“Your ability to recognize objects and your ability to recognize scenes are independent,” says Steeves.��

Their study is published in the December issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience – “TMS to the Lateral Occipital Cortex Disrupts Object Processing but Facilitates Scene Processing”.

Left: Psychology Professor Jennifer Steeves applies rTMS stimulation to��PhD candidate Caitlin Mullin. Images of Mullin's brain can be seen on the adjacent screen��

The finding discounts an earlier theory that scene perception relies on the recognition of individual objects and instead finds that the gist of a scene can be ascertained by its spatial layout alone.

Steeves and Mullin conducted two experiments. Both showed that when the ability to see objects is impaired, the brain can still determine what it’s looking at by taking in the scene. But what surprised the researchers is that when object recognition was temporarily knocked out, the ability to categorize scenes, such as distinguishing a forest from a cityscape, increased.

“It’s like you can see the forest better when you can’t see the trees,” says Steeves, who heads up the Perceptual Neuroscience Lab��in 91��ɫ's . “We didn’t expect this at all. The stimulation��must be releasing some inhibitory process in people's brains.”

The experiments involved nine individuals with healthy brains. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was applied to the left lateral occipital cortex (LO), the object processing area of the brain just behind each ear, to disrupt object processing. This was done while showing the subjects pictures of scenes and objects.

Right: Jennifer Steeves

The idea was to see how the LO contributed to the perception of scenes. The rTMS momentarily scrambled the neurons in the LO, preventing the subject from recognizing the objects, but they were able to categorize the scenes more quickly and accurately than before. The first experiment involved using a longer disruption time for object processing than that used in the second experiment.

“There was a split second interruption to the brain in the second experiment,” says Steeves. Still, the second experiment confirmed the findings of the first. “It’s a really robust effect. The TMS showed us that even though the two functions are independent, they still work together.”

Steeves and Mullin are now doing research find out what other parts of the brain are affected when rTMS is applied to specific areas. “We’re finding so far that stimulating one region can have an effect on other areas,” says Mullin.

The research is part of the nuts and bolts of mapping the brain, which could have implications down the road in helping people with brain injuries or informing computer modelling. “What’s nice is we’re learning about networks in the brain,” says Steeves. And that is where it all starts.

The experiments were funded through grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Research Fund and the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Study finds people can see the forest without the trees appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The study, published yesterday in the Journal of Neuroscience, focuses on the superior colliculus, a structure buried deep within the brain, inherited from animals like frogs and toads. This ancient visual system orients primitive animals toward food, danger and sexual partners.

“We found that the superior colliculus performs a similar function in higher animals such as humans,” says study co-author Joseph DeSouza, a psychology professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health. “This ‘inner eye’ is oriented towards survival, feeding and reproduction. As such, these types of gazes are more difficult to suppress.”

Right:��Joseph DeSouza

Working with a team of investigators at the University’s ��(CVR), DeSouza and fellow 91��ɫ psychology Professor Doug Crawford found that superior colliculus neurons produce a burst of activity during combined eye-and-head gaze shifts.

Crawford explains that they determined what the superior colliculus codes were by recording neural activity during natural, variable eye and head movements. They then compared this activity to target locations (briefly displayed visual stimuli) and gaze end-points (where the subjects actually looked), measured relative to the eye, head or body.

“Despite being movement-related, superior colliculus neurons gave the most consistent activity compared to one simple variable: target location relative to the eyes. In this sense, the superior colliculus provides an ‘inner eye' that drives eye and neck muscles toward the target,” says Crawford, the Canada Research Chair in Visuomotor Neuroscience.

Left: Doug Crawford��

In previous work at the University of Western Ontario, DeSouza showed that a much newer system, the prefrontal cortex, is required to suppress these primitive responses. Refreshingly, both sexes are equally “toad-like” when it comes to wandering eyes.

“The superior colliculus is gender neutral. Both women and men have trouble suppressing these primitive gazes. There is, however, the question of whether one gender tends to be more obvious about it,” DeSouza says.

The study, “Intrinsic Reference Frames of Superior Colliculus Visuomotor Receptive Fields During Head-Unrestrained Gaze Shifts,” was funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant to Crawford and DeSouza. The article’s other authors are: Gerald Keith, CVR post-doc; Xiaogang Yan, CVR research associate, Gunnar Blohm, professor of neuroscience at Queen’s University, former CVR post-doc; and Hongying Wang, CVR research associate.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Brain to blame for wandering eyes appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The talk, “My Brain in Space”, will take place, Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 4pm at 519 91��ɫ Research Tower , Keele campus. A reception hosted by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation will follow the event.

