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Sample records for saccadic amplitude distributions

  1. Reinforcing Saccadic Amplitude Variability

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    Paeye, Celine; Madelain, Laurent

    2011-01-01

    Saccadic endpoint variability is often viewed as the outcome of neural noise occurring during sensorimotor processing. However, part of this variability might result from operant learning. We tested this hypothesis by reinforcing dispersions of saccadic amplitude distributions, while maintaining constant their medians. In a first experiment we…

  2. Aging increases compensatory saccade amplitude in the video head impulse test

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    Eric R Anson

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Rotational vestibular function declines with age resulting in saccades as a compensatory mechanism to improve impaired gaze stability. Small reductions in rotational vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR gain that would be considered clinically normal have been associated with compensatory saccades. We evaluated whether compensatory saccade characteristics varied as a function of age, independent of semicircular canal function as quantified by VOR gain.Methods: Horizontal VOR gain was measured in 243 participants age 27-93 from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging using video head impulse testing (HIT. Latency and amplitude of the first saccade (either covert – occurring during head impulse, or overt – occurring following head impulse were measured for head impulses with compensatory saccades (n = 2230 head impulses. The relationship between age and saccade latency, as well as the relationship between age and saccade amplitude, were evaluated using regression analyses adjusting for VOR gain, gender, and race.Results: Older adults (mean age 75.9 made significantly larger compensatory saccades relative to younger adults (mean age 45.0. In analyses adjusted for VOR gain, there was a significant association between age and amplitude of the first compensatory covert saccade (β = 0.015, p = 0.008. In analyses adjusted for VOR gain, there was a significant association between age and amplitude of the first compensatory overt saccade (β = 0.02, p < 0.001. Compensatory saccade latencies did not vary significantly by age. Conclusions: We observed that aging increases the compensatory catch-up saccade amplitude in healthy adults after controlling for VOR gain. Size of compensatory saccades may be useful in addition to VOR gain for characterizing vestibular function in aging adults.

  3. Smooth Pursuit Saccade Amplitude Modulation During Exposure to Microgravity

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    Reschke, M. F.; Kozlovskaya, I. B.; Sayenko, D. G.; Sayenko, I.; Somers, J. T.; Paloski, W. H.

    2002-01-01

    Russian investigators have reported changes in pursuit tracking of a vertically moving point stimulus during space flight. Early in microgravity, changes were manifested by decreased eye movement amplitude (undershooting) and the appearance of correction saccades. As the flight progressed, pursuit of the moving point stimulus deteriorated while associated saccadic movements were unchanged. Immediately postflight there was an improved execution of active head movements indicating that the deficiencies in pursuit function noted in microgravity may be of central origin. In contrast, tests of two cosmonauts showed that horizontal and vertical smooth pursuit were unchanged inflight. However, results of corresponding saccadic tasks showed a tendency toward the overshooting of a horizontal target early inflight with high accuracy developing later inflight, accompanied by an increased saccade velocity and a trend toward decreased saccade latency. Based on these equivocal results, we have further investigated the effects of space flight on the smooth pursuit mechanism during and after short duration flight, and postflight on returning MIR crewmembers. Sinusoidal target movement was presented horizontally at frequencies of 0.33 and 1.0 Hz. Subjects were asked to perform two trials for each stimulus combination: (1) moving eyes-only (EO) and (2) moving eyes and head (EH) with the target motion. Peak amplitude was 30 deg for 0.33 Hz trials and 15 deg for the 1.0 Hz trials. The relationship between saccade amplitude and peak velocity were plotted as a main sequence for each phase of flight, and linear regression analysis allowed us to determine the slope of each main sequence plot. The linear slopes were then combined for each flight phase for each individual subject. The main sequence for both EO and EH trials at both the 0.33 and 1.0 Hz frequencies during flight for the short duration flyers showed a reduction in saccade velocity and amplitude when compared to the preflight

  4. Decoding Target Distance and Saccade Amplitude from Population Activity in the Macaque Lateral Intraparietal Area (LIP)

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    Bremmer, Frank; Kaminiarz, Andre; Klingenhoefer, Steffen; Churan, Jan

    2016-01-01

    Primates perform saccadic eye movements in order to bring the image of an interesting target onto the fovea. Compared to stationary targets, saccades toward moving targets are computationally more demanding since the oculomotor system must use speed and direction information about the target as well as knowledge about its own processing latency to program an adequate, predictive saccade vector. In monkeys, different brain regions have been implicated in the control of voluntary saccades, among them the lateral intraparietal area (LIP). Here we asked, if activity in area LIP reflects the distance between fovea and saccade target, or the amplitude of an upcoming saccade, or both. We recorded single unit activity in area LIP of two macaque monkeys. First, we determined for each neuron its preferred saccade direction. Then, monkeys performed visually guided saccades along the preferred direction toward either stationary or moving targets in pseudo-randomized order. LIP population activity allowed to decode both, the distance between fovea and saccade target as well as the size of an upcoming saccade. Previous work has shown comparable results for saccade direction (Graf and Andersen, 2014a,b). Hence, LIP population activity allows to predict any two-dimensional saccade vector. Functional equivalents of macaque area LIP have been identified in humans. Accordingly, our results provide further support for the concept of activity from area LIP as neural basis for the control of an oculomotor brain-machine interface. PMID:27630547

  5. Decoding target distance and saccade amplitude from population activity in the macaque lateral intraparietal area (LIP

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    Frank Bremmer

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Primates perform saccadic eye movements in order to bring the image of an interesting target onto the fovea. Compared to stationary targets, saccades towards moving targets are computationally more demanding since the oculomotor system must use speed and direction information about the target as well as knowledge about its own processing latency to program an adequate, predictive saccade vector. In monkeys, different brain regions have been implicated in the control of voluntary saccades, among them the lateral intraparietal area (LIP. Here we asked, if activity in area LIP reflects the distance between fovea and saccade target, or the amplitude of an upcoming saccade, or both. We recorded single unit activity in area LIP of two macaque monkeys. First, we determined for each neuron its preferred saccade direction. Then, monkeys performed visually guided saccades along the preferred direction towards either stationary or moving targets in pseudo-randomized order. LIP population activity allowed to decode both, the distance between fovea and saccade target as well as the size of an upcoming saccade. Previous work has shown comparable results for saccade direction (Graf and Andersen, 2014a, b. Hence, LIP population activity allows to predict any two-dimensional saccade vector. Functional equivalents of macaque area LIP have been identified in humans. Accordingly, our results provide further support for the concept of activity from area LIP as neural basis for the control of an oculomotor brain-machine interface.

  6. Cognitive regulation of saccadic velocity by reward prospect.

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    Chen, Lewis L; Hung, Leroy Y; Quinet, Julie; Kosek, Kevin

    2013-08-01

    It is known that expectation of reward speeds up saccades. Past studies have also shown the presence of a saccadic velocity bias in the orbit, resulting from a biomechanical regulation over varying eccentricities. Nevertheless, whether and how reward expectation interacts with the biomechanical regulation of saccadic velocities over varying eccentricities remains unknown. We addressed this question by conducting a visually guided double-step saccade task. The role of reward expectation was tested in monkeys performing two consecutive horizontal saccades, one associated with reward prospect and the other not. To adequately assess saccadic velocity and avoid adaptation, we systematically varied initial eye positions, saccadic directions and amplitudes. Our results confirmed the existence of a velocity bias in the orbit, i.e., saccadic peak velocity decreased linearly as the initial eye position deviated in the direction of the saccade. The slope of this bias increased as saccadic amplitudes increased. Nevertheless, reward prospect facilitated velocity to a greater extent for saccades away from than for saccades toward the orbital centre, rendering an overall reduction in the velocity bias. The rate (slope) and magnitude (intercept) of reward modulation over this velocity bias were linearly correlated with amplitudes, similar to the amplitude-modulated velocity bias without reward prospect, which presumably resulted from a biomechanical regulation. Small-amplitude (≤ 5°) saccades received little modulation. These findings together suggest that reward expectation modulated saccadic velocity not as an additive signal but as a facilitating mechanism that interacted with the biomechanical regulation. © 2013 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. The saccadic and neurological deficits in type 3 Gaucher disease.

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    William Benko

    Full Text Available Our objective was to characterize the saccadic eye movements in patients with type 3 Gaucher disease (chronic neuronopathic in relationship to neurological and neurophysiological abnormalities. For approximately 4 years, we prospectively followed a cohort of 15 patients with Gaucher type 3, ages 8-28 years, by measuring saccadic eye movements using the scleral search coil method. We found that patients with type 3 Gaucher disease had a significantly higher regression slope of duration vs amplitude and peak duration vs amplitude compared to healthy controls for both horizontal and vertical saccades. Saccadic latency was significantly increased for horizontal saccades only. Downward saccades were more affected than upward saccades. Saccade abnormalities increased over time in some patients reflecting the slowly progressive nature of the disease. Phase plane plots showed individually characteristic patterns of abnormal saccade trajectories. Oculo-manual dexterity scores on the Purdue Pegboard test were low in virtually all patients, even in those with normal cognitive function. Vertical saccade peak duration vs amplitude slope significantly correlated with IQ and with the performance on the Purdue Pegboard but not with the brainstem and somatosensory evoked potentials. We conclude that, in patients with Gaucher disease type 3, saccadic eye movements and oculo-manual dexterity are representative neurological functions for longitudinal studies and can probably be used as endpoints for therapeutic clinical trials.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00001289.

  8. Development and learning of saccadic eye movements in 7- to 42-month-old children.

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    Alahyane, Nadia; Lemoine-Lardennois, Christelle; Tailhefer, Coline; Collins, Thérèse; Fagard, Jacqueline; Doré-Mazars, Karine

    2016-01-01

    From birth, infants move their eyes to explore their environment, interact with it, and progressively develop a multitude of motor and cognitive abilities. The characteristics and development of oculomotor control in early childhood remain poorly understood today. Here, we examined reaction time and amplitude of saccadic eye movements in 93 7- to 42-month-old children while they oriented toward visual animated cartoon characters appearing at unpredictable locations on a computer screen over 140 trials. Results revealed that saccade performance is immature in children compared to a group of adults: Saccade reaction times were longer, and saccade amplitude relative to target location (10° eccentricity) was shorter. Results also indicated that performance is flexible in children. Although saccade reaction time decreased as age increased, suggesting developmental improvements in saccade control, saccade amplitude gradually improved over trials. Moreover, similar to adults, children were able to modify saccade amplitude based on the visual error made in the previous trial. This second set of results suggests that short visual experience and/or rapid sensorimotor learning are functional in children and can also affect saccade performance.

  9. Monetary reward speeds up voluntary saccades.

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    Chen, Lewis L; Chen, Y Mark; Zhou, Wu; Mustain, William D

    2014-01-01

    Past studies have shown that reward contingency is critical for sensorimotor learning, and reward expectation speeds up saccades in animals. Whether monetary reward speeds up saccades in human remains unknown. Here we addressed this issue by employing a conditional saccade task, in which human subjects performed a series of non-reflexive, visually-guided horizontal saccades. The subjects were (or were not) financially compensated for making a saccade in response to a centrally-displayed visual congruent (or incongruent) stimulus. Reward modulation of saccadic velocities was quantified independently of the amplitude-velocity coupling. We found that reward expectation significantly sped up voluntary saccades up to 30°/s, and the reward modulation was consistent across tests. These findings suggest that monetary reward speeds up saccades in human in a fashion analogous to how juice reward sped up saccades in monkeys. We further noticed that the idiosyncratic nasal-temporal velocity asymmetry was highly consistent regardless of test order, and its magnitude was not correlated with the magnitude of reward modulation. This suggests that reward modulation and the intrinsic velocity asymmetry may be governed by separate mechanisms that regulate saccade generation.

  10. Visual memory during pauses between successive saccades.

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    Gersch, Timothy M; Kowler, Eileen; Schnitzer, Brian S; Dosher, Barbara A

    2008-12-22

    Selective attention is closely linked to eye movements. Prior to a saccade, attention shifts to the saccadic goal at the expense of surrounding locations. Such a constricted attentional field, while useful to ensure accurate saccades, constrains the spatial range of high-quality perceptual analysis. The present study showed that attention could be allocated to locations other than the saccadic goal without disrupting the ongoing pattern of saccades. Saccades were made sequentially along a color-cued path. Attention was assessed by a visual memory task presented during a random pause between successive saccades. Saccadic planning had several effects on memory: (1) fewer letters were remembered during intersaccadic pauses than during maintained fixation; (2) letters appearing on the saccadic path, including locations previously examined, could be remembered; off-path performance was near chance; (3) memory was better at the saccadic target than at all other locations, including the currently fixated location. These results show that the distribution of attention during intersaccadic pauses results from a combination of top-down enhancement at the saccadic target coupled with a more automatic allocation of attention to selected display locations. This suggests that the visual system has mechanisms to control the distribution of attention without interfering with ongoing saccadic programming.

  11. Frontal and parietal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) disturbs programming of saccadic eye movements.

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    Zangemeister, W H; Canavan, A G; Hoemberg, V

    1995-11-01

    Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of human motor cortex typically evoked motor responses. TMS has failed to elicit eye movements in humans, whereas prolongations of saccadic latency have been reported with TMS. In previous studied we demonstrated that saccades can be abolished or saccadic trajectories can be changed through TMS in the 100 msec before saccade onset. This effect was especially marked when TMS was applied parietally. TMS never influenced a saccade in flight. Simulations of predictive experimental saccades that were impaired through TMS of the frontal or parietal cortex demonstrated especially that the dynamics of small saccades were markedly influenced, resulting in a significant decrease in acceleration and amplitude, or an almost complete inhibition. The impact of inhibition through TMS was critically dependent on timing: early TMS (-70 msec) had a much larger inhibitory effect than late TMS (-20 msec) on experimental saccades. Differential timing of TMS in influencing the cortical control signal is demonstrated through simulations of a reciprocally innervated eye movement model that paralleled empirically determined changes in eye movement dynamics after real TMS. There is a reasonable match between the model and the experimental data. We conclude that the inhibitory action of a presaccadic disturbance, such as a TMS pulse, on saccadic programming is inversely related to timing and amplitude of the predicted saccade.

  12. Saccadic foveation of a moving visual target in the rhesus monkey.

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    Fleuriet, Jérome; Hugues, Sandrine; Perrinet, Laurent; Goffart, Laurent

    2011-02-01

    When generating a saccade toward a moving target, the target displacement that occurs during the period spanning from its detection to the saccade end must be taken into account to accurately foveate the target and to initiate its pursuit. Previous studies have shown that these saccades are characterized by a lower peak velocity and a prolonged deceleration phase. In some cases, a second peak eye velocity appears during the deceleration phase, presumably reflecting the late influence of a mechanism that compensates for the target displacement occurring before saccade end. The goal of this work was to further determine in the head restrained monkey the dynamics of this putative compensatory mechanism. A step-ramp paradigm, where the target motion was orthogonal to a target step occurring along the primary axes, was used to estimate from the generated saccades: a component induced by the target step and another one induced by the target motion. Resulting oblique saccades were compared with saccades to a static target with matched horizontal and vertical amplitudes. This study permitted to estimate the time taken for visual motion-related signals to update the programming and execution of saccades. The amplitude of the motion-related component was slightly hypometric with an undershoot that increased with target speed. Moreover, it matched with the eccentricity that the target had 40-60 ms before saccade end. The lack of significant difference in the delay between the onsets of the horizontal and vertical components between saccades directed toward a static target and those aimed at a moving target questions the late influence of the compensatory mechanism. The results are discussed within the framework of the "dual drive" and "remapping" hypotheses.

  13. Relationship between saccadic eye movements and cortical activity as measured by fMRI

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    Kimmig, H.; Greenlee, M.W.; Gondan, Matthias

    2001-01-01

    comprised the frontal and supplementary eye fields, parietal as well as striate cortex, and the motion sensitive area of the parieto-occipital cortex. All these regions showed saccade-related BOLD responses. The responses in these regions were highly correlated with saccade frequency, indicating...... comparing provs anti-saccades we found higher BOLD activation in the "anti" task than in the "pro" task. A comparison of saccade parameters revealed that saccade frequency and cumulative amplitude were comparable between the two tasks, whereas reaction times were longer in the "anti" task than the pro task...

  14. Using endogenous saccades to characterize fatigue in multiple sclerosis.

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    Ferreira, Marisa; Pereira, Paulo A; Parreira, Marta; Sousa, Inês; Figueiredo, José; Cerqueira, João J; Macedo, Antonio F

    2017-05-01

    Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is likely to cause dysfunction of neural circuits between brain regions increasing brain working load or a subjective overestimation of such working load leading to fatigue symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate if saccades can reveal the effect of fatigue in patients with MS. Patients diagnosed with MS (EDSSendogenous generated saccade paradigm (valid and invalid trials). The fatigue severity scale (FSS) was used to assess the severity of fatigue. FSS scores were used to define two subgroups, the MS fatigue group (score above normal range) and the MS non-fatigue. Differences between groups were tested using linear mixed models. Thirty-one MS patients and equal number of controls participated in this study. FSS scores were above the normal range in 11 patients. Differences in saccade latency were found according to group (p<0.001) and trial validity (p=0.023). Differences were 16.9ms, between MS fatigue and MS non-fatigue, 15.5ms between MS fatigue and control. The mean difference between valid and invalid trials was 7.5ms. Differences in saccade peak velocity were found according to group (p<0.001), the difference between MS fatigue and control was 22.3°/s and between MS fatigue and non-fatigue was 12.3°/s. Group was a statistically significant predictor for amplitude (p<0.001). FSS scores were correlated with peak velocity (p=0.028) and amplitude (p=0.019). Consistent with the initial hypothesis, our study revealed altered saccade latency, peak velocity and amplitude in patients with fatigue symptoms. Eye movement testing can complement the standard inventories when investigating fatigue because they do not share similar limitations. Our findings contribute to the understanding of functional changes induced by MS and might be useful for clinical trials and treatment decisions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Saccadic spike potentials in gamma-band EEG: characterization, detection and suppression.

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    Keren, Alon S; Yuval-Greenberg, Shlomit; Deouell, Leon Y

    2010-02-01

    Analysis of high-frequency (gamma-band) neural activity by means of non-invasive EEG is gaining increasing interest. However, we have recently shown that a saccade-related spike potential (SP) seriously confounds the analysis of EEG induced gamma-band responses (iGBR), as the SP eludes traditional EEG artifact rejection methods. Here we provide a comprehensive profile of the SP and evaluate methods for its detection and suppression, aiming to unveil true cerebral gamma-band activity. The SP appears consistently as a sharp biphasic deflection of about 22 ms starting at the saccade onset, with a frequency band of approximately 20-90 Hz. On the average, larger saccades elicit higher SP amplitudes. The SP amplitude gradually changes from the extra-ocular channels towards posterior sites with the steepest gradients around the eyes, indicating its ocular source. Although the amplitude and the sign of the SP depend on the choice of reference channel, the potential gradients remain the same and non-zero for all references. The scalp topography is modulated almost exclusively by the direction of saccades, with steeper gradients ipsilateral to the saccade target. We discuss how the above characteristics impede attempts to remove these SPs from the EEG by common temporal filtering, choice of different references, or rejection of contaminated trials. We examine the extent to which SPs can be reliably detected without an eye tracker, assess the degree to which scalp current density derivation attenuates the effect of the SP, and propose a tailored ICA procedure for minimizing the effect of the SP. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. A closer look at visually guided saccades in autism and Asperger’s disorder

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    Beth eJohnson

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Motor impairments have been found to be a significant clinical feature associated with autism and Asperger’s disorder (AD in addition to core symptoms of communication and social cognition deficits. Motor deficits in high-functioning autism (HFA and AD may differentiate these disorders, particularly with respect to the role of the cerebellum in motor functioning. Current neuroimaging and behavioural evidence suggests greater disruption of the cerebellum in HFA than AD. Investigations of ocular motor functioning have previously been used in clinical populations to assess the integrity of the cerebellar networks, through examination of saccade accuracy and the integrity of saccade dynamics. Previous investigations of visually guided saccades in HFA and AD have only assessed basic saccade metrics, such as latency, amplitude and gain, as well as peak velocity. We used a simple visually guided saccade paradigm to further characterize the profile of visually guided saccade metrics and dynamics in HFA and AD. It was found that children with HFA, but not AD, were more inaccurate across both small (5° and large (10° target amplitudes, and final eye position was hypometric at 10°. These findings suggest greater functional disturbance of the cerebellum in HFA than AD, and suggest fundamental difficulties with visual error monitoring in HFA.

  17. Fall prevention modulates decisional saccadic behaviour in aging

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    Olivier A. Coubard

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available As society ages and frequency of falls increases in older adults, counteracting motor decline is a challenging issue for developed countries. Physical activity based on aerobic and strength training as well as motor activity based on skill learning both help benefit balance and reduce the risk of falls, as assessed by clinical or laboratory measures. However, how such programs influence motor control is a neglected issue. This study examined the effects of fall prevention (FP training on saccadic control in older adults. Saccades were recorded in twelve participants aged 64-91 years before and after 2.5-month training in FP. Traditional analysis of saccade timing and dynamics was performed together with a quantitative analysis using the LATER model, enabling us to examine the underlying motor control processes. Results indicated that FP reduced the rate of anticipatory and express saccades in inappropriate directions and enhanced that of express saccades in the appropriate direction, resulting in decreased latency and higher left-right symmetry of motor responses. FP reduced within-participant variability of saccade duration, amplitude, and peak velocity. LATER analysis suggested that FP modulates decisional thresholds, extending our knowledge of motor training influence on central motor control. We introduce the TIMER-RIDER model to account for the results.

  18. Diphoton generalized distribution amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    El Beiyad, M.; Pire, B.; Szymanowski, L.; Wallon, S.

    2008-01-01

    We calculate the leading order diphoton generalized distribution amplitudes by calculating the amplitude of the process γ*γ→γγ in the low energy and high photon virtuality region at the Born order and in the leading logarithmic approximation. As in the case of the anomalous photon structure functions, the γγ generalized distribution amplitudes exhibit a characteristic lnQ 2 behavior and obey inhomogeneous QCD evolution equations.

