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Event knowledge, a person's understanding of patterns of activities in the world, is crucial for everyday social interactions. Social communication differences are prominent in autism, which may be related to atypical event knowledge, such as atypical knowledge of the sequences of activities that comprise the temporal structure of events. Previous research has found that autistic individuals have atypical event knowledge, but research in this area is minimal, particularly regarding autistic individuals' knowledge of the temporal structure of events. Furthermore, no studies have investigated the link between event knowledge and autistic traits in a non-clinical sample. We investigated relationships between event knowledge and autistic traits in individuals from the general population with varying degrees of autistic traits. We predicted that atypical ordering of event activities is related to autistic traits, particularly social communication abilities, but not other clinical traits. In Study 1, atypical ordering of event activities correlated with social ability, but not with most measures of repetitive behaviours and restricted interests. In Study 2, the typicality of activity ordering varied by participants' social ability and the social nature of the events. Relationships were not found between event activity ordering and other clinical traits. These findings suggest a relationship between autistic traits, specifically social abilities, and knowledge of the temporal structure of events in a general population sample. • Event knowledge is related to social communication ability in the general population. • Ability to order activities within events is associated with social abilities. • The degree to which an event is socially-oriented matters for this relationship. • Activity ordering is not associated with other tested clinical traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most models of motor programming contend that one can easily perform learned actions with different muscle groups or limbs demonstrating the concept of motor equivalence. The goal of this review is to determine the generality of this concept within the context of aiming movements performed by both preferred and nonpreferred limbs. Theoretical approaches to motor programming are described, followed by a comparison of a variety of kinematic measures taken from preferred and nonpreferred limbs from simple and more complex aiming tasks. In general, the support for motor equivalency is strong for one- and two-dimensional aiming tasks and for simultaneous bimanual movements, but mixed for unconstrained throwing tasks and tasks that require feedback-based corrections.

In order to function optimally within our environment, we continuously extract temporal patterns from our experiences and formulate expectations that facilitate adaptive behavior. Given that our memories are embedded within spatiotemporal contexts, an intriguing possibility is that mnemonic processes are sensitive to the temporal structure of events. To test this hypothesis, in a series of behavioral experiments we manipulated the regularity of interval durations at encoding to create temporally structured and unstructured frameworks. Our findings revealed enhanced recognition memory (d') for stimuli that were explicitly encoded within a temporally structured versus unstructured framework. Encoding information within a temporally structured framework was also associated with a reduction in the negative effects of proactive interference and was linked to greater recollective recognition memory. Furthermore, rhythmic temporal structure was found to enhance recognition memory for incidentally encoded information. Collectively, these results support the possibility that we possess a greater capacity to learn and subsequently remember temporally structured information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boston's Museum of Science supports researchers whose projects advance science and provide educational opportunities to the Museum's visitors. For our project, 60 visitors to the Museum played ''Fish Police!!,'' a video game that examines audiovisual integration, including the ability to ignore irrelevant sensory information. Players, who ranged in age from 6 to 82 years, made speeded responses to computer-generated fish that swam rapidly across a tablet display. Responses were to be based solely on the rate (6 or 8 Hz) at which a fish's size modulated, sinusoidally growing and shrinking. Accompanying each fish was a task-irrelevant broadband sound, amplitude modulated at either 6 or 8 Hz. The rates of visual and auditory modulation were either Congruent (both 6Hz or 8 Hz) or Incongruent (6 and 8 or 8 and 6 Hz). Despite being instructed to ignore the sound, players of all ages responded more accurately and faster when a fish's auditory and visual signatures were Congruent. In a controlled laboratory setting, a related task produced comparable results, demonstrating the robustness of the audiovisual interaction reported here. Some suggestions are made for conducting research in public settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Retos: Nuevas Perspectivas de Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación is the property of Federacion Espanola de Asociaciones de Docentes de Educacion Fisica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Humans engage in many tasks that involve gathering multiple targets from their environment (e.g., picking berries from a patch). Such foraging tasks raise questions about how observers maximize target collection – e.g., how long should one spend at one berry patch before moving to the next patch. Classic optimal foraging theories propose a simple decision rule: People move on when