Imagery-related eye movements in 3D space depend on individual differences in visual object imagery.

During recall of visual information people tend to move their eyes even though there is nothing to see. Previous studies indicated that such eye movements are related to the spatial location of previously seen items on 2D screens, but they also showed that eye movement behavior varies significantly across individuals. The reason for these differences remains unclear. In the present study we used immersive virtual reality to investigate how individual tendencies to process and represent visual information contribute to eye fixation patterns in visual imagery of previously inspected objects in three-dimensional (3D) space. We show that participants also look back to relevant locations when they are free to move in 3D space. Furthermore, we found that looking back to relevant locations depends on individual differences in visual object imagery abilities. We suggest that object visualizers rely less on spatial information because they tend to process and represent the visual information in terms of color and shape rather than in terms of spatial layout. This finding indicates that eye movements during imagery are subject to individual strategies, and the immersive setting in 3D space made individual differences more likely to unfold

Influence of magnetic vestibular stimulation on self-motion perception

Ultrahigh magnetic fields (UHF) induce dizziness, vertigo and nystagmus due to Lorentz forces acting on the cupula in the semi-circular canals, an effect called magnetic vestibular stimulation (MVS) (Roberts et al., 2011; Ward et al., 2015). As the effect of the magnetic field on the cupula remains constant throughout the exposure, MVS is specifically suitable for studying cognitive performance under vestibular stimulation. The effect of MVS can be set near to zero by tilting the head 30° forward towards the body, allowing to compare different strengths of MVS within subjects (Mian et al., 2016). Furthermore, MVS serves as a suitable non-invasive model for unilateral failure of the vestibular system, which enables studying compensatory processes (Ertl and Boegle, 2019). We conducted our study in a Siemens Terra 7 Tesla Scanner and tested 8 young, healthy participants and plan to include 30 more. The study had two main goals. First, to investigate the process of perception-reflex uncoupling, as under MVS self-motion perception differs from measured nystagmus in direction as well as time course. While horizontal nystagmus was predominant, most participants report a percept of roll rotation, and less frequent a percept of yaw rotation or a mixture of both when moving in to and out of the magnetic field. This matches previous studies (Mian et al., 2013). Reported percepts did not correspond fully to measured reflexive eye-movements. Overall, stronger nystagmus indicated stronger percepts. Roll percepts make sense because the brain integrates the prior knowledge and sensory evidence. In supine position, yaw but not roll rotation would also elicit change in direction of gravity. Second, to quantify influence of continuous vestibular stimulation on cognitive functions with spatial components. Behavioral and neuroimaging studies have shown repeatedly that caloric, galvanic and motion platform-induced vestibular stimulation can affect performance in spatial tasks, such as mental rotation (Klaus et al., 2019; Falconer & Mast, 2012). The influence of MVS on spatial cognition is relevant for fMRI studies as MVS can be a confounder, especially in studies using UHFs. In our study, we did not find a meaningful effect of MVS on mental body rotation performance, neither in allocentric nor in egocentric strategy. In the future, we aim to compare healthy participants and patients with vestibular disorders to investigate adaption and habituation mechanisms

Time in the eye of the beholder: Gaze position reveals spatial-temporal associations during encoding and memory retrieval of future and past

Time is grounded in various ways, and previous studies point to a mental time line with past associated with the left, and future with the right side. In this study, we investigated whether spontaneous eye movements on a blank screen would follow a mental timeline during encoding, free recall, and recognition of past and future items. In all three stages of processing, gaze position was more rightward during future items compared to past items. Moreover, horizontal gaze position during encoding predicted horizontal gaze position during free recall and recognition. We conclude that mental time line and the stored gaze position during encoding assist memory retrieval of past versus future items. Our findings highlight the spatial nature of temporal representations

Flavor SU(3) breaking effects in the chiral unitary model for meson-baryon scatterings

We examine flavor SU(3) breaking effects on meson-baryon scattering amplitudes in the chiral unitary model. It turns out that the SU(3) breaking, which appears in the leading quark mass term in the chiral expansion, can not explain the channel dependence of the subtraction parameters of the model, which are crucial to reproduce the observed scattering amplitudes and resonance properties.Comment: RevTeX4, 4 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Far-infrared edge modes in quantum dots

We have investigated edge modes of different multipolarity sustained by quantum dots submitted to external magnetic fields. We present a microscopic description based on a variational solution of the equation of motion for any axially symmetric confining potential and multipole mode. Numerical results for dots with different number of electrons whose ground-state is described within a local Current Density Functional Theory are discussed. Two sum rules, which are exact within this theory, are derived. In the limit of a large neutral dot at B=0, we have shown that the classical hydrodynamic dispersion law for edge waves \omega(q) \sim \sqrt{q \ln (q_0/q)} holds when quantum and finite size effects are taken into account.Comment: We have changed some figures as well as a part of the tex

Far-infrared edge modes in quantum dots

We have investigated edge modes of different multipolarity sustained by quantum dots submitted to external magnetic fields. We present a microscopic description based on a variational solution of the equation of motion for any axially symmetric confining potential and multipole mode. Numerical results for dots with different number of electrons whose ground-state is described within a local Current Density Functional Theory are discussed. Two sum rules, which are exact within this theory, are derived. In the limit of a large neutral dot at B=0, we have shown that the classical hydrodynamic dispersion law for edge waves \omega(q) \sim \sqrt{q \ln (q_0/q)} holds when quantum and finite size effects are taken into account.Comment: We have changed some figures as well as a part of the tex

Stressful first impressions in job interviews

Stress can impact many aspects of our lives, such as the way we interact and work with others, or the first impressions that we make. In the past, stress has been most commonly assessed through self-reported questionnaires; however, advancements in wearable technology have enabled the measurement of physiological symptoms of stress in an unobtrusive manner. Using a dataset of job interviews, we investigate whether first impressions of stress (from annotations) are equivalent to physiological measurements of the electrodermal activity (EDA). We examine the use of automatically extracted nonverbal cues stemming from both the visual and audio modalities, as well EDA stress measurements for the inference of stress impressions obtained from manual annotations. Stress impressions were found to be significantly negatively correlated with hireability ratings i.e individuals who were perceived to be more stressed were more likely to obtained lower hireability scores. The analysis revealed a significant relationship between audio and visual features but low predictability and no significant effects were found for the EDA features. While some nonverbal cues were more clearly related to stress, the physiological cues were less reliable and warrant further investigation into the use of wearable sensors for stress detection

Anti-Kaon Induced Reactions on the Nucleon

Using a previously established effective Lagrangian model we describe anti-kaon induced reactions on the nucleon. The dominantly contributing channels in the cm-energy region from threshold up to 1.72 GeV are included (K N, \pi \Sigma, \pi \Lambda). We solve the Bethe-Salpeter equation in an unitary $K$-matrix approximation.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, minor typos corrected, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.