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PubMed2007

Connections of the caudal anterior cingulate cortex in rabbit: neural circuitry participating in the acquisition of trace eyeblink conditioning.

The caudal anterior cingulate cortex (cAC) is an essential component of the circuitry involved in acquisition of forebrain-dependent trace eyeblink conditioning. Lesions of the cAC prevent trace eyeblink conditioning [Weible AP, McEchron MD, Disterhoft JF (2000) Cortical involvement in acquisition and extinction of trace eyeblink conditioning. Behav Neurosci 114(6):1058-1067]. The patterns of activation of cAC neurons recorded in vivo suggest an attentional role for this structure early in training [Weible AP, Weiss C, Disterhoft JF (2003) Activity profiles of single neurons in caudal anterior cingulate cortex during trace eyeblink conditioning in the rabbit. J Neurophysiol 90(2):599-612]. The goal of the present study was to identify connections of the portion of the rabbit cAC previously demonstrated to be involved in trace eyeblink conditioning, using the neuronal tract tracer wheat germ agglutinin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase, to better understand how the cAC contributes to the process of associative learning. Reciprocal connections with the claustrum provide a route for the transfer of sensory information between the cAC and neocortical and allocortical regions also involved in learning. Connections with components of the basal forebrain cholinergic system are described, with relevance to the proposed attentional role of the cAC. Reciprocal and unidirectional connections were in evidence in multiple thalamic regions, including the medial dorsal nucleus, which have been implicated in a variety of conditioning paradigms. Anterograde connections with the caudate and lateral pontine nuclei provide access to forebrain motor and brainstem sensory circuitry, respectively. The relevance of these connections to acquisition of the trace conditioned reflex is discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Attitudes towards transferable skills in medical undergraduates.

CONTEXT: Changes to the style of medical teaching will place a greater responsibility on individual medical students to manage their own learning, highlighting the need for students to develop good so-called 'transferable' skills at an early stage in their undergraduate career. OBJECTIVES: To assess the attitudes of first year undergraduates towards transferable skills, and investigate the gender difference in these attitudes. To assess the contribution of their first year course to skills development. SUBJECTS: First year students, enrolled on a traditional-style course. METHOD: A questionnaire asking the students to consider: (a) the importance of named transferable skills for medicine; (b) their own ability in these areas; and (c) the influence of their first year course. RESULTS: All students, irrespective of gender, regarded transferable skills as very important to medicine, rating organizational skills and self-learning skills as most important. Overall, students have a high level of confidence in their own skills. Male students rated their overall level of skills more highly than women. In particular they rated their information handling, managing self-learning and technical skills more highly. Students feel that their first year course has enhanced their skills in most areas. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that students will feel equipped to succeed in a learning system which places the onus on them to take responsibility for their own learning. They clearly believe that they have the necessary skills for independent learning. The study highlights the need to enhance students' self-evaluation skills.

Attitude↗
PubMed1985

Interocular transfer in the pigeon after lesions of the dorsal supraoptic decussation.

Pigeons trained to discriminate between visual stimuli in a key-pecking task normally show excellent interocular transfer of training (IOT) when trained with only one eye and then tested with the 'naive' eye. When the dorsal supraoptic decussation (DSO) was sectioned and pigeons were then trained monocularly to peck at keys in an interocular transfer experiment, they failed to show normal IOT of a simultaneous horizontal-vertical discrimination. In contrast, another group of pigeons, in which the DSO was sectioned after they had already learned the discrimination with one eye covered, showed excellent IOT postoperatively when the blindfold was moved to the other eye. Since the pigeon uses the normally binocular portion of its retina to scan the discriminative stimuli in a key-pecking task and the DSO carries converging binocular input from the retinorecipient zone of the thalamus to the visual Wulst, the results suggest that IOT in the pigeon is the simple consequence of information reaching both hemispheres from a single eye via converging binocular pathways. Thus, cutting the DSO before training with the first eye eliminates IOT whereas cutting it after training with the first eye does not (since information has already reached the two hemispheres from the normally binocular portion of that eye). These findings complement earlier work showing that IOT is absent in normal pigeons in those situations in which they scan the discriminative stimuli with the monocular portion of their visual fields.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Learning your way around town: how virtual taxicab drivers learn to use both layout and landmark information.

By having subjects drive a virtual taxicab through a computer-rendered town, we examined how landmark and layout information interact during spatial navigation. Subject-drivers searched for passengers, and then attempted to take the most efficient route to the requested destinations (one of several target stores). Experiment 1 demonstrated that subjects rapidly learn to find direct paths from random pickup locations to target stores. Experiment 2 varied the degree to which landmark and layout cues were preserved across two successively learned towns. When spatial layout was preserved, transfer was low if only target stores were altered, and high if both target stores and surrounding buildings were altered, even though in the latter case all local views were changed. This suggests that subjects can rapidly acquire a survey representation based on the spatial layout of the town and independent of local views, but that subjects will rely on local views when present, and are harmed when associations between previously learned landmarks are disrupted. We propose that spatial navigation reflects a hierarchical system in which either layout or landmark information is sufficient for orienting and wayfinding; however, when these types of cues conflict, landmarks are preferentially used.