current intake drops below the average rate. Previous studies of foraging often assume this average is fixed and predict no strong relationship between the contents of the immediately preceding patch or patches and the current patch. In contrast to this prediction, we found evidence of temporal effects in a laboratory analog of a berry-picking task. Observers stayed longer when previous patches were better. This result is the opposite of what would be predicted by a model in which the assessment of the average rate is biased in favor of recent patches. This result was found when patch quality varied systematically over the course of the experiment (Experiment 1). Smaller effects were seen when patch quality was randomized (Experiment 2). Together, these results suggest that optimal foraging theories must account for the recent history to explain current behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Out-of-synchrony experiences can easily recalibrate one's subjective simultaneity point in the direction of the experienced asynchrony. Although temporal adjustment of multiple audiovisual stimuli has been recently demonstrated to be spatially specific, perceptual grouping processes that organize separate audiovisual stimuli into distinctive 'objects' may play a more important role in forming the basis for subsequent multiple temporal recalibrations. We investigated whether apparent physical differences between audiovisual pairs that make them distinct from each other can independently drive multiple concurrent temporal recalibrations regardless of spatial overlap. Experiment 1 verified that reducing the physical difference between two audiovisual pairs diminishes the multiple temporal recalibrations by exposing observers to two utterances with opposing temporal relationships spoken by one single speaker rather than two distinct speakers at the same location. Experiment 2 found that increasing the physical difference between two stimuli pairs can promote multiple temporal recalibrations by complicating their non-temporal dimensions (e.g., disks composed of two rather than one attribute and tones generated by multiplying two frequencies); however, these recalibration aftereffects were subtle. Experiment 3 further revealed that making the two audiovisual pairs differ in temporal structures (one transient and one gradual) was sufficient to drive concurrent temporal recalibration. These results confirm that the more audiovisual pairs physically differ, especially in temporal profile, the more likely multiple temporal perception adjustments will be content-constrained regardless of spatial overlap. These results indicate that multiple temporal recalibrations are based secondarily on the outcome of perceptual grouping processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olfaction in mammals is a dynamic process driven by the inhalation of air through the nasal cavity. Inhalation determines the temporal structure of sensory neuron responses and shapes the neural dynamics underlying central olfactory processing. Inhalation-linked bursts of activity among olfactory bulb (OB) output neurons [mitral/tufted cells (MCs)] are temporally transformed relative to those of sensory neurons. We investigated how OB circuits shape inhalation-driven dynamics in MCs using a modeling approach that was highly constrained by experimental results. First, we constructed models of canonical OB circuits that included mono- and disynaptic feedforward excitation, recurrent inhibition and feedforward inhibition of the MC. We then used experimental data to drive inputs to the models and to tune parameters; inputs were derived from sensory neuron responses during natural odorant sampling (sniffing) in awake rats, and model output was compared with recordings of MC responses to odorants sampled with the same sniff waveforms. This approach allowed us to identify OB circuit features underlying the temporal transformation of sensory inputs into inhalation-linked patterns of MC spike output. We found that realistic input-output transformations can be achieved independently by multiple circuits, including feedforward inhibition with slow onset and decay kinetics and parallel feedforward MC excitation mediated by external tufted cells. We also found that recurrent and feedforward inhibition had differential impacts on MC firing rates and on inhalation-linked response dynamics. These results highlight the importance of investigating neural circuits in a naturalistic context and provide a framework for further explorations of signal processing by OB networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each of us has a rich set of autobiographical memories that provides us with a coherent story of our lives. These memories are known to be highly structured both thematically and temporally. However, it is not known how we naturally tend to explore the mental timeline of our memories. Here we developed a novel cued retrieval paradigm in order to investigate the temporal element of memory search. We found that, when asked to search for memories in the days immediately surrounding a salient cued event, participants displayed a marked set of temporal biases in their search patterns. Specifically, participants first tended to jump back in time and retrieve memories from the day prior to the cued event. Following this they then transitioned forward in time, and retrieved memories from the day after the cued event. This pattern of results replicated in a second experiment with a much larger group of participants, and a different method of cueing the memories. We argue that this set of temporal biases is consistent with memory search conforming to a temporally ordered narrative structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on pathophysiology of the basal ganglia and movement disorders. Topics discussed include treatment of basal ganglia and movement disorders; role of cognition in motor control resulting from increased risk sensitivity in patients with Parkinson's disease; cell-to-cell propagation of the treatment of Parkinson's disease and related disorders; and use of intraoperative stimulation test data for identifying implant position of deep brain stimulation.

