Is Acceleration Used for Ocular Pursuit and Spatial Estimation during Prediction Motion?

Here we examined ocular pursuit and spatial estimation in a linear prediction motion task that emphasized extrapolation of occluded accelerative object motion. Results from the ocular response up to occlusion showed that there was evidence in the eye position, velocity and acceleration data that participants were attempting to pursue the moving object in accord with the veridical motion properties. They then attempted to maintain ocular pursuit of the randomly-ordered accelerative object motion during occlusion but this was not ideal, and resulted in undershoot of eye position and velocity at the moment of object reappearance. In spatial estimation there was a general bias, with participants less likely to report object reappearance being behind than ahead of the expected position. In addition, participants’ spatial estimation did not take into account the effects of object acceleration. Logistic regression indicated that spatial estimation was best predicted for the majority of participants by the difference between actual object reappearance position and an extrapolation based on pre-occlusion velocity. In combination, and in light of previous work, we interpret these findings as showing that eye movements are scaled in accord with the effects of object acceleration but do not directly specify information for accurate spatial estimation in prediction motion

Extraction of visual motion information for the control of eye and head movement during head-free pursuit

We investigated how effectively briefly presented visual motion could be assimilated and used to track future target motion with head and eyes during target disappearance. Without vision, continuation of eye and head movement is controlled by internal (extra-retinal) mechanisms, but head movement stimulates compensatory vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) responses that must be countermanded for gaze to remain in the direction of target motion. We used target exposures of 50–200 ms at the start of randomised step-ramp stimuli, followed by >400 ms of target disappearance, to investigate the ability to sample target velocity and subsequently generate internally controlled responses. Subjects could appropriately grade gaze velocity to different target velocities without visual feedback, but responses were fully developed only when exposure was >100 ms. Gaze velocities were sustained or even increased during target disappearance, especially when there was expectation of target reappearance, but they were always less than for controls, where the target was continuously visible. Gaze velocity remained in the direction of target motion throughout target extinction, implying that compensatory (VOR) responses were suppressed by internal drive mechanisms. Regression analysis revealed that the underlying compensatory response remained active, but with gain slightly less than unity (0.85), resulting in head-free gaze responses that were very similar to, but slightly greater than, head-fixed. The sampled velocity information was also used to grade head velocity, but in contrast to gaze, head velocity was similar whether the target was briefly or continuously presented, suggesting that head motion was controlled by internal mechanisms alone, without direct influence of visual feedback

SYNTHESIS AND DEPOSITION OF SILICON NITRIDE FILMS IN LOW PRESSURE AMMONIA: A PARAMETRIC STUDY

The UV laser (lambda=308 nm) ablation of silicon wafers in 1 mbar ambient ammonia results in the deposition of pure and uniform film of amorphous silicon nitride. At low pressures of NH3 (of several to several tens of mu bar), the deposited films are a mixture of amorphous silicon nitride, amorphous nonstoichiometric silicon nitride, and amorphous silicon. The contamination with oxygen is low and is more evident at lower pressures. At ammonia pressures 0.1-1 mbar, the films also contain a certain fraction of hydrogen. Droplets of polycrystalline Si cover the surfaces of some films. This phenomenon is more important at smaller target-collector distances and lower pressures of ambient NH3

Laser induced phase transition in iron thin films

No abstract availabl

Laser Reactive Ablation Deposition of Silicon Carbide Films.

none10G. LEGGIERI; A. LUCHES; M. MARTINO; A. PERRONE; R. ALEXANDRESCU; A. BARBORICA; E. GYORGY; I.N. MIHAILESCU; G. MAJNI; P. MENGUCCIG., Leggieri; A., Luches; M., Martino; A., Perrone; R., Alexandrescu; A., Barborica; E., Gyorgy; I. N., Mihailescu; G., Majni; Mengucci, Paol

How to record high-frequency oscillations in epilepsy : A practical guideline

Objective: Technology for localizing epileptogenic brain regions plays a central role in surgical planning. Recent improvements in acquisition and electrode technology have revealed that high-frequency oscillations (HFOs) within the 80–500 Hz frequency range provide the neurophysiologist with new information about the extent of the epileptogenic tissue in addition to ictal and interictal lower frequency events. Nevertheless, two decades after their discovery there remain questions about HFOs as biomarkers of epileptogenic brain and there use in clinical practice. Methods: In this review, we provide practical, technical guidance for epileptologists and clinical researchers on recording, evaluation, and interpretation of ripples, fast ripples, and very high-frequency oscillations. Results: We emphasize the importance of low noise recording to minimize artifacts. HFO analysis, either visual or with automatic detection methods, of high fidelity recordings can still be challenging because of various artifacts including muscle, movement, and filtering. Magnetoencephalography and intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) recordings are subject to the same artifacts. Significance: High-frequency oscillations are promising new biomarkers in epilepsy. This review provides interested researchers and clinicians with a review of current state of the art of recording and identification and potential challenges to clinical translation

Adaptations of lateral hand movements to early and late visual occlusion in catching

Contains fulltext : 139154.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Recent studies suggested that the control of hand movements in catching involves continuous vision-based adjustments. More insight into these adjustments may be gained by examining the effects of occluding different parts of the ball trajectory. Here, we examined the effects of such occlusion on lateral hand movements when catching balls approaching from different directions, with the occlusion conditions presented in blocks or in randomized order. The analyses showed that late occlusion only had an effect during the blocked presentation, and early occlusion only during the randomized presentation. During the randomized presentation movement biases were more leftward if the preceding trial was an early occlusion trial. The effect of early occlusion during the randomized presentation suggests that the observed leftward movement bias relates to the rightward visual acceleration inherent to the ball trajectories used, while its absence during the blocked presentation seems to reflect trial-by-trial adaptations in the visuomotor gain, reminiscent of dynamic gain control in the smooth pursuit system. The movement biases during the late occlusion block were interpreted in terms of an incomplete motion extrapolation—a reduction of the velocity gain—caused by the fact that participants never saw the to-be-extrapolated part of the ball trajectory. These results underscore that continuous movement adjustments for catching do not only depend on visual information, but also on visuomotor adaptations based on non-visual information.14 p