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Dive into the research topics where R.J.A. van Wezel is active.

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Featured researches published by R.J.A. van Wezel.


NeuroImage | 2007

Test-retest reliability of fMRI activation during prosaccades and antisaccades

Mathijs Raemaekers; Matthijs Vink; Bram B. Zandbelt; R.J.A. van Wezel; R.S. Kahn; Nick F. Ramsey

Various studies have investigated reproducibility of fMRI results. Whereas group results can be highly reproducible, individual activity maps tend to vary across sessions. Individual reliability is of importance for the application of fMRI in endophenotype research, where brain activity is linked to genetic polymorphisms. In this study, the test-retest reliability of activation maps during the antisaccade paradigm was assessed for individual and group results. Functional MRI images were acquired during two sessions of prosaccades and antisaccades in twelve healthy subjects using an event-related fMRI design. Reliability was assessed for both individual and group-wise results. In addition, the reliability of differences between subjects was established in predefined regions of interest. The reliability of group activation maps was high for prosaccades and antisaccades, but only moderate for antisaccades vs. prosaccades, probably as a result of low statistical power of individual results. Reproducibility of individual subject maps was highly variable, indicating that reliable results can be obtained in some but not all subjects. Reliability of individual activity maps was largely explained by individual differences in the global temporal signal to noise ratio (SNR). As the global SNR was stable over sessions, it explained a large portion of the differences between subjects in regional brain activation. A low SNR in some subjects may be dealt with either by improving the statistical sensitivity of the fMRI procedure or by subject exclusion. Differences in the global SNR between subjects should be addressed before using regional brain activation as phenotype in genetic studies.


Journal of Vision | 2008

Early interactions between neuronal adaptation and voluntary control determine perceptual choices in bistable vision.

P.C. Klink; R. van Ee; M. M. Nijs; Gijs Joost Brouwer; André J. Noest; R.J.A. van Wezel

At the onset of bistable stimuli, the brain needs to choose which of the competing perceptual interpretations will first reach awareness. Stimulus manipulations and cognitive control both influence this choice process, but the underlying mechanisms and interactions remain poorly understood. Using intermittent presentation of bistable visual stimuli, we demonstrate that short interruptions cause perceptual reversals upon the next presentation, whereas longer interstimulus intervals stabilize the percept. Top-down voluntary control biases this process but does not override the timing dependencies. Extending a recently introduced low-level neural model, we demonstrate that percept-choice dynamics in bistable vision can be fully understood with interactions in early neural processing stages. Our model includes adaptive neural processing preceding a rivalry resolution stage with cross-inhibition, adaptation, and an interaction of the adaptation levels with a neural baseline. Most importantly, our findings suggest that top-down attentional control over bistable stimuli interacts with low-level mechanisms at early levels of sensory processing before perceptual conflicts are resolved and perceptual choices about bistable stimuli are made.


Journal of Neuroscience Methods | 2003

The motion reverse correlation (MRC) method: a linear systems approach in the motion domain.

Bart G. Borghuis; J.A. Perge; Ildikó Vajda; R.J.A. van Wezel; W.A. van de Grind; M.J.M. Lankheet

We introduce the motion reverse correlation method (MRC), a novel stimulus paradigm based on a random sequence of motion impulses. The method is tailored to investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics of motion selectivity in cells responding to moving random dot patterns. Effectiveness of the MRC method is illustrated with results obtained from recordings in both anesthetized cats and an awake, fixating macaque monkey. Motion tuning functions are computed by reverse correlating the response of single cells with a rapid sequence of displacements of a random pixel array (RPA). Significant correlations between the cells responses and various aspects of stimulus motion are obtained at high temporal resolution. These correlations provide a detailed description of the temporal dynamics of, for example, direction tuning and velocity tuning. In addition, with a spatial array of independently moving RPAs, the MRC method can be used to measure spatial as well as temporal receptive field properties. We demonstrate that MRC serves as a powerful and time-efficient tool for quantifying receptive field properties of motion selective cells that yields temporal information that cannot be derived from existing methods.


Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | 2012

United we sense, divided we fail: context-driven perception of ambiguous visual stimuli

P.C. Klink; R.J.A. van Wezel; R. van Ee

Ambiguous visual stimuli provide the brain with sensory information that contains conflicting evidence for multiple mutually exclusive interpretations. Two distinct aspects of the phenomenological experience associated with viewing ambiguous visual stimuli are the apparent stability of perception whenever one perceptual interpretation is dominant, and the instability of perception that causes perceptual dominance to alternate between perceptual interpretations upon extended viewing. This review summarizes several ways in which contextual information can help the brain resolve visual ambiguities and construct temporarily stable perceptual experiences. Temporal context through prior stimulation or internal brain states brought about by feedback from higher cortical processing levels may alter the response characteristics of specific neurons involved in rivalry resolution. Furthermore, spatial or crossmodal context may strengthen the neuronal representation of one of the possible perceptual interpretations and consequently bias the rivalry process towards it. We suggest that contextual influences on perceptual choices with ambiguous visual stimuli can be highly informative about the neuronal mechanisms of context-driven inference in the general processes of perceptual decision-making.


Vision Research | 1996

Directional motion sensitivity under transparent motion conditions

Frans A. J. Verstraten; R.E. Fredericksen; R.J.A. van Wezel; J.C. Boulton; W.A. van de Grind

We measured directional sensitivity to a foreground pattern while an orthogonally directed background pattern was present under transparent motion conditions. For both foreground and background pattern, the speed was varied between 0.5 and 28 deg sec-1. A multi-step paradigm was employed which results in a better estimation of the suppressive or facilitatory effects than previously applied single-step methods (e.g. measuring Dmax or Dmin). Moreover, our method gives insight into the interactions for a wide range of speed and not just the extreme motion thresholds (the D-values). We found that high background speeds have an inhibitory effect on the detection of a range of high foreground speeds and low background speeds have an inhibitory effect on a range of low foreground speeds. Intermediate background pattern speeds inhibit the detection of both low and high foreground pattern speeds and do so in a systemic manner.


Vision Research | 1993

The dynamics of light adaptation in cat horizontal cell responses.

M.J.M. Lankheet; R.J.A. van Wezel; J.H.H.J. Prickaerts; W.A. van de Grind

In order to model the dynamic properties of light adaptation processes in cat horizontal (H-) cells, the time course of the gain adjustment following changes in the mean illumination level was studied. H-cell responses were recorded intracellularly in the optically intact, in vivo, eye of the cat. The light stimulus consisted of two spots, a large background spot (8.8 deg diameter) and a concentrically arranged smaller test spot (3.9 deg). The background was either square wave or sine wave modulated in intensity at a frequency of 0.2-1 Hz. The instantaneous value of the response gain was measured with brief flashes (10 msec) of the test spot, generated repetitively at a frequency of 5 or 10 Hz. Modulation of the background intensity, at a contrast of 0.6 and in the photopic range, effectively induces a modulation of the gain. The readjustment of the gain by a stepwise increase or decrease in background illumination is completed within about 200 msec. The amplitude of the gain modulation due to a 0.5 Hz background flicker is quantitatively comparable to that measured between steady illumination levels. Dynamic changes of the gain at low frequency stimuli therefore, have to be taken into account in modelling H-cell responses. For sinusoidal modulations of the background luminance the time course of gain adjustment is quantified by the phase shift of the gain modulation relative to background intensity modulation. The results, together with those described in two preceding papers, are used to test and discuss several light adaptation models that have been proposed previously. It was found that light adaptation in cat H-cells is described more adequately by a de Vries-Rose type of adaptation model than by a Weber type of light adaptation.


Vision Research | 1991

Light adaptation and frequency transfer properties of cat horizontal cells.

M.J.M. Lankheet; R.J.A. van Wezel; W.A. van de Grind

The frequency transfer properties of horizontal cells in the cat retina were studied as a function of the mean light intensity level and stimulus contrast. To this end, horizontal cell responses to sinusoidally modulated light stimuli were recorded intracellularly in the optically intact, in vivo eye. The light stimulus consisted of a 3.9 deg dia. spot superimposed on a steady background (8.8 deg dia.). A discrete Fourier analysis was performed in order to describe the amplitude and phase characteristics of the linear response component and in order to specify the nonlinear distortion of the response. The amplitude of the fundamental Fourier component was found to increase linearly with the contrast of the sinusoidal light intensity modulation. Increasing the mean light level while keeping the contrast constant caused a frequency dependent increase in response amplitude. The increase was most pronounced at high temporal frequencies and resulted in a conspicuous increase of the flicker fusion frequency. Steady background illumination caused a reduction of the response amplitudes at the lower temporal frequencies. Responses in the high frequency range, however, were not affected. The phase shifts of the fundamental Fourier components were found to diminish at increasing mean illumination levels. The harmonic distortion of horizontal cell responses to sinewave flicker was studied as a function of stimulus frequency and stimulus contrast. By comparing the data obtained using sinusoidal light intensity modulation with the intensity profiles described in a preceding paper it was investigated to what extent the harmonic distortion can be explained by the nonlinearity expressed in the response vs intensity profiles.


