Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Y Burnod

Publications and source records attributed to Y Burnod.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Learning a new visuomotor transformation: error correction and generalization.

The use of an aiming tool requires learning a new transformation between visual and proprioceptive information and motor command. We have examined this question by quantifying the kinematics of the movement during the transitory phase of adaptation to a rotational bias (60 degrees counterclockwise, then clockwise) added to a standard mouse-cursor device in the plane of the screen. Control-aiming movements were almost linear with a bell-shaped velocity profile. The bias induced an equivalent initial directional error which was usually corrected within 20 trials. The learning trajectories were combinations of spirals and fast or slow straight movements. The posture of the hand was slightly (less than 10 degrees) modified by the bias. These features suggest three corrective processes: on-line continuous correction based on evaluation of the relative cursor-to-target position, discrete correction based on assessment of the discrepancy angle between the cursor-to-target direction and the effective cursor direction, and memorization of trial-to-trial correction. These results are interpreted in the light of neurophysiological data and neural net modeling, which suggest that the visuomotor transformation performed by cortical areas for reaching is effected by projecting the visual information on a reference frame that rotates with the arm. The initial directional error reappeared when the direction of the target was changed and increased with degree of change. The limited generalization suggests that bias correction is stored in relation to the coding of the target direction and that movement towards a new direction is computed as a projection of the previously learned bias on the new visual direction.

Feedback↗
PubMed1994

Neural network models of cortical functions based on the computational properties of the cerebral cortex.

We describe a biologically plausible modelling framework based on the architectural and processing characteristics of the cerebral cortex. Its key feature is a multicellular processing unit (cortical column) reflecting the modular nature of cortical organization and function. In this framework, we describe a neural network model organization and function. In this framework, we describe a neural network model of the neuronal circuits of the cerebral cortex that learn different functions associated with different parts of the cortex: 1) visual integration for invariant pattern recognition, performed by a cooperation between temporal and parietal areas; 2) visual-to-motor transformation for 3D arm reaching movements, performed by parietal and motor areas; and 3) temporal integration and storage of sensorimotor programs, performed by networks linking the prefrontal cortex to associative sensory and motor areas. The architecture of the network is inspired from the features of the architecture of cortical pathways involved in these functions. We propose two rules which describe neural processing and plasticity in the network. The first rule (adaptive tuning if gating) is an analog of operant conditioning and permits to learn to anticipate an action. The second rule (adaptive timing) is based on a bistable state of activity and permits to learn temporally separate events forming a behavioral sequence.

Cerebral Cortex↗
PubMed1992

Visuomotor transformations underlying arm movements toward visual targets: a neural network model of cerebral cortical operations.

We propose a biologically realistic neural network that computes coordinate transformations for the command of arm reaching movements in 3-D space. This model is consistent with anatomical and physiological data on the cortical areas involved in the command of these movements. Studies of the neuronal activity in the motor (Georgopoulos et al., 1986; Schwartz et al., 1988; Caminiti et al., 1990a) and premotor (Caminiti et al., 1990b, 1991) cortices of behaving monkeys have shown that the activity of individual arm-related neurons is broadly tuned around a preferred direction of movements in 3-D space. Recent data demonstrate that in both frontal areas (Caminiti et al., 1990a,b, 1991) these cell preferred directions rotate with the initial position of the arm. Furthermore, the rotation of the population of preferred directions precisely corresponds to the rotation of the arm in space. The neural network model computes the motor command by combining the visual information about movement trajectory with the kinesthetic information concerning the orientation of the arm in space. The appropriate combination, learned by the network from spontaneous movement, can be approximated by a bilinear operation that can be interpreted as a projection of the visual information on a reference frame that rotates with the arm. This bilinear combination implies that neural circuits converging on a single neuron in the motor and premotor cortices can learn and generalize the appropriate command in a 2-D subspace but not in the whole 3-D space. However, the uniform distribution of cell preferred directions in these frontal areas can explain the computation of the correct solution by a population of cortical neurons. The model is consistent with the existing neurophysiological data and predicts how visual and somatic information can be combined in the different processing steps of the visuomotor transformation subserving visual reaching.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Organizational levels of the cerebral cortex: an integrated model.

