Placebo effect after visual restitution training: no eye-tracking controlled perimetric improvement after visual border stimulation in late subacute and chronic visual field defects after stroke.

Introduction: A significant number of Restitution Training (RT) paradigms claim to ameliorate visual field loss after stroke by re-activating neuronal connections in the residual visual cortex due to repeated bright light-stimulation at the border of the blind and intact fields. However, the effectiveness of RT has been considered controversial both in science and clinical practice for years. The main points of the controversy are (1) the reliability of perimetric results which may be affected by compensatory eye movements and (2) heterogeneous samples consisting of patients with visual field defects and/or visuospatial neglect. Methods: By means of our newly developed and validated Virtual Reality goggles Salzburg Visual Field Trainer (SVFT) 16 stroke patients performed RT on a regular basis for 5 months. By means of our newly developed and validated Eye Tracking Based Visual Field Analysis (EFA), we conducted a first-time full eye-movement-controlled perimetric pre-post intervention study. Additionally, patients subjectively rated the size of their intact visual field. Results: Analysis showed that patients' mean self-assessment of their subjective visual field size indicated statistically significant improvement while, in contrast, objective eye tracking controlled perimetric results revealed no statistically significant effect. Discussion: Bright-light detection RT at the blind-field border solely induced a placebo effect and did not lead to training-induced neuroplasticity in the visual cortex of the type needed to ameliorate the visual field size of stroke patients.

Stronger functional connectivity during reading contextually predictable words in slow readers.

The effect of word predictability is well-documented in terms of local brain activation, but less is known about the functional connectivity among those regions associated with processing predictable words. Evidence from eye movement studies showed that the effect is much more pronounced in slow than in fast readers, suggesting that speed-impaired readers rely more on sentence context to compensate for their difficulties with visual word recognition. The present study aimed to investigate differences in functional connectivity of fast and slow readers within core regions associated with processing predictable words. We hypothesize a stronger synchronization between higher-order language areas, such as the left middle temporal (MTG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and the left occipito-temporal cortex (OTC) in slow readers. Our results show that slow readers exhibit more functional correlations among these connections; especially between the left IFG and OTC. We interpret our results in terms of the lexical quality hypothesis which postulates a stronger involvement of semantics on orthographic processing in (speed-)impaired readers.

The effect of masks on the recognition of facial expressions: A true-to-life study on the perception of basic emotions.

Mouth-to-nose face masks became ubiquitous due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This ignited studies on the perception of emotions in masked faces. Most of these studies presented still images of an emotional face with a face mask digitally superimposed upon the nose-mouth region. A common finding of these studies is that smiles become less perceivable. The present study investigated the recognition of basic emotions in video sequences of faces. We replicated much of the evidence gathered from presenting still images with digitally superimposed masks. We also unearthed fundamental differences in comparison to existing studies with regard to the perception of smile which is less impeded than previous studies implied.

Anticipating trajectories of exponential growth.

Humans grossly underestimate exponential growth, but are at the same time overconfident in their (poor) judgement. The so-called 'exponential growth bias' is of new relevance in the context of COVID-19, because it explains why humans have fundamental difficulties to grasp the magnitude of a spreading epidemic. Here, we addressed the question, whether logarithmic scaling and contextual framing of epidemiological data affect the anticipation of exponential growth. Our findings show that underestimations were most pronounced when growth curves were linearly scaled and framed in the context of a more advanced epidemic progression. For logarithmic scaling, estimates were much more accurate, on target for growth rates around 31%, and not affected by contextual framing. We conclude that the logarithmic depiction is conducive for detecting exponential growth during an early phase as well as resurgences of exponential growth.

Eye-tracking-based visual field analysis (EFA): a reliable and precise perimetric methodology for the assessment of visual field defects.