Adult↗
PubMed2007

North-South exchange and professional development: experience from Mali and France.

BACKGROUND: Developing countries are facing the challenge of developing a family practice culture in a context in which clinical practice remains strongly associated with hospital practice. To what extent can professional exchange between GPs from North and South fuel novel professional identities in family practice? OBJECTIVES: Assess to what extent a North-South professional exchange programme involving rural GPs from Mali and France affected practice development and professional identity formation of Malian GPs. METHODS: Qualitative analysis of 19 exchanges between rural GPs from Mali and France based on (i) interviews; (ii) retrospective report analysis; (iii) field observation of three exchanges; (iv) workshop with Malian GPs; and (v) workshop with French GPs. RESULTS: Malian GPs reported increased self-esteem, increased concern for doctor-patient communication and innovations in practice organization. Although Malian participants considered a transfer from France's general practice irrelevant, the experience was thought provoking. The interpersonal and professional interaction was crucial. The Malian Rural Doctors Association provided a platform to capitalize on individual experiences in a process of collective professional identity construction. Costs of the programme were kept low, limiting possible side expectations of participants. CONCLUSIONS: North-South professional exchange can contribute to professional development. Exchange programmes should be designed as mutual learning processes, rather than unilateral assistance or transfer of practice models. Southern family practitioners are likely to improve primary care to individuals and families, while Northern GPs can draw lessons from the community perspective of primary health care in the South. Recruitment and preparation of participants are crucial, as well as collective reflection upon return.

Education↗
PubMedDate not supplied

MAP: an iterative experimental design methodology for the optimization of catalytic search space structure modeling.

One of the main problems in high-throughput research for materials is still the design of experiments. At early stages of discovery programs, purely exploratory methodologies coupled with fast screening tools should be employed. This should lead to opportunities to find unexpected catalytic results and identify the "groups" of catalyst outputs, providing well-defined boundaries for future optimizations. However, very few new papers deal with strategies that guide exploratory studies. Mostly, traditional designs, homogeneous covering, or simple random samplings are exploited. Typical catalytic output distributions exhibit unbalanced datasets for which an efficient learning is hardly carried out, and interesting but rare classes are usually unrecognized. Here is suggested a new iterative algorithm for the characterization of the search space structure, working independently of learning processes. It enhances recognition rates by transferring catalysts to be screened from "performance-stable" space zones to "unsteady" ones which necessitate more experiments to be well-modeled. The evaluation of new algorithm attempts through benchmarks is compulsory due to the lack of past proofs about their efficiency. The method is detailed and thoroughly tested with mathematical functions exhibiting different levels of complexity. The strategy is not only empirically evaluated, the effect or efficiency of sampling on future Machine Learning performances is also quantified. The minimum sample size required by the algorithm for being statistically discriminated from simple random sampling is investigated.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2005

The time course and specificity of perceptual deterioration.

Repeated within-day testing on a texture discrimination task leads to retinotopically specific decreases in performance. Although perceptual learning has been shown to be highly specific to the retinotopic location and characteristics of the trained stimulus, the specificity of perceptual deterioration has not been studied. We investigated the similarities between learning and deterioration by examining whether deterioration transfers to new distractor or target orientations or to the untrained eye. Participants performed a texture discrimination task in three one-hour sessions. We tested the specificity of deterioration in the final session by switching either the orientation of the background or the target elements by 90 degrees. We found that performance deteriorated steadily both within and across the first two sessions and was specific to the target but not the distractor orientation. In a separate experiment, we found that deterioration transferred to the untrained eye. Changes in performance were independent of reported sleepiness and awareness of stimulus changes, arguing against the possibility that perceptual deterioration is due to general fatigue. Rather, we hypothesize that perceptual deterioration may be caused by changes in the ability for attention to selectively enhance the responses of relatively low-level orientation-selective sensory neurons, possibly within the primary visual cortex. Further, the differences in specificity profiles between learning and deterioration suggest separate underlying mechanisms that occur within the same cortical area.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Peer consultation reflection exercise.

OBJECTIVE: To explore participants' overall perception of the value of the Peer Consultation Reflection Exercise (PCRE); of barriers and facilitators to participation and learning during a PCRE; and of the transferability of the experience to participants' own settings. DESIGN: This study used the qualitative techniques of key informant interviews and a focus group. SETTING: Focus group and key informant interviews at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the College of Family Physicians of Canada's Section of Teachers. PARTICIPANTS: Family medicine teachers attending a PCRE. METHOD: Five key informant interviews and one focus group composed of five participants were conducted to explore participants' experience of participating and learning during a PCRE. MAIN FINDINGS: Participants viewed the PCRE as a valuable opportunity to interact and learn from colleagues a were especially impressed with the opportunity to listen. Confidentiality and the important role of the facilitator were identified as key components. The greatest perceived barrier was the formal structure of the PCRE. CONCLUSIONS: The PCRE is an innovative strategy for personal and professional development. It could be used in other settings.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Tubal selection for gamete intrafallopian transfer.

