Shifts of spatial attention in perceived 3-D space.

Previous studies have shown that spatial attention can shift in three-dimensional (3-D) space determined by binocular disparity. Using Posner's precueing paradigm, the current work examined whether attentional selection occurs in perceived 3-D space defined by occlusion. Experiment 1 showed that shifts of spatial attention induced by central cues between two surfaces in the left and right visual fields did not differ between the conditions when the two surfaces were located at the same or different perceptual depth. In contrast, Experiment 2 found that peripheral cues generated a stronger cue validity effect when the two surfaces were perceived at a different rather than at the same perceptual depth. The results suggest that exogenous but not endogenous attention operates in perceived 3-D space.     

兰州市清真寺经堂教育调查研究

兰州是西北经堂教育的重要发展地。调查显示,在经堂学习的人数相当可观。近20年来兰州市清真寺经堂教育经历了传统继承期、改革尝试期、改革认同期三个阶段,现在处于传统与现代之间徘徊的“瓶颈”状态。改革是发展经堂教育的必由之路,改革的关键就是调整教育价值取向,同时,树立正规教育观和教育职业观。     

心理学中对假设检验一些批评的分析

根据假设检验原理的贝叶斯统计的表达方式分析和回应了心理学中对传统的假设检验方法的主要批评.认为:(1)确定假设的接受域不仅要考虑,同时也应该考虑以及这个假设的先验概率,而元分析方法的提出可看作对先验概率考虑的必然的逻辑结果;(2)零假设是可以接受的,但它的接受域只是备掸假设接受域余集的一个子集;(3)传统的假设检验方法需要其他方法的补充.     

Octopaminergic neurons have multiple targets in Drosophila larval mushroom body calyx and can modulate behavioral odor discrimination

Discrimination of sensory signals is essential for an organism to form and retrieve memories of relevance in a given behavioral context. Sensory representations are modified dynamically by changes in behavioral state, facilitating context-dependent selection of behavior, through signals carried by noradrenergic input in mammals, or octopamine (OA) in insects. To understand the circuit mechanisms of this signaling, we characterized the function of two OA neurons, sVUM1 neurons, that originate in the subesophageal zone (SEZ) and target the input region of the memory center, the mushroom body (MB) calyx, in larval Drosophila. We found that sVUM1 neurons target multiple neurons, including olfactory projection neurons (PNs), the inhibitory neuron APL, and a pair of extrinsic output neurons, but relatively few mushroom body intrinsic neurons, Kenyon cells. PN terminals carried the OA receptor Oamb, a Drosophila α1-adrenergic receptor ortholog. Using an odor discrimination learning paradigm, we showed that optogenetic activation of OA neurons compromised discrimination of similar odors but not learning ability. Our results suggest that sVUM1 neurons modify odor representations via multiple extrinsic inputs at the sensory input area to the MB olfactory learning circuit.

