Fear from the heart: sensitivity to fear stimuli depends on individual heartbeats

Cognitions and emotions can be influenced by bodily physiology. Here, we investigated whether the processing of brief fear stimuli is selectively gated by their timing in relation to individual heartbeats. Emotional and neutral faces were presented to human volunteers at cardiac systole, when ejection of blood from the heart causes arterial baroreceptors to signal centrally the strength and timing of each heartbeat, and at diastole, the period between heartbeats when baroreceptors are quiescent. Participants performed behavioral and neuroimaging tasks to determine whether these interoceptive signals influence the detection of emotional stimuli at the threshold of conscious awareness and alter judgments of emotionality of fearful and neutral faces. Our results show that fearful faces were detected more easily and were rated as more intense at systole than at diastole. Correspondingly, amygdala responses were greater to fearful faces presented at systole relative to diastole. These novel findings highlight a major channel by which short-term interoceptive fluctuations enhance perceptual and evaluative processes specifically related to the processing of fear and threat and counter the view that baroreceptor afferent signaling is always inhibitory to sensory perception

Clustering of Dynamical Systems

In this work, we address the problem of community detection in a graph whose connectivity is given by probabilities (denoted by numbers between zero and one) rather than an adjacency matrix (only 0 or 1). The graphs themselves come from partitions of a dynamical system's state space where the probabilities denote likely transition pathways for dynamics. We propose a modification of the Leicht-Newman algorithm \cite{Leicht2008} which is able to automatically detect communities of strongly intra-connected points in state space, from which information about the residence time of the system and its principal periodicities can be extracted. Furthermore, a novel algorithm to construct the transition rate matrix of a dynamical system which encodes the time dependency of its Perron-Frobenius operator, is developed. Crucially, it overcomes the issue of time-scale separation stemming from the matrix construction based on {\it{infinitesimal}} generators and the exploration of {\it{long-term}} features of the underlying dynamical system. This method is then tested on a range of dynamical systems and datasets

Subdynamics as a mechanism for objective description

The relationship between microsystems and macrosystems is considered in the context of quantum field formulation of statistical mechanics: it is argued that problems on foundations of quantum mechanics can be solved relying on this relationship. This discussion requires some improvement of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics that is briefly presented.Comment: latex, 15 pages. Paper submitted to Proc. Conference "Mysteries, Puzzles And Paradoxes In Quantum Mechanics, Workshop on Entanglement And Decoherence, Palazzo Feltrinelli, Gargnano, Garda Lake, Italy, 20-25 September, 199

In vivo antimicrobial evaluation of an alanine-rich peptide derived from Pleuronectes americanus

AbstractIn several organisms, the first barrier against microbial infections consists of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) which are molecules that act as components of the innate immune system. Recent studies have demonstrated that AMPs can perform various functions in different tissues or physiological conditions. In this view, this study was carried out in order to evaluate the multifunctional activity in vivo of an alanine-rich peptide, known as Pa-MAP, derived from the polar fish Pleuronectes americanus. Pa-MAP was evaluated in intraperitoneally infected mice with a sub-lethal concentration of Escherichia coli at standard concentrations of 1 and 5mgkg−1. At both concentrations, Pa-MAPs exhibited an ability to prevent E. coli infection and increase mice survival, similar to the result observed in mice treated with ampicillin at 2mgkg−1. In addition, mice were monitored for weight loss. The results showed that mice treated with Pa-MAPs at 1mgkg−1 gained 0.8% of body weight during the 72h of experiment. The same was observed with Pa-MAP at 5mgkg−1, which had a gain of 0.5% in body weight during the treatment. Mice treated with ampicillin at 2mgkg−1 show a significant weight loss of 5.6% of body weight. The untreated group exhibited a 5.5% loss of body weight. The immunomodulatory effects were also evaluated by the quantification of IL-10, IL-12, TNF-α, IFN-γ and nitric oxide cytokines in serum, but no immunomodulatory activity was observed. Data presented here suggest that Pa-MAP should be used as a novel antibiotic against infection control

Scenari d’uso della tecnologia 5G per l’apprendimento dentro e fuori la scuola

La disponibilit\ue0 della tecnologia 5G per la comunicazione ad alte prestazioni con dispositivi mobili apre nuovi scenari all\u2019adozione di strumenti e metodi per la didattica multimediale a distanza, sinora destinati, di fatto, a un utilizzo su postazioni fisse. In questo articolo si analizzano, da un lato, i requisiti prestazionali della didattica multimediale e, dall\u2019altro, le potenzialit\ue0 della tecnologia 5G, per arrivare infine a delineare alcuni possibili scenari che questo binomio render\ue0 possibili

Quantum theory: the role of microsystems and macrosystems

We stress the notion of statistical experiment, which is mandatory for quantum mechanics, and recall Ludwig's foundation of quantum mechanics, which provides the most general framework to deal with statistical experiments giving evidence for particles. In this approach particles appear as interaction carriers between preparation and registration apparatuses. We further briefly point out the more modern and versatile formalism of quantum theory, stressing the relevance of probabilistic concepts in its formulation. At last we discuss the role of macrosystems, focusing on quantum field theory for their description and introducing for them objective state parameters.Comment: 12 pages. For special issue of J.Phys.A, "The Quantum Universe", on the occasion of 70th birthday of Professor Giancarlo Ghirard

Effective connectivity reveals strategy differences in an expert calculator

Mathematical reasoning is a core component of cognition and the study of experts defines the upper limits of human cognitive abilities, which is why we are fascinated by peak performers, such as chess masters and mental calculators. Here, we investigated the neural bases of calendrical skills, i.e. the ability to rapidly identify the weekday of a particular date, in a gifted mental calculator who does not fall in the autistic spectrum, using functional MRI. Graph-based mapping of effective connectivity, but not univariate analysis, revealed distinct anatomical location of “cortical hubs” supporting the processing of well-practiced close dates and less-practiced remote dates: the former engaged predominantly occipital and medial temporal areas, whereas the latter were associated mainly with prefrontal, orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate connectivity. These results point to the effect of extensive practice on the development of expertise and long term working memory, and demonstrate the role of frontal networks in supporting performance on less practiced calculations, which incur additional processing demands. Through the example of calendrical skills, our results demonstrate that the ability to perform complex calculations is initially supported by extensive attentional and strategic resources, which, as expertise develops, are gradually replaced by access to long term working memory for familiar material

Under pressure: Response urgency modulates striatal and insula activity during decision-making under risk

When deciding whether to bet in situations that involve potential monetary loss or gain (mixed gambles), a subjective sense of pressure can influence the evaluation of the expected utility associated with each choice option. Here, we explored how gambling decisions, their psychophysiological and neural counterparts are modulated by an induced sense of urgency to respond. Urgency influenced decision times and evoked heart rate responses, interacting with the expected value of each gamble. Using functional MRI, we observed that this interaction was associated with changes in the activity of the striatum, a critical region for both reward and choice selection, and within the insula, a region implicated as the substrate of affective feelings arising from interoceptive signals which influence motivational behavior. Our findings bridge current psychophysiological and neurobiological models of value representation and action-programming, identifying the striatum and insular cortex as the key substrates of decision-making under risk and urgency