NEST-PERCEPT: Visualization of subjective perception with analysis of brain activity and eye movements
16 July 2008
Germany
Can a medical student in the first years of her study see the operating theatre and the patient’s chest images “with the eyes” of the surgeon-in-chief, i.e. with a selection of only those aspects that are relevant and labelled with evaluative impressions as correct (‘good’) or wrong (‘bad’)? Scientists from Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Hungary, Finland and France cooperating in the interdisciplinary research project PERCEPT (Perceptual Consciousness – Explication and Testing), currently investigate this and related questions. PERCEPT is coordinated by psychologists which are supported by the European Project Center (EPC) from the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany) and includes seven other European research centres. The project is funded by the European Commission within the NEST - Measuring the Impossible call.
Already today, PERCEPT demonstrates that it is possible to measure nonverbal personal views, impressions and interpretations. The explicit scientific visualisation of perceptual experience opens new perspectives for research and application for instance in the domains of psychology and medical science.
During the presentation of paintings from the Galerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on a computer screen, the distribution of attention and emotional responses are recorded. This is achieved by combining neurophysiological (fMRI, EEG, MEG) and behavioural (eye-tracking) methods. One important milestone is the synchronisation of both measurement techniques. In an experiment images of different emotional content were used, e.g. smiling or fearful faces and neutral or disgusting photos. The results demonstrate different patterns for certain emotions in the fMRI but also the eye-tracking data show pronounced differences. The analysis of activation in different brain regions (e.g. fMRI) and the direct measurement of attention allocation (eye-tracking) allow the investigation of the basis of perceptual processes.
A particularly complex procedure is measuring the brain activity using fMRI. The subject has to keep still in a large cylinder-shaped tube and react to certain instructions or tasks given by the experimenter. In order to obtain clear results, it is necessary to adopt the research paradigms to the relatively slow reaction of the measurement system (2-7 seconds). For the first time researchers in PERCEPT could demonstrate possibilities to overcome these temporal limits. It was shown that brain activity can be analysed in relation to single fixations of the eyes with average duration of about 250 ms. This approach will allow the investigation of brain activity on the basis of eye gaze events. First results show that there are pronounced differences in information processing from one visual fixation to another.
After the half of the project time, the new methods for scientific visualisation of subjective experience of complex meaningful scenes are ready to be used to make our perception more transparent than at any previous moment of human history before.
Already today, PERCEPT demonstrates that it is possible to measure nonverbal personal views, impressions and interpretations. The explicit scientific visualisation of perceptual experience opens new perspectives for research and application for instance in the domains of psychology and medical science.
During the presentation of paintings from the Galerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on a computer screen, the distribution of attention and emotional responses are recorded. This is achieved by combining neurophysiological (fMRI, EEG, MEG) and behavioural (eye-tracking) methods. One important milestone is the synchronisation of both measurement techniques. In an experiment images of different emotional content were used, e.g. smiling or fearful faces and neutral or disgusting photos. The results demonstrate different patterns for certain emotions in the fMRI but also the eye-tracking data show pronounced differences. The analysis of activation in different brain regions (e.g. fMRI) and the direct measurement of attention allocation (eye-tracking) allow the investigation of the basis of perceptual processes.
A particularly complex procedure is measuring the brain activity using fMRI. The subject has to keep still in a large cylinder-shaped tube and react to certain instructions or tasks given by the experimenter. In order to obtain clear results, it is necessary to adopt the research paradigms to the relatively slow reaction of the measurement system (2-7 seconds). For the first time researchers in PERCEPT could demonstrate possibilities to overcome these temporal limits. It was shown that brain activity can be analysed in relation to single fixations of the eyes with average duration of about 250 ms. This approach will allow the investigation of brain activity on the basis of eye gaze events. First results show that there are pronounced differences in information processing from one visual fixation to another.
After the half of the project time, the new methods for scientific visualisation of subjective experience of complex meaningful scenes are ready to be used to make our perception more transparent than at any previous moment of human history before.