We propose a theoretical model of the cerebral cortex which is based on its cellular components and integrates its different levels of organization: (1) cells have general adaptive and memorization properties; (2) cortical columns are repetitive interneuronal circuits which determine an adaptive processing specific to the cerebral cortex; (3) cortical maps effect selective combinations which are very efficient to learn basic behavioural adaptations such as invariant recognition of forms, visually-guided hand movements, or execution of structured motor programs; (4) the network between cortical areas has a global architecture which integrates successive learning experiences into coherent functions such as the human language.

Cerebral Cortex↗
PubMed1991

Making arm movements within different parts of space: the premotor and motor cortical representation of a coordinate system for reaching to visual targets.

The activity of 156 individual arm-related neurons was studied in the premotor cortex (area 6) while monkeys made arm movements of similar directions within different parts of 3-dimensional space. This study was aimed at describing the relationship between premotor cortical cell activity and direction of arm movement and assessing the coordinate system underlying this relationship. We found that the activity of 152 (97.4%) cells varied in an orderly fashion with the direction of movement, in at least some region of the work space. Premotor cortical cells fired most for a given preferred direction and less for other directions of movement. These preferred directions covered the directional continuum in a uniform fashion across the work space. It was found that, as movements of similar directions were made within different parts of the work space, the cells' preferred directions changed their orientation. Although these changes had different magnitudes for different cells, at the population level, they followed closely the changes in orientation of the arm necessary to move the hand from one to another part of the work space. This shift of cells' preferred direction with the orientation of the arm in space has been observed with similar characteristics in the motor cortex (see Caminiti et al., 1990). In both premotor and motor cortices, neuronal movement population vectors provide a good description of movement direction. Unlike the individual cell preferred directions upon which they are based, movement population vectors did not change their spatial orientation across the work space, suggesting that they remain good predictors of movement direction regardless of the region of space in which movements are made. The firing frequency of both premotor and motor cortical neurons varied significantly with the position occupied by the hand in space. These static positional effects were observed in 88.5% of premotor and 91.8% of motor cortical cells. In a second task, monkeys made movements from differing origins to a common end point. This task was performed within 3 different parts of space and was aimed at dissociating movement direction from movement end point. It was found that in both premotor and motor cortices virtually all cells were related to the direction and not to the end point of movement. These data suggest that premotor and motor cortices use common mechanisms for coding arm movement direction. They also provide a basis for understanding the coordinate transformation required to move the hand toward visual targets in space.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1990

Shift of preferred directions of premotor cortical cells with arm movements performed across the workspace.

The activity of 156 neurons was recorded in the premotor cortex (Weinrich and Wise 1982) and in an adjoining rostral region of area 6 (area 6 DR; Barbas and Pandya 1987) while monkeys made visually-guided arm movements of similar direction within different parts of space. The activity of individual neurons varied most for a given preferred direction of movement within each part of space. These neurons (152/156, 97.4%) were labeled as directional. The spatial orientation of their preferred directions shifted in space to "follow" the rotation of the shoulder joint necessary to bring the arm into the different parts of the work-space. These results suggest that the cortical areas studied represent arm movement direction within a coordinate system rotating with the arm and where signals about the movement direction relate to the motor plan through a simple invariant relationship, that between cell preferred direction and arm orientation in space.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Consequences of stochastic release of neurotransmitters for network computation in the central nervous system.

Neuronal membrane potentials vary continuously due largely to background synaptic noise produced by ongoing discharges in their presynaptic afferents and shaped by probabilistic factors of transmitter release. We investigated how the random activity of an identified population of interneurons with known release properties influences the performance of central cells. In stochastic models such as thermodynamic ones, the probabilistic input-output function of a formal neuron is sigmoid, having its maximal slope inversely related to a variable called "temperature." Our results indicate that, for a biological neuron, the probability that given excitatory input signals reach threshold is also sigmoid, allowing definition of a temperature that is proportional to the mean number of quanta comprising noise and can be modified by activity in the presynaptic network, a notion which could be included in neural models. By introducing uncertainty to the input-output relation of central neurons, synaptic noise could be a critical determinant of neuronal computational systems, allowing assemblies of cells to undergo continuous transitions between states.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

[The cortical column, a new processing unit for cortex-like networks].

We propose in this paper a new connectionnist model which is the result of a collaboration between computer science and neurobiology researchers. This model is based upon a cortical-like network close to cortical function simulation. We present its functional and architectural characteristics together with the very encouraging results obtained for the first simulations on the visual and auditory cortical functions in speech and character recognition.

Auditory Cortex↗
PubMed1987

A synaptically evoked late hyperpolarization in the rat dorsolateral geniculate neurons in vitro.

