@article{WermkeRobbSchulter2021, author = {Wermke, Kathleen and Robb, Michael P. and Schulter, Philip J.}, title = {Melody complexity of infants' cry and non-cry vocalisations increases across the first six months}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {11}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, number = {1}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-83564-8}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-258669}, year = {2021}, abstract = {In early infancy, melody provides the most salient prosodic element for language acquisition and there is huge evidence for infants' precocious aptitudes for musical and speech melody perception. Yet, a lack of knowledge remains with respect to melody patterns of infants' vocalisations. In a search for developmental regularities of cry and non-cry vocalisations and for building blocks of prosody (intonation) over the first 6 months of life, more than 67,500 melodies (fundamental frequency contours) of 277 healthy infants from monolingual German families were quantitatively analysed. Based on objective criteria, vocalisations with well-identifiable melodies were grouped into those exhibiting a simple (single-arc) or complex (multiple-arc) melody pattern. Longitudinal analysis using fractional polynomial multi-level mixed effects logistic regression models were applied to these patterns. A significant age (but not sex) dependent developmental pattern towards more complexity was demonstrated in both vocalisation types over the observation period. The theoretical concept of melody development (MD-Model) contends that melody complexification is an important building block on the path towards language. Recognition of this developmental process will considerably improve not only our understanding of early preparatory processes for language acquisition, but most importantly also allow for the creation of clinically robust risk markers for developmental language disorders.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ruedenauer2021, author = {R{\"u}denauer, Fabian}, title = {Nutrition facts of pollen: nutritional quality and how it affects reception and perception in bees}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-21254}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-212548}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Nutrients belong to the key elements enabling life and influencing an organism's fitness. The intake of nutrients in the right amounts and ratios can increase fitness; strong deviations from the optimal intake target can decrease fitness. Hence, the ability to assess the nutritional profile of food would benefit animals. To achieve this, they need the according nutrient receptors, the ability to interpret the receptor information via perceptive mechanisms, and the ability to adjust their foraging behavior accordingly. Additionally, eventually existing correlations between the nutrient groups and single nutrient compounds in food could help them to achieve this adjustment. A prominent interaction between food and consumer is the interaction between flowering plants (angiosperms) and animal pollinators. Usually both of the interacting partners benefit from this mutualistic interaction. Plants are pollinated while pollinators get a (most of the times) nutritional reward in form of nectar and/or pollen. As similar interactions between plants and animals seem to have existed even before the emergence of angiosperms, these interactions between insects and angiosperms very likely have co-evolved right from their evolutionary origin. Therefore, insect pollinators with the ability to assess the nutritional profile may have shaped the nutritional profile of plant species depending on them for their reproduction via selection pressure. In Chapter I of this thesis the pollen nutritional profile of many plant species was analyzed in the context of their phylogeny and their dependence on insect pollinators. In addition, correlations between the nutrients were investigated. While the impact of phylogeny on the pollen protein content was little, the mutual outcome of both of the studies included in this chapter is that protein content of pollen is mostly influenced by the plant's dependence on insect pollinators. Several correlations found between nutrients within and between the nutrient groups could additionally help the pollinators to assess the nutrient profile of pollen. An important prerequisite for this assessment would be that the pollinators are able to differentiate between pollen of different plant species. Therefore, in Chapter II it was investigated whether bees have this ability. Specifically, it was investigated whether honeybees are able to differentiate between pollen of two different, but closely related plant species and whether bumblebees prefer one out of three pollen mixes, when they were fed with only one of them as larvae. Honeybees indeed were able to differentiate between the pollen species and bumblebees preferred one of the pollen mixes to the pollen mix they were fed as larvae, possibly due to its nutritional content. Therefore, the basis for pollen nutrient assessment is given in bees. However, there also was a slight preference for the pollen fed as larvae compared to another non-preferred pollen mix, at least hinting at the retention of larval memory in adult bumblebees. Chapter III looks into nutrient perception of bumblebees more in detail. Here it was shown that they are principally able to perceive amino acids and differentiate between them as well as different concentrations of the same amino acid. However, they do not seem to be able to assess the amino acid content in pollen or do not focus on it, but instead seem to focus on fatty acids, for which they could not only perceive concentration differences, but also were able to differentiate between. These findings were supported by feeding experiments in which the bumblebees did not prefer any of the pollen diets containing less or more amino acids but preferred pollen with less fatty acids. In no choice feeding experiments, bumblebees receiving a diet with high fatty acid content accepted undereating other nutrients instead of overeating fat, leading to increased mortality and the inability to reproduce. Hence, the importance of fat in pollen needs to be looked into further. In conclusion, this thesis shows that the co-evolution of flowering plants and pollinating insects could be even more pronounced than thought before. Insects do not only pressure the plants to produce high quality nectar, but also pressure those plants depending on insect pollination to produce high quality pollen. The reason could be the insects' ability to receive and perceive certain nutrients, which enables them to forage selectively leading to a higher reproductive success of plants with a pollinator-suitable nutritional pollen profile.