Search

Background: Spatial memory and orientation deficits often precede cognitive impairment in incipient dementia, e.g., Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, early diagnosis of spatial impairment may be crucial to the initiation of an adequate therapeutic intervention. Subjective tests, such as spatial anxiety and spatial discomfort questionnaires, and objective tests in the form of quantitative measures of orientation, are available. In these tests, vestibular hypofunction has often been neglected as a potential confounder. The major research question in this study was how self-assessed questionnaires correlate with the data from objective measures in participants with proven normal vestibular function. Methods: A heterogeneous group of 135 participants (72 females, 63 males, mean age 62.75 ± 14.46 years) from a tertiary center for vertigo and balance disorders consisting of two cohorts, with (n = 49) and without (n = 86) cognitive deficits in a screening test (MoCA), was examined (a) with a newly introduced inventory for subjective spatial discomfort (Extended Inventory for Spatial Orientation Discomfort, EISOD), (b) a well-established questionnaire for subjective spatial skills (Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale, SBSODS), and (c) the objective three-dimensional real-world pointing task (3D-RWPT) before and after horizontal body rotations. In all patients, acute central or peripheral vestibular deficits were ruled out by neuro-orthoptics, bithermal water calorics and video head impulse testing. Results: Self-assessed spatial orientation discomfort (EISOD) correlated with the amount of spatial impairment in the 3D-RWPT for both cohorts. The cognitively impaired patients showed significantly higher levels of spatial discomfort (i.e., lower scores; Welch's t -test t-2.58, p < 0.01, Cohen's d − 0.46), and higher angular deviations in the (cognitively demanding) transformation paradigm of the 3D-RWPT (t 2.37, p 0.02, Cohen's d 0.44). They preferred retinotopic/egocentric spatial encoding strategies in the pointing task (Welch's t -test t-2.61, p < 0.01, Cohen's d − 0.47). In contrast, the self-report of spatial abilities (SBSODS) yielded no significant group differences (t − 1.66, p 0.10) and was not reliably associated with objective accuracy in the pointing task. Conclusion: In patients without vestibular deficits, subjective spatial discomfort (EISOD) correlated with the accuracy in an objective 3D-pointing task for both cohorts, and higher discomfort was associated with more severe cognitive impairment. EISOD-scores showed higher correlation indices than a self-report of spatial skills using the SBSODS. When investigating spatial abilities in patients with suspected cognitive impairment, it appears reasonable that both subjective spatial discomfort, subjective spatial abilities, and objective spatial measures should be combined. Future research in patients with vestibular dysfunction is needed to understand the role of vestibular deficits for the development of spatial orientation discomfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection and action/gesture recognition have become imperative in security and surveillance fields, finding extensive applications in everyday life. Advancement in such technologies will help in furthering cybersecurity and extended reality systems through the accurate identification of users and their interactions, which plays a pivotal role in the security management of an entity and providing an immersive experience. Essentially, it enables the identification of human–object interaction to track actions and behaviors along with user identification. Yet, it is performed by traditional camera-based methods with high difficulties and challenges since occlusion, different camera viewpoints, and background noise lead to significant appearance variation. Deep learning techniques also demand large and labeled datasets and a large amount of computational power. In this paper, a novel approach to the recognition of human–object interactions and the identification of interacting users is proposed, based on three-dimensional hand pose data from an egocentric camera view. A multistage approach that integrates object detection with interaction recognition and user identification using the data from hand joints and vertices is proposed. Our approach uses a statistical attribute-based model for feature extraction and representation. The proposed technique is tested on the HOI4D dataset using the XGBoost classifier, achieving an average F1-score of 81% for human–object interaction and an average F1-score of 80% for user identification, hence proving to be effective. This technique is mostly targeted for extended reality systems, as proper interaction recognition and users identification are the keys to keeping systems secure and personalized. Its relevance extends into cybersecurity, augmented reality, virtual reality, and human–robot interactions, offering a potent solution for security enhancement along with enhancing interactivity in such systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From an embodied view of cognition, sensorimotor mechanisms are strongly involved in abstract processing, such as Arabic number meanings. For example, spatial cognition can influence number processing. These spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) have been deeply explored since the seminal SNAs of response code (SNARC) effect (i.e., faster left/right sided responses to small/large magnitude numbers, respectively). Although these SNAs along the transverse plane (left-to-right axis) have been extensively studied in cognitive sciences, no systematic assessment of other planes of the tridimensional space has been afforded. Moreover, there is no evidence of how SNAs organise themselves throughout the changes in spatial body-reference frames (egocentric and allocentric). Hence, this study aimed to explore how SNAs organise themselves along the transverse and sagittal planes when egocentric and allocentric changes are processed during body displacements in the environment. In the first experiment, the results revealed that, when the participants used an egocentric reference, SNAs were observed only along the sagittal plane. In a second experiment that used an allocentric reference, the reversed pattern of results was observed: SNAs were present only along the transverse plane of the body. Overall, these findings suggest that, depending on the spatial reference frames of the body, SNAs are strongly flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multifaceted nature of body experience, encompassing affective, cognitive, and perceptual components, plays a critical role in the development and persistence of conditions such as anorexia nervosa (AN). Recent research attempted to address such disturbance to improve therapeutical effectiveness, using mirror exposure (ME) and body‐swapping (BS) techniques in immersive virtual reality (VR). Procedures from a third‐person perspective—as mirror‐like experiences—were primarily used to address bodily cognitive and affective components, whereas first‐person ones—as BS—were used to correct distorted body perception. This study investigated the effect of spatial reference frame on body self‐consciousness and body perception during BS. Data revealed two main findings: Even though embodiment was significantly enhanced when participants engaged with a virtual body from a first‐person viewpoint, both egocentric and allocentric perspectives influenced body size estimation (BSE), suggesting that both spatial perspectives critically form and sustain body self‐perception. We discussed predictive coding theory to explain spatial perspective influence on body experience, highlighting the potential therapeutic benefits of incorporating first and third‐person perspectives on body illusions (BIs) for more effective interventions targeting body‐related disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection and human action recognition have great significance in many real-world applications. Understanding how a human being interacts with different objects, i.e., human–object interaction, is also crucial in this regard since it enables diverse applications related to