Intracellular potentials were recorded from presumed relay neurons in the rat dorsolateral geniculate nucleus maintained in vitro preparations. In this material, the neuronal circuit includes the excitatory optic tract which innervates monosynaptically both relay and intrinsic neurons, the latter providing a feed-forward GABAergic inhibition on the former. Electrical stimulation of the optic tract evokes in the dorsolateral geniculate neurons an early excitatory postsynaptic potential followed by an inhibitory postsynaptic potential which precedes a so far unreported long-lasting late hyperpolarization. The properties of the inhibitory postsynaptic potential are consistent with the notion that they are of disynaptic (feed-forward) origin and that they are the consequence of GABAA receptor activation. In contrast, the late hyperpolarization, which was found in almost every neuron, was enhanced by GABAA blockers, without accompanying changes in the resting membrane potential or the input resistance of the recorded cells. The late hyperpolarization had a lower threshold than the excitatory postsynaptic potential, a long latency (m = 38 +/- 4 ms, n = 10) and was of long duration (m = 308 +/- 57 ms, n = 10). The occurrence and threshold for producing these two potentials were uncorrelated, and paired stimulations of the optic tract showed a marked difference of their recovery time-courses. The late hyperpolarization could be elicited only by afferent stimulations; it never followed intracellularly induced depolarizations and/or anodal break calcium spikes. It was associated with a small conductance increase, sufficient, however, to inhibit high-frequency discharges induced by intracellular injection of depolarizing currents. The late hyperpolarization decreased in amplitude with membrane hyperpolarization and ultimately reversed polarity. The apparent reversal potential followed shifts in extracellular potassium concentration in an almost Nernstian relation (47 mV for a tenfold increase in [K]0). Involvement of GABAB receptors in the generation of this potential may be postulated since baclofen readily hyperpolarized the neurons and decreased their input resistance in the presence of GABAA blockers. We conclude that the late hyperpolarization is a postsynaptic potential mediated by an increased conductance to K ions. Our results further suggest that a minimal disynaptic feed-forward circuit impinging on the relay neurons of the dorsolateral geniculate nucleus is sufficient to subserve this late hyperpolarization.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1987

Spontaneous quantal currents in a central neuron match predictions from binomial analysis of evoked responses.

Inhibitory postsynaptic currents occurring spontaneously in the teleost Mauthner cell were analyzed with the single-electrode voltage-clamp technique. They were collected during depolarizing steps and were outward-going; this procedure allowed them to be isolated from possible excitatory currents flowing in the opposite direction. Their amplitude histograms were found to exhibit regularly spaced multiple peaks, each of which had a Gaussian distribution of the same width. These compound inhibitory postsynaptic currents represent responses evoked by background firing of presynaptic neurons, and when tetrodotoxin was applied topically, only the first peak in the frequency histogram, which can be attributed to single exocytotic events, remained. The mean conductance of this quantal unit equalled 46.0 nS, which corresponds to the opening of 1000-2000 Cl- channels activated by glycine--the transmitter at these synapses. Its waveform and those of the larger units were essentially the same. Furthermore, in each set of data provided by a given Mauthner cell, the size of a quantum was quite constant, with its variance and those of further peaks being equivalent to that of background noise. These properties, which characterize the quantal events on the basis of spontaneous synaptic activity, were strikingly similar to those of the basic units derived by the simple binomial to those of the basic units derived by the simple binomial analysis of unitary postsynaptic potentials, thus validating the use of this statistical model to quantify the quantal nature of release at central connections. The quite straightforward method used here to extract single miniature currents from complex signals should be applicable to the other systems of the central nervous system, where the pertinence of this probabilistic model of release has yet to be demonstrated.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Dorsolateral geniculate neurons in vitro: reduced postsynaptic excitability following repetitive activation of the optic tract.

Monosynaptic activation of dorsolateral geniculate neurons of the rat was studied in the in vitro slice preparation. (1) As previously described by others, monosynaptic excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) trigger at membrane potential negative to -60 mV a low threshold spike (Lts). In addition, we report that the Lts amplitude is linked to that of its underlying EPSP. (2) EPSPs, EPSP-Lts sequences and nonsynaptic Lts are followed by a long period of refractoriness during which a test response is decreased in amplitude and the Lts component is cut off. These results are discussed in relation to the generation of spontaneous bursting activity of thalamic neurons during natural sleep, which could be accounted for by the properties of the Lts alone.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Regulation of efficacy at central synapses.