}, subject = {Pollen}, language = {en} } @article{Reber2014, author = {Reber, Elisabeth}, title = {Constructing evidence at Prime Minister's Question Time: An analysis of the grammar, semantics and pragmatics of the verb see}, series = {Intercultural Pragmatics}, volume = {11}, journal = {Intercultural Pragmatics}, number = {3}, issn = {1613-365X}, doi = {10.1515/ip-2014-0017}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-195549}, pages = {357 -- 387}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Abstract Constructing evidence constitutes a practice to establish the speaker's authority at Prime Minister's Question Time (PMQT), a weekly half-hour session in the British House of Commons. Here the verb see constitutes a resource for both the questioning Leader of the Opposition (LO) and Members of Parliament (MP) as well as for the responding Prime Minister (PM) to claim first-hand perceptual experience. This paper takes an integrated approach, offering a combined analysis of the grammatical formatting, semantics and pragmatics of the verb see in the context of evidential moves at PMQT. It shows how the verb see is functional in referring to the perceptual basis of a claim made and how its grammatical formatting is reflective of the contingencies of the local interactional context. The analysis is grounded in 32 sessions of PMQT (ca. 16 hrs of video-recordings). The results can be summarised as follows: 1) The evidential function of the verb is achieved through its context-specific grammatical formatting and semantics. 2) The reference to the perceptual basis of a claim evoked by see may co-occur with epistemic qualification and evaluative expressions. 3) The formatting of the verb may be indexical of the political relationship between the questioner and the responding PM.}, language = {en} } @article{PfitznerMayNuechter2018, author = {Pfitzner, Christian and May, Stefan and N{\"u}chter, Andreas}, title = {Body weight estimation for dose-finding and health monitoring of lying, standing and walking patients based on RGB-D data}, series = {Sensors}, volume = {18}, journal = {Sensors}, number = {5}, doi = {10.3390/s18051311}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-176642}, pages = {1311}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This paper describes the estimation of the body weight of a person in front of an RGB-D camera. A survey of different methods for body weight estimation based on depth sensors is given. First, an estimation of people standing in front of a camera is presented. Second, an approach based on a stream of depth images is used to obtain the body weight of a person walking towards a sensor. The algorithm first extracts features from a point cloud and forwards them to an artificial neural network (ANN) to obtain an estimation of body weight. Besides the algorithm for the estimation, this paper further presents an open-access dataset based on measurements from a trauma room in a hospital as well as data from visitors of a public event. In total, the dataset contains 439 measurements. The article illustrates the efficiency of the approach with experiments with persons lying down in a hospital, standing persons, and walking persons. Applicable scenarios for the presented algorithm are body weight-related dosing of emergency patients.}, language = {en} } @article{PeperkornDiemerAlpersetal.2016, author = {Peperkorn, Henrik M. and Diemer, Julia E. and Alpers, Georg W. and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas}, title = {Representation of Patients' Hand Modulates Fear Reactions of Patients with Spider Phobia in Virtual Reality}, series = {frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {7}, journal = {frontiers in Psychology}, number = {268}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00268}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-165307}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Embodiment (i.e., the involvement of a bodily representation) is thought to be relevant in emotional experiences. Virtual reality (VR) is a capable means of activating phobic fear in patients. The representation of the patient's body (e.g., the right hand) in VR enhances immersion and increases presence, but its effect on phobic fear is still unknown. We analyzed the influence of the presentation of the participant's hand in VR on presence and fear responses in 32 women with spider phobia and 32 matched controls. Participants sat in front of a table with an acrylic glass container within reaching distance. During the experiment this setup was concealed by a head-mounted display (HMD). The VR scenario presented via HMD showed the same setup, i.e., a table with an acrylic glass container. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups. In one group, fear responses were triggered by fear-relevant visual input in VR (virtual spider in the virtual acrylic glass container), while information about a real but unseen neutral control animal (living snake in the acrylic glass container) was given. The second group received fear-relevant information of the real but unseen situation (living spider in the acrylic glass container), but visual input was kept neutral VR (virtual snake in the virtual acrylic glass container). Participants were instructed to touch the acrylic glass container with their right hand in 20 consecutive trials. Visibility of the hand was varied randomly in a within-subjects design. We found for all participants that visibility of the participant's hand increased presence independently of the fear trigger. However, in patients, the influence of the virtual hand on fear depended on the fear trigger. When fear was triggered perceptually, i.e., by a virtual spider, the virtual hand increased fear. When fear was triggered by information about a real spider, the virtual hand had no effect on fear. Our results shed light on the significance of different fear triggers (visual, conceptual) in interaction with body representations.