Correlation between Inter-Blink Interval and Episodic Encoding during Movie Watching

Human eye blinking is cognitively suppressed to minimize loss of visual information for important real-world events. Despite the relationship between eye blinking and cognitive state, the effect of eye blinks on cognition in real-world environments has received limited research attention. In this study, we focused on the temporal pattern of inter-eye blink interval (IEBI) during movie watching and investigated its relationship with episodic memory. As a control condition, 24 healthy subjects watched a nature documentary that lacked a specific story line while electroencephalography was performed. Immediately after viewing the movie, the subjects were asked to report its most memorable scene. Four weeks later, subjects were asked to score 32 randomly selected scenes from the movie, based on how much they were able to remember and describe. The results showed that the average IEBI was significantly longer during the movie than in the control condition. In addition, the significant increase in IEBI when watching a movie coincided with the most memorable scenes of the movie. The results suggested that the interesting episodic narrative of the movie attracted the subjects’ visual attention relative to the documentary clip that did not have a story line. In the episodic memory test executed four weeks later, memory performance was significantly positively correlated with IEBI (p<0.001). In summary, IEBI may be a reliable bio-marker of the degree of concentration on naturalistic content that requires visual attention, such as a movie.     

Exposure to Movie Reckless Driving in Early Adolescence Predicts Reckless,but Not Inattentive Driving

Objective

We examine the association between exposure to depictions of reckless driving in movies and unsafe driving, modeling inattentive and reckless driving as separate outcomes.

Methods

Data were obtained by telephone from 1,630 US adolescents aged 10 to 14 years at baseline who were drivers at a survey 6 years later. Exposure to movie reckless driving was measured based on movies seen from a randomly selected list of 50 movie titles that had been content coded for reckless driving among characters. Associations were tested with inattentive and reckless driving behaviors in the subsequent survey–controlling for baseline age, sex, socioeconomic status, parental education, school performance, extracurricular activities, daily television and video/computer game exposure, number of movies watched per week, self-regulation and sensation seeking.

Results

Exposure to movie reckless driving was common, with approximately 10% of movie characters having driven recklessly. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a significant distinction between items tapping reckless and inattentive driving at the 6^th wave. Age and exposure to movie reckless driving at baseline were directly associated with wave-6 reckless (but not inattentive) driving. Additionally, growth in sensation seeking mediated a prospective relation between the total number of movies watched per week at baseline and reckless driving, independent of exposure to movie reckless driving. Males and high sensation seekers reported lower seatbelt usage and more reckless driving, whereas lower self-regulation predicted inattentive driving.

Discussion

In this study, exposure to movie reckless driving during early adolescence predicted adolescents’ reckless driving, suggesting a direct modeling effect. Other aspects of movies were also associated with reckless driving, with that association mediated through growth in sensation seeking. Predictors of reckless driving were different from predictors of inattentive driving, with lower self-regulation associated with the latter outcome. Making a clear distinction between interventions for reckless or inattentive driving seems crucial for accident prevention.     

Videotapes as enrichment for captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

The effectiveness of showing videotapes to captive chimpanzees as an environmental enrichment was quantitatively tested. The responses of 10 subjects (3 adult males and 7 adult females) to videotapes of chimpanzees engaging in a variety of behaviors, to videotapes of other animals and humans, and to television programs were compared. Data collection consisted of 20-minute, continuous sampling tests while various videotapes were shown. A total of 400 tests were conducted. Multivariate analysis of variance was applied to measure differences in the duration of eight categories of behavior across videotapes of varying content. No general behavioral differences in response to the tapes based on sex or housing were revealed. However, with the behavior of monitor-watching analyzed alone, we found that individually housed subjects watched the videotapes more than socially housed subjects. When viewing time was averaged across all videotapes, the chimpanzees watched the monitor a mean of 38.4% of the time available. The chimpanzees' behavior varied significantly only when they were watching the videotapes of various human and chimpanzee activities and not when watching a blank screen. A Pearson's correlation indicated that subjects habituated to repeated presentations of the videotapes, although the effect was small numerically. Although this type of enrichment did not extensively alter behavior, it did occupy a significant portion of the subjects' activity budget; thus, the amount of time spent watching the video stimuli indicated that videotapes may be a useful enrichment for captive chimpanzees. Zoo Biol 19:541-551, 2000. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Visual fatigue caused by watching 3DTV: an fMRI study

The objective of this study is to observe the visual fatigue caused by watching 3DTV using the method of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The data of fMRI during three kinds of visual stimulation tasks were obtained from twenty subjects. At first, blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal changes during stimuli of checkerboard task were compared before and after one-hour watching 3D/2DTV, and subjective evaluation was conducted based on the questionnaire simultaneously. Then 3D and 2D images were used to stimulate healthy individuals to measure brain activities that correlated with stereoscopic vision. Finally, the relationship between front or back depth of field images and visual fatigue was investigated. The results reveal that the 3D group shows more significant differences of brain activities in BA8, BA17, BA18 and BA19 than the 2D group during the checkerboard stimulation. BA5, BA6, BA7 and BA8 were testified to have close relationship with stereoscopic perception via the 2D/3D images stimulation. Furthermore, the front depth of field image was proven to impose a more serious impact on visual fatigue than the back one. These conclusions are useful for healthy and reasonable 3DTV watching as well as properly designing of 3D scenes.     

Reconstructing visual experiences from brain activity evoked by natural movies

Quantitative modeling of human brain activity can provide crucial insights about cortical representations [1, 2] and can form the basis for brain decoding devices [3-5]. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have modeled brain activity elicited by static visual patterns and have reconstructed these patterns from brain activity [6-8]. However, blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals measured via fMRI are very slow [9], so it has been difficult to model brain activity elicited by dynamic stimuli such as natural movies. Here we present a new motion-energy [10, 11] encoding model that largely overcomes this limitation. The model describes fast visual information and slow hemodynamics by separate components. We recorded BOLD signals in occipitotemporal visual cortex of human subjects who watched natural movies and fit the model separately to individual voxels. Visualization of the fit models reveals how early visual areas represent the information in movies. To demonstrate the power of our approach, we also constructed a Bayesian decoder [8] by combining estimated encoding models with a sampled natural movie prior. The decoder provides remarkable reconstructions of the viewed movies. These results demonstrate that dynamic brain activity measured under naturalistic conditions can be decoded using current fMRI technology.     

Activation of brain structures by fMRI data when viewing the video clips and recall of shown actions

In 10 healthy volunteers, brain tomograms were recorded using an fMRI scanner with a 3T-field magnet. Emotionally neutral and emotionally involving videos were used for stimulation. Registration consisted of seven series: two series of viewing a fixation point and two kinds of video clips, one series of viewing of a succession of two types of video clips, two series of watching videos with subsequent recall, and two series of viewing the fixation point followed by recall of content online. Viewing content online caused the greatest degree of metabolism increase localized in the visual cortex. This activation was more pronounced during the presentation of an emotionally involving video clip. In addition to the occipital lobe, it actively involved the temporal, parietal and, to a lesser extent, the frontal cortex. Activation of the motor cortex was detected only in some subjects. The "interference" effect in which the increase in metabolism was minimal was observed during a consequent demonstration of video-clips. Immediate recall of video-clips after viewing caused the greatest activation of the posterior frontal and motor cortex. Delayed recall activated mostly the anterior frontal cortex. There was a decrease of metabolism in the visual cortex during the recall. The greatest reduction in the visual cortex was observed during immediate recall. Immediate and delayed recall activated the structures associated with the maintenance of consciousness, memory and a system of mirror neurons.     

Video preference assessment and behavioral management of single-caged Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) by movie presentation

Movie presentation can act as an enrichment technique for nonhuman primates, who also show preferences for certain contents. This study investigated the video preferences and effects of movies on behavioral abnormalities in single-caged Japanese macaques. When movie rewards were provided for subjects' touch responses, the subjects maintained the touch responses during 40 2-hr sessions. Although repeated presentation of 1 stimulus set decreased the subject's touch response, changing the stimulus set led to recovery of this response. The subjects showed clear preferences, consistent across 2 different stimulus sets, for movies showing humans or animation (61.1% of total duration). Subjects consistently played movies both with and without their preferred content. The availability of a variety of contents might be important for attracting subjects' interest. The frequency with which monkeys engaged in abnormal behaviors decreased in the experimental (20.9%) and the postexperimental (25.6%) periods compared with the preexperimental period (33.5%). Movie presentations could keep attracting the interest of single-caged monkeys in their visual environment, ameliorating their behavioral abnormalities for some time. In summary, social experience during infancy might influence Japanese macaques' movie preferences.     