The quantal nature of synaptic depression produced by high frequency stimulations has been analyzed at a central synapse for the first time. Simultaneous intracellular recordings were obtained from the Mauthner cell and adjacent identifiable inhibitory interneurons. The presynaptic cells were stimulated at frequencies from 2 to 33 Hz, and the corresponding release parameters were determined using a computational procedure described elsewhere (Korn, H., A. Triller, A. Mallet, and D. S. Faber (1981) Science 213: 898-901). As in our previous studies, these entities were correlated with histological features of the neurons following systematic horseradish peroxidase injections and reconstructions. Evidence was obtained that, in the range of physiological conditions used, the binomial parameter n (number of available quanta for release) remains constant; thus every synaptic bouton continues to function as an independent all-or-none releasing unit. The progressive reduction in amplitude of postsynaptic potentials can be attributed solely to a lower probability of release, as shown by the fall of the binomial parameter p. This evidence supports the concept that p is a critical variable for short-term modifications of synaptic efficacy and may provide insight for instances of synaptic plasticity underlying those behavioral changes which can be attributed to presynaptic loci. The present study also represents a necessary step toward linking mathematical variables of models for transmitter exocytosis with subcellular events.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Evolution of myoelectrical and precentral cell activities during learning of a new amplitude of movement.

The object of these experiments was to determine if changes in precentral neuron activity may be related to learning of a new amplitude of movement. Data were obtained from two monkeys trained to stop, in a given position, an elbow flexion movement in order to get a reward. A screen prevented the animal from seeing its forearm. The terminal position was not indicated by a cue, and movements were self-initiated. Motor performance and cell activity were analyzed during the period of learning of a new amplitude of movement. The cells studied presented the reciprocal patterns of activity: they were active flexion but discharged during passive extension. Results clearly indicated that: (1) amplitude was the actual parameter which was learned; (2) the peak frequency of discharge of motor cortex neurons increased during learning, as did the frequency of reward; and (3) the peak frequency of discharge related to passive movements was not changed by conditioning. The results support the hypothesis that the increase of the activity tied to active movements which is observed during conditioning may not be related to an increase of peripheral feedback but expresses a greater 'corticalization' of the movement.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Principal component analysis: a suitable method for the 3-dimensional study of the shape, dimensions and orientation of dendritic arborizations.

Our study proposes an objective method of describing 3-dimensional dendritic arborizations of neurons in the best possible conditions. The method is based upon a particular exploitation of statistical "principal component analysis". For each arborization, 3 principal axes are calculated which are its axes of inertia. The first two axes define the "principal plane" of the arborization. The shape of the arborization is determined from the statistical distribution of its dendritic points along each of these axes. Shapes are quantified by using an "index of axialization" (a) and an "index of flatness" (p) both of which may vary from zero to 1. The dimensions of the arborization, "length" (1), "width" (w) and "thickness" (t) are also measured along the principal axes. Orientation of arborizations is quantified by considering the orientation of the first principal axis for axialized arborization (a close to 1) and/or the orientation of the principal plane for flattened arborizations (p close to 1). In both cases 2 angles (azimuth and polar angle) are calculated. For spherical arborizations (a and p close to 1), no orientation is significant. The significance level of the defined orientations is evaluated from the values of the shape indices. Several examples are illustrated and other existing methods are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Relationship between heart rate and sinus arrhythmia in air traffic controllers at work.

Sinus arrhythmia and mean heart rate were calculated from continuous electrocardiogram recordings of ten air traffic controllers. The telemetric recordings were carried out during 1 day of work and the following day's night shift. The individual variations of sinus arrhythmia were very large. The different situations (rest, relaxed work, intense work, eating, movements within the control room) had no specific effect on sinus arrhythmia. For each subject and for each group it was the value of the mean heart rate and its temporal variations that had the greatest influence on variations of sinus arrhythmia.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Effect of ageing and occupational activity on active wakefulness.

44 people were recorded by a telemetric system during 8 h of daily occupational activity. 24 were factory personnel (12: mean age 37 years, and 12: mean age 53 years) and 20 were univeristy researchers (10: mean age 39 years, and 10: mean age 53 years). Recordings were made concerning EEG, EOG, EMG, and EKG. At 35 years no differences were observed. At 50 years the organization of wakefulness was different for the two occupational activity groups. Although stable for the moment seemed to play a prominent role in the modulation of wakefulness.

Adult↗