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Murali2023, author = {Murali, Supriya}, title = {Understanding the function of spontaneous blinks by investigating internally and externally directed processes}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-28747}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-287473}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Humans spontaneously blink several times a minute. These blinks are strongly modulated during various cognitive task. However, the precise function of blinking and the reason for their modulation has not been fully understood. In the present work, I investigated the function of spontaneous blinks through various perceptual and cognitive tasks. Previous research has revealed that blinks rates decrease during some tasks but increase during others. When trying to understand these seemingly contradictory results, I observed that blink reduction occurs when one engages with an external input. For instance, a decrease has been observed due to the onset of a stimulus, sensory input processing and attention towards sensory input. However, for activities that do not involve such an engagement, e.g. imagination, daydreaming or creativity, the blink rate has been shown to increase. To follow up on the proposed hypothesis, I distinguished tasks that involve the processing of an external stimulus and tasks that involve disengagement. In the first part of the project, I explored blinking during stimulus engagement. If the probability of blinking is low when engaging with the stimulus, then one should find a reduction in blinks specifically during the time period of processing but not during sensory input per se. To this end, in study 1, I tested the influence of task-relevant information duration on blink timing and additionally manipulated the overall sensory input using a visual and an auditory temporal simultaneity judgement task. The results showed that blinks were suppressed longer for longer periods of relevant information or in other words, blinks occurred at the end of relevant information processing for both the visual and the auditory modality. Since relevance is mediated through top-down processes, I argue that the reduction in blinks is a top-down driven suppression. In studies 2 and 3, I again investigated stimulus processing, but in this case, processing was triggered internally and not based on specific changes in the external input. To this end, I used bistable stimuli, in which the actual physical stimulus remains constant but their perception switches between different interpretations. Studies on the involvement of attention in such bistable perceptual changes indicate that the sensory input is reprocessed before the perceptual switch. The results revealed a reduction in eye blink rates before the report of perceptual switches. Importantly, I was able to decipher that the decrease was not caused by the perceptual switch or the behavioral response but likely started before the internal switch. Additionally, periods between a blink and a switch were longer than interblink intervals, indicating that blinks were followed by a period of stable percept. To conclude, the first part of the project revealed that there is a top-down driven blink suppression during the processing of an external stimulus. In the second part of the project, I extended the idea of blinks marking the disengagement from external processing and tested if blinking is associated with better performance during internally directed processes. Specifically, I investigated divergent thinking, an aspect of creativity, and the link between performance and blink rates as well as the effect of motor restriction. While I could show that motor restriction was the main factor influencing divergent thinking, the relationship between eye blink rates and creative output also depended on restriction. Results showed that higher blink rates were associated with better performance during free movement, but only between subjects. In other words, subjects who had overall higher blink rates scored better in the task, but when they were allowed to sit or walk freely. Within a single subject, trial with higher blink rates were not associated with better performance. Therefore, possibly, people who are able to disengage easily, as indicated by an overall high blink rate, perform better in divergent thinking tasks. However, the link between blink rate and internal tasks is not clear at this point. Indeed, a more complex measurement of blink behavior might be necessary to understand the relationship. In the final part of the project, I aimed to further understand the function of blinks through their neural correlates. I extracted the blink-related neural activity in the primary visual cortex (V1) of existing recordings of three rhesus monkeys during different sensory processing states. I analyzed spike related multi-unit responses, frequency dependent power changes, local field potentials and laminar distribution of activity while the animal watched a movie compared to when it was shown a blank screen. The results showed a difference in blink-related neural activity dependent on the processing state. This difference suggests a state dependent function of blinks. Taken altogether, the work presented in this thesis suggests that eye blinks have an important function during cognitive and perceptual processes. Blinks seem to facilitate a disengagement from the external world and are therefore suppressed during intended processing of external stimuli.