The end-state comfort effect in 3- to 8-year-old children in two object manipulation tasks

The aim of the study was to compare 3- to 8-year-old children’s propensity to antici- pate a comfortable hand posture at the end of a grasping movement ( end-state comfort effect ) between two different object manipulation tasks, the bar-transport task, and the overturned-glass task. In the bar-transport task, participants were asked to insert a verti- cally positioned bar into a small opening of a box. In the overturned-glass task, participants were asked to put an overturned-glass right-side-up on a coaster. Half of the participants experienced action effects (lights) as a consequence of their movements (AE groups), while the other half of the participants did not (No-AE groups). While there was no differ- ence between the AE and No-AE groups, end-state comfort performance differed across age as well as between tasks. Results revealed a significant increase in end-state comfort performance in the bar-transport task from 13% in the 3-year-olds to 94% in the 8-year- olds. Interestingly, the number of children grasping the bar according to end-state comfort doubled from 3 to 4 years and from 4 to 5 years of age. In the overturned-glass task an increase in end-state comfort performance from already 63% in the 3-year-olds to 100% in the 8-year-olds was significant as well. When comparing end-state comfort performance across tasks, results showed that 3- and 4-year-old children were better at manipulating the glass as compared to manipulating the bar, most probably, because children are more familiar with manipulating glasses. Together, these results suggest that preschool years are an important period for the development of motor planning in which the familiarity with the object involved in the task plays a significant role in children’s ability to plan their movements according to end-state comfort

Inter- versus intramodal integration in sensorimotor synchronization: a combined behavioral and magnetoencephalographic study

Although the temporal occurrence of the pacing signal is predictable in sensorimotor synchronization tasks, normal subjects perform on-the-beat-tapping to an isochronous auditory metronome with an anticipatory error. This error originates from an intermodal task, that is, subjects have to bring information from the auditory and tactile modality to coincide. The aim of the present study was to illuminate whether the synchronization error is a finding specific to an intermodal timing task and whether the underlying cortical mechanisms are modality-specific or supramodal. We collected behavioral data and cortical evoked responses by magneto-encephalography (MEG) during performance of cross- and unimodal tapping-tasks. As expected, subjects showed negative asynchrony in performing an auditorily paced tapping task. However, no asynchrony emerged during tactile pacing, neither during pacing at the opposite finger nor at the toe. Analysis of cortical signals resulted in a three dipole model best explaining tap-contingent activity in all three conditions. The temporal behavior of the sources was similar between the conditions and, thus, modality independent. The localization of the two earlier activated sources was modality-independent as well whereas location of the third source varied with modality. In the auditory pacing condition it was localized in contralateral primary somatosensory cortex, during tactile pacing it was localized in contralateral posterior parietal cortex. In previous studies with auditory pacing the functional role of this third source was contradictory: A special temporal coupling pattern argued for involvement of the source in evaluating the temporal distance between tap and click whereas subsequent data gave no evidence for such an interpretation. Present data shed new light on this question by demonstrating differences between modalities in the localization of the third source with similar temporal behavior

Action–effect anticipation in infant action control

There is increasing evidence that action effects play a crucial role in action understanding and action control not only in adults but also in infants. Most of the research in infants focused on the learning of action–effect contingencies or how action effects help infants to infer goals in other persons’ actions. In contrast, the present research aimed at demonstrating that infants control their own actions by action–effect anticipation once they know about specific action–effect relations. About 7 and 9-month olds observed an experimenter demonstrating two actions that differed regarding the action–effect assignment. Either a red-button press or a blue-button press or no button press elicited interesting acoustical and visual effects. The 9-month olds produced the effect action at first, with shorter latency and longer duration sustaining a direct impact of action–effect anticipation on action control. In 7-month olds the differences due to action–effect manipulation were less profound indicating developmental changes at this age

