Monkeys Pay Per View: Adaptive Valuation of Social Images by Rhesus Macaques

Current Biology
Volume 15, Issue 6, 29 March 2005, Pages 543–548

Robert O. Deaner [1], Amit V. Khera [1], Michael L. Platt [1,2,3]

[1] Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710
[2] Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710
[3] Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710

Summary

Individuals value information that improves decision making. When social interactions complicate the decision process, acquiring information about others should be particularly valuable. In primate societies, kinship, dominance, and reproductive status regulate social interactions and should therefore systematically influence the value of social information, but this has never been demonstrated. Here, we show that monkeys differentially value the opportunity to acquire visual information about particular classes of social images. Male rhesus macaques sacrificed fluid for the opportunity to view female perinea and the faces of high-status monkeys but required fluid overpayment to view the faces of low-status monkeys. Social value was highly consistent across subjects, independent of particular images displayed, and only partially predictive of how long subjects chose to view each image. These data demonstrate that visual orienting decisions reflect the specific social content of visual information and provide the first experimental evidence that monkeys spontaneously discriminate images of others based on social status.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098220500093X

The Role of Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips

Journal of Sensory Studies
Volume 19, Issue 5, pages 347–363, October 2004

Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence

Department of Experimental Psychology
University of Oxford
South Parks Road
Oxford, OX1 3UD
UK

ABSTRACT

We investigated whether the perception of the crispness and staleness of potato chips can be affected by modifying the sounds produced during the biting action. Participants in our study bit into potato chips with their front teeth while rating either their crispness or freshness using a computer-based visual analog scale. The results demonstrate that the perception of both the crispness and staleness was systematically altered by varying the loudness and/or frequency composition of the auditory feedback elicited during the biting action. The potato chips were perceived as being both crisper and fresher when either the overall sound level was increased, or when just the high frequency sounds (in the range of 2 kHz−20 kHz) were selectively amplified. These results highlight the significant role that auditory cues can play in modulating the perception and evaluation of foodstuffs (despite the fact that consumers are often unaware of the influence of such auditory cues). The paradigm reported here also provides a novel empiric methodology for assessing such multisensory contributions to food perception.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-459x.2004.080403.x/abstract

Coordination modes in the multisegmental dynamics of hula hooping

Biological Cybernetics
March 2004, Volume 90, Issue 3, pp 176-190
Cover Date 2004-03-01
DOI 10.1007/s00422-003-0460-4

Ramesh Balasubramaniam (1,2), M.T. Turvey (2,3)

1) Sensory Motor Neuroscience Group, Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT, UK
2) Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action, U-20 University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
3) Haskins Laboratories, 270 Crown Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA

Abstract

In hula hooping, organized motions of the body keep the hoop in stable oscillatory motion parallel to the ground. We examined the hypothesis that the multiple degrees of freedom (DF) of the lower limbs in producing the oscillations are resolved into a few control DF. The Karhunen-Loève decomposition was applied to the kinematics of the lower limbs in three experiments in which oscillation amplitude and frequency were manipulated. Kinematic variance was accommodated by two modes whose relative contributions varied with task parameters. Complementary analyses of interjoint Hilbert relative phase suggested a lower-limb organization into a vertical suspension mode and an oscillatory fore-aft mode. These modes might stabilize the hoop’s angular momentum by controlling, respectively, its vertical and horizontal components.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00422-003-0460-4

Accidental condom inhalation

The Indian Journal of Chest Diseases and Allied Sciences
Jan-Mar 2004, 46(1), pp. 55-58

C L Arya, Rajnish Gupta, V K Arora

Jaswant Rai Speciality Hospital, Meerut, India.

Abstract

A 27-year-old lady presented with persistent cough, sputum and fever for the preceding six months. Inspite of trials with antibiotics and anti-tuberculosis treatment for the preceeding four months, her symptoms did not improve. A subsequent chest radiograph showed non-homogeneous collapse-consolidation of right upper lobe. Videobronchoscopy revealed an inverted bag like structure in right upper lobe bronchus and rigid bronchoscopic removal with biopsy forceps confirmed the presence of a condom. Detailed retrospective history also confirmed accidental inhalation of the condom during fellatio.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14870871