  19. Dynamic interactions between visual working memory and saccade target selection

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    Schneegans, Sebastian; Spencer, John P.; Schöner, Gregor; Hwang, Seongmin; Hollingworth, Andrew

    2014-01-01

    Recent psychophysical experiments have shown that working memory for visual surface features interacts with saccadic motor planning, even in tasks where the saccade target is unambiguously specified by spatial cues. Specifically, a match between a memorized color and the color of either the designated target or a distractor stimulus influences saccade target selection, saccade amplitudes, and latencies in a systematic fashion. To elucidate these effects, we present a dynamic neural field model in combination with new experimental data. The model captures the neural processes underlying visual perception, working memory, and saccade planning relevant to the psychophysical experiment. It consists of a low-level visual sensory representation that interacts with two separate pathways: a spatial pathway implementing spatial attention and saccade generation, and a surface feature pathway implementing color working memory and feature attention. Due to bidirectional coupling between visual working memory and feature attention in the model, the working memory content can indirectly exert an effect on perceptual processing in the low-level sensory representation. This in turn biases saccadic movement planning in the spatial pathway, allowing the model to quantitatively reproduce the observed interaction effects. The continuous coupling between representations in the model also implies that modulation should be bidirectional, and model simulations provide specific predictions for complementary effects of saccade target selection on visual working memory. These predictions were empirically confirmed in a new experiment: Memory for a sample color was biased toward the color of a task-irrelevant saccade target object, demonstrating the bidirectional coupling between visual working memory and perceptual processing. PMID:25228628

  20. Dynamic interactions between visual working memory and saccade target selection.

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    Schneegans, Sebastian; Spencer, John P; Schöner, Gregor; Hwang, Seongmin; Hollingworth, Andrew

    2014-09-16

    Recent psychophysical experiments have shown that working memory for visual surface features interacts with saccadic motor planning, even in tasks where the saccade target is unambiguously specified by spatial cues. Specifically, a match between a memorized color and the color of either the designated target or a distractor stimulus influences saccade target selection, saccade amplitudes, and latencies in a systematic fashion. To elucidate these effects, we present a dynamic neural field model in combination with new experimental data. The model captures the neural processes underlying visual perception, working memory, and saccade planning relevant to the psychophysical experiment. It consists of a low-level visual sensory representation that interacts with two separate pathways: a spatial pathway implementing spatial attention and saccade generation, and a surface feature pathway implementing color working memory and feature attention. Due to bidirectional coupling between visual working memory and feature attention in the model, the working memory content can indirectly exert an effect on perceptual processing in the low-level sensory representation. This in turn biases saccadic movement planning in the spatial pathway, allowing the model to quantitatively reproduce the observed interaction effects. The continuous coupling between representations in the model also implies that modulation should be bidirectional, and model simulations provide specific predictions for complementary effects of saccade target selection on visual working memory. These predictions were empirically confirmed in a new experiment: Memory for a sample color was biased toward the color of a task-irrelevant saccade target object, demonstrating the bidirectional coupling between visual working memory and perceptual processing. © 2014 ARVO.

  1. Performance deficits in a voluntary saccade task in Chinese "express saccade makers".

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    Paul C Knox

    Full Text Available Differences in behaviour and cognition have been observed in different human populations. It has been reported that in various types of complex visual task, eye movement patterns differ systematically between Chinese and non-Chinese participants, an observation that has been related to differences in culture between groups. However, we confirm here that, in healthy, naïve adult Chinese participants, a far higher proportion (22% than expected (1-5% exhibit a pattern of reflexive eye movement behaviour (high numbers of low latency express saccades in circumstances designed to inhibit such responses (prosaccade overlap tasks. These participants are defined as "express saccade makers" (ESMs. We then show using the antisaccade paradigm, which requires the inhibition of reflexive responses and the programming and execution of voluntary saccades, that the performance of ESMs is compromised; they have higher antisaccade directional error rates, and the latency distributions of their error saccades again exhibit a higher proportion of low latency express saccade errors consistent with a reduced ability to inhibit reflexive responses. These results are difficult to reconcile with a cultural explanation as they relate to important and specific performance differences within a particular population. They suggest a potential unexpected confound relevant to those studies of Chinese versus other groups which have investigated group differences using oculomotor measures, and explained them in terms of culture. The confirmation of higher numbers of ESMs among Chinese participants provides new opportunities for examining oculomotor control.

  2. Saccadic distractor effects: the remote distractor effect (RDE) and saccadic inhibition (SI): A response to McIntosh and Buonocore (2014).

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    Walker, Robin; Benson, Valerie

    2015-02-04

    We (Walker & Benson, 2013) reported studies in which the spatial effects of distractors on the remote distractor effect (RDE) and saccadic inhibition (SI) were examined. Distractors remote from the target increased mean latency and the skew of the distractor-related distributions, without the presence of dips that are regarded as the hallmark of SI. We further showed that early onset distractors had similar effects although these would not be consistent with existing estimates of the duration of SI (of around 60-70 ms). McIntosh and Buonocore (2014) report a simulation showing that skewed latency distributions can arise from the putative SI mechanism and they also highlighted a number of methodological considerations regarding the RDE and SI as measures of saccadic distractor effects (SDEs). Here we evaluate these claims and note that the measures of SI obtained by subtracting latency distributions (specifically the decrease in saccade frequency--or dip duration) are no more diagnostic of a single inhibitory process, or more sensitive indicators of it, than is median latency. Furthermore the evidence of inhibitory influences of small distractors presented close to the target is incompatible with the explanations of both the RDE and SI. We conclude that saccadic distractor effects may be a more inclusive term to encompass the different characteristics of behavioral effects of underlying saccade target selection. © 2015 ARVO.

  3. Lateralization of posterior alpha EEG reflects the distribution of spatial attention during saccadic reading.

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    Kornrumpf, Benthe; Dimigen, Olaf; Sommer, Werner

    2017-06-01

    Visuospatial attention is an important mechanism in reading that governs the uptake of information from foveal and parafoveal regions of the visual field. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics of how attention is allocated during eye fixations are not completely understood. The current study explored the use of EEG alpha-band oscillations to investigate the spatial distribution of attention during reading. We reanalyzed two data sets, focusing on the lateralization of alpha activity at posterior scalp sites. In each experiment, participants read short lists of German nouns in two paradigms: either by freely moving their eyes (saccadic reading) or by fixating the screen center while the text moved passively from right to left at the same average speed (RSVP paradigm). In both paradigms, upcoming words were either visible or masked, and foveal processing load was manipulated by varying the words' lexical frequencies. Posterior alpha lateralization revealed a sustained rightward bias of attention during saccadic reading, but not in the RSVP paradigm. Interestingly, alpha lateralization was not influenced by word frequency (foveal load) or preview during the preceding fixation. Hence, alpha did not reflect transient attention shifts within a given fixation. However, in both experiments, we found that in the saccadic reading condition a stronger alpha lateralization shortly before a saccade predicted shorter fixations on the subsequently fixated word. These results indicate that alpha lateralization can serve as a measure of attention deployment and its link to oculomotor behavior in reading. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  4. Measuring saccade peak velocity using a low-frequency sampling rate of 50 Hz.

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    Wierts, Roel; Janssen, Maurice J A; Kingma, Herman

    2008-12-01

    During the last decades, small head-mounted video eye trackers have been developed in order to record eye movements. Real-time systems-with a low sampling frequency of 50/60 Hz-are used for clinical vestibular practice, but are generally considered not to be suited for measuring fast eye movements. In this paper, it is shown that saccadic eye movements, having an amplitude of at least 5 degrees, can, in good approximation, be considered to be bandwidth limited up to a frequency of 25-30 Hz. Using the Nyquist theorem to reconstruct saccadic eye movement signals at higher temporal resolutions, it is shown that accurate values for saccade peak velocities, recorded at 50 Hz, can be obtained, but saccade peak accelerations and decelerations cannot. In conclusion, video eye trackers sampling at 50/60 Hz are appropriate for detecting the clinical relevant saccade peak velocities in contrast to what has been stated up till now.

  5. The effects of short-lasting anti-saccade training in homonymous hemianopia with and without saccadic adaptation

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    Delphine eLévy-Bencheton

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Homonymous Visual Field Defects (HVFD are common following stroke and can be highly debilitating for visual perception and higher level cognitive functions such as exploring visual scene or reading a text. Rehabilitation using oculomotor compensatory methods with automatic training over a short duration (~15 days have been shown as efficient as longer voluntary training methods (>1 month. Here, we propose to evaluate and compare the effect of an original HVFD rehabilitation method based on a single 15 min voluntary anti-saccades task (AS toward the blind hemifield, with automatic sensorimotor adaptation to increase AS amplitude. In order to distinguish between adaptation and training effect, fourteen left- or right-HVFD patients were exposed, one month apart, to three training, two isolated AS task (Delayed-shift & No-shift paradigm and one combined with AS adaptation (Adaptation paradigm. A quality of life questionnaire (NEI-VFQ 25 and functional measurements (reading speed, visual exploration time in pop-out and serial tasks as well as oculomotor measurements were assessed before and after each training. We could not demonstrate significant adaptation at the group level, but we identified a group of 9 adapted patients. While AS training itself proved to demonstrate significant functional improvements in the overall patient group , we could also demonstrate in the sub-group of adapted patients and specifically following the adaptation training, an increase of saccade amplitude during the reading task (left-HVFD patients and the Serial exploration task, and improvement of the visual quality of life. We conclude that short-lasting AS training combined with adaptation could be implemented in rehabilitation methods of cognitive dysfunctions following HVFD. Indeed, both voluntary and automatic processes have shown interesting effects on the control of visually guided saccades in different cognitive tasks.

  6. Visual working memory modulates low-level saccade target selection: Evidence from rapidly generated saccades in the global effect paradigm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hollingworth, Andrew; Matsukura, Michi; Luck, Steven J.

    2013-01-01

    In three experiments, we examined the influence of visual working memory (VWM) on the metrics of saccade landing position in a global effect paradigm. Participants executed a saccade to the more eccentric object in an object pair appearing on the horizontal midline, to the left or right of central fixation. While completing the saccade task, participants maintained a color in VWM for an unrelated memory task. Either the color of the saccade target matched the memory color (target match), the color of the distractor matched the memory color (distractor match), or the colors of neither object matched the memory color (no match). In the no-match condition, saccades tended to land at the midpoint between the two objects: the global, or averaging, effect. However, when one of the two objects matched VWM, the distribution of landing position shifted toward the matching object, both for target match and for distractor match. VWM modulation of landing position was observed even for the fastest quartile of saccades, with a mean latency as low as 112 ms. Effects of VWM on such rapidly generated saccades, with latencies in the express-saccade range, indicate that VWM interacts with the initial sweep of visual sensory processing, modulating perceptual input to oculomotor systems and thereby biasing oculomotor selection. As a result, differences in memory match produce effects on landing position similar to the effects generated by differences in physical salience. PMID:24190909

  7. Visual working memory modulates low-level saccade target selection: evidence from rapidly generated saccades in the global effect paradigm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hollingworth, Andrew; Matsukura, Michi; Luck, Steven J

    2013-11-04

    In three experiments, we examined the influence of visual working memory (VWM) on the metrics of saccade landing position in a global effect paradigm. Participants executed a saccade to the more eccentric object in an object pair appearing on the horizontal midline, to the left or right of central fixation. While completing the saccade task, participants maintained a color in VWM for an unrelated memory task. Either the color of the saccade target matched the memory color (target match), the color of the distractor matched the memory color (distractor match), or the colors of neither object matched the memory color (no match). In the no-match condition, saccades tended to land at the midpoint between the two objects: the global, or averaging, effect. However, when one of the two objects matched VWM, the distribution of landing position shifted toward the matching object, both for target match and for distractor match. VWM modulation of landing position was observed even for the fastest quartile of saccades, with a mean latency as low as 112 ms. Effects of VWM on such rapidly generated saccades, with latencies in the express-saccade range, indicate that VWM interacts with the initial sweep of visual sensory processing, modulating perceptual input to oculomotor systems and thereby biasing oculomotor selection. As a result, differences in memory match produce effects on landing position similar to the effects generated by differences in physical salience.

  8. Two Photon Distribution Amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    El Beiyad, M.; Pire, B.; Szymanowski, L.; Wallon, S.

    2008-01-01

    The factorization of the amplitude of the process γ*γ→γγ in the low energy and high photon virtuality region is demonstrated at the Born order and in the leading logarithmic approximation. The leading order two photon (generalized) distribution amplitudes exhibit a characteristic ln Q 2 behaviour and obey new inhomogeneous evolution equations

  9. Remote distractor effects and saccadic inhibition: spatial and temporal modulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Robin; Benson, Valerie

    2013-09-12

    The onset of a visual distractor remote from a saccade target is known to increase saccade latency (the remote distractor effect [RDE]). In addition, distractors may also selectively inhibit saccades that would be initiated about 90 ms after distractor onset (termed saccadic inhibition [SI]). Recently, it has been proposed that the transitory inhibition of saccades (SI) may underlie the increase in mean latency (RDE). In a first experiment, the distractor eccentricity was manipulated, and a robust RDE that was strongly modulated by distractor eccentricity was observed. However, the underlying latency distributions did not reveal clear evidence of SI. A second experiment manipulated distractor spatial location and the timing of the distractor onset in relation to the target. An RDE was again observed with remote distractors away from the target axis and under conditions with early-onset distractors that would be unlikely to produce SI, whereas later distractor onsets produced an RDE along with some evidence of an SI effect. A third experiment using a mixed block of target-distractor stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs) revealed an RDE that varied with both distractor eccentricity and SOA and changes to latency distributions consistent with the timing of SI. We argue that the notion that SI underpins the RDE is similar to the earlier argument that express saccades underlie the fixation offset (gap) effect and that changes in mean latency and to the shape of the underlying latency distributions following a visual onset may involve more than one inhibitory process.

  10. Changes in cognitive control in pre-manifest Huntington's disease examined using pre-saccadic EEG potentials - a longitudinal study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ness, Vanessa; Bestgen, Anne-Kathrin; Saft, Carsten; Beste, Christian

    2014-01-01

    It is well-known that Huntington's disease (HD) affects saccadic processing. However, saccadic dysfunctions in HD may be seen as a result of dysfunctional processes occurring at the oculomotor level prior to the execution of saccades, i.e., at a pre-saccadic level. Virtually nothing is known about possible changes in pre-saccadic processes in HD. This study examines pre-saccadic processing in pre-manifest HD gene mutation carriers (pre-HDs) by using clinically available EEG measures. Error rates, pre-saccadic EEG potentials and saccade onset EEG potentials were measured in 14 pre-HDs and case-matched controls performing prosaccades and antisaccades in a longitudinal study over a 15-month period. The results show that pre-saccadic potentials were changed in pre-HDs, relative to controls and also revealed changes across the 15-month longitudinal period. In particular, pre-saccadic ERP in pre-HDs were characterized by lower amplitudes and longer latencies, which revealed longitudinal changes. These changes were observed for anti-saccades, but not for pro-saccades. Overt saccadic trajectories (potentials) were not different to those in controls, showing that pre-saccadic processes are sensitive to subtle changes in fronto-striatal networks in pre-HDs. Deficits in pre-saccadic processes prior the execution of an erroneous anti-saccade can be seen as an effect of dysfunctional cognitive control in HD. This may underlie saccadic abnormalities and hence a major phenotype of HD. Pre-saccadic EEG potentials preceding erroneous anti-saccades are sensitive to pre-manifest disease progression in HD.

  11. Attention modulates trans-saccadic integration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, Emma E M; Schütz, Alexander C

    2018-01-01

    With every saccade, humans must reconcile the low resolution peripheral information available before a saccade, with the high resolution foveal information acquired after the saccade. While research has shown that we are able to integrate peripheral and foveal vision in a near-optimal manner, it is still unclear which mechanisms may underpin this important perceptual process. One potential mechanism that may moderate this integration process is visual attention. Pre-saccadic attention is a well documented phenomenon, whereby visual attention shifts to the location of an upcoming saccade before the saccade is executed. While it plays an important role in other peri-saccadic processes such as predictive remapping, the role of attention in the integration process is as yet unknown. This study aimed to determine whether the presentation of an attentional distractor during a saccade impaired trans-saccadic integration, and to measure the time-course of this impairment. Results showed that presenting an attentional distractor impaired integration performance both before saccade onset, and during the saccade, in selected subjects who showed integration in the absence of a distractor. This suggests that visual attention may be a mechanism that facilitates trans-saccadic integration. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  12. Express saccades in distinct populations: east, west, and in-between.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knox, Paul C; Wolohan, Felicity D A; Helmy, Mai S

    2017-12-01

    Express saccades are low latency (80-130 ms), visually guided saccades. While their occurrence is encouraged by the use of gap tasks (the fixation target is extinguished 200 ms prior to the saccade target appearing) and suppressed by the use of overlap tasks (the fixation target remains present when the saccade target appears), there are some healthy, adult participants, "express saccade makers" (ESMs), who persist in generating high proportions (> 30%) of express saccades in overlap conditions. These participants are encountered much more frequently in Chinese participant groups than amongst the Caucasian participants tested to date. What is not known is whether this high number of ESMs is only a feature of Chinese participant groups. More broadly, there are few comparative studies of saccade behaviour across large participant groups drawn from different populations. We, therefore, tested an independent group of 70 healthy adult Egyptian participants, using the same equipment and procedures as employed in the previous studies. Each participant was exposed to two blocks of 200 gap, and two blocks of 200 overlap trials, with block order counterbalanced. Results from the Schwartz Value Survey were used to confirm that this group of participants was culturally distinct from the Chinese and Caucasian (white British) groups tested previously. Fourteen percent (10/70) of this new group were ESMs, and the pattern of latency distribution in these ESMs was identical to that identified in the other participant groups, with a prominent peak in the express latency range in overlap conditions. Overall, we identified three modes in the distribution of saccade latency in overlap conditions, the timing of which (express peak at 110 ms, subsequent peaks at 160 and 210 ms) were strikingly consistent with our previous observations. That these behavioural patterns of saccade latency are observed consistently in large participant groups, drawn from geographically, ethnically, and

  13. Saccade-induced image motion cannot account for post-saccadic enhancement of visual processing in primate MST

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    Shaun L Cloherty

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Primates use saccadic eye movements to make gaze changes. In many visual areas, including the dorsal medial superior temporal area (MSTd of macaques, neural responses to visual stimuli are reduced during saccades but enhanced afterwards. How does this enhancement arise – from an internal mechanism associated with saccade generation or through visual mechanisms activated by the saccade sweeping the image of the visual scene across the retina? Spontaneous activity in MSTd is elevated even after saccades made in darkness, suggesting a central mechanism for post-saccadic enhancement. However, based on the timing of this effect, it may arise from a different mechanism than occurs in normal vision. Like neural responses in MSTd, initial ocular following eye speed is enhanced after saccades, with evidence suggesting both internal and visually mediated mechanisms. Here we recorded from visual neurons in MSTd and measured responses to motion stimuli presented soon after saccades and soon after simulated saccadessaccade-like displacements of the background image during fixation. We found that neural responses in MSTd were enhanced when preceded by real saccades but not when preceded by simulated saccades. Furthermore, we also observed enhancement following real saccades made across a blank screen that generated no motion signal within the recorded neurons’ receptive fields. We conclude that in MSTd the mechanism leading to post-saccadic enhancement has internal origins.

  14. Ganzfeld stimulation or sleep enhance long term motor memory consolidation compared to normal viewing in saccadic adaptation paradigm.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Caroline Voges

    Full Text Available Adaptation of saccade amplitude in response to intra-saccadic target displacement is a type of implicit motor learning which is required to compensate for physiological changes in saccade performance. Once established trials without intra-saccadic target displacement lead to de-adaptation or extinction, which has been attributed either to extra-retinal mechanisms of spatial constancy or to the influence of the stable visual surroundings. Therefore we investigated whether visual deprivation ("Ganzfeld"-stimulation or sleep can partially maintain this motor learning compared to free viewing of the natural surroundings. Thirty-five healthy volunteers performed two adaptation blocks of 100 inward adaptation trials - interspersed by an extinction block - which were followed by a two-hour break with or without visual deprivation (VD. Using additional adaptation and extinction blocks short and long (4 weeks term memory of this implicit motor learning were tested. In the short term, motor memory tested immediately after free viewing was superior to adaptation performance after VD. In the long run, however, effects were opposite: motor memory and relearning of adaptation was superior in the VD conditions. This could imply independent mechanisms that underlie the short-term ability of retrieving learned saccadic gain and its long term consolidation. We suggest that subjects mainly rely on visual cues (i.e., retinal error in the free viewing condition which makes them prone to changes of the visual stimulus in the extinction block. This indicates the role of a stable visual array for resetting adapted saccade amplitudes. In contrast, visual deprivation (GS and sleep, might train subjects to rely on extra-retinal cues, e.g., efference copy or prediction to remap their internal representations of saccade targets, thus leading to better consolidation of saccadic adaptation.

  15. Memory-guided saccades show effect of a perceptual illusion whereas visually guided saccades do not.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Massendari, Delphine; Lisi, Matteo; Collins, Thérèse; Cavanagh, Patrick

    2018-01-01

    The double-drift stimulus (a drifting Gabor with orthogonal internal motion) generates a large discrepancy between its physical and perceived path. Surprisingly, saccades directed to the double-drift stimulus land along the physical, and not perceived, path (Lisi M, Cavanagh P. Curr Biol 25: 2535-2540, 2015). We asked whether memory-guided saccades exhibited the same dissociation from perception. Participants were asked to keep their gaze centered on a fixation dot while the double-drift stimulus moved back and forth on a linear path in the periphery. The offset of the fixation was the go signal to make a saccade to the target. In the visually guided saccade condition, the Gabor kept moving on its trajectory after the go signal but was removed once the saccade began. In the memory conditions, the Gabor disappeared before or at the same time as the go-signal (0- to 1,000-ms delay) and participants made a saccade to its remembered location. The results showed that visually guided saccades again targeted the physical rather than the perceived location. However, memory saccades, even with 0-ms delay, had landing positions shifted toward the perceived location. Our result shows that memory- and visually guided saccades are based on different spatial information. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We compared the effect of a perceptual illusion on two types of saccades, visually guided vs. memory-guided saccades, and found that whereas visually guided saccades were almost unaffected by the perceptual illusion, memory-guided saccades exhibited a strong effect of the illusion. Our result is the first evidence in the literature to show that visually and memory-guided saccades use different spatial representations.

