Authors: Yingyao Zhou, Bin Zhou, Lars Pache...

A critical component in the interpretation of systems-level studies is the inference of enriched biological pathways and protein complexes contained within OMICs datasets. Successful analysis requires the integration of a broad set of current biological databases and the application of a robust analytical pipeline to produce readily interpretable results. Metascape is a web-based portal designed to provide a comprehensive gene list annotation and analysis resource for experimental biologists. In terms of design features, Metascape combines functional enrichment, interactome analysis, gene annotation, and membership search to leverage over 40 independent knowledgebases within one integrated portal. Additionally, it facilitates comparative analyses of datasets across multiple independent and orthogonal experiments. Metascape provides a significantly simplified user experience through a one-click Express Analysis interface to generate interpretable outputs. Taken together, Metascape is an effective and efficient tool for experimental biologists to comprehensively analyze and interpret OMICs-based studies in the big data era.

Topics: Databases, Genetic; Genomics; Molecular Sequence Annotation; Orientation, Spatial; Software; Systems Biology; User-Computer Interface

PubMed: 30944313
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09234-6

Authors: G Rode, D Pérennou, P Azouvi...

Topics: Cognition; Humans; Orientation, Spatial; Space Perception

PubMed: 28606315
DOI: 10.1016/j.rehab.2017.05.003

Authors: Desdemona Fricker, Mathieu Beraneck, Michele Tagliabue...

Topics: Animals; Behavior; Humans; Motion Perception; Neurons; Orientation, Spatial; Space Perception

PubMed: 33324174
DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2020.619073

Review

Authors: Andreas Zwergal, Denis Grabova, Florian Schöberl...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The vestibular system provides three-dimensional idiothetic cues for updating of one's position in space during head and body movement. Ascending vestibular signals reach entorhinal and hippocampal networks via head-direction pathways, where they converge with multisensory information to tune the place and grid cell code.

RECENT FINDINGS

Animal models have provided insight to neurobiological consequences of vestibular lesions for cerebral networks controlling spatial cognition. Multimodal cerebral imaging combined with behavioural testing of spatial orientation and navigation performance as well as strategy in the last years helped to decipher vestibular-cognitive interactions also in humans.

SUMMARY

This review will update the current knowledge on the anatomical and cellular basis of vestibular contributions to spatial orientation and navigation from a translational perspective (animal and human studies), delineate the behavioural and functional consequences of different vestibular pathologies on these cognitive domains, and will lastly speculate on a potential role of vestibular dysfunction for cognitive aging and impeding cognitive impairment in analogy to the well known effects of hearing loss.

Topics: Animals; Humans; Orientation, Spatial; Space Perception; Vestibule, Labyrinth; Cognition; Cues

PubMed: 38010039
DOI: 10.1097/WCO.0000000000001230

Review

Authors: Timothy L Warren, Ysabel M Giraldo, Michael H Dickinson...

Many casual observers typecast as a stationary pest that lurks around fruit and wine. However, the omnipresent fruit fly, which thrives even in desert habitats, likely established and maintained its cosmopolitan status via migration over large spatial scales. To perform long-distance dispersal, flies must actively maintain a straight compass heading through the use of external orientation cues, such as those derived from the sky. In this Review, we address how accomplishes long-distance navigation using celestial cues. We focus on behavioral and physiological studies indicating that fruit flies can navigate both to a pattern of linearly polarized light and to the position of the sun - the same cues utilized by more heralded insect navigators such as monarch butterflies and desert ants. In both cases, fruit flies perform menotaxis, selecting seemingly arbitrary headings that they then maintain over time. We discuss how the fly's nervous system detects and processes this sensory information to direct the steering maneuvers that underlie navigation. In particular, we highlight recent findings that compass neurons in the central complex, a set of midline neuropils, are essential for navigation. Taken together, these results suggest that fruit flies share an ancient, latent capacity for celestial navigation with other insects. Furthermore, they illustrate the potential of to help us to elucidate both the cellular basis of navigation and mechanisms of directed dispersal on a landscape scale.

Topics: Animals; Cues; Drosophila melanogaster; Orientation, Spatial; Phototaxis; Spatial Navigation

PubMed: 30728228
DOI: 10.1242/jeb.186148

Review

Authors: Mariya K Chepisheva

BACKGROUND

While extensive research has been advancing our understanding of the spatial and postural decline in healthy elderly (HE) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), much less is known about how the vestibular system contributes to the spatial and postural processing in these two populations. This is especially relevant during turning movements in the dark, such as while walking in our garden or at home at night, where the vestibular signal becomes central. As the prevention of falls and disorientation are of serious concern for the medical service, more vestibular-driven knowledge is necessary to decrease the burden for HE and AD patients with vestibular disabilities.

OVERVIEW OF THE ARTICLE

The review briefly presents the current "non-vestibular based" knowledge (. knowledge based on research that does not mention the "vestibular system" as a contributor or does not investigate its effects) about spatial navigation and postural control during normal healthy ageing and AD pathology. Then, it concentrates on the critical sense of the vestibular system and explores the current expertise about the aspects of spatial orientation and postural control from a vestibular system point of view. The norm is set by first looking at how healthy elderly change with age with respect to their vestibular-guided navigation and balance, followed by the AD patients and the difficulties they experience in maintaining their balance or during navigation.

