What we observe is biased by what other people tell us: beliefs about the reliability of gaze behavior modulate attentional orienting to gaze cues

For effective social interactions with other people, information about the physical environment must be integrated with information about the interaction partner. In order to achieve this, processing of social information is guided by two components: a bottom-up mechanism reflexively triggered by stimulus-related information in the social scene and a top-down mechanism activated by task-related context information. In the present study, we investigated whether these components interact during attentional orienting to gaze direction. In particular, we examined whether the spatial specificity of gaze cueing is modulated by expectations about the reliability of gaze behavior. Expectations were either induced by instruction or could be derived from experience with displayed gaze behavior. Spatially specific cueing effects were observed with highly predictive gaze cues, but also when participants merely believed that actually non-predictive cues were highly predictive. Conversely, cueing effects for the whole gazed-at hemifield were observed with non-predictive gaze cues, and spatially specific cueing effects were attenuated when actually predictive gaze cues were believed to be non-predictive. This pattern indicates that (i) information about cue predictivity gained from sampling gaze behavior across social episodes can be incorporated in the attentional orienting to social cues, and that (ii) beliefs about gaze behavior modulate attentional orienting to gaze direction even when they contradict information available from social episodes

Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study investigating the effects of inorganic nitrate on vascular function, platelet reactivity and restenosis in stable angina: protocol of the NITRATE-OCT study

KSR and this work are funded by an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship (DRF-2014-07-008

Early predictors of impaired social functioning in male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social cognition impairments but its basic disease mechanisms remain poorly understood. Progress has been impeded by the absence of animal models that manifest behavioral phenotypes relevant to ASD. Rhesus monkeys are an ideal model organism to address this barrier to progress. Like humans, rhesus monkeys are highly social, possess complex social cognition abilities, and exhibit pronounced individual differences in social functioning. Moreover, we have previously shown that Low-Social (LS) vs. High-Social (HS) adult male monkeys exhibit lower social motivation and poorer social skills. It is not known, however, when these social deficits first emerge. The goals of this study were to test whether juvenile LS and HS monkeys differed as infants in their ability to process social information, and whether infant social abilities predicted later social classification (i.e., LS vs. HS), in order to facilitate earlier identification of monkeys at risk for poor social outcomes. Social classification was determined for N = 25 LS and N = 25 HS male monkeys that were 1–4 years of age. As part of a colony-wide assessment, these monkeys had previously undergone, as infants, tests of face recognition memory and the ability to respond appropriately to conspecific social signals. Monkeys later identified as LS vs. HS showed impairments in recognizing familiar vs. novel faces and in the species-typical adaptive ability to gaze avert to scenes of conspecific aggression. Additionally, multivariate logistic regression using infant social ability measures perfectly predicted later social classification of all N = 50 monkeys. These findings suggest that an early capacity to process important social information may account for differences in rhesus monkeys’ motivation and competence to establish and maintain social relationships later in life. Further development of this model will facilitate identification of novel biological targets for intervention to improve social outcomes in at-risk young monkeys

Connectivity Analysis Reveals a Cortical Network for Eye Gaze Perception

Haxby et al. (Haxby JV, Hoffman EA, Gobbini MI. 2000. The distributed human neural system for face perception. Trends Cogn Sci. 4:223–233.) proposed that eye gaze processing results from an interaction between a “core” face-specific system involved in visual analysis and an “extended” system involved in spatial attention, more generally. However, the full gaze perception network has remained poorly specified. In the context of a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we used psychophysiological interactions (PPIs) to identify brain regions that showed differential connectivity (correlation) with core face perception structures (posterior superior temporal sulcus [pSTS] and fusiform gyrus [FG]) when viewing gaze shifts relative to control eye movements (opening/closing the eyes). The PPIs identified altered connectivity between the pSTS and MT/V5, intraparietal sulcus, frontal eye fields, superior temporal gyrus (STG), supramarginal gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus (MFG). The FG showed altered connectivity with the same areas of the STG and MFG, demonstrating the contribution of both dorsal and ventral core face areas to gaze perception. We propose that this network provides an interactive system that alerts us to seen changes in other agents’ gaze direction, makes us aware of their altered focus of spatial attention, and prepares a corresponding shift in our own attention

