Multiple spectral inputs improve motion discrimination in the Drosophila visual system

Color and motion information are thought to be channeled through separate neural pathways, but it remains unclear whether and how these pathways interact to improve motion perception. In insects, such as Drosophila, it has long been believed that motion information is fed exclusively by one spectral class of photoreceptor, so-called R1 to R6 cells; whereas R7 and R8 photoreceptors, which exist in multiple spectral classes, subserve color vision. Here, we report that R7 and R8 also contribute to the motion pathway. By using electrophysiological, optical, and behavioral assays, we found that R7/R8 information converge with and shape the motion pathway output, explaining flies' broadly tuned optomotor behavior by its composite responses. Our results demonstrate that inputs from photoreceptors of different spectral sensitivities improve motion discrimination, increasing robustness of perception.     

Categorical representation of visual stimuli in the primate prefrontal cortex

The ability to group stimuli into meaningful categories is a fundamental cognitive process. To explore its neural basis, we trained monkeys to categorize computer-generated stimuli as "cats" and "dogs." A morphing system was used to systematically vary stimulus shape and precisely define the category boundary. Neural activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex reflected the category of visual stimuli, even when a monkey was retrained with the stimuli assigned to new categories.     

Interaction of critical periods in the visual cortex of kittens

The critical period for modifying the preferred direction in cat cortical units occurs earlier than that for monocular deprivation. The independence of the effects of these two types of deprivation from each other was tested by rearing six kittens with both reverse suture and reversed directional deprivation. The kittens were placed in a drum rotating in one direction with one eye open at ages 2 1/2 to 5 weeks; the drum rotation was reversed and the other eye opened when they were 5 to 12 weeks old. Recordings were then made in the visual cortex. The results were the sum of the effects of reverse suture and reversal of directional deprivation: most cells were driven by the eye that was open second, and most unidirectional cells preferred the direction to which the animals were exposed first. Consequently, many unidirectional cells preferred the first direction but were driven by the eye open second--a combination that the animal never saw during rearing. There was also an effect of ocular deprivation on directional properties and vice versa: reverse suture reduced the overall percentage of unidirectional cells, just as directional deprivation has been shown to affect the ocular dominance histogram. This result suggests that the same cells may be affected by both forms of deprivation.     

Representation of the quantity of visual items in the primate prefrontal cortex

Deriving the quantity of items is an abstract form of categorization. To explore it, monkeys were trained to judge whether successive visual displays contained the same quantity of items. Many neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex were tuned for quantity irrespective of the exact physical appearance of the displays. Their tuning curves formed overlapping filters, which may explain why behavioral discrimination improves with increasing numerical distance and why discrimination of two quantities with equal numerical distance worsens as their numerical size increases. A mechanism that extracts the quantity of visual field items could contribute to general numerical ability.     

Promiscuity and the primate immune system

The behavioral and ecological factors involved in immune system evolution remain poorly explored. We present a phylogenetic analysis of white blood cell counts in primates to test three hypotheses related to disease risk: increases in risk are expected with group size or population density, exposure to soil-borne pathogens, and mating promiscuity. White blood cell counts were significantly greater in species where females have more mating partners, indicating that the risk of sexually transmitted disease is likely to be a major factor leading to systematic differences in the primate immune system.     

Functional mapping of the primate auditory system

Cerebral auditory areas were delineated in the awake, passively listening, rhesus monkey by comparing the rates of glucose utilization in an intact hemisphere and in an acoustically isolated contralateral hemisphere of the same animal. The auditory system defined in this way occupied large portions of cerebral tissue, an extent probably second only to that of the visual system. Cortically, the activated areas included the entire superior temporal gyrus and large portions of the parietal, prefrontal, and limbic lobes. Several auditory areas overlapped with previously identified visual areas, suggesting that the auditory system, like the visual system, contains separate pathways for processing stimulus quality, location, and motion.     

