Subliminal display of action words interferes with motor planning: a combined EEG and kinematic study.

Recent evidence has shown that processing action-related language and motor action share common neural representations to a point that the two processes can interfere when performed concurrently. To support the assumption that language-induced motor activity contributes to action word understanding, the present study aimed at ruling out that this activity results from mental imagery of the movements depicted by the words. For this purpose, we examined cross-talk between action word processing and an arm reaching movement, using words that were presented too fast to be consciously perceived (subliminally). Encephalogram (EEG) and movement kinematics were recorded. EEG recordings of the "Readiness potential" ("RP", indicator of motor preparation) revealed that subliminal displays of action verbs during movement preparation reduced the RP and affected the subsequent reaching movement. The finding that motor processes were modulated by language processes despite the fact that words were not consciously perceived, suggests that cortical structures that serve the preparation and execution of motor actions are indeed part of the (action) language processing network.     

Information Gain of Psychophysiological Detection of Deception in Forensic and Screening Settings

We adapted and applied the Wells and Olson’s (2002) Information Gain Analyses to examine the relative usefulness of a common psycho-physiological deception detection (PDD) technique, the Comparison Question Test, in forensic and screening settings as compared to unassisted lay and professional persons. We found that in forensic settings PDD provided substantial improvements in information gain over unassisted laypersons across nearly the complete range of the base rate of guilt. This was true for accuracy estimates based on laboratory and field data. At p(guilt) = 0.9, a benchmark set by critics of PDD, PDD provided 27 times the information gain of credibility decisions made by unassisted lay persons. Analyses of a screening PDD indicated that only deceptive outcomes provide useful information gain at relevant low base rates of guilt. These results strongly support the use of PDD in forensic settings and have implications for how screening PDD results are used.     

Deception and the origin of honest signals

Deceptive signals are a challenge to explain because on average, signals should be reliable. When being deceived is costly to the receiver, a coevolutionary struggle between senders and receivers can ensue. Recent work by Macías Garcia and Ramirez raises the intriguing possibility that through such a coevolutionary process, cheats can become honest.     

A Salience Theory of Learning and Behavior: With Perspectives on Neurobiology and Cognition

Traditional behaviorists have described behaviors fundamentally as responses to stimuli or, perhaps more liberally, as behaviors under the control of discriminative stimuli or contexts. They have held responses or behaviors to be established, strengthened, sustained, and inhibited or extinguished by contingent events: notably reinforcers, punishers, or the absence of either. In addition, they believed reinforcement acts on the response, the behavior, not on the organism. Here, and in support of Hebb’s view, we advance a contrarian view. A key principle of our framework is that species’ brains are uniquely designed to perceive and to relate stimulus events that are contiguous, salient, and relevant to adaptation. In accordance with what we here view as the constructive biases of species’ brains, stimuli are differentially organized into amalgams that reflect an exchange of salience and response-eliciting properties of component units, which are then integrated to form a basis of knowledge about the organism and its ecological niche. One can then base adaptation on overarching principles and rules, not just on simple associations. Species may create emergent behaviors with no history of specific training, and even new capacities, to service adaptation to both familiar and novel challenges.     

Symmetry: Modeling the Effects of Masking Noise,Axial Cueing and Salience

Symmetry detection is an interesting probe of pattern processing because it requires the matching of novel patterns without the benefit of prior recognition. However, there is evidence that prior knowledge of the axis location plays an important role in symmetry detection. We investigated how the prior information about the symmetry axis affects symmetry detection under noise-masking conditions. The target stimuli were random-dot displays structured to be symmetric about vertical, horizontal, or diagonal axes and viewed through eight apertures (1.2° diameter) evenly distributed around a 6° diameter circle. The information about axis orientation was manipulated by (1) cueing of axis orientation before the trial and (2) varying axis salience by including or excluding the axis region within the noise apertures. The percentage of correct detection of the symmetry was measured at for a range of both target and masking noise densities. The threshold vs. noise density function was flat at low noise density and increased with a slope of 0.75–0.8 beyond a critical density. Axis cueing reduced the target threshold 2–4fold at all noise densities while axis salience had an effect only at high noise density. Our results are inconsistent with an ideal observer or signal-to-noise account of symmetry detection but can be explained by a multiple-channel model is which the response in each channel is the ratio between the nonlinear transform of the responses of sets of early symmetry detectors and the sum of external and intrinsic sources of noise.     

Effect of Subliminal Lexical Priming on the Subjective Perception of Images: A Machine Learning Approach

The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of subliminal priming in terms of the perception of images influenced by words with positive, negative, and neutral emotional content, through electroencephalograms (EEGs). Participants were instructed to rate how much they like the stimuli images, on a 7-point Likert scale, after being subliminally exposed to masked lexical prime words that exhibit positive, negative, and neutral connotations with respect to the images. Simultaneously, the EEGs were recorded. Statistical tests such as repeated measures ANOVAs and two-tailed paired-samples t-tests were performed to measure significant differences in the likability ratings among the three prime affect types; the results showed a strong shift in the likeness judgment for the images in the positively primed condition compared to the other two. The acquired EEGs were examined to assess the difference in brain activity associated with the three different conditions. The consistent results obtained confirmed the overall priming effect on participants’ explicit ratings. In addition, machine learning algorithms such as support vector machines (SVMs), and AdaBoost classifiers were applied to infer the prime affect type from the ERPs. The highest classification rates of 95.0% and 70.0% obtained respectively for average-trial binary classifier and average-trial multi-class further emphasize that the ERPs encode information about the different kinds of primes.     

小麦内源特异参照基因的查找与定性PCR和实时荧光PCR验证

目的:先从理论上查找和比对了小麦属(Triticum)γ-醇溶蛋白基因(GAG56D)为小麦特异的内源基因,并用定性PCR和实时荧光PCR方法从实验特异性上进行了验证。方法:选择小麦基因组中部分基因序列在NCBI中进行同源性分析,查找在小麦中存在的内源特异参照基因,找到小麦属(Triticum)特异的γ-醇溶蛋白基因(GAG56D),设计并合成该基因的引物和探针序列,同时用定性PCR和实时荧光PCR方法进行检测,并优化了实验条件。结果:不仅在理论上查找和比对了γ-醇溶蛋白基因为小麦特异的内源基因,并用定性PCR和实时荧光PCR方法进行了实验特异性的验证。定性PCR产物经过琼脂糖凝胶电泳分析后,只在小麦属中可以检测到328bp的目的片段,而在其它作物中未扩增出目的片断。同样实时荧光PCR验证的结果小麦属内各个种均有扩增曲线出现,而在其它作物没有扩增曲线出现中。结论:该基因与方法可用作检测小麦属(唯一小麦种是栽培作物)内源特异参照基因。     

Counterfactual Consent and the Use of Deception in Research

The use of deception for the purposes of research is a widespread practice within many areas of study. If we want to avoid either absolute acceptance or absolute rejection of this practice then we require some method of distinguishing between those uses of deception which are morally acceptable and those which are not. In this article I discuss the concept of counterfactual consent, and propose a related distinction between counterfactual‐defeating deception and counterfactual‐compatible deception. The aim is to show that this proposed distinction will be useful in furthering the debate regarding the use of deception for the purposes of research.