Search results for "Alien"
showing 10 items of 553 documents
Human voice pitch measures are robust across a variety of speech recordings: methodological and theoretical implications
2021
Fundamental frequency ( f o ), perceived as voice pitch, is the most sexually dimorphic, perceptually salient and intensively studied voice parameter in human nonverbal communication. Thousands of studies have linked human f o to biological and social speaker traits and life outcomes, from reproductive to economic. Critically, researchers have used myriad speech stimuli to measure f o and infer its functional relevance, from individual vowels to longer bouts of spontaneous speech. Here, we acoustically analysed f o in nearly 1000 affectively neutral speech utterances (vowels, words, counting, greetings, read paragraphs and free spontaneous speech) produced by the same 154 men and women, ag…
Resting-State Functional Connectome in Patients with Brain Tumors Before and After Surgical Resection
2020
Purpose: High-grade glioma surgery has evolved around the principal belief that a safe maximal tumor resection improves symptoms, quality of life, and survival. Mapping brain function has been recently improved by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rest-fMRI), a novel imaging technique that explores networks connectivity at “rest.” Methods: This prospective study analyzed 10 patients with high-grade glioma in whom rest-fMRI connectivity was assessed both in single-subject and in group analysis before and after surgery. Seed-based functional connectivity analysis was performed with CONN toolbox. Network identification focused on 8 major functional connectivity networks. A v…
Increased amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus activation in schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations: An fMRI study using independent compo…
2010
Objective: Hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia have strong emotional connotations. Functional neuroimaging techniques have been widely used to study brain activity in patients with schizophrenia with hallucinations or emotional impairments. However, few of these Studies have investigated the association between hallucinations and emotional dysfunctions using an emotional auditory paradigm. Independent component analysis (ICA) is an analysis method that is especially useful for decomposing activation during complex cognitive tasks in which multiple operations occur simultaneously. Our aim in this Study is to analyze brain activation after the presentation of emotional auditory stim…
Contour integration with corners.
2016
Contour integration refers to the ability of the visual system to bind disjoint local elements into coherent global shapes. In cluttered images containing randomly oriented elements a contour becomes salient when its elements are coaligned with a smooth global trajectory, as described by the Gestalt law of good continuation. Abrupt changes of curvature strongly diminish contour salience. Here we show that by inserting local corner elements at points of angular discontinuity, a jagged contour becomes as salient as a straight one. We report results from detection experiments for contours with and without corner elements which indicate their psychophysical equivalence. This presents a challeng…
Neural correlates of valence generalization in an affective conditioning paradigm.
2014
In case of uncertainty, predictions that are based on prior, similar experiences guide our decision by processes of generalization. Over-generalization of negative information has been identified as an important feature of several psychopathologies, including anxiety disorders and depression, and might underlie biased interpretation of ambiguous information. Here, we investigated the neural correlates of valence generalization to ambiguous stimuli using a translational affective conditioning task during fMRI. Twenty-five healthy individuals participated in a conditioning procedure with (1) an initial acquisition phase, where participants learned the positive and negative valence of two diff…
Modelling terror management theory: computer simulations of the impact of mortality salience on religiosity
2017
ABSTRACTThis article outlines the development – and reports on the experimental findings – of two computational models designed to simulate the dynamic systems and behavioural patterns identified and clarified by research on terror management theory. The causal architectures of these models are informed by empirical research on the effects of mortality salience on “religiosity” (and vice versa). They are also informed by research on the way in which perception of personal and environmental hazards activate evolved cognitive and coalitional precautionary systems that can intensify anxiety-alleviating behaviours such as imaginative engagement with supernatural agents postulated within a relig…
ABM of Civil Violence: ODD Description
2017
This chapter contains a description of the proposed agent-based model, using the well-known “Overview, Design Concepts and Details” protocol. The model was implemented in NetLogo and is based on the same two types of agents—citizens and law-enforcement—as in Epstein’s model, but “citizen” agents have one subtype (“activist”) used for implementing network influence effects. The salient aspects of the model description are centered on the submodels for the risk perception, the expression of hardship in terms of value-sensitive relative deprivation, endogenous legitimacy feedback and network influence effects, which provide extensions to Epstein’s model. The model includes two networks called …
Akustische Masken auf dem Theater/ Maschere acustiche in teatro: Text - Sprache - Performanz/ Testo - Lingua - Performance
2019
I molteplici interessi scientifici e professionali - teatrologici, storici, linguistici, derivanti dall'attuale prassi attoriale e registica - che sono alla base di questi saggi offrono un quadro sfaccettato e complesso delle riflessioni sul discorso della comunicazione teatrale nei due paesi, le cui peculiarita, piu che le somiglianze, spiccando nel confronto, gettano una luce incrociata particolarmente interessante. Il filo rosso che si intreccia alla trama di questi contributi e senz'altro il complesso rapporto che lega la parola del testo teatrale con quella che si realizza sulla scena, ovverosia cio che in realta si puo definire lo specifico dell'evento teatrale in se, il quale si real…