Brain Computer Interfaces and Emotional Involvement: Theory, Research, and Applications

This reprint is dedicated to the study of brain activity related to emotional and attentional involvement as measured by Brain–computer interface (BCI) systems designed for different purposes. A BCI system can translate brain signals (e.g., electric or hemodynamic brain activity indicators) into a command to execute an action in the BCI application (e.g., a wheelchair, the cursor on the screen, a spelling device or a game). These tools have the advantage of having real-time access to the ongoing brain activity of the individual, which can provide insight into the user’s emotional and attentional states by training a classification algorithm to recognize mental states. The success of BCI systems in contemporary neuroscientific research relies on the fact that they allow one to “think outside the lab”. The integration of technological solutions, artificial intelligence and cognitive science allowed and will allow researchers to envision more and more applications for the future. The clinical and everyday uses are described with the aim to invite readers to open their minds to imagine potential further developments

Computer-based facial expression analysis for assessing user experience

Tese de Doutoramento em Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação - Área de Especialização em Engenharia da Programação e dos Sistemas InformáticosFor the majority of the users, computers are difficult and frustrating to use. The proliferation of computers in the daily life in all sort of shapes and forms becomes a significant factor for potentially aggravating and thus degrading the users’ acceptance of the technology. Traditional user observation methods, aiming at improving human-computer interaction, concentrate on monitoring users within usability laboratories. To accompany the users and follow their difficulties in daily interaction with the computer or other interaction devices would present a solution to better form a picture of the quality of the users’ experience. Such strategy, though, has to rely on natural ways of assessing the users’ reactions, with the risk of otherwise becoming an intrusive and undesirable feature what would be turned off. Our approach borrows from natural human social interactions where body language is so much assertive of one’s appraisals and reactions. We, in particular, concentrate on facial expressions as a clue to infer the users’ perceived positive and negative situations. We start by reviewing the literature on psychology and affective computing regarding users’ emotions and specifically the interpretation of facial expressions. We then present a comprehensive experiment and study asserting the relation of facial expressions with the user task difficulty while performing a word processing task. Subsequently, we discuss different techniques to monitor user state, and as a result focus on machine vision as a solution for unobtrusive facial expression analysis. Consequently, further investigate computer interfaces that react to users’ facial expressions as a method to provide users’ assistance. A related application-oriented experiment and study is presented assessing users’ reactions to that monitoring modality within the context of interacting with a virtual shopping assistant. We conclude by acknowledging that while current technology certainly limits the scope of the research and the applicability of this form of user monitoring, the promising results presented strongly motivate future use of facial expressions analysis to assess the users’ experience with interactive systems.A maioria dos utilizadores vê o computador como uma ferramenta de difícil manuseamento que por vezes conduz a experiências frustrantes. Nesse sentido, a proliferação de computadores no dia-a-dia, em todas as suas formas e variedades, é um factor potencial para degradar a aceitação da tecnologia. Os métodos tradicionais de observação do utilizador, no sentido de melhorar a interacção Humano-Computador, conduzem a monitorização em laboratórios de usabilidade. Em contraste, o acompanhamento do utilizador e das suas dificuldades nas interacções diárias com o computador, ou outros sistemas de interacção, apresenta-se como uma melhor solução para se perceber a qualidade da experiência. Essa estratégia, no entanto, tem que ter como base métodos naturais de avaliação da reacção do utilizador, correndo, caso contrário, o risco de ser visto como uma funcionalidade intrusiva e desnecessária. O nosso método tem por base formas de comunicação não verbal que estão presentes nas interacções sociais onde são frequentemente usadas para avaliar a compreensão e dificuldade do outro. Especificamente, focamos nas expressões faciais como pista para inferir sobre situações positivas e negativas sentidas pelo utilizador. Neste trabalho, começamos por apresentar uma discussão da literatura na área da psicologia e computação afectiva em relação às emoções e interpretação de expressões faciais. Apresentamos um estudo que estabelece a relação das expressões faciais com as dificuldades sentidas pelo utilizador no uso de um processador de texto. Discutimos diferentes técnicas para monitorizar o estado do utilizador, e focamos na visão por computador como uma solução para analisar expressões faciais. Investigamos ainda interfaces que reagem às expressões faciais como forma de assistir o utilizador. É apresentado um estudo que avalia a opinião dos utilizadores a interfaces que monitorizam as suas expressões faciais, no contexto da interacção com um assistente virtual, num website de comércio electrónico. Concluímos, reconhecendo que a tecnologia existente é um factor limitante no estudo e aplicabilidade da forma descrita de observação do utilizador. No entanto, os resultados apresentados são encorajadores tendo em conta uma aplicação futura da análise de expressões faciais do utilizador, como forma de avaliar a qualidade da experiência com sistemas interactivos.INI-GraphicsNet Foundation Fellowship Program.SAP Research Center (Palo Alto).Fraunhofer IGD Virtual Human Project.NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) - Program (NSF03- 599)

06. 2010 IMSAloquium Student Investigation Showcase

https://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/class_of_2010/1004/thumbnail.jp

2010 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase

IMSA students engage in investigations in nanotechnology, particle physics, law, neonatal medicine, literature, transplantation biology, water purity, the educational achievement gap, neurobiology and memory, ethics, theatre, discrete mathematics, economics, and more.https://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/archives_sir/1002/thumbnail.jp

