946 research outputs found
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Increased motor cortex excitability for concealed visual information
Deceptive behaviour involves complex neural processes involving the primary motor cortex. The dynamics of this motor cortex excitability prior to lying are still not well understood. We sought to examine whether corticospinal excitability can be used to suggest the presence of deliberately concealed information in a modified version of the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT). Participants pressed keys to either truthfully or deceitfully indicate their familiarity with a series of faces. Motor-evoked-potentials (MEPs) were recorded during response preparation to measure muscle-specific neural excitability. We hypothesised that MEPs would increase during the deceptive condition not only in the lie-telling finger but also in the suppressed truth-telling finger. We report a group-level increase in overall corticospinal excitability 300 ms following stimulus onset during the deceptive condition, without specific activation of the neural representation of the truth-telling finger. We discuss cognitive processes, particularly response conflict and/or automated responses to familiar stimuli, which may drive the observed non-specific increase of motor excitability in deception
Signatures of particle collisions near extreme black holes
Finite-energy particles in free fall can collide with diverging
center-of-mass energy near rapidly rotating black holes. What are the most
salient observational signatures of this remarkable geometric effect? Here we
revisit the problem from the standpoint of the near-horizon extreme Kerr
geometry, where these collisions naturally take place. It is shown that the
ingoing particle kinematics admits a simple, universal form. Given a scattering
cross section, determination of emission properties is reduced to evaluation of
particular integrals on the sky of a near-horizon orbiting particle. We
subsequently apply this scheme to the example of single-photon bremsstrahlung,
substantiating past results which indicate that ejected particles are
observable, but their energies are bounded by the rest masses of the colliding
particles. Our framework is readily applicable for any scattering process.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
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Binocular vision enhances a rapidly evolving affordance priming effect: Behavioural and TMS evidence
Extensive research has suggested that simply viewing an object can automatically prime compatible actions for object manipulation, known as affordances. Here we explored the generation of covert motor plans afforded by real objects with precision (‘pinchable’) or whole-hand/power (‘graspable’) grip significance under different types of vision. In Experiment 1, participants viewed real object primes either monocularly or binocularly and responded to orthogonal auditory stimuli by making precision or power grips. Pinchable primes facilitated congruent precision grip responses relative to incongruent power grips, and vice versa for graspable primes, but only in the binocular vision condition. To examine the temporal evolution of the binocular affordance effect, participants in Experiment 2 always viewed the objects binocularly but made no responses, instead receiving a transcranial magnetic stimulation pulse over their primary motor cortex at three different times (150, 300, 450 ms) after prime onset. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) recorded from a pinching muscle were selectively increased when subjects were primed with a pinchable object, whereas MEPs from a muscle associated with power grips were increased when viewing graspable stimuli. This interaction was obtained both 300 and 450 ms (but not 150 ms) after the visual onset of the prime, characterising for the first time the rapid development of binocular grip-specific affordances predicted by functional accounts of the affordance effect
Motor‐evoked potentials reveal a motor‐cortical readout of evidence accumulation for sensorimotor decisions
Many everyday activities require time-pressured sensorimotor decision making. Traditionally, perception, decision, and action processes were considered to occur in series, but this idea has been successfully challenged, particularly by neurophysiological work in animals. However, the generality of parallel processing requires further elucidation. Here, we investigate whether the accumulation of a decision can be observed intrahemispherically within human motor cortex. Participants categorized faces as male or female, with task difficulty manipulated using morphed stimuli. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, applied during the reaction-time interval, produced motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in two hand muscles that were the major contributors when generating the required pinch/grip movements. Smoothing MEPs using a Gaussian kernel allowed us to recover a continuous time-varying MEP average, comparable to an EEG component, permitting precise localization of the time at which the motor plan for the responding muscle became dominant. We demonstrate decision-related activity in the motor cortex during this perceptual discrimination task, suggesting ongoing evidence accumulation within the motor system even for two independent actions represented within one hemisphere
