scholarly journals Fast cyclic stimulus flashing modulates perception of bi-stable figure

Author(s):  
Henrikas Vaitkevicius ◽  
Vygandas Vanagas ◽  
Alvydas Soliunas ◽  
Algimantas Svegzda ◽  
Remigijus Bliumas ◽  
...  

Many experiments have demonstrated that the rhythms in the brain influence an initial information processing. We investigated whether the alternation rate of the perception of a Necker cube depended on the degree of synchronization between two streams of spikes, one stemming from an external flashing image and the other from the action of an internal impulse stream. Knowing how a flickering stimulus with a given frequency and duration affects the alternation rate of bi-stable perception we could estimate properties of the internal signal. As the internal spike frequency is difficult to control, we varied the frequency of the flicker stimulus. Our results show that the duration of the dominant stimulus perception depends on the frequency or duration of the flashing stimuli. The values of the stimuli, at which the changes of the duration of the perceived image was maximal, we have called ‘extremal’. While changing the flash duration, the extremal parameters repeated periodically at 4ms intervals. Increasing the duration of the extremal stimuli by less than 4 ms shortens the duration of the dominant stimulus perception. Hence we may conclude that it is not the stimulus duration but the accurate coincidence (timing) of the moments of switching on of external stimuli to match the internal stimuli which explains our experimental results.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrikas Vaitkevicius ◽  
Vygandas Vanagas ◽  
Alvydas Soliunas ◽  
Algimantas Svegzda ◽  
Remigijus Bliumas ◽  
...  

Many experiments have demonstrated that the rhythms in the brain influence an initial information processing. We investigated whether the alternation rate of the perception of a Necker cube depended on the degree of synchronization between two streams of spikes, one stemming from an external flashing image and the other from the action of an internal impulse stream. Knowing how a flickering stimulus with a given frequency and duration affects the alternation rate of bi-stable perception we could estimate properties of the internal signal. As the internal spike frequency is difficult to control, we varied the frequency of the flicker stimulus. Our results show that the duration of the dominant stimulus perception depends on the frequency or duration of the flashing stimuli. The values of the stimuli, at which the changes of the duration of the perceived image was maximal, we have called ‘extremal’. While changing the flash duration, the extremal parameters repeated periodically at 4ms intervals. Increasing the duration of the extremal stimuli by less than 4 ms shortens the duration of the dominant stimulus perception. Hence we may conclude that it is not the stimulus duration but the accurate coincidence (timing) of the moments of switching on of external stimuli to match the internal stimuli which explains our experimental results.


PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e6011
Author(s):  
Henrikas Vaitkevicius ◽  
Vygandas Vanagas ◽  
Alvydas Soliunas ◽  
Algimantas Svegzda ◽  
Remigijus Bliumas ◽  
...  

Many experiments have demonstrated that the rhythms in the brain influence the initial perceptual information processing. We investigated whether the alternation rate of the perception of a Necker cube depends on the frequency and duration of a flashing Necker cube. We hypothesize that synchronization between the external rhythm of a flashing stimulus and the internal rhythm of neuronal processing should change the alternation rate of a Necker cube. Knowing how a flickering stimulus with a given frequency and duration affects the alternation rate of bistable perception, we could estimate the frequency of the internal neuronal processing. Our results show that the perception time of the dominant stimulus depends on the frequency or duration of the flashing stimuli. The duration of the stimuli, at which the duration of the perceived image was maximal, was repeated periodically at 4 ms intervals. We suppose that such results could be explained by the existence of an internal rhythm of 125 cycles/s for bistable visual perception. We can also suppose that it is not the stimulus duration but the precise timing of the moments of switching on of external stimuli to match the internal stimuli which explains our experimental results. Similarity between the effects of flashing frequency on alternation rate of stimuli perception in present and previously performed experiment on binocular rivalry support the existence of a common mechanism for binocular rivalry and monocular perception of ambiguous figures.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatsuya Osaki ◽  
Yoshiho Ikeuchi

