How is the cortical navigation network reorganized by the Likova Cognitive-Kinesthetic Navigation Training? We measured Granger-causal connectivity of the frontal-hippocampal-insular-retrosplenial-V1 network of cortical areas before and after this one-week training in the blind. Primarily top-down influences were seen during two tasks of drawing-from-memory (drawing complex maps and drawing the shortest path between designated map locations), with the dominant role being congruent influences from the egocentric insular to the allocentric spatial retrosplenial cortex and the amodal-spatial sketchpad of V1, with concomitant influences of the frontal cortex on these areas. After training, and during planning-from-memory of the best on-demand path, the hippocampus played a much stronger role, with the V1 sketchpad feeding information forward to the retrosplenial region. The inverse causal influences among these regions generally followed a recursive feedback model of the opposite pattern to a subset of congruent influences. Thus, this navigational network reorganized its pattern of causal influences with task demands and the navigation training, which produced marked enhancement of the navigational skills.
Radiologists and pathologists frequently make highly consequential perceptual decisions. For example, visually searching for a tumor and recognizing whether it is malignant can have a life-changing impact on a patient. Unfortunately, all human perceivers-even radiologists-have perceptual biases. Because human perceivers (medical doctors) will, for the foreseeable future, be the final judges of whether a tumor is malignant, understanding and mitigating human perceptual biases is important. While there has been research on perceptual biases in medical image perception tasks, the stimuli used for these studies were highly artificial and often critiqued. Realistic stimuli have not been used because it has not been possible to generate or control them for psychophysical experiments. Here, we propose to use Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) to create vivid and realistic medical image stimuli that can be used in psychophysical and computer vision studies of medical image perception. Our model can generate tumor-like stimuli with specified shapes and realistic textures in a controlled manner. Various experiments showed the authenticity of our GAN-generated stimuli and the controllability of our model.
A Supervised Learning Approach for Dynamic Sampling (SLADS) addresses traditional issues with the incorporation of stochastic processes into a compressed sensing method. Statistical features, extracted from a sample reconstruction, estimate entropy reduction with regression models, in order to dynamically determine optimal sampling locations. This work introduces an enhanced SLADS method, in the form of a Deep Learning Approach for Dynamic Sampling (DLADS), showing reductions in sample acquisition times for high-fidelity reconstructions between ~ 70-80% over traditional rectilinear scanning. These improvements are demonstrated for dimensionally asymmetric, high-resolution molecular images of mouse uterine and kidney tissues, as obtained using Nanospray Desorption ElectroSpray Ionization (nano-DESI) Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI). The methodology for training set creation is adjusted to mitigate stretching artifacts generated when using prior SLADS approaches. Transitioning to DLADS removes the need for feature extraction, further advanced with the employment of convolutional layers to leverage inter-pixel spatial relationships. Additionally, DLADS demonstrates effective generalization, despite dissimilar training and testing data. Overall, DLADS is shown to maximize potential experimental throughput for nano-DESI MSI.
In order to better understand how our visual system processes information, we must understand the underlying brain connectivity architecture, and how it can get reorganized under visual deprivation. The full extent to which visual development and visual loss affect connectivity is not well known. To investigate the effect of the onset of blindness on structural connectivity both at the whole-brain voxel-wise level and at the level of all major white-matter tracts, we applied two complementary Diffusion-Tension Imaging (DTI) methods, TBSS and AFQ. Diffusion-weighted brain images were collected from three groups of participants: congenitally blind (CB), acquired blind (AB), and fully sighted controls. The differences between these groups were evaluated on a voxel-wise scale with Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) method, and on larger-scale with Automated Fiber Quantification (AFQ), a method that allows for between-group comparisons at the level of the major fiber tracts. TBSS revealed that both blind groups tended to have higher FA than sighted controls in the central structures of the brain. AFQ revealed that, where the three groups differed, congenitally blind participants tended to be more similar to sighted controls than to those participants who had acquired blindness later in life. These differences were specifically manifested in the left uncinated fasciculus, the right corticospinal fasciculus, and the left superior longitudinal fasciculus, areas broadly associated with a range of higher-level cognitive systems.
Rapidly evolving technologies like data analysis, smartphone and web-based applications, and the Internet of things have been increasingly used for healthy living, fitness and well-being. These technologies are being utilized by various research studies to reduce obesity. This paper demonstrates design and development of a dataflow protocol that integrates several applications. After registration of a user, activity, nutrition and other lifestyle data from participants are retrieved in a centralized cloud dedicated for health promotion. In addition, users are provided accounts in an e-Learning environment from which learning outcomes can be retrieved. Using the proposed system, health promotion campaigners have the ability to provide feedback to the participants using a dedicated messaging system. Participants authorize the system to use their activity data for the program participation. The implemented system and servicing protocol minimize personnel overhead of large-scale health promotion campaigns and are scalable to assist automated interventions, from automated data retrieval to automated messaging feedback. This paper describes end-to -end workflow of the proposed system. The case study tests are carried with Fitbit Flex2 activity trackers, Withings Scale, Verizon Android-based tablets, Moodle learning management system, and Articulate RISE for learning content development.
A supervised learning approach for dynamic sampling (SLADS) was developed to reduce X-ray exposure prior to data collection in protein structure determination. Implementation of this algorithm allowed reduction of the X-ray dose to the central core of the crystal by up to 20-fold compared to current raster scanning approaches. This dose reduction corresponds directly to a reduction on X-ray damage to the protein crystals prior to data collection for structure determination. Implementation at a beamline at Argonne National Laboratory suggests promise for the use of the SLADS approach to aid in the analysis of X-ray labile crystals. The potential benefits match a growing need for improvements in automated approaches for microcrystal positioning.