2,877 research outputs found
FMRI resting slow fluctuations correlate with the activity of fast cortico-cortical physiological connections
Recording of slow spontaneous fluctuations at rest using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows distinct long-range cortical networks to be identified. The neuronal basis of connectivity as assessed by resting-state fMRI still needs to be fully clarified, considering that these signals are an indirect measure of neuronal activity, reflecting slow local variations in de-oxyhaemoglobin concentration. Here, we combined fMRI with multifocal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a technique that allows the investigation of the causal neurophysiological interactions occurring in specific cortico-cortical connections. We investigated whether the physiological properties of parieto-frontal circuits mapped with short-latency multifocal TMS at rest may have some relationship with the resting-state fMRI measures of specific resting-state functional networks (RSNs). Results showed that the activity of fast cortico-cortical physiological interactions occurring in the millisecond range correlated selectively with the coupling of fMRI slow oscillations within the same cortical areas that form part of the dorsal attention network, i.e., the attention system believed to be involved in reorientation of attention. We conclude that resting-state fMRI ongoing slow fluctuations likely reflect the interaction of underlying physiological cortico-cortical connections
A double coset ansatz for integrability in AdS/CFT
We give a proof that the expected counting of strings attached to giant
graviton branes in AdS_5 x S^5, as constrained by the Gauss Law, matches the
dimension spanned by the expected dual operators in the gauge theory. The
counting of string-brane configurations is formulated as a graph counting
problem, which can be expressed as the number of points on a double coset
involving permutation groups. Fourier transformation on the double coset
suggests an ansatz for the diagonalization of the one-loop dilatation operator
in this sector of strings attached to giant graviton branes. The ansatz agrees
with and extends recent results which have found the dynamics of open string
excitations of giants to be given by harmonic oscillators. We prove that it
provides the conjectured diagonalization leading to harmonic oscillators.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figures; v2: references adde
Electrical coupling of neuro-ommatidial photoreceptor cells in the blowfly
A new method of microstimulation of the blowfly eye using corneal neutralization was applied to the 6 peripheral photoreceptor cells (R1-R6) connected to one neuro-ommatidium (and thus looking into the same direction), whilst the receptor potential of a dark-adapted photoreceptor cell was recorded by means of an intracellular microelectrode. Stimulation of the photoreceptor cells not impaled elicited responses in the recorded cell of about 20% of the response elicited when stimulating the recorded cell. This is probably caused by gap junctions recently found between the axon terminals of these cells. Stimulation of all 6 cells together yielded responses that were larger and longer than those obtained with stimulation of just the recorded cell, and intensity-response curves that deviated more strongly from linearity. Evidence is presented that the resistance of the axon terminal of the photoreceptor cells quickly drops in response to a light flash, depending on the light intensity. Incorporating the cable properties of the cell body and the axon, the resistance of the gap junctions, and the (adapting) terminal resistance, a theoretical model is presented that explains the measurements well. Finally, it is argued that the gap junctions between the photoreceptor cells may effectively uncouple the synaptic responses of the cells by counteracting the influence of field potentials.
Synchronized dynamics of cortical neurons with time-delay feedback
The dynamics of three mutually coupled cortical neurons with time delays in
the coupling are explored numerically and analytically. The neurons are coupled
in a line, with the middle neuron sending a somewhat stronger projection to the
outer neurons than the feedback it receives, to model for instance the relay of
a signal from primary to higher cortical areas. For a given coupling
architecture, the delays introduce correlations in the time series at the
time-scale of the delay. It was found that the middle neuron leads the outer
ones by the delay time, while the outer neurons are synchronized with zero lag
times. Synchronization is found to be highly dependent on the synaptic time
constant, with faster synapses increasing both the degree of synchronization
and the firing rate. Analysis shows that presynaptic input during the
interspike interval stabilizes the synchronous state, even for arbitrarily weak
coupling, and independent of the initial phase. The finding may be of
significance to synchronization of large groups of cells in the cortex that are
spatially distanced from each other.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure
Surprisingly Simple Spectra
The large N limit of the anomalous dimensions of operators in
super Yang-Mills theory described by restricted Schur polynomials, are studied.
We focus on operators labeled by Young diagrams that have two columns (both
long) so that the classical dimension of these operators is O(N). At large N
these two column operators mix with each other but are decoupled from operators
with columns. The planar approximation does not capture the large N
dynamics. For operators built with 2, 3 or 4 impurities the dilatation operator
is explicitly evaluated. In all three cases, in a certain limit, the dilatation
operator is a lattice version of a second derivative, with the lattice emerging
from the Young diagram itself. The one loop dilatation operator is diagonalized
numerically. All eigenvalues are an integer multiple of and there
are interesting degeneracies in the spectrum. The spectrum we obtain for the
one loop anomalous dimension operator is reproduced by a collection of harmonic
oscillators. This equivalence to harmonic oscillators generalizes giant
graviton results known for the BPS sector and further implies that the
Hamiltonian defined by the one loop large dilatation operator is
integrable. This is an example of an integrable dilatation operator, obtained
by summing both planar and non-planar diagrams.Comment: 34 page
ABJM Dibaryon Spectroscopy
We extend the proposal for a detailed map between wrapped D-branes in Anti-de
Sitter space and baryon-like operators in the associated dual conformal field
theory provided in hep-th/0202150 to the recently formulated AdS_4 \times
CP^3/ABJM correspondence. In this example, the role of the dibaryon operator of
the 3-dimensional CFT is played by a D4-brane wrapping a CP^2 \subset CP^3.