OBJECTIVE: Several studies report evidence for training-related neuroplasticity in the visual cortex, while other studies suggest that improvements simply reflect inadequate eye fixation control during perimetric prediagnostics and postdiagnostics. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: To improve diagnostics, a new eye-tracking-based methodology for visual field analysis (eye-tracking-based visual field analysis (EFA)) was developed. The EFA is based on static automated perimetry and additionally takes individual eye movements in real time into account and compensates for them. In the present study, an evaluation of the EFA with the help of blind spots of 58 healthy participants and the individual visual field defects of 23 clinical patients is provided. With the help of the EFA, optical coherence tomography, Goldmann perimetry and a Humphrey field analyser, these natural and acquired scotomas were diagnosed and the results were compared accordingly. RESULTS: The EFA provides a SE of measurement of 0.38° for the right eye (OD) and 0.50° for the left eye (OS), leading to 0.44° of visual angle for both eyes (OU). Based on participants' individual results, the EFA provides disattenuated correlation (validity) of 1.00 for both OD and OS. Results from patients suffering from cortical lesions and glaucoma further indicate that the EFA is capable of diagnosing acquired scotoma validly and is applicable for clinical use. CONCLUSION: Outcomes indicate that the EFA is highly reliable and precise in diagnosing individual shape and location of scotoma and capable of recording changes of visual field defects (after intervention) with unprecedented precision. Test duration is comparable to established instruments and due to the high customisability of the EFA, assessment duration can be shortened by adapting the diagnostic procedure to the patients' individual visual field characteristics. Therefore, the saccade-compensating methodology enables researchers and healthcare professionals to rule out eye movements as a source of inaccuracies in pre-, post-, and follow-up assessments.

Cloze enough? Hemodynamic effects of predictive processing during natural reading.

Evidence accrues that readers form multiple hypotheses about upcoming words. The present study investigated the hemodynamic effects of predictive processing during natural reading by means of combining fMRI and eye movement recordings. In particular, we investigated the neural and behavioral correlates of precision-weighted prediction errors, which are thought to be indicative of subsequent belief updating. Participants silently read sentences in which we manipulated the cloze probability and the semantic congruency of the final word that served as an index for precision and prediction error respectively. With respect to the neural correlates, our findings indicate an enhanced activation within the left inferior frontal and middle temporal gyrus suggesting an effect of precision on prediction update in higher (lexico-)semantic levels. Despite being evident at the neural level, we did not observe any evidence that this mechanism resulted in disproportionate reading times on participants' eye movements. The results speak against discrete predictions, but favor the notion that multiple words are activated in parallel during reading.

Co-registration of eye movements and neuroimaging for studying contextual predictions in natural reading.

Sixteen years ago, Sereno and Rayner (2003. Measuring word recognition in reading: eye movements and event-related potentials. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(11), 489-493) illustrated how "by means of review and comparison" eye movement (EM) and event-related potential (ERP) studies may advance our understanding of visual word recognition. Attempts to simultaneously record EMs and ERPs soon followed. Recently, this co-registration approach has also been transferred to fMRI and oscillatory EEG. With experimental settings close to natural reading, co-registration enables us to directly integrate insights from EM and neuroimaging studies. This should extend current experimental paradigms by moving the field towards studying sentence-level processing including effects of context and parafoveal preview. This article will introduce the basic principles and applications of co-registration and selectively review how this approach may shed light on one of the most controversially discussed issues in reading research, contextual predictions in online language processing.

The SLS-Berlin: Validation of a German Computer-Based Screening Test to Measure Reading Proficiency in Early and Late Adulthood.

Reading proficiency, i.e., successfully integrating early word-based information and utilizing this information in later processes of sentence and text comprehension, and its assessment is subject to extensive research. However, screening tests for German adults across the life span are basically non-existent. Therefore, the present article introduces a standardized computerized sentence-based screening measure for German adult readers to assess reading proficiency including norm data from 2,148 participants covering an age range from 16 to 88 years. The test was developed in accordance with the children's version of the Salzburger LeseScreening (SLS, Wimmer and Mayringer, 2014). The SLS-Berlin has a high reliability and can easily be implemented in any research setting using German language. We present a detailed description of the test and report the distribution of SLS-Berlin scores for the norm sample as well as for two subsamples of younger (below 60 years) and older adults (60 and older). For all three samples, we conducted regression analyses to investigate the relationship between sentence characteristics and SLS-Berlin scores. In a second validation study, SLS-Berlin scores were compared with two (pseudo)word reading tests, a test measuring attention and processing speed and eye-movements recorded during expository text reading. Our results confirm the SLS-Berlin's sensitivity to capture early word decoding and later text related comprehension processes. The test distinguished very well between skilled and less skilled readers and also within less skilled readers and is therefore a powerful and efficient screening test for German adults to assess interindividual levels of reading proficiency.

No Effect of cathodal tDCS of the posterior parietal cortex on parafoveal preprocessing of words.

