Objective: Many blind children in the developing world are unable to obtain timely treatment due to lack of financial and medical resources. Can public health programs that identify and treat such children several years after the onset of blindness enhance their quality of life? The notion that visual development is subject to an early 'critical period ' argues against this possibility. However, there are inadequate empirical data from humans on this issue. To address this need, we examined the quality of life of children living in India and who were treated for early-onset blindness (before one year of age), due to cataracts or corneal opacities.Study design: Survey study.Methods: As part of an ongoing scientific effort named Project Prakash, we screened over 40,000 children in rural northern India to identify those suffering from early-onset blindness. They were provided eye surgeries in a tertiary care ophthalmic center in New Delhi. We subsequently surveyed 64 Prakash children, ranging in age from 5 to 22 years and obtained their responses on a multi-dimensional quality of life questionnaire.Results: Nearly all of the subjects indicated that their quality of life had improved after treatment. Children reported marked enhancement in their mobility, independence, and safety, and also in social integration. Surprisingly, we found no significant correlations between quality of life metrics and factors such as age at treatment, gender, time since treatment, and pre-surgery and post-surgery acuity.Conclusions: A key question for public health policy makers is whether a program of surgical intervention for older blind children is likely to be beneficial, or if the resources are better spent on rehabilitation via vocational training and assistive devices. The marked improvements in quality of life we find in our data strongly argue for the provision of surgical care regardless of a child's age. (C) 2017 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Se realizo una bebida funcional de valor agregado, utilizando suero liquido sin procesar. El suero tiene excelentes cualidades nutricionales y sabores insulsos; es facil de digerir y posee una funcionalidad unica en un sistema de bebidas. La bebida preparada se formulo con suero de leche concentrado, zumo de naranja, una cantidad adecuada de azucar, estabilizador, acido citrico y saborizante. Los beneficios nutricionales y saludables de la naranja le imparten aun mas el valor a la bebida formulada. Nueve formulaciones de mezcla se prepararon mediante la variacion de la materia seca de suero de leche, jugo de fruta y el contenido de azucar. Basado en un analisis estadistico de la evaluacion sensorial de las bebidas, se encontro que la formulacion (optima tiene una relacion de 3:2 para el suero liquido concentrado y jugo de naranja, seguido por la adicion del 8% (w/v) de azucar y 0.1% de estabilizador (w/v). El tiempo de almacenamiento del producto final se llevo a cabo tanto a temperatura ambiente (30±2°C) y temperatura de refrigeracion (7±1°C) con y sin la adicion de conservadores. El producto se mantiene en buenas condiciones hasta once dias a temperatura ambiente y hasta tres meses bajo condiciones de refrigeracion con la adicion de 150 ppm de benzoato de sodio

Research on cognitive change typically focuses on early development or aging, and thus we have little knowledge of cognitive changes that might occur in adulthood. Taking advantage of large Web-based samples, we previously showed that both face learning ability and approximate number sense peak relatively late in adulthood (after age 30), whereas recognition memory for inverted faces and memory for names peak much earlier (Germine et al., 2011; Halberda et al., 2012). Here, we expand on these findings by examining cognitive change over the lifespan across a wide range of cognitive abilities. First, we present results from a systematic analysis of published data from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales and Wechsler Memory Scales showing that there is wide variation in the ages of peak performance on standardized IQ and memory tests. Second, we present findings from year-by-year analysis of large web samples on tests of processing speed, verbal and visual recognition memory, verbal and visual working memory, complex emotion perception, and crystallized verbal intelligence (sample sizes ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 for each test). Again, we find substantial heterogeneity in the peaks of different cognitive functions across the age range. While some cognitive abilities peak very early, declining after age 20 (e.g. processing speed), other cognitive abilities do not peak until around age 40 (e.g. complex emotion perception). Our findings also add to the growing list of cognitive functions that peak around age 30, including verbal and visual domains of working memory. Our data support the notion that changes in cognitive function over the lifespan are impacted by age-related change in multiple, dissociable factors. Finally, our data suggest that there is no age at which an adult has reached peak for all major cognitive functions. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013

