Neural Responses to Complex Auditory Rhythms: The Role of Attending

The aim of this study was to explore the role of attention in pulse and meter perception using complex rhythms. We used a selective attention paradigm in which participants attended to either a complex auditory rhythm or a visually presented word list. Performance on a reproduction task was used to gauge whether participants were attending to the appropriate stimulus. We hypothesized that attention to complex rhythms – which contain no energy at the pulse frequency – would lead to activations in motor areas involved in pulse perception. Moreover, because multiple repetitions of a complex rhythm are needed to perceive a pulse, activations in pulse-related areas would be seen only after sufficient time had elapsed for pulse perception to develop. Selective attention was also expected to modulate activity in sensory areas specific to the modality. We found that selective attention to rhythms led to increased BOLD responses in basal ganglia, and basal ganglia activity was observed only after the rhythms had cycled enough times for a stable pulse percept to develop. These observations suggest that attention is needed to recruit motor activations associated with the perception of pulse in complex rhythms. Moreover, attention to the auditory stimulus enhanced activity in an attentional sensory network including primary auditory cortex, insula, anterior cingulate, and prefrontal cortex, and suppressed activity in sensory areas associated with attending to the visual stimulus

Directing Modernist Spirituality: Evelyn Underhill, the Subliminal Consciousness and Spiritual Direction

Outlining an alternative trajectory for modernist spirituality to that traced in Pericles Lewis’s 'Religious Experience and the Modernist Novel' (2010), I argue that modernist religious thought, far from playing heir to the long march of secularization, was in fact conditioned by a late-nineteenth-century cultural crisis that issued in a range of religious experiments and renewals, one of which was Evelyn Underhill’s 'Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness' (1911), a text that not only brought together mystical traditions and scientific discoveries, but also used this interdisciplinary remit to counter existing secularizing perspectives. An important dimension of Underhill’s work was its collaborative nature; it offers, I argue, not access to rarefied enlightenment, but rather a bold attempt to navigate a treacherous religious landscape

Targeting the Monocyte–Macrophage Lineage in Solid Organ Transplantation

textabstractThere is an unmet clinical need for immunotherapeutic strategies that specifically target the active immune cells participating in the process of rejection after solid organ transplantation. The monocyte-macrophage cell lineage is increasingly recognized as a major player in acute and chronic allograft immunopathology. The dominant presence of cells of this lineage in rejecting allograft tissue is associated with worse graft function and survival. Monocytes and macrophages contribute to alloimmunity via diverse pathways: antigen processing and presentation, costimulation, pro-inflammatory cytokine production, and tissue repair. Cross talk with other recipient immune competent cells and donor endothelial cells leads to amplification of inflammation and a cytolytic response in the graft. Surprisingly, little is known about therapeutic manipulation of the function of cells of the monocyte-macrophage lineage in transplantation by immunosuppressive agents. Although not primarily designed to target monocyte-macrophage lineage cells, multiple categories of currently prescribed immunosuppressive drugs, such as mycophenolate mofetil, mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors, and calcineurin inhibitors, do have limited inhibitory effects. These effects include diminishing the degree of cytokine production, thereby blocking costimulation and inhibiting the migration of monocytes to the site of rejection. Outside the field of transplantation, some clinical studies have shown that the monoclonal antibodies canakinumab, tocilizumab, and infliximab are effective in inhibiting monocyte functions. Indirect effects have also been shown for simvastatin, a lipid lowering drug, and bromodomain and extra-terminal motif inhibitors that reduce the cytokine production by monocytes-macrophages in patients with diabetes mellitus and rheumatoid arthritis. To date, detailed knowledge concerning the origin, the developmental requirements, and functions of diverse specialized monocyte-macrophage subsets justifies research for therapeutic manipulation. Here, we will discuss the effects of currently prescribed immunosuppressive drugs on monocyte/macrophage features and the future challenges

Dynamic Emotional and Neural Responses to Music Depend on Performance Expression and Listener Experience

