Barrow researchers unravel illusion

Barrow Neurological Institute researchers Jorge Otero-Millan, Stephen Macknik, and Susana Martinez-Conde share the recent cover of the Journal of Neuroscience in a compelling study into why illusions trick our brains. Barrow is part of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.

The study, led by Martinez-Conde's laboratory, explores the neural bases of illusory motion in Akiyoshi Kitaoka's striking visual illusion, known as the "Rotating Snakes." Kitaoka is a Japanese psychology professor who specializes in visual illusions of geometric shapes and motion illusions.

The study shows that tiny eye movements and blinking can make a geometric drawing of "snakes" appear to dance. The results help explain the mystery of how the Rotating Snakes illusion tricks the brain.

"Visual illusions demonstrate the ways in which the brain creates a mental representation that differs from the physical world," says Martinez-Conde. "By studying illusions, we can learn the mechanisms by which the brain constructs our conscious experience of the world."

Earlier studies of the "Rotating Snakes" indicated the perception of motion was triggered by the eyes moving slowly across the illusion. But by tracking eye movements in eight volunteers, the vision neuroscientists found a different explanation: fast eye movements called "saccades," some of which are microscopic and undetectable by the viewer, drive the illusory motion.

Participants lifted a button when the snakes seemed to swirl and pressed down the button when the snakes appeared still. Right before the snakes appeared to move, participants tended to produce blinks, saccades and/or microsaccades, and right before the snakes stopped, participants' eyes tended to remain stable, Otero-Millan, Macknik, and Martinez-Conde report in the April 25th Journal of Neuroscience cover story.

"Studying the mismatch between perception and reality may lead to a deeper understanding of the mind," says Martinez-Conde. "The findings from our recent study may help us to understand the neural bases of motion perception, both in the normal brain, and in patients with brain lesions that affect the perception of motion. This research could aid in the design of neural prosthetics for patients with brain damage."

Provided by St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center

"Barrow researchers unravel illusion." May 1st, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-barrow-unravel-illusion.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Roboticist creates Hugvie - Huggable vibrating pillow smartphone accessory

(Phys.org) -- Japanese robot designer Hiroshi Ishiguro is fast becoming a sort of roboticist for the people, in Japan anyway. Instead of terminator style robots meant to do a lot of serious work or to serve on the battlefield, his robots are soft and cushy, cute and perhaps a little smooshy. He’s also created a robot in his own image. Now he’s introducing something he calls the Hugvie, a robot that looks sort of like a generic mono-legged human baby, or perhaps a doll with no eyes, fingers or toes. It serves as the medium through which people converse in a new way using a smartphone. While holding, or pressing the Hugvie against the face, it vibrates slightly at the same frequency as the voice on the other end, adding another degree of intimacy to the conversation. At least that’s the idea.

In reality, it’s a stuffed pillow with a little pocket for holding a cell phone. When in use, a hidden gadget listens in and converts the sounds it hears to vibrations which it sends through the pillow to the person holding it.

Ishiguro, an Osaka University professor, and inventor of the Telenoid R1, which has been described as an animated outsized fetus that talks, spoke at a press conference in Tokyo recently, to announce the debut of Hugvie. He said that the robot actually has two vibrators inside of it and that together they are meant to mimic the sound of the human heartbeat. He added that the vibrations can be customized to allow for softer or stronger pulses as they respond to the volume and strength of the voice on the other end of the line. He added that his team has already tested the Hugvie in several environments and that people, especially senior citizens, tend to hug the little pillow bot when speaking with someone close to them.

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

The idea behind the Hugvie is to add another dimension to the experience of speaking on the phone with someone in intimate ways; taking pillow talk to the next level if you will, providing that feeling of being there with that other person who really isn’t. The vibrations are meant to reproduce the sensations people would experience were they able to talk to one another with their faces, throats or chests touching, as people often do when lying down with one another while conversing.

Currently, the Hugvie is only available (in a variety of colors) to customers in Japan, but if interest spreads, as with any other consumer product, it will almost certainly be made available to customers elsewhere.

Via: DigInfo TV

© 2012 Phys.Org

"Roboticist creates Hugvie - Huggable vibrating pillow smartphone accessory." May 1st, 2012. http://phys.org/news/2012-05-roboticist-hugvie-huggable-vibrating.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

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New study shows "undecideds" not impartial

As the U.S. presidential election approaches, political analysts are paying a lot of attention to the undecided. New research by a team of psychologists from Canada, Italy and Switzerland shows that undecideds are not impartial, but instead reveal a preference for information that confirms their gut reactions.