AbstractMacroscopic axonal connections in the human brain distribute information and neuronal activity across the brain. Although this complexity previously hindered elucidation of functional connectivity mechanisms, brain organoid technologies have recently provided novel avenues to investigate human brain function by constructing small segments of the brain in vitro. Here, we describe the neural activity of human cerebral organoids reciprocally connected by a bundle of axons. Compared to conventional organoids, connected organoids produced significantly more intense and complex oscillatory activity. Optogenetic manipulations revealed that the connected organoids could re-play and recapitulate over time temporal patterns found in external stimuli, indicating that the connected organoids were able to form and retain temporal memories. Our findings suggest that connected organoids may serve as powerful tools for investigating the roles of macroscopic circuits in the human brain – allowing researchers to dissect cellular functions in three-dimensional in vitro nervous system models in unprecedented ways.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-293
Author(s):  
CHARLES C. CHAPPLE

A study has been made of the known phenomena which affect the biologic organism. Certain correlations have been found and other correlations are logically inferred. The common grounds of anatomic structures, the anatomic responses to endocrine stimuli, the interrelationships and interdependencies of the endocrines and external stimuli have been followed and have been related to cellular permeability and hyaluronic acid. Cellular phases, including the rhythmic alternations in physiologic functions, have been delineated and their importance stressed. Further, the probability is advanced that this rhythmicity originates physiologically in the brain but that the brain itself is capable of receiving transmissions from within and without the body, and disseminating them, again rhythmically, in normal or altered amplitude and frequency. Further experimental evidence of these correlations and their practical extrapolations into drug actions and the therapy of infections and metabolic disease will be reported and will include clinical, animal and in vitro studies. At present, the following conclusions seem justified: 1. No component of the body is capable of independent action. 2. Action in any component is reflected, according to its magnitude and directness of application, upon all the body. 3. All such actions are mediated by the brain. 4. There is a dynamic, rhythmic cyclicity in physiologic action which can be altered in amplitude and frequency. 5. These rhythms are alternations of cellular tenseness and relaxation. 6. The concomitants of the tense phase are compactness, impermeability, electric conductivity and contraction of all cells, and these characteristics might be described collectively as the factors operative in maturing the cell. The concomitants of the relaxed phase are laxness, permeability, electric resistance and expansion of all cells and are factors of growth. 7. The phase of tenseness is accompanied by an increase in certain hormonal activities and that of relaxation by an increase in others. 8. The hormones may be causes of the phase or the results of it. 9. Infectious disease cannot act as an extraneous agent capable of bringing its own engine into such a highly integrated mechanism but must act on the body through its ability to affect one of the body's mechanisms. 10. Drugs must act through the same channels available to disease. 11. Foods may contain, in addition to their caloric content, components capable of stimulating either the phase of cellular expansion or cellular compaction, particularly foods from the reproductive systems of plants or animals (milk, eggs, cereal, for example). 12. Vitamins each stimulate one phase and should be evaluated in terms of positive actions. 13. Inherent growth and maturation factors are not of fixed capacity in an individual but beyond certain limits must be supplied him or applied to him constantly. 14. The hormone most manifest in the tense phase is estrogen and so may be considered the maturation factor, and the one most manifest in the phase of relaxation or cell division is progesterone, which may be considered the growth factor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1799) ◽  
pp. 20190231 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Tingley ◽  
Adrien Peyrache

A major task in the history of neurophysiology has been to relate patterns of neural activity to ongoing external stimuli. More recently, this approach has branched out to relating current neural activity patterns to external stimuli or experiences that occurred in the past or future. Here, we aim to review the large body of methodological approaches used towards this goal, and to assess the assumptions each makes with reference to the statistics of neural data that are commonly observed. These methods primarily fall into two categories, those that quantify zero-lag relationships without examining temporal evolution, termed reactivation , and those that quantify the temporal structure of changing activity patterns, termed replay . However, no two studies use the exact same approach, which prevents an unbiased comparison between findings. These observations should instead be validated by multiple and, if possible, previously established tests. This will help the community to speak a common language and will eventually provide tools to study, more generally, the organization of neuronal patterns in the brain. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Memory reactivation: replaying events past, present and future’.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 811-817 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Sandu ◽  
T. Spiriev ◽  
F. Lemaitre ◽  
A. Filis ◽  
B. Schaller

