Hyper-arousal decreases human visual thresholds.
TL;DR: Results provide the first evidence that hyper-arousal from sensory stimulation can lower visual thresholds, which has important implications for survival, sports, and everyday life.
Abstract: Arousal has long been known to influence behavior and serves as an underlying component of cognition and consciousness. However, the consequences of hyper-arousal for visual perception remain unclear. The present study evaluates the impact of hyper-arousal on two aspects of visual sensitivity: visual stereoacuity and contrast thresholds. Sixty-eight participants participated in two experiments. Thirty-four participants were randomly divided into two groups in each experiment: Arousal Stimulation or Sham Control. The Arousal Stimulation group underwent a 50-second cold pressor stimulation (immersing the foot in 0–2° C water), a technique known to increase arousal. In contrast, the Sham Control group immersed their foot in room temperature water. Stereoacuity thresholds (Experiment 1) and contrast thresholds (Experiment 2) were measured before and after stimulation. The Arousal Stimulation groups demonstrated significantly lower stereoacuity and contrast thresholds following cold pressor stimulation, whereas the Sham Control groups showed no difference in thresholds. These results provide the first evidence that hyper-arousal from sensory stimulation can lower visual thresholds. Hyper-arousal's ability to decrease visual thresholds has important implications for survival, sports, and everyday life.
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23 Aug 2017
TL;DR: The spatial frequency at which people showed peak contrast sensitivity shifted to lower spatial frequencies in the arousing condition compared with the nonarousing condition and people had greater contrast sensitivity function bandwidth in the aroused condition than in the nonARousing condition.
38 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: The first € price and the £ and $ price are net prices, subject to local VAT as discussed by the authors, and the first £ and £ price is net price subject to the local VAT. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice.
Abstract: The first € price and the £ and $ price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. D.W. Harrison Brain Asymmetry and Neural Systems
34 citations
Cites background from "Hyper-arousal decreases human visua..."
...Sensory thresholds or sensitivity might be affected or manipulated by either diminished frontal lobe capacity or frontal lobe stress (Woods et al. 2013) and through the manipulation of ambient sensory conditions within other sensory modalities (e....
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...be increased with lowered thresholds (Woods et al. 2013)....
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TL;DR: This work finds that the heart accelerates less after an incorrect stimuli discrimination than after a correct one, and proposes that decision accuracy coded in cardiac activity may be fed as a cue to subjective visibility judgments.
Abstract: Interoception provides information about the saliency of external or internal sensory events and thus may inform perceptual decision-making. Error in performance is an example of a motivationally significant internal event that evokes autonomic nervous system response resembling the orienting response: heart rate deceleration, increased skin conductance response, and pupil dilation. Here, we investigate whether error-related cardiac activity may serve as a source of information when making metacognitive judgments in an orientation discrimination backward masking task. In the first experiment, we found that the heart accelerates less after an incorrect stimuli discrimination than after a correct one. Moreover, this difference becomes more pronounced with increasing subjective visibility of the stimuli. In the second experiment, this accuracy-dependent pattern of cardiac activity was found only when participants listened to their own heartbeats, but not someone else’s. We propose that decision accuracy coded in cardiac activity may be fed as a cue to subjective visibility judgments.
23 citations
TL;DR: Through the alleged mediation of motor action induced mood, action comfort enhanced the quality of the participant’s global experience, while action discomfort made a neutral face appear angry and a slightly happy face neutral.
Abstract: Perception, cognition, and emotion do not operate along segregated pathways; rather, their adaptive interaction is supported by various sources of evidence For instance, the aesthetic appraisal of powerful mood inducers like music can bias the facial expression of emotions towards mood congruency In four experiments we showed similar mood-congruency effects elicited by the comfort/discomfort of body actions Using a novel Motor Action Mood Induction Procedure, we let participants perform comfortable/uncomfortable visually-guided reaches and tested them in a facial emotion identification task Through the alleged mediation of motor action induced mood, action comfort enhanced the quality of the participant’s global experience (a neutral face appeared happy and a slightly angry face neutral), while action discomfort made a neutral face appear angry and a slightly happy face neutral Furthermore, uncomfortable (but not comfortable) reaching improved the sensitivity for the identification of emotional faces and reduced the identification time of facial expressions, as a possible effect of hyper-arousal from an unpleasant bodily experience
19 citations
Cites background or result from "Hyper-arousal decreases human visua..."
...This finding is in line with the evidence that hyper-arousal from sensory stimulation can influence aspects of human visual perception [13,35]....
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...Increases in arousal have been shown to: (1) modulate the responsiveness of neurons in the early mice visual system [33,34]; (2) facilitate attentional mechanisms in tasks requiring sustained performance [35]; (3) improve stereo as well as contrast sensitivity in humans [13]....
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..., a higher level of arousal than in the normal awake state, induced by exposure to cold) can improve stereoacuity and contrast sensitivity [13], confirming that perceived emotions can potentiate the benefits of attention on sensory discrimination [14]....
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TL;DR: It is found that dialyzing the cholinergic agonist carbachol into HVC increased the pitch, amplitude, tempo and stereotypy of song, similar to the natural invigoration of song that occurs when males direct their songs to females.
Abstract: Acetylcholine is well-understood to enhance cortical sensory responses and perceptual sensitivity in aroused or attentive states. Yet little is known about cholinergic influences on motor cortical regions. Here we use the quantifiable nature of birdsong to investigate how acetylcholine modulates the cortical (pallial) premotor nucleus HVC and shapes vocal output. We found that dialyzing the cholinergic agonist carbachol into HVC increased the pitch, amplitude, tempo and stereotypy of song, similar to the natural invigoration of song that occurs when males direct their songs to females. These carbachol-induced effects were associated with increased neural activity in HVC and occurred independently of basal ganglia circuitry. Moreover, we discovered that the normal invigoration of female-directed song was also accompanied by increased HVC activity and was attenuated by blocking muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. These results indicate that, analogous to its influence on sensory systems, acetylcholine can act directly on cortical premotor circuitry to adaptively shape behavior.
