How did brains evolve?

Three reports on mammalian brain evolution analyse the same comparative data on brain component volumes but come to partially conflicting conclusions. Clark et al. conclude from their analysis of volumetric brain proportions ("cerebro-types") that cerebellum size is invariant across mammalian taxonomic groups, the neocortex and cerebellum do not co-vary in size (in contradiction to ref. 1), and cerebrotype-based measures identify directional changes in brain architecture. Here I provide evidence that calls each of these conclusions into question. The failure of the cerebrotype measure to identify species differences in brain architecture that are independent of gross brain size undermines the proposal by Clark et al. that it could be useful for detecting evolutionary patterns and phylogenetic relationships.     

Analysis of mammalian brain architecture.

The mammalian brain is composed of several distinct parts which show different growth in evolution. Clark, Mitra and Wang found that the two main cortices of the brain - the cerebral (neo-) cortex and the cerebellum - show very different growth, and that whereas the ratio of neocortex volume to total brain volume increases with evolution, the cerebellum occupies a constant proportion in different species. Here I compare the surface areas of the two cortices in different species and find that these show a simple proportionality. Contrary to the conclusion drawn by Clark et al., this linear dependence of size implies that the two major cortices increase their computational capacity in parallel, suggesting a functional dependence of the one upon the other.     

Evolutionary radiations and convergences in the structural organization of mammalian brains

The sizes of mammalian brain components seem to be mostly related to the sizes of the whole brain (and body), suggesting a one-dimensional scale of encephalization. Previous multivariate study of such data concludes that evolutionary selection for enlargement of any one brain part is constrained to selection for a concerted enlargement of the whole brain. However, interactions between structurally related pairs of brain parts confirm reports of differential change in brain nuclei, and imply mosaic rather than concerted evolution. Here we analyse a large number of variables simultaneously using multi-dimensional methods. We show that the relative proportions of different systems of functionally integrated brain structures vary independently between different mammalian orders, demonstrating separate evolutionary radiations in mammalian brain organization. Within each major order we identify clusters of unrelated species that occupy similar behavioural niches and have convergently evolved similar brain proportions. We conclude that within orders, mosaic brain organization is caused by selective adaptation, whereas between orders it suggests an interplay between selection and constraints.     

基于线粒体ND4基因探讨水龟组系统发生关系

水龟组由旧大陆潮龟科的拟水龟属、眼斑龟属和新大陆龟科的水龟属组成,这三个属以前一直被认为是同属的,但没有得到形态学和染色体等方面的认同.本文测定了四眼斑水龟和黄喉拟水龟线粒体基因组的ND4基因,用部分ND4基因及相邻tRNA基因共985bp的序列(包含简约信息位点235bp)讨论了它们的系统进化关系.MP树和ML树显示:在水龟属中,牟氏水龟和木雕水龟亲缘关系最近,与星点水龟亲缘关系次之,石纹水龟位于水龟属的基部,与水龟属其它物种的亲缘关系较远.拟水龟属与眼斑龟属在潮龟科是姐妹群关系,但与龟科水电属亲缘关系较远.本文结果支持潮龟科和龟科的单系起源,二者为非姐妹群.     

青年女子体型部位尺寸的灰色关联分析

采用非接触式激光三维人体扫描仪获得18～25岁青年女子体型数据,运用灰色关联分析的方法,分别研究身高、胸围、腰围、臀围等基本部位与其他各控制部位之间的影响关系。通过分析可知腰高与身高的关联度最高,说明下体长度对身高有更大影响;胸围尺寸与臀围尺寸之间关系更密切,与腰围等其他部位的关联度较低;上裆部位尺寸与腰围的关联性要大于上体和下肢的部位尺寸与腰围的关联性。     

Energetics and the evolution of human brain size

The human brain stands out among mammals by being unusually large. The expensive-tissue hypothesis explains its evolution by proposing a trade-off between the size of the brain and that of the digestive tract, which is smaller than expected for a primate of our body size. Although this hypothesis is widely accepted, empirical support so far has been equivocal. Here we test it in a sample of 100 mammalian species, including 23 primates, by analysing brain size and organ mass data. We found that, controlling for fat-free body mass, brain size is not negatively correlated with the mass of the digestive tract or any other expensive organ, thus refuting the expensive-tissue hypothesis. Nonetheless, consistent with the existence of energy trade-offs with brain size, we find that the size of brains and adipose depots are negatively correlated in mammals, indicating that encephalization and fat storage are compensatory strategies to buffer against starvation. However, these two strategies can be combined if fat storage does not unduly hamper locomotor efficiency. We propose that human encephalization was made possible by a combination of stabilization of energy inputs and a redirection of energy from locomotion, growth and reproduction.     