Behavioral choices depend on discrimination among “sensory objects,” which are neural representations of multiple coincident sensory inputs, across a range of sensory modalities. For example, “odor objects” (Gottfried 2009; Wilson and Sullivan 2011; Gire et al. 2013) are represented in sparse ensembles of neurons, that are coincidence detectors of multiple parallel inputs from odor quality channels. This principle is used widely in animals, including in mushroom bodies (MBs), the insect center for associative memory (Masuda-Nakagawa et al. 2005; Honegger et al. 2011), and in the piriform cortex (PCx) of mammals (Stettler and Axel 2009; Davison and Ehlers 2011).The selectivity of sensory representations can be modulated dynamically by changes in behavioral state, allowing an animal to learn and respond according to perceptual task. In mammals, the noradrenergic system originating in the locus coeruleus (LC) is implicated in signaling behavioral states such as attention, arousal and expectation (Aston-Jones and Cohen 2005; Sara and Bouret 2012).In insects, octopamine (OA), structurally and functionally similar to noradrenalin (NA) in mammals (Roeder 2005), can mediate changes in behavioral state that often promote activity; for example, sensitization of reflex actions in locusts (Sombati and Hoyle 1984), aggressive state in crickets (Stevenson et al. 2005), initiation and maintenance of flight state (Brembs et al. 2007; Suver et al. 2012), and enhanced excitability of Drosophila motion detection neurons during flight (Strother et al. 2018). Another role of OA is as a reward signal: A single OA neuron, VUMmx1, mediates the reinforcing function of unconditioned stimulus in the honeybee proboscis extension reflex (Hammer 1993; Hammer and Menzel 1998; Menzel 2012). In Drosophila, acquisition of appetitive memory is impaired in TβH mutants, unable to synthesize OA (Schwaerzel et al. 2003), and activation of OA neurons can substitute reinforcing stimulus in appetitive learning (Schroll et al. 2006). Moreover, OA receptors are necessary for reward learning in Drosophila (Burke et al. 2012) and crickets (Matsumoto et al. 2015).To understand the neural mechanisms of OA in higher order sensory discrimination, we used the simple sensory “cortex” of larval Drosophila, the calyx, which is the sensory input region of the mushroom bodies (MBs), the insect memory center. Here, each MB neuron (Kenyon cell [KC]) typically arborizes in several glomeruli, most of which are organized around the terminus of an olfactory projection neuron (PN); KCs thus combinatorially integrate multiple sensory input channels (Masuda-Nakagawa et al. 2005) and are coincidence detectors of multiple inputs. The APL provides inhibitory feedback (Lin et al. 2014; Masuda-Nakagawa et al. 2014) and helps to maintain KC sparse responses and odor selectivity (Honegger et al. 2011), analogous to inhibition in the mammalian PCx (Poo and Isaacson 2009; Stettler and Axel 2009; Gire et al. 2013). Thus, odors are represented as a sparse ensemble of KCs that are highly odor selective, a property beneficial for memory (Olshausen and Field 2004).In addition, the larval MB calyx is innervated by two OA neurons, sVUMmd1 and sVUMmx1, ventral unpaired medial neurons with dendritic fields originating in the mandibular and maxillary neuromeres, respectively, of the SEZ in the third instar larva (Selcho et al. 2014). sVUMmd1 and sVUMmx1 are named as OANa-1 and OANa-2, respectively, in the EM connectomic analysis of a 6-h first instar larva (Eichler et al. 2017; Supplemental Fig. 3 of Saumweber et al. 2018). These sVUM1 neurons also innervate the first olfactory neuropile of the antennal lobe (AL). This pattern of innervation is conserved in other insects, for example, the dorsal unpaired median (DUM) neurons in locusts (for review, see Bräunig and Pflüger 2001), the VUMmx1 neuron in honeybees (Hammer 1993; Schröter et al. 2007), and OA-VUMa2 neurons in adult Drosophila (Busch et al. 2009). In adult Drosophila, OA-VUMa2 neurons also show a dense innervation of the lateral horn, implicated in innate behaviors (Busch et al. 2009). The widespread innervation of the insect olfactory neuropiles also resembles the widespread NA innervation of mammalian olfactory processing areas, such as the olfactory bulb, and piriform cortex, by LC neurons originating in the brainstem.We characterized the innervation pattern and synaptic targets of sVUM1 neurons in the calyx, with MB intrinsic and also extrinsic neurons, the localization of the OA receptor Oamb in the calyx circuit, and the impact of sVUM1 neuron activation on behavioral odor discrimination. For this we used an appetitive conditioning paradigm, and tested the ability of larvae to discriminate between similar odors, as opposed to dissimilar odors. Since the larval connectome is based on a single brain, at first instar stage before octopaminergic connections have become as extensive as at third instar, and to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the synaptic targets of sVUM1s in the third-instar larval calyx, we extended our analysis to previously unanalyzed connectivity of VUM1s, to APL and PNs. Further, we combined light microscopy of third-instar larvae with the connectome described by Eichler et al. (2017).We find that sVUM1 neurons in third-instar larvae contact all the major classes of calyx neuron to some degree, consistent with EM synaptic analysis of the 6-h larva (Eichler et al. 2017). A GFP fusion of the OA receptor Oamb is localized in the terminals of PNs, and activating a subset of five SEZ neurons, including sVUM1 neurons, can affect discrimination of similar odors, without affecting underlying olfactory learning and memory ability. We suggest a broad modulatory effect of sVUM1 neurons in the calyx, including a potential role in modulating PN input at the second synapse in the olfactory pathway.     

惠洪觉范禅师与湖湘茶禅

惠洪觉范禅师是北宋著名的高僧.他在湖湘地区生活30余年,其间与茶禅结下了深厚的佛缘.本文讨论了惠洪禅师与茶禅的关系,撷录了他所著的有关湖湘茶禅的诗作,并做了分析,指出湖湘的深厚茶禅文化是惠洪禅师文学创作的渊源之一,也使他的佛学理论与诗作的禅意提升到新的境界.     

Concerns of Older Veteran Callers to the Veterans Crisis Line

When the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) was implemented, it was uncertain if veterans, and particularly older male veterans, would utilize the service. We examined VCL use by a growing group of veterans at increased risk for suicide: those aged 60 and older. Real‐time clinical data were gathered from a weekly random sampling of calls. Approximately 25% of calls were from veterans aged 60 or older; over 80% reported benefit from the call. Several significant differences in presenting concerns between older and younger callers were found. Targeted outreach to encourage older veterans to use the VCL is suggested.