How does orientation-tuned normalization spread across the visual field?

Visuocortical responses are regulated by gain control mechanisms, giving rise to fundamental neural and perceptual phenomena such as surround suppression. Suppression strength, determined by the composition and relative properties of stimuli, controls the strength of neural responses in early visual cortex, and in turn, the subjective salience of the visual stimulus. Notably, suppression strength is modulated by feature similarity; for instance, responses to a center-surround stimulus in which the components are collinear to each other are weaker than when they are orthogonal.

Anion and Substituents Effect on Spectral-Kinetic and Biological Characteristics of Spiropyran Salts.

Spiropyran salts containing a cationic vinyl-3H-indolium moiety are characterized by NIR absorption and fluorescence of their merocyanine forms. This feature makes them promising fluorescent probes and markers for bioimaging. The article focuses on the synthesis and study of the spectral, kinetic and toxic characteristics of such compounds with respect to various substituents in different moieties and the type of anion.

Expression of Rhodococcus erythropolis stress genes in planctonic culture supplemented with various hydrocabons.

Studying Rhodococcus erythropolis stress response is of significant scientific interest, since this microorganism is widely used for bioremediation of oil-contaminated sites and is essential for environmental biotechnology. In addition, much less data was published on molecular mechanisms of stress resistance and adaptation to effects of pollutants for Gram-positive oil degraders compared to Gram-negative ones. This study provided an assessment of changes in the transcription level of the soxR, sodA, sodC, oxyR, katE, katG, recA, dinB, sigF, sigH genes in the presence of decane, hexadecane, cyclohexane, benzene, naphthalene, anthracene and diesel fuel.

The effects of emotional arousal on pupil size depend on luminance.

Pupillometry is widely used to measure arousal states. The primary functional role of the pupil, however, is to respond to the luminance of visual inputs. We previously demonstrated that cognitive effort-related arousal interacted multiplicatively with luminance, with the strongest pupillary effects of arousal occurring at low-to-mid luminances (< 37 cd/m), implying a narrow range of conditions ideal for assessing cognitive arousal-driven pupillary differences.

Differential cortical and subcortical visual processing with eyes shut.

Closing our eyes largely shuts down our ability to see. That said, our eyelids still pass some light, allowing our visual system to coarsely process information about visual scenes, such as changes in luminance. However, the specific impact of eye closure on processing within the early visual system remains largely unknown.