Many organisms use multimodal maps to generate coherent neuronal representations that allow adequate responses to stimuli that excite several sensory modalities. During ontogeny of these maps, one modality typically acts as the dominant system the other modalities are aligned to. A well studied model for the alignment of sensory maps is the calibration of the auditory space map by the visual sy...

We have investigated how neurons in the optic tecta of embryonic day 16 chick embryos depend for survival on their afferents from the retina. To distinguish between activity-mediated effects and other, "trophic," ones, we compared the effects on the tectal neurons of blocking intraocular axoplasmic transport (with colchicine) or action potentials (by means of TTX). Both interventions rapidly in...

The retinal projection to the superior colliculus of the cat was examined at four gestational ages, embryonic days 38, 46, 56, and 61, using the antegrade transport of horseradish peroxidase and tritiated leucine. Gestation in the cat averages 65 days. By the 38th day of gestation (E38), the anlage of the entire superior colliculus, both ipsilateral and contralateral to an injection, was labele...

The Ca(2+)-binding proteins (CBPs) parvalbumin, calbindin, and calretinin are phenotypic markers of terminally differentiated neurons in the adult brain. Although subtle phylogenetic variations in the neuronal distribution of these CBPs may occur, morphologically and functionally diverse subclasses of interneurons harbor these proteins in olfactory and corticolimbic areas. Secretagogin (scgn) i...

Responses to separate and simultaneous application of noxious and innocuous tactile stimuli were examined for neurons recorded from the deep layers of the hamster's superior colliculus. Forty-four percent of the units isolated were responsive only to innocuous, primarily cutaneous, stimuli; 10% were activated only by noxious stimulation; and 15% were characterized as having a wide dynamic range...

Nitric oxide synthase (NOS), the enzyme with reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-diaphorase activity, generates nitric oxide (NO) which is an important bioregulatory molecule in the nervous, immune, and cardiovascular systems. NOS is linked to non-adrenergic non-cholinergic (NANC) neuronal pathways and modulation of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors, yet its modificatio...

BACKGROUND The study of plants and fungi sold in open-air markets is an important part of ethnobotanical enquiry. Only few such studies were carried out in Europe. METHODS Four of the largest open-air markets of south-eastern Poland were visited regularly, and the plants sold in them were recorded between 2013 and 2015. The aim of the study was to record native and/or wild species sold in the...

The first detections of Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, in North America occurred almost simultaneously in Florida and in the Caribbean (Guadeloupe). Damaging populations on citrus have been reported in Florida but not in Puerto Rico where the psyllid was first detected in 2001, having probably arrived with its parasitoid, Tamarixia radiata Waterston. In an effort to identify a...

Quantitative morphological changes in the superior colliculus (SC) and the parabigeminal nucleus (PB) were studied in hereditary unilaterally microphthalmic rats. The mutant animals have one vestigial and one almost normally developed eyeball. The former eye completely lacks the optic nerve. The proportion of uncrossed to crossed retinal fibers in the mutant rats was estimated at about 6%. Cons...