Spontaneous cortical activity reveals hallmarks of an optimal internal model of the environment

The brain maintains internal models of its environment to interpret sensory inputs and to prepare actions. Although behavioral studies have demonstrated that these internal models are optimally adapted to the statistics of the environment, the neural underpinning of this adaptation is unknown. Using a Bayesian model of sensory cortical processing, we related stimulus-evoked and spontaneous neural activities to inferences and prior expectations in an internal model and predicted that they should match if the model is statistically optimal. To test this prediction, we analyzed visual cortical activity of awake ferrets during development. Similarity between spontaneous and evoked activities increased with age and was specific to responses evoked by natural scenes. This demonstrates the progressive adaptation of internal models to the statistics of natural stimuli at the neural level.     

A network of superconducting gravimeters detects submicrogal coseismic gravity changes

With high-resolution continuous gravity recordings from a regional network of superconducting gravimeters, we have detected permanent changes in gravity acceleration associated with a recent large earthquake. Detected changes in gravity acceleration are smaller than 10(-8) meters seconds(-2) (1 micro-Galileo, about 10(-9) times the surface gravity acceleration) and agree with theoretical values calculated from a dislocation model. Superconducting gravimetry can contribute to the studies of secular gravity changes associated with tectonic processes.     

Trampoline effect in extreme ground motion

In earthquake hazard assessment studies, the focus is usually on horizontal ground motion. However, records from the 14 June 2008 Iwate-Miyagi earthquake in Japan, a crustal event with a moment magnitude of 6.9, revealed an unprecedented vertical surface acceleration of nearly four times gravity, more than twice its horizontal counterpart. The vertical acceleration was distinctly asymmetric; the waveform envelope was about 1.6 times as large in the upward direction as in the downward direction, which is not explained by existing models of the soil response. We present a simple model of a mass bouncing on a trampoline to account for this asymmetry and the large vertical amplitude. The finding of a hitherto-unknown mode of strong ground motion may prompt major progress in near-source shaking assessments.     

Greater disruption due to failure of inhibitory control on an ambiguous distractor

Considerable evidence indicates that a stimulus that is subthreshold, and thus consciously invisible, influences brain activity and behavioral performance. However, it is not clear how subthreshold stimuli are processed in the brain. We found that a task-irrelevant subthreshold coherent motion led to a stronger disturbance in task performance than did suprathreshold motion. With the subthreshold motion, activity in the visual cortex measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging was higher, but activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex was lower, than with suprathreshold motion. These results suggest that subthreshold irrelevant signals are not subject to effective inhibitory control.     

闭链二自由度平面五杆机构运动分析

应用矩阵法建立常用闭链二自由度平面五杆机构基本杆组运动分析数学模型,并据此编制相应的杆组位移、速度和加速度分析模块,开发了平面五杆机构的计算机辅助分析与仿真系统,实现了机构运动参数数值计算、运动线图自动绘制和机构动态仿真等计算机辅助可视化运动分析,所建立的数学模型与开发的程序具有较强的通用性．最后以机械系统动力学分析软件ADANS进行仿真,验证了机构运动分析数学模型及程序的正确性．     

Brain stem neurons in modified pathways for motor learning in the primate vestibulo-ocular reflex

The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) stabilizes retinal images by generating smooth eye movements that are equal in amplitude and opposite in direction to head turns. Whenever image motion occurs persistently during head turns, the VOR undergoes motor learning; as a result image stability is gradually restored. A group of brain stem neurons that are in the modified pathways has now been described. The neurons express changes in firing in association with motor learning in the VOR and receive monosynaptic inhibition from the flocculus of the cerebellum. The changes in firing have an appropriate magnitude and are expressed at the correct latency to account for the altered VOR. The response properties of the neurons point to their brain stem vestibular inputs for further investigation of the site of motor learning.     

