Modulation Of Information Processing Research Articles

Research on Information Processing Module in Intelligent Alcohol Tester

Information processing module, which includes fuel cell sensor circuit, pressure sensor circuit, heating and temperature sensor circuit and signal filtering amplifier, is the core of Intelligent Alcohol Tester. Its main task is to complete the collection and pretreatment of alcohol gas signal. In this paper, the hardware module is first simply introduced. And next, test method and the relevant criteria are done to prove that the modules have good accuracy and stability and achieve the requirements of alcohol tester.

Differential sensitivity of the Brattleboro rat to glutamatergic and dopaminergic perturbation

Background: The vasopressin deficient Brattleboro (BRAT) rats have behavioral impairments which mimic those seen in other schizophrenia models. However, the mechanism by which vasopressin produces these behavioral abnormalities is unclear. Notably, elevations in dopamine signaling as well as reductions in glutamatergic signaling have been associated with behavioral impairments consistent with those observed in the BRAT rats. Therefore, a potential mechanism for vasopressin induces behavioral abnormalities could be through modulation of dopamine or glutamate signaling. Consequently, the aim of this study was to assess the modulatory function of vasopressin on dopamine and NMDA signaling. Methods: Single intraperitoneal injection of amphetamine (0.5 mg/kg), a dopamine agonist, and MK801 (0.25 mg/kg), a NMDA antagonist, were used to assess vasopressin (VP) modulatory activity on dopaminergic and glutamatergic pre-pulse inhibition of startle (PPI), social interaction and auditory event related potential (ERPs) impairments in BRAT and littermate control WT rats. Results: MK801-induced impairments were consistent and not significantly different between WT and BRAT rats suggesting minimal modulatory activity of vasopressin on NMDA signaling. In contrast, amphetamine-induced deficits were genotype dependent. In control animals, amphetamine caused a statistically significant deficit in PPI and social interaction whereas there was no effect in BRAT rats. Conversely, ERP components were unaltered in control rats, whereas N40 amplitude, evoked gamma power, and gamma signal to noise ratio were all elevated in BRAT rats. Conclusions: The ERP component analyses of BRAT rats treated with amphetamine suggest modulation of auditory information processing through interplay between dopaminergic and vasopressin. However, the behavioral and electrophysiological evidence presented here also suggest that vasopressin does not modulate glutamatergic signaling through NMDA receptors. Further evidence in necessary to determine the interaction between vasopressin and dopamine signaling and future studies are necessary to comprehend glutamatergic interactions with vasopressin that are not NMDA-mediated.

Lipid Transmitter Signaling as a New Target for Treatment of Cocaine Addiction: New Roles for Acylethanolamides and Lysophosphatidic Acid

This review analyzes the roles of lipid transmitters, especially those derived from the cleavage of membrane phospholipids, in cocaine-associated behaviors. These lipid signals are important modulators of information processing in the brain, affecting transmitter release, neural plasticity, synaptogenesis, neurogenesis, and cellular energetics. This broad range of actions makes them suitable targets for pharmaceutical development of cocaine addiction therapies because they participate in the main cellular processes underlying the neuroadaptations associated with chronic use of this psychostimulant. The main lipid transmitters reviewed here include a) acylethanolamides and acylglycerols acting on cannabinoid receptors, such as anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol; b) acylethanolamides that do not act on cannabinoid receptors, such as oleoylethanolamide; c) eicosanoids derived from arachidonic acid, including prostaglandins; and d) lysophosphatidic acid, focusing on the role of its LPA-1 receptor. Direct experimental evidence for the significance of these lipids in cocaine-related behaviors is presented and discussed. Additionally, the roles for both their biosynthesis and degradation pathways, as well as the participation of their receptors, are examined. Overall, lipid transmitter signaling can offer new targets for the development of therapies for cocaine addiction.

Development of control systems for GSM/GPS/MCU devices based on USB

The development of control systems for integrated GSM/ GPS/MCU-devices, which are used in information systems for moving objects, is considered in the paper. The main purpose of the study is the selection of components and development of the system structure, taking into account the need of using the USB interface. Definition of the weak points of the structure and possibilities of their improvement is carried out. As a result of the conducted researches, the system structure, the main element of which is a hardware USB-bridge, is proposed. The control system for the portable control device, which is connected directly to the USB-bridge, is developed. It was found that the use of RAM by the control device can be reduced using the additional information processing module, which performs the filtering function. The research results can be used in the development of information systems for moving objects.

