Subsequent intraperitoneal application of caffeine was able to restore the response to light. Finally, we performed behavioural recordings in constant conditions, and found enhanced period lengthening during chronic treatment with caffeine in drinking water in constant light conditions. The data suggest that increased homeostatic sleep pressure changes circadian pacemaker functioning by reducing SCN neuronal responsiveness to light. The electrophysiological and behavioural data together provide evidence that caffeine enhances clock sensitivity to light. “
“Orienting responses to audiovisual Selleck RG 7204 events in the environment can benefit

markedly by the integration of visual and auditory spatial information. However, logically, audiovisual integration would only be considered successful for stimuli that are spatially and temporally aligned, as these would be emitted by a single object in space–time. As humans do not have prior knowledge about whether novel auditory and visual events do indeed emanate from the same object,

such information needs to be extracted from a variety of sources. For example, expectation about alignment or misalignment could modulate the strength of multisensory integration. If evidence from previous trials would Enzalutamide ic50 repeatedly favour aligned audiovisual inputs, the internal state might also assume alignment for the next trial, and hence react to a new audiovisual event as if it were aligned. To test for

such a strategy, subjects oriented a head-fixed pointer as fast as possible to a visual flash that was consistently paired, though not always spatially aligned, with a co-occurring broadband sound. We varied the probability of audiovisual alignment between experiments. Reaction times were consistently lower in blocks containing only aligned audiovisual stimuli than in blocks also containing pseudorandomly presented spatially disparate Orotidine 5′-phosphate decarboxylase stimuli. Results demonstrate dynamic updating of the subject’s prior expectation of audiovisual congruency. We discuss a model of prior probability estimation to explain the results. “
“Maintenance of the bodily self relies on the accurate integration of multisensory inputs in which visuo-vestibular cue integration is thought to play an essential role. Here, we tested in healthy volunteers how conflicting visuo-vestibular bodily input might impact on body self-coherence in a full body illusion set-up. Natural passive vestibular stimulation was provided on a motion platform, while visual input was manipulated using virtual reality equipment. Explicit (questionnaire) and implicit (skin temperature) measures were employed to assess illusory self-identification with either a mannequin or a control object.