scholarly journals Entrainment of visual steady-state responses is modulated by global spatial statistics

2017 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 344-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Nguyen ◽  
Karl Kuntzelman ◽  
Vladimir Miskovic
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Spatial Statistics ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Luminance Contrast ◽  
Broadband Noise ◽  
Visual Noise ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Brain Oscillations ◽  
Global Properties ◽  
Phase Alignment

The rhythmic delivery of visual stimuli evokes large-scale neuronal entrainment in the form of steady-state oscillatory field potentials. The spatiotemporal properties of stimulus drive appear to constrain the relative degrees of neuronal entrainment. Specific frequency ranges, for example, are uniquely suited for enhancing the strength of stimulus-driven brain oscillations. When it comes to the nature of the visual stimulus itself, studies have used a plethora of inputs ranging from spatially unstructured empty fields to simple contrast patterns (checkerboards, gratings, stripes) and complex arrays (human faces, houses, natural scenes). At present, little is known about how the global spatial statistics of the input stimulus influence entrainment of scalp-recorded electrophysiological signals. In this study, we used rhythmic entrainment source separation of scalp EEG to compare stimulus-driven phase alignment for distinct classes of visual inputs, including broadband spatial noise ensembles with varying second-order statistics, natural scenes, and narrowband sine-wave gratings delivered at a constant flicker frequency. The relative magnitude of visual entrainment was modulated by the global properties of the driving stimulus. Entrainment was strongest for pseudo-naturalistic broadband visual noise patterns in which luminance contrast is greatest at low spatial frequencies (a power spectrum slope characterized by 1/ƒ−2). NEW & NOTEWORTHY Rhythmically modulated visual stimuli entrain the activity of neuronal populations, but the effect of global stimulus statistics on this entrainment is unknown. We assessed entrainment evoked by 1) visual noise ensembles with different spectral slopes, 2) complex natural scenes, and 3) narrowband sinusoidal gratings. Entrainment was most effective for broadband noise with naturalistic luminance contrast. This reveals some global properties shaping stimulus-driven brain oscillations in the human visual system.

scholarly journals Fast, Slow, and Steady-State Effects of Contralateral Acoustic Activation of the Medial Olivocochlear Efferent System in Awake Guinea Pigs: Action of Gentamicin

1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 1826-1836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deise Lima da Costa ◽  
Anne Chibois ◽  
Jean-Paul Erre ◽  
Christophe Blanchet ◽  
RENAUD CHARLET de Sauvage ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Time Constant ◽  
Decay Time ◽  
Guinea Pigs ◽  
Round Window ◽  
Broadband Noise ◽  
Decay Time Constant ◽  
Efferent System ◽  
Medial Olivocochlear ◽  
Medial Olivocochlear Efferent System

Lima da Costa, Deise, Anne Chibois, Jean-Paul Erre, Christophe Blanchet, Renaud Charlet de Sauvage, and Jean-Marie Aran. Fast, slow, and steady-state effects of contralateral acoustic activation of the medial olivocochlear efferent system in awake guinea pigs: action of gentamicin. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 1826–1836, 1997. The function of the medial olivocochlear efferent system was observed in awake guinea pigs by recording, in the absence of ipsilateral external acoustic stimulation, the ensemble background activity (EBA) of the VIIIth nerve from an electrode chronically implanted on the round window of one ear. The EBA was measured by calculating the power value of the round window signal in the 0.5- to 2.5-kHz band after digital or analog (active) filtering. This EBA was compared with and without the addition of a low-level broadband noise to the opposite ear. The contralateral broadband noise (CLBN, 55 dB SPL) induced, via the efferent system, a decrease (suppression) of this EBA. With the use of noise bursts of different durations, two components in this suppression could be observed. After the onset of a 1-s CLBN, the power value of the EBA decreased rapidly by 38.0 ± 4.2% (mean ± SD, n = 3), with a latency of <10 ms and a decay time constant of 13.1 ± 1.0 ms (fast effect). At the offset of the 1-s CLBN, EBA came back to prestimulation values with a similar latency and a time constant of 15.5 ± 2.9 ms. During longer CLBN stimulation (≥1 min), EBA presented, after the fast decrease, an additional, slower decrease of 15.6 ± 3.1%, with a delay of 9.8 ± 1.3 s and a decay time constant of 16.1 ± 5.0 s ( n = 12, slow effect), and then remained remarkably constant for as long as observed, i.e., >2 h (steady state). The average global suppression was thus up to 47.8 ± 5.8% of the basal, pre-CLBN-stimulation EBA value. At the offset of the CLBN, EBA returned to pre-CLBN level with fast and slow phases, with, for the slow phase, no delay and a time constant of 32.1 ± 8.1 s. Fast and slow changes in EBA power values were observed after a single injection of gentamicin (GM) at different doses (150, 200, and 250 mg/kg). At 150 and 200 mg/kg, GM progressively and reversibly blocked the rapid effect, but the slow component of the efferent medial suppression remained remarkably unchanged. However, at higher doses both the fast and slow suppressions were totally yet still reversibly blocked. These observations indicate that the medial olivocochlear efferent system exerts sustained influences on outer hair cells and that this effect develops in two different steps that may have different basic cellular mechanisms.

scholarly journals The relation of phase noise and luminance contrast to overt attention in complex visual stimuli

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-1 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Einhauser ◽  
U. Rutishauser ◽  
E. P. Frady ◽  
S. Nadler ◽  
P. Konig ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phase Noise ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Luminance Contrast ◽  
Overt Attention

Sparseness of the neuronal representation of stimuli in the primate temporal visual cortex

