Analysis of eye and head coordination in a visual peripheral recognition task

Coordinated eye and head movements simultaneously occur to scan the visual world for relevant targets. However, measuring both eye and head movements in experiments allowing natural head movements may be challenging. This paper provides an approach to study eye-head coordination: First, we demonstrate the capabilities and limits of the eye-head tracking system used, and compare it to other technologies. Second, a behavioral task is introduced to invoke eye-head coordination. Third, a method is introduced to reconstruct signal loss in video-based oculography caused by cornea reflection artifacts in order to extend the tracking range. Finally, parameters of eye-head coordination are identified using EHCA (eye-head co-ordination analyzer), a MATLAB software which was developed to analyze eye-head shifts. To demonstrate the capabilities of the approach, a study with 11 healthy subjects was performed to investigate motion behavior. The approach presented here is discussed as an instrument to explore eye-head coordination, which may lead to further insights into attentional and motor symptoms of certain neurological or psychiatric diseases, e.g., schizophrenia

Emotions, Arousal, and Frontal Alpha Rhythm Asymmetry During Beethoven's 5th Symphony

Music is capable of inducing emotional arousal. While previous studies used brief musical excerpts to induce one specific emotion, the current study aimed to identify the physiological correlates of continuous changes in subjective emotional states while listening to a complete music piece. A total of 19 participants listened to the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th symphony (duration: ~7.4min), during which a continuous 76-channel EEG was recorded. In a second session, the subjects evaluated their emotional arousal during the listening. A fast fourier transform was performed and covariance maps of spectral power were computed in association with the subjective arousal ratings. Subjective arousal ratings had good inter-individual correlations. Covariance maps showed a right-frontal suppression of lower alpha-band activity during high arousal. The results indicate that music is a powerful arousal-modulating stimulus. The temporal dynamics of the piece are well suited for sequential analysis, and could be necessary in helping unfold the full emotional power of musi

Physiological Foundations for Religious Experiences in Devotional Worship Practices with Music Using Heart Rate and Respiration Rate Analyses.

The present study investigates the psychophysiological activation patterns of religious experiences in worship practices using Heart Rate (HR) and Respiratory Rate (RR) analyses. For this, 60 evangelical individuals participated in an experiment where they worshipped to six selected conditions and continuously indicated how strongly they sensed what they believed to be the presence of God. These ratings were correlated with the biometric data to indicate whether the experience has an activating effect on the believer's vegetative system (activation hypothesis) or a soothing effect thereupon (pacification hypothesis). Statistical analyses showed that the psychological disposition during the religious worship experience speeds up the physiological responses, which was indicated by increases in HR and RR. Hence, the activation hypothesis was accepted, and the pacification hypothesis was rejected

Co-ordination of brain and heart oscillations during non-rapid eye movement sleep

Oscillatory activities of the brain and heart show a strong variation across wakefulness and sleep. Separate lines of research indicate that non‐rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is characterised by electroencephalographic slow oscillations (SO), sleep spindles, and phase–amplitude coupling of these oscillations (SO–spindle coupling), as well as an increase in high‐frequency heart rate variability (HF‐HRV), reflecting enhanced parasympathetic activity. The present study aimed to investigate further the potential coordination between brain and heart oscillations during NREM sleep. Data were derived from one sleep laboratory night with polysomnographic monitoring in 45 healthy participants (22 male, 23 female; mean age 37 years). The associations between the strength (modulation index [MI]) and phase direction of SO–spindle coupling (circular measure) and HF‐HRV during NREM sleep were investigated using linear modelling. First, a significant SO–spindle coupling (MI) was observed for all participants during NREM sleep, with spindle peaks preferentially occurring during the SO upstate (phase direction). Second, linear model analyses of NREM sleep showed a significant relationship between the MI and HF‐HRV (F = 20.1, r (2) = 0.30, p < 0.001) and a tentative circular‐linear correlation between phase direction and HF‐HRV (F = 3.07, r (2) = 0.12, p = 0.056). We demonstrated a co‐ordination between SO–spindle phase–amplitude coupling and HF‐HRV during NREM sleep, presumably related to parallel central nervous and peripheral vegetative arousal systems regulation. Further investigating the fine‐graded co‐ordination of brain and heart oscillations might improve our understanding of the links between sleep and cardiovascular health

Adolescent boys and girls with behavioral disorders in residential homes: A camera-glasses study

