Visual thalamocortical projections in the flying fox: Parallel pathways to striate and extrastriate areas

We studied thalamic projections to the visual cortex in flying foxes, animals that share neural features believed to resemble those present in the brains of early primates. Neurones labeled by injections of fluorescent tracers in striate and extrastriate cortices were charted relative to the architectural boundaries of thalamic nuclei. Three main findings are reported: First, there are parallel lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) projections to striate and extrastriate cortices. Second, the pulvinar complex is expansive, and contains multiple subdivisions. Third, across the visual thalamus, the location of cells labeled after visual cortex injections changes systematically, with caudal visual areas receiving their strongest projections from the most lateral thalamic nuclei, and rostral areas receiving strong projections from medial nuclei. We identified three architectural layers in the LGN, and three subdivisions of the pulvinar complex. The outer LGN layer contained the largest cells, and had strong projections to the areas V1, V2 and V3. Neurones in the intermediate LGN layer were intermediate in size, and projected to V1 and, less densely, to V2. The layer nearest to the origin of the optic radiation contained the smallest cells, and projected not only to V1, V2 and V3, but also, weakly, to the occipitotemporal area (OT, which is similar to primate middle temporal area) and the occipitoparietal area (OP, a third tier area located near the dorsal midline). V1, V2 and V3 received strong projections from the lateral and intermediate subdivisions of the pulvinar complex, while OP and OT received their main thalamic input from the intermediate and medial subdivisions of the pulvinar complex. These results suggest parallels with the carnivore visual system, and indicate that the restriction of the projections of the large- and intermediatesized LGN layers to V1, observed in present-day primates, evolved from a more generalized mammalian condition. (C) 2004 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

U-series dating of Locality 15 at Zhoukoudian, China, and implications for hominid evolution

This paper reports U-series dates on speleothem samples from Locality 15 at Zhoukoudian, one of the richest Paleolithic sites in northern China. The age of the lower part of Layer 2 is securely bracketed between 155,000 and 284,000 yr. The underlying Layer 3 dates back at least 284,000 yr. Layer 4, further below, should be older still, possibly by a cycle on the SPECMAP time scale before 284,000 yr ago. These ages, much greater than the previous estimates of 110,000-140,000 yr from U-series and electron spin resonance dating of fossil teeth, suggest that Locality 15 was broadly contemporaneous with Locality 4 (New Cave) and with the uppermost strata of Locality 1 (Peking Man site). The physical evolution and cultural development evidenced by the timing of the Zhoukoudian localities are in line with the opinion of Chinese anthropologists for a regional transition from Homo erectus to archaic Homo sapiens. (C) 2004 University of Washington. All rights reserved.

Statistical modeling and projections of lung cancer mortality in 4 industrialized countries

The purpose of this work was to model lung cancer mortality as a function of past exposure to tobacco and to forecast age-sex-specific lung cancer mortality rates. A 3-factor age-period-cohort (APC) model, in which the period variable is replaced by the product of average tar content and adult tobacco consumption per capita, was estimated for the US, UK, Canada and Australia by the maximum likelihood method. Age- and sex-specific tobacco consumption was estimated from historical data on smoking prevalence and total tobacco consumption. Lung cancer mortality was derived from vital registration records. Future tobacco consumption, tar content and the cohort parameter were projected by autoregressive moving average (ARIMA) estimation. The optimal exposure variable was found to be the product of average tar content and adult cigarette consumption per capita, lagged for 2530 years for both males and females in all 4 countries. The coefficient of the product of average tar content and tobacco consumption per capita differs by age and sex. In all models, there was a statistically significant difference in the coefficient of the period variable by sex. In all countries, male age-standardized lung cancer mortality rates peaked in the 1980s and declined thereafter. Female mortality rates are projected to peak in the first decade of this century. The multiplicative models of age, tobacco exposure and cohort fit the observed data between 1950 and 1999 reasonably well, and time-series models yield plausible past trends of relevant variables. Despite a significant reduction in tobacco consumption and average tar content of cigarettes sold over the past few decades, the effect on lung cancer mortality is affected by the time lag between exposure and established disease. As a result, the burden of lung cancer among females is only just reaching, or soon will reach, its peak but has been declining for I to 2 decades in men. Future sex differences in lung cancer mortality are likely to be greater in North America than Australia and the UK due to differences in exposure patterns between the sexes. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: current burden and future projections

Information about the comparative magnitude of the burden from various diseases and injuries is a critical input into building the evidence base for health policies and programmes. Such information should be based on a critical evaluation of all available epidemiological data using standard and comparable procedures across diseases and injuries, including information on the age at death and the incidence, duration and severity of cases who do not die prematurely from the disease. A summary measure, disability-adjusted life yrs (DALYs), has been developed to simultaneously measure the amount of disease burden due to premature mortality and the amount due to the nonfatal consequences of disease.

Ipsilateral corticocortical projections to the primary and middle temporal visual areas of the primate cerebral cortex: area-specific variations in the morphology of connectionally identified pyramidal cells

We quantified the morphology of over 350 pyramidal neurons with identified ipsilateral corticocortical projections to the primary (V1) and middle temporal (MT) visual areas of the marmoset monkey, following intracellular injection of Lucifer Yellow into retrogradely labelled cells. Paralleling the results of studies in which randomly sampled pyramidal cells were injected, we found that the size of the basal dendritic tree of connectionally identified cells differed between cortical areas, as did the branching complexity and spine density. We found no systematic relationship between dendritic tree structure and axon target or length. Instead, the size of the basal dendritic tree increased roughly in relation to increasing distance from the occipital pole, irrespective of the length of the connection or the cortical layer in which the neurons were located. For example, cells in the second visual area had some of the smallest and least complex dendritic trees irrespective of whether they projected to V1 or MT, while those in the dorsolateral area (DL) were among the largest and most complex. We also observed that systematic differences in spine number were more marked among V1-projecting cells than MT-projecting cells. These data demonstrate that the previously documented systematic differences in pyramidal cell morphology between areas cannot simply be attributed to variable proportions of neurons projecting to different targets, in the various areas. Moreover, they suggest that mechanisms intrinsic to the area in which neurons are located are strong determinants of basal dendritic field structure.