There is still a great lack of information regarding spatial and temporal gradients of quantitative guild composition of the fish fauna and their relation to environmental variables in European estuaries. To fill parts of this gap in knowledge, fish species densities in the Elbe estuary were estimated with high resolution using samples taken by a commercial stow net vessel monthly between April 2009 and October 2010. Altogether, 61 fish species as well as cyprinid hybrids were recorded. A high number of these species belong to the marine life cycle categories of marine stragglers and marine estuarine-opportunists. However, all marine species contributed only 0.4 % to mean total fish abundance, whereas the anadromous species reached a proportion of more than 98 %. The total contribution of freshwater species to the overall catch was 1.4 %. The mean total fish abundance was about 362,989 individuals 10 m between April 2009 and October 2010. According to their abundance proportions, the fish fauna was dominated by the following three species: Osmerus eperlanus (96.1 %), Alosa fallax (1.9 %), and Gymnocephalus cernua (0.9 %). Twenty-nine percent of the species had a boreal distribution and 27.4 % belonged to the lusitanian distribution category, whereas a minority of 3.2 % of the species were of Atlantic origin. An additional 40.4 % of the species were freshwater species which were divided into the following five zoogeographical categories: European (19.3 %), Euro-Siberian (8.1 %), Holarctic (6.4 %), Nordic (3.3 %) and Pale-Arctic (3.3 %). The species composition underwent interannual changes comparing both years of investigation at each of the sampling sites in the Elbe estuary. Using the Bio-Env analysis, the maximum correlation between fish assemblage structure and environmental variables was obtained for a parameter combination comprising salinity, water depth, water temperature, and oxygen concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most models of motor programing contend that one can perform learned actions with different muscle groups or limbs demonstrating the concept of motor equivalence. The goal of this review is to determine the generality of this concept within the context of aiming movements performed by both preferred and non-preferred limbs. Theoretical approaches to motor programing are described, followed by a comparison of a variety of kinematic measures taken from preferred and non-preferred limbs from simple and more complex aiming tasks. In general the support for motor equivalency is strong for one- and two-dimensional aiming tasks and for simultaneous bimanual movements, but mixed for unconstrained throwing tasks and tasks that require feedback-based corrections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In vivo recordings in rat somatosensory cortex suggest that excitatory and inhibitory inputs are often correlated during spontaneous and sensory-evoked activity. Using a computational approach, we study how the interplay of input correlations and timing observed in experiments controls the spiking probability of single neurons. Several correlation-based mechanisms are identified, which can effectively switch a neuron on and off. In addition, we investigate the transfer of input correlation to output correlation in pairs of neurons, at the spike train and the membrane potential levels, by considering spike-driving and non-spike-driving inputs separately. In particular, we propose a plausible explanation for the in vivo finding that membrane potentials in neighboring neurons are correlated, but the spike-triggered averages of membrane potentials preceding a spike are not: Neighboring neurons possibly receive an ongoing bombardment of correlated subthreshold background inputs, and occasionally uncorrelated spike-driving inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perennial question as to how perceived otherness in speech projects into listener assessment of one's personality has been systematically investigated within the field of foreign accentedness, vocal communication of affective states and vocal stereotyping. In the present study, we aimed at exploring non-native listeners' capacity to respond to differences in natural and modified native speech, particularly whether the manipulation of temporal structure in both stressed and unstressed syllables gives rise to any changes in the perception of the speaker's personality. The respondents' intuitive judgements were captured in the domain of the 'nervousness category' taken from the five-factor model of personality. Our results indicate an effect of temporal modifications on the listeners' judgements. Analysis of variance for repeated measures confirmed a highly significant shift of personality evaluations towards the undesired traits (e.g., nervousness, anxiety, querulousness). Several interesting interactions with the semantic contents of the utterances and with the intrinsic qualities of the speakers' voices were also found. We argue that the effects of accented speech go beyond conscious willingness to accept 'otherness' and suggest a method for studying them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sound's duration provides important information about the event producing it. Although many of the sounds we hear every day are 'percussive' in nature (ie resulting from two objects impacting) and therefore exhibit decaying/damped