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[Visual illusions of obliquity].

Three cases of visual illusion of obliquity were observed. This rare disorder is due to impaired of panorama/vertical orientation. When present, special care must be given during visual correction to spatial orientation of the perceived image in the vertical axis.

Adolescent↗

Comparison of visual-spatial performance strategy training in children with Turner syndrome and learning disabilities.

This study examined the effects of a verbal mediation strategy on three groups of subjects who had visual-spatial deficits. Thirteen females with Turner syndrome, 13 females with nonverbal learning disabilities, and 14 males with nonverbal learning disabilities, who ranged in age from 7 to 14 years, were taught via a cognitive behavioral modification approach to verbally mediate a spatial matching task. Pretest and posttest performance differences on parallel forms of a visual-spatial orientation task were examined. All three groups showed significant improvement in visual-spatial task performance after the training. There were no significant differences in the degree of improvement among the three groups. The results suggest that children with Turner syndrome may benefit from problem-solving strategy training in a manner similar to children with nonverbal learning disabilities.

Adolescent↗

Mechanically induced orientation of adult rat cardiac myocytes in vitro.

A population of freshly isolated adult rat cardiac myocytes is spatially oriented using a computerized mechanical cell stimulator device for tissue cultured cells. A continuous unidirectional stretch of the substratum at 60 to 400 micron/min for 120 to 30 min, respectively, during the cell attachment period in serum-free medium induces a significant three-fold increase in the number of rod-shaped myocytes oriented parallel to the direction of movement. The myocytes orient less well with unidirectional substratum stretching after their adhesion to the substratum. In contrast, adult myocytes plated onto a substratum undergoing continuous 10% stretch-relaxation cycling show no significant change in myocyte orientation or cytoskeletal organization. Orientation of rod-shaped myocytes is dependent on several factors other than the type of mechanical activity. These include: a) the speed of substratum movement; b) the final stretch amplitude; and c) the timing between initiation of substratum stretching and adhesion of myocytes to the substratum. Oriented adult rod shaped myocytes representing 65 to 70% of the total myocyte population in this model system can now be submitted to different patterns of repetitive mechanical stimulation for the study of stretch-induced alterations in cell growth and gene expression.

Animals↗

Spatial memory and orientation strategies in the elasmobranch Potamotrygon motoro.

We investigated whether juvenile freshwater stingrays (Potamotrygon motoro) can solve spatial tasks by constructing a cognitive map of their environment. Two experimental conditions were run: allocentric and ego-allocentric. Rays were trained to locate food within a four-arm maze placed in a room with visual spatial cues. The feeding location (goal) within the maze (room) remained constant while the starting position varied for the allocentrically but not for the ego-allocentrically trained group. After training, all rays solved the experimental tasks; however, different orientation strategies were used within and between groups. Allocentrically trained rays reached the goal via novel routes starting from unfamiliar locations, while ego-allocentrically trained rays primarily solved the task on the basis of an egocentric turn response. Our data suggest that P. motoro orients by constructing a visual cognitive map of its environment, but also uses egocentric and/or other orientation strategies alone or in combination for spatial orientation, a choice which may be governed by the complexity of the problem. We conclude that spatial memory functions are a general feature of the vertebrate brain.

Animals↗

Effects of anterior or dorsomedial thalamic ibotenic lesions on learning and memory in rats.

Sprague-Dawley rats were used to study the effects of ibotenic acid lesions of the anterior (A.Th.) and the dorsomedial (MD) thalamic nuclei on learning and memory. Memory was assessed by employing a temporal alternation task in a straight alley with varying intertrial intervals. In addition, spatial orientation and response flexibility were evaluated on a radial maze and on a spatial reversal task (SSDR). The results indicated that MD rats required more trials to learn the temporal alternation task and exhibited impaired performance compared to A.Th. and control groups at the shortest delay (15 s). In contrast, compared to the control group, A.Th. subjects which required less trials to master the task and exhibited normal performance at the 15-s delay were impaired when the intertrial interval was increased to 45 s. Whatever the lesion, no impairments were found in the SSDR or the radial maze while only MD lesions were found to result in a night hyperactivity associated with greater food and water consumptions. These findings indicate that A.Th. and MD are differentially involved in learning and memory processes. It is suggested that the MD is mostly involved in registering new information while the A.Th. plays a role in the maintenance of information over time.

