Tectal Control of Locomotion, Steering, and Eye Movements in Lamprey

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 3093-3108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuya Saitoh ◽  
Ariane Ménard ◽  
Sten Grillner
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Large Amplitude ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Orientation ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Lateral Bending ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Vertebrate Model ◽  
Electrical Stimuli

The intrinsic function of the brain stem–spinal cord networks eliciting the locomotor synergy is well described in the lamprey—a vertebrate model system. This study addresses the role of tectum in integrating eye, body orientation, and locomotor movements as in steering and goal-directed behavior. Electrical stimuli were applied to different areas within the optic tectum in head-restrained semi-intact lampreys ( n = 40). Motions of the eyes and body were recorded simultaneously (videotaped). Brief pulse trains (<0.5 s) elicited only eye movements, but with longer stimuli (>0.5 s) lateral bending movements of the body (orientation movements) were added, and with even longer stimuli locomotor movements were initiated. Depending on the tectal area stimulated, four characteristic response patterns were observed. In a lateral area conjugate horizontal eye movements combined with lateral bending movements of the body and locomotor movements were elicited, depending on stimulus duration. The amplitude of the eye movement and bending movements was site specific within this region. In a rostromedial area, bilateral downward vertical eye movements occurred. In a caudomedial tectal area, large-amplitude undulatory body movements akin to struggling behavior were elicited, combined with large-amplitude eye movements that were antiphasic to the body movements. The alternating eye movements were not dependent on vestibuloocular reflexes. Finally, in a caudolateral area locomotor movements without eye or bending movements could be elicited. These results show that tectum can provide integrated motor responses of eye, body orientation, and locomotion of the type that would be required in goal-directed locomotion.

Multiple Manifestations of Microstimulation in the Optic Tectum: Eye Movements, Pupil Dilations, and Sensory Priming

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shai Netser ◽  
Shay Ohayon ◽  
Yoram Gutfreund
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Optic Tectum ◽  
Pupil Dilation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Gaze Shifts ◽  
Acoustic Stimuli ◽  
Site Of Stimulation

It is well established that the optic tectum (or its mammalian homologue, the superior colliculus) is involved in directing gaze toward salient stimuli. However, salient stimuli typically induce orienting responses beyond gaze shifts. The role of the optic tectum in generating responses such as pupil dilation, galvanic responses, or covert shifts is not clear. In the present work, we studied the effects of microstimulation in the optic tectum of the barn owl ( Tyto alba) on pupil diameter and on eye shifts. Experiments were conducted in lightly anesthetized head-restrained barn owls. We report that low-level microstimulation in the deep layers of the optic tectum readily induced pupil dilation responses (PDRs), as well as small eye movements. Electrically evoked PDRs, similar to acoustically evoked PDRs, were long-lasting and habituated to repeated stimuli. We further show that microstimulation in the external nucleus of the inferior colliculus also induced PDRs. Finally, in experiments in which tectal microstimulations were coupled with acoustic stimuli, we show a tendency of the microstimulation to enhance pupil responses and eye shifts to previously habituated acoustic stimuli. The enhancement was dependent on the site of stimulation in the tectal spatial map; responses to sounds with spatial cues that matched the site of stimulation were more enhanced compared with sounds with spatial cues that did not match. These results suggest that the optic tectum is directly involved in autonomic orienting reflexes as well as in gaze shifts, highlighting the central role of the optic tectum in mediating the body responses to salient stimuli.