X-ray studies of the Abell 3158 galaxy cluster with eROSITA

Context. The most nearby clusters are the best places for studying physical and enrichment effects in the faint cluster outskirts. The Abell 3158 cluster (A3158), located at z = 0.059, is quite extended with a characteristic radius r$_{200}$ = 23.95 arcmin. The metal distribution in the outskirts of this cluster has previously been studied with XMM-Newton. In 2019, A3158 was observed as a calibration target in a pointed observation with the eROSITA telescope on board the Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma mission. Bright large clusters, such as A3158, are ideal for studying the metal distribution in the cluster outskirts, along with the temperature profile and morphology. With the deeper observation time of the eROSITA telescope, these properties can now be studied in greater detail and at larger radii. Furthermore, bright nearby clusters are ideal X-ray instrumental cross-calibration targets as they cover a large fraction of the detector and do not vary in time. Aims. We first compare the temperature, metal abundance, and normalisation profiles of the cluster from eROSITA with previous XMM-Newton and Chandra data. Following this calibration work, we investigate the temperature and metallicity of the cluster out to almost r$_{200}$, measure the galaxy velocity dispersion, and determine the cluster mass. Furthermore, we search for infalling clumps and background clusters in the field. Methods. We determined 1D temperature, abundance, and normalisation profiles from both eROSITA and XMM-Newton data as well as 2D maps of temperature and metal abundance distribution from eROSITA data. The velocity dispersion was determined and the cluster mass was calculated from the mass–velocity dispersion (M$_{200}$−σ$_{υ}$) relation. Galaxy density maps were created to enable a better understanding of the structure of the cluster and the outskirts. Results. The overall (i.e. in the range 0.2−0.5r$_{500}$) temperature was measured to be 5.158 ± 0.038 keV. The temperature, abundance, and normalisation profiles of eROSITA all agree to within a confidence level of about 10% with those we determined using XMM-Newton and Chandra data, and they are also consistent with the profiles published previously by the X-COP project. The cluster morphology and surface brightness profile of cluster Abell 3158 appear to be regular at a first glance. Clusters that have such profiles typically are relaxed and host cool cores. However, the temperature profile and map show that the cluster lacks a cool core, as was noted before. Instead, an off-centre cool clump lies to the west of the central cluster region, as reported previously. These are indications that the cluster may be undergoing some sloshing and merger activity. Furthermore, there is a bow-shaped edge near the location of the cool gas clump west of the cluster centre. Farther out west of the X-ray images of A3158, an extension of gas is detected. This larger-scale extension is described here for the first time. The gas metallicity (~0.2 solar) measured in the outskirts (»r$_{500}$) is consistent with an early-enrichment scenario. The velocity dispersion of the cluster member galaxies is measured to be 1058 ± 41 kms$^{-1}$ based on spectroscopic redshifts of 365 cluster member galaxies and the total mass is determined as M$_{200}$,c = 1.38 ± 0.25 × 10$^{15}$ M⊙. The mass estimate based on the X-ray temperature is significantly lower at M200 = 6.20 ± 0.75 × 10$^{14}$ M⊙, providing further indications that merger activity boosts the velocity dispersion and/or biases the temperature low. An extended X-ray source located south of the field of view also coincides with a galaxy overdensity with spectroscopic redshifts in the range 0.05 < z < 0.07. This source further supports the idea that the cluster is undergoing merger activity. Another extended source located north of the field of view is detected in X-rays and coincides with an overdensity of galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the range of 0.070 < z < 0.077. This is likely a background cluster that is not directly related to A3158. Additionally, the known South Pole Telescope cluster SPT-CL J0342-5354 at z = 0. 53 was detected

X-Ray Studies of the Abell 3158 Galaxy Cluster with eROSITA

The most nearby clusters are the best places to study physical and enrichment effects in the faint cluster outskirts. A3158 located at z=0.059 is quite extended with a characteristic radius r$_{200}$=23.95 arcmin. In 2019, A3158 was observed as a calibration target in a pointed observation with the eROSITA telescope onboard the SRG mission. We determined 1d temperature, abundance and normalisation profiles from eROSITA and XMM-Newton and Chandra data as well as 2d maps of temperature distribution from eROSITA data. The velocity dispersion was determined and the cluster mass was calculated. The overall temperature was measured to be 4.725$\pm$ 0.035 keV. The profiles of eROSITA all agree on a ~10% level with those determined with XMM-Newton and Chandra data. From the temperature map we see that the cluster lacks a cool core, as noted before. The presence of a previously detected off-centre cool clump West of the central cluster region is observed. Furthermore there is a bow shaped edge near the location of the cool gas clump West of the cluster centre. An extension of gas is detected for the first time further out in the West. The velocity dispersion of the cluster was measured to be 1058$\pm$41 km s$^{-1}$. The total mass was determined as $M_{200}$=1.38$\pm$ 0.25x10$^{15}$ $M_{\odot}$. The mass estimate from the M-T relation is significantly lower at M$_{200}$=5.09$\pm$ 0.59x10$^{14}M_{\odot}$. An extended X-ray source located South of the cluster also coincides with a galaxy overdensity with redshifts in the range 0.05<z<0.07. These are indications that the cluster may be undergoing merger activity. Another extended source located North of the cluster is detected in X-rays and coincides with an overdensity of galaxies with redshifts in the range of 0.070<z<0.077. This is likely a background cluster not related to A3158. Additionally a known SPT cluster at z=0.53 was detected.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures in the main text, and 3 figures in the appendix. Accepted by A&A for the Special Issue: The Early Data Release of eROSITA and Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC on the SRG Missio