FMRI activation that has been shown to adapt depending on the repetition rate was studied Pifithrin �� with a streaming paradigm where two tones were differently lateralized by ITD. Listeners were presented with five different ΔITD conditions (62.5, 125, 187.5, 343.75, or 687.5 μs) out of an active baseline with no ΔITD during fMRI. The results showed reduced adaptation for conditions with ΔITD ≥ 125 μs, reflected by enhanced sustained BOLD activity. The percentage of streaming perception for these stimuli increased from approximately 20% for ΔITD = 62.5 μs to > 60% for ΔITD = 125 μs. No further sustained BOLD enhancement was observed when the ΔITD was increased beyond ΔITD
= 125 μs, whereas the streaming probability continued to increase up to 90% for ΔITD = 687.5 μs. Conversely, the transient BOLD response, at the transition from baseline to ΔITD blocks, increased most prominently as ΔITD was increased from 187.5 to 343.75 μs. These results demonstrate a clear dissociation of transient and sustained components of the BOLD activity in auditory cortex. “
“Animal physiological and human psychophysical studies suggest that an early step in visual processing involves the detection and identification of features such as lines and edges, by neural mechanisms with even- and odd-symmetric receptive fields. Functional imaging studies also demonstrate
mechanisms with even- and odd-receptive fields in early visual areas, in response to luminance-modulated stimuli. In this study we measured fMRI BOLD responses to 2-D stimuli composed of only even or only odd symmetric features, and to an amplitude-matched random noise control, modulated in BTK inhibitor red–green equiluminant colour contrast. All these stimuli had identical power but different phase spectra, either highly congruent (even or odd symmetry stimuli) or random (noise). At equiluminance, V1 BOLD
activity showed no preference between congruent- and random-phase stimuli, as well as no preference between even and odd symmetric stimuli. Areas higher in the visual hierarchy, both along the dorsal pathway (caudal part of the intraparietal sulcus, dorsal LO and V3A) and the ventral pathway (V4), responded preferentially to odd symmetry over even symmetry stimuli, and to congruent over random phase stimuli. Interestingly, Guanylate cyclase 2C V1 showed an equal increase in BOLD activity at each alternation between stimuli of different symmetry, suggesting the existence of specialised mechanisms for the detection of edges and lines such as even- and odd-chromatic receptive fields. Overall the results indicate a high selectivity of colour-selective neurons to spatial phase along both the dorsal and the ventral pathways in humans. “
“The Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) paradigm probes the influence of Pavlovian cues over instrumentally learned behavior. The paradigm has been used extensively to probe basic cognitive and motivational processes in studies of animal learning.