Despite the very different retinal images that result from different viewing conditions, humans have little difficulty recognising visual objects in varying circumstances. One source of variability is 2-D rotation, which results in an object having different orientations. Here, we studied how the brain transforms rotated object images into object representations that are tolerant to rotation. We measured time-varying electroencephalography responses to object images shown in eight different orientations, presented at either 5 Hz or 20 Hz. We used multivariate classification to assess when rotation-tolerant object information emerged, and whether the rotation-tolerant processing would be limited at the faster presentation rate. We compared this to fixed-rotation measures of object decoding, where the classifier is trained and tested on the same orientation. Our results showed that both fixed-rotation and rotation-tolerant object decoding emerged at an early stage of processing, less than 100 ms after stimulus onset. However, rotation-tolerant information peaked later than fixed-rotation information, suggesting rotation-tolerant object representations are most prominent during a late stage of processing, around 200 ms after stimulus onset. Both fixed-rotation and rotation-tolerant object information was lower for the 20 Hz compared to 5 Hz presentation rate, which suggests that object information processing is disrupted, but not eliminated, for fast presentation rates. Our results show that object information arises at similar times in the brain regardless of whether it is investigated with the fixed-rotation or rotation-tolerant object decoding method. An object representation that is tolerant to rotation and generalises across different exemplars of the same object is established in later stages of processing.

An object moving behind another (becoming occluded) persists in awareness and can be tracked with high accuracy. Further, behavioural evidence suggests location information is maintained under occlusion and dynamically updated. Combining the temporal resolution of EEG with a real-time multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) technique, this study investigates the extent of location information for hidden stimuli versus truly disappearing stimuli, in two experiments. Examining the full time course of position information in the neural response, the results of this study found no evidence for ongoing position tracking during occlusion. However, a differential mid-latency response to objects that became occluded versus disappeared was identified. This differential signal was evident around ~200ms after occlusion and persisted across occluder sizes, suggesting that it arose from a difference in offset signalling when objects enter occlusion as opposed to truly disappearing. These results suggest that the continuous positions of visible and occluded objects are updated through separate neural mechanisms, and that offset signals encode that an object is hidden but persistent, rather than fully disappeared.

Illusory faces, the faces people see in inanimate objects, share the low-level image statistics of the objects they are made of while, nonetheless, being perceived as faces. Neural representations of illusory faces shift from face-like to object-like within roughly 200 ms, and observers explicitly categorise them as objects, yet the illusion remains compelling. We asked whether the pupil, a peripheral index of both light and arousal, is sensitive to this dual identity. Forty participants viewed sequences of human faces, illusory faces in objects, and matched non-face objects (100 images each) while performing an orthogonal task at fixation. Human faces and objects both evoked pupil constriction, whereas illusory faces produced dilation beginning at approximately 350 ms. Thus, rather than falling between faces and objects or resembling either category, illusory faces elicited a qualitatively different pupil response. This dissociation remained after controlling for luminance and emotional valence, despite luminance being the strongest determinant of pupil size. Critically, within the illusory images, the dilation scaled with independent measures of the strength of the face percept, including face-likeness and the probability of categorisation as a face, and did not diminish across repeated presentations. These findings are consistent with the pupil tracking the conflict between the object and face interpretations, rather than stimulus category per se. They suggest that although neural representations quickly settle on an object's veridical identity, the competing illusory face interpretation persists, revealing a physiological signature of the conflicting perceptual identities that define face pareidolia.

Seeing the world feels effortless, yet it is accomplished by two hemispheres that do not process visual information in the same way. Whether this involves distinct processing cascades, tight hemispheric coupling, or something in between has fundamental implications for understanding the emergence of coherent perception from divided processes. Images presented to the fovea project to both hemispheres, offering an opportunity to isolate intrinsic hemispheric differences in visual coding. Here, we used electroencephalography and neural decoding methods to investigate the dynamics of foveal visual processing in the left and right hemispheres. Human participants (N = 20; 15 females, 5 males) viewed images of objects, faces and words in rapid sequences while performing an orthogonal task. We found different trajectories of visual coding within the left and right hemispheres, and these differences were characterised by distinct featural biases in each hemisphere, with a particular left bias for rectilinearity and right bias for colour. Yet, despite encoding visual information differently, the left and right hemispheres appear to converge on a shared representation. The results provide new insights into hemispheric dynamics underlying visual perception and the complementary roles of the left and right hemispheres in processing visual information.

