The affective iconicity of lexical tone: Evidence from standard Chinesea).

Previous studies suggested that pitch characteristics of lexical tones in Standard Chinese influence various sensory perceptions, but whether they iconically bias emotional experience remained unclear. We analyzed the arousal and valence ratings of bi-syllabic words in two corpora (Study 1) and conducted an affect rating experiment using a carefully designed corpus of bi-syllabic words (Study 2). Two-alternative forced-choice tasks further tested the robustness of lexical tones' affective iconicity in an auditory nonce word context (Study 3).

Inhibitory maturation and ocular dominance plasticity in mouse visual cortex require astrocyte CB1 receptors.

Endocannabinoids, signaling through the cannabinoid CB1 receptor (CB1R), regulate several forms of neuronal plasticity. CB1Rs in the developing primary visual cortex (V1) play a key role in the maturation of inhibitory circuits. Although CB1Rs were originally thought to reside mainly on presynaptic axon terminals, several studies have highlighted an unexpected role for astrocytic CB1Rs in endocannabinoid mediated plasticity.

Experience shapes chandelier cell function and structure in the visual cortex.

Detailed characterization of interneuron types in primary visual cortex (V1) has greatly contributed to understanding visual perception, yet the role of chandelier cells (ChCs) in visual processing remains poorly characterized. Using viral tracing we found that V1 ChCs predominantly receive monosynaptic input from local layer 5 pyramidal cells and higher-order cortical regions. Two-photon calcium imaging and convolutional neural network modeling revealed that ChCs are visually responsive but weakly selective for stimulus content.

Thalamic regulation of ocular dominance plasticity in adult visual cortex.

Experience-dependent plasticity in the adult visual system is generally thought of as a cortical process. However, several recent studies have shown that perceptual learning or monocular deprivation can also induce plasticity in the adult dorsolateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the thalamus. How plasticity in the thalamus and cortex interact in the adult visual system is ill-understood.

Impaired Direction Selectivity in the Nucleus of the Optic Tract of Albino Mice.

Purpose: Human albinos have a low visual acuity. This is partially due to the presence of spontaneous erroneous eye movements called pendular nystagmus. This nystagmus is present in other albino vertebrates and has been hypothesized to be caused by aberrant wiring of retinal ganglion axons to the nucleus of the optic tract (NOT), a part of the accessory optic system involved in the optokinetic response to visual motion.