REFINING THE EFFECTIVE INTENSITY MODEL AT THRESHOLD AND SUPRA-THRESHOLD FOR USE IN MARINE VISUAL SIGNALS

During natural conversation, people must quickly understand the meaning of what the other speaker is saying. This concerns not just the semantic content of an utterance, but also the social action (i.e., what the utterance is doing—requesting information, offering, evaluating, checking mutual understanding, etc.) that the utterance is performing. The multimodal nature of human language raises the question of whether visual signals may contribute to the rapid processing of such social actions. However, while previous research has shown that how we move reveals the intentions underlying instrumental actions, we do not know whether the intentions underlying fine-grained social actions in conversation are also revealed in our bodily movements. Using a corpus of dyadic conversations combined with manual annotation and motion tracking, we analyzed the kinematics of the torso, head, and hands during the asking of questions. Manual annotation categorized these questions into six more fine-grained social action types (i.e., request for information, other-initiated repair, understanding check, stance or sentiment, self-directed, active participation). We demonstrate, for the first time, that the kinematics of the torso, head and hands differ between some of these different social action categories based on a 900 ms time window that captures movements starting slightly prior to or within 600 ms after utterance onset. These results provide novel insights into the extent to which our intentions shape the way that we move, and provide new avenues for understanding how this phenomenon may facilitate the fast communication of meaning in conversational interaction, social action, and conversation.

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Subcellular Localization and Complements of GABAA and GABAC Receptors on Bullfrog Retinal Bipolar Cells

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.2000.84.2.666 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 84 (2) ◽

pp. 666-676 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Jiu-Lin Du ◽

Xiong-Li Yang

Keyword(s):

Subcellular Localization ◽

Receptor Antagonist ◽

Gaba Receptor ◽

Drug Application ◽

Bipolar Cells ◽

Visual Signals ◽

Receptor Subtypes ◽

Inner Retina ◽

Axon Terminals ◽

Retinal Bipolar Cells

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors on retinal bipolar cells (BCs) are highly relevant to spatial and temporal integration of visual signals in the outer and inner retina. In the present work, subcellular localization and complements of GABAA and GABACreceptors on BCs were investigated by whole cell recordings and local drug application via multi-barreled puff pipettes in the bullfrog retinal slice preparation. Four types of the BCs (types 1–4) were identified morphologically by injection of Lucifer yellow. According to the ramification levels of the axon terminals and the responses of these cells to glutamate (or kainate) applied at their dendrites, types 1 and 2 of BCs were supposed to be off type, whereas types 3 and 4 of BCs might be on type. Bicuculline (BIC), a GABAA receptor antagonist, and imidazole-4-acetic acid (I4AA), a GABAC receptor antagonist, were used to distinguish GABA receptor-mediated responses. In all BCs tested, not only the axon terminals but also the dendrites showed high GABA sensitivity mediated by both GABAA and GABACreceptors. Subcellular localization and complements of GABAA and GABAC receptors at the dendrites and axon terminals were highly related to the dichotomy of offand on BCs. In the case of off BCs, GABAA receptors were rather evenly distributed at the dendrites and axon terminals, but GABAC receptors were predominantly expressed at the axon terminals. Moreover, the relative contribution of GABAC receptors to the axon terminals was prevalent over that of GABAA receptors, while the situation was reversed at the dendrites. In the case of on BCs, GABAA and GABAC receptors both preferred to be expressed at the axon terminals; relative contributions of these two GABA receptor subtypes to both the sites were comparable, while GABAC receptors were much less expressed than GABAA receptors. GABAA, but not GABAC receptors, were expressed clusteringly at axons of a population of BCs. In a minority of BCs, I4AA suppressed the GABAC responses at the dendrites, but not at the axon terminal, implying that the GABAC receptors at these two sites may be heterogeneous. Taken together, these results suggest that GABAA and GABAC receptors may play different roles in the outer and inner retina and the differential complements of the two receptors on off and on BCs may be closely related to physiological functions of these cells.

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Conspicuousness, phylogenetic structure, and origins of Müllerian mimicry in 4000 lycid beetles from all zoogeographic regions

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-85567-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Michal Motyka ◽

