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Biomedical subjects

R A Schumer

Publications and source records attributed to R A Schumer.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Intraocular pressure reduction with PhXA34, a new prostaglandin analogue, in patients with ocular hypertension.

In a randomized, double-masked, parallel study, one drop of 0.003% (1 microgram; n = 9) or 0.01% (3 micrograms; n = 10) PhXA34, a new phenyl-substituted prostaglandin F2 alpha analogue (13,14-dihydro-15[R,S]-17-phenyl-18,19,20-trinor-prostaglandin F2 alpha-1-isopropyl ester), or its vehicle (n = 10) was applied topically twice daily for 6 days to one eye in each of 29 patients with ocular hypertension. Compared with either baseline, contralateral, or vehicle control values, PhXA34 caused a significant (P < .001) dose-dependent reduction of intraocular pressure. The reduction lasted at least 12 hours after each drop and 24 to 48 hours after the last drop, with a significant (P < .0001) mean +/- SEM reduction of as much as 10 +/- 1 mm Hg (40%). Conjunctival hyperemia was not produced by 0.003% PhXA34, but was noted in some eyes treated with 0.01% PhXA34, and after repeated tonometry with either concentration. The prostaglandin analogue did not produce clinically obvious miosis, anterior chamber flare or cellular response, or any subjective adverse effects. PhXA34 is a potent, effective, and well-tolerated ocular hypotensive agent based on our results in this small, short-term study. Its potential as a new drug for glaucoma therapy warrants further investigation in long-term, larger studies.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Selectivity for orientation and direction of motion of single neurons in cat striate and extrastriate visual cortex.

1. We consider the consequences of the orientation selectivity shown by most cortical neurons for the nature of the signals they can convey about the direction of stimulus movement. On theoretical grounds we distinguish component direction selectivity, in which cells are selective for the direction of movement of oriented components of a complex stimulus, from pattern direction selectivity, or selectivity for the overall direction of movement of a pattern irrespective of the directions of its components. We employed a novel test using grating and plaid targets to distinguish these forms of direction selectivity. 2. We studied the responses of 280 cells from the striate cortex and 107 cells from the lateral suprasylvian cortex (LS) to single sinusoidal gratings to determine their orientation preference and directional selectivity. We tested 73 of these with sinusoidal plaids, composed of two sinusoidal gratings at different orientations, to study the organization of the directional mechanisms within the receptive field. 3. When tested with single gratings, the directional tuning of 277 oriented cells in area 17 had a mean half width of 20.6 degrees, a mode near 13 degrees, and a range of 3.8-58 degrees. Simple cells were slightly more narrowly tuned than complex cells. The selectivity of LS neurons for the direction of moving gratings is not markedly different from that of neurons in area 17. The mean direction half width was 20.7 degrees. 4. We evaluated the directional selectivity of these neurons by comparing responses to stimuli moved in the optimal direction with those elicited by a stimulus moving in the opposite direction. In area 17 about two-thirds of the neurons responded less than half as well to the non-preferred direction as to the preferred direction; two-fifths of the units responded less than one-fifth as well. Complex cells showed a somewhat greater tendency to directional bias than simple cells. LS neurons tended to have stronger directional asymmetries in their response to moving gratings: 83% of LS neurons showed a significant directional asymmetry. 5. Neurons in both areas responded independently to each component of the plaid. Thus cells giving single-lobed directional-tuning curves to gratings showed bilobed plaid tuning curves, with each lobe corresponding to movement in an effective direction by one of the two component gratings within the plaid. The two best directions for the plaids were those at which one or other single grating would have produced an optimal response when presented alone.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Abolition of visual cortical direction selectivity affects visual behavior in cats.

We reared cats in an environment illuminated stroboscopically at 8 Hz, and studied their ability to detect and discriminate the direction of motion of sinusoidal gratings. Normal cats, like humans, could discriminate the direction of a grating's motion at contrasts that are just barely visible. Strobe-reared cats could detect the grating at contrasts similar to those required by normal cats, but required contrasts that were about 10 times threshold to identify the direction of motion. We subsequently studied the activity of single units in the striate cortex in these cats, and found that directional motion selectivity--normally a prominent feature of striate cortical neurons--was almost absent; other cortical receptive field properties were roughly normal. These results suggest that directionally selective neurons are involved in visual discriminations based on the direction of motion.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Binocular disparity modulation sensitivity to disparities offset from the plane of fixation.

Corrugated disparity gratings mounted on depth pedestals were portrayed with random-dot stereograms in order to measure the cyclopean disparity modulation transfer function at various offsets from fixation. We found changes in both sensitivity as well as shape as the magnitude of the pedestal varied. Threshold disparity modulation amplitude curves, plotted as a function of corrugation frequency, became narrower and shifted toward lower frequencies as pedestal size increased. There were stable asymmetries between sensitivities to crossed and uncrossed pedestals; these could be accounted for by assuming each observer to have a constant fixation disparity on the order of 5' of arc.

Depth Perception↗
PubMed1984

Length summation in simple cells of cat striate cortex.

We have examined two models for the preference displayed by cortical simple cells for elongated stimuli having a particular orientation. Both assume that geniculate afferents with aligned receptive fields pool to form the receptive field of the cortical unit. The first model [Marr and Hildreth, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. B 200, 269-294 (1980)], includes AND gating along the length axis so that a simple cell does not fire unless a critical number of its afferents with adjacent receptive fields are firing. The second model assumes that geniculate input is simply summed over subunits and then passed through a firing threshold. Both models account for the unresponsiveness of simple cells to spots of light, but the AND model predicts a discontinuous length threshold, while the summation model predicts that length and contrast should be interchangeable in the determination of the response threshold. Experiments in which length and contrast were systematically varied support the summation model, and extend the notion of linear spatial summation to the length axis in simple cells.

Animals↗