Contributions of the visual ventral pathway to long-range apparent motion

Objects displaced intermittently across the visual field will nonetheless give an illusion of continuous motion [called apparent motion (AM)] under many common conditions. It is believed that form perception is of minor importance in determining AM, and that AM is mediated by motion-sensitive areas in the "where" pathway of the cortex. However, form and motion typically interact in specific ways when natural objects move through the environment. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure cortical activation to long-range AM, compared to short-range AM and flicker, while we varied stability of structural differences between forms. Long-range AM activated the anterior-temporal lobe in the visual ventral pathway, and the response varied according to the form stability. The results suggest that long-range AM is associated with neural systems for form perception.     

Ocular responses to linear motion are inversely proportional to viewing distance

Eye movements exist to improve vision, in part by preventing excessive retinal image slip. A major threat to the stability of the retinal image comes from the observer's own movement, and there are visual and vestibular reflexes that operate to meet this challenge by generating compensatory eye movements. The ocular responses to translational disturbances of the observer and of the scene were recorded from monkeys. The associated vestibular and visual responses were both linearly dependent on the inverse of the viewing distance. Such dependence on proximity is appropriate for the vestibular reflex, which must transform signals from Cartesian to polar coordinates, but not for the visual reflex, which operates entirely in polar coordinates. However, such shared proximity effects in the visual reflex could compensate for known intrinsic limitations that would otherwise compromise performance at near viewing.     

Intersubject synchronization of cortical activity during natural vision

To what extent do all brains work alike during natural conditions? We explored this question by letting five subjects freely view half an hour of a popular movie while undergoing functional brain imaging. Applying an unbiased analysis in which spatiotemporal activity patterns in one brain were used to "model" activity in another brain, we found a striking level of voxel-by-voxel synchronization between individuals, not only in primary and secondary visual and auditory areas but also in association cortices. The results reveal a surprising tendency of individual brains to "tick collectively" during natural vision. The intersubject synchronization consisted of a widespread cortical activation pattern correlated with emotionally arousing scenes and regionally selective components. The characteristics of these activations were revealed with the use of an open-ended "reverse-correlation" approach, which inverts the conventional analysis by letting the brain signals themselves "pick up" the optimal stimuli for each specialized cortical area.     

Fast backprojections from the motion to the primary visual area necessary for visual awareness

Much is known about the pathways from photoreceptors to higher visual areas in the brain. However, how we become aware of what we see or of having seen at all is a problem that has eluded neuroscience. Recordings from macaque V1 during deactivation of MT+/V5 and psychophysical studies of perceptual integration suggest that feedback from secondary visual areas to V1 is necessary for visual awareness. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation to probe the timing and function of feedback from human area MT+/V5 to V1 and found its action to be early and critical for awareness of visual motion.     

The latency of pathways containing the site of motor learning in the monkey vestibulo-ocular reflex

The vestibulo-ocular reflex helps to stabilize retinal images by generating smooth eye movements that are equal to and opposite each rotatory head movement. It is well known that the reflex undergoes adaptive plasticity or "motor learning" whenever there is persistent image motion during head turns: the resulting changes in the reflex occur gradually and help to restore image stability. A new approach makes it possible to identify the pathways containing the site of motor learning according to their total latency in response to natural vestibular stimuli. The fastest pathways required 14 milliseconds to initiate a vestibulo-ocular reflex, but the site of motor learning was in pathways having latencies of at least 19 milliseconds.     

饲草压捆机压缩机构动态仿真

在传统的运动及动力分析的基础上,采用MATLAB／Simulink进行压捆机压缩机构动态仿真,获得了任意时刻的速度、加速度、维持曲柄匀速转动所需的扭矩和机构之间的作用力,为压缩机构的设计提供了重要的数据,可视化的仿真结果便于观察研究。     

Unsupervised natural experience rapidly alters invariant object representation in visual cortex

Object recognition is challenging because each object produces myriad retinal images. Responses of neurons from the inferior temporal cortex (IT) are selective to different objects, yet tolerant ("invariant") to changes in object position, scale, and pose. How does the brain construct this neuronal tolerance? We report a form of neuronal learning that suggests the underlying solution. Targeted alteration of the natural temporal contiguity of visual experience caused specific changes in IT position tolerance. This unsupervised temporal slowness learning (UTL) was substantial, increased with experience, and was significant in single IT neurons after just 1 hour. Together with previous theoretical work and human object perception experiments, we speculate that UTL may reflect the mechanism by which the visual stream builds and maintains tolerant object representations.     