Expression of 5-HT2A receptors in prefrontal cortex pyramidal neurons projecting to nucleus accumbens. Potential relevance for atypical antipsychotic action

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in higher brain functions altered in schizophrenia. Classical antipsychotic drugs modulate information processing in cortico-limbic circuits via dopamine D2 receptor blockade in nucleus accumbens (NAc) whereas atypical antipsychotic drugs preferentially target cortical serotonin (5-HT) receptors. The brain networks involved in the therapeutic action of atypical drugs are not fully understood. Previous work indicated that medial PFC (mPFC) pyramidal neurons projecting to ventral tegmental area express 5-HT2A receptors suggesting that atypical antipsychotic drugs modulate dopaminergic activity distally, via 5-HT2A receptor (5-HT2A-R) blockade in PFC. Since the mPFC also projects heavily to NAc, we examined whether NAc-projecting pyramidal neurons also express 5-HT2A-R. Using a combination of retrograde tracing experiments and in situ hybridization we report that a substantial proportion of mPFC-NAc pyramidal neurons in rat brain express 5-HT2A-R mRNA in a layer- and area-specific manner (up to 68% in layer V of contralateral cingulate). The functional relevance of 5-HT2A-R to modulate mPFC-NAc projections was examined in dual-probe microdialysis experiments. The application of the preferential 5-HT2A-R agonist DOI into mPFC enhanced glutamate release locally (+66 ± 18%) and in NAc (+74 ± 12%) indicating that cortical 5-HT2A-R activation augments glutamatergic transmission in NAc. Since NAc integrates glutamatergic and dopaminergic inputs, blockade of 5-HT2A-R by atypical drugs may reduce cortical excitatory inputs onto GABAergic neurons of NAc, adding to dopamine D2 receptor blockade. Together with previous observations, the present results suggest that atypical antipsychotic drugs may control the activity of the mesolimbic pathway at cell body and terminal level.

Multiple-Agent Task Allocation Algorithm Utilizing Ant Colony Optimization

Task allocation in multiple agent system has been widely applied many application fields, such as unmanned aerial vehicle, multi-robot system and manufacturing system et al. Therefore, it becomes one of the hot topics in distributed artificial intelligence research field for several years. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel task allocation algorithm in multiple agent systems utilizing ant colony optimization. Firstly, the basic structure of agent organization is described, which include context-aware module, information processing module, the executing module, decision-making and intelligent control module, knowledge base and task table. Based the above agent structure, these module utilize the knowledge in the external environment to process the information in agent communicating. Secondly, we point out that task allocation process in multiple agent systems can be implement by creating the space to the mapping of the multi-agent organization. Thirdly, a modified multiple agent system oriented ant colony optimization algorithm is given, which contain pre-processing steps and the task allocation results are obtained by executing the trust region sqp algorithm in local solver. Finally, performance evaluation is conducted by experiments comparing with Random strategy and Instant optimal strategy, and very positive results are obtained

Non-Hebbian Long-Term Potentiation of Inhibitory Synapses in the Thalamus

The thalamus integrates and transmits sensory information to the neocortex. The activity of thalamocortical relay (TC) cells is modulated by specific inhibitory circuits. Although this inhibition plays a crucial role in regulating thalamic activity, little is known about long-term changes in synaptic strength at these inhibitory synapses. Therefore, we studied long-term plasticity of inhibitory inputs to TC cells in the posterior medial nucleus of the thalamus by combining patch-clamp recordings with two-photon fluorescence microscopy in rat brain slices. We found that specific activity patterns in the postsynaptic TC cell induced inhibitory long-term potentiation (iLTP). This iLTP was non-Hebbian because it did not depend on the timing between presynaptic and postsynaptic activity, but it could be induced by postsynaptic burst activity alone. iLTP required postsynaptic dendritic Ca(2+) influx evoked by low-threshold Ca(2+) spikes. In contrast, tonic postsynaptic spiking from a depolarized membrane potential (-50 mV), which suppressed these low-threshold Ca(2+) spikes, induced no plasticity. The postsynaptic dendritic Ca(2+) increase triggered the synthesis of nitric oxide that retrogradely activated presynaptic guanylyl cyclase, resulting in the presynaptic expression of iLTP. The dependence of iLTP on the membrane potential and therefore on the postsynaptic discharge mode suggests that this form of iLTP might occur during sleep, when TC cells discharge in bursts. Therefore, iLTP might be involved in sleep state-dependent modulation of thalamic information processing and thalamic oscillations.

