How are visual words represented? Insights from EEG-based visual word decoding, feature derivation and image reconstruction

Issue Online: 23 October 2019Investigations into the neural basis of reading have shed light on the cortical locus and the functional role of visual-orthographic processing. Yet, the fine-grained structure of neural representations subserving reading remains to be clarified. Here, we capitalize on the spatiotemporal structure of electroencephalography (EEG) data to examine if and how EEG patterns can serve to decode and reconstruct the internal representation of visually presented words in healthy adults. Our results show that word classification and image reconstruction were accurate well above chance, that their temporal profile exhibited an early onset, soon after 100 ms, and peaked around 170 ms. Further, reconstruction results were well explained by a combination of visual-orthographic word properties. Last, systematic individual differences were detected in orthographic representations across participants. Collectively, our results establish the feasibility of EEG-based word decoding and image reconstruction. More generally, they help to elucidate the specific features, dynamics, and neurocomputational principles underlying word recognition.This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (to A.N., A.C.H.L., and B. C. A.)

Brief Probe into the Key Factors that Influence Beijing Agricultural Drought Vulnerability

International audienceDrought is a major disaster that Beijing agricultural systems faced with. The risk of drought disasters is a result of drought disaster together with vulnerability, the result of drought disaster only appeared in post-disaster, before the disaster occurred, we need to make some research on drought vulnerability that Beijing agricultural systems faced with, we choose VAM (vulnerability assessment method) that consist of three drought elements: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, based on two kinds of analytic hierarchy process method to determine the weight of each factors. try to verify the results of agricultural drought indicator system through the spatial distribution map of soil moisture, as well as explore the key factors that influence Beijing agricultural drought vulnerability

Scoliosis Related Information on the Internet in China: Can Patients Benefit from This Information?

<div><p>Background</p><p>There has been an increasing popularity of searching health related information online in recent years. Despite that considerable amount of scoliosis patients have shown interest in obtaining scoliosis information through Internet, previous studies have demonstrated poor quality of online information. However, this conclusion may vary depending on region and culture. Since China has a restricted Internet access outside of its borders, the aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of scoliosis information available online using recognized scoring systems and to analyze the Internet as a source of health information in China.</p><p>Methods</p><p>A survey-based questionnaire was distributed to 280 respondents at outpatient clinics. Information on demographics and Internet use was collected. Binary logistic analysis was performed to identify possible predictors for the use of Internet. In addition, the top 60 scoliosis related websites assessed through 4 search engines were reviewed by a surgeon and the quality of online information was evaluated using DISCERN score and JAMA benchmark.</p><p>Results</p><p>Use of the Internet as a source for scoliosis related information was confirmed in 87.8% of the respondents. College education, Internet access at home and urban residence were identified as potential predictors for Internet use. However, the quality of online scoliosis related information was poor with an average DISCERN score of 27.9±11.7 and may be misleading for scoliosis patients.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>The study outlines the profile of scoliosis patients who use the Internet as a source of health information. It was shown that 87.8% of the scoliosis patients in outpatient clinics have searched for scoliosis related information on Internet. Urban patients, higher education and Internet access at home were identified as potential predictors for Internet search. However, the overall quality of online scoliosis related information was poor and confusing. Physician based websites seemed to contain more reliable information.</p></div