182,852 research outputs found
Disturbances in the spontaneous attribution of social meaning in schizophrenia
Background. Schizophrenia patients show disturbances on a range of tasks that assess mentalizing or 'Theory of Mind' (ToM). However, these tasks are often developmentally inappropriate, make large demands on verbal abilities and explicit problem-solving skills, and involve after-the-fact reflection as opposed to spontaneous mentalizing.
Method. To address these limitations, 55 clinically stable schizophrenia out-patients and 44 healthy controls completed a validated Animations Task designed to assess spontaneous attributions of social meaning to ambiguous
abstract visual stimuli. In this paradigm, 12 animations depict two geometric shapes' interacting' with each other in three conditions: (1) ToM interactions that elicit attributions of mental states to the agents, (2) Goal-Directed (GO) interactions that elicit attributions of simple actions, and (3) Random scenes in which no interaction occurs. Verbal
descriptions of each animation are rated for the degree of Intentionality attributed to the agents and for accuracy.
Results. Patients had lower Intentionality ratings than controls for ToM and GO scenes but the groups did not significantly differ for Random scenes. The descriptions of the patients less closely matched the situations intended by the developers of the task. Within the schizophrenia group, performance on the Animations Task showed minimal
associations with clinical symptoms.
Conclusions. Patients demonstrated disturbances in the spontaneous attribution of mental states to abstract visual stimuli that normally evoke such attributions. Hence, in addition to previously established impairment on mentalizing tasks that require logical inferences about others' mental states, individuals with schizophrenia show disturbances in implicit aspects of mentalizing
Neural networks with dynamical synapses: from mixed-mode oscillations and spindles to chaos
Understanding of short-term synaptic depression (STSD) and other forms of
synaptic plasticity is a topical problem in neuroscience. Here we study the
role of STSD in the formation of complex patterns of brain rhythms. We use a
cortical circuit model of neural networks composed of irregular spiking
excitatory and inhibitory neurons having type 1 and 2 excitability and
stochastic dynamics. In the model, neurons form a sparsely connected network
and their spontaneous activity is driven by random spikes representing synaptic
noise. Using simulations and analytical calculations, we found that if the STSD
is absent, the neural network shows either asynchronous behavior or regular
network oscillations depending on the noise level. In networks with STSD,
changing parameters of synaptic plasticity and the noise level, we observed
transitions to complex patters of collective activity: mixed-mode and spindle
oscillations, bursts of collective activity, and chaotic behaviour.
Interestingly, these patterns are stable in a certain range of the parameters
and separated by critical boundaries. Thus, the parameters of synaptic
plasticity can play a role of control parameters or switchers between different
network states. However, changes of the parameters caused by a disease may lead
to dramatic impairment of ongoing neural activity. We analyze the chaotic
neural activity by use of the 0-1 test for chaos (Gottwald, G. & Melbourne, I.,
2004) and show that it has a collective nature.Comment: 7 pages, Proceedings of 12th Granada Seminar, September 17-21, 201
Critical and resonance phenomena in neural networks
Brain rhythms contribute to every aspect of brain function. Here, we study
critical and resonance phenomena that precede the emergence of brain rhythms.
