Implications For Information Processing Research Articles

Muscarinic Modulation of Synaptic Transmission and Short-Term Plasticity in the Dorsal and Ventral Hippocampus

Muscarinic neurotransmission is fundamentally involved in supporting several brain functions by modulating flow of information in brain neural circuits including the hippocampus which displays a remarkable functional segregation along its longitudinal axis. However, how muscarinic neuromodulation contributes to the functional segregation along the hippocampus remains unclear. In this study we show that the nonselective muscarinic receptor agonist carbachol similarly suppresses basal synaptic transmission in the dorsal and ventral CA1 hippocampal field, in a concentration-depended manner. Furthermore, using a ten-pulse stimulation train of varying frequency we found that carbachol changes the frequency filtering properties more in ventral than dorsal hippocampus by facilitating synaptic inputs at a wide range of input frequencies in the ventral compared with dorsal hippocampus. Using the M2 receptor antagonist gallamine and the M4 receptor antagonist tropicamide, we found that M2 receptors are involved in controlling basal synaptic transmission and short-term synaptic plasticity (STSP) in the ventral but not the dorsal hippocampus, while M4 receptors participate in modulating basal synaptic transmission and STSP in both segments of the hippocampus. These results were corroborated by the higher protein expression levels of M2 receptors in the ventral compared with dorsal hippocampus. We conclude that muscarinic transmission modulates excitatory synaptic transmission and short-term synaptic plasticity along the entire rat hippocampus by acting through M4 receptors and recruiting M2 receptors only in the ventral hippocampus. Furthermore, M4 receptors appear to exert a permissive role on the actions of M2 receptors on STSP in the ventral hippocampus. This dorsoventral differentiation of muscarinic modulation is expected to have important implications in information processing along the endogenous hippocampal circuitry.

The Conformational Contribution to Molecular Complexity and Its Implications for Information Processing in Living Beings and Chemical Artificial Intelligence.

This work highlights the relevant contribution of conformational stereoisomers to the complexity and functions of any molecular compound. Conformers have the same molecular and structural formulas but different orientations of the atoms in the three-dimensional space. Moving from one conformer to another is possible without breaking covalent bonds. The interconversion is usually feasible through the thermal energy available in ordinary conditions. The behavior of most biopolymers, such as enzymes, antibodies, RNA, and DNA, is understandable if we consider that each exists as an ensemble of conformers. Each conformational collection confers multi-functionality and adaptability to the single biopolymers. The conformational distribution of any biopolymer has the features of a fuzzy set. Hence, every compound that exists as an ensemble of conformers allows the molecular implementation of a fuzzy set. Since proteins, DNA, and RNA work as fuzzy sets, it is fair to say that life's logic is fuzzy. The power of processing fuzzy logic makes living beings capable of swift decisions in environments dominated by uncertainty and vagueness. These performances can be implemented in chemical robots, which are confined molecular assemblies mimicking unicellular organisms: they are supposed to help humans "colonise" the molecular world to defeat diseases in living beings and fight pollution in the environment.

Active consideration in an emotional context: implications for information processing.

Active consideration in an emotional context: implications for information processing.

Axon-axon interactions determine modality-specific wiring and subcellular synaptic specificity in a somatosensory circuit.

Synaptic connections between neurons are often formed in precise subcellular regions of dendritic arbors with implications for information processing within neurons. Cell-cell interactions are widely important for circuit wiring; however, their role in subcellular specificity is not well understood. We studied the role of axon-axon interactions in precise targeting and subcellular wiring of Drosophila somatosensory circuitry. Axons of nociceptive and gentle touch neurons terminate in adjacent, non-overlapping layers in the central nervous system (CNS). Nociceptor and touch receptor axons synapse onto distinct dendritic regions of a second-order interneuron, the dendrites of which span these layers, forming touch-specific and nociceptive-specific connectivity. We found that nociceptor ablation elicited extension of touch receptor axons and presynapses into the nociceptor recipient region, supporting a role for axon-axon interactions in somatosensory wiring. Conversely, touch receptor ablation did not lead to expansion of nociceptor axons, consistent with unidirectional axon-axon interactions. Live imaging provided evidence for sequential arborization of nociceptive and touch neuron axons in the CNS. We propose that axon-axon interactions and modality-specific timing of axon targeting play key roles in subcellular connection specificity of somatosensory circuitry.

Microtubule Disruption Without Learning Impairment in the Unicellular Organism, Paramecium: Implications for Information Processing in Microtubules.

