Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A Sokolov

Publications and source records attributed to A Sokolov.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Resonant inversion of tunneling magnetoresistance.

Resonant tunneling via localized states in the barrier can invert magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions. Experiments performed on electrodeposited Ni/NiO/Co nanojunctions of area smaller than 0.01 microm(2) show that both positive and negative values of magnetoresistance are possible. Calculations based on Landauer-Büttiker theory explain this behavior in terms of disorder-driven statistical variations in magnetoresistance with a finite probability of inversion due to resonant tunneling.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Recognition of point-light biological motion displays by young children.

We tested the ability of children 3-5 years of age to recognise biological motion displays. Children and adults were presented with moving point-light configurations depicting a walking person, four-legged animals (dogs), and a bird. Participants were able to reliably recognise displays with biological motion, but failed in the identification of a static (four consecutive frames taken from each sequence) version. The results indicate that, irrespective of the highly reduced and unusual structural information available in point-light displays, biological motion is sufficient for reliable recognition of human and non-human forms at an age as early as 3 years. Moreover, 5-year-olds exhibit the ceiling level of recognition. The findings are discussed in the context of the neuropsychological and brain mechanisms involved in biological motion perception.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Speed perception is affected by the Ebbinghaus-Titchener illusion.

We examined whether the apparent extent of motion affects speed perception. On the first presentation of each trial, a light dot travelled horizontally across a central circle of one of the Ebbinghaus configurations (with either small or large inducing elements). On the second presentation, observers adjusted the speed of a dot moving within the central circle alone so as to match the speed perceived in the first presentation. For all stimulus speeds (1.3, 2.1, and 5.5 deg s-1), the matched speed with small inducing circles was systematically less than that with large inducing circles. The findings indicate that the perceived speed depends on the apparent extent of motion: the larger the apparent size of a frame, the slower the apparent speed. These results are consistent with the predictions of transposition effects in visual motion.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Orientation specificity in biological motion perception.

We addressed the issue of how display orientation affects the perception of biological motion. In Experiment 1, spontaneous recognition of a point-light walker improved abruptly with image-plane display rotation from inverted to upright orientation. Within a range of orientations from 180 degrees to 90 degrees, it was dramatically impeded. Using ROC analysis, we showed (Experiments 2 and 3) that despite prior familiarization with a point-light figure at all orientations, its detectability within a mask decreased with a change in orientation from upright to a range of 90 degrees-180 degrees. In Experiment 4, a priming effect in biological motion was observed only if a prime corresponded to a range of deviations from upright orientation within which the display was spontaneously recognizable. The findings indicate that display orientation nonmonotonically affects the perception of biological motion. Moreover, top-down influence on the perception of biological motion is limited by display orientation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Primacy and frequency effects in absolute judgments of visual velocity.

In absolute judgment tasks, identical stimuli are rated higher (or lower) when presented in a series of more frequent small (or large) stimuli. Using visual stimuli differing in velocity, we show that this conventional frequency effect is largely modulated by the primacy effect--that is, by the stimuli occurring on the early trials of a run. In Experiment 1, a frequency-like primacy effect was obtained with equal-frequent velocities. Identical velocities were rated faster when mainly slow rather than fast ones occurred on initial trials. In Experiment 2, we contrasted the frequency effect and the primacy effect: In runs with frequent slow velocities, mainly fast ones occurred earlier, whereas in runs with infrequent slow velocities, mainly slow ones did so. Lack of differences of ratings in the two conditions suggests that the two effects canceled each other. In Experiment 3, when mainly frequent velocities occurred earlier, the conventional frequency effect was obtained. We conclude that the conventional frequency effect represents a combination of the primacy effect and the pure frequency effect.

Acceleration↗
PubMed1999

Gamma-band MEG activity to coherent motion depends on task-driven attention.

We examined gamma-band magnetoencephalographic (MEG) activity in humans manipulating attention to visual stimuli by auditory distractors. After exposure to both visual and auditory noise (a baseline), subjects attended to the first of two stimuli (either regular motion of bars or a tone sequence) presented asynchronously, and responded to its offset. A spectral power analysis revealed an increased, relative to baseline, 40 Hz MEG response to attended coherent motion. The enhancement occurred within the initial 50-250 ms from motion onset over modality-specific (occipital) cortices. The increase was not observed when attention was captured by auditory distractors. Our findings suggest that 40 Hz activity in the human visual cortex is related to integration of featural information that is supported by attention.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1999

Application of the statistical dynamical theory to gamma-ray diffraction experiments on low-dislocation quartz single crystals.