A central challenge for the brain is how to combine separate sources of information from different sensory modalities to optimally represent objects and events in the external world, such as combining someone's speech and lip movements to better understand them in a noisy environment. At the level of individual neurons, audiovisual stimuli often elicit super-additive interactions, where the neural response is greater than the sum of auditory and visual responses. However, investigations using electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain activity have revealed inconsistent interactions, with studies reporting a mix of super- and sub-additive effects. A possible explanation for this inconsistency is that standard univariate analyses obscure multisensory interactions present in EEG responses by overlooking multivariate changes in activity across the scalp. To address this shortcoming, we investigated EEG responses to audiovisual stimuli using inverted encoding, a population tuning approach that uses multivariate information to characterise feature-specific neural activity. Participants (n=41) completed a spatial localisation task for both unisensory stimuli (auditory clicks, visual flashes) and combined audiovisual stimuli (spatiotemporally congruent clicks and flashes). To assess multivariate changes in EEG activity, we used inverted encoding to recover stimulus location information from event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants localised audiovisual stimuli more accurately than unisensory stimuli alone. For univariate ERP analyses, we found an additive multisensory interaction. By contrast, multivariate analyses revealed a super-additive interaction ~180 ms following stimulus onset, such that the location of audiovisual stimuli was decoded more accurately than that predicted by maximum likelihood estimation. Our results suggest that super-additive integration of audiovisual information is reflected within multivariate patterns of activity rather than univariate evoked responses.

Humans are so sensitive to faces and face-like patterns in the environment that sometimes we mistakenly see a face where none exists – a common illusion called “face pareidolia”. Examples of face pareidolia, “illusory faces”, occur in everyday objects such as trees and food, and contain two identities: an illusory face, and an object. In this study, we studied illusory faces in a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) paradigm over three experiments to explore the detectability of illusory faces under various task conditions and processing speeds. The first experiment revealed the rapid and reliable detection of illusory faces even at an extremely limited processing time of 34 ms, suggesting that face pareidolia arises from an error in rapidly detecting faces. Experiment 2 demonstrated that illusory facial structures within food items did not interfere with the recognition of the object's real identity, affirming that examples of face pareidolia maintain their object identity. Experiment 3 directly compared behavioural responses to illusory faces under different task demands, indicating that when processing time is extended, the object identity dominates perception. From a behavioural context, the findings revealed that illusory faces maintain concurrent identities as both faces and objects. The study sheds light on the brain's processing of objects with dual identities, contributing to our understanding of visual stimulus recognition. Future research could explore the neural representation of these unique stimuli under varying circumstances and attentional demands, providing deeper insights into the perception of face pareidolia.

The human brain continuously integrates information across its two hemispheres to construct a coherent representation of the perceptual world. Characterizing how visual information is represented in each hemisphere over time is crucial for understanding how hemispheric transfer contributes to perception. Here, we investigated information processing within each hemisphere over time and the degree to which it is distinct or duplicated across hemispheres. We presented participants with object images lateralized to the left or right visual fields while measuring their brain activity with electroencephalography. Stimulus coding was more robust and emerged earlier in the contralateral than the ipsilateral hemisphere. Presentation of two stimuli, one to each hemifield, reduced the fidelity of representations in both hemispheres relative to one stimulus alone, signifying hemispheric interference. Last, we found that processing within the contralateral, but not ipsilateral, hemisphere was biased to image-related over concept-related information. Together, these results suggest that hemispheric transfer operates to filter irrelevant information and efficiently prioritize processing of meaning.

Health Pathfinder is a multilevel system change intervention initiated to transform the health response to domestic violence and abuse in eight sites in England. The current study drew upon interviews with health professionals ( n = 27) and victim-survivors ( n = 20) to provide a realist account of how this intervention achieved its goals. Findings show that five change mechanisms explain why Health Pathfinder was effective as an ecological intervention: awareness, expertise, relationships, empowerment, and evidence. Positive progress in respect of each mechanism had meaningful impacts on victim-survivor experiences of enquiry, disclosure, and uptake of services and had the potential to meaningfully impact health inequities.

Evidence suggests that mental imagery and veridical perception recruit similar components of the human visual system. If so, neural representations of imagined and real stimuli should interact with one another, combining constructively or competing antagonistically. To determine if and how real and imagined visual stimuli interact in the brain, we asked participants to mentally visualise white bars at specific orientations after a rhythmic countdown while their brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography. Stimuli were imagined in isolation, or while another stimulus at a highly or poorly congruent orientation appeared on-screen. Multivariate pattern analysis was used to assess whether overlap between imagined and real stimulus features enhanced or diminished stimulus-specific sensory information in the brain. Findings showed that imagined and real orientation could be decoded from brain activity, with real orientation decoding mildly amplified by highly congruent, but not poorly congruent, imagined orientations. Although interactions between real and imagined stimuli were observed, no evidence was detected to suggest that imagined and real stimuli use the same neural activity patterns to encode sensory information. Instead, congruent imagery seemed only to amplify activity which had already been induced by real percepts, targeting late- but not early-stage perceptual representations. Ultimately, this study suggests that imagined and real stimuli interact in a mildly constructive manner, with imagination mostly acting in a modulatory capacity.### Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.