Information processing in microtubules is an open question that has not been adequately addressed. It was suggested that microtubules could store and process information in the nervous system or even support consciousness. The unicellular organism, Paramecium caudatum, has a microtubular structure but lacks a neuron or neural network. However, it shows intelligent behaviors such as associative learning. This property may suggest that the microtubules are involved in intelligent behavior, information storage, or information processing in this organism. To test this hypothesis and study the role of microtubules in P. caudatum learning, we utilized a learning task in which the organism associates brightness in its swimming medium with attractive cathodal shocks. To see if microtubules are an integral part of information storage and processing in P. caudatum, we disrupted the microtubular dynamics in the organism using an antimicrotubular agent (parbendazole). We observed that while a partial allosteric modulator of GABA (midazolam) could disrupt the learning process in P. caudatum, the antimicrotubular agent could not interfere with the learning. Microtubules are probably not vital for the learning behavior in P. caudatum. Consequently, our results call for further investigation of the microtubular information processing hypothesis. Importance of Information processing in microtubules;Microtubules could store and process information in the nervous system;Unicellular organism, Paramecium caudatum, has a microtubular structure but lacks a neuron or neural network. Information processing in microtubules is an open question that has not been adequately addressed. It was suggested that microtubules could store and process information in the nervous system or even support consciousness. The unicellular organism, Paramecium caudatum, has a microtubular structure but lacks a neuron or neural network. However, it shows intelligent behaviors such as associative learning. This property may suggest that the microtubules are involved in intelligent behavior, information storage, or information processing in this organism. To test this hypothesis and study the role of microtubules in P. caudatum learning, we utilized a learning task in which the organism associates brightness in its swimming medium with attractive cathodal shocks. To see if microtubules are an integral part of information storage and processing in P. caudatum, we disrupted the microtubular dynamics in the organism using an antimicrotubular agent (parbendazole). We observed that while a partial allosteric modulator of GABA (midazolam) could disrupt the learning process in P. caudatum, the antimicrotubular agent could not interfere with the learning. Microtubules are probably not vital for the learning behavior in P. caudatum. Consequently, our results call for further investigation of the microtubular information processing hypothesis.

Low-threshold spiking interneurons perform feedback inhibition in the lateral amygdala

Amygdala plays crucial roles in emotional learning. The lateral amygdala (LA) is the input station of the amygdala, where learning related plasticity occurs. The LA is cortical like in nature in terms of its cellular make up, composed of a majority of principal cells and a minority of interneurons with distinct subtypes defined by morphology, intrinsic electrophysiological properties and neurochemical expression profile. The specific functions served by LA interneuron subtypes remain elusive. This study aimed to elucidate the interneuron subtype mediating feedback inhibition. Electrophysiological evidence involving antidromic activation of recurrent LA circuitry via basolateral amygdala stimulation and paired recordings implicate low-threshold spiking interneurons in feedback inhibition. Recordings in somatostatin-cre animals crossed with tdtomato mice have revealed remarkable similarities between a subset of SOM+ interneurons and LTS interneurons. This study concludes that LTS interneurons, most of which are putatively SOM+, mediate feedback inhibition in the LA. Parallels with cortical areas and potential implications for information processing and plasticity are discussed.

Information processing challenges and research directions in CCTV surveillance

The aim of this paper is to review research on the cognitive processes involved in closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance, and make recommendations for further research and for practitioners. CCTV provides a socially relevant context for visual attention and search, because it involves dynamic natural images, multiple cameras that are frequently expected to be monitored simultaneously and a range of significant events which are often accompanied by high levels of uncertainty. In recent years, increasing research attention has been paid to operators’ cognitive processes in CCTV surveillance. Prior to this, the focus was largely on evaluations of systems for the purposes of developing guidelines for system design. The literature review identified 56 relevant documents. These are discussed in terms of the purpose of CCTV surveillance, the design of the technical system, nature of images, scenes and significant events, and the implications for information processing by operators. Recommendations for future research include, amongst others, context specific research, search strategies and scanning patterns, mechanisms for re-engaging attention after task disengagement, the contribution of active visual analysis, behavioural cues that predict aberrant behaviour. Specific recommendations for practitioners are made regarding translating research findings into practice and enhancing the cognitive surveillance skills of operators.

Curving entertainment: The curvilinear relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experiences while watching a political talk show and its implications for information processing.

Curving entertainment: The curvilinear relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experiences while watching a political talk show and its implications for information processing.

Signatures of criticality arise from random subsampling in simple population models.

