Prolonged neural encoding of visual information in autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with a hyper-focused visual attentional style, impacting higher-order social and affective domains. The understanding of such peculiarity can benefit from the use of multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of high-resolution electroencephalography (EEG) data, which has proved to be a powerful technique to investigate the hidden neural dynamics orchestrating sensory and cognitive processes. Here, we recorded EEG in typically developing (TD) children and in children with ASD during a visuo-spatial attentional task where attention was exogenously captured by a small (zoom-in) or large (zoom-out) cue in the visual field before the appearance of a target at different eccentricities. MVPA was performed both in the cue-locked period, to reveal potential differences in the modulation of the attentional focus, and in the target-locked period, to reveal potential cascade effects on stimulus processing. Cue-locked MVPA revealed that while in the TD group ..

US Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter 2017: Community Report

This white paper summarizes the workshop "U.S. Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter" held at University of Maryland on March 23-25, 2017.Comment: 102 pages + reference

Dark sectors 2016 Workshop: community report

This report, based on the Dark Sectors workshop at SLAC in April 2016, summarizes the scientific importance of searches for dark sector dark matter and forces at masses beneath the weak-scale, the status of this broad international field, the important milestones motivating future exploration, and promising experimental opportunities to reach these milestones over the next 5-10 years

Correction to: Adolescent self‑administration of the synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist JWH‑018 induces neurobiological and behavioral alterations in adult male mice

The authors inadvertently excluded Dr. Pagano Zottola from the list of authors, the journal Psychopharmacology has no responsibility for the omission. All authors agree to correct the list of authors as follows: Giulia Margiani#,1, Maria Paola Castelli #,1, Nicholas Pintori1, Roberto Frau1,2, Maria Grazia Ennas1, Antonio C. Pagano Zottola4,5,7, Valeria Orrù3, Valentina Serra3, Edoardo Fiorillo3, Paola Fadda1,6, Giovanni Marsicano4,5,Maria Antonietta De Luca1 4 INSERM, U1215 NeuroCentre Magendie, Bordeaux, France 5 University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France 7 Institut de Biochimie et Génétique Cellulaires, UMR 5095, Bordeaux France The original article has been corrected. © 2023 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

The Beam Dump eXperiment

Hadronic matter makes about 14% of the known universe. The remaining 86% is Dark Matter (DM). Since it does not interact with the ordinary matter via electromagnetic force, DM is not visible and, to date, it escaped detection. The search for DM is one of the hottest topic in modern physics. Despite the increasing number of astrophysical and cosmological observations proving the existence, so far no particle physics experiment has detected DM yet. In a popular class of models, DM is composed of particles with mass in the MeV-GeV range, interacting with the Standard Model via a new force, mediated by a massive vector boson, the Dark Photon or A'. BDX (Beam Dump eXperiment) is an approved experiment searching for DM in the Dark Photon theoretical scenario. The experiment makes use of CEBAF (Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility) 11 GeV electron beam impinging on the Jefferson Lab (Jlab) Hall-A beam-dump. The interaction of the energetic electrons in the beam-dump may lead to the production of Dark Photons through a bremsstrahlung-like radiative process. Subsequently, the A's decay to DM particle-antiparticle pairs, which travel almost unaltered through the length of the dump. A ~ 1 cubic meter detector made of CsI(Tl) (Thallium doped Cesium Iodide) crystals is located in the trajectory of the DM beam, 20 m downstream of the beam-dump. A fraction of the DM particles scatter off atomic electrons in the detector giving rise to a detectable electromagnetic shower of approximately 100 MeV. Thanks to the cosmic background suppression and the high intensity of the electron beam (up to 65 \u3bcA at 11 GeV), BDX will be able, with a 280 days run, to exceed by up to two orders of magnitude the sensitivity of current competitor experiments. A primary concern for BDX is in the estimation of beam related backgrounds from penetrating particles such as muons and neutrinos produced in the electron beam dump. A hodoscope detector, called BDX-HODO was placed downstream of the dump to measure the rates of these beam related processes and validate the necessary Monte Carlo simulations. Currently, the BDX collaboration is focused on the deployment and operation of a small detector, called BDX-MINI, built to perform a preliminary physics measurement searching for LDM at JLab. This test will pave the way to the realization of the full BDX experiment. This thesis is focused on the following topics: the muon flux measurement behind Jlab Hall A beam-dump with BDX-HODO, the evaluation of the BDX experiment reach, including an optimization study for the detector, the construction, commissioning and sensitivity estimate of the BDX-mini detector and the evaluation of the secondary positrons contribution to the sensitivity of BDX and other electron-beam thick-target experiments searching for DM in the Dark Photon paradigm

Latest results and future prospects of the NA64 experiment at CERN SPS

The search for Dark Matter (DM) is one of the hottest topics of modern physics. Despite the various astrophysical and cosmological observations proving its existence, its elementary properties remain to date unknown. In addition to gravity, DM could interact with ordinary matter through a new force, mediated by a new vector boson (Dark Photon, Heavy Photon or $A'$), kinetically mixed with the Standard Model photon. The NA64-$e$ experiment at CERN fits in this scenario, aiming to produce DM particles using the 100 GeV SPS electron beam impinging on a thick active target (electromagnetic calorimeter). In this setup the DM production signature consists in a large observed missing energy, defined as the difference between the energy of the incoming electron and the energy measured in the calorimeter, coupled with null activity in the downstream veto systems. Recently, following the growing interest in positron annihilation mechanisms for DM production, the NA64 collaboration has performed preliminary studies with the aim to run the experiment with a positron beam, as planned within the POKER (POsitron resonant annihilation into darK mattER) project. This work presents the latest NA64-$e$ results and its future prospects, reporting on the progresses in the positron beam run and discussing the sensitivity of the experiment to alternative variations of to the dark photon paradigm

Alpha-band sensory entrainment improves audiovisual temporal acuity

Visual and auditory stimuli are transmitted from the environment to sensory cortices with different timing, requiring the brain to encode when sensory inputs must be segregated or integrated into a single percept. The probability that different audiovisual (AV) stimuli are integrated into a single percept even when presented asynchronously is reflected in the construct of temporal binding window (TBW). There is a strong interest in testing whether it is possible to broaden or shrink TBW by using different neuromodulatory approaches that can speed up or slow down ongoing alpha oscillations, which have been repeatedly hypothesized to be an important determinant of the TBWs size. Here, we employed a web-based sensory entrainment protocol combined with a simultaneity judgment task using simple flash-beep stimuli. The aim was to test whether AV temporal acuity could be modulated trial by trial by synchronizing ongoing neural oscillations in the prestimulus period to a rhythmic sensory stream presented in the upper (similar to 12 Hz) or lower (similar to 8.5 Hz) alpha range. As a control, we implemented a nonrhythmic condition where only the first and the last entrainers were employed. Results show that upper alpha entrainment shrinks AV TBW and improves AV temporal acuity when compared with lower alpha and control conditions. Our findings represent a proof of concept of the efficacy of sensory entrainment to improve AV temporal acuity in a trial-by-trial manner, and they strengthen the idea that alpha oscillations may reflect the temporal unit of AV temporal binding