Gaze field properties of eye position neurones in areas MST and 7a of the macaque monkey

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Squatrito ◽  
M. G. Maioli
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Discharge Rate ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Eye Position ◽  
Primary Position ◽  
Discharge Rates ◽  
Single Neurones ◽  
Straight Ahead

AbstractThe activity of parietal cortex neurones primarily related to eye position (EP neurones) was studied in macaque monkeys with the aim of precisely defining the neurones' gaze fields (GF) and comparing them in two functionally different areas, MSTd and 7a. Discharge rates of single neurones in the inferior parietal lobule and in the underlying cortex of the superior temporal sulcus were recorded in two Java monkeys while the animals fixated a steady visual target positioned at several different points on a video screen. The GFs were then drawn as a regression surface fitting the mean discharge rates. Cells tonically influenced by the angle of gaze were found in both areas. The GFs most often took the form of a nearly planar surface best characterized as a ramp tilted towards a hemifield or quadrant of the visual field, shifted eccentrically with respect to the straight ahead (primary position), and with a midpoint centred between 0 deg and 20 deg of gaze eccentricity and saturation between 10 deg and 35 deg. In a minority of cases, the discharge rate was nearly maximal at the primary position and decreased to a minimum within 35 deg of eccentricity. In other instances, the GFs were peaked surfaces, limited to a restricted part of visual space. EP neurones, while showing similar gaze fields in areas MST and 7a, were found intermingled with functionally different types of cells. The results suggest that EP neurones similar to those already described in several areas of the monkey parietal cortex are present also in area MST. These cells, by signalling the degree of gaze eccentricity from the primary position, encode gaze position in an orbito-centered frame extending up to 30–35 deg from the straight-ahead. The role of EP neurones might be to supply contiguous elements with a gaze eccentricity signal required for visuo-motor processes such as the control of tracking movements.

The role of the posterior parietal cortex in coordinate transformations for visual–motor integration

1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Andersen ◽  
David Zipser
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Back Propagation ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Eye Position ◽  
Area 7A ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Visual Motor

Lesion to the posterior parietal cortex in monkeys and humans produces spatial deficits in movement and perception. In recording experiments from area 7a, a cortical subdivision in the posterior parietal cortex in monkeys, we have found neurons whose responses are a function of both the retinal location of visual stimuli and the position of the eyes in the orbits. By combining these signals area 7a neurons code the location of visual stimuli with respect to the head. However, these cells respond over only limited ranges of eye positions (eye-position-dependent coding). To code location in craniotopic space at all eye positions (eye-position-independent coding) an additional step in neural processing is required that uses information distributed across populations of area 7a neurons. We describe here a neural network model, based on back-propagation learning, that both demonstrates how spatial location could be derived from the population response of area 7a neurons and accurately accounts for the observed response properties of these neurons.

The Role of Binocular Viewing in a Spacing Illusion Arising in a Darkened Surround

Perception ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kotaro Suzuki
Keyword(s):  
Binocular Viewing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Monocular Viewing ◽  
Reverse Order ◽  
Eye Position ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Partial Explanation ◽  
Moon Illusion ◽  
Straight Ahead

A study is reported of the binocular-oculomotor hypothesis of the moon illusion. In a dark hall, a pair of light points was presented straight ahead horizontally, and another pair was presented at the same distance but 50° upward. Twenty subjects compared the spacings of these two pairs. Half of the subjects viewed the stimuli first monocularly and then binocularly, and the other half viewed them in the reverse order. Eye position was also systematically varied, either level or elevated. A spacing illusion was consistently obtained during binocular viewing (with the upper spacing seen as smaller), but no illusion arose during monocular viewing unless it was preceded by binocular viewing. Furthermore, an enhancement of the illusion due to eye elevation was found only during binocular viewing. These findings replicate the report of Taylor and Boring (1942 American Journal of Psychology55 189–201), in which the moon was used as the stimulus, and support the binocular-oculomotor hypothesis as a partial explanation for the moon illusion.

The ENT emergency clinic: does senior input matter?

2012 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Mirza ◽  
L McClelland ◽  
M Daniel ◽  
N Jones
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Discharge Rate ◽  
Surrogate Marker ◽  
Operating Theatre ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Discharge Rates ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Number Of Patients

AbstractBackground:Many ENT conditions can be treated in the emergency clinic on an ambulatory basis. Our clinic traditionally had been run by foundation year two and specialty trainee doctors (period one). However, with perceived increasing inexperience, a dedicated registrar was assigned to support the clinic (period two). This study compared admission and discharge rates for periods one and two to assess if greater registrar input affected discharge rate; an increase in discharge rate was used as a surrogate marker of efficiency.Method:Data was collected prospectively for patients seen in the ENT emergency clinic between 1 August 2009 and 31 July 2011. Time period one included data from patients seen between 1 August 2009 and 31 July 2010, and time period two included data collected between 1 August 2010 and 31 July 2011.Results:The introduction of greater registrar support increased the number of patients that were discharged, and led to a reduction in the number of children requiring the operating theatre.Conclusion:The findings, which were determined using clinic outcomes as markers of the quality of care, highlighted the benefits of increasing senior input within the ENT emergency clinic.