amplitude envelopes, perceptual experiments frequently use tones synthesized with 'flat' or abruptly ending envelopes. Such sounds afford an estimation strategy involving calculating the elapsed time between tone onset and offset--a strategy that would be problematic for ecologically pervasive decaying sounds. Here we compare duration judgments for tones with percussive (ie gradually decaying) and flat (ie abruptly ending) amplitude envelopes, finding evidence for the use of different strategies. This result is discussed in terms of its implications for dominant theories and models of sensory perception that are often assessed using artificial sounds (ie 'flat tones') affording strategies that may not be optimal or even available for everyday listening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RECENT WORK FROM OUR LAB ILLUSTRATES AMPLITUDE envelope's crucial role in both perceptual (Schutz, 2009) and cognitive (Schutz & Stefanucci, 2010) processing. Consequently, we surveyed the amplitude envelopes of sounds used in Music Perception, categorizing them as either flat (i.e., trapezoidal shape), percussive (aka "damped" or "decaying"), other, or undefined. Curiously, the undefined category represented the largest percentage of sounds observed, with 35% lacking definition of this important property (approximately 27% were percussive, 27% flat, and 11% other). This omission of relevant information was not indicative of general inattention to methodological detail. Studies using tones with undefined amplitude envelopes generally defined other properties such as spectral structure (85%), duration (80%), and even model of headphones/speakers (65%) at high rates. Consequently, this targeted omission is intriguing, and suggests amplitude envelope is an area ripe for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Kronos is the property of Revista Kronos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the field of signal processing, there are many source signals with temporal structure, i. e. time signals or time series. In the procedure of dealing this blind source separation problem, there is a contractual relationship between the autocorrelation matrix of the source signals and the autocorrelation matrix of the observed signals under the linear instantaneous mixing model, in other words, the separation matrix is a contract transformation matrix which transforms the autocorrelation matrix of the observed signals into a diagonal matrix, which is corresponding to independent sources. Based on this relationship, we improve the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) algorithm of time signals, that is, the intersection of the contract transformation matrix sets under each delay is the required separation matrix. Finally, the simulation results for analog source signals and real sound signals show that the new algorithm is valid and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of an artistic text and its translation. The research is based on the material of Mikhail Bulgakovís novel ëMaster and Margaritaí. The subject of discussion is the temporal architectonics of the Russian original and the reflection of this temporal structure in the Estonian translation. In particular, the study focuses on space-time relations and the figurative representation of time. The novel contains two kinds of temporality: 1) the general temporality of the text combines storylines, 2) the temporality within the plot organizes three storylines. Semantically various lexical and phraseological units with the archeseme ëtimeí depend on the composition of the novel and are represented by different parts of speech: numerals, adverbs, nouns, adjectives. However, a special role is played by verbs which interact with the linguistic resources of the first type. The choice of semantically and stylistically diverse verbs and their various grammatical forms depends on the communication strategy of the narrator who, combining the storylines into a single text, creates vivid images of characters in time. When choosing an Estonian equivalent, translators seek to preserve the denotative semantics and emotionally expressive shades of the temporal resources of the Russian text. However, due to the national specificity of different languages, the discrepancy between the shades of meaning of words, and sometimes due to the preference of the translator, the offered equivalents are at times denotatively inaccurate (but functionally possible), or less expressive which causes some loss of meaning. At the same time, in general, the translation reproduces the temporal structure of the original and its combination of dynamism and stasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Retos: Nuevas Perspectivas de Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación is the property of Federacion Espanola de Asociaciones de Docentes de Educacion Fisica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• The amplitude permutation directly reflects the temporal structure of vectors. • Indexes of equal values in permutations should be modified to be the same. • Amplitude permutations of temporal-symmetric vectors are symmetric. • Original permutations of amplitude-symmetric vectors are symmetric. The original and amplitude permutations are two basic ordinal patterns; however, their relationship has received little attention. This paper compares the original and amplitude permutations used to characterize vector structures. To accurately convey the vector structure, we modify indexes of equal values in the permutations to be the same ones in each group of equalities. Comparative analysis suggests that the amplitude permutation, comprising the positions of the original values in the reordered vector, directly reflects the vector's temporal structure, whereas