Abstract: Methods and compositions are disclosed that are useful for the inhibition of glial cell proliferation by means of binding inhibiting agents to neural cell adhesion (N-CAM) molecules present on the cell surface. Such inhibiting agents can be peptides derived from the homophilic binding region of N-CAM, monoclonal antibodies, polyclonal antibodies, Fab' fragments, and the like. Exemplary N-CAM homophilic peptides are 7 to 90 amino acid residues having a positively charged amino acid residue separated from a negatively charged amino acid residue by five intervening amino acid residues.

Abstract: Apparatus which segments visual scenes into discrete objects. The apparatus is able to perceptually group the elements corresponding to a coherent figure, and to segregate them from the background or from another figure. Reentrant signaling among rhythmically active neuronal groups is used to correlate responses along spatially extended contours. The efficacy of the connections is allowed to change on a fast time scale resulting in active reentrant connections which amplify the correlations among neuronal groups and provides the desired segmentation.