security, surveillance, and immersive reality. Thus, this study explored the potential of using a wearable camera for object detection and human–object interaction recognition, which is a key technology for the future Internet and ubiquitous computing. We propose a system that uses an egocentric camera view to recognize objects and human–object interactions by analyzing the wearer's hand pose. Our novel idea leverages the hand joint data of the user, which were extracted from the egocentric camera view, for recognizing different objects and related interactions. Traditional methods for human–object interaction rely on a third-person, i.e., exocentric, camera view by extracting morphological and color/texture-related features, and thus, often fall short when faced with occlusion, camera variations, and background clutter. Moreover, deep learning-based approaches in this regard necessitate substantial data for training, leading to a significant computational overhead. Our proposed approach capitalizes on hand joint data captured from an egocentric perspective, offering a robust solution to the limitations of traditional methods. We propose a machine learning-based innovative technique for feature extraction and description from 3D hand joint data by presenting two distinct approaches: object-dependent and object-independent interaction recognition. The proposed method offered advantages in computational efficiency compared with deep learning methods and was validated using the publicly available HOI4D dataset, where it achieved a best-case average F1-score of 74%. The proposed system paves the way for intuitive human–computer collaboration within the future Internet, enabling applications like seamless object manipulation and natural user interfaces for smart devices, human–robot interactions, virtual reality, and augmented reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It remains difficult for mobile robots to continue accurate self-localization when they are suddenly teleported to a location that is different from their beliefs during navigation. Incorporating insights from neuroscience into developing a spatial cognition model for mobile robots may make it possible to acquire the ability to respond appropriately to changing situations, similar to living organisms. Recent neuroscience research has shown that during teleportation in rat navigation, neural populations of place cells in the cornu ammonis-3 region of the hippocampus, which are sparse representations of each other, switch discretely. In this study, we construct a spatial cognition model using brain reference architecture-driven development, a method for developing brain-inspired software that is functionally and structurally consistent with the brain. The spatial cognition model was realized by integrating the recurrent state--space model, a world model, with Monte Carlo localization to infer allocentric self-positions within the framework of neuro-symbol emergence in the robotics toolkit. The spatial cognition model, which models the cornu ammonis-1 and -3 regions with each latent variable, demonstrated improved self-localization performance of mobile robots during teleportation in a simulation environment. Moreover, it was confirmed that sparse neural activity could be obtained for the latent variables corresponding to cornu ammonis-3. These results suggest that spatial cognition models incorporating neuroscience insights can contribute to improving the self-localization technology for mobile robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an appropriate spatial frame of reference (FoR) is crucial for solving spatial and communication problems. This study investigated the development of FoR preferences and the effects of landmark availability on these preferences. The participants were Japanese‐speaking children (aged 4–6 years) and adults, who were instructed to remember a row of three animals presented on a table, move to another table behind them, and reconstruct the array. Landmark availability was manipulated by varying the distance between the two tables. The results revealed that both children and adults tended to use an egocentric FoR, which increased with age. The frequency of an allocentric FoR was greater in the short‐distance condition, which had more available landmarks, than in the long‐distance condition. Regarding children's FoR, the availability of landmarks should be considered, rather than adopting the stereotypical view that children prefer an FoR that corresponds to their language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If an agent prefers one kind of agents to the other agents, then the agent has first-order preferences. If the agent prefers agents with one kind of preferences to the other agents, then the agent has second-order preferences. The article proposes a sound, complete, and decidable logical system capable of expressing higher-order preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether the retrospective self-experience of older adults affects and biases interpersonal emotion judgment more than that of younger adults by adopting the paradigm of the self-generated anchoring effect. Participants (older adults: n = 63; younger adults: n = 65) were required to retrospectively consider their self-experiences and judge their possible emotion intensity in anchor-generating scenarios (high- or low-anchor scenarios). Subsequently, participants estimated the protagonist's emotion intensity in target scenarios. The age-related interaction effect showed that older adults exhibited a significant self-generated anchoring effect in more emotion categories (four emotions) compared with younger adults (two emotions). After controlling for inhibition or working memory as a covariant, this interaction effect was no longer significant. The results from multilevel regression analysis also indicated the significant effect of self-emotion across all models on participants' judgment of others' emotions. The results indicated that older adults were more affected by retrospective self-experiences, leading to more egocentric judgment, than younger adults. This different influence from the retrospective self-experiences might partially have been caused by the age-related difference in cognitive abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection and action/gesture recognition have become imperative in security and surveillance fields, finding extensive applications in everyday life. Advancement in such technologies will help in furthering cybersecurity and extended reality systems through the accurate identification of users and their interactions, which plays a pivotal role in the security management of an entity and providing an immersive experience. Essentially, it enables the identification of human–object interaction to track actions and behaviors along with user identification. Yet, it is performed by traditional camera-based methods with high difficulties and challenges since occlusion, different camera viewpoints, and background noise lead to significant appearance variation. Deep learning techniques also demand large and labeled datasets and a large amount of computational power. In this paper, a novel approach to the recognition of human–object interactions and the identification of interacting users is proposed, based on three-dimensional hand pose data from an egocentric camera view. A multistage approach that integrates object detection with interaction recognition and user identification using the data from hand joints and vertices is proposed. Our approach uses a statistical attribute-based model for feature extraction and representation. The proposed technique is tested on the HOI4D dataset using the XGBoost classifier, achieving an average F1-score of 81% for human–object interaction and an average F1-score of 80% for user identification, hence proving to be effective. This technique is mostly targeted for extended reality systems, as proper interaction recognition and users identification are the keys to keeping systems secure and personalized. Its relevance extends into cybersecurity, augmented reality, virtual reality, and human–robot interactions, offering a potent solution for security enhancement along with enhancing interactivity in such systems.

Navigating a complex world requires integration of multiple spatial reference frames, including information about one's orientation in both allocentric and egocentric coordinates. Combining these two information sources can provide additional information about one's spatial location. Previous studies have demonstrated that both egocentric and allocentric spatial signals are reflected by the firing of neurons in the rat postrhinal cortex (POR), an area that may serve as a hub for integrating allocentric head direction (HD) cell information with egocentric information from center-bearing and center-distance cells. However, we have also demonstrated that POR HD cells are uniquely influenced by the visual properties and locations of visual landmarks, bringing into question whether the POR HD signal is truly allocentric as opposed to simply being a response to visual stimuli. To investigate this issue, we recorded HD cells from the POR of female rats while bilaterally inactivating the anterior thalamus (ATN), a region critical for expression of the "classic" HD signal in cortical areas. We found that ATN inactivation led to a significant decrease in both firing rate and tuning strength for POR HD cells, as well as a disruption in the encoding of allocentric location by conjunctive HD/egocentric cells. In contrast, POR egocentric cells without HD tuning were largely unaffected in a consistent manner by ATN inactivation. These results indicate that the POR HD signal originates at least partially from projections from the ATN and supports the view that the POR acts as a hub for the integration of egocentric and allocentric spatial representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examined how social associations from a person's social network may be associated with their own alcohol consumption. Method: Alcohol consumption behavior was examined among the social networks of 784 survey respondents (54% female, Mage = 35.3 years), using egocentric social network analysis. Participants (egos) were recruited via a panel aggregator and completed an online survey about the frequency of their alcohol consumption and that of the 20 most influential people in their lives (alters). The survey also explored who these alters were (family, friends, work colleagues) and the interrelationships among these alters. Results: Egos who consumed alcohol, or consumed alcohol more frequently, were surrounded by more alters who also drank alcohol and felt closer (had stronger ties) to these alters. These relationships remained statistically significant when controlling for demographic and other variables. The social networks of those who consumed alcohol more frequently were more densely intertwined. Conclusions: Alcohol may serve to initiate social connections and be a "social glue" that reinforces relationships. These strong social associations present a potential barrier to individuals who wish to reduce their alcohol consumption because they have few close social connections who do not drink alcohol (or who do so infrequently), and their highly interconnected social networks make it difficult to socialize only with those who do not drink frequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rats readily switch between foraging and more complex navigational behaviors such as pursuit of other rats or prey. These tasks require vastly different tracking of multiple behaviorally significant variables including self-motion state. To explore whether navigational context modulates self-motion tracking, we examined self-motion tuning in posterior parietal cortex neurons during foraging versus visual target pursuit. Animals performing the pursuit task demonstrate predictive processing of target trajectories by anticipating and intercepting them. Relative to foraging, pursuit yields multiplicative gain modulation of self-motion tuning and enhances self-motion state decoding. Self-motion sensitivity in parietal cortex neurons is, on average, history dependent regardless of behavioral context, but the temporal window of self-motion integration extends during target pursuit. Finally, many self-motion-sensitive neurons conjunctively track the visual target position relative to the animal. Thus, posterior parietal cortex functions to integrate the location of navigationally relevant target stimuli into an ongoing representation of past, present, and future locomotor trajectories.

Object detection and human action recognition have great significance in many real-world applications. Understanding how a human being interacts with different objects, i.e., human–object interaction, is also crucial in this regard since it enables diverse applications related to security, surveillance, and immersive reality. Thus, this study explored the potential of using a wearable camera for object detection and human–object interaction recognition, which is a key technology for the future Internet and ubiquitous computing. We propose a system that uses an egocentric camera view to recognize objects and human–object interactions by analyzing the wearer’s hand pose. Our novel idea leverages the hand joint data of the user, which were extracted from the egocentric camera view, for recognizing different objects and related interactions. Traditional methods for human–object interaction rely on a third-person, i.e., exocentric, camera view by extracting morphological and color/texture-related features, and thus, often fall short when faced with occlusion, camera variations, and background clutter. Moreover, deep learning-based approaches in this regard necessitate substantial data for training, leading to a significant computational overhead. Our proposed approach capitalizes on hand joint data captured from an egocentric perspective, offering a robust solution to the limitations of traditional methods. We propose a machine learning-based innovative technique for feature extraction and description from 3D hand joint data by presenting two distinct approaches: object-dependent and object-independent interaction recognition. The proposed method offered advantages in computational efficiency compared with deep learning methods and was validated using the publicly available HOI4D dataset, where it achieved a best-case average F1-score of 74%. The proposed system paves the way for intuitive human–computer collaboration within the future Internet, enabling applications like seamless object manipulation and natural user interfaces for smart devices, human–robot interactions, virtual reality, and augmented reality.