The trigemino-cardiac reflex (TCR) represents the most powerful of the autonomous reflexes and is a subphenomenon in the group of the so-called “oxygen-conserving reflexes”. Within seconds after the initiation of such a reflex, there is a powerful and differentiated activation of the sympathetic system with subsequent elevation in regional cerebral blood flow (CBF), with no changes in the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) or in the cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (CMRglc). Such an increase in regional CBF without a change of CMRO2or CMRglcprovides the brain with oxygen rapidly and efficiently. Features of the reflex have been discovered during skull base surgery, mediating reflex protection projects via currently undefined pathways from the rostral ventrolateral medulla oblongata to the upper brainstem and/or thalamus, which finally engage a small population of neurons in the cortex. This cortical center appears to be dedicated to transduce a neuronal signal reflexively into cerebral vasodilatation and synchronization of electrocortical activity; a fact that seems to be unique among autonomous reflexes. Sympathetic excitation is mediated by cortical-spinal projection to spinal preganglionic sympathetic neurons, whereas bradycardia is mediated via projections to cardiovagal motor medullary neurons. The integrated reflex response serves to redistribute blood from viscera to the brain in response to a challenge to cerebral metabolism, but seems also to initiate a preconditioning mechanism. Previous studies showed a great variability in the human TCR response, in special to external stimuli and individual factors. The TCR gives, therefore, not only new insights into novel therapeutic options for a range of disorders characterized by neuronal death, but also into the cortical and molecular organization of the brain.


2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 1371-1407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Habenschuss ◽  
Helmut Puhr ◽  
Wolfgang Maass

The brain faces the problem of inferring reliable hidden causes from large populations of noisy neurons, for example, the direction of a moving object from spikes in area MT. It is known that a theoretically optimal likelihood decoding could be carried out by simple linear readout neurons if weights of synaptic connections were set to certain values that depend on the tuning functions of sensory neurons. We show here that such theoretically optimal readout weights emerge autonomously through STDP in conjunction with lateral inhibition between readout neurons. In particular, we identify a class of optimal STDP learning rules with homeostatic plasticity, for which the autonomous emergence of optimal readouts can be explained on the basis of a rigorous learning theory. This theory shows that the network motif we consider approximates expectation-maximization for creating internal generative models for hidden causes of high-dimensional spike inputs. Notably, we find that this optimal functionality can be well approximated by a variety of STDP rules beyond those predicted by theory. Furthermore, we show that this learning process is very stable and automatically adjusts weights to changes in the number of readout neurons, the tuning functions of sensory neurons, and the statistics of external stimuli.


eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Hao Zhang ◽  
He Wang ◽  
Aihua Chen ◽  
Yong Gu ◽  
Tai Sing Lee ◽  
...  

Our brain perceives the world by exploiting multisensory cues to extract information about various aspects of external stimuli. The sensory cues from the same stimulus should be integrated to improve perception, and otherwise segregated to distinguish different stimuli. In reality, however, the brain faces the challenge of recognizing stimuli without knowing in advance the sources of sensory cues. To address this challenge, we propose that the brain conducts integration and segregation concurrently with complementary neurons. Studying the inference of heading-direction via visual and vestibular cues, we develop a network model with two reciprocally connected modules modeling interacting visual-vestibular areas. In each module, there are two groups of neurons whose tunings under each sensory cue are either congruent or opposite. We show that congruent neurons implement integration, while opposite neurons compute cue disparity information for segregation, and the interplay between two groups of neurons achieves efficient multisensory information processing.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minkyung Kim ◽  
Hyoungkyu Kim ◽  
Zirui Huang ◽  
George A. Mashour ◽  
Denis Jordan ◽  
...  

AbstractContinuous switching between internal and external modes in the brain is a key process of constructing inner models of the outside world. However, how the brain continuously switches between two modes remains elusive. Here, we propose that a large synchronization fluctuation of the brain network emerging only near criticality (i.e., a balanced state between order and disorder) spontaneously creates temporal windows with distinct preferences for integrating internal information of the network and external stimuli. Using a computational model and empirical data analysis during alterations of consciousness in human, we present that synchronized and incoherent networks respectively bias toward internal and external information with specific network configurations. The network preferences are the most prominent in conscious states; however, they disrupt in altered states of consciousness. We suggest that criticality produces a functional platform of the brain’s capability for continuous switching between two modes, which is crucial for the emergence of consciousness.


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