Spatial Updating in Human Cortex

Single neurons in several cortical areas in monkeys update visual information in conjunction with eye movements. This remapping of stimulus representations is thought to contribute to spatial constancy. The central hypothesis here is that spatial updating also occurs in humans and that it can be visualized with functional MRI.In Chapter 2, we describe experiments in which we tested the role of human parietal cortex in spatial updating. We scanned subjects during a task that involved remapping of visual signals across hemifields. This task is directly analogous to the single-step saccade task used to test spatial updating in monkeys. We observed an initial response in the hemisphere contralateral to the visual stimulus, followed by a remapped response in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the stimulus. Our results demonstrate that updating of visual information occurs in human parietal cortex and can be visualized with fMRI.The experiments in Chapter 2 show that updated visual responses have a characteristic latency and response shape. Chapter 3 describes a statistical model for estimating these parameters. The method is based on a nonlinear, fully Bayesian, hierarchical model that decomposes the fMRI time series data into baseline, smooth drift, activation signal, and noise. This chapter shows that this model performs well relative to commonly-used general linear models. In Chapter 4, we use the statistical method described in Chapter 3 to test for the presence of spatial updating activity in human extrastriate visual cortex. We identified the borders of several retinotopically defined visual areas in the occipital lobe. We then tested for spatial updating using the single step saccade task. We found a roughly monotonic relationship between the strength of updating activity and position in the visual area hierarchy. We observed the strongest responses in area V4, and the weakest response in V1. We conclude that updating is not restricted to brain regions involved primarily in attention and the generation of eye movements, but rather, is present in occipital lobe visual areas as well

Indelible Public Interests in Property: The Public Trust and the Public Forum

In response to the ongoing debate over how much of the surface real estate reclaimed by the Big Dig should be devoted to open space, and how much to other uses, this Article examines two legal doctrines that are frequently implicated by plans for changes in use and disposition of publicly-owned property. While these doctrines stand on distinct historical and theoretical foundations and diverge from each other in many respects, there are important parallels between them in how they conceptualize the relationship between government’s power to regulate, control, and dispose of land it owns, and the rights belonging to what one scholar has called the “unorganized public” in that same property. On a more pragmatic level, commonality between these two doctrines arises from their applicability to the same physical spaces and their concern with the same types of governmental actions. Therefore, while both the courts and the academy have largely examined these doctrines separately, this Article employs a comparative analysis to better understand the relationship between government and the “unorganized public” with respect to publicly-owned property, and to more fully appreciate the limitations on the use of currently and formerly publicly-owned lands

A Theory of Everything consistent with the PF interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

This paper appears to give a Theory of Everything

Songs of the Ketu cult of Bahia, Brazil

The present study is directed toward establishing the music structure of an African- derived cult group of Bahia, Brazil. Such work is at present of considerable importance to the entire study of the musical relationships between New World and African Negro cultures; to date very few studies have been made. Before ethnomusicology can begin to make its most significant contributions to the study of the New World Negro acculturative problems and the broader questions of cultural dynamics that derive from it, a series of such works as that being undertaken here must be completed, so that factual information will become available for comparative data

Songs of the Ketu cult of Bahia (transcriptions)

The transcriptions printed here refer to the article by Dr. Alan P. Merriam on pages 53-67 of the previous edition of the fournal (No. 3). The Editor regrets that owing to a misunderstanding they were not printed together with the article at the time. Notes referring to the transcriptions will be found on page 67 of Journal Vol. I, No. 3

The Presentist Fragmentalist Theory of Quantum Gravity 2

This paper gives a theory of quantum gravity based on the Presentist Fragmentalist interpretation of quantum mechanics. It is a dialogue with the AI Claude Ultra 3.0

The Presentist Fragmentalist Theory of Quantum Gravity: FCQG

Two philosophical arguments gave the novel interpretation of quantum mechanics Presentist Fragmentalism. This paper gives the resulting theory of quantum gravity

A Theory of Everything consistent with the PF interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

This note outlines a Theory of Everything consistent with the PF interpretation of quantum mechanics