PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Fly brains filter out visual information caused by their own movements, like humans

2015-08-03
(Press-News.org) Our brains are constantly barraged with sensory information, but have an amazing ability to filter out just what they need to understand what's going on around us. For instance, if you stand perfectly still in a room, and that room rotates around you, it's terrifying. But stand still in a room and turn your eyes, and the same visual input feels perfectly normal. That's thanks to a complex process in our brain that tell us when and how to pay attention to sensory input. Specifically, we ignore visual input caused by our own eye movements.

Now, researchers at The Rockefeller University have identified a similar process in flies, whose brains ignore visual input caused by their own flight turns. This advance will allow researchers to better understand how ongoing behavior influences visual perception.

"Fly brains are small, so discovering that flies can 'silence' visual inputs means that we can aim for a comprehensive understanding of how this silencing process is implemented," says study author Gaby Maimon, head of the Laboratory of Integrative Brain Function at Rockefeller. Postdoctoral fellows Anmo J. Kim and Jamie K. Fitzgerald, alongside Maimon, report their findings in the August issue of Nature Neuroscience.

By studying the details of this silencing mechanism in flies, we will gain a better understanding of how what we do influences what we see, Maimon says. These mechanisms are disrupted in people with schizophrenia, who have trouble interpreting sensory input properly.

In 1950, researchers Erich von Holst and Horst Mittelstaedt performed a simple experiment: They rotated the environment surrounding flies, and saw they walked in circles in response. But when flies perform a normal turn while walking, they also experience a similarly rotating stimulus on their retina, which they happily ignore. The researchers postulated that the brain must contain a mechanism that tells organisms to ignore what they see when they rotate their eyes or bodies. But the scientists didn't have the technology to prove it.

To determine if silencing does, in fact, happen in flies, Kim, Fitzgerald, and Maimon attached flies to a tiny harness that allows the animals to flap their wings in tethered flight-- the flying equivalent of walking on a treadmill -- while the experimenters measured electrical activity from neurons. When these flies attempted to turn left or right, the researchers saw electrical signals that indicated the motor part of the brain was briefly silencing the visual part, says Maimon says. "In simple terms, the motor part of the brain is telling the visual part 'don't pay attention to this information, this is not relevant to anything that's happening in the world.'"

Scientists have seen signatures of the same process in primate brains, but because humans and other primates have billions of neurons, it's difficult to understand the precise mechanisms involved, Maimon says. "Since fly brains contain 100,000 times fewer neurons than human brains, we should be able to develop a much deeper understanding of this process, and build a blueprint for how to think about sensory silencing across all animals, and, ultimately, even humans."

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Cassiopeia's hidden gem: The closest rocky, transiting planet

Cassiopeias hidden gem: The closest rocky, transiting planet
2015-08-03
Skygazers at northern latitudes are familiar with the W-shaped star pattern of Cassiopeia the Queen. This circumpolar constellation is visible year-round near the North Star. Tucked next to one leg of the W lies a modest 5th-magnitude star named HD 219134 that has been hiding a secret. Astronomers have now teased out that secret: a planet in a 3-day orbit that transits, or crosses in front of its star. At a distance of just 21 light-years, it is by far the closest transiting planet to Earth, which makes it ideal for follow-up studies. Moreover, it is the nearest rocky ...

Shifting winds, ocean currents doubled endangered Galápagos penguin population

2015-08-03
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Shifts in trade winds and ocean currents powered a resurgence of endangered Galápagos penguins over the past 30 years, according to a new study. These changes enlarged a cold pool of water the penguins rely on for food and breeding - an expansion that could continue as the climate changes over the coming decades, the study's authors said. The Galápagos Islands, a chain of islands 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) west of mainland Ecuador, are home to the only penguins in the Northern Hemisphere. The 48-centimeter (19-inch) tall black and white ...

The uneasy, unbreakable link of money, medicine

2015-08-03
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Even after centuries of earnest oaths and laws, the debate about whether money compromises medicine remains unresolved, observes Dr. Eli Adashi in a new paper in the AMA Journal of Ethics. The problem might not be truly intractable, he said, but recent reforms will likely make little progress or difference. "This is one of those things we have to appreciate as being with us for a long time," said Adashi, former dean of medicine and biological sciences at Brown University. "It will probably be with us forever. It's probably not entirely ...

Veterans returning from Middle East face higher skin cancer risk

2015-08-03
Soldiers who served in the glaring desert sunlight of Iraq and Afghanistan returned home with an increased risk of skin cancer, due not only to the desert climate, but also a lack of sun protection, Vanderbilt dermatologist Jennifer Powers, M.D., reports in a study published recently in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. "The past decade of United States combat missions, including operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, have occurred at a more equatorial latitude than the mean center of the United States population, increasing the potential for ultraviolet irradiance ...

