How can we predict if a brief stimulus will be detected or perceived when embedded in a dynamic natural scene, such as those we encounter in our daily lives? This is a complex problem, with several approaches to it. Here, we were interested in determining the minimum luminance contrast to the background scene required to achieve detection and shape perception. To investigate this, we used natural videos with briefly appearing natural events, varying in timing of appearance, shape, position, and contrast. We found that there is an interplay between the timing of the event, its position, and the contrast needed for detection. However, for correct shape perception, timing was not a relevant variable. A lower contrast was required for event detection than for correct shape perception. We conclude that contrast alone can affect stimulus detection, but other parameters might interact with it in this task.

The current technological solutions for spatial audio provide realistic auditory impressions but rarely account for multisensory interactions. The intent of this study was to discover if and when spatial sounds could lower the accuracy of visual perception. Sequences of light and sound events were presented, and different sound parameters were tested: spatial and temporal congruency, horizontal and vertical spatial distribution, and source broadness. Participants were asked to report the location of the last visual event, in a left-right discrimination task. During the task, cognitive effort was monitored through pupil size measurements. It was found that both spatial and temporal congruence are important for higher accuracy levels and lower cognitive effort levels. However, spatial congruence was found to not be crucial, if sounds occur within the same spatial region as visual events. Sounds hindered the visual accuracy levels and increased effort when they occurred within a narrower or wider field than that of the visual events, but not too discrepant. These effects were replicated with vertical sound distributions. Broad sounds made the task more effortful and limited negative effects of spatially mismatched audiovisual events. When creating spatial sound for audiovisual reproductions, source distribution and broadness should be intentionally controlled.

ABSTRACT Purpose Due to the pandemic of the Covid-19 disease, it became common to wear masks on some public spaces. By covering mouth and nose, visual-related speech cues are greatly reduced, while the auditory signal is both distorted and attenuated. The present study aimed to analyze the multisensory effects of mask wearing on speech intelligibility and the differences in these effects between participants who spoke 1, 2 and 3 languages. Methods The study consisted of the presentation of sentences from the SPIN test to 40 participants. Participants were asked to report the perceived sentences. There were four conditions: auditory with mask; audiovisual with mask; auditory without mask; audiovisual without mask. Two sessions were conducted, one week apart, each with the same stimuli but with a different signal-to-noise ratio. Results Results demonstrated that the use of the mask decreased speech intelligibility, both due to a decrease in the quality of auditory stimuli and due to the loss of visual information. Signal-to-noise ratio largely affects speech intelligibility and higher ratios are needed in mask-wearing conditions to obtain any degree of intelligibility. Those who speak more than one language are less affected by mask wearing, as are younger listeners. Conclusion Wearing a facial mask reduces speech intelligibility, both due to visual and auditory factors. Older people and people who only speak one language are affected the most.

Objective:The exposure to some environmental sounds has detrimental effects on health and might affect the performance in cognitive tasks. In this study, we analyze the effect of the neighborhood noises of a baby crying and dogs barking on the autonomic response and cognitive function. Materials and methods:Twenty participants were exposed, in separate sessions, to white noise, a baby crying, a small dog barking, and a large dog barking. During each session, heart rate, skin conductance, reaction times, spatial memory, and mathematical processing measures were taken throughout time. Results:The sounds of a baby crying and dogs barking led to significantly higher heart rates and skin conductance levels as opposed to exposure to white noise. Results were not as consistent with exposure to barking as they were to the baby. Exposure to the baby crying and dogs barking led to faster reaction times, possibly due to a facilitation by the autonomic system activation. No significant effects on spatial memory were found. Conversely, participants performed worse and slower in a mathematical task when exposed to the dog and baby sounds, than when exposed to control noise. Conclusion:Exposure to the sound of crying babies and dogs barking leads to increased sympathetic response and decreased cognitive ability, as compared to exposure to control sounds. Special attention should be paid to the mitigation of exposure to these types of noises.

