Differential cAMP signaling at hippocampal output synapses

cAMP is a critical second messenger involved in synaptic transmission and synaptic plasticity. Here, we show that activation of the adenylyl cyclase by forskolin and application of the cAMP-analog Sp-5,6-DCl-cBIMPS both mimicked and occluded tetanus-induced long-term potentiation (LTP) in subicular bursting neurons, but not in subicular regular firing cells. Furthermore, LTP in bursting cells was inhibited by protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitors Rp-8-CPT-cAMP and H-89. Variations in the degree of EPSC blockade by the low-affinity competitive AMPA receptor-antagonist {gamma}-d-glutamyl-glycine ({gamma}-DGG), analysis of the coefficient of variance as well as changes in short-term potentiation suggest an increase of glutamate concentration in the synaptic cleft after expression of LTP. We conclude that presynaptic LTP in bursting cells requires activation of PKA by a calcium-dependent adenylyl cyclase while LTP in regular firing cells is independent of elevated cAMP levels. Our results provide evidence for a differential role of cAMP in LTP at hippocampal output synapses

Carborane‐Containing Matrix Metalloprotease (MMP) Ligands as Candidates for Boron Neutron‐Capture Therapy (BNCT)

Based on the previously reported potent and selective sulfone hydroxamate inhibitors SC‐76276, SC‐78080 (SD‐2590), and SC‐77964, potent MMP inhibitors have been designed and synthesized to append a boron‐rich carborane cluster by employing click chemistry to target tumor cells that are known to upregulate gelatinases. Docking against MMP‐2 suggests binding involving the hydroxamate zinc‐binding group, key H‐bonds by the sulfone moiety with the peptide backbone residues Leu82 and Leu83, and a hydrophobic interaction with the deep P1’ pocket. The more potent of the two triazole regioisomers exhibits an IC50 of 3.7 nM versus MMP‐2 and IC50 of 46 nM versus MMP‐9

Acceleration of generalized hypergeometric functions through precise remainder asymptotics

We express the asymptotics of the remainders of the partial sums {s_n} of the generalized hypergeometric function q+1_F_q through an inverse power series z^n n^l \sum_k c_k/n^k, where the exponent l and the asymptotic coefficients {c_k} may be recursively computed to any desired order from the hypergeometric parameters and argument. From this we derive a new series acceleration technique that can be applied to any such function, even with complex parameters and at the branch point z=1. For moderate parameters (up to approximately ten) a C implementation at fixed precision is very effective at computing these functions; for larger parameters an implementation in higher than machine precision would be needed. Even for larger parameters, however, our C implementation is able to correctly determine whether or not it has converged; and when it converges, its estimate of its error is accurate.Comment: 36 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX2e. Fixed sign error in Eq. (2.28), added several references, added comparison to other methods, and added discussion of recursion stabilit

How Haptic Size Sensations Improve Distance Perception

Determining distances to objects is one of the most ubiquitous perceptual tasks in everyday life. Nevertheless, it is challenging because the information from a single image confounds object size and distance. Though our brains frequently judge distances accurately, the underlying computations employed by the brain are not well understood. Our work illuminates these computions by formulating a family of probabilistic models that encompass a variety of distinct hypotheses about distance and size perception. We compare these models' predictions to a set of human distance judgments in an interception experiment and use Bayesian analysis tools to quantitatively select the best hypothesis on the basis of its explanatory power and robustness over experimental data. The central question is: whether, and how, human distance perception incorporates size cues to improve accuracy. Our conclusions are: 1) humans incorporate haptic object size sensations for distance perception, 2) the incorporation of haptic sensations is suboptimal given their reliability, 3) humans use environmentally accurate size and distance priors, 4) distance judgments are produced by perceptual “posterior sampling”. In addition, we compared our model's estimated sensory and motor noise parameters with previously reported measurements in the perceptual literature and found good correspondence between them. Taken together, these results represent a major step forward in establishing the computational underpinnings of human distance perception and the role of size information.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant R01EY015261)University of Minnesota (UMN Graduate School Fellowship)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Graduate Research Fellowship)University of Minnesota (UMN Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH NRSA grant F32EY019228-02)Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awar