2007 AAPP Monograph Series

The African American Professors Program (AAPP) at the University of South Carolina is proud to publish the seventh edition of its annual monograph series. Furthermore, it is an honor to celebrate the remarkable tenth anniversary of AAPP through these manuscripts. The program recognizes the significance of offering its scholars a venue to engage actively in research and publish papers related thereto. Parallel with the publication of their refereed manuscripts is the opportunity to gain visibility among scholars throughout institutions worldwide. Scholars who have contributed papers for this monograph are to be commended for adding this responsibility to their academic workload. Writing across disciplines adds to the intellectual diversity of these papers. From neophytes, relatively speaking, to an array of very experienced individuals, the chapters have been researched and comprehensively written. Founded in 1997 through the Department of Educational Leadership and Policies in the College of Education, AAPP was designed to address the underrepresentation of African American professors on college and university campuses. Its mission is to expand the pool of these professors in critical academic and research areas. Sponsored by the University of South Carolina, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the South Carolina General Assembly, the program recruits doctoral students for disciplines in which African Americans currently are underrepresented among faculty in higher education. The continuation of this monograph series is seen as responding to a window of opportunity to be sensitive to an academic expectation of graduates as they pursue career placement and, at the same time, one that allows for the dissemination of products to a broader community. The importance of this monograph series has been voiced by one of our 2002 AAPP graduates, Dr. Shundele LaTjuan Dogan, formerly an Administrative Fellow at Harvard University and a Program Officer for the Southern Education Foundation. She is currently a Program Officer for the Arthur M. Blank Foundation in Atlanta. Dr. Dogan wrote: One thing in particular that I want to thank you for is having the African American Professors Program scholars publish articles for the monograph. have to admit that writing the articles seemed like extra work at the time. However, in my recent interview process, organizations have asked me for samples of my writing. Including an article from a published monograph helped to make my portfolio much more impressive. You were \u27right on target\u27 in having us do the monograph series. (AAPP 2003 Monograph, p. xi) The African American Professors Program dedicates this 2007 tenth anniversary publication as a special contribution to its readership and hopes that each will be inspired by this interdisciplinary group of manuscripts. John McFadden, Ph.D. The Benjamin Elijah Mays Distinguished Professor Emeritus Director, African American Professors Program University of South Carolinahttps://scholarcommons.sc.edu/mcfadden_monographs/1009/thumbnail.jp

Racial Group Membership Is Associated to Gaze-Mediated Orienting in Italy

Viewing a face with averted gaze results in a spatial shift of attention in the corresponding direction, a phenomenon defined as gaze-mediated orienting. In the present paper, we investigated whether this effect is influenced by social factors. Across three experiments, White and Black participants were presented with faces of White and Black individuals. A modified spatial cueing paradigm was used in which a peripheral target stimulus requiring a discrimination response was preceded by a noninformative gaze cue. Results showed that Black participants shifted attention to the averted gaze of both ingroup and outgroup faces, whereas White participants selectively shifted attention only in response to individuals of their same group. Interestingly, the modulatory effect of social factors was context-dependent and emerged only when group membership was situationally salient to participants. It was hypothesized that differences in the relative social status of the two groups might account for the observed asymmetry between White and Black participants. A final experiment ruled out an alternative explanation based on differences in perceptual familiarity with the face stimuli. Overall, these findings strengthen the idea that gaze-mediated orienting is a socially-connoted phenomenon

Intravenous Thrombolysis Is Associated With Better Outcomes in Large‐Vessel Occlusion Requiring Endovascular Therapy

Background: Intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) and endovascular therapy (EVT) are both important treatments for large‐vessel occlusion stroke. However, it is still unclear how the timing of IVT, EVT, and the need for transfer of a patient to an endovascular stroke center for EVT affect outcomes. In this investigation, we study the interaction between IVT, rapidity to EVT, and need for transfer among patients with large‐vessel occlusion stroke. Methods: This investigation is an analysis of the OPUS‐REACH (Optimizing the Use Prehospital Stroke Systems of Care–Reacting to Changing Paradigms) registry of patients with large‐vessel occlusion stroke from 9 endovascular centers in the United States. Using the database, we extracted baseline characteristics of patients, whether the patient received IVT, and time intervals in the patients’ care. Patient demographics and characteristics were compared between 2 groups using the χ2 test for categorical variables and 2‐sample t‐tests or Wilcoxon rank‐sum tests for continuous variables. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine the adjusted associations of the variables with 90‐day dichotomized modified Rankin Scale outcome. Results: A total of 1171 patients were included in the final analysis, and 38.9% had good functional outcome at 90 days. Male sex and lower initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score were nonmodifiable factors associated with good clinical outcomes. We saw no differences in outcome whether a patient underwent primary or secondary transport. On multiple variable analysis, the receipt of IVT was the only modifiable factor associated with good outcomes. We found no overall effect of time from last known well to EVT on 90‐day outcomes unless the patient received IVT. Conclusions: In this investigation, receipt of IVT was independently associated with improved outcomes at 90 days with an odds ratio of 1.51. Neither shorter time from last known well to EVT nor direct transport to an endovascular stroke center versus transfer to an endovascular stroke center was associated with improved outcomes. We therefore conclude that prehospital algorithms must account for the timely administration of IVT over time to EVT.Lewis Katz School of MedicineEmergency MedicineNeural SciencesNeurolog

