| 1. |
- Alvarsson, Jesper J.
(författare)
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Perspectives on wanted and unwanted sounds in outdoor environments : Studies of masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- An acoustic environment contains sounds from various sound sources, some generally perceived as wanted, others as unwanted. This thesis examines the effects of wanted and unwanted sounds in acoustic environments, with regard to masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility.In urban settings, masking of unwanted sounds by sounds from water structures has been suggested as a way to improve the acoustic environment. However, Study I showed that the unwanted (road traffic) sound was better at masking the wanted (water) sound than vice versa, thus indicating that masking of unwanted sounds with sounds from water structures may prove difficult. Also, predictions by a partial loudness model of the auditory periphery overestimated the effect of masking, indicating that centrally located informational masking processes contribute to the effect. Some environments have also been shown to impair stress recovery; however studies using only auditory stimuli is lacking. Study II showed that a wanted (nature) sound improve stress recovery compared to unwanted (road traffic, ambient) sounds. This suggests that the acoustic environment influences stress recovery and that wanted sounds may facilitate stress recovery compared to unwanted sounds. An additional effect of unwanted sounds is impeded speech communication, commonly measured with speech intelligibility models. Study III showed that speech intelligibility starts to be negatively affected when the unwanted (aircraft sound) masker have equal or higher sound pressure level as the speech sound. Three models of speech intelligibility (speech intelligibility index, partial loudness and signal–to–noise ratio) predicted this effect well, with a slight disadvantage for the signal–to–noise ratio model. Together, Study I and III suggests that the partial loudness model is useful for determining effects of wanted and unwanted sounds in outdoor acoustic environments where variations in sound pressure level are large. But, in environments with large variations in other sound characteristics, models containing predictions of central processes would likely produce better results.The thesis concludes that wanted and unwanted characteristics of sounds in acoustic environments affect masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility, and that auditory perception models can predict these effects.
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| 2. |
- Alvarsson, Jesper J., et al.
(författare)
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Stress Recovery during Exposure to Nature Sound and Environmental Noise
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - Basel, Schweiz : MDPI Publishing. - 1660-4601 .- 1661-7827. ; 7:3, s. 1036-1046
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research suggests that visual impressions of natural compared with urban environments facilitate recovery after psychological stress. To test whether auditory stimulation has similar effects, 40 subjects were exposed to sounds from nature or noisy environments after a stressful mental arithmetic task. Skin conductance level (SCL) was used to index sympathetic activation, and high frequency heart rate variability (HF HRV) was used to index parasympathetic activation. Although HF HRV showed no effects, SCL recovery tended to be faster during natural sound than noisy environments. These results suggest that nature sounds facilitate recovery from sympathetic activation after a psychological stressor.
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| 3. |
- Gavazzeni, Joachim, et al.
(författare)
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Age, Gender, and Arousal in Recognition of Negative and Neutral Pictures 1 Year Later
- 2012
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Ingår i: Psychology and Aging. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0882-7974 .- 1939-1498. ; 27:4, s. 1039-1052
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Compared with nonarousing stimuli, arousing stimuli enhance memory performance. The most robust effects have been reported for negative stimuli, "the negativity effect," although a number of mediating factors prevent definitive conclusions, for example, age, gender, memory task, retention period, and alternative arousal measures. To clarify whether the negativity effect is robust across age, gender, and time, we studied incidental recognition of neutral and negative pictures from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1999) in healthy younger and older adults-women and men-after a 1-year retention interval. Memory performance was related to 2 arousal measures at encoding, skin conductance response (SCR), and intensity rating of unpleasantness. The results showed weaker overall memory performance for older adults compared with younger adults. The negativity effect on accuracy (d') was gender dependent and age independent. In contrast, the negativity effect on response bias (c) interacted with age, but not gender, being weaker for older adults. Despite significant differences in arousal (SCR and arousal rating) between negative and neutral pictures, the correlations between arousal measures and memory performance were weak. Controlling for age and gender, a small negative partial correlation was found between arousal ratings and accuracy. The results extend previous studies by relating long-term recognition to both age and gender as well as to arousal at encoding.
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| 4. |
- Hadynska-Klek, K., et al.