the original permutation, consisting of the indexes of reorganized values in the original vector, conveys the structural pattern of the reorganized vector. Moreover, we clarify the association of the original and amplitude permutations with time- and amplitude-symmetric vectors, thus contributing to the fields of symbolic analysis, topological data analysis, and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies investigated how readers interpret sentences with variable quantificational domains, for example,The army was mostly in the capital, wheremostlymay quantify over individuals or parts (Most of the army was in the capital) or over times (The army was in the capital most of the time). It is proposed that a general conceptual economy principle, No Extra Times, discourages the postulation of potentially unnecessary times, and thus favours the interpretation quantifying over parts. Disambiguating an ambiguously quantified sentence to a quantification over times interpretation was rated as less natural than disambiguating it to a quantification over parts interpretation (Experiment 1). In an interpretation questionnaire, sentences with similar quantificational variability were constructed so that both interpretations of the sentence would require postulating multiple times; this resulted in the elimination of the preference for a quantification over parts interpretation, suggesting the parts preference observed in Experiment 1 is not reducible to a lexical bias of the adverbmostly(Experiment 2). An eye movement recording study showed that, in the absence of prior evidence for multiple times, readers exhibit greater difficulty when reading material that forces a quantification over times interpretation than when reading material that allows a quantification over parts interpretation (Experiment 3). These experiments contribute to understanding readers' default assumptions about the temporal properties of sentences, which is essential for understanding the selection of a domain for adverbial quantifiers and, more generally, for understanding how situational constraints influence sentence processing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study we analyzed the inter-specific relationships in assemblages of syrphids at a site in northern Italy in order to determine whether there are patterns in diurnal co-occurrence. We adopted a null model approach and calculated two co-occurrence metrics, the C-score and variance ratio (V-ratio), both for the total catch and of the morning (8:00-13:00) and afternoon (13:00-18:00) catches separately, and for males and females. We recorded discordant species richness, abundance and co-occurrence patterns in the samples collected. Higher species richness and abundance were recorded in the morning, when the assemblage had an aggregated structure, which agrees with previous findings on communities of invertebrate primary consumers. A segregated pattern of co-occurrence was recorded in the afternoon, when fewer species and individuals were collected. The pattern recorded is likely to be caused by a number of factors, such as a greater availability of food in the morning, prevalence of hot and dry conditions in the early afternoon, which are unfavourable for hoverflies, and possibly competition with other pollinators. Our results indicate that restricting community studies to a particular time of day will result in certain species and/or species interactions not being recorded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel technique that recovers the temporal structure of speech power spectrum is proposed. The histogram of average speech log power spectrum shows that the contamination of noise leads to the shift of noise peak, which in return degrades the performance of speech recognition systems. A two‐step scheme is proposed to weaken the noise effects by first reducing the noise variance and then shifting the noise mean. The proposed algorithm consists of two parts, two‐dimensional smoothing and controlled noise subtraction, which leads to the name SNS. The proposed algorithm manages to solve the speech probability distribution function discontinuity problem caused by traditional spectral subtraction series algorithms. In contrast to the clean speech estimation methods, the proposed algorithm does not need a prior speech/noise statistical model, which makes it simple but effective. The effectiveness of the proposed filter is tested using the AURORA2 database. Very promising results are obtained, 88.59% for noisy speech (average from signal‐to‐noise ratio 0–20 dB). Comparison is made against eight state‐of‐the‐art speech recognition algorithms. Overall the proposed algorithm produces significant improvements over the comparison targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conspecific aggregation of waterfowl in winter is a common example of animal flocking behaviour, yet patterns of relatedness and temporal substructure in such social groups remain poorly understood even in common species. A previous study based on mark-recapture data showed that Tufted Ducks Aythya fuligula caught on the same day were re-caught together in subsequent winters more often than expected by chance, suggesting stable assortments of 'socially familiar' individuals between wintering periods. The genetic relationships within these social groups were not clear. Based on 191 individuals genotyped at 10 microsatellite markers, we investigated the temporal genetic structure and patterns of relatedness among wintering Tufted Ducks at Lake Sempach, Switzerland, in two consecutive winters. We found no evidence of genetic differentiation between temporal groups within or between winters. The average levels of relatedness in temporal groups were low and not higher than expected in random assortments of