Visual-to-auditory sensory substitution alters language asymmetry in both sighted novices and experienced visually impaired users

Visual-to-auditory sensory substitution devices (SSDs) provide improved access to the visual environment for the visually impaired by converting images into auditory information. Research is lacking on the mechanisms involved in processing data that is perceived through one sensory modality, but directly associated with a source in a different sensory modality. This is important because SSDs that use auditory displays could involve binaural presentation requiring both ear canals, or monaural presentation requiring only one – but which ear would be ideal? SSDs may be similar to reading, as an image (printed word) is converted into sound (when read aloud). Reading, and language more generally, are typically lateralised to the left cerebral hemisphere. Yet, unlike symbolic written language, SSDs convert images to sound based on visuospatial properties, with the right cerebral hemisphere potentially having a role in processing such visuospatial data. Here we investigated whether there is a hemispheric bias in the processing of visual-to-auditory sensory substitution information and whether that varies as a function of experience and visual ability. We assessed the lateralization of auditory processing with two tests: a standard dichotic listening test and a novel dichotic listening test created using the auditory information produced by an SSD, The vOICe. Participants were tested either in the lab or online with the same stimuli. We did not find a hemispheric bias in the processing of visual-to-auditory information in visually impaired, experienced vOICe users. Further, we did not find any difference between visually impaired, experienced vOICe users and sighted novices in the hemispheric lateralization of visual-to-auditory information processing. Although standard dichotic listening is lateralised to the left hemisphere, the auditory processing of images in SSDs is bilateral, possibly due to the increased influence of right hemisphere processing. Auditory SSDs might therefore be equally effective with presentation to either ear if a monaural, rather than binaural, presentation were necessary

From fossils to mind

Fossil endocasts record features of brains from the past: size, shape, vasculature, and gyrification. These data, alongside experimental and comparative evidence, are needed to resolve questions about brain energetics, cognitive specializations, and developmental plasticity. Through the application of interdisciplinary techniques to the fossil record, paleoneurology has been leading major innovations. Neuroimaging is shedding light on fossil brain organization and behaviors. Inferences about the development and physiology of the brains of extinct species can be experimentally investigated through brain organoids and transgenic models based on ancient DNA. Phylogenetic comparative methods integrate data across species and associate genotypes to phenotypes, and brains to behaviors. Meanwhile, fossil and archeological discoveries continuously contribute new knowledge. Through cooperation, the scientific community can accelerate knowledge acquisition. Sharing digitized museum collections improves the availability of rare fossils and artifacts. Comparative neuroanatomical data are available through online databases, along with tools for their measurement and analysis. In the context of these advances, the paleoneurological record provides ample opportunity for future research. Biomedical and ecological sciences can benefit from paleoneurology's approach to understanding the mind as well as its novel research pipelines that establish connections between neuroanatomy, genes and behavior

An Open Resource for Non-human Primate Imaging.

Non-human primate neuroimaging is a rapidly growing area of research that promises to transform and scale translational and cross-species comparative neuroscience. Unfortunately, the technological and methodological advances of the past two decades have outpaced the accrual of data, which is particularly challenging given the relatively few centers that have the necessary facilities and capabilities. The PRIMatE Data Exchange (PRIME-DE) addresses this challenge by aggregating independently acquired non-human primate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets and openly sharing them via the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI). Here, we present the rationale, design, and procedures for the PRIME-DE consortium, as well as the initial release, consisting of 25 independent data collections aggregated across 22 sites (total = 217 non-human primates). We also outline the unique pitfalls and challenges that should be considered in the analysis of non-human primate MRI datasets, including providing automated quality assessment of the contributed datasets

orlinst/Carnivores-ext: Extinct Pleistocene Carnivores Burned More Energy Supplement

<p>The repository contains all the used data, code and phylogenetic trees used to conduct the research in the manuscript.</p&gt

A natural history of vision loss: Insight from evolution for human visual function

Research on the origin of vision and vision loss in naturally "blind" animal species can reveal the tasks that vision fulfills and the brain's role in visual experience. Models that incorporate evolutionary history, natural variation in visual ability, and experimental manipulations can help disentangle visual ability at a superficial level from behaviors linked to vision but not solely reliant upon it, and could assist the translation of ophthalmological research in animal models to human treatments. To unravel the similarities between blind individuals and blind species, we review concepts of 'blindness' and its behavioral correlates across a range of species. We explore the ancestral emergence of vision in vertebrates, and the loss of vision in blind species with reference to an evolution-based classification scheme. We applied phylogenetic comparative methods to a mammalian tree to explore the evolution of visual acuity using ancestral state estimations. Future research into the natural history of vision loss could help elucidate the function of vision and inspire innovations in how to address vision loss in humans.</p