Audio-Visual Perception of 3D Cinematography: An fMRI Study Using Condition-Based and Computation-Based Analyses

The use of naturalistic stimuli to probe sensory functions in the human brain is gaining increasing interest. Previous imaging studies examined brain activity associated with the processing of cinematographic material using both standard “condition-based” designs, as well as “computational” methods based on the extraction of time-varying features of the stimuli (e.g. motion). Here, we exploited both approaches to investigate the neural correlates of complex visual and auditory spatial signals in cinematography. In the first experiment, the participants watched a piece of a commercial movie presented in four blocked conditions: 3D vision with surround sounds (3D-Surround), 3D with monaural sound (3D-Mono), 2D-Surround, and 2D-Mono. In the second experiment, they watched two different segments of the movie both presented continuously in 3D-Surround. The blocked presentation served for standard condition-based analyses, while all datasets were submitted to computation-based analyses. The latter assessed where activity co-varied with visual disparity signals and the complexity of auditory multi-sources signals. The blocked analyses associated 3D viewing with the activation of the dorsal and lateral occipital cortex and superior parietal lobule, while the surround sounds activated the superior and middle temporal gyri (S/MTG). The computation-based analyses revealed the effects of absolute disparity in dorsal occipital and posterior parietal cortices and of disparity gradients in the posterior middle temporal gyrus plus the inferior frontal gyrus. The complexity of the surround sounds was associated with activity in specific sub-regions of S/MTG, even after accounting for changes of sound intensity. These results demonstrate that the processing of naturalistic audio-visual signals entails an extensive set of visual and auditory areas, and that computation-based analyses can track the contribution of complex spatial aspects characterizing such life-like stimuli.     

Video Preference Assessment and Behavioral Management of Single-Caged Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata) by Movie Presentation

Movie presentation can act as an enrichment technique for nonhuman primates, who also show preferences for certain contents. This study investigated the video preferences and effects of movies on behavioral abnormalities in single-caged Japanese macaques. When movie rewards were provided for subjects' touch responses, the subjects maintained the touch responses during 40 2-hr sessions. Although repeated presentation of 1 stimulus set decreased the subject's touch response, changing the stimulus set led to recovery of this response. The subjects showed clear preferences, consistent across 2 different stimulus sets, for movies showing humans or animation (61.1% of total duration). Subjects consistently played movies both with and without their preferred content. The availability of a variety of contents might be important for attracting subjects' interest. The frequency with which monkeys engaged in abnormal behaviors decreased in the experimental (20.9%) and the postexperimental (25.6%) periods compared with the preexperimental period (33.5%). Movie presentations could keep attracting the interest of single-caged monkeys in their visual environment, ameliorating their behavioral abnormalities for some time. In summary, social experience during infancy might influence Japanese macaques' movie preferences.     

Use of "entertainment" chimpanzees in commercials distorts public perception regarding their conservation status

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are often used in movies, commercials and print advertisements with the intention of eliciting a humorous response from audiences. The portrayal of chimpanzees in unnatural, human-like situations may have a negative effect on the public's understanding of their endangered status in the wild while making them appear as suitable pets. Alternatively, media content that elicits a positive emotional response toward chimpanzees may increase the public's commitment to chimpanzee conservation. To test these competing hypotheses, participants (n?=?165) watched a series of commercials in an experiment framed as a marketing study. Imbedded within the same series of commercials was one of three chimpanzee videos. Participants either watched 1) a chimpanzee conservation commercial, 2) commercials containing "entertainment" chimpanzees or 3) control footage of the natural behavior of wild chimpanzees. Results from a post-viewing questionnaire reveal that participants who watched the conservation message understood that chimpanzees were endangered and unsuitable as pets at higher levels than those viewing the control footage. Meanwhile participants watching commercials with entertainment chimpanzees showed a decrease in understanding relative to those watching the control footage. In addition, when participants were given the opportunity to donate part of their earnings from the experiment to a conservation charity, donations were least frequent in the group watching commercials with entertainment chimpanzees. Control questions show that participants did not detect the purpose of the study. These results firmly support the hypothesis that use of entertainment chimpanzees in the popular media negatively distorts the public's perception and hinders chimpanzee conservation efforts.     