(författare)
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Towards The Determination Of Superdeformation In Ca-42
- 2013
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Ingår i: Acta Physica Polonica B. - 0587-4254 .- 1509-5770. ; 44:3, s. 617-625
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Coulomb excitation experiment to study electromagnetic structure of low-lying states in Ca-42 with a focus on a possible superdeformation in this nucleus was performed at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro in Italy. Preliminary values of the determined quadrupole deformation parameters for both the ground state band and the presumed superdeformed band are presented.
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| 5. |
- Heinisch, C., et al.
(författare)
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Self-face recognition in schizophrenia is related to insight
- 2013
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Ingår i: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. - : Springer. - 0940-1334 .- 1433-8491. ; 263:8, s. 655-662
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A core feature of schizophrenia is the breakdown of the sense of self. A widespread clinical consequence of impaired self-awareness is a lack of insight. Self-face recognition is regarded as one aspect of self-awareness; how this relates to other self-referential processes such as insight into the disorder is as yet unknown. Nineteen patients with schizophrenia performed a facial recognition task using video morphings during which an average face gradually transformed into one’s own, a famous or an unfamiliar face (and vice versa). Reaction times to detect faces during the transitions were compared between patients and a matched control group. In the patient group, we also examined correlations between face recognition and insight, psychopathology, and self-evaluation. Both patients with schizophrenia and controls recognised their own faces faster than unfamiliar faces. Whereas healthy subjects recognised a famous face at an intermediate speed that did not differ significantly from the recognition of one’s own and unfamiliar faces, schizophrenia patients recognised the famous face, similar to their own face, significantly faster than an unfamiliar face. Moreover, in the patient group, higher insight correlated with faster reaction times in distinguishing one’s own from famous faces. Patients with schizophrenia seem to distinguish less than controls between their own and a famous face relative to an unfamiliar face. Patients with good insight into the disorder, however, were better able to differentiate between their own and a famous face. This study supports the view that self-face recognition is an indicator for higher-order self-awareness.
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| 6. |
- Iannilli, Emilia, et al.
(författare)
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A spatiotemporal comparison between olfactory and trigeminal event-related potentials
- 2013
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Ingår i: NeuroImage. - : Elsevier BV. - 1053-8119 .- 1095-9572. ; 77, s. 254-261
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study compared the temporal and spatial aspects of human olfactory and trigeminal processing. A relatively selective trigeminal stimulus, CO2, and a relatively selective olfactory stimulus, H2S, were delivered with an olfactometer to young, healthy volunteers. The analysis was performed in a classical (5-electrode, main ERPs peaks) and modern approach (high topographical resolution, inverse solution, source localization). Results of microstate segmentation highlighted 5 maps that generally described the two processes at cerebral level. The trigeminal response differed from the olfactory response up to 300 ms after stimulus onset. In this time range, source analysis pointed out that the olfactory stimulation involved olfactory related areas, while trigeminal stimulation involved noxious/somatosensoiy specific brain areas. Moreover, from 300 ms on our data showed a similarity between the two processes. Statistical parametrical mapping of the differences between conditions suggested greater activation in a specific motor/sniffing network for the CO2 stimulation (probably related to a regulation of the potential noxious stimulus) and a greater activation of the ipsilateral primary olfactory cortex for H2S.
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| 7. |
- Lovén, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
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Who are you looking at? : The influence of face gender on visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces
- 2012
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Ingår i: Memory. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0965-8211 .- 1464-0686. ; 20:4, s. 321-331
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous research suggests that the own-race bias (ORB) in memory for faces is a result of other-race faces receiving less visual attention at encoding. As women typically display an own-gender bias in memory for faces and men do not, we investigated whether face gender and sex of viewer influenced visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces, and if preferential viewing of own-race faces contributed to the ORB in memory. Participants viewed pairs of female or male own- and other-race faces while their viewing time was recorded. Afterwards, they completed a surprise memory test. We found that (1) other-race males received the initial focus of attention, (2) own-race faces were viewed longer than other-race faces over time, although the difference was larger for female faces, and (3) even though longer viewing time increased the probability of remembering a face, it did not explain the magnified ORB in memory for female faces. Importantly, these findings highlight that face gender moderates attentional responses to and memory for own- and other-race faces.
