Effects of aniracetam on extracellular levels of transmitter amino acids in the hippocampus of the conscious gerbils: an intracranial microdialysis study

The effects of aniracetam on extracellular amino acid levels in the hippocampus of conscious gerbils, with or without transient cerebral ischemia/reperfusion, were measured by microdialysis and reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography. Increased extracellular levels of aspartate and glutamate that were observed in the hippocampus of conscious gerbils during transient global forebrain ischemia were reversed by aniracetam. In contrast, the level of extracellular gamma-aminobutyric acid was increased, while taurine was maintained at a higher level than other amino acids by administration of aniracetam (100 mg/kg, p.o.) 60 min before ischemia. Further, in contrast to ischemic animals, administration of aniracetam (100 mg/kg, p.o.) enhanced the release of glutamate and aspartate in the normal gerbil hippocampus. The results suggest that these effects might be due to a partial calcium agonist activity of aniracetam, and that the effects of aniracetam on amino acid levels might be a mechanism of protection against delayed neuronal death in the ischemic hippocampus, thereby improving memory dysfunction induced by ischemia/reperfusion. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Probabilistic computation in human perception under variability in encoding precision.

A key function of the brain is to interpret noisy sensory information. To do so optimally, observers must, in many tasks, take into account knowledge of the precision with which stimuli are encoded. In an orientation change detection task, we find that encoding precision does not only depend on an experimentally controlled reliability parameter (shape), but also exhibits additional variability. In spite of variability in precision, human subjects seem to take into account precision near-optimally on a trial-to-trial and item-to-item basis. Our results offer a new conceptualization of the encoding of sensory information and highlight the brain's remarkable ability to incorporate knowledge of uncertainty during complex perceptual decision-making.

Confidence in beliefs about pain predicts expectancy effects on pain perception and anticipatory processing in right anterior insula.

Psychological factors play a major role in exacerbating chronic pain. Effective self-management of pain is often hindered by inaccurate beliefs about the nature of pain which lead to a high degree of emotional reactivity. Probabilistic models of perception state that greater confidence (certainty) in beliefs increases their influence on perception and behavior. In this study, we treat confidence as a metacognitive process dissociable from the content of belief. We hypothesized that confidence is associated with anticipatory activation of areas of the pain matrix involved with top-down modulation of pain. Healthy volunteers rated their beliefs about the emotional distress that experimental pain would cause, and separately rated their level of confidence in this belief. Confidence predicted the influence of anticipation cues on experienced pain. We measured brain activity during anticipation of pain using high-density EEG and used electromagnetic tomography to determine neural substrates of this effect. Confidence correlated with activity in right anterior insula, posterior midcingulate and inferior parietal cortices during the anticipation of pain. Activity in the right anterior insula predicted a greater influence of anticipation cues on pain perception, whereas activity in right inferior parietal cortex predicted a decreased influence of anticipatory cues. The results support probabilistic models of pain perception and suggest that confidence in beliefs is an important determinant of expectancy effects on pain perception.

construction of feature-matching perception in virtual assembly

An important characteristic of virtual assembly is interaction. Traditional di-rect manipulation in virtual assembly relies on dynamic collision detection, which is very time-consuming and even impossible in desktop virtual assembly environment. Feature-matching isa critical process in harmonious virtual assembly, and is the premise of assembly constraint sens-ing. This paper puts forward an active object-based feature-matching perception mechanism and afeature-matching interactive computing process, both of which make the direct manipulation in vir-tual assembly break away from collision detection. They also help to enhance virtual environmentunderstandability of user intention and promote interaction performance. Experimental resultsshow that this perception mechanism can ensure that users achieve real-time direct manipulationin desktop virtual environment.

The algorithm on automated aromaticity perception of molecules

It is important to detect the aromaticity of structures during the process of structure elucidation and output. In this paper, an alogrithm was proposed to detect the aromaticity of structures by the use of algorithm on ring identification. The results show that it could be used to identify most of the aromatic structure. It have been used as constraints of Expert System on Elucidation Structure of Organic Compounds(ESESOC) and a good result has been achieved.

The algorithm on ring perception of molecule

It's important to identify ring in the process of structure elucidation. In this paper, all rings and the smallest set of smallest ring(SSSR) of structure are obtained from two-dimensional connection table. The results are satisfactory by using this algorithm in ESESOC expert system as constraint.