Seeing emotions in others: Improving cognitive and neuronal mechanisms of facial expression processing

In the conceptual framework of affective neuroscience, this thesis intends to advance the understanding of the plasticity mechanisms of other’s emotional facial expression representations. Chapter 1 outlines a description of the neurophysiological bases of Hebbian plasticity, reviews influential studies that adopted paired associative stimulation procedures, and introduces new lines of research where the impact of cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation protocols on higher order cognitive functions is investigated. The experiments in Chapter 2 aimed to test the modulatory influence of a perceptual-motor training, based on the execution of emotional expressions, on the subsequent emotion intensity judgements of others’ high (i.e., full visible) and low-intensity (i.e., masked) emotional expressions. As a result of the training-induced learning, participants showed a significant congruence effect, as indicated by relatively higher expression intensity ratings for the same emotion as the one that was previously trained. Interestingly, although judged as overall less emotionally intense, surgical facemasks did not prevent the emotion-specific effects of the training to occur, suggesting that covering the lower part of other’s face do not interact with the training-induced congruence effect. In Chapter 3 it was implemented a transcranial magnetic stimulation study targeting neural pathways involving re-entrant input from higher order brain regions into lower levels of the visual processing hierarchy. We focused on cortical visual networks within the temporo-occipital stream underpinning the processing of emotional faces and susceptible to plastic adaptations. Importantly, we tested the plasticity-induced effects in a state dependent manner, by administering ccPAS while presenting different facial expressions yet afferent to a specific emotion. Results indicated that the discrimination accuracy of emotion-specific expressions is enhanced following the ccPAS treatment, suggesting that a multi-coil TMS intervention might represent a suitable tool to drive brain remodeling at a neural network level, and consequently influence a specific behavior

7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21)

Information and communication technologies together with new teaching paradigms are reshaping the learning environment.The International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd) aims to become a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas, experiences,opinions and research results relating to the preparation of students and the organization of educational systems.Doménech I De Soria, J.; Merello Giménez, P.; Poza Plaza, EDL. (2021). 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD21.2021.13621EDITORIA

Inside-Out: From Basic Emotions Theory to the Behavioral Ecology View

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI or URI link.Basic Emotions Theory (BET) is the most popular and deeply rooted psychological theory of both emotion and the facial behavior held to express it. We review its Western foundations and the key developments in its evolution, focusing on its parsing of facial expressions into two kinds: biological, categorical, iconic, universal “facial expressions of emotion,” versus modified, culturally diverse versions of those iconic expressions due to intermediation by learned “display rules.” We suggest that this dichotomy and its many corollaries are oversimplified, and that many of BET’s recent modifications are inconsistent in ways that may render it impossible to test and immune to falsification. In contrast, we suggest that the behavioral ecology view of facial displays, as an externalist and functionalist approach, resolves the quandaries and contradictions embedded in BET’s precepts and extensions

Understanding emotions: origins and roles of the amygdala

Emotions arise from activations of specialized neuronal populations in several parts of the cerebral cortex, notably the anterior cingulate, insula, ventromedial prefrontal, and subcortical structures, such as the amygdala, ventral striatum, putamen, caudate nucleus, and ventral tegmental area. Feelings are conscious, emotional experiences of these activations that contribute to neuronal networks mediating thoughts, language, and behavior, thus enhancing the ability to predict, learn, and reappraise stimuli and situations in the environment based on previous experiences. Contemporary theories of emotion converge around the key role of the amygdala as the central subcortical emotional brain structure that constantly evaluates and integrates a variety of sensory information from the surroundings and assigns them appropriate values of emotional dimensions, such as valence, intensity, and approachability. The amygdala participates in the regulation of autonomic and endocrine functions, decision-making and adaptations of instinctive and motivational behaviors to changes in the environment through implicit associative learning, changes in short- and long-term synaptic plasticity, and activation of the fight-or-flight response via efferent projections from its central nucleus to cortical and subcortical structures

False Accuracy in Criminal Trials: The Limits and Costs of Cross Examination

According to the popular culture of criminal trials, skillful cross-examination can reveal the whole “truth” of what happened. In a climactic scene, defense counsel will expose a lying accuser, clear up the statements of a confused eyewitness, or surface the incentives and biases in testimony. Constitutional precedents, evidence theory, and trial procedures all reflect a similar aspiration—that cross-examination performs lie detection and thereby helps to produce accurate outcomes. Although conceptualized as a protection for defendants, cross-examination imposes some unexplored costs on them. Because it focuses on the physical presence of a witness, the current law of confrontation suggests that an opportunity for in-person questioning suffices to ensure the reliability of testimony. Confidence in the value of demeanor evidence endures despite extensive social science on the garbled signals that nonverbal cues send. That misplaced trust can lead to the admission of problematic evidence that has not otherwise been substantively tested. Reliance on cross-examination also precludes development of broader potential meanings of defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to confront the government’s case, which could require access to the reports and resources necessary to conduct effective questioning. In addition, appellate courts often point to cross-examination when they decline to consider trial errors or to evaluate the deficiencies of defense counsel. This Essay challenges conventional wisdom about the purposes of cross-examination. It suggests that a clearer view of its role could lead to deeper evaluation of the reliability of testimony, broader challenges to prosecution evidence, and more complete review for error