The anterior and lateral thalamus (ALT) contains head direction cells that signal the directional orientation of an individual within the environment. ALT has direct and indirect connections with the parietal cortex (PC), an area hypothesized to play a role in coordinating viewer‐dependent and viewer‐independent spatial reference frames. This coordination between reference frames would allow an individual to translate movements toward a desired location from memory. Thus, ALT‐PC functional connectivity would be critical for moving toward remembered allocentric locations. This hypothesis was tested in rats with a place‐action task that requires associating an appropriate action (left or right turn) with a spatial location. There are four arms, each offset by 90°, positioned around a central starting point. A trial begins in the central starting point. After exiting a pseudorandomly selected arm, the rat had to displace the correct object covering one of two (left versus right) feeding stations to receive a reward. For a pair of arms facing opposite directions, the reward was located on the left, and for the other pair, the reward was located on the right. Thus, each reward location had a different combination of allocentric location and egocentric action. Removal of an object was scored as correct or incorrect. Trials in which the rat did not displace any objects were scored as "no selection" trials. After an object was removed, the rat returned to the center starting position and the maze was reset for the next trial. To investigate the role of the ALT‐PC network, muscimol inactivation infusions targeted bilateral PC, bilateral ALT, or the ALT‐PC network. Muscimol sessions were counterbalanced and compared to saline sessions within the same animal. All inactivations resulted in decreased accuracy, but only bilateral PC inactivations resulted in increased non selecting, increased errors, and longer latency responses on the remaining trials. Thus, the ALT‐PC circuit is critical for linking an action with a spatial location for successful navigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving cognitive health for older adults requires understanding the neurobiology of age-related cognitive decline and the mechanisms underlying preserved cognition in old age. During spatial learning tasks, aged humans and rodents shift navigation preferences in favor of a stimulus-response learning strategy. This has been hypothesized to result from competitive interactions of the caudate nucleus/dorsal striatum (DS) memory system with the hippocampus (HPC)-dependent spatial/allocentric memory system. In support of this hypothesis, a recent study reported that inactivation of the DS in aged rodents rescued HPC-dependent spatial learning on a T-maze (Gardner, Gold, & Korol, 2020). Currently, it is unclear whether a shift from HPC-dependent to DS-dependent behavior also contributes to age-related cognitive decline outside of spatial learning and memory. To test the hypothesis that inactivation of the DS can restore age-related cognitive function outside of spatial behavior, the present study bilaterally inactivated the DS of young (n = 8) and aged (n = 7) rats during visuospatial paired associates learning (PAL). This study found that inactivation of the DS did not alter PAL performance in young or aged rats, but did alter a positive control, DS-dependent spatial navigation task. This observation suggests that elevated DS activity does not play a role in the decline of HPC-dependent PAL performance in aged male rats. Given the persistent tendencies of aged rodents toward DS-dependent learning, it will be worthwhile to explore further the coordination dynamics between the HPC and DS that may contribute to age-related cognitive decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial reference frames (RFs) play a key role in spatial cognition, especially in perception, spatial memory, and navigation. There are two main types of RFs: egocentric (self-centered) and allocentric (object-centered). Although many fMRI studies examined the neural correlates of egocentric and allocentric RFs, they could not sample the fast temporal dynamics of the underlying cognitive processes. Therefore, the interaction and timing between these two RFs remain unclear. Taking advantage of the high temporal resolution of intracranial EEG (iEEG), we aimed to determine the timing of egocentric and allocentric information processing and describe the brain areas involved. We recorded iEEG and analyzed broad gamma activity (50–150 Hz) in 37 epilepsy patients performing a spatial judgment task in a three-dimensional circular virtual arena. We found overlapping activation for egocentric and allocentric RFs in many brain regions, with several additional egocentric- and allocentric-selective areas. In contrast to the egocentric responses, the allocentric responses peaked later than the control ones in frontal regions with overlapping selectivity. Also, across several egocentric or allocentric selective areas, the egocentric selectivity appeared earlier than the allocentric one. We identified the maximum number of egocentric-selective channels in the medial occipito-temporal region and allocentric-selective channels around the intraparietal sulcus in the parietal cortex. Our findings favor the hypothesis that egocentric spatial coding is a more primary process, and allocentric representations may be derived from egocentric ones. They also broaden the dominant view of the dorsal and ventral streams supporting egocentric and allocentric space coding, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether the retrospective self-experience of older adults affects and biases interpersonal emotion judgment more than that of younger adults by adopting the paradigm of the self-generated anchoring effect. Participants (older adults: n = 63; younger adults: n = 65) were required to retrospectively consider their self-experiences and judge their possible emotion intensity in anchor-generating scenarios (high- or low-anchor scenarios). Subsequently, participants estimated the protagonist’s emotion intensity in target scenarios. The age-related interaction effect showed that older adults exhibited a significant self-generated anchoring effect in more emotion categories (four emotions) compared with younger adults (two emotions). After controlling for inhibition or working memory as a covariant, this interaction effect was no longer significant. The results from multilevel regression analysis also indicated the significant effect of self-emotion across all models on participants’ judgment of others’ emotions. The results indicated that older adults were more affected by retrospective self-experiences, leading to more egocentric judgment, than younger adults. This different influence from the retrospective self-experiences might partially have been caused by the age-related difference in cognitive abilities.

By assessing the precision of gestural interactions with touchscreen targets, the authors investigate how the type of gesture, target location, and scene visibility impact movement endpoints. Participants made visually and memory-guided pointing and swiping gestures with a stylus to targets located in a semicircle. Specific differences in aiming errors were identified between swiping and pointing. In particular, participants overshot the target more when swiping than when pointing and swiping endpoints showed a stronger bias toward the oblique than pointing gestures. As expected, the authors also found specific differences between conditions with and without delays. Overall, the authors observed an influence on movement execution from each of the three parameters studied and uncovered that the information used to guide movement appears to be gesture specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While economics has long recognized concern for others (e.g. altruism and bequest motives), explicit inclusion of social network metrics in non market valuation models is relatively recent. Social network effects on willingness to pay can propagate through the entire network and bias willingness to pay (WTP) estimates. However, social networks are complex systems of relationships between individuals, and measuring them can be difficult. We explored the potential for egocentric social network (ESN) measures to help explain variations in preference for the status quo. Using simulated random networks, we demonstrate that respondents more likely to choose an alternative to the status quo are part of more dense ESNs. A strong influence of an attitude toward the impact of economic development on the environmental goods and services is consistent with network structure and preference for environmental improvements being jointly determined.

