuan, Yi Jiang, Ying Wang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  79-79.  Abstract ( 88 )   PURPOSE: Dynamic events with regular changing patterns provide abundant sources of temporal structures in our environment. In a previous study, we have demonstrated that feature- and semantics-based temporal structures, relative to their non-structured counterparts, prolonged the predominance of dynamic information streams during the competition for visual awareness. Here we disentangled the underlying mechanisms for these multi-source facilitation effects, especially regarding their reliance on conscious processing. METHODS: Using the binocular rivalry paradigm, we assessed the conscious and unconscious advantages of structured streams, respectively, by measuring their dominance and suppression durations, as compared with their physically matched but non-structured counterparts, when rivaled against the same random streams. To confirm the observed effect during the unconscious phase, we further carried out a bCFS experiment, in which the time for structured and non-structured streams to break into awareness, when initially suppressed by continuous flash suppression, were directly compared. RESULTS: During binocular rivalry, despite enjoying privileges over random structures to similar extents, temporal structures built on regular change of visual features held an advantage largely attributable to reduced durations when suppressed from awareness, whereas those emerging from semantic-level regularities benefited mainly from prolonged perceptual durations while being consciously perceived. Moreover, the bCFS experiment yielded consistent results that only the feature-based structured streams gained privileged access to awareness over the random counterparts, indicating a benefit derived from unconscious processing. CONCLUSIONS: Together, these findings argue for dissociable mechanisms to prioritize different types of temporal regularities for conscious experience. Extraction and utilization of semantic-level temporal structures engage conscious information processing, whereas those of perceptual-level temporal structures could occur even without awareness, pointing to their distinct privileges and functional roles at conscious and unconscious levels. Related Articles | Metrics

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Cortical Tracking of Biological Motion Information Li Shen, Ruichen Hu, Xiangyong Yuan, Ying Wang, Yi Jiang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  80-80.  Abstract ( 214 )   PURPOSE: Intrinsic neural oscillations synchronize with external rhythmic stimuli, a process known as neural entrainment. The current study investigated the cortical entrainment to rhythmic biological motion (BM), especially regarding whether the observed effect reflects BM-specific neural processing. METHODS: Stimuli consisted of point-light walkers (PLWs) with two orientations (upright and inverted) and two speeds (1Hz and 1.33Hz), which were presented in separated blocks. Each trial began with a white fixation followed by a PLW displayed for 6s. Among 20%-30% of the trials, the speed of the PLW changed one or two times. Observers were required to attend to the display and judge the number of changes at the end of each trial, while their brain activity was recorded via EEG. Only the non-changed trials were included in EEG data analysis. RESULTS: Upright PLW but not inverted PLW enhanced the power of cortical oscillations at the walking cycle frequency, inducing significantly higher strength of neural entrainment in the upright than in the inverted condition, consistent with the BM inversion effect revealed by fMRI studies. Moreover, this inversion effect occurred over the centroparietal and the occipitoparietal regions and was strongly lateralized to the right hemisphere, coinciding with the right lateralization of orientation-dependent BM processing. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the cortical tracking of BM information, which is sensitive to its orientation and lateralized to the right hemisphere, establishing the role of neural entrainment as a promising tool to investigate the oscillatory brain mechanisms underlying visual BM processing. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effect of Motion Speed on Biological Motion Recognition 2019, 27 (suppl.):  83-83.  Abstract ( 266 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effects of Viewing Position and Familiarity on Information Processing: A Cross-cultural Study 2019, 27 (suppl.):  84-84.  Abstract ( 168 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Searching 3D objects in 3D scenes with perspective projection Huiyuan Zhang, Jing Samantha Pan 2019, 27 (suppl.):  85-85.  Abstract ( 105 )   PURPOSE: Traditional visual search tasks use 2D targets in 2D scenes, with experimental displays perpendicular to the line of sight. However, in real life, we search 3D objects in 3D environments, with non-perpendicular viewing angles. We investigate how 2D searches and 3D searches differ in terms of accuracy and efficiency (response time as a function of set size) s. METHODS: 3D Lego blocks of similar sizes but different shapes were used as search targets and distracters. In Experiment 1, targets and distracters were 2D frontoparallel projections of the 3D blocks, which were placed in a concentric arrangement with no occlusion between objects (similar to a classic visual search task display). In Experiment 2, the search array was displayed with a perspective projection (we took pictures of 3D blocks arranged on a flat surface from a 30° angle pointing down). In both experiments, the set size was 3, 6, 9, or 12 and the search target was present in the mid of the search array in half trials. RESULTS: When searching for 2D parallel projections of 3D shapes (Experiment 1), the presence of target throughout a trial increased accuracy, but did not affect efficiency. Regardless of this, the slope between response time and set size in target-absent trials was twice as much as that in target-present trials, align with the results of previous studies. When searching in a more realistic scene with perspective projection and occlusions between objects (Experiment 2), accuracy was higher but efficiency was similar to performance in Experiment 1. The presence of search targets during search increased both accuracy and response time. CONCLUSIONS: aSearching in realistic 3D scenes and searching in 2D representations were likely to involve different mechanisms. Although 3D scenes were more complex, search performance was better. This might be because searching for 3D objects in 3D scenes was a more natural task that contained more information and bore more experiences. Related Articles | Metrics