The rise of large-scale recordings of neuronal activity has fueled the hope to gain new insights into the collective activity of neural ensembles. How can one link the statistics of neural population activity to underlying principles and theories? One attempt to interpret such data builds upon analogies to the behaviour of collective systems in statistical physics. Divergence of the specific heat—a measure of population statistics derived from thermodynamics—has been used to suggest that neural populations are optimized to operate at a “critical point”. However, these findings have been challenged by theoretical studies which have shown that common inputs can lead to diverging specific heat. Here, we connect “signatures of criticality”, and in particular the divergence of specific heat, back to statistics of neural population activity commonly studied in neural coding: firing rates and pairwise correlations. We show that the specific heat diverges whenever the average correlation strength does not depend on population size. This is necessarily true when data with correlations is randomly subsampled during the analysis process, irrespective of the detailed structure or origin of correlations. We also show how the characteristic shape of specific heat capacity curves depends on firing rates and correlations, using both analytically tractable models and numerical simulations of a canonical feed-forward population model. To analyze these simulations, we develop efficient methods for characterizing large-scale neural population activity with maximum entropy models. We find that, consistent with experimental findings, increases in firing rates and correlation directly lead to more pronounced signatures. Thus, previous reports of thermodynamical criticality in neural populations based on the analysis of specific heat can be explained by average firing rates and correlations, and are not indicative of an optimized coding strategy. We conclude that a reliable interpretation of statistical tests for theories of neural coding is possible only in reference to relevant ground-truth models.

Idiosyncratic development of sensory structures in brains of diapausing butterfly pupae: implications for information processing.

Diapause is an important escape mechanism from seasonal stress in many insects. A certain minimum amount of time in diapause is generally needed in order for it to terminate. The mechanisms of time-keeping in diapause are poorly understood, but it can be hypothesized that a well-developed neural system is required. However, because neural tissue is metabolically costly to maintain, there might exist conflicting selective pressures on overall brain development during diapause, on the one hand to save energy and on the other hand to provide reliable information processing during diapause. We performed the first ever investigation of neural development during diapause and non-diapause (direct) development in pupae of the butterfly Pieris napi from a population whose diapause duration is known. The brain grew in size similarly in pupae of both pathways up to 3 days after pupation, when development in the diapause brain was arrested. While development in the brain of direct pupae continued steadily after this point, no further development occurred during diapause until temperatures increased far after diapause termination. Interestingly, sensory structures related to vision were remarkably well developed in pupae from both pathways, in contrast with neuropils related to olfaction, which only developed in direct pupae. The results suggest that a well-developed visual system might be important for normal diapause development.

Structural synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus induced by spatial experience and its implications in information processing

IntroductionLong-lasting memory formation requires that groups of neurons processing new information develop the ability to reproduce the patterns of neural activity acquired by experience. DevelopmentChanges in synaptic efficiency let neurons organise to form ensembles that repeat certain activity patterns again and again. Among other changes in synaptic plasticity, structural modifications tend to be long-lasting which suggests that they underlie long-term memory. There is a large body of evidence supporting that experience promotes changes in the synaptic structure, particularly in the hippocampus. ConclusionStructural changes to the hippocampus may be functionally implicated in stabilising acquired memories and encoding new information.

Superactivation of AMPA receptors by auxiliary proteins.

Glutamate receptors form complexes in the brain with auxiliary proteins, which control their activity during fast synaptic transmission through a seemingly bewildering array of effects. Here we devise a way to isolate the activation of complexes using polyamines, which enables us to show that transmembrane AMPA receptor regulatory proteins (TARPs) exert their effects principally on the channel opening reaction. A thermodynamic argument suggests that because TARPs promote channel opening, receptor activation promotes AMPAR-TARP complexes into a superactive state with high open probability. A simple model based on this idea predicts all known effects of TARPs on AMPA receptor function. This model also predicts unexpected phenomena including massive potentiation in the absence of desensitization and supramaximal recovery that we subsequently detected in electrophysiological recordings. This transient positive feedback mechanism has implications for information processing in the brain, because it should allow activity-dependent facilitation of excitatory synaptic transmission through a postsynaptic mechanism.

Adaptive shaping of cortical response selectivity in the vibrissa pathway.

