We report a series of experiments examining the effects on word processing of insertion of an optional epenthetic vowel in word-final consonant clusters in Dutch. Such epenthesis turns film, for instance, into filəm. In a word-reversal task listeners treated words with and without epenthesis alike, as monosyllables, suggesting that the variant forms both activate the same canonical representati...

The present work demonstrates that the cortical reactivity of the rat, monitored by thalamocortical responses, can be enhanced by repetitive transcallosal volleys (5-20 Hz). This effect can be completely inhibited by callosotomy. We believe that the interhemispheric epileptogenesis and the suppressive effect of callosotomy for intractable epilepsy can be explained by this facilitatory effect of...

Facilitatory Mechanisms Shape Selectivity for the Rate and Direction of FM Sweeps 2 in the Inferior Colliculus of the Pallid Bat 3 4 5 Anthony J. Williams and Zoltan M. Fuzessery 6 Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071 7 8 9 Running Head: Facilitation and FM Sweep Selectivity in the IC 10

The projection from the thalamic centre médian-parafascicular (CM-Pf) complex to the caudate nucleus and putamen forms a massive striatal input system in primates. We examined the activity of 118 neurons in the CM and 62 neurons in the Pf nuclei of the thalamus and 310 tonically active neurons (TANs) in the striatum in awake behaving macaque monkeys and analyzed the effects of pharmacologic ina...

Theta-burst stimulation (TBS) is a technique that elicits long-lasting changes in the excitability of human primary motor cortex (M1). Tonic contraction of the target muscle modifies the aftereffects of TBS, whereas interactions between phasic muscle contraction and the aftereffects of TBS are unknown. In this paper, we investigated whether phasic voluntary movements influence TBS-induced chang...

Contralesional dorsal premotor cortex (cPMd) may support residual motor function following stroke. We performed two complementary experiments to explore how cPMd might perform this role in a group of chronic human stroke patients. First, we used paired-coil transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to establish the physiological influence of cPMd on ipsilesional primary motor cortex (iM1) at rest...

Activity-dependent facilitation is a mechanism of associative synaptic plasticity that contributes to classical conditioning in Aplysia. Previous studies of activity-dependent facilitation in the mechanosensory neurons of Aplysia suggested that the Ca2+ influx during paired spike activity enhances the transmitter-stimulated, cAMP-dependent, presynaptic facilitation in these cells. Moreover, pai...

Paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been applied as a probe to test functional connectivity within distinct cortical areas of the human motor system. Here, we tested the interaction between the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and ipsilateral motor cortex (M1). A conditioning TMS pulse over the right PPC potentiates motor evoked-potentials evoked by a test TMS pulse over the...

Descending inhibitory and facilitatory influences from the rostroventral medulla (RVM) on responses of lumbosacral spinal neurons to noxious colorectal distension (CRD, 80 mmHg, 20 s) were studied. At 25 sites in the RVM, electrical stimulation produced biphasic effects, facilitating responses of spinal neurons to CRD at lesser intensities of stimulation (5-25 microA) and inhibiting responses o...

Recent studies on the response properties of neurons in primary visual cortex emphasize the dynamics and the complexities of facilitatory and suppressive interactions between the receptive field center and surrounding areas of visual space. These observations raise new questions about the circuitry responsible for receptive field surround effects and their contribution to visual perception.