  16. Effects of strabismic amblyopia and strabismus without amblyopia on visuomotor behavior, I: saccadic eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niechwiej-Szwedo, Ewa; Chandrakumar, Manokaraananthan; Goltz, Herbert C; Wong, Agnes M F

    2012-11-01

    It has previously been shown that anisometropic amblyopia affects the programming and execution of saccades. The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of strabismic amblyopia on saccade performance. Fourteen adults with strabismic amblyopia, 13 adults with strabismus without amblyopia, and 14 visually normal adults performed saccades and reach-to-touch movements to targets presented at ± 5° and ± 10° eccentricity during binocular and monocular viewing. Latency, amplitude, and peak velocity of primary and secondary saccades were measured. In contrast to visually normal participants who had shorter primary saccade latency during binocular viewing, no binocular advantage was found in patients with strabismus with or without amblyopia. Patients with amblyopia had longer saccade latency during amblyopic eye viewing (P amblyopia and no stereopsis (n = 4) exhibited longer latency (which was more pronounced for more central targets; P amblyopia (n = 5) and no stereopsis had normal latency and reduced precision during amblyopic eye viewing (P amblyopia were found. These findings were in contrast to those in anisometropic amblyopia in which the altered saccade performance was independent of the extent of visual acuity or stereoscopic deficits. These results were most likely due to different long-term sensory suppression mechanisms in strabismic versus anisometropic amblyopia.

  17. Reconstruction of far-field tsunami amplitude distributions from earthquake sources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geist, Eric L.; Parsons, Thomas E.

    2016-01-01

    The probability distribution of far-field tsunami amplitudes is explained in relation to the distribution of seismic moment at subduction zones. Tsunami amplitude distributions at tide gauge stations follow a similar functional form, well described by a tapered Pareto distribution that is parameterized by a power-law exponent and a corner amplitude. Distribution parameters are first established for eight tide gauge stations in the Pacific, using maximum likelihood estimation. A procedure is then developed to reconstruct the tsunami amplitude distribution that consists of four steps: (1) define the distribution of seismic moment at subduction zones; (2) establish a source-station scaling relation from regression analysis; (3) transform the seismic moment distribution to a tsunami amplitude distribution for each subduction zone; and (4) mix the transformed distribution for all subduction zones to an aggregate tsunami amplitude distribution specific to the tide gauge station. The tsunami amplitude distribution is adequately reconstructed for four tide gauge stations using globally constant seismic moment distribution parameters established in previous studies. In comparisons to empirical tsunami amplitude distributions from maximum likelihood estimation, the reconstructed distributions consistently exhibit higher corner amplitude values, implying that in most cases, the empirical catalogs are too short to include the largest amplitudes. Because the reconstructed distribution is based on a catalog of earthquakes that is much larger than the tsunami catalog, it is less susceptible to the effects of record-breaking events and more indicative of the actual distribution of tsunami amplitudes.

  18. Spatial attention during saccade decisions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jonikaitis, Donatas; Klapetek, Anna; Deubel, Heiner

    2017-07-01

    Behavioral measures of decision making are usually limited to observations of decision outcomes. In the present study, we made use of the fact that oculomotor and sensory selection are closely linked to track oculomotor decision making before oculomotor responses are made. We asked participants to make a saccadic eye movement to one of two memorized target locations and observed that visual sensitivity increased at both the chosen and the nonchosen saccade target locations, with a clear bias toward the chosen target. The time course of changes in visual sensitivity was related to saccadic latency, with the competition between the chosen and nonchosen targets resolved faster before short-latency saccades. On error trials, we observed an increased competition between the chosen and nonchosen targets. Moreover, oculomotor selection and visual sensitivity were influenced by top-down and bottom-up factors as well as by selection history and predicted the direction of saccades. Our findings demonstrate that saccade decisions have direct visual consequences and show that decision making can be traced in the human oculomotor system well before choices are made. Our results also indicate a strong association between decision making, saccade target selection, and visual sensitivity. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We show that saccadic decisions can be tracked by measuring spatial attention. Spatial attention is allocated in parallel to the two competing saccade targets, and the time course of spatial attention differs for fast-slow and for correct-erroneous decisions. Saccade decisions take the form of a competition between potential saccade goals, which is associated with spatial attention allocation to those locations. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

  19. Light Meson Distribution Amplitudes

    CERN Document Server

    Arthur, R.; Brommel, D.; Donnellan, M.A.; Flynn, J.M.; Juttner, A.; de Lima, H.Pedroso; Rae, T.D.; Sachrajda, C.T.; Samways, B.

    2010-01-01

    We calculated the first two moments of the light-cone distribution amplitudes for the pseudoscalar mesons ($\\pi$ and $K$) and the longitudinally polarised vector mesons ($\\rho$, $K^*$ and $\\phi$) as part of the UKQCD and RBC collaborations' $N_f=2+1$ domain-wall fermion phenomenology programme. These quantities were obtained with a good precision and, in particular, the expected effects of $SU(3)$-flavour symmetry breaking were observed. Operators were renormalised non-perturbatively and extrapolations to the physical point were made, guided by leading order chiral perturbation theory. The main results presented are for two volumes, $16^3\\times 32$ and $24^3\\times 64$, with a common lattice spacing. Preliminary results for a lattice with a finer lattice spacing, $32^3\\times64$, are discussed and a first look is taken at the use of twisted boundary conditions to extract distribution amplitudes.

  20. Covert oculo-manual coupling induced by visually guided saccades.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luca eFalciati

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Hand pointing to objects under visual guidance is one of the most common motor behaviors in everyday life. In natural conditions, gaze and arm movements are commonly aimed at the same target and the accuracy of both systems is considerably enhanced if eye and hand move together. Evidence supports the viewpoint that gaze and limb control systems are not independent but at least partially share a common neural controller. The aim of the present study was to verify whether a saccade execution induces excitability changes in the upper-limb corticospinal system (CSS, even in the absence of a manual response. This effect would provide evidence for the existence of a common drive for ocular and arm motor systems during fast aiming movements. Single-pulse TMS was applied to the left motor cortex of 19 subjects during a task involving visually guided saccades, and motor evoked potentials (MEPs induced in hand and wrist muscles of the contralateral relaxed arm were recorded. Subjects had to make visually guided saccades to one of 6 positions along the horizontal meridian (±5°, ±10° or ±15°. During each trial, TMS was randomly delivered at one of 3 different time delays: shortly after the end of the saccade or 300 ms or 540 ms after saccade onset. Fast eye movements towards a peripheral target were accompanied by changes in upper-limb CSS excitability. MEP amplitude was highest immediately after the end of the saccade and gradually decreased at longer TMS delays. In addition to the change in overall CSS excitability, MEPs were specifically modulated in different muscles, depending on the target position and the TMS delay. By applying a simple model of a manual pointing movement, we demonstrated that the observed changes in CSS excitability are compatible with the facilitation of an arm motor program for a movement aimed at the same target of the gaze. These results provide evidence in favor of the existence of a common drive for both eye and arm

  1. Particle Distribution Modification by Low Amplitude Modes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    White, R.B.; Gorelenkov, N.; Heidbrink, W.W.; Van Zeeland, M.A.

    2009-01-01

    Modification of a high energy particle distribution by a spectrum of low amplitude modes is investigated using a guiding center code. Only through resonance are modes effective in modifying the distribution. Diagnostics are used to illustrate the mode-particle interaction and to find which effects are relevant in producing significant resonance, including kinetic Poincare plots and plots showing those orbits with time averaged mode-particle energy transfer. Effects of pitch angle scattering and drag are studied, as well as plasma rotation and time dependence of the equilibrium and mode frequencies. A specific example of changes observed in a DIII-D deuterium beam distribution in the presence of low amplitude experimentally validated Toroidal Alfven (TAE) eigenmodes and Reversed Shear Alfven (RSAE) eigenmodes is examined in detail. Comparison with experimental data shows that multiple low amplitude modes can account for significant modification of high energy beam particle distributions. It is found that there is a stochastic threshold for beam profile modification, and that the experimental amplitudes are only slightly above this threshold.

  2. The role of peripheral vision in saccade planning: learning from people with tunnel vision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Gang; Vargas-Martin, Fernando; Peli, Eli

    2008-12-22

    Both visually salient and top-down information are important in eye movement control, but their relative roles in the planning of daily saccades are unclear. We investigated the effect of peripheral vision loss on saccadic behaviors in patients with tunnel vision (visual field diameters 7 degrees-16 degrees) in visual search and real-world walking experiments. The patients made up to two saccades per second to their pre-saccadic blind areas, about half of which had no overlap between the post- and pre-saccadic views. In the visual search experiment, visual field size and the background (blank or picture) did not affect the saccade sizes and direction of patients (n = 9). In the walking experiment, the patients (n = 5) and normal controls (n = 3) had similar distributions of saccade sizes and directions. These findings might provide a clue about the large extent of the top-down mechanism influence on eye movement control.

  3. Burst discharges of fastigial neurons in macaque monkeys are driven by vision- and memory-guided saccades but not by spontaneous saccades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohtsuka, K; Noda, H

    1992-11-01

    Discharges from 61 saccadic burst neurons in the fastigial oculomotor region were recorded for two trained macaque monkeys during vision-guided or memory-guided saccades or spontaneous saccades in the dark. Although these neurons exhibited vigorous, burst discharges during both vision-guided and memory-guided saccades, only weak bursts were observed during spontaneous saccades in the dark. Especially in 10 of the 61 neurons, saccadic burst discharge was almost completely absent during spontaneous saccades in the dark. These findings suggest that the cerebellum plays an important role in the control of vision-guided saccades as well as memory-guided saccades, but not of spontaneous saccades in the dark.

  4. Adaptation of saccadic sequences with and without remapping

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Delphine Lévy-Bencheton

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available It is relatively easy to adapt visually-guided saccades because the visual vector and the saccade vector match. The retinal error at the saccade landing position is compared to the prediction error, based on target location and efference copy. If these errors do not match, planning processes at the level(s of the visual and/or motor vectors processing are assumed to be inaccurate and the saccadic response is adjusted. In the case of a sequence of two saccades, the final error can be attributed to the last saccade vector or to the entire saccadic displacement. Here, we asked whether and how adaptation can occur in the case of remapped saccades, such as during the classic double-step saccade paradigm, where the visual and motor vectors of the second saccade do not coincide and so the attribution of error is ambiguous. Participants performed saccades sequences to two targets briefly presented prior to first saccade onset. The second saccade target was either briefly re-illuminated (visually-guided paradigm or not (remapping paradigm upon first saccade offset. To drive adaptation, the second target was presented at a displaced location (backward or forward jump condition or control – no jump at the end of the second saccade. Pre- and post-adaptation trials were identical, without the re-appearance of the target after the second saccade. For the 1st saccade endpoints, there was no change as a function of adaptation. For the 2nd saccade, there was a similar increase in gain in the forward jump condition (52% and 61% of target jump in the two paradigms, whereas the gain decrease in the backward condition was much smaller for the remapping paradigm than for the visually-guided paradigm (41% vs. 94%. In other words, the absolute gain change was similar between backward and forward adaptation for remapped saccades.In conclusion, we show that remapped saccades can be adapted, suggesting that the error is attributed to the visuo-motor transformation of

  5. Face recognition increases during saccade preparation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Hai; Rizak, Joshua D; Ma, Yuan-ye; Yang, Shang-chuan; Chen, Lin; Hu, Xin-tian

    2014-01-01

    Face perception is integral to human perception system as it underlies social interactions. Saccadic eye movements are frequently made to bring interesting visual information, such as faces, onto the fovea for detailed processing. Just before eye movement onset, the processing of some basic features, such as the orientation, of an object improves at the saccade landing point. Interestingly, there is also evidence that indicates faces are processed in early visual processing stages similar to basic features. However, it is not known whether this early enhancement of processing includes face recognition. In this study, three experiments were performed to map the timing of face presentation to the beginning of the eye movement in order to evaluate pre-saccadic face recognition. Faces were found to be similarly processed as simple objects immediately prior to saccadic movements. Starting ∼ 120 ms before a saccade to a target face, independent of whether or not the face was surrounded by other faces, the face recognition gradually improved and the critical spacing of the crowding decreased as saccade onset was approaching. These results suggest that an upcoming saccade prepares the visual system for new information about faces at the saccade landing site and may reduce the background in a crowd to target the intended face. This indicates an important role of pre-saccadic eye movement signals in human face recognition.

  6. An improved algorithm for automatic detection of saccades in eye movement data and for calculating saccade parameters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Behrens, F; Mackeben, M; Schröder-Preikschat, W

    2010-08-01

    This analysis of time series of eye movements is a saccade-detection algorithm that is based on an earlier algorithm. It achieves substantial improvements by using an adaptive-threshold model instead of fixed thresholds and using the eye-movement acceleration signal. This has four advantages: (1) Adaptive thresholds are calculated automatically from the preceding acceleration data for detecting the beginning of a saccade, and thresholds are modified during the saccade. (2) The monotonicity of the position signal during the saccade, together with the acceleration with respect to the thresholds, is used to reliably determine the end of the saccade. (3) This allows differentiation between saccades following the main-sequence and non-main-sequence saccades. (4) Artifacts of various kinds can be detected and eliminated. The algorithm is demonstrated by applying it to human eye movement data (obtained by EOG) recorded during driving a car. A second demonstration of the algorithm detects microsleep episodes in eye movement data.

  7. A nonlinear generalization of the Savitzky-Golay filter and the quantitative analysis of saccades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dai, Weiwei; Selesnick, Ivan; Rizzo, John-Ross; Rucker, Janet; Hudson, Todd

    2017-08-01

    The Savitzky-Golay (SG) filter is widely used to smooth and differentiate time series, especially biomedical data. However, time series that exhibit abrupt departures from their typical trends, such as sharp waves or steps, which are of physiological interest, tend to be oversmoothed by the SG filter. Hence, the SG filter tends to systematically underestimate physiological parameters in certain situations. This article proposes a generalization of the SG filter to more accurately track abrupt deviations in time series, leading to more accurate parameter estimates (e.g., peak velocity of saccadic eye movements). The proposed filtering methodology models a time series as the sum of two component time series: a low-frequency time series for which the conventional SG filter is well suited, and a second time series that exhibits instantaneous deviations (e.g., sharp waves, steps, or more generally, discontinuities in a higher order derivative). The generalized SG filter is then applied to the quantitative analysis of saccadic eye movements. It is demonstrated that (a) the conventional SG filter underestimates the peak velocity of saccades, especially those of small amplitude, and (b) the generalized SG filter estimates peak saccadic velocity more accurately than the conventional filter.

  8. Visual search in barn owls: Task difficulty and saccadic behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orlowski, Julius; Ben-Shahar, Ohad; Wagner, Hermann

    2018-01-01

    How do we find what we are looking for? A target can be in plain view, but it may be detected only after extensive search. During a search we make directed attentional deployments like saccades to segment the scene until we detect the target. Depending on difficulty, the search may be fast with few attentional deployments or slow with many, shorter deployments. Here we study visual search in barn owls by tracking their overt attentional deployments-that is, their head movements-with a camera. We conducted a low-contrast feature search, a high-contrast orientation conjunction search, and a low-contrast orientation conjunction search, each with set sizes varying from 16 to 64 items. The barn owls were able to learn all of these tasks and showed serial search behavior. In a subsequent step, we analyzed how search behavior of owls changes with search complexity. We compared the search mechanisms in these three serial searches with results from pop-out searches our group had reported earlier. Saccade amplitude shortened and fixation duration increased in difficult searches. Also, in conjunction search saccades were guided toward items with shared target features. These data suggest that during visual search, barn owls utilize mechanisms similar to those that humans use.

  9. Probability of seeing increases saccadic readiness.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thérèse Collins

    Full Text Available Associating movement directions or endpoints with monetary rewards or costs influences movement parameters in humans, and associating movement directions or endpoints with food reward influences movement parameters in non-human primates. Rewarded movements are facilitated relative to non-rewarded movements. The present study examined to what extent successful foveation facilitated saccadic eye movement behavior, with the hypothesis that foveation may constitute an informational reward. Human adults performed saccades to peripheral targets that either remained visible after saccade completion or were extinguished, preventing visual feedback. Saccades to targets that were systematically extinguished were slower and easier to inhibit than saccades to targets that afforded successful foveation, and this effect was modulated by the probability of successful foveation. These results suggest that successful foveation facilitates behavior, and that obtaining the expected sensory consequences of a saccadic eye movement may serve as a reward for the oculomotor system.

  10. Are Covert Saccade Functionally Relevant in Vestibular Hypofunction?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hermann, R; Pelisson, D; Dumas, O; Urquizar, Ch; Truy, E; Tilikete, C

    2018-06-01

    The vestibulo-ocular reflex maintains gaze stabilization during angular or linear head accelerations, allowing adequate dynamic visual acuity. In case of bilateral vestibular hypofunction, patients use saccades to compensate for the reduced vestibulo-ocular reflex function, with covert saccades occurring even during the head displacement. In this study, we questioned whether covert saccades help maintain dynamic visual acuity, and evaluated which characteristic of these saccades are the most relevant to improve visual function. We prospectively included 18 patients with chronic bilateral vestibular hypofunction. Subjects underwent evaluation of dynamic visual acuity in the horizontal plane as well as video recording of their head and eye positions during horizontal head impulse tests in both directions (36 ears tested). Frequency, latency, consistency of covert saccade initiation, and gain of covert saccades as well as residual vestibulo-ocular reflex gain were calculated. We found no correlation between residual vestibulo-ocular reflex gain and dynamic visual acuity. Dynamic visual acuity performance was however positively correlated with the frequency and gain of covert saccades and negatively correlated with covert saccade latency. There was no correlation between consistency of covert saccade initiation and dynamic visual acuity. Even though gaze stabilization in space during covert saccades might be of very short duration, these refixation saccades seem to improve vision in patients with bilateral vestibular hypofunction during angular head impulses. These findings emphasize the need for specific rehabilitation technics that favor the triggering of covert saccades. The physiological origin of covert saccades is discussed.

  11. Visual straight-ahead preference in saccadic eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camors, Damien; Trotter, Yves; Pouget, Pierre; Gilardeau, Sophie; Durand, Jean-Baptiste

    2016-03-15

    Ocular saccades bringing the gaze toward the straight-ahead direction (centripetal) exhibit higher dynamics than those steering the gaze away (centrifugal). This is generally explained by oculomotor determinants: centripetal saccades are more efficient because they pull the eyes back toward their primary orbital position. However, visual determinants might also be invoked: elements located straight-ahead trigger saccades more efficiently because they receive a privileged visual processing. Here, we addressed this issue by using both pro- and anti-saccade tasks in order to dissociate the centripetal/centrifugal directions of the saccades, from the straight-ahead/eccentric locations of the visual elements triggering those saccades. Twenty participants underwent alternating blocks of pro- and anti-saccades during which eye movements were recorded binocularly at 1 kHz. The results confirm that centripetal saccades are always executed faster than centrifugal ones, irrespective of whether the visual elements have straight-ahead or eccentric locations. However, by contrast, saccades triggered by elements located straight-ahead are consistently initiated more rapidly than those evoked by eccentric elements, irrespective of their centripetal or centrifugal direction. Importantly, this double dissociation reveals that the higher dynamics of centripetal pro-saccades stem from both oculomotor and visual determinants, which act respectively on the execution and initiation of ocular saccades.

  12. Distribution amplitudes of vector mesons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Braun, V.M. [Regensburg Univ. (Germany). Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik; Broemmel, D. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg (Germany); Goeckeler, M. [Regensburg Univ. (DE). Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik] (and others)

    2007-11-15

    Results are presented for the lowest moment of the distribution amplitude for the K{sup *} vector meson. Both longitudinal and transverse moments are investigated. We use two flavours of O(a) improved Wilson fermions, together with a non-perturbative renormalisation of the matrix element. (orig.)

  13. Selective enhancement of orientation tuning before saccades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohl, Sven; Kuper, Clara; Rolfs, Martin

    2017-11-01

    Saccadic eye movements cause a rapid sweep of the visual image across the retina and bring the saccade's target into high-acuity foveal vision. Even before saccade onset, visual processing is selectively prioritized at the saccade target. To determine how this presaccadic attention shift exerts its influence on visual selection, we compare the dynamics of perceptual tuning curves before movement onset at the saccade target and in the opposite hemifield. Participants monitored a 30-Hz sequence of randomly oriented gratings for a target orientation. Combining a reverse correlation technique previously used to study orientation tuning in neurons and general additive mixed modeling, we found that perceptual reports were tuned to the target orientation. The gain of orientation tuning increased markedly within the last 100 ms before saccade onset. In addition, we observed finer orientation tuning right before saccade onset. This increase in gain and tuning occurred at the saccade target location and was not observed at the incongruent location in the opposite hemifield. The present findings suggest, therefore, that presaccadic attention exerts its influence on vision in a spatially and feature-selective manner, enhancing performance and sharpening feature tuning at the future gaze location before the eyes start moving.

  14. Chimera distribution amplitudes for the pion and the longitudinally polarized ρ-meson

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stefanis, N.G., E-mail: stefanis@tp2.ruhr-uni-bochum.de [Institut für Theoretische Physik II, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780 Bochum (Germany); Pimikov, A.V., E-mail: pimikov@theor.jinr.ru [Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, JINR, 141980 Dubna (Russian Federation); Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000 (China)

    2016-01-15

    Using QCD sum rules with nonlocal condensates, we show that the distribution amplitude of the longitudinally polarized ρ-meson may have a shorttailed platykurtic profile in close analogy to our recently proposed platykurtic distribution amplitude for the pion. Such a chimera distribution de facto amalgamates the broad unimodal profile of the distribution amplitude, obtained with a Dyson–Schwinger equations-based computational scheme, with the suppressed tails characterizing the bimodal distribution amplitudes derived from QCD sum rules with nonlocal condensates. We argue that pattern formation, emerging from the collective synchronization of coupled oscillators, can provide a single theoretical scaffolding to study unimodal and bimodal distribution amplitudes of light mesons without recourse to particular computational schemes and the reasons for them.

  15. Spatial consequences of bridging the saccadic gap

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yarrow, Kielan; Whiteley, Louise Emma; Rothwell, John C

    2006-01-01

    with the post-saccadic image. We first demonstrate that this illusion holds for moving objects, implying that the perception of time, velocity, and distance traveled become discrepant. We then show that this discrepancy is partially resolved up to 500 ms after a saccade: the perceived offset position of a post......We report six experiments suggesting that conscious perception is actively redrafted to take account of events both before and after the event that is reported. When observers saccade to a stationary object they overestimate its duration, as if the brain were filling in the saccadic gap......-saccadic moving stimulus shows a greater forward mislocalization when pursued after a saccade than during pursuit alone. These data are consistent with the idea that the temporal bias is resolved by the subsequent spatial adjustment to provide a percept that is coherent in its gist but inconsistent in its detail....

  16. The influence of crystalline lens accommodation on post-saccadic oscillations in pupil-based eye trackers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nyström, Marcus; Andersson, Richard; Magnusson, Måns; Pansell, Tony; Hooge, Ignace

    2015-02-01

    It is well known that the crystalline lens (henceforth lens) can oscillate (or 'wobble') relative to the eyeball at the end of saccades. Recent research has proposed that such wobbling of the lens is a source of post-saccadic oscillations (PSOs) seen in data recorded by eye trackers that estimate gaze direction from the location of the pupil. Since the size of the lens wobbles increases with accommodative effort, one would predict a similar increase of PSO-amplitude in data recorded with a pupil based eye tracker. In four experiments, we investigated the role of lens accommodation on PSOs in a video-based eye tracker. In Experiment 1, we replicated previous results showing that PSO-amplitudes increase at near viewing distances (large vergence angles), when the lens is highly accommodated. In Experiment 2a, we manipulated the accommodative state of the lens pharmacologically using eye drops at a fixed viewing distance and found, in contrast to Experiment 1, no significant difference in PSO-amplitude related to the accommodative state of the lens. Finally, in Experiment 2b, the effect of vergence angle was investigated by comparing PSO-amplitudes at near and far while maintaining a fixed lens accommodation. Despite the pharmacologically fixed degree of accommodation, PSO-amplitudes were systematically larger in the near condition. In summary, PSOs cannot exhaustively be explained by lens wobbles. Possible confounds related to pupil size and eye-camera angle are investigated in Experiments 3 and 4, and alternative mechanisms behind PSOs are probed in the discussion. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. The amblyopic eye in subjects with anisometropia show increased saccadic latency in the delayed saccade task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maciej ePerdziak

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The term amblyopia is used to describe reduced visual function in one eye (or both eyes, though not so often which cannot be fully improved by refractive correction and explained by the organic cause observed during regular eye examination. This developmental disorder of spatial vision affects about 2-5% of the population and is associated with abnormal visual experience (e.g. anisometropia, strabismus during infancy or early childhood. Several studies have shown prolongation of saccadic latency time in amblyopic eye. In our opinion, study of saccadic latency in the context of central vision deficits assessment, should be based on central retina stimulation. For this reason, we proposed saccade delayed task. It requires inhibitory processing for maintaining fixation on the central target until it disappears – what constitutes the GO signal for saccade. The experiment consisted of 100 trials for each eye and was performed under two viewing conditions: monocular amblyopic / non-dominant eye and monocular dominant eye. We examined saccadic latency in 16 subjects (mean age 30±11 years with anisometropic amblyopia (two subjects had also microtropia and in 17 control subjects (mean age 28±8 years. Participants were instructed to look at central (fixation target and when it disappears, to make the saccade toward the periphery (10 deg as fast as possible, either left or the right target. The study results have proved the significant difference in saccadic latency between the amblyopic (mean 262±48 ms and dominant (mean 237±45 ms eye, in anisometropic group. In the control group, the saccadic latency for dominant (mean 226±32ms and non-dominant (mean 230±29 ms eye was not significantly different.By the use of LATER (Linear Approach to the Threshold with Ergodic Rate decision model we interpret our findings as a decrease in accumulation of visual information acquired by means of central (affected retina in subjects with anisometropic amblyopia.

  18. Attentional sensitivity and asymmetries of vertical saccade generation in monkey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Wu; King, W. M.; Shelhamer, M. J. (Principal Investigator)

    2002-01-01

    The first goal of this study was to systematically document asymmetries in vertical saccade generation. We found that visually guided upward saccades have not only shorter latencies, but higher peak velocities, shorter durations and smaller errors. The second goal was to identify possible mechanisms underlying the asymmetry in vertical saccade latencies. Based on a recent model of saccade generation, three stages of saccade generation were investigated using specific behavioral paradigms: attention shift to a visual target (CUED paradigm), initiation of saccade generation (GAP paradigm) and release of the motor command to execute the saccade (DELAY paradigm). Our results suggest that initiation of a saccade (or "ocular disengagement") and its motor release contribute little to the asymmetry in vertical saccade latency. However, analysis of saccades made in the CUED paradigm indicated that it took less time to shift attention to a target in the upper visual field than to a target in the lower visual field. These data suggest that higher attentional sensitivity to targets in the upper visual field may contribute to shorter latencies of upward saccades.

  19. Saccade-synchronized rapid attention shifts in macaque visual cortical area MT.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Tao; Treue, Stefan; Krishna, B Suresh

    2018-03-06

    While making saccadic eye-movements to scan a visual scene, humans and monkeys are able to keep track of relevant visual stimuli by maintaining spatial attention on them. This ability requires a shift of attentional modulation from the neuronal population representing the relevant stimulus pre-saccadically to the one representing it post-saccadically. For optimal performance, this trans-saccadic attention shift should be rapid and saccade-synchronized. Whether this is so is not known. We trained two rhesus monkeys to make saccades while maintaining covert attention at a fixed spatial location. We show that the trans-saccadic attention shift in cortical visual medial temporal (MT) area is well synchronized to saccades. Attentional modulation crosses over from the pre-saccadic to the post-saccadic neuronal representation by about 50 ms after a saccade. Taking response latency into account, the trans-saccadic attention shift is well timed to maintain spatial attention on relevant stimuli, so that they can be optimally tracked and processed across saccades.

  20. Saccadic Alterations in Severe Developmental Dyslexia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefano Pensiero

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available It is not sure if persons with dyslexia have ocular motor deficits in addition to their deficits in rapid visual information processing. A 15-year-old boy afflicted by severe dyslexia was submitted to saccadic eye movement recording. Neurological and ophthalmic examinations were normal apart from the presence of an esophoria for near and slightly longer latencies of pattern visual evoked potentials. Subclinical saccadic alterations were present, which could be at the basis of the reading pathology: (1 low velocities (and larger durations of the adducting saccades of the left eye with undershooting and long-lasting postsaccadic onward drift, typical of the internuclear ophthalmoplegia; (2 saccades interrupted in mid-flight and fixation instability, which are present in cases of brainstem premotor disturbances.

  1. Implications of Lateral Cerebellum in Proactive Control of Saccades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kunimatsu, Jun; Suzuki, Tomoki W; Tanaka, Masaki

    2016-06-29

    Although several lines of evidence establish the involvement of the medial and vestibular parts of the cerebellum in the adaptive control of eye movements, the role of the lateral hemisphere of the cerebellum in eye movements remains unclear. Ascending projections from the lateral cerebellum to the frontal and parietal association cortices via the thalamus are consistent with a role of these pathways in higher-order oculomotor control. In support of this, previous functional imaging studies and recent analyses in subjects with cerebellar lesions have indicated a role for the lateral cerebellum in volitional eye movements such as anti-saccades. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms, we recorded from single neurons in the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum in monkeys performing anti-saccade/pro-saccade tasks. We found that neurons in the posterior part of the dentate nucleus showed higher firing rates during the preparation of anti-saccades compared with pro-saccades. When the animals made erroneous saccades to the visual stimuli in the anti-saccade trials, the firing rate during the preparatory period decreased. Furthermore, local inactivation of the recording sites with muscimol moderately increased the proportion of error trials, while successful anti-saccades were more variable and often had shorter latency during inactivation. Thus, our results show that neuronal activity in the cerebellar dentate nucleus causally regulates anti-saccade performance. Neuronal signals from the lateral cerebellum to the frontal cortex might modulate the proactive control signals in the corticobasal ganglia circuitry that inhibit early reactive responses and possibly optimize the speed and accuracy of anti-saccades. Although the lateral cerebellum is interconnected with the cortical eye fields via the thalamus and the pons, its role in eye movements remains unclear. We found that neurons in the caudal part of the lateral (dentate) nucleus of the cerebellum showed the increased

  2. Light-cone distribution amplitudes of the baryon octet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bali, Gunnar S.; Braun, Vladimir M.; Göckeler, Meinulf; Gruber, Michael; Hutzler, Fabian; Schäfer, Andreas; Schiel, Rainer W.; Simeth, Jakob; Söldner, Wolfgang; Sternbeck, Andre; Wein, Philipp

    2016-01-01

    We present results of the first ab initio lattice QCD calculation of the normalization constants and first moments of the leading twist distribution amplitudes of the full baryon octet, corresponding to the small transverse distance limit of the associated S-wave light-cone wave functions. The P-wave (higher twist) normalization constants are evaluated as well. The calculation is done using N_f=2+1 flavors of dynamical (clover) fermions on lattices of different volumes and pion masses down to 222 MeV. Significant SU(3) flavor symmetry violation effects in the shape of the distribution amplitudes are observed.

  3. Light-cone distribution amplitudes of the baryon octet

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bali, Gunnar S. [Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg,Universitätsstraße 31, D-93040 Regensburg (Germany); Department of Theoretical Physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005 (India); Braun, Vladimir M.; Göckeler, Meinulf; Gruber, Michael; Hutzler, Fabian; Schäfer, Andreas; Schiel, Rainer W.; Simeth, Jakob; Söldner, Wolfgang [Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg,Universitätsstraße 31, D-93040 Regensburg (Germany); Sternbeck, Andre [Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena,Max-Wien-Platz 1, D-07743 Jena (Germany); Wein, Philipp [Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg,Universitätsstraße 31, D-93040 Regensburg (Germany)

    2016-02-10

    We present results of the first ab initio lattice QCD calculation of the normalization constants and first moments of the leading twist distribution amplitudes of the full baryon octet, corresponding to the small transverse distance limit of the associated S-wave light-cone wave functions. The P-wave (higher twist) normalization constants are evaluated as well. The calculation is done using N{sub f}=2+1 flavors of dynamical (clover) fermions on lattices of different volumes and pion masses down to 222 MeV. Significant SU(3) flavor symmetry violation effects in the shape of the distribution amplitudes are observed.

  4. [Speed of ocular saccades in Huntington disease. Prospective study].

    Science.gov (United States)

    García Ruiz, P J; Cenjor, C; Ulmer, E; Hernández, J; Cantarero, S; Fanjul, S; García de Yébenes, J

    2001-02-01

    Oculomotor abnormalities, especially slow saccades, have long been recognized in Huntington's disease (HD). To study prospectively horizontal saccade velocity by videonystagmography in 21 patients with genetically confirmed HD. The study included a baseline analysis and a second evaluation after 18.8 +/- 7.1 months. We included a control group of 15 subjects. HD group exhibited decreased saccade velocity when compared with that from a control group (for predictive and unpredictive target). HD patients showed decreased saccade velocity with the passage of time (for predictive target, p < 0.01). Finally we found statistical significant correlation between saccade velocity and triplet length. The measurement of saccade velocity might be an objective method to study the natural evolution of HD, and thus evaluate the effectiveness of future therapies.

  5. [Changes and disorders in voluntary saccades during development and aging].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hikosaka, O

    1997-05-01

    We examined age-dependent changes in voluntary eye movements in normal subjects (age : 5-76) using a visually guided saccade (V-saccade) task and a memory guided saccade (M-saccade) task. Changes were more evident in M-saccades. The latencies were long in children (people (> 50 y.o.). Both young children and elderly people tended to break fixation by making a saccade to the cue stimulus that indicated the future target position. On the other hand, both young children and elderly people tended to be slow in making M-saccade promptly after the central fixation point went off. Thus, they had difficulties both in suppressing unnecessary saccades and in initiating saccades based on memory. Interestingly, similar difficulties were observed, in exaggerated forms, in patients in basal ganglia disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, juvenile parkinsonism, dopa-responsive dystonia, and hereditary progressive dystonia with marked diurnal fluctuation. These findings were consistent with the known functions of the basal ganglia which have been revealed by physiological studies using trained monkeys. The substantia nigra pars reticulata exerts tonic inhibitory influences over the superior colliculus, thereby preventing excitatory inputs from triggering unnecessary saccades. The tonic inhibition, however, is removed by a phasic inhibition largely originating in the caudate nucleus. Thus, inhibition and disinhibition are key mechanisms of the basal ganglia. In fact, experimental manipulations of these serial inhibitory pathway in the basal ganglia led either to the difficulty in initiation of saccades, especially M-saccades, or to the difficulty in suppressing unnecessary saccades. These comparisons suggest that the functions of the basal ganglia are immature in young children while they become deteriorated in elderly people.

  6. Critical Factors for Inducing Curved Somatosensory Saccades

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tamami Nakano

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available We are able to make a saccade toward a tactile stimuli to one hand, but trajectories of many saccades curved markedly when the arms were crossed (Groh & Sparks, 2006. However, it remains unknown why some curved and others did not. We therefore examined critical factors for inducing the curved somatosensory saccades. Participants made a saccade as soon as possible from a central fixation point toward a tactile stimulus delivered to one of the two hands, and switched between arms-crossed and arms-uncrossed postures every 6 trials. Trajectories were generally straight when the arms were uncrossed, but all participants made curved saccades when the arms were crossed (12–64%. We found that the probability of curved saccades depended critically on the onset latency: the probability was less than 5% when the latency was larger than 250 ms, but the probability increased up to 70–80% when the onset latency was 160 ms. This relationship was shared across participants. The results suggest that a touch in the arms-crossed posture was always mapped to the wrong hand in the initial phase up to 160 ms, and then remapped to the correct hand during the next 100 ms by some fundamental neural mechanisms shared across participants.

  7. Critical role of cerebellar fastigial nucleus in programming sequences of saccades

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Susan A.; Schneider, Rosalyn M.; Serra, Alessandro; Leigh, R. John

    2011-01-01

    The cerebellum plays an important role in programming accurate saccades. Cerebellar lesions affecting the ocular motor region of the fastigial nucleus (FOR) cause saccadic hypermetria; however, if a second target is presented before a saccade can be initiated (double-step paradigm), saccade hypermetria may be decreased. We tested the hypothesis that the cerebellum, especially FOR, plays a pivotal role in programming sequences of saccades. We studied patients with saccadic hypermetria due either to genetic cerebellar ataxia or surgical lesions affecting FOR and confirmed that the gain of initial saccades made to double-step stimuli was reduced compared with the gain of saccades to single target jumps. Based on measurements of the intersaccadic interval, we found that the ability to perform parallel processing of saccades was reduced or absent in all of our patients with cerebellar disease. Our results support the crucial role of the cerebellum, especially FOR, in programming sequences of saccades. PMID:21950988

  8. Kinesthetic information facilitates saccades towards proprioceptive-tactile targets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voudouris, Dimitris; Goettker, Alexander; Mueller, Stefanie; Fiehler, Katja

    2016-05-01

    Saccades to somatosensory targets have longer latencies and are less accurate and precise than saccades to visual targets. Here we examined how different somatosensory information influences the planning and control of saccadic eye movements. Participants fixated a central cross and initiated a saccade as fast as possible in response to a tactile stimulus that was presented to either the index or the middle fingertip of their unseen left hand. In a static condition, the hand remained at a target location for the entire block of trials and the stimulus was presented at a fixed time after an auditory tone. Therefore, the target location was derived only from proprioceptive and tactile information. In a moving condition, the hand was first actively moved to the same target location and the stimulus was then presented immediately. Thus, in the moving condition additional kinesthetic information about the target location was available. We found shorter saccade latencies in the moving compared to the static condition, but no differences in accuracy or precision of saccadic endpoints. In a second experiment, we introduced variable delays after the auditory tone (static condition) or after the end of the hand movement (moving condition) in order to reduce the predictability of the moment of the stimulation and to allow more time to process the kinesthetic information. Again, we found shorter latencies in the moving compared to the static condition but no improvement in saccade accuracy or precision. In a third experiment, we showed that the shorter saccade latencies in the moving condition cannot be explained by the temporal proximity between the relevant event (auditory tone or end of hand movement) and the moment of the stimulation. Our findings suggest that kinesthetic information facilitates planning, but not control, of saccadic eye movements to proprioceptive-tactile targets. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Suppression of Face Perception during Saccadic Eye Movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehrdad Seirafi

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Lack of awareness of a stimulus briefly presented during saccadic eye movement is known as saccadic omission. Studying the reduced visibility of visual stimuli around the time of saccade—known as saccadic suppression—is a key step to investigate saccadic omission. To date, almost all studies have been focused on the reduced visibility of simple stimuli such as flashes and bars. The extension of the results from simple stimuli to more complex objects has been neglected. In two experimental tasks, we measured the subjective and objective awareness of a briefly presented face stimuli during saccadic eye movement. In the first task, we measured the subjective awareness of the visual stimuli and showed that in most of the trials there is no conscious awareness of the faces. In the second task, we measured objective sensitivity in a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC face detection task, which demonstrated chance-level performance. Here, we provide the first evidence of complete suppression of complex visual stimuli during the saccadic eye movement.

  10. N-acetylgalactosamine positive perineuronal nets in the saccade-related-part of the cerebellar fastigial nucleus do not maintain saccade gain.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adrienne Mueller

    Full Text Available Perineuronal nets (PNNs accumulate around neurons near the end of developmental critical periods. PNNs are structures of the extracellular matrix which surround synaptic contacts and contain chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans. Previous studies suggest that the chondroitin sulfate chains of PNNs inhibit synaptic plasticity and thereby help end critical periods. PNNs surround a high proportion of neurons in the cerebellar nuclei. These PNNs form during approximately the same time that movements achieve normal accuracy. It is possible that PNNs in the cerebellar nuclei inhibit plasticity to maintain the synaptic organization that produces those accurate movements. We tested whether or not PNNs in a saccade-related part of the cerebellar nuclei maintain accurate saccade size by digesting a part of them in an adult monkey performing a task that changes saccade size (long term saccade adaptation. We use the enzyme Chondroitinase ABC to digest the glycosaminoglycan side chains of proteoglycans present in the majority of PNNs. We show that this manipulation does not result in faster, larger, or more persistent adaptation. Our result indicates that intact perineuronal nets around saccade-related neurons in the cerebellar nuclei are not important for maintaining long-term saccade gain.

  11. Analysis of stationary power/amplitude distributions for multiple channels of sampled FBGs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xing, Ya; Zou, Xihua; Pan, Wei; Yan, Lianshan; Luo, Bin; Shao, Liyang

    2015-08-10

    Stationary power/amplitude distributions for multiple channels of the sampled fiber Bragg grating (SFBG) along the grating length are analyzed. Unlike a uniform FBG, the SFBG has multiple channels in the reflection spectrum, not a single channel. Thus, the stationary power/amplitude distributions for these multiple channels are analyzed by using two different theoretical models. In the first model, the SFBG is regarded as a set of grating sections and non-grating sections, which are alternately stacked. A step-like distribution is obtained for the corresponding power/amplitude of each channel along the grating length. While, in the second model, the SFBG is decomposed into multiple uniform "ghost" gratings, and a continuous distribution is obtained for each ghost grating (i.e., each channel). After a comparison, the distributions obtained in the two models are identical, and the equivalence between the two models is demonstrated. In addition, the impacts of the duty cycle on the power/amplitude distributions of multiple channels of SFBG are presented.

  12. Endpoint behavior of the pion distribution amplitude in QCD sum rules with nonlocal condensates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mikhailov, S. V.; Pimikov, A. V.; Stefanis, N. G.

    2010-01-01

    Starting from the QCD sum rules with nonlocal condensates for the pion distribution amplitude, we derive another sum rule for its derivative and its ''integral derivatives''--defined in this work. We use this new sum rule to analyze the fine details of the pion distribution amplitude in the endpoint region x∼0. The results for endpoint-suppressed and flattop (or flatlike) pion distribution amplitudes are compared with those we obtained with differential sum rules by employing two different models for the distribution of vacuum-quark virtualities. We determine the range of values of the derivatives of the pion distribution amplitude and show that endpoint-suppressed distribution amplitudes lie within this range, while those with endpoint enhancement--flat-type or Chernyak-Zhitnitsky like--yield values outside this range.

  13. Emotional Scene Content Drives the Saccade Generation System Reflexively

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nummenmaa, Lauri; Hyona, Jukka; Calvo, Manuel G.

    2009-01-01

    The authors assessed whether parafoveal perception of emotional content influences saccade programming. In Experiment 1, paired emotional and neutral scenes were presented to parafoveal vision. Participants performed voluntary saccades toward either of the scenes according to an imperative signal (color cue). Saccadic reaction times were faster…

  14. QCD-based pion distribution amplitudes confronting experimental data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bakulev, A.P.; Mikhajlov, S.V.; Stefanis, N.G.