Mosaic evolution of brain structure in mammals

The mammalian brain comprises a number of functionally distinct systems. It might therefore be expected that natural selection on particular behavioural capacities would have caused size changes selectively, in the systems mediating those capacities. It has been claimed, however, that developmental constraints limited such mosaic evolution, causing co-ordinated size change among individual brain components. Here we analyse comparative data to demonstrate that mosaic change has been an important factor in brain structure evolution. First, the neocortex shows about a fivefold difference in volume between primates and insectivores even after accounting for its scaling relationship with the rest of the brain. Second, brain structures with major anatomical and functional links evolved together independently of evolutionary change in other structures. This is true at the level of both basic brain subdivisions and more fine-grained functional systems. Hence, brain evolution in these groups involved complex relationships among individual brain components.     

Intrinsic functional architecture in the anaesthetized monkey brain

The traditional approach to studying brain function is to measure physiological responses to controlled sensory, motor and cognitive paradigms. However, most of the brain's energy consumption is devoted to ongoing metabolic activity not clearly associated with any particular stimulus or behaviour. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in humans aimed at understanding this ongoing activity have shown that spontaneous fluctuations of the blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal occur continuously in the resting state. In humans, these fluctuations are temporally coherent within widely distributed cortical systems that recapitulate the functional architecture of responses evoked by experimentally administered tasks. Here, we show that the same phenomenon is present in anaesthetized monkeys even at anaesthetic levels known to induce profound loss of consciousness. We specifically demonstrate coherent spontaneous fluctuations within three well known systems (oculomotor, somatomotor and visual) and the 'default' system, a set of brain regions thought by some to support uniquely human capabilities. Our results indicate that coherent system fluctuations probably reflect an evolutionarily conserved aspect of brain functional organization that transcends levels of consciousness.     

Adaptive radiation of multituberculate mammals before the extinction of dinosaurs

The Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction approximately 66 million years ago is conventionally thought to have been a turning point in mammalian evolution. Prior to that event and for the first two-thirds of their evolutionary history, mammals were mostly confined to roles as generalized, small-bodied, nocturnal insectivores, presumably under selection pressures from dinosaurs. Release from these pressures, by extinction of non-avian dinosaurs at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, triggered ecological diversification of mammals. Although recent individual fossil discoveries have shown that some mammalian lineages diversified ecologically during the Mesozoic era, comprehensive ecological analyses of mammalian groups crossing the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary are lacking. Such analyses are needed because diversification analyses of living taxa allow only indirect inferences of past ecosystems. Here we show that in arguably the most evolutionarily successful clade of Mesozoic mammals, the Multituberculata, an adaptive radiation began at least 20 million years before the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and continued across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Disparity in dental complexity, which relates to the range of diets, rose sharply in step with generic richness and disparity in body size. Moreover, maximum dental complexity and body size demonstrate an adaptive shift towards increased herbivory. This dietary expansion tracked the ecological rise of angiosperms and suggests that the resources that were available to multituberculates were relatively unaffected by the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Taken together, our results indicate that mammals were able to take advantage of new ecological opportunities in the Mesozoic and that at least some of these opportunities persisted through the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Similar broad-scale ecomorphological inventories of other radiations may help to constrain the possible causes of mass extinctions.     

Nonindependence of mammalian dental characters

Studies of mammalian evolution frequently use data derived from the dentition. Dental characters are particularly central for inferring phylogenetic relationships of fossil taxa, of which teeth are often the only recovered part. The use of different aspects of dental morphology as phylogenetic signals implies the independence of dental characters from each other. Here we report, however, that, at least developmentally, most dental characters may be nonindependent. We investigated how three different levels of the cell signalling protein ectodysplasin (Eda) changed dental characters in mouse. We found that with increasing expression levels of this one gene, the number of cusps increases, cusp shapes and positions change, longitudinal crests form, and number of teeth increases. The consistent modification of characters related to lateral placement of cusps can be traced to a small difference in the formation of an early signalling centre at the onset of tooth crown formation. Our results suggest that most aspects of tooth shape have the developmental potential for correlated changes during evolution which may, if not taken into account, obscure phylogenetic history.     