Early malignant syphilis is an uncommon form of secondary syphilis and characterized by pleomorphic multiple round-to-oval papules, some with necrosis, and associated with systemic signs and symptoms. Usually seen in immunosuppressed patients, mainly those infected with HIV, it can also be observed in immunocompetent patients. We report a case in a young healthy woman with the characteristic features of the disease and with favourable skin lesion evolution after appropriate treatment with penicillin.LEARNING POINTS:Skin lesions can be caused by numerous systemic diseases.Syphilis is the 'great mimicker' and should always be considered as a diagnosis in those with skin lesions.

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) are widely used for the treatment of multiple conditions such as hypertension, heart failure and chronic kidney disease. Angioedema is a rare but potentially fatal complication of ACEi use and unilateral tongue edema is a very rare presentation. We report a case of a 55-year-old man, with a history of hypertension, on enalapril for three years, who presented to the hospital with unilateral tongue swelling, without airway compromise. Other causes were excluded and the diagnosis of angioedema due to enalapril was established. The patient was discharged with discontinuation of ACEi with total resolution of symptoms and without relapse after several months. Although very rare, unilateral tongue swelling should be considered in the presentation of angioedema associated with ACEi. Tight surveillance is important to prevent fatal complications such as airway obstruction. ACEi discontinuation is crucial to avoid clinical relapse.

Introduction: Vitamin D (VD) deficiency is a major comorbidity, frequently associated to heart failure (HF). VD supplementation effects in these patients remain unknown. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the impact of VD deficiency treatment or therapy correction in HF patients´ cohort. Material and Methods: Observational retrospective single-center study enrolling patients admitted to a HF clinic with VD deficiency. VD was prescribed to these patients with reassessment of its levels 12 months later. Study population was divided in: [VD (+) group: corrected VD deficiency] and [VD (-): maintained VD deficiency]. Variables were analysed in both groups. Results and Conclusion: Eighty-seven patients were included with no difference of baseline characteristics between the groups. Poor compliance was reported in 40% of VD (-) patients. After treatment, there were no statistically difference in variables analysed between the two groups: NYHA class I, NT-proBNP, HF hospitalizations in the previous year, Duke Activity Score Index score and 6-minute Walking Distance. VD (+) group had a statistically significant decrease of NT-proBNP level over time (1740 ± 2761 pg/mL to 851 ± 1436 pg/mL, p = 0.001). Statistically, both groups had a significant reduction of the number of HF hospitalizations, between baseline and 12 months later (1.02 ± 0.67 to 0.29 ± 0.82, p< 0.001 and 1.03 ± 1.04 to 0.40 ± 0.81, p = 0.001, for VD (+) and VD (-), respectively). Therefore, the correction of VD deficiency did not have impact in the variables analysed. The improvements reported within both groups may reflect the impact of the HF clinic optimized care.

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the self-concept of children and their ability to recognize emotions in others from facial expressions. It is hypothesized that children use their self-representations to interpret depictions of emotion in others and that higher self-concepts might be associated with earlier development of emotion recognition skills. A total of 54 children aged between 5 and 11 years participated in this study. Self-concept was assessed in all children using the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale for Children (Piers-Harris 2). To assess emotion recognition, a computerized instrument, the Penn Emotion Recognition Task (PERT), was applied. Despite the small sample of children, results show clear statistical effects. It is shown that emotion recognition ability is directly correlated with self-concept for intellectual/school status. The ability to correctly identify emotions from facial expressions is affected by general self-concept, intellectual/school status, and stimulus features of gender, intensity, and emotion. Further analysis shows that the general self-concept of children particularly affects the ability to identify happy faces. Children with a higher intellectual status score recognize happiness and neutral faces more easily. We concluded that the self-concept in children relates to the ability to recognize emotions in others, particularly positive emotions. These findings provide some support to the simulation theory of social cognition, where children use their own self-representations to interpret mental states in others. The effect of the self-concept for intellectual status on emotion recognition might also indicate that intellectual abilities act as a mediator between self-concept and emotion recognition, but further studies are needed.