    2001-01-01

    We use QCD sum rules with nonlocal condensates to recalculate more accurately the moments and their confidence intervals of the twist-2 pion distribution amplitude including radiative corrections. We are thus able to construct an admissible set of pion distribution amplitudes which define a reliability region in the a 2 , a 4 plane of the Gegenbauer polynomial expansion coefficients. We emphasize that models like that of Chernyak and Zhitnitsky, as well as the asymptotic solution, are excluded from this set. We show that the determined a 2 , a 4 region strongly overlaps with that extracted from the CLEO data by Schmedding and Yakovlev and that this region is also not far from the results of the first direct measurement of the pion valence quark momentum distribution by the Fermilab E791 collaboration. Comparisons with recent lattice calculations and instanton-based models are briefly discussed

  15. Clinical Approach to Supranuclear Brainstem Saccadic Gaze Palsies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandra Lloyd-Smith Sequeira

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Failure of brainstem supranuclear centers for saccadic eye movements results in the clinical presence of a brainstem-mediated supranuclear saccadic gaze palsy (SGP, which is manifested as slowing of saccades with or without range of motion limitation of eye movements and as loss of quick phases of optokinetic nystagmus. Limitation in the range of motion of eye movements is typically worse with saccades than with smooth pursuit and is overcome with vestibular–ocular reflexive eye movements. The differential diagnosis of SGPs is broad, although acute-onset SGP is most often from brainstem infarction and chronic vertical SGP is most commonly caused by the neurodegenerative condition progressive supranuclear palsy. In this review, we discuss the brainstem anatomy and physiology of the brainstem saccade-generating network; we discuss the clinical features of SGPs, with an emphasis on insights from quantitative ocular motor recordings; and we consider the broad differential diagnosis of SGPs.

  16. Light-cone distribution amplitudes of the ground state bottom baryons in HQET

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ali, A.; Wang, W. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Hambrock, C. [Technische Univ. Dortmund (Germany); Parkhomenko, A.Ya. [P.G. Demidov Yaroslavl State Univ., Yaroslavl (Russian Federation)

    2012-12-15

    We provide the definition of the complete set of light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs) for the ground state heavy bottom baryons with the spin-parities J{sup P}=1/2{sup +} and J{sup P}=3/2{sup +} in the heavy quark limit. We present the renormalization effects on the twist-2 light-cone distribution amplitudes and use the QCD sum rules to compute the moments of twist-2, twist-3, and twist-4 LCDAs. Simple models for the heavy baryon distribution amplitudes are analyzed with account of their scale dependence.

  17. Optimisation of amplitude distribution of magnetic Barkhausen noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pal'a, Jozef; Jančárik, Vladimír

    2017-09-01

    The magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) measurement method is a widely used non-destructive evaluation technique used for inspection of ferromagnetic materials. Besides other influences, the excitation yoke lift-off is a significant issue of this method deteriorating the measurement accuracy. In this paper, the lift-off effect is analysed mainly on grain oriented Fe-3%Si steel subjected to various heat treatment conditions. Based on investigation of relationship between the amplitude distribution of MBN and lift-off, an approach to suppress the lift-off effect is proposed. Proposed approach utilizes the digital feedback optimising the measurement based on the amplitude distribution of MBN. The results demonstrated that the approach can highly suppress the lift-off effect up to 2 mm.

  18. Higher-Twist Distribution Amplitudes of the K Meson in QCD

    CERN Document Server

    Ball, P; Lenz, A; Ball, Patricia

    2006-01-01

    We present a systematic study of twist-3 and twist-4 light-cone distribution amplitudes of the K meson in QCD. The structure of SU(3)-breaking corrections is studied in detail. Non-perturbative input parameters are estimated from QCD sum rules and renormalons. As a by-product, we give a complete reanalysis of the twist-3 and -4 parameters of the pi-meson distribution amplitudes; some of the results differ from those usually quoted in the literature.

  19. Analytic Evolution of Singular Distribution Amplitudes in QCD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Radyushkin, Anatoly V. [Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA (United States); Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA (United States); Tandogan Kunkel, Asli [Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA (United States); Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA (United States)

    2014-03-01

    We describe a method of analytic evolution of distribution amplitudes (DA) that have singularities, such as non-zero values at the end-points of the support region, jumps at some points inside the support region and cusps. We illustrate the method by applying it to the evolution of a flat (constant) DA, anti-symmetric at DA and then use it for evolution of the two-photon generalized distribution amplitude. Our approach has advantages over the standard method of expansion in Gegenbauer polynomials, which requires infinite number of terms in order to accurately reproduce functions in the vicinity of singular points, and over a straightforward iteration of an initial distribution with evolution kernel. The latter produces logarithmically divergent terms at each iteration, while in our method the logarithmic singularities are summed from the start, which immediately produces a continuous curve, with only one or two iterations needed afterwards in order to get rather precise results.

  20. Saccadic eye movements as an index of perceptual decision-making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McSorley, Eugene; McCloy, Rachel

    2009-10-01

    One of the most common decisions we make is the one about where to move our eyes next. Here we examine the impact that processing the evidence supporting competing options has on saccade programming. Participants were asked to saccade to one of two possible visual targets indicated by a cloud of moving dots. We varied the evidence which supported saccade target choice by manipulating the proportion of dots moving towards one target or the other. The task was found to become easier as the evidence supporting target choice increased. This was reflected in an increase in percent correct and a decrease in saccade latency. The trajectory and landing position of saccades were found to deviate away from the non-selected target reflecting the choice of the target and the inhibition of the non-target. The extent of the deviation was found to increase with amount of sensory evidence supporting target choice. This shows that decision-making processes involved in saccade target choice have an impact on the spatial control of a saccade. This would seem to extend the notion of the processes involved in the control of saccade metrics beyond a competition between visual stimuli to one also reflecting a competition between options.

  1. When are attention and saccade preparation dissociated?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Belopolsky, A.V.; Theeuwes, J.

    2009-01-01

    To understand the mechanisms of visual attention, it is crucial to know the relationship between attention and saccades. Some theories propose a close relationship, whereas others view the attention and saccade systems as completely independent. One possible way to resolve this controversy is to

  2. Rapid accumulation of inhibition accounts for saccades curved away from distractors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kehoe, Devin H; Fallah, Mazyar

    2017-08-01

    Saccades curved toward a distractor are accompanied by a burst of neuronal activation at the distractor locus in the intermediate layers of the superior colliculus (SCi) ~30 ms before the initiation of a saccade. Although saccades curve away from inactivated SCi loci, whether inhibition is restricted to a similar critical epoch for saccades curved away from a distractor remains unclear. We examined this possibility by modeling human saccade curvature as a function of the time between onset of a task irrelevant luminance- or color-modulated distractor and initiation of an impending saccade, referred to as saccade distractor onset asynchrony (SDOA). Our results demonstrated that 70 ms of luminance-modulated distractor processing or 90 ms of color-modulated distractor processing was required to modulate saccade trajectories. As these behavioral, feature-based differences were temporally consistent with the cortically mediated neurophysiological differences in visual onset latencies between luminance and color stimuli observed in the oculomotor and visual system, this method provides a noninvasive means to estimate the timing of peak activation in the oculomotor system. As such, we modeled SDOA functions separately for saccades curved toward and away from distractors and observed that a similar temporal process determined the magnitude of saccade curvatures in both contexts, suggesting that saccades deviate away from a distractor due to a rapid accumulation of inhibition in the critical epoch before saccade initiation. NEW & NOTEWORTHY In this research article, we propose a novel, noninvasive approach to behaviorally model the time course of competitive oculomotor processing. Our results highly resembled those from previously published neurophysiological experiments utilizing similar oculomotor processing contexts, thus validating our approach. Furthermore, this methodology provided new insights into the underlying neural mechanism subserving oculomotor processing

  3. Human occipital cortices differentially exert saccadic suppression: intracranial recording in children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uematsu, Mitsugu; Matsuzaki, Naoyuki; Brown, Erik C.; Kojima, Katsuaki; Asano, Eishi

    2013-01-01

    By repeating saccades unconsciously, humans explore the surrounding world every day. Saccades inevitably move external visual images across the retina at high velocity; nonetheless, healthy humans don’t perceive transient blurring of the visual scene during saccades. This perceptual stability is referred to as saccadic suppression. Functional suppression is believed to take place transiently in the visual systems, but it remains unknown how commonly or differentially the human occipital lobe activities are suppressed at the large-scale cortical network level. We determined the spatial-temporal dynamics of intracranially-recorded gamma activity at 80–150 Hz around spontaneous saccades under no-task conditions during wakefulness and those in darkness during REM sleep. Regardless of wakefulness or REM sleep, a small degree of attenuation of gamma activity was noted in the occipital regions during saccades, most extensively in the polar and least in the medial portions. Longer saccades were associated with more intense gamma-attenuation. Gamma-attenuation was subsequently followed by gamma-augmentation most extensively involving the medial and least involving the polar occipital region. Such gamma-augmentation was more intense during wakefulness and temporally locked to the offset of saccades. The polarities of initial peaks of perisaccadic event-related potentials (ERPs) were frequently positive in the medial and negative in the polar occipital regions. The present study, for the first time, provided the electrophysiological evidence that human occipital cortices differentially exert peri-saccadic modulation. Transiently suppressed sensitivity of the primary visual cortex in the polar region may be an important neural basis for saccadic suppression. Presence of occipital gamma-attenuation even during REM sleep suggests that saccadic suppression might be exerted even without external visual inputs. The primary visual cortex in the medial region, compared to the

  4. Lateral information transfer across saccadic eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jüttner, M; Röhler, R

    1993-02-01

    Our perception of the visual world remains stable and continuous despite the disruptions caused by retinal image displacements during saccadic eye movements. The problem of visual stability is closely related to the question of whether information is transferred across such eye movements--and if so, what sort of information is transferred. We report experiments carried out to investigate how presaccadic signals at the location of the saccade goal influence the visibility of postsaccadic test signals presented at the fovea. The signals were Landolt rings of different orientations. If the orientations of pre- and postsaccadic Landolt rings were different, the thresholds of the test signals were elevated by about 20%-25% relative to those at the static control condition. When the orientations were identical, no such elevation occurred. This selective threshold elevation effect proved to be a phenomenon different from ordinary saccadic suppression, although it was closely related to the execution of the saccadic eye movement. The consequences for visual stability are discussed.

  5. Cultural diversity and saccade similarities: culture does not explain saccade latency differences between Chinese and Caucasian participants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knox, Paul C; Wolohan, Felicity D A

    2014-01-01

    A central claim of cultural neuroscience is that the culture to which an individual belongs plays a key role in shaping basic cognitive processes and behaviours, including eye movement behaviour. We previously reported a robust difference in saccade behaviour between Chinese and Caucasian participants; Chinese participants are much more likely to execute low latency express saccades, in circumstances in which these are normally discouraged. To assess the extent to which this is the product of culture we compared a group of 70 Chinese overseas students (whose primary cultural exposure was that of mainland China), a group of 45 participants whose parents were Chinese but who themselves were brought up in the UK (whose primary cultural exposure was western European) and a group of 70 Caucasian participants. Results from the Schwartz Value Survey confirmed that the UK-Chinese group were culturally similar to the Caucasian group. However, their patterns of saccade latency were identical to the mainland Chinese group, and different to the Caucasian group. We conclude that at least for the relatively simple reflexive saccade behaviour we have investigated, culture cannot explain the observed differences in behaviour.

  6. Analytic Evolution of Singular Distribution Amplitudes in QCD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tandogan Kunkel, Asli [Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA (United States)

    2014-08-01

    Distribution amplitudes (DAs) are the basic functions that contain information about the quark momentum. DAs are necessary to describe hard exclusive processes in quantum chromodynamics. We describe a method of analytic evolution of DAs that have singularities such as nonzero values at the end points of the support region, jumps at some points inside the support region and cusps. We illustrate the method by applying it to the evolution of a at (constant) DA, antisymmetric at DA, and then use the method for evolution of the two-photon generalized distribution amplitude. Our approach to DA evolution has advantages over the standard method of expansion in Gegenbauer polynomials [1, 2] and over a straightforward iteration of an initial distribution with evolution kernel. Expansion in Gegenbauer polynomials requires an infinite number of terms in order to accurately reproduce functions in the vicinity of singular points. Straightforward iteration of an initial distribution produces logarithmically divergent terms at each iteration. In our method the logarithmic singularities are summed from the start, which immediately produces a continuous curve. Afterwards, in order to get precise results, only one or two iterations are needed.

  7. The peri-saccadic perception of objects and space.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fred H Hamker

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available Eye movements affect object localization and object recognition. Around saccade onset, briefly flashed stimuli appear compressed towards the saccade target, receptive fields dynamically change position, and the recognition of objects near the saccade target is improved. These effects have been attributed to different mechanisms. We provide a unifying account of peri-saccadic perception explaining all three phenomena by a quantitative computational approach simulating cortical cell responses on the population level. Contrary to the common view of spatial attention as a spotlight, our model suggests that oculomotor feedback alters the receptive field structure in multiple visual areas at an intermediate level of the cortical hierarchy to dynamically recruit cells for processing a relevant part of the visual field. The compression of visual space occurs at the expense of this locally enhanced processing capacity.

  8. Role of the superior colliculus in choosing mixed-strategy saccades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thevarajah, Dhushan; Mikulić, Areh; Dorris, Michael C

    2009-02-18

    Game theory outlines optimal response strategies during mixed-strategy competitions. The neural processes involved in choosing individual strategic actions, however, remain poorly understood. Here, we tested whether the superior colliculus (SC), a brain region critical for generating sensory-guided saccades, is also involved in choosing saccades under strategic conditions. Monkeys were free to choose either of two saccade targets as they competed against a computer opponent during the mixed-strategy game "matching pennies." The accuracy with which presaccadic SC activity predicted upcoming choice gradually increased in the time leading up to the saccade. Probing the SC with suprathreshold stimulation demonstrated that these evolving signals were functionally involved in preparing strategic saccades. Finally, subthreshold stimulation of the SC increased the likelihood that contralateral saccades were selected. Together, our results suggest that motor regions of the brain play an active role in choosing strategic actions rather than passively executing those prespecified by upstream executive regions.

  9. The effect of different brightness conditions on visually and memory guided saccades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Felßberg, Anna-Maria; Dombrowe, Isabel

    2018-01-01

    It is commonly assumed that saccades in the dark are slower than saccades in a lit room. Early studies that investigated this issue using electrooculography (EOG) often compared memory guided saccades in darkness to visually guided saccades in an illuminated room. However, later studies showed that memory guided saccades are generally slower than visually guided saccades. Research on this topic is further complicated by the fact that the different existing eyetracking methods do not necessarily lead to consistent measurements. In the present study, we independently manipulated task (memory guided/visually guided) and screen brightness (dark, medium and light) in an otherwise completely dark room, and measured the peak velocity and the duration of the participant's saccades using a popular pupil-cornea reflection (p-cr) eyetracker (Eyelink 1000). Based on a critical reading of the literature, including a recent study using cornea-reflection (cr) eye tracking, we did not expect any velocity or duration differences between the three brightness conditions. We found that memory guided saccades were generally slower than visually guided saccades. In both tasks, eye movements on a medium and light background were equally fast and had similar durations. However, saccades on the dark background were slower and had shorter durations, even after we corrected for the effect of pupil size changes. This means that this is most likely an artifact of current pupil-based eye tracking. We conclude that the common assumption that saccades in the dark are slower than in the light is probably not true, however pupil-based eyetrackers tend to underestimate the peak velocity of saccades on very dark backgrounds, creating the impression that this might be the case. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Both lexical and non-lexical characters are processed during saccadic eye movements.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hao Zhang

    Full Text Available On average our eyes make 3-5 saccadic movements per second when we read, although their neural mechanism is still unclear. It is generally thought that saccades help redirect the retinal fovea to specific characters and words but that actual discrimination of information only occurs during periods of fixation. Indeed, it has been proposed that there is active and selective suppression of information processing during saccades to avoid experience of blurring due to the high-speed movement. Here, using a paradigm where a string of either lexical (Chinese or non-lexical (alphabetic characters are triggered by saccadic eye movements, we show that subjects can discriminate both while making saccadic eye movement. Moreover, discrimination accuracy is significantly better for characters scanned during the saccadic movement to a fixation point than those not scanned beyond it. Our results showed that character information can be processed during the saccade, therefore saccades during reading not only function to redirect the fovea to fixate the next character or word but allow pre-processing of information from the ones adjacent to the fixation locations to help target the next most salient one. In this way saccades can not only promote continuity in reading words but also actively facilitate reading comprehension.

  11. What triggers catch-up saccades during visual tracking?

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Brouwer, Sophie; Yuksel, Demet; Blohm, Gunnar; Missal, Marcus; Lefèvre, Philippe

    2002-03-01

    When tracking moving visual stimuli, primates orient their visual axis by combining two kinds of eye movements, smooth pursuit and saccades, that have very different dynamics. Yet, the mechanisms that govern the decision to switch from one type of eye movement to the other are still poorly understood, even though they could bring a significant contribution to the understanding of how the CNS combines different kinds of control strategies to achieve a common motor and sensory goal. In this study, we investigated the oculomotor responses to a large range of different combinations of position error and velocity error during visual tracking of moving stimuli in humans. We found that the oculomotor system uses a prediction of the time at which the eye trajectory will cross the target, defined as the "eye crossing time" (T(XE)). The eye crossing time, which depends on both position error and velocity error, is the criterion used to switch between smooth and saccadic pursuit, i.e., to trigger catch-up saccades. On average, for T(XE) between 40 and 180 ms, no saccade is triggered and target tracking remains purely smooth. Conversely, when T(XE) becomes smaller than 40 ms or larger than 180 ms, a saccade is triggered after a short latency (around 125 ms).

  12. Toward a visual cognitive system using active top-down saccadic control

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    LaCroix, J.; Postma, E.; van den Herik, J.; Murre, J.

    2008-01-01

    The saccadic selection of relevant visual input for preferential processing allows the efficient use of computational resources. Based on saccadic active human vision, we aim to develop a plausible saccade-based visual cognitive system for a humanoid robot. This paper presents two initial steps

  13. [Cortical potentials evoked to response to a signal to make a memory-guided saccade].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slavutskaia, M V; Moiseeva, V V; Shul'govskiĭ, V V

    2010-01-01

    The difference in parameters of visually guided and memory-guided saccades was shown. Increase in the memory-guided saccade latency as compared to that of the visually guided saccades may indicate the deceleration of saccadic programming on the basis of information extraction from the memory. The comparison of parameters and topography of evoked components N1 and P1 of the evoked potential on the signal to make a memory- or visually guided saccade suggests that the early stage of the saccade programming associated with the space information processing is performed predominantly with top-down attention mechanism before the memory-guided saccade and bottom-up mechanism before the visually guided saccade. The findings show that the increase in the latency of the memory-guided saccades is connected with decision making at the central stage of the saccade programming. We proposed that wave N2, which develops in the middle of the latent period of the memory-guided saccades, is correlated with this process. Topography and spatial dynamics of components N1, P1 and N2 testify that the memory-guided saccade programming is controlled by the frontal mediothalamic system of selective attention and left-hemispheric brain mechanisms of motor attention.

  14. Visual updating across saccades by working memory integration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oostwoud Wijdenes, L.; Marshall, L.; Bays, P.M.

    2015-01-01

    We explore the visual world through saccadic eye movements, but saccades also present a challenge to visual processing, by shifting externally-stable objects from one retinal location to another. The brain could solve this problem in two ways: by overwriting preceding input and starting afresh with

  15. Cortical mechanisms for trans-saccadic memory and integration of multiple object features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prime, Steven L.; Vesia, Michael; Crawford, J. Douglas

    2011-01-01

    Constructing an internal representation of the world from successive visual fixations, i.e. separated by saccadic eye movements, is known as trans-saccadic perception. Research on trans-saccadic perception (TSP) has been traditionally aimed at resolving the problems of memory capacity and visual integration across saccades. In this paper, we review this literature on TSP with a focus on research showing that egocentric measures of the saccadic eye movement can be used to integrate simple object features across saccades, and that the memory capacity for items retained across saccades, like visual working memory, is restricted to about three to four items. We also review recent transcranial magnetic stimulation experiments which suggest that the right parietal eye field and frontal eye fields play a key functional role in spatial updating of objects in TSP. We conclude by speculating on possible cortical mechanisms for governing egocentric spatial updating of multiple objects in TSP. PMID:21242142

  16. Role of early visual cortex in trans-saccadic memory of object features.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malik, Pankhuri; Dessing, Joost C; Crawford, J Douglas

    2015-08-01

    Early visual cortex (EVC) participates in visual feature memory and the updating of remembered locations across saccades, but its role in the trans-saccadic integration of object features is unknown. We hypothesized that if EVC is involved in updating object features relative to gaze, feature memory should be disrupted when saccades remap an object representation into a simultaneously perturbed EVC site. To test this, we applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over functional magnetic resonance imaging-localized EVC clusters corresponding to the bottom left/right visual quadrants (VQs). During experiments, these VQs were probed psychophysically by briefly presenting a central object (Gabor patch) while subjects fixated gaze to the right or left (and above). After a short memory interval, participants were required to detect the relative change in orientation of a re-presented test object at the same spatial location. Participants either sustained fixation during the memory interval (fixation task) or made a horizontal saccade that either maintained or reversed the VQ of the object (saccade task). Three TMS pulses (coinciding with the pre-, peri-, and postsaccade intervals) were applied to the left or right EVC. This had no effect when (a) fixation was maintained, (b) saccades kept the object in the same VQ, or (c) the EVC quadrant corresponding to the first object was stimulated. However, as predicted, TMS reduced performance when saccades (especially larger saccades) crossed the remembered object location and brought it into the VQ corresponding to the TMS site. This suppression effect was statistically significant for leftward saccades and followed a weaker trend for rightward saccades. These causal results are consistent with the idea that EVC is involved in the gaze-centered updating of object features for trans-saccadic memory and perception.