Right: Dave Williams in his astronaut suit

, a medical doctor since 1983, joined the Canadian Space Agency in 1992 and participated in two spaceflights. He was on the space shuttle Columbia in 1998, where he spent 16 days experimenting on the effect of weightlessness on the brain. In 2007, he was a mission specialist on the space shuttle Endeavour as it made its way to the International Space Station. In total, he logged 28 days and 15 hours in space. It was during his Endeavour mission that he set the record for not only the number of spacewalks, three of them, but for time spent outside in space – 17 hours and 47 minutes.

He also participated in two NASA missions to Aquarius in the Florida Keys, the world’s only underwater research laboratory, to become Canada’s first dual astronaut and aquanaut.

Left: Dave Williams

Between space missions, Williams was director of the Space and Life Sciences Directorate at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. He was also the first deputy associate administrator for Crew Health and Safety in the Office of Space Flight at NASA headquarters.

Williams was a professor in the Department of Surgery at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and director of the McMaster Centre for Medical Robotics at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, from 2008 to 2011. He was chief medical officer of Patient Safety and Quality at St. Joseph’s, from 2010 to 2011.

In 1992, he served as director of emergency services at Sunnybook Hospital and as an emergency physician at Kitchener General Hospital/St. Mary’s General Hospital, from 1989 to 1990.

To read a Q&A interview by NASA with Williams, .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Former astronaut will talk about 'My Brain in Space' appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The new directors are Professor Colin Coates, director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies (RCCS); Professor Laurence Harris, director of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR); Professor Christina Kraenzle, director of the Canadian Centre for German��& European Studies (CCGES); Professor David Mutimer, director of the Centre for International��& Security Studies (YCISS); and Professor Lisa Philipps, director of the Centre for Public Policy & Law (YCPPL).����

“On behalf of the 91��ɫ research community, I would like to congratulate Professors Coates, Harris, Kraenzle, Mutimer and Philipps on their appointments,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation.��“Their leadership expertise will be essential to further strengthening the unique and exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research, collaborations and partnerships at 91��ɫ’s research centres and institutes.”

Colin Coates (left), Canada Research Chair in Cultural Landscapes, is also professor in the Canadian Studies program at Glendon College and president of the Canadian Studies Network-Réseau d’études canadiennes.��His research examines political culture in New France and the history of Canadian utopias.��He also conducts research in the area of environmental history, and is an executive member��of the��Network in Canadian History & Environment – Nouvelle initiative canadienne en histoire de l’environnement, funded by��the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Coates has co-edited and authored several books including, Introduction aux études canadiennes: histoires, identités et cultures (with Professor Geoffrey Ewen, Glendon) and Visions: the Canadian History Modules Project (with Professor Marcel Martel, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies,��along with four colleagues from other universities), Majesty in Canada: Essays on the Role of Royalty among others.��Coates won the Lionel Groulx-Yves Saint-Germain Foundation’s prize for Heroines and History – Representations of Madeleine de Verchères and Laura Secord (co-authored with Cecilia Morgan of OISE).

Laurence Harris (right)��is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, a member of the graduate programs in Kinesiology��& Health Science and in Biology, and has served as chair of the Psychology Department. He is the director the Multisensory Integration Laboratory at 91��ɫ, which investigates how information from visual, auditory, vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile senses is combined by the brain to create our perception of body and space. Applications of his research include the design of virtual environments and improving perception in situations where sensory information is impoverished, such as in the unusual environments of underwater or in space, in ageing or in clinical conditions such as partial blindness or Parkinson’s disease.��Recently, Harris��ran an��experiment on the International Space Station looking at astronauts’ perception of orientation. He is the author of��more than��100 scientific articles and has edited nine books on topics pertaining to vision including Vision in 3D Environments, Cortical Mechanisms of Vision, Seeing Spatial Form, and Levels of Perception. ��He is editor-in-chief of the journal Seeing and Perceiving: a journal of multisensory science.

