Search results for "perception"
showing 10 items of 3634 documents
Brain anatomy of the 4‐day‐old European rabbit
2018
International audience; The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a widely used model in fundamental, medical and veterinary neurosciences. Besides investigations in adults, rabbit pups are relevant to study perinatal neurodevelopment and early behaviour. To date, the rabbit is also the only species in which a pheromone - the mammary pheromone (MP) - emitted by lactating females and active on neonatal adaptation has been described. The MP is crucial since it contributes directly to nipple localisation and oral seizing in neonates, i.e. to their sucking success. It may also be one of the non-photic cues arising from the mother, which stimulates synchronisation of the circadian system du…
Stimulus Driven Functional Transformations in the Early Olfactory System.
2021
Olfactory stimuli are encountered across a wide range of odor concentrations in natural environments. Defining the neural computations that support concentration invariant odor perception, odor discrimination, and odor-background segmentation across a wide range of stimulus intensities remains an open question in the field. In principle, adaptation could allow the olfactory system to adjust sensory representations to the current stimulus conditions, a well-known process in other sensory systems. However, surprisingly little is known about how adaptation changes olfactory representations and affects perception. Here we review the current understanding of how adaptation impacts processing in …
Short telomere length is associated with impaired cognitive performance in European ancestry cohorts
2017
AbstractThe association between telomere length (TL) dynamics on cognitive performance over the life-course is not well understood. This study meta-analyses observational and causal associations between TL and six cognitive traits, with stratifications on APOE genotype, in a Mendelian Randomization (MR) framework. Twelve European cohorts (N=17 052; mean age=59.2±8.8 years) provided results for associations between qPCR-measured TL (T/S-ratio scale) and general cognitive function, mini-mental state exam (MMSE), processing speed by digit symbol substitution test (DSST), visuospatial functioning, memory and executive functioning (STROOP). In addition, a genetic risk score (GRS) for TL includin…
Actual and perceived weight status and its association with slimming and energy-balance related behaviours in 10- to 12-year-old European children: t…
2016
Both parents' and children's perception of children's weight status may be important predictors of slimming and energy-balance related behaviours, independent of children's actual weight status.; We examined the cross-sectional association of children's self-reported slimming and energy-balance related behaviours with children's (i) actual, (ii) self-perceived and (iii) parent-perceived weight status.; Data of 10- to 12-year-old European children and their parents were used. Multilevel logistic and linear regression analyses were performed, adjusting for age, gender, parental weight controlling behaviours, education, marital status and ethnicity.; Independent of their actual weight status, …
Deviance sensitivity in the auditory cortex of freely moving rats.
2018
Deviance sensitivity is the specific response to a surprising stimulus, one that violates expectations set by the past stimulation stream. In audition, deviance sensitivity is often conflated with stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA), the decrease in responses to a common stimulus that only partially generalizes to other, rare stimuli. SSA is usually measured using oddball sequences, where a common (standard) tone and a rare (deviant) tone are randomly intermixed. However, the larger responses to a tone when deviant does not necessarily represent deviance sensitivity. Deviance sensitivity is commonly tested using a control sequence in which many different tones serve as the standard, eliminat…
Using food comfortability to compare food's sensory characteristics expectations of elderly people with or without oral health problems
2017
Food consumption is by far the most important point where food's organoleptic properties can be perceived and can elicit sensory pleasure. Ageing is often accompanied by oral impairments. Those impairments may impact food perception by changing texture perception and the release of flavor components, which have a significant impact on food acceptability. The present study aimed at evaluating the impact of oral health on the perception of food comfortability in an elderly population. This was achieved by asking elderly people with a good oral health and elderly people with poor oral health to rate six cereal products and six meat products using a food comfortability questionnaire. Thirty-sev…
Barber-Say Syndrome and Ablepharon-Macrostomia Syndrome: A Patient's View
2017
Barber-Say syndrome (BSS) and ablepharon-macrostomia syndrome (AMS) are infrequently reported congenital malformation disorders caused by mutations in the <i>TWIST2</i> gene. Both are characterized by abnormalities in ectoderm-derived structures and cause a very unusual morphology of mainly the face in individuals with otherwise normal cognition and normal physical functioning. We studied the impact that the presence of BSS and AMS has on psychosocial functioning of affected individuals and their families, using their point of view to start with. We tabulated frequently asked questions from affected individuals and families, and a parent of an affected child and an affected adul…
Expectation or Sensorial Reality? An Empirical Investigation of the Biodynamic Calendar for Wine Drinkers.
2017
International audience; The study's aim was to investigate a central tenet of biodynamic philosophy as applied to wine tasting, namely that wines taste different in systematic ways on days determined by the lunar cycle. Nineteen New Zealand wine professionals tasted blind 12 Pinot noir wines at times determined within the biodynamic calendar for wine drinkers as being favourable (Fruit day) and unfavourable (Root day) for wine tasting. Tasters rated each wine four times, twice on a Fruit day and twice on a Root day, using 20 experimenter-provided descriptors. Wine descriptors spanned a range of varietal-relevant aroma, taste, and mouthfeel characteristics, and were selected with the aim of …
The TeRiFiQ project: Combining technologies to achieve significant binary reductions in sodium, fat and sugar content in everyday foods whilst optimi…
2017
International audience; Most developed countries are confronted with rising rates of diseases related to unhealthy eating habits, particularly the excessive consumption of salt, saturated fat and free sugars. However, fat, sugars and salt in food influence not only its nutritional qualities but also its sensory properties, safety (e.g. shelf life) and affordability. The main challenge is to formulate healthier foods that are acceptable to consumers. In this context, the overall objective of TeRiFiQ was to achieve significant binary reductions in the salt-fat and sugar-fat contents of frequently consumed food products around Europe, while, at the same time, ensuring the products’ nutritional…
Visual Working Memory Requires Permissive and Instructive NO/cGMP Signaling at Presynapses in the Drosophila Central Brain.
2017
The gaseous second messenger nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to regulate memory formation by activating retrograde signaling cascades from post- to presynapse that involve cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) production to induce synaptic plasticity and transcriptional changes. In this study, we analyzed the role of NO in the formation of a visual working memory that lasts only a few seconds. This memory is encoded in a subset of ring neurons that form the ellipsoid body in the Drosophila brain. Using genetic and pharmacological manipulations, we show that NO signaling is required for cGMP-mediated CREB activation, leading to the expression of competence factors like the synaptic homer pr…