Highly monochromatic (Deltalambda/lambda = 10(-6)) short-wavelength (lambda = 0.03 Å) gamma radiation has been used in the study of the diffraction processes in real single crystals. Dislocation-free silicon crystals and quartz crystals with small concentrations of chaotically distributed dislocations were investigated. The experimental results were processed with use of statistical dynamical theories of diffraction, both fundamental and advanced. It is shown that the advanced version is more reliable in both cases. However, the values of the average lattice phase E, describing the long-range distortions of the lattice, can differ markedly from the value of 1 for quartz crystals, and parameter L = -ln(E) has a square dependence on the extinction length.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1995

Thermoregulatory activity of motor units during human development.

The presented investigation was designed to elucidate whether age impacts the basic neurophysiological characteristics of motor unit (MU) thermoregulatory activity in human subjects. Human newborns and infants (aged from 7 days to 3 years, n = 81) were exposed to ambient temperatures of 26-27 degrees C for 5-7 minutes. The adults and elderly (18-76 years old, n = 90) were exposed to 10 degrees C for 30-60 minutes. MU action potentials were followed by surface electromyography in the brachial triceps muscles, bilaterally. The firing rate of MUs (n = 245) during thermoregulatory muscle tonus was 7-35 Hz. Thirty six per cent of MUs (periodical MUs) of the newborns were firing by short trains of high-frequency (20-35 Hz) discharges, with uniform interspike intervals. The other part of MUs in the newborns was stationary firing at frequencies from 12 to 20 Hz (stable MUs). No periodical MUs were found in infants and adults and elderly humans. MU firing rate at 18-60 years of age was 8-9 Hz, and was statistically significantly lower than in the ages over 60 years (9-11 Hz). These data allowed us to compute a parabolic dependence of MU firing rate on the age during thermoregulatory tonus: Fmu = 12.60-0.22A + 0.03A2 (r = 0.91; Fmu-MU mean firing rate, Hz; A-age, years).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

[Movement disorders in weightlessness].

The system MONIMIR has been developed to study the coordination of eye, head and arm movements as well as spinal reflexes in microgravity and was used during three spaceflights on board of the station MIR. The following investigations in the course of the experiment MONIMIR were performed: (1) slow head movements in three planes, (2.3) fast pointing movements of eyes, head and arm to acoustic and visual targets, (4) tracking movements of eyes, head and arm to visual targets, (5) head and arm movements based on short term memory and (6) patellar-tendon-reflex. In microgravity different functions and effectors showed different nature and degree of disturbance and different courses in adaptation; in most of the tests exactness and velocity of head and arm movement was decreased; head movements were more disturbed than arm movements; fast pointing movements were more severely affected than slow tracking movements which partly improved; visual controlled movements showed better adaptation as only proprioceptive controlled movements; the patellar-tendon-reflex was highly increased. Disturbances were most pronounced in the early stage of the spaceflights; at later stages most of the performances improved. Methods and results can be used not only for improvement of election and health control of cosmonauts/astronauts for future longterm space missions but also for diagnostics and research of adaptational processes in course of diseases or extreme conditions on earth.

Extraterrestrial Environment↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The effect of head-to-trunk position on the direction of arm movements before, during, and after space flight.

This contribution deals with the examination of the consequences of different head-to-trunk positions on arm movements under normal gravity and during prolonged space flight. One of the objectives of this study was to investigate the influence of weightlessness on the condition of the spatial analysis system. Aimed arm movements in the horizontal plane (pointings towards two visual targets) were recorded, first with eyes open, head straight (learning part), then with eyes closed, head straight and during yaw or roll position of the head (performance part). Measurements related to these different head-to-trunk-positions were taken in one short-term and nine long-term cosmonauts preflight, inflight, and postflight. Terrestrial control experiments were carried out with an extended experimental design in 14 healthy volunteers. The analysis of these experiments revealed that, with eyes closed and the head in yaw position, cosmonauts before flight and control subjects exhibit significant slants of the movement plane of the arm. Contrary to terrestrial measurements, in space experiments roll tilt of the head to the right is correlated with considerable counterclockwise slant of the movement plane. This slant of the movement plane of the arm was interpreted as tilt of the internal representation of the horizontal coordinate. The effect is larger with greater distortion induced by the changed head position and with larger muscular involvement to keep this position. This effect is also increased by the reduction of information (for example, in microgravity). The amount and the direction of the horizontal offset of the arm movements are shown to be dependent on the head-to-trunk position, too. Additionally, we have found changes in the amplitude and in the duration of the arm movement, in the vertical offset, and in the curvature of the movement paths, depending on the experimental conditions.

Adult↗