Investigating tiredness and ad complexity effects on visual processing of advertisements:an eye-tracking study

Although advertising is pervasive in our daily, it proves to be not necessarily efficient all the times due to bad conditions or bad contexts of reception. Indeed, the communication process might be jeopardized at its very last stage because of advertising exposure quality. However critical it may be, ad exposure quality is not very much examined by researchers or practitioners. In this paper, we investigate how tiredness combined with ad complexity might influence the way consumers extract and process ad elements. Investigating tiredness is useful because it is a common daily state experienced by everyone at various moments of the day. And although it might drastically alter ad reception, it has not been studied in advertising for the moment. In this regards, we observe eye movement patterns of consumers viewing simple or complex advertisements being tired or not. We surprisingly find that tired subjects viewing complex ads don’t adopt a lessening effort visual strategy. They rather use a resource demanding one. We assume that the Sustained Attention strategy occurring is a kind of adaptive strategy allowing to deal with an anticipated lack of resource.

Enhanced access to early visual processing of perceptual simultaneity in autism spectrum disorders

We compared judgements of the simultaneity or asynchrony of visual stimuli in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically-developing controls using Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Two vertical bars were presented simultaneously or non-simultaneously with two different stimulus onset delays. Participants with ASD distinguished significantly better between real simultaneity (0 ms delay between two stimuli) and apparent simultaneity (17 ms delay between two stimuli) than controls. In line with the increased sensitivity, event-related MEG activity showed increased differential responses for simultaneity versus apparent simultaneity. The strongest evoked potentials, observed over occipital cortices at about 130 ms, were correlated with performance differences in the ASD group only. Superior access to early visual brain processes in ASD might underlie increased resolution of visual events in perception. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Multiple Dipole Source Models for Scalp-Recorded Event-Related Potentials: Example from Complex Visual Processing in the Human Brain

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 62P10, 92C20

Time processing in visual cortices: How the visual brain encodes and keeps track of time

Time is embedded in any sensory experience: the movements of a dance, the rhythm of a piece of music, the words of a speaker are all examples of temporally structured sensory events. In humans, if and how visual cortices perform temporal processing remains unclear. Here we show that both primary visual cortex (V1) and extrastriate area V5/MT are causally involved in encoding and keeping time in memory and that this involvement is independent from low-level visual processing. Most importantly we demonstrate that V1 and V5/MT are functionally linked and temporally synchronized during time encoding whereas they are functionally independent and operate serially (V1 followed by V5/MT) while maintaining temporal information in working memory. These data challenge the traditional view of V1 and V5/MT as visuo-spatial features detectors and highlight the functional contribution and the temporal dynamics of these brain regions in the processing of time in millisecond range. The present project resulted in the paper entitled: 'How the visual brain encodes and keeps track of time' by Paolo Salvioni, Lysiann Kalmbach, Micah Murray and Domenica Bueti that is now submitted for publication to the Journal of Neuroscience.

Functional imbalance of visual pathways indicates alternative face processing strategies in autism

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether autistic subjects show a different pattern of neural activity than healthy individuals during processing of faces and complex patterns. METHODS: Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes accompanying visual processing of faces and complex patterns were analyzed in an autistic group (n = 7; 25.3 [6.9] years) and a control group (n = 7; 27.7 [7.8] years). RESULTS: Compared with unaffected subjects, autistic subjects demonstrated lower BOLD signals in the fusiform gyrus, most prominently during face processing, and higher signals in the more object-related medial occipital gyrus. Further signal increases in autistic subjects vs controls were found in regions highly important for visual search: the superior parietal lobule and the medial frontal gyrus, where the frontal eye fields are located. CONCLUSIONS: The cortical activation pattern during face processing indicates deficits in the face-specific regions, with higher activations in regions involved in visual search. These findings reflect different strategies for visual processing, supporting models that propose a predisposition to local rather than global modes of information processing in autism.