Christina Kraenzle (left) is a professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures��& Linguistics (DLLL) in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.��She has served as a CCGES affiliate since 2004 and been a member of the centre’s executive committee since 2005 through her role as the coordinator of the German Studies Program within DLLL.��Kraenzle’s research explores modern German literature, film and culture, with a focus on transnational cultural production, migration, travel and globalization. Her recent publications include Mapping Channels Between Ganges and Rhein: German-Indian Cross-Cultural Relations (with Jörg Esleben and Sukanya Kulkarni, 2008) as well as articles in The German Quarterly, German Life and Letters, Transit: A Journal of Travel, Migration and Multiculturalism in the German-Speaking World, and the volume Searching for Sebald: Photography after W. G. Sebald.

David Mutimer (right), a professor in the Department of Political Science, is also the founding editor of Critical Studies on Security and the editor of The Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs.�� He has been a member of YCISS since 1987 and has previously served as its deputy director.��Mutimer was also��a visiting professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as a principal research fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the UK.��Mutimer’s research considers issues of contemporary international security through lenses provided by critical social theory and explores the reproduction of security in and through popular culture.��His research has focused on various aspects of weapons production and control, and more recently on the politics of the global war on terror, and of the regional wars around the world which are being fought by Canada and its allies.��Mutimer is presently leading a SSHRC-funded international research project on arms export controls.��His recent published work includes journal articles in Studies in Social Justice, The Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Contemporary Security Policy among others.

Lisa Philipps (left) has been a faculty member��at Osgoode Hall Law School since 1996.��Prior to that, she held appointments in the faculties of law at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, and has held visiting professorships at Melbourne Law School, University College London and the University of Toronto among other institutions.��She served as associate dean research, graduate studies & institutional relations at Osgoode from 2009 to 2011.��Philipps' research focuses on tax law, budgets and feminist legal studies.��She has published widely on topics, including��fiscal transparency, income splitting, gender��budgeting, the distributional impact of tax cuts, the tax treatment of unpaid work, charitable tax incentives and more. Most recently she published two co-edited books on Tax Expenditures: State of the Art and Challenging Gender Inequality in Tax Policy Making: Comparative Perspectives.����

In all, 91��ɫ��lists 29 research centres and institutes.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post New directors appointed to five research centres appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Weighing just 1.3 kg and measuring 80cm x 80cm x 30cm, the Aeryon Scout is flying no more than 60 metres off the ground, with a video camera focused on buildings, walkways and trees,��as well as��the activity around them.

“Mapping of urban environments is typically done from aircraft flying high above the city, or vehicles on the ground – i.e. Google Street View. But a lot of the important details lie somewhere in between,” says James Elder, a professor in both the Department of Computer Science & Engineering and the Department of Psychology at 91��ɫ. “This vehicle – the Aeryon Scout – can acquire the high-resolution imagery of building facades required to reconstruct the detailed 3D structure of our cities.”

[stream provider=youtube flv=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D_RcdaIdRmHs%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded img=x:/img.youtube.com/vi/_RcdaIdRmHs/0.jpg embed=false share=false width=400 height=300 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=high autostart=false /]

The research team has developed proprietary computer vision algorithms and a geospatial web-mapping system to detect and track people and vehicles in real-time video streamed from city cameras, and then to project them as avatars into 3-D city models. This allows the life of the city to be experienced in a natural 3-D context, and viewed from any angle through web browsers. This is augmented by visual intelligence about the scene – for example, recognition of objects and activities, as well as things like vehicle speed.

Right: A close-up of the Aeryon Scout. Photo by Keith LaPlume

The vertical takeoff and landing missions, continuing today, are a small but important part of the ongoing , a major initiative funded by the federal government‘s Networks of Centres of Excellence program and the provincial government’s Ontario Centres of Excellence.

The larger goal of the project is to develop a system that gives people a window into the life of a city, whether it is an urban planner watching how people are using city sidewalks, police or security officials trying to prevent crimes or a tourist wondering what is happening at Dundas Square.

The UAV component of the project is a collaboration between Professor Claire Samson’s lab in the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University, Elder’s Human & Computer Vision Lab in 91��ɫ’s Centre for Vision Research and Professor Gunho Sohn’s lab in the Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering.

Researchers from four other Canadian universities are also involved in the project, along with Aeryon Labs of Waterloo, Ont.,��which designs and manufactures the Scout UAV, and Neptec of Ottawa, which is providing 3-D structure from motion software technology. The Aeryon Scout is piloted (from the ground) by Tara Jones, as part of the requirements for her master's in earth sciences from Carleton University.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post 91��ɫ Centre for Vision Research collaborates on mission to fly unmanned aerial vehicle on campus as part of project to design 3-D technology appeared first on Research & Innovation.