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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 09 2019, @03:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the uncanny-valley dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

This brain region may be why some robots send chills down your spine

A new analysis of brain scans may explain why hyperrealistic androids and animated characters can be creepy.

By measuring people's neural activity as they viewed pictures of humans and robots, researchers identified a region of the brain that seems to underlie the "uncanny valley" effect — the unsettling sensation sometimes caused by robots or animations that look almost, but not quite, human (SN Online: 11/22/13). Better understanding the neural circuitry that causes this feeling may help designers create less unnerving androids.

In research described online July 1 in the Journal of Neuroscience, neuroscientist Fabian Grabenhorst and colleagues took functional MRI scans of 21 volunteers during two activities. In each activity, participants viewed pictures of humans, humanoid robots of varying realism and — to simulate the appearance of hyperrealistic robots — "artificial humans," pictures of people whose features were slightly distorted through plastic surgery and photo editing.

[...] Brain scans revealed that activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, or VMPFC — a region involved in making value judgments — mirrored participants' uncanny valley reactions. VMPFC activity was typically higher in response to more humanlike pictures, but dipped in response to artificial humans. That drop was most pronounced in people with the strongest dislike for artificial humans. Those findings suggest that this region of the brain underpins the uncanny valley sensation, the researchers say.

[...] If the VMPFC is responsible for generating the uncanny valley heebie-jeebies, that may be good news for android designers and animators. Social experiences can change how VMPFC reacts to certain situations, says Grabenhorst, of the University of Cambridge. So positive interactions with an initially creepy robot or avatar may make it less bothersome.


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  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday July 09 2019, @04:41PM (2 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 09 2019, @04:41PM (#865043) Journal

    This exact class of paper has a huge reproducibility problem [nih.gov]

    Some regions of the brain show low contrast-to-noise levels and can be falsely indicated easily. This paper's methodology section doesn't clarify the question of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex's overall testability. And their data look pretty noisy. You can't clearly partition samples in figure D into positive and negative cases. And their arbitrary selection of time window for sampling opens the the risk of accidental(or even purposeful) cherry picking and p-hacking.

    Plausible result with underlying mechanism, but the data doesn't make a profound and irrefutable case for the hypothesis, and there's valid methodology questions left open.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @06:07PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @06:07PM (#865086)

      Yep, I was about to post something similar. Here's a useful-looking intro to the fMRI process,
          https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/brain-metrics/what_does_fmri_measure [nature.com]

      It may be the best tool available at the moment, but it is still a monster pile driver, attempting to gently push in a tiny tack.

      Hints: It does not measure actual nerves being activated. Further the resolution is a joke, "In a typical scan, each voxel might cover 3mm^3 of tissue, a volume that would encompass ~ 630,000 neurons in cortex.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 10 2019, @02:44AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 10 2019, @02:44AM (#865263) Journal

        It may be the best tool available at the moment, but it is still a monster pile driver, attempting to gently push in a tiny tack.

        Hints: It does not measure actual nerves being activated. Further the resolution is a joke, "In a typical scan, each voxel might cover 3mm^3 of tissue, a volume that would encompass ~ 630,000 neurons in cortex.

        See also [prefrontal.org]: Bennett et al. "Neural Correlates of Interspecies Perspective Taking in the Post-Mortem Atlantic Salmon: An Argument For Proper Multiple Comparisons Correction" Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results, 2010.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by KilroySmith on Tuesday July 09 2019, @04:43PM (1 child)

    by KilroySmith (2113) on Tuesday July 09 2019, @04:43PM (#865044)

    There's only one good explanation for why humans have evolved the "uncanny valley" response: Aliens.

    This is a classic example of Darwin's evolution. Aliens invaded earth after Homo Sapiens had evolved, but prior to (most) recorded history. These aliens attempted to infiltrate human society by wearing masks that almost, but not quite, made them look human. Those humans who could detect the aliens survived; those who couldn't became lunch. Ergo, the only humans that survived into the present day had this capability that seems strange and unuseful today.

    Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @05:30PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @05:30PM (#865063)

    For not interbeeding with other hominid species from way back when.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @05:54PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @05:54PM (#865080)

      Or for avoiding the sick and contagious...

      Is there a similar uncanny valley effect for CGI porn? What level of realism for CGI porn to hit that uncanny valley? Asking for someone else/research purposes only ;).

      • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday July 10 2019, @01:02PM

        by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday July 10 2019, @01:02PM (#865359) Journal

        Is that the difference between "ooh, ahh" and "eww, err"?

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @07:45AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @07:45AM (#865308)

      Or possibly explains why there are no other human species?

      i.e. that our reaction to the similar, but "not us" others is such that it can lead to violence?

      Maybe we did kill off all the other human species, but due to this "uncanny valley" effect / reaction?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @07:52AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @07:52AM (#865310)

        I find this very plausible. Any species that did not develop this ability was probably set upon and wiped out.

        And of course any species that loses abiltiy to detect danger will be wiped out eventually. So this is probably a way to sense danger.

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @05:44PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @05:44PM (#865072)

    Not only robots cause this sensation. Trannies also cause the same sensation for me, that is one of the reasons I don't like them.

    You might say "but what about the passable ones"? First of all, that is horrifying concept, but luckily these do not exist. Even if they can pass on looks (extremely rare), as soon as they speak or move I know.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @09:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @09:13PM (#865154)

      If the tranny was open about his being a tranny you will not feel so bad. The strange sensation is triggered when there is a fraud in front of you. Trannies trying to pass as women are fraud.

      Some men have more women manners than they care to admit and some women are quite manly, but since they are not doing fraud, you feel comfortable around them.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 10 2019, @02:53AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 10 2019, @02:53AM (#865264) Journal

      Even if they can pass on looks (extremely rare), as soon as they speak or move I know.

      Sharing your experience was appreciated, but anecdotes are not data.
      E.g. other anecdotes pointing to the contrary [youtube.com]


      Well, I'd left home just a week before
      And I'd never ever kissed a woman before
      But Lola smiled and took me by the hand
      She said, "Little boy, gonna make you a man"
      Well, I'm not the world's most masculine man
      But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man
      And so is Lola
      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Tuesday July 09 2019, @08:32PM (1 child)

    by Rupert Pupnick (7277) on Tuesday July 09 2019, @08:32PM (#865140) Journal

    I’ve neither heard of nor experienced this effect. Is it common?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @12:10AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @12:10AM (#865220)

      I heard of it first in reference to computer animation. That's why pixar animated toys for so long, plastic is easy. Its very hard to get something that looks good enough to get past the "uncanny valley" ie the range of things that aren't good enough to pass for real but are so realistic that it looks bad/fake or just makes people uncomfortable.

      Looking for budget/older CGI with human characters will probably turn up some examples.

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