• Title/Summary/Keyword: Human visual cortex

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Neural Activation in the Somatosensory Cortex by Electrotactile Stimulation of the Fingers: A Human fMRI Study

  • Seok, Ji-Woo;Jang, Un-Jung;Sohn, Jin-Hun
    • Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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    • v.33 no.5
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    • pp.395-405
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    • 2014
  • Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate 1) somatotopic arrangement of the second and third fingers in SI area 2) difference of neural activation in the SI area produced by stimulation with different frequencies 3) correlation between the intensity of tactile perception by different stimulus intensity and the level of brain activation measurable by means of fMRI. Background: Somatosensory cortex can obtain the information of environmental stimuli about "where" (e.g., on the left palm), "what" (e.g., a book or a dog), and "how" (e.g., scrub gently or scrub roughly) to organism. However, compared to visual sense, the neural mechanism underlying the processing of specific electrotactile stimulus is still unknown. Method: 10 right-handed subjects participated in this study. Non-painful electrotactile stimuli were delivered to two different finger tips of right hand. Functional brain images were collected from 3.0T MRI using the single-shot EPI method. The scanning parameters were as follows: TR and TE were 3000, 35ms, respectively, flip angle 60, FOV $24{\times}24cm$, matrix size $64{\times}64$, slice thickness 4mm (no gap). SPM5 was used to analyze the fMRI data. Results: Significant activations produced by the stimulation were found in the SI, SII, the subcentral gyrus, the precentral gyrus, and the insula. In all participants, statistically significant activation was observed in the contralateral SI area and the bilateral SII areas by the stimulation on the fingers but ipsilaterally dominant. The SI area representing the second finger generally located in the more lateral and inferior side than that of the third finger across all the subjects. But no difference in brain area was found for the stimulation of the fingers by different frequencies. And two typical patterns were observed on the relationship between the perceived psychological intensity and the amount of voxels in the primary sensory cortex during the stimulation. Conclusion: It was possible to discriminate the representation sites in the SI by electrotactile stimulation of digit2 and digit3. But we could not find the differences of the brain areas according to different stimulation frequencies from 3 to 300Hz. Application: The results of the study can provide a deeper understanding of somatosensory cortex and offer the information for tactile display for blinds.

Study on Neuron Activities for Adversarial Examples in Convolutional Neural Network Model by Population Sparseness Index (개체군 희소성 인덱스에 의한 컨벌루션 신경망 모델의 적대적 예제에 대한 뉴런 활동에 관한 연구)

  • Youngseok Lee
    • The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.1-7
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    • 2023
  • Convolutional neural networks have already been applied to various fields beyond human visual processing capabilities in the image processing area. However, they are exposed to a severe risk of deteriorating model performance due to the appearance of adversarial attacks. In addition, defense technology to respond to adversarial attacks is effective against the attack but is vulnerable to other types of attacks. Therefore, to respond to an adversarial attack, it is necessary to analyze how the performance of the adversarial attack deteriorates through the process inside the convolutional neural network. In this study, the adversarial attack of the Alexnet and VGG11 models was analyzed using the population sparseness index, a measure of neuronal activity in neurophysiology. Through the research, it was observed in each layer that the population sparsity index for adversarial examples showed differences from that of benign examples.

Metabolic Changes on Occipital Cortex during Visual Stimulation with Functional MR Imaging and H MR Spectroscopy (기능적 자기공명영상법과 양성자 가지공명분광법을 이용한 시각자극에 의한 후두염 피질의 대사물질 변화)