Neurons in the rat postrhinal cortex (POR) respond to the egocentric (observer‐centered) bearing and distance of the boundaries, or geometric center, of an enclosed space. Understanding of the precise geometric and sensory properties of the environment that generate these signals is limited. Here we model how this signal may relate to visual perception of motion parallax along environmental boundaries. A behavioral extension of this tuning is the known 'centering response', in which animals follow a spatial gradient function based on boundary parallax to guide behavior toward the center of a corridor or enclosure. Adding an allocentric head direction signal to this representation can translate the gradient across two‐dimensional space and provide a new gradient for directing behavior to any location. We propose a model for how this signal may support goal‐directed navigation via projections to the dorsomedial striatum. The result is a straightforward code for navigational variables derived from visual geometric properties of the surrounding environment, which may be used to map space and transform incoming sensory information into an appropriate motor output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much research has been devoted to the effects of inequality on political participation, little attention has been paid to how different kinds of subjective perceptions of social inequality affect citizens' political behaviour. This is important since these perceptions shape the message that reaches political decision-makers when addressing concerns over social inequalities. This article differentiates between sociotropic and egocentric perceptions of social inequality and explores to what extent individuals' perceptions of such inequality affect engagement in institutionalized and non-institutionalized political participation between elections. Engagement was evaluated with a survey among a segment of the Finnish population (n = 1673). Our results indicate that citizens with sociotropic concerns are more likely to get involved in both institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of political participation, whereas egocentric perceptions have less of an impact. Furthermore, the associations are moderated by left–right ideology: sociotropic concerns are more strongly expressed among left-wing voters, whereas right-wingers are more likely to be propelled to action by egocentric concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

قدّم "کيث دونيلان" تحليلًا للبُعد الأنطولوجي لنظرية الأوصاف يختلف عمَّا قدمه غيره من المناطقة وفلاسفة اللغة، وکان أبرز ذلک التحليل التمييز بين مايريد المتکلم الإشارة إليه بدقة، أو إسناد صفةٍ له، وبين الاستخدام الإحالي الدلالي، والاستخدام الإسنادي للأوصاف، وقد انعکس هذا التمييز في استخدام الجمل، واستعمال أسماء العَلَم، والفرق بينها وبين الأوصاف المحددة؛ فناقش دور توقعات المستمع في تحديد الوصف الإحالي الدلالي المحدد، وأشار إلى أن هذا الأمر يتم وفق اعتباراتٍ عملية، منها اعتقاد المستمع، ودور فعل الکلام الذي يقوم به المتحدث عند الکلام، کما رأى أن معاني أسماء العلم لا تتعلق بتحليل هذه الأسماء بالکلمات، وإنما تنطلق من القوة الإسنادية للعبارة. وقد قال دونيلان باستحالة النظرية الخالصة أو المستقلة للإشارة اللغوية، وبوجوب تعميم المفاهيم المرکزية کالحد الفردي والإحالة إلى ماهو أبعد من تطبيقها على المتحدث الأصلي واللغة المکتوبة، کما أشار إلى أن المتحدث قد ينجح في الإشارة إلى کيانٍ لا يفي بالوصف المحدد، لذلک فرّق جيدًا بين الإشارة والدلالة من خلال نظريته الجديدة للإشارة، کما أکد على دور التفسير التاريخي في الاستخدام الإسنادي للأوصاف المحددة الخفية، الأمر الذي يتعلق بالشخصيات التاريخية لا بالشخصيات الأدبية للرواية، ومن ثم يمکن للقائل أن يشير إلى شيءٍ غير موجود من خلال أفعال الکلام وذلک، ما أدى به إلى التمييز بين الخطاب عن الراوية والخطاب عن الواقع، واستخدام العبارات التوکيدية. أي أن نظريته عن الأوصاف غير التامة هي نظرية الأوصاف الخفية. Abstract Keith Donnellan presented an analysis of the ontological dimension of the theory of descriptions that differs from that presented by other logicians and philosophers of language. And the use of proper names, and the difference between them and the definite descriptions, he discussed the role of the listener’s sentences in determining the specific semanticreference description, and pointed out that this matter is done according to practical considerations, including the listener’s belief, and the role of the speech act that the speaker performs when speaking. He also saw that the meanings of the proper names are not related to the analysis of these names in words, but rather stem from the attributive power of the sentence.Donnellan argued that the pure or independent theory of linguistic reference is impossible, and that central nptions such as the singular term and reference must be generalized beyond their application to the original speaker and written language, and he also indicated that the speaker may succeed in referring to an entity that does not meet the definite description, so there is a good difference between semantic and reference.Through his new theory of reference, he also emphasized the role of historical interpretation in the attributive use of Concealed specific descriptions,which relates to historical figures and not to the literary characters of the fiction, and then the speaker can refer to something that does not exist, through speech acts,which led him to distinguish between Discourse on the fiction and discourse on actuality, and the use of assertion sentences. That is, his theory of incomplete descriptions is the theory of Concealed descriptions.