The Role of the Body in the Production and Perception of Solo Vocal Performance: A Case Study of Annie Lennox

2001 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane W. Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Functional Movement ◽  
Present Information ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
The Relationship

The work described in this paper interprets the body movements of singers in an attempt to understand the relationships between physical control and the musical material being performed, and the performer's implicit and explicit expressive intentions. The work builds upon a previous literature which has suggested that the relationship between physical execution and the expression of mental states is a subtle and complex one. For instance, performers appear to develop a vocabulary of expressive gestures, yet these gestures – though perceptually discreet – co-exist and are even integrated to become part of the functional movement of playing. Additionally, there is the matter of how both musical and extra-musical concerns are coordinated between performer, co-performers and audience using body movements. A case study shows how, in the interaction between body style, musical expression and communication movements of both an individual and culturally-determined style are used. Many of these performance movements have clear functions and meanings: to communicate expressive intention (for instance, a sudden surge forwards to facilitate the execution of a loud musical passage, or a high curving hand gesture to link sections of the music during a pause); to communicate to the audience or co-performers a need for co-ordination or participation (for example, nodding the head to indicate “now” for the audience to join in a chorus of a song; or exchanging glances for the co-performer to take over a solo); to signal extra-musical concerns (for example, gesturing to the audience to remain quiet); and to present information about the performer's personality, with their individualized characteristics providing important cues (muted contained gestures, or large extravagant gestures, for example); to show off to the audience. From these results a theory is developed to explain how gestural elements help to make a performance meaningful.

scholarly journals The Coupling of Action and Perception in Musical Meaning Formation

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter-Jan Maes ◽  
Edith Van Dyck ◽  
Micheline Lesaffre ◽  
Marc Leman ◽  
Pieter M. Kroonenberg
Keyword(s):  
Music Cognition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Behavioral Experiment ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Musical Background ◽  
Action And Perception ◽  
Free Body

The embodied perspective on music cognition has stressed the central role of the body and body movements in musical meaning formation processes. In the present study, we investigate by means of a behavioral experiment how free body movements in response to music (i.e., action) can be linked to specific linguistic, metaphorical descriptions people use to describe the expressive qualities they perceive in the music (i.e., perception). We introduce a dimensional model based on the Effort/Shape theory of Laban in order to target musical expressivity from an embodied perspective. Also, we investigate whether a coupling between action and perception is dependent on the musical background of the participants (i.e., trained versus untrained). The results show that the physical appearance of the free body movements that participants perform in response to music are reliably linked to the linguistic descriptions of musical expressiveness in terms of the underlying quality. Moreover, this result is found to be independent of the participants’ musical background.

Relações de ensino: Possibilidade de (trans)formação de um aluno com transtorno do espectro autista e seu professor

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Novaes
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationship ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Teacher Student Relationship ◽  
Teacher Researcher ◽  
Student Relationship

The study is based on the theoretical-methodological reference of the Historical-Cultural Perspective, in particular, in the studies of Vigotski that emphasize the beginning role of language for human development. About the children with disabilities, he considers that they develop a new way of understanding and relating, and for this reason, in dealing with them, the boundary barriers of disability (the insufficiencies) cannot be walls that prevent action of the teacher. This, in turn, needs to be attentive to the compensatory ways established in social relationship. Based on these ideas, this study considers that children with ASD have their development linked to favorable social conditions. Fieldwork was carried out in the second half of 2016, focusing on pedagogical activities developed between the student and the teacher-researcher. The situations were videotaped and registered in field diaries; the filming was transcribed in full, considering the body movements, expressions and gestures of the participants. In the course of fieldwork, the teacher-researcher reflects on his practice, changes the way he relates to the boy, and in this movement of exchanges and (re)constructions, the student also changes. The analysis reveals that the teacher-student relationship, mediated by the word, constituted as a space for (trans)formation, elaboration and development of both, student and teacher.

scholarly journals The Central Bias in Day-to-Day Viewing

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Flora Ioannidou ◽  
Frouke Hermens ◽  
Timothy L Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Large Amplitude ◽  
The Body ◽  
Viewing Distance ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Computer Screen ◽  
Video Images ◽  
Mobile Eye Tracking

