NeuReal: an interactive simulation system for implementing artificial dendrites and large hybrid networks

The dynamic clamp is a technique which allows the introduction of artificial conductances into living cells. Up to now, this technique has been mainly used to add small numbers of 'virtual' ion channels to real cells or to construct small hybrid neuronal circuits. In this paper we describe a prototype computer system, NeuReal, that extends the dynamic clamp technique to include (i) the attachment of artificial dendritic structures consisting of multiple compartments and (ii) the construction of large hybrid networks comprising several hundred biophysically realistic modelled neurons. NeuReal is a fully interactive system that runs on Windows XP, is written in a combination of C++ and assembler, and uses the Microsoft DirectX application programming interface (API) to achieve high-performance graphics. By using the sampling hardware-based representation of membrane potential at all stages of computation and by employing simple look-up tables, NeuReal can simulate over 1000 independent Hodgkin and Huxley type conductances in real-time on a modern personal computer (PC). In addition, whilst not being a hard real-time system, NeuReal still offers reliable performance and tolerable jitter levels up to an update rate of 50kHz. A key feature of NeuReal is that rather than being a simple dedicated dynamic clamp, it operates as a fast simulation system within which neurons can be specified as either real or simulated. We demonstrate the power of NeuReal with several example experiments and argue that it provides an effective tool for examining various aspects of neuronal function.     

Preservation of priming for interactive context in amnesics.

The performance of a group of 12 amnesics of mixed aetiology was compared with that of two groups of normal subjects on a priming task in which subjects' spontaneous definitions of homonyms were biased in accordance with the sense of interactive context words which had earlier been shown with the homonyms. The amnesics showed significant and normal levels of interactive context priming even when the amount of attention paid to the interactive context words was minimized during training. Reducing the amount of attention paid to the context words during training did, however, decrease the amount of priming, shown by both groups of subjects, to the same degree. It also decreased recognition of trained homonym-context word pairs to a similar extent in amnesics and normal people. In an additional condition of the study, it was shown that normal subjects were aware of the meaningful relationship between homonyms and context words even when the amount of attention they paid to context words was minimized during training. Priming seemed to be stochastically independent of recognition and was also unrelated to signs of frontal lobe damage, intelligence or explicit memory. All three groups of subjects showed similar and significant levels of priming regardless of whether or not only definitions that made no direct reference to the context words were scored. It was concluded that amnesics have preserved priming for interactive context words that are encoded with low levels of attention even though there is evidence that they have a disproportionate recognition deficit for this kind of information under these conditions. The theoretical implications of the results are discussed.     

The interactive computer interview for mania

Reilly‐Harrington NA, DeBonis D, Leon AC, Sylvia L, Perlis R, Lewis D, Sachs GS. The interactive computer interview for mania.
Bipolar Disord 2010: 12: 521–527. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Objectives: The Interactive Computer Interview for Mania (ICI‐M) is a computer‐administered interview that presents probes to assess symptom severity and utilizes a scoring algorithm to select follow‐up questions and rate subject responses in accordance with rating scale anchor points. The current study examines the acceptability, feasibility, and reliability of the ICI‐M as a potential method for evaluating the performance of human raters. Methods: Participants with a diagnosis of bipolar I or II disorder completed both a live interview of the Young Mania Rating Scale with a human rater (LR) and the ICI‐M. A panel of three expert raters reviewed each videotaped LR and assigned a consensus rating (CR). Participants completed a modified version of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire to assess each method. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.91 between the ICI‐M and CR and 0.97 between the LR and CR (n = 100), providing empirical support for the inter‐rater reliability of each approach. Coefficient alphas indicated comparable internal consistency reliability: ICI‐M = 0.82, LR = 0.83, and CR = 0.84. The ICI‐M was significantly more sensitive in detecting symptomatology than the LR (p < 0.001) and the CR (p < 0.001), and resulted in significantly higher ratings than CR on mood, speech, psychotic content, and disruptive‐aggressive behavior. While participants endorsed significantly higher overall satisfaction with LR, no significant differences emerged between ICI‐M and LR regarding willingness to participate again or ability to understand the questions. Conclusions: The ICI‐M is a well‐accepted and reliable method for assessing manic symptoms. The ICI‐M is a tool with adequate sensitivity to elicit symptoms and rate severity and is recommended as a tool to monitor and improve rater performance, not as a replacement of a human rater.     