}, subject = {Lidschlag}, language = {en} } @article{KozlikNeumannLozo2015, author = {Kozlik, Julia and Neumann, Roland and Lozo, Ljubica}, title = {Contrasting motivational orientation and evaluative coding accounts: on the need to differentiate the effectors of approach/avoidance responses}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {563}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00563}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-143192}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Several emotion theorists suggest that valenced stimuli automatically trigger motivational orientations and thereby facilitate corresponding behavior. Positive stimuli were thought to activate approach motivational circuits which in turn primed approach-related behavioral tendencies whereas negative stimuli were supposed to activate avoidance motivational circuits so that avoidance-related behavioral tendencies were primed (motivational orientation account). However, recent research suggests that typically observed affective stimulus response compatibility phenomena might be entirely explained in terms of theories accounting for mechanisms of general action control instead of assuming motivational orientations to mediate the effects (evaluative coding account). In what follows, we explore to what extent this notion is applicable. We present literature suggesting that evaluative coding mechanisms indeed influence a wide variety of affective stimulus response compatibility phenomena. However, the evaluative coding account does not seem to be sufficient to explain affective S-R compatibility effects. Instead, several studies provide clear evidence in favor of the motivational orientation account that seems to operate independently of evaluative coding mechanisms. Implications for theoretical developments and future research designs are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{KleintWittchenLueken2015, author = {Kleint, Nina I. and Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich and Lueken, Ulrike}, title = {Probing the interoceptive network by listening to heartbeats: an fMRI study}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {10}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {7}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0133164}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-148330}, pages = {e0133164}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Exposure to cues of homeostatic relevance (i.e. heartbeats) is supposed to increase the allocation of attentional resources towards the cue, due to its importance for self-regulatory, interoceptive processes. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aimed at determining whether listening to heartbeats is accompanied by activation in brain areas associated with interoception, particularly the insular cortex. Brain activity was measured with fMRI during cue-exposure in 36 subjects while listening to heartbeats vs. sinus tones. Autonomic markers (skin conductance) and subjective measures of state and trait anxiety were assessed. Stimulation with heartbeat sounds triggered activation in brain areas commonly associated with the processing of interoceptive information, including bilateral insular cortices, the inferior frontal operculum, and the middle frontal gyrus. A psychophysiological interaction analysis indicated a functional connectivity between the middle frontal gyrus (seed region) and bilateral insular cortices, the left amygdala and the supplementary motor area. The magnitude of neural activation in the right anterior insular cortex was positively associated with autonomic arousal. The present findings indicate that listening to heartbeats induced activity in areas of the interoception network as well as changes in psychophysiological arousal and subjective emotional experience. As this approach constitutes a promising method for studying interoception in the fMRI environment, a clinical application in anxiety prone populations should be addressed by future studies.}, language = {en} } @article{KirschUllrichKunde2016, author = {Kirsch, Wladimir and Ullrich, Benjamin and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Are Effects of Action on Perception Real? Evidence from Transformed Movements}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {11}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {12}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0167993}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-178574}, year = {2016}, abstract = {It has been argued that several reported non-visual influences on perception cannot be truly perceptual. If they were, they should affect the perception of target objects and reference objects used to express perceptual judgments, and thus cancel each other out. This reasoning presumes that non-visual manipulations impact target objects and comparison objects equally. In the present study we show that equalizing a body-related manipulation between target objects and reference objects essentially abolishes the impact of that manipulation so as it should do when that manipulation actually altered perception. Moreover, the manipulation has an impact on judgements when applied to only the target object but not to the reference object, and that impact reverses when only applied to the reference object but not to the target object. A perceptual explanation predicts this reversal, whereas explanations in terms of post-perceptual response biases or demand effects do not. Altogether these results suggest that body-related influences on perception cannot as a whole be attributed to extra-perceptual factors.}, language = {en} } @article{KirschKitzmannKunde2021, author = {Kirsch, Wladimir and Kitzmann, Tim and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Action affects perception through modulation of attention}, series = {Attention, Perception \& Psychophysics}, volume = {83}, journal = {Attention, Perception \& Psychophysics}, number = {5}, issn = {1943-393X}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-021-02277-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-273176}, pages = {2320-2330}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The present study explored the origin of perceptual changes repeatedly observed in the context of actions. In Experiment 1, participants tried to hit a circular target with a stylus movement under restricted feedback conditions. We measured the perception of target size during action planning and observed larger estimates for larger movement distances. In Experiment 2, we then tested the hypothesis that this action specific influence on perception is due to changes in the allocation of spatial attention. For this purpose, we replaced the hitting task by conditions of focused and distributed attention and measured the perception of the former target stimulus. The results revealed changes in the perceived stimulus size very similar to those observed in Experiment 1. These results indicate that action's effects on perception root in changes of spatial attention.}, language = {en} }