Rapid and Continuous Modulation of Hippocampal Network State during Exploration of New Places

Hippocampal information processing is often described as two-state, with a place cell state during movement and a reactivation state during stillness. Relatively little is known about how the network transitions between these different patterns of activity during exploration. Here we show that hippocampal network changes quickly and continuously as animals explore and become familiar with initially novel places. We measured the relationship between moment-by-moment changes in behavior and information flow through hippocampal output area CA1 in rats. We examined local field potential (LFP) patterns, evoked potentials and ensemble spiking and found evidence suggestive of a smooth transition from strong CA3 drive of CA1 activity at low speeds to entorhinal cortical drive of CA1 activity at higher speeds. These changes occurred with changes in behavior on a timescale of less than a second, suggesting a continuous modulation of information processing in the hippocampal circuit as a function of behavioral state.

Fixed Telephone Intelligent Voice Service System on Telecom Platform

Its based on the voice value-added business booming and combined with the value-added service of mobile and network so that the fixed telephone intelligent voice service system is put forward in the paper. The system is constituted with voice rafting business and fixed telephone business like we chat, which is constructed by voice acquisition, number identification, voice feedback and customer information processing module. The rafting business is devoted to solve the difficulty that the users have communication impediment in different time domain. And the business is used availably for work and amusement through orientation conveying or not. The applied range of we chat is broadened because of the fixed telephone business like we chat. The fixed telephone business like we chat is realized by the store-and-forward way to achieve the communication with real time and different time domain. The birth of the new business model will bring consumers the different experience and feelings. The general control scheme, general structure, software modules, business content and running process are included in the paper of the detailed content, and then make the analysis of the dominance of the IVSS (Intelligent Voice Service System).

Software Design of Smart Car Tracking with Camera

The software design ideas of smart car tracking with camera are described. The following modules are discussed: the main function structure, the initialization of each module, road information collecting module, road information processing module, servo control module and motor control module. The repeated debugging and the real operation of the smart car show that it can accurately collect the road information, control flexibly, run stably, and its velocity reaches 2.2m/s.

Predicting depression based on dynamic regional connectivity: A windowed Granger causality analysis of MEG recordings

Abnormal inter-regional causalities can be mapped for the objective diagnosis of various diseases. These inter-regional connectivities are usually calculated over an entire scan and used to characterize the stationary strength of the connections. However, the connectivity within networks may undergo substantial changes during a scan. In this study, we developed an objective depression recognition approach using the dynamic regional interactions that occur in response to sad facial stimuli. The whole time-period magnetoencephalography (MEG) signals from the visual cortex, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were separated into sequential time intervals. The Granger causality mapping method was used to identify the pairwise interaction pattern within each time interval. Feature selection was then undertaken within a minimum redundancy-maximum relevance (mRMR) framework. Typical classifiers were utilized to predict those patients who had depression. The overall performances of these classifiers were similar, and the highest classification accuracy rate was 87.5%. The best discriminative performance was obtained when the number of features was within a robust range. The discriminative network pattern obtained through support vector machine (SVM) analyses displayed abnormal causal connectivities that involved the amygdala during the early and late stages. These early and late connections in the amygdala appear to reveal a negative bias to coarse expression information processing and abnormal negative modulation in patients with depression, which may critically affect depression discrimination.

