The role of the medial geniculate body of the thalamus in the pathophysiology of tinnitus and implications for treatment

Tinnitus is an auditory sensation in the absence of actual external stimulation. Different clinical interventions are used in tinnitus treatment, but only few patients respond to available options. The lack of successful tinnitus treatment is partly due to the limited knowledge about the mechanisms underlying tinnitus. Recently, the auditory part of the thalamus has gained attention as a central structure in the neuropathophysiology of tinnitus. Increased thalamic spontaneous firing rate, bursting activity and oscillations, alongside an increase of GABAergic tonic inhibition have been shown in the auditory thalamus in animal models of tinnitus. In addition, clinical neuroimaging studies have shown structural and functional thalamic changes with tinnitus. This review provides a systematic overview and discussion of these observations that support a central role of the auditory thalamus in tinnitus. Based on this approach, a neuromodulative treatment option for tinnitus is proposed

Practitioner’s Section: Integrated Resource Efficiency Analysis for Reducing Climate Impacts in the Chemical Industry

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions of the material-intensive chemical industry requires an integrated analysis and optimization of the complex production systems including raw material and energy use, resulting costs and environmental and climate impacts. To meet this challenge, the research project InReff (Integrated Resource Efficiency Analysis for Reducing Climate Impacts in the Chemical Industry) has been established. It aims at the development of an IT-supported modeling and evaluation framework which is able to comprehensively address issues of resource efficiency and climate change within the chemical industry, e.g. the minimization of material and energy intensity and consequently greenhouse gas emissions, without compromising on production performance. The paper presents background information on resource efficiency and the research project, an ideal-typical decision model for resource efficiency analysis, the conceptual approach for an IT-based integration platform as well as the case study design at the industrial project partners’ sites. These first results are linked to future activities and further research questions are highlighted in the concluding section

The role of the cerebellum in adaptation: ALE meta‐analyses on sensory feedback error

It is widely accepted that unexpected sensory consequences of self‐action engage the cerebellum. However, we currently lack consensus on where in the cerebellum, we find fine‐grained differentiation to unexpected sensory feedback. This may result from methodological diversity in task‐based human neuroimaging studies that experimentally alter the quality of self‐generated sensory feedback. We gathered existing studies that manipulated sensory feedback using a variety of methodological approaches and performed activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta‐analyses. Only half of these studies reported cerebellar activation with considerable variation in spatial location. Consequently, ALE analyses did not reveal significantly increased likelihood of activation in the cerebellum despite the broad scientific consensus of the cerebellum's involvement. In light of the high degree of methodological variability in published studies, we tested for statistical dependence between methodological factors that varied across the published studies. Experiments that elicited an adaptive response to continuously altered sensory feedback more frequently reported activation in the cerebellum than those experiments that did not induce adaptation. These findings may explain the surprisingly low rate of significant cerebellar activation across brain imaging studies investigating unexpected sensory feedback. Furthermore, limitations of functional magnetic resonance imaging to probe the cerebellum could play a role as climbing fiber activity associated with feedback error processing may not be captured by it. We provide methodological recommendations that may guide future studies

Optimal perceived timing: integrating sensory information with dynamically updated expectations

The environment has a temporal structure, and knowing when a stimulus will appear translates into increased perceptual performance. Here we investigated how the human brain exploits temporal regularity in stimulus sequences for perception. We find that the timing of stimuli that occasionally deviate from a regularly paced sequence is perceptually distorted. Stimuli presented earlier than expected are perceptually delayed, whereas stimuli presented on time and later than expected are perceptually accelerated. This result suggests that the brain regularizes slightly deviant stimuli with an asymmetry that leads to the perceptual acceleration of expected stimuli. We present a Bayesian model for the combination of dynamically-updated expectations, in the form of a priori probability of encountering future stimuli, with incoming sensory information. The asymmetries in the results are accounted for by the asymmetries in the distributions involved in the computational process

Notes for genera: basal clades of Fungi (including Aphelidiomycota, Basidiobolomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Calcarisporiellomycota, Caulochytriomycota, Chytridiomycota, Entomophthoromycota, Glomeromycota, Kickxellomycota, Monoblepharomycota, Mortierellomycota, Mucoromycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Olpidiomycota, Rozellomycota and Zoopagomycota)

Compared to the higher fungi (Dikarya), taxonomic and evolutionary studies on the basal clades of fungi are fewer in number. Thus, the generic boundaries and higher ranks in the basal clades of fungi are poorly known. Recent DNA based taxonomic studies have provided reliable and accurate information. It is therefore necessary to compile all available information since basal clades genera lack updated checklists or outlines. Recently, Tedersoo et al. (MycoKeys 13:1--20, 2016) accepted Aphelidiomycota and Rozellomycota in Fungal clade. Thus, we regard both these phyla as members in Kingdom Fungi. We accept 16 phyla in basal clades viz. Aphelidiomycota, Basidiobolomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Calcarisporiellomycota, Caulochytriomycota, Chytridiomycota, Entomophthoromycota, Glomeromycota, Kickxellomycota, Monoblepharomycota, Mortierellomycota, Mucoromycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Olpidiomycota, Rozellomycota and Zoopagomycota. Thus, 611 genera in 153 families, 43 orders and 18 classes are provided with details of classification, synonyms, life modes, distribution, recent literature and genomic data. Moreover, Catenariaceae Couch is proposed to be conserved, Cladochytriales Mozl.-Standr. is emended and the family Nephridiophagaceae is introduced

TEACHING DIGITAL CULTURAL HERITAGE AND DIGITAL HUMANITIES THE CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS

Digital literacy and technology education has gained much relevance in humanities and heritage related disciplines during the recent decades. Against this background, the purpose of this article is to examine the current state of educational programs in digital cultural heritage and related disciplines primarily in Europe with supplemental information from the US. A further aim is to highlight core topics, challenges, and demands, and to show innovative formats and prospects

Auditory thalamus dysfunction and pathophysiology in tinnitus:a predictive network hypothesis

Tinnitus is the perception of a ‘ringing’ sound without an acoustic source. It is generally accepted that tinnitus develops after peripheral hearing loss and is associated with altered auditory processing. The thalamus is a crucial relay in the underlying pathways that actively shapes processing of auditory signals before the respective information reaches the cerebral cortex. Here, we review animal and human evidence to define thalamic function in tinnitus. Overall increased spontaneous firing patterns and altered coherence between the thalamic medial geniculate body (MGB) and auditory cortices is observed in animal models of tinnitus. It is likely that the functional connectivity between the MGB and primary and secondary auditory cortices is reduced in humans. Conversely, there are indications for increased connectivity between the MGB and several areas in the cingulate cortex and posterior cerebellar regions, as well as variability in connectivity between the MGB and frontal areas regarding laterality and orientation in the inferior, medial and superior frontal gyrus. We suggest that these changes affect adaptive sensory gating of temporal and spectral sound features along the auditory pathway, reflecting dysfunction in an extensive thalamo-cortical network implicated in predictive temporal adaptation to the auditory environment. Modulation of temporal characteristics of input signals might hence factor into a thalamo-cortical dysrhythmia profile of tinnitus, but could ultimately also establish new directions for treatment options for persons with tinnitus