Nuclear pores in the spermatozoon of the rat

Summary The paper describes a hexagonal array of nuclear pores in a non-redundant region of the nuclear envelope underlying the basal surface of the rat spermatozoon head. It is concluded that intranuclear material protruding through these pores is the cause of the characteristic rows of circular bumps found in surface replicas of this region.     

Species-specific calls evoke asymmetric activity in the monkey's temporal poles

It has often been proposed that the vocal calls of monkeys are precursors of human speech, in part because they provide critical information to other members of the species who rely on them for survival and social interactions. Both behavioural and lesion studies suggest that monkeys, like humans, use the auditory system of the left hemisphere preferentially to process vocalizations. To investigate the pattern of neural activity that might underlie this particular form of functional asymmetry in monkeys, we measured local cerebral metabolic activity while the animals listened passively to species-specific calls compared with a variety of other classes of sound. Within the superior temporal gyrus, significantly greater metabolic activity occurred on the left side than on the right, only in the region of the temporal pole and only in response to monkey calls. This functional asymmetry was absent when these regions were separated by forebrain commissurotomy, suggesting that the perception of vocalizations elicits concurrent interhemispheric interactions that focus the auditory processing within a specialized area of one hemisphere.     

Afferent respiratory pathways in the avian vagus

Résumé Nous avons enregistré 88 afférences respiratoires du nerf vague chez le poulet. Quelques unes se déclenchaient au cours de l'inspiration eupnéique, d'autres au cours de l'expiration. Jusqu'à présent, on a l'impression qu'il existe plus de types d'activité afférente respiratoire chez l'oiseau que chez le mammifère, mais de nouvelles analyses seront nécessaires pour mieux les préciser. Nous croyons que c'est ici la première preuve évidente de l'existence d'un contrôle afférent vagal de la respiration chez l'oiseau.

---

---

This work was supported by a grant from the British Egg Marketing Board.     

Nuclear pores in the spermatozoon of the rat.

The paper describes a hexagonal array of nuclear pores in a non-redundant region of the nuclear envelope underlying the basal surface of the rat spermatozoon head. It is concluded that intranuclear material protruding through these pores is the cause of the characteristic rows of circular 'bumps' found in surface replicas of this region.