Cholinesterase inhibitor, donepezil, improves visual contrast detectability in freely behaving rats

Acetylcholine (ACh) modulates neuronal activities in extensive brain regions to play an essential role in various brain functions including attention, learning and memory, and cognition. Although ACh is known to modulate information processing in the primary visual cortex (V1) in many species including rodent, its functional role in visual ability has remained unknown. We examined whether and how ACh influences behavioral contrast detectability in rat. The detectability was assessed as the contrast sensitivity (CS) to a grating stimulus. Measurements were performed in a two-alternative forced-choice task combined with a staircase method in freely behaving rats. The contrast sensitivity function of rats under the no drug condition showed a low-pass spatial frequency (SF) tuning peaking at 0.1cycles/degree (cpd) of SF (SFpeak) that bottomed at 0.5cpd (SFbottom), which was sensitive to the stimulus size, but to neither the temporal frequency nor orientation of the stimulus. The stimulus size was correlated with the CS only at the low SF range. The effect of donepezil on the size- and SF-dependency of the CS was examined using three stimulus conditions: an easy detectability condition with large grating at SFpeak, a difficult detectability condition with small grating at SFpeak, and an upper limit SF condition with large grating at SFbottom. Donepezil improved the CS at SFpeak, especially in the difficult detectability condition. Therefore, we conclude that ACh plays an important role in enhancing behavioral CS at sensitive SF ranges, but not in improving the upper limit of SF.

Demand and modality of directed attention modulate “pre-attentive” sensory processes in schizophrenia patients and nonpsychiatric controls

BackgroundMismatch negativity (MNN) and P3a are event related potential (ERP) measures of early sensory information processing. These components are usually conceptualized as being “pre-attentive” and therefore immune to changes with variations in attentional functioning. This study aimed to determine whether manipulations of attention influence the amplitudes and latencies of MMN and P3a and, if so, the extent to which these early sensory processes govern concurrent behavioral vigilance performance in schizophrenia patients and normal subjects. MethodsSchizophrenia patients (SZ; n=20) and Nonpsychiatric Control Subjects (NCS; n=20) underwent auditory ERP testing to assess MMN and P3a across 4 EEG recording sessions in which attentional demand (low vs. high) and sensory modality of directed attention (visual vs. auditory) were experimentally varied. ResultsAcross conditions, SZ patients exhibited deficits in MMN and P3a amplitudes. Significant amplitude and latency modulation were observed in both SZ and NCS but there were no group-by-condition interactions. The amount of MMN amplitude attenuation from low- to high-demand tasks was significantly associated with increased vigilance performance in both SZ and NCS groups (r=−0.67 and r=−0.60). Several other robust associations were also observed among neurophysiologic, clinical and cognitive variables. ConclusionsAttentional demand and modality of directed attention significantly influence the amplitude and latencies of “pre-attentive” ERP components in both SZ and NCS. Deficits in MMN and P3a were not “normalized” when attention was directed to the auditory stimuli in schizophrenia patients. The adaptive modulation of early sensory information processing appears to govern concurrent attentional task performance. The temporal window reflecting automatic sensory discrimination as indexed as MMN and P3a may serve as a gateway to some higher order cognitive operations necessary for psychosocial functioning.

Research on Detecting Radio Amendatory Channel

Radio amendatory channel is used in command guidance for missile, whose working state has direct influence on the precision of a missile. Therefore, it’s necessary to design a radio frequency detector for cycle detection of radio amendatory channel. After analyzing operating principle of the radio amendatory channel, the paper proposes a detecting program, introduces hardware and software design of radio frequency detector including high frequency receiving module, intermediate frequency receiving module and information processing module. The radio frequency detector has been applied in detecting airborne radio amendatory channel successfully improving support efficiency, and provides a reference for detecting other radio frequency.

Development of Intelligent Controlled System for Object Special-Shaped Stone

A new intelligent control system for a new type equipment of special-shaped stone machining is presented, it can reach high quality of intelligent machining for the special-shaped stone production. The hardware platform use universal IPC as kernel, which consists of IPC, embedded micro-computer system, SCM(Single Chip Micyoco). The CAD/CAM system consists of 3 sub-modules: graphic information processing module, 3-dimention dynamic modeling and simulating module and machining implementing module.

Research on Next Generation Networks Resource Addressing Based on IPv6

The current Internet addressing systems no longer adapt to the addressing mechanism of next generation network. This paper designed a Port Layer which was consist of Application Platform Interface Module, Resources Information Processing Module and Subnet Access Adapter Module to realize the connection of resource and the integration network of IPv6. The Port Layer addressing mechanism encoded resource in variable length with mixed classification, extended resource coding to 64-bit as the interface ID in the IPv6 address by automatically distributing the extension prefix, which is aim to supply dynamic addressing for mobile resource. This mechanism provides the theoretic foundation for the connection of the cyber world, the physical world and the cognition world.