Apart from its natural relevance to cognition, music provides a window into the intimate relationships between production, perception, experience, and emotion. Here, emotional responses and neural activity were observed as they evolved together with stimulus parameters over several minutes. Participants listened to a skilled music performance that included the natural fluctuations in timing and sound intensity that musicians use to evoke emotional responses. A mechanical performance of the same piece served as a control. Before and after fMRI scanning, participants reported real-time emotional responses on a 2-dimensional rating scale (arousal and valence) as they listened to each performance. During fMRI scanning, participants listened without reporting emotional responses. Limbic and paralimbic brain areas responded to the expressive dynamics of human music performance, and both emotion and reward related activations during music listening were dependent upon musical training. Moreover, dynamic changes in timing predicted ratings of emotional arousal, as well as real-time changes in neural activity. BOLD signal changes correlated with expressive timing fluctuations in cortical and subcortical motor areas consistent with pulse perception, and in a network consistent with the human mirror neuron system. These findings show that expressive music performance evokes emotion and reward related neural activations, and that music's affective impact on the brains of listeners is altered by musical training. Our observations are consistent with the idea that music performance evokes an emotional response through a form of empathy that is based, at least in part, on the perception of movement and on violations of pulse-based temporal expectancies

Wounded to the bone: Digital microscopic analysis of traumas in a medieval mass grave assemblage (Sandbjerget, Denmark, AD 1300–1350)

Battle-related mass burials are considered the most unequivocal evidence of past violence. However, most published studies involve only macroscopic analysis of skeletal remains, commonly arriving only at broad conclusions regarding trauma interpretation. The current study considers a possible avenue for achieving both greater detail and accuracy through digital microscopy. Patterns of injury were investigated among 45 individuals from a Medieval Danish mass grave (Sandbjerget, AD 1300–1350). Injuries were recorded on every anatomical element, except hand and foot bones. Each was photographed and cast, facilitating remote evaluations. Macroscopic analysis was compared with digital microscopy in order to test the relative utility of the latter in characterizing skeletal injuries (mechanism, weapon class, direction, timing of injury). The location of 201 observed injuries, mainly sharp force defects, suggested that many lesions were probably not inflicted by face-to-face opponents. Some microscopic features were indicative of a specific lesion type and weapon class. Digital microscopy was therefore demonstrated to be a complementary tool to macroscopic assessment, enhancing feature observation and quantification and serving to compensate for many of the limitations of macroscopic assessment

Neural indices of behavioral instability in coordination dynamics

Meeting on Coordination - Neural, Behavioral and Social Dynamics held in honor of JA Scott Kelso, Boca Raton, FL, FEB, 2007International audienceno abstrac

Examples of quantum cluster algebras associated to partial flag varieties

We give several explicit examples of quantum cluster algebra structures, as introduced by Berenstein and Zelevinsky, on quantized coordinate rings of partial flag varieties and their associated unipotent radicals. These structures are shown to be quantizations of the cluster algebra structures found on the corresponding classical objects by Geiß, Leclerc and Schröer, whose work generalizes that of several other authors. We also exhibit quantum cluster algebra structures on the quantized enveloping algebras of the Lie algebras of the unipotent radicals

Parallel Regulation of Past, Present, and Future Actions During Sequencing

Past, present, and future actions must be regulated online to produce sequences of actions, but the regulation process is not well understood because of measurement limitations. We provide the first direct tests of the parallel action regulation hypothesis during sequencing in humans. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation to probe the level of excitation for flexion of the right index finger during typing. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded at the onset of typing 5-letter words and nonwords. A single letter typed by the right index finger varied across letter positions 1 to 5. MEP amplitude was largest for the upcoming action in the second position and decreased monotonically across future serial positions, suggesting a serial inhibition process regulates all future actions in parallel during sequencing. This is the most direct human evidence to date corroborating models of sequence production that assume parallel regulation of actions

Neuroimaging coordination dynamics in the sport sciences

International audienceKey methodological issues for designing, analyzing, and interpreting neuroimaging experiments are presented from the perspective of the framework of Coordination Dynamics. To this end, a brief overview of Coordination Dynamics is introduced, including the main concepts of control parameters and collective variables, theoretical modeling, novel experimental paradigms, and cardinal empirical findings. Basic conceptual and methodological issues for the design and implementation of coordination experiments in the context of neuroimaging are discussed. The paper concludes with a presentation of neuroimaging findings central to understanding the neural basis of coordination and addresses their relevance for the sport sciences. The latter include but are not restricted to learning and practice-related issues, the role of mental imagery, and the recovery of function following brain injury. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved