I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

Recent studies of eye movements in reading and other information processing tasks, such as music reading, typing, visual search, and scene perception, are reviewed. The major emphasis of the review is on reading as a specific example of cognitive processing. Basic topics discussed with respect to reading are (a) the characteristics of eye movements, (b) the perceptual span, (c) integration of information across saccades, (d) eye movement control, and (e) individual differences (including dyslexia). Similar topics are discussed with respect to the other tasks examined. The basic theme of the review is that eye movement data reflect moment-to-moment cognitive processes in the various tasks examined. Theoretical and practical considerations concerning the use of eye movement data are also discussed.

/pdf/eye-movements-in-reading-and-information-processing-20-years-3z5ay8hdwc.pdf

Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research.

A central problem in motor control is understanding how the many biomechanical degrees of freedom are coordinated to achieve a common goal. An especially puzzling aspect of coordination is that behavioral goals are achieved reliably and repeatedly with movements rarely reproducible in their detail. Existing theoretical frameworks emphasize either goal achievement or the richness of motor variability, but fail to reconcile the two. Here we propose an alternative theory based on stochastic optimal feedback control. We show that the optimal strategy in the face of uncertainty is to allow variability in redundant (task-irrelevant) dimensions. This strategy does not enforce a desired trajectory, but uses feedback more intelligently, correcting only those deviations that interfere with task goals. From this framework, task-constrained variability, goal-directed corrections, motor synergies, controlled parameters, simplifying rules and discrete coordination modes emerge naturally. We present experimental results from a range of motor tasks to support this theory.

/pdf/optimal-feedback-control-as-a-theory-of-motor-coordination-jh26vkl3kk.pdf

Optimal feedback control as a theory of motor coordination.

Internal models for motor control and trajectory planning

European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation.

The Karoo Basin covers much of South Africa and is an area of prospective shale gas exploration, with the Whitehill Formation the target shale unit. However, the sedimentary succession, including the Whitehill, has been intruded by a series of sills and dykes associated with the Karoo Large Igneous Province (~183 Ma), which are expected to have modified the thermal history of the basin dramatically. Here, we investigate a secondary effect of these intrusions: a series of hydrothermal vent complexes, or breccia pipes, focusing on using O, H, and C isotopes to constrain the origin and evolution of fluids produced during the intrusion of basaltic sills. A cluster of breccia pipes have been eroded down to the level of the Ecca Group at Luiperdskop on the western edge of the Karoo basin; a small isolated pipe of similar appearance crops out 13 km to the east. The Luiperdskop pipes are underlain by a Karoo dolerite sill that is assumed to provide the heat driving fluidization. The pipes consist of finegrained matrix and about 8% clasts, on average, of mostly sedimentary material; occasional large rafts of quartzite and dolerite are also present. The presence of clasts apparently from the Dwyka Group is consistent with the depth of formation of the pipes being at, or near, the base of the Karoo Supergroup, between 400 and 850 m below present surface. The presence of chlorite as the dominant hydrous mineral is consistent with an emplacement temperature between 300 and 350°C. The major and trace element, and O‐ and H‐isotope composition of the Tankwa breccias is homogenous, consistent with them being derived from the same source. The δ18O values (vs VSMOW) of the breccias are relatively uniform (7.1‰–8.7‰), and are similar to that of the country rock shale, and both are lower than expected for shale. The water content of the breccia is between 2.7 and 3.1 wt.% and the δD values range from −109‰ to −144‰. Calcite in vesicles has δ13C and δ18O (VSMOW) values of −4.2‰ and 24.0‰, respectively. The low δD value of the breccia rocks does not appear to be due to the presence of methane in the fluid. Instead, it is proposed that low δD and δ18O values are the result of the fluid being derived from the breakdown of clay minerals that formed and were deposited at a time of cold climate at ~290 Ma.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bre.12311

Stable isotope constraints on the fluid source of hydrothermal breccia pipes in the Tankwa Karoo depocentre, South Africa: Breakdown of authigenic minerals during sill intrusion

We measured the hydrogen and oxygen isotope composition (δ2H and δ18O) of precipitation and stream water from the Soft Plume River at multiple spatiotemporal scales on sub-Antarctic Marion Island, Indian sector of the Southern Ocean. Monthly precipitation δ2H and δ18O values ranged from -43.7‰ to -14.7‰ and from -7.0‰ to -3.3‰ (n=13), respectively. Stream water values ranged from -48.0‰ to -25.4‰ for δ2H and from -7.6‰ to -4.0‰ for δ18O (n=92). The monthly precipitation data yielded a local meteoric water line with the equation δ2H=8.4δ18O+11.4. There was no clear seasonality in isotope composition present in precipitation and stream water. Along the stream, no significant difference was observed between sites. However, δ2H and δ18O values were lower and more variable at the highest site. This is probably the result of the ‘amount effect’, where more precipitation fell at a higher elevation compared with a downstream site in the catchment. The findings illustrate spatiotemporal patterns in precipitation and stream water isotopes and provide insight into mechanisms affecting their composition on sub-Antarctic Marion Island.

Hydrogen and oxygen isotope composition of precipitation and stream water on sub-Antarctic Marion Island

Metallogenesis of the orosirian epithermal coringa gold-silver (Cu-Pb-Zn) deposit, southeastern Tapajós mineral Province, Amazonian craton, Brazil

High-pressure melting and fluid flow during the Petermann Orogeny, central Australia

Dancing eye syndrome (DES), or opsoclonus-myoclonus, is a rare neurological syndrome characterized by opsoclonus (spontaneous chaotic involuntary bursts of back-to-back saccades in all directions) and myoclonus (jerky involuntary movements of the limbs). Onset is usually in childhood, under 3 years of age. Although there can be good recovery from the acute symptoms, long-term neurological sequelae are often found.1,2 The etiology of DES is as yet unknown and may involve the brainstem and/or the cerebellum. A recent SPECT study of two children with DES has implicated the vermis of the cerebellum, in particular with the generation of opsoclonus.3 Shawkat et al. (1993) reported that visually guided reflexive saccades recorded from DES patients during the acute phase of their disease are hypermetric (gain >1).4 Saccadic dysmetria in humans is often associated with lesions of the vermis of the cerebellum and/or the deep cerebellar nuclei.5–7 Saccadic gain is under adaptive control (AC), which maintains the optimal accuracy of saccades with respect to their target, and it has been shown experimentally that the vermis of the cerebellum and fastigial nuclei in monkeys are necessary for AC.8 Given possible neuropathology in the cerebellum, and specifically the vermis, it is plausible that patients with DES may have chronic saccade dysmetria consistent with the failure of the saccadic AC system. We set out to test this hypothesis in a group of children and young adults with DES. A gain-decreasing intra-saccadic target perturbation paradigm was used to test the active functioning of the AC system.

Chris Harris

Papers

Stable isotope constraints on the fluid source of hydrothermal breccia pipes in the Tankwa Karoo depocentre, South Africa: Breakdown of authigenic minerals during sill intrusion

Hydrogen and oxygen isotope composition of precipitation and stream water on sub-Antarctic Marion Island

Metallogenesis of the orosirian epithermal coringa gold-silver (Cu-Pb-Zn) deposit, southeastern Tapajós mineral Province, Amazonian craton, Brazil

High-pressure melting and fluid flow during the Petermann Orogeny, central Australia

Adaptive control of saccades in children with dancing eye syndrome.