El sistema defensivo frontal del Castellet de Banyoles, Tivissa, Ribera d'Ebre

En agosto de 1978 iniciamos nuestras primeras excavaciones en este poblado, en el que en 1912, 1925 Y 1927 se habían hallado de forma casual diversos lotes de materiales de una cierta importancia, sobre todo el último, que ofreció cuatro páteras de tipo mesómphalos decoradas, diez vasos de tipo aqueménida y una copa, todo en plata, dado a conocer, el primero de ellos, por el Dr. Pere Bosch en el A.l.E.C. de 1913-14 y el resto por J. de C. Serra Ráfols en la revista Ampurias de 1941. Debido a la importancia de las piezas, a partir de 1929 se iniciaron los primeros sondeos y las primeras excavaciones en 1932, 1937 Y una gran campaña en 1942-43, a cargo de S. Vilaseca, Ll. Brull y J. de C. Serra Ráfols, a partir de las que se constató la existencia de un asentamiento ibérico y se descubrieron dos torres que flanqueaban el acceso al poblado, parte de la muralla y unos hábitats. De la última campaña se editó en 1949 una Memoria, no excesivamente completa, en la que los autores se limitaban a indicar la situación geográfica del yacimiento, los hallazgos fortuitos anteriores a su intervención, un breve repaso a los materiales de excavación y su opinión sobre la fecha de la destrucción del poblado, que situaron sobre el 218 a. de J. C. Indicamos que los materiales hallados en 1912 fueron depositados en el Museo Arqueológico de Tarragona, los de 1925 y 1927 en el de Barcelona, y los procedentes de las diversas campañas en el Museo Municipal de Reus. A partir del trabajo de 1949 nadie se volvió a ocupar de este magnífico poblado junto al Ebro, salvo algún intento de interpretación y estudio de las escenas, que grabadas a buril y sobredoradas, aparecen en una de las páteras halladas en 1927, y que han sido y son reproducidas en numerosas ocasiones, de manera que ellas, en el fondo, han sido las que han mantenido vivo el recuerdo de este yacimiento.

A Threat to a Virtual Hand Elicits Motor Cortex Activation

We report an experiment where participants observed an attack on their virtual body as experienced in an immersive virtual reality (IVR) system. Participants sat by a table with their right hand resting upon it. In IVR, they saw a virtual table that was registered with the real one, and they had a virtual body that substituted their real body seen from a first person perspective. The virtual right hand was collocated with their real right hand. Event-related brain potentials were recorded in two conditions, one where the participant"s virtual hand was attacked with a knife and a control condition where the knife only struck the virtual table. Significantly greater P450 potentials were obtained in the attack condition confirming our expectations that participants had a strong illusion of the virtual hand being their own, which was also strongly supported by questionnaire responses. Higher levels of subjective virtual hand ownership correlated with larger P450 amplitudes. Mu-rhythm event-related desynchronization in the motor cortex and readiness potential (C3C4) negativity were clearly observed when the virtual hand was threatened as would be expected, if the real hand was threatened and the participant tried to avoid harm. Our results support the idea that event-related potentials may provide a promising non-subjective measure of virtual embodiment. They also support previous experiments on pain observation and are placed into context of similar experiments and studies of body perception and body ownership within cognitive neuroscience.

Plasticity in the sensorimotor cortex induced by Music-supported therapy in stroke patients: a TMS study.

Playing a musical instrument demands the engagement of different neural systems. Recent studies about the musician"s brain and musical training highlight that this activity requires the close interaction between motor and somatosensory systems. Moreover, neuroplastic changes have been reported in motor-related areas after short and long-term musical training. Because of its capacity to promote neuroplastic changes, music has been used in the context of stroke neurorehabilitation. The majority of patients suffering from a stroke have motor impairments, preventing them to live independently. Thus, there is an increasing demand for effective restorative interventions for neurological deficits. Music-supported Therapy (MST) has been recently developed to restore motor deficits. We report data of a selected sample of stroke patients who have been enrolled in a MST program (1 month intense music learning). Prior to and after the therapy, patients were evaluated with different behavioral motor tests. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) was applied to evaluate changes in the sensorimotor representations underlying the motor gains observed. Several parameters of excitability of the motor cortex were assessed as well as the cortical somatotopic representation of a muscle in the affected hand. Our results revealed that participants obtained significant motor improvements in the paretic hand and those changes were accompanied by changes in the excitability of the motor cortex. Thus, MST leads to neuroplastic changes in the motor cortex of stroke patients which may explain its efficacy.

