Neurophysiological Profile of Antismoking Campaigns

Over the past few decades, antismoking public service announcements (PSAs) have been used by governments to promote healthy behaviours in citizens, for instance, against drinking before the drive and against smoke. Effectiveness of such PSAs has been suggested especially for young persons. By now, PSAs efficacy is still mainly assessed through traditional methods (questionnaires and metrics) and could be performed only after the PSAs broadcasting, leading to waste of economic resources and time in the case of Ineffective PSAs. One possible countermeasure to such ineffective use of PSAs could be promoted by the evaluation of the cerebral reaction to the PSA of particular segments of population (e.g., old, young, and heavy smokers). In addition, it is crucial to gather such cerebral activity in front of PSAs that have been assessed to be effective against smoke (Effective PSAs), comparing results to the cerebral reactions to PSAs that have been certified to be not effective (Ineffective PSAs). &e eventual differences between the cerebral responses toward the two PSA groups will provide crucial information about the possible outcome of new PSAs before to its broadcasting. &is study focused on adult population, by investigating the cerebral reaction to the vision of different PSA images, which have already been shown to be Effective and Ineffective for the promotion of an antismoking behaviour. Results showed how variables as gender and smoking habits can influence the perception of PSA images, and how different communication styles of the antismoking campaigns could facilitate the comprehension of PSA’s message and then enhance the related impac

Change blindness: eradication of gestalt strategies

Arrays of eight, texture-defined rectangles were used as stimuli in a one-shot change blindness (CB) task where there was a 50% chance that one rectangle would change orientation between two successive presentations separated by an interval. CB was eliminated by cueing the target rectangle in the first stimulus, reduced by cueing in the interval and unaffected by cueing in the second presentation. This supports the idea that a representation was formed that persisted through the interval before being 'overwritten' by the second presentation (Landman et al, 2003 Vision Research 43149–164]. Another possibility is that participants used some kind of grouping or Gestalt strategy. To test this we changed the spatial position of the rectangles in the second presentation by shifting them along imaginary spokes (by ±1 degree) emanating from the central fixation point. There was no significant difference seen in performance between this and the standard task [F(1,4)=2.565, p=0.185]. This may suggest two things: (i) Gestalt grouping is not used as a strategy in these tasks, and (ii) it gives further weight to the argument that objects may be stored and retrieved from a pre-attentional store during this task

Event Fixation Related Potential During Visual Emotion Stimulation

Cílem této diplomové práce je najít a popsat souvislost mezi fixací očí v emočně zabarveném stimulu, kterým je obrázek či video, a EEG signálu. K tomuto studiu je třeba vyvinout softwarové nástroje v prostředí Matlab k úpravě a zpracování dat získaných z eye trackeru a propojení s EEG signály pomocí nově vytvořených markerů. Na základě získaných znalostí o fixacích, jsou v prostředí BrainVision Analyzeru EEG data zpracovány a následně jsou segmentovány a průměrovány jako evokované potenciály pro jednotlivé stimuly (ERP a EfRP). Tato práce je vypracována ve spolupráci s Gipsa-lab v rámci výzkumného projektu.This diploma thesis is a part of a ongoing research project concerning new joint technique of eye fixations and EEG. The goal of this work is to find and analyze a connection between eye fixation in a face expressing an emotion (static or dynamic). For this study certain software developments need to be done to adjust fixation data in Matlab and connect them to EEG signals with newly created markers. Based on the obtained information on fixations, EEG data are processed in BrainVision Analyzer and segmented to obtain ERPs and EfRPs for each stimuli.

Eye-Tracking Signals Based Affective Classification Employing Deep Gradient Convolutional Neural Networks

Utilizing biomedical signals as a basis to calculate the human affective states is an essential issue of affective computing (AC). With the in-depth research on affective signals, the combination of multi-model cognition and physiological indicators, the establishment of a dynamic and complete database, and the addition of high-tech innovative products become recent trends in AC. This research aims to develop a deep gradient convolutional neural network (DGCNN) for classifying affection by using an eye-tracking signals. General signal process tools and pre-processing methods were applied firstly, such as Kalman filter, windowing with hamming, short-time Fourier transform (SIFT), and fast Fourier transform (FTT). Secondly, the eye-moving and tracking signals were converted into images. A convolutional neural networks-based training structure was subsequently applied; the experimental dataset was acquired by an eye-tracking device by assigning four affective stimuli (nervous, calm, happy, and sad) of 16 participants. Finally, the performance of DGCNN was compared with a decision tree (DT), Bayesian Gaussian model (BGM), and k-nearest neighbor (KNN) by using indices of true positive rate (TPR) and false negative rate (FPR). Customizing mini-batch, loss, learning rate, and gradients definition for the training structure of the deep neural network was also deployed finally. The predictive classification matrix showed the effectiveness of the proposed method for eye moving and tracking signals, which performs more than 87.2% inaccuracy. This research provided a feasible way to find more natural human-computer interaction through eye moving and tracking signals and has potential application on the affective production design process

Attentional and Psychophysiological Correlates of Future Time Perspective Manipulation: An Eye-Tracking Study

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory posits that as person progresses through the life cycle, he or she makes concerted steps to maximize social and emotional wellbeing through selective patterns of emotional processing (Carstensen, 1995). The temporal positioning of an individual’s goals, motivations, and social orientations, or future time perspective (FTP), drives this change in emotional processing. The association between FTP and age is a naturally-occurring phenomenon as FTP becomes more limited as a person ages; however, it is believed that the construct of future time perspective is sufficiently malleable to be experimentally manipulated (Carstensen, 2003). The current study assessed the effects of a future time perspective manipulation on the emotional processing of positively and negatively valenced IAPS images in a college sample. Emotional processing was indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance, memory recall, and eye-tracking. Young adult volunteers (N=22) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions, wherein their future time perspective was manipulated to become either more limited or more expansive. Participants viewed a series of positive and negative cues followed by corresponding valenced images before and after the future time perspective manipulation. Preliminary results of the current study suggest the imagery task had no significant effect on FTP. Due to limitations from the small sample size, a larger sample size will be needed to conduct valid group comparisons to sufficiently test the effectiveness of the manipulation. Results of this study show participants with a more limited FTP had lower LF and greater HF HRV, indicating greater emotional regulation of arousal during the task. Interestingly, our results also indicate that positive affect ratings on the PANAS were related to avoiding negative emotional content (lower fixation percentage for negative images and cues), remembering more positive information (greater positive memory recall), detecting a greater saliency for positive information (longer skin conductance rec t/2), lower sympathetic activity (lower posttest LF and SCL) and greater parasympathetic activity (greater posttest HF and RMSSD). These data suggest that reports of affect might provide more sensitive indication of emotional processing than future time perspective