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Visual function related health status in Tibetan adults Chen Lijun, Lv Hongyu, Qiu Huaiyu, Yan Fangfang, Wang Binbin, Liu Zhengkui, Huang Chang-Bing 2019, 27 (suppl.):  86-86.  Abstract ( 108 )   PURPOSE: High altitude is related to lower oxygen, lower barometric pressure, and higher solar ultra-violet radiation, which might pose continuous stress to vision health. The present study aims to compile a short and easy-to-perform functional vision scale and conduct a large-scale investigation on visual health status of adults in Yushu, a city with an average altitude of 4200 meters. METHODS: Nine questions were selected from popular visual health-related scales to develop a short scale measuring the visual function-related quality of life (VFQ9). Reliability and validity of VFQ9 were first tested in a Plain group (N=1904, 18-65 years old; altitude<; 500m). An investigation in Yushu was carried out by local physicians during a statewide health survey (N=16187, 18-65 years old; altitude>; 4200m). Characteristic of the visual function related health status in plain and plateau areas and the difference between them were analyzed. RESULTS: The data from Plain group showed that the short VFQ9-scale had good reliability and validity among people aged 18-65 years old (Cronbach's α=0.80, significant correlation with the 25-term NEI-VFQ scale, r=0.92, p<; 0.01). The VFQ9 score in Plain group was 71.72±; 0.32 (M±S.E.) and there was no significant difference between male and female (73.00±; 0.51 vs 70.77±; 0.40, p>; 0.10). Mean VFQ9 score in Plateau group was 77.63±; 0.11 and male adults showed higher VFQ9 score than female (78.88±; 0.14 vs 76.69±; 0.16, p<; 0.001). Compared to the Plain group, the VFQ9 scores of the Plateau group were significantly higher in both female (76.69±; 0.16 vs 70.77±; 0.40, p<; 2.2e-16) and male (78.88±; 0.14 vs 73.00±; 0.51, p<; 2.2e-16). VFQ9 scores declined monotonously with age in the Plateau group (79.58±; 0.30 for 18-25 years to 74.07±; 0.57 for 50-65 years) and peaked around 42-49 years in the Plain group (70.36±; 0.58, 73.77±; 1.24, 73.76±; 1.97 for for 18-25 years, 42-49 years and 50-65 years, respectively), manifesting different interaction between aging and environmental factors in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: In present study, we compiled a short VFQ9-scale and used it to investigate the visual function related health status of adults living in different altitudes. Our findings provided insights for future interventions in quality of life in both plateau and plain. Related Articles | Metrics

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Gaze-associated target compresses time perception 2019, 27 (suppl.):  87-87.  Abstract ( 268 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Exploring the Habituation of Contrast Adaptation: an SSVEP Study Xinxin Du, Xue Dong, Min Bao 2019, 27 (suppl.):  91-91.  Abstract ( 137 )   PURPOSE: Both adaptation and perceptual learning can change how we perceive the visual environment, reflecting the plasticity of the visual system. Our previous work has attempted to investigate the interaction between the two processes and found that contrast adaptation effect attenuated after multiple days of training (Dong, Gao, Lv, & Bao, 2016), which is speculated to be result from habituation to the adapters or to the process of adaptation. To test these two hypotheses, we used the SSVEP method to investigate how the neural responses to the adapting gratings change after repeated contrast adaptation. METHODS: 10 subjects were trained with top-up contrast adaptation for 6 days. A spatial 2AFC method was used to track the threshold elevation aftere?ect (TEAE) of each session. The TEAE and SSVEP signals of the trained adapter and an untrained control adapter were measured before and after training. RESULTS: The repeated measurements ANOVA on TEAE showed a significant interaction between Session (pre-training vs post-training) and Condition (trained vs control). Repeated adaptation produced progressively decreased TEAE in the trained condition but not in the control condition. The SSVEP amplitudes of the adapters were not different between pre- and post-test in both conditions. While a three-way ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of the adaptation timecourse (the first minute vs last minute), the SSVEP amplitude within each session became smaller over time. CONCLUSIONS: Contrast adaptation effect attenuated over training. This phenomenon may relate to the change of adaptation process after training rather than the habituation to the adapter. Related Articles | Metrics

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Structural brain correlates of cueing effects in frontoparietal cortex Ke Xie, Xuejin Ni, Ling Li, Zhenlan Jin 2019, 27 (suppl.):  92-92.  Abstract ( 83 )   PURPOSE: The term cueing effects reflects a behavioral benefit that human use cueing contents to facilitate selection. Compared to numerous functional brain studies, only limited data is available for the neuroanatomical basis of cueing effects. Here we used structural MRI (sMRI) data to investigate whether cueing effects were associated with specific brain structure within frontoparietal attention network. METHODS: Participants performed visual selective attention task. At the start of each block, they were informed the location of a distractor or target would appear, or there was no spatial information. We applied voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis on sMRI data and subsequently separated regions related to distractor and target cueing effects respectively. RESULTS: Cueing effects on visual search were significant, participants responded faster to the target when the location of the distractor or target was cued. For VBM analysis, we constrained our regions of interest to frontal and parietal lobes. Distractor cueing effects yielded exclusively negative associations with gray matter volume (GMV) in the right middle frontal cortex (rMFG, [29, 47, 26], BA 9) and positive associations in the bilateral superior frontal gyrus (SFG). Only positive correlation between target cueing effects and GMV was found in another subregion of rMFG ([50, 9, 50], BA 6). CONCLUSIONS: These results reveal that frontal cortex specific morphometric feature accounts for participants' cueing effects, which show more consistent previous functional activations. Two fractionated areas in the rMFG may mediate distinct neural circuits in attention control. A higher processing efficiency in lower GM within anterior rMFG, which is consonant with synapse pruning hypothesis. In contrast, observers with greater GMV in posterior rMFG show more potential to target cues. Related Articles | Metrics