Dominik Kusy ◽

Michal Masek ◽

Matej Bocek ◽

Yun Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Simple Model ◽

Phylogenetic Diversity ◽

Single Species ◽

Visual Signals ◽

South East Asia ◽

Phylogenetic Information ◽

Phylogenetic Structure ◽

Chemical Defences ◽

Single Region ◽

General Appearance

AbstractBiologists have reported on the chemical defences and the phenetic similarity of net-winged beetles (Coleoptera: Lycidae) and their co-mimics. Nevertheless, our knowledge has remained fragmental, and the evolution of mimetic patterns has not been studied in the phylogenetic context. We illustrate the general appearance of ~ 600 lycid species and ~ 200 co-mimics and their distribution. Further, we assemble the phylogeny using the transcriptomic backbone and ~ 570 species. Using phylogenetic information, we closely scrutinise the relationships among aposematically coloured species, the worldwide diversity, and the distribution of aposematic patterns. The emitted visual signals differ in conspicuousness. The uniform coloured dorsum is ancestral and was followed by the evolution of bicoloured forms. The mottled patterns, i.e. fasciate, striate, punctate, and reticulate, originated later in the course of evolution. The highest number of sympatrically occurring patterns was recovered in New Guinea and the Andean mountain ecosystems (the areas of the highest abundance), and in continental South East Asia (an area of moderate abundance but high in phylogenetic diversity). Consequently, a large number of co-existing aposematic patterns in a single region and/or locality is the rule, in contrast with the theoretical prediction, and predators do not face a simple model-like choice but cope with complex mimetic communities. Lycids display an ancestral aposematic signal even though they sympatrically occur with differently coloured unprofitable relatives. We show that the highly conspicuous patterns evolve within communities predominantly formed by less conspicuous Müllerian mimics and, and often only a single species displays a novel pattern. Our work is a forerunner to the detailed research into the aposematic signalling of net-winged beetles.

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Tibetan Macaques with Higher Social Centrality and More Relatives Emit More Frequent Visual Communication in Collective Decision-Making

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11030876 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 876

Author(s):

Zifei Tang ◽

Xi Wang ◽

Mingyang Wu ◽

Shiwang Chen ◽

Jinhua Li

Keyword(s):

Visual Communication ◽

Visual Signals ◽

Communication Process ◽

Tobit Regression ◽

Communication Behaviors ◽

Group Cooperation ◽

Group Members ◽

Group Sex ◽

Free Ranging ◽

Social Centrality

Animals on the move often communicate with each other through some specific postures. Previous studies have shown that social interaction plays a role in communication process. However, it is not clear whether the affinity of group members can affect visual communication. We studied a group of free-ranging Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) at Huangshan Mountain, China, and answered whether and how social centrality or relatives matter in visual signals during group movement using Tobit regression modeling. All individuals emitted the signals of back-glances and pauses in collective movement. The emission of two signals decreased with the number of participants increased. The back-glance and pause signals emitted by the participating individuals were stronger as the position moved backward in the group. Sex, age, and rank had no significant influence on back-glance and pause signals. Individuals with higher social centrality would emit more pause signals, but social centrality had no effect on the back-glance signal. Individuals with more relatives in the group had more back-glance signals, but this had no effect on the pause signal. This study verifies that social centrality and the number of relatives have effects on visual signals in Tibetan macaques. We provide insights into the relationship between communication behaviors and group cooperation in social animals.

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Collicular Vision Guides Nonconscious Behavior

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21225 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (5) ◽

pp. 888-902 ◽

Cited By ~ 84

Author(s):

Marco Tamietto ◽

Franco Cauda ◽

Luca Latini Corazzini ◽

Silvia Savazzi ◽

Carlo A. Marzi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Experience ◽

Striate Cortex ◽

Visual Signals ◽

Visually Guided ◽

Visuomotor Integration ◽

Motor Processing ◽

Pupillary Responses ◽

Cortex Area ◽

Extrastriate Areas

Following destruction or deafferentation of primary visual cortex (area V1, striate cortex), clinical blindness ensues, but residual visual functions may, nevertheless, persist without perceptual consciousness (a condition termed blindsight). The study of patients with such lesions thus offers a unique opportunity to investigate what visual capacities are mediated by the extrastriate pathways that bypass V1. Here we provide evidence for a crucial role of the collicular–extrastriate pathway in nonconscious visuomotor integration by showing that, in the absence of V1, the superior colliculus (SC) is essential to translate visual signals that cannot be consciously perceived into motor outputs. We found that a gray stimulus presented in the blind field of a patient with unilateral V1 loss, although not consciously seen, can influence his behavioral and pupillary responses to consciously perceived stimuli in the intact field (implicit bilateral summation). Notably, this effect was accompanied by selective activations in the SC and in occipito-temporal extrastriate areas. However, when instead of gray stimuli we presented purple stimuli, which predominantly draw on S-cones and are thus invisible to the SC, any evidence of implicit visuomotor integration disappeared and activations in the SC dropped significantly. The present findings show that the SC acts as an interface between sensory and motor processing in the human brain, thereby providing a contribution to visually guided behavior that may remain functionally and anatomically segregated from the geniculo-striate pathway and entirely outside conscious visual experience.

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