Eight-month-old infants’ behavioural responses to peers’ emotions as related to the asymmetric frontal cortex activity

Infants are sensitive to and converge emotionally with peers’ distress. It is unclear whether these responses extend to positive affect and whether observing peer emotions motivates infants’ behaviors. This study investigates 8-month-olds’ asymmetric frontal EEG during peers’ cry and laughter, and its relation to approach and withdrawal behaviors. Participants observed videos of infant crying or laughing during two separate sessions. Frontal EEG alpha power was recorded during the first, while infants’ behaviors and emotional expressions were recorded during the second session. Facial and vocal expressions of affect suggest that infants converge emotionally with their peers’ distress, and, to a certain extent, with their happiness. At group level, the crying peer elicited right lateralized frontal activity. However, those infants with reduced right and increased left frontal activity in this situation, were more likely to approach their peer. Overall, 8-month-olds did not show asymmetric frontal activity in response to peer laughter. But, those infants who tended to look longer at their happy peer were more likely to respond with left lateralized frontal activity. The link between variations in left frontal activity and simple approach behaviors indicates the presence of a motivational dimension to infants’ responses to distressed peers

Situating Emotions: From Embodied Cognition to Mindreading

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Performance variability of Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ cathode on proton-conducting electrolyte SOFCs with Ag and Au current collectors

Ba 0.5 Sr 0.5 Co 0.8 Fe 0.2 O 3-d (BSCF) is one of the most active cathode materials and shows significant hydration effect suggesting possible proton conductivity. In this study, the performance of BSCF cathode on a proton-conducting BaZr 0.1 Ce 0.7 Y 0.2 O 3-d (BZCY) electrolyte with silver and gold current collectors was determined. The electrochemical characteristics of the symmetrical and anode-supported cell with diluted silver electrode, silver current collector or gold current collector on BSCF electrode were compared. The significant result is that, although the diluted silver electrode itself shows poor operation stability, the silver current collector has strong electrocatalytic contribution to the BSCF cathode performance on the proton-conducting electrolyte, leading to higher cell performance than that with the gold current collector

Tasting Liquid Shapes: Investigating the Sensory Basis of Cross-modal Correspondences

author cannot archive publisher's version/PDFInternational audienceNumerous cross-modal associations bearing on food perception and evaluation have been highlighted. Some of them hold between apparently disconnected features like musical instruments and basic tastes, or pitches and flavors, raising questions regarding their perceptual grounding. In the present study, we investigated whether there are any such cross-modal correspondences between shapes and flavors of liquids, as suggested by the reports that certain beverages taste round or sharp, which bypass the associations made on the basis of visual characteristics of the products or their names. Participants took part in a blind matching task in order to measure the consistency of the association between samples of beer presenting different flavor characteristics and a large set of images of 2D and 3D shapes. Participants were then asked to provide descriptors for the perceived flavor characteristics of the tasted samples. Analysis of the participants’ responses revealed no overall dominance of 2D or 3D shapes but highlighted the existence of a significant correspondence between sweetness, voluminousness, and roundness and between bitterness, thinness, and angular shapes. The study suggests that a perceptual correspondence, rather than a purely linguistic association, is at stake. Hypotheses and guidelines for future investigation are offered to understand better the nature of this correspondence