Individual factors can play a relevant role in explaining gender differences in environmental learning in terms of visuospatial abilities and beliefs about spatial abilities, such as stereotypes and growth mindset about navigation ability. In this study, we aim to investigate how mental rotation ability and spatial beliefs interact in the acquisition of egocentric and allocentric spatial knowledge. A sample of 244 participants (140 women) completed individual difference measures, including a mental rotation test (MRT) and questionnaires on gender stereotypes and growth mindsets about navigation ability. Participants then learned a specific route in a virtual environment and performed an egocentric pointing task and an allocentric pointing task. Men performed better in mental rotation and egocentric pointing tasks. Moreover, mental rotation ability predicted both egocentric and allocentric pointing performance; growth mindset predicted allocentric pointing. In general, these results suggest that, despite gender differences in some spatial measures, cognitive abilities and beliefs contribute to supporting environmental knowledge in both men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has produced exciting new ideas about retrosplenial cortex (RSC) and its role in integrating diverse inputs. Here, we review the diversity in forms of spatial and directional tuning of RSC activity, temporal organization of RSC activity, and features of RSC interconnectivity with other brain structures. We find that RSC anatomy and dynamics are more consistent with roles in multiple sensorimotor and cognitive processes than with any isolated function. However, two more generalized categories of function may best characterize roles for RSC in complex cognitive processes: (1) shifting and relating perspectives for spatial cognition and (2) prediction and error correction for current sensory states with internal representations of the environment. Both functions likely take advantage of RSC's capacity to encode conjunctions among sensory, motor, and spatial mapping information streams. Together, these functions provide the scaffold for intelligent actions, such as navigation, perspective taking, interaction with others, and error detection. What is the retrosplenial cortex and what does it do? Alexander et al. discuss theories inspired by these questions and highlight their limitations. They propose that retrosplenial activity serves to relate spatial perspectives and to generate predictions about environmental interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce an egocentric video and eye-tracking dataset, comprised of 108 first-person videos of 36 shoppers searching for three different products (orange juice, KitKat chocolate bars, and canned tuna) in a convenience store, along with the frame-centered eye fixation locations for each video frame. The dataset also includes demographic information about each participant in the form of an 11-question survey. The paper describes two applications using the dataset — an analysis of eye fixations during search in the store, and a training of a clustered saliency model for predicting saliency of viewers engaged in product search in the store. The fixation analysis shows that fixation duration statistics are very similar to those found in image and video viewing, suggesting that similar visual processing is employed during search in 3D environments and during viewing of imagery on computer screens. A clustering technique was applied to the questionnaire data, which resulted in two clusters being detected. Based on these clusters, personalized saliency prediction models were trained on the store fixation data, which provided improved performance in prediction saliency on the store video data compared to state-of-the art universal saliency prediction methods. • Egocentric video dataset of shopper search in a convenience store. • Eye-tracking dataset of shopper search in a convenience store. • Analysis of fixated objects and fixation durations during search. • Fine-tuning of clustered task-dependent saliency models for search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the personality of Catherine Earnshaw, who is the protagonist of the novel Wuthering Heights. The novel Wuthering Heights has a gothic theme and a tragedy. This novel tells the intricate love story and dominate with the social class, egoism, and hatred. The conflict is around two families namely Earnshaw and Linton. Catherine's life is filled with choices, including two loves from different people with different backgrounds and lives. That is one of reason the series of decisions and attitudes of her in the future. Catherine Earnshaw’s personality, egocentric tendencies, and defense mechanisms are the main issues in this research. This research belongs to library research which applied the qualitative research method. In addition, there are two types of data sources, namely primary data from Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights and secondary data in the form of books, journals, and official sites related to research. This study applies Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalytic which shows three personality structures, namely the id, the ego and the superego. The results shows that Catherine Earnshaw has an egocentric tendency with five types including egocentric memory, egocentric myopia, egocentric righteousness, egocentric blindness, and egocentric immediacy. In dealing with the tendency, Catherine balances with defense mechanisms in the form of denial, identification, repression, and rationalization.

Individual factors can play a relevant role in explaining gender differences in environmental learning in terms of visuospatial abilities and beliefs about spatial abilities, such as stereotypes and growth mindset about navigation ability. In this study, we aim to investigate how mental rotation ability and spatial beliefs interact in the acquisition of egocentric and allocentric spatial knowledge. A sample of 244 participants (140 women) completed individual difference measures, including a mental rotation test (MRT) and questionnaires on gender stereotypes and growth mindsets about navigation ability. Participants then learned a specific route in a virtual environment and performed an egocentric pointing task and an allocentric pointing task. Men performed better in mental rotation and egocentric pointing tasks. Moreover, mental rotation ability predicted both egocentric and allocentric pointing performance; growth mindset predicted allocentric pointing. In general, these results suggest that, despite gender differences in some spatial measures, cognitive abilities and beliefs contribute to supporting environmental knowledge in both men and women.

A fundamental question in neuroscience is how the brain integrates egocentric (body-centered) and allocentric (landmark-centered) visual cues, but for many years this question was ignored in sensorimotor studies. This changed in recent behavioral experiments, but the underlying physiology of ego / allocentric integration remained largely unstudied. The specific goal of this review is to explain how prefrontal neurons integrate eye-centered and landmark-centred visual codes for optimal gaze behavior. First, we briefly review the whole-brain / behavioral mechanisms for ego / allocentric integration in the human and summarize egocentric coding mechanisms in the primate gaze system. We then focus in more depth on cellular mechanisms for ego / allocentric coding in the frontal and supplementary eye fields. We first explain how prefrontal visual responses integrate eye-centered target and landmark codes to produce a transformation toward landmark-centered coordinates. Next, we describe what happens when a landmark shifts during the delay between seeing and acquiring a remembered target, initially resulting in independently co-existing ego / allocentric memory codes. We then describe how these codes are re-integrated in the motor burst for the gaze shift. Deep network simulations suggest that these properties emerge spontaneously for optimal gaze behavior. Finally, we synthesize these observations and relate them to normal brain function through a simplified conceptual model. Together, these results show that integration of visuospatial features continues well beyond visual cortex and suggests a general cellular mechanism for goal-directed visual behaviour.