We report on the recovery of vision in patients who were treated for very early onset (<1 year) cataracts after long-term deprivation (8-19 years). Previously reported cases of sight restoration either had significant visual experience for the first few years, or were treated within the first half-year after birth [Fine, et al., 2003; Maurer, Ellemberg and Lewis, 2006]. Through Project Prakash, we had the opportunity to study a large number of patients in India who were blind since early in life and treated past the age for normal development of contrast sensitivity. Patients were tested in two sessions separated by six months; the first test session was conducted one week to 2 years after treatment. The pre-surgery acuity of these patients ranged from light perception to finger counting at a distance of one meter. Patients were tested binocularly on an iPad [Dorr, et al., ECVP 2012]. The test presented band-passed Lea symbols using a Bayesian adaptive method to estimate contrast sensitivity functions [Lesmes, et al., 2010]. Results show that all patients recovered some vision in the lower spatial frequency range, and some patients even showed peak sensitivities (thresholds<1%) that were equivalent to sighted controls, but shifted to lower frequencies. Some patients showed significant improvements after six months, suggesting neural adaptation to the newly acquired visual input, but the extent of improvement was highly variable across patients. The age, level of pre-operative vision (light perception vs. finger counting), and time since treatment did not predict the extent of improvement over time. These results suggest that the human visual system has the capacity to develop contrast sensitivity after long-term deprivation, but it is still unknown which factors influence the extent of recovery. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013

Global motion perception is an important building block of visual development. Here we focus on the development of this ability itself. Specifically, we explore the impact of early visual deprivation on the availability and development of this ability. This issue has both basic and applied implications related to sensitive periods in visual development and prognoses for sight-restoring surgeries late in childhood. Examples of global motion assessment after recovery from extended blindness are scanty (Ellemberg et al., 2002; Fine et al., 2003). As a part of Project Prakash, we studied 8 subjects who were blind for the first 8 to 17 years of life because of very-early onset bilateral cataracts. Global motion perception was assessed by measuring coherence thresholds using random dot kinetograms (Newsome and Paré, 1988). The assessments were conducted 4 months to 2 years post cataract removal. All subjects had above chance global motion coherence thresholds with the performance of some subjects approaching near-normal levels. Evidence for even partial acquisition of global motion coherence is significant in that it shows that even extended periods of blindness starting near birth do not entirely preclude the development of this ability. The present data greatly extends the window of very early onset blindness duration after which acquisition or development of global motion coherence sensitivity is possible. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013

Testing schedule: Pre-surgery 360 days after surgery Could early performance impairment be due to the reduced acuity of Prakash children? We tested 40 controls with blur foils. Controls with artificially reduced acuity perform much better than just-treated Prakash children with similar acuity levels. • Subjects experiencing sight onset late in childhood can learn to localize faces in natural scenes. • Improvements in face localization ability cannot be attributed entirely to changes in visual acuity following sight onset. • The observed improvements over time provide evidence for the role of experience1 in the acquisition of face localization skills.

Natural vinegar is one of the fermented products which has some potentiality with respect to a nutraceutical standpoint. The present study is an optimization of the fermentation conditions for palm juice vinegar production from palm juice (Borasstes flabellifer) wine, this biochemical process being aided by Acetobacter aceti (NCIM 2251). The physical parameters of the fermentation conditions such as temperature, pH, and time were investigated by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with 2(3) factorial central composite designs (CCD). The optimum pH, temperature and time were 5.5, 30 degrees C and 72 hrs for the highest yield of acetic acid (68.12 g / L). The quadratic model equation had a R-2 value of 0.992. RSM played an important role in elucidating the basic mechanisms in a complex situation, thus providing better process control by maximizing acetic acid production with the respective physical parameters. At the optimized conditions of temperature, pH and time and with the help of mathematical kinetic equations, the Monod specific growth rate (mu (max) = 0.021 h(-1)), maximum Logistic specific growth rate (mu '(max) = 0.027 h(-1)) and various other kinetic parameters were calculated, which helped in validation of the experimental data. Therefore, the established kinetic models may be applied for the production of natural vinegar by fermentation of low cost palm juice.

