Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Rachael Stentiford, Thomas C. Knowles, Martin J. Pearson
Summary: Maintaining a stable estimate of head direction requires the integration of self-motion and environmental information. In unfamiliar or dark environments, visual information is crucial for stabilizing the estimate, and when learning to associate visual scenes with head angle, animals rely on imprecise estimates derived from self-generated information. Our study demonstrates that both discriminative and generative methods of visual processing are capable of providing a corrective signal for learning associations without explicit landmark extraction. Additionally, we present a spiking continuous attractor model that corrects for drift in head direction predictions and validate it against experimental data.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROROBOTICS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Pantelis Vafidis, David Owald, Tiziano D'Albis, Richard Kempter, Srdjan Ostojic
Summary: The ring attractor models play a crucial role in angular path integration, requiring precisely tuned connectivity in head direction circuits. By using a local, biologically plausible learning rule guided by supervisory allothetic cues, accurate path integration can be achieved.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Sevan K. Harootonian, Arne D. Ekstrom, Robert C. Wilson
Summary: Successful navigation requires computing one's location and heading from multisensory information. This study investigated how body-based idiothetic and visual allothetic cues are integrated in heading computation using virtual reality. The results show that participants combine the cues when the mismatch between them is small, but compete when the mismatch is large, suggesting a hybrid strategy of cue integration and competition.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Susumu Takahashi, Takumi Hombe, Sakiko Matsumoto, Kaoru Ide, Ken Yoda
Summary: Animals demonstrate remarkable navigation abilities, possibly due to the presence of head direction cells that encode the animal's heading information. In the study of shearwater chicks, it was found that their head direction cells exhibited a preference for the north direction, indicating the existence of an internally generated magnetic compass in animals.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mehdi Fallahnezhad, Julia Le Mero, Xhensjana Zenelaj, Jean Vincent, Christelle Rochefort, Laure Rondi-Reig
Summary: The head-direction (HD) system is a neural circuit crucial for navigation, consisting of anatomical structures with neurons selective to the animal's head direction. HD cells display temporal coordination across brain regions, independent of the animal's behavior or sensory inputs, which mediates a single, stable, and persistent HD signal necessary for intact orientation. By manipulating the cerebellum, researchers identify pairs of HD cells recorded from two brain structures that lose their temporal coordination, specifically during the removal of external sensory inputs. The cerebellum contributes to the preservation of a single and stable sense of direction through distinct mechanisms depending on sensory signals.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Xingchen Guo, Xuexin Xu, Xunquan Chen, Jinhui Chen, Rong Jia, Zhihong Zhang, Tetsuya Takiguchi, Edwin R. Hancock
Summary: This paper presents an effective method for multi-talker localization using only a single microphone in a room, which can successfully and accurately process the localization task. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
PATTERN RECOGNITION
(2022)
Review
Cell Biology
Liyuan Gao, Zhitao Jiang, Yi Han, Yang Li, Xiang Yang
Summary: This review summarizes the regulation and function of non-coding RNA in cell pyroptosis and provides new insights for the study of pyroptosis in different diseases.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xiaoyang Long, Bin Deng, Calvin K. Young, Guo-Long Liu, Zeqi Zhong, Qian Chen, Hui Yang, Sheng-Qing Lv, Zhe Sage Chen, Sheng-jia Zhang
Summary: Head direction cells are an important component in the brain's spatial navigation system. FS HD cells in the somatosensory cortex display sharper head-directionality than RS HD cells and coexist with RS HD cells and AHV cells in a layer-specific manner. These findings challenge the concept that FS interneurons are weakly tuned to sensory stimuli and provide insights into the local circuit organization of HD signaling in the brain.
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Helena R. Torres, Pedro Morais, Anne Fritze, Bruno Oliveira, Fernando Veloso, Mario Ruediger, Jaime C. Fonseca, Joao L. Vilaca
Summary: This paper proposes a novel framework to accurately detect landmarks on 3D infant head surfaces, divided into two stages: 2D representation of the head surface and landmark detection through deep learning strategy. Additionally, a 3D data augmentation method based on expected head variability is introduced to create shape models. The proposed framework was evaluated in synthetic and real datasets, showing accurate detection results and improved performance with data augmentation.
IEEE JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH INFORMATICS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Diyuan Li, Zida Liu, Danial Jahed Armaghani, Peng Xiao, Jian Zhou
Summary: This study investigates ensemble trees for rockburst prediction and applies Bayesian optimization and combination strategies. ET and XGBoost show the best performance in single models, while the combination models generated by voting, bagging, and stacking outperform single models, with the voting 2 model showing the most outstanding performance.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Zaki Ajabi, Alexandra T. Keinath, Xue-Xin Wei, Mark P. Brandon
Summary: The head direction (HD) system functions as the brain's internal compass, but its mechanisms of anchoring and drift remain unclear. In this study, population recordings of thalamic HD cells revealed a second dimension of activity, referred to as network gain, which predicted realignment and drift dynamics. Moreover, the network gain maintained a 'memory trace' of previously displayed landmarks and influenced the internal HD representation. These findings challenge the classical one-dimensional interpretations of the HD system.
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Aylin Apostel, Jonas Rose
Summary: The study found head-direction cells, but not place cells, in the hippocampal formation of quails, shedding light on the poorly understood avian hippocampus.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Nipun Gunawardena, Kam K. Leang, Eric Pardyjak
Summary: In this work, a method using particle swarm optimization (PSO) to localize a source in complex urban environments was proposed and successfully tested. The PSO algorithm was able to accurately locate the contaminant source even in the presence of obstacles in the environment.
ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Sung Soo Kim
Summary: Animals are able to maintain a stable sense of direction in novel environments by interpreting and encoding unfamiliar sensory information in their navigation system. Both mammals and insects have evolved distinct brain structures to share computational principles for solving this common problem, with a key structure being the ring attractor. Initially, animals rely on self-motion cues in unfamiliar environments, but over time, they establish a mapping from visual inputs to head direction cells through experience-dependent plasticity.
CURRENT OPINION IN NEUROBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Optics
Weitian Wang, Zhenhai Wang, Xing Chao
Summary: The study demonstrates the feasibility of using Gaussian process regression (GPR) for processing direct absorption spectroscopy data in combustion environments to infer gas properties. Parallelly composed GPR models allow for accurate inference of multiple gas properties with blended lines across a wide spectral range.