1,720,973 research outputs found
Cortical correlates of a priming-based learning enhancement task : a Brain Computer Interface study
Get PDFPriming is an automatic cognitive mechanism according to which the exposition to a certain kind of stimulus can modify the response to a subsequent stimulus. Even if literature has widely dealt with this phenomenon, experiments that analyses effects of priming in learning and their neural correlates are still few. The main aim of this project is to evaluate whether semantic priming could be considered as a useful method to improve the performances of subjects involved in a learning task. In particular, we expected that the subjects, which received semantic priming, would show faster behavioral patterns and that the priming effect would result in a lower cognitive load correlated to a lower engagement of anterior cortical areas. We then hypothesized that during tasks primed by semantic-related cues beta and gamma frequency bands will show a lower activation with respect to non-primed ones. Thirty right-handed volunteers (age range 18-26) with normal or corrected to normal visual acuity and without neurological illness nor learning disabilities participated in the study. We designed an experiment with three groups (semantic prime; neutral prime; no prime) and three conditions (letter recognition, word recognition, word definition). A Neurosky Mindwave BCI device was used to collect frontal EEG data. The use of the open source OpenVibe stimulation software allowed us to implement a Python code to build the experiment. Significant differences were found in all conditions. In the first task (Letter recognition), the prime-group reported an average RT of 0.63 seconds while the other two groups (neutral-prime and no-prime) reacted slower (respectively, 0.92 s and the 0.85 s). In the second task (Word recognition), the prime-group RTs had an average of 0.44 seconds vs 0.84 and 0.81 of the other groups. In the third task (Definition), the prime-group answered took an average of 4.73 seconds to respond, versus 6.38 and 6.86 of other 2 groups. Finally, to analyze EEG correlates of behavioral results a Matlab's tool (EEGLab) was used to analyze the data recorded by the BCI. As expected, primed-subjects reported a less average activation of Beta and Gamma waves, immediately before and after the onset of the stimulus (F (2,27) = 20.123, p <.001; F (2,27) = 20.002, p <.001). Our EEG data showed in the frontal areas the priming effect is correlated to a reduced activity, showing a cognitive discharge. These data suggest that is possible to structure education material so to increase learning performance and/or reducing the cognitive load. These achievements are particularly wishful in case of learning disorders or when many information have to be learned in a brief time. The use of a BCI device might then be used to assess the cognitive load providing specific feedback when excessive, less-functional level of cortical activity is reached. We believe that a systematic use of BCI devices will foster the implementation of cognitive-driven education and enhancement programs
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Creative thinking: a brain computer interface of art
No full textThe artistic expressions are universally recognized as creative. It might be considered a window on the mind since an artwork implies a blend of implicit and explicit thinking processes and results in behaviors mediated by some media or epistemic instruments. In this sense, art may be seen as creativity enacted, since the mind/brain must interact with the surroundings so to close the cognitive loop open by inspiration.
We can state that creativity is a part of every human daily activity, so that, to understand individuals’ behavior, abilities, and the mechanisms of the mind, we must start from the creative process, as, in general, the search of a different (innovative) solution to a problem.
In this paper, we will treat the cognitive aspect of the creative process and we describe an example of creativity enacted by the use of a Brain Computer Interface: the mind the chair project
Art in the neuroscience ERA : how the brain understands and creates art
No full textNeurosciences, and particularly Cognitive Sciences, study creativity for the implications in understanding human and machine approach to problem solving. In fact, subjects such as Cognitive Psychology, Brain Neurobiology and Artificial Intelligence, investigate creativity mechanisms related to the human brain and cognition. We can state that creativity is a part of every human daily activity, so that, to understand individuals behaviour and abilities and the mechanisms of mind, we must start from the creative process, as, in general, the search of a different (innovative) solution to a problem.
In this paper, we will treat the cognitive aspect of the creative process, particularly starting from cognitive technologies, devices helping researchers to analyse the process by the point of view of the artificial and natural intelligences
Brainwaves and Sound Synchronization in a Dance Performance
Get PDFIn a previous work (Lucchiari and Folgieri, 2015) we considered communication among young people. New digital-natives do not communicate in a traditional way, but they choose different means and ways. It is not a surprising conclusion that a large part of digital-natives considers obsolete both Web sites’ structure and Internet navigation modes, learning instruments and paradigms and communication tools, choosing, instead, fast and immediate media like mobile phone communication, social networking and so on (Croitoru et al. 2011). Notwithstanding we could think they lack of communication skills, actually, they communicate with each other much more than ever done, using not only the verbal language, but also images, videos, sounds, and especially emotions. We named this phenomenon telepatheia or, better, sympateia, meaning that they seem to keep in contact independently by the mean. Of course, on our intention, this does not mean that we are observing a new organic evolution, but surely a kind of evolution can be traced: an era in which human and machines are evolving, influencing one each other, determining a specific kind of communication strongly influenced and related to technology.
In this paper, starting from our previous studies and from our concept of “sympateia”, we performed a new experiment related to brain rhythms synchronization.
Through our experiment, described in the following chapter, We want to explore the communication mechanisms of telepathy (in the ancient Greek assumption of “telepatia”that is [tele]=”distance” and [pateia]=”emotion, feeling”). This does not mean that we are trying to make humans telepathic, but we aim to deeply understand communication mechanisms among humans through human-computer interaction BCI devices. This means to change the point of view of brain and Information Technology researches, stressing the point of view of self-understanding of the own brain
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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