145 research outputs found
Differential orientation effect in the neural response to interacting biological motion of two agents
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A recent behavioral study demonstrated that the meaningful interaction of two agents enhances the detection sensitivity of biological motion (BM), however, it remains unclear when and how the 'interaction' information of two agents is represented in our neural system. To clarify this point, we used magnetoencephalography and introduced a novel experimental technique to extract a neuromagnetic response relating to two-agent BM perception. We then investigated how this response was modulated by the interaction of two agents. In the present experiment, we presented two kinds of visual stimuli (interacting and non-interacting BM) with two orientations (upright and inverted).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found a neuromagnetic response in the bilateral occipitotemporal region, on average 300 β 400 ms after the onset of a two-agent BM stimulus. This result showed that interhemispheric differences were apparent for the peak amplitudes. For the left hemisphere, the orientation effect was manifest when the two agents were made to interact, and the interaction effect was manifest when the stimulus was inverted. In the right hemisphere, the main effects of both orientation and interaction were significant, suggesting that the peak amplitude was attenuated when the visual stimulus was inverted or made to interact.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results demonstrate that the 'interaction' information of two agents can affect the neural activities in the bilateral occipitotemporal region, on average 300 β 400 ms after the onset of a two-agent BM stimulus, however, the modulation was different between hemispheres: the left hemisphere is more concerned with dynamics, whereas the right hemisphere is more concerned with form information.</p
Word Processing differences between dyslexic and control children
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate brain responses triggered by different wordclasses in dyslexic and control children. The majority of dyslexic children have difficulties to phonologically assemble a word from sublexical parts following grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences. Therefore, we hypothesised that dyslexic children should mainly differ from controls processing low frequent words that are unfamiliar to the reader. METHODS: We presented different wordclasses (high and low frequent words, pseudowords) in a rapid serial visual word (RSVP) design and performed wavelet analysis on the evoked activity. RESULTS: Dyslexic children had lower evoked power amplitudes and a higher spectral frequency for low frequent words compared to control children. No group differences were found for high frequent words and pseudowords. Control children had higher evoked power amplitudes and a lower spectral frequency for low frequent words compared to high frequent words and pseudowords. This pattern was not present in the dyslexic group. CONCLUSION: Dyslexic children differed from control children only in their brain responses to low frequent words while showing no modulated brain activity in response to the three word types. This might support the hypothesis that dyslexic children are selectively impaired reading words that require sublexical processing. However, the lacking differences between word types raise the question if dyslexic children were able to process the words presented in rapid serial fashion in an adequate way. Therefore the present results should only be interpreted as evidence for a specific sublexical processing deficit with caution
Psychological Determinants of Consumer Acceptance of Personalised Nutrition in 9 European Countries
YesObjective: To develop a model of the psychological factors which predict peopleβs intention to adopt personalised
nutrition. Potential determinants of adoption included perceived risk and benefit, perceived self-efficacy, internal locus of
control and health commitment.
Methods: A questionnaire, developed from exploratory study data and the existing theoretical literature, and including
validated psychological scales was administered to N = 9381 participants from 9 European countries (Germany, Greece,
Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and Norway).
Results: Structural equation modelling indicated that the greater participantsβ perceived benefits to be associated with
personalised nutrition, the more positive their attitudes were towards personalised nutrition, and the greater their intention
to adopt it. Higher levels of nutrition self-efficacy were related to more positive attitudes towards, and a greater expressed
intention to adopt, personalised nutrition. Other constructs positively impacting attitudes towards personalised nutrition
included more positive perceptions of the efficacy of regulatory control to protect consumers (e.g. in relation to personal
data protection), higher self-reported internal health locus of control, and health commitment. Although higher perceived
risk had a negative relationship with attitude and an inverse relationship with perceived benefit, its effects on attitude and
intention to adopt personalised nutrition was less influential than perceived benefit. The model was stable across the
different European countries, suggesting that psychological factors determining adoption of personalised nutrition have
generic applicability across different European countries.