Eye tracking studies have suggested that, when viewing images centrally presented on a computer screen, observers tend to fixate the middle of the image. This so-called `central bias' was later also observed in mobile eye tracking during outdoors navigation, where observers were found to fixate the middle of the head-centered video image. It is unclear, however, whether the extension of the central bias to mobile eye tracking in outdoors navigation may have been due to the relatively long viewing distances towards objects in this task and the constant turning of the body in the direction of motion, both of which may have reduced the need for large amplitude eye movements. To examine whether the central bias in day-to-day viewing is related to the viewing distances involved, we here compare eye movements in three tasks (indoors navigation, tea making, and card sorting), each associated with interactions with objects at different viewing distances. Analysis of gaze positions showed a central bias for all three tasks that was independent of the task performed. These results confirm earlier observations of the central bias in mobile eye tracking data, and suggest that differences in the typical viewing distance during different tasks have little effect on the bias. The results could have interesting technological applications, in which the bias is used to estimate the direction of gaze from head-centered video images, such as those obtained from wearable technology.

scholarly journals The pharyngeal nervous system orchestrates feeding behavior in planarians

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (15) ◽  
pp. eaaz0882
Author(s):  
Mai Miyamoto ◽  
Miki Hattori ◽  
Kazutaka Hosoda ◽  
Mika Sawamoto ◽  
Minako Motoishi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Freshwater Planarian ◽  
Dugesia Japonica ◽  
Entire Sequence ◽  
Body Self ◽  
The Brain

Planarians exhibit traits of cephalization but are unique among bilaterians in that they ingest food by means of goal-directed movements of a trunk-positioned pharynx, following protrusion of the pharynx out of the body, raising the question of how planarians control such a complex set of body movements for achieving robust feeding. Here, we use the freshwater planarian Dugesia japonica to show that an isolated pharynx amputated from the planarian body self-directedly executes its entire sequence of feeding functions: food sensing, approach, decisions about ingestion, and intake. Gene-specific silencing experiments by RNA interference demonstrated that the pharyngeal nervous system (PhNS) is required not only for feeding functions of the pharynx itself but also for food-localization movements of individual animals, presumably via communication with the brain. These findings reveal an unexpected central role of the PhNS in the linkage between unique morphological phenotypes and feeding behavior in planarians.

The Role of Polyphenols in the Modulation of Plasma Non-Enzymatic Antioxidant Capacity (NEAC)

2012 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Serafini ◽  
Giuseppa Morabito
Keyword(s):  
Antioxidant Capacity ◽  
Dietary Intervention ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dietary Polyphenols ◽  
Enzymatic Antioxidant ◽  
Endogenous Antioxidant

Dietary polyphenols have been shown to scavenge free radicals, modulating cellular redox transcription factors in different in vitro and ex vivo models. Dietary intervention studies have shown that consumption of plant foods modulates plasma Non-Enzymatic Antioxidant Capacity (NEAC), a biomarker of the endogenous antioxidant network, in human subjects. However, the identification of the molecules responsible for this effect are yet to be obtained and evidences of an antioxidant in vivo action of polyphenols are conflicting. There is a clear discrepancy between polyphenols (PP) concentration in body fluids and the extent of increase of plasma NEAC. The low degree of absorption and the extensive metabolism of PP within the body have raised questions about their contribution to the endogenous antioxidant network. This work will discuss the role of polyphenols from galenic preparation, food extracts, and selected dietary sources as modulators of plasma NEAC in humans.

The Role of Computer Modeling in Electrocardiography

1990 ◽  
Vol 29 (04) ◽  
pp. 282-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. van Oosterom
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Activity ◽  
Computer Modeling ◽  
Body Surface ◽  
Electrical Current ◽  
The Body ◽  
Volume Conductor ◽  
Current Generator ◽  
Cardiac Electrical Activity ◽  
Source Models

AbstractThis paper introduces some levels at which the computer has been incorporated in the research into the basis of electrocardiography. The emphasis lies on the modeling of the heart as an electrical current generator and of the properties of the body as a volume conductor, both playing a major role in the shaping of the electrocardiographic waveforms recorded at the body surface. It is claimed that the Forward-Problem of electrocardiography is no longer a problem. Several source models of cardiac electrical activity are considered, one of which can be directly interpreted in terms of the underlying electrophysiology (the depolarization sequence of the ventricles). The importance of using tailored rather than textbook geometry in inverse procedures is stressed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document