Television viewing and long-term weight maintenance: results from the National Weight Control Registry

Objective: To examine the role of television (TV) viewing in long‐term maintenance of weight loss. Research Methods and Procedures: All subjects (N = 1422) were enrolled in the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), a national sample of adults who have maintained a minimum weight loss of 13.6 kg for at least 1 year. Participants self‐reported the average number of hours of weekly TV viewing at entry into the NWCR and at a 1‐year follow‐up. Cross‐sectional and prospective analyses were performed to determine the frequency of TV viewing and the extent to which TV viewing was independently associated with weight regain over the 1‐year of follow‐up. Results: A relatively high proportion (62.3%) of participants reported watching 10 or fewer hours of TV per week on entry in the NWCR. More than one third of the sample (36.1%) reported watching <5 h/wk, whereas only 12.4% watched ≥21 h/wk, which contrasts markedly from the national average of 28 hours of TV viewing per week reported by American adults. Both baseline TV viewing (p ≤ 0.02) and increases in TV viewing (p ≤ 0.001) over the follow‐up were significant predictors of 1‐year weight regain, independent of physical activity and dietary behaviors. Discussion: Individuals who are successful at maintaining weight loss over the long term are likely to spend a relatively minimal amount of time watching TV.     

Children's exposure to magnetic fields produced by U.S. television sets used for viewing programs and playing video games

Two epidemiologic studies have reported increased risk of childhood leukemia associated with the length of time children watched television (TV) programs or played video games connected to TV sets. To evaluate magnetic field exposures resulting from these activities, the static, ELF, and VLF magnetic fields produced by 72 TV sets used by children to watch TV programs and 34 TV sets used to play video games were characterized in a field study conducted in Washington DC and its Maryland suburbs. The resulting TV-specific magnetic field data were combined with information collected through questionnaires to estimate the magnetic field exposure levels associated with TV watching and video game playing. The geometric means of the ELF and VLF exposure levels so calculated were 0.0091 and 0.0016 microT, respectively, for children watching TV programs and 0.023 and 0.0038 microT, respectively, for children playing video games. Geometric means of ambient ELF and VLF levels with TV sets turned off were 0.10 and 0.0027 microT, respectively. Summed over the ELF frequency range (6-3066 Hz), the exposure levels were small compared to ambient levels. However, in restricted ELF frequency ranges (120 Hz and 606-3066 Hz) and in the VLF band, TV exposure levels were comparable to or larger than normal ambient levels. Even so, the strengths of the 120 Hz or 606-3066 Hz components of TV fields were small relative to the overall ambient levels. Consequently, our results provide little support for a linkage between childhood leukemia and exposure to the ELF magnetic fields produced by TV sets. Our results do suggest that any future research on possible health effects of magnetic fields from television sets might focus on the VLF electric and magnetic fields produced by TV sets because of their enhanced ability relative to ELF fields to induce electric currents.     

Parental Weight Status and Girls’ Television Viewing,Snacking, and Body Mass Indexes

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine whether television viewing (TVV) provides a context for patterns of snacking fostering overweight in young girls from overweight and non‐overweight families. Research Methods and Procedures: Participants were 173 non‐Hispanic white girls and their parents from central Pennsylvania, assessed longitudinally when girls were 5, 7, and 9 years old. Path analysis was used to test patterns of relationships among girls’ TVV, snacking while watching television, snacking frequency, fat intake from energy‐dense snack food, and girls’ increase in body mass index (BMI) from age 5 to 9. Results: In both overweight and non‐overweight families, girls who watched more television consumed more snacks in front of the television. In families where neither parent was overweight, television viewing was the only significant predictor of girls’ increase in BMI. In families where one or both parents were overweight, girls who watched more television snacked more frequently, and girls who snacked more frequently had higher intakes of fat from energy‐dense snacks, which predicted their increase in BMI from age 5 to 9. TVV did not directly predict girls’ increase in BMI in girls from overweight families. Discussion: The results of this study support and extend previous findings that have shown that excessive television viewing and snacking patterns are risk factors for the development of overweight in children; however, patterns of relationships may differ based on parental weight status. For overweight families, TVV may provide a context for excessive snack consumption, in addition to inactivity.     