Using an analytical approach and simulations of a cortical circuit model of
neural networks with stochastic neurons in the presence of noise, we show that
spontaneous appearance of network oscillations occurs as a dynamical
(non-equilibrium) phase transition at a critical point determined by the noise
level, network structure, the balance between excitatory and inhibitory
neurons, and other parameters. We find that the relaxation time of neural
activity to a steady state, response to periodic stimuli at the frequency of
the oscillations, amplitude of damped oscillations, and stochastic fluctuations
of neural activity are dramatically increased when approaching the critical
point of the transition.Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings of 12th Granada Seminar, September 17-21, 201
Chiral Properties of Pseudoscalar Mesons on a Quenched Lattice with Overlap Fermions
The chiral properties of the pseudoscalar mesons are studied numerically on a
quenched lattice with the overlap fermion. We elucidate the role of the
zero modes in the meson propagators, particularly that of the pseudoscalar
meson. The non-perturbative renormalization constant is determined from
the axial Ward identity and is found to be almost independent of the quark mass
for the range of quark masses we study; this implies that the error is
small. The pion decay constant, , is calculated from which we
determine the lattice spacing to be 0.148 fm. We look for quenched chiral log
in the pseudoscalar decay constants and the pseudoscalar masses and we find
clear evidence for its presence. The chiral log parameter is
determined to be in the range 0.15 -- 0.4 which is consistent with that
predicted from quenched chiral perturbation theory.Comment: Version accepted for publication by PRD. A few minor typographical
errors have been corrected. 24 pages, 11 figure
Critical dynamics of the k-core pruning process
We present the theory of the k-core pruning process (progressive removal of
nodes with degree less than k) in uncorrelated random networks. We derive exact
equations describing this process and the evolution of the network structure,
and solve them numerically and, in the critical regime of the process,
analytically. We show that the pruning process exhibits three different
behaviors depending on whether the mean degree of the initial network is
above, equal to, or below the threshold _c corresponding to the emergence of
the giant k-core. We find that above the threshold the network relaxes
exponentially to the k-core. The system manifests the phenomenon known as
"critical slowing down", as the relaxation time diverges when tends to
_c. At the threshold, the dynamics become critical characterized by a
power-law relaxation (1/t^2). Below the threshold, a long-lasting transient
process (a "plateau" stage) occurs. This transient process ends with a collapse
in which the entire network disappears completely. The duration of the process
diverges when tends to _c. We show that the critical dynamics of the
pruning are determined by branching processes of spreading damage. Clusters of
nodes of degree exactly k are the evolving substrate for these branching
processes. Our theory completely describes this branching cascade of damage in
uncorrelated networks by providing the time dependent distribution function of
branching. These theoretical results are supported by our simulations of the
-core pruning in Erdos-Renyi graphs.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
Thermalisation of Local Observables in Small Hubbard Lattices
We present a study of thermalisation of a small isolated Hubbard lattice
cluster prepared in a pure state with a well-defined energy. We examine how a
two-site subsystem of the lattice thermalises with the rest of the system as
its environment. We explore numerically the existence of thermalisation over a
range of system parameters, such as the interaction strength, system size and
the strength of the coupling between the subsystem and the rest of the lattice.
We find thermalisation over a wide range of parameters and that interactions
are crucial for efficient thermalisation of small systems. We relate this
thermalisation behaviour to the eigenstate thermalisation hypothesis and
quantify numerically the extent to which eigenstate thermalisation holds. We
also verify our numerical results theoretically with the help of previously
established results from random matrix theory for the local density of states,
particularly the finite-size scaling for the onset of thermalisation.Comment: 22 pages, 23 figure
SU(3) monopoles and their fields
Some aspects of the fields of charge two SU(3) monopoles with minimal
symmetry breaking are discussed. A certain class of solutions look like SU(2)
monopoles embedded in SU(3) with a transition region or ``cloud'' surrounding
the monopoles. For large cloud size the relative moduli space metric splits as
a direct product AH\times R^4 where AH is the Atiyah-Hitchin metric for SU(2)
monopoles and R^4 has the flat metric. Thus the cloud is parametrised by R^4
which corresponds to its radius and SO(3) orientation. We solve for the
long-range fields in this region, and examine the energy density and rotational
moments of inertia. The moduli space metric for these monopoles, given by
Dancer, is also expressed in a more explicit form.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, latex, version appearing in Phys. Rev.
A First-Principles Study of the Electronic Reconstructions of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterointerfaces and Their Variants
We present a first-principles study of the electronic structures and
properties of ideal (atomically sharp) LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (001) heterointerfaces and
their variants such as a new class of quantum well systems. We demonstrate the
insulating-to-metallic transition as a function of the LaAlO3 film thickness in
these systems. After the phase transition, we find that conduction electrons
are bound to the n-type interface while holes diffuse away from the p-type
interface, and we explain this asymmetry in terms of a large hopping matrix
element that is unique to the n-type interface. We build a tight-binding model
based on these hopping matrix elements to illustrate how the conduction
electron gas is bound to the n-type interface. Based on the `polar catastrophe'
mechanism, we propose a new class of quantum wells at which we can manually
control the spatial extent of the conduction electron gas. In addition, we
develop a continuous model to unify the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces and quantum
wells and predict the thickness dependence of sheet carrier densities of these
systems. Finally, we study the external field effect on both LaAlO3/SrTiO3
interfaces and quantum well systems. Our systematic study of the electronic
reconstruction of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces may serve as a guide to engineering
transition metal oxide heterointerfaces.Comment: 50 pages, 18 figures and 4 table
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