A Robotics-Based Approach to Modeling of Choice Reaching Experiments on Visual Attention

The paper presents a robotics-based model for choice reaching experiments on visual attention. In these experiments participants were asked to make rapid reach movements toward a target in an odd-color search task, i.e., reaching for a green square among red squares and vice versa (e.g., Song and Nakayama, 2008). Interestingly these studies found that in a high number of trials movements were initially directed toward a distractor and only later were adjusted toward the target. These “curved” trajectories occurred particularly frequently when the target in the directly preceding trial had a different color (priming effect). Our model is embedded in a closed-loop control of a LEGO robot arm aiming to mimic these reach movements. The model is based on our earlier work which suggests that target selection in visual search is implemented through parallel interactions between competitive and cooperative processes in the brain (Heinke and Humphreys, 2003; Heinke and Backhaus, 2011). To link this model with the control of the robot arm we implemented a topological representation of movement parameters following the dynamic field theory (Erlhagen and Schoener, 2002). The robot arm is able to mimic the results of the odd-color search task including the priming effect and also generates human-like trajectories with a bell-shaped velocity profile. Theoretical implications and predictions are discussed in the paper

Choice reaching with a LEGO arm robot (CoRLEGO): The motor system guides visual attention to movement-relevant information

AbstractWe present an extension of a neurobiologically inspired robotics model, termed CoRLEGO (Choice reaching with a LEGO arm robot). CoRLEGO models experimental evidence from choice reaching tasks (CRT). In a CRT participants are asked to rapidly reach and touch an item presented on the screen. These experiments show that non-target items can divert the reaching movement away from the ideal trajectory to the target item. This is seen as evidence attentional selection of reaching targets can leak into the motor system. Using competitive target selection and topological representations of motor parameters (dynamic neural fields) CoRLEGO is able to mimic this leakage effect. Furthermore if the reaching target is determined by its colour oddity (i.e. a green square among red squares or vice versa), the reaching trajectories become straighter with repetitions of the target colour (colour streaks). This colour priming effect can also be modelled with CoRLEGO. The paper also presents an extension of CoRLEGO. This extension mimics findings that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the motor cortex modulates the colour priming effect (Woodgate et al., 2015). The results with the new CoRLEGO suggest that feedback connections from the motor system to the brain’s attentional system (parietal cortex) guide visual attention to extract movement-relevant information (i.e. colour) from visual stimuli. This paper adds to growing evidence that there is a close interaction between the motor system and the attention system. This evidence contradicts the traditional conceptualization of the motor system as the endpoint of a serial chain of processing stages. At the end of the paper we discuss CoRLEGO’s predictions and also lessons for neurobiologically inspired robotics emerging from this work

Motor cortex guides selection of predictable movement targets

The present paper asks whether the motor cortex contributes to prediction-based guidance of target selection. This question was inspired by recent evidence that suggests (i) recurrent connections from the motor system into the attentional system may extract movement-relevant perceptual information and (ii) that the motor cortex cannot only generate predictions of the sensory consequences of movements but may also operate as predictor of perceptual events in general. To test this idea we employed a choice reaching task requiring participants to rapidly reach and touch a predictable or unpredictable colour target. Motor cortex activity was modulated via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). In Experiment 1 target colour repetitions were predictable. Under such conditions anodal tDCS facilitated selection versus sham and cathodal tDCS. This improvement was apparent for trajectory curvature but not movement initiation. Conversely, where no predictability of colour was embedded reach performance was unaffected by tDCS. Finally, the results of a key-press experiment suggested that motor cortex involvement is restricted to tasks where the predictable target colour is movement-relevant. The outcomes are interpreted as evidence that the motor system contributes to the top-down guidance of selective attention to movement targets

Digital Single-Cell Analysis of Plant Organ Development Using 3DCellAtlas

Diverse molecular networks underlying plant growth and development are rapidly being uncovered. Integrating these data into the spatial and temporal context of dynamic organ growth remains a technical challenge. We developed 3DCellAtlas, an integrative computational pipeline that semiautomatically identifies cell types and quantifies both 3D cellular anisotropy and reporter abundance at single-cell resolution across whole plant organs. Cell identification is no less than 97.8% accurate and does not require transgenic lineage markers or reference atlases. Cell positions within organs are defined using an internal indexing system generating cellular level organ atlases where data from multiple samples can be integrated. Using this approach, we quantified the organ-wide cell-type-specific 3D cellular anisotropy driving Arabidopsis thaliana hypocotyl elongation. The impact ethylene has on hypocotyl 3D cell anisotropy identified the preferential growth of endodermis in response to this hormone. The spatiotemporal dynamics of the endogenous DELLA protein RGA, expansin gene EXPA3, and cell expansion was quantified within distinct cell types of Arabidopsis roots. A significant regulatory relationship between RGA, EXPA3, and growth was present in the epidermis and endodermis. The use of single-cell analyses of plant development enables the dynamics of diverse regulatory networks to be integrated with 3D organ growth.</p

Global Topological Order Emerges through Local Mechanical Control of Cell Divisions in the Arabidopsis Shoot Apical Meristem

The control of cell position and division act in concert to dictate multicellular organization in tissues and organs. How these processes shape global order and molecular movement across organs is an outstanding problem in biology. Using live 3D imaging and computational analyses, we extracted networks capturing cellular connectivity dynamics across the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem (SAM) and topologically analyzed the local and global properties of cellular architecture. Locally generated cell division rules lead to the emergence of global tissue-scale organization of the SAM, facilitating robust global communication. Cells that lie upon more shorter paths have an increased propensity to divide, with division plane placement acting to limit the number of shortest paths their daughter cells lie upon. Cell shape heterogeneity and global cellular organization requires KATANIN, providing a multiscale link between cell geometry, mechanical cell-cell interactions, and global tissue order

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements