188 research outputs found
Social attention patterns of autistic and non-autistic adults when viewing real vs. reel people
Research consistently shows that autistic adults do not attend to faces as much as non-autistic adults. However, this conclusion is largely based on studies using prerecorded videos or photographs as stimuli. In studies using real social scenarios the evidence is not as clear. To explore the extent to which differences in findings relate to differences in the methodologies used across studies, we directly compared social attention of 32 autistic and 33 non-autistic adults when watching exactly the same video. However, half of the participants in each group were told simply to watch the video (Video condition) and the other half were led to believe they were watching a live webcam feed (‘Live’ condition). The results yielded no significant group differences in the ‘Live’ condition. However, significant group differences were found in the ‘Video’ condition. In this condition, non-autistic participants, but not autistic participants, showed a marked social bias towards faces. The findings highlight the importance of studying social attention combining different methods. Specifically, we argue that studies using pre-recorded footage and studies using real people tap into separate components contributing to social attention. One that is an innate, automatic component and one that is modulated by social norms
Adults with higher social anxiety show avoidant gaze behaviour in a real-world social setting: A mobile eye tracking study.
Attentional biases are a core characteristic of social anxiety (SA). However, research has yielded conflicting findings and failed to investigate these biases in real, face-to-face social situations. Therefore, this study examined attentional biases in SA by measuring participants' eye gaze within a novel eye-tracking paradigm during a real-life social situation. Student participants (N = 30) took part in what they thought was a visual search study, when a confederate posing as another participant entered the room. Whilst all participants avoided looking at the confederate, those with higher SA fixated for a shorter duration during their first fixation on him, and executed fewer fixations and saccades overall as well as exhibiting a shorter scanpath. These findings are indicative of additional avoidance in the higher SA participants. In contrast to previous experimental work, we found no evidence of social hypervigilance or hyperscanning in high SA individuals. The results indicate that in unstructured social settings, avoidance rather than vigilance predominates, especially in those with higher SA
Spectral networks
We introduce new geometric objects called spectral networks. Spectral
networks are networks of trajectories on Riemann surfaces obeying certain local
rules. Spectral networks arise naturally in four-dimensional N=2 theories
coupled to surface defects, particularly the theories of class S. In these
theories spectral networks provide a useful tool for the computation of BPS
degeneracies: the network directly determines the degeneracies of solitons
living on the surface defect, which in turn determine the degeneracies for
particles living in the 4d bulk. Spectral networks also lead to a new map
between flat GL(K,C) connections on a two-dimensional surface C and flat
abelian connections on an appropriate branched cover Sigma of C. This
construction produces natural coordinate systems on moduli spaces of flat
GL(K,C) connections on C, which we conjecture are cluster coordinate systems.Comment: 87 pages, 48 figures; v2: typos, correction to general rule for signs
of BPS count
Correction to: The relevance of the interpersonal theory of suicide for predicting past-year and lifetime suicidality in autistic adults (Molecular Autism, (2022), 13, 1, (14), 10.1186/s13229-022-00495-5)
Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported missing information in the ‘Acknowledgements’ section. The corrected ‘Acknowledgements’ section reads: We thank our participants for their generosity in taking part in the present research and for their helpful feedback towards this and future research. We would like to thank the ACORN panel at Bournemouth University for the funding this research, and our supportive colleagues. Special thanks goes to Rebecca Ellis for her patience in assisting with participant payments. We thank our colleagues at the Autism Research Centre who helped us recruit through their participant panel; the staff at Autistica who allowed us to advertise to their research network; moderators and owners of Facebook groups who were willing to let us advertise our study. Dr. Moseley thanks Dr. Sarah George, Dr. Helen Bolderston, and Dr. Cécile Bardon for their advice around ensuring the safety of participants, with especial thanks to Dr. Bardon for her warm encouragement. Finally, the authors remember all autistic people whose lives were lost to suicide, both within our participant cohort and the broader autistic community. The original article [1] has been updated
What Can WMAP Tell Us About The Very Early Universe? New Physics as an Explanation of Suppressed Large Scale Power and Running Spectral Index
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe microwave background data may be
giving us clues about new physics at the transition from a ``stringy'' epoch of
the universe to the standard Friedmann Robertson Walker description. Deviations
on large angular scales of the data, as compared to theoretical expectations,
as well as running of the spectral index of density perturbations, can be
explained by new physics whose scale is set by the height of an inflationary
potential. As examples of possible signatures for this new physics, we study
the cosmic microwave background spectrum for two string inspired models: 1)
modifications to the Friedmann equations and 2) velocity dependent potentials.
The suppression of low ``l'' modes in the microwave background data arises due
to the new physics. In addition, the spectral index is red (n<1) on small
scales and blue (n>1) on large scales, in agreement with data.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, submitted for publication in Physical Review D,
references added in this versio
Brane cosmology with curvature corrections
We study the cosmology of the Randall-Sundrum brane-world where the
Einstein-Hilbert action is modified by curvature correction terms: a
four-dimensional scalar curvature from induced gravity on the brane, and a
five-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet curvature term. The combined effect of these
curvature corrections to the action removes the infinite-density big bang
singularity, although the curvature can still diverge for some parameter
values. A radiation brane undergoes accelerated expansion near the minimal
scale factor, for a range of parameters. This acceleration is driven by the
geometric effects, without an inflaton field or negative pressures. At late
times, conventional cosmology is recovered.Comment: RevTex4, 8 pages, no figures, minor change
Spherically Symmetric Braneworld Solutions with R_{4} term in the Bulk
An analysis of a spherically symmetric braneworld configuration is performed
when the intrinsic curvature scalar is included in the bulk action; the
vanishing of the electric part of the Weyl tensor is used as the boundary
condition for the embedding of the brane in the bulk. All the solutions outside
a static localized matter distribution are found; some of them are of the
Schwarzschild-(A)dS_{4} form. Two modified Oppenheimer-Volkoff interior
solutions are also found; one is matched to a Schwarzschild-(A)dS_{4} exterior,
while the other does not. A non-universal gravitational constant arises,
depending on the density of the considered object; however, the conventional
limits of the Newton's constant are recovered. An upper bound of the order of
TeV for the energy string scale is extracted from the known solar system
measurements (experiments). On the contrary, in usual brane dynamics, this
string scale is calculated to be larger than TeV.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, one minor chang
Challenges and Obstacles for a Bouncing Universe in Brane Models
A Brane evolving in the background of a charged AdS black-hole displays in
general a bouncing behaviour with a smooth transition from a contracting to an
expanding phase. We examine in detail the conditions and consequences of this
behaviour in various cases. For a cosmological-constant-dominated Brane, we
obtain a singularity-free, inflationary era which is shown to be compatible
only with an intermediate-scale fundamental Planck mass. For a
radiation-dominated Brane, the bouncing behaviour can occur only for
background-charge values exceeding those allowed for non-extremal black holes.
For a matter-dominated Brane, the black-hole mass affects the proper volume or
the expansion rate of the Brane. We also consider the Brane evolving in an
asymmetric background of two distinct charged AdS black hole spacetimes being
bounded by the Brane and find that, in the case of an empty critical Brane,
bouncing behaviour occurs only if the black-hole mass difference is smaller
than a certain value. The effects of a Brane curvature term on the bounce at
early and late times are also investigated.Comment: 23 pages, Latex file, comments and references added, version to
appear in Phys. Rev.
Viability of Noether symmetry of F(R) theory of gravity
Canonization of F(R) theory of gravity to explore Noether symmetry is
performed treating R - 6(\frac{\ddot a}{a} + \frac{\dot a^2}{a^2} +
\frac{k}{a^2}) = 0 as a constraint of the theory in Robertson-Walker
space-time, which implies that R is taken as an auxiliary variable. Although it
yields correct field equations, Noether symmetry does not allow linear term in
the action, and as such does not produce a viable cosmological model. Here, we
show that this technique of exploring Noether symmetry does not allow even a
non-linear form of F(R), if the configuration space is enlarged by including a
scalar field in addition, or taking anisotropic models into account.
Surprisingly enough, it does not reproduce the symmetry that already exists in
the literature (A. K. Sanyal, B. Modak, C. Rubano and E. Piedipalumbo,
Gen.Relativ.Grav.37, 407 (2005), arXiv:astro-ph/0310610) for scalar tensor
theory of gravity in the presence of R^2 term. Thus, R can not be treated as an
auxiliary variable and hence Noether symmetry of arbitrary form of F(R) theory
of gravity remains obscure. However, there exists in general, a conserved
current for F(R) theory of gravity in the presence of a non-minimally coupled
scalar-tensor theory (A. K. Sanyal, Phys.Lett.B624, 81 (2005),
arXiv:hep-th/0504021 and Mod.Phys.Lett.A25, 2667 (2010), arXiv:0910.2385
[astro-ph.CO]). Here, we briefly expatiate the non-Noether conserved current
and cite an example to reveal its importance in finding cosmological solution
for such an action, taking F(R) \propto R^{3/2}.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure. appears in Int J Theoretical Phys (2012
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Comparison of Tracking Codes for the International Linear Collider
In an effort to compare beam dynamics and create a ''benchmark'' for Dispersion Free Steering (DFS) a comparison was made between different International Linear Collider (ILC) simulation programs while performing DFS. This study consisted of three parts. Firstly, a simple betatron oscillation was tracked through each code. Secondly, a set of component misalignments and corrector settings generated from one program was read into the others to confirm similar emittance dilution. Thirdly, given the same set of component misalignments, DFS was performed independently in each program and the resulting emittance dilution was compared. Performance was found to agree exceptionally well in all three studies
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