Plasticity in the sensorimotor cortex induced by Music-supported therapy in stroke patients: a TMS study.

Playing a musical instrument demands the engagement of different neural systems. Recent studies about the musician"s brain and musical training highlight that this activity requires the close interaction between motor and somatosensory systems. Moreover, neuroplastic changes have been reported in motor-related areas after short and long-term musical training. Because of its capacity to promote neuroplastic changes, music has been used in the context of stroke neurorehabilitation. The majority of patients suffering from a stroke have motor impairments, preventing them to live independently. Thus, there is an increasing demand for effective restorative interventions for neurological deficits. Music-supported Therapy (MST) has been recently developed to restore motor deficits. We report data of a selected sample of stroke patients who have been enrolled in a MST program (1 month intense music learning). Prior to and after the therapy, patients were evaluated with different behavioral motor tests. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) was applied to evaluate changes in the sensorimotor representations underlying the motor gains observed. Several parameters of excitability of the motor cortex were assessed as well as the cortical somatotopic representation of a muscle in the affected hand. Our results revealed that participants obtained significant motor improvements in the paretic hand and those changes were accompanied by changes in the excitability of the motor cortex. Thus, MST leads to neuroplastic changes in the motor cortex of stroke patients which may explain its efficacy.

Plasticity in the sensorimotor cortex induced by Music-supported therapy in stroke patients: a TMS study.

Playing a musical instrument demands the engagement of different neural systems. Recent studies about the musician"s brain and musical training highlight that this activity requires the close interaction between motor and somatosensory systems. Moreover, neuroplastic changes have been reported in motor-related areas after short and long-term musical training. Because of its capacity to promote neuroplastic changes, music has been used in the context of stroke neurorehabilitation. The majority of patients suffering from a stroke have motor impairments, preventing them to live independently. Thus, there is an increasing demand for effective restorative interventions for neurological deficits. Music-supported Therapy (MST) has been recently developed to restore motor deficits. We report data of a selected sample of stroke patients who have been enrolled in a MST program (1 month intense music learning). Prior to and after the therapy, patients were evaluated with different behavioral motor tests. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) was applied to evaluate changes in the sensorimotor representations underlying the motor gains observed. Several parameters of excitability of the motor cortex were assessed as well as the cortical somatotopic representation of a muscle in the affected hand. Our results revealed that participants obtained significant motor improvements in the paretic hand and those changes were accompanied by changes in the excitability of the motor cortex. Thus, MST leads to neuroplastic changes in the motor cortex of stroke patients which may explain its efficacy.

Structural changes induced by daily music listening in the recovering brain after middle cerebral artery stroke: a voxel-based morphometry study

Music is a highly complex and versatile stimulus for the brain that engages many temporal, frontal, parietal, cerebellar, and subcortical areas involved in auditory, cognitive, emotional, and motor processing. Regular musical activities have been shown to effectively enhance the structure and function of many brain areas, making music a potential tool also in neurological rehabilitation. In our previous randomized controlled study, we found that listening to music on a daily basis can improve cognitive recovery and improve mood after an acute middle cerebral artery stroke. Extending this study, a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis utilizing cost function masking was performed on the acute and 6-month post-stroke stage structural magnetic resonance imaging data of the patients (n = 49) who either listened to their favorite music [music group (MG), n = 16] or verbal material [audio book group (ABG), n = 18] or did not receive any listening material [control group (CG), n = 15] during the 6-month recovery period. Although all groups showed significant gray matter volume (GMV) increases from the acute to the 6-month stage, there was a specific network of frontal areas [left and right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), right medial SFG] and limbic areas [left ventral/subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (SACC) and right ventral striatum (VS)] in patients with left hemisphere damage in which the GMV increases were larger in the MG than in the ABG and in the CG. Moreover, the GM reorganization in the frontal areas correlated with enhanced recovery of verbal memory, focused attention, and language skills, whereas the GM reorganization in the SACC correlated with reduced negative mood. This study adds on previous results, showing that music listening after stroke not only enhances behavioral recovery, but also induces fine-grained neuroanatomical changes in the recovering brain.

