The Cartesian
Reflex
Project
University of
Massachusetts-Amherst
John
W. Moore
Robert
J. Polewan
Christopher
M. Vigorito
Summer
2007 Information
"I blink, therefore
I
am."
The Cartesian Reflex Project seeks to reestablish human eyelid
conditioning
as a paradigm for research and teaching. The term Cartesian
reflex
comes from Descartes’s 1649 observation about how we cannot resist
blinking
when a friend thrusts his hand toward our eyes, even though we
know
that the friend would not strike us. Our involuntary blink, a
violation
of a social contract of a sort, was taken by Descartes as evidence
against
free will as the sole explanation of human behavior. For
Descartes,
involuntary reflexive action is evidence for the dualism for which he
is
famous; the reason he is often referred as the father of physiological
psychology. Like conditioned eyeblink responses, Cartesian
reflexes
are eyelid movements that anticipate a feared or expected event.
This
preliminary
webpage illustrates the basic procedure for establishing anticipatory
eyelid
closure to a `blink' command. The resulting CR, the Cartesian
reflex,
resembles eyeblink CRs observed with more conventional `unconditioned
stimuli'
such as an air puff (humans)
or electric shock (rabbits).
The `blink' US serves the same purpose while side-stepping concerns
about
human subject well-being. Future posting will detail the wide
range
of applications of these methods in the domains of learning theory and
affective/emotional variables in learning and performance.
The heart of the project is a
menu-driven
protocol generator and low-cost hardware component that permits
detection
of eyelid movements. The
system requires a computer, plug-in analog-digital converter, and
recording
potentiometer with power supply.
Research
Aims
1. Classical conditioning (e.g.,
basic
parameters, occasion setting, temporal uncertainty).
2. Instrumental conditioning
(e.g.,
incentives for criterion lid movements, devaluation, partial
reinforcement).
3. Assessment of computational
learning
theories.
4. Comparisons of movements of
upper
eyelid (superior aspect of lid) with the lateral aspect of the eyebrow,
as described in the August 5th, 2003 edition of the New York Times
regarding
facial muscles and emotional expression (see
Paul Ekman's research).
Teaching Aims
Laboratories were once common
features
of Learning courses, but they have given way to Computer Rats in
virtual
worlds. We believe that students will be excited about performing
and serving in real experiments, experiments which could well be
significant
platforms for research at the level of honors theses and up.
(Click images to make
larger)
Example of
Presentation
and Protocol Generation
The CS (the green cirle)
and
the US (the word "Blink") present together.
The program menus that
establish
the CS, US, and ISI.
Implementation by
Christopher
Vigorito.
Differential
Conditioning
Procedure
At the
beginning
of the experiment, subjects received the following instructions
projected
on a computer monitor: "Thank you for participating in this
study.
You will see a series of squares on the monitor. Sometimes the
work
"Blink" will appear within the square. Your task is to blink when
the word "Blink" appears. The experiment will begin shortly."
The
experiment
began by the screen projecting a uniform green field. CS+ was
presented
for 16 trials. In addition, there were four nonreinforced
trials.
This phase was designed to establish and evaluate a CR. The
intertrial
interval (ITI) was 5 seconds. This phase was followed without
interruption
by a series 80 trials, 40 to CS+ and 40 to CS- presented in a random
order.
The CS+ was
a
gray square on the green surround. The duration of the square was
1000 ms. The word "Blink" appeared in the center of the square
500
ms after the square’s onset, for a CS-US interval (ISI) of 500
ms.
The CS- was another gray square of a lighter shade and somewhat
smaller.
This square was also projected for 1000 ms per trial, but without the
blink
command. Differential conditioning procedures dictate that only
one
screen appear per trial. That is the two figures do not appear
simultaneously
but are separated by at least 5 seconds, the ITI.
Subject 1
(A subject wearing the
headgear
to record eyelid movement.
The recording device is
the
same as used with rabbits,see below).
Data for Subject 1
The above
figure
shows the average eyeblink topography of the 40 CS+ trials and the 40
CS-
trials for the differential conditioning procedure in which the a 1000
ms tone was presented. The word "Blink" was presented 500 ms
after
CS onset and coterminated with the CS. This subject is a 67 year
old male with some visual impairment. Discrimination performance
for this subject was very poor: The average CR amplitude
(distance
from baseline in mm) at the point of US onset was 1.76 mm to CS+ and
1.37
mm to CS-.
Subject 2
Subject 2 is received the
same
protocol and instructions as subject 1.
Data for Subject 2
The above
figure
shows the average eyeblink topography of the 40 CS+ trials and the 40
CS-
trials for the differential conditioning procedure in which the a 1000
ms tone was presented. The word "Blink" was presented 500 ms
after
CS onset and coterminated with the CS. This subject is a 31 year
old male with some visual impairment. Discrimination performance for
this
subject was excellent but not perfect: The average CR amplitude
(distance
from baseline in mm) at the point of US onset was 8.23 mm to CS+ and
1.89
mm to CS-.
Publications
Polewan, R. J.,
Vigorito, C. M., Nason, C.
D., Block, R. A., & Moore, J. W. (2006). A Cartesian reflex
assessment of
face processing. Behavioral
and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 5, 3-23. (PDF)
Paper
reprints available upon request.
Data & Reports
Sample
data.
Spring
2004 data & reports (password protected).
Links
The
Moore Laboratory Homepage
UMass
Psychology Department
A
Neuroscientist's Guide to Classical Conditioning
Website
maintained
by Robert Polewan
Copyright © 2004
John
W. Moore