钙离子在哺乳动物卵母细胞发育关键时期的作用

Ca~(2+)是广泛存在的信号分子,钙信号转导对多种细胞生理生化活动有重要的调控作用,越来越多的证据表明钙信号参与卵母细胞减数分裂。钙稳态是细胞内Ca~(2+)信号在时间和空间上的动态平衡,对卵母细胞钙稳态的研究是目前重要的研究热点之一。本文综述了钙稳态及钙离子对卵母细胞成熟和发育过程中的双线期阻滞恢复、MII期阻滞恢复和细胞凋亡的作用,发现某些哺乳动物双线期及MII期适当增加胞内钙离子水平可以使卵母细胞退出阻滞,而超出生理水平的胞内钙则会诱导细胞凋亡,并通过探究钙离子在卵母细胞减数分裂恢复和调控凋亡过程中的作用机制,为辅助生殖技术的进一步研究提供依据。     

Functional organization of primate visual cortex revealed by high resolution optical imaging

A high spatial resolution optical imaging system was developed to visualize cerebral cortical activity in vivo. This method is based on activity-dependent intrinsic signals and does not use voltage-sensitive dyes. Images of the living monkey striate (VI) and extrastriate (V2) visual cortex, taken during visual stimulation, were analyzed to yield maps of the distribution of cells with various functional properties. The cytochrome oxidase--rich blobs of V1 and the stripes of V2 were imaged in the living brain. In V2, no ocular dominance organization was seen, while regions of poor orientation tuning colocalized to every other cytochrome oxidase stripe. The orientation tuning of other regions of V2 appeared organized as modules that are larger and more uniform than those in V1.     

Nonlinear property of the visual system at fusion

The response of the visual system to intermittent stimulation at rates above the fusion point is generally considered to be independent of frequency, that is, linear with respect to time-average luminance. However, trains of 1000 light pulses per second alternated successively with trains of 500 light pulses per second may be perceived as flickering even though the time-average luminance is the same in each train.     

花前和花期高温对香白杏花器官发育的影响

为研究花前和花期高温对香白杏花器官发育的影响,于花期前后,以香白杏(Armeniaca vulgaris L.Xiangbaixing)成年树为试材通过枝组套袋增温处理,同时以离体花束状果枝为试材在不同温度条件下人工培养,共设置4个温度处理(28℃/18℃、23℃/13℃、18℃/8℃、13℃/6℃)。研究花前及花期高温对香白杏花器官发育以及座果率的影响。结果表明:花前及花期高温对香白杏的花器官有着显著影响,高温条件下使得香白杏雌蕊纵径和子房直径缩短,雌蕊重量、完全花比例降低、畸形花比例增多。高温条件下胚囊发育程度表现出明显的迟缓,且异常和退化的胚囊增多高达24.1%,显著高于对照组的13.8%。套袋处理中的花粉萌芽率为13.57%显著低于对照的28.89%,座果率仅为2.83%,对照处理为11.56%。花前及花期高温使得雌雄配子发育异常、降低花朵质量以及座果率。     

Neurobiology. Heretical view of visual development

For decades, neurobiologists have believed that so-called ocular dominance columns--neat columns of brain cells that respond to visual activity from one eye or the other--form as a result of visual activity. Now, in work described on page 1321, neuroscientists report that ocular dominance columns in ferrets appear long before the columns can be modified by visual experience. They propose instead that innate molecules that guide growing axons to their locations in the developing brain may be primarily responsible for building these columns. But others contest the conclusion that neural activity is not required for constructing the columns, arguing that there are other explanations for the researchers' findings.     

Color adaptation of spatial frequency detectors in the human visual system

Observers exposed alternately to a vertical grating of one spatial frequency in red light and a vertical grating of different spatial frequency in green light subsequently report frequency-specific color aftereffects when shown gratings in white light. Aftereffects occur, however, only when inspection gratings differ in spatial frequency by one octave or more and the frequency of at least one grating is above 3 cycles per degree. This spatial selectivity of the aftereffect is considered in terms of a neural adaptation model incorporating evidence on the tuning of spatial frequency detectors in the human visual system.     