Distinct memory traces for two visual features in the Drosophila brain

The fly Drosophila melanogaster can discriminate and remember visual landmarks. It analyses selected parts of its visual environment according to a small number of pattern parameters such as size, colour or contour orientation, and stores particular parameter values. Like humans, flies recognize patterns independently of the retinal position during acquisition of the pattern (translation invariance). Here we show that the central-most part of the fly brain, the fan-shaped body, contains parts of a network mediating visual pattern recognition. We have identified short-term memory traces of two pattern parameters--elevation in the panorama and contour orientation. These can be localized to two groups of neurons extending branches as parallel, horizontal strata in the fan-shaped body. The central location of this memory store is well suited to mediate translational invariance.     

Human cerebellar activity reflecting an acquired internal model of a new tool

Theories of motor control postulate that the brain uses internal models of the body to control movements accurately. Internal models are neural representations of how, for instance, the arm would respond to a neural command, given its current position and velocity. Previous studies have shown that the cerebellar cortex can acquire internal models through motor learning. Because the human cerebellum is involved in higher cognitive function as well as in motor control, we propose a coherent computational theory in which the phylogenetically newer part of the cerebellum similarly acquires internal models of objects in the external world. While human subjects learned to use a new tool (a computer mouse with a novel rotational transformation), cerebellar activity was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. As predicted by our theory, two types of activity were observed. One was spread over wide areas of the cerebellum and was precisely proportional to the error signal that guides the acquisition of internal models during learning. The other was confined to the area near the posterior superior fissure and remained even after learning, when the error levels had been equalized, thus probably reflecting an acquired internal model of the new tool.     

图像探针测量汽轮机湿蒸汽二次水滴参数方法研究

汽轮机中二次水滴粒径大,容易造成叶片水蚀,降低汽轮机效率.但由于其数量少,测量困难,加大了研究的难度.在众多测量方法中,图像法具有同时测量二次水滴粒径、速度、方向和湿度等参数的优点.采用图像探针测量二次水滴,利用镜头参数确定测量区,提出根据水滴图像的模糊程度来确定该水滴是否处于测量区内,处理测量区内二次水滴,得到其粒度、速度和湿度等参数.通过实验室研究,得出模糊程度和颗粒的关系,并经过湿蒸汽模拟实验,计算出喷雾水滴的粒度和体积浓度,验证了该处理方法的有效性,为二次水滴的测量提供了一种新的思路.     

小脑经颅直流电刺激技术提升运动表现的应用

小脑是脑皮层下的一个重要运动调节中枢,它与大脑不同皮层区域在解剖和功能上紧密连接,配合大脑皮层完成机体的运动功能和运动学习。经颅直流电刺激(transcranial direct current stimulation, tDCS)是一种非侵入性的脑刺激技术,通过电极将微弱的电流作用于小脑能有效地提升皮层脊髓兴奋性和调控小脑与大脑皮层间的功能连接。本文系统梳理近20年国内外关于tDCS刺激小脑对提升人类运动表现影响的相关文献,研究结果表明tDCS刺激小脑可以改善人体的运动表现,如姿势控制、运动适应与运动学习、肌肉力量表现等。然而,tDCS刺激小脑的生理机制和刺激强度、刺激时间、刺激时间间隔等参数的选择有待进一步研究。未来的体育科学研究中,如何将tDCS刺激小脑的技术应用于运动训练,帮助运动员突破现有的运动能力仍有待深入探究。     

三维多相头部脑组织形变特性仿真

基于头部脑组织多相结构解剖图,建立多相非线性脑组织形变仿真计算模型,包括大脑、小脑、脑干、胼胝体以及脑脊液等材料属性各异的6个组成部分.小脑组织本构方程为非线性,其它各个相组织的本构方程均为线性.计算了转动惯性载荷下多相非线性脑组织的变形状况.计算结果表明,脑组织各相交界处应变较大,最大剪应力出现在大脑额叶侧,为257 Pa,脑组织各部分变形差别显著,这会导致脑组织的撕裂和弥漫性轴索损伤(DAI).     

一种智能式控制器的设计特点

本文介绍的智能控制器是一种具有两个通道,可对温度、压力等物理量进行检测、控制的智能化控制器。由于采用了单片微型计算机,故其结构简单、体积小、成本低,易于实现仪表化,能釆用较复杂的控制算法。文中介绍了该控制器的硬件结构及设计特点。     

不同足球水平女大学生反应抑制能力的差异及其脑结构基础

采用磁共振成像技术,结合Stop-Signal任务范式测评不同足球训练水平女大学生反应抑制能力的差异并探究其脑结构基础．34名被试按照足球训练水平分为对照组（CG）、业余组(AG)和专业组(PG),采用Stop-Signal任务评估反应抑制能力;基于体素形态学对T1结构像进行组间差异分析,并进行FDR校正;采用相关分析探究反应抑制能力和差异脑区之间的关系．结果表明:1）与CG相比,PG和AG的反应时分别缩短48和44 ms（P<0.05）;PG、AG较CG的停止信号反应时分别减少116和96 ms（P<0.05）,PG较AG停止信号反应时显著减少10 ms（P<0.05）;PG(57%)抑制正确率显著高于CG(55%)（P<0.05）．2）与CG相比,PG右侧小脑Crus1、丘脑、中央前后回及小脑蚓部Ⅷ,左侧小脑Crus1、苍白球、丘脑,灰质体积显著增大（P<0.05, FDR）;PG较AG右侧梭状回、中央前回、左侧扣带中回灰质体积显著增大（P<0.001）;AG较CG在双侧苍白球灰质体积显著增大（P<0.001）．3）小脑蚓部Ⅷ灰质密度和反应时存在显著负相关（P<0.05, r= ?0.12）;停止信号反应时与右侧丘脑(P<0.05, r= ?0.41)、左侧苍白球(P<0.01, r= ?0.49)呈显著负相关;抑制正确率与右侧梭状回(P<0.05, r=0.46)、左侧苍白球（P<0.01, r=0.47）呈显著正相关．长期足球训练显著提高女大学生反应抑制能力,且反应抑制能力与小脑蚓部Ⅷ、左侧苍白球、右侧丘脑、右侧梭状回灰质密度显著相关．推测长期足球训练通过诱导基底神经节、小脑灰质体积的变化来调节反应抑制能力的提升．因为本文采用了横断面研究,不能得出反应抑制和足球训练之间的直接因果关系,但在一定程度上表明二者之间存在显著相关关系．因此,后续还需要更多纵向对照研究,进一步确定因果关系．      

Evolution of type C viral genes: evidence for an Asian origin of man.

Old World monkeys and apes, including man, possess, as a normal component of their cellular DNA, gene sequences (virogenes) related to the RNA of a virus isolated from baboons. A comparison of the viral gene sequences and the other cellular sequences distinguishes those Old World monkeys and apes that have evolved in Africa from those that have evolved in Asia. Among the apes, only gorilla and chimpanzee seem by these criteria to be African, whereas gibbon, orang-utan and man are identified as Asian, leading us to conclude that most of man's evolution has occurred outside Africa.     

Ease Allowance Distributed Features of Different Garment Styles

To investigate the effect of fashion style on ease distributed features in different body parts and orientations,three female shirts with the same size specifications but different silhouettes were designed.Seven female participants whose body shape were similar to Chinese garment size standard were scanned by three dimensional human body scanner both with and without experimental shirts.The ease distribution of three shirts was measured and analyzed by using Geomagic Qualify software.The results show that ease distribution of most body parts can be influenced by garment styles except the upper back and chest.Ease allowances are not evenly distributed in different orientations of body parts,and it tends to be lager at lateral body than at medial.This knowledge can be applied in pattern design for better fitness.     

Model Construct Based Enterprise Model Architecture and Its Modeling Approach

In order to support enterprise integration,a kind of model construct based enterprise model architecture and its modeling approach are studied in this paper.First,the structural makeup and internal relationships of enterprise model erchitecutre are discussed.Then,the concept of reusable model construct(MC) which belongs to the control view and can help to derive other views is propsed.The modeling approach based on model construct consists of three steps,reference model architecture synthesis,enterprise model customization,system design and implementation.According to MC based modeling approach a case study with the background of one-kind-productmachinery nanufactureing enterprises is illustrated.It is shown that proposal model construct based enterprise model architecture and modeling approach are practical and efficient.