Comparing Performance Between Online and In-Person Research with an Audiovisual Experimental Paradigm

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many researchers and educators to operate primarily from an online platform. While online information dissemination is fast, efficient, and inexpensive (Buhrmester, Talaifar, & Gosling, 2018), it is imperative that the data are reliable. One of the popular online platforms used is Zoom. Previously, psychometric studies found that web-based assessments disseminated via Zoom yield similar results to paper-based questionnaires (Riva, Teruzzi, & Anolli, 2003). However, the dissemination of information online may differ from in-person methods, as online platforms for presenting information have shown less precision and more variability in reaction times compared to in-person methods (Bridges et al., 2020). This could raise questions for the potential of using experimental methods online, as the utility of experimental studies via Zoom has yet to be evaluated. Objectives: The present study aims to investigate the reliability of using Zoom with an audiovisual motion perception paradigm and compare performance between in-person and online presentations. Methods: Participants met with a researcher either in-person or via Zoom to complete thew experiment on Labvanced. Screenshare and remote control functions were used to share the paradigm and complete participation. The paradigm required participants to select an oddball video out of three videos. Reaction time, accuracy, and lag (ITI) was analyzed and compared across in-person versus Zoom to determine if these types of psychophysical experiments can be replicated online. Results: Participant ages ranged from 18 to 52 years of age (M = 21.3, SD = 5.2). 35 participants were female, and 11 were male. In-person (n = 24) and online (n = 22) results were very similar in terms of reaction time, however, sound was shown to improve accuracy when detecting the oddball video for online participants. This differed from in-person results, as participants were less accurate when a sound was paired with the oddball video. Discussion: The current study showed very little variation in reaction time for Zoom versus inperson performance, however, accuracy results with audiovisual stimuli differed. Given that the current study utilized Labvanced, a browser based platform, other studies have found variability in the precision of stimulus presentation via browser-based experiments (Bridges et al., 2020). Therefore, results from the current study fall in line existing literature, although studies investigating online presentation of stimuli suggest that online methods can be suitable for a wide range of applications in research and education as long as sources of variability are considered. However, a limitation of the current study is the small sample size and limited power due to the lack of participants. Future extensions of this study will include recruiting more participants to increase the sample size, as in-person recruitment for this study was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic

Cutaneous saltation within and across arms: a new measure of the saltation illusion in somatosensation

A new objective procedure was used to measure the strength of cutaneous saltation, in order to clarify current debates about the nature of this illusion. Three taps were presented successively to three possible forearm locations. Participants attended to the middle location and reported whether a tap was perceived there. When all stimuli were delivered to the same arm and intertap intervals were short, participants were unable to distinguish real and illusory stimuli at the middle location. When both arms were stimulated, location judgments on one arm were shifted toward a tap subsequently delivered to the other arm. These results challenge the view that saltation is a purely attentional phenomenon, but they are inconsistent with the idea that this illusion is produced in the primary somatosensory cortex

Temporal order is coded temporally in the brain: early event-related potential latency shifts underlying prior entry in a cross-modal temporal order judgment task.

The speeding-up of neural processing associated with attended events (i.e., the prior-entry effect) has long been proposed as a viable mechanism by which attention can prioritize our perception and action. In the brain, this has been thought to be regulated through a sensory gating mechanism, increasing the amplitudes of early evoked potentials while leaving their latencies unaffected. However, the majority of previous research has emphasized speeded responding and has failed to emphasize fine temporal discrimination, thereby potentially lacking the sensitivity to reveal putative modulations in the timing of neural processing. In the present study, we used a cross-modal temporal order judgment task while shifting attention between the visual and tactile modalities to investigate the mechanisms underlying selective attention electrophysiologically. Our results indicate that attention can indeed speed up neural processes during visual perception, thereby providing the first electrophysiological support for the existence of prior entry

Electroencephalography of Touch

Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the major tools to non-invasively investigate cortical activations from somatosensation in humans. EEG is useful for delineating influences on the processing pathways of tactile stimulation and for mapping the dynamics between the cortical areas involved in and linked to tactile perception. This chapter focuses on the process of recording somatosensory EEG from mechanical tactile stimulation, including affective touch, and their related cortical activations. Practical and participant-specific challenges are detailed, and best practices are shared. In addition, the main areas of research in tactile perception using EEG are discussed. These include perception, attention, and multisensory perception, as well as emotional and self-other processing. We discuss the major considerations when conducting these types of research

