Psychophysical correlates of contralateral efferent suppression. I. The role of the medial olivocochlear system in "central masking" in nonhuman primates

An extensive physiological literature, including experimental and clinical studies in humans, demonstrates that activation of the medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferent system, by either contralateral sound or electrical stimulation, can produce significant alterations in cochlear function and suggests a role for the MOC system in influencing the auditory behavior of binaural hearing. The present data are from psychophysical studies in nonhuman primates which seek to determine if the noted physiological changes in response to contralateral acoustic stimulation have a perceptual counterpart. Four juvenile Japanese macaques were trained to respond to the presence of 1-s sinusoids, presented to the test ear, in an operant reinforcement paradigm. Thresholds were compared for frequencies ranging from 1.0 to 4.0 kHz in quiet, with thresholds measured when continuous, two octave-band noise, centered on the test tone frequency, was presented in the contralateral ear. Contralateral noise was presented at levels of 10-60 dB above detection threshold for the test-tone frequency. While some variability was evident across subjects, both in the frequency distribution and magnitude (as a function of contralateral noise level), all subjects exhibited an increase, or suppression of thresholds in the presence of contralateral noise. On average, thresholds increased systematically with contralateral noise level, to a peak of 7 dB. In one subject, the threshold increase seen with contralateral noise was significantly reduced when the MOC was surgically sectioned on the floor of the IVth ventricle. The characteristics of the measured shifts in behavioral thresholds, in the presence of contralateral noise reported here, are qualitatively and quantitatively similar to both efferent physiological suppression effects and psychophysical central masking threshold shifts which have been reported previously. These data suggest that at least some aspects of "central masking" are efferent-mediated peripheral processes, and that the term "central masking" may be incorrect.     

Negative refractive index in left-handed materials

The real part of the refractive index n(omega) of a nearly transparent and passive medium is usually taken to have only positive values. Through an analysis of a current source radiating into a 1D "left-handed" material (LHM)-where the permittivity and permeability are simultaneously less than zero-we determine the analytic structure of n(omega), demonstrating frequency regions where the sign of Re[n(omega)] must, in fact, be negative. The regime of negative index, made relevant by a recent demonstration of an effective LHM, leads to unusual electromagnetic wave propagation and merits further exploration.     

Robust polymer colloidal crystal photonic bandgap structures

New polymeric matrices are presented that embed organic colloidal crystalline arrays (CCA's) into mechanically stable photonic bandgap structures. We achieved these new matrices either by dispersing polystyrene CCA's with high molecular weight hydrophilic polymer [poly(ethylene glycol); (PEG)] or through in situ polymerization of hydrophilic monomers (acrylamide and acrylate functional PEG variants) about the CCA. CCA-dispersed PEG matrices exhibited strong red opalescence with a narrow peak at 614 nm and were sufficiently rigid to withstand repeated mechanical deformation. Visible photonic bandgaps also were observed from free-standing CCA composites with cross-linked poly(N, N-dimethylacrylamide) matrices. The results demonstrate the technological potential for robust organic photonic crystals.     

Determination of titanium NMR parameters of ATiO3 compounds: correlations with structural distortion

Solid state ^47,49Ti NMR spectra have been obtained for a number of perovskite and ilmenite ATiO₃ compounds. The ⁴⁹Ti quadrupole coupling constant varies from 2.75 MHz (CaTiO₃) to 15.5 MHz (MgTiO₃) and the electric field gradient at the titanium site was found to correlate well with the shear strain, independent of structure. The chemical shift in the perovskite structures varies by 160 ppm and correlates well with the mean Ti–O distance. The ²⁵Mg and ¹¹³Cd NMR parameters are also reported for the relevant compounds.     

Search for a bound trineutron with the 3He(π−pgr;+)nnn reaction

A search for the production of a bound trineutron state has been performed using the reaction ³He(π⁻,π⁺)nnn at incident pion energies of 65, 75, and 120 MeV. No evidence for the existence of the ³n was found, and an upper limit for the production cross section of approximately 30 nb/sr (2σ confidence level) was obtained. Received: 22 October 1998     

Development of special optical fibers for evanescent-wave chemical sensing

The paper summarizes results achieved in the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics in the field of investigation and fabrication of novel fiber-optic structures for evanescent-wave chemical sensing. Several approaches for increasing the evanescent-wave sensitivity of multimode silica optical fibers to gaseous and liquid chemicals are shown. These approaches make use of the decrease of the core diameter in sectorial and capillary sectorial fibers, modification of trajectories of optical rays in the cores of inverted-graded-index fibers, tailoring of the refractive index of porous layers applied on silica cores, an output mode filter preventing the detection of rays propagating at low axial angles or fibers bent in single or multiple turns. Presented at the 1st Czech-Chinese Workshop “Advanced Materials for Optoelectronics”, Prague, Czech Republic, June 13–17, 1998. This work was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (projects No. 102/96/0939 and No. 102/98/1358) and by joint project No. 4104 of AS CR and CNRS, France.     

Short-scale turbulent fluctuations driven by the electron-temperature gradient in the national spherical torus experiment

Measurements with coherent scattering of electromagnetic waves in plasmas of the National Spherical Torus Experiment indicate the existence of turbulent fluctuations in the range of wave numbers k perpendicular rho(e)=0.1-0.4, corresponding to a turbulence scale length nearly equal to the collisionless skin depth. Experimental observations and agreement with numerical results from a linear gyrokinetic stability code support the conjecture that the observed turbulence is driven by the electron-temperature gradient.     

A study of rotationally invariant and symmetric indices of diffusion anisotropy.

This study investigated the properties of a class of rotationally invariant and symmetric (relative to the principal diffusivities) indices of the anisotropy of water self-diffusion, namely fractional anisotropy (FA), relative anisotropy (RA), and volume ratio (VR), with particular emphasis to their measurement in brain tissues. A simplified theoretical analysis predicted significant differences in the sensitivities of the anisotropy indices (AI) over the distribution of the principal diffusivities. Computer simulations were used to investigate the effects on AI image quality of three magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) acquisition schemes, one being novel: the schemes were simulated on cerebral model fibres varying in shape and spatial orientation. The theoretical predictions and the results of the simulations were corroborated by experimentally determined spatial maps of the AI in a normal feline brain in vivo. We found that FA mapped diffusion anisotropy with the greatest detail and SNR whereas VR provided the strongest contrast between low- and high-anisotropy areas at the expense of increased noise contamination and decreased resolution in anisotropic regions. RA proved intermediate in quality. By sampling the space of the effective diffusion ellipsoid more densely and uniformly and requiring the same total imaging time as the published schemes, the novel DTI scheme achieved greater rotational invariance than the published schemes, with improved noise characteristics, resulting in improved image quality of the AI examined. Our findings suggest that significant improvements in diffusion anisotropy mapping are possible and provide criteria for the selection of the most appropriate AI for a particular application.     

Observation of hydroxyl groups by 17O solid-state multiple quantum MAS NMR in sol-gel-produced silica

17O NMR parameters (CQ, eta, delta(iso) and T1) are reported for both Si-O-Si and Si-OH fragments within a silica gel. The Si-OH units have a wide spread of parameters but are typically characterised by a very short T1 (approximately 0.1 ms) and CQ < 200 kHz. These observations have extremely important implications for the quantification of such units in these gels and related glassy materials by 17O NMR. In light of these observations, the 17O NMR experiments have been optimised and a distinct resonance from the OH group is observed in 1D static and magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR measurements as well in the multiple quantum (MQ) experiment.