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General and specific effects in stereo learning Jie Xi, Wu-Li Jia, Jin Zhao, Ge-Tong Wang, Chang-Bing Huang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  93-93.  Abstract ( 101 )   PURPOSE: Although previous studies consistently found that perceptual learning of stereopsis significantly improved stereoacuity, the underlying mechanism of stereo learning remains hot debate. Here, we practiced subjects to judge stereopsis that defined by three types of binocular disparity (i.e. zero-, first-, and second-order), aiming to better understand the characteristic of stereo learning within a distributed and cascade plasticity framework. METHODS: Thirty subjects were randomly assigned into three training groups (each for zero-, first- or second-order disparity, separately). Disparity thresholds were measured before and after 8-10-days of training. Ten additional control subjects only took disparity threshold assessments. Stereoscopic images were delivered through shutter goggle synchronized to the computer. Stereoacuity was assessed with the Titmus Fly Test before experiment to ensure all subjects had normal stereoscopic percepts. RESULTS: Training significantly improved disparity threshold by 66.82%, 42.86% and 35.38% in the zero-order training condition, 55.08, 80.06% and 44.02% in the first-order training condition, and 50.67%, 52.67% and 86.86% in the second-order training condition for zero-, first- or second-order disparity, respectively. There was no significant improvement for the control group. Interestingly, the greatest improvement in first-order and second-order disparity threshold was found in corresponding disparity training group; on the contrary, improvement in zero-disparity threshold was comparable in all three disparity training groups. CONCLUSIONS: We found both general (related to zero-disparity) and specific improvements (related to first- and second- order disparity) in stereo learning. We concluded that stereo training occurs at different visual processing stages and the effects of training might depend on the specific training sites. Related Articles | Metrics

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Distribution of Geometric Form Perception in Children and Adolescents Aged 6-15 years old： the Anyang Children Eye Study (ACES) 2019, 27 (suppl.):  94-94.  Abstract ( 94 )   Background Human can extract effective visual information from the external world since we have an extremely strong, yet complicated visual perceptual system in our brain in addition to our visual system. Visual perception can be described as the way brain interprets what the eyes see. There are two most basic thinking in the study of perception to answer the most fundemental question of “Where visual processing begins?” . One is called “feature analysis”, the other one is called “holistic registration”. In 1982, Chen Lin, a Chinese cognitive expert, proposed the “early topological perception” theory to support the holistic registration theory which holds that global topological perception is prior to the perception of other featural properties, and the primitives of visual form perception are geometric invariants at different levels of structural stability. Early topological perception predicts the visual sensitivity to distinction made in topology which including holes, inside/outside relation, and ‘‘presence vs. absence''. Chen provided experimental data of adult subjects to support the hypothesis of early topological perception,which led to a major finding that the relative perceptual salience of different geometric properties is remarkably consistent with the hierarchy of geometries according to Klein‘s Erlangen program (Figure 1), which is a mathematical framework for describing geometrical properties with respect to form stability. Related Articles | Metrics

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Predicting driving impairment from visual and oculomotor impairment after alcohol intake Jing Chen, Yinghua Yang, Rui Jin, Lee Stone, Li Li 2019, 27 (suppl.):  95-95.  Abstract ( 113 )   PURPOSE: We examined the relationship between low-level neural impairment (as evidenced from visual and visuomotor testing using an ocular tracking task) and operational driving impairment (as evidenced from performance testing and modeling using a simulated lane-keeping task) after alcohol intake. METHODS: For the lane-keeping task, the display (95ºx63º) simulated a participant driving a virtual vehicle down a lane while facing crosswind perturbations (sum-of- sines motion: 0.1-2.19Hz). Participants (n=31, 17 females) used a steering wheel to control heading of the vehicle to keep it centered in the lane. For the ocular tracking task, the same participants tracked the step-ramp motion of a target dot (diameter: 0.64º) with its speed (16°/s-24°/s) and direction (0°-360°) randomly varied from trial to trial. We tested four BACs (0, 0.02%, 0.04%, & 0.08%). RESULTS: Model-independent analyses show that, while precision of lane-keeping (measured by RMS error) is affected only at the highest BAC tested (0.08%), significant effects of alcohol on visual and oculomotor function (measured by a composite ocular tracking index) are evident at the medium BAC (0.04%). Model- dependent analyses show that, while reaction time, response gain, and neuromuscular stability appear to degrade with BAC, the ability of our participants to generate compensatory lead control for lane-keeping appears to increase with BAC. This counterintuitive finding may explain the subjective, yet false, confidence in driving ability at 0.08% BAC (about 3 standard drinks). Furthermore, while before alcohol intake, ocular tracking index is positively correlated with response gain and negatively correlated with the ability to generate lead control, after alcohol intake, it is only negatively correlated with reaction time at 0.08% BAC. CONCLUSIONS: Low-level visual and oculomotor function is more easily affected by alcohol intake than operational driving such as lane-keeping. Visual and oculomotor impairment can predict driving impairment (measured by the reaction time in lane keeping) at 0.08% BAC. Related Articles | Metrics

