The Visual Response Properties of Neurons in the Nucleus of the Basal Optic Root of the Northern Saw-Whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The nucleus of the basal optic root (nBOR) in birds is a component of the accessory optic system (AOS) which is involved in the analysis of visual flowfields normally resulting from self-motion. Using standard extracellular techniques, we recorded from 81 single-unit and multi-unit clusters in the nBOR of the northern saw-whet owl, Aegolius acadicus, an avian species that has a visual system with frontal emphasis. These cells responded best to large patterns of random dots moving either upward (52%), downward (31%) or nasal to temporal (N-T; contralateral visual field; 15%). Only 2 units (2%) preferred temporal to nasal motion. 'Up' units were found in the dorsal portion of the nucleus whereas 'Down' units were located more ventrally. The N-T units were found in both the lateral margin of the nucleus and ventral to the Down units in the lateral half of the nucleus. About half of the units tested (10/19) responded to stimulation of the ipsilateral as well as the contralateral eye. For all but one cell, the direction preference of both eyes was the same in visual space. When compared with previous studies of pigeons (Columba livia) and chickens (Gallus domesticus), these findings reveal that the nBOR in all three avian species have important similarities with respect to direction preference and functional compartmentalization. Furthermore, the high proportion of binocular neurons found in the nBOR of the saw-whet owl is similar to the condition generally reported in frontal eyed mammals and hence may reflect adaptation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".