Perception News

November 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Researchers Use Artificial Intelligence to Diagnose Depression

Nov. 20, 2024 — Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses. As many as 280 million people worldwide are affected by this disease, which is why researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that helps to identify depression based on ...

R Sounds Are Rough, and L Sounds Are Smooth, According to Cross-Cultural Study

Nov. 20, 2024 — People around the world associate a trilled R sound with a rough texture and a jagged shape, and an L sound with smooth texture and a flat shape, according to the findings of a new study. Researchers ...

AI Needs to Work on Its Conversation Game

Nov. 12, 2024 — Linguistics and computer science researchers have discovered some of the root causes of why AI large language models perform poorly in human-like ...

Brain-Based Visual Impairment in Children

Nov. 19, 2024 — Experts have identified five elements of a brain-based condition that has emerged as a leading cause of vision impairment starting in childhood in the United States and other industrialized nations. Known as cerebral (or cortical) visual impairment ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:03pm EST

The Chilling Sound of the Aztec Death Whistle

Nov. 19, 2024 — The Aztec skull whistle produces a shrill, screaming sound. A study shows that these whistles have a disturbing effect on the human brain. The Aztecs may have deliberately used this effect in ...

Confinement May Affect How We Smell and Feel About Food

Nov. 18, 2024 — New research found confined and isolating environments changed the way people smelled and responded emotionally to certain food aromas. The team in this study compared 44 people's emotional responses ...

New Study Sheds Light on Language Development in Children With Hearing Loss

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers find a link between early vocabulary composition and later language development in children with cochlear ...

NeuroMechFly V2: Simulating How Fruit Flies See, Smell, and Navigate

Nov. 12, 2024 — Scientists have advanced their NeuroMechFly model, simulating fruit fly movement in the real world. With integrated vision and smell, NeuroMechFly v2 helps us understand brain-body coordination, ...

Disruption of Visual Stability

Nov. 7, 2024 — A research team has been investigating the question of how we perceive a stable environment despite constant eye movements. The result: rapid and smooth eye movements are based on different ...

New Haptic Patch Transmits Complexity of Touch to the Skin

Nov. 6, 2024 — Thin, flexible device could help people with visual impairments 'feel' surroundings. Device comprises a hexagonal array of 19 actuators encapsulated in soft silicone. Device only uses energy when ...

What Happens in Your Brain While You Watch a Movie

Nov. 6, 2024 — By scanning the brains of people while they watched movie clips, neuroscientists have created the most detailed functional map of the brain to date. The fMRI analysis shows how different brain ...

Bach, Mozart or Jazz

Nov. 5, 2024 — Physicists have investigated to which extent a piece of music can evoke expectations about its progression. They were able to determine differences in how far compositions of different composers can ...

Meta-Learning of Motor Skills in the Dorsal Premotor Cortex of the Brain

Oct. 31, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that the dorsal premotor cortex serves a 'meta-learning' function, overseeing and regulating physical movements. Once believed to be limited to movement planning, this ...

Your Brain Is Ahead, Predicting the World

Oct. 30, 2024 — Your brain not only processes what you see but continuously makes predictions based on your experiences. This process may be less fine-tuned in people with autism, research ...

New Study Sheds Light on the Role of Sound and Music in Gendered Toy Marketing

Nov. 6, 2024 — New research reveals that the music and soundscapes used in toy commercials are reinforcing rigid gender norms, shaping the way children perceive masculinity and femininity. The study uncovers how ...

Smell Loss Linked to 100-Plus Diseases

Oct. 29, 2024 — Researchers reveal a link between olfactory loss and inflammation in 139 medical conditions. The researchers say loss of smell is an early sign of numerous neurological and bodily ...

Subtle Eye Movements Optimize Vision

Oct. 29, 2024 — Our ability to see starts with the light-sensitive photoreceptor cells in our eyes. A specific region of the retina, termed fovea, is responsible for sharp vision. Here, the color-sensitive cone ...