Google Search Trends to Assess Public Interest in and Concern About Vuity for Treating Presbyopia

PURPOSE: To assess public awareness, interest, and concerns regarding Vuity (1.25% pilocarpine hydrochloride ophthalmic solution), an eye drop for the treatment of presbyopia, based on Google Trends. METHODS: We used Google Trends that provides a relative search volume for queried terms, to evaluate searches for Vuity from June 30, 2021, to June 30, 2022, in the United States. The data for this study were downloaded on June 30, 2022. Main outcome measures were changes in relative search volumes for the terms Vuity, Eye drops for reading, Eye drops for near vision, Presbyopia, Pilocarpine, and related popular search terms, such as Vuity side effects, and Vuity retinal detachment . RESULTS: Since the approval of Vuity on October 29, 2021, notable increases in the relative search volumes occurred for Vuity in October 2021, December 2021, and from March to April 2022, which coincided with its approval, availability, and subsequent direct-to-consumer advertising based on positive results of clinical trials. The direct-to-consumer advertising had the greatest impact on the search volume for Vuity. Specific interests included Vuity cost, where to buy it, and its side effects. Retinal detachment was the most highly searched Vuity side effect. Geographic variation was evident, with the relative search volumes highest for Vuity in Wyoming, followed by North Dakota. CONCLUSION: Google Trends is a useful tool for monitoring increases in public interest in Vuity for presbyopia. Public concerns regarding side effects warrant further real-world investigations of the causal relationship between Vuity and retinal detachment

Old World Monkeys Compare to Apes in the Primate Cognition Test Battery

Understanding the evolution of intelligence rests on comparative analyses of brain sizes as well as the assessment of cognitive skills of different species in relation to potential selective pressures such as environmental conditions and social organization. Because of the strong interest in human cognition, much previous work has focused on the comparison of the cognitive skills of human toddlers to those of our closest living relatives, i.e. apes. Such analyses revealed that apes and children have relatively similar competencies in the physical domain, while human children excel in the socio-cognitive domain; in particular in terms of attention sharing, cooperation, and mental state attribution. To develop a full understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of primate intelligence, however, comparative data for monkeys are needed. We tested 18 Old World monkeys (long-tailed macaques and olive baboons) in the so-called Primate Cognition Test Battery (PCTB) (Herrmann et al. 2007, Science). Surprisingly, our tests revealed largely comparable results between Old World monkeys and the Great apes. Single comparisons showed that chimpanzees performed only better than the macaques in experiments on spatial understanding and tool use, but in none of the socio-cognitive tasks. These results question the clear-cut relationship between cognitive performance and brain size and – prima facie – support the view of an accelerated evolution of social intelligence in humans. One limitation, however, is that the initial experiments were devised to tap into human specific skills in the first place, thus potentially underestimating both true nonhuman primate competencies as well as species differences

Follow My Eyes: The Gaze of Politicians Reflexively Captures the Gaze of Ingroup Voters

Studies in human and non-human primates indicate that basic socio-cognitive operations are inherently linked to the power of gaze in capturing reflexively the attention of an observer. Although monkey studies indicate that the automatic tendency to follow the gaze of a conspecific is modulated by the leader-follower social status, evidence for such effects in humans is meager. Here, we used a gaze following paradigm where the directional gaze of right- or left-wing Italian political characters could influence the oculomotor behavior of ingroup or outgroup voters. We show that the gaze of Berlusconi, the right-wing leader currently dominating the Italian political landscape, potentiates and inhibits gaze following behavior in ingroup and outgroup voters, respectively. Importantly, the higher the perceived similarity in personality traits between voters and Berlusconi, the stronger the gaze interference effect. Thus, higher-order social variables such as political leadership and affiliation prepotently affect reflexive shifts of attention