Spatial navigation by congenitally blind individuals.

Preserved sleep microstructure in blind individuals

Concepts of spatial navigation rest on the idea of landmarks, which are immobile features or objects in the environment. However, behaviorally relevant objects or fellow humans are often mobile. This raises the question of how the presence of human agents influences spatial exploration and knowledge acquisition. Here, we investigate exploration and performance in subsequent spatial tasks within a virtual environment containing numerous human avatars. In the exploration phase, agents had a locally limited effect on navigation. They prompted participants to revisit locations with agents during their initial exploration without significantly altering overall exploration patterns or the extent of the area covered. However, agents and buildings competed for visual attention. When spatial recall was tested, pointing accuracy toward buildings improved when participants directed their attention to the buildings and nearby agents. In contrast, pointing accuracy for agents showed weaker performance and did not benefit from visual attention directed toward the adjacent building. Contextual agents and incongruent agent-environment pairings further enhanced pointing accuracy, revealing that violations of expectations by agents can significantly shape navigational knowledge acquisition. Overall, agents influenced spatial exploration by directing attention locally, with the interaction between agent salience and environmental features playing a key role in shaping navigational knowledge acquisition.

Facial expressions of emotion are nonverbal behaviors that allow us to interact efficiently in social life and respond to events affecting our welfare. This article reviews 21 studies, published between 1932 and 2015, examining the production of facial expressions of emotion by blind people. It particularly discusses the impact of visual experience on the development of this behavior from birth to adulthood. After a discussion of three methodological considerations, the review of studies reveals that blind subjects demonstrate differing capacities for producing spontaneous expressions and voluntarily posed expressions. Seventeen studies provided evidence that blind and sighted spontaneously produce the same pattern of facial expressions, even if some variations can be found, reflecting facial and body movements specific to blindness or differences in intensity and control of emotions in some specific contexts. This suggests that lack of visual experience seems to not have a major impact when this behavior is generated spontaneously in real emotional contexts. In contrast, eight studies examining voluntary expressions indicate that blind individuals have difficulty posing emotional expressions. The opportunity for prior visual observation seems to affect performance in this case. Finally, we discuss three new directions for research to provide additional and strong evidence for the debate regarding the innate or the culture-constant learning character of the production of emotional facial expressions by blind individuals: the link between perception and production of facial expressions, the impact of display rules in the absence of vision, and the role of other channels in expression of emotions in the context of blindness.

The End of the Law? Law, Theology, and Neuroscience

Dual coding of knowledge in the human brain.

Abstract. This paper is focused to address the map display usability for finding given POI addresses in a popular urban city area. LOD 1 of 3D representations of city buildings are presented into a 2.5D map for pedestrian navigation test. This 3D map display is evaluated against familiar 2D map system on the test participants’ smartphones. 16 participants were involved in the field test. The typical walking model of a searching task that is focused only to look for a certain address of building is chosen as the way finding model during the field test. Three kinds of navigation processes i.e. self-orientation, spatial knowledge acquisition and navigation decision for searching task were evaluated for each test participant. Usability measures of 3D map-based display over 2D-map based display for pedestrian navigation were collected from test participants’ mobile devices. In addition to that, activities of test participants in terms of acceleration and orientation information are used to support analysis of pattern and trends of test participants. As the testing app is also intended to support smart city application, its ability to provide user report on complaints was also assessed. Most participants agreed with the statements in the questionnaire that were organized into three sections, i.e. addressing participants’ interaction, participants’ responses in navigation processes and crowdsensing. The results suggest that 3D map-based pedestrian navigation is more usable to be used to look for a certain address of building in central tourist area of urban city.

It is true that the "best" neural network is not necessarily the one with the most "brain-like" behavior. Understanding biological intelligence, however, is a fundamental goal for several distinct disciplines. Translating our understanding of intelligence to machines is a fundamental problem in robotics. Propelled by new advancements in Neuroscience, we developed a spiking neural network (SNN) that draws from mounting experimental evidence that a number of individual neurons is associated with spatial navigation. By following the brain's structure, our model assumes no initial all-to-all connectivity, which could inhibit its translation to a neuromorphic hardware, and learns an uncharted territory by mapping its identified components into a limited number of neural representations, through spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP). In our ongoing effort to employ a bioinspired SNN-controlled robot to real-world spatial mapping applications, we demonstrate here how an SNN may robustly control an autonomous robot in mapping and exploring an unknown environment, while compensating for its own intrinsic hardware imperfections, such as partial or total loss of visual input.

Neural correlates of olfactory processing in congenital blindness

PurposeThe evolution of management underlines the importance of the human, systemic, technological and contingency element and their interaction along with an amplified awareness of organizations for achieving excellence. This paper aims to discuss whether the fusion of digital, biological and physical world leads to a new excellence perspective and to investigate the potential value of informative neuroscientific findings for setting the foundations for smart services.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on a literature review regarding the advances of neurosciences and its implications for business. Their usefulness and potential contribution for the provision of smart services are investigated.FindingsThe fusion of technological evolution and biological sciences may potentially give birth to a new excellence conceptualization complemented by genetic data whose consequences are hard to predict. Neurosciences offer insights for various human behavior areas that can be used by business practitioners, to refine their thinking and management style and build brain-friendly organizational contexts. The combination of using neuroscientific evidence and technology in service systems sets the foundations for an “intelligent” provision of services in a quality context.Originality/valueThe paper investigates the conceptual development of excellence within the receding context of the “smart era” and the potential contribution of neurosciences for the provision of smart services with reference to quality pioneers’ theories and ideas.

Evaluating the effects of collaboration and competition in navigation tasks and spatial knowledge acquisition within virtual reality environments

Navigating unfamiliar environments without vision is a considerable challenge for blind individuals, as it requires constructing accurate cognitive maps. Binaural audio feedback, which delivers spatialized auditory cues, has been proposed as a means of enhancing spatial navigation by leveraging the auditory system's natural ability to localize sounds in three dimensions. This study investigated whether binaural audio feedback offers measurable advantages over non-spatialized feedback in supporting spatial perception and mental representation. Fourteen participants, seven blind individuals and seven blindfolded sighted individuals, explored controlled environments under both feedback conditions and reconstructed the layouts using LEGO models. Performance was evaluated through spatial correlation analysis and distance accuracy measures. Results revealed no significant differences between binaural and non-spatialized conditions for either group. These findings indicate that spatialization of descriptive audio alone may not be sufficient to enhance spatial representations, suggesting that factors such as prior training, task design, and integration with other sensory cues may be critical for unlocking the full potential of binaural audio in assistive navigation.

The control of multi-joint movements relies on detailed internal representations

Blindness and sleep patterns

THINGS-data reflects three large-scale neuroimaging and behavioral datasets of object processing in humans, comprising densely sampled functional MRI and magnetoencephalographic recordings, as well as 4.70 million similarity judgments in response to thousands of photographic images for up to 1854 objects.

Editorial introduction: The implications of translational neuroscience for clinical practice and its evaluation.