Depression: Dysfunction of Neurons in the Amygdala May Be Behind Negative Perceptions of the Environment

Oct. 25, 2024 — One of the characteristics of depression is a tendency to perceive sensory stimuli and everyday situations in an excessively negative way. But the mechanisms underpinning this 'negativity ...

Scanning, Scrolling, and Swiping: New Research Uncovers Why Our Brains Are Effective at Quickly Processing Short Messages

Oct. 23, 2024 — A team of linguistics and psychology researchers has discovered that when a brief sentence is flashed, our brains detect its basic linguistic structure extremely quickly -- in roughly 150 ...

'Visual Clutter' Alters Information Flow in the Brain

Oct. 22, 2024 — Whether we're staring at our phones, the page of a book, or the person across the table, the objects of our focus never stand in isolation; there are always other objects or people in our field ...

Showing AI Users Diversity in Training Data Boosts Perceived Fairness and Trust

Oct. 22, 2024 — While artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as home assistants, search engines or large language models like ChatGPT, may seem nearly omniscient, their outputs are only as good as the data on ...

How Do You Remember How to Ride a Bike? Thank Your Cerebellum

Oct. 15, 2024 — Researchers have shown that, just like declarative memories, short-term and long-term memories for motor skills form in different regions of the brain, with the cerebellum being critical for the ...

How Do We Recognize Other People's Emotions?

Oct. 11, 2024 — For recognizing people's emotions, facial expressions do play an important role. However, they are not the only crucial ...

Adding Vagus Nerve Stimulation to Training Sessions May Boost How Well Sounds Are Perceived

Oct. 9, 2024 — Just as a musician can train to more sharply distinguish subtle differences in pitch, mammals can improve their ability to interpret hearing, vision, and other senses with practice. This process, ...

Another Step Towards Decoding Smell

Oct. 9, 2024 — We often only realize how important our sense of smell is when it is no longer there: food is not as tasty as it once was, or we no longer react to dangers such as the smell of smoke. Researchers ...

Asymmetric Placebo Effect in Response to Spicy Food

Oct. 8, 2024 — The expectations humans have of a pleasurable sensation asymmetrically shape neuronal responses and subjective experiences to hot sauce, according to a new ...

Are Auditory Magic Tricks Possible for a Blind Audience?

Oct. 4, 2024 — Magic tricks make the impossible seem possible. Magicians have long captivated audiences with visual tricks, such as pulling a bunny from a hat or sawing someone in half, but tricks that rely on ...

What Happens in the Brain When a Person With Schizophrenia 'Hears Voices'?

Oct. 3, 2024 — Auditory hallucinations are likely the result of abnormalities in two brain processes: a 'broken' corollary discharge that fails to suppress self-generated sounds, and a 'noisy' ...

'Who's a Good Boy?' Humans Use Dog-Specific Voices for Better Canine Comprehension

Oct. 1, 2024 — Humans slow their own speech when talking to their dogs, and this slower tempo matches their pets' receptive abilities, allowing the dogs to better understand their commands, according to a new ...

Deep Brain Stimulation Instantly Improves Arm and Hand Function Post-Brain Injury

Oct. 1, 2024 — Deep brain stimulation may provide immediate improvement in arm and hand strength and function weakened by traumatic brain injury or ...

Automatic Speech Recognition Learned to Understand People With Parkinson's Disease -- By Listening to Them

Sep. 27, 2024 — Listening to people with Parkinson's disease made an automatic speech recognizer 30-percent more accurate, according to a new ...

How Synchronization Supports Social Interactions

Sep. 25, 2024 — Turn-taking dynamics of social interactions are important for speech and gesture synchronization, enabling conversations to proceed efficiently, according to a new ...

Lengthened Consonants Mark the Beginning of Words

Sep. 24, 2024 — Speech consists of a continuous stream of acoustic signals, yet humans can segment words from each other with astonishing precision and speed. To find out how this is possible, a team of linguists ...

Activity in Brain System That Controls Eye Movements Highlights Importance of Spatial Thinking

Sep. 19, 2024 — The superior colliculus is a midbrain region that is traditionally thought to help animals orient themselves toward important locations in space, like directing their eyes and head toward a bright ...