Conclusion: The results suggest that transparent provision of information about potential benefits, and protection of
consumersβ personal data is important for adoption, delivery of public health benefits, and commercialisation of
personalised nutrition.This project has received funding from the European Unionβs Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n u 265494 (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html). Food4Me is the acronym of the project ββPersonalised nutrition: an integrated analysis of opportunities and challengesββ (http://www.food4me.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
Towards a Framework for Understanding Fairtrade Purchase Intention in the Mainstream Environment of Supermarkets
Β© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Despite growing interest in ethical consumer behaviour research, ambiguity remains regarding what motivates consumers to purchase ethical products. While researchers largely attribute the growth of ethical consumerism to an increase in ethical consumer concerns and motivations, widened distribution (mainstreaming) of ethical products, such as fairtrade, questions these assumptions. A model that integrates both individual and societal values into the theory of planned behaviour is presented and empirically tested to challenge the assumption that ethical consumption is driven by ethical considerations alone. Using data sourced from fairtrade shoppers across the UK, structural equation modelling suggests that fairtrade purchase intention is driven by both societal and self-interest values. This dual value pathway helps address conceptual limitations inherent in the underlying assumptions of existing ethical purchasing behaviour m odels and helps advance understanding of consumersβ motivation to purchase ethical products
Right hemisphere has the last laugh: neural dynamics of joke appreciation
Understanding a joke relies on semantic, mnemonic, inferential, and emotional contributions from multiple brain areas. Anatomically constrained magnetoencephalography (aMEG) combining high-density whole-head MEG with anatomical magnetic resonance imaging allowed us to estimate where the humor-specific brain activations occur and to understand their temporal sequence. Punch lines provided either funny, not funny (semantically congruent), or nonsensical (incongruent) replies to joke questions. Healthy subjects rated them as being funny or not funny. As expected, incongruous endings evoke the largest N400m in left-dominant temporo-prefrontal areas, due to integration difficulty. In contrast, funny punch lines evoke the smallest N400m during this initial lexicalβsemantic stage, consistent with their primed βsurface congruityβ with the setup question. In line with its sensitivity to ambiguity, the anteromedial prefrontal cortex may contribute to the subsequent βsecond takeβ processing, which, for jokes, presumably reflects detection of a clever βtwistβ contained in the funny punch lines. Joke-selective activity simultaneously emerges in the right prefrontal cortex, which may lead an extended bilateral temporo-frontal network in establishing the distant unexpected creative coherence between the punch line and the setup. This progression from an initially promising but misleading integration from left frontotemporal associations, to medial prefrontal ambiguity evaluation and right prefrontal reprocessing, may reflect the essential tension and resolution underlying humor
Top-Down Modulations from Dorsal Stream in Lexical Recognition: An Effective Connectivity fMRI Study
Both the ventral and dorsal visual streams in the human brain are known to be involved in reading. However, the interaction of these two pathways and their responses to different cognitive demands remains unclear. In this study, activation of neural pathways during Chinese character reading was acquired by using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique. Visual-spatial analysis (mediated by the dorsal pathway) was disassociated from lexical recognition (mediated by the ventral pathway) via a spatial-based lexical decision task and effective connectivity analysis. Connectivity results revealed that, during spatial processing, the left superior parietal lobule (SPL) positively modulated the left fusiform gyrus (FG), while during lexical processing, the left SPL received positive modulatory input from the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and sent negative modulatory output to the left FG. These findings suggest that the dorsal stream is highly involved in lexical recognition and acts as a top-down modulator for lexical processing
Does corporate reputation matter? Role of social media in consumer intention to purchase innovative food product
The exponential growth of the corporate reputation in food industry has resulted in innovations in every link of its supply chain. There have been studies that have characterized innovation in various industries from the perspective of technology, but far fewer in the area of corporate reputation, consumer perception, and intention towards innovations in food products. This research analyses the innovations in the food industry from the perspective of the consumer and provides a conceptual framework of food innovation stages. The study also investigates the relationship between corporate reputation and intention towards food innovation along with the other components of TPB model with an extension of social media engagement. The results from India and US samples confirm that social media engagement have a significant role to play in creating intention to purchase innovative food products. The study compares the US and Indian samples and identifies differences in subjective norms and perceived behavioural control
- β¦