individuals. However, Mantel tests performed for each sex separately revealed significant negative correlations between the pairwise relatedness coefficients and the number of days between the capture dates of pairs of wintering Tufted Duck in males and females. This pattern suggests the presence of a small number of co-migrating same-sex sibling pairs in wintering flocks of Tufted Ducks. Our findings provide one of the first genetic analyses of a common duck species outside the breeding season and contribute to the understanding of social interactions in long-distance migratory birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to describe the temporal structure of judo combat for the different weight categories in men with visual impairments so that coaches can adapt traditional judo training methods to this specific population. Observational methodology was used in 184 combats (n = 92 male senior judokas with visual impairments). A T-Patterns study (THEME) and a descriptive and inferential statistical analysis were carried out. The results showed that most of the observed combats ended before regulation time was over (81%). The different weight categories must be taken into account in order to establish adequate training patterns for this population. Special attention must be paid to Work Sequence Time in Stand-up Judo (WSSQT) since this parameter showed significant differences (p = 0.001). The mean values obtained in the studied combats indicate that visual disability accounts for the shorter work sequences and longer pause sequences observed in this group of judokas. These results confirmed that the temporal structure of judo combat in male athletes with visual impairments is different from that of fully-sighted ones. Given all that, a different approach to training each group of judokas becomes necessary, since the temporal structure of the combat is different in each case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A single stage blind source extraction (BSE) approach to extract one desired source signal from an instantaneous mixture of several signals is studied in this paper. In contrast to methods based on blind source separation (BSS) followed by a classifier we extract directly the desired source signal. In recent papers it has been shown that prior information about the desired source''s mixing column or autocorrelation function can be incorporated in a single stage BSE algorithm. The focus of this paper is to give insight in the BSE problem for scenarios where joint diagonalization of correlation matrices is applicable, i.e., to exploit the full potential of the SOS of observed signals. In this work we unify and expand these previously presented BSE methods, which lead to the unified instantaneous blind source extraction (UIBSE) algorithm. We show that UIBSE is even more flexible than previously presented since both types of prior information may be combined to obtain better results in selecting the desired source. Above that, the same algorithm may be used for different objective functions. Finally, a performance comparison with BSS algorithms that are followed by a classifier shows that UIBSE is more robust to noisy observations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Here we present two experiments investigating the implicit orienting of attention over time by entrainment to an auditory rhythmic stimulus. In the first experiment, participants carried out a detection and discrimination tasks with auditory and visual targets while listening to an isochronous, auditory sequence, which acted as the entraining stimulus. For the second experiment, we used musical extracts as entraining stimulus, and tested the resulting strength of entrainment with a visual discrimination task. Both experiments used reaction times as a dependent variable. By manipulating the appearance of targets across four selected metrical positions of the auditory entraining stimulus we were able to observe how entraining to a rhythm modulates behavioural responses. That our results were independent of modality gives a new insight into cross-modal interactions between auditory and visual modalities in the context of dynamic attending to auditory temporal structure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Perceived regularity among events in the environment allows predictions regarding the “when” and the “what” dimensions of future events. In this context, one crucial question concerns the impact and the potentially optimizing effect, of regular temporal structure on the processing of “what”, or formal, information. The current study addresses this issue by investigating whether temporal and formal structure interact during early stages of sensory processing, and by relating the respective findings to the concept of a predictive bias in brain function. Analyses were performed on two components of the auditory event-related-potential of the electroencephalogram, namely the P50 and the N100. Oddball sequences consisting of frequent standard and infrequent deviant sinusoidal tones were presented with either regular or irregular temporal structure in pre-attentive and attentive experimental settings (Schwartze, Rothermich, Schmidt-Kassow, & Kotz, 2011). Temporal regularity effects on pre-attentive and attentive processing of deviance. Biological Psychology, 87, 146–151). The results confirm that the P50 and the N100 amplitudes reliably encode formal and temporal predictability. Similar patterns of results obtained with pre-attentive and attentive task instructions, as well as the absence of a significant interaction of formal and temporal structure suggest that the P50 response may be interpreted as an automatic marker of predictability, whereas the N100 may represent a more complex marker, in which formal and temporal structure