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Contains fulltext : 238510.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)

The cerebellum is best known for its role in controlling motor behaviors. However, recent work supports the view that it also influences non-motor behaviors. The contribution of the cerebellum towards different brain functions is underscored by its involvement in a diverse and increasing number of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions including ataxia, dystonia, essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease (PD), epilepsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, autism spectrum disorders, dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and schizophrenia. Although there are no cures for these conditions, cerebellar stimulation is quickly gaining attention for symptomatic alleviation, as cerebellar circuitry has arisen as a promising target for invasive and non-invasive neuromodulation. This consensus paper brings together experts from the fields of neurophysiology, neurology, and neurosurgery to discuss recent efforts in using the cerebellum as a therapeutic intervention. We report on the most advanced techniques for manipulating cerebellar circuits in humans and animal models and define key hurdles and questions for moving forward.

Landmarks play a vital role in human wayfinding by providing the structure for mental spatial representations and indicating locations with which to orient. Less research effort has been allocated towards automated landmark identification in indoor environments despite a growing interest in indoor navigation in the scientific community. In this paper, we propose a computational framework to identify indoor landmarks that is based on a hierarchical multi-criteria decision model and grounded in theories of spatial cognition and human information processing. Our model of landmark salience is represented as a hierarchical integration process of low-level features derived from a three-part, higher-level, salience vector (i.e., cognitive, spatial, and subjective salience). We use a fuzzy hierarchical composite-weighted (objective and subjective) Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to derive the rankings for identified objects at decision points (i.e., intersections). The top N objects are then selected and compared to a list of landmarks derived from an eye-tracking based virtual reality (VR) experiment. A substantial overlap of 79% was observed between these two lists. The proposed framework is capable of reliably and accurately detecting indoor landmarks, which can be employed in the development of landmark-based robot/autonomous agent motion and indoor guidance systems.

Contains fulltext : 170319.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Despite increasing evidence suggesting the cerebellum works in concert with the cortex and basal ganglia, the nature of the reciprocal interactions between these three brain regions remains unclear. This consensus paper gathers diverse recent views on a variety of important roles played by the cerebellum within the cerebello-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical system across a range of motor and cognitive functions. The paper includes theoretical and empirical contributions, which cover the following topics: recent evidence supporting the dynamical interplay between cerebellum, basal ganglia, and cortical areas in humans and other animals; theoretical neuroscience perspectives and empirical evidence on the reciprocal influences between cerebellum, basal ganglia, and cortex in learning and control processes; and data suggesting possible roles of the cerebellum in basal ganglia movement disorders. Although starting from different backgrounds and dealing with different topics, all the contributors agree that viewing the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and cortex as an integrated system enables us to understand the function of these areas in radically different ways. In addition, there is unanimous consensus between the authors that future experimental and computational work is needed to understand the function of cerebellar-basal ganglia circuitry in both motor and non-motor functions. The paper reports the most advanced perspectives on the role of the cerebellum within the cerebello-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical system and illustrates other elements of consensus as well as disagreements and open questions in the field.

The presence of characteristic fine folds is important for modeling realistic looking virtual garments. While recent garment capture techniques are quite successful at capturing the low-frequency garment shape and motion over time, they often fail to capture the numerous high-frequency folds, reducing the realism of the reconstructed space-time models. In our work we propose a method for reintroducing fine folds into the captured models using data-driven dynamic wrinkling. We first estimate the shape and position of folds based on the original video footage used for capture and then wrinkle the surface based on those estimates using space-time deformation. Both steps utilize the unique geometric characteristics of garments in general, and garment folds specifically, to facilitate the modeling of believable folds. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our wrinkling method on a variety of garments that have been captured using several recent techniques. © 2008 The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.