1,720,958 research outputs found

    Signatures of cortical multisensory integration in mice performing a novel visuotactile evidence accumulation task

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    Much effort has been focused on studying how the brain processes information from our individual senses. However, the neural mechanisms, that allow the effortless integration of unisensory inputs into multisensory percepts, are largely unknown. To study how neural circuits integrate visual and tactile information, we developed a multisensory discrimination task for head-fixed mice. Here, two sequences of visual, tactile or combined visuotactile stimuli are presented on both sides of the mouse, which has to indicate the higher-rate target-side to obtain a water reward. To ensure integration of sensory information over the entire stimulus period, a short delay was added before the response. Mice achieved high accuracy in all conditions, with improved performance in the multisensory condition. This behavioral task gave us the opportunity to investigate the neural circuits that allow mice to synergistically use both the visual and tactile sensory information to solve the behavioral task. We then used widefield imaging to measure cortex-wide activity in transgenic mice expressing the Ca2+-indicator GCaMP6s in all cortical excitatory neurons. Here, we found that multisensory stimuli evoked higher neuronal activity compared to unisensory stimulation. This was most evident in the rostrolateral association area RL and parts of medial frontal cortex (mFC), which reliably responded to both visual and tactile stimuli. To better isolate sensory responses from co-occurring task- or behavior-related activity, we used a linear encoding model. Including a multisensory interaction-term significantly improved the predictions of cortical activity. With this approach we identified two key features of sensory evoked responses, depending on the stimulus condition. First, in unisensory trials mice display cross-modal inhibition. Here, in addition to the main sensory responses in the corresponding sensory cortex, robust inhibition of activity in the non-matching sensory cortex was found. Second, we found additional superadditive responses in multisensory trials, likely representing the absence of cross-modal inhibition as well as increased activity in areas RL and mFC. To understand how sensory information is used to guide behavioral decisions, we first investigated which brain areas displayed activity that reliably reflected the target stimulus side. Here, the medial motor cortex more faithfully reflected the target-side in tactile trials, while secondary visual areas were more reliable in visual trials. In multisensory trials, both regions accurately reflected the target-side, likely resulting in higher certainty and improved performance in multisensory trials. Finally, using a choice-decoder we identified choice-related neural activity in the anterolateral motor cortex (ALM), as well as in licking-related regions of the primary motor and somatosensory cortex. With this approach, we found no clear modality-specific differences, suggesting that the same neural circuits form decisions in all stimulus conditions. Our results demonstrate that multisensory stimulation cause widespread cortical activation in mice, which leads to improved task performance. Here, cross-modal inhibition in unisensory trials and superadditive multisensory integration especially in RL and mFC were found in multisensory trials, likely aiding mice in performing the individual task condition. Sensory information is then accumulated over the stimulus period in secondary visual areas and medial motor cortex and this information converges in the secondary motor cortex to form modality-unspecific decisions. These findings give us a much deeper understanding of how the brain processes and generalizes sensory information in order to guide behavioral decisions

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used

    Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902

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    In Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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