The contribution of single synapses to sensory representation in vivo

The extent to which synaptic activity can signal a sensory stimulus limits the information available to a neuron. We determined the contribution of individual synapses to sensory representation by recording excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) in cerebellar granule cells during a time-varying, quantifiable vestibular stimulus. Vestibular-sensitive synapses faithfully reported direction and velocity, rather than position or acceleration of whole-body motion, via bidirectional modulation of EPSC frequency. The lack of short-term synaptic dynamics ensured a highly linear relationship between velocity and charge transfer, and as few as 100 synapses provided resolution approaching psychophysical limits. This indicates that highly accurate stimulus representation can be achieved by small networks and even within single neurons.     

基于有限元方法的凸齿镇压器运动学和动力学分析

为探索凸齿镇压器在作业过程中的运动学和动力学特性,基于验证有效性后的有限元模型,求解了凸齿镇压器外缘点运动轨迹和速度以及加速度随时间的变化规律曲线。结果表明:轮缘点所在凸齿冲击土壤的行为并未在轮缘点竖直方向速度最大时完成;凸齿镇压器轮缘外一点的绝对运动轨迹呈波动状态的余摆线形式;凸齿镇压器轮缘点在接地位置有与前进方向相反的相对滑动。     

二自由度振动筛运动学分析及仿真试验

以二自由度(two degree of freedom,2-DOF)振动筛试验平台为研究对象,对二自由度振动筛试验平台简化模型的运动规律及筛面上物料受力情况进行分析,并对所建立的简化模型的合理性进行验证,得到影响简化模型及物料运动的关键因素。利用ADAMS仿真软件对单自由度振动筛模型和二自由度振动筛模型进行仿真研究,结果表明:单自由度机构筛面倾角有微小的变化,二自由度机构筛面倾角在4°~10°之间变化,两个机构水平位移变化量均为65mm,其位移变化规律基本相同;单自由度垂直方向位移为7.5 mm,二自由度机构垂直方向位移变化在0~60mm之间;二自由度横向加速度大于单自由度,垂直加速度小于单自由度。     

介绍一种推导圆周运动加速度的新方法

本文从加速度坐标分量的定义出发，结合直角坐标系与自然坐标系之间的联系直接求解，给出了一种计算圆周运动加速度的新方法。     

基于ArcGIS的菏泽市人口重心迁移研究

通过重心模型相关理论,借助ArcGIS软件技术绘制2003~2012年菏泽市人口重心迁移轨迹,研究人口重心迁移规律,并分析影响其移动的主要因素。研究表明,菏泽市人口重心与菏泽市几何中心相接近;菏泽市总人口的人口重心迁移与菏泽市非农业人口重心、男性人口重心、女性人口重心具有关联性,移动趋势相近;菏泽市人口重心迁移的总趋势是由东南向西北方向移动;人口重心迁移受人口的迁入迁出、人口的自然增长率、菏泽市的社会经济状况等多种因素影响。     

Regulation of circadian rhythmicity

Daily rhythms in many behavioral, physiological, and biochemical functions are generated by endogenous oscillators that function as internal 24-hour clocks. Under natural conditions, these oscillators are synchronized to the daily environmental cycle of light and darkness. Recent advances in locating circadian pacemakers in the brain and in establishing model systems promise to shed light on the cellular and biochemical mechanisms involved in the generation and regulation of circadian rhythms.