Introduction: Amblyopia is the commonest cause of childhood visual impairment and has been understood as a low-level vision problem. We ask whether amblyopia has consequences for face recognition, comparing left-eye (LE) to right-eye (RE) amblyopes. The slower development of the nasal vs. the temporal hemifield pathway in infancy (Lewis and Maurer, 1992) predicts that LE deprivation should disproportionately hinder input to the developing face-processing-implicated right brain hemisphere, potentially causing a larger face processing deficit in LE than RE amblyopia. Methods: We recruited and tested 3936 participants, unselected with regard to amblyopia or face recognition ability, via our website Testmybrain.org. Participants reported whether they have or had amblyopia, and, if so, in which eye. As a measure of face recognition ability, they also took the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT; Duchaine and Nakayama, 2006). Results: In all, 252 participants indicated that they have or had amblyopia. Of these, 193 indicated which eye was affected (LE=119, RE=74). LE amblyopes recognized faces more poorly than both RE amblyopes (p=0.005) and non-amblyopic controls (p=0.014). RE amblyopes recognized faces slightly, but non-significantly, better than controls (p=0.14). Conclusion: We find a face recognition deficit in LE, but not RE, amblyopia, indicating that amblyopia can impact high-level vision. The specificity of this deficit to LE amblyopia rules out current visual acuity as an explanation, since LE and RE amblyopes have similar acuity. Our work also extends the prior finding of a face perception deficit specific to LE (not RE) congenital cataract patients (LeGrand et al, 2003) to a condition, amblyopia, with less extreme visual deprivation and to a test, CFMT, that has been tied to everyday social functioning. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2012

Proper characterization of each individual’s unique pattern of strengths and weaknesses requires good measures of diverse abilities. Here, we advocate combining our growing understanding of neural and cognitive mechanisms with modern psychometric methods in a renewed effort to capture human individuality through a consideration of specific abilities. We articulate five criteria for the isolation and measurement of specific abilities, then apply these criteria to face recognition. We cleanly dissociate face recognition from more general visual and verbal recognition. This dissociation stretches across ability as well as disability, suggesting that specific developmental face recognition deficits are a special case of a broader specificity that spans the entire spectrum of human face recognition performance. Item-by-item results from 1,471 web-tested participants, included as supplementary information, fuel item analyses, validation, norming, and item response theory (IRT) analyses of our three tests: (a) the widely used Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT); (b) an Abstract Art Memory Test (AAMT), and (c) a Verbal Paired-Associates Memory Test (VPMT). The availability of this data set provides a solid foundation for interpreting future scores on these tests. We argue that the allied fields of experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and vision science could fuel the discovery of additional specific abilities to add to face recognition, thereby providing new perspectives on human individuality.

Developmental prosopagnosia refers to an inability to recognize faces despite typical intellectual functioning, emotion and object recognition, and no evidence of brain injury. Very little is known about this disorder in children. We present a case study of a child, henceforth referred to as B, who reported extreme difficulty in recognizing faces. Participant: B is a healthy 7 year old male with no history of neurological or behavioral disorder. His parents report that he is above-average in intelligence and very social. He has no history of visual impairment other than a deficit in face recognition. Methods: We evaluated B's face recognition skills using a variety of measures for which we have been collecting normative data. We examined his ability to recognize faces, discriminate between faces, identify emotion, and recognize objects. A clinical neuropsychologist also evaluated B using a wide variety of measures. Finally, we employed a training program to improve B's ability to recognize the faces of familiar people in his life. Results: On our test of face recognition, B answered correctly on 46.8% of trials (50% is chance); average performance of 8 year olds on this test is 80% (sd = 10.7, n = 43). These results provide evidence of a severe deficit in face recognition. B showed no evidence of a similar deficit in the ability to discriminate faces, recognize objects, and identify emotion. The neuropsychological evaluation also found a deficit in face recognition despite intact object recognition, memory, emotion recognition, and above-average IQ. Finally, we successfully trained him to identify photographs of 30 familiar people; however, he used local characteristics of the photograph to recognize the faces. Discussion: This is one of very few studies of children with developmental prosopagnosia and the first comparison of a DP child using measures collected from a large sample of typical children.