Autoimmune diseases (AID) have been associated with a variety of lymphoproliferative disorders. Multiple myeloma (MM), one of the most common haematologic malignancies characterized by clonal proliferation of bone marrow plasma cells, has been associated with a range of autoimmune disorders. In this report, we described a case study of a patient admitted to our Internal Medicine Department for a bone marrow biopsy and myelogram due to a monoclonal peak observed by his general practitioner. However, at admission he presented typical giant cell arteritis (GCA) complaints, suggesting the coexistence of both diseases. The possible pathogenesis, as found in the literature, explaining the association will be discussed. LEARNING POINTS A relationship between AID and lymphoproliferative diseases, although rare, may occur and some studies suggest that the diagnosis of autoimmune disease has a negative impact on survival in MM patients. Bone marrow plasmacytosis can present a diagnostic dilemma, since it may be due to neoplastic or non-neoplastic conditions (that is, reactive plasmacytosis associated with AID, chronic infection, metastatic carcinoma, liver diseases and acquired immunodeficiency). Immunophenotyping in a myelogram or immunohistochemistry in bone marrow studies are useful in confirming a monoclonal plasma cell proliferation.

Visual signals can have an important impact on the perceived location of sound sources. Neurological mechanisms enable interactions between seeing and hearing to form a sense of space. The effect of vision on auditory localisation percepts is of fundamental importance. A sound source is either perceived at the location of the visual source or it is perceptually shifted toward it’s direction. This bias is one form of visual capture. The extent of the interactions depends on time and space constraints beyond which visual and auditory cues do not necessarily interact. These constraints and interactions vary for the localisation of sources along the horizontal and vertical planes, as well as with distance. While the traditional models of audiovisual interaction in space perception assume sensory integration, recent models allow for sensory cues to either interact or not. Models of visual dominance, modality appropriateness, and maximum likelihood estimation predict one combined percept. The newer models of causal inference allow for varied perceptual outcomes depending on the relationship of the different sensory cues. Finally, visual spatial cues can induce changes to how sounds are localised after the audiovisual experience. This notorious effect, known as the ventriloquism aftereffect, is possibly the main mechanism of auditory space learning and calibration. The ventriloquism aftereffect has been described with a causal inference model and with an inverse model. The current chapter discusses all of the above concepts, establishing a connection between psychophysical data and available models.

The goal of this study was to explore the effects of different spatial sound configurations on visual attention and cognitive effort in an immersive environment. For that purpose, different groups of people were exposed to the same immersive video, but with different soundtrack conditions: mono, stereo, 5.1 and 7.4.1. The different sound conditions consisted of different artistic adaptations of the same soundtrack. During the visualization of the video, participants wore an eye-tracking device and were asked to perform a counting task. Gaze direction and pupil dilation metrics were obtained, as measures of attention and cognitive effort. Results demonstrate that the conditions 5.1 and 7.4.1 were associated with larger distributions of the visual attention, with subjects spending more time gazing at task-irrelevant areas on the screen. The sound condition which led to more concentrated attention on the task-relevant area was mono. The wider the spatial sound configuration, the greater the gaze distribution. Conditions 7.4.1 and 5.1 were also associated with larger pupil dilations than the mono and stereo conditions, showing that these conditions might lead to increased cognitive demand and therefore increased task difficulty. We conclude that sound design should be carefully planned to prevent visual distraction. More surrounding spatialized sounds may lead to more distraction and more difficulty in following audiovisual contents than less distributed sounds. We propose that sound spatialization and soundtrack design should be adapted to the audiovisual content and the task at hand, varying in immersiveness accordingly.

