44,800 research outputs found
Engaging the articulators enhances perception of concordant visible speech movements
PURPOSE
This study aimed to test whether (and how) somatosensory feedback signals from the vocal tract affect concurrent unimodal visual speech perception.
METHOD
Participants discriminated pairs of silent visual utterances of vowels under 3 experimental conditions: (a) normal (baseline) and while holding either (b) a bite block or (c) a lip tube in their mouths. To test the specificity of somatosensory-visual interactions during perception, we assessed discrimination of vowel contrasts optically distinguished based on their mandibular (English /ɛ/-/æ/) or labial (English /u/-French /u/) postures. In addition, we assessed perception of each contrast using dynamically articulating videos and static (single-frame) images of each gesture (at vowel midpoint).
RESULTS
Engaging the jaw selectively facilitated perception of the dynamic gestures optically distinct in terms of jaw height, whereas engaging the lips selectively facilitated perception of the dynamic gestures optically distinct in terms of their degree of lip compression and protrusion. Thus, participants perceived visible speech movements in relation to the configuration and shape of their own vocal tract (and possibly their ability to produce covert vowel production-like movements). In contrast, engaging the articulators had no effect when the speaking faces did not move, suggesting that the somatosensory inputs affected perception of time-varying kinematic information rather than changes in target (movement end point) mouth shapes.
CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that orofacial somatosensory inputs associated with speech production prime premotor and somatosensory brain regions involved in the sensorimotor control of speech, thereby facilitating perception of concordant visible speech movements.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9911846R01 DC002852 - NIDCD NIH HHSAccepted manuscrip
Correlated Fermions on a Checkerboard Lattice
A model of strongly correlated spinless fermions hopping on a checkerboard
lattice is mapped onto a quantum fully-packed loop model. We identify a large
number of fluctuationless states specific to the fermionic case. We also show
that for a class of fluctuating states, the fermionic sign problem can be
gauged away. This claim is supported by numerically evaluating the energies of
the low-lying states. Furthermore, we analyze in detail the excitations at the
Rokhsar-Kivelson point of this model thereby using the relation to the height
model and the single-mode approximation.Comment: 4 Pages, 3 Figures; v4: updated version published in Phys. Rev.
Lett.; one reference adde
Galaxy evolution in groups and clusters: satellite star formation histories and quenching timescales in a hierarchical Universe
Satellite galaxies in groups and clusters are more likely to have low star
formation rates (SFR) and lie on the red-sequence than central (field)
galaxies. Using galaxy group/cluster catalogs from SDSS DR7, together with a
cosmological N-body simulation to track satellite orbits, we examine the star
formation histories and quenching timescales of satellites of M_star > 5 x 10^9
M_sun at z=0. We first explore satellite infall histories: group preprocessing
and ejected orbits are critical aspects of satellite evolution, and properly
accounting for these, satellite infall typically occurred at z~0.5, or ~5 Gyr
ago. To obtain accurate initial conditions for the SFRs of satellites at their
time of first infall, we construct an empirical parametrization for the
evolution of central galaxy SFRs and quiescent fractions. With this, we
constrain the importance and efficiency of satellite quenching as a function of
satellite and host halo mass, finding that satellite quenching is the dominant
process for building up all quiescent galaxies at M_star < 10^10 M_sun. We then
constrain satellite star formation histories, finding a 'delayed-then-rapid'
quenching scenario: satellite SFRs evolve unaffected for 2-4 Gyr after infall,
after which star formation quenches rapidly, with an e-folding time of < 0.8
Gyr. These quenching timescales are shorter for more massive satellites but do
not depend on host halo mass: the observed increase in satellite quiescent
fraction with halo mass arises simply because of satellites quenching in a
lower mass group prior to infall (group preprocessing), which is responsible
for up to half of quenched satellites in massive clusters. Because of the long
time delay before quenching starts, satellites experience significant stellar
mass growth after infall, nearly identical to central galaxies. This fact
provides key physical insight into the subhalo abundance matching method.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS, matches
published versio
Foray search: An effective systematic dispersal strategy in fragmented landscapes
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, population models generally assume that the dispersal trajectories of animals are random, but systematic dispersal could be more efficient at detecting new habitat and may therefore constitute a more realistic assumption. Here, we investigate, by means of simulations, the properties of a potentially widespread systematic dispersal strategy termed "foray search." Foray search was more efficient in detecting suitable habitat than was random dispersal in most landscapes and was less subject to energetic constraints. However, it also resulted in considerably shorter net dispersed distances and higher mortality per net dispersed distance than did random dispersal, and it would therefore be likely to lead to lower dispersal rates toward the margins of population networks. Consequently, the use of foray search by dispersers could crucially affect the extinction-colonization balance of metapopulations and the evolution of dispersal rates. We conclude that population models need to take the dispersal trajectories of individuals into account in order to make reliable predictions
