Meridional Variation in Visual Acuity of Hooded Rats Reared in a Carpentered Environment

Perception ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Dean ◽  
Phillip Horlock ◽  
Ian M Strachan
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
Visual Acuity ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Oblique Effect ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
High Contrast ◽  
Square Wave ◽  
Laboratory Rats ◽  
Good Animal Model

Resolution acuity in people is frequently better for horizontal and vertical gratings than for obliques. An animal model of this oblique effect might be of help in elucidating its underlying neural mechanisms. Rats were chosen because laboratory rats are reared in a ‘carpentered environment’ apparently similar to those proposed to cause the oblique effect in people, and because electrophysiological experiments suggest that orientation selective units in rats' visual cortex may prefer horizontal and vertical stimuli. The acuity of eight laboratory-reared hooded rats was measured with high-contrast horizontal, vertical, and oblique gratings. The animals learned to detect low-frequency square-wave gratings with slightly fewer errors if they were horizontal or vertical than if they were oblique, but the effects of grating orientation on acuity were not significant. Refraction of the rats' eyes gave no evidence of astigmatism. These results suggest that the rat may not be a good animal model for studying the mechanisms that underlie meridional variations in acuity in people, and raise questions concerning both the neural bases of resolution acuity, and the validity of the ‘carpentered environment’ hypothesis.

Monkeys Show an Oblique Effect

Perception ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A Bauer ◽  
Donald A Owens ◽  
Joseph Thomas ◽  
Richard Held
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Oblique Effect ◽  
High Contrast ◽  
Square Wave ◽  
Spatial Frequencies

Monkeys aligned a cursor bar with high-contrast square-wave gratings presented in a variety of orientations. Alignment time increased with increasing spatial frequency from 6 to 24 cycles deg−1 regardless of the orientation of the grating. At higher spatial frequencies, alignment tasks took longer for obliquely oriented gratings than for horizontal and vertical ones. Reducing grating contrast by blurring the image of the 24 cycle deg−1 grating also produced longer alignment times for the obliques. These data indicate that monkeys have an oblique effect similar to that found in humans, implying that the monkey is a useful animal model for investigating the development of meridional anisotropies.

Depth from shading and disparity in humans and monkeys

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
YING ZHANG ◽  
VERONICA S. WEINER ◽  
WARREN M. SLOCUM ◽  
PETER H. SCHILLER
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Depth Perception ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Stimulus Display ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Depth Information ◽  
Depth Cues ◽  
Good Animal Model

A stimulus display was devised that enabled us to examine how effectively monkeys and humans can process shading and disparity cues for depth perception. The display allowed us to present these cues separately, in concert and in conflict with each other. An oddities discrimination task was used. Humans as well as monkeys were able to utilize both shading and disparity cues but shading cues were more effectively processed by humans. Humans and monkeys performed better and faster when the two cues were presented conjointly rather than singly. Performance was significantly degraded when the two cues were presented in conflict with each other suggesting that these cues are processed interactively at higher levels in the visual system. The fact that monkeys can effectively utilize depth information derived from shading and disparity indicates that they are a good animal model for the study of the neural mechanisms that underlie the processing of these two depth cues.

scholarly journals Early Visual Cortex Stimulation Modifies Well-Consolidated Perceptual Gains

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-146
Author(s):  
Dean Shmuel ◽  
Sebastian M Frank ◽  
Haggai Sharon ◽  
Yuka Sasaki ◽  
Takeo Watanabe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Visual Tasks ◽  
Early Visual Cortex

Abstract Perception thresholds can improve through repeated practice with visual tasks. Can an already acquired and well-consolidated perceptual skill be noninvasively neuromodulated, unfolding the neural mechanisms involved? Here, leveraging the susceptibility of reactivated memories ranging from synaptic to systems levels across learning and memory domains and animal models, we used noninvasive brain stimulation to neuromodulate well-consolidated reactivated visual perceptual learning and reveal the underlying neural mechanisms. Subjects first encoded and consolidated the visual skill memory by performing daily practice sessions with the task. On a separate day, the consolidated visual memory was briefly reactivated, followed by low-frequency, inhibitory 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over early visual cortex, which was individually localized using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Poststimulation perceptual thresholds were measured on the final session. The results show modulation of perceptual thresholds following early visual cortex stimulation, relative to control stimulation. Consistently, resting state functional connectivity between trained and untrained parts of early visual cortex prior to training predicted the magnitude of perceptual threshold modulation. Together, these results indicate that even previously consolidated human perceptual memories are susceptible to neuromodulation, involving early visual cortical processing. Moreover, the opportunity to noninvasively neuromodulate reactivated perceptual learning may have important clinical implications.

