Cross-modal individual recognition in domestic horses (Equus caballus) extends to familiar humans

It has recently been shown that some non-human animals can cross-modally recognize members of their own taxon. What is unclear is just how plastic this recognition system can be. In this study, we investigate whether an animal, the domestic horse, is capable of spontaneous cross-modal recognition of individuals from a morphologically very different species. We also provide the first insights into how cross-modal identity information is processed by examining whether there are hemispheric biases in this important social skill. In our preferential looking paradigm, subjects were presented with two people and playbacks of their voices to determine whether they were able to match the voice with the person. When presented with familiar handlers subjects could match the specific familiar person with the correct familiar voice. Horses were significantly better at performing the matching task when the congruent person was standing on their right, indicating marked hemispheric specialization (left hemisphere bias) in this ability. These results are the first to demonstrate that cross-modal recognition in animals can extend to individuals from phylogenetically very distant species. They also indicate that processes governed by the left hemisphere are central to the cross-modal matching of visual and auditory information from familiar individuals in a naturalistic setting.     

Cross-modal representation of human caretakers in squirrel monkeys

We tested whether squirrel monkeys have cross-modal representations of their human caretakers with a 0-delay symbolic matching-to-sample procedure. We first trained the monkeys to match photographs of two of their caretakers. After reaching criterion, they were exposed to two test sessions. In these sessions 32 all-reinforced test trials were interspersed among the training trials. In the test trials, a voice, either matching (congruent condition) or mismatching (incongruent condition) with the sample photographs, was played back after the sample stimulus disappeared. The monkeys' matching accuracies in the incongruent condition were lower than in the match condition. Post hoc analyses revealed that the presentation of the primary caretaker's voice interfered with performance in test trials where the secondary caretaker's face was presented (incongruent condition). This suggests that our subjects recalled their primary caretaker's representation upon hearing the appropriate voice.     

Sub-millimetre accurate human hand kinematics: from surface to skeleton

A highly accurate human hand kinematics model and identification are proposed. The model includes the five digits and the palm arc based on mapping function between surface landmarks and estimated joint centres of rotation. Model identification was experimentally performed using a motion tracking system. The evaluation of the marker position estimation error, which is on sub-millimetre level across all digits, underlines model quality and accuracy. Noticeably, with the development of this model, we were able to improve various modelling assumptions from literature and found a basic linear relationship between surface and skeleton rotational angles.     

Scleral thickness in human eyes

Purpose

To obtain information about scleral thickness in different ocular regions and its associations.

Methods

The histomorphometric study included 238 human globes which had been enucleated because of choroidal melanomas or due to secondary angle-closure glaucoma. Using light microscopy, anterior-posterior pupil-optic nerve sections were measured.

Results

In the non-axially elongated group (axial length ≤26 mm), scleral thickness decreased from the limbus (0.50±0.11 mm) to the ora serrata (0.43±0.14 mm) and the equator (0.42±0.15 mm), and then increased to the midpoint between posterior pole and equator (0.65±0.15 mm) and to the posterior pole (0.94±0.18 mm), from where it decreased to the peri-optic nerve region (0.86±0.21 mm) and finally the peripapillary scleral flange (0.39±0.09 mm). Scleral thickness was significantly lower in the axially elongated group (axial length >26 mm) than in the non-axially elongated group for measurements taken at and posterior to the equator. Scleral thickness measurements of the posterior pole and of the peripapillary scleral flange were correlated with lamina cribrosa thickness measurements. Scleral thickness measurements at any location of examination were not significantly (all P>0.10) correlated with corneal thickness measurements. Scleral thickness was statistically independent of age, gender and presence of glaucoma.

Conclusions

In non-axially elongated eyes, the sclera was thickest at the posterior pole, followed by the peri-optic nerve region, the midpoint between posterior pole and equator, the limbus, the ora serrata, the equator and finally the peripapillary scleral flange. In axially elongated eyes, scleral thinning occurred at and posterior to the equator, being more marked closer to the posterior pole and the longer the axial length was. Within the anterior and posterior segment respectively, scleral thickness measurements were correlated with each other. Posterior scleral thickness was correlated with lamina cribrosa thickness. Scleral thickness measurements at any location of examination were not significantly correlated with corneal thickness or with age, gender and presence of absolute secondary angler-closure glaucoma.     

Retinal encoding of ultrabrief shape recognition cues

Shape encoding mechanisms can be probed by the sequential brief display of dots that mark the boundary of the shape, and delays of less that a millisecond between successive dots can impair recognition. It is not entirely clear whether this is accomplished by preserving stimulus timing in the signal being sent to the brain, or calls for a retinal binding mechanism. Two experiments manipulated the degree of simultaneity among and within dot pairs, requiring also that the pair members be in the same half of the visual field or on opposite halves, i.e., across the midline from one another. Recognition performance was impaired the same for these two conditions. The results make it likely that simultaneity of cues is being registered within the retina. A potential mechanism is suggested, calling for linkage of stimulated sites through activation of PA1 cells. A third experiment confirmed a prior finding that the overall level of recognition deficit is partly a function of display-set size, and affirmed submillisecond resolution in binding dot pairs into effective shape-recognition cues.     

