Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Multivariate Objective Response Detectors (MORD): Statistical tools for multichannel eeg analysis during rhythmic stimulation

The presence of cerebral evoked responses can be tested by using objective response detectors. They are statistical tests that provide a threshold above which responses can be assumed to have occurred. The detection power depends on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the response and the amount of data available. However, the correlation within the background noise could also affect the power of such detectors. For a fixed SNR, the detection can only be improved at the expense of using a longer stretch of signal. This can constitute a limitation, for instance, in monitored surgeries. Alternatively, multivariate objective response detection (MORD) could be used. This work applies two MORD techniques (multiple coherence and multiple component synchrony measure) to EEG data collected during intermittent photic stimulation. They were evaluated throughout Monte Carlo simulations, which also allowed verifying that correlation in the background reduces the detection rate. Considering the N EEG derivations as close as possible to the primary visual cortex, if N = 4, 6 or 8, multiple coherence leads to a statistically significant higher detection rate in comparison with multiple component synchrony measure. With the former, the best performance was obtained with six signals (O1, O2, T5, T6, P3 and P4)

A spatial approach of magnitude-squared coherence applied to selective attention detection

Auditory selective attention is the human ability of actively focusing in a certain sound stimulus while avoiding all other ones. This ability can be used, for example, in behavioral studies and brain-machine interface. In this work we developed an objective method – called Spatial Coherence – to detect the side where a subject is focusing attention to. This method takes into consideration the Magnitude Squared Coherence and the topographic distribution of responses among electroencephalogram electrodes. The individuals were stimulated with amplitude-modulated tones binaurally and were oriented to focus attention to only one of the stimuli. The results indicate a contralateral modulation of ASSR in the attention condition and are in agreement with prior studies. Furthermore, the best combination of electrodes led to a hit rate of 82% for 5.03 commands per minute. Using a similar paradigm, in a recent work, a maximum hit rate of 84.33% was achieved, but with a greater a classification time (20 s, i.e. 3 commands per minute). It seems that Spatial Coherence is a useful technique for detecting focus of auditory selective attention

Comparison of univariate and multivariate magnitude-squared coherences in the detection of human 40-Hz auditory steady-state evoked responses

Objective response detection (ORD) techniques for evaluating bioelectrical evoked responses in the electroencephalogram (EEG) are based on statistical criteria rather than on visual inspection. Hence, they do not depend on human evaluation, which is often a subjective approach. Furthermore, since such techniques do not involve heuristic approaches, they may be more easily implemented and used in automatic systems. The Magnitude-Squared Coherence (MSC), together with its recently developed multivariate extension (the multiple magnitude-squared coherence – MMSC), have been pointed out as one of the most efficient ORD techniques for detecting steady-state responses in the EEG. In this work, both MSC and MMSC were applied to EEG signals collected during auditory stimulation in order to allow comparison in the detection of auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs). The stimuli consisted of 40 Hz amplitude-modulated tones delivered binaurally in the intensity of 50 dB SPL (sound pressure level). The best result was obtained by using MMSC in the two-electrode set C4 and Fz. This configuration led to a 0.92-detection ratio, within 111.55 s in average to detect each response and kept the false alarm ratio under 0.05. The average improvement in performance was about 11% when compared to the MSC. These results allow concluding that the detection protocol of 40 Hz ASSRs can be improved by using MMSC in multichannel EEG analysis when compared to the traditional univariate MSC approach