start interacting as a function of attention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Blind extraction of fetal electrocardiogram from the composite maternal electrocardiogram without noise and with additive Gaussian white noise (AGWN) is achieved by Barros and Cicochi (Neural Computat 13:1995-2003) and by Li and Zhang (Neurocomputing 71:1538-1542), respectively. Theoretical analysis shows that these two algorithms are essentially the same. In this paper, an intelligible method is proposed, which is based on the eigenvalue decomposition of the cross-correlation of whitened source signals at a given time tag. Simulation experiments show that the proposed method has better extraction performance. Moreover, a great deal of experiments with AGWN show that Li and Zhang's method is slightly inferior to the Barros and Cicochi's, which is opposite to the claim by Li and Zhang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Sport & Health Research is the property of Journal of Sport & Health Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Temporal structure of sound pressure level is a key aspect at the time of characterizing urban sound environments. In urban agglomerations, environmental noise levels fluctuate over a large range as a result of the great complexity of these settings, with considerable temporal and spatial heterogeneity. Furthermore, the domain in urban environments of noise sources, such as road traffic, commercial or leisure activities, construction works, etc., together with the occurrence of sudden sound-level maxima events (bells, sirens, vehicles at high traffic speed, honking horns..), which are quite frequent in urban agglomerations, generate the appearance of very high values of the impulsiveness of sound pressure level. This aspect causes a great influence on the time necessary for environmental noise levels to become stabilized, which is a key aspect for the accurate measurement, interpretation and guarantee of a statistically representative sample of a given urban sound environment. Therefore, the goal pursued in this work is to put forth a procedure for the calculation of a value of LAeq, T, representative of a certain urban location in a short-term time period, from the utilization of the value of the stabilization time of the sound pressure level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During repeating sequences of low (A) and high (B) tones, perception of two separate streams ("streaming") increases with greater frequency separation (Δf) between the A and B tones; in contrast, a prior context with large Δf results in less streaming during a subsequent test pattern. The purpose of the present study was to investigate what aspects of the context pattern are necessary for this context effect to occur. Simply changing the B-tone frequency without an alternating A tone present was not sufficient to cause the effect of prior Δf, but rather a melodic change between A and B tones was necessary. We further investigated the extent to which the context and test patterns needed to have similar rhythms (xxx-xxx-) and melodies (up-down-flat-up-down), and found that a maximal pfior-Δf effect occurred when the rhythmic patterns of the context and test were similar, regardless of the melodic structure. Thus, the effect of prior Af on streaming depended on the presence of (1) at least one melodic change in the context, and (2) similar rhythmic patterns in the context and test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological interaction networks are a valuable approach to understanding plant-pollinator interactions at the community level. Highly structured daily activity patterns are a feature of the biology of many flower visitors, particularly provisioning female bees, which often visit different floral sources at different times. Such temporal structure implies that presence/absence and relative abundance of specific flower-visitor interactions (links) in interaction networks may be highly sensitive to the daily timing of data collection. Further, relative timing of interactions is central to their possible role in competition or facilitation of seed set among coflowering plants sharing pollinators. To date, however, no study has examined the network impacts of daily temporal variation in visitor activity at a community scale. Here we use temporally structured sampling to examine the consequences of daily activity patterns upon network properties using fully quantified flower-visitor interaction data for a Kenyan savanna habitat. Interactions were sampled at four sequential three-hour time intervals between 06:00 and 18:00, across multiple seasonal time points for two sampling sites. In all data sets the richness and relative abundance of links depended critically on when during the day visitation was observed. Permutation-based null modeling revealed significant temporal structure across daily time intervals at three of the four seasonal time points, driven primarily by patterns in bee activity. This sensitivity of network structure shows the need to consider daily time in network sampling design, both to maximize the probability of sampling links relevant to plant reproductive success and to facilitate appropriate interpretation of interspecific relationships. Our data also suggest that daily structuring at a community level could reduce indirect competitive interactions when coflowering plants share pollinators, as is commonly observed during flowering in highly seasonal habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to describe the dynamics of spatial-temporal relations in daily newspaper texts. This includes agreements on what constitutes the 'present', the extent of the 'past' and the 'future', and where the reader's hypothetical place in space is. The temporal dimensions