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Biomedical subjects

M Kawato

Publications and source records attributed to M Kawato.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

A computational model of four regions of the cerebellum based on feedback-error learning.

We propose a computationally coherent model of cerebellar motor learning based on the feedback-error-learning scheme. We assume that climbing fiber responses represent motor-command errors generated by some of the premotor networks such as the feedback controllers at the spinal-, brain stem- and cerebral levels. Thus, in our model, climbing fiber responses are considered to convey motor errors in the motor-command coordinates rather than in the sensory coordinates. Based on the long-term depression in Purkinje cells each corticonuclear microcomplex in different regions of the cerebellum learns to execute predictive and coordinative control of different types of movements. Ultimately, it acquires an inverse model of a specific controlled object and complements crude control by the premotor networks. This general model is developed in detail as a specific neural circuit model for the lateral hemisphere. A new experiment is suggested to elucidate the coordinate frame in which climbing fiber responses are represented.

Animals

Adaptive feedback control models of the vestibulocerebellum and spinocerebellum.

We extend the cerebellar learning model proposed by Kawato and Gomi (1992) to the case where a specific region of the cerebellum executes adaptive feedback control as well as feedforward control. The model is still based on the feedback-error-learning scheme. The proposed adaptive feedback control model is developed in detail as a specific neural circuit model for three different regions of the cerebellum and the learning of the corresponding representative movements: (i) the flocculus and adaptive modification of the vestibulo-ocular reflex and optokinetic eye-movement responses, (ii) the vermis and adaptive posture control, and (iii) the intermediate zones of the hemisphere and adaptive control of locomotion. As a representative example, simultaneous adaptation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex and the optokinetic eye-movement response was successfully simulated while the Purkinje cells receive copies of motor commands through recurrent neural connections as well as vestibular and retinal-slip parallel-fiber inputs.

Animals

Chronic thyroiditis: thyroid function and histologic correlations in 601 cases.

Six hundred one patients with histologically proven "chronic thyroiditis" were assessed for the correlation of thyroid function to histologic findings. The histology of chronic thyroiditis was classified into four groups (oxyphilic, mixed, focal, and hyperplastic), and the thyroid function of patients was divided into hyperthyroid, euthyroid, latent hypothyroid, and overt hypothyroid, based on the laboratory data of serum triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), and thyrotropin (TSH) levels, as well as thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) tests. In the oxyphilic group (137 cases), 116 (85%) of the patients were classified as hypothyroid: 52 (38%) as latent hypothyroid and 64 (47%) as overt hypothyroid. In the mixed group (161 cases), the thyroid function of the patients varied. Thirty-seven (23%) of the patients were classified as hyperthyroid, 61 (39%) as euthyroid, 54 (33%) as latent hypothyroid, and nine (5%) as overt hypothyroid. In this group thyroid function was intimately related to the ratio of replacement by hyperplastic-changed follicles and oxyphilic-changed follicles. In the focal group (149 cases), 123 (83%) of the patients were classified as euthyroid, while 22 (14%) were classified as latent hypothyroid. The frequency of latent hypothyroid patients increased in parallel with the severity of cell infiltration. In the hyperplastic group (154 cases), 130 (85%) of the patients were classified as hyperthyroid. In this series 19 patients under 10 years of age were included, and no difference in the distribution of histologic varieties was observed between juvenile and adult patients. Thyroid needle biopsy is a useful and safe tool, not only for the histologic diagnosis of chronic thyroiditis, but also for the evaluation of thyroid function and the identification of causes for hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism.

Adult

The cerebellum and VOR/OKR learning models.

Although one particular model of the cerebellum, as proposed by Marr and Albus, provides a formal framework for understanding how heterosynaptic plasticity of Purkinje cells might be used for motor learning, the physiological details remain largely an engima. Developments in computational neuroscience and artificial neural networks applied to real control problems are essential to understand fully how workspace errors associated with movement performances can be converted into motor-command errors, and how these errors can then be used as one kind of synaptic input by motor-learning algorithms that are based on biologically plausible rules involving heterosynaptic plasticity. These developments, as well as recent advances in the study of cellular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, form the basis for the detailed computational models of cerebellar motor learning that have been proposed. These models provide hints toward resolving a long-standing controversy in the oculomotor literature regarding the sites of adaptive changes in the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) and the optokinetic eye movement response (OKR), and suggest new experiments to elucidate general mechanisms of sensory motor learning.

Animals

Trajectory formation of arm movement by cascade neural network model based on minimum torque-change criterion.

We proposed that the trajectory followed by human subject arms tended to minimize the time integral of the square of the rate of change of torque (Uno et al. 1987). This minimum torque-change model predicted and reproduced human multi-joint movement data quite well (Uno et al. 1989). Here, we propose a neural network model for trajectory formation based on the minimum torque-change criterion. Basic ideas of information representation and algorithm are (i) spatial representation of time, (ii) learning of forward dynamics and kinetics model and (iii) relaxation computation based on the acquired model. The model can resolve ill-posed inverse kinematics and inverse dynamics problems for redundant controlled object as well as ill-posed trajectory formation problems. By computer simulation, we show that the model can produce a multi-joint arm trajectory while avoiding obstacles or passing through viapoints.

Algorithms

Studies on human finger tapping neural networks by phase transition curves.

The human finger tapping was studied psychologically by the phase transition curves. We assumed that some oscillatory neural network controls the tapping. One of our future works on the human finger tapping is to devise a method to change the magnitude of perturbation continuously in phase resetting experiments of a constant tapping interval with a same kind of task. If this is achieved, we can obtain a phase transition surface (i.e. the new phase as a function of the old phase and the magnitude of perturbation). From the shape of a phase transition surface, the intrinsic properties of the oscillatory network which controls the tapping can be studied (Kawato et al., 1978).