Studies regarding the effects of context on the perception of a visual target's temporal properties have generally addressed the cross-modal integration of auditory context, within a functional or ecological (e.g., Bayesian) framework. A deeper understanding of contextual effects in temporal vision may be gained by drawing connections with the rich models of signal processing developed in the field of spatial vision. To bridge this gap, we investigate a purely visual version of the cross-modal "double-flash" illusion (L. Shams, Y. Kamitani, & S. Shimojo, 2000; J. T. Wilson & W. Singer, 1981). Here, a single target flash can be perceived as several flashes if it is presented in the context of multiple visual inducers. This effect is robust across conditions where the target and inducers are of opposite contrast polarity, in different hemifields, are non-collinear, are presented dichoptically, or are high-frequency Gabor patches. The effect diminishes when target-inducer distance is increased or when the target is moved toward the fovea. When the target is foveated, the effect can still be recovered if the inducers are placed at 3° distance. Finally, we find that multiple target flashes are not "merged" into a smaller number of perceived flashes when presented with singular inducers. These results suggest a cortical mechanism based on isotropic propagation of transient signals or possibly based on higher level event detection. Finally, we find that multiple target flashes are not "merged" into a smaller number of perceived flashes when presented with singular inducers. These results suggest a mechanism based on the propagation of transient signals and argue against the relevance of the cue integration model developed for the cross-modal version of the effect.

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is an important test case regarding modularity and structure of the visual system. Duchaine et al (2005) demonstrated that some cases of developmental prosopagnosia show deficits highly selective for faces. Duchaine et al also found a large family with both face and within category object deficits, indicating multiple causes of face deficits. To explore this issue in a wider sample, we tested 18 DPs and 14 age matched control subjects. Face memory was assessed by the Cambridge Face Memory Test. Two tests of non-face visual memory were administered - one using abstract art images and the other using within category discrimination of objects. Verbal memory was assessed using a written word paired associates test. DPs were severely impaired in the Cambridge Face Memory Test (Cohen's d= 3.9) confirming their face recognition deficits. They were also impaired on the abstract art and the within category object memory test, with a Cohen's d of 1.6 and 1.63 respectively. There was an insignificant difference with the verbal task, with the DPs scoring slightly higher than the control group.While the developmental prosopagnosics did not show deficits in verbal memory, in most cases they did show general visual memory deficits.

Recent work has demonstrated that the range of face recognition ability is very large, with developmental prosopagnosics at the low end (who in severe cases have difficulty identifying nuclear family members) and super-recognizers at the high end (who report rarely forgetting a face). It is not known what underlies this variation. One possibility is that lower-level perceptual abilities predict face recognition ability. Shape and pigmentation (surface reflectance) information have been shown to be about equally useful for face recognition by normal observers. This study seeks to determine whether this is also the case for people with very good and very bad face recognition ability, in order to determine whether face recognition ability is selectively associated with ability to perceive face shape or face pigmentation. Here we report findings from prosopagnosics and super-recognizers as well as normal control subjects. Subjects performed a facial similarity task, in which they sorted a set of faces in order of similarity to a target face. In the pigmentation condition all the faces had the same shape but different pigmentation, so that use of pigmentation information was required to perform the task. In the shape condition all the faces to be sorted had the same pigmentation but different shape, so that use of shape information was required to perform the task. By comparing performance by developmental prosopagnosics, normal control subjects, and super-recognizers on the shape and pigmentation conditions, we can determine whether shape or pigmentation perception is associated with face recognition ability.