Context Aversion, Pavlovian Conditioning, and the Psychological Side Effects of Chemotherapy

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-124
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Hall
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Conditioned Response ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Anticipatory Nausea ◽  
Laboratory Rats ◽  
Anticipatory Nausea And Vomiting ◽  
Parallel Case

Patients who have undergone several sessions of chemotherapy for cancer will sometimes develop anticipatory nausea and vomiting (ANV), these unpleasant side effects occurring as the patients return to the clinic for a further session of treatment. Pavlov's analysis of learning allows that previously neutral cues, such as those that characterize a given place or context, can become associated with events that occur in that context. ANV could thus constitute an example of a conditioned response elicited by the contextual cues of the clinic. In order to investigate this proposal we have begun an experimental analysis of a parallel case in which laboratory rats are given a nausea-inducing treatment in a novel context. We have developed a robust procedure for assessing the acquisition of context aversion in rats given such training, a procedure that shows promise as a possible animal model of ANV. Theoretical analysis of the conditioning processes involved in the formation of context aversions in animals suggests possible behavioral strategies that might be used in the alleviation of ANV, and we report a preliminary experimental test of one of these.

scholarly journals Superimposed gratings induce diverse response patterns of gamma oscillations in primary visual cortex

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Wang ◽  
Chuanliang Han ◽  
Tian Wang ◽  
Weifeng Dai ◽  
Yang Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Primary Visual Cortex ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Region Difference ◽  
High Gamma ◽  
Spiking Activity

AbstractStimulus-dependence of gamma oscillations (GAMMA, 30–90 Hz) has not been fully understood, but it is important for revealing neural mechanisms and functions of GAMMA. Here, we recorded spiking activity (MUA) and the local field potential (LFP), driven by a variety of plaids (generated by two superimposed gratings orthogonal to each other and with different contrast combinations), in the primary visual cortex of anesthetized cats. We found two distinct narrow-band GAMMAs in the LFPs and a variety of response patterns to plaids. Similar to MUA, most response patterns showed that the second grating suppressed GAMMAs driven by the first one. However, there is only a weak site-by-site correlation between cross-orientation interactions in GAMMAs and those in MUAs. We developed a normalization model that could unify the response patterns of both GAMMAs and MUAs. Interestingly, compared with MUAs, the GAMMAs demonstrated a wider range of model parameters and more diverse response patterns to plaids. Further analysis revealed that normalization parameters for high GAMMA, but not those for low GAMMA, were significantly correlated with the discrepancy of spatial frequency between stimulus and sites’ preferences. Consistent with these findings, normalization parameters and diversity of high GAMMA exhibited a clear transition trend and region difference between area 17 to 18. Our results show that GAMMAs are also regulated in the form of normalization, but that the neural mechanisms for these normalizations might differ from those of spiking activity. Normalizations in different brain signals could be due to interactions of excitation and inhibitions at multiple stages in the visual system.

Cortical low‐frequency power correlates with behavioral impairment in animal model of focal limbic seizures

Epilepsia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhijeet Gummadavelli ◽  
Reese Martin ◽  
Derek Goshay ◽  
Lim‐Anna Sieu ◽  
Jingwen Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Behavioral Impairment ◽  
Limbic Seizures ◽  
Low Frequency Power ◽  
Frequency Power

scholarly journals Minimum Detectable Change of Visual Acuity Measurements Using ETDRS Charts (Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study)

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (15) ◽  
pp. 7876
Author(s):  
María Carmen Sánchez-González ◽  
Raquel García-Oliver ◽  
José-María Sánchez-González ◽  
María-José Bautista-Llamas ◽  
José-Jesús Jiménez-Rejano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Acuity ◽  
Diabetic Retinopathy ◽  
Early Treatment ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Minimal Detectable Change ◽  
High Contrast ◽  
Detectable Change ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Minimum Detectable Change ◽  
The Mean

In our work, we determined the value of visual acuity (VA) with ETDRS charts (Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study). The purpose of the study was to determine the measurement reliabilities, calculating the correlation coefficient interclass (ICC), the value of the error associated with the measure (SEM), and the minimal detectable change (MDC). Forty healthy subjects took part. The mean age was 23.5 ± 3.1 (19 to 26) years. Visual acuities were measured with ETDRS charts (96% ETDRS chart nº 2140) and (10% SLOAN Contrast Eye Test chart nº 2153). The measurements were made (at 4 m) under four conditions: Firstly, photopic conditions with high contrast (HC) and low contrast (LC) and after 15 min of visual rest, mesopic conditions with high and low contrast. Under photopic conditions and high contrast, the ICC = 0.866 and decreased to 0.580 when the luminosity and contrast decreased. The % MDC in the four conditions was always less than 10%. It was minor under photopic conditions and HC (5.83) and maximum in mesopic conditions and LC (9.70). Our results conclude a high reliability of the ETDRS test, which is higher in photopic and high contrast conditions and lower when the luminosity and contrast decreases.

scholarly journals Adaptive Integration in the Visual Cortex by Depressing Recurrent Cortical Circuits

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1847-1872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. W. van Rossum ◽  
Matthijs A. A. van der Meer ◽  
Dengke Xiao ◽  
Mike W. Oram
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
High Contrast ◽  
Cortical Circuits ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Higher Visual Areas ◽  
Recurrent Connections

Neurons in the visual cortex receive a large amount of input from recurrent connections, yet the functional role of these connections remains unclear. Here we explore networks with strong recurrence in a computational model and show that short-term depression of the synapses in the recurrent loops implements an adaptive filter. This allows the visual system to respond reliably to deteriorated stimuli yet quickly to high-quality stimuli. For low-contrast stimuli, the model predicts long response latencies, whereas latencies are short for high-contrast stimuli. This is consistent with physiological data showing that in higher visual areas, latencies can increase more than 100 ms at low contrast compared to high contrast. Moreover, when presented with briefly flashed stimuli, the model predicts stereotypical responses that outlast the stimulus, again consistent with physiological findings. The adaptive properties of the model suggest that the abundant recurrent connections found in visual cortex serve to adapt the network's time constant in accordance with the stimulus and normalizes neuronal signals such that processing is as fast as possible while maintaining reliability.

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