Various lifestyle factors, including diet, physical activity, and sleep, have been studied in the context of children's health. However, how these lifestyle factors contribute to the development of cognitive abilities, including spatial cognition, remains vastly understudied. One landmark in spatial cognitive development occurs between 2.5 and 3 years of age. For spatial orientation at that age, children learn to use allocentric reference frames (using spatial relations between objects as the primary reference frame) in addition to, the already acquired, egocentric reference frames (using one's own body as the primary reference frame). In the current virtual reality study in a sample of 30–36-month-old toddlers (N = 57), we first demonstrated a marginally significant developmental shift in spatial orientation. Specifically, task performance with allocentric performance increased relative to egocentric performance (ηp2 = 0.06). Next, we explored a variety of lifestyle factors, including diet, in relation to task performance, to explain individual differences. Screen time and gestational weight gain of the mother were negatively associated with spatial task performance. The findings presented here can be used to guide future confirmatory studies about the role of lifestyle factors in the development of spatial cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial orientation and navigation are fundamental abilities in daily life that develop gradually during childhood, although their development is still not clear. The main aim of the present narrative review was to trace the development of navigational skills in middle childhood (6 to 12 years old) by means of studies present in the literature. To this aim, this review took into account the terminology, methodologies, different paradigms, and apparatuses used to investigate egocentric self-centered and allocentric world-centered representations, besides the different types of spaces (reaching/small/large; physical/virtual). Furthermore, this review provided a brief description of the development of navigational strategies and competences in toddlers and preschool children (0–5 years). The main result of this review showed how middle childhood is a crucial period for the improvement and development of allocentric strategies, including metric information. In fact, during this developmental window, children learn to handle proximal and distal cues, to transpose paper and virtual information into real environments, up to performing similarly to adults. This narrative review could represent a starting point to better clarify the development of navigation and spatial orientation, finalized to trace a development curve useful to map normal development and to have a term of comparison to assess performance in atypical development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During navigation, humans mainly rely on egocentric and allocentric spatial strategies, two different frames of reference working together to build a coherent representation of the environment. Spatial memory deficits during navigation have been repeatedly reported in patients with vestibular disorders. However, little is known about how vestibular disorders can change the use of spatial navigation strategies. Here, we used a new reverse T-maze paradigm in virtual reality to explore whether vestibular loss specifically modifies the use of egocentric or allocentric spatial strategies in patients with unilateral (n = 23) and bilateral (n = 23) vestibular loss compared to healthy volunteers (n = 23) matched for age, sex and education level. Results showed that the odds of selecting and using a specific strategy in the T-maze were significantly reduced in both unilateral and bilateral vestibular loss. An exploratory analysis suggests that only right vestibular loss decreased the odds of adopting a spatial strategy, indicating an asymmetry of vestibular functions. When considering patients who used strategies to navigate, we observed that a bilateral vestibular loss reduced the odds to use an allocentric strategy, whereas a unilateral vestibular loss decreased the odds to use an egocentric strategy. Age was significantly associated with an overall lower chance to adopt a navigation strategy and, more specifically, with a decrease in the odds of using an allocentric strategy. We did not observe any sex difference in the ability to select and use a specific navigation strategy. Findings are discussed in light of previous studies on visuo-spatial abilities and studies of vestibulo-hippocampal interactions in peripheral vestibular disorders. We discuss the potential impact of the history of the disease (chronic stage in patients with a bilateral vestibulopathy vs. subacute stage in patients with a unilateral vestibular loss), of hearing impairment and non-specific attentional deficits in patients with vestibular disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allocentric (landmark-centered) and egocentric (eye-centered) visual codes are fundamental for spatial cognition, navigation, and goal-directed movement. Neuroimaging and neurophysiology suggest these codes are initially segregated, but then reintegrated in frontal cortex for movement control. We created and validated a theoretical framework for this process using physiologically constrained inputs and outputs. To implement a general framework, we integrated a convolutional neural network (CNN) of the visual system with a multilayer perceptron (MLP) model of the sensorimotor transformation. The network was trained on a task where a landmark shifted relative to the saccade target. These visual parameters were input to the CNN, the CNN output and initial gaze position to the MLP, and a decoder transformed MLP output into saccade vectors. Decoded saccade output replicated idealized training sets with various allocentric weightings and actual monkey data where the landmark shift had a partial influence (R 2 = 0.8). Furthermore, MLP output units accurately simulated prefrontal response field shifts recorded from monkeys during the same paradigm. In summary, our model replicated both the general properties of the visuomotor transformations for gaze and specific experimental results obtained during allocentric–egocentric integration, suggesting it can provide a general framework for understanding these and other complex visuomotor behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary psychopathic traits are associated with goal hyperfocus and reduced processing of goal-irrelevant stimuli. Here we tested whether a narrower visual attentional breadth could explain these effects. We also tested whether secondary psychopathic traits were associated with a broadened attentional breadth and altered resizing dynamics, given that they are thought to be associated with poorer attentional control and broader attentional breadth is less demanding of attentional control than a narrower breadth. Egocentricity and callousness were considered as primary psychopathic traits, and antisociality as a secondary psychopathic trait. Experiment 1 found weak evidence for higher antisociality being associated with a broader attentional breadth, and no evidence that either egocentricity or callousness were systematically associated with any attentional breadth preference, suggesting that a mechanism other than attentional breadth is required to explain the effects associated with primary psychopathic traits. Experiment 2 found clear evidence that higher antisociality was associated with quicker attentional expansion. Given that expansion reflects changing from a state more demanding of attentional control (narrow) to a less demanding one (broad), plus the evidence that poor optimization promotes faster infrequent resizing, quicker resizing associated with antisociality is consistent with poorer attentional control or executive function in secondary psychopathic traits. • Here we tested the association between psychopathic traits and attentional breadth. • Psychopathic traits considered were Egocentricity, Callousness, and Antisociality. • Egocentricity was not associated with narrower attentional breadth. • Callousness was not associated with narrower attentional breadth. • Antisociality was associated with quicker expansion of attentional breadth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans, like many other species, employ three fundamental forms of strategies to navigate: allocentric, egocentric, and beacon. Here, we review each of these different forms of navigation with a particular focus on how our high-resolution visual system contributes to their unique properties. We also consider how we might employ allocentric and egocentric representations, in particular, across different spatial dimensions, such as 1-D vs. 2-D. Our high acuity visual system also leads to important considerations regarding the scale of space we are navigating (e.g., smaller, room-sized "vista" spaces or larger city-sized "environmental" spaces). We conclude that a hallmark of human spatial navigation is our ability to employ these representations systems in a parallel and flexible manner, which differ both as a function of dimension and spatial scale.

