在背景干扰条件下大棕蝠对静止及移动目标的探测

采用“双选”的心理物理学方法 ,研究了训练后的大棕蝠 (Eptesicusfuscus)在背景干扰的条件下探测半圆形目标的能力。半圆形目标系以静止、旋转、摆动或不同组合的旋转与摆动呈现于蝙蝠。在测试室 ,蝙蝠-目标间距从 3 0cm开始 ,依次递增 10cm直至 110cm为止。当蝙蝠 -目标间距小于 80cm时 ,目标回声的强度总是大于背景干扰声。由旋转目标反射的回声强度则依正弦波调制。结果发现 :蝙蝠对目标的正确探测率随蝙蝠 -目标间距的增加而降低 ;在每一特定间距 ,对移动目标的正确探测率均高于对静止目标的正确探测率     

A general model for visual motion detection

We propose a general model for detection of both first-order motion and second-order motion. In this model an input stimulus is divided into a number of partially overlapping spatiotemporal local regions. Spatiotemporal frequency analysis is done for every local region using Gabor filters, then the input stimulus (original spatiotemporal signal) is replaced by the outputs of Gabor filters. Local motion is detected by applying Gabor motion detectors to each local spatiotemporal pattern depicted by each local feature value. Outputs of all the detectors are integrated to give the final output for global motion of the input stimulus. The model was simulated on a computer and was confirmed to correctly detect second-order motion as well as first-order motion.     

Identifying behavioral circuits in Drosophila melanogaster: moving targets in a flying insect

Drosophila melanogaster has historically been the premier model system for understanding the molecular and genetic bases of complex behaviors. In the last decade technical advances, in the form of new genetic tools and electrophysiological and optical methods, have allowed investigators to begin to dissect the neuronal circuits that generate behavior in the adult. The blossoming of circuit analysis in this organism has also reinforced our appreciation of the inadequacy of wiring diagrams for specifying complex behavior. Neuromodulation and neuronal plasticity act to reconfigure circuits on both short and long time scales. These processes act on the connectome, providing context by integrating external and internal cues that are relevant for behavioral choices. New approaches in the fly are providing insight into these basic principles of circuit function.     

A model of visual detection of angular speed for bees

A fly or bee's responses to widefield image motion depend on two basic parameters: temporal frequency and angular speed. Rotational optic flow is monitored using temporal frequency analysers, whereas translational optic flow seems to be monitored in terms of angular speed. Here we present a possible model of an angular speed detector which processes input signals through two parallel channels. The output of the detector is taken as the ratio of the two channels’ outputs. This operation amplifies angular speed sensitivity and depresses temporal frequency tuning. We analyse the behaviour of two versions of this model with different filtering properties in response to a variety of input signals. We then embody the detector in a simulated agent's visual system and explore its behaviour in experiments on speed control and odometry. The latter leads us to suggest a new algorithm for optic flow driven odometry.     

The fundamental mechanism of motion detection in the insect visual system

The basic principle of motion detection by fibers of the optic lobes of flies were studied with a pair of small spots and a variety of paired intensity variations. These show that the process of correlation of adjacent field regions to detect motion is confined to a small area. The presence of small field units with small field adjacent inhibition in the system was detected. The optimum spot spacing for maximum reactions corresponded to the facet spacings. Selective motion detection responses from minimum information consisting of evaluating the difference between the spot intensities and the rate of change of the trailing spot relative to the motion direction was shown. However, additional properties best determined by white-noise experiments designed from this study were found.     

A model of the human visual system in its response to certain classes of moving stimuli

The purpose of this study is to construct a functional model of the human visual system in its response to certain classes of moving stimuli.Experimental data are presented describing the interdependence of the input variables, temporal frequency, spatial period, etc., for two constant response states, viz. threshold motion response and threshold flicker response. On the basis of these data, two basic units are isolated, a vertical (V) unit and a horizontal (H) unit. The H-unit is identified with the Reichardt multiplier (Reichardt and Varju, 1959), and the V-unit with the de Lange filter (de Lange, 1954).A definition of the general motion response of the H-units is obtained, and this is then reduced to an expression which may be applied directly to the observed motion response data. By this method, Thorson's simplification of the Reichardt scheme (Thorson, 1966) is adopted for the H-unit and total and relative (population) weighting factors, associated with the H-unit output, are defined.In order to reconcile the theoretical square-wave threshold motion response with the experimental data, Thorson's simplification is modified with the introduction of a low-pass filter on the output. The amended scheme is shown to predict a (temporal) frequency-dependent phase-sensitivity. This prediction is tested experimentally, and its validity indicated.     

Separate colour-opponent mechanisms underlie the detection and discrimination of moving chromatic targets.

Current opinion holds that human colour vision is mediated primarily via a colour-opponent pathway that carries information about both wavelength and luminance contrast (type I). However, some authors argue that chromatic sensitivity may be limited by a different geniculostriate pathway, which carries information about wavelength alone (type II). We provide psychophysical evidence that both pathways may contribute to the perception of moving, chromatic targets in humans, depending on the nature of the visual discrimination. In experiment 1, we show that adaptation to drifting, red-green stimuli causes reductions in contrast sensitivity for both the detection and direction discrimination of moving chromatic targets. Importantly, the effects of adaptation are not directionally specific. In experiment 2, we show that adaptation to luminance gratings results in reduced sensitivity for the direction discrimination, but not the detection of moving chromatic targets. We suggest that sensitivity for the direction discrimination of chromatic targets is limited by a colour-opponent pathway that also conveys luminance-contrast information, whereas the detection of such targets is limited by a pathway with access to colour information alone. The properties of these pathways are consistent with the known properties of type-I and type-II neurons of the primate parvocellular lateral geniculate nucleus and their cortical projections. These findings may explain the known differences between detection and direction discrimination thresholds for chromatic targets moving at low to moderate velocities.     