Functional Properties of Cortical Feedback Projections to the Olfactory Bulb

Sensory perception is not a simple feed-forward process, and higher brain areas can actively modulate information processing in "lower" areas. We used optogenetic methods to examine how cortical feedback projections affect circuits in the first olfactory processing stage, the olfactory bulb. Selective activation of back projections from the anterior olfactory nucleus/cortex (AON) revealed functional glutamatergic synaptic connections on several types of bulbar interneurons. Unexpectedly, AON axons also directly depolarized mitral cells (MCs), enough to elicit spikes reliably in a time window of a few milliseconds. MCs received strong disynaptic inhibition,a third of which arises in the glomerular layer. Activating feedback axons invivo suppressed spontaneous as well as odor-evoked activity of MCs, sometimes preceded by a temporally precise increase in firing probability. Our study indicates that cortical feedback can shape the activity of bulbar output neurons by enabling precisely timed spikes and enforcing broad inhibition to suppress background activity.

Chronic tryptophan deprivation attenuates gating deficits induced by 5-HT1A, but not 5-HT2 receptor activation

The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) exerts a multifaceted function in the modulation of information processing, through the activation of multiple receptor families. In particular, stimulation of 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors leads to sensorimotor gating impairments and perceptual perturbations. Previous evidence has shown that chronic deprivation of l-tryptophan (TRP), the precursor of 5-HT, results in marked reductions of 5-HT brain levels, as well as neuroplastic alterations in 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A expression and/or signaling. Building on these premises, in the present study we tested whether a prolonged TRP deprivation may differentially impact the roles of these receptors in the regulation of the prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex, a dependable index of gating. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed for 14 days with either a regimen with negligible TRP content (TR−) or the same diet supplemented of TRP (TR+). At the end of this schedule, rats were treated with the prototypical 5-HT1A receptor agonist 8-OH-DPAT (62.5–250μg/kg, subcutaneous, s.c.) or the 5-HT2 receptor agonist DOI (0.25–1mg/kg, s.c.). Notably, the PPI deficits induced by 8-OH-DPAT in TR− rats were significantly milder than those observed in their TR+ counterparts; these effects were fully prevented by the 5-HT1A antagonist WAY-100135 (10mg/kg, intraperitoneal). Conversely, TRP deprivation did not affect the PPI-disrupting properties of DOI. These findings suggest that prolonged 5-HT depletion attenuates the influence of 5-HT1A, but not 5-HT2 receptors on sensorimotor gating, confirming the distinct mechanisms of these two targets in PPI regulation.

The spotlight of attention: shifting, resizing and splitting receptive fields when processing visual motion

Abstract In the visual system receptive fields repre­sent the spatial selectivity of neurons for a given set of visual inputs. Their invariance is thought to be caused by a hardwired in­put configuration, which ensures a stable ‘la­beled line’ code for the spatial position of vi­sual stimuli. On the other hand, changeable receptive fields can provide the visual system with flexibility for allocating processing re­sources in space. The allocation of spatial at­tention, often referred to as the spotlight of attention, is a behavioral equivalent of visu­al receptive fields. It dynamically modulates the spatial sensitivity to visual information as a function of the current attentional focus of the organism. Here we focus on the brain sys­tem for encoding visual motion information and review recent findings documenting in­teractions between spatial attention and re­ceptive fields in the visual cortex of primates. Such interactions create a careful balance be­tween the benefits of invariance with those derived from the attentional modulation of information processing according to the cur­rent behavioral goals.

Bichromatic field generation from double-four-wave mixing in a double-electromagnetically induced transparency system

We demonstrate double electromagnetically induced transparency (double-EIT) and double four-wave mixing (double-FWM) based on a new scheme of non-degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) involving five levels of a cold 85Rb atomic ensemble, in which the double-EIT windows are used to transmit the probe field and enhance the third-order nonlinear susceptibility. The phase-matching conditions for both four-wave mixings can be satisfied simultaneously. The frequency of one component of the generated bichromatic field is less than the other by ground-state hyperfine splitting (3 GHz). This specially designed experimental scheme for simultaneously generating different nonlinear wave-mixing processes is expected to find applications in quantum information processing and cross-phase modulation. Our results agree well with the theoretical simulation.