The retrosplenial cortex (RC) is a brain structure crucial for spatial navigation and memory. It contains neurons such as head direction cells, border cells, as well as other cells supporting spatial and contextual encoding. How such complex and diverse neuronal properties are generated by RC microcircuitry and how they jointly orchestrate subsequent behavior remains enigmatic. Here, we consider recent findings that extend current knowledge about how the RC modulates spatial navigation and spatial cognition. We argue that the integrative properties of RC allow the combination of idiothetic cues, spatial relations (allocentric and egocentric), and environmental features (landmarks, boundaries, etc.) into a spatial map that can dynamically support goal-directed navigation. Furthermore, the mnemonic functions of RC suggest its possible role in autobiographical information storage. The rodent retrosplenial cortex (RC) integrates different types of idiothetic and allocentric information, including locomotion, head direction, animal position, and landmark information to support spatial cognition. It also integrates and anticipates reward and reinforcement information. Navigation and memory storage is supported by multiple, functionally distinct, neuronal populations in the RC. These neuronal populations also create neuronal ensembles that represent memories induced by spatial or associative learning. The RC serves as an integrative hub where idiothetic and allocentric information is assimilated in a context-dependent manner. This property of the RC supports its dynamic flexibility in the interpretation of sensory information during spatial navigation and memory encoding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies investigating environmental navigation require participants to navigate in virtual environments, in which the proprioceptive and vestibular components present during real environmental navigation are lost. Here, we aimed to provide a novel computerized ecological navigational battery, investigating whether the absence of proprioceptive and vestibular inputs yields a representation of the navigational space comparable to that acquired ecologically. In Study 1, 38 participants underwent two sets of tasks, one performed in a laboratory-based setting (LBS) and the other in an ecological environment (EE), with both including evaluation of route, landmark, and survey knowledge and a landmark ordering task. All tasks, except the route task, significantly correlated between EE and LBS. In LBS, performance in the landmark ordering task was predicted by that in the survey task, but not by those in the route and landmark tasks. Results of Study 1 were replicated in Study 2, in which 44 participants completed a modified and shorter online version of LBS tests. Reliability of the online LBS tests was also tested and showed a moderate-to-high internal consistency. Overall, results show that the conditions in which tasks are performed affect the acquisition of route knowledge, likely due to the lack of proprioceptive and vestibular information in LBS. However, LBS tasks presented here provide a standard battery of tests that can overcome the replicability problems encountered by ecological navigation tests, while taking into consideration all the complexities of navigational processes in terms of the use of landmark, route, and survey strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we tackle the problem of hand pose estimation when the hand is interacting with various objects from egocentric viewpoint. This entails a frequent occlusion of parts of the hand by the object and also self-occlusions of the hand. We use a Voxel-to-Voxel approach to obtain hypotheses of the hand joint locations, ensemble the hypotheses and use several post-processing strategies to improve on the results. We utilize models of prior hand pose in the form of Truncated Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and the temporal context to produce refined hand joint locations. We present an ablation study of the methods to show the influence of individual features of the post-processing. With our method we were able to constitute state-of-the-art results on the HANDS19 Challenge: Task 2 - Depth-Based 3D Hand Pose Estimation while Interacting with Objects, with precision on unseen test data of 33.09 mm.

A typical consequence of stroke in the right hemisphere is unilateral spatial neglect. Distinct forms of neglect have been described, such as space-based (egocentric) and object-based (allocentric) neglect. However, the relationship between these two forms of neglect is still far from being understood, as well as their neural substrates. Here, we further explore this issue by using voxel lesion symptoms mapping (VLSM) analyses on a large sample of early subacute right-stroke patients assessed with the Apples Cancellation Test. This is a sensitive test that simultaneously measures both egocentric and allocentric neglect. Behaviourally, we found no correlation between egocentric and allocentric performance, indicating independent mechanisms supporting the two forms of neglect. This was confirmed by the VLSM analysis that pointed out a link between a damage in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and left egocentric neglect. By contrast, no association was found between brain damage and left allocentric neglect. These results indicate a higher probability to observe egocentric neglect as a consequence of white matter damages in the superior longitudinal fasciculus, while allocentric neglect appears more "globally" related to the whole lesion map. Overall, these findings on early subacute right-stroke patients highlight the role played by white matter integrity in sustaining attention-related operations within an egocentric frame of reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]