Granzyme B degrades extracellular matrix and promotes inflammation and choroidal neovascularization.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common retinal neurodegenerative disease among the elderly. Neovascular AMD (nAMD), a leading cause of AMD-related blindness, involves choroidal neovascularization (CNV), which can be suppressed by anti-angiogenic treatments. However, current CNV treatments do not work in all nAMD patients.

The role of visual processing in motor learning and control: Insights from electroencephalography.

Traditionally our understanding of goal-directed action been derived from either behavioral findings or neuroanatomically derived imaging (i.e., fMRI).

Tactile gating in a reaching and grasping task.

Abstract A multitude of events bombard our sensory systems at every moment of our lives. Thus, it is important for the sensory cortex to gate unimportant events. Tactile suppression is a well-known phenomenon defined as a reduced ability to detect tactile events on the skin before and during movement.

Facilitating the use of online visual feedback: advance information and the inter-trial interval?

Cheng et al. (2008) showed that when goal-directed reaching movements are performed with a 2.5 s inter-trial interval (ITI) under a randomized visual feedback schedule, individuals use online visual information on trial n to perform efficient online corrections on trial n + 1 (i.

The utility of vision during action: multiple visuomotor processes?

Recently, D. Elliott et al. (2010) asserted that the current control phase of a movement could be segregated in multiple processes, including impulse and limb-target regulation processes.

Explicit knowledge and real-time action control: anticipating a change does not make us respond more quickly.

When the target of a goal-directed reach changes location, people normally respond rapidly and automatically to the target shift. Here, we investigate whether explicit knowledge about a moving target (knowing whether a location change is likely/unlikely) improves responsiveness, with the goal of understanding top-down effects on real-time reaching. In Experiment 1, we presented participants with pre-cues that indicated a 20 or 80% likelihood of a target perturbation on that trial.

Preceding movement effects on sequential aiming.

In this study, two experiments were devised to examine the control strategy used by individuals when performing sequential aiming movements. Of particular interest was the aiming behavior displayed when task difficulty was changed midway through a sequence of movements. In Experiment 1, target size was manipulated, as the targets were made either larger or smaller, between the 8th and 12th movement of the sequence.

Randomizing visual feedback in manual aiming: reminiscence of the previous trial condition and prior knowledge of feedback availability.

A trial-by-trial analysis was used to systematically examine the influence of switching visual conditions on visual feedback utilization for a manual aiming movement. In experiment one, vision was randomly manipulated from trial to trial with no more than four consecutive trials in the same visual condition. In experiment two, participants were provided with certainty of visual feedback availability prior to every trial.

The preparation and control of reversal movements as a single unit of action.

Previous research has demonstrated that movement time and kinematic properties of limb trajectories to the first target of a two-target reversal movement differ to that of single-target responses. In the present study we investigated whether two-target reversal movements are organized as a single unit of action or two separate components by perturbing the number of targets prior to and during movement execution. In one experiment, participants performed single-target movements and on one-third of the trials a second target was presented either at target presentation, movement onset or peak velocity.