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Combining bottom-up and top-down visual mechanisms for color constancy under varying illumination Shaobing Gao, Yongjie Li 2019, 27 (suppl.):  96-96.  Abstract ( 145 )   PURPOSE: Multi-illuminant based color constancy (MCC) is a quite challenging task. In this paper, we proposed a novel model motivated by the bottom-up and top-down mechanisms of human visual system (HVS) to estimate the spatially varying illumination in a scene. METHODS: The motivation for bottom-up based estimation is from our finding that the bright and dark parts in a scene play different roles in encoding illuminants. However, the pure bottom-up processing is difficult to handle the color shift of large colorful objects. Thus, we further introduce a top-down constraint inspired by the findings in visual psychophysics, in which high level information (e.g., the prior of light source colors) plays a key role in visual color constancy. In order to implement the top-down hypothesis, we simply learn a color mapping between the illuminant distribution estimated by bottom-up processing and the ground truth maps provided by the dataset. RESULTS: We evaluated our model on four datasets and the results show that our method obtains very competitive performance compared to the state-of-the-art MCC algorithms. Moreover, the robustness of our model is more tangible considering that our results were obtained using the same parameters for all the datasets or the parameters of our model were learned from the inputs, that is, mimicking how HVS operates. CONCLUSIONS: The computational results in our model implies that the prior of illuminant plays an important role in keeping the robust CC performance for HVS. However, what's the neural substrate that may encode this information are not clear. Hence, our future work will concentrate on developing the physiological methods such as fMRI to further exploit the cortical basis of CC. Related Articles | Metrics

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Opposite modulation effects of conscious and nonconscious ensemble processing on perceptual decision making Dingrui Liu, Yi Jiang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  98-98.  Abstract ( 143 )   PURPOSE: Our visual system possesses remarkable ability to extract summary statistical in- formation from groups of similar objects, referred as ensemble perception. Here, we first investigated whether ensemble perception hinges on our conscious awareness of the stim- uli. Moreover, we further explored whether conscious and nonconscious ensemble pro- cessing differentially influence our perceptual decision making in a neutral orientation dis- crimination task. METHODS: In Experiment 1, a set of Gabor patches arranged in a circle were presented near the center of the visual field and rendered invisible using the Continuous Flash Sup- pression (CFS) paradigm. Another set of Gabor patches with near vertical orientations were presented outside the inward array. Participants were asked to judge only the average ori- entation of the outward array. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1 except that the inward array was presented without CFS. RESULTS: Despite that participants couldn't consciously perceive the inward array in Ex- periment 1, their perceptual judgments of the average orientation of the outward array were significantly biased to the average orientation of the inward array. However, when the inward array was consciously perceived by participants in Experiment 2, their perceptu- al decision makings were somewhat repelled from the average orientation of the inward array. CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrates that ensemble perception can occur even when stimuli are suppressed from conscious awareness. Moreover, conscious and noncon- scious perception of ensemble statistics differentially influence our perceptual judgments, suggesting that the perceptual decision making processes based on ensemble statistics engage both bottom-up and top-down mechanisms in the human visual system. Related Articles | Metrics

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Unconscious Attention Training Using Positive and Neutral Faces Nisha Yao, Yi Jiang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  107-107.  Abstract ( 102 )   PURPOSE: Previous research demonstrated that implicit or explicit contingency information associated with facial cues can be acquired, via attention training, and used to predict the appearance of targets. However, little is known about the effect of attention training without awareness. The current research therefore examined whether an unconscious attention training using positive and neutral faces as cues may result in contingency acquisition and corresponding attention modification. METHODS: A variant of dot-probe task was employed in combination with continuous flash suppression (CFS). On each trial, a positive-neutral face pair and a colored CFS mask were presented to the non-dominant and the dominance eyes respectively, thereby suppressing the awareness of the faces. Subsequently, a gabor patch with an orientation of one degree appeared in the location previously occupied by one of the faces. Participants discriminated the gabor orientation as accurately as possible. There were three contingency conditions: 1) gabor patches always replaced positive faces; 2) gabor patches always replaced neutral faces; 3) gabor patches replaced either the positive or the neutral faces with equal probability. This task contained 200 critical trials. Awareness check was performed after attention training. RESULTS: Accuracy rates of the first and second blocks of the attention training were calculated using the critical trials for each participant. Repeated measures ANOVA was performed. The 2 block (first block vs. second block) and 3 contingency condition interaction effect reached significance when excluding participants failed to pass the awareness check. Separate paired-sample t-tests indicated significant increase in accuracy under the two high contingency conditions rather than the random contingency condition. CONCLUSIONS: Unconscious attention training could facilitate contingency learning. The mechanisms underlying the current training effect await further elucidation. Related Articles | Metrics

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Perceptual bias to sad faces in subthreshold depression during binocular rivalry Shiming Qiu, Xun Xiao, Gaoxing Mei 2019, 27 (suppl.):  108-108.  Abstract ( 100 )   PURPOSE: Binocular rivalry is known as a phenomenon in which observers perceive back-and-forth alterations between two distinct monocular stimuli presented simultaneously. Whether perceptual rivalry could be altered in depression remains less clear. Here we used a binocular rivalry paradigm to investigate whether individuals with subthreshold depression (StD), who have depressive symptoms but fall short of the criteria of major depressive disorder, could have different perceptual rivalry. METHODS: Both a StD group (N = 31) and a non-depressed group (N = 30) performed two binocular rivalry tasks (non-emotional and emotional). In each 55-s trial of the non-emotional rivalry task, two orthogonally oriented grating stimuli (± 45°) were presented to the left and right eyes respectively. Participants were instructed to report their perception about the orientation of the gratings by continuously pressing corresponding buttons. For the emotional rivalry task, each grating as a foreground was paired with an emotional face (fear, happy, or sad) or a neutral face as a background. Participants were required to only pay attention to the grating in the foreground, and to perform the same test as the non-emotional rivalry task. RESULTS: For the non-emotional rivalry task, we found no any difference between the StD and the control group. However, for the emotional rivalry task, the dominance duration of gratings paired with sad emotional faces was significantly longer in the StD group than that in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with StD have perceptual bias for sad faces during binocular rivalry, and this bias may be considered as a behavioral biomarker highly associated with StD. Related Articles | Metrics