Animals↗

Computerized geometric evaluation of angio- and echocardiographic images.

Since the first comprehensive computerized videometric systems for quantitative assessment of the dynamic morphology and function of the heart have been developed, angiocardiographic image generation and computer aided evaluation have improved considerably. As a second method for morphological imaging echocardiography is also established in cardiology, so that videometry branched off into angio- and echocardiometry. In this paper, the common aspects of both methods are discussed concerning manual outlining and computerized contour representation, additional storage of anatomical landmarks labelled by digits and letters, and list-directed automated evaluation of data. It allows standard graphical documentations including comparisons of global volumetric and functional results for individual patients as well as versatile research orientated evaluations of oblique semi-axes, sectorial areas, wall thicknesses, shape parameters, spatial orientation and derived global and regional functional parameters for patient groups. As an example wall thickness measured from echographic long and short axis views and from angiographic projections are compared.

Angiocardiography↗

A spherical model for orientation and spatial-frequency tuning in a cortical hypercolumn.

A theory is presented of the way in which the hypercolumns in primary visual cortex (V1) are organized to detect important features of visual images, namely local orientation and spatial-frequency. Given the existence in V1 of dual maps for these features, both organized around orientation pinwheels, we constructed a model of a hypercolumn in which orientation and spatial-frequency preferences are represented by the two angular coordinates of a sphere. The two poles of this sphere are taken to correspond, respectively, to high and low spatial-frequency preferences. In Part I of the paper, we use mean-field methods to derive exact solutions for localized activity states on the sphere. We show how cortical amplification through recurrent interactions generates a sharply tuned, contrast-invariant population response to both local orientation and local spatial frequency, even in the case of a weakly biased input from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). A major prediction of our model is that this response is non-separable with respect to the local orientation and spatial frequency of a stimulus. That is, orientation tuning is weaker around the pinwheels, and there is a shift in spatial-frequency tuning towards that of the closest pinwheel at non-optimal orientations. In Part II of the paper, we demonstrate that a simple feed-forward model of spatial-frequency preference, unlike that for orientation preference, does not generate a faithful representation when amplified by recurrent interactions in V1. We then introduce the idea that cortico-geniculate feedback modulates LGN activity to generate a faithful representation, thus providing a new functional interpretation of the role of this feedback pathway. Using linear filter theory, we show that if the feedback from a cortical cell is taken to be approximately equal to the reciprocal of the corresponding feed-forward receptive field (in the two-dimensional Fourier domain), then the mismatch between the feed-forward and cortical frequency representations is eliminated. We therefore predict that cortico-geniculate feedback connections innervate the LGN in a pattern determined by the orientation and spatial-frequency biases of feed-forward receptive fields. Finally, we show how recurrent cortical interactions can generate cross-orientation suppression.

Brain Mapping↗

Interocular suppression in the primary visual cortex: a possible neural basis of binocular rivalry.

In an attempt to demonstrate a physiological basis for the alternating suppression of perception when the two eyes view very different contours (binocular rivalry), we studied the responses of neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and area 17 of cats for drifting gratings of different orientation, spatial frequency and contrast in the two eyes. Almost half of the LGN neurons studied exhibited modest inhibitory interocular interaction, but independent of interocular differences in orientation. Monocularly driven units in layer 4 of area 17 behaved similarly. However, for the majority of binocular cortical cells, the response to a grating of optimal orientation in one eye was suppressed by a grating of very different orientation shown to the other eye, over a wide range of spatial frequency and independent of relative spatial phase. This interocular suppression exhibits a remarkable non-linearity: a grating of non-preferred orientation in one eye causes significant interocular suppression only if the neuron is already responding to an appropriate stimulus in the other eye [Sengpiel and Blakemore (1994) Nature, 368, 847-850]. We propose that the switches in perceptual dominance during binocular rivalry depend on interocular interactions at the level of binocular neurons of the primary visual cortex, which might involve intracortical inhibition between adjacent ocular dominance columns. The spontaneous alternations in perceptual suppression that occur during prolonged viewing of rivalrous patterns remain to be explained, although significant variation in the strength of neuronal suppression in such conditions was occasionally seen.

Action Potentials↗

Receptive field properties of single neurons in rat primary visual cortex.

