0000000000606086
AUTHOR
Stella Conte
Rhythmic variations in reaction times and evoked potentials
The present work aimed to assess the existence of a regular ultradian cyclicity underlying the variations in amplitude of the N1-P2 component of acoustic EP during a relatively long recording session and investigate its relationship with behavioral measure as RT to the same stimulus. 128 tones were presented to each subject; 128 RTs and the associated EPs to target stimuli were recorded. N1-P2 amplitude has been measured at a single trial level through Woody adaptive filter modified by Wastell. Results showed that there are ultradian rhythmic variations of N1-P2 and RT, with a periodicity from about 5 to 40 min and these variations have similar patterns in the two measures in most of the su…
Ultradian rhythms in avoidance behavior of DBA mice
This study investigates ultradian rhythm in avoidance behavior of mice, which may constitute a basic rest activity cycle (BRAC). Reaction times (RTs) of an avoidance response to a visual warning stimulus that preceded an electric shock were measured by the use of a computer-controlled shuttle box. The male naive DBA mice were brought to a criterion of 98% correct responses in numerous training sessions. For each subject, all the temporal sequences of the RTs in the trials following achievement of the criterion were examined with discrete Fourier transform. Periodograms were obtained from three sessions for each of the two animals in the first experiment and from 15 subjects in the second ex…
Cognitive factors in the evaluation of synthetic speech
Abstract This paper illustrates the importance of various cognitive factors involved in perceiving and comprehending synthetic speech. It includes findings drawn from the relative psychological and psycholinguistic literature together with experimental results obtained at the Fondazione Ugo Bordoni laboratory. Overall, it is shown that listening to and comprehending synthetic voices is more difficult than with a natural voice. However, and more importantly, this difficulty can and does decrease with the subjects' exposure to said synthetic voices. Furthermore, greater workload demands are associated with synthetic speech and subjects listening to synthetic passages are required to pay more …