The impact of in-person and video-recorded animal experiences on zoo visitors' cognition,affect, empathic concern,and conservation intent

Currently there are mixed results regarding the ability for media or more specifically video to increase a person's interest in conservation. However, there is a growing amount of evidence that in-person experiences at a zoo or aquarium can increase a person's interest in conservation. The goal of the current study was to examine the difference between an in-person experience viewing a polar bear training session and watching a video of the same experience on cognition, emotion, empathic concern, and conservation intent. A total of 124 Brookfield Zoo members were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. Condition 1 was an in-person 10 min (Live Animal) experience viewing a training session with a polar bear. Condition 2 participants (Video Animal) watched a video of the same experience from Condition 1 and Condition 3 (Control) listened to the audio from Condition 1 but only viewed an image of one of our animal care specialists. Results suggest that the live condition is associated with higher probability of answering questions correctly, having a positive emotional experience, having greater empathic concern for wild bears, and wanting to get involved in conservation when compared to the control. These impacts were not observed for the video condition suggesting that for this study, watching a video of a training session was not an effective tool for getting people involved in conservation. Future research is needed to better understand this important topic, but we now have further evidence of the importance of in-person zoo experiences.     

Reduced Gaze Following and Attention to Heads when Viewing a "Live" Social Scene

Social stimuli are known to both attract and direct our attention, but most research on social attention has been conducted in highly controlled laboratory settings lacking in social context. This study examined the role of social context on viewing behaviour of participants whilst they watched a dynamic social scene, under three different conditions. In two social groups, participants believed they were watching a live webcam of other participants. The socially-engaged group believed they would later complete a group task with the people in the video, whilst the non-engaged group believed they would not meet the people in the scene. In a third condition, participants simply free-viewed the same video with the knowledge that it was pre-recorded, with no suggestion of a later interaction. Results demonstrated that the social context in which the stimulus was viewed significantly influenced viewing behaviour. Specifically, participants in the social conditions allocated less visual attention towards the heads of the actors in the scene and followed their gaze less than those in the free-viewing group. These findings suggest that by underestimating the impact of social context in social attention, researchers risk coming to inaccurate conclusions about how we attend to others in the real world.     

Electroencephalographic Changes in Epileptics while Viewing Television

Ten consecutive epileptic patients who showed abnormal electroencephalographic (E.E.G.) responses to intermittent photic stimulation have been studied while watching television. Though only two gave a history of television epilepsy nine exhibited spike-wave discharges in the E.E.G. during viewing. This effect occurred when the set was functioning normally but was increased in five subjects when the screen was deliberately caused to flicker.     

True-3D Accentuating of Grids and Streets in Urban Topographic Maps Enhances Human Object Location Memory

Cognitive representations of learned map information are subject to systematic distortion errors. Map elements that divide a map surface into regions, such as content-related linear symbols (e.g. streets, rivers, railway systems) or additional artificial layers (coordinate grids), provide an orientation pattern that can help users to reduce distortions in their mental representations. In recent years, the television industry has started to establish True-3D (autostereoscopic) displays as mass media. These modern displays make it possible to watch dynamic and static images including depth illusions without additional devices, such as 3D glasses. In these images, visual details can be distributed over different positions along the depth axis. Some empirical studies of vision research provided first evidence that 3D stereoscopic content attracts higher attention and is processed faster. So far, the impact of True-3D accentuating has not yet been explored concerning spatial memory tasks and cartography. This paper reports the results of two empirical studies that focus on investigations whether True-3D accentuating of artificial, regular overlaying line features (i.e. grids) and content-related, irregular line features (i.e. highways and main streets) in official urban topographic maps (scale 1/10,000) further improves human object location memory performance. The memory performance is measured as both the percentage of correctly recalled object locations (hit rate) and the mean distances of correctly recalled objects (spatial accuracy). It is shown that the True-3D accentuating of grids (depth offset: 5 cm) significantly enhances the spatial accuracy of recalled map object locations, whereas the True-3D emphasis of streets significantly improves the hit rate of recalled map object locations. These results show the potential of True-3D displays for an improvement of the cognitive representation of learned cartographic information.     

