4,969 research outputs found
Eyes on the mind : investigating the influence of gaze dynamics on the perception of others in real-time social interaction
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study was partially supported by a grant of the Köln Fortune Program of the Medical Faculty at the University of Cologne to Leonhard Schilbach and by a grant âOther Mindsâ of the German Ministry of Research and Education to Kai Vogeley. The authors would like to thank Stephanie Alexius and Leonhard Engels for their assistance in data collection.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Why we interact : on the functional role of the striatum in the subjective experience of social interaction
Acknowledgments We thank Neil Macrae and Axel Cleeremans for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Furthermore, we are grateful to DorothĂ© Krug and Barbara Elghahwagi for their assistance in data acquisition. This study was supported by a grant of the Köln Fortune Program of the Medical Faculty at the University of Cologne to L.S. and by a grant âOther Mindsâ of the German Ministry of Research and Education to K.V.Peer reviewedPreprin
A Non-Verbal Turing Test: Differentiating Mind from Machine in Gaze-Based Social Interaction
In social interaction, gaze behavior provides important signals that have a significant impact on our perception of others. Previous investigations, however, have relied on paradigms in which participants are passive observers of other personsâ gazes and do not adjust their gaze behavior as is the case in real-life social encounters. We used an interactive eye-tracking paradigm that allows participants to interact with an anthropomorphic virtual character whose gaze behavior is responsive to where the participant looks on the stimulus screen in real time. The characterâs gaze reactions were systematically varied along a continuum from a maximal probability of gaze aversion to a maximal probability of gaze-following during brief interactions, thereby varying contingency and congruency of the reactions. We investigated how these variations influenced whether participants believed that the character was controlled by another person (i.e., a confederate) or a computer program. In a series of experiments, the human confederate was either introduced as naĂŻve to the task, cooperative, or competitive. Results demonstrate that the ascription of humanness increases with higher congruency of gaze reactions when participants are interacting with a naĂŻve partner. In contrast, humanness ascription is driven by the degree of contingency irrespective of congruency when the confederate was introduced as cooperative. Conversely, during interaction with a competitive confederate, judgments were neither based on congruency nor on contingency. These results offer important insights into what renders the experience of an interaction truly social: Humans appear to have a default expectation of reciprocation that can be influenced drastically by the presumed disposition of the interactor to either cooperate or compete
Atypical processing of uncertainty in individuals at risk for psychosis
Current theories of psychosis highlight the role of abnormal learning signals, i.e., prediction errors (PEs) and uncertainty, in the formation of delusional beliefs. We employed computational analyses of behaviour and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether such abnormalities are evident in clinical high risk (CHR) individuals.
Non-medicated CHR individuals (n = 13) and control participants (n = 13) performed a probabilistic learning paradigm during fMRI data acquisition. We used a hierarchical Bayesian model to infer subject-specific computations from behaviour â with a focus on PEs and uncertainty (or its inverse, precision) at different levels, including environmental âvolatilityâ â and used these computational quantities for analyses of fMRI data.
Computational modelling of CHR individualsâ behaviour indicated volatility estimates converged to significantly higher levels than in controls. Model-based fMRI demonstrated increased activity in prefrontal and insular regions of CHR individuals in response to precision-weighted low-level outcome PEs, while activations of prefrontal, orbitofrontal and anterior insula cortex by higher-level PEs (that serve to update volatility estimates) were reduced. Additionally, prefrontal cortical activity in response to outcome PEs in CHR was negatively associated with clinical measures of global functioning.
Our results suggest a multi-faceted learning abnormality in CHR individuals under conditions of environmental uncertainty, comprising higher levels of volatility estimates combined with reduced cortical activation, and abnormally high activations in prefrontal and insular areas by precision-weighted outcome PEs. This atypical representation of high- and low-level learning signals might reflect a predisposition to delusion formation
Two-dimensional hole precession in an all-semiconductor spin field effect transistor
We present a theoretical study of a spin field-effect transistor realized in
a quantum well formed in a p--doped ferromagnetic-semiconductor-
nonmagnetic-semiconductor-ferromagnetic-semiconductor hybrid structure. Based
on an envelope-function approach for the hole bands in the various regions of
the transistor, we derive the complete theory of coherent transport through the
device, which includes both heavy- and light-hole subbands, proper modeling of
the mode matching at interfaces, integration over injection angles, Rashba spin
precession, interference effects due to multiple reflections, and gate-voltage
dependences. Numerical results for the device current as a function of
externally tunable parameters are in excellent agreement with approximate
analytical formulae.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure
Mesoscopic effects in tunneling between parallel quantum wires
We consider a phase-coherent system of two parallel quantum wires that are
coupled via a tunneling barrier of finite length. The usual perturbative
treatment of tunneling fails in this case, even in the diffusive limit, once
the length L of the coupling region exceeds a characteristic length scale L_t
set by tunneling. Exact solution of the scattering problem posed by the
extended tunneling barrier allows us to compute tunneling conductances as a
function of applied voltage and magnetic field. We take into account charging
effects in the quantum wires due to applied voltages and find that these are
important for 1D-to-1D tunneling transport.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, improved Figs., added Refs. and appendix, to
appear in Phys. Rev.
Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: Results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project
The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort
between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave data
analysis communities. The purpose of NINJA is to study the sensitivity of
existing gravitational-wave search algorithms using numerically generated
waveforms and to foster closer collaboration between the numerical relativity
and data analysis communities. We describe the results of the first NINJA
analysis which focused on gravitational waveforms from binary black hole
coalescence. Ten numerical relativity groups contributed numerical data which
were used to generate a set of gravitational-wave signals. These signals were
injected into a simulated data set, designed to mimic the response of the
Initial LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. Nine groups analysed this
data using search and parameter-estimation pipelines. Matched filter
algorithms, un-modelled-burst searches and Bayesian parameter-estimation and
model-selection algorithms were applied to the data. We report the efficiency
of these search methods in detecting the numerical waveforms and measuring
their parameters. We describe preliminary comparisons between the different
search methods and suggest improvements for future NINJA analyses.Comment: 56 pages, 25 figures; various clarifications; accepted to CQ
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