Informing the Design of a Neuroscience Experiment by Exploring the Evolution of Indirect to Direct Relations Between Topics in Augmented Reality Using a Timeline

Informing the Design of a Neuroscience Experiment by Exploring the Evolution of Indirect to Direct Relations Between Topics in Augmented Reality Using a Timeline | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Informing the Design of a Neuroscience Experiment by Exploring the Evolution of Indirect to Direct Relations Between Topics in Augmented Reality Using a Timeline Boyu Xu, Lynda Hardman, Wolfgang Hürst This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6327352/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Topic-based literature exploration in Augmented Reality (AR) has successfully been used to support neuroscientists in obtaining an overview of the literature, which is a tedious and time-consuming task needed to design expensive neuroscientific experiments. In particular, topic-based literature exploration in 3D AR allows users to analyse large numbers of publications simultaneously, providing a “bird’s-eye” view of relations between neuroscience topics. A direct relation exists when two topics, such as a brain region and a brain disease, co-occur in the same sentence of a publication’s title or abstract. An indirect relation occurs when no direct relation exists, but each topic co-occurs with a common intermediate topic, such as a gene. Neuroscientists have suggested that understanding how historical indirect relations evolved into current direct ones (1) increases confidence in the usefulness of current indirect relations and (2) informs the design of their experiments. Using a user-centred design approach, we establish if such a timeline-based exploration is indeed useful. We interview neuroscientists to verify the usefulness of exploring the evolution of indirect to direct relations, identify required functionality, and design and implement a timeline visualisation in 3D AR. Twelve neuroscientists carried out two representative tasks using the implemented functionality and timeline visualisation. Responses to 13 semi-structured interview questions and 10 Likert-scale questions indicated that (a) the timeline visualisation is suitable for presenting the implemented functionality, (b) the functionality is useful for exploring the evolution, and (c) exploring the evolution of indirect to direct relations is useful for designing experiments. Topic-based Literature Exploration User-centred Design Data Visualisation Augmented Reality Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files VideoInformingtheDesignofaNeuroscienceExperimentbyExploringtheEvolutionofIndirecttoDirectRelationsBetweenTopicsinAugmentedRealityUsingaTimeline.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6327352","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":474938632,"identity":"27f63935-57ba-46c3-a513-49006a3addfb","order_by":0,"name":"Boyu Xu","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAfElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACAxDxAUSwk6KFcQaIxUyKFmYekrSYM/CYSdu2HWYwJ1qLZQNbmnQuUItlM9EOO8B8DKzF4DDxWhjbpC1J1AK0hZEkLZbNbMmWPefSeYjXYs7eY3jjR5m1nMHxBmL1QMOWh1j1o2AUjIJRMAqIAQBwTx4P4ZEivAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Utrecht University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Boyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Xu","suffix":""},{"id":474938633,"identity":"8037b466-84c8-4b51-814b-f354ce92234b","order_by":1,"name":"Lynda Hardman","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Centrum Wiskunde \u0026 Informatica","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lynda","middleName":"","lastName":"Hardman","suffix":""},{"id":474938634,"identity":"bddf1fe2-2345-4c00-92f8-9e4983c220a1","order_by":2,"name":"Wolfgang Hürst","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Utrecht University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wolfgang","middleName":"","lastName":"Hürst","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-28 10:38:26","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6327352/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6327352/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":85364591,"identity":"acf56417-5d69-4684-a228-2ae88b58f828","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-25 06:33:57","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":20836136,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"250328BoyuXuVRJournalpublicationdatestimelinestudy.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6327352/v1_covered_54e293a9-261f-43c9-b334-5ba6c3b72504.pdf"},{"id":85363816,"identity":"0eb69b1b-8dfc-4eb0-b94c-9b5530d6a5f8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-25 06:25:19","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":31039,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"VideoInformingtheDesignofaNeuroscienceExperimentbyExploringtheEvolutionofIndirecttoDirectRelationsBetweenTopicsinAugmentedRealityUsingaTimeline.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6327352/v1/3178d6cfaca94680cb3b71c5.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Informing the Design of a Neuroscience Experiment by Exploring the Evolution of Indirect to Direct Relations Between Topics in Augmented Reality Using a Timeline","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Topic-based Literature Exploration, User-centred Design, Data Visualisation, Augmented Reality","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6327352/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6327352/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eTopic-based literature exploration in Augmented Reality (AR) has successfully been used to support neuroscientists in obtaining an overview of the literature, which is a tedious and time-consuming task needed to design expensive neuroscientific experiments. In particular, topic-based literature exploration in 3D AR allows users to analyse large numbers of publications simultaneously, providing a \u0026ldquo;bird\u0026rsquo;s-eye\u0026rdquo; view of relations between neuroscience topics. A direct relation exists when two topics, such as a brain region and a brain disease, co-occur in the same sentence of a publication\u0026rsquo;s title or abstract. An indirect relation occurs when no direct relation exists, but each topic co-occurs with a common intermediate topic, such as a gene. Neuroscientists have suggested that understanding how historical indirect relations evolved into current direct ones (1) increases confidence in the usefulness of current indirect relations and (2) informs the design of their experiments. Using a user-centred design approach, we establish if such a timeline-based exploration is indeed useful. 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