CONCLUSION

Vestibular spatial and vestibular postural deficits present a considerable disadvantage and are felt not only on a physical but also on a psychological level by all those affected. Still, there is a clear need for more (central) vestibular-driven spatial and postural knowledge in healthy and pathological ageing, which can better facilitate our understanding of the aetiology of these dysfunctions. A possible change can start with the more frequent implementation of the "vestibular system examination/rehabilitation/therapy" in the clinic, which can then lead to an improvement of future prognostication and disease outcome for the patients.

Topics: Aged; Humans; Alzheimer Disease; Orientation, Spatial; Postural Balance; Space Perception; Vestibule, Labyrinth

PubMed: 37151287
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.15040

Authors: Linfeng Han, Allison Yamanashi Leib, Zhimin Chen...

In a glance, observers can evaluate gist characteristics from crowds of faces, such as the average emotional tenor or the average family resemblance. Prior research suggests that high-level ensemble percepts rely on holistic and viewpoint-invariant information. However, it is also possible that feature-based analysis was sufficient to yield successful ensemble percepts in many situations. To confirm that ensemble percepts can be extracted holistically, we asked observers to report the average emotional valence of Mooney face crowds. Mooney faces are two-tone, shadow-defined images that cannot be recognized in a part-based manner. To recognize features in a Mooney face, one must first recognize the image as a face by processing it holistically. Across experiments, we demonstrated that observers successfully extracted the average emotional valence from crowds that were spatially distributed or viewed in a rapid temporal sequence. In a subsequent set of experiments, we maximized holistic processing by including only those Mooney faces that were difficult to recognize when inverted. Under these conditions, participants remained highly sensitive to the average emotional valence of Mooney face crowds. Taken together, these experiments provide evidence that ensemble perception can operate selectively on holistic representations of human faces, even when feature-based information is not readily available.

Topics: Emotions; Humans; Orientation, Spatial; Perception

PubMed: 33241531
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-02173-1

Authors: Clément Solié, Alessandro Contestabile, Pedro Espinosa...

Social behaviours characterize cooperative, mutualistic, aggressive or parental interactions that occur among conspecifics. Although the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) has been identified as a key substrate for social behaviours, the input and output pathways dedicated to specific aspects of conspecific interaction remain understudied. Here, in male mice, we investigated the activity and function of two distinct VTA inputs from superior colliculus (SC-VTA) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC-VTA). We observed that SC-VTA neurons display social interaction anticipatory calcium activity, which correlates with orienting responses towards an unfamiliar conspecific. In contrast, mPFC-VTA neuron population activity increases after initiation of the social contact. While protracted phasic stimulation of SC-VTA pathway promotes head/body movements and decreases social interaction, inhibition of this pathway increases social interaction. Here, we found that SC afferents mainly target a subpopulation of dorsolateral striatum (DLS)-projecting VTA dopamine (DA) neurons (VTA-DLS). While, VTA-DLS pathway stimulation decreases social interaction, VTA-Nucleus Accumbens stimulation promotes it. Altogether, these data support a model by which at least two largely anatomically distinct VTA sub-circuits oppositely control distinct aspects of social behaviour.

Topics: Animals; Dopaminergic Neurons; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Neural Pathways; Neurons; Nucleus Accumbens; Orientation, Spatial; Prefrontal Cortex; Social Behavior; Social Interaction; Superior Colliculi; Ventral Tegmental Area

PubMed: 35145124
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28512-4

Review

Authors: Benjamin L Clites, Jonathan T Pierce

Diverse animals ranging from worms and insects to birds and turtles perform impressive journeys using the magnetic field of the earth as a cue. Although major cellular and molecular mechanisms for sensing mechanical and chemical cues have been elucidated over the past three decades, the mechanisms that animals use to sense magnetic fields remain largely mysterious. Here we survey progress on the search for magnetosensory neurons and magnetosensitive molecules important for animal behaviors. Emphasis is placed on magnetosensation in insects and birds, as well as on the magnetosensitive neuron pair AFD in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. We also review conventional criteria used to define animal magnetoreceptors and suggest how approaches used to identify receptors for other sensory modalities may be adapted for magnetoreceptors. Finally, we discuss prospects for underutilized and novel approaches to identify the elusive magnetoreceptors in animals.

Topics: Animal Migration; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Magnetic Fields; Orientation, Spatial; Sensation

PubMed: 28772099
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-072116-031312

Review

Authors: Joshua B Julian, Alexandra T Keinath, Steven A Marchette...

The ability to recover one's bearings when lost is a skill that is fundamental for spatial navigation. We review the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie this ability, with the aim of linking together previously disparate findings from animal behavior, human psychology, electrophysiology, and cognitive neuroscience. Behavioral work suggests that reorientation involves two key abilities: first, the recovery of a spatial reference frame (a cognitive map) that is appropriate to the current environment; and second, the determination of one's heading and location relative to that reference frame. Electrophysiological recording studies, primarily in rodents, have revealed potential correlates of these operations in place, grid, border/boundary, and head-direction cells in the hippocampal formation. Cognitive neuroscience studies, primarily in humans, suggest that the perceptual inputs necessary for these operations are processed by neocortical regions such as the retrosplenial complex, occipital place area and parahippocampal place area, with the retrosplenial complex mediating spatial transformations between the local environment and the recovered spatial reference frame, the occipital place area supporting perception of local boundaries, and the parahippocampal place area processing visual information that is essential for identification of the local spatial context. By combining results across these various literatures, we converge on a unified account of reorientation that bridges the cognitive and neural domains.

Topics: Animals; Brain; Cognition; Cues; Humans; Orientation, Spatial; Space Perception

PubMed: 30205055
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.04.057