Conditioning, Psychological

Synergism and antagonism of neurons caused by an electrical synapse.

To investigate the role of electrical junction, a model system consisting of two electrically coupled neurons was studied. It was revealed that the model system generates both the in-phase pattern and the anti-phase pattern stably. Physiological condierations revealed the following. The in-phase discharge pattern (synergism) is a unique output of a electrically coupled pacemaker neurons. However, both the in-phase (synergism) and the anti-phase (antagonism) discharge patterns are possible for electrically coupled bursting neurons. We may expect other discharge patterns, such as a random discharge pattern (chaos), than the inphase and the anti-phase pattern in electrically coupled neurons. Random firing patterns in the inferior olive may be attributed to electrical synapses. Until now, we have assumed that excitation periods of two neurons were almost the same. When two periods are greatly different, various phenomena are expected. Determination of the stability of the anti-phase solution by the analytical methods, when diffusion constants are very small, is one of our future problems.

Action Potentials

Biological oscillators can be stopped--topological study of a phase response care.

Many biological oscillators are stable against noise and perturbation (e.g. circadian rhythms, biochemical oscillators, pacemaker neurons, bursting neurons and neural networks with periodic outputs). The experiment of phase shifts resulting from discrete perturbation of stable biological rhythms was developed by Perkel and coworkers (Perkel et al., 1964). By these methods, they could get important insights into the entrainment behaviors of biological rhythms. Phase response curves, which are measured in these experiments, can be classified into two types. The one is the curve with one mapping degree (Type 1), and the other is that with zero mapping degree (Type 0) (Winfree, 1970). We define the phase response curve mathematically, and explain the difference between these two types by the homotopy theory. Moreover, we prove that, if a Type 0 curve is obtained at a certain magnitude of perturbation, there exists at least one lower magnitude for which the phase response curve cannot be measured. Some applications of these theoretical results are presented.

Acclimatization

[Effect of somatostatin on pancreatic endocrine--experiment by somatostatin infusion into the pancreaticoduodenal artery in dogs--(author's transl)].

The direct inhibitory action of somatostatin (cyclized SRIF) on the pancreatic endocrine function was investigated by a technique using pancreaticoduodenal arteriovenous system in vivo. Somatostatin was infused for 20 minutes at a speed of 2.5 mug/minute into the superior pancreaticoduodenal vein and femoral artery were measured before and every 5 minutes throughout the experiment for 30 minutes. The results were compared with those obtained from the control experiment which was carried out in the same time schedule under infusion of physiologic saline solution instead of somatostatin. Next, the effect of somatostatin on the glucose-induced insulin release from the pancreas was also evaluated. The following findings were obtained. (1) Somatostatin infused at a speed of 2.5 mug/minute into the superior pancreaticoduodenal artery caused a statistically significant inhibition of plasma levels of IRI and IRG and also pancreatic output of these hormones. With the sessation of somatostatin infusion an abrupt rise of the hormones were seen. This "rebound" phenomenon was more pronounced in insulin secretion than in glucagon. No significant changes in the plasma glucose levels in either the pancreaticoduodenal vein or the femoral artery throughout the experiment were found. (2)During infusion of somatostatin at a speed of 1.25 mug/minute, insulin response to glucose injected into the pancreaticoduodenal artery in a small dose, as well as having no effect on the plasma glucose level in systemic circulation, was also significantly inhibited. From these findings obtained by direct experiment using the pancreaticoduodenal arterio-venous system, it was confirmed that somatostatin exhibits a direct inhibitory action on pancreas endocrine in a very low concentration in vivo, and it was suggested that this action might be partly due to a reduction in pancreatic circulation.

Animals

Clinical value of the thyrotropin-releasing hormone stimulation test in predicting mild hypothyroid state in chronic thyroiditis.

In order to evaluate the clinical usefulness of the TRH stimulation test in predicting premyxedematous state in chronic thyroiditis, serum TSH response to the i. v. injection of TRH was determined in 58 patients with chronic thyroiditis proven by needle or open biopsy. TSH radioimmunoassay was done by a double antibody technique, and the degree and pattern of TSH response were assessed based on our criteria established by the results obtained from 9 normal controls. According to Woolner's classification, 35 cases were diagnosed as diffuse type. 19 cases as focal type and 4 cases as hyperplastic. The basal levels of TSH were above the normal range in 71.4% of diffuse thyroiditis, whereas 36.8% of the patients with focal thyroiditis had an abnormally high basal TSH level. Responses of serum TSH to TRH was exaggerated in 67.1% of all patients; 80.0% in diffuse type and 47.4% in focal type. Concerning TSH response curve, 15 patients were judged as "prolonged", and 8 patients as "delayed" response. No weak responder in the TRH test was found in patients with high basal TSH level, 91% of whom had an exaggerated response. Serum levels of thyroxine and triiodothyronine inversely correlated with basal, maximal TSH levels (p less than 0.01) and increment of TSH (delta TSH) after TRH injection (p less than 0.01). Thyroidal uptake of I131 also inversely correlated with basal TSH level (p less than 0.05) but not with maximal TSH and delta TSH. From the fact that an elevation of basal TSH level and its hyperresponsiveness to TRH administration develop in a much more exaggerated fashion compared to the changes in other parameters of thyroid function, it was concluded that TRH test provides a useful rationale for the early diagnosis of premyxedema in chronic thyroiditis.

Adult