Absence Of Local Cues Research Articles

Global Tactile Coding in Rat Barrel Cortex in the Absence of Local Cues.

Although whisker-related perception is based predominantly on local, near-instantaneous coding, global, intensive coding, which integrates the vibrotactile signal over time, has also been shown to play a role given appropriate behavioral conditions. Here, we study global coding in isolation by studying head-fixed rats that identified pulsatile stimuli differing in pulse frequency but not in pulse waveforms, thus abolishing perception based on local coding. We quantified time locking and spike counts as likely variables underpinning the 2 coding schemes. Both neurometric variables contained substantial stimulus information, carried even by spikes of single barrel cortex neurons. To elucidate which type of information is actually used by the rats, we systematically compared psychometric with neurometric sensitivity based on the 2 coding schemes. Neurometric performance was calculated by using a population-encoding model incorporating the properties of our recorded neuron sample. We found that sensitivity calculated from spike counts sampled over long periods (>1 s) matched the performance of rats better than the one carried by spikes time-locked to the stimulus. We conclude that spike counts are more relevant to tactile perception when instantaneous kinematic parameters are not available.

The formation of the cranial ganglia by placodally-derived sensory neuronal precursors

The generation of the sensory ganglia involves the migration of a precursor population to the site of ganglion formation and the differentiation of sensory neurons. There is, however, a significant difference between the ganglia of the head and trunk in that while all of the sensory neurons of the trunk are derived from the neural crest, the majority of cranial sensory neurons are generated by the neurogenic placodes. In this study, we have detailed the route through which the placodally-derived sensory neurons are generated, and we find a number of important differences between the head and trunk. Although, the neurogenic placodes release neuroblasts that migrate internally to the site of ganglion formation, we find that there are no placodally-derived progenitor cells within the forming ganglia. The cells released by the placodes differentiate during migration and contribute to the cranial ganglia as post-mitotic neurons. In the trunk, it has been shown that progenitor cells persist in the forming Dorsal Root Ganglia and that much of the process of sensory neuronal differentiation occurs within the ganglion. We also find that the period over which neuronal cells delaminate from the placodes is significantly longer than the time frame over which neural crest cells populate the DRGs. We further show that placodal sensory neuronal differentiation can occur in the absence of local cues. Finally, we find that, in contrast to neural crest cells, the different mature neurogenic placodes seem to lack plasticity. Nodose neuroblasts cannot be diverted to form trigeminal neurons and vice versa.

Spatial relational learning and memory abilities do not differ between men and women in a real-world, open-field environment

This study assesses gender differences in spatial and non-spatial relational learning and memory in adult humans behaving freely in a real-world, open-field environment. In Experiment 1, we tested the use of proximal landmarks as conditional cues allowing subjects to predict the location of rewards hidden in one of two sets of three distinct locations. Subjects were tested in two different conditions: (1) when local visual cues marked the potentially-rewarded locations, and (2) when no local visual cues marked the potentially-rewarded locations. We found that only 17 of 20 adults (8 males, 9 females) used the proximal landmarks to predict the locations of the rewards. Although females exhibited higher exploratory behavior at the beginning of testing, males and females discriminated the potentially-rewarded locations similarly when local visual cues were present. Interestingly, when the spatial and local information conflicted in predicting the reward locations, males considered both spatial and local information, whereas females ignored the spatial information. However, in the absence of local visual cues females discriminated the potentially-rewarded locations as well as males. In Experiment 2, subjects (9 males, 9 females) were tested with three asymmetrically-arranged rewarded locations, which were marked by local cues on alternate trials. Again, females discriminated the rewarded locations as well as males in the presence or absence of local cues. In sum, although particular aspects of task performance might differ between genders, we found no evidence that women have poorer allocentric spatial relational learning and memory abilities than men in a real-world, open-field environment.

Hippocampal Lesion Prevents Spatial Relational Learning in Adult Macaque Monkeys

The role of the hippocampus in spatial learning and memory has been extensively studied in rodents. Comparable studies in nonhuman primates, however, are few, and findings are often contradictory. This may be attributable to the failure to distinguish between allocentric and egocentric spatial representations in experimental designs. For this experiment, six adult monkeys received bilateral hippocampal ibotenic acid lesions, and six control subjects underwent sham surgery. Freely moving monkeys then foraged for food located in two arrays of three distinct locations among 18 locations distributed in an open-field arena. Multiple goals and four pseudorandomly chosen entrance points precluded the monkeys' ability to rely on an egocentric strategy to identify food locations. Monkeys were tested in two conditions. First, local visual cues marked the food locations. Second, no local cues marked the food locations, so that monkeys had to rely on an allocentric (spatial relational) representation of the environment to discriminate these locations. Both hippocampal-lesioned and control monkeys discriminated the food locations in the presence of local cues. However, in the absence of local cues, control subjects discriminated the food locations, whereas hippocampal-lesioned monkeys were unable to do so. Interestingly, histological analysis of the brain of one control monkey whose behavior was identical to that of the experimentally lesioned animals revealed a bilateral ischemic lesion restricted to the hippocampus. These findings demonstrate that the adult monkey hippocampal formation is critical for the establishment or use of allocentric spatial representations and that selective damage of the hippocampus prevents spatial relational learning in adult nonhuman primates.