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Visual Perceptual Decoding from Human Brain Activity Based on Natural Images Wei Huang, Chong Wang, Xiaoqing Yang, Hongmei Yan, Zhentao Zuo, Huafu Chen 2019, 27 (suppl.):  109-109.  Abstract ( 87 )   PURPOSE: Recent explorations in neuroimaging studies have focused on using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques to decode content information from human brain activity when viewing relatively simple background visual scenes. The response signals at multiple time points contain more decoding information than the peak or average response of the cerebral cortex induced by visual stimuli. In this study, we propose a decoding model with sequential relationship simulation capabilities that makes it possible to decode detailed category information about natural images with complex backgrounds from human brain activity signals measured by fMRI. METHODS: This decoding model is constructed by the long short-term memory (LSTM) network in order to simulate the relationship of visual response signals at multiple time points induced by complex natural images to improve decoding accuracy. RESULTS: The results show that the decoding accuracy of five types of natural images based on the LSTM-based decoding model can reach about 60%, better than six traditional algorithms and three deep learning models. CONCLUSIONS: We prove that LSTM-based model can make better use of the spatiotemporal fMRI signals induced by the complex natural images. At the same time, we compared the confusion matrices of image classification using convolutional neural network (CNN) based on image features and LSTM-based decoding model based on the visual signal. The results show that the confusion matrices obtained by the two methods are highly similar. Finally, the decoding accuracies of different visual cortex were compared, and it was found that the higher visual cortex shows higher accuracy of classification than the lower areas in the visual cortex, suggesting that the higher visual cortex plays an important role in encoding high-level category information from complex natural images. Related Articles | Metrics

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The role of internal state in monocular deprivation-induced ocular dominance plasticity Jiawei Zhou, Zhifen He, Yiya Chen, Zhouyuan Sun, Peng Zhang, Robert F. Hess 2019, 27 (suppl.):  111-111.  Abstract ( 113 )   PURPOSE: It is well known that there are characteristic differences in internal state when eyes are open versus eyes closed in the dark. It is however not clear, how the alternation in the internal state affects stimulus induced plasticity. In this study, we directly address this question by comparing the short-term monocular deprivation-induced ocular dominance plasticity under conditions where the patched eye is either open or closed under the patch. METHODS: Fourteen normal adults participated in the psychophysical test to access the shift of sensory eye dominance after a 2.5-h of monocular deprivation under conditions where the patched eye is either open or closed under the black occluder. The sensory eye dominance before and after patching was quantified using either the binocular combination and the binocular rivalry tasks. Another eight normal adults participated in the EEG test to assess their amplitudes of alpha oscillation with the two eyes closed, two eyes open, patching with the patched eye open and patching with the patched eye closed. RESULTS: Previous studies have shown that 2.5-hour of monocular deprivation temporarily strengthens the previously patched eye's contribution to binocular perception. Here, we show that this form of visual plasticity is enhanced if the patched eye behind the occluder is kept open, even though the visual input is unchanged. We document these enhancements using both binocular combination and binocular rivalry endpoint measures. This effect could not be accounted for in terms of the change in the spontaneous alpha power in the eyes open/eyes close condition. CONCLUSIONS: The alternation in the internal state affects short-term monocular deprivation-induced ocular dominance plasticity, which is quite different with the differences in internal state when the two eyes are open versus eyes closure and suggests a separate neuroplastic mechanism specific to binocular function. Related Articles | Metrics