Segmentation of moving images by the human visual system

 New segments appearing in an image sequence or spontaneously accelerated segments are band limited by the visual system due to a nonperfect tracking of these segments by eye movements. In spite of this band limitation and acceleration of segments, a coarse segmentation (initial segmentation phase) can be performed by the visual system. This is interesting for the development of purely automatic segmentation algorithms for multimedia applications. In this paper the segmentation of the visual system is modelled and used in an automatic coarse initial segmentation. A suitable model for motion processing based on a spectral representation is presented and applied to the segmentation of synthetic and real image sequences with band limited and accelerated moving foreground and background segments. Received: 1 August 1995/Accepted in revised form: 25 February 1997     

A visual model for object detection based on active contours and level-set method

A visual model for object detection is proposed. In order to make the detection ability comparable with existing technical methods for object detection, an evolution equation of neurons in the model is derived from the computational principle of active contours. The hierarchical structure of the model emerges naturally from the evolution equation. One drawback involved with initial values of active contours is alleviated by introducing and formulating convexity, which is a visual property. Numerical experiments show that the proposed model detects objects with complex topologies and that it is tolerant of noise. A visual attention model is introduced into the proposed model. Other simulations show that the visual properties of the model are consistent with the results of psychological experiments that disclose the relation between figure–ground reversal and visual attention. We also demonstrate that the model tends to perceive smaller regions as figures, which is a characteristic observed in human visual perception.This work was partially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (#14780254) from Japan Society of Promotion of Science.     

A biophysically inspired microelectrode recording-based model for the subthalamic nucleus activity in Parkinson's disease

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) plays a central role in movement actuation and manifestation of movement disorders (i.e., tremor, rigidity, akynesia and postural instability) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Moreover, it has been recently revealed that an opportune electrical stimulation of the STN, called deep brain stimulation (DBS), can strongly contribute to the annihilation of the PD-related motor disorders. Currently, a great effort is made both in Medicine, Neurosciences and Engineering for understanding and modeling in details how the STN works, how PD determines its pathological behavior and DBS restores the correct motor function.The paper is organized in two parts. Firstly some stochastic properties of the STN electrical activity are obtained by analyzing a preliminary set of experimental data coming from microelectrode recordings (MERs) in two PD patients who underwent the surgical implantation of DBS electrodes. Then, a nonlinear, stochastic, continuous-state model describing the global electrical behavior of the STN in PD patients is proposed. It is inspired by the fundamental physiologic features of the subthalamic cells and a fictitious vector state is introduced to represent the main dynamics. Its numerical parameters and stochastic properties are chosen by fitting the available data.     

A two-system model for chitin-protein complexes in insect cuticles

Insect cuticles consist of planes of microfibrils which may either form preferred oriented layers or rotate progressively to form a helicoid. The two types may alternate to form daily growth layers. In Hydrocyrius exo-cuticle, microfibrils of diameter 45 A rotate at angles of 7 degrees to 8 degrees to form a helicoid with a 44-to 50-fold screw axis, and have an axial periodicity of about 65 A. The sense of rotation of helicoidal systems is bilaterally asymmetrical indicating a crystallization assembly process, whereas variations in their pitch and directions of preferred oriented layers both show bilateral symmetry, indicating specific cellular control.     

A new look at the comparative physiology of insect and human hearts

Recent electrocardiographic (ECG) studies of insect hearts revealed the presence of human-like, involuntary and purely myogenic hearts. Certain insects, like a small light-weight species of hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus), have evolved a very efficient cardiac system comprised of a compact heart ventricle and a narrow tube of aorta, which evolved as an adaptation to sustained hovering flights. Application of thermocardiographic and optocardiographic ECG methods revealed that adult flies of this species use the compact muscular heart chamber (heart ventricle) for intensive pumping of insect "blood" (haemolymph) into the head and thorax which is ringed all over with indirect flight musculature. The recordings of these hearts revealed extremely high, record rates of forward-directed, anterograde heartbeat (up to 10Hz), associated with extremely enhanced synchronic (not peristaltic) propagation of systolic myocardial contractions (32.2mm/s at room temperature). The relatively slow, backward-directed or retrograde cardiac contractions occurred only sporadically in the form of individual or twinned pulses replacing occasionally the resting periods. The compact heart ventricle contained bi-directional lateral apertures, whose opening and closure diverted the intracardiac anterograde "blood" streams between the abdominal haemocoelic cavity and the aortan artery, respectively. The visceral organs of this flying machine (crop, midgut) exhibited myogenic, extracardiac peristaltic pulsations similar to heartbeat, including the periodically reversed forward and backward direction of the peristaltic waves. The tubular crop contracted with a periodicity of 1Hz, both forwards and backwards, with propagation of the peristaltic waves at 4.4mm/s. The air-inflated and blindly ended midgut contracted at 0.2Hz, with a 0.9mm/s propagation of the peristaltic contraction waves. The neurogenic system of extracardiac haemocoelic pulsations, widely engaged in the regulation of circulatory and respiratory functions in other insect species, has been replaced here by a more economic, myogenic pulsation of the visceral organs as a light-weight evolutionary adaptation to prolonged hovering flight. Striking structural, functional and even genetic similarities found between the hearts of Episyrphus, Drosophila and human hearts, have been practically utilised for inexpensive testing of new cardioactive or cardioinhibitory drugs on insect heart.