  17. Validation of a Behavioral Approach for Measuring Saccades in Parkinson's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner, Travis H; Renfroe, Jenna B; Duppstadt-Delambo, Amy; Hinson, Vanessa K

    2017-01-01

    Speed and control of saccades are related to disease progression and cognitive functioning in Parkinson's disease (PD). Traditional eye-tracking complexities encumber application for individual evaluations and clinical trials. The authors examined psychometric properties of standalone tasks for reflexive prosaccade latency, volitional saccade initiation, and saccade inhibition (antisaccade) in a heterogeneous sample of 65 PD patients. Demographics had minimal impact on task performance. Thirty-day test-retest reliability estimates for behavioral tasks were acceptable and similar to traditional eye tracking. Behavioral tasks demonstrated concurrent validity with traditional eye-tracking measures; discriminant validity was less clear. Saccade initiation and inhibition discriminated PD patients with cognitive impairment. The present findings support further development and use of the behavioral tasks for assessing latency and control of saccades in PD.

  18. Stimulation of the substantia nigra influences the specification of memory-guided saccades

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahamed, Safraaz; Garrison, Tiffany J.; Shires, Joel

    2013-01-01

    In the absence of sensory information, we rely on past experience or memories to guide our actions. Because previous experimental and clinical reports implicate basal ganglia nuclei in the generation of movement in the absence of sensory stimuli, we ask here whether one output nucleus of the basal ganglia, the substantia nigra pars reticulata (nigra), influences the specification of an eye movement in the absence of sensory information to guide the movement. We manipulated the level of activity of neurons in the nigra by introducing electrical stimulation to the nigra at different time intervals while monkeys made saccades to different locations in two conditions: one in which the target location remained visible and a second in which the target location appeared only briefly, requiring information stored in memory to specify the movement. Electrical manipulation of the nigra occurring during the delay period of the task, when information about the target was maintained in memory, altered the direction and the occurrence of subsequent saccades. Stimulation during other intervals of the memory task or during the delay period of the visually guided saccade task had less effect on eye movements. On stimulated trials, and only when the visual stimulus was absent, monkeys occasionally (∼20% of the time) failed to make saccades. When monkeys made saccades in the absence of a visual stimulus, stimulation of the nigra resulted in a rotation of the endpoints ipsilaterally (∼2°) and increased the reaction time of contralaterally directed saccades. When the visual stimulus was present, stimulation of the nigra resulted in no significant rotation and decreased the reaction time of contralaterally directed saccades slightly. Based on these measurements, stimulation during the delay period of the memory-guided saccade task influenced the metrics of saccades much more than did stimulation during the same period of the visually guided saccade task. Because these effects

  19. Neurophysiology and Neuroanatomy of Reflexive and Volitional Saccades: Evidence from Studies of Humans

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDowell, Jennifer E.; Dyckman, Kara A.; Austin, Benjamin P.; Clementz, Brett A.

    2008-01-01

    This review provides a summary of the contributions made by human functional neuroimaging studies to the understanding of neural correlates of saccadic control. The generation of simple visually guided saccades (redirections of gaze to a visual stimulus or pro-saccades) and more complex volitional saccades require similar basic neural circuitry…

  20. Chiral perturbation theory for generalized parton distributions and baryon distribution amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wein, Philipp

    2016-05-06

    In this thesis we apply low-energy effective field theory to the first moments of generalized parton distributions and to baryon distribution amplitudes, which are both highly relevant for the parametrization of the nonperturbative part in hard processes. These quantities yield complementary information on hadron structure, since the former treat hadrons as a whole and, thus, give information about the (angular) momentum carried by an entire parton species on average, while the latter parametrize the momentum distribution within an individual Fock state. By performing one-loop calculations within covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory, we obtain sensible parametrizations of the quark mass dependence that are ideally suited for the subsequent analysis of lattice QCD data.

  1. Parallel programming of saccades during natural scene viewing: evidence from eye movement positions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Esther X W; Gilani, Syed Omer; van Boxtel, Jeroen J A; Amihai, Ido; Chua, Fook Kee; Yen, Shih-Cheng

    2013-10-24

    Previous studies have shown that saccade plans during natural scene viewing can be programmed in parallel. This evidence comes mainly from temporal indicators, i.e., fixation durations and latencies. In the current study, we asked whether eye movement positions recorded during scene viewing also reflect parallel programming of saccades. As participants viewed scenes in preparation for a memory task, their inspection of the scene was suddenly disrupted by a transition to another scene. We examined whether saccades after the transition were invariably directed immediately toward the center or were contingent on saccade onset times relative to the transition. The results, which showed a dissociation in eye movement behavior between two groups of saccades after the scene transition, supported the parallel programming account. Saccades with relatively long onset times (>100 ms) after the transition were directed immediately toward the center of the scene, probably to restart scene exploration. Saccades with short onset times (programming of saccades during scene viewing. Additionally, results from the analyses of intersaccadic intervals were also consistent with the parallel programming hypothesis.

  2. Short-term saccadic adaptation in the macaque monkey: a binocular mechanism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schultz, K. P.

    2013-01-01

    Saccadic eye movements are rapid transfers of gaze between objects of interest. Their duration is too short for the visual system to be able to follow their progress in time. Adaptive mechanisms constantly recalibrate the saccadic responses by detecting how close the landings are to the selected targets. The double-step saccadic paradigm is a common method to simulate alterations in saccadic gain. While the subject is responding to a first target shift, a second shift is introduced in the middle of this movement, which masks it from visual detection. The error in landing introduced by the second shift is interpreted by the brain as an error in the programming of the initial response, with gradual gain changes aimed at compensating the apparent sensorimotor mismatch. A second shift applied dichoptically to only one eye introduces disconjugate landing errors between the two eyes. A monocular adaptive system would independently modify only the gain of the eye exposed to the second shift in order to reestablish binocular alignment. Our results support a binocular mechanism. A version-based saccadic adaptive process detects postsaccadic version errors and generates compensatory conjugate gain alterations. A vergence-based saccadic adaptive process detects postsaccadic disparity errors and generates corrective nonvisual disparity signals that are sent to the vergence system to regain binocularity. This results in striking dynamical similarities between visually driven combined saccade-vergence gaze transfers, where the disparity is given by the visual targets, and the double-step adaptive disconjugate responses, where an adaptive disparity signal is generated internally by the saccadic system. PMID:23076111

  3. Survey of Saccadic Parameters Using Videonystagmography in Patients with Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease and Normal Subjects

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    Reza Hosseinabadi

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Patients with Parkinson’s disease manifest oculomotor abnormalities. This is the consequence of basal ganglia impairment. The most common abnormalities include increased saccade latency, hypometric saccades and decreased saccade velocity. The purpose of this study was comparison of saccadic parameters using videonystagmography in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease and normal subjects.Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study, saccadic movements were investigated in thirty patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease and thirty age matched subjects were 35-70 years old. Saccade latency, velocity and accuracy were quantitatively analyzed. Results: Results of this study indicated increased saccade latency, reduction of saccade velocity and accuracy in patients with Parkinson’s disease(P<0.001.Conclusion: This study showed that patients with Parkinson’s disease manifest saccadic deficits. This suggests dopaminergic control of these ocular movements.

  4. Rewards modulate saccade latency but not exogenous spatial attention.

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    Dunne, Stephen; Ellison, Amanda; Smith, Daniel T

    2015-01-01

    The eye movement system is sensitive to reward. However, whilst the eye movement system is extremely flexible, the extent to which changes to oculomotor behavior induced by reward paradigms persist beyond the training period or transfer to other oculomotor tasks is unclear. To address these issues we examined the effects of presenting feedback that represented small monetary rewards to spatial locations on the latency of saccadic eye movements, the time-course of learning and extinction of the effects of rewarding saccades on exogenous spatial attention and oculomotor inhibition of return. Reward feedback produced a relative facilitation of saccadic latency in a stimulus driven saccade task which persisted for three blocks of extinction trials. However, this hemifield-specific effect failed to transfer to peripheral cueing tasks. We conclude that rewarding specific spatial locations is unlikely to induce long-term, systemic changes to the human oculomotor or attention systems.

  5. Rewards modulate saccade latency but not exogenous spatial attention.

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    Stephen eDunne

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The eye movement system is sensitive to reward. However, whilst the eye movement system is extremely flexible, the extent to which changes to oculomotor behaviour induced by reward paradigms persist beyond the training period or transfer to other oculomotor tasks is unclear. To address these issues we examined the effects of presenting feedback that represented small monetary rewards to spatial locations on the latency of saccadic eye movements, the time-course of learning and extinction of the effects of rewarding saccades on exogenous spatial attention and oculomotor IOR. Reward feedback produced a relative facilitation of saccadic latency in a stimulus driven saccade task which persisted for 3 blocks of extinction trials. However this hemifield-specific effect failed to transfer to peripheral cueing tasks. We conclude that rewarding specific spatial locations is unlikely to induce long-term, systemic changes to the human oculomotor or attention systems.

  6. Investigating saccade programming in the praying mantis Tenodera aridifolia using distracter interference paradigms.

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    Yamawaki, Yoshifumi

    2006-10-01

    To investigate the saccadic system in the mantis, I applied distracter interference paradigms. These involved presenting the mantis with a fixation target and one or several distracters supposed to affect saccades towards the target. When a single target was presented, a medium-sized target located in its lower visual field elicited higher rates of saccade response. This preference for target size and position was also observed when a target and a distracter were presented simultaneously. That is, the mantis chose and fixated the target rather than a distracter that was much smaller or larger than the target, or was located above the target. Furthermore, the mantis' preference was not affected by increasing the number of distracters. However, the presence of the distracter decreased the occurrence rate of saccade and increased the response time to saccade. I conclude that distracter interference paradigms are an effective way of investigating the visual processing underlying saccade generation in the mantis. Possible mechanisms of saccade generation in the mantis are discussed.

  7. Hic-Et-Nunc (Here-and-Now Encoding of a Moving Target for its Saccadic Foveation

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    Laurent Goffart

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available The neural representation of a moving target undergoes a spatiotemporal “diffusion” while the associated retinal activity propagates toward the motor centers and recruits the appropriate muscles for its interception in the external world. Indeed, the divergent projections within the visual system and the transmissions of signals through multiple relays, with diverse conduction velocities and integration times, lead to activities that are spatially and temporally distributed across several brain regions. In spite of this neural “blurring”, accurate saccadic eye movements can be made to bring the image of a moving target onto the fovea. Such a performance indicates that the brain is able to rapidly estimate the current spatiotemporal coordinates of the target, at least at the time of saccade landing. We tested in the monkey the robustness of this estimate when a change in eye position and a delay are experimentally added before the animal launches a saccade toward a moving target and in the absence of visual feedback. These spatiotemporal perturbations were induced by a brief microstimulation in the deep superior colliculus. The results show that the interceptive saccades can remain accurate and relatively independent of the time taken to react and to foveate the target. We propose that the brain builds an estimate of the expected and current spatiotemporal (hic-et-nunc coordinates of the target and that this signal feeds the same local feedback loop as the mechanism proposed for guiding saccades toward a stationary target (Fleuriet and Goffart, 2012 Journal of Neuroscience 32 452–461.

  8. Linking express saccade occurance to stimulus properties and sensorimotor integration in the superior colliculus.

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    Marino, Robert A; Levy, Ron; Munoz, Douglas P

    2015-08-01

    Express saccades represent the fastest possible eye movements to visual targets with reaction times that approach minimum sensory-motor conduction delays. Previous work in monkeys has identified two specific neural signals in the superior colliculus (SC: a midbrain sensorimotor integration structure involved in gaze control) that are required to execute express saccades: 1) previsual activity consisting of a low-frequency increase in action potentials in sensory-motor neurons immediately before the arrival of a visual response; and 2) a transient visual-sensory response consisting of a high-frequency burst of action potentials in visually responsive neurons resulting from the appearance of a visual target stimulus. To better understand how these two neural signals interact to produce express saccades, we manipulated the arrival time and magnitude of visual responses in the SC by altering target luminance and we examined the corresponding influences on SC activity and express saccade generation. We recorded from saccade neurons with visual-, motor-, and previsual-related activity in the SC of monkeys performing the gap saccade task while target luminance was systematically varied between 0.001 and 42.5 cd/m(2) against a black background (∼0.0001 cd/m(2)). Our results demonstrated that 1) express saccade latencies were linked directly to the arrival time in the SC of visual responses produced by abruptly appearing visual stimuli; 2) express saccades were generated toward both dim and bright targets whenever sufficient previsual activity was present; and 3) target luminance altered the likelihood of producing an express saccade. When an express saccade was generated, visuomotor neurons increased their activity immediately before the arrival of the visual response in the SC and saccade initiation. Furthermore, the visual and motor responses of visuomotor neurons merged into a single burst of action potentials, while the visual response of visual-only neurons was

  9. Linking express saccade occurance to stimulus properties and sensorimotor integration in the superior colliculus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levy, Ron; Munoz, Douglas P.

    2015-01-01

    Express saccades represent the fastest possible eye movements to visual targets with reaction times that approach minimum sensory-motor conduction delays. Previous work in monkeys has identified two specific neural signals in the superior colliculus (SC: a midbrain sensorimotor integration structure involved in gaze control) that are required to execute express saccades: 1) previsual activity consisting of a low-frequency increase in action potentials in sensory-motor neurons immediately before the arrival of a visual response; and 2) a transient visual-sensory response consisting of a high-frequency burst of action potentials in visually responsive neurons resulting from the appearance of a visual target stimulus. To better understand how these two neural signals interact to produce express saccades, we manipulated the arrival time and magnitude of visual responses in the SC by altering target luminance and we examined the corresponding influences on SC activity and express saccade generation. We recorded from saccade neurons with visual-, motor-, and previsual-related activity in the SC of monkeys performing the gap saccade task while target luminance was systematically varied between 0.001 and 42.5 cd/m2 against a black background (∼0.0001 cd/m2). Our results demonstrated that 1) express saccade latencies were linked directly to the arrival time in the SC of visual responses produced by abruptly appearing visual stimuli; 2) express saccades were generated toward both dim and bright targets whenever sufficient previsual activity was present; and 3) target luminance altered the likelihood of producing an express saccade. When an express saccade was generated, visuomotor neurons increased their activity immediately before the arrival of the visual response in the SC and saccade initiation. Furthermore, the visual and motor responses of visuomotor neurons merged into a single burst of action potentials, while the visual response of visual-only neurons was

  10. Saccades to remembered target locations: an analysis of systematic and variable errors.

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    White, J M; Sparks, D L; Stanford, T R

    1994-01-01

    We studied the effects of varying delay interval on the accuracy and velocity of saccades to the remembered locations of visual targets. Remembered saccades were less accurate than control saccades. Both systematic and variable errors contributed to the loss of accuracy. Systematic errors were similar in size for delay intervals ranging from 400 msec to 5.6 sec, but variable errors increased monotonically as delay intervals were lengthened. Compared to control saccades, remembered saccades were slower and the peak velocities were more variable. However, neither peak velocity nor variability in peak velocity was related to the duration of the delay interval. Our findings indicate that a memory-related process is not the major source of the systematic errors observed on memory trials.

  11. Direction of an initial saccade depends on radiological expertise

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    Pietrzyk, Mariusz W.; McEntee, Mark F.; Evanoff, Michael E.; Brennan, Patrick C.; Mello-Thoms, Claudia R.

    2014-03-01

    Purpose: To evaluate the role of radiographic details in global impression of chest x-ray images viewed by experts in thoracic and non-thoracic domains. Materials and Methods: The study was approved by IRB. Five thoracic and five non-thoracic radiologists participated in two tachistoscopic (one low pass and one with the entire frequency spectrum, each lasting 270 ms) each containing 50 PA chest radiographs with 50% prevalence of pulmonary nodule. Eye movements were monitored in order to evaluate a pre-saccade shift of visual attention, saccade latency, decision time and the time to first fixation on a pulmonary nodule. Results: Thoracic radiologists showed significantly higher pre-saccadic shift of visual attention towards pulmonary nodules once using the full frequency spectrum (p chest radiograph by allocating pre-saccade attention towards pulmonary nodules. This behavior correlated with a higher number of correct decisions, followed by higher confidence in the decisions made, and briefer reaction times.

  12. Influence of removal of invisible fixation on the saccadic and manual gap effect.

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    Ueda, Hiroshi; Takahashi, Kohske; Watanabe, Katsumi

    2014-01-01

    Saccadic and manual reactions to a peripherally presented target are facilitated by removing a central fixation stimulus shortly before a target onset (the gap effect). The present study examined the effects of removal of a visible and invisible fixation point on the saccadic gap effect and the manual gap effect. Participants were required to fixate a central fixation point and respond to a peripherally presented target as quickly and accurately as possible by making a saccade (Experiment 1) or pressing a corresponding key (Experiment 2). The fixation point was dichoptically presented, and visibility was manipulated by using binocular rivalry and continuous flash suppression technique. In both saccade and key-press tasks, removing the visible fixation strongly quickened the responses. Furthermore, the invisible fixation, which remained on the display but suppressed, significantly delayed the saccadic response. Contrarily, the invisible fixation had no effect on the manual task. These results indicate that partially different processes mediate the saccadic gap effect and the manual gap effect. In particular, unconscious processes might modulate an oculomotor-specific component of the saccadic gap effect, presumably via subcortical mechanisms.

  13. The cost of making an eye movement: A direct link between visual working memory and saccade execution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schut, Martijn J; Van der Stoep, Nathan; Postma, Albert; Van der Stigchel, Stefan

    2017-06-01

    To facilitate visual continuity across eye movements, the visual system must presaccadically acquire information about the future foveal image. Previous studies have indicated that visual working memory (VWM) affects saccade execution. However, the reverse relation, the effect of saccade execution on VWM load is less clear. To investigate the causal link between saccade execution and VWM, we combined a VWM task and a saccade task. Participants were instructed to remember one, two, or three shapes and performed either a No Saccade-, a Single Saccade- or a Dual (corrective) Saccade-task. The results indicate that items stored in VWM are reported less accurately if a single saccade-or a dual saccade-task is performed next to retaining items in VWM. Importantly, the loss of response accuracy for items retained in VWM by performing a saccade was similar to committing an extra item to VWM. In a second experiment, we observed no cost of executing a saccade for auditory working memory performance, indicating that executing a saccade exclusively taxes the VWM system. Our results suggest that the visual system presaccadically stores the upcoming retinal image, which has a similar VWM load as committing one extra item to memory and interferes with stored VWM content. After the saccade, the visual system can retrieve this item from VWM to evaluate saccade accuracy. Our results support the idea that VWM is a system which is directly linked to saccade execution and promotes visual continuity across saccades.

  14. The effects of video game play on the characteristics of saccadic eye movements.

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    Mack, David J; Ilg, Uwe J

    2014-09-01

    Video game play has become a common leisure activity all around the world. To reveal possible effects of playing video games, we measured saccades elicited by video game players (VGPs) and non-players (NVGPs) in two oculomotor tasks. First, our subjects performed a double-step task. Second, we asked our subjects to move their gaze opposite to the appearance of a visual target, i.e. to perform anti-saccades. As expected on the basis of previous studies, VGPs had significantly shorter saccadic reaction times (SRTs) than NVGPs for all saccade types. However, the error rates in the anti-saccade task did not reveal any significant differences. In fact, the error rates of VGPs were actually slightly lower compared to NVGPs (34% versus 40%, respectively). In addition, VGPs showed significantly higher saccadic peak velocities in every saccade type compared to NVGP. Our results suggest that faster SRTs in VGPs were associated with a more efficient motor drive for saccades. Taken together, our results are in excellent agreement with earlier reports of beneficial video game effects through the general reduction in SRTs. Our data clearly provides additional experimental evidence for an higher efficiency of the VGPs on the one hand and refutes the notion of a reduced impulse control in VGPs on the other. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. The Role of the Oculomotor System in Updating Visual-Spatial Working Memory across Saccades.

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    Boon, Paul J; Belopolsky, Artem V; Theeuwes, Jan

    2016-01-01

    Visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) helps us to maintain and manipulate visual information in the absence of sensory input. It has been proposed that VSWM is an emergent property of the oculomotor system. In the present study we investigated the role of the oculomotor system in updating of spatial working memory representations across saccades. Participants had to maintain a location in memory while making a saccade to a different location. During the saccade the target was displaced, which went unnoticed by the participants. After executing the saccade, participants had to indicate the memorized location. If memory updating fully relies on cancellation driven by extraretinal oculomotor signals, the displacement should have no effect on the perceived location of the memorized stimulus. However, if postsaccadic retinal information about the location of the saccade target is used, the perceived location will be shifted according to the target displacement. As it has been suggested that maintenance of accurate spatial representations across saccades is especially important for action control, we used different ways of reporting the location held in memory; a match-to-sample task, a mouse click or by making another saccade. The results showed a small systematic target displacement bias in all response modalities. Parametric manipulation of the distance between the to-be-memorized stimulus and saccade target revealed that target displacement bias increased over time and changed its spatial profile from being initially centered on locations around the saccade target to becoming spatially global. Taken together results suggest that we neither rely exclusively on extraretinal nor on retinal information in updating working memory representations across saccades. The relative contribution of retinal signals is not fixed but depends on both the time available to integrate these signals as well as the distance between the saccade target and the remembered location.

  16. Peripheral Contour Grouping and Saccade Targeting: The Role of Mirror Symmetry

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    Michaël Sassi

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Integrating shape contours in the visual periphery is vital to our ability to locate objects and thus make targeted saccadic eye movements to efficiently explore our surroundings. We tested whether global shape symmetry facilitates peripheral contour integration and saccade targeting in three experiments, in which observers responded to a successful peripheral contour detection by making a saccade towards the target shape. The target contours were horizontally (Experiment 1 or vertically (Experiments 2 and 3 mirror symmetric. Observers responded by making a horizontal (Experiments 1 and 2 or vertical (Experiment 3 eye movement. Based on an analysis of the saccadic latency and accuracy, we conclude that the figure-ground cue of global mirror symmetry in the periphery has little effect on contour integration or on the speed and precision with which saccades are targeted towards objects. The role of mirror symmetry may be more apparent under natural viewing conditions with multiple objects competing for attention, where symmetric regions in the visual field can pre-attentively signal the presence of objects, and thus attract eye movements.