  • Kim, Tae;Suh, Tae-Suk;Choe, Bo-Young;Kim, Sung-Eun;Lee, Heung-Kyu;Shinn, Kyung-Sub
    • Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.47-52
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    • 1999
  • Purpose : The purpose of this study was aimed to evaluate the BOLD(blood oxygen level dependent) contrast fMRI(functional MR imaging) in the occipital lobe and to compare with the metabolic changes based on H MRS (MR spectroscopy) and MRSI (MR spectroscopic imaging) before and after visual stimulation Materials and Methods : Healthy human volunteers (eight males and two females with 24-30 year age) participated in this study. All of the BOLD fMRI were acquired on a 1.5T MR with EPI during supervised visual stimulation in the occipital lobe. The red flicker with 8Hz was used for visual stimulation. After imaging acquisition, the MR images were transferred into unix workstation and processed with acquired from the same location based on the activation map. MRSI (magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging) was also acquired to analyze the lactate changes before and after stimulation. Results : The activation maps were successfully produced by BOLD effect due to visual stimulation. NAA (N-acetyle aspartate)/Cr (creatine) ratio varied only from $1.79{\pm}0.28{\;}to{\;}1.88{\pm}0.20$ in activation area before and after stimulation. However, the signal intensity of lactate was elevated $9.48{\pm}4.38$ times higher than before activation. Lactate metabolite images were consistent with the activation maps. Conclusion : The BOLD contrast fMRI is enough sensitive to detect the activated area in human brain during the visual stimulation. Lactate metabolite map presents the evidence of lactate elevation on the same area of activation.

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Artificial Vision Project by Micro-Bio Technologies

  • Kim Sung June;Jung Hum;Yu Young Suk;Yu Hyeong Gon;Cho Dong il;Lee Byeong Ho;Ku Yong Sook;Kim Eun Mi;Seo Jong Mo;Kim Hyo kyum;Kim Eui tae;Paik Seung June;Yoon Il Young
    • 한국가시화정보학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2002.04a
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    • pp.51-78
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    • 2002
  • A number of research groups worldwide are studying electronic implants that can be mounted on retinal optic nerve/visual cortex to restore vision of patients suffering from retinal degeneration. The implants consist of a neural interface made of biocompatible materials, one or more integrated circuits for stimuli generation, a camera, an image processor, and a telemetric channel. The realization of these classes of neural prosthetic devices is largely due to the explosive development of micro- and nano-electronics technologies in the late $20^{th}$ century and biotechnologies more recently. Animal experiments showed promise and some human experiments are in progress to indicate that recognition of images can be obtained and improved over time. We, at NBS-ERC of SNU, have started our own retinal implant project in 2000. We have selected polyimide as the biomaterial for an epi-retinal stimulator. In-vitro and in-vivo biocompatibility studies have been performed on the electrode arrays. We have obtained good affinity to retinal pigment epithelial cells and no harmful effect. The implant also showed very good stability and safety in rabbit eye for 12 weeks. We have also demonstrated that through proper stimulation of inner retina, meaning vision can be obtained.

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Development of a Model of Brain-based Evolutionary Scientific Teaching for Learning (뇌기반 진화적 과학 교수학습 모형의 개발)

  • Lim, Chae-Seong
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.29 no.8
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    • pp.990-1010
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    • 2009
  • To derive brain-based evolutionary educational principles, this study examined the studies on the structural and functional characteristics of human brain, the biological evolution occurring between- and within-organism, and the evolutionary attributes embedded in science itself and individual scientist's scientific activities. On the basis of the core characteristics of human brain and the framework of universal Darwinism or universal selectionism consisted of generation-test-retention (g-t-r) processes, a Model of Brain-based Evolutionary Scientific Teaching for Learning (BEST-L) was developed. The model consists of three components, three steps, and assessment part. The three components are the affective (A), behavioral (B), and cognitive (C) components. Each component consists of three steps of Diversifying $\rightarrow$ Emulating (Executing, Estimating, Evaluating) $\rightarrow$ Furthering (ABC-DEF). The model is 'brain-based' in the aspect of consecutive incorporation of the affective component which is based on limbic system of human brain associated with emotions, the behavioral component which is associated with the occipital lobes performing visual processing, temporal lobes performing functions of language generation and understanding, and parietal lobes, which receive and process sensory information and execute motor activities of the body, and the cognitive component which is based on the prefrontal lobes involved in thinking, planning, judging, and problem solving. On the other hand, the model is 'evolutionary' in the aspect of proceeding according to the processes of the diversifying step to generate variants in each component, the emulating step to test and select useful or valuable things among the variants, and the furthering step to extend or apply the selected things. For three components of ABC, to reflect the importance of emotional factors as a starting point in scientific activity as well as the dominant role of limbic system relative to cortex of brain, the model emphasizes the DARWIN (Driving Affective Realm for Whole Intellectual Network) approach.