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 713-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. T. Rolls ◽  
M. J. Tovee
Keyword(s):  
Multidimensional Scaling ◽  
Firing Rate ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Information Theoretic ◽  
Network Operation ◽  
Face Selectivity ◽  
Fixation Task ◽  
Neuronal Representation ◽  
Face Stimuli

1. To analyze the selectivity and the sparseness of firing to visual stimuli of single neurons in the primate temporal cortical visual area, neuronal responses were measured to a set of 68 visual stimuli in macaques performing a visual fixation task. The population of neurons analyzed had responses that occurred primarily to faces. The stimuli included 23 faces, and 45 nonface images of real-world scenes, so that the function of this brain region could be analyzed when it was processing natural scenes. 2. The neurons were selected to meet the previously used criteria of face selectivity by responding more than twice as much to the optimal face as to the optimal nonface stimulus in the set. Application of information theoretic analyses to the responses of these neurons confirmed that their responses contained much more information about which of 20 face stimuli had been seen (on average 0.4 bits) than about which (of 20) nonface stimuli had been seen (on average 0.07 bits). 3. The sparseness of the representation of a scene or object provided by each of these neurons (which can be thought of as the proportion of stimuli to which the neuron responds, and which is fundamental to understanding the network operation of the system) can be defined as [formula: see text] where ri is the firing rate to the ith stimulus in the set of n stimuli. The sparseness has a maximal value of 1.0. It was found that the sparseness of the representation of the 68 stimuli by each neuron had an average across all neurons of 0.65. This indicates a rather distributed representation. 4. If the spontaneous firing rate was subtracted from the firing rate of the neuron to each stimulus, so that the changes of firing rate, i.e., the responses of the neurons, were used in the sparseness calculation, then the "response sparseness" had a lower value, with a mean of 0.33 for the population of neurons, or 0.60 if calculated over the set of faces. 5. Multidimensional scaling to produce a stimulus space represented by this population of neurons showed that the different faces were well separated in the space created, whereas the different nonface stimuli were grouped together in the space. 6. The information analyses and multidimensional scaling provided evidence that what was made explicit in the responses of these neurons was information about which face had been seen.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Luminance and color effects on localization of briefly flashed visual stimuli

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger E. Graves
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Luminance Contrast ◽  
Stimulus Size ◽  
Color Contrast ◽  
Visual Localization ◽  
Magnocellular Pathway ◽  
Localization Task ◽  
Parvocellular System ◽  
Green Background

AbstractVisual localization was studied by flashing small stimuli on a green background and requiring observers to press keys to indicate whether the stimulus appeared to the left or right of fixation. The results suggest that, for small (0.25 deg) briefly flashed (17 ms) stimuli at an eccentric location (10 deg), color contrast is not useable and localization presumably must rely on the magnocellular pathway. When stimulus size and duration were increased at 10-deg eccentricity, isochromatic stimuli could be localized at less than 10% luminance contrast (again suggesting use of the magnocellular high sensitivity luminance-contrast system), but isoluminant color-contrast stimuli could also be localized (suggesting use of the color-contrast sensitive parvocellular system). Thus, the results indicate that, dependent on stimulus conditions, both magnocellular and parvocellular pathways were utilized by normal observers in this localization task.

Global properties of a cell mediated immunity in HIV infection model with two classes of target cells and distributed delays

2014 ◽  
Vol 07 (05) ◽  
pp. 1450055 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Elaiw ◽  
R. M. Abukwaik ◽  
E. O. Alzahrani
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Steady State ◽  
Hiv Infection ◽  
Infection Model ◽  
Target Cells ◽  
Cell Mediated Immunity ◽  
Globally Asymptotically Stable ◽  
Global Properties ◽  
Hiv Infection Model ◽  
Ctl Immune Response

In this paper, we study the global properties of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection model with cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) immune response. The model is a six-dimensional that describes the interaction of the HIV with two classes of target cells, CD4+ T cells and macrophages. The infection rate is given by saturation functional response. Two types of distributed time delays are incorporated into the model to describe the time needed for infection of target cell and virus replication. Using the method of Lyapunov functional, we have established that the global stability of the model is determined by two threshold numbers, the basic infection reproduction number R0 and the immune response activation number [Formula: see text]. We have proven that if R0 ≤ 1, then the uninfected steady state is globally asymptotically stable (GAS), if [Formula: see text], then the infected steady state without CTL immune response is GAS, and if [Formula: see text], then the infected steady state with CTL immune response is GAS.

scholarly journals Influence of artificially generated interocular blur difference on fusion stability under vergence stress

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Dostalek ◽  
Jan Hejda ◽  
Karel Fliegel ◽  
Michaela Duchackova ◽  
Ladislav Dusek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Luminance Contrast ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Frequency Content ◽  
Binocular Fusion ◽  
Dominant Eye ◽  
Blurred Image ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Mode A

The stability of fusion was evaluated by its breakage when interocular blur differences were presented under vergence demand to healthy subjects. We presumed that these blur differences cause suppression of the more blurred image (interocular blur suppression, IOBS), disrupt binocular fusion and suppressed eye leaves its forced vergent position. During dichoptic presentation of static grayscale images of natural scenes, the luminance contrast (mode B) or higher-spatial frequency content (mode C) or luminance contrast plus higher-spatial frequency content (mode A) were stepwise reduced in the image presented to the non-dominant eye. We studied the effect of these types of blur on fusion stability at various levels of the vergence demand. During the divergence demand, the fusion was disrupted  with approximately half blur than during convergence. Various modes  of blur influenced fusion differently. The mode C (isolated reduction of higher-spatial frequency content) violated fusion under the lowest vergence demand significantly more than either isolated or combined reduction of luminance contrast (mode B and A). According to our results, the image´s details (i.e. higher-spatial frequency content) protects binocular fusion from disruption by the lowest vergence demand.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document