The quiet eye without a target: The primacy of visual information processing

Motor-performance-enhancing effects of long final fixations before movement initiation – a phenomenon called Quiet Eye (QE) – have repeatedly been demonstrated. Drawing on the information-processing framework, it is assumed that the QE supports information processing revealed by the close link between QE duration and task demands concerning, in particular, response selection and movement parameterisation. However, the question remains whether the suggested mechanism also holds for processes referring to stimulus identification. Thus, in a series of two experiments, performance in a targeting task was tested as a function of experimentally manipulated visual processing demands as well as experimentally manipulated QE durations. The results support the suggested link because a performance-enhancing QE effect was found under increased visual processing demands only: Whereas QE duration did not affect performance as long as positional information was preserved (Experiment 1), in the full vs. no target visibility comparison, QE efficiency turned out to depend on information processing time as soon as the interval falls below a certain threshold (Experiment 2). Thus, the results rather contradict alternative, e.g., posture-based explanations of QE effects and support the assumption that the crucial mechanism behind the QE phenomenon is rooted in the cognitive domain.

Animal visual systems and the evolution of color patterns: Sensory processing illuminates signal evolution

Animal color pattern phenotypes evolve rapidly. What influences their evolution? Because color patterns are used in communication, selection for signal efficacy, relative to the intended receiver's visual system, may explain and predict the direction of evolution. We investigated this in bowerbirds, whose color patterns consist of plumage, bower structure, and ornaments and whose visual displays are presented under predictable visual conditions. We used data on avian vision, environmental conditions, color pattern properties, and an estimate of the bowerbird phylogeny to test hypotheses about evolutionary effects of visual processing. Different components of the color pattern evolve differently. Plumage sexual dimorphism increased and then decreased, while overall (plumage plus bower) visual contrast increased. The use of bowers allows relative crypsis of the bird but increased efficacy of the signal as a whole. Ornaments do not elaborate existing plumage features but instead are innovations (new color schemes) that increase signal efficacy. Isolation between species could be facilitated by plumage but not ornaments, because we observed character displacement only in plumage. Bowerbird color pattern evolution is at least partially predictable from the function of the visual system and from knowledge of different functions of different components of the color patterns. This provides clues to how more constrained visual signaling systems may evolve.

Early gamma-band activity as a function of threat processing in the extrastriate visual cortex

Various neuroimaging investigations have revealed that perception of emotional pictures is associated with greater visual cortex activity than their neutral counterparts. It has further been proposed that threat-related information is rapidly processed, suggesting that the modulation of visual cortex activity should occur at an early stage. Additional studies have demonstrated that oscillatory activity in the gamma band range (40-100 Hz) is associated with threat processing. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to investigate such activity during perception of task-irrelevant, threat-related versus neutral facial expressions. Our results demonstrated a bilateral reduction in gamma band activity for expressions of threat, specifically anger, compared with neutral faces in extrastriate visual cortex (BA 18) within 50-250 ms of stimulus onset. These results suggest that gamma activity in visual cortex may play a role in affective modulation of visual processing, in particular with the perception of threat cues.

Are poor mathematics skills associated with visual deficits in temporal processing?

Developmental learning disabilities such as dyslexia and dyscalculia have a high rate of co-occurrence in pediatric populations, suggesting that they share underlying cognitive and neurophysiological mechanisms. Dyslexia and other developmental disorders with a strong heritable component have been associated with reduced sensitivity to coherent motion stimuli, an index of visual temporal processing on a millisecond time-scale. Here we examined whether deficits in sensitivity to visual motion are evident in children who have poor mathematics skills relative to other children of the same age. We obtained psychophysical thresholds for visual coherent motion and a control task from two groups of children who differed in their performance on a test of mathematics achievement. Children with math skills in the lowest 10% in their cohort were less sensitive than age-matched controls to coherent motion, but they had statistically equivalent thresholds to controls on a coherent form control measure. Children with mathematics difficulties therefore tend to present a similar pattern of visual processing deficit to those that have been reported previously in other developmental disorders. We speculate that reduced sensitivity to temporally defined stimuli such as coherent motion represents a common processing deficit apparent across a range of commonly co-occurring developmental disorders.