In this brief report, we evaluate Health Pathfinder, a 'whole health response' to domestic violence and abuse (DVA) in the United Kingdom. We used two national datasets: monitoring data for highrisk cases, and a service-level database used to track the performance of DVA services across the UK. Drawing on a comparative interrupted time series analysis over 2018-2019, we considered the impact of implementation in each of the eight sites on rate of referral of high risk cases standardised by the number of adult women in each area, and on composition of victim-survivors seen by services. Implementation of Health Pathfinder was associated with a 10.9 per cent step change in the rate of high-risk referrals, and growth in subsequent quarters of 10.1 per cent. At the same time, implementation of Health Pathfinder was linked with a 33.6 per cent step change increase in the proportion of victim-survivors seen by services that were judged not to be at highest risk (that is, taking up services earlier). Our findings reflect both underlying system improvements across multiple stakeholders involved in Health Pathfinder as well as improved detection of DVA across a wider spectrum of risks, and provide additional evidence that multilevel interventions to improve DVA victim-survivors' experiences are effective.

Prediction has been shown to play a fundamental role in facilitating efficient perception of simple visual features such as orientation and motion, but it remains unclear whether expectations modulate neural representations of more complex stimuli. Here, we addressed this issue by characterising patterns of brain activity evoked by two-dimensional images of familiar, real-world objects which were either expected or unexpected based on a preceding cue. Participants (n = 30) viewed stimuli in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams which contained both high-fidelity and degraded (diffeomorphically warped) object images. Multivariate pattern analyses of electroencephalography (EEG) data were used to quantify and compare the degree of information represented in neural activity when stimuli were random (unpredictable), expected, or unexpected. Degraded images elicited reduced representational fidelity relative to high-fidelity images. However, degraded images were represented with improved fidelity when they were presented in expected relative to random sequence positions; and stimuli in unexpected sequence positions yielded reduced representational fidelity relative to random presentations. Most notably, neural responses to unexpected stimuli contained information pertaining to the expected (but not presented) stimulus. Debriefing at the conclusion of the experiment revealed that participants were not aware of the relationship between cue and target stimuli within the RSVP streams, suggesting that the differences in stimulus decoding between conditions arose in the absence of explicit predictive knowledge. Our findings extend fundamental understanding of how the brain detects and employs predictive relationships to modulate high-level visual perception.

Little is known about the perceptual characteristics of mental images nor how they vary across sensory modalities. We conducted an exhaustive survey into how mental images are experienced across modalities, mainly targeting visual and auditory imagery of a single stimulus, the letter "O", to facilitate direct comparisons. We investigated temporal properties of mental images (e.g. onset latency, duration), spatial properties (e.g. apparent location), effort (e.g. ease, spontaneity, control), movement requirements (e.g. eye movements), real-imagined interactions (e.g. inner speech while reading), beliefs about imagery norms and terminologies, as well as respondent confidence. Participants also reported on the five traditional senses and their prominence during thinking, imagining, and dreaming. Overall, visual and auditory experiences dominated mental events, although auditory mental images were superior to visual mental images on almost every metric tested except regarding spatial properties. Our findings suggest that modality-specific differences in mental imagery may parallel those of other sensory neural processes.

The basic computations performed in the human early visual cortex are the foundation for visual perception. While we know a lot about these computations, a key missing piece is how the coding of visual features relates to our perception of the environment. To investigate visual feature coding, interactions, and their relationship to human perception, we investigated neural responses and perceptual similarity judgements to a large set of visual stimuli that varied parametrically along four feature dimensions. We measured neural responses using electroencephalography (N = 16) to 256 grating stimuli that varied in orientation, spatial frequency, contrast, and colour. We then mapped the response profiles of the neural coding of each visual feature and their interactions, and related these to independently obtained behavioural judgements of stimulus similarity. The results confirmed fundamental principles of feature coding in the visual system, such that all four features were processed simultaneously but differed in their dynamics, and there was distinctive conjunction coding for different combinations of features in the neural responses. Importantly, modelling of the behaviour revealed that every stimulus feature contributed to perceptual judgements, despite the untargeted nature of the behavioural task. Further, the relationship between neural coding and behaviour was evident from initial processing stages, signifying that the fundamental features, not just their interactions, contribute to perception. This study highlights the importance of understanding how feature coding progresses through the visual hierarchy and the relationship between different stages of processing and perception.