Brain Research | 2009

Widespread fMRI activity differences between perceptual states in visual rivalry are correlated with differences in observer biases

Mathijs Raemaekers; M.E. van der Schaaf; R. van Ee; R.J.A. van Wezel

When observing bistable stimuli, the percept can change in the absence of changes in the stimulus itself. When intermittently presenting a bistable stimulus, the number of perceptual alternations can increase or decrease, depending on the duration of the period that the stimulus is removed from screen between stimulus presentations (off-period). Longer off-periods lead to stabilization of the percept, while short off-periods produce perceptual alternations. Here we compare fMRI brain activation across percept repetitions and alternations when observing an intermittently presented ambiguously rotating structure from motion sphere. In the first experimental session, subjects were requested to voluntarily control the percept into either a repeating or an alternating perceptual regime at a single off-period. In a consecutive session, subjects observed the sphere uninstructed, and reported alternations and repetitions. The behavioral data showed that there were marked individual biases for observing the sphere as either repeating or alternating. The fMRI data showed activation differences between alternating and repeating perceptual regimes in an extensive network that included parietal cortex, dorsal premotor area, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, insula, and cerebellum. However, these activation differences could all be explained by intersubject differences in the bias for one of the two perceptual regimes. The stronger the bias was for a particular perceptual regime, the less activation and vice versa. We conclude that widespread activation differences between perceptual regimes can be accounted for by differences in the perceptual bias for one of the two regimes.


Vision Research | 1996

Spatial and temporal properties of cat horizontal cells after prolonged dark adaptation

M.J.M. Lankheet; M.H. Rowe; R.J.A. van Wezel; W.A. van de Grind

We studied the change of spatial and temporal response properties for cat horizontal (H-) cells during prolonged dark adaptation. H-cell responses were recorded intracellularly in the optically intact, in vivo eye. Spatial and temporal properties were first measured for light-adapted H-cells, followed by a period of dark adaptation, after which the same measurements were repeated. During dark adaptation threshold sensitivity was measured at regular intervals. Stable, long lasting recordings allowed us to measure changes of sensitivity and receptive field characteristics for adaptation periods up to 45 min. Although cat H-cells showed no signs of dark suppression or light sensitization, they remained insensitive in the scotopic range, even after prolonged dark adaptation. Absolute thresholds were in the low mesopic range. The sensitization was brought about by a shift from cone to rod input, and by substantial increases of both spatial and temporal integration upon dark adaptation. The length constant in the light-adapted state was on average about 4 deg. After dark adaptation it was up to a factor of three larger, with a median ratio of 1.85. Response delays, latencies and durations for (equal amplitude) threshold flash responses substantially increased during dark adaptation.


Vision Research | 1996

Gain control and hyperpolarization level in cat horizontal cells as a function of light and dark adaptation

W.A. van de Grind; M.J.M. Lankheet; R.J.A. van Wezel; M.H. Rowe; J. Hulleman

First a model is presented that accurately summarizes the dynamic properties of cat horizontal (H-) cells under photopic conditions as measured in our previous work. The model predicts that asymmetries in response to dark as compared to light flashes are flash-duration dependent. This somewhat surprising prediction is tested and confirmed in intracellular recordings from the optically intact in vivo eye of the cat (Experiment 1). The model implies that the gain of H-cells should be related rather directly to the sustained (baseline) membrane potential. We performed three additional experiments to test this idea. Experiment 2 concerns response vs intensity (R-I-) curves for various flash-diameters and background-sizes with background luminance varying over a 4 log unit range. Results support the assumption of a rather strict coupling between flash sensitivity (gain) and the sustained level of hyperpolarization. In Experiment 3 we investigate this relation for both dark and light flashes given on each of four background light levels. The results suggest that there are fixed minimum and maximum hyperpolarization levels, and that the baseline hyperpolarization for a given illumination thus also sets the available range for dark and light flash-responses. The question then arises whether, or how this changes during dark adaptation, when the rod contribution to H-cell responses gradually increases. The fourth experiment therefore studies the relationship between gain and hyperpolarization level during prolonged dark-adaptation. The results show that the rod contribution increases the polarization range of H-cells, but that the gain and polarization level nevertheless remain directly coupled. H-cell models relying on a close coupling between polarization level and gain thus remain attractive options.

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Yan Zhao

University of Twente

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