The present study investigated the functional role of the posterior parietal cortex during the processing of parafoveally presented letter strings. To this end, we simultaneously presented two letter strings (word or pseudoword) - one foveally and one parafoveally - and asked the participants to indicate the presence of a word (i.e., lexical decision flanker task). We applied cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the posterior parietal cortex in order to establish causal links between brain activity and lexical decision performance (accuracy and latency). The results indicated that foveal stimulus difficulty affected the amount of parafoveally processed information. Bayes factor analysis showed no effects of brain stimulation suggesting that posterior parietal cathodal tDCS does not modulate attention-related processes during parafoveal preprocessing. This result is discussed in the context of recent tDCS studies on attention and performance.

Spill the load: Mixed evidence for a foveal load effect, reliable evidence for a spillover effect in eye-movement control during reading.

It has been hypothesized that the processing difficulty of the fixated word (i.e., "foveal load") modulates the amount of parafoveal preprocessing of the next word. Evidence for the hypothesis has been provided by the application of parafoveal masks within the boundary paradigm. Other studies that applied alternative means of manipulating the parafoveal preview (i.e., visual degradation) could not replicate the effect of foveal load. The present study examined the effect of foveal load by directly comparing the application of parafoveal masks (Exp. 1) with the alternative manipulation of visually degrading the parafoveal preview (Exp. 2) in adult readers. Contrary to expectation, we did not find the foveal-load interaction in the first experiment with traditional letter masks. We did, however, find the expected interaction in the second experiment with visually degraded previews. Both experiments revealed a spillover effect indicating that the processing of a word is not (always) fully completed when the reader already fixates the next word (i.e., processing "spills over" to the next word). The implications for models of eye-movement control in reading are discussed.

An investigation of parafoveal masks with the incremental boundary paradigm.

Most of what we know about parafoveal preprocessing during reading is based on the boundary paradigm in combination with parafoveal masks as a presumably neutral baseline condition. Recent evidence questions the neutrality of the baseline condition by showing that parafoveal masks inflict preview costs. Using a novel, incremental boundary paradigm we studied the effect of parafoveal masks. Manipulating the salience of parafoveal previews, we found that increasing salience of the masks resulted in increasingly longer fixation times on target words, but also on pretarget words-suggesting preview costs. We conclude that the hidden preview costs of parafoveal masks in the classical boundary paradigm inflate the processing times for the baseline condition and hence lead to an overestimation of the preview benefit. Thus, the present study questions the validity of some of the conclusions drawn on the basis of the classical boundary paradigm.

A model-guided dissociation between subcortical and cortical contributions to word recognition.

Neurocognitive studies of visual word recognition have provided information about brain activity correlated with orthographic processing. Some of these studies related the orthographic neighborhood density of letter strings to the amount of hypothetical global lexical activity (GLA) in the brain as simulated by computational models of word recognition. To further investigate this issue, we used GLA of words and nonwords from the multiple read-out model of visual word recognition (MROM) and related this activity to neural correlates of orthographic processing in the brain by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Words and nonwords elicited linear effects in the cortex with increasing BOLD responses for decreasing values of GLA. In addition, words showed increasing linear BOLD responses for increasing GLA values in subcortical regions comprising the hippocampus, globus pallidus and caudate nucleus. We propose that these regions are involved in the matching of orthographic input onto representations in long-term memory. The results speak to a potential involvement of the basal ganglia in visual word recognition with globus pallidus and caudate nucleus activity potentially reflecting maintenance of orthographic input in working memory supporting the matching of the input onto stored representations by selection of appropriate lexical candidates and the inhibition of orthographically similar but non-matching candidates.

Processing of parafoveally presented words. An fMRI study.

The present fMRI study investigated neural correlates of parafoveal preprocessing during reading and the type of information that is accessible from the upcoming - not yet fixated - word. Participants performed a lexical decision flanker task while the constraints imposed by the first three letters (the initial trigram) of parafoveally presented words were controlled. Behavioral results evidenced that the amount of information extracted from parafoveal stimuli, was affected by the difficulty of the foveal stimulus. Easy to process foveal stimuli (i.e., high frequency nouns) allowed parafoveal information to be extracted up to the lexical level. Conversely, when foveal stimuli were difficult to process (orthographically legal nonwords) only constraining trigrams modulated the task performance. Neuroimaging findings showed no effects of lexicality (i.e., difference between words and pseudowords) in the parafovea independently from the difficulty of the foveal stimulus. The constraints imposed by the initial trigrams, however, modulated the hemodynamic response in the left supramarginal gyrus. We interpreted the supramarginal activation as reflecting sublexical (phonological) processes. The missing parafoveal lexicality effect was discussed in relation to findings of experiments which observed effects of parafoveal semantic congruency on electrophysiological correlates.

