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B Lange-Malecki

Publications and source records attributed to B Lange-Malecki.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Single amino acid substitutions in kappa-conotoxin PVIIA disrupt interaction with the shaker K+ channel.

kappa-Conotoxin PVIIA (kappa-PVIIA), a 27-amino acid peptide with three disulfide cross-links, isolated from the venom of Conus purpurascens, is the first conopeptide shown to inhibit the Shaker K(+) channel (Terlau, H., Shon, K., Grilley, M., Stocker, M., Stühmer, W., and Olivera, B. M. (1996) Nature 381, 148-151). Recently, two groups independently determined the solution structure for kappa-PVIIA using NMR; although the structures reported were similar, two mutually exclusive models for the interaction of the peptide with the Shaker channel were proposed. We carried out a structure/function analysis of kappa-PVIIA, with alanine substitutions for all amino acids postulated to be key residues by both groups. Our data are consistent with the critical dyad model developed by Ménez and co-workers (Dauplais, M., Lecoq, A., Song, J. , Cotton, J., Jamin, N., Gilquin, B., Roumestand, C., Vita, C., de Medeiros, C., Rowan, E. G., Harvey, A. L., and Ménez, A. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 4802-4809) for polypeptide antagonists of K(+) channels. In the case of kappa-PVIIA, Lys(7) and Phe(9) are essential for activity as predicted by Savarin et al. (Savarin, P., Guenneugues, M., Gilquin, B., Lamthanh, H., Gasparini, S., Zinn-Justin, S., and Ménez, A. (1998) Biochemistry 37, 5407-5416); these workers also correctly predicted an important role for Lys(25). Thus, although kappa-conotoxin PVIIA has no obvious sequence homology to polypeptide toxins from other venomous animals that interact with voltage-gated K(+) channels, there may be convergent functional features in diverse K(+) channel polypeptide antagonists.

Alanine↗
PubMed1991

Colour changes as a function of luminance contrast.

When spectral light increases in luminance, the hues change. Normally, long-wavelength light becomes increasingly yellow, and short-wavelength light turns blue or blue-green. This is known as the Bezold-Brücke hue shift. Less notice has been paid to the change in relative chromatic content (saturation or chromatic strength) that accompanies these shifts in hue. As luminance contrast increases from zero, chromatic strength increases to reach a maximum at a luminance that is wavelength dependent. Short-wavelength blueish light reaches this maximum at low relative luminances, whereas midspectral yellowish stimuli need several log units higher luminance. Red and green are somewhere in between. For luminances above this maximum, the chromatic content usually diminishes, and most light becomes more whitish in appearance. In this study it is demonstrated how the combined chromatic appearance of hue and chromatic strength change with intensity. Both phenomena find a common physiological interpretation in the nonlinear and nonmonotonic responses of colour-opponent P cells in the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus of the primate. A model that combines the outputs of six P-cell types accounts for observers' estimates of hue and chromatic strength.

Attention↗
PubMed1990

"Colour constancy" in Mondrian patterns: a partial cancellation of physical chromaticity shifts by simultaneous contrast.

Edwin Land's Mondrian demonstrations (Land 1977, 1983, 1986a) are striking examples that the perceived colours of objects are largely independent of the chromaticity of the light incident upon them. Attempts to implement this independence in artificial vision systems have renewed interest in colour constancy and contrast, and the explanation of these phenomena in the Retinex theory. We use colour matches to demonstrate that departures from "colour constancy" are large and that it is possible to obtain the same colour shifts when the complex Mondrian pattern is replaced by a homogeneous grey field surrounding a test patch. A given patch has the same colour when surrounded by the Mondrian as when set in a grey background, provided that the grey represents the spatially weighted average of the Mondrian. Neither the colour shifts nor the equivalence of this neutral surround are correctly predicted by the Retinex theory. The phenomenon of partial cancellation of physical chromaticity shifts with changes of illuminant thus reduces to one of simultaneous contrast and adaptation where a spatio-chromatic and luminance average over a Mondrian pattern is the same as for a grey surround. Experiments with simultaneous contrast demonstrate that spatial weighting factors need to be applied in computations of the effect of the separate areas of a complex Mondrian pattern.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1990

Chromatic induction and brightness contrast: a relativistic color model.