Compared to notable successes in the genetics of basic sensory transduction, progress on the genetics of higher level perception and cognition has been limited. We propose that investigating specific cognitive abilities with well-defined neural substrates, such as face recognition, may yield additional insights. We used a classic twin design to determine the relative contributions of genes and environment to face recognition ability. Our measure of face recognition ability was the widely used Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT), a reliable, normed, well-validated test requiring study and then recognition of faces in novel views and novel lighting. We found that the correlation of scores between monozygotic twins (0.70) was both statistically indistinguishable from our measure's test-retest reliability (0.70) and more than double the dizygotic twin correlation (0.30), evidence that genetic influence accounts for all of CFMT's familial resemblance and for a very large proportion of its total stable variation. We also used an individual differences based study to dissociate face recognition ability from other abilities. A low correlation between CFMT and verbal recognition (0.17) demonstrated that the heritability we observed for CFMT was not the result of motivation, attention, computer-literacy, or general memory. A modest correlation between CFMT and abstract art recognition (0.26) indicated that general visual processes make only limited contributions to CFMT performance. Our results therefore identify a rare phenomenon in behavioral genetics: a highly specific cognitive ability that is highly heritable. These results establish a clear genetic basis for one of the most intensively studied and socially advantageous of cognitive traits, opening a new domain to genetic investigation.

Certain models of face processing ( Bruce and Young , 1986) postulate that certain types of non-identity based facial information can be processed independently of face identity recognition. Developmental prosopagnosia is characterized by a severe deficit in face-identity recognition. The status of non-identity based face information in this condition would be useful in understanding how face processing happens normally and also in individuals with developmental prosopagnosia. Developmental prosopagnosics generally report no subjective deficits in the perception of age, gender or attractiveness.By looking at associations and dissociations of non-identity facial information like age , gender and attractiveness from face-based identity recognition, the issues of parallel streams of information extraction can be evaluated. Also, the kinds of facial information that are compromised along with face-based identity recognition will speak to the organization of these information processing streams by understanding what deficits go together and what do not. Phenotype differences may also exist in developmental prosopagnosia in the nature of the associations and dissociations – information from individual differences is important in this regard.Correlations of attractiveness judgements by developmental prosopagnosics with those of the control population are discussed. Tests were developed to assess attractiveness, age, gender perception.By testing 16 developmental prosopagnosics, we show that normal age and gender processing can exist in many such cases in spite of face-identity recognition deficits.

In the world, encoding and learning of faces does not occur in isolation. We are exposed to and need to learn multiple faces, including encoding and learning in the presence of other faces. We developed the Progressive Face Learning Test to characterize individual differences in learning multiple novel faces in a short period as well as the effect of interference from other faces learned on learning rates.The test starts with a single face to be learned, which after presentation, is to be identified from a choice of faces, containing the target face and numerous foils.The number of faces to be learned is progressively increased by adding a new face after testing all the faces presented in the previous round.Faces to be learned as well as foils were chosen to be of comparable subjective distinctiveness.The test was used to characterize and compare different aspects of learning of faces like overall performance, learning rates and rate of change of learning rates for individual faces as well as with progressively increasing number of faces.Comparisons were done between people who have normal face recognition ability, above normal face recognition ability (“super-recognizers”) and below normal face recognition ability, including prosopagnosics.

Developmental prosopagnosia is an impaired ability to recognize familiar faces which is present at an early age. To better understand this condition, we examined the development of face processing abilities in normal children. Methods:Seven and ten-year-old children completed three tasks. Short-Term-Memory-Span for Faces: Participants were presented with a target face and then asked to select that face from a line-up of three faces. This test used a staircase method to determine the maximum number of faces that could be successfully recognized by the child. Perceptual Similarities: A target face was presented and children were asked to sort 6 faces based on their similarity to a target face, a task with minimal memory demands. Attractiveness: Children ordered 8 female faces from most attractive to least attractive. Results: 1. Significant improvement with age in memory span for faces. Average span went from 1.78 in 7-year-old children to 2.09 in 10-year-old children. (p=0.018) 2. Significant increase in ability to judge the similarity between faces with age. (p<0.001) 3. Little improvement in attractiveness judgments over the age range studied. 4. A regression analysis examining the contributions of age, memory span, and similarities on working memory performance suggests that performance on the similarity task was the strongest predictor of memory for faces while age contributes less variance to the prediction. 5. Judgments of attractiveness correlated little with performance of the two other tests and with age. Discussion:These results suggest that memory for faces and judgments of the similarity of faces share common perceptual process while judgments of attractiveness require attention to properties that are not required for the identification of an individual face.