Purpose Discussions about progressive gender reform across Melanesia highlight the need for more gender-inclusive policies and improved conditions for women and girls throughout all sectors. However, for many of these countries, attempts to address the problems are marred by insufficient resources and low prioritization of the issue and traditional, cultural and religious perspectives about gender and gendered roles. This article discusses how police responses are coordinated to address domestic and family violence (DFV) and provides a critical reflection on both internal responses and the complexities of multi-partner operations beyond urban spaces. Design/methodology/approach This article draws on the findings from a stakeholder engagement focus group with 20 participants from four Melanesian countries – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu – to provide insight into policing innovations in rural contexts. Findings There is a need for improved multisector partnerships, increased police presence and greater reliance on indigenous strategies to improve responses to DFV in resource-constrained contexts. Originality/value The article provides insight into an under-researched area and makes recommendations for improving responses to DFV in rural areas in small-island developing states.

Mental imagery is a process by which thoughts become experienced with sensory characteristics. Yet, it is not clear why mental images appear diminished compared to veridical images, nor how mental images are phenomenologically distinct from hallucinations, another type of non-veridical sensory experience. Current evidence suggests that imagination and veridical perception share neural resources. If so, we argue that considering how neural representations of externally generated stimuli (i.e. sensory input) and internally generated stimuli (i.e. thoughts) might interfere with one another can sufficiently differentiate between veridical, imaginary, and hallucinatory perception. We here use a simple computational model of a serially connected, hierarchical network with bidirectional information flow to emulate the primate visual system. We show that modelling even first approximations of neural competition can more coherently explain imagery phenomenology than non-competitive models. Our simulations predict that, without competing sensory input, imagined stimuli should ubiquitously dominate hierarchical representations. However, with competition, imagination should dominate high-level representations but largely fail to outcompete sensory inputs at lower processing levels. To interpret our findings, we assume that low-level stimulus information (e.g. in early visual cortices) contributes most to the sensory aspects of perceptual experience, while high-level stimulus information (e.g. towards temporal regions) contributes most to its abstract aspects. Our findings therefore suggest that ongoing bottom-up inputs during waking life may prevent imagination from overriding veridical sensory experience. In contrast, internally generated stimuli may be hallucinated when sensory input is dampened or eradicated. Our approach can explain individual differences in imagery, along with aspects of daydreaming, hallucinations, and non-visual mental imagery.

The human brain integrates information across the hemispheres to construct a coherent representation of the world. Characterising how visual information is coded in each hemisphere is crucial for understanding the nature of information transfer in the brain. Here, we investigated information processing within each hemisphere and its distinctiveness across hemispheres. We presented participants (N = 20) with images of faces, words and objects in rapid sequences while neural responses were measured using electroencephalography (EEG). To drive distinct responses in each hemisphere, stimuli were presented either centrally or lateralised to the left or right visual fields. Participants performed an orthogonal colour change task on dots that marked possible image positions. Multivariate pattern analyses were applied to the neural data to assess coding of object information in the brain, separately for electrode clusters over each hemisphere. Stimulus information was more robust and emerged earlier in the contralateral than the ipsilateral hemisphere. Interestingly, the temporal dynamics within the two hemispheres followed different trajectories. Representational structure was consistent across the hemispheres with delays approximating interhemispheric transmission time. These results provide insights into the dynamics of object perception and the competitive versus cooperative nature of hemispheric processing.

This article explores "how do victims-survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) experience and perceive justice?" based on interviews with 251 victims-survivors with experience of different types of GBV and criminal, civil, and family justice systems. Victims-survivors were found to have multiple perceptions of justice, related to different points in their journey following abuse and regarding individual, community, and societal responses. Perceptions relate to accountability; fairness in outcome and process; protection from future harm; recognition; agency; empowerment; affective justice; reparation; and social transformation. Current understandings of justice in legislative and policy approaches reproduce the "justice gap" by failing to take account of how survivors themselves understand and demand justice.

Patterns of brain activity contain meaningful information about the perceived world. Recent decades have welcomed a new era in neural analyses, with computational techniques from machine learning applied to neural data to decode information represented in the brain. In this article, we review how decoding approaches have advanced our understanding of visual representations and discuss efforts to characterize both the complexity and the behavioral relevance of these representations. We outline the current consensus regarding the spatiotemporal structure of visual representations and review recent findings that suggest that visual representations are at once robust to perturbations, yet sensitive to different mental states. Beyond representations of the physical world, recent decoding work has shone a light on how the brain instantiates internally generated states, for example, during imagery and prediction. Going forward, decoding has remarkable potential to assess the functional relevance of visual representations for human behavior, reveal how representations change across development and during aging, and uncover their presentation in various mental disorders.