Commentary: Musicians' online performance during auditory and visual statistical learning tasks

A commentary on: Musicians' Online Performance during Auditory and Visual Statistical Learning Tasks by Mandikal Vasuki, P. R., Sharma, M., Ibrahim, R. K., and Arciuli, J. (2017). Front. Hum. Neurosci. 11:114. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00114 Statistical learning (SL) is the extraction of the underlying statistical structure from sensory input (Frost et al., 2015). The extent to which this ability is domain-general (with a single central mechanism underpinning SL in any modality) or domain-specific (where the SL mechanism differs by modality) remains a central question in statistical learning (Frost et al., 2015), and two approaches have been adopted to tackle this. First is to examine the extent to which predominantly domain-specific skills such as language proficiency (Arciuli and von Koss Torkildsen, 2012) and musical expertise (Schön and François, 2011), and domain-general skills such as working memory and general IQ (Siegelman and Frost, 2015), correlate with SL ability. Second is to compare SL performance across modalities, or even examine cross-modal transfer (Durrant et al., 2016). Mandikal Vasuki et al. (2017) (and the sister paper: Mandikal Vasuki et al., 2016) make an important contribution by adopting both of these approaches. They compare auditory and visual SL using the Saffran triplet learning paradigm (Saffran et al., 1999) in musicians and non-musicians. The three key findings are that musicians are better than non-musicians at segmentation of auditory stimuli only, there is no correlation between auditory and visual performance, and that auditory performance is better overall. This last result could be due to privileged auditory processing of sequential stimuli (Conway et al., 2009), or it could just reflect differences in perceptual or memory capabilities across modalities. However, the fact that SL performance in one modality does not predict performance in another is hard to explain if a single mechanism underlying both is posited. Combined with the fact that overall better performance was found in musicians only in the auditory modality, a domain-specific SL mechanism seems to offer the most parsimonious explanation of this data

Miguel Sáenz, traductor

Miguel Sáenz es una especie de imponente iceberg del que incluso admiradores suyos conocen solo la cima. Todos los traductores españoles saben que es uno de los grandes de la profesión por la cantidad y calidad de su producción, y que gracias a él la literatura en alemán y más concretamente la obra de Brecht, de Grass o de Bernhard —por nombrar solo a algunos—, dispone en nuestra lengua de versiones verdaderamente dignas de la pluma de dichos autores. Pero Miguel Sáenz es mucho más y, para explicar su excelencia como traductor, conviene detallar lo que hay bajo la línea de flotación. Y escucharlo

Miguel Sáenz, traductor

Miguel Sáenz es una especie de imponente iceberg del que incluso admiradores suyos conocen solo la cima. Todos los traductores españoles saben que es uno de los grandes de la profesión por la cantidad y calidad de su producción, y que gracias a él la literatura en alemán y más concretamente la obra de Brecht, de Grass o de Bernhard —por nombrar solo a algunos—, dispone en nuestra lengua de versiones verdaderamente dignas de la pluma de dichos autores. Pero Miguel Sáenz es mucho más y, para explicar su excelencia como traductor, conviene detallar lo que hay bajo la línea de flotación. Y escucharlo

The Cognitive Daisy – a novel method for recognising the cognitive status of older adults in residential care: Innovative practice

The Cognitive Daisy (COG-D) is an innovative assessment system created to provide healthcare staff with an instant snapshot of the cognitive status of older adults in residential care. The COG-D comprises a flower head consisting of 15 colour coded petals depicting information about: visual-spatial perception, comprehension, communication, memory and attention. This study confirmed the practicality of the COG-D protocol for assessing cognition in a sample of 33 older adults living in residential care and endorsed the use of the COG-D as a tool for recognising the cognitive status of care home residents

Distinguishing between knowledge gaps and misconceptions of Alzheimer’s disease among caregivers in the UK

A popular scale for assessing knowledge about Alzheimer‘s disease is the Alzheimer‘s Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS). The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of adding ‗don‘t know‘ to the original ‗true‘ or ‗false‘ response option. It was assumed that this modification would provide insight into the reasons underlying incorrect responses and could distinguish between misconceptions and knowledge gaps. To investigate this, carers (care home carers and informal carers) and members of the general population were recruited. The results showed that percentage correct responses was lower than previously reported, suggesting potential inflation of knowledge by guesses without the ‗don‘t know‘ option. Moreover, care-home workers were more likely to select the incorrect response than ‗don‘t know‘ compared to informal carers for several items related to the earlier stages of AD, suggesting a higher level of misconceptions around this topic and highlighting potential training needs for care home carers

Role of lateral and feedback connections in primary visual cortex in the processing of spatiotemporal regularity: a TMS study

Our human visual system exploits spatiotemporal regularity to interpret incoming visual signals. With a dynamic stimulus sequence of four collinear bars (predictors) appearing consecutively toward the fovea, followed by a target bar with varying contrasts, we have previously found that this predictable spatiotemporal stimulus structure enhances target detection performance and its underlying neural process starts in the primary visual cortex (area V1). However, the relative contribution of V1 lateral and feedback connections in the processing of spatiotemporal regularity remains unclear. In this study we measured human contrast detection of a briefly presented foveal target that was embedded in a dynamic collinear predictor-target sequence. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to selectively disrupt V1 horizontal and feedback connections in the processing of predictors. The coil was positioned over a cortical location corresponding to the location of the last predictor prior to target onset. Single-pulse TMS at an intensity of 10% below phosphene threshold was delivered at 20 or 90ms after the predictor onset. Our analysis revealed that the delivery of TMS at both time windows equally reduced, but did not abolish, the facilitation effect of the predictors on target detection. Furthermore, if the predictors’ ordination was randomized to suppress V1 lateral connections, the TMS disruption was significantly more evident at 20ms than at 90ms time window. We suggest that both lateral and feedback connections contribute to the encoding of spatiotemporal regularity in V1. These findings develop understanding of how our visual system exploits spatiotemporal regularity to facilitate the efficiency of visual perception

