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Gaze when walking to grasp an object in the presence of obstacles
(2025) Voudouris, Dimitris; Brenner, Eli
People generally look at positions that are important for their current actions, such as objects they intend to grasp. What if there are obstacles on their path to such objects? We asked participants to walk into a room and pour the contents of a cup placed on a table into another cup elsewhere on the table. There were two small obstacles on the floor between the door and the table. There was a third obstacle on the table near the target cup. Participants often looked at the items on the table from the beginning, but, as they approached and entered the room, they often looked at the floor near the obstacles, although there was nothing particularly informative to see there. Thus they primarily relied on peripheral vision and memory of where they had seen obstacles to avoid knocking over the obstacles. As they approached the table, they mainly looked at the object that they intended to grasp and the obstacle near it. We conclude that people mainly look at positions at which they plan to physically interact with the environment, rather than at items that constrain such interactions.
Association of 37 markers of ultra-processing with all-cause mortality : a prospective cohort study in the UK Biobank
(2025) Krost, Kathrin Marie; Eichner, Gerrit; Fasshauer, Mathias; Eise, Nathalie Judith
Background: In contrast to ultra-processed foods (UPFs), the association between specific markers of ultra-processing (MUPs) and all-cause mortality remains unexplored. As MUPs such as flavour, emulsifier, and sweetener may contribute differently to health outcomes, evaluating their individual associations with mortality is crucial. Methods: This population-based, prospective, exploratory cohort study included 186,744 UK Biobank participants aged 40 to 75, recruited between 2006 and 2010, each of whom completed at least one Oxford WebQ. To assess intake of UPFs and specific MUPs, up to ten matching commercial products were researched for each Oxford WebQ item and analysed concerning 57 previously described MUPs grouped into nine MUP categories. Of these, 37 specific MUPs were identified in one or more products. A food item was regarded as UPF if it contained at least one MUP. Cox proportional hazard regression models for all-cause mortality were applied, incorporating gram intake from UPFs, as well as from foods containing each of the nine MUP categories and 37 specific MUPs, in relation to gram total food intake (expressed as percentage of total food intake (%TFI)), using penalised cubic splines. The hazard ratio (HR)-nadir was defined as the lowest HR on the %TFI axis and rescaled to 1. Findings: Over a mean follow-up of 11.0 years, 10,203 deaths occurred. Five MUP categories were significantly (linear P < 0.05) related to all-cause mortality and the following HRs (confidence interval (CI)) were observed relative to the HR-nadir: flavour (40% versus 10 %TFI (HR-nadir); HR (CI) 1.20 (1.08 to 1.33); P < 0.0011), flavour enhancer (2% versus 0 %TFI; 1.07 (1.00 to 1.16); P = 0.025), colouring agent (20% versus 3 %TFI; 1.24 (1.10 to 1.39); P < 0.0001), sweetener (20% versus 0 %TFI; 1.14 (1.06 to 1.23); P < 0.0043), and varieties of sugar (10% versus 4 %TFI; 1.10 (1.03 to 1.16); P = 0.025). Furthermore, 13 specific MUPs were significantly associated with all-cause mortality (linear and/or non-linear P < 0.05), i.e., glutamate, ribonucleotide, acesulfame, saccharin, sucralose, caking agent, firming agent, gelling agent, thickener, fructose, inverted sugar, lactose, and maltodextrin. Among these, gelling agent was inversely associated with mortality risk. UPF intake was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with all-cause mortality. Major findings remained robust in sensitivity analyses. Interpretation: Total MUP-based definition UPF, five MUP categories, and several specific MUPs within these categories were significantly associated with all-cause mortality. Thus, interventions targeting UPF may be most effective when focused on these candidates, which should also be prioritised for future mechanistic studies.
Low-level features predict perceived similarity for naturalistic images
(2025) A-Izzeddin, Emily J; Wallis, Thomas SA; Mattingley, Jason B; Harrison, William J
The mechanisms by which humans perceptually organize individual regions of a visual scene to generate a coherent scene representation remain largely unknown. Our perception of statistical regularities has been relatively well-studied in simple stimuli, and explicit computational mechanisms that use low-level image features (e.g., luminance, contrast energy) to explain these perceptions have been described. Here, we investigate to what extent observers can effectively use such low-level information present in isolated naturalistic scene regions to facilitate associations between said regions. Across two experiments, participants were shown an isolated reference patch, then required to select which of two subsequently presented patches came from the same scene as the reference (two-alternative forced choice method). In Experiment 1, participants made their judgments based on unaltered image patches, and were consistently above chance when performing such association judgments. Additionally, participants’ responses were well-predicted by a generalized linear multilevel model using predictors based on low-level feature similarity metrics (specifically, pixel-wise luminance and phase-invariant structure correlations). In Experiment 2, participants were presented with unaltered image regions, thresholded image regions, or regions reduced to only their edge content. Performance for thresholded and edge regions was significantly poorer than for unaltered image regions. Nonetheless, the model still correlated well with participants’ judgments. Our findings suggest that image region associations can be accounted for using low-level feature correlations, suggesting such basic features are strongly associated with those underlying judgments made for complex visual stimuli.
Evidence of a novel sublineage of Streptococcus agalactiae in elephants from zoo populations in Germany
(2025) Fenske, Linda; Jauneikaite, Elita; Getino, Maria; Wan, Yu; Goesmann, Alexander; Eisenberg, Tobias
Streptococcus agalactiae research primarily centres on investigating human and bovine infections, although this pathogen also can be carried and cause infections in a wider range of animal species. Moreover, infections with S. agalactiae are posing significant health implications, and recent studies furthermore are highlighting a potential zoonotic risk. Despite the relatively frequent isolation of S. agalactiae from elephants, only a few reports document infections in wild and zoo populations. We performed a comparative genomic analysis of 24 elephant isolates from three different zoos in Germany to achieve a comprehensive characterization. Elephant isolates showed pronounced phylogenetic divergence from isolates of other host species, while also forming clusters based on zoo of origin and their genotypes (MLST profiles). Capsular serotypes could not be predicted for the majority of the isolates (n=20/24). Several genes, exclusively associated with the elephant host, may underlie the pathogen’s capacity to improve its survival and virulence across varied ecological niches. This study not only deepens our understanding of S. agalactiae across diverse species and environments but also represents the first whole-genome sequencing characterization of S. agalactiae isolates from elephants, helping to expand our knowledge about infections in animals.
Emotional time lengthening carries over to subsequent neutral events
(2025) Goktepe, Nedim; Cavdan, Müge; Drewing, Knut
The perceived time can shrink or expand for emotional stimuli. Converging evidence suggests that emotional time distortions are rooted in the emotional states of the timing agents because emotional stimuli can influence the timing of simultaneous neutral events. As emotional states are transitory, we investigated if time modulating emotional states also influence timing of subsequent neutral events. In each trial, we induced different valence and arousal levels by using affective vibrotactile patterns before participants judged the duration of neutral auditory tones. Compared to neutral patterns, affective patterns modulated participants’ time perception of the subsequent tones. We observed an interaction between arousal and valence: Pleasant-Low arousal patterns expanded the timing of subsequent neutral events more than Unpleasant-Low arousal patterns while Pleasant and Unpleasant-High arousal led to a similar temporal expansion. Our results indicate time modulating effects of emotional stimuli are due to changed emotional states and influence time perception likely until the underlying state decays.