Integration of distributed cortical systems by reentry: a computer simulation of interactive functionally segregated visual areas

A computer model based on visual cortex has been constructed to analyze how the operations of multiple, functionally segregated cortical areas can be coordinated and integrated to yield a unified perceptual response. We propose that cortical integration arises through the process of reentry--the ongoing, parallel, recursive signaling between separate maps along ordered anatomical connections. To test the efficacy of this reentrant cortical integration (RCI) model, we have carried out detailed computer simulations of 3 interconnected cortical areas in the striate and extrastriate cortex of the macaque. The simulated networks contained a total of over 222,000 units and 8.5 million connections. The 3 modeled areas, called VOR, VOC, and VMO, incorporate major anatomical and physiological properties of cortical areas V1, V3, and V5 but are vastly simplified compared with monkey visual cortex. Simulated area VOR contains both orientation and directionally selective units; simulated area VMO discriminates the direction of motion of arbitrarily oriented objects; and simulated area VOC responds to both luminance and occlusion boundaries in the stimulus. Area VOC is able to respond to illusory contours (Kanizsa, 1979) by means of the same neural architecture used for the discrimination of occlusion boundaries. This architecture also generates responses to structure-from-motion by virtue of reentrant connections from VMO to VOC. The responses of the simulated networks to these illusions are consistent with the perceptual responses of humans and other species presented with these stimuli. The networks also respond in a consistent manner to a novel illusion that combines illusory contours and structure-from-motion. The response synthesized to this combined illusion provides a strong argument supporting the need for a recursive reentrant process in the cortex. Functional integration of the simulated areas in the RCI model were found to depend upon the combined action of 3 reentrant processes: (1) conflicting responses among segregated areas are competitively eliminated, (2) outputs of each area are used by other areas in their own operations, and (3) outputs of an area are "reentered" back to itself (through lower areas) and can thus be used iteratively to synthesize responses to complex or illusory stimuli. Transection of the reentrant connections selectively abolished these integrative processes and led to failure of figural synthesis. The proposed model of reentry suggests a basis for understanding how multiple visual areas as well as other cortical areas may be integrated within a distributed system.     

An experimental simulation method for iterative and interactive reconstruction of unknown (fusimotor) inputs contributing to known (spindle afferent) responses

A simulation technique, combining chronic recordings in freely moving alert cats with acute experiments on a nerve muscle preparation, has been designed to estimate fusimotor activity profiles underlying chronically recorded muscle spindle afferent responses to movements. Fusimotor stimulation patterns are iteratively generated and tested for their ability to simulate a target response during reproduction of the movement. The error between a simulated and the target response is incorporated into the current stimulation pattern, to generate the stimulation profile for the next cycle of iteration. The procedure is semi-automatic and offers a number of interactive features. For instance, the user has the choice to redraw manually critical segments of a given stimulation profile. The procedure converges rapidly, and solutions are unique, since target responses (first produced with known inputs) could be reconstructed by virtually identical, iterated, profiles. The method opens up the possibility of investigating complex transient adjustments of fusimotor drive, e.g. during adaptive motor performance.     

Symptomatic myocardial ischemia and everyday life: implications for clinical use of interactive monitoring.

In coronary heart disease (CHD), pathological myocardial ischemic changes do not always occur with the symptom of heart pain. Methodological problems make it difficult to examine the factors that influence silent and symptomatic myocardial ischemia in everyday life. This study uses a computer-assisted monitoring system with an interactive Holter ECG, an actometer, and an electronic diary. Self-report measurements indicate that symptomatic patients tend toward increased neuroticism, whereas asymptomatic patients engage in beneficial and active coping skills more frequently. The results of the monitoring study demonstrate the same degree of ischemia in silent and symptomatic episodes. However, these episodes show differences in certain psychological context variables. Symptomatic episodes are linked to high subjective strain and severe tension. Because angina pectoris is not a reliable warning signal of myocardial ischemia, the use of the interactive monitoring system is recommended for educating CHD patients on how to cope with excessive strain in everyday life.     

Review of Psychology on a Disk from CMS academic software: interactive activities for psychology.

Psychology on a Disk contains a variety of simulations that show a strong potential to motivate and educate introductory psychology students with a wide range of ability and initial interest. The exercises appear to be well within the grasp of first-year students and provide suitable starting points for discussion of terms, definitions, and areas of research activity. The quality of the simulations is high and provides some indication that there are additional areas of undergraduate psychology, for example, courses in abnormal, clinical, and developmental topics, in which specialized simulations might also constitute an important adjunct to classroom and laboratory activities. The 10 simulations span much of the content of introductory courses, although they are most pertinent to syllabi that emphasize learning principles and social psychology as important foundations. As an instructional device, the simulations also will serve to introduce some students to use of computers as a source of information and feedback with potential benefits in other and later academic endeavors in which time-savings will be important. Promotional materials describe POAD as easy to add (to existing texts), easy to use, easy to grade, easy to afford, and easy to order (through your college bookstore): truth in advertising.     

Alzheimer's disease--an interactive perspective

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by a progressive loss in memory and deterioration of the higher cognitive functions. The brain of an individual with AD exhibits extracellular senile plaques of aggregated amyloid-beta-peptide (Abeta), intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) that consist of hyperphosphorylated tau protein (P-tau) and a profound loss of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons that innervate the hippocampus and the neocortex. Recent data obtained via genomics, proteomics and molecular genetics, have gleaned new information with regard to the physiological and pathophysiological functions of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and its cleavage product Abeta. This review glances over several aspects that may play a major role in the pathogenesis of AD providing an insight into APP's and Abeta's interplay with other cellular systems.     