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Abnormal monocular and dichoptic temporal synchrony in Amblyopic adults Chunwen Tao, Yidong Wu, Ling Gong, Shijia Chen, Pi-Chun Huang, Jiawei Zhou 2019, 27 (suppl.):  116-116.  Abstract ( 89 )   Purpose. We investigated how temporal processing within and between eye was affected in amblyopia by comparing temporal synchrony sensitivity at the binocular, monocular, and dichoptic viewing conditions. Methods. Eight anisometropic amblyopia (23.68±2.86y) and 11 age-matched normal controls（24.33±2.14y）participated. Stimuli were generated using a Macintosh computer and displayed on a GOOVIS 3D goggles. The stimuli consisted of four Gaussian blobs each flickering at 1Hz, with two spots presented at the top and the other two spots at the bottom of the screen. Subjects were asked to determine which pair of spots (top or bottom) were flickering asynchronously. Constant stimuli method was used to measure the minimum degrees of asynchrony that allowed subjects to discriminate which pair of the blobs was flickering asynchronously in time (synchrony thresholds). Six synchrony thresholds were compared: (1) binocular viewing where the four spots were presented to both eyes; (2) monocular amblyopic viewing where the four spots were presented to amblyopic (non-dominant) eye; (3) monocular fellow eye viewing where the four spots were presented in the fellow (dominant) eye; (4) dichoptic amblyopic viewing where the two asynchrony spots were presented to amblyopic eye and the two synchrony spots were presented to fellow eye; (5) dichoptic fellow eye viewing where the two asynchrony spots were presented to fellow fixing eye; and (6) pure dichoptic viewing where the paired spots were presented to different eyes. Results. Repeated-measure ANOVA showed that the synchrony threshold was significantly different among conditions (F(2.37,42.661) =7.228,p=0.001), and such difference was significantly different in different groups as the joint effect between condition and groups was significant (?F(2.37,42.661) =5.853,P=0.004). Post-hoc test further showed that synchrony thresholds were significantly higher for amblyopic subjects comparing to normal controls under monocular amblyopic viewing (P = 0.027) and pure dichoptic viewing condition (P = 0.049). The slope of the psychometric functions were not significantly different between groups (F(1,18) =2.033,p=0.171). Conclusions. Our results suggest that there are within eye and between eye temporal synchrony deficits in amblyopia. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Visual and Auditory Landmark in Human Virtual Navigation 2019, 27 (suppl.):  122-122.  Abstract ( 253 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The Roles of Left Superior Parietal lobe and Left Inferior Parietal Lobe in Structure- and Function-Based Action Representations in Object Naming: An rTMS Study Wenyuan Yu, Ye Liu, Xiaolan Fu 2019, 27 (suppl.):  124-124.  Abstract ( 79 )   PURPOSE: There are two action representations involved in object recognition: structure- and function-based action representations (Binkofski & Buxbaum, 2013). Previous researches showed that bilateral superior parietal lobe (SPL) and left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) were key neural regions for structure- and function-based action representations respectively (Sakreida et al, 2016). It was unclear whether SPL and IPL played distinct role in structure- and function-based action representations in refined object recognition (naming). METHODS: 17 participants received 15 minutes 1 Hz inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on left SPL, left IPL, and a control site, left occipital pole (OCC), in three days at one week interval. After each stimulation, participants completed same priming paradigm task, in which a hand action movie clip and a manipulable object were presented sequentially and participants were asked to name the object after an answer cue as fast and accurately as possible. The hand actions, including structure- and function-based actions, were congruent or incongruent with the following objects. The naming accuracy and reaction time were recorded. RESULTS: Compare to OCC, inhibitory stimulation of left SPL and left IPL led to longer naming reaction time. It suggested that these regions were involved in object naming. However, both stimulations of left SPL and left IPL resulted in increasing function-based action prime effect, and disappearance of reverse structure-based action prime effect. It inferred that the neural basis of two action representations could be shared. CONCLUSIONS: Both left SPL and left IPL contributed to structure- and function-based action representations. Related Articles | Metrics

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Classification for Thyroid Nodule: An Attention-based Large Receptive Field Network Shixuan Zhao 2019, 27 (suppl.):  126-126.  Abstract ( 86 )   PURPOSE: Recently, deep learning has been increasingly applied in medical image analysis. Significant results have been achieved in tasks such as classification and segmentation of tumors. Unfortunately, there are two main difficulties in this process. One is that it is time-consuming and subjective to manually delineate the tumor edge. The second is that the unexplained and non-robust nature of deep learning makes doctors feel uncomfortable when using them clinically. METHODS: To solve the above problems, we propose an attention-based large receptive field network (ALRN) and apply it to the benign and malignant classification tasks of thyroid nodules of the ultrasound image. The network is divided into two parts: the trunk channel and the attention channel. The input of the trunk channel is an ultrasound image of the thyroid gland, which is mainly used to adaptively learn the texture, shape and other features of the nodule. The input of attention channel is a nodule position template for the doctor to rough sketch, which is used as a priori knowledge of attention. It adaptively learns the area that the network needs to be concerned with and constrains the trunk channel. RESULTS: The ALRN has been tested to have better accuracy and robustness than normal convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Furthermore, the area of attention is better matched to the clinician's experience. It is worth mentioning that because the network has a large receptive field, the doctor does not need to carefully depict the edge of the tumor, and only needs to roughly sketch the position of the nodule. CONCLUSIONS: We propose a large receptive convolutional neural network based on the attention mechanism and achieve good results in the task of benign and malignant classification of thyroid nodules of the ultrasound image. Related Articles | Metrics

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Nameable non-diagnostic features hinder category learning 2019, 27 (suppl.):  127-127.  Abstract ( 134 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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The location-based Simon effect: Reliability of ex-Gaussian analysis Chunming Luo, Robert W. Proctor 2019, 27 (suppl.):  131-131.  Abstract ( 98 )   Purpose and method: Task-irrelevant stimulus location can influence the response performance to task-relevant attributes, generating the location-based Simon effect. Using a Monte Carlo study and other methods, we examined whether the ex-Gaussian distribution provides a good fit to empirical reaction time (RT) distributions in the Simon task and whether reliable Simon effects occur on the ex-Gaussian parameters: (a) the mean (µ), (b) the standard deviation (σ) of the normal distribution, and (c) the tail (τ). Results and conclusion: The ex-Gaussian function fitted well to empirical RT distributions, and that these ex-Gaussian parameters are reliable between two trial blocks at the group level. At the individual level, correlation analysis showed that the Simon effect was reliable on the µ parameter but not on σ and τ. Moreover, a partial correlation analysis, with µs of the two blocks as controlling variables, showed that the Simon effect on τ was reliable. These results provide evidence that the ex-Gaussian function is a valuable tool for analyzing the Simon effect and can be considered as an alternative for analyzing RT distributions in Simon-type tasks. Related Articles | Metrics