Kinder und Jugendliche mit massiven Verhaltensstörungen werden oft in Erziehungsheime für sozial benachteiligte und verhaltensauffällige Jugendliche überwiesen, in welchen abweichendes Verhalten behandelt und familiäre Risikofaktoren korrigiert werden sollen. In der Studie wurden die Umwelten von acht Jugendlichen in Erziehungsheimen sowie einer Kontrollgruppe von vier nichtaggressiven Jugendlichen untersucht. Die Jugendlichen trugen Kamerabrillen, mit welchen sie ganze Tagesverläufe aufnahmen und so das Geschehen in den Lebensbereichen Familie, Schule, Freizeit und Erziehungsheim aus ihrer räumlichen Perspektive registrierten. Mit ergänzenden Methoden wurde zudem das Wahrnehmen und Erleben der Jugendlichen erfragt. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die Heimjugendlichen im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe über einen kleineren Streifraum verfügen, weniger bedeutsame Interaktionspartnerinnen bzw. Interaktionspartner haben und auch weniger mit Gleichaltrigen interagieren. Im Vergleich mit den Kontrolljugendlichen haben sie außerdem häufiger Konflikte und sind öfters Täterinnen oder Täter sowie auch Opfer von aggressiven Handlungen. (DIPF/Orig.)Children and adolescents with behavioral disorders are often referred to residential homes. These homes cater and treat socially disadvantaged adolescents with a history of deviant behavior. This study investigated the environment of eight adolescents in these residential homes and four non-aggressive adolescents living with their families. The daily activities were recorded by using cameraglasses attached to the subject. These activities took place in school, leisure time, family and residential homes. Other additional methods were used to investigate the perception and experience of these adolescents. The results of this study indicate that the adolescents in residential homes have a smaller living space in contrast to the non-aggressive adolescents. They also have less close relationships and fewer interactions with their peers. Moreover they have more conflicts and show more often aggressive behavior and they are more often victims of aggression. (DIPF/Orig.

Electrodermal Activity Implicating a Sympathetic Nervous System Response under the Perception of Sensing a Divine Presence—A Psychophysiological Analysis

Previous studies have suggested that religious worship experiences may recruit the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in an activating fashion. For this reason, we hypothesized that measurements of the electrodermal activity (EDA) would concur with the notion that the subjective experience of sensing the presence of God recruits a sympathetic nervous system response. We analyzed the EDA of 37 evangelical participants and calculated classic galvanic skin response (GSR) measures. Our experimental design included six conditions with and without music consisting of religious and non-religious songs plus a resting-state condition, which were used to induce a variance in the religious experience suitable for statistical analyses. Results showed that both tonic and phasic signals as well as the overall electrical skin conductance (SC) were positively associated with the religious experience, defined as sensing the presence of God. This implicates that we can accept the hypothesis that such a religious experience under the influence of worship seems to recruit the sympathetic nervous system.</jats:p

Physiological Foundations for Religious Experiences in Devotional Worship Practices with Music Using Heart Rate and Respiration Rate Analyses

The present study investigates the psychophysiological activation patterns of religious experiences in worship practices using Heart Rate (HR) and Respiratory Rate (RR) analyses. For this, 60 evangelical individuals participated in an experiment where they worshipped to six selected conditions and continuously indicated how strongly they sensed what they believed to be the presence of God. These ratings were correlated with the biometric data to indicate whether the experience has an activating effect on the believer’s vegetative system (activation hypothesis) or a soothing effect thereupon (pacification hypothesis). Statistical analyses showed that the psychological disposition during the religious worship experience speeds up the physiological responses, which was indicated by increases in HR and RR. Hence, the activation hypothesis was accepted, and the pacification hypothesis was rejected.</jats:p

The psychological role of music and attentional control for religious experiences in worship

This study investigated the psychological dynamics during worship experiences under the influence of different music conditions. In total, 60 believers were recruited to participate in experiments where they were asked to engage in worship and to connect with God while continuously ranking how strongly they sensed the presence of the divine. After each condition, they were asked to rate how well they were able to focus on God during the worship procedure. Based on a previously published Feedback Loop Model that portrays global psychological mechanisms in worship, we deduced two hypotheses: (1) the ability to focus on God is positively associated with how strong the subjective religious experience becomes, and (2) the different musical conditions yield varying degrees in the intensity of the felt presence of God. Our statistical analyses on the current sample demonstrate that both alternative hypotheses can be accepted. For the latter thesis, two further assumptions were at play: (1) we speculated that religious worship songs were associated with stronger divine experiences than with secular ones, and (2) it was assumed that if they could worship to their own selection of songs, the experience would be more powerful than with the ones that were provided by the research team. Whereas upon our investigation the former assumption can be deemed correct, the latter shows a positive but insignificant association. </jats:p

Analysis of eye and head coordination in a visual peripheral recognition task

Coordinated eye and head movements simultaneously occur to scan the visual world for relevant targets. However, measuring both eye and head movements in experiments allowing natural head movements may be challenging. This paper provides an approach to study eye-head coordination: First, we demonstrate the capabilities and limits of the eye-head tracking system used, and compare it to other technologies. Second, a behavioral task is introduced to invoke eye-head coordination. Third, a method is introduced to reconstruct signal loss in video-based oculography caused by cornea reflection artifacts in order to extend the tracking range. Finally, parameters of eye-head coordination are identified using EHCA (eye-head co-ordination analyzer), a MATLAB software which was developed to analyze eye-head shifts. To demonstrate the capabilities of the approach, a study with 11 healthy subjects was performed to investigate motion behavior. The approach presented here is discussed as an instrument to explore eye-head coordination, which may lead to further insights into attentional and motor symptoms of certain neurological or psychiatric diseases, e.g., schizophrenia.</jats:p