Computer perception of topological symmetry by all-paths algorithm

During the development of our ESESOC system (Expert System for the Elucidation of the Structures of Organic Compounds), computer perception of topological symmetry is essential in searching for the canonical description of a molecular structure, removing the irredundant connections in the structure generation process, and specifying the number of peaks in C-13- and H-1-NMR spectra in the structure evaluation process. In the present paper, a new path identifier is introduced and an algorithm for detection of topological symmetry from a connection table is developed by the all-paths method. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Study on computer perception of topological symmetry

A new algorithm for computer perception of topological symmetry is proposed. A node library containing various kinds of nodes is built, and the index number of the library is used as initial atom class identifier (CI) to discriminate the different types of non-hydrogen atoms. The path index (PI) and ringindex (RI) are calculated from the CI, and the global topological enviroment is defined as the sum of PIs and RIs. The topological symmetry can be detected by the iterative calculation of the global topological enviroment.

ALGORITHM FOR COMPUTER PERCEPTION OF TOPOLOGICAL SYMMETRY

For the exhaustive and irredundant generation of candidate structures in ESESOC (Expert System for the Elucidation of the Structures of Organic Compounds), a new algorithm for computer perception of topological equivalence classes of the nodes (non-hydrog

Computer Perception of Three-Dimensional Objects

We first pose the following problem: to develop a program which takes line-drawings as input and constructs three-dimensional objects as output, such that the output objects are the same as the ones we see when we look at the input line-drawing. We then introduce the principle of minimum standard-deviation of angles (MSDA) and discuss a program based on MSDA. We present the results of testing this program with a variety of line- drawings and show that the program constitutes a solution to the stated problem over the range of line-drawings tested. Finally, we relate this work to its historical antecedents in the psychological and computer-vision literature.

Pattern Motion Perception: Feature Tracking or Integration of Component Motions?

A key question regarding primate visual motion perception is whether the motion of 2D patterns is recovered by tracking distinctive localizable features [Lorenceau and Gorea, 1989; Rubin and Hochstein, 1992] or by integrating ambiguous local motion estimates [Adelson and Movshon, 1982; Wilson and Kim, 1992]. For a two-grating plaid pattern, this translates to either tracking the grating intersections or to appropriately combining the motion estimates for each grating. Since both component and feature information are simultaneously available in any plaid pattern made of contrast defined gratings, it is unclear how to determine which of the two schemes is actually used to recover the plaid"s motion. To address this problem, we have designed a plaid pattern made with subjective, rather than contrast defined, gratings. The distinguishing characteristic of such a plaid pattern is that it contains no contrast defined intersections that may be tracked. We find that notwithstanding the absence of such features, observers can accurately recover the pattern velocity. Additionally we show that the hypothesis of tracking "illusory features" to estimate pattern motion does not stand up to experimental test. These results present direct evidence in support of the idea that calls for the integration of component motions over the one that mandates tracking localized features to recover 2D pattern motion. The localized features, we suggest, are used primarily as providers of grouping information - which component motion signals to integrate and which not to.

Naive Physics, Event Perception, Lexical Semantics, and Language Acquisition

This thesis proposes a computational model of how children may come to learn the meanings of words in their native language. The proposed model is divided into two separate components. One component produces semantic descriptions of visually observed events while the other correlates those descriptions with co-occurring descriptions of those events in natural language. The first part of this thesis describes three implementations of the correlation process whereby representations of the meanings of whole utterances can be decomposed into fragments assigned as representations of the meanings of individual words. The second part of this thesis describes an implemented computer program that recognizes the occurrence of simple spatial motion events in simulated video input.

Surface Perception from Local Analysis of Texture and Contour

The visual analysis of surface shape from texture and surface contour is treated within a computational framework. The aim of this study is to determine valid constraints that are sufficient to allow surface orientation and distance (up to a multiplicative constant) to be computed from the image of surface texture and of surface contours.

Using a brief questionnaire to assess the overall perception of basketball spectators

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first aim is to obtain a valid and reliable instrument for the holistic analysis of sporting events, and the second is to test a causal model in which future intentions depend on spectators’ perceptions of quality, satisfaction, and value of these events. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 493 spectators of a professional basketball team in the Spanish ACB league responded to a survey to measure the overall performance of the sporting event service. Exploratory factor analysis and further confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation models provides the methodology for testing the reliability and validity of the instrument. Findings – The scales have adequate reliability and validity indices. The path model explains 35.8 percent of the variance in future intentions, 54.0 percent in perceived value, and 49.5 percent in spectators’ satisfaction. Quality proves a better predictor of perceived value than satisfaction. Both perceived value and satisfaction have a similar weight in predicting spectators’ future intentions. The data indicate that quality has an effect on spectators’ future intentions, by altering their perceptions of value and satisfaction. Research limitations/implications – The research findings are somewhat limited, due to the sample consisting entirely of spectators of a single team in the Spanish ACB league. Practical implications – Managers can use these findings to develop loyalty strategies by creating service value and increasing spectators’ satisfaction through quality improvements. Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature on service quality by providing an overall measure to assess service in professional sporting events in a Latin-American context.