Differences between endogenous attention to spatial locations and sensory modalities

Vibell et al. (J Cogn Neurosci 19:109-120, 2007) reported that endogenously attending to a sensory modality (vision or touch) modulated perceptual processing, in part, by the relative speeding-up of neural activation (i.e., as a result of prior entry). However, it was unclear whether it was the fine temporal discrimination required by the temporal-order judgment task that was used, or rather, the type of attentional modulation (spatial locations or sensory modalities) that was responsible for the shift in latencies that they observed. The present study used a similar experimental design to evaluate whether spatial attention would also yield similar latency effects suggestive of prior entry in the early visual P1 potentials. Intriguingly, while the results demonstrate similar neural latency shifts attributable to spatial attention, they started at a somewhat later stage than seen in Vibell et al.'s study. These differences are consistent with different neural mechanisms underlying attention to a specific sensory modality versus to a spatial location

Differences between endogenous attention to spatial locations and sensory modalities

Vibell et al. (J Cogn Neurosci 19:109-120, 2007) reported that endogenously attending to a sensory modality (vision or touch) modulated perceptual processing, in part, by the relative speeding-up of neural activation (i.e., as a result of prior entry). However, it was unclear whether it was the fine temporal discrimination required by the temporal-order judgment task that was used, or rather, the type of attentional modulation (spatial locations or sensory modalities) that was responsible for the shift in latencies that they observed. The present study used a similar experimental design to evaluate whether spatial attention would also yield similar latency effects suggestive of prior entry in the early visual P1 potentials. Intriguingly, while the results demonstrate similar neural latency shifts attributable to spatial attention, they started at a somewhat later stage than seen in Vibell et al.'s study. These differences are consistent with different neural mechanisms underlying attention to a specific sensory modality versus to a spatial location

The role of attention in immersion: The two–competitor model

Currently, we face an exponentially increasing interest in immersion, especially sensory–driven immersion, mainly due to the rapid development of ideas and business models centered around a digital virtual universe as well as the increasing availability of affordable immersive technologies for education, communication, and entertainment. However, a clear definition of ‘immersion’, in terms of established neurocognitive concepts and measurable properties, remains elusive, slowing research on the human side of immersive interfaces.To address this problem, we propose a conceptual, taxonomic model of attention in immersion. We argue (a) modeling immersion theoretically as well as studying immersion experimentally requires a detailed characterization of the role of attention in immersion, even though (b) attention, while necessary, cannot be a sufficient condition for defining immersion. Our broader goal is to characterize immersion in terms that will be compatible with established psychophysiolgical measures that could then in principle be used for the assessment and eventually the optimization of an immersive experience. We start from the perspective that immersion requires the projection of attention to an induced reality, and build on accepted taxonomies of different modes of attention for the development of our two–competitor model. The two–competitor model allows for a quantitative implementation and has an easy graphical interpretation. It helps to highlight the important link between different modes of attention and affect in studying immersion

Fast variational alignment of non-flat 1D displacements for applications in neuroimaging

Background:In the context of signal analysis and pattern matching, alignment of 1D signals for the comparison of signal morphologies is an important problem. For image processing and computer vision, 2D optical flow (OF) methods find wide application for motion analysis and image registration and variational OF methods have been continuously improved over the past decades.New method:We propose a variational method for the alignment and displacement estimation of 1D signals. We pose the estimation of non-flat displacements as an optimization problem with a similarity and smoothness term similar to variational OF estimation. To this end, we can make use of efficient optimization strategies that allow real-time applications on consumer grade hardware.Results:We apply our method to two applications from functional neuroimaging: The alignment of 2-photon imaging line scan recordings and the denoising of evoked and event-related potentials in single trial matrices. We can report state of the art results in terms of alignment quality and computing speeds.Existing methods:Existing methods for 1D alignment target mostly constant displacements, do not allow native subsample precision or precise control over regularization or are slower than the proposed method.Conclusions:Our method is implemented as a MATLAB toolbox and is online available. It is suitable for 1D alignment problems, where high accuracy and high speed is needed and non-constant displacements occur