One embodiment of context-dependent sensory processing is bottom-up adaptation, where persistent stimuli decrease neuronal firing rate over hundreds of milliseconds. Adaptation is not, however, simply the fatigue of the sensory pathway, but shapes the information flow and selectivity to stimulus features. Adaptation enhances spatial discriminability (distinguishing stimulus location) while degrading detectability (reporting presence of the stimulus), for both the ideal observer of the cortex and awake, behaving animals. However, how the dynamics of the adaptation shape the cortical response and this detection and discrimination tradeoff is unknown, as is to what degree this phenomenon occurs on a continuum as opposed to a switching of processing modes. Using voltage-sensitive dye imaging in anesthetized rats to capture the temporal and spatial characteristics of the cortical response to tactile inputs, we showed that the suppression of the cortical response, in both magnitude and spatial spread, is continuously modulated by the increasing amount of energy in the adapting stimulus, which is nonuniquely determined by its frequency and velocity. Single-trial ideal observer analysis demonstrated a tradeoff between detectability and spatial discriminability up to a moderate amount of adaptation, which corresponds to the frequency range in natural whisking. This was accompanied by a decrease in both detectability and discriminability with high-energy adaptation, which indicates a more complex coupling between detection and discrimination than a simple switching of modes. Taken together, the results suggest that adaptation operates on a continuum and modulates the tradeoff between detectability and discriminability that has implications for information processing in ethological contexts.

Naïve theories about persuasion: implications for information processing and consumer attitude change

Consumers have knowledge about persuasion that includes naïve theories about persuasion. The present work examines naïve theories with regard to whether consumers associate the meaning of persuasion as something that is either good or bad. Furthermore, naïve theories about persuasion are demonstrated to affect how consumers respond to a persuasive message. Two studies are presented, one that manipulates and another that measures naïve theories related to the meaning of persuasion. The meaning associated with persuasion is found to play a significant role in influencing the amount of message elaboration that consumers engage in. Implications for attitude change and advertising, persuasion knowledge, and the importance for further research on the meanings attached to persuasion are discussed.

Fourth Amendment Regulation of Information Processing

This Essay examines the Fourth Amendment implications of information processing by the government. It starts with an overview of the main challenge to regulating information processing under the Fourth Amendment: the conventional wisdom that the Fourth Amendment regulates the government’s initial access to physical evidence, but not the subsequent processing or analysis of that evidence. The distinction between “acquisition” and “analysis” of evidence underpins many familiar doctrines in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, from plain view to the third party doctrine. The common thread in these doctrines is that the only privacy the Fourth Amendment protects is privacy at the point of collection. As one Fourth Amendment scholar has put it, once evidence is collected or exposed “the work of the Fourth Amendment is done,” regardless of whether further intrusions into privacy are possible. While it has some grounding in the case law, the conventional wisdom is wrong, at least as a categorical rule of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. The Fourth Amendment reaches information processing, and for good reason. One need look no further than the Court’s classic Fourth Amendment cases to see the error in the conventional wisdom. In cases like Kyllo v. United States, Skinner v. Railway Executive Labor Association, U.S. v. Jones, United States v. Jacobsen, and even Katz v. United States, the Court has reached information processing, albeit without a guiding theory. Taken together, these cases belie the conventional distinction between “acquisition” and “analysis” of evidence. They demonstrate that in a world of enhanced police technologies, traditional spatial and temporal doctrinal categories are no longer effective proxies for protecting Fourth Amendment interests. Recognizing this fact, the Supreme Court in these cases has been willing to depart from those traditional categories in order to reach information processing conduct.If the conventional wisdom is flawed, what is the alternative? Building upon the trends already immanent in the Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, this Essay argues for reaching information processing where necessary to protect the practical privacy protected by the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects” against enhanced police technologies. It proposes three guidelines for courts evaluating information processing under the Fourth Amendment. First, courts should adopt a contextual, rather than categorical, approach to Fourth Amendment analysis, to account for the way technology changes the meaning of government conduct. Considered in a vacuum, collecting a single piece of “exposed” evidence (Jones) is no harm to privacy, anymore than is standing in front of a house (Kyllo) or manipulating a discarded blood or urine sample (Skinner). It is only the added context of the government’s aggregation and analysis of that information that raises privacy — and Fourth Amendment — concerns. Second, Courts should use the “practical privacy” of the past as a key measure of the reasonableness of privacy expectations today. As the Supreme Court and legal scholars have recognized, the ‘right to be secure’ is a pre-existing right, and one that is informed, in part, by the practical privacy from government intrusion that existed at the time the Fourth Amendment was enacted. Courts should account for technology’s ability to peel back this practical privacy, and where possible should “assur[e] preservation of that degree of privacy against government that existed when the Fourth Amendment was adopted.” While practical privacy is only the starting point of the Fourth Amendment analysis, it is an important one in the regulation of enhanced technologies. The third principle is one of judicial minimalism. Fourth Amendment regulation of enhanced technologies involves ever-changing facts and increased risks of error. Courts regulating information processing should therefore seek to apply flexible standards to draw narrow rules. This minimalist approach has two virtues: it reduces the risk of significant harm that can result from broad, categorical judgments about new surveillance technologies (see, e.g., Olmstead v. United States), while allowing judges the flexibility to make the nuanced distinctions required to solve the Fourth Amendment problems raised by a host of information processing conduct, from the imaging and analysis of smartphones to biometrics tracking and DNA analysis.

