Was at the Society for Neuroscience Conference from Oct 4-9.
Largest neuroscience conference in the world with 22K attendees and 3K exhitors. A mix of overwhelm and awe.
2 poster sessions navigated - a 2 hr long one during the Early Career Session linked to my TPDA award and another 4hr one under Cross Modal Processing in Humans Session
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Temporal ventriloquism is a phenomenon where the timing of one sensory modality, such as vision, influences the perception of timing in another modality, like sound. In multisensory integration research, temporal ventriloquism is explored through tasks where auditory and visual stimuli are presented slightly out of sync, but the brain often perceives them as occurring simultaneously or closer together in time. Researchers aim to understand how the brain resolves conflicting sensory information and determines which sensory input to prioritize in order to create a coherent perception of the environment.
In temporal ventriloquism tasks, participants might be asked to judge whether a sound and a visual flash are occurring at the same time, even when their timing is slightly offset. The extent to which vision can alter auditory perception—or vice versa—is key to understanding how the brain integrates sensory inputs. This task is particularly valuable in studying sensory processing in autism, where atypical multisensory integration is often reported.
In autism research, there is growing interest in how temporal ventriloquism might differ from typical sensory integration patterns. Autistic individuals may exhibit less flexibility in how sensory inputs are combined, potentially leading to difficulties in processing complex environments where timing discrepancies between senses occur. Studies have shown that autistics often rely more heavily on one sense over others, which might contribute to challenges in tasks like temporal ventriloquism (Noel et al., 2018). Understanding these differences in temporal processing can offer insights into sensory sensitivities and the broader challenges related to perception in autism.
PlainSpeak. In Plain Language for the Lay Audience
Temporal ventriloquism is when the brain tricks us into thinking that sounds and visuals are happening at the same time, even if they’re slightly out of sync. Imagine you see a light flash and hear a beep that’s just a little delayed, but your brain adjusts and makes you think they’re perfectly in sync. This is how the brain works to keep everything feeling smooth and connected across different senses.
In experiments, researchers test this by showing people lights and playing sounds that are a bit off in timing. They ask participants to judge if they think the sounds and visuals happened together. What’s interesting is that the brain can often ignore these small timing differences and make everything seem like it’s happening at once.
For autistic people, the way the brain handles sensory inputs like this might work a little differently. Some studies suggest that autistic individuals may have a harder time combining sounds and visuals when they’re slightly out of sync, which could be related to sensory sensitivities or challenges in processing multiple types of information at once. Understanding these differences could help explain why certain environments feel overwhelming for autistic individuals.
First a shoutout to MacArthur Genius Grant given to Keivan Staussun at Frist Center.
Next a Nobel in Chemistry.
Key Components of WCC Theory:
Implications of Weak Central Coherence:
Listened to a very interesting lecture today at SfN. by LA Paul.
Got me thinking about belief systems.
Belief Systems in Humans and LLMs.
While LLMs can produce outputs that seem aligned with certain perspectives or mimic human belief-based reasoning, they do not possess beliefs in the true sense. The distinction lies in the lack of consciousness, subjective experience, and intentional reflection. Instead, LLMs generate text based on patterns they have learned, without the internal state that would constitute holding beliefs. What may look like a belief system is merely a complex simulation, an echo of the data from which they were trained.
Do we need to update our belief systems to better understand LLM?
To better understand LLMs, humans may need to update their belief systems and frameworks, shifting away from traditional notions of intelligence, understanding, and knowledge. This means recognizing the statistical, context-based nature of LLM outputs, reframing how we think about AI capabilities, and addressing the ethical considerations that arise from their use. These changes can help foster a more accurate and nuanced understanding of what LLMs are, how they work, and what their role can be in our lives and society.
Autism Lexicon: Autistic Inertia
Autistic inertia refers to the difficulty some autistic individuals experience in initiating or terminating tasks, linked to neurobiological factors affecting cognitive flexibility, task switching, and motor planning.
PlainSpeak: Autistic inertia describes the challenges that autistic people may face in starting or stopping activities, often needing extra effort or support due to differences in brain function
An emotionality paradigm refers to an experimental framework or set of tasks designed to study how individuals perceive, process, and respond to emotional stimuli. These paradigms typically involve presenting participants with stimuli that elicit emotions, such as images, sounds, or videos of facial expressions, emotional words, or scenarios that convey different emotional states (e.g., fear, joy, anger, disgust). Researchers use these paradigms to investigate aspects of emotional processing, including recognition of emotions, emotional regulation, attention to emotional cues, and the impact of emotions on decision-making or behavior.
In the context of neuroscience or psychology, emotionality paradigms might be used alongside techniques like EEG, fMRI, or behavioral tasks to observe the neural correlates of emotional processing or assess how emotional responses differ across populations, such as in autism or anxiety disorders. For example, a task might involve showing a participant an image of a fearful face and measuring their brain response or reaction time to assess how quickly and accurately they process the emotion.
In PlainSpeak (Lay Language)
An emotionality paradigm is a way for researchers to study how people react to and process emotions. In these studies, participants are shown things that cause emotional reactions, like pictures, sounds, or videos showing different feelings such as happiness, fear, or anger. The goal is to understand how people recognize emotions, how they manage or control their emotions, and how emotions affect their thoughts or decisions.
In brain research, these tasks might be done while tracking brain activity using tools like EEG or fMRI, which help see how the brain processes emotions. These studies are often used to compare how people with different conditions, like autism or anxiety, respond to emotional situations. For example, a task might show a picture of a scared face, and researchers would measure how fast or accurately someone notices or reacts to that emotion.