An embedded real-time red peach detection system based on an OV7670 camera, ARM Cortex-M4 processor and 3D Look-Up Tables

This work proposes the development of an embedded real-time fruit detection system for future automatic fruit harvesting. The proposed embedded system is based on an ARM Cortex-M4 (STM32F407VGT6) processor and an Omnivision OV7670 color camera. The future goal of this embedded vision system will be to control a robotized arm to automatically select and pick some fruit directly from the tree. The complete embedded system has been designed to be placed directly in the gripper tool of the future robotized harvesting arm. The embedded system will be able to perform real-time fruit detection and tracking by using a three-dimensional look-up-table (LUT) defined in the RGB color space and optimized for fruit picking. Additionally, two different methodologies for creating optimized 3D LUTs based on existing linear color models and fruit histograms were implemented in this work and compared for the case of red peaches. The resulting system is able to acquire general and zoomed orchard images and to update the relative tracking information of a red peach in the tree ten times per second.

Coexistence of protease sensitive and resistant prion protein in 129VV homozygous sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a case report

Introduction: The coexistence of different molecular types of classical protease-resistant prion protein in the same individual have been described, however, the simultaneous finding of these with the recently described protease-sensitive variant or variably protease-sensitive prionopathy has, to the best of our knowledge, not yet been reported. Case presentation: A 74-year-old Caucasian woman showed a sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease clinical phenotype with reactive depression, followed by cognitive impairment, akinetic-rigid Parkinsonism with pseudobulbar syndrome and gait impairment with motor apraxia, visuospatial disorientation, and evident frontal dysfunction features such as grasping, palmomental reflex and brisk perioral reflexes. She died at age 77. Neuropathological findings showed: spongiform change in the patient"s cerebral cortex, striatum, thalamus and molecular layer of the cerebellum with proteinase K-sensitive synaptic-like, dot-like or target-like prion protein deposition in the cortex, thalamus and striatum; proteinase K-resistant prion protein in the same regions; and elongated plaque-like proteinase K-resistant prion protein in the molecular layer of the cerebellum. Molecular analysis of prion protein after proteinase K digestion revealed decreased signal intensity in immunoblot, a ladder-like protein pattern, and a 71% reduction of PrPSc signal relative to non-digested material. Her cerebellum showed a 2A prion protein type largely resistant to proteinase K. Genotype of polymorphism at codon 129 was valine homozygous. Conclusion: Molecular typing of prion protein along with clinical and neuropathological data revealed, to the best of our knowledge, the first case of the coexistence of different protease-sensitive prion proteins in the same patient in a rare case that did not fulfill the current clinical diagnostic criteria for either probable or possible sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. This highlights the importance of molecular analyses of several brain regions in order to correctly diagnose rare and atypical prionopathies

Arte mueble en el AuriÑaciense Cantabrico. Nuevas aportaciones a la contextualizacion del frontal grabado de la cueva de Hornos de la PeÑa (San Felices de Buelna, Cantabria).

El hueso frontal de équido grabado con una representación de este mismo animal procedente de la Cueva de Hornos de la Peña (Cantabria), se recuperó a principios del pasado siglo XX en las excavaciones de H. Breuil, H. Obermaier y H. Alcalde del Río. A pesar de la atribución auriñaciense de sus excavadores, las diferentes publicaciones posteriores en que la pieza ha sido objeto de análisis, han mantenido siempre la duda de su pertenencia a este tecnocomplejo. A ello ha contribuido el hecho de que la estratigrafía de Hornos de la Peña no ha podido ser hasta el presente estudiada en profundidad, como también, muy probablemente, el carácter naturalista de su representación que parece alejarlo de los presupuestos artísticos del Paleolítico Superior inicial cantábrico. En este trabajo presentamos una serie de datos sobre la estratigrafía del yacimiento, obtenidos de diversos documentos inéditos conservados en el archivo del Museo Arqueológico Nacional de Madrid que, a nuestro juicio, corroboran la pertenencia de esta pieza de arte mueble al Auriñaciense.