A simple shape characteristic of protein-protein recognition

MOTIVATION: Observation of co-crystallized protein-protein complexes and low-resolution protein-protein docking studies suggest the existence of a binding-related anisotropic shape characteristic of protein-protein complexes. RESULTS: Our study systematically assessed the global shape of proteins in a non-redundant database of co-crystallized protein-protein complexes by measuring the distance of the surface residues to the protein's center of mass. The results show that on average the binding site residues are closer to the center of mass than the non-binding surface residues. Thus, the study directly detects an important and simple binding-related characteristic of protein shapes. The results provide an insight into one of the fundamental properties of protein structure and association.     

Feasibility of extracting velocity distribution in choriocapillaris in human eyes from ICG dye angiograms

Indocyanine green (ICG) dye angiography has been used by ophthalmologists for routine examination of the choroidal vasculature in human eyes for more than 20 years. In this study, a new approach is developed to extract information from ICG dye angiograms about blood velocity distribution in the choriocapillaris and its feeding blood vessels. ICG dye fluorescence intensity rise and decay curves are constructed for each pixel location in each image of the choriocapillaris in an ICG angiogram. It is shown that at each instant of time the magnitude of the local instantaneous dye velocity in the choriocapillaris is proportional to both the slope of the ICG dye fluorescence intensity curve and the dye concentration. This approach leads to determination of the absolute value of blood velocity in the choriocapillaris, assuming an appropriate scaling, or conversion factor can be determined. It also enables comparison of velocities in different regions of the choriocapillaris, since the conversion factor is independent of the vessel location. The computer algorithm developed in this study can be used in clinical applications for diagnostic purposes and for assessment of the efficacy of laser therapy in human eyes.     

Physiology based simulation model of triangle shape recognition

The present paper considers the relation between the shape of a triangle and probability of its recognition. An effect of triangle size on perception of its shape is examined in the first experiment. In the second the loci of eye fixations during triangle recognition task are recorded and analysed. A simulation model of the recognition process is proposed. The model is based on two main assumptions: 1. an accuracy of shape processing is related to the cortical magnification factor, 2. a subject's response depends on actual position of eye fixation. The validity of the model is verified by comparing the theoretical and experimental response distributions. Some psychophysiological implications are then discussed.A partial report of this research was given at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (Pizlo and Gradus-Pizlo 1986)     

A simple shape characteristic of protein protein recognition

Bioinformatics (2007) 23(7), 789–792 The authors wish to apologize for the omission     

Non-nutritive sucking in great ape and human newborns

The development of non-nutritive sucking in chimpanzee, orangutan and human newborns was observed during the first days of life. The group of ten human subjects reliably increased their rate of sucking, time spent sucking, and number of sucks per ten-minute testing session during days 1–4. Similarly, the group of four newborn chimpanzees demonstrated increases in these same measures. The data from the two orangutan subjects, although not statistically significant, were generally consistent with that of the other newborns. The stability of the sucking response and the pattern of sucking were the major apparent between-species differences. The human newborns sucked in a stable pattern of bursts and pauses beginning on day 1, whereas the chimpanzee and orangutan subjects gradually developed a pattern of relatively continuous sucking. The disruptibility of the sucking response was tested using a five-second auditory stimulus. Disruption occurred 58% for humans, 40% for chimpanzees, and 20% for orangutans. It was concluded that non-nutritive sucking of great ape newborns is less distractible by external stimulation than that of human newborns. This apparent rigidity makes it a less useful dependent variable in studies of the sensory capacities of chimpanzee and orangutan newborns than was predicted.     

Origin of the human hand

A means of determining the phylogenetic implications of similarities between the hands of man and non-human primates is proposed. The only traits shared by man and non-human primates accepted as evidence of our ancestral hand structure and functions are those which are incompatible or out of keeping with current behavior of the human hand. They may be assumed to remain only as relics of adaptations to former habits of locomotion and feeding. The relics found through this analysis are all traits that are present in the apes (some of them only in African apes) and probably related to functions of the hand in suspension of the body, fist-walking, and knuckle-walking. The presence of these traits in man implies that human ancestors similarly used the hand to suspend the body in the trees and to support it on the back of the flexed fingers.     

Thymus-derived peripheral lymphocytes from human newborns inhibit division of their mothers' lymphocytes.

Lymphocytes from human newborns inhibit division of their mothers' lymphocytes. Three days after we cultured equal numbers of cells from a mother and her baby in the presence of PHA, mitosis of the mother's lymphocytes was suppressed 13-fold compared to that of the baby's lymphocytes. At the end of 3 days the number of baby's lymphocytes were doubled those of the mother's. The survival rates and mean mitotic indexes of both pairs of cell were roughly equivalent (mean +/- S.E: baby 2.4 +/- 0.8; mother 2.6 +/- 0.7), indicating that the lack of dividing lymphocytes from the mother was caused by inhibited division of the mother's lymphocytes, no enhanced growth of the newborn's cells. The cell population in newborns that is responsible for the inhibition effect resides in the T cell-enriched population. Lymphocytes from one newborn were not able to inhibit division of lymphocytes from another newborn, suggesting that lymphocytes from newborns could continue to divide despite their inhibitory effect. Other experiments showed that actively dividing fetal fibroblasts, amnion cells from the newborn, and continuous T lymphoblastoid cell lines were unable to inhibit mitosis of lymphocytes of the mother.