Keep your finger on the pulse: Better rate perception and gap detection with vibrotactile compared to visual stimuli.

Important characteristics of the environment can be represented in the temporal pattern of sensory stimulation. In two experiments, we compared accuracy of temporal processing by different modalities. Experiment 1 examined binary categorization of rate for visual (V) or vibrotactile (T) stimulus pulses presented at either 4 or 6 Hz.

Perceptual timing precision with vibrotactile, auditory, and multisensory stimuli.

The growing use of vibrotactile signaling devices makes it important to understand the perceptual limits on vibrotactile information processing. To promote that understanding, we carried out a pair of experiments on vibrotactile, auditory, and bimodal (synchronous vibrotactile and auditory) temporal acuity. On each trial, subjects experienced a set of isochronous, standard intervals (400 ms each), followed by one interval of variable duration (400 ± 1-80 ms).

Feeling the Beat (and Seeing It, Too): Vibrotactile, Visual, and Bimodal Rate Discrimination.

Beats are among the basic units of perceptual experience. Produced by regular, intermittent stimulation, beats are most commonly associated with audition, but the experience of a beat can result from stimulation in other modalities as well. We studied the robustness of visual, vibrotactile, and bimodal signals as sources of beat perception.

Histopathological Insights Into Choroidal Vascular Loss in Clinically Documented Cases of Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Importance: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a multifactorial disease with genetic and environmental factors contributing to risk. Histopathologic changes underlying AMD are not fully understood, particularly the relationship between choriocapillaris (CC) dysfunction and phenotypic variability of this disease.

Objective: To examine histopathologic changes in the CC of eyes with clinically documented AMD.

Mapping rare, deleterious mutations in Factor H: Association with early onset, drusen burden, and lower antigenic levels in familial AMD.

The genetic architecture of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) involves numerous genetic variants, both common and rare, in the coding region of complement factor H (CFH). While these variants explain high disease burden in some families, they fail to explain the pathology in all. We selected families whose AMD was unexplained by known variants and performed whole exome sequencing to probe for other rare, highly penetrant variants.

Idiopathic preretinal glia in aging and age-related macular degeneration.

During analysis of glia in wholemount aged human retinas, frequent projections onto the vitreal surface of the inner limiting membrane (ILM) were noted. The present study characterized these preretinal glial structures. The amount of glial cells on the vitreal side of the ILM was compared between eyes with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and age-matched control eyes.