Synaptic depression and slow oscillatory activity in a biophysical network model of the cerebral cortex

Short-term synaptic depression (STD) is a form of synaptic plasticity that has a large impact on network computations. Experimental results suggest that STD is modulated by cortical activity, decreasing with activity in the network and increasing during silent states. Here, we explored different activity-modulation protocols in a biophysical network model for which the model displayed less STD when the network was active than when it was silent, in agreement with experimental results. Furthermore, we studied how trains of synaptic potentials had lesser decay during periods of activity (UP states) than during silent periods (DOWN states), providing new experimental predictions. We next tackled the inverse question of what is the impact of modifying STD parameters on the emergent activity of the network, a question difficult to answer experimentally. We found that synaptic depression of cortical connections had a critical role to determine the regime of rhythmic cortical activity. While low STD resulted in an emergent rhythmic activity with short UP states and long DOWN states, increasing STD resulted in longer and more frequent UP states interleaved with short silent periods. A still higher synaptic depression set the network into a non-oscillatory firing regime where DOWN states no longer occurred. The speed of propagation of UP states along the network was not found to be modulated by STD during the oscillatory regime; it remained relatively stable over a range of values of STD. Overall, we found that the mutual interactions between synaptic depression and ongoing network activity are critical to determine the mechanisms that modulate cortical emergent patterns.

A Threat to a virtual hand elicits motor cortex activation

We report an experiment where participants observed an attack on their virtual body as experienced in an immersive virtual reality (IVR) system. Participants sat by a table with their right hand resting upon it. In IVR, they saw a virtual table that was registered with the real one, and they had a virtual body that substituted their real body seen from a first person perspective. The virtual right hand was collocated with their real right hand. Event-related brain potentials were recorded in two conditions, one where the participant"s virtual hand was attacked with a knife and a control condition where the knife only struck the virtual table. Significantly greater P450 potentials were obtained in the attack condition confirming our expectations that participants had a strong illusion of the virtual hand being their own, which was also strongly supported by questionnaire responses. Higher levels of subjective virtual hand ownership correlated with larger P450 amplitudes. Mu-rhythm event-related desynchronization in the motor cortex and readiness potential (C3-C4) negativity were clearly observed when the virtual hand was threatened as would be expected, if the real hand was threatened and the participant tried to avoid harm. Our results support the idea that event-related potentials may provide a promising non-subjective measure of virtual embodiment. They also support previous experiments on pain observation and are placed into context of similar experiments and studies of body perception and body ownership within cognitive neuroscience.

A Threat to a virtual hand elicits motor cortex activation

We report an experiment where participants observed an attack on their virtual body as experienced in an immersive virtual reality (IVR) system. Participants sat by a table with their right hand resting upon it. In IVR, they saw a virtual table that was registered with the real one, and they had a virtual body that substituted their real body seen from a first person perspective. The virtual right hand was collocated with their real right hand. Event-related brain potentials were recorded in two conditions, one where the participant"s virtual hand was attacked with a knife and a control condition where the knife only struck the virtual table. Significantly greater P450 potentials were obtained in the attack condition confirming our expectations that participants had a strong illusion of the virtual hand being their own, which was also strongly supported by questionnaire responses. Higher levels of subjective virtual hand ownership correlated with larger P450 amplitudes. Mu-rhythm event-related desynchronization in the motor cortex and readiness potential (C3-C4) negativity were clearly observed when the virtual hand was threatened as would be expected, if the real hand was threatened and the participant tried to avoid harm. Our results support the idea that event-related potentials may provide a promising non-subjective measure of virtual embodiment. They also support previous experiments on pain observation and are placed into context of similar experiments and studies of body perception and body ownership within cognitive neuroscience.

Tècnica d'execució del frontal gòtic de Sant Llorenç de Morunys: a propòsit del dibuix preparatori

Els traços primigenis del dibuix preparatori del Frontal de Sant Llorenç de Morunys, al Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona, s"observen a ull nu, sense haver d"emprar tècniques sofisticades, a causa d"una pèrdua important de l"estrat pictòric que, de conservar-se, impediria la lectura de les capes més profundes. S"han examinat aquestes traces, font de documentació privilegiada que se"ns ofereix per incrementar el coneixement de l"obra i també, per comprendre el procés d"elaboració d"una pintura sobre taula en el context del bisbat d"Urgell al tombant del segle XIII. Durant l"estudi ha estat possible reconstruir, amb el suport inestimable dels tractats medievals, la seqüència d"execució del dibuix preliminar: primer, la distribució provisional de les línies mestres a mà alçada, amb carbonet, seguit de la seva fixació amb una punta metàl·lica dura; segon, el traçat de l"esbós figuratiu, amb un estil tou, i el posterior repàs definitiu amb una agulla o punta afilada sobre l"estrat preparatori, creant un dibuix incís que romandria visible després de recobrir tota la superfície amb una làmina d"estany. Finalment, s"aplicaria una complexa policromia, que combinaria tècniques opaques i vernissos translúcids. La revisió d"un corpus d"obres catalanes de característiques similars, moltes en les reserves dels museus pel seu precari estat de conservació, podria aportar dades rellevants quant a les diferents tècniques del dibuix preparatori emprades en la pintura sobre taula d"època medieval.