Grouping by feature of cross-modal flankers in temporal ventriloquism

Signals in one sensory modality can influence perception of another, for example the bias of visual timing by audition: temporal ventriloquism. Strong accounts of temporal ventriloquism hold that the sensory representation of visual signal timing changes to that of the nearby sound. Alternatively, underlying sensory representations do not change. Rather, perceptual grouping processes based on spatial, temporal, and featural information produce best-estimates of global event properties. In support of this interpretation, when feature-based perceptual grouping conflicts with temporal information-based in scenarios that reveal temporal ventriloquism, the effect is abolished. However, previous demonstrations of this disruption used long-range visual apparent-motion stimuli. We investigated whether similar manipulations of feature grouping could also disrupt the classical temporal ventriloquism demonstration, which occurs over a short temporal range. We estimated the precision of participants’ reports of which of two visual bars occurred first. The bars were accompanied by different cross-modal signals that onset synchronously or asynchronously with each bar. Participants’ performance improved with asynchronous presentation relative to synchronous - temporal ventriloquism - however, unlike the long-range apparent motion paradigm, this was unaffected by different combinations of cross-modal feature, suggesting that featural similarity of cross-modal signals may not modulate cross-modal temporal influences in short time scales

A Comprehensive Model of Audiovisual Perception: Both Percept and Temporal Dynamics

The sparse information captured by the sensory systems is used by the brain to apprehend the environment, for example, to spatially locate the source of audiovisual stimuli. This is an ill-posed inverse problem whose inherent uncertainty can be solved by jointly processing the information, as well as introducing constraints during this process, on the way this multisensory information is handled. This process and its result - the percept - depend on the contextual conditions perception takes place in. To date, perception has been investigated and modeled on the basis of either one of two of its dimensions: the percept or the temporal dynamics of the process. Here, we extend our previously proposed audiovisual perception model to predict both these dimensions to capture the phenomenon as a whole. Starting from a behavioral analysis, we use a data-driven approach to elicit a Bayesian network which infers the different percepts and dynamics of the process. Context-specific independence analyses enable us to use the model's structure to directly explore how different contexts affect the way subjects handle the same available information. Hence, we establish that, while the percepts yielded by a unisensory stimulus or by the non-fusion of multisensory stimuli may be similar, they result from different processes, as shown by their differing temporal dynamics. Moreover, our model predicts the impact of bottom-up (stimulus driven) factors as well as of top-down factors (induced by instruction manipulation) on both the perception process and the percept itself

No rapid audiovisual recalibration in adults on the autism spectrum

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by difficulties in social cognition, but are also associated with atypicalities in sensory and perceptual processing. Several groups have reported that autistic individuals show reduced integration of socially relevant audiovisual signals, which may contribute to the higher-order social and cognitive difficulties observed in autism. Here we use a newly devised technique to study instantaneous adaptation to audiovisual asynchrony in autism. Autistic and typical participants were presented with sequences of brief visual and auditory stimuli, varying in asynchrony over a wide range, from 512 ms auditory-lead to 512 ms auditory-lag, and judged whether they seemed to be synchronous. Typical adults showed strong adaptation effects, with trials proceeded by an auditory-lead needing more auditory-lead to seem simultaneous, and vice versa. However, autistic observers showed little or no adaptation, although their simultaneity curves were as narrow as the typical adults. This result supports recent Bayesian models that predict reduced adaptation effects in autism. As rapid audiovisual recalibration may be fundamental for the optimisation of speech comprehension, recalibration problems could render language processing more difficult in autistic individuals, hindering social communication

Exposure to delayed visual feedback of the hand changes motor-sensory synchrony perception

We examined whether the brain can adapt to temporal delays between a self-initiated action and the naturalistic visual feedback of that action. During an exposure phase, participants tapped with their index finger while seeing their own hand in real time (~0 ms delay) or delayed at 40, 80, or 120 ms. Following exposure, participants were tested with a simultaneity judgment (SJ) task in which they judged whether the video of their hand was synchronous or asynchronous with respect to their finger taps. The locations of the seen and the real hand were either different (Experiment 1) or aligned (Experiment 2). In both cases, the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) was uniformly shifted in the direction of the exposure lags while sensitivity to visual-motor asynchrony decreased with longer exposure delays. These findings demonstrate that the brain is quite flexible in adjusting the timing relation between a motor action and the otherwise naturalistic visual feedback that this action engenders

Bayesian Cue Integration as a Developmental Outcome of Reward Mediated Learning

Average human behavior in cue combination tasks is well predicted by Bayesian inference models. As this capability is acquired over developmental timescales, the question arises, how it is learned. Here we investigated whether reward dependent learning, that is well established at the computational, behavioral, and neuronal levels, could contribute to this development. It is shown that a model free reinforcement learning algorithm can indeed learn to do cue integration, i.e. weight uncertain cues according to their respective reliabilities and even do so if reliabilities are changing. We also consider the case of causal inference where multimodal signals can originate from one or multiple separate objects and should not always be integrated. In this case, the learner is shown to develop a behavior that is closest to Bayesian model averaging. We conclude that reward mediated learning could be a driving force for the development of cue integration and causal inference