Pre-processing for Triangulation of Probabilistic Networks
The currently most efficient algorithm for inference with a probabilistic
network builds upon a triangulation of a network's graph. In this paper, we
show that pre-processing can help in finding good triangulations
forprobabilistic networks, that is, triangulations with a minimal maximum
clique size. We provide a set of rules for stepwise reducing a graph, without
losing optimality. This reduction allows us to solve the triangulation problem
on a smaller graph. From the smaller graph's triangulation, a triangulation of
the original graph is obtained by reversing the reduction steps. Our
experimental results show that the graphs of some well-known real-life
probabilistic networks can be triangulated optimally just by preprocessing; for
other networks, huge reductions in their graph's size are obtained.Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the Seventeenth Conference on Uncertainty
in Artificial Intelligence (UAI2001
An alternative to the conventional micro-canonical ensemble
Usual approach to the foundations of quantum statistical physics is based on
conventional micro-canonical ensemble as a starting point for deriving
Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) equilibrium. It leaves, however, a number of conceptual
and practical questions unanswered. Here we discuss these questions, thereby
motivating the study of a natural alternative known as Quantum Micro-Canonical
(QMC) ensemble. We present a detailed numerical study of the properties of the
QMC ensemble for finite quantum systems revealing a good agreement with the
existing analytical results for large quantum systems. We also propose the way
to introduce analytical corrections accounting for finite-size effects. With
the above corrections, the agreement between the analytical and the numerical
results becomes very accurate. The QMC ensemble leads to an unconventional kind
of equilibrium, which may be realizable after strong perturbations in small
isolated quantum systems having large number of levels. We demonstrate that the
variance of energy fluctuations can be used to discriminate the QMC equilibrium
from the BG equilibrium. We further suggest that the reason, why BG equilibrium
commonly occurs in nature rather than the QMC-type equilibrium, has something
to do with the notion of quantum collapse.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure
Modeling of the electronic state of the High-Temperature Superconductor LaCuO: Phonon dynamics and charge response
A modeling of the normal state of the p-doped high-temperature
superconductors (HTSC's) is presented. This is achieved starting from a more
conventional metallic phase for optimal- and overdoping and passing via the
underdoped to the insulating state by consecutive orbital selective
compressibility-incompressibility transitions in terms of sum rules for the
charge response. The modeling is substantiated by corresponding phonon
calculations. Extending investigations of the full dispersion and in particular
of the strongly doping dependent anomalous phonon modes in LaCuO, which so far
underpin our treatment of the density response of the electrons in the p-doped
HTSC's, gives additional support for the modeling of the electronic state,
compares well with recent experimental data and predicts the dispersion for the
overdoped regime. Moreover, phonon densities of states have been calculated and
compared for the insulating, underdoped, optimally doped and overdoped state of
LaCuO. From our modeling of the normal state a consistent picture of the
superconducting phase also can be extracted qualitatively pointing in the
underdoped regime to a phase ordering transition. On the other hand, the
modeling of the optimal and overdoped state is consistent with a quasi-particle
picture with a well defined Fermi surface. Thus, in the latter case a Fermi
surface instability with an evolution of pairs of well defined quasiparticles
is possible and can lead to a BCS-type ordering. So, it is tempting to
speculate that optimal in the HTSC's marks a crossover region between
these two forms of ordering.Comment: 18 RevTex pages, 10 figures, revised version, references updated,
accepted for publication in Physical Review
Evolution of the Dark Matter Distribution at the Galactic Center
Annihilation radiation from neutralino dark matter at the Galactic center
(GC) would be greatly enhanced if the dark matter were strongly clustered
around the supermassive black hole (SBH). The existence of a dark-matter
"spike" is made plausible by the observed, steeply-rising stellar density near
the GC SBH. Here the time-dependent equations describing gravitational
interaction of the dark matter particles with the stars are solved. Scattering
of dark matter particles by stars would substantially lower the dark matter
density near the GC SBH over 10^10 yr, due both to kinetic heating, and to
capture of dark matter particles by the SBH. This result suggests that
enhancements in the dark matter density around a SBH would be modest whether or
not the host galaxy had experienced the scouring effects of a binary SBH.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter
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