A Case Study on Time-Interval Fuzzy Cognitive Maps in a Complex Organization

Temporal issues within modeling organizational systems are examined generally and with fuzzy cognitive maps. These maps give the opportunity to consider temporal factors when studying organizational models. The knowledge we gain about the system is useful when the aim is not to optimize time intervals in well-known and instrumented contexts, but also to discover the behavior of the system while different temporal factors are implemented by the management. We will present an adapted resolution for including these factors as key elements in organizational models with fuzzy cognitive map examples for middle and back office application.Peer reviewe

Resting state connectivity and cognitive performance in adults with cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy

Cognitive impairment is an inevitable feature of cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), affecting executive function, attention and processing speed from an early stage. Impairment is associated with structural markers such as lacunes, but associations with functional connectivity have not yet been reported. Twenty-two adults with genetically-confirmed CADASIL (11 male; aged 49.8 ± 11.2 years) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging at rest. Intrinsic attentional/executive networks were identified using group independent components analysis. A linear regression model tested voxel-wise associations between cognitive measures and component spatial maps, and Pearson correlations were performed with mean intra-component connectivity z-scores. Two frontoparietal components were associated with cognitive performance. Voxel-wise analyses showed an association between one component cluster and processing speed (left middle temporal gyrus; peak −48, −18, −14; ZE = 5.65, pFWEcorr = 0.001). Mean connectivity in both components correlated with processing speed (r = 0.45, p = 0.043; r = 0.56, p = 0.008). Mean connectivity in one component correlated with faster Trailmaking B minus A time (r = −0.77, p < 0.001) and better executive performance (r = 0.56, p = 0.011). This preliminary study provides evidence for associations between cognitive performance and attentional network connectivity in CADASIL. Functional connectivity may be a useful biomarker of cognitive performance in this population

Using treemaps for variable selection in spatio-temporal visualisation

We demonstrate and reflect upon the use of enhanced treemaps that incorporate spatial and temporal ordering for exploring a large multivariate spatio-temporal data set. The resulting data-dense views summarise and simultaneously present hundreds of space-, time-, and variable-constrained subsets of a large multivariate data set in a structure that facilitates their meaningful comparison and supports visual analysis. Interactive techniques allow localised patterns to be explored and subsets of interest selected and compared with the spatial aggregate. Spatial variation is considered through interactive raster maps and high-resolution local road maps. The techniques are developed in the context of 42.2 million records of vehicular activity in a 98 km(2) area of central London and informally evaluated through a design used in the exploratory visualisation of this data set. The main advantages of our technique are the means to simultaneously display hundreds of summaries of the data and to interactively browse hundreds of variable combinations with ordering and symbolism that are consistent and appropriate for space- and time- based variables. These capabilities are difficult to achieve in the case of spatio-temporal data with categorical attributes using existing geovisualisation methods. We acknowledge limitations in the treemap representation but enhance the cognitive plausibility of this popular layout through our two-dimensional ordering algorithm and interactions. Patterns that are expected (e.g. more traffic in central London), interesting (e.g. the spatial and temporal distribution of particular vehicle types) and anomalous (e.g. low speeds on particular road sections) are detected at various scales and locations using the approach. In many cases, anomalies identify biases that may have implications for future use of the data set for analyses and applications. Ordered treemaps appear to have potential as interactive interfaces for variable selection in spatio-temporal visualisation. Information Visualization (2008) 7, 210-224. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.ivs.950018

Cognitive maps and spatial sound

This presentation, accompanying a conference paper at the Audio Engineering Society's 52nd Annual Conference, is used as undergraduate teaching material at the University of Derby.The Paper paper discusses the applicability of the “cognitive map” metaphor to potential usages of artificial auditory environments. The theoretical contents of such maps are suggested. Maps are generally considered as having spatial, temporal, causal and territorial representational character, so that affordances in the environment can be utilized in timely fashion. A goal of this theorizing is that artificial auditory environments could appropriately represent affordances for interaction in entertainment, simulation and auditory cognitive training