"Many people who are undecided about a political issue or competing candidates have at least some kind of gut reaction toward the available options," explains Bertram Gawronski, Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology at Western University. "Because it feels uncomfortable being exposed to information that questions one’s thoughts and preferences, undecideds search for information that confirms their gut reactions and avoid information that could question them."

The article "Selective Exposure in Decided and Undecided Individuals: Differential Relations to Automatic Associations and Conscious Beliefs," authored by Gawronski, Silvia Galdi, Luciano Arcuri, and Malte Friese, is published in the May issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (http://psp.sagepub.com/content/38/5/559.abstract).

According to Gawronski, selective exposure to supportive information can determine future decisions at a time when people still feel that they have not made up their mind.

"People use whatever information they have to make a decision and they tend to believe that their decision is objective and unbiased. But they often don't realize that they have selectively exposed themselves to information that simply supports their gut response," says Gawronski.

To investigate information preferences in undecideds, Gawronski and his collaborators asked their participants about their personal views on a controversial political issue and then identified their spontaneous gut reactions, or "automatic associations," by means of a computer task that measured how quickly they responded to positive and negative words and pictures related to the political issue. Afterwards, the participants were given the opportunity to read several newspaper articles whose headlines indicated either a favorable or unfavorable view on the same issue. Although many participants told the researchers that they were undecided, they chose to read only those articles that were consistent with their gut reactions measured by the computer task.

The results provide further insights into earlier findings by the same research team, showing that future political choices of undecideds can be predicted by measuring their automatic associations. The findings suggested a new way for pollsters to determine how undecideds will vote, even before the voters know themselves. The new findings indicate that undecided voters selectively search for information that confirms their automatic associations, which ultimately determines their future voting decision.

According to Gawronski, the results also challenge a common view on how people make decisions.

"It is pretty rare that people take a neutral look at the available information and then make up their mind. In many cases, we already have a preference and then just try to find arguments that justify our preference," offers Gawronski.

Provided by University of Western Ontario

"New study shows "undecideds" not impartial." May 1st, 2012. http://phys.org/news/2012-05-undecideds-impartial.html

Comment:
It's bad enough that Libet discovered that we make decisions a half second before we become consciously aware of them...now we find that it could be days or weeks before we catch up with what the subconscious executive has already decided...I feel used :)

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Computer use and exercise combo may reduce the odds of having memory loss

You think your computer has a lot of memory … if you keep using your computer you may, too.

Combining mentally stimulating activities, such as using a computer, with moderate exercise decreases your odds of having memory loss more than computer use or exercise alone, a Mayo Clinic study shows. Previous studies have shown that exercising your body and your mind will help your memory but the new study, published in the May 2012 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, reports a synergistic interaction between computer activities and moderate exercise in "protecting" the brain function in people better than 70 years old.

Researchers studies 926 people in Olmsted County, Minn., ages 70 to 93, who completed self-reported questionnaires on physical exercise, and computer use within one year prior of the date of interview. Moderate physical exercise was defined as brisk walking, hiking, aerobics, strength training, golfing without a golf cart, swimming, doubles tennis, yoga, martial arts, using exercise machines and weightlifting. Mentally stimulating activities included reading, crafts, computer use, playing games, playing music, group and social and artistic activities and watching less television. Of those activities the study singled out computer use because of its popularity, said study author Yonas E. Geda, M.D., MSc, a physician scientist with Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

"The aging of baby boomers is projected to lead to dramatic increases in the prevalence of dementia," Dr. Geda said. "As frequent computer use has becoming increasingly common among all age groups, it is important to examine how it relates to aging and dementia. Our study further adds to this discussion."

The study examined exercise, computer use and the relationship to neurological risks such as mild cognitive impairment, Dr. Geda says. Mild cognitive impairment is the intermediate stage between normal memory loss that comes with aging and early Alzheimer's disease. Of the study participants who did not exercise and did not use a computer, 20.1 percent were cognitively normal and 37.6 percent showed signs of mild cognitive impairment. Of the participants who both exercise and use a computer, 36 percent were cognitively normal and 18.3 percent showed signs of MCI.

Dr. Geda expects that this study will lead to more research on this topic.

Provided by Mayo Clinic

"Computer use and exercise combo may reduce the odds of having memory loss." May 1st, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-combo-odds-memory-loss.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

ஆன்மிக சிந்தனைகள் »ராமானுஜர்....பிறரை அவமதிக்காதீர்!

 

* ஒருவனுடைய பிறப்பை பற்றியோ அல்லது செயல்களைப் பற்றியோ எண்ணாமல் அவனுடைய கொள்கைகளைப் பின்பற்றி பணிவிடை செய்வது சிறந்தது. கடவுளுக்கு எதை நீ அர்ப்பணிக்கிறாயோ அது மிகவும் புனிதமானது. நீ கடவுளிடம் சரணாகதி அடையும் போது உன் பாவங்கள் நீங்குகின்றன. மற்றவர்களை அவமதிப்பது மிக கொடிய செயலாகும்.


