403 research outputs found
Why early tactile speech aids may have failed: no perceptual integration of tactile and auditory signals
Tactile speech aids, though extensively studied in the 1980s and 90s, never
became a commercial success. A hypothesis to explain this failure might be that
it is difficult to obtain true perceptual integration of a tactile signal with
information from auditory speech: exploitation of tactile cues from a tactile
aid might require cognitive effort and so prevent speech understanding at the
high rates typical of everyday speech. To test this hypothesis, we attempted to
create true perceptual integration of tactile with auditory information in what
might be considered the simplest situation encountered by a hearing-impaired
listener. We created an auditory continuum between the syllables BA and VA, and
trained participants to associate BA to one tactile stimulus VA to another
tactile stimulus. After training, we tested if auditory discrimination along
the continuum between the two syllables could be biased by incongruent tactile
stimulation. We found that such a bias occurred only when the tactile stimulus
was above its previously measured tactile discrimination threshold. Such a
pattern is compatible with the idea that the effect is due to a cognitive or
decisional strategy, rather than to truly perceptual integration. We therefore
ran a further study, where we created a tactile version of the McGurk effect.
We extensively trained two Subjects over six days to associate four recorded
auditory syllables with four corresponding apparent motion tactile patterns. In
a subsequent test, we presented stimulation that was either congruent or
incongruent with the learnt association, and asked Subjects to report the
syllable they perceived. We found no analog to the McGurk effect. These
findings strengthen our hypothesis according to which tactile aids failed
because integration of tactile cues with auditory speech occurred at a
cognitive or decisional level, rather than truly at a perceptual leve
Long-range gravitational-like interaction in a neutral atomic cold gas
A quasi-resonant laser induces a long-range attractive force within a cloud
of cold atoms. We take advantage of this force to build in the laboratory a
system of particles with a one-dimensional gravitational-like interaction, at a
fluid level of modeling. We give experimental evidences of such an interaction
in a cold Strontium gas, studying the density profile of the cloud, its size as
a function of the number of atoms, and its breathing oscillations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Published in PRA 87, 013401 (2013
Algebraic damping in the one-dimensional Vlasov equation
We investigate the asymptotic behavior of a perturbation around a spatially
non homogeneous stable stationary state of a one-dimensional Vlasov equation.
Under general hypotheses, after transient exponential Landau damping, a
perturbation evolving according to the linearized Vlasov equation decays
algebraically with the exponent -2 and a well defined frequency. The
theoretical results are successfully tested against numerical -body
simulations, corresponding to the full Vlasov dynamics in the large limit,
in the case of the Hamiltonian mean-field model. For this purpose, we use a
weighted particles code, which allows us to reduce finite size fluctuations and
to observe the asymptotic decay in the -body simulations.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures; text slightly modified, references added, typos
correcte
APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY TO BRAIN ANATOMY
This paper presents an on-going interdisciplinary collaboration to advance brain connectivity studies. Despite the evolution of noninvasive methods to investigate the brain connectivity structure using the diffusion magnetic resonance, in the neuroscientific community there is an open debate how to collect quantitative information of the main neuroanatomical tracts. Information on the structure and main pathways of brain's white matter are generally derived by manual dissection of the brain ex-vivo. This paper wants to present a photogrammetric method developed to support the collection of metric information of the main pathways, or set of fibres, of the white matter of brain. For this purpose, multi-temporal photogrammetric acquisitions, with a resolution better than 100 microns, are performed at different stages of the brain's dissection, and the derived dense point clouds are used to annotate the stem, i.e., the region where there is a greater density of fibres of a given pathway, and termination points of several neuroanatomical tracts, i.e. fibres
Impact of short-term treatment with benzodiazepines and imidazopyridines on glucose metabolism in healthy subjects.
PyMVPA: A Unifying Approach to the Analysis of Neuroscientific Data
The Python programming language is steadily increasing in popularity as the language of choice for scientific computing. The ability of this scripting environment to access a huge code base in various languages, combined with its syntactical simplicity, make it the ideal tool for implementing and sharing ideas among scientists from numerous fields and with heterogeneous methodological backgrounds. The recent rise of reciprocal interest between the machine learning (ML) and neuroscience communities is an example of the desire for an inter-disciplinary transfer of computational methods that can benefit from a Python-based framework. For many years, a large fraction of both research communities have addressed, almost independently, very high-dimensional problems with almost completely non-overlapping methods. However, a number of recently published studies that applied ML methods to neuroscience research questions attracted a lot of attention from researchers from both fields, as well as the general public, and showed that this approach can provide novel and fruitful insights into the functioning of the brain. In this article we show how PyMVPA, a specialized Python framework for machine learning based data analysis, can help to facilitate this inter-disciplinary technology transfer by providing a single interface to a wide array of machine learning libraries and neural data-processing methods. We demonstrate the general applicability and power of PyMVPA via analyses of a number of neural data modalities, including fMRI, EEG, MEG, and extracellular recordings
The GH-releasing effect of acylated ghrelin in normal subjects is refractory to GH acute auto-feedback but is inhibited after short-term GH administration inducing IGF1 increase
Household Labor Supply and Home Services in a General-Equilibrium Model with Heterogeneous Agents
A new shape for an old function: lasting effect of a physiologic surgical restoration of the left ventricle
BACKGROUND: Long-term morphofunctional outcome may vary widely in surgical anterior left ventricular wall restoration, suggesting variability in post-surgical remodeling similar to that observed following acute myocardial infarction. The aim of this pilot study was to demonstrate that surgical restoration obtained with a particular shape of endoventricular patch leads to steady morphofunctional ventricular improvement when geometry, volume and residual akinesia can be restored as normal as possible. METHODS: This study involved 12 consecutive patients with previous anterior myocardial infarction, dilated cardiomyopathy and no mitral procedures, who underwent left ventricular reconstruction and coronary revascularization between May 2002 and May 2003 using a small, narrow, oval patch aiming at a volume ≤ 45 mL/m(2 )with elliptical shape. Eleven geometric parameters were examined preoperatively and at least 3, 12 and 24 months after the operation by serial echocardiographic studies and evaluated by paired t test taking the time of surgery as a starting point for remodeling. RESULTS: All patients were in NYHA class 1 at follow-up. Patch geometry obtained a conical shape of the ventricle with new apex, physiologic rearrangement of functioning myocardial wall and small residual akinesia. Ventricular changes at the four time-points showed that all parameters improved significantly compared to preoperative values (end-diastolic volume = 184.2 ± 23.9 vs 139.9 ± 22.0, p = 0.001; vs 151.0 ± 33.8, p = 0.06; vs 144.9 ± 34.0, p = 0.38; end-systolic volume = 125.7 ± 20.6 vs 75.2 ± 14.1, p = 0.001; vs 82.1 ± 23.9, p = 0,18; vs 77.1 ± 19.4, p = 0.41) without further changes during follow-up except for wall motion score index (2.0 ± 0.2 to 1.7 ± 0.2, to 1.4 ± 0.2, to 1.3 ± 0.2) and percentage of akinesia (30.4 ± 7.5 to 29.3 ± 4.2, to 19.8 ± 11.6, to 14.5 ± 7.2) which slowly and significantly improved suggesting a positive post-surgery remodeling. CONCLUSION: Ventricular reconstruction caring of physiological shape, volume, revascularization and residual akinesia obtained a steady geometry. Positive remodeling and equalization of geometrical outcome may persistently prevent long-term redilation
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