Use of foot for direct interactions with entities of a virtual environment displayed on a mobile device

With this paper, we report a novel wearable in-terface dedicated to provide new types of 3D interactions with mobile devices. Proposed interface is based on the fact that the foot can be exploited in the interaction with a virtual 3D world. By using several force sensors incorporated in the sole and an accelerometer attached to the shoe; gestures performed with the foot are interpreted in order to let the user interact with a 3D virtual environment. Being located inside a shoe this interface is fully compatible to constraints related to mobile devices. Indeed as a wearable and transparent device it can be carried everywhere and therefore can be exploited everywhere

Differential working memory function between phonological and visuospatial strategies: a magnetoencephalography study using a same visual task

Previous studies have reported that, in working memory, the processing of visuospatial information and phonological information have different neural bases. However, in these studies, memory items were presented via different modalities. Therefore, the modality in which the memory items were presented and the strategy for memorizing them were not rigorously distinguished. In the present study, we explored the neural basis of two working memory strategies. Nineteen right-handed young adults memorized seven sequential directions presented visually in a task in which the memory strategy was either visuospatial or phonological (visuospatial/phonological condition). Source amplitudes of theta-band (5–7 Hz) rhythm were estimated from magnetoencephalography during the maintenance period and further analyzed using cluster-based permutation tests. Behavioral results revealed that the accuracy rates showed no significant differences between conditions, while the reaction time in the phonological condition was significantly longer than that in the visuospatial condition. Theta activity in the phonological condition was significantly greater than that in the visuospatial condition, and the cluster in spatio-temporal matrix with p < 5% difference extended to right prefrontal regions in the early maintenance period and right occipito-parietal regions in the late maintenance period. The theta activity results did not indicate strategy-specific neural bases but did reveal the dynamics of executive function required for phonological processing. The functions seemed to move from attention control and inhibition control in the prefrontal region to inhibition of irrelevant information in the occipito-parietal region

Neurocomputational Methods for Autonomous Cognitive Control

Artificial Intelligence can be divided between symbolic and sub-symbolic methods, with neural networks making up a majority of the latter. Symbolic systems have the advantage when capabilities such as deduction and planning are required, while sub-symbolic ones are preferable for tasks requiring skills such as perception and generalization. One of the domains in which neural approaches tend to fare poorly is cognitive control: maintaining short-term memory, inhibiting distractions, and shifting attention. Our own biological neural networks are more than capable of these sorts of executive functions, but artificial neural networks struggle with them. This work explores the gap between the cognitive control that is possible with both symbolic AI systems and biological neural networks, but not with artificial neural networks. To do so, I identify a set of general-purpose, regional-level functions and interactions that are useful for cognitive control in large-scale neural architectures. My approach has three main pillars: a region-and-pathway architecture inspired by the human cerebral cortex and biologically-plausible Hebbian learning, neural regions that each serve as an attractor network able to learn sequences, and neural regions that not only learn to exchange information but also to modulate the functions of other regions. The resultant networks have behaviors based on their own memory contents rather than exclusively on their structure. Because they learn not just memories of the environment but also procedures for tasks, it is possible to "program" these neural networks with the desired behaviors. This research makes four primary contributions. First, the extension of Hopfield-like attractor networks from processing only fixed-point attractors to processing sequential ones. This is accomplished via the introduction of temporally asymmetric weights to Hopfield-like networks, a novel technique that I developed. Second, the combination of several such networks to create models capable of autonomously directing their own performance of cognitive control tasks. By learning procedural memories for a task they can perform in ways that match those of human subjects in key respects. Third, the extension of this approach to spatial domains, binding together visuospatial data to perform a complex memory task at the same level observed in humans and a comparable symbolic model. Finally, these new memories and learning procedures are integrated so that models can respond to feedback from the environment. This enables them to improve as they gain experience by refining their own internal representations of their instructions. These results establish that the use of regional networks, sequential attractor dynamics, and gated connections provide an effective way to accomplish the difficult task of neurally-based cognitive control

FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF PHYSICAL AGGRESSION IN A CHILD DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:22:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jordana Silva de Mello Gouveia.pdf: 2533645 bytes, checksum: 048285dace2342529b28edbd00fec857 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-15The present study aimed at investigating the problem behavior of an autistic child in a specialized service using the principles of behavior analysis. The participant was a 10- year-old male child. All the sessions were video-recorded and the behavior class of physical aggression to the mother was selected for intervention. For the functional analysis of the conditions that probably controlled or maintained the behavior of physical aggression to the mother, we used the design of multiple conditions with three main conditions and six sub-conditions: 1) condition of attention, manipulated in four subconditions - (1.1) attention, order; (1.2) attention, physical contact; (1.3) attention, reprimand; (1.4) attention, game; 2) condition alone, manipulated in two sub-conditions - (2.1) alone; (2.2) alone with reinforcers; 3) condition of demand. The results demonstrated that in all conditions of attention the occurrences of physical aggression were high, the same occurring in the condition of demand. In both sub-conditions alone, the frequency of behavior of physical aggression to the mother was zero. Since our data pointed to the control of social attention as a controller of the participant s problem behavior, we decided to adopt a program of treatment employing the ABA reversal design and a follow-up. The design was initiated by data collection of Baseline I (A), followed by the phase of Intervention (B), and another phase of Baseline II (A). During the sessions of intervention, we used a program of treatment employing differential reinforcement of alternative answers (DRA), offering social reinforcement for desired behaviors and withdrawing social attention for the behavior of physical aggression to the mother in an extinction procedure (EXT). Our results demonstrated that withdrawing social attention for the behavior of physical aggression decreased these occurrences and offering social reinforcement for desired behaviors increased their frequency. These results showed that the program of treatment and not other variables was responsible for the changes in the problem behavior of the participant.O presente estudo teve como objetivo investigar o comportamento-problema de uma criança com o diagnóstico de autismo em uma unidade de tratamento especializada utilizando os princípios da análise do comportamento. O participante foi uma criança do sexo masculino com 10 anos de idade. Todas as sessões foram registradas em vídeo e a classe comportamental de agressões físicas à mãe foi selecionada para sofrer intervenção. Para a análise funcional das condições que provavelmente controlavam ou mantinham o comportamento de agressão física à mãe, foi utilizado o delineamento de múltiplas condições com três condições principais e seis subcondições: 1) condição de atenção, manipulada em quatro subcondições - (1.1) atenção, ordem; (1.2) atenção, contato físico; (1.3) atenção, reprimenda; (1.4) atenção, jogo; 2) condição de demanda; 3) condição de sozinhos, manipulada em duas subcondições - (3.1) sozinhos; (3.2) sozinhos com os reforçadores. Os resultados demonstraram que em todas as condições de atenção as ocorrências das agressões físicas foram elevadas, o mesmo ocorrendo na condição de demanda. Já nas duas subcondições de sozinhos, a frequência dos comportamentos de agressão física à mãe foi igual a zero. Uma vez que os dados apontaram para o controle da atenção social como controladora do comportamento-problema do participante, optou-se por um programa de tratamento fazendo uso do delineamento de reversão do tipo A-B-A seguido de follow-up. O delineamento foi iniciado com a coleta de dados de Linha de Base I (A), seguida da fase de Intervenção (B) e de outra fase de Linha de Base II (A). Nas sessões de intervenção, foi usado um programa de tratamento empregando reforçamento diferencial de respostas alternativas (DRA), sendo disponibilizado reforço social para os comportamentos desejados e retirada da atenção social para o comportamento de agressão física à mãe, em um procedimento de extinção (EXT). Os resultados demonstraram que a retirada da atenção social contingente ao comportamento de agressão física diminuiu suas ocorrências e a apresentação de reforço social para os comportamentos desejados aumentou suas frequências. Esses resultados mostraram que o programa de tratamento e não outras variáveis foi responsável pelas mudanças no comportamento-problema do participante