* பக்தர்களை எப்போதும் புகழ்ந்து பணிவிடை செய்து கொண்டே இருக்க வேண்டும். பக்தி மார்க்கத்தை தவிர வேறு எதையும் ஏற்றுக் கொள்ளக் கூடாது. புனிதமான ஆழ்வார்களின் திவ்ய பாசுரங்களை நாள் தோறும் படிப்பது நல்லது.


* இழிசெயல் புரிபவர்கள், ஏளனம் செய்பவர்கள், இறையடியார்களை நிந்திப்பவர்கள், புலித்தோல் போர்த்திய கபடதாரிகள், குருவை திட்டும் கயவர்கள் ஆகியோரை கண்ணால் கூட பார்க்கக் கூடாது.


* இறைவனுக்கு அர்ப்பணிக்காத உணவு, உடை, பூக்கள், சந்தனம், வெற்றிலை பாக்கு, பானம் எதையும் ஏற்றுக்கொள்ளக் கூடாது. எப்பொருளையும் மானசீகமாக கடவுளுக்கு சமர்ப்பித்து விட்டு எடுத்துக் கொள்வது நல்லது. நற்பிறப்பாளர், உயர்ந்த வாழ்க்கையுடையவர் ஆகியோரிடமிருந்து பெறும் உணவு மட்டுமே உண்பதற்கு தகுந்ததாகும்.


* ஒரு கடவுளை வணங்குவது நல்லது. பல தெய்வங்களை வணங்குதல் கூடாது. அது கடவுளை அவமதிப்பதாகும். நீ விரும்பும் கடவுளின் மீது உன் மனதை செலுத்துவது நல்லது.


* நற்குணமுடையவர்கள், அறிவாளிகள், தர்மசிந்தனையுடையவர்கள் ஆகியோர்களை கண்டால் பணிந்து வணங்கவேண்டும். இன்பம், துன்பம் இரண்டையும் சமமாக பாவிக்க வேண்டும். தொண்டு செய்வதன் மூலமே கடவுளை அடைய முடியும் என்பதை எப்போதும் நினைவில் கொள்ள வேண்டும்.


- ராமானுஜர்

How human cells ‘hold hands’

Researchers explore how one cell binds itself to another, shedding light on neurodevelopmental disorders

University of Iowa biologists have advanced the knowledge of human neurodevelopmental disorders by finding that a lack of a particular group of cell adhesion molecules in the cerebral cortex—the outermost layer of the brain where language, thought and other higher functions take place —disrupts the formation of neural circuitry.

Andrew Garrett, former neuroscience graduate student and current postdoctoral fellow at the Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine; Dietmar Schreiner, former postdoctoral fellow currently at the University of Basel, Switzerland; Mark Lobas, current neuroscience graduate student; and Joshua A. Weiner, associate professor in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Biology, published their findings in the April 26 issue of the journal Neuron.

Cell adhesion is the way in which cells “hold hands”—how one cell binds itself to another cell using specific molecules that protrude from cell membranes and bind each other together. The process is necessary to form all body tissues. The UI researchers studied a clustered family of 22 genes (gamma-protocadherins) that make such cellular hand-holding possible by encoding cell adhesion molecules.

In their previous work, they found that mice lacking the molecules exhibited death of neurons and loss of synapses in the spinal cord. So, they knew the gamma-protocadherins were important for neurons in the spinal cord, but not whether this was true in the cortex. However, in the current study, they found that an absence of the cell adhesion molecules had a significant and much different effect.

“We found that mice lacking the gamma-protocadherins in the cortex do not exhibit the severe loss of synapses and increased neuronal death that we observed in the spinal cord,” says Weiner. “Instead, we found that the cortical neurons had severely reduced development of their dendrites, tree-like branched structures that receive input from other neurons.

“We discovered the reason for this: gamma-protocadherins normally inhibit a key signaling pathway within neurons that acts to reduce dendrite branching. In the absence of the gamma-protocadherins, this signaling pathway was hyperactive, leading to defective branching of cortical neuron dendrites,” says Weiner.

In their previous work, the researchers showed that these molecules—the 22 distinct adhesion molecules, the gamma-protocadherins—are critical for the development of the animal, because when all of the genes are deleted from mice, they die shortly after birth with a variety of neurological defects including loss of connections (synapses) and excessive neuronal cell death in the spinal cord—an early-developing part of the nervous system.

