DOI: 10.5061/dryad.wwpzgmsqm
title: EEG responses to camouflage objects

description: Many animals rely on visual camouflage to avoid detection and increase
 their chances of survival. Edge disruption is commonly seen in the natural
 world, with animals evolving high-contrast markings that are incongruent
 with their real body outline to avoid recognition. Whilst many studies
 have investigated how camouflage properties influence viewer performance
 and eye movement in predation search tasks, researchers in the field have
 yet to consider how camouflage may directly modulate visual attention and
 object processing. To examine how disruptive colouration modulates
 attention, we use a visual object recognition model to quantify object
 saliency. We determine if object saliency is predictive of human
 behavioural performance and subjective certainty, as well as neural
 signatures of attention and decision-making. We show that increasing edge
 disruption not only reduces detection and identification performance but
 is also associated with a dampening of neurophysiological signatures of
 attentional filtering. Increased self-reported certainty regarding
 decisions corresponds with neurophysiological signatures of evidence
 accumulation and decision-making. In summary, we have demonstrated a
 potential mechanism by which edge disruption increases the evolutionary
 fitness of the animals by reducing the brain’s ability to distinguish
 signal from noise and, hence, to detect and identify the camouflaged
 animal.
description: Data was
 collected using an EEGbiosemi machine at the School of
 Psychology, University of Leeds, UK.
 All data were collected by Jac Billington. The data set
 contains both electrophysiological responses from the
 human brain and behavioural responses to the
 task. A total of twenty-one
 adult participants were recruited. Two participants were removed
 immediately following data collection; one could not complete the task as
 they could not see the camouflage stimuli and (due to an equipment
 failure) one did not have any recorded behavioural data. During EEG data
 pre-processing, one more participant was removed due to excessive noise
 evident in ERP signatures.
description: <strong>suggested Software </strong> <strong> </strong> <strong> Link</strong> MATLAB   https://uk.mathworks.com/ EEGlab 2019_1   https://eeglab.org/ FieldTrip 20200310   https://www.fieldtriptoolbox.org/ FASTER toolbox 1.2.3b   https://sourceforge.net/projects/faster/
description: # EEG responses to camouflage objects Creator(s): Jac Billington (also
 known as Jaclyn) Contact:
 [j.billington@leeds.ac.uk](mailto:j.billington@leeds.ac.uk)
 Organisation(s): University of Leeds Publication Year: 2024 Description:
 This data set contains behavioural and EEG output data from one
 experiment. Related publication: Intended to Proceedings of the Royal
 Society B August 2023. ## Data files and structure 21 .bdf files collected
 using an EEGbiosemi system at the School of Psychology, University of
 Leeds. Participants were given randomised codes at the point of data
 collection and were not identifiable. .bdf files can be imported into EEG
 analysis software such as EEGlab*. Participant codes [bgty, bvcd, cder,
 cocq, cxza, erfd, jabi, mnbg, nbvf, nhyu, qwsa, rtgf, tyhg, uikj, vcxs,
 vfrt, weds, xpbc, xswe, yujh, and zaqw] Participants “parts_*” have been
 split into .7z folders in sets of three for space-saving purposes: *
 parts_1_3.7z * parts_4_6.7z * parts_7_9.7z * parts_10_12.7z *
 parts_13_15.7z * parts_16_18.7z * parts_19_21.7z One .7z folder containing
 additional behavioural files for each EEG file: * behave_additional.7z *
 Contents: * main_eventcodes2.txt * Event trigger file (for use with
 EEGlab): main_eventcodes_explain.txt * Same as the file above but with a
 more detailed explanation of trigger codes. behavioural_eeg_output This
 folder contains all of the raw output files for the behavioural data.
 "README_heading_explanations.xlsx" provide details of what each
 header means in the remaining "_output.xlsx" files in the
 folder. * README_heading_explanations.xlsx * bgty_AB_output.xlsx *
 bvcd_AB_output.xlsx * cder_AB_output.xlsx * cocq_AB_output.xlsx *
 cxza_AB_output.xlsx * erfd_AB_output.xlsx * jabi_AB_output.xlsx *
 mnbg_AB_output.xlsx * nbvf_AB_output.xlsx * nhyu_AB_output.xlsx *
 qwsa_AB_output.xlsx * rtgf_AB_output.xlsx * tyhg_AB_output.xlsx *
 uikj_AB_output.xlsx * vcxs_AB_output.xlsx * vfrt_AB_output.xlsx *
 weds_AB_output.xlsx * xpbc_AB_output.xlsx * xswe_AB_output.xlsx *
 yujh_AB_output.xlsx * Note zaqw does not have a behavioural file Removals:
 %% participants removed for poor data prior to publication % zaqw: PC
 didn't save any behavioural. REMOVED % nhyu: Got too many wrong,
 reported couldn't see them well. REMOVED % qwsa: same as above but
 not as bad - check out. REMOVED Event codes can be found in main
 eventcodes2.txt