14 citations
Cites background from "Hyper-arousal decreases human visua..."
...In the sensory domain, active and aroused behavioral states are associated with enhanced perceptual capabilities that can aid detection and processing of threats or other salient stimuli (Bennett et al., 2013; McGinley et al., 2015; Woods et al., 2013)....
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References
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TL;DR: The Psychophysics Toolbox is a software package that supports visual psychophysics and its routines provide an interface between a high-level interpreted language and the video display hardware.
Abstract: The Psychophysics Toolbox is a software package that supports visual psychophysics. Its routines provide an interface between a high-level interpreted language (MATLAB on the Macintosh) and the video display hardware. A set of example programs is included with the Toolbox distribution.
16,594 citations
"Hyper-arousal decreases human visua..." refers methods in this paper
...[41–43] On each trial, the experimenter entered the accuracy of a participant’s response and the program calculated the optimal size of the next depth interval to be presented....
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TL;DR: The VideoToolbox is a free collection of two hundred C subroutines for Macintosh computers that calibrates and controls the computer-display interface to create accurately specified visual stimuli.
Abstract: The VideoToolbox is a free collection of two hundred C subroutines for Macintosh computers that calibrates and controls the computer-display interface to create accurately specified visual stimuli. High-level platform-independent languages like MATLAB are best for creating the numbers that describe the desired images. Low-level, computer-specific VideoToolbox routines control the hardware that transforms those numbers into a movie. Transcending the particular computer and language, we discuss the nature of the computer-display interface, and how to calibrate and control it.
10,084 citations
"Hyper-arousal decreases human visua..." refers methods in this paper
...[41–43] On each trial, the experimenter entered the accuracy of a participant’s response and the program calculated the optimal size of the next depth interval to be presented....
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TL;DR: In connection with a study of various aspects of the modifiability of behavior in the dancing mouse a need for definite knowledge concerning the relation of strength of stimulus to rate of learning arose, the experiments which are now to be described arose.
Abstract: In connection with a study of various aspects of the modifiability of behavior in the dancing mouse a need for definite knowledge concerning the relation of strength of stimulus to rate of learning arose. It was for the purpose of obtaining this knowledge that we planned and executed the experiments which are now to be described. Our work was greatly facilitated by the advice and assistance of Doctor E. G. MARTIN, Professor G. W. PIERCE, and Professor A. E. KENNELLY, and we desire to express here both our indebtedness and our thanks for their generous services.
5,868 citations
"Hyper-arousal decreases human visua..." refers background in this paper
...[3,5] Normal arousal, or normo-arousal, is the average level of arousal in an awake, nonbrain damaged organism and serves as the baseline state of responsiveness for conscious behavior....
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...[5] However, past work suggests that 50 sec of CPS stimulation does not produce the kind of extreme hyper-arousal associated with performance decrements, but rather an arousal regulation response....
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...[5,12] In particular, the present study investigates whether inducing a state of hyperarousal through sensory stimulation improves the discriminability of 1) depth relationships signaled by binocular disparity and 2)...
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Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: Part 1: Normal Sleep and Its Variations; Part 2: Abnormal Sleep.
Abstract: 1. Normal Sleep and Its Variations History Of Sleep Physiology And Medicine Normal Human Sleep: An Overview Normal Ageing Daytime Sleepiness And Alertness Sleep Deprivation Phylogeny Of Sleep Regulation Mammalian Sleep 2. Sleep Mechanisms Brain Electrical Activity And Sensory Processing During Waking And Sleep States Brainstem Mechanisms Generating REM Sleep Basic Mechanisms Of Sleep-Wake States Control Of Motoneurons During Sleep 3. Physiology in Sleep Physiological Regulation in Sleep Cardiovascular Physiology: Central and Autonomic Regulation Cardiovascular Physiology: The Peripheral Circulation Respiratory Physiology: Central Neural Control Respiratory Physiology: Control of Ventilation Respiratory Physiology: Breathing in Normal Subjects Respiratory Physiology: Sleep at High Altitudes Host Defense Endocrine Physiology Gastrointestinal Physiology Temperature Regulation **Sleep-related Penile Erections 4. Chronobiology Introduction: Chronobiology Circadian Rhythms in Mammals: Formal Properties and Environmental Influences Anatomy and Physiology of the Mammalian Circadian System Molecular Genetic Basis for Mammalian Circadian System The Human Circadian Timing System and Sleep-Wake Regulation **Sleep Homeostasis and Models of Sleep Regulation Circadian Rhythms in Fatigue, Alertness and Performance Melatonin in the Regulations of Sleep & Circadian Rhythms 5. Pharmacology Hypnotics: Basic Mechanisms and Pharmacology Hypnotics: Efficacy and Adverse Effects Stimulants: Basic Mechanisms and Pharmacology Stimulants: Efficacy and Adverse Effects Drugs Which Disturb Sleep and Wakefulness 6. Psychobiology and Dreaming Approaches to the Study of Dream Content: Methods Measures
4,558 citations
TL;DR: An adaptive psychometric procedure that places each trial at the current most probable Bayesian estimate of threshold is described, taking advantage of the common finding that the human psychometric function is invariant in form when expressed as a function of log intensity.
Abstract: An adaptive psychometric procedure that places each trial at the current most probable Bayesian estimate of threshold is described. The procedure takes advantage of the common finding that the human psychometric function is invariant in form when expressed as a function of log intensity. The procedure is simple, fast, and efficient, and may be easily implemented on any computer.
2,334 citations