New analytical solution for the study of hydraulic interaction between Alpine tunnels and groundwater

2003 ◽  
Vol 174 (5) ◽  
pp. 441-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Christophe Maréchal ◽  
Pierre Perrochet
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Solution ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Discharge Rate ◽  
Water Discharge ◽  
Rate Condition ◽  
Type Curves ◽  
Discharge Rates ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Surface Monitoring ◽  
Tunnel Discharge

Abstract The present paper addresses two major problems encountered during tunnel drilling and related to the hydraulic interaction with surrounding groundwater bodies. The first one is the prediction of water discharge into the tunnel, as a function of the geometric and hydrogeological data. The second problem is related to the assessment of the draining effects on surface waters (springs, lakes, wetlands). Surface monitoring campaigns are costly and evaluating their duration is a sensitive question. Both problems are tightly related and depend on aquifer dynamics. It is shown that in a geological context with steeply dipping structures, nearly vertical, inducing series of aquifers and aquicludes such as in the Alps, the drainage of the aquifer by the tunnel can be modelled by the analytical solution of Jacob and Lohman [1952] for artesian wells. First developed for horizontal, confined unsteady flow towards a vertical well with constant drawdown, it is adapted here to a horizontal tunnel by a rotation of π/2. The main difference between this solution and more classical Theis’ solutions is that a constant drawdown condition replaces the constant discharge rate condition. Hence, a relation is obtained for the time-dependent discharge rate Q(t) detected at the tunnel after drilling, as a function of aquifer transmissivity (T), storage coefficient (S), initial drawdown (so) and tunnel radius (ro). This analytical solution is compared to a finite-elements model simulating a draining tunnel in a simplified 2D vertical cross-section. The comparisons show that the decay of the tunnel discharge can be divided into two periods. During the first period, radial drawdown develops around the tunnel and there is excellent match between analytical and numerical results. Tunnel discharge results from the decompression of rock and water (storage effects) as a response to the sudden initial drawdown at the tunnel location. During the second period, the drawdown cone reaches the aquifer limits (lateral and upper) and numerical discharge rates decrease faster than analytical rates because of hydraulic heads decline at the aquifer limits. In the Alps, such trends were observed for the discharge rates into the Simplon and Mont-Blanc tunnels, and the analytical solution of Jacob and Lohman [1952] was applied to the first discharge period to evaluate aquifer transmissivity and storage coefficients. As indicated by the simulations, and corroborated by field observations, the analytical solution is only valid during a first period after tunnel opening, the duration of which scaling with the inverse of the aquifer diffusivity (T/S). In the second part of the paper, dimensionless type-curves are presented to enable rapid evaluation of the time where a given drawdown is observed at a given distance from the tunnel. Accounting for tunnel geometry (radius and depth) and aquifer parametres (T and S), these curves could for instance help in practice to determine when surface waters would start to be affected by a draining tunnel underneath. Although neglecting the boundary effects discussed in the first part of the paper, these type-curves demonstrate the great inertia of mountain aquifers, and could be used to adjust the duration of surface monitoring campaigns according to the specific tunnel/aquifer settings.

Pain-induced changes in motor unit discharge depend on recruitment threshold and contraction speed

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Martinez-Valdes ◽  
Francesco Negro ◽  
Michail Arvanitidis ◽  
Dario Farina ◽  
Deborah Falla
Keyword(s):  
Discharge Rate ◽  
Tibialis Anterior Muscle ◽  
Maximum Voluntary Contraction ◽  
Motor Units ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Voluntary Contraction ◽  
Recruitment Threshold ◽  
Contraction Speed ◽  
Discharge Rates ◽  
Hypertonic Saline Injection