Detecting binocular 3D motion in static 3D noise: no effect of viewing distance

Relative binocular disparity cannot tell us the absolute 3D shape of an object, nor the 3D trajectory of its motion, unless the visual system has independent access to how far away the object is at any moment. Indeed, as the viewing distance is changed, the same disparate retinal motions will correspond to very different real 3D trajectories. In this paper we were interested in whether binocular 3D motion detection is affected by viewing distance. A visual search task was used, in which the observer is asked to detect a target dot, moving in 3D, amidst 3D stationary distractor dots. We found that distance does not affect detection performance. Motion-in-depth is consistently harder to detect than the equivalent lateral motion, for all viewing distances. For a constant retinal motion with both lateral and motion-in-depth components, detection performance is constant despite variations in viewing distance that produce large changes in the direction of the 3D trajectory. We conclude that binocular 3D motion detection relies on retinal, not absolute, visual signals.     

Cognitive Functions and Stereopsis in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Using 3-Dimensional Television: A Case Controlled Trial

Stereopsis or depth perception is an awareness of the distances of objects from the observer, and binocular disparity is a necessary component of recognizing objects through stereopsis. In the past studies, patients with neurodegenerative disease (Alzheimer dementia, AD; Parkinson’s disease IPD) have problems of stereopsis but they did not have actual stimulation of stereopsis. Therefore in this study, we used a 3-dimensional (3D) movie on 3D television (TV) for actual stereopsis stimulation. We propose research through analyzing differences between the three groups (AD, IPD, and Controls), and identified relations between the results from the Titmus Stereo Fly Test, and the 3D TV test. The study also looked into factors that affect the 3D TV test. Before allowing the patients to watch TV, we examined Titmus stereo Fly Test and cognitive test. We used the 3D version of a movie, of 17 minutes 1 second duration, and carried out a questionnaire about stereopsis. The scores of the stereopsis questionnaire were decreased in AD patients, compared with in IPD and controls, although they did not have any difference of Titmus Stereo Fly Test scores. In IPD patients, cognitive function (Montreal cognitive assessment, MoCA) scores were correlated with the scores of the stereopsis questionnaire. We could conclude that Titmus fly test could not distinguish between the three groups and cognitive dysfunction contributes to actual stereopsis perception in IPD patients. Therefore the 3D TV test of AD and IPD patients was more effective than Titmus fly test.     

Patterns of Overweight,Inactivity, and Snacking in Chinese Children

Objective: To examine patterns of inactivity and snacking and their relationship with overweight status in Chinese children. Research Methods and Procedures: The study population was drawn from the 1997 China Health National Survey (1385 children, ages 6 to 11 years), conducted with a representative sample from nine provinces. The 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention BMI charts were used to calculate “at risk of overweight” as those above the 85th percentile. Three days of 24‐hour recall dietary data and detailed questions on physical activity and inactivity for the previous 7 days were used. Results: 9.4% of the children were classified as overweight. Weekly mean and range of hours spent watching television/videos, playing video games, studying, and in inactive transport were 5.1 (0 to 35), 0.3 (0 to 10), 4.7 (0 to 60), and 0.14 (0 to 4.2), respectively. Television/video viewing and studying did not differ in any meaningful manner between overweight and normal weight children. Snacking is inconsequential in China, comprising only 0.9% of energy intake. Discussion: Chinese children are less overweight, less inactive, and less likely to ingest calories as snacks than children in the U.S. The absence of impact of these measures of inactivity, which are below an hour per day for the average Chinese child, indicate the possible value of limiting television viewing and other types of inactivity in other countries. Modern Western‐style television programming and advertising started to come to China after 1997; therefore, extensive changes in television viewing patterns are expected to emerge.