Dopamine Regulation of Amygdala Inhibitory Circuits for Expression of Learned Fear.

GABAergic signaling in the amygdala controls learned fear, and its dysfunction potentially contributes to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We find that sub-threshold fear conditioning leads to dopamine receptor D4-dependent long-term depression (LTD) of glutamatergic excitatory synapses by increasing inhibitory inputs onto neurons of the dorsal intercalated cell mass (ITC) in the amygdala. Pharmacological, genetic, and optogenetic manipulations of the amygdala regions centered on the dorsal ITC reveal that this LTD limits less salient experiences from forming persistent memories. In further support of the idea that LTD has preventive and discriminative roles, we find that LTD at the dorsal ITC is impaired in mice exhibiting PTSD-like behaviors. These findings reveal a novel role of inhibitory circuits in the amygdala, which serves to dampen and restrict the level of fear expression. This mechanism is interfered with by stimuli that give rise to PTSD and may also be recruited for fear-related psychiatric diseases.1110Ysciescopu

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Measurement of VH, H → b b ¯ production as a function of the vector-boson transverse momentum in 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

Cross-sections of associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into bottom-quark pairs and an electroweak gauge boson, W or Z, decaying into leptons are measured as a function of the gauge boson transverse momentum. The measurements are performed in kinematic fiducial volumes defined in the `simplified template cross-section' framework. The results are obtained using 79.8 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. All measurements are found to be in agreement with the Standard Model predictions, and limits are set on the parameters of an effective Lagrangian sensitive to modifications of the Higgs boson couplings to the electroweak gauge bosons

Search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with b-quarks and decaying into b-quarks at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with one or two b -quarks and decaying to b -quark pairs is presented using 27.8  fb − 1 of √ s = 13  TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2015 and 2016. No evidence of a signal is found. Upper limits on the heavy neutral Higgs boson production cross section times its branching ratio to b ¯ b are set, ranging from 4.0 to 0.6 pb at 95% confidence level over a Higgs boson mass range of 450 to 1400 GeV. Results are interpreted within the two-Higgs-doublet model and the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model

Measurement of single top-quark production in association with a W boson in the single-lepton channel at \sqrt{s} = 8\,\text {TeV} with the ATLAS detector

The production cross-section of a top quark in association with a W boson is measured using proton–proton collisions at \sqrt{s} = 8\,\text {TeV}. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.2\,\text {fb}^{-1}, and was collected in 2012 by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The analysis is performed in the single-lepton channel. Events are selected by requiring one isolated lepton (electron or muon) and at least three jets. A neural network is trained to separate the tW signal from the dominant t{\bar{t}} background. The cross-section is extracted from a binned profile maximum-likelihood fit to a two-dimensional discriminant built from the neural-network output and the invariant mass of the hadronically decaying W boson. The measured cross-section is \sigma _{tW} = 26 \pm 7\,\text {pb}, in good agreement with the Standard Model expectation

Observation of Electroweak Production of a Same-Sign W Boson Pair in Association with Two Jets in pp Collisions root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

This Letter presents the observation and measurement of electroweak production of a same-sign W boson pair in association with two jets using 36.1     fb − 1 of proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of √ s = 13     TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis is performed in the detector fiducial phase-space region, defined by the presence of two same-sign leptons, electron or muon, and at least two jets with a large invariant mass and rapidity difference. A total of 122 candidate events are observed for a background expectation of 69 ± 7 events, corresponding to an observed signal significance of 6.5 standard deviations. The measured fiducial signal cross section is σ fid = 2.89 + 0.51 − 0.48 ( stat ) + 0.29 − 0.28 ( syst )     fb

Identification of boosted Higgs bosons decaying into b-quark pairs with the ATLAS detector at 13 TeV

This paper describes a study of techniques for identifying Higgs bosons at high transverse momenta decaying into bottom-quark pairs, H→bb¯ , for proton–proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy s√=13 TeV . These decays are reconstructed from calorimeter jets found with the anti- kt R=1.0 jet algorithm. To tag Higgs bosons, a combination of requirements is used: b-tagging of R=0.2 track-jets matched to the large-R calorimeter jet, and requirements on the jet mass and other jet substructure variables. The Higgs boson tagging efficiency and corresponding multijet and hadronic top-quark background rejections are evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation. Several benchmark tagging selections are defined for different signal efficiency targets. The modelling of the relevant input distributions used to tag Higgs bosons is studied in 36 fb −1 of data collected in 2015 and 2016 using g→bb¯ and Z(→bb¯)γ event selections in data. Both processes are found to be well modelled within the statistical and systematic uncertainties

Measurement of the inclusive cross-section for the production of jets in association with a Z boson in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV using the ATLAS detector

The inclusive cross-section for jet production in association with a Z boson decaying into an electron–positron pair is measured as a function of the transverse momentum and the absolute rapidity of jets using 19.9 fb −1 of s√=8 TeV proton–proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measured Z + jets cross-section is unfolded to the particle level. The cross-section is compared with state-of-the-art Standard Model calculations, including the next-to-leading-order and next-to-next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations, corrected for non-perturbative and QED radiation effects. The results of the measurements cover final-state jets with transverse momenta up to 1 TeV, and show good agreement with fixed-order calculations

Search for long-lived, massive particles in events with a displaced vertex and a muon with large impact parameter in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for long-lived particles decaying into hadrons and at least one muon is presented. The analysis selects events that pass a muon or missing-transverse-momentum trigger and contain a displaced muon track and a displaced vertex. The analyzed dataset of proton-proton collisions at √ s = 13 TeV was collected with the ATLAS detector and corresponds to 136 fb − 1. The search employs dedicated reconstruction techniques that significantly increase the sensitivity to long-lived particle decays that occur in the ATLAS inner detector. Background estimates for Standard Model processes and instrumental effects are extracted from data. The observed event yields are compatible with those expected from background processes. The results are presented as limits at 95% confidence level on model-independent cross sections for processes beyond the Standard Model, and interpreted as exclusion limits in scenarios with pair production of long-lived top squarks that decay via a small R -parity-violating coupling into a quark and a muon. Top squarks with masses up to 1.7 TeV are excluded for a lifetime of 0.1 ns, and masses below 1.3 TeV are excluded for lifetimes between 0.01 ns and 30 ns