At high forces, the discharge rates of lower and higher threshold motor units (MU) are influenced in a different way by muscle pain. These differential effects may be particularly important for performing contractions at different speeds since the proportion of lower and higher threshold MUs recruited varies with contraction velocity. We investigated whether MU discharge and recruitment strategies are differentially affected by pain depending on their recruitment threshold (RT), across a range of contraction speeds. Participants performed ankle dorsiflexion sinusoidal-isometric contractions at two frequencies (0.25Hz and 1Hz) and two modulation amplitudes [5% and 10% of the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC)] with a mean target torque of 20%MVC. High-density surface electromyography recordings from the tibialis anterior muscle were decomposed and the same MUs were tracked across painful (hypertonic saline injection) and non-painful conditions. Torque variability, mean discharge rate (MDR), DR variability (DRvar), RT and the delay between the cumulative spike train and the resultant torque output (neuromechanical delay, NMD) were assessed. The average RT was greater at faster contraction velocities (p=0.01) but was not affected by pain. At the fastest contraction speed, torque variability and DRvar were reduced (p<0.05) and MDR was maintained. Conversely, MDR decreased and DRvar and NMD increased significantly during pain at slow contraction speeds (p<0.05). These results show that reductions in contraction amplitude and increased recruitment of higher threshold MUs at fast contraction speeds appears to compensate for the inhibitory effect of nociceptive inputs on lower threshold MUs, allowing the exertion of fast submaximal contractions during pain.

Binaural processing of sound pressure level in the inferior colliculus

1987 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 1130-1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. N. Semple ◽  
L. M. Kitzes
Keyword(s):  
Inferior Colliculus ◽  
Sound Pressure ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Discharge Rate ◽  
Excitatory Input ◽  
Central Nucleus ◽  
Intensity Difference ◽  
Inhibitory Input ◽  
Directional Information ◽  
Discharge Rates

The central auditory system could encode information about the location of a high-frequency sound source by comparing the sound pressure levels at the ears. Two potential computations are the interaural intensity difference (IID) and the average binaural intensity (ABI). In this study of the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC) of the anesthetized gerbil, we demonstrate that responses of 85% of the 97 single units in our sample were jointly influenced by IID and ABI. For a given ABI, discharge rate of most units is a sigmoidal function of IID, and peak rates occur at IIDs favoring the contralateral ear. Most commonly, successive increments of ABI cause successive shifts of the IID functions toward IIDs favoring the ipsilateral ear. Neurons displaying this behavior include many that would conventionally be classified EI (receiving predominantly excitatory input arising from one ear and inhibitory input from the other), many that would be classified EE (receiving predominantly excitatory input arising from each ear), and all that are responsive only to contralateral stimulation. The IID sensitivity of a very few EI neurons is unaffected by ABI, except near threshold. Such units could provide directional information that is independent of source intensity. A few EE neurons are very sensitive to ABI, but are minimally sensitive to IID. Nevertheless, our data indicate that responses of most EE units in ICC are strongly dominated by excitation of contralateral origin. For some units, discharge rate is nonmonotonically related to IID and is maximal when the stimuli at the two ears are of comparable sound pressure. This preference for zero IID is common for all binaural levels. Many EI neurons respond nonmonotonically to ABI. Discharge rates are greater for IIDs representative of contralateral space and are maximal at a single best ABI. For a subset of these neurons, the influence arising from the ipsilateral ear is comprised of a mixture of excitation and inhibition. As a consequence, discharge rates are nonmonotonically related not only to ABI but also to IID. This dual nonmonotonicity creates a clear focus of peak response at a particular ABI/IID combination. Because of their mixed monaural influences, such units would be ascribed to different classes of the conventional (EE/EI) binaural classification scheme depending on the binaural level presented. Several response classes were identified in this study, and each might contribute differently to the encoding of spatial information.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

scholarly journals Change in Motor Plan, Without a Change in the Spatial Locus of Attention, Modulates Activity in Posterior Parietal Cortex

1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (5) ◽  
pp. 2814-2819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Snyder ◽  
Aaron P. Batista ◽  
Richard A. Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Case Control ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Central Target ◽  
Motor Plan ◽  
Motor Intention ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Snyder, Lawrence H., Aaron P. Batista, and Richard A. Andersen. Change in motor plan, without a change in the spatial locus of attention, modulates activity in posterior parietal cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 2814–2819, 1998. The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of macaque monkey, and a parietal reach region (PRR) medial and posterior to LIP, code the intention to make visually guided eye and arm movements, respectively. We studied the effect of changing the motor plan, without changing the locus of attention, on single neurons in these two areas. A central target was fixated while one or two sequential flashes occurred in the periphery. The first appeared either within the response field of the neuron being recorded or else on the opposite side of the fixation point. Animals planned a saccade (red flash) or reach (green flash) to the flash location. In some trials, a second flash 750 ms later could change the motor plan but never shifted attention: second flashes always occurred at the same location as the preceding first flash. Responses in LIP were larger when a saccade was instructed ( n = 20 cells), whereas responses in PRR were larger when a reach was instructed ( n = 17). This motor preference was observed for both first flashes and second flashes. In addition, the response to a second flash depended on whether it affirmed or countermanded the first flash; second flash responses were diminished only in the former case. Control experiments indicated that this differential effect was not due to stimulus novelty. These findings support a role for posterior parietal cortex in coding specific motor intention and are consistent with a possible role in the nonspatial shifting of motor intention.

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