  17. Learning Peri-saccadic Remapping of Receptive Field from Experience in Lateral Intraparietal Area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiao; Wu, Yan; Zhang, Mingsha; Wu, Si

    2017-01-01

    Our eyes move constantly at a frequency of 3-5 times per second. These movements, called saccades, induce the sweeping of visual images on the retina, yet we perceive the world as stable. It has been suggested that the brain achieves this visual stability via predictive remapping of neuronal receptive field (RF). A recent experimental study disclosed details of this remapping process in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP), that is, about the time of the saccade, the neuronal RF expands along the saccadic trajectory temporally, covering the current RF (CRF), the future RF (FRF), and the region the eye will sweep through during the saccade. A cortical wave (CW) model was also proposed, which attributes the RF remapping as a consequence of neural activity propagating in the cortex, triggered jointly by a visual stimulus and the corollary discharge (CD) signal responsible for the saccade. In this study, we investigate how this CW model is learned naturally from visual experiences at the development of the brain. We build a two-layer network, with one layer consisting of LIP neurons and the other superior colliculus (SC) neurons. Initially, neuronal connections are random and non-selective. A saccade will cause a static visual image to sweep through the retina passively, creating the effect of the visual stimulus moving in the opposite direction of the saccade. According to the spiking-time-dependent-plasticity rule, the connection path in the opposite direction of the saccade between LIP neurons and the connection path from SC to LIP are enhanced. Over many such visual experiences, the CW model is developed, which generates the peri-saccadic RF remapping in LIP as observed in the experiment.

  18. The influence of spatial congruency and movement preparation time on saccade curvature in simultaneous and sequential dual-tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moehler, Tobias; Fiehler, Katja

    2015-11-01

    Saccade curvature represents a sensitive measure of oculomotor inhibition with saccades curving away from covertly attended locations. Here we investigated whether and how saccade curvature depends on movement preparation time when a perceptual task is performed during or before saccade preparation. Participants performed a dual-task including a visual discrimination task at a cued location and a saccade task to the same location (congruent) or to a different location (incongruent). Additionally, we varied saccade preparation time (time between saccade cue and Go-signal) and the occurrence of the discrimination task (during saccade preparation=simultaneous vs. before saccade preparation=sequential). We found deteriorated perceptual performance in incongruent trials during simultaneous task performance while perceptual performance was unaffected during sequential task performance. Saccade accuracy and precision were deteriorated in incongruent trials during simultaneous and, to a lesser extent, also during sequential task performance. Saccades consistently curved away from covertly attended non-saccade locations. Saccade curvature was unaffected by movement preparation time during simultaneous task performance but decreased and finally vanished with increasing movement preparation time during sequential task performance. Our results indicate that the competing saccade plan to the covertly attended non-saccade location is maintained during simultaneous task performance until the perceptual task is solved while in the sequential condition, in which the discrimination task is solved prior to the saccade task, oculomotor inhibition decays gradually with movement preparation time. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Evidence for optimal integration of visual feature representations across saccades

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oostwoud Wijdenes, L.; Marshall, L.; Bays, P.M.

    2015-01-01

    We explore the visual world through saccadic eye movements, but saccades also present a challenge to visual processing by shifting externally stable objects from one retinal location to another. The brain could solve this problem in two ways: by overwriting preceding input and starting afresh with

  20. Neurons in cortical area MST remap the memory trace of visual motion across saccadic eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Inaba, Naoko; Kawano, Kenji

    2014-05-27

    Perception of a stable visual world despite eye motion requires integration of visual information across saccadic eye movements. To investigate how the visual system deals with localization of moving visual stimuli across saccades, we observed spatiotemporal changes of receptive fields (RFs) of motion-sensitive neurons across periods of saccades in the middle temporal (MT) and medial superior temporal (MST) areas. We found that the location of the RFs moved with shifts of eye position due to saccades, indicating that motion-sensitive neurons in both areas have retinotopic RFs across saccades. Different characteristic responses emerged when the moving visual stimulus was turned off before the saccades. For MT neurons, virtually no response was observed after the saccade, suggesting that the responses of these neurons simply reflect the reafferent visual information. In contrast, most MST neurons increased their firing rates when a saccade brought the location of the visual stimulus into their RFs, where the visual stimulus itself no longer existed. These findings suggest that the responses of such MST neurons after saccades were evoked by a memory of the stimulus that had preexisted in the postsaccadic RFs ("memory remapping"). A delayed-saccade paradigm further revealed that memory remapping in MST was linked to the saccade itself, rather than to a shift in attention. Thus, the visual motion information across saccades was integrated in spatiotopic coordinates and represented in the activity of MST neurons. This is likely to contribute to the perception of a stable visual world in the presence of eye movements.

  1. Role of retinal slip in the prediction of target motion during smooth and saccadic pursuit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Brouwer, S; Missal, M; Lefèvre, P

    2001-08-01

    Visual tracking of moving targets requires the combination of smooth pursuit eye movements with catch-up saccades. In primates, catch-up saccades usually take place only during pursuit initiation because pursuit gain is close to unity. This contrasts with the lower and more variable gain of smooth pursuit in cats, where smooth eye movements are intermingled with catch-up saccades during steady-state pursuit. In this paper, we studied in detail the role of retinal slip in the prediction of target motion during smooth and saccadic pursuit in the cat. We found that the typical pattern of pursuit in the cat was a combination of smooth eye movements with saccades. During smooth pursuit initiation, there was a correlation between peak eye acceleration and target velocity. During pursuit maintenance, eye velocity oscillated at approximately 3 Hz around a steady-state value. The average gain of smooth pursuit was approximately 0.5. Trained cats were able to continue pursuing in the absence of a visible target, suggesting a role of the prediction of future target motion in this species. The analysis of catch-up saccades showed that the smooth-pursuit motor command is added to the saccadic command during catch-up saccades and that both position error and retinal slip are taken into account in their programming. The influence of retinal slip on catch-up saccades showed that prediction about future target motion is used in the programming of catch-up saccades. Altogether, these results suggest that pursuit systems in primates and cats are qualitatively similar, with a lower average gain in the cat and that prediction affects both saccades and smooth eye movements during pursuit.

  2. Learning Peri-saccadic Remapping of Receptive Field from Experience in Lateral Intraparietal Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiao Wang

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Our eyes move constantly at a frequency of 3–5 times per second. These movements, called saccades, induce the sweeping of visual images on the retina, yet we perceive the world as stable. It has been suggested that the brain achieves this visual stability via predictive remapping of neuronal receptive field (RF. A recent experimental study disclosed details of this remapping process in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP, that is, about the time of the saccade, the neuronal RF expands along the saccadic trajectory temporally, covering the current RF (CRF, the future RF (FRF, and the region the eye will sweep through during the saccade. A cortical wave (CW model was also proposed, which attributes the RF remapping as a consequence of neural activity propagating in the cortex, triggered jointly by a visual stimulus and the corollary discharge (CD signal responsible for the saccade. In this study, we investigate how this CW model is learned naturally from visual experiences at the development of the brain. We build a two-layer network, with one layer consisting of LIP neurons and the other superior colliculus (SC neurons. Initially, neuronal connections are random and non-selective. A saccade will cause a static visual image to sweep through the retina passively, creating the effect of the visual stimulus moving in the opposite direction of the saccade. According to the spiking-time-dependent-plasticity rule, the connection path in the opposite direction of the saccade between LIP neurons and the connection path from SC to LIP are enhanced. Over many such visual experiences, the CW model is developed, which generates the peri-saccadic RF remapping in LIP as observed in the experiment.

  3. Breaking object correspondence across saccadic eye movements deteriorates object recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christian H. Poth

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Visual perception is based on information processing during periods of eye fixations that are interrupted by fast saccadic eye movements. The ability to sample and relate information on task-relevant objects across fixations implies that correspondence between presaccadic and postsaccadic objects is established. Postsaccadic object information usually updates and overwrites information on the corresponding presaccadic object. The presaccadic object representation is then lost. In contrast, the presaccadic object is conserved when object correspondence is broken. This helps transsaccadic memory but it may impose attentional costs on object recognition. Therefore, we investigated how breaking object correspondence across the saccade affects postsaccadic object recognition. In Experiment 1, object correspondence was broken by a brief postsaccadic blank screen. Observers made a saccade to a peripheral object which was displaced during the saccade. This object reappeared either immediately after the saccade or after the blank screen. Within the postsaccadic object, a letter was briefly presented (terminated by a mask. Observers reported displacement direction and letter identity in different blocks. Breaking object correspondence by blanking improved displacement identification but deteriorated postsaccadic letter recognition. In Experiment 2, object correspondence was broken by changing the object’s contrast-polarity. There were no object displacements and observers only reported letter identity. Again, breaking object correspondence deteriorated postsaccadic letter recognition. These findings identify transsaccadic object correspondence as a key determinant of object recognition across the saccade. This is in line with the recent hypothesis that breaking object correspondence results in separate representations of presaccadic and postsaccadic objects which then compete for limited attentional processing resources (Schneider, 2013. Postsaccadic

  4. Lateralized EEG components with direction information for the preparation of saccades versus finger movements

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Lubbe, Robert Henricus Johannes; Wauschkuhn, Bernd; Wascher, Edmund; Niehoff, Torsten; Kömpf, Detlef; Verleger, Rolf

    2000-01-01

    During preparation of horizontal saccades in humans, several lateralized (relative to saccade direction), event-related EEG components occur that have been interpreted as reflecting activity of frontal and parietal eye fields. We investigated to what degree these components are specific to saccade

  5. The effect of offset cues on saccade programming and covert attention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Daniel T; Casteau, Soazig

    2018-02-01

    Salient peripheral events trigger fast, "exogenous" covert orienting. The influential premotor theory of attention argues that covert orienting of attention depends upon planned but unexecuted eye-movements. One problem with this theory is that salient peripheral events, such as offsets, appear to summon attention when used to measure covert attention (e.g., the Posner cueing task) but appear not to elicit oculomotor preparation in tasks that require overt orienting (e.g., the remote distractor paradigm). Here, we examined the effects of peripheral offsets on covert attention and saccade preparation. Experiment 1 suggested that transient offsets summoned attention in a manual detection task without triggering motor preparation planning in a saccadic localisation task, although there were a high proportion of saccadic capture errors on "no-target" trials, where a cue was presented but no target appeared. In Experiment 2, "no-target" trials were removed. Here, transient offsets produced both attentional facilitation and faster saccadic responses on valid cue trials. A third experiment showed that the permanent disappearance of an object also elicited attentional facilitation and faster saccadic reaction times. These experiments demonstrate that offsets trigger both saccade programming and covert attentional orienting, consistent with the idea that exogenous, covert orienting is tightly coupled with oculomotor activation. The finding that no-go trials attenuates oculomotor priming effects offers a way to reconcile the current findings with previous claims of a dissociation between covert attention and oculomotor control in paradigms that utilise a high proportion of catch trials.

  6. Saccadic interception of a moving visual target after a spatiotemporal perturbation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleuriet, Jérome; Goffart, Laurent

    2012-01-11

    Animals can make saccadic eye movements to intercept a moving object at the right place and time. Such interceptive saccades indicate that, despite variable sensorimotor delays, the brain is able to estimate the current spatiotemporal (hic et nunc) coordinates of a target at saccade end. The present work further tests the robustness of this estimate in the monkey when a change in eye position and a delay are experimentally added before the onset of the saccade and in the absence of visual feedback. These perturbations are induced by brief microstimulation in the deep superior colliculus (dSC). When the microstimulation moves the eyes in the direction opposite to the target motion, a correction saccade brings gaze back on the target path or very near. When it moves the eye in the same direction, the performance is more variable and depends on the stimulated sites. Saccades fall ahead of the target with an error that increases when the stimulation is applied more caudally in the dSC. The numerous cases of compensation indicate that the brain is able to maintain an accurate and robust estimate of the location of the moving target. The inaccuracies observed when stimulating the dSC that encodes the visual field traversed by the target indicate that dSC microstimulation can interfere with signals encoding the target motion path. The results are discussed within the framework of the dual-drive and the remapping hypotheses.

  7. Looking away: distractor influences on saccadic trajectory and endpoint in prosaccade and antisaccade tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laidlaw, Kaitlin E W; Zhu, Mona J H; Kingstone, Alan

    2016-06-01

    Successful target selection often occurs concurrently with distractor inhibition. A better understanding of the former thus requires a thorough study of the competition that arises between target and distractor representations. In the present study, we explore whether the presence of a distractor influences saccade processing via interfering with visual target and/or saccade goal representations. To do this, we asked participants to make either pro- or antisaccade eye movements to a target and measured the change in their saccade trajectory and landing position (collectively referred to as deviation) in response to distractors placed near or far from the saccade goal. The use of an antisaccade paradigm may help to distinguish between stimulus- and goal-related distractor interference, as unlike with prosaccades, these two features are dissociated in space when making a goal-directed antisaccade response away from a visual target stimulus. The present results demonstrate that for both pro- and antisaccades, distractors near the saccade goal elicited the strongest competition, as indicated by greater saccade trajectory deviation and landing position error. Though distractors far from the saccade goal elicited, on average, greater deviation away in antisaccades than in prosaccades, a time-course analysis revealed a significant effect of far-from-goal distractors in prosaccades as well. Considered together, the present findings support the view that goal-related representations most strongly influence the saccade metrics tested, though stimulus-related representations may play a smaller role in determining distractor-based interference effects on saccade execution under certain circumstances. Further, the results highlight the advantage of considering temporal changes in distractor-based interference.

  8. Electrical stimulation of the primate lateral habenula suppresses saccadic eye movement through a learning mechanism.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masayuki Matsumoto

    Full Text Available The lateral habenula (LHb is a brain structure which represents negative motivational value. Neurons in the LHb are excited by unpleasant events such as reward omission and aversive stimuli, and transmit these signals to midbrain dopamine neurons which are involved in learning and motivation. However, it remains unclear whether these phasic changes in LHb neuronal activity actually influence animal behavior. To answer this question, we artificially activated the LHb by electrical stimulation while monkeys were performing a visually guided saccade task. In one block of trials, saccades to one fixed direction (e.g., right direction were followed by electrical stimulation of the LHb while saccades to the other direction (e.g., left direction were not. The direction-stimulation contingency was reversed in the next block. We found that the post-saccadic stimulation of the LHb increased the latencies of saccades in subsequent trials. Notably, the increase of the latency occurred gradually as the saccade was repeatedly followed by the stimulation, suggesting that the effect of the post-saccadic stimulation was accumulated across trials. LHb stimulation starting before saccades, on the other hand, had no effect on saccade latency. Together with previous studies showing LHb activation by reward omission and aversive stimuli, the present stimulation experiment suggests that LHb activity contributes to learning to suppress actions which lead to unpleasant events.

  9. Bayesian extraction of the parton distribution amplitude from the Bethe-Salpeter wave function

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Fei; Chang, Lei; Liu, Yu-xin

    2017-07-01

    We propose a new numerical method to compute the parton distribution amplitude (PDA) from the Euclidean Bethe-Salpeter wave function. The essential step is to extract the weight function in the Nakanishi representation of the Bethe-Salpeter wave function in Euclidean space, which is an ill-posed inversion problem, via the maximum entropy method (MEM). The Nakanishi weight function as well as the corresponding light-front parton distribution amplitude (PDA) can be well determined. We confirm prior work on PDA computations, which was based on different methods.

  10. Dynamic ensemble coding of saccades in the monkey superior colliculus.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Goossens, H.H.L.M.; Opstal, A.J. van

    2006-01-01

    The deeper layers of the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) contain a topographic motor map in which a localized population of cells is recruited for each saccade, but how the brain stem decodes the dynamic SC output is unclear. Here we analyze saccade-related responses in the monkey SC to test a new

  11. Scene Categorization in Alzheimer's Disease: A Saccadic Choice Task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Quentin Lenoble

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Aims: We investigated the performance in scene categorization of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD using a saccadic choice task. Method: 24 patients with mild AD, 28 age-matched controls and 26 young people participated in the study. The participants were presented pairs of coloured photographs and were asked to make a saccadic eye movement to the picture corresponding to the target scene (natural vs. urban, indoor vs. outdoor. Results: The patients' performance did not differ from chance for natural scenes. Differences between young and older controls and patients with AD were found in accuracy but not saccadic latency. Conclusions: The results are interpreted in terms of cerebral reorganization in the prefrontal and temporo-occipital cortex of patients with AD, but also in terms of impaired processing of visual global properties of scenes.

  12. Bayesian extraction of the parton distribution amplitude from the Bethe–Salpeter wave function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fei Gao

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available We propose a new numerical method to compute the parton distribution amplitude (PDA from the Euclidean Bethe–Salpeter wave function. The essential step is to extract the weight function in the Nakanishi representation of the Bethe–Salpeter wave function in Euclidean space, which is an ill-posed inversion problem, via the maximum entropy method (MEM. The Nakanishi weight function as well as the corresponding light-front parton distribution amplitude (PDA can be well determined. We confirm prior work on PDA computations, which was based on different methods.

  13. Oculomotor evidence for top-down control following the initial saccade.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alisha Siebold

    Full Text Available The goal of the current study was to investigate how salience-driven and goal-driven processes unfold during visual search over multiple eye movements. Eye movements were recorded while observers searched for a target, which was located on (Experiment 1 or defined as (Experiment 2 a specific orientation singleton. This singleton could either be the most, medium, or least salient element in the display. Results were analyzed as a function of response time separately for initial and second eye movements. Irrespective of the search task, initial saccades elicited shortly after the onset of the search display were primarily salience-driven whereas initial saccades elicited after approximately 250 ms were completely unaffected by salience. Initial saccades were increasingly guided in line with task requirements with increasing response times. Second saccades were completely unaffected by salience and were consistently goal-driven, irrespective of response time. These results suggest that stimulus-salience affects the visual system only briefly after a visual image enters the brain and has no effect thereafter.

  14. Assessment of the perception of verticality and horizontality with self-paced saccades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pettorossi, V E; Bambagioni, D; Bronstein, A M; Gresty, M A

    1998-07-01

    We investigated the ability of human subjects (Ss) to make self-paced saccades in the earth-vertical and horizontal directions (space-referenced task) and in the direction of the head-vertical and horizontal axis (self-referenced task) during whole body tilts of 0 degrees, 22.5 degrees, 45 degrees and 90 degrees in the frontal (roll) plane. Saccades were recorded in the dark with computerised video-oculography. During space-referenced tasks, the saccade vectors did not fully counter-rotate to compensate for larger angles of body tilt. This finding is in agreement with the 'A' effect reported for the visual vertical. The error was significantly larger for saccades intended to be space-horizontal than space-vertical. This vertico-horizontal dissociation implies greater difficulty in defining horizontality than verticality with the non-visual motor task employed. In contrast, normal Ss (and an alabyrinthine subject tested) were accurate in orienting saccades to their own (cranio-centric) vertical and horizontal axes regardless of tilt indicating that cranio-centric perception is robust and apparently not affected by gravitational influences.

  15. On the joint distribution of excursion duration and amplitude of a narrow-band Gaussian process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ghane, Mahdi; Gao, Zhen; Blanke, Mogens

    2018-01-01

    of amplitude and period are limited to excursion through a mean-level or to describe the asymptotic behavior of high level excursions. This paper extends the knowledge by presenting a theoretical derivation of probability of wave exceedance amplitude and duration, for a narrow-band Gaussian process......The probability density of crest amplitude and of duration of exceeding a given level are used in many theoretical and practical problems in engineering. The joint density is essential for design of constructions that are subjected to waves and wind. The presently available joint distributions...... distribution, as expected, and that the marginal distribution of excursion duration works both for asymptotic and non-asymptotic cases. The suggested model is found to be a good replacement for the empirical distributions that are widely used. Results from simulations of narrow-band Gaussian processes, real...

  16. Mechanism of interrupted saccades in patients with late-onset Tay-Sachs disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Optican, Lance M; Rucker, Janet C; Keller, Edward L; Leigh, R John

    2008-01-01

    In late-onset Tay-Sachs disease (LOTS), saccades are interrupted by one or more transient decelerations. Some saccades reaccelerate and continue on before eye velocity reaches zero, even in darkness. Intervals between successive decelerations are not regularly spaced. Peak decelerations of horizontal and vertical components of oblique saccades in LOTS is more synchronous than those in control subjects. We hypothesize that these decelerations are caused by dysregulation of the fastigial nuclei (FN) of the cerebellum, which fire brain stem inhibitory burst neurons (IBNs).