Dendritic branching patterns of pyramidal cells in the visual cortex of the new world marmoset monkey, with comparative notes on the old world macaque monkey

The basal dendritic arbors of 442 supragranular pyramidal cells in visual cortex of the marmoset monkey were compared by fractal analyses. As detailed in a previous study,(1) individual cells were injected with Lucifer Yellow and processed for a DAB reaction product. The basal dendritic arbors were drawn, in the tangential plane, and the fractal dimension (D) determined by the dilation method. The fractal dimensions were compared between cells in ten cortical areas containing cells involved in visual processing, including the primary visual area (Vi), the second visual area (V2), the dorsoanterior area (DA), the dorsomedial area (DM), the dorsolateral. area (DL), the middle temporal area (MT), the posterior parietal area (PP), the fundus of the superior temporal area (FST) and the caudal and rostral subdivisions of inferotemporal cortex (ITc and ITr, respectively). Of 45 pairwise interareal comparisons of the fractal dimension of neurones, 20 were significantly different. Moreover, comparison of data according to previously published visual processing pathways revealed a trend for cells with greater fractal dimensions in higher cortical areas. Comparison of the present results with those in homologous cortical areas in the macaque monkey(2) revealed some similarities between the two species. The similarity in the trends of D values of cells in both species may reflect developmental features which, result in different functional attributes.

Human cortical processing of colour and pattern

The present study investigates human visual processing of simple two-colour patterns using a delayed match to sample paradigm with positron emission tomography (PET). This study is unique in that we specifically designed the visual stimuli to be the same for both pattern and colour recognition with all patterns being abstract shapes not easily verbally coded composed of two-colour combinations. We did this to explore those brain regions required for both colour and pattern processing and to separate those areas of activation required for one or the other. We found that both tasks activated similar occipital regions, the major difference being more extensive activation in pattern recognition. A right-sided network that involved the inferior parietal lobule, the head of the caudate nucleus, and the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus was common to both paradigms. Pattern recognition also activated the left temporal pole and right lateral orbital gyrus, whereas colour recognition activated the left fusiform gyrus and several right frontal regions. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Pyramidal cell heterogeneity in the visual cortex of the nocturnal new world owl monkey (aotus trivirgatus)

Recent studies have revealed marked variation in pyramidal cell structure in the visual cortex of macaque and marmoset monkeys. In particular, there is a systematic increase in the size of, and number of spines in, the arbours of pyramidal cells with progression through occipitotemporal (OT) visual areas. In the present study we extend the basis for comparison by investigating pyramidal cell structure in visual areas of the nocturnal owl monkey. As in the diurnal macaque and marmoset monkeys, pyramidal cells became progressively larger and more spinous with anterior progression through OT visual areas. These data suggest that: 1. the trend for more complex pyramidal cells with anterior progression through OT visual areas is a fundamental organizational principle in primate cortex; 2. areal specialization of the pyramidal cell phenotype provides an anatomical substrate for the reconstruction of the visual scene in OT areas; 3. evolutionary specialization of different aspects of visual processing may determine the extent of interareal variation in the pyramidal cell phenotype in different species; and 4. pyramidal cell structure is not necessarily related to brain size. Crown Copyright (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of IBRO. All rights reserved.

Dendritic branching of pyramidal cells in the visual cortex of the nocturnal owl monkey: A fractal analysis

The branching structure of neurones is thought to influence patterns of connectivity and how inputs are integrated within the arbor. Recent studies have revealed a remarkable degree of variation in the branching structure of pyramidal cells in the cerebral cortex of diurnal primates, suggesting regional specialization in neuronal function. Such specialization in pyramidal cell structure may be important for various aspects of visual function, such as object recognition and color processing. To better understand the functional role of regional variation in the pyramidal cell phenotype in visual processing, we determined the complexity of the dendritic branching pattern of pyramidal cells in visual cortex of the nocturnal New World owl monkey. We used the fractal dilation method to quantify the branching structure of pyramidal cells in the primary visual area (V1), the second visual area (V2) and the caudal and rostral subdivisions of inferotemporal cortex (ITc and ITr, respectively), which are often associated with color processing. We found that, as in diurnal monkeys, there was a trend for cells of increasing fractal dimension with progression through these cortical areas. The increasing complexity paralleled a trend for increasing symmetry. That we found a similar trend in both diurnal and nocturnal monkeys suggests that it was a feature of a common anthropoid ancestor.