First gender, then attractiveness: Indications of gender-specific attractiveness processing via ERP onsets.

We followed an ERP-based approach to gain knowledge on the dependence and temporal order of two essential processes of face perception: attractiveness and gender. By combining a dual-choice task with a go/nogo-paradigm focusing on the LRP and N200-effect, we could estimate the processing times and onsets of both types of face processing. The analyses of the LRP revealed that gender aspects were processed much earlier than attractiveness. Whereas gender was already analysed 243.9 ms post-stimulus onset, attractiveness came into play 58.6 ms later, i.e. after a post-stimulus onset delay of 302.5 ms. This resulting pattern was mirrored by the analyses of the N200-effect, an effect available mainly frontally which is supposed to correlate with the inhibition of inappropriate responses. Taking the onset of the N200 effect as an estimator for the moment at which information has been processed sufficiently for task decision, we could trace the N200 effect at 152.0 ms for go/nogo-decision on gender, while not as early as 206.7 ms on attractiveness. In sum, processing of facial attractiveness seems to be based on gender-specific aesthetic pre-processing, for instance via activating gender-specific attractiveness prototypes which show focused processing of certain facial aspects.

Action video gaming and the brain: fMRI effects without behavioral effects in visual and verbal cognitive tasks.

Introduction: In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we compared task performance together with brain activation in a visuospatial task (VST) and a letter detection task (LDT) between longtime action video gamers (N = 14) and nongamers (N = 14) in order to investigate possible effects of gaming on cognitive and brain abilities. Methods: Based on previous research, we expected advantages in performance for experienced action video gamers accompanied by less activation (due to higher efficiency) as measured by fMRI in the frontoparietal attention network. Results: Contrary to these expectations, we did not find differences in overall task performance, nor in brain activation during the VST. We identified, however, a significantly different increase in the BOLD signal from a baseline task to the LDT in action video gamers compared with nongamers. This increased activation was evident in a number of frontoparietal regions including the left middle paracingulate cortex, the left superior frontal sulcus, the opercular part of the left inferior frontal gyrus, and the left and right posterior parietal cortex. Furthermore, we found increased activation in the triangular part of the left inferior frontal gyrus in gamers relative to nongamers when activation during the LDT was compared with activation during the VST. Conclusions: In sum, the expected positive relation between action video game experience and cognitive performance could not be confirmed. Despite their comparable task performance, however, gamers and nongamers exhibited clear-cut differences in brain activation patterns presumably reflecting differences in neural engagement, especially during verbal cognitive tasks.

Unto the third generation: evidence for strong familial aggregation of physicians, psychologists, and psychotherapists among first-year medical and psychology students in a nationwide Austrian cohort census.

BACKGROUND: Medical students present higher numbers of physician relatives than expectable from the total population prevalence of physicians. Evidence for such a familial aggregation effect of physicians has emerged in investigations from the Anglo-American, Scandinavian, and German-speaking areas. In particular, past data from Austria suggest a familial aggregation of the medical, as well as of the psychological and psychotherapeutic, professions among medical and psychology undergraduates alike. Here, we extend prior related studies by examining (1) the extent to which familial aggregation effects apply to the whole nation-wide student census of all relevant (eight) public universities in Austria; (2) whether effects are comparable for medical and psychology students; (3) and whether these effects generalize to relatives of three interrelated health professions (medicine, psychology, and psychotherapy). METHODS: We investigated the familial aggregation of physicians, psychologists, and psychotherapists, based on an entire cohort census of first-year medical and psychology students (n = 881 and 920) in Austria with generalized linear mixed models. RESULTS: For both disciplines, we found strong familial aggregation of physicians, psychologists, and psychotherapists. As compared with previous results, directionally opposite time trends within disciplines emerged: familial aggregation of physicians among medical students has decreased, whilst familial aggregation of psychologists among psychology students has increased. Further, there were sex-of-relative effects (i.e., more male than female physician relatives), but no substantial sex-of-student effects (i.e., male and female students overall reported similar numbers of relatives for all three professions of interest). In addition, there were age-benefit effects, i.e., students with a relative in the medical or the psychotherapeutic profession were younger than students without, thus suggesting earlier career decisions. CONCLUSIONS: The familial aggregation of physicians, psychologists, and psychotherapists is high among medical and psychology undergraduates in Austria. Discussed are implications of these findings (e.g., gender equity, feminization of the medical field, ideas for curricular implementation and student counselling), study limitations, and avenues for future research.