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Retinoschisin regulate the architecture and biologic function of pineal gland Tao Xu, Jang-fan Chen, Feng Gu 2019, 27 (suppl.):  134-134.  Abstract ( 89 )   Retina and pineal gland are developmentally related and also share expression of many genes involved in phototransduction. One of them is Retinoschisin (RS1), which is a 224 amino acid protein expressed exclusively by photoreceptors/bipolar cells and pinealocytes. RS1 maintains the retinal architecture and structure of the photoreceptor-bipolar synapse in retina, but the basic biology of RS1 protein in pineal gland remains poorly understood. Here we evaluated RS1 expression in the pineal body of rat and mouse at different age, and looked for morphological changes in the pineal gland of the rat and RS1 knock-in mouse. Behavior experiments shown that diminish circadian rhythm and the disturbance of chronobiology have observed in both aging rat and RS1-KI mice, and RS1-KI mice have the depressive-anxious disorders. We found that RS1 exhibited gradually increases of different intensity with increasing age and negatively related to the number of the pinealocytes. Furthermore, co-localization of retinoschisin with Cx36 and ZO-1 like aggregations is homologous to the association of retinoschisin with basement membranes elements in the pineal gland. We propose that RS1 may be required for a molecular basis of the architecture between pinealocytes in the rodent and associated with junctional complex serve to support the rhythmic activities of pineal gland. Together, these observations provide new insights into the physiological function role of RS1 in the pineal gland. Related Articles | Metrics

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Visual saliency detection of traffic scenes in rainy days 2019, 27 (suppl.):  135-135.  Abstract ( 178 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Is the familiar or the novel more attractive? The effects of visual repetition on human preferences across different object categories Jiaxin Li, Bingbing Guo, Long Sha, Lin Cui, Shuai Chang, Ming Meng 2019, 27 (suppl.):  138-138.  Abstract ( 93 )   Visual stimuli repetitions alter both our visual processing and our preference. Previous studies suggest that our visual preference over repeated stimuli is based on visual categorization. Specifically, the visual preference for a human face increases over repetition, indicating a familiarity preference; in contrast, the visual preference for a natural scene picture decreases over repetition, indicating a novelty preference (Park et al., 2010). However, little is known about what are the most critical factors that may cause the different human visual preferences. To address this question, we examined whether human preference could be modulated by low-level visual features (inversion, contrast negation), attractive levels (photographs, artworks) and biological elements (pairs of ears, pairs of hands). Firstly, we replicated familiarity preference of face photographs and novelty preference of natural scene photographs, and these two preferences were significantly attenuated by inversion and contrast negation. Secondly, we found that the preference trends of artworks were the same as those in photographs. No effects were found for attractive levels, indicating that visual information in artworks fulfilled the fundamental requirement of preference. Furthermore, we found that human ears showed familiarity preference, similar to faces, while human hands did not. These results suggested that studying other object categories was promising in characterizing preference. Overall, the current study revealed low-level visual features influence human visual preference, suggesting the associated image processing serves to generate human visual preference. Related Articles | Metrics

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Salient Detection of Night Driving Environment via Convolutional Neural Network 2019, 27 (suppl.):  139-139.  Abstract ( 122 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Perceptual load modulates contour integration in conscious and unconscious states Kaiwen Cheng, Keyu Yang, Long Qin, Yixuan Zhuo, Hongmei Yan 2019, 27 (suppl.):  140-140.  Abstract ( 97 )   Previous research has documented that contour detection may be affected by local features such as element spacing and by high-level cognitive factors such as attention in our visual system. However, less is known about how high and low level factors interact to influence contour integration in the brain. In this paper, we aim to investigate how attention modulates contour integration through saliency (different element spacing) and topological properties (circle- or S- shaped). Perceptual load is known to tune attention and is tightly entangled with conscious awareness. We manipulated perceptual load by changing the difficulty of an initial memorization task for a foveal go/no-go task to investigate the processing level of contours in a modified inattentional blindness (IB) paradigm. The Posner cuing effect was utilized to assess with different contours as the spatial cue. A three-phase procedure was used to manipulate conscious awareness (conscious or unconscious) with a temporal two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) contour detection task. The results showed that, 1) circles and S-contours induced different Posner cuing effects with low perceptual load while neither type could induce the effect with high perceptual load; 2) saliency was a predominant feature for contour detection and integration with minimal influence of perception load as no Posner cuing effect was found for non-salient contours with or without conscious awareness, whether they were closed or open; and 3) conscious awareness played a pivotal role in coordinating a closure effect based on the level of perception load. It was with low perceptual load that the closure effect was found in the unconscious condition rather than in the conscious condition. Our findings provide further evidence for contour detection and integration with a bi-directional mechanism in which low-level sensory factors interact with high-level cognitive factors. Future work is needed to explore the neural underpinnings of the mechanism. Related Articles | Metrics

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Lateralization of behavioral oscillations in conscious and unconscious face processing Mengjin Li, Bingbing Guo, Ling He, Shuai Chang, Ming Meng 2019, 27 (suppl.):  141-141.  Abstract ( 101 )   PURPOSE: Ample evidence supports that the right hemisphere is dominant in processing faces and therefore participants often have a left visual field advantage for face perception. However, the mechanism underlying the interhemispheric dynamic coordination in face processing, especially when the prime face was unconsciousness, remains poorly understood. METHODS: By combining continuous flash suppression (CFS), visual priming and a time-resolved behavioral measurement, we investigate the visual field bias in face processing when the prime face was visible (conscious) and invisible (unconscious). In two experiments, a prime face or house at the center of the screen was presented visible or invisible to participants by using CFS. Subsequently, participants were asked to detect a congruent versus incongruent target that was presented at either right or left visual field. Moreover, we varied the prime-to-target SOA from 20 to 800ms in steps of 20ms to measure fine-scale temporal dynamics. RESULTS: Behavioral oscillations were found in congruent versus incongruent conditions. Specifically, for detecting a face target, we found a right visual field bias at ~5 Hz for the visible prime condition and a left visual field bias at 6-8 Hz for the invisible prime condition. By contrast, no significant theta-band oscillations were found for detecting a house target in both visual fields. CONCLUSIONS: These results support a general theta-band (3-8 Hz) temporal organization mechanism in face processing. The different theta-band oscillation effects suggest distinct neural mechanisms for interhemispheric dynamic coordination, depending on the visibility of the priming stimuli. Related Articles | Metrics