Tunneling in graphene-topological insulator hybrid devices
Hybrid graphene-topological insulator (TI) devices were fabricated using a
mechanical transfer method and studied via electronic transport. Devices
consisting of bilayer graphene (BLG) under the TI BiSe exhibit
differential conductance characteristics which appear to be dominated by
tunneling, roughly reproducing the BiSe density of states. Similar
results were obtained for BLG on top of BiSe, with 10-fold greater
conductance consistent with a larger contact area due to better surface
conformity. The devices further show evidence of inelastic phonon-assisted
tunneling processes involving both BiSe and graphene phonons. These
processes favor phonons which compensate for momentum mismatch between the TI
and graphene points. Finally, the utility of these tunnel
junctions is demonstrated on a density-tunable BLG device, where the
charge-neutrality point is traced along the energy-density trajectory. This
trajectory is used as a measure of the ground-state density of states
On the estimation of time dependent lift of a European Starling during flapping
We study the role of unsteady lift in the context of flapping wings in birds'
flight. Both aerodynamicists and biologists attempt to address this subject,
yet it seems that the contribution of the unsteady lift still holds many open
questions. The current study deals with the estimation of unsteady aerodynamic
forces on a freely flying bird through analysis of wingbeat kinematics and near
wake flow measurements using time resolved particle image velocimetry. The
aerodynamic forces are obtained through unsteady thin airfoil theory and lift
calculation using the momentum equation for viscous flows. The unsteady lift is
comprised of circulatory and non-circulatory components. Both are presented
over wingbeat cycles. Using long sampling data, several wingbeat cycles have
been analyzed in order to cover the downstroke and upstroke phases. It appears
that the lift varies over the wingbeat cycle emphasizing its contribution to
the total lift and its role in power estimations. It is suggested that the
circulatory lift component cannot assumed to be negligible and should be
considered when estimating lift or power of birds in flapping motion
An efficient CDMA decoder for correlated information sources
We consider the detection of correlated information sources in the ubiquitous
Code-Division Multiple-Access (CDMA) scheme. We propose a message-passing based
scheme for detecting correlated sources directly, with no need for source
coding. The detection is done simultaneously over a block of transmitted binary
symbols (word). Simulation results are provided demonstrating a substantial
improvement in bit-error-rate in comparison with the unmodified detector and
the alternative of source compression. The robustness of the error-performance
improvement is shown under practical model settings, including wrong estimation
of the generating Markov transition matrix and finite-length spreading codes.Comment: 11 page
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Prophylaxis pharmacotherapy to prevent the onset of post traumatic brain injury depression: a systematic review
YesBackground: Depression is a common psychiatric problem following traumatic brain injury (TBI) with reported prevalence rates of 30-77% in the first year post-TBI. Given the negative influence of post-TBI depression on cognition, interpersonal, social, physical and occupational functioning; early initiation of pharmacotherapy to prevent post-TBI depression has been considered. This systematic review will synthesize the available evidence from published studies on the effectiveness and harms of pharmacotherapy for the secondary prevention of post-TBI depression.
Method: Studies published before November 2017 were reviewed. Six databases were searched, with additional searching of key additional documents. Studies meeting inclusion criteria were evaluated for methodological quality.
Results: Six articles addressing five studies met inclusion criteria. Study designs included three randomised controlled trials (RCT), two retrospective cohorts and one case-control. Prophylactic pharmacotherapy included antidepressants, beta-blockers and statins. In one RCT, the number-needed-to-treat with sertraline to prevent one case of depression post-TBI at 24 weeks was 5.9 (95%CI: 3.1-71.1). Prescribing beta-blockers prior to TBI reduced the depression risk regardless of the specific brain trauma. TBI patients with pre-existing hyperlipidemia not treated with statins had an increased depression risk compared to those without hyperlipidemia.
Conclusion: Early initiation of sertraline prophylaxis in nondepressed TBI patients shows promise to reduce the odds of post-TBI depression developing. However, in the absence of rigorous study of tolerability, existing data are insufficient to recommend sertraline prophylaxis. Optimal timing and treatment duration with identification of patients most likely to benefit from prophylaxis require further consideration. Dedicated prospective studies assessing the effects of beta-blockers and statins on post-TBI depression are required.The Transport Accident Commission (TAC), through the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR) at Monash University, provided funding for this review
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