FUNGSI PLAN MAINTENANCE SYSTEM (PMS) DALAM PERAWATAN DAN PERBAIKAN PERALATAN DEK DI MV. TANTO LESTARI

INTISARI Afriandre, M. Pollux, 52155689 N, 2021, “Fungsi Plan Maintenance System (PMS) Dalam Perawatan Dan Perbaikan Peralatan Dek Di MV. Tanto Lestari”, Program Diploma IV, Program Studi Nautika, Politeknik Ilmu Pelayaran Semarang, Pembimbing I: Capt. Agus Hadi Purwantomo, M.Mar., Pembimbing II: Capt. Karolus Geleuk Sengadji, M.M Plan Maintenance System merupakan sistem perawatan kapal yang dilakukan secara terus menerus atau berkesinambungan yang terjadwal terhadap peralatan dan perlengkapan agar kapal selalu dalam keadaan laik laut dan siap operasi. Rumusan masalah pada penelitian ini adalah 1)Apakah fungsi dari Plan Maintenance System (PMS) dalam perawatan dan perbaikan peralatan dek di MV. Tanto Lestari ?, 2)Bagaimana upaya-upaya untuk memfungsikan Plan Maintenance System (PMS) dalam perawatan dan perbaikan peralatan dek di MV. Tanto Lestari ?, Analisis data yang digunakan adalah analisis data SWOT dan Metode pengumpulan data yang penulis lakukan adalah Observasi, Dokumentasi dan Wawancara untuk memperkuat dalam analisis data dan pembahasan. Hasil penelitian fungsi Plan Maintenance System (pms) dalam perawatan dan perbaikan peralatan dek di MV. tanto lestari adalah 1) menekankan analisis dan perencanaan dengan memperhitungkan berbagai hambatan operasional kapal, 2) )Jadwal perawatan atau penggantian yang tidak terencana, 3)Rusaknya kanvas rem pada mesin windlass membuat Kejadian tersebut berpengaruh pada kinerja rem mesin winch yang mana bakal sangat di perlukan saat kapal sandar, 4) stacking cone dari penyangga container rusak dan terlepas dari tank top dikarenakan pinggiran stacking cone dan tank top yang telah berkarat, 5)Terjatuhnya ABK ke laut di karenakan Putusnya tangga monyet(monkey ladder) Faktor-faktor penyebab Plan Maintenance System tidak dilaksanakan dengan semaksimalmungkin,mengoptimalkan penerapan system perawatan dan perbaikan berencana, mempertahakan dan meningkatkan kemampuan crew kapal dalam pengoperasian alat perawatan dan pemeliharaan. Upaya yang perlu dilakukan adalah mengkordinir waktu dengan baik agar kegiatan perawatan tidak berbentrokan dengan jadwal kapal yang padat dengan cara membuat sistem pencatatan waktu kegiatan perawatan

Age-of-actor effect in body expression recognition of children

Investigations of developmental trajectories for emotion recognition suggest that both face- and body expression recognition increases rapidly in early childhood and reaches adult levels of performance near the age of ten. So far, little is known about whether children's ability to recognise body expressions is influenced by the age of the person they are observing. This question is investigated here by presenting 119 children and 42 young adults with videos of children, young adults and older adults expressing emotions with their whole body. The results revealed an own-age advantage for children, reflected in adult-level accuracy for videos of children for most expressions but reduced accuracy for videos of older adults. Children's recognition of older adults' expressions was not correlated with children's estimated amount of contact with older adults. Support for potential influences of social biases on performance measures was minimal. The own-age advantage was explained in terms of children's reduced familiarity with body expressions of older adults due to aging related changes in the kine�matics characteristics of movements and potentially due to stronger embodiment of other children's bodily movements

Generating ogives to (i) analyse perceptual changes associated with ambiguous figures, and (ii) reaction times in an inhibition-of-return (IOR) task

The perceptual changes (PCs) associated with viewing an ambiguous figure like the Necker cube (NC) can be considered as a series of independent events in time. The time between successive PCs is then percept duration, and the frequency distribution of percepts plotted against duration is adequately modelled by a gamma distribution (Borsellino et al, 1972 Kybernetik 10 139 - 144). A logarithmic transformation on the duration scale enabled us to model the subsequent distribution with a Gaussian. The cumulative Gaussian fitted to the normalised ogive allowed simple comparison of observer performance in different conditions. We found no differences between ogives generated for the standard 'cube-up' and 'cube-down' 3-D perceptual alternatives. When observers recorded 2-D perceptual alternatives, the ogives were shallower and shifted to the right. This suggests that the neural mechanisms governing PCs between 3-D and 2-D perceptual alternatives differ from those that govern the PCs between the opposing 3-D perceptual alternatives of 'cube-up' and 'cube-down'. Further, we show that the same analysis can be applied to reaction times generated in an inhibition-of-return (IOR) task. We argue that this form of analysis is superior to other more commonly reported methods for both attentional and PC data