Whisker Movements Reveal Spatial Attention: A Unified Computational Model of Active Sensing Control in the Rat

Spatial attention is most often investigated in the visual modality through measurement of eye movements, with primates, including humans, a widely-studied model. Its study in laboratory rodents, such as mice and rats, requires different techniques, owing to the lack of a visual fovea and the particular ethological relevance of orienting movements of the snout and the whiskers in these animals. In recent years, several reliable relationships have been observed between environmental and behavioural variables and movements of the whiskers, but the function of these responses, as well as how they integrate, remains unclear. Here, we propose a unifying abstract model of whisker movement control that has as its key variable the region of space that is the animal's current focus of attention, and demonstrate, using computer-simulated behavioral experiments, that the model is consistent with a broad range of experimental observations. A core hypothesis is that the rat explicitly decodes the location in space of whisker contacts and that this representation is used to regulate whisker drive signals. This proposition stands in contrast to earlier proposals that the modulation of whisker movement during exploration is mediated primarily by reflex loops. We go on to argue that the superior colliculus is a candidate neural substrate for the siting of a head-centred map guiding whisker movement, in analogy to current models of visual attention. The proposed model has the potential to offer a more complete understanding of whisker control as well as to highlight the potential of the rodent and its whiskers as a tool for the study of mammalian attention

Amphibole and apatite insights into the evolution and mass balance of Cl and S in magmas associated with porphyry copper deposits

Chlorine and sulfur are of paramount importance for supporting the transport and deposition of ore metals at magmatic–hydrothermal systems such as the Coroccohuayco Fe–Cu–Au porphyry–skarn deposit, Peru. Here, we used recent partitioning models to determine the Cl and S concentration of the melts from the Coroccohuayco magmatic suite using apatite and amphibole chemical analyses. The pre-mineralization gabbrodiorite complex hosts S-poor apatite, while the syn- and post-ore dacitic porphyries host S-rich apatite. Our apatite data on the Coroccohuayco magmatic suite are consistent with an increasing oxygen fugacity (from the gabbrodiorite complex to the porphyries) causing the dominant sulfur species to shift from S2− to S6+ at upper crustal pressure where the magmas were emplaced. We suggest that this change in sulfur speciation could have favored S degassing, rather than its sequestration in magmatic sulfides. Using available partitioning models for apatite from the porphyries, pre-degassing S melt concentration was 20–200 ppm. Estimates of absolute magmatic Cl concentrations using amphibole and apatite gave highly contrasting results. Cl melt concentrations obtained from apatite (0.60 wt% for the gabbrodiorite complex; 0.2–0.3 wt% for the porphyries) seems much more reasonable than those obtained from amphibole which are very low (0.37 wt% for the gabbrodiorite complex; 0.10 wt% for the porphyries). In turn, relative variations of the Cl melt concentrations obtained from amphibole during magma cooling are compatible with previous petrological constraints on the Coroccohuayco magmatic suite. This confirms that the gabbrodioritic magma was initially fluid undersaturated upon emplacement, and that magmatic fluid exsolution of the gabbrodiorite and the pluton rooting the porphyry stocks and dikes were emplaced and degassed at 100–200 MPa. Finally, mass balance constraints on S, Cu and Cl were used to estimate the minimum volume of magma required to form the Coroccohuayco deposit. These three estimates are remarkably consistent among each other (ca. 100 km3) and suggest that the Cl melt concentration is at least as critical as that of Cu and S to form an economic mineralization

Structures Related to the Emplacement of Shallow-Level Intrusions

A systematic view of the vast nomenclature used to describe the structures of shallow-level intrusions is presented here. Structures are organised in four main groups, according to logical breaks in the timing of magma emplacement, independent of the scales of features: (1) Intrusion-related structures, formed as the magma is making space and then develops into its intrusion shape; (2) Magmatic flow-related structures, developed as magma moves with suspended crystals that are free to rotate; (3) Solid-state, flow-related structures that formed in portions of the intrusions affected by continuing flow of nearby magma, therefore considered to have a syn-magmatic, non-tectonic origin; (4) Thermal and fragmental structures, related to creation of space and impact on host materials. This scheme appears as a rational organisation, helpful in describing and interpreting the large variety of structures observed in shallow-level intrusions

High-resolution imaging of the Pyrenees and Massif Central from the data of the PYROPE and IBERARRAY portable array deployments

The lithospheric structures beneath the Pyrenees, which holds the key to settle long-standing controversies regarding the opening of the Bay of Biscay and the formation of the Pyrenees, are still poorly known. The temporary PYROPE and IBERARRAY experiments have recently filled a strong deficit of seismological stations in this part of western Europe, offering a new and unique opportunity to image crustal and mantle structures with unprecedented resolution. Here we report the results of the first tomographic study of the Pyrenees relying on this rich data set. The important aspects of our tomographic study are the precision of both absolute and relative traveltime measurements obtained by a nonlinear simulated annealing waveform fit and the detailed crustal model that has been constructed to compute accurate crustal corrections. Beneath the Massif Central, the most prominent feature is a widespread slow anomaly that reflects a strong thermal anomaly resulting from the thinning of the lithosphere and upwelling of the asthenosphere. Our tomographic images clearly exclude scenarios involving subduction of oceanic lithosphere beneath the Pyrenees. In contrast, they reveal the segmentation of lithospheric structures, mainly by two major lithospheric faults, the Toulouse fault in the central Pyrenees and the Pamplona fault in the western Pyrenees. These inherited Hercynian faults were reactivated during the Cretaceous rifting of the Aquitaine and Iberian margins and during the Cenozoic Alpine convergence. Therefore, the Pyrenees can be seen as resulting from the tectonic inversion of a segmented continental rift that was buried by subduction beneath the European plate.The PYROPE experiment was supported by the French Research Agency ÔANR blancÕ program (project PYROPE, ANR-09-BLAN-0229). We also acknowledge SISMOB, the French seismic mobile pool (a component of the RESIF consortium), for providing us with the seismological instrumentation for the temporary deployments. We thank also thank the IGN and IGC for making their broadband data available to us, Julie Perrot for sending us data from a short period array in Vendee and Jean Michel Douchain for preparing ©2014 American Geophysical Union. All rights reserved. the data of the ReNass stations in the Massif Central. This is a contribution of the Team Consolider-Ingenio 2010 TOPO-IBERIA (CSD2006-00041).Peer reviewe

Persistent uplift of the Lazufre volcanic complex (Central Andes): New insights from PCAIM inversion of InSAR time series and GPS data

International audienceWe reanalyzed the surface displacements observed at the Lazufre volcanic complex in the Southern Andean Central Volcanic Zone using GPS measurements made between 2006 and 2008 and a large InSAR data set. We performed a detailed spatiotemporal analysis of the displacements using a principal component analysis inversion method (PCAIM). The PCAIM reveals a source with no significant changes in shape and dimension and with a remarkably linear strength increase over the whole period of observation (i.e., 2003–2010). Then we used a three-dimensional mixed boundary element method (MBEM) to invert the first component of surface displacement as obtained from PCAIM. We explored a continuum of geometries from a shallow elliptic crack to a deep massive truncated elliptical cone that could represent a sill or a large magma chamber, respectively. The best models indicate a large flat-topped source with a roof area between 40 and 670 km2 and a depth of between 2 and 14 km below ground surface. Lastly, on the basis of the limited data available for the thermomechanical structure of the crust in the Southern Andean Central Volcanic Zone, we consider some possible scenarios to explain the spatial and temporal pattern of displacements at Lazufre