Pupil Size Variation Related to Oral Report of Affective Pictures

AbstractThe goal of the experiment was to establish pupil size variations while viewing and reporting 48 affective (IAPS) pictur es. The experiment consisted of 44 students. Pictures appeared on the screen for 20 secs in random order. After reporting the SAM (Self-Assessment Manikin), the participants orally reported on the pictures. In the phase of picture viewing, the unpleasant pictures revealed larger pupillary responses than neutral and pleasant pictures (p<.001). The mean pupil size was at its great est also during the reporting of unpleasant pictures (p< .001). Results indicated that the differences in pupil size variations endure from the viewing phase to the reporting phase of pictures

Predicting the valence of a scene from observers’ eye movements

Multimedia analysis benefits from understanding the emotional content of a scene in a variety of tasks such as video genre classification and content-based image retrieval. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in applying human bio-signals, particularly eye movements, to recognize the emotional gist of a scene such as its valence. In order to determine the emotional category of images using eye movements, the existing methods often learn a classifier using several features that are extracted from eye movements. Although it has been shown that eye movement is potentially useful for recognition of scene valence, the contribution of each feature is not well-studied. To address the issue, we study the contribution of features extracted from eye movements in the classification of images into pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant categories. We assess ten features and their fusion. The features are histogram of saccade orientation, histogram of saccade slope, histogram of saccade length, histogram of saccade duration, histogram of saccade velocity, histogram of fixation duration, fixation histogram, top-ten salient coordinates, and saliency map. We utilize machine learning approach to analyze the performance of features by learning a support vector machine and exploiting various feature fusion schemes. The experiments reveal that ‘saliency map’, ‘fixation histogram’, ‘histogram of fixation duration’, and ‘histogram of saccade slope’ are the most contributing features. The selected features signify the influence of fixation information and angular behavior of eye movements in the recognition of the valence of images

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Multiancestry analysis of the HLA locus in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases uncovers a shared adaptive immune response mediated by HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes

Across multiancestry groups, we analyzed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations in over 176,000 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus controls. We demonstrate that the two diseases share the same protective association at the HLA locus. HLA-specific fine-mapping showed that hierarchical protective effects of HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes best accounted for the association, strongest with HLA-DRB1*04:04 and HLA-DRB1*04:07, and intermediary with HLA-DRB1*04:01 and HLA-DRB1*04:03. The same signal was associated with decreased neurofibrillary tangles in postmortem brains and was associated with reduced tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid and to a lower extent with increased Aβ42. Protective HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes strongly bound the aggregation-prone tau PHF6 sequence, however only when acetylated at a lysine (K311), a common posttranslational modification central to tau aggregation. An HLA-DRB1*04-mediated adaptive immune response decreases PD and AD risks, potentially by acting against tau, offering the possibility of therapeutic avenues

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) reflecting from oral reports of negative experience

AbstractWe measured HRV in 25 females while they were evaluating and reporting 48 affective pictures, which appeared on the screen for 20s in random order. After reporting the SAM, the participant orally reported to the experimenter, what she saw, what had happened, and what was going to happen in the picture. Spectral analysis was performed on the data using the fast Fourier transform. Preliminary results indicate that during negative pictures, LF/HF activity is significantly higher in the picture phase than in the speech phase

Campus futurus:perspectives on learning and technology

Abstract This electronic publication continues the discussion started by the presentations and workshops in the "Campus Futurus - Learning and Technology" - seminar at the University of Oulu March 4. 1999. The publication covers the issues of learning and technology from various points of view: from philosophical considerations to practical solutions. The first chapter, "Learning theoretical insights and pedagogical models", concentrates on questions of pedagogy. In the second chapter, "Man and machine: Philosophical Perspectives", the authors take a look at learning and technology from the point of view of psychology and philosophy. The third chapter discusses the applications of technology in designing learning environments and the practical problems related to distance education in universities

The prerequisites of prosocial behavior in human ontogeny

Abstract Understanding the development of moral attitudes toward unrelated individuals from different social groups may provide insights into the role of biological and cultural factors in prosocial behavior. Children (3–11 years old, N=80) were presented with moral dilemmas describing a conflict of interests between a con-specific (human) and another species (animals or aliens). Participants were asked to evaluate the behavior of a human in terms of ‘good’ and ‘bad’, and to choose whom they would help: a human aggressor who benefits at the expense of a victim in vital need, or the victim. Results showed that the older children preferred to help non-human victims significantly more often than the younger children. The evaluation of human actions was related to the proportion of such preferences. These findings are discussed from the perspectives of kin selection theory, group selection theory and the system-evolutionary approach. The implications of the study for moral education are suggested