  17. Abnormalities of fixation, saccade and pursuit in posterior cortical atrophy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shakespeare, Timothy J; Kaski, Diego; Yong, Keir X X; Paterson, Ross W; Slattery, Catherine F; Ryan, Natalie S; Schott, Jonathan M; Crutch, Sebastian J

    2015-07-01

    The clinico-neuroradiological syndrome posterior cortical atrophy is the cardinal 'visual dementia' and most common atypical Alzheimer's disease phenotype, offering insights into mechanisms underlying clinical heterogeneity, pathological propagation and basic visual phenomena (e.g. visual crowding). Given the extensive attention paid to patients' (higher order) perceptual function, it is surprising that there have been no systematic analyses of basic oculomotor function in this population. Here 20 patients with posterior cortical atrophy, 17 patients with typical Alzheimer's disease and 22 healthy controls completed tests of fixation, saccade (including fixation/target gap and overlap conditions) and smooth pursuit eye movements using an infrared pupil-tracking system. Participants underwent detailed neuropsychological and neurological examinations, with a proportion also undertaking brain imaging and analysis of molecular pathology. In contrast to informal clinical evaluations of oculomotor dysfunction frequency (previous studies: 38%, current clinical examination: 33%), detailed eyetracking investigations revealed eye movement abnormalities in 80% of patients with posterior cortical atrophy (compared to 17% typical Alzheimer's disease, 5% controls). The greatest differences between posterior cortical atrophy and typical Alzheimer's disease were seen in saccadic performance. Patients with posterior cortical atrophy made significantly shorter saccades especially for distant targets. They also exhibited a significant exacerbation of the normal gap/overlap effect, consistent with 'sticky fixation'. Time to reach saccadic targets was significantly associated with parietal and occipital cortical thickness measures. On fixation stability tasks, patients with typical Alzheimer's disease showed more square wave jerks whose frequency was associated with lower cerebellar grey matter volume, while patients with posterior cortical atrophy showed large saccadic intrusions

  18. What we remember affects how we see: spatial working memory steers saccade programming.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Jason H; Peterson, Matthew S

    2013-02-01

    Relationships between visual attention, saccade programming, and visual working memory have been hypothesized for over a decade. Awh, Jonides, and Reuter-Lorenz (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 24(3):780-90, 1998) and Awh et al. (Psychological Science 10(5):433-437, 1999) proposed that rehearsing a location in memory also leads to enhanced attentional processing at that location. In regard to eye movements, Belopolsky and Theeuwes (Attention, Perception & Psychophysics 71(3):620-631, 2009) found that holding a location in working memory affects saccade programming, albeit negatively. In three experiments, we attempted to replicate the findings of Belopolsky and Theeuwes (Attention, Perception & Psychophysics 71(3):620-631, 2009) and determine whether the spatial memory effect can occur in other saccade-cuing paradigms, including endogenous central arrow cues and exogenous irrelevant singletons. In the first experiment, our results were the opposite of those in Belopolsky and Theeuwes (Attention, Perception & Psychophysics 71(3):620-631, 2009), in that we found facilitation (shorter saccade latencies) instead of inhibition when the saccade target matched the region in spatial working memory. In Experiment 2, we sought to determine whether the spatial working memory effect would generalize to other endogenous cuing tasks, such as a central arrow that pointed to one of six possible peripheral locations. As in Experiment 1, we found that saccade programming was facilitated when the cued location coincided with the saccade target. In Experiment 3, we explored how spatial memory interacts with other types of cues, such as a peripheral color singleton target or irrelevant onset. In both cases, the eyes were more likely to go to either singleton when it coincided with the location held in spatial working memory. On the basis of these results, we conclude that spatial working memory and saccade programming are likely to share common

  19. Slower saccadic reading in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jehangir, Naz; Yu, Caroline Yizhu; Song, Jeehey; Shariati, Mohammad Ali; Binder, Steven; Beyer, Jill; Santini, Veronica; Poston, Kathleen; Liao, Yaping Joyce

    2018-01-01

    Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (PD) is characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic and other neurons, leading to motor and non-motor deficits. Abnormal eye movements in PD, including fixations, saccades, and convergence, are well described. However, saccadic reading, which requires serial and alternating saccades and fixations, is not well studied, despite its obvious impact on the quality of life. In this study, we assessed saccadic reading using variations of the King-Devick (KD) test, a rapid single digit number naming test, as a way to assess the ability to make serial left-to-right ocular motor movements necessary for reading. We recruited 42 treated PD patients and 80 age-matched controls and compared their reading times with a variety of measures, including age, duration of disease, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the National Eye Institute 25-Item Visual Functioning Questionnaire 25 (VFQ-25), and Montreal Cognitive assessment (MoCA) test. The subjects performed 4 trials of reading 120 single digit numbers aloud as fast as possible without making errors. In each trial, they read 3 pages (KD1, KD2, and KD3), and each page contained 40 numbers per page in 8 lines with 5 numbers/line. We found that PD patients read about 20% slower than controls on all tests (KD1, 2, and 3 tests) (p < 0.02), and both groups read irregularly spaced numbers slower than regularly spaced numbers. Having lines between numbers to guide reading (KD1 tests) did not impact reading time in both PD and controls, but increased visual crowding as a result of decreased spacing between numbers (KD3 tests) was associated with significantly slower reading times in both PD and control groups. Our study revealed that saccadic reading is slower in PD, but controls and PD patients are both impacted by visuospatial planning challenges posed by increased visual crowding and irregularity of number spacing. Reading time did not correlate with UPDRS or MoCA scores in PD patients but

  20. Earlier saccades to task-relevant targets irrespective of relative gain between peripheral and foveal information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, Christian; Schütz, Alexander C

    2017-06-01

    Saccades bring objects of interest onto the fovea for high-acuity processing. Saccades to rewarded targets show shorter latencies that correlate negatively with expected motivational value. Shorter latencies are also observed when the saccade target is relevant for a perceptual discrimination task. Here we tested whether saccade preparation is equally influenced by informational value as it is by motivational value. We defined informational value as the probability that information is task-relevant times the ratio between postsaccadic foveal and presaccadic peripheral discriminability. Using a gaze-contingent display, we independently manipulated peripheral and foveal discriminability of the saccade target. Latencies of saccades with perceptual task were reduced by 36 ms in general, but they were not modulated by the information saccades provide (Experiments 1 and 2). However, latencies showed a clear negative linear correlation with the probability that the target is task-relevant (Experiment 3). We replicated that the facilitation by a perceptual task is spatially specific and not due to generally heightened arousal (Experiment 4). Finally, the facilitation only emerged when the perceptual task is in the visual but not in the auditory modality (Experiment 5). Taken together, these results suggest that saccade latencies are not equally modulated by informational value as by motivational value. The facilitation by a perceptual task only arises when task-relevant visual information is foveated, irrespective of whether the foveation is useful or not.

  1. The nucleon's transversity and the photon's distribution amplitude probed in lepton pair photoproduction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Szymanowski, Lech [Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Hoza 69, 00691, Warsaw (Poland); Pire, Bernard [Centre de Physique Theorique - CPHT, UMR 7644, Ecole Polytechnique, Bat. 6, RDC, F91128 Palaiseau Cedex (France)

    2010-07-01

    We describe a new way to access the chiral odd transversity parton distribution in the proton through the photoproduction of lepton pairs. The basic ingredient is the interference of the usual Bethe Heitler or Drell-Yan amplitudes with the amplitude of a process, where the photon couples to quarks through its chiral-odd distribution amplitude, which is normalized to the magnetic susceptibility of the QCD vacuum. A phenomenology of single and double spin observables emerges from the unusual features of this amplitude (Phys.Rev.Lett.103:072002,2009). (authors)

  2. Effect of attenuation correction on surface amplitude distribution of wind waves

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Varkey, M.J.

    Some selected wave profiles recorded using a ship borne wave recorder are analysed to study the effect of attenuation correction on the distribution of the surface amplitudes. A new spectral width parameter is defined to account for wide band...

  3. Memory-guided saccade processing in visual form agnosia (patient DF).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossit, Stéphanie; Szymanek, Larissa; Butler, Stephen H; Harvey, Monika

    2010-01-01

    According to Milner and Goodale's model (The visual brain in action, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006) areas in the ventral visual stream mediate visual perception and oV-line actions, whilst regions in the dorsal visual stream mediate the on-line visual control of action. Strong evidence for this model comes from a patient (DF), who suffers from visual form agnosia after bilateral damage to the ventro-lateral occipital region, sparing V1. It has been reported that she is normal in immediate reaching and grasping, yet severely impaired when asked to perform delayed actions. Here we investigated whether this dissociation would extend to saccade execution. Neurophysiological studies and TMS work in humans have shown that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), on the right in particular (supposedly spared in DF), is involved in the control of memory-guided saccades. Surprisingly though, we found that, just as reported for reaching and grasping, DF's saccadic accuracy was much reduced in the memory compared to the stimulus-guided condition. These data support the idea of a tight coupling of eye and hand movements and further suggest that dorsal stream structures may not be sufficient to drive memory-guided saccadic performance.

  4. Charge amplitude distribution of the Gossip gaseous pixel detector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Blanco Carballo, V.M. [Twente University, Enschede (Netherlands); Chefdeville, M. [NIKHEF, P.B. 41882, 1009DB Amsterdam (Netherlands); Colas, P.; Giomataris, Y. [Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Graaf, H. van der; Gromov, V. [NIKHEF, P.B. 41882, 1009DB Amsterdam (Netherlands); Hartjes, F. [NIKHEF, P.B. 41882, 1009DB Amsterdam (Netherlands)], E-mail: F.Hartjes@nikhef.nl; Kluit, R.; Koffeman, E. [NIKHEF, P.B. 41882, 1009DB Amsterdam (Netherlands); Salm, C.; Schmitz, J.; Smits, S.M. [Twente University, Enschede (Netherlands); Timmermans, J.; Visschers, J.L. [NIKHEF, P.B. 41882, 1009DB Amsterdam (Netherlands)

    2007-12-11

    The Gossip gaseous pixel detector is being developed for the detection of charged particles in extreme high radiation environments as foreseen close to the interaction point of the proposed super LHC. The detecting medium is a thin layer of gas. Because of the low density of this medium, only a few primary electron/ion pairs are created by the traversing particle. To get a detectable signal, the electrons drift towards a perforated metal foil (Micromegas) whereafter they are multiplied in a gas avalanche to provide a detectable signal. The gas avalanche occurs in the high field between the Micromegas and the pixel readout chip (ROC). Compared to a silicon pixel detector, Gossip features a low material budget and a low cooling power. An experiment using X-rays has indicated a possible high radiation tolerance exceeding 10{sup 16} hadrons/cm{sup 2}. The amplified charge signal has a broad amplitude distribution due to the limited statistics of the primary ionization and the statistical variation of the gas amplification. Therefore, some degree of inefficiency is inevitable. This study presents experimental results on the charge amplitude distribution for CO{sub 2}/DME (dimethyl-ether) and Ar/iC{sub 4}H{sub 10} mixtures. The measured curves were fitted with the outcome of a theoretical model. In the model, the physical Landau distribution is approximated by a Poisson distribution that is convoluted with the variation of the gas gain and the electronic noise. The value for the fraction of pedestal events is used for a direct calculation of the cluster density. For some gases, the measured cluster density is considerably lower than given in literature.

  5. Charge amplitude distribution of the Gossip gaseous pixel detector

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanco Carballo, V. M.; Chefdeville, M.; Colas, P.; Giomataris, Y.; van der Graaf, H.; Gromov, V.; Hartjes, F.; Kluit, R.; Koffeman, E.; Salm, C.; Schmitz, J.; Smits, S. M.; Timmermans, J.; Visschers, J. L.

    2007-12-01

    The Gossip gaseous pixel detector is being developed for the detection of charged particles in extreme high radiation environments as foreseen close to the interaction point of the proposed super LHC. The detecting medium is a thin layer of gas. Because of the low density of this medium, only a few primary electron/ion pairs are created by the traversing particle. To get a detectable signal, the electrons drift towards a perforated metal foil (Micromegas) whereafter they are multiplied in a gas avalanche to provide a detectable signal. The gas avalanche occurs in the high field between the Micromegas and the pixel readout chip (ROC). Compared to a silicon pixel detector, Gossip features a low material budget and a low cooling power. An experiment using X-rays has indicated a possible high radiation tolerance exceeding 10 16 hadrons/cm 2. The amplified charge signal has a broad amplitude distribution due to the limited statistics of the primary ionization and the statistical variation of the gas amplification. Therefore, some degree of inefficiency is inevitable. This study presents experimental results on the charge amplitude distribution for CO 2/DME (dimethyl-ether) and Ar/iC 4H 10 mixtures. The measured curves were fitted with the outcome of a theoretical model. In the model, the physical Landau distribution is approximated by a Poisson distribution that is convoluted with the variation of the gas gain and the electronic noise. The value for the fraction of pedestal events is used for a direct calculation of the cluster density. For some gases, the measured cluster density is considerably lower than given in literature.

  6. Charge amplitude distribution of the Gossip gaseous pixel detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blanco Carballo, V.M.; Chefdeville, M.; Colas, P.; Giomataris, Y.; Graaf, H. van der; Gromov, V.; Hartjes, F.; Kluit, R.; Koffeman, E.; Salm, C.; Schmitz, J.; Smits, S.M.; Timmermans, J.; Visschers, J.L.

    2007-01-01

    The Gossip gaseous pixel detector is being developed for the detection of charged particles in extreme high radiation environments as foreseen close to the interaction point of the proposed super LHC. The detecting medium is a thin layer of gas. Because of the low density of this medium, only a few primary electron/ion pairs are created by the traversing particle. To get a detectable signal, the electrons drift towards a perforated metal foil (Micromegas) whereafter they are multiplied in a gas avalanche to provide a detectable signal. The gas avalanche occurs in the high field between the Micromegas and the pixel readout chip (ROC). Compared to a silicon pixel detector, Gossip features a low material budget and a low cooling power. An experiment using X-rays has indicated a possible high radiation tolerance exceeding 10 16 hadrons/cm 2 . The amplified charge signal has a broad amplitude distribution due to the limited statistics of the primary ionization and the statistical variation of the gas amplification. Therefore, some degree of inefficiency is inevitable. This study presents experimental results on the charge amplitude distribution for CO 2 /DME (dimethyl-ether) and Ar/iC 4 H 10 mixtures. The measured curves were fitted with the outcome of a theoretical model. In the model, the physical Landau distribution is approximated by a Poisson distribution that is convoluted with the variation of the gas gain and the electronic noise. The value for the fraction of pedestal events is used for a direct calculation of the cluster density. For some gases, the measured cluster density is considerably lower than given in literature

  7. Effects of Saccadic Bilateral Eye Movements on Episodic and Semantic Autobiographical Memory Fluency

    OpenAIRE

    Parker, Andrew; Parkin, Adam; Dagnall, Neil

    2013-01-01

    Performing a sequence of fast saccadic horizontal eye movements has been shown to facilitate performance on a range of cognitive tasks, including the retrieval of episodic memories. One explanation for these effects is based on the hypothesis that saccadic eye movements increase hemispheric interaction, and that such interactions are important for particular types of memory. The aim of the current research was to assess the effect of horizontal saccadic eye movements on the retrieval of both ...

  8. Analysis of EEG Related Saccadic Eye Movement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Funase, Arao; Kuno, Yoshiaki; Okuma, Shigeru; Yagi, Tohru

    Our final goal is to establish the model for saccadic eye movement that connects the saccade and the electroencephalogram(EEG). As the first step toward this goal, we recorded and analyzed the saccade-related EEG. In the study recorded in this paper, we tried detecting a certain EEG that is peculiar to the eye movement. In these experiments, each subject was instructed to point their eyes toward visual targets (LEDs) or the direction of the sound sources (buzzers). In the control cases, the EEG was recorded in the case of no eye movemens. As results, in the visual experiments, we found that the potential of EEG changed sharply on the occipital lobe just before eye movement. Furthermore, in the case of the auditory experiments, similar results were observed. In the case of the visual experiments and auditory experiments without eye movement, we could not observed the EEG changed sharply. Moreover, when the subject moved his/her eyes toward a right-side target, a change in EEG potential was found on the right occipital lobe. On the contrary, when the subject moved his/her eyes toward a left-side target, a sharp change in EEG potential was found on the left occipital lobe.

  9. Spatiotemporal overlap between brain activation related to saccade preparation and attentional orienting.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Lubbe, Robert Henricus Johannes; Neggers, Sebastiaan F.W.; Verleger, Rolf; Kenemans, J. Leon

    2006-01-01

    Recent brain imaging studies provided evidence that the brain areas involved with attentional orienting and the preparation of saccades largely overlap, which may indicate that focusing attention at a specific location can be considered as an unexecuted saccade towards that location (i.e. the

  10. Competition between color and luminance for target selection in smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spering, Miriam; Montagnini, Anna; Gegenfurtner, Karl R

    2008-11-24

    Visual processing of color and luminance for smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements was investigated using a target selection paradigm. In two experiments, stimuli were varied along the dimensions color and luminance, and selection of the more salient target was compared in pursuit and saccades. Initial pursuit was biased in the direction of the luminance component whereas saccades showed a relative preference for color. An early pursuit response toward luminance was often reversed to color by a later saccade. Observers' perceptual judgments of stimulus salience, obtained in two control experiments, were clearly biased toward luminance. This choice bias in perceptual data implies that the initial short-latency pursuit response agrees with perceptual judgments. In contrast, saccades, which have a longer latency than pursuit, do not seem to follow the perceptual judgment of salience but instead show a stronger relative preference for color. These substantial differences in target selection imply that target selection processes for pursuit and saccadic eye movements use distinctly different weights for color and luminance stimuli.

  11. Modulation of motor control in saccadic behaviors by TMS over the posterior parietal cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liang, Wei-Kuang; Juan, Chi-Hung

    2012-08-01

    The right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC) has been found to be critical in shaping visual selection and distractor-induced saccade curvature in the context of predictive as well as nonpredictive visual cues by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) interference. However, the dynamic details of how distractor-induced saccade curvatures are affected by rPPC TMS have not yet been investigated. This study aimed to elucidate the key dynamic properties that cause saccades to curve away from distractors with different degrees of curvature in various TMS and target predictability conditions. Stochastic optimal feedback control theory was used to model the dynamics of the TMS saccade data. This allowed estimation of torques, which was used to identify the critical dynamic mechanisms producing saccade curvature. The critical mechanisms of distractor-induced saccade curvatures were found to be the motor commands and torques in the transverse direction. When an unpredictable saccade target occurred with rPPC TMS, there was an initial period of greater distractor-induced torque toward the side opposite the distractor in the transverse direction, immediately followed by a relatively long period of recovery torque that brought the deviated trace back toward the target. The results imply that the mechanisms of distractor-induced saccade curvature may be comprised of two mechanisms: the first causing the initial deviation and the second bringing the deviated trace back toward the target. The pattern of the initial torque in the transverse direction revealed the former mechanism. Conversely, the later mechanism could be well explained as a consequence of the control policy in this model. To summarize, rPPC TMS increased the initial torque away from the distractor as well as the recovery torque toward the target.

  12. Updating the premotor theory: the allocation of attention is not always accompanied by saccade preparation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belopolsky, Artem V; Theeuwes, Jan

    2012-08-01

    There is an ongoing controversy regarding the relationship between covert attention and saccadic eye movements. While there is quite some evidence that the preparation of a saccade is obligatory preceded by a shift of covert attention, the reverse is not clear: Is allocation of attention always accompanied by saccade preparation? Recently, a shifting and maintenance account was proposed suggesting that shifting and maintenance components of covert attention differ in their relation to the oculomotor system. Specifically, it was argued that a shift of covert attention is always accompanied by activation of the oculomotor program, while maintaining covert attention at a location can be accompanied either by activation or suppression of oculomotor program, depending on the probability of executing an eye movement to the attended location. In the present study we tested whether there is such an obligatory coupling between shifting of attention and saccade preparation and how quickly saccade preparation gets suppressed. The results showed that attention shifting was always accompanied by saccade preparation whenever covert attention had to be shifted during visual search, as well as in response to exogenous or endogenous cues. However, for the endogenous cues the saccade program to the attended location was suppressed very soon after the attention shift was completed. The current findings support the shifting and maintenance account and indicate that the premotor theory needs to be updated to include a shifting and maintenance component for the cases in which covert shifts of attention are made without the intention to execute a saccade. (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

  13. The saccadic flow baseline: Accounting for image-independent biases in fixation behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clarke, Alasdair D F; Stainer, Matthew J; Tatler, Benjamin W; Hunt, Amelia R

    2017-09-01

    Much effort has been made to explain eye guidance during natural scene viewing. However, a substantial component of fixation placement appears to be a set of consistent biases in eye movement behavior. We introduce the concept of saccadic flow, a generalization of the central bias that describes the image-independent conditional probability of making a saccade to (xi+1, yi+1), given a fixation at (xi, yi). We suggest that saccadic flow can be a useful prior when carrying out analyses of fixation locations, and can be used as a submodule in models of eye movements during scene viewing. We demonstrate the utility of this idea by presenting bias-weighted gaze landscapes, and show that there is a link between the likelihood of a saccade under the flow model, and the salience of the following fixation. We also present a minor improvement to our central bias model (based on using a multivariate truncated Gaussian), and investigate the leftwards and coarse-to-fine biases in scene viewing.

  14. Effects of Saccadic Bilateral Eye Movements on Episodic & Semantic Autobiographical Memory Fluency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew eParker

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Performing a sequence of fast saccadic horizontal eye movements has been shown to facilitate performance on a range of cognitive tasks, including the retrieval of episodic memories. One explanation for these effects is based on the hypothesis that saccadic eye movements increase hemispheric interaction, and that such interactions are important for particular types of memory. The aim of the current research was to assess the effect of horizontal saccadic eye movements on the retrieval of both episodic autobiographical memory (event/incident based memory and semantic autobiographical memory (fact based memory over recent and more distant time periods. It was found that saccadic eye movements facilitated the retrieval of episodic autobiographical memories (over all time periods but not semantic autobiographical memories. In addition, eye movements did not enhance the retrieval of non-autobiographical semantic memory. This finding illustrates a dissociation between the episodic and semantic characteristics of personal memory and is considered within the context of hemispheric contributions to episodic memory performance.

  15. Visual sensitivity for luminance and chromatic stimuli during the execution of smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braun, Doris I; Schütz, Alexander C; Gegenfurtner, Karl R

    2017-07-01

    Visual sensitivity is dynamically modulated by eye movements. During saccadic eye movements, sensitivity is reduced selectively for low-spatial frequency luminance stimuli and largely unaffected for high-spatial frequency luminance and chromatic stimuli (Nature 371 (1994), 511-513). During smooth pursuit eye movements, sensitivity for low-spatial frequency luminance stimuli is moderately reduced while sensitivity for chromatic and high-spatial frequency luminance stimuli is even increased (Nature Neuroscience, 11 (2008), 1211-1216). Since these effects are at least partly of different polarity, we investigated the combined effects of saccades and smooth pursuit on visual sensitivity. For the time course of chromatic sensitivity, we found that detection rates increased slightly around pursuit onset. During saccades to static and moving targets, detection rates dropped briefly before the saccade and reached a minimum at saccade