Spatial unmasking of birdsong in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) and budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus).

Budgerigars and zebra finches were tested, using operant conditioning techniques, on their ability to identify a zebra finch song in the presence of a background masker emitted from either the same or a different location as the signal. Identification thresholds were obtained for three masker types differing in their spectrotemporal characteristics (noise, modulated noise, and a song chorus). Both bird species exhibited similar amounts of spatial unmasking across the three masker types.

Short-latency, goal-directed movements of the pinnae to sounds that produce auditory spatial illusions.

The precedence effect (PE) is an auditory spatial illusion whereby two identical sounds presented from two separate locations with a delay between them are perceived as a fused single sound source whose position depends on the value of the delay. By training cats using operant conditioning to look at sound sources, we have previously shown that cats experience the PE similarly to humans. For delays less than +/-400 mus, cats exhibit summing localization, the perception of a "phantom" sound located between the sources.

Immunoinformatic comparison of T-cell epitopes contained in novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus with epitopes in 2008-2009 conventional influenza vaccine.

In March 2009 a novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV) emerged in Mexico and the Western United States. Vaccination with conventional influenza vaccine (CIV) does not result in cross-reactive antibodies, however, the disproportionate number of cases (37%) occurring among persons younger than 50 years old suggested that adaptive immune memory might be responsible for the relative lack of virulence in older, healthy adults. Using EpiMatrix, a T-cell epitope prediction and comparison tool, we compared the sequences of the three hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) proteins contained in 2008-2009 CIV to their counterparts in A/California/04/2009 (H1N1) looking for cross-conserved T-cell epitope sequences.

The Franssen effect illusion in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).

The properties of the Franssen effect (FE) were measured in budgerigars and zebra finches. To elicit the FE, listeners are presented with a signal which has been split into a transient component, carrying an abrupt onset and ramped offset and separated in space from the sustained component which has a slowly rising onset and longer duration. When these two signals are played under certain conditions, the perception is that of a long-duration steady state tone being played at the location of the transient.