It has been suggested that object colors in a colored environment are the result of combining in perception the (relative) brightness of each spectral component rather than of just mixing the spectral luminances. We tested this hypothesis with the following experiment: A pair of center-surround targets made of colored papers was illuminated with trichromatic white light. Two identical central color plates (test and match field, respectively) were surrounded by frames of different colors and thus looked different because of simultaneous color contrast. Observers were asked to match the colors by changing the illumination of the match field by means of a color-mixture projector (color match, CM). This color-matched reflectance was measured with a photometer, and its CIE coordinates were determined. We then illuminated the display with one of the three primaries that made up our trichromatic white light. The different reflectances of the different surrounds at each primary induced simultaneous brightness contrast. The brightnesses of the two central plates were therefore different. Observers were asked to change the intensity of the illumination of the match field at the respective primary so that it looked equally bright as the test field. This procedure was repeated for each primary (primary brightness match, PBM). Then the whole display except for the match field was illuminated with the trichromatic white as before, while the latter was illuminated with a trichromatic mixture consisting of the primaries at the intensities as set in the PBM experiment, and the CIE values were determined with the photometer. The CIE values of the match field after the CM and PBM procedures were nearly identical. This indicates that composite colors are composed in perception by combining the scaled (or relative) brightness of each spectral component and that this brightness scaling is largely restricted to interactions in the same spectral region. The results are compared with those of other models concerned with contrast colors as well as with neurophysiological data. Some limitations are mentioned.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Visual resolution of macaque retinal ganglion cells.

1. The visual resolving ability of different types of macaque retinal ganglion cells was estimated at different retinal eccentricities, by measuring the amplitude of modulated responses to black-white gratings of spatial frequencies near the resolution limit for each cell. 2. The resolving ability of tonic, spectrally opponent ganglion cells was usually similar to that of phasic, non-opponent ganglion cells at similar eccentricities, except that at eccentricities greater than 10 deg some tonic ganglion cells with remarkably high resolution (up to ca. 15 cycles/deg) were found. Our cell sample was limited within the central 2 deg of the visual field, however. 3. Only a small proportion of phasic ganglion cells showed an increase of mean firing level to gratings near the resolution limit. The maintained firing of tonic ganglion cells was higher than that of phasic ganglion cells. 4. With red-black or green-black gratings, the resolution of phasic ganglion cells was unaffected. For red or green on-centre ganglion cells, a marked deterioration of resolving ability occurred when the grating was of a colour to which a cell responded poorly (green-black gratings for red on-centre cells, and red-black gratings for green on-centre cells). A slight improvement in resolving ability occurred when the grating was of an excitatory colour. 5. For a sub-sample of cells, we compared resolution limit with centre size as determined from area-threshold curves. For both phasic and tonic ganglion cells, resolution limit (the period length just resolved) was about half the centre diameter, as is the case for cat ganglion cells. This implies that the centre sizes of phasic and tonic monkey ganglion cells are similar at most eccentricities. 6. We attempt to relate these results to primate retinal anatomy and visual resolution, determined behaviourally.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1987

Darkness induction, retinex and cooperative mechanisms in vision.

We have investigated the darkness induction of surround fields of various composition on a centrally located test field. Darkness induction can be described as a linear subtraction of the luminance of the induction region from the test field luminance, weighted for the size, the length of immediate contact and the distance of the induction field from the test field. Furthermore, closer induction fields exert a shunting effect on the induction effect of fields which are more distally located on the same radius, and neighbouring fields mutually interact. A model is discussed which takes into account these variables. It is compared with older models as well as with the Retinex-model as formulated by Land (1983). Our data and model are closer to the model of Jameson and Hurvich (1964). Neurophysiological correlates and mechanisms are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Haploscopic colour mixtures with and without contours in subjects with normal and disturbed binocular vision.

Binocular mixtures of equiluminous components of different wavelengths were matched with additive monoptic mixtures of the same components. After a satisfactory match had been achieved, the luminance of each colour in the monoptic mixture was measured photometrically. After presentation of an orthogonal grating superimposed on the colour shown to one eye, the colour matching was repeated. The grating induced a strong dominance of the colour with which it was combined. Yet the uncontoured colour was not entirely suppressed, but contributed to the binocular colour to various degrees. In three subjects with anisometropic amblyopia in one eye the colour presented to the amblyopic eye contributed little or nothing to the haploscopic colour mixture, depending on the degree of amblyopia. This diminished contribution could not be enhanced by a grid. In three cases with strabismic amblyopia and in one case with strabismus alternans no haploscopic colour mixture effects could be demonstrated. The observations are discussed in the context of neurophysiological findings in the visual system of primates, and it is suggested that colour and contour are not transmitted through independent channels from the retina to the cortex.

Adult↗