Gated visual input to the central auditory system

The central auditory system translates sound localization cues into a map of space guided, in part, by visual experience. In barn owls, this process takes place in the external nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICX). However, to date, no trace of visual activity has been observed in this auditory nucleus. Here we show that strong visual responses, which are appropriate to guide auditory plasticity, appear in the ICX when inhibition is blocked in the optic tectum. Thus, visual spatial information is gated into the auditory system by an inhibitory mechanism that operates at a higher level in the brain.     

花前及花期高温对香白杏开花坐果的影响

以‘香白杏’(Armeniaca vulgaris Lam.‘Xiangbaixing’)成年树和离体花束状果枝为试材,研究开花前及花期高温对花质量和物候期变化的影响。结果表明:与对照相比,扣棚期间棚内日均温升高3.6℃,日均最高温升高12℃,日均最低温降低0.5℃;开花前及花期高温使物候期加快,花期变短,棚内出现畸形花,高温(25℃)处理的离体果枝出现花蕾干枯、脱落的现象;开花前及花期高温会促使雌蕊长度、子房横径变小,雌蕊重量、完全花比例、花粉发芽率和座果率降低。由此可见,开花前和花期高温可促使香白杏提前开花,花期缩短,雌蕊长度、子房横径变短,完全花比例降低,雌蕊重量减小,花粉发芽率降低,从而导致雌蕊败育,雄蕊质量降低,最终造成座果率下降。     

Adaptation to chromatic aberration by the human visual system

Prolonged exposure to the chromatic dispersion produced by prism spectacles leads to a perceptual adaptation. The adaptation develops rapidly in the first two days of the wearing of the spectacles, and seems to be a special reac ion to the relative change in illuminance at intensity gradients on the retina.     

河北省曲周县不同时期夏玉米生产的环境代价分析

将河北省曲周县1973—2013年夏玉米生产3体系根据当时的农业政策及发展特征分为4个时期,1973—1983年为改土治碱时期、1984—1993年为农业初步发展时期,1994—2003年为农业快速发展时期、2004—2013年为现代农业时期。用生命周期评价方法分析这一生产体系在4个时期的环境代价,结果表明:4个时期的环境影响因子中对能源消耗、全球变暖、环境酸化和富营养化的影响指数是递增的,对人体毒性、水体毒性和土壤毒性的影响指数是递减的;改土治碱时期影响最大的环境因子是富营养化(影响指数均值为0.121 40),其余3个时期的7项影响因子中对水体毒性的影响最大(其影响指数均值分别为0.856 65、0.812 16、0.542 08)。能源消耗主要存在于肥料生产过程,全球变暖主要存在于农资子系统中CO_2的排放以及农作系统中N_2O的排放,环境酸化主要存在于农作子系统中氮肥使用过程的NH_3挥发,富营养化主要存在于农作子系统中的NH_3挥发及NO_3-N淋洗,毒性主要存在于农药使用过程。推广高产高效技术是实现曲周县农业可持续发展、减少环境污染的重要举措。     

Multiple exciton collection in a sensitized photovoltaic system

Multiple exciton generation, the creation of two electron-hole pairs from one high-energy photon, is well established in bulk semiconductors, but assessments of the efficiency of this effect remain controversial in quantum-confined systems like semiconductor nanocrystals. We used a photoelectrochemical system composed of PbS nanocrystals chemically bound to TiO(2) single crystals to demonstrate the collection of photocurrents with quantum yields greater than one electron per photon. The strong electronic coupling and favorable energy level alignment between PbS nanocrystals and bulk TiO(2) facilitate extraction of multiple excitons more quickly than they recombine, as well as collection of hot electrons from higher quantum dot excited states. Our results have implications for increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic devices by avoiding losses resulting from the thermalization of photogenerated carriers.