Crows were trained to manipulate an L-shaped hook to retrieve food that was otherwise out of reach. After training, an opaque panel was Selleckchem Smoothened Agonist placed on the front window of the platform to block their vision, and the effects on tool use were tested
with respect to performance and movement trajectory. Vision blocking caused similar deviation of tool movement trajectories for both near and far targets, as well as far target-specific deviation. This suggests the involvement of vision in tool use by crows, specifically in the premanipulation process for conversion of vision-body coordinates for motor planning and in the process of tool manipulation. This is the first behavioral evidence for the involvement of vision in avian tool use. (C) 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.”
“The variety of different causal theories together with inconsistencies about the anatomical brain markers emphasize the heterogeneity of developmental dyslexia. Attempts were made to test on a
behavioral level the existence of subtypes of dyslexia showing distinguishable cognitive deficits. Importantly, see more no research was directly devoted to the investigation of structural brain correlates of these subtypes. Here, for the first time, we applied voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to study grey matter volume (GMV) differences in a relatively large sample (n = 46) of dyslexic children split into three subtypes based on the cognitive
deficits: phonological, rapid naming, magnocellular/dorsal, and auditory attention shifting. VBM revealed GMV clusters specific for each studied group including areas of left inferior frontal gyrus, cerebellum, right putamen, and bilateral parietal cortex. In addition, using discriminant analysis on these clusters 79 % of cross-validated cases were correctly re-classified into four groups (controls vs. three subtypes). Current results indicate that dyslexia may result from distinct cognitive impairments characterized by distinguishable anatomical markers.”
“The search for metabolites Selleckchem Bcl 2 inhibitor of Kibdelosporangium sp. AK-AA56 resulted in the discovery of novel N-phenylacetylated peptides, JBIR-78 (1) and JBIR-95 (2). Compounds 1 and 2 were established to be N-phenylacetylated heptapeptides by extensive NMR and HRESIMS analyses. The absolute configuration of the standard amino acids including a cysteic acid moiety was determined using Marfey’s method on the acid hydrolysates of 1 and 2. The relative and absolute configurations of a nonstandard amino acid, beta-hydroxyleucine, were elucidated using the J-based and modified Mosher’s methods, respectively. In an antimicrobial test, 1 showed antibacterial activity against Micrococcus luteus.”
“How does the brain compute? Answering this question necessitates neuronal connectomes, annotated graphs of all synaptic connections within defined brain areas.