Search results for "Sensory Systems"
showing 10 items of 793 documents
The brainstem efferent acoustic chiasm in pigmented and albino rats
2015
Abstract The present study examined whether structural peculiarities in the brain-efferent pathway to the organ of Corti may underlie functional differences in hearing between pigmented and albino individuals of the same mammalian species. Pigmented Brown-Norway rats and albino Wistar rats received unilateral injections of an aqueous solution of the retrograde neuronal tracer Fluorogold (FG) into the scala tympani of the cochlea to identify olivocochlear neurons (OCN) in the brainstem superior olivary complex. After five days, brains were perfusion-fixed and brainstem sections were cut and analyzed with respect to retrogradely labeled neurons. Intrinsic neurons of the lateral system were lo…
The impact of a concurrent motor task on auditory and visual temporal discrimination tasks
2016
Previous studies have shown the presence of an interference effect on temporal perception when participants are required to simultaneously execute a nontemporal task. Such interference likely has an attentional source. In the present work, a temporal discrimination task was performed alone or together with a self-paced finger-tapping task used as concurrent, nontemporal task. Temporal durations were presented in either the visual or the auditory modality, and two standard durations (500 and 1, 500 ms) were used. For each experimental condition, the participant’s threshold was estimated and analyzed. The mean Weber fraction was higher in the visual than in the auditory modality, but only for…
Comprehensive auditory discrimination profiles recorded with a fast parametric musical multi-feature mismatch negativity paradigm
2016
Abstract Objective Mismatch negativity (MMN), a component of the auditory event-related potential (ERP) in response to auditory-expectancy violation, is sensitive to central auditory processing deficits associated with several clinical conditions and to auditory skills deriving from musical expertise. This sensitivity is more evident for stimuli integrated in complex sound contexts. This study tested whether increasing magnitudes of deviation (levels) entail increasing MMN amplitude (or decreasing latency), aiming to create a balanced version of the musical multi-feature paradigm towards measurement of extensive auditory discrimination profiles in auditory expertise or deficits. Methods Usi…
Categorization of Extremely Brief Auditory Stimuli: Domain-Specific or Domain-General Processes?
2011
The present study investigated the minimum amount of auditory stimulation that allows differentiation of spoken voices, instrumental music, and environmental sounds. Three new findings were reported. 1) All stimuli were categorized above chance level with 50 ms-segments. 2) When a peak-level normalization was applied, music and voices started to be accurately categorized with 20 ms-segments. When the root-mean-square (RMS) energy of the stimuli was equalized, voice stimuli were better recognized than music and environmental sounds. 3) Further psychoacoustical analyses suggest that the categorization of extremely brief auditory stimuli depends on the variability of their spectral envelope in…
Kairomonal communication in mice is concentration-dependent with a proportional discrimination threshold [v2; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/2…
2013
Odors of predators are often co-opted by prey species to serve as warning signals. Perceptual properties of such kairomonal communication are under studied despite their common use in many mammals. We demonstrate that the kairomonal response in mice to rat odors varies monotonically with the volume of rat odor. Moreover, the ability of mice to differentiate between two strengths of rat odors is dependent on the ratio of the two concentrations. These results show that mice can compare kairomonal strength over a large range of values, and that kairomonal communication follows Weber’s law.
Combined spike-related functional MRI and multiple source analysis in the non-invasive spike localization of benign rolandic epilepsy.
2007
Abstract Objective To localize the irritative zone in children by combined spike-related fMRI and EEG multiple source analysis (MSA) in children with benign rolandic epilepsy. Methods Interictal spikes were averaged and localized using MSA, and source locations were displayed in the anatomical 3D-MRI in 11 patients (5–12 yrs, median 10). Interictal spikes were additionally recorded during the fMRI acquisition (EEG-fMRI), and the fMRI sequences were correlated off-line with the EEG spikes. Results MSA revealed an initial central dipole in all patients, including the face or hand area. A second dipolar source was mostly consistent with propagated activity. BOLD activations from EEG-fMRI, cons…
Ocular biometry with swept-source optical coherence tomography
2020
This study aimed to summarize the outcomes reported when swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) is used for ocular biometry. A literature search was performed to identify publications reporting clinical outcomes of patients measured with commercial SS-OCT. Twenty-nine studies were included in this review. A comprehensive analysis of the available data was performed, focusing on parameters used for intraocular lens (IOL) power calculation in cataract surgery, including keratometry, central corneal thickness, white-to-white distance, anterior chamber depth, lens thickness, axial length, IOL power, and pupil diameter. Different metrics for repeatability, reproducibility, and agreem…
Evaluation of 6 biometers based on different optical technologies
2021
This study shows that optical biometers based on different technologies provide repeatable measurements for different ocular parameters and, when compared, statistically significant differences between them were found when measuring most parameters.
Early adaptive response of the retina to a pro-diabetogenic diet: Impairment of cone response and gene expression changes in high-fructose fed rats
2015
The lack of plasticity of neurons to respond to dietary changes, such as high fat and high fructose diets, by modulating gene and protein expression has been associated with functional and behavioral impairments that can have detrimental consequences. The inhibition of high fat-induced rewiring of hypothalamic neurons induced obesity. Feeding rodents with high fructose is a recognized and widely used model to trigger obesity and metabolic syndrome. However the adaptive response of the retina to short term feeding with high fructose is poorly documented. We therefore aimed to characterize both the functional and gene expression changes in the neurosensory retina of Brown Norway rats fed duri…
Beneficial Effect of Docosahexanoic Acid and Lutein on Retinal Structural, Metabolic, and Functional Abnormalities in Diabetic Rats
2009
To assess the effect of docosahexanoic acid (DHA) and lutein (both compounds with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties) on experimental diabetic retinopathy.Male Wistar rats were studied: non-diabetic controls, untreated diabetic controls, and diabetic rats were treated with DHA and lutein or the combination of DHA + insulin and lutein + insulin for 12 weeks. Oxidative stress and inflammatory markers, apoptosis, and functional tests were studied to confirm biochemical and functional changes in the retina of diabetic rats. Malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione concentrations (GSH), and glutathione peroxidase activity (GPx) were measured as oxidative stress markers. TUNEL assay and caspa…