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| 8. |
- Norberg, Joakim, 1976-
(författare)
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Fearful attention : Investigating event-related potentials in spider phobia
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Previous studies showed that emotional pictures capture attention. Further, this effect was decreased by manipulating spatial attention. In contrast, studies produced mixed findings for effects of perceptual load on attention to emotional pictures. Emotional pictures can be phobic or nonphobic. Because phobia might be an evolutionary adaption, it is possible that effects of phobic pictures on attention differ from effects of nonphobic emotional pictures. The present thesis aimed at investigating attention in spider phobia. Attention to emotional pictures was operationalized as event-related potentials (ERPs) (P1, early posterior negativity [EPN,] and late positive potential [LPP]). Two research questions were formulated. First, do phobic pictures evoke larger ERPs than what can be expected from arousal and valence? Second, are effects of spatial attention and perceptual load on ERPs the same for phobic and nonphobic emotional pictures? To investigate this, phobic and nonphobic negative pictures were presented to spider phobic and nonphobic participants. To determine effects of spatial attention on ERPs, participants were instructed to divert attention to a single letter that was presented in the periphery. To determine effects of perceptual load on ERPs, participants were instructed to perform a letter discrimination task on one, two, or three letters that were presented in the periphery. Study 1 showed enhanced LPP amplitudes to phobic pictures independent of arousal and valence. Further, this effect was present in both phobic and nonphobic participants. Study 2 showed that there was no effect of perceptual load on LPP to phobic pictures. Study 3 showed that spatial attention reduced LPP amplitudes, and to a similar extent for both phobic and nonphobic pictures. Further, perceptual load did not reduce EPN or LPP amplitudes to either phobic or nonphobic pictures. To conclude, the results suggest that phobic pictures evoke larger ERP amplitudes than nonphobic pictures. Still, ERPs to phobic and nonphobic pictures are moderated similarly by spatial attention and perceptual load.
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| 9. |
- Norberg, Joakim, et al.
(författare)
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Never mind the spider : Late positive potentials to phobic threat at fixation are unaffected by perceptual load
- 2010
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Ingår i: Psychophysiology. - : Wiley. - 0048-5772 .- 1469-8986. ; 47:6, s. 1151-1158
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research suggests that processing of emotional stimuli may be eliminated if a concurrent task places sufficient demands on attentional resources. To test whether this holds for stimuli with strong emotional significance, pictures of spiders as well as mushrooms were presented at fixation to spider-fearful and non-fearful participants. Concurrently, perceptual load was manipulated in two levels with a peripheral letter discrimination task. Results of event-related potentials showed that, compared with non-fearful participants, spider-fearful participants showed greater late positive potentials (LPP) to spiders than mushrooms, which provides a manipulation check that spiders were emotionally meaningful to spider-fearful participants. Critically, this effect was not affected by level of perceptual load. These findings suggest that strong emotional stimuli at fixation may resist manipulations of perceptual load.
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| 10. |
- Nordström, Henrik, et al.
(författare)
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Emotional event-related potentials are larger to figures than scenes but are similarly reduced by inattention
- 2012
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Ingår i: BMC Neuroscience. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2202. ; 13, s. 49-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: In research on event-related potentials (ERP) to emotional pictures, greater attention to emotional than neutral stimuli (i.e., motivated attention) is commonly indexed by two difference waves between emotional and neutral stimuli: the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP). Evidence suggests that if attention is directed away from the pictures, then the emotional effects on EPN and LPP are eliminated. However, a few studies have found residual, emotional effects on EPN and LPP. In these studies, pictures were shown at fixation, and picture composition was that of simple figures rather than that of complex scenes. Because figures elicit larger LPP than do scenes, figures might capture and hold attention more strongly than do scenes. Here, we showed negative and neutral pictures of figures and scenes and tested first, whether emotional effects are larger to figures than scenes for both EPN and LPP, and second, whether emotional effects on EPN and LPP are reduced less for unattended figures than scenes.Results: Emotional effects on EPN and LPP were larger for figures than scenes. When pictures were unattended, emotional effects on EPN increased for scenes but tended to decrease for figures, whereas emotional effects on LPP decreased similarly for figures and scenes.Conclusions: Emotional effects on EPN and LPP were larger for figures than scenes, but these effects did not resist manipulations of attention more strongly for figures than scenes. These findings imply that the emotional content captures attention more strongly for figures than scenes, but that the emotional content does not hold attention more strongly for figures than scenes.
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