Spontaneous saccades under different visual conditions in the pigeon.

Spontaneous saccades of both eyes were recorded in head-restrained pigeons placed in 6 different visual conditions (darkness and biocular, uniocular, frontal or lateral viewing). Most saccades (95%) were biocular and directed forward (around the beak axis) and backward (around the horizontal line). In the dark, the proportions of forward and backward saccades were different, they became symmetrical when the visual input involved either the left eye, the lateral fields or both eyes.

Specific respiratory patterns distinguish among human basic emotions.

Prototypical respiratory-facial-postural actions ('emotional effector patterns') related to six basic emotions had been extracted from an ensemble of physiological reactions present in subjects reliving intense emotional situations (Bloch & Santibañez, 1972). Subjects reproducing these actions could evoke the corresponding subjective experience, which suggested their use as an experimental model for generating controlled emotional states. The aim of the present study was to quantify the respiratory parameters which characterize the emotions of joy-laughter, sadness-crying, fear-anxiety, anger, erotic love and tenderness.

Interocular transfer of depth discrimination in intact and in DSO-sectioned pigeons.

Interocular transfer (IOT) of a depth discrimination task was studied in intact pigeons and with a section of the supraoptic decussation (DSO). Animals were trained to respond to the nearer of two small light emitting diodes placed at different depths in the left and right compartments of a black tunnel. The near stimulus (at 10.

Aminoglycosides and 3,4-diaminopyridine on neuromuscular block caused by botulinum type A toxin.

Impulse-evoked transmitter release was greatly reduced at frog neuromuscular junctions 3-20 days after botulinum type A toxin (BoTx) poisoning. The reduction in transmitter release was accompanied by an increased variability in the latency between the presynaptic spike and the release of transmitter. The aminoglycoside antibiotics amikacin, gentamycin, and bekanamycin, when applied at concentrations within their therapeutic levels, markedly enhanced the blockade of transmitter release in BoTx-poisoned junctions.

Enhancement by Anemonia sulcata toxin II of spontaneous quantal transmitter release from mammalian motor nerve terminals.

The action of Anemonia sulcata toxin II (ATX-II) on spontaneous quantal transmitter release from motor nerve terminals was investigated by recording miniature end-plate potentials (MEPPs) from isolated mouse phrenic nerve--hemidiaphragm nerve--muscle preparations. ATX-II (3.2 microM) when applied for 3-40 min to junctions bathed in a normal ionic medium enhanced about one hundred fold the rate of spontaneous MEPPs.