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Access to knowledge of spatial structure at novel points of observation.

Adults were asked to judge the self-to-object directions in a room from novel points of observation that differed from their actual point at times only by a rotation and at other times only by a translation. The results show for the rotation trials that the errors and latencies when a novel point was imagined were worse than the baseline responses from their actual points of observation, and the latencies varied as a function of the magnitude of the to-be-imagined rotation. For the translation trials, on the other hand, the errors and latencies when a novel point was imagined were comparable to the baseline responses from their actual point and did not vary significantly across the different imagined station points. The evidence indicates that subjects know the object-to-object relations directly, without going through the origin of a coordinate system. In addition, similarities in processing during imagination on the one hand, and perception and action on the other are discussed.

Adult↗

Seeing through sound: dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) perceive the spatial structure of objects through echolocation.

Experiment 1 tested a dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) for cross-modal recognition of 25 unique pairings of 8 familiar, complexly shaped objects, using the senses of echolocation and vision. Cross-modal recognition was errorless or nearly so for 24 of the 25 pairings under both visual to echoic matching (V-E) and echoic to visual matching (E-V). First-trial recognition occurred for 20 pairings under V-E and for 24 under E-V. Echoic decision time under V-E averaged only 1.88 s. Experiment 2 tested 4 new pairs of objects for 24 trials of V-E and 24 trials of E-V without any prior exposure of these objects. Two pairs yielded performance significantly above chance in both V-E and E-V. Also, the dolphin matched correctly on 7 of 8 1st trials with these pairs. The results support a capacity for direct echoic perception of object shape by this species and demonstrate that prior object exposure is not required for spontaneous cross-modal recognition.

Animals↗

The perception of spatial structure with oblique viewing: an explanation for Byzantine perspective?

Earlier work has confirmed that (i) observers can judge divergent receding lines, placed directly in front of them, to be parallel, and (ii) converging lines which are displaced laterally, so that they are viewed obliquely, can also be judged to be parallel. The former observation is in accord with traditional views of perspective while the latter, which is in accord with the depictions of objects found in Byzantine painting, is not in accord with perspective but is predicted by the relative magnitude of the visual angles subtended by the near and far ends of the pair of lines. To investigate whether these effects occurred when the stimulus was clearly three-dimensional, experiments were conducted with a novel apparatus, consisting of a framework of computer-controlled motor-driven luminous rods. This could be remotely adjusted so that all visible sides appeared to be parallel, ie to resemble a cube. Results showed that observers set the sides of this trapezohedron framework as diverging when it was viewed immediately in front of them, a result which is concordant with linear perspective, ie they see the normal projection of a cube as having converging edges. When the framework was displaced from the median plane so that it was viewed obliquely, the sides were set as converging and the magnitude of this effect was significantly related to angle of view, ie observers see the normal projection of a cube as having diverging sides.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Art↗

Infants perceive spatial structure specified by line junctions.

Lines in drawings can be perceived as the corners where surfaces intersect, outer boundaries of surfaces, or as markings on a surface. In this study infants' ability to distinguish between lines that indicate corners and edges and lines that indicate markings was investigated. Infants aged 7.5 months were habituated to line displays in which the lines specified a three-dimensional cube or two overlapping rectangles. Both displays contained lines indicating corners, edges, and surface markings. After habituation, infants viewed two test displays, one in which the corners or edges were deleted and one in which the surface markings were deleted. Infants looked significantly longer at the displays that lacked the corners or edges. The results suggest that infants attend to lines that depict corners and edges to a greater degree than they attend to lines that depict markings. Infants may do so because corners and edges specify the shapes of objects whereas markings do not.

Child Development↗

A principle for the formation of the spatial structure of cortical feature maps.

Orientation-selective cells in the striate cortex of higher animals are organized as a hierarchical topographic map of two stimulus features: (i) position in visual space and (ii) orientation. We show that the observed structure of the topographic map can arise from a principle of continuous mapping. For the realization of this principle we use a mathematical model that can be interpreted as an adaptive process changing a set of synaptic weights, or synaptic connection strengths, between two layers of cells. The patterns of orientation preference and selectivity generated by the model are similar to the patterns seen in the visual cortex of macaque monkey and cat and correspond to a neural projection that maps a more than two-dimensional feature space onto a two-dimensional cortical surface under the constraint that shape and position of the receptive fields of the neurons very smoothly over the cortical surface.

Animals↗

Tritium planigraphy: from the accessible surface to the spatial structure of a protein.

The method of tritium planigraphy, which provides comprehensive information on the accessible surface of macromolecules, allows an attempt at reconstructing the three-dimensional structure of a protein from the experimental data on residue accessibility for labeling. The semiempirical algorithm proposed for globular proteins involves (i) predicting theoretically the secondary structure elements (SSEs), (ii) experimentally determining the residue-accessibility profile by bombarding the whole protein with a beam of hot tritium atoms, (iii) generating the residue-accessibility profiles for isolated SSEs by computer simulation, (iv) locating the contacts between SSEs by collating the experimental and simulated accessibility profiles, and (v) assembling the SSEs into a compact model via these contact regions in accordance with certain rules. For sperm whale myoglobin, carp and pike parvalbumins, the lambda cro repressor, and hen egg lysozyme, this algorithm yields the most realistic models when SSEs are assembled sequentially from the amino to the carboxyl end of the protein chain.

Algorithms↗

Spatial structure and growth dynamics of fairy rings formed by Marasmius oreades.

Despite the long-term fascination of fairy ring-forming fungi, many aspects of their biology remain unresolved. It is not known why the mycelium grows as an annular structure, rather than a solid disc, or why it grows radially outwards. Different theories have been suggested, but none have been tested experimentally with molecular resolution. Here, we undertook a metagenomic approach to study the growth dynamics of the fairy ring-forming fungus Marasmius oreades. We confirmed that M. oreades grows as an open ring by detecting its DNA in metagenomes of soil collected along transects from two fairy rings. We showed that the mycelia forming rings are dikaryotic by identifying two mating-type alleles and showing genome-wide heterozygosity. We tested five hypotheses for the mechanism of radial outgrowth using transplantation experiments. The results were most consistent with a transient-escape hypothesis, and suggest that the mycelium avoids inhibitory factors present at the back edge of the mycelial growth front. Our study demonstrates the power of metagenomics for studying fungi, showing that detailed genomic information can be recovered directly from soil. This approach enables the investigation of cryptic aspects of fungal biology, such as the growth of fairy ring-forming fungi, in natural settings that would otherwise remain hidden.

Marasmius↗