Effects of neurotrophins on synaptic protein expression in the visual cortex of dark reared rats.

Total lack of visual experience [dark rearing (DR)] is known to prolong the critical period and delay development of sensory functions in mammalian visual cortex. Recent results show that neurotrophins (NTs) counteract the effects of DR on functional properties of visual cortical cells and exert a strong control on critical period duration. NTs are known to modulate the development and synaptic efficacy of neurotransmitter systems that are affected by DR. However, it is still unknown whether the actions of NTs in dark-reared animals involve interaction with neurotransmitter systems. We have studied the effects of DR on the expression of key molecules in the glutamatergic and GABAergic systems in control and NT-treated animals. We have found that DR reduced the expression of the NMDA receptor 2A subunit and its associated protein PSD-95 (postsynaptic density-95), of GRIP (AMPA glutamate receptor interacting protein), and of the biosynthetic enzyme GAD (glutamic acid decarboxylase). Returning dark-reared animals to light for 2 hr restored normal expression of the above-mentioned proteins almost completely. NT treatment specifically counteracts DR effects; NGF acts primarily on the NMDA system, whereas BDNF acts primarily on the GABAergic system. Finally, the action of NT4 seems to involve both excitatory and inhibitory systems. These data demonstrate that different NTs counteract DR effects by modulating the expression of key molecules of the excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter systems

Frontal gòtic de Sant Llorenç de Morunys. Estudi del suport de fusta: tècnica de construcció i estat de conservació

Estudi preliminar realitzat a partir de la inspecció visual d’un frontal d’altar a les sales de reserva del Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona, lloc on es custodien les restes del que fou aquesta magnífica obra policromada de tombants del segle XIII executada en l’àmbit del bisbat d’Urgell. Avui en dia, la capa pictòrica ofereix un precari estat de conservació, però encara es conserven els estats preparatoris i una gran part del suport ligni. Les dades per a l’elaboració d’aquest estudi han estat recollides en diferents visites al museu durant els anys 2008-09. El suport del frontal de Sant Llorenç, de fusta de conífera, està constituït per quatre llargues posts disposades en sentit horitzontal que formen un plafó perfectament encaixat dins un marc que, en origen, tancava el conjunt. Actualment, les parts superior i inferior d’aquest marc no existeixen, degut a les nombroses vicissituds sofertes per l’obra al llarg del temps.L’encadellat de totes les peces es resolgué mitjançant espigues o clavilles de fusta, no detectant-se cap unió amb elements metàl·lics. Observant el revers del frontal amb llum rasant, s’aprecien les marques de l’eina que va desgruixar la superfície del suport, l’aixa. Pel sentit dels senyals deixats en la fusta, sembla que cada post va ser desbastada per separat. Després s’uniformaren els gruixos de cadascuna, tot passant un ribot per la zona que toca els cantells i es rebaixà la fusta tocant al perímetre del plafó per a facilitar l’encadellat del marc. Les labors de rebaix i allisat es durien a terme un cop el panell ja estava muntat. L’estat de conservació del suport ligni no és bo. La mancança de les peces superior i inferior del marc afecten l’estabilitat del conjunt que, al no quedar ben travat, acusa certs moviments de les peces amb les manipulacions i els trasllats, moviments que es transmeten també als estrats superiors, portadors de l’escassa policromia. Pel revers de l’obra es poden observar diverses pèrdues, de més o menys entitat, ocasionades per un antic i agressiu atac de xilòfags, de greus conseqüències per l’estructura lígnia, ja que ha debilitat molt les zones perimetrals del frontal, fent-les esdevenir poroses i fràgils.