The Role of Superior Temporal Cortex in Auditory Timing

Recently, there has been upsurge of interest in the neural mechanisms of time perception. A central question is whether the representation of time is distributed over brain regions as a function of stimulus modality, task and length of the duration used or whether it is centralized in a single specific and supramodal network. The answers seem to be converging on the former, and many areas not primarily considered as temporal processing areas remain to be investigated in the temporal domain. Here we asked whether the superior temporal gyrus, an auditory modality specific area, is involved in processing of auditory timing. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied over left and right superior temporal gyri while participants performed either a temporal or a frequency discrimination task of single tones. A significant decrease in performance accuracy was observed after stimulation of the right superior temporal gyrus, in addition to an increase in response uncertainty as measured by the Just Noticeable Difference. The results are specific to auditory temporal processing and performance on the frequency task was not affected. Our results further support the idea of distributed temporal processing and speak in favor of the existence of modality specific temporal regions in the human brain

A Functional Architecture of Optic Flow in the Inferior Parietal Lobule of the Behaving Monkey

The representation of navigational optic flow across the inferior parietal lobule was assessed using optical imaging of intrinsic signals in behaving monkeys. The exposed cortex, corresponding to the dorsal-most portion of areas 7a and dorsal prelunate (DP), was imaged in two hemispheres of two rhesus monkeys. The monkeys actively attended to changes in motion stimuli while fixating. Radial expansion and contraction, and rotation clockwise and counter-clockwise optic flow stimuli were presented concentric to the fixation point at two angles of gaze to assess the interrelationship between the eye position and optic flow signal. The cortical response depended upon the type of flow and was modulated by eye position. The optic flow selectivity was embedded in a patchy architecture within the gain field architecture. All four optic flow stimuli tested were represented in areas 7a and DP. The location of the patches varied across days. However the spatial periodicity of the patches remained constant across days at ∼950 and 1100 µm for the two animals examined. These optical recordings agree with previous electrophysiological studies of area 7a, and provide new evidence for flow selectivity in DP and a fine scale description of its cortical topography. That the functional architectures for optic flow can change over time was unexpected. These and earlier results also from inferior parietal lobule support the inclusion of both static and dynamic functional architectures that define association cortical areas and ultimately support complex cognitive function

Study of the decay B0(B- 0)-->rho+rho-, and constraints on the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa angle alpha.

Using a data sample of 89 x 10(6) Upsilon(4S)-->BB decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC, we measure the B0(B (0))-->rho(+)rho(-) branching fraction as [30+/-4(stat)+/-5(syst)]x10(-6) and a longitudinal polarization fraction of f(L)=0.99+/-0.03(stat)+0.04-0.03(syst). We measure the time-dependent-asymmetry parameters of the longitudinally polarized component of this decay as C(L)=-0.17+/-0.27(stat)+/-0.14(syst) and S(L)=-0.42+/-0.42(stat)+/-0.14(syst). We exclude values of alpha between 19 degrees and 71 degrees (90% C.L.)

Search for B+/--->[K(-/+)pi(+/-)](D)K+/- and upper limit on the b-->u amplitude in B+/--->DK+/-.

We search for B+/--->[K(-/+)pi(+/-)](D)K+/- decays, where [K(-/+)pi(+/-)](D) indicates that the K-/+pi(+/-) pair originates from the decay of a D0 or D (0). Results are based on 120x10(6) Upsilon(4S)-->BB decays collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We set an upper limit on the ratio R(Kpi) identical with[Gamma(B+-->[K(-)pi(+)](D)K+)+Gamma(B--->[K(+)pi(-)](D)K-)][Gamma(B+-->[K(+)pi(-)](D) / K+)+Gamma(B--->[K(-)pi(+)](D)K-)]<0.026 (90% C.L.). This constrains the amplitude ratio r(B) identical with|A(B--->D 0K-)/A(B--->D0K-)|<0.22 (90% C.L.), consistent with expectations. The small value of r(B) favored by our analysis suggests that the determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa phase gamma from B-->DK will be difficult

Measurement of the total width, the electronic width, and the mass of the Υ(10580) resonance

We present a measurement of the parameters of the Υ(10580) resonance based on a dataset collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric B factory. We measure the total width Γtot=(20.7±1. 6±2.5)MeV, the electronic partial width Γee=(0.321±0. 017±0.029)keV and the mass M=(10579.3±0.4±1.2)MeV/c2. © 2005 The American Physical Society

Search for B+/--->[K(-/+)pi(+/-)](D)K+/- and upper limit on the b-->u amplitude in B+/--->DK+/-.

We search for B+/--->[K(-/+)pi(+/-)](D)K+/- decays, where [K(-/+)pi(+/-)](D) indicates that the K-/+pi(+/-) pair originates from the decay of a D0 or D (0). Results are based on 120x10(6) Upsilon(4S)-->BB decays collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We set an upper limit on the ratio R(Kpi) identical with[Gamma(B+-->[K(-)pi(+)](D)K+)+Gamma(B--->[K(+)pi(-)](D)K-)][Gamma(B+-->[K(+)pi(-)](D) / K+)+Gamma(B--->[K(-)pi(+)](D)K-)]<0.026 (90% C.L.). This constrains the amplitude ratio r(B) identical with|A(B--->D 0K-)/A(B--->D0K-)|<0.22 (90% C.L.), consistent with expectations. The small value of r(B) favored by our analysis suggests that the determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa phase gamma from B-->DK will be difficult

Study of the B- → J/ΨK -π+π- decay and measurement of the B - → X(3872)K- branching fraction

We study the decay B → J/ΨK π π using 117×10 BB̄ events collected at the Y(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e e asymmetric-energy storage ring. We measure the branching fractions ℬ (B → J/ΨK π π ) = (116±7(stat.) ±9(syst.))×10 and ℬ (B → X(3872)K ) × ℬ (X(3872) → J/Ψπ π ) = (1.28±0.41)×10 and find the mass of the X(3872) to be 3873.4±1.4 MeV/c . We search for the h narrow state in the decay B → h K , h → J/Ψπ π and for the decay B → J/ΨD π , with D → K π . We set the 90% C.L. limits ℬ(B → h K ) × ℬ(h → J/Ψπ π )<3. 4×10 and ℬ(B → J/ΨD π )<5.2×10 . © 2005 The American Physical Society. - - + - 6 + - - - + - -5 - - + - -5 2 - - + - - 0 - 0 - + - - + - -6 - 0 - -5 c c c c