Flexible recruitment of cortical networks in visual and auditory attention

Our senses, while limited, shape our perception of the world and contribute to the functional architecture of the brain. This dissertation investigates the role of sensory modality and task demands in the cortical organization of healthy human adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This research provides evidence for sensory modality bias in frontal cortical regions by directly contrasting auditory and visual sustained attention. This contrast revealed two distinct visual-biased regions in lateral frontal cortex - superior and inferior precentral sulcus (sPCS, iPCS) - anatomically interleaved with two auditory-biased regions - transverse gyrus intersecting precentral sulcus (tgPCS) and caudal inferior frontal sulcus (cIFS). Intrinsic (resting-state) functional connectivity analysis demonstrated that sPCS and iPCS fall within a broad visual-attention network, while tgPCS and cIFS fall within a broad auditory-attention network. Unisensory (auditory or visual) short-term memory (STM) tasks assessed the flexible recruitment of these sensory-biased cortical regions by varying information domain demands (e.g., spatial, temporal). While both modalities provide spatial and temporal information, vision has greater spatial resolution than audition, and audition has excellent temporal precision relative to vision. A visual temporal, but not a spatial, STM task flexibly recruited frontal auditory-biased regions; conversely, an auditory spatial task more strongly recruited frontal visual-biased regions compared to an auditory temporal task. This flexible recruitment extended to an auditory-biased superior temporal lobe region and to a subset of visual-biased parietal regions. A demanding auditory spatial STM task recruited anterior/superior visuotopic maps (IPS2-4, SPL1) along the intraparietal sulcus, but neither spatial nor temporal auditory tasks recruited posterior/interior maps. Finally, a comparison of visual spatial attention and STM under varied cognitive load demands attempted to further elucidate the organization of posterior parietal cortex. Parietal visuotopic maps were recruited for both visual spatial attention and working memory but demonstrated a graded response to task demands. Posterior/inferior maps (IPS0-1) demonstrated a linear relationship with the number of items attended to or remembered in the visual spatial tasks. Anterior/superior maps (IPS2-4, SPL1) demonstrated a general recruitment in visual spatial cognitive tasks, with a stronger response for visual spatial attention compared to STM

Areas activated during naturalistic reading comprehension overlap topological visual, auditory, and somatotomotor maps

Cortical mapping techniques using fMRI have been instrumental in identifying the boundaries of topological (neighbor-preserving) maps in early sensory areas. The presence of topological maps beyond early sensory areas raises the possibility that they might play a significant role in other cognitive systems, and that topological mapping might help to delineate areas involved in higher cognitive processes. In this study, we combine surface-based visual, auditory, and somatomotor mapping methods with a naturalistic reading comprehension task in the same group of subjects to provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the cortical overlap between sensory-motor maps in all major sensory modalities, and reading processing regions. Our results suggest that cortical activation during naturalistic reading comprehension overlaps more extensively with topological sensory-motor maps than has been heretofore appreciated. Reading activation in regions adjacent to occipital lobe and inferior parietal lobe almost completely overlaps visual maps, whereas a significant portion of frontal activation for reading in dorsolateral and ventral prefrontal cortex overlaps both visual and auditory maps. Even classical language regions in superior temporal cortex are partially overlapped by topological visual and auditory maps. By contrast, the main overlap with somatomotor maps is restricted to a small region on the anterior bank of the central sulcus near the border between the face and hand representations of M-I

Topographic Deep Artificial Neural Networks (TDANNs) predict face selectivity topography in primate inferior temporal (IT) cortex

Deep convolutional neural networks are biologically driven models that resemble the hierarchical structure of primate visual cortex and are the current best predictors of the neural responses measured along the ventral stream. However, the networks lack topographic properties that are present in the visual cortex, such as orientation maps in primary visual cortex and category-selective maps in inferior temporal (IT) cortex. In this work, the minimum wiring cost constraint was approximated as an additional learning rule in order to generate topographic maps of the networks. We found that our topographic deep artificial neural networks (ANNs) can reproduce the category selectivity maps of the primate IT cortex.Comment: 2018 Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscienc

Tau and atrophy: domain-specific relationships with cognition.

BackgroundLate-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by primary memory impairment, which then progresses towards severe deficits across cognitive domains. Here, we report how performance in cognitive domains relates to patterns of tau deposition and cortical thickness.MethodsWe analyzed data from 131 amyloid-β positive participants (55 cognitively normal, 46 mild cognitive impairment, 30 AD) of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), flortaucipir (FTP) positron emission tomography, and neuropsychological testing. Surface-based vertex-wise and region-of-interest analyses were conducted between FTP and cognitive test scores, and between cortical thickness and cognitive test scores.ResultsFTP and thickness were differentially related to cognitive performance in several domains. FTP-cognition associations were more widespread than thickness-cognition associations. Further, FTP-cognition patterns reflected cortical systems that underlie different aspects of cognition.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that AD-related decline in domain-specific cognitive performance reflects underlying progression of tau and atrophy into associated brain circuits. They also suggest that tau-PET may have better sensitivity to this decline than MRI-derived measures of cortical thickness