This topologically stable D-brane in the AdS_4 \times CP^3 is nothing but
one-half of the maximal giant graviton on CP^3.Comment: 26 page
Gauge invariant perturbation theory and non-critical string models of Yang-Mills theories
We carry out a gauge invariant analysis of certain perturbations of
-branes solutions of low energy string theories. We get generically a
system of second order coupled differential equations, and show that only in
very particular cases it is possible to reduce it to just one differential
equation. Later, we apply it to a multi-parameter, generically singular family
of constant dilaton solutions of non-critical string theories in
dimensions, a generalization of that recently found in arXiv:0709.0471[hep-th].
According to arguments coming from the holographic gauge theory-gravity
correspondence, and at least in some region of the parameters space, we obtain
glue-ball spectra of Yang-Mills theories in diverse dimensions, putting special
emphasis in the scalar metric perturbations not considered previously in the
literature in the non critical setup. We compare our numerical results to those
studied previously and to lattice results, finding qualitative and in some
cases, tuning properly the parameters, quantitative agreement. These results
seem to show some kind of universality of the models, as well as an irrelevance
of the singular character of the solutions. We also develop the analysis for
the T-dual, non trivial dilaton family of solutions, showing perfect agreement
between them.Comment: A new reference added
Seizures and disturbed brain potassium dynamics in the leukodystrophy megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts
OBJECTIVE: Loss of function of the astrocyte-specific protein MLC1 leads to the childhood-onset leukodystrophy "megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts" (MLC). Studies on isolated cells show a role for MLC1 in astrocyte volume regulation and suggest that disturbed brain ion and water homeostasis is central to the disease. Excitability of neuronal networks is particularly sensitive to ion and water homeostasis. In line with this, reports of seizures and epilepsy in MLC patients exist. However, systematic assessment and mechanistic understanding of seizures in MLC are lacking. METHODS: We analyzed an MLC patient inventory to study occurrence of seizures in MLC. We used two distinct genetic mouse models of MLC to further study epileptiform activity and seizure threshold through wireless extracellular field potential recordings. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings and K+-sensitive electrode recordings in mouse brain slices were used to explore the underlying mechanisms of epilepsy in MLC. RESULTS: An early onset of seizures is common in MLC. Similarly, in MLC mice, we uncovered spontaneous epileptiform brain activity and a lowered threshold for induced seizures. At the cellular level, we found that although passive and active properties of individual pyramidal neurons are unchanged, extracellular K+dynamics and neuronal network activity are abnormal in MLC mice. INTERPRETATION: Disturbed astrocyte regulation of ion and water homeostasis in MLC causes hyperexcitability of neuronal networks and seizures. These findings suggest a role for defective astrocyte volume regulation in epilepsy. Ann Neurol 2018;83:636-649
Minimal Model Holography for SO(2N)
A duality between the large N 't Hooft limit of the WD_N minimal model CFTs
and a higher spin gravity theory on AdS3 is proposed. The gravity theory has
massless spin fields of all even spins s=2,4,6,..., as well as two real scalar
fields whose mass is determined by the 't Hooft parameter of the CFT. We show
that, to leading order in the large N limit, the 1-loop partition function of
the higher spin theory matches precisely with the CFT partition function.Comment: 21 pages, LaTe
Light States in Chern-Simons Theory Coupled to Fundamental Matter
Motivated by developments in vectorlike holography, we study SU(N)
Chern-Simons theory coupled to matter fields in the fundamental representation
on various spatial manifolds. On the spatial torus T^2, we find light states at
small `t Hooft coupling \lambda=N/k, where k is the Chern-Simons level, taken
to be large. In the free scalar theory the gaps are of order \sqrt {\lambda}/N
and in the critical scalar theory and the free fermion theory they are of order
\lambda/N. The entropy of these states grows like N Log(k). We briefly consider
spatial surfaces of higher genus. Based on results from pure Chern-Simons
theory, it appears that there are light states with entropy that grows even
faster, like N^2 Log(k). This is consistent with the log of the partition
function on the three sphere S^3, which also behaves like N^2 Log(k). These
light states require bulk dynamics beyond standard Vasiliev higher spin gravity
to explain them.Comment: 58 pages, LaTeX, no figures, Minor error corrected, references added,
The main results of the paper have not change
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