Navigation first requires accurate perception of one's spatial orientation within the environment, which consists of knowledge about location and directional heading. Cells within several limbic system areas of the mammalian brain discharge allocentrically as a function of the animal's directional heading, independent of the animal's location and ongoing behavior. These cells are referred to as...

Voluntary actions produce suppression of neural activity in sensory areas, and reduced levels of conscious sensation. Recent computational models of motor control have linked sensory suppression to motor prediction: an efferent signal from motor areas may cancel the sensory reafferences predicted as a consequence of movement. Direct evidence for the efferent mechanism in sensory suppression has...

Biofeedback-EEG training to learn the mental control of an external device (e.g., a cursor on the screen) has been an important paradigm to attempt to understand the involvements of various areas of the brain in the volitional control and the modulation of intentional thought processes. Often the areas to adapt and to monitor progress are selected a priori. Less explored, however, has been the ...

Analysis of the neural code for sensory-motor latency in smooth pursuit eye movements reveals general principles of neural variation and the specific origin of motor latency. The trial-by-trial variation in neural latency in MT comprises a shared component expressed as neuron-neuron latency correlations and an independent component that is local to each neuron. The independent component arises ...

Molecular mechanisms underlying olfactory signal amplification were investigated by monitoring cAMP dynamics in the intact sensory cilia. We saw that [cAMP]i increased superlinearly with time during odorant stimuli for >1 s. This time course was remarkably different from that obtained with the rapid quench method previously applied to the in vitro preparation, in which [cAMP]i change has been r...

When making choices, collecting more information is beneficial but comes at the cost of sacrificing time that could be allocated to making other potentially rewarding decisions. To investigate how the brain balances these costs and benefits, we conducted a series of novel experiments in humans and simulated various computational models. Under six levels of time pressure, subjects made decisions...

In this review we explore the relationship between synaesthesia and sensory substitution and argue that sensory substitution does indeed show properties of synaesthesia. Both are associated with atypical perceptual experiences elicited by the processing of a qualitatively different stimulus to that which normally gives rise to that experience. In the most common forms of sensory substitution, p...