With fast technological developments, traditional perceptual environments disappear and new ones emerge. These changes make the human senses adapt to new ways of perceptual understanding, for example, regarding the perceptual integration of sound and vision. Proceeding from the fact that hearing cooperates with visual attention processes, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of different sound design conditions on the perception of cinematic content in immersive audiovisual reproductions. Here we introduce the results of a visual selective attention task (counting objects) performed by participants watching a 270-degree immersive audiovisual display, on which a movie ("Ego Cure") was shown. Four sound conditions were used, which employed an increasing number of loudspeakers, i.e., mono, stereo, 5.1 and 7.1.4. Eye tracking was used to record the participant’s eye gaze during the task. The eye tracking data showed that an increased number of speakers and a wider spatial audio distribution diffused the participants’ attention from the task-related part of the display to non-task-related directions. The number of participants looking at the task-irrelevant display in the 7.1.4 condition was significantly higher than in the mono audio condition. This implies that additional spatial cues in the auditory modality automatically influence human visual attention (involuntary eye movements) and human analysis of visual information. Sound engineers should consider this when mixing educational or any other information-oriented productions.

This paper presents the co-authorship network of the DAFx conference series, from its inception in 1998 to the present, along with subsequent analysis. In total 1,281 unique authors have contributed 1,175 unique submissions to this conference series. The co-authorship network is revealed to contain a large weakly connected component containing 667 authors (≈52% of the total network). The size of this component compares well to previous studies of other conference series of similar age and scope. Within this connected component, 24 communities were detected using the Louvain method. While some communities have formed based on geographic proximity, links between communities are observed. This shows a high level of collaboration in the network, possibly due to the speciality of the conference and the movement of academics throughout Europe.

This communication is an overview of the FCT-funded three-year research project ‘AcousticAVE – Auralisation Models and Applications in Virtual Reality Environments’, a collaboration between the Universities of Aveiro (UA IEETA) and Minho (UM CIPsi, LVP). The project involved the development of auralisation software based on the image-source method accommodating dynamic scenarios, with real-time tracking of source/listener motion and listener head orientation. This software supported psychophysical research at the CAVE-like facilities of UM’s Visualisation and Perception Lab (LVP). This included an investigation on learning effects in spatial audio perception using non-individualised HRTF sets and distance and time-to-passage (TTP) perception experiments.

Concurrent auditory stimuli have been shown to enhance detection of abstract visual targets in experimental setups with little ecological validity. We presented 11 participants, wearing an eye-tracking device, with a visual detection task in an immersive audiovisual environment replicating a real-world environment. The participants were to fixate on a visual target and to press a key when they were confident of having detected the target. The visual world was accompanied by a task-relevant or task-irrelevant spatialized sound scene with different onset asynchronies. Our findings indicate task-relevant auditory cues to aid in orienting to and detecting a peripheral but not central visual target. The enhancement is amplified with an increasing amount of audio lead.

Eosinophilia is defined as an elevation of the eosinophil count above 0.5 × 109/L and it can be further classified in mild, moderate or severe according to blood eosinophil count. It is important to recognize the combination of eosinophilia and symptoms caused by eosinophils in order to make the correct diagnostic workup, so that distinction between secondary, primary and idiopathic forms can be made. The authors present a case of a 72-year-old man with asthma diagnosed during adulthood. He had a history of diarrhea for the last 9 months already investigated with abdominal imaging and colonoscopy and interpreted as a pancolitis of undetermined etiology. He presented to the emergency department complaining of a swollen tongue in the last 2 weeks. His laboratory studies showed leukocytosis and eosinophilia with a negative HIV antibody test. CT scan of the head and neck revealed diffuse thickening of the intrinsic muscles of the tongue. As for the chest CT, it showed right and left upper lobe patchy opacities. Biopsies of the regions affected (tongue, small intestine and colon) showed abundant infiltration by polymorphonuclear eosinophils. The cytoplasmic anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (C-ANCA) was elevated and, according to the clinical and laboratory data described before, the patient was diagnosed with Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS). Treatment with corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide led to complete remission of symptoms and eosinophilia. Clinicians must be aware of eosinophil-associated disease, an entity that refers to a wide spectrum of disorders but in which eosinophils play a central role. Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), formerly known as CSS, is a rare systemic vasculitis and a better understanding of the disease is still needed. J Med Cases. 2016;7(12):543-546 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc2677w