Foveal processing difficulty does not affect parafoveal preprocessing in young readers.

Recent evidence suggested that parafoveal preprocessing develops early during reading acquisition, that is, young readers profit from valid parafoveal information and exhibit a resultant preview benefit. For young readers, however, it is unknown whether the processing demands of the currently fixated word modulate the extent to which the upcoming word is parafoveally preprocessed - as it has been postulated (for adult readers) by the foveal load hypothesis. The present study used the novel incremental boundary technique to assess whether 4th and 6th Graders exhibit an effect of foveal load. Furthermore, we attempted to distinguish the foveal load effect from the spillover effect. These effects are hard to differentiate with respect to the expected pattern of results, but are conceptually different. The foveal load effect is supposed to reflect modulations of the extent of parafoveal preprocessing, whereas the spillover effect reflects the ongoing processing of the previous word whilst the reader's fixation is already on the next word. The findings revealed that the young readers did not exhibit an effect of foveal load, but a substantial spillover effect. The implications for previous studies with adult readers and for models of eye movement control in reading are discussed.

Words in Context: The Effects of Length, Frequency, and Predictability on Brain Responses During Natural Reading.

Word length, frequency, and predictability count among the most influential variables during reading. Their effects are well-documented in eye movement studies, but pertinent evidence from neuroimaging primarily stem from single-word presentations. We investigated the effects of these variables during reading of whole sentences with simultaneous eye-tracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fixation-related fMRI). Increasing word length was associated with increasing activation in occipital areas linked to visual analysis. Additionally, length elicited a U-shaped modulation (i.e., least activation for medium-length words) within a brain stem region presumably linked to eye movement control. These effects, however, were diminished when accounting for multiple fixation cases. Increasing frequency was associated with decreasing activation within left inferior frontal, superior parietal, and occipito-temporal regions. The function of the latter region-hosting the putative visual word form area-was originally considered as limited to sublexical processing. An exploratory analysis revealed that increasing predictability was associated with decreasing activation within middle temporal and inferior frontal regions previously implicated in memory access and unification. The findings are discussed with regard to their correspondence with findings from single-word presentations and with regard to neurocognitive models of visual word recognition, semantic processing, and eye movement control during reading.

Oscillatory Brain Dynamics during Sentence Reading: A Fixation-Related Spectral Perturbation Analysis.

The present study investigated oscillatory brain dynamics during self-paced sentence-level processing. Participants read fully correct sentences, sentences containing a semantic violation and "sentences" in which the order of the words was randomized. At the target word level, fixations on semantically unrelated words elicited a lower-beta band (13-18 Hz) desynchronization. At the sentence level, gamma power (31-55 Hz) increased linearly for syntactically correct sentences, but not when the order of the words was randomized. In the 300-900 ms time window after sentence onsets, theta power (4-7 Hz) was greater for syntactically correct sentences as compared to sentences where no syntactic structure was preserved (random words condition). We interpret our results as conforming with a recently formulated predictive-coding framework for oscillatory neural dynamics during sentence-level language comprehension. Additionally, we discuss how our results relate to previous findings with serial visual presentation vs. self-paced reading.

On the Development of Parafoveal Preprocessing: Evidence from the Incremental Boundary Paradigm.

Parafoveal preprocessing of upcoming words and the resultant preview benefit are key aspects of fluent reading. Evidence regarding the development of parafoveal preprocessing during reading acquisition, however, is scarce. The present developmental (cross-sectional) eye tracking study estimated the magnitude of parafoveal preprocessing of beginning readers with a novel variant of the classical boundary paradigm. Additionally, we assessed the association of parafoveal preprocessing with several reading-related psychometric measures. The participants were children learning to read the regular German orthography with about 1, 3, and 5 years of formal reading instruction (Grade 2, 4, and 6, respectively). We found evidence of parafoveal preprocessing in each Grade. However, an effective use of parafoveal information was related to the individual reading fluency of the participants (i.e., the reading rate expressed as words-per-minute) which substantially overlapped between the Grades. The size of the preview benefit was furthermore associated with the children's performance in rapid naming tasks and with their performance in a pseudoword reading task. The latter task assessed the children's efficiency in phonological decoding and our findings show that the best decoders exhibited the largest preview benefit.