that emerged in Estonian newspapers (Päevaleht, Rahva Hääl, Eesti Päevaleht) were strongly future-oriented. This was a characteristic tendency throughout the 20th century and it can be noted even today. The orientation towards future is notable in comparison with Finnish (Helsingin Sanomat) and Russian (Pravda) newspaper texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We examine the time course of visual grouping and figure–ground processing. Figure (contour) and ground (random-texture) elements were flickered with different phases (i.e., contour and background are alternated), requiring the observer to group information within a pre-specified time window. It was found this grouping has a high temporal resolution: less than 20ms for smooth contours, and less than 50ms for line conjunctions with sharp angles. Furthermore, the grouping process takes place without an explicit knowledge of the phase of the elements, and it requires a cumulative build-up of information. The results are discussed in relation to the neural mechanism for visual grouping and figure–ground segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of an intermediate standing baffle on the flow structure in a rectangular open channel has been investigated by a three-dimensional acoustic Doppler velocimeter. Investigation of time-averaged velocity profiles at different streamwise positions reveals that the approach flow is fully developed upstream of the baffle. By analysing the space-averaged power spectra of streamwise velocity, a peak structure was observed in the upstream baffle region. Downstream of the baffle this peak structure has been alleviated by the baffle. The same analysis for the vertical component indicates the existence of a peak structure both up- and downstream of the baffle. Consequently, a baffle affects the streamwise energy dissipation but not the vertical energy dissipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: How the brain integrates spatial and temporal information is not known. This issue is referred to as the "binding problem" of visual perception. It has been proposed that groups of neurons which correspond to the same elements of an image become synchronous in order to form a coherent neural representation; however, direct experimental evidence supporting this role for neural synchrony is highly controversial. As our perceptual capabilities are limited by the neural mechanism that supports them, an alternative approach to understanding neural synchrony is to instead characterize our ability to perceive synchrony. Thus, our aim was to demonstrate how correlated (i.e., synchronous) motion is perceived by the brain and how its discrimination can be enhanced or impaired. Methods: In this study, we used human psychophysics experiments to characterize the ability of subjects to discriminate synchrony in a moving visual stimulus. Results: By varying stimulus length, motion speed, and direction we found that humans were less than optimal in their ability to discriminate correlated motion when compared to an ideal mathematical model. In addition, we found that the length of the entire stimulus was not an important factor, but the length of individual motion pulses which made up the stimulus was crucial to performance. Discussion: Overall these results suggest that neural synchrony is likely used by the brain, but its resolution is highly limited compared to an ideal model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an approach with both the hierarchical tree and the clips temporal structure is proposed for exciting events (such as free kicks near the goal box, corner kicks, etc.) detection in broadcast soccer videos. In this approach, video frames are firstly divided into sections. Then these sections are divided further into clips which have specifically semantic information so that we can use the low-level descriptors to classify the clips and analyze the relationship between them. Low-level descriptors include color, motion descriptors and edge descriptors. To detect the exciting events, the simple classification models are constructed by combining the fixed temporal structures of clips with motion vectors and other low-level descriptors. Experiments on real soccer video programs show the encouraging results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of experiments, participants learned to associate black-and-white shapes with nonsense spoken labels (e.g., "joop"). When tested on their recognition memory, participants falsely recognized as correct a shape paired with a label that began with the same sounds as the shape's original label (onset-overlapping lure; e.g., joob) more often than a shape paired with a label that overlapped with the original label at offset (offset-overlapping lure; e.g., choop). Furthermore, the false-alarm rate was modulated by the phonetic distance between the sounds that distinguished the original label and the lures. Greater false-alarm rates to onset-overlapping labels were not predicted by explicit similarity ratings or by consonant identification and were not dependent upon label familiarity. The asymmetry at erroneously recognizing onset- versus offset-overlapping lures remained unchanged as the presentation of the shape at test was delayed in time, suggesting that response anticipation based on the first sounds of the spoken label did not contribute much to the false recognition of onset-overlapping lures. Thus, learning 2 words whose names differ in their last sounds appears to pose greater difficulty than learning 2 words whose names differ in their first sounds because, we argue, people are biased to give more importance to the early sounds of a name than to its last sounds when learning a novel label-referent association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]