The rat is used widely to study various aspects of vision including developmental events and numerous pathologies, but surprisingly little is known about the functional properties of single neurons in the rat primary visual cortex (V1). These were investigated in the anesthetized (Hypnorm-Hypnovel), paralyzed animal by presenting gratings of different orientations, spatial and temporal frequencies, dimensions, and contrasts. Stimulus presentation and data collection were automated. Most neurons (190/205) showed sharply tuned (</=30 degrees bandwidth at half height) orientation selectivity with a bias for horizontal stimuli (31%). Analysis of response modulation of oriented cells showed a bimodal distribution consistent with the distinction between simple and complex cell types. Orientation specific interactions occurred between the center and the periphery of receptive fields, usually resulting in strong inhibition to center stimulation when both stimuli had the same orientation. There was no evidence for orientation columns nor for orderly change in optimal orientation with tangential tracks through V1. Responses were elicited by spatial frequencies ranging from zero (no grating) to 1.2 cycle/degree (c/ degrees ), peaking at 0.1 c/ degrees, and with a modal cutoff of 0.6 c/ degrees. Half of the neurons responded optimally to drifting gratings rather than flashing uniform field stimuli. Directional preference was seen for 59% of oriented units at all depths in the cortex. Optimal stimuli velocities varied from 10 to 250 degrees /s. Some units, mainly confined to layer 4, responded to velocities as high as 700 degrees /s. Response versus contrast curves (best fit with Naka-Rushton) varied from nearly linear to extremely steep (mean contrast semisaturation 50% and threshold 6%). There was a trend for cells from superficial layers to be more selective to different stimulus parameters than deeper layers cells. We conclude that neurons in rat V1 have complex and diverse visual properties, necessary for precise visual form perception with low spatial resolution.

Animals↗

Updating after rotational and translational body movements: coordinate structure of perspective space.

As people move through an environment, they typically change both their heading and their location relative to the surrounds. During such changes, people update their changing orientations with respect to surrounding objects. People can also update after only imagining such typical movements, but not as quickly or accurately as after actual movement. In the present study, blindfolded subjects pointed to objects after real and imagined walks. The role of rotational and translational components of movement were contrasted. The difficulty of imagined updating was found to be due to imagined rotation and not to imagined translation; updating after the latter was just as quick and accurate as updating after actual rotations and translations. Implications for understanding primary spatial orientation, the organization of spatial knowledge, and spatial-imagination processes are discussed.

Female↗

Selective rotation of egocentric spatial representation following right putaminal hemorrhage.

Although the role of frontoparietal cortex in spatial egocentric processing is well established, recent animal-lesion and human functional imaging studies have suggested that the neostriatum may also be a critical modulator in the processing of body-centred spatial orientation. We describe here a patient with right putamen-centred hemorrhage who exhibited a consistent counterclockwise rotation of approximately 90 degrees when drawing and writing from memory. A more detailed assessment with a series of representational clock tests demonstrated that the rotation was present only in tasks requiring the use of egocentric cues. In the absence of external cues the patient would adopt and maintain a stable but incorrectly-oriented egocentric representation of the imagined or recollected object. By contrast, performance could be rectified by presentation of correctly-oriented stimuli. These findings suggest that the putamen is part of a circuit underlying egocentric, as opposed to allocentric, representation of space in humans.

Adult↗

Idiosyncratic orientation strategies influence self-controlled whole-body rotations in the dark.

The present experiment examined the influence of spatial orientation strategies on human subjects' accuracy in a self-controlled whole-body rotation task in the dark. Subjects were seated on a robotic chair and had to perform 360 degrees rotations with or without the presentation of a space-fixed target. Performance was compared between subjects who preferably used an "egocentric" or an "allocentric" strategy. Results suggest that orientation strategies might be tightly linked to sensory integration processes.

Adult↗

Nitrogen lone pair interactions in organic molecules: a photoelectron spectroscopic study.

The electronic structure of several cyclic, saturated and unsaturated amines and imines has been investigated by UV photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). The analysis of spectra has been performed with DFT and OVGF calculations and comparison with the UPS spectra of related compounds. The extent and type of nitrogen lone pair interactions is discussed because nitrogen lone pairs are the most important functional groups present in these molecules. The magnitude of interactions was found to depend on the spatial orientation and rigidity of mutual positions of the lone pairs, rather than on their spatial distance.