When both fallopian tubes appear normal, tubal selection for GIFT is left to the surgeon's discretion. We were interested to learn whether pregnancy rates were influenced by the choice of tubal transfer in relation to ovarian dominance. Ovarian dominance was defined sonographically as the ovary containing the greater number of follicles having a mean diameter > 16 mm. In a retrospective analysis of 144 GIFT procedures, the clinical pregnancy rate for transfers performed to the tube ipsilateral to the dominant ovary was significantly higher than that of transfers made to the contralateral tube (0.414 versus 0.228, P = 0.042). This difference could not be attributed to either patient characteristics or cycle performance. We suggest that gamete transfer be performed ipsilateral to the side with the greater number of dominant follicles to optimize pregnancy rates.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioral manipulation of retrieval in a spatial memory task for Drosophila melanogaster.

A paradigm for operant conditioning of freely walking single Drosophila flies has been described previously. A fly can be conditioned to avoid one side of a small test chamber if the chamber is heated whenever the fly enters this side. In a subsequent memory test without heat the fly continues to avoid the previously heat-associated side. In this experimental design one cannot exclude that flies mark the heated side by an odor that they subsequently avoid during the test. As a final proof for associative learning in the present experiment, flies are trained in one chamber and tested for learning in another, similar one. Handling in the transfer experiment interferes with memory display, even if the fly is returned to the old chamber instead of a new one. Memory can be reactivated, however, by subjecting the fly to an additional brief training (priming), which is too short to establish significant learning in naive flies. For efficient priming, heat has to be applied to the same side as during training in the old chamber. Only then the fly subsequently shows a side preference and avoids the side of the new chamber, which in the old one had been associated with heat. The two chambers are similar but not identical The transfer experiment therefore raises the question as to what the flies use as spatial reference during training and test. In the light, they can be shown to orientate according to visual landmarks associated with the chamber. In complete darkness, where training and memory scores do not differ from those in the light, they are assumed to use a combination of tactile and idiothetic information for orienting.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Interactive urology: an evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Interactive Urology is a multimedia software program that has been written to provide computer-assisted interaction for medical students at the University of Sydney during their surgical term in urology. An evaluation sought to establish how the software will be used by medical students in the learning context and to explore the efficacy of the software in the transfer of content as well as problem-solving skills. METHODS: Interactional analysis during student computer sessions and pre- and post-testing included a total of 80 medical students to evaluate Interactive Urology. RESULTS: The software package appeared to promote higher-order thinking skills with brainstorming activities occupying about half the time available. utilizing pre- and post-testing, Interactive Urology was found to be efficacious in the transfer of content and problem-solving skills. It was also found to be as effective as text in transferring content and problem-solving skills. The sequence of text and computer assisted learning (CAL) did not alter learning efficacy. CONCLUSION: It was concluded from the present study that Interactive Urology is an effective and valuable learning resource for medical students.

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗
PubMed2006

Learning curve analysis of a patient lift-assist device.

One of the challenges facing ergonomists in the implementation of an ergonomic solution is addressing the concerns related to their impact on productivity. The focus of the current study was to (1) apply standard learning curve analysis to the learning that takes place as an individual works with a patient handling device and (2) compare the effects of two different training protocols on measures of learning. Eighteen subjects completed 11 replications of a patient transfer task after participating in either an "interactive" training protocol or "see-one-do-one" training protocol. The results show that the learning rate for this task was 83% with no difference as a function of training protocol. The results do indicate that the effect of Training Method was significant (p<0.05) for time to complete the first patient lift task (370s for the interactive training vs. 475s for see-one-do-one training). The results of the analysis of the survey data supported the objective results in that the only measure that was responsive to training type (p<0.05) was related to comfort level in performing the patient lift task for the first time. The results emphasize the importance in considering learning when introducing an intervention in the workplace, and showed that in this instance, training type had an immediate impact on productivity, but that this effect diminished over time.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Place navigation in rats is impaired by lesions of medial septum and diagonal band but not nucleus basalis magnocellularis.

The role of forebrain cholinergic projections in place navigation learning was assessed in two experiments. Following surgery, rats were required to learn the spatial location of an underwater platform on the basis of distal room cues. Bilateral injections of ibotenic acid into the nucleus basalis magnocellularis depleted choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) from the anterior and temporoparietal cortex but not the hippocampus. Separate histological studies confirmed the accuracy of the lesions and demonstrated a marked loss of cortical acetylcholinesterase. These rats subsequently showed no deficits in spatial learning or memory. In a second experiment, bilateral lesions of the vertical limb of the diagonal band of Broca and medial septum depleted ChAT from the hippocampus and posterior cortex but not the anterior cortex. Histological studies confirmed the accuracy of the lesion and showed a pronounced loss of acetylcholinesterase from the hippocampus. These rats were deficient in spatial learning and showed reduced spatial bias during transfer tests. The data are discussed in the light of the hypothesis that the cholinergic innervation of the hippocampus plays a key role in spatial reference memory processes involved in place navigation.

Animals↗