In our previous studies, we have shown that the occurrence of geometric illusions was reduced in vestibular patients who presented signs of otolith disorders and when healthy observers were tilted relative to gravity. We hypothesized that the alteration in the gravitational (otolith) input was responsible for this change, presumably because of a connection between vestibular and visual-spatial cognitive functions. In this study, we repeated similar experiments in astronauts during long-duration spaceflight.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn speeded categorization tasks, decisions could be based on diagnostic target features or they may need the activation of complete representations of the object. Depending on task requirements, the priming of feature detectors through top-down expectation might lower the threshold of selective units or speed up the rate of information accumulation. In the present paper, 40 subjects performed a rapid go/no-go animal/non-animal categorization task with 400 briefly flashed natural scenes to study how performance depends on physical scene characteristics, target configuration, and the presence or absence of diagnostic animal features.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ability of monkeys to categorize objects in visual stimuli such as natural scenes might rely on sets of low-level visual cues without any underlying conceptual abilities. Using a go/no-go rapid animal/non-animal categorization task with briefly flashed achromatic natural scenes, we show that both human and monkey performance is very robust to large variations of stimulus luminance and contrast. When mean luminance was increased or decreased by 25-50%, accuracy and speed impairments were small.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrosamples of pink cosmetic powders from the Greco-Roman period were analyzed using two complementary analytical approaches for identification of the colouring agents (lake pigments originally manufactured from madder plants with an inert binder, usually a metallic salt) present in the samples. The first technique was a methanolic acidic extraction of the archaeological samples with an additional ethyl acetate extraction of the anthraquinone-type colouring agents which were identified using high performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization with high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-HRMS), and the second was direct analysis of a microsample by laser desorption ionization-mass spectrometry (LDI-MS). The latter technique is well suited when the quantity of samples is very low.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHumans are fast and accurate at performing an animal categorization task with natural photographs briefly flashed centrally. Here, this central categorization task is compared to a three position task in which photographs could appear randomly either centrally, or at 3.6 degrees eccentricity (right or left) of the fixation point.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThree monkeys performed a categorization task and a recognition task with briefly flashed natural images, using in alternation either a large variety of familiar target images (animal or food) or a single (totally predictable) target. The processing time was 20 ms shorter in the recognition task in which false alarms showed that monkeys relied on low-level cues (color, form, orientation, etc.).
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