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Offline transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can improve the ability to perceive crowded targets Guanpeng Chen, Ziyun Zhu, Fang Fang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  154-154.  Abstract ( 109 )   PURPOSE: Visual crowding refers to the deleterious effect of nearby flankers on target identification. Studying visual crowding can advance our understanding of the mechanisms of visual awareness and object recognition. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) provides a promising way to alter human visual functions because of its capacity to modulate cortical excitability. Here, we performed three experiments to investigate whether tDCS could alleviate visual crowding at different visual eccentricities and with different visual stimuli. METHODS: Subjects were asked to perform an orientation discrimination task or a letter recognition task with the isolated and crowded targets in the periphery, before and after applying 20 minutes of 2 mA anodal tDCS to the visual cortex (P1 or P2) of the hemisphere contralateral or ipsilateral to the visual stimuli. RESULTS: We first found that, electrical stimulation of the hemisphere contralateral to the visual stimuli could significantly reduce the crowding effect in the orientation discrimination task. This reduction was absent after the sham stimulation and could not be explained by the performance improvement with the isolated target. Then, using the same behavioral task and the same tDCS protocol, we found that the contralateral DC stimulation remained effective in alleviating crowding at a smaller eccentricity. Finally, we adopted a letter recognition task and found that the alleviation of the letter crowding effect still existed after tDCS. In all the three experiments, no reduction was observed when tDCS was applied to the hemisphere ipsilateral to the visual stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, we concluded that offline tDCS was effective in alleviating visual crowding across different visual eccentricities and perceptual tasks, which shed new light on the mechanisms of visual crowding and possible practical applications. Related Articles | Metrics

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The ability to recognize microexpression and detect deception in older adults 2019, 27 (suppl.):  155-155.  Abstract ( 473 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of Daily Training Amount on Visual Perceptual Learning Yongqian Song, Nihong Chen, Fang Fang 2019, 27 (suppl.):  158-158.  Abstract ( 115 )   PURPOSE: Perceptual learning has been widely used to study the plasticity of the visual system in adults. However, the learning protocol is usually time-consuming, which requires subjects to practice a task for thousands of times over weeks. We explored the relationship between the training amount and the behavioral improvement. METHODS: Four groups of subjects underwent motion discrimination training over 8 suc- cessive days for 40, 120, 360, or 1080 trials per day. Subjects were trained around one mo- tion direction, and were tested at 0°, 30°, 60°, and 90° away from the trained direction be- fore, one day after, and two weeks after training. RESULTS: In both the tests after training, we observed a significant reduction in the threshold at the trained direction. Surprisingly, the magnitudes in the threshold reduction were similar across groups with different daily training amounts, ranging from 40 trials (2 minutes) to 1080 trials (54 minutes) per day. We further quantified the specificity of learn- ing as the difference between the threshold change at the trained direction and the aver- age threshold change at the untrained directions. We found that, immediately after train- ing, the group with the smallest training amount showed a weaker specificity compared to the other groups. However, the difference in the specificity among the groups disappeared two weeks after training. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrated that the behavioral improvement from train- ing was independent of the daily training amount. Also, the development of learning spe- cificity in the time course indicated that the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual learning could be dependent on the training amount and evolve with time. Related Articles | Metrics

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Baseball batting average is limited by visuomotor capabilities in expert players Raine Chen Rongrong 2019, 27 (suppl.):  168-168.  Abstract ( 95 )   PURPOSE: Professional baseball batters have less than 500 ms to make a swing yet they manage to contact the ball most of the time. Here we examined whether baseball players have superior eye tracking and manual control capabilities and how they relate to real-world batting. METHODS: First, we tested professional baseball players from Hong Kong leagues (n=44, 27 females) and demographically-matched non-athletes (n=47, 27 females) using an eye tracking task in which participants visually tracked step-ramp motion that varied unpredictably from trial to trial. Next, we used a manual control task in which participants used a joystick to center a randomly-moving target. Last, to test whether eye tracking and manual control performance predict batting performance, we measured infield batting for a subset of players (n=23, all females, 3-18 years' experience). RESULTS: For eye tracking, baseball players showed shorter initiation latency, larger steady-state pursuit gain, smaller catch-up saccade amplitude, smaller vertical-horizontal asymmetry, smaller direction-tuning noise, and larger speed responsiveness than non-athletes. For manual control, baseball players showed better control precision, higher response amplitude, and shorter delay than non-athletes. We then used the non-athletes' dataset as a normative standard and computed the baseball-related eye tracking and manual control indices. Notably, baseball players' eye tracking index was significantly correlated with their manual control index (Pearson's r: 0.31, p<0.05) whereas no such correlations were observed in non-athletes. Furthermore, the predictive power of both eye tracking and manual control to baseball hitting performance increased with the baseball experiences, yet the eye tracking but not manual control capabilities can significantly predict batting accuracy for professional baseball players. CONCLUSIONS: Our sample of professional baseball players showed superior eye tracking and manual control capabilities, as well as coordination between eye-hand control that was absent in non-athletes. Our findings show that real-world baseball batting develops within the players' visuomotor limits. Related Articles | Metrics