An interactive voice response diary for patients with non-dystrophic myotonia

Introduction: Non‐dystrophic myotonia (NDM) is caused by mutations in muscle chloride and sodium channels. Currently, there is no standardized instrument for documenting symptom frequency and severity in NDM. Methods: Subjects used an automated, interactive, telephone‐based voice response diary (IVR) to record frequency and severity of stiffness, weakness, pain, and tiredness once a week for 8 weeks, after their baseline visits. Results: We describe the IVR and report data on 76 subjects for a total of 385 person‐weeks. Overall there were 5.1 calls per subject. Forty‐eight subjects called in 5 or more times, and 14 called in 8 times. Stiffness was both the most frequent and severe symptom. Warm‐up and handgrip myotonia were associated with higher severity scores for stiffness. Conclusions: IVR is a convenient technology to allow patient reporting of repeated and real‐time symptom frequency and severity, and it is presently being used in a trial of mexiletine in NDM. Muscle Nerve 44: 30–35, 2011     

The interactive model of psychotherapy

The authors of this article present a new model of psychotherapy, the interactive model. The model is based on the assumptions that individual functioning is based not only on the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor (behavioral) domains but also on the interaction among these domains. This therapy model directs the clinician toward assessment and intervention of these interactions.     

A Statistical Framework for Inter-Group Image Registration

Groupwise image registration plays an important role in medical image analysis. The principle of groupwise image registration is to align a given set of images to a hidden template space in an iteratively manner without explicitly selecting any individual image as the template. Although many approaches have been proposed to address the groupwise image registration problem for registering a single group of images, few attentions and efforts have been paid to the registration problem between two or more different groups of images. In this paper, we propose a statistical framework to address the registration problems between two different image groups. The main contributions of this paper lie in the following aspects: (1) In this paper, we demonstrate that directly registering the group mean images estimated from two different image groups is not sufficient to establish the reliable transformation from one image group to the other image group. (2) A novel statistical framework is proposed to extract anatomical features from the white matter, gray matter and cerebrospinal fluid tissue maps of all aligned images as morphological signatures for each voxel. The extracted features provide much richer anatomical information than the voxel intensity of the group mean image, and can be integrated with the multi-channel Demons registration algorithm to perform the registration process. (3) The proposed method has been extensively evaluated on two publicly available brain MRI databases: the LONI LPBA40 and the IXI databases, and it is also compared with a conventional inter-group image registration approach which directly performs deformable registration between the group mean images of two image groups. Experimental results show that the proposed method consistently achieves higher registration accuracy than the method under comparison.     

Improving medical students' interactive competence

We report a new curriculum for improving medical students' interactive competence. The curriculum is based on the method of "psychotherapeutic plan analysis" by F. Caspar in combination with elements of systemic supervision and problem-based learning. For evaluation, participants (fifth year medical students, n = 50) were asked to fill in a questionnaire adapted to the contents of the course. Comparison was made possible by a control group (n = 72) teached in a traditional manner. Evaluation showed significant improvement of the students' self awareness, perception of their patients and sensibility for patients' needs. The students expanded their capability to reflect own actions and to work in teams. Initially expressed anxiety concerning contact with patients was reduced significantly during the course. In three and twelve months follow-ups, students still considered their personal achievement to be significantly high. Participants of the curriculum rated their courses higher with regard to didactic issues, improvement of interactive competences and personal relevance, while control courses were seen to be more relevant to prepare for exams.     

The interactive developmental model revisited

OBJECTIVE: To provide a more adequate method for integrating our understanding of biological, psychological and social factors in schizophrenia, new concepts and a broader view of scientific method are required. This report aims to describe steps towards these concepts and methods. METHOD: Using experiences from a range of research, clinical, and general life encounters, the author reviews assumption about objectivity and science in the mental health field where human experience is a crucial source of data and concepts. RESULTS: These experiences indicate that the more complex concepts of intentionality, emotional experience and expression, and the concept of experience have been largely ignored in much schizophrenia research and theory. CONCLUSION: Some approaches to overcoming this lack are suggested.     

An inexpensive and interactive microcomputer system for codifying Golgi-impregnated neuronal morphology

An interactive microcomputer system has been developed for the quantitative analysis of Golgi-impregnated neuronal morphology (GINM). The system uses commercially available hardware: a 48K RAM microcomputer (Apple II), a TV monitor (NEC), an optical microscope (Reichert Biovar) with a camera lucida and a specially developed wheel attached to the focus adjustment knob and to a digital planimeter (Tamaya), allowing one to obtain the value of the z-coordinate. The x- and y-coordinates are obtained using the movement of a point plotted by the computer on the TV monitor. This point is superimposed upon the GINM point to be codified employing the camera lucida. The x- and y-coordinates are acquired automatically while the variations of the z-coordinate are introduced by the computer keyboard. The three-dimensional coordinates of the selected GINM points and different codes are stored by the computer in a six-dimensional array. The software is written in BASIC. The results demonstrate that the digitization and quantitative analysis of GINM can be achieved with reasonably inexpensive equipment.