Search results for "Behavioral Neuroscience"
showing 10 items of 1055 documents
Legibility of Text and Pictograms in Variable Message Signs: Can Single-Word Messages Outperform Pictograms?
2018
The current research shows the advantage of single-word messages in the particular case of variable message signs (VMSs) with a high aspect ratio.Early studies on traffic sign design proposed that pictorial information would advantage equivalent text messages in static signs.We used a driving simulator to present individually 36 VMSs, showing six words (e.g., "congestion") and six danger signs (e.g., congestion traffic sign). In Experiment 1, 18 drivers read aloud the text or orally identified the pictograms as soon as they could correctly do it. In Experiment 2, a different sample of 18 drivers gave a motor response, according to the meaning of the message. We analyzed the legibility dista…
Qualitative variations in delay discounting: A brief review and future directions.
2022
The discounting paradigm has been challenged by an increasing number of studies presenting qualitative variations in the individual discount function. Particularly, the subjective value of a loss does not necessarily systematically decrease with delay to the outcome. Qualitative variation refers to variations in shape rather than steepness of the discount function, such as positive discounting, zero discounting, unsystematic discounting, and negative discounting. Data from three previous studies were analysed in terms of qualitative variations observed in delay discounting patterns. Attention was also given to methods used and to the relationship between the results from the various levels …
Glucose but Not Protein or Fat Load Amplifies the Cortisol Response to Psychosocial Stress
2002
We previously reported that glucose intake amplifies cortisol response to psychosocial stress and smoking in healthy young men, while low blood glucose levels prevented the stress-induced activation of the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. However, it remains unknown whether this modulation is specific for glucose load or a more common effect of energy availability. To elucidate this question, 37 healthy men, who fasted for at least 8 h before the experiment, were randomly assigned to four experimental groups, who received glucose (n = 8), protein (n = 10), fat (n = 10), and water (n = 9), one h before their exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Blood glucose levels were…
Lack of plasmic beta-endorphin response to a gastronomic meal in healthy humans.
1991
Abstract In order to study the relationship between the endogenous opiate system and food intake in man, plasma concentrations of beta-endorphin were measured in ten healthy subjects. Time course of beta-endorphinemia was compared under the following conditions: basal (fasting), after an injection of pentagastrin (6 μg/kg), or after a gastronomic meal. No changes in plasma beta-endorphin or ACTH concentrations were observed with pentagastrin nor after the meal, despite the combination of very high sensory pleasure with intake of a very large amount of food. It is concluded that blood beta-endorphin concentration is not a sensitive index of the effects of food intake on the endogenous opioid…
Type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance are associated with word memory source monitoring recollection deficits but not simple recognition fam…
2013
It has been established that type 2 diabetes, and to some extent, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), are associated with general neuropsychological impairments in episodic memory. However, the effect of abnormalities in glucose metabolism on specific retrieval processes such as source monitoring has not been investigated. The primary aim was to investigate the impact of type 2 diabetes and IGT on simple word recognition (familiarity) and complex source monitoring (recollection). A secondary aim was to examine the effect of acute breakfast glycaemic load manipulations on episodic memory.Data are presented from two separate studies; (i) 24 adults with type 2 diabetes and 12 controls aged 45-75…
Interindividual synchronization of brain activity during live verbal communication
2013
Verbal social interaction plays an important role both in the etiology and treatment of psychiatric disorders. However, the neural basis of social interaction has primarily been studied in the individual brain, neglecting the inter-individual perspective. Here, we show inter-individual neuronal coupling of brain activity during live verbal interaction, by investigating 11 pairs of good female friends who were instructed to speak about autobiographical life events during simultaneous fMRI acquisition. The analysis revealed that the time course of neural activity in areas associated with speech production was coupled with the time course of neural activity in the interlocutor's auditory corte…
Which Attribute of Ceiling Color Influences Perceived Room Height?
2018
Objective:We investigate effects of the hue, saturation, and luminance of ceiling color on the perceived height of interior spaces.Background:Previous studies have reported that the perceived height of an interior space is influenced by the luminance of the ceiling, but not by the luminance contrast between ceiling and walls: brighter ceilings appeared higher than darker ceilings, irrespective of wall and floor luminance. However, these studies used solely achromatic colors. We report an experiment in which we extend these findings to effects of chromatic ceiling colors.Methods:We presented stereoscopic room simulations on a head-mounted display (Oculus Rift DK2) and varied hue (red, green,…
Seeking the “Beauty Center” in the Brain: A Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies of Beautiful Human Faces and Visual Art
2020
AbstractThe existence of a common beauty is a long-standing debate in philosophy and related disciplines. In the last two decades, cognitive neuroscientists have sought to elucidate this issue by exploring the common neural basis of the experience of beauty. Still, empirical evidence for such common neural basis of different forms of beauty is not conclusive. To address this question, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on the existing neuroimaging studies of beauty appreciation of faces and visual art by non-expert adults (49 studies, 982 participants, meta-data are available at https://osf.io/s9xds/). We observed that perceiving these two forms of beauty a…
Combining tDCS with prismatic adaptation for non-invasive neuromodulation of the motor cortex
2017
Abstract Background Prismatic adaptation (PA) shifts visual field laterally and induces lateralized deviations of spatial attention. Recently, it has been suggested that prismatic goggles are also able to modulate brain excitability, with cognitive after-effects documented even in tasks not necessarily spatial in nature. Objective The aim of the present study was to test whether neuromodulatory effects obtained from tDCS and prismatic goggles could interact and induce homeostatic changes in corticospinal excitability. Methods Thirty-four subjects were submitted to single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the right primary motor cortex to measure Input-Output (IO) curve as a…
Effects of Adjacent Vehicles on Judgments of a Lead Car During Car Following.
2016
Objective: Two experiments were conducted to determine whether detection of the onset of a lead car’s deceleration and judgments of its time to contact (TTC) were affected by the presence of vehicles in lanes adjacent to the lead car. Background: In a previous study, TTC judgments of an approaching object by a stationary observer were influenced by an adjacent task-irrelevant approaching object. The implication is that vehicles in lanes adjacent to a lead car could influence a driver’s ability to detect the lead car’s deceleration and to make judgments of its TTC. Method: Displays simulated car-following scenes in which two vehicles in adjacent lanes were either present or absent. Participa…