New approach for making vaccines for deadly diseases

2015-08-03
PHILADELPHIA - Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have devised an entirely new approach to vaccines - creating immunity without vaccination. The study, published in Scientific Reports, demonstrated that animals injected with synthetic DNA engineered to encode a specific neutralizing antibody against the dengue virus were capable of producing the exact antibodies necessary to protect against disease, without the need for standard antigen-based vaccination. Importantly, this approach, termed DMAb, was rapid, protecting animals ...

When farm to table means crossing international borders

2015-08-03
With Congress currently debating the repeal of mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for meat and poultry - federal law in the US since 2002 - new research from the Sam W. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas shines a spotlight on how COOL labeling affects consumers' purchase decisions. In "A COOL Effect: The Direct and Indirect Impact of Country-of-Origin Disclosures on Purchase Intentions for Retail Food Products," appearing in the September issue of the Journal of Retailing, Marketing Professors Elizabeth Howlett and Scot Burton, along with ...

MIPT researchers clear the way for fast plasmonic chips

2015-08-03
Researches from the Laboratory of Nanooptics and Plasmonics at the MIPT Center of Nanoscale Optoelectronics have developed a new method for optical communication on a chip, which will give a possibility to decrease the size of optical and optoelectronic elements and increase the computer performance several tenfold. According to their article published in Optics Express, they have proposed the way to completely eliminate energy losses of surface plasmons in optical devices. "Surface plasmon polaritons have previously been proposed to be used as information carriers for ...

Can we save the strawberries? (video)

Can we save the strawberries? (video)
2015-08-03
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2015 -- Strawberries are sweet, juicy and delightful. Unfortunately, an expiring federal pesticide exemption could mean 2016 will be the end of strawberries in the U.S. How can we protect our strawberries from pests and comply with federal fumigant standards? In this Speaking of Chemistry video, Sophia Cai explains the problem and some possible solutions. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/noaec9-BmwU. Speaking of Chemistry is a production of Chemical & Engineering News, a weekly magazine of the American Chemical Society. The program features fascinating, ...

Engineered clotting protein stops bleeding in most common inherited bleeding disorder

2015-08-03
(WASHINGTON, August 3, 2015) - The first protein engineered to help control bleeding episodes in patients with severe von Willebrand disease (vW disease) has been shown to be safe and effective, according to results of a Phase III trial. Study data were published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology When a blood vessel becomes damaged, a protein called von Willebrand factor (vWF) helps stop bleeding by guiding clot-forming platelets to the injury. vWF serves as the "glue" that helps platelets stick to a wound. Approximately 1 percent ...

New survey to distinguishing between expectable vs. worrisome early childhood misbehavior

2015-08-03
Researchers at Northwestern University are using a novel dimensional method for distinguishing misbehavior that is expectable in early childhood versus that which is cause for clinical concern. Their study is published in the August 2015 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Using a survey developed by the researchers to enhance precision of clinical identification in early childhood the Multidimensional Assessment Profile of Disruptive Behavior (MAP-DB), scientists obtained mothers' reports of their preschoolers' irritability ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

iRECODE: A new computational method that brings clarity to single-cell analysis

New NUS-MOH study: Singapore’s healthcare sector carbon emissions 18% lower than expected, a milestone in the city-state’s net zero journey

QUT scientists create material to turn waste heat into clean power

Major new report sets out how to tackle the ‘profound and lasting impact’ of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health

Cosmic crime scene: White dwarf found devouring Pluto-like icy world

Major report tackles Covid’s cardiovascular crisis head-on

A third of licensed GPs in England not working in NHS general practice

ChatGPT “thought on the fly” when put through Ancient Greek maths puzzle

Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air

GLP-1RA drugs dramatically reduce death and cardiovascular risk in psoriasis patients

Psoriasis linked to increased risk of vision-threatening eye disease, study finds

Reprogramming obesity: New drug from Italian biotech aims to treat the underlying causes of obesity

Type 2 diabetes may accelerate development of multiple chronic diseases, particularly in the early stages, UK Biobank study suggests

Resistance training may improve nerve health, slow aging process, study shows

Common and inexpensive medicine halves the risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer

SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events

Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design

New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients

Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?

Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain

Decoding plants’ language of light

UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC

New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury

New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows

Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5

In the wild, chimpanzees likely ingest the equivalent of several alcoholic drinks every day

Warming of 2°C intensifies Arctic carbon sink but weakens Alpine sink, study finds

Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production

Indian adolescents are mostly starting their periods at an earlier age than 25 years ago

[Press-News.org] Fly brains filter out visual information caused by their own movements, like humans