Because those mutants die so young, the researchers could not assess a role for the gamma-protocadherins in the cerebral cortex. The reason is that the cortex develops only after birth. They used new genetic technologies to remove the gamma-protocadherins only from the cerebral cortex, which allowed the animals to survive to adulthood.

Weiner says that the latest research findings may help researchers to better understand the causes of various human developmental disorders.

“Human neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, mental retardation, and schizophrenia all involve dysregulation of dendrite branching and synaptogenesis,” he says. “Our identification of a large family of 22 cell adhesion molecules—which we previously showed interact with each other in very complex and specific ways—as new regulators of dendrite branching raises the question of whether specific interactions between distinct neuronal groups during development is important for the spreading of dendritic branches. If so, the gamma-protocadherins and/or the signaling pathways they regulate might be disrupted in a variety of human brain disorders.”

Now that the researchers have shown that the gamma-protocadherin family, as a whole, is critical for dendrite branching, they plan to become more focused in their research. Next, they plan to ask whether specific interactions between individual members of the family are important for instructing neurons on the location and size of dendrite growth.

Their work was funded in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

_________

Courtesy University of Iowa

Pathways to Cancer

A signaling pathway begins with the arrival of a chemical signal — such as a hormone or growth factor — at the cell surface. The gray structures sticking out of the cell membrane are receptors for these incoming signals. The signal, in this case a platelet-derived growth factor (here in purple and blue), encounters and binds to its matching receptor. A second receptor protein joins in, making the growth factor fit like a key in a lock. The binding of the growth factor causes the receptors to change shape. This change in the protein will be conducted through the membrane and into the cell’s interior — the cytoplasm.

The signal is conducted through the cell membrane, into the cytoplasm. The binding of the growth factor outside the cell has caused the ends of the receptor (in gray) to intertwine and activate each other (shown as yellow flashes of light). Once active, the modified receptor ends interact with messenger proteins that will carry the signal through the cytoplasm.

From our position in the cell’s cytoplasm, we can see the ends of the receptor (in gray) being drawn together as the growth factor outside the cell binds. The receptor ends activate each other before binding an adaptor molecule (shown in pink) and an exchange factor (shown in light purple). An important protein in this pathway, known as Ras (shown in red) then swings around to be activated. Ras, in turn, activates three white “Raf” proteins, before another protein (shown in blue) moves in to deactivate it. Ras is a key “switch” in this pathway — mutations in the ras gene and protein are common in cancer cells.

Many signaling pathways ultimately pass messages to the nucleus of a cell. The Raf protein (shown in white) activates another messenger protein (in brown) as it passes through fibers that make up the cell’s cytoskeleton. The signal is passed to yet another messenger (in purple). These messenger proteins are known as kinases, enzymes with the ability to activate other proteins through the addition of phosphate groups. This protein travels to the nucleus past cellular organelles such as the mitochondria (in glowing orange) and the network of membranes known as the endoplasmic reticulum (shown in light brown).

The activated protein (in pink) is transported into the nucleus through a pore in the nuclear membrane. The nucleus contains tightly wound coils of DNA (shown in green). The signal is passed to two other molecules, Fos and Jun (in yellow and pink) that team up to locate a specific gene along the DNA. Fos and jun bind the DNA, starting the process of transcription. Other proteins are then called into play that unwind and open the DNA molecule so that RNA polymerase (shown in brown) can make a copy of the genetic information. The “copy,” called messenger RNA (here in light green), is packaged with a set of carrier proteins and leaves the nucleus. The cell will use this copy to make a new protein.

In the cytoplasm, the messenger RNA is released from its carrier proteins and binds to a protein assembly complex called a ribosome (the multicolored structure). This begins a process called translation, where the ribosome reads the information encoded in the RNA and assembles a protein from amino acids found in the cell. Many ribosomes can operate at the same time to make multiple copies of the protein. The ribosomes are anchored on the outer membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum. If you look carefully, you can see the ghostly shapes of the newly made proteins accumulating on the inner side of the membrane. Once the job is done, the ribosomes and RNA part company.

The newly made proteins leave the endoplasmic reticulum wrapped in a layer of membrane called a vesicle. They travel toward the Golgi apparatus (on the right) where the proteins are modified and sorted for transport. The Golgi is busy with protein traffic moving in and out. The vesicle fuses with the membrane at one end of the Golgi and a new vesicle containing the modified proteins is pinched off the other side. The proteins are transported through the cytoplasm and delivered to where they are needed. Some proteins are used inside the cell. Others, like these growth factors, must be exported to function. The vesicle fuses with the cell membrane, dumping the proteins outside the cell. The released proteins will signal surrounding cells, or, in some pathways to cancer, will coax this cell into further action.