Frequency Modulated (FM) stimuli consisted of simple sinusoidal frequency modulated (FM) tones generated in MATLAB with a one second duration. FM was calculated as follows: x(t)=Asin {2 π fc t + β sin(2 π fm t)} where x(t) is the pressure variation over time t, A is the peak amplitude( or pressure), fc is the […]
Tag Archives | social
Vocal Burst
Prosody is an important part of social communication in which we use vocal cues to determine the emotion in a speaker’s voice. Here, we examine prosody in vocal bursts, or nonverbal utterances. This task uses stimuli adapted from Simon-Thomas et al. (2009). Subjects listen to each stimulus and are asked to indicate how positive vs. […]
Prosody Task
Prosody is an important part of social communication in which we use vocal cues to determine the emotion in a speaker’s voice. This task, adapted from Juslin and Laukka (2001) uses semantically neutral sentences spoken with either anger, happiness, fear, sadness, or ne expression. Subjects are asked to indicate which emotion the speaker was conveying […]
Sarcasm
This task is not currently in use. It was developed by Orbelo et al. (2005) as an attitudinal subtest of the Aprosodia Battery. It consists of 20 sentences recorder by both male and female speakers in either a sincere or sarcastic manner. Sentences were semantically neural (e.g. “This looks like a safe boat.”) Subjects were […]
Time, Causality, and Perception (TCP)
Basic Research Questions 1. How does the perception of time influence the attributions of causality in physical and social interaction? 2. Can stimulation of the frontal cortex using Transcranial Direct Stimulation (TDCS), and subsequent cognitive behavioral training alter the perception of temporal coincidence and by extension physical causality attributions in a sustained manner? 3. What are […]
Abstracting Emotions Using Frequency Modulated Tones
Basic Research Questions 1. Are carrier frequency and modulation depth cues sufficient enough to convey prosodic intent? 2. Can this acoustic space be mapped in order to determine the existence regions of basic emotions? 3. To what degree do responses to these tones reflect the use of pitch in actual prosodic processing? Affective communication through […]
Loneliness, Social Connectedness, and Isolation
Basic Research Questions 1. Do individuals with schizophrenia have intact motivation to interact with others? 2. How does social communication relate to loneliness, desire for social connectedness, and actual isolation in both a healthy population and in schizophrenia? 3. How do these measures relate to clinical outcome? Humans have evolved highly complex social cognitive and […]
Prosody-Centric Neuropsychological Connectome
Basic Research Questions 1. How do deficits in auditory and language abilities relate to prosody perception across different diagnoses? 2. Which neuropathic mechanisms impair prosodic perception in schizophrenia and how are these different from other diagnoses? 3. What are the optimal targets for treatment interventions to improve social communication impairments? Dysprodia, which is impairment in […]
Conversation and Collaboration
Basic Research Questions: 1. How do individuals with schizophrenia and Autism Spectrum Disorders establish joint attention with another individual to achieve a common goal? 2. How do these individuals form common conceptual ground? 3. Further, how do turn taking dynamics differ during conversation? Moment-by-moment coordination among conversational partners is necessary because for each utterance, […]
