Spatial organization and population size of small Cucuteni-Tripolye settlements: Results of geomagnetic surveys in Baia and Adâncata, Suceava County, Bucovina, Eastern Romania

Geomagnetic research and drillings provide new results regarding settlement organisation and population size of three small settlements from the Pre-Cucuteni and Cucuteni AB period in the Suceva County in Romanian Bucovina. In these settlements from different stages of the Pre-Cucuteni complex domestic dwellings can be distinguished from clearly oversized (special?) buildings which are situated in central positions and which contain partly special inventories. Different principles of settlement organisation are visible which show each far-reaching references to the Central Balkans on the one hand and the Bug-Dnieper interfluve on the other hand. Consistently populations with less than 200 inhabitants are reconstructed based on analogies to other Cucuteni-Tripolye sites

Spatial organisation and population size of small Cucuteni-Tripolye settlements: Results of geomagnetic surveys in Baia and Adâncata, Suceava County, Bucovina, Eastern Romania

Geomagnetic research and drillings provide new results regarding settlement organisation and population size of three small settlements from the Pre-Cucuteni and the Cucuteni A-B period of Suceava County in Romanian Bucovina. In these settlements from different stages of the Cucuteni-Tripolye complex, domestic dwellings can be distinguished from clearly oversized (special?) buildings, which are situated in central locations and sometimes contain special inventories. Different principles of settlement organisation are visible, which each show far-reaching references to the Central Balkans, on the one hand, and the Bug-Dnieper interfluve on the other hand. Based on analogies with other Cucuteni-Tripolye sites, consistent populations with less than 200 inhabitants are reconstructed

Sleep restriction attenuates amplitudes and attentional modulation of pain-related evoked potentials, but augments pain ratings in healthy volunteers

The experiment investigated the impact of sleep restriction on pain perception and related evoked potential correlates (laser-evoked potentials, LEPs). Ten healthy subjects with good sleep quality were investigated in the morning twice, once after habitual sleep and once after partial sleep restriction. Additionally, we studied the impact of attentional focussing on pain and LEPs by directing attention to (intensity discrimination) or away from the stimulus (mental arithmetic). Laser stimuli directed to the hand dorsum were rated as 30% more painful after sleep restriction (49+/-7 mm) than after a night of habitual sleep (38+/-7 mm). A significant interaction between attentional focus and sleep condition suggested that attentional focusing was less distinctive under sleep restriction. Intensity discrimination was preserved. In contrast, the amplitude of the early parasylvian N1 of LEPs was significantly smaller after a night of partial sleep restriction (-36%, p<0.05). Likewise, the amplitude of the vertex N2-P2 was significantly reduced (-34%, p<0.01); also attentional modulation of the N2-P2 was reduced. Thus, objective (LEPs) and subjective (pain ratings) parameters of nociceptive processing were differentially modulated by partial sleep restriction. We propose, that sleep reduction leads to an impairment of activation in the ascending pathway (leading to reduced LEPs). In contradistinction, pain perception was boosted, which we attribute to lack of pain control distinct from classical descending inhibition, and thus not affecting the projection pathway. Sleep-restricted subjects exhibit reduced attentional modulation of pain stimuli and may thus have difficulties to readily attend to or disengage from pain