Moving visual stimuli rapidly induce direction sensitivity of developing tectal neurons

During development of the visual system, the pattern of visual inputs may have an instructive role in refining developing neural circuits. How visual inputs of specific spatiotemporal patterns shape the circuit development remains largely unknown. We report here that, in the developing Xenopus retinotectal system, the receptive field of tectal neurons can be 'trained' to become direction-sensitive within minutes after repetitive exposure of the retina to moving bars in a particular direction. The induction of direction-sensitivity depends on the speed of the moving bar, can not be induced by random visual stimuli, and is accompanied by an asymmetric modification of the tectal neuron's receptive field. Furthermore, such training-induced changes require spiking of the tectal neuron and activation of a NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) subtype of glutamate receptors during training, and are attributable to an activity-induced enhancement of glutamate-mediated inputs. Thus, developing neural circuits can be modified rapidly and specifically by visual inputs of defined spatiotemporal patterns, in a manner consistent with predictions based on spike-time-dependent synaptic modification.     

Temporal response properties to second-order visual stimuli in the LGN of cats

Visual stimuli occurring naturally are rich in instances of objects delineated from the backgrounds only by differences in luminance,which is called first-order stimuli,as well as those defined by differences of contrast or texture,referred to as second-order stimuli. The neuronal mechanism for processing second-order stimuli is still unclear. In this study,we compared the responses of cat LGN (lateral geniculate nucleus) cells to second-order stimuli at five temporal frequencies to their responses to first-order stimuli. Our results showed that most LGN cells can be evoked by second-order stimuli,and their firing rates to second-order stimuli decreased relative to first-order stimuli as temporal frequency increased from 0.5 to 8 Hz; moreover the ratio of a nonlinear to linear factor had a higher value in the responses to second-order stimuli than to first-order stimuli. We also found that the responses of Y-cells to second-order stimuli were significantly higher than the responses of X-cells,suggesting the Y-cells have a more important role in the processing of second-order stimuli. All these results reveal that first-order and second-order signals might be processed in separate 'streams' of the visual sys-tem.     

Experience with moving visual stimuli drives the early development of cortical direction selectivity

The onset of vision occurs when neural circuits in the visual cortex are immature, lacking both the full complement of connections and the response selectivity that defines functional maturity. Direction-selective responses are particularly vulnerable to the effects of early visual deprivation, but it remains unclear how stimulus-driven neural activity guides the emergence of cortical direction selectivity. Here we report observations from a motion training protocol that allowed us to monitor the impact of experience on the development of direction-selective responses in visually naive ferrets. Using intrinsic signal imaging techniques, we found that training with a single axis of motion induced the rapid emergence of direction columns that were confined to cortical regions preferentially activated by the training stimulus. Using two-photon calcium imaging techniques, we found that single neurons in visually naive animals exhibited weak directional biases and lacked the strong local coherence in the spatial organization of direction preference that was evident in mature animals. Training with a moving stimulus, but not with a flashed stimulus, strengthened the direction-selective responses of individual neurons and preferentially reversed the direction biases of neurons that deviated from their neighbours. Both effects contributed to an increase in local coherence. We conclude that early experience with moving visual stimuli drives the rapid emergence of direction-selective responses in the visual cortex.     

The primate amygdala represents the positive and negative value of visual stimuli during learning

Visual stimuli can acquire positive or negative value through their association with rewards and punishments, a process called reinforcement learning. Although we now know a great deal about how the brain analyses visual information, we know little about how visual representations become linked with values. To study this process, we turned to the amygdala, a brain structure implicated in reinforcement learning. We recorded the activity of individual amygdala neurons in monkeys while abstract images acquired either positive or negative value through conditioning. After monkeys had learned the initial associations, we reversed image value assignments. We examined neural responses in relation to these reversals in order to estimate the relative contribution to neural activity of the sensory properties of images and their conditioned values. Here we show that changes in the values of images modulate neural activity, and that this modulation occurs rapidly enough to account for, and correlates with, monkeys' learning. Furthermore, distinct populations of neurons encode the positive and negative values of visual stimuli. Behavioural and physiological responses to visual stimuli may therefore be based in part on the plastic representation of value provided by the amygdala.     

视觉诱发电位在人体视觉舒适性研究中的应用

建筑室内色温水平会影响人员的工作效率、视觉舒适性等。收集了不同色温水平下15名受试者的图像翻转视觉诱发电位(pattern reversal visual evoked potential, PRVEP)数据和主观调查投票数据,采用模糊熵分析方法对客观生理参数进行分析,并基于PRVEP模糊熵与主观调查之间存在的极强相关性和生理上反应的相似性建立二者的数理关系,以使用客观生理指标预测主观感受,更加准确地实现对人体主观视觉舒适度的预测。研究发现在不同色温下人体PRVEP模糊熵和刺激程度投票值都随着色温的增大而逐渐增大,而眼部疲顿度则呈现出先减小后增加的变化趋势。高色温的冷色调环境下人体PRVEP模糊熵和主观调查值最大,应对刺激时的生理反应最强烈,舒适性不佳。而在4 000 K左右的中性色温环境下PRVEP模糊熵和刺激程度会略微增加但眼部疲顿度会减小,更适宜的色温工作环境有助于提高舒适感和工作效率。     

Anticipation of moving stimuli by the retina

A flash of light evokes neural activity in the brain with a delay of 30-100 milliseconds, much of which is due to the slow process of visual transduction in photoreceptors. A moving object can cover a considerable distance in this time, and should therefore be seen noticeably behind its actual location. As this conflicts with everyday experience, it has been suggested that the visual cortex uses the delayed visual data from the eye to extrapolate the trajectory of a moving object, so that it is perceived at its actual location. Here we report that such anticipation of moving stimuli begins in the retina. A moving bar elicits a moving wave of spiking activity in the population of retinal ganglion cells. Rather than lagging behind the visual image, the population activity travels near the leading edge of the moving bar. This response is observed over a wide range of speeds and apparently compensates for the visual response latency. We show how this anticipation follows from known mechanisms of retinal processing.     

反物质的相互作用

探讨了反物质的基本作用力场,并取得了正、反粒子系统4种作用力及其强度的比较结果。     

基于人眼视觉系统的运动图像视觉感知模拟

讨论了人眼在观看平板显示屏上运动图像时视觉失真的产生原因,并通过视觉感知实验对已有的视觉感知模型进行了修正,提出了将空间积分的影响加入到视觉感知模型中的改进方法.本文还利用该模型对一些显示屏上运动图像的视觉感知过程进行了模拟,结果表明,采用本文提出的模型获得的运动图像的视觉感知效果图更加接近人眼实际所观测到的图像.本文提出的视觉感知模型以及相关的软件模拟结果为进一步优化显示器件的驱动方法提供了评估手段.