Chemistry, Physical↗

[High-resolution CT of the dentate alveolar ridge in comparison with histological thin section preparations].

Human bone segments of the toothed jaw were scanned using high-resolution CT with axial and coronal contiguous 1 and 2 mm slices. The bone segments were sliced analogous to the performed CT image positions. Contact films and micro-sections were made from the cuttings. Length and width of the teeth, the thickness of the alveolar bone and the distance between bone and dental surface were measured. Comparison of the CT measurements with contact films and histological specimen yielded best results for axial slices with 1 mm slice thickness (mean error 0.3-0.5 mm). Coronary oriented slices showed an error of 0.3-1.6 mm. 3D-reformatting can improve spatial orientation for axially produced image series. For CT imaging of the toothed jaw concerning the dento-alveolar structures, contiguous axial scanning with 1 mm slice thickness appears to be the concept of choice.

Alveolar Process↗

Substratal idiothetic navigation of rats is impaired by removal or devaluation of extramaze and intramaze cues.

The spatial orientation of vertebrates is implemented by two complementary mechanisms: allothesis, processing the information about spatial relationships between the animal and perceptible landmarks, and idiothesis, processing the substratal and inertial information produced by the animal's active or passive movement through the environment. Both systems allow the animal to compute its position with respect to perceptible landmarks and to the already traversed portion of the path. In the present study, we examined the properties of substratal idiothesis deprived of relevant exteroceptive information. Rats searching for food pellets in an arena formed by a movable inner disk and a peripheral immobile belt were trained in darkness to avoid a 60 degrees sector; rats that entered this sector received a mild foot shock. The punished sector was defined in the substratal idiothetic frame, and the rats had to determine the location of the shock sector with the use of substratal idiothesis only, because all putative intramaze cues were made irrelevant by angular displacements of the disk relative to the belt. Striking impairment of place avoidance by this "shuffling procedure" indicates that effective substratal idiothesis must be updated by exteroceptive intramaze cues.

Animals↗

[Several mechanisms of visual gnosis disorders in local brain lesions].

The object of the studies were peculiarities of recognizing visual images by patients with local cerebral lesions under conditions of incomplete sets of the image features, disjunction of the latter, distortion of their spatial arrangement, and unusual spatial orientation of the image as a whole. It was found that elimination of even one essential feature sharply hampered the recognition of the image both by healthy individuals (control), and patients with extraoccipital lesions, whereas elimination of several nonessential features only slowed down the process. In distinction from this the difficulties of the recognition of incomplete images by patients with occipital lesions were directly proportional to the number of the eliminated features irrespective of the latters' significance, i.e. these patients were unable to evaluate the hierarchy of the features. The recognition process in these patients were followed the way of scanning individual features. The reaccumulation and summation. The recognition of the fragmental, spatially distorted and unusually oriented images was found to be affected selectively in patients with parietal lobe affections. The patients with occipital lesions recognized such images practically as good as the ordinary ones.

Adult↗

Spatial constraints in bimanual coordination: influences of effector orientation.

Two experiments are reported that examined the influence of spatial orientation of the upper limbs in bimanual coordination. In both experiments, the upper limbs were oriented in either parallel, orthogonal, or obtuse spatial configurations and participants were asked to move their limbs continuously in temporal (1:1) synchrony, prepared in either in-phase or anti-phase modes of coordination. Bimanual coordination trials in Experiment 1 were paced by a metronome at one of four frequencies (1.0, 1.5, 2.0 or 2.5 Hz). Measures of relative phase accuracy and stability both revealed that, as metronome frequency increased, in-phase coordination dominated for the parallel spatial orientation, anti-phase coordination dominated for the orthogonal spatial orientation, and neither pattern dominated for the obtuse spatial orientations. In Experiment 2, an intentional switch method replicated and extended these influences of spatial orientation. The time to voluntarily switch from an anti-phase pattern to an in-phase pattern was faster than an in-phase to anti-phase switch (confirming support for the dominance of the in-phase pattern), but this was true only for the parallel spatial orientation. The reverse was true for the orthogonal spatial orientation (i.e., faster from in-phase to anti-phase), and no difference in switch times was observed for an obtuse spatial orientation. These findings support and extend previous research regarding the influence of spatial orientation in bimanual coordination and may be attributed to the role of, and potential interactions between, egocentric, allocentric, and mechanical constraints during action.

Adult↗