Optimal neural coding in networks of heterogeneous neurons

Neural systems display a prominent level of heterogeneity in synaptic, neuron, and network properties. Even among same-class neurons, differences in excitability properties, for instance, may be present in the system, and this could have strong implications for information processing. A well-known example is the so called population coding ,a strategy which relies on the particular responses of individual neurons of a network to code information. This occurs for instance in V1 cortical networks, where the orientation preference of neurons allows for efficient information coding [1]. However, not many studies have addressed the role of neural heterogeneity in other neural coding strategies. Interestingly, cell-to-cell differences have been recently found to be relevant in synchronization of inhibitory networks [2], coherent activity in electrically coupled neurons [3], synchronized bursting events [4], global detection of weak signals [5], and efficient coding for communication signals [6], highlighting a possible role of heterogeneity on neural information processing. Still, neither the effect of heterogeneity on the dynamics of neural populations nor its influence on neural coding are yet fully understood. In this work, we present a theoretical and numerical study of how different strategies of neural coding (concretely, rate coding and temporal coding) are affected by the presence of heterogeneity in the properties of the neurons in the network, paying special attention to their ability to process and codify incoming signals. We carry out this study in two different systems: the first one, which is conceptually simpler, is a fully-connected network of excitatory integrate-and-fire neurons with small synaptic delays. The second one is more realistic, and consists in a sparsely connected network of excitatory and inhibitory integrateand-fire neurons with small synaptic delays. For both systems, a certain level of heterogeneity is introduced in the neuron firing thresholds, that is, each neuron in the network has a particular degree of excitability. Our aim is to investigate the effect of such heterogeneity level in the strategies used by the network to process and codify neural signals. Our results show that neural heterogeneity has important effects in several properties of interest in neural networks, such as the mean firing rate or the synchronization properties of the network. Then, we find that these effects have strong consequences for two main information processing strategies used in many brain areas: rate coding and temporal coding. More precisely, we show, theoretically and numerically, that certain heterogeneity valueswhich lie within the physiological rage found in actual neurons- optimize the transmission of information in rate and temporal codes in a stochastic resonance fashion, suggesting that cell-to-cell differences are not useful only for population coding, but also for more general coding strategies. Interestingly, we find that networks of heterogeneous neurons tend to behave differently to input changes (such as increments in input rate) depending on the neural coding strategy they are operating in. Such finding suggests the existence of heterogeneity-induced features which are specific for each neural coding strategy.

Noradrenergic modulation of hypoglossal motoneuron excitability: developmental and putative state-dependent mechanisms.

Hypoglossal (XII) motoneurons (MNs) contribute to diverse behaviors. Their innervation of the genioglossus muscle, a tongue protruder, plays a critical role in maintaining upper airway patency during breathing. Indeed, reduced activity in these motoneurons is implicated in sleep related disorders of breathing such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The excitability of these MNs is modulated by multiple neurotransmitter systems. The focus of this review is on the modulation of XII MN excitability by norepinephrine (NE), which increases MN excitability through a variety of mechanisms. The level of noradrenergic drive, however, is very dynamic, varying on developmental, sleep-wake and even millisecond timescales relevant to transitions between behaviours. Here we review and provide new data on the maturation of the noradrenergic modulatory system, focusing on those elements specifically relevant to XII MN excitability including the: i) ontogeny of the noradrenergic cell group that provides the majority of the noradrenergic innervation to the XII nucleus, the Locus subcoeruleus (LsC); ii) time course over which the XII nucleus is innervated by noradrenergic nerve fibres, and; iii) ontogeny of XII MN sensitivity to NE. In the context of state-dependent changes in noradrenergic cell activity, we review mechanisms of NE action most relevant to its role in the muscle atonia of REM sleep. We conclude with a discussion of the hypothesis that the dynamics of MN modulation by NE extend to the spatial domain and recent data suggesting that noradrenergic modulation of the dendritic tree is not uniform but compartmentalized. Implications for information processing are discussed.

The End of an Entanglement

Observations of the early disappearance of quantum coherence between two systems may have implications for information processing.

Plastic and metaplastic changes in the CA1 and subicular projections to the entorhinal cortex

The hippocampal formation (HF) is a brain structure critically involved in memory formation. Two major pathways have been identified in the rat; one projection targets the hippocampus via perirhinal cortex and lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) while another targets the hippocampus via postrhinal cortex and medial entorhinal cortex (MEC). Areas CA1 and subiculum constitute major output structures of HF and target many cortical structures including EC. These return projections are also anatomically segregated with distinct regions of CA1 and subiculum projecting to either the LEC or MEC. We have previously demonstrated that the projections from CA1 and subiculum to the EC are capable of sustaining short- and long-term plastic changes. Here we detail a physiological topography that exists along the hippocampal output projections, equating well with the known anatomy. Specifically, field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) responses in LEC are stronger following distal CA1 and proximal subiculum stimulation, compared to either proximal CA1 or distal subiculum stimulation. In addition, fEPSP responses in MEC are stronger following proximal CA1 stimulation compared to distal CA1. We also demonstrate that the distal CA1-LEC, proximal CA1-MEC and proximal subiculum-LEC projections are all capable of frequency-dependent plastic effects that shift the response from LTD to LTP. In addition, responses in distal CA1-LEC projection seem to show metaplastic capabilities. We discuss the possibility of dissociation between LEC and MEC projections, which may suggest two functional circuits from the HF to the cortex and may have implications in information processing, memory research and hippocampal seizure spread to the cortex.

Sports marketing and the psychology of marketing communication

Contents: L. Chalip, Foreword. L.R. Kahle, C. Riley, Preface. Part I:Consumer Behavior. T. Sun, S. Youn, W.D. Wells, Exploration of Consumption and Communication Communities in Sports Marketing. S.W. Kelley, K. Tian, Fanatical Consumption: An Investigation of the Behavior of Sports Fans Through Textual Data. V. Dalakas, R. Madrigal, K.L. Anderson, We are Number One! The Phenomenon of Basking-in-Reflected-Glory and Its Implications for Sports Marketing. A. Shoham, G.M. Rose, L.R. Kahle, Risky Sports: Making the Leap. Part II:Sports Celebrity Endorsements. M.J. Jones, D.W. Schumann, The Strategic Use of Celebrity Athlete Endorsers in Print Media: A Historical Perspective. A.A. Bailey, C.A. Cole, The Effects of Multiple Product Endorsements by Celebrities on Consumer Attitudes and Intentions: An Extension. M.D. Basil, W.J. Brown, Magic Johnson and Mark McGwire: The Power of Indentification With Sports Celebrities. Part III:The Consequences of Sponsorship. J.W. Pracejus, Seven Psychological Mechanisms Through Which Sponsorship can Influence Consumers. J. Slater, C. Lloyd, It's Gotta be the Shoes: Exploring the Effects of Relationships of Nike and Reebok Sponsorship on Two College Athletic Programs. L. Kinney, S.R. McDaniel, American Consumer Attitudes Toward Corporate Sponsorship of Sporting Events. L. Kinney, G. Bell, Do Sport Sponsorship Announcements Influence Firm Stock Prices? R. Madrigal, A Review of Team Identification and Its Influence on Consumers' Responses Toward Corporate Sponsors. Part IV:Marketing Strategy. R. Burton, Teams as Brands: A Review of the Sports Licensing Concept. M. Jackowski, D.P. Gray, SportNEST: A Nested Approach to Segmenting the Sport Consumer Market. V. Dalakas, R. Madrigal, R. Burton, Understanding Ambush Marketing: Implications of Information Processing. Part V:Social Issues and Sports Marketing. S.J. Jackson, D.L. Andrews, Aggressive Marketing: Interrogating the Use of Violence in Sport-Related Advertising. T. Dewhirst, Smoke and Ashes: Tobacco Sponsorship of Sports and Regulatory Issues in Canada. J.J. Jackson, Social Marketing of Sport. T.P. Meyer, K. Gettleman, T.R. Donahue, Teenager's Perceptions of the Influence of Advertising and Price Versus Interpersonal, Social Factors on Their Purchases of Brand Name Athletic Shoes and Clothing.