Search

This document gives an overview of current needs expressed so far in the project for multimedia management and real-time communication services between groups of learners/workers and examine the kind of support that a standard-based technical solution off-the-shelf can help in solving main technical issues and in focusing on developments of tools and applications. The document includes in its annexes a state-of-the-art review of related technologies and a detailed examination of the platform that Radvision, as KP-Lab consortium partner, can bring to the project. The document contemplates in details the different needs in various KP-Lab cases and pedagogical scenarios identified so far. It then addresses the question of openness, scalability, customisation and usability of existing tools and platforms. The advantages of the IVP platform and of related Radvision expertise and support within the Consortium are considered as key factors for launching trials with the IVP platform, which is considered as a facilitating solution for the development of our KP-Lab specific tools and services. A short-term work plan is summarized at the end of the document. As planned in the Description of Work M13-M30, the second release of this document (labelled D4.3.2) will detail and reflect on the proof-of-concepts developed so far, give recommendations and guidelines for further developments and tests.

This paper tests the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia have a deficit in selectively attending to predictable events. We used dynamic causal modeling (DCM) of electrophysiological responses – to predictable and unpredictable visual targets – to quantify the effective connectivity within and between cortical sources in the visual hierarchy in 25 schizophrenia patients and 25 age-matched controls. We found evidence for marked differences between normal subjects and schizophrenia patients in the strength of extrinsic backward connections from higher hierarchical levels to lower levels within the visual system. In addition, we show that not only do schizophrenia subjects have abnormal connectivity but also that they fail to adjust or optimize this connectivity when events can be predicted. Thus, the differential intrinsic recurrent connectivity observed during processing of predictable versus unpredictable targets was markedly attenuated in schizophrenia patients compared with controls, suggesting a failure to modulate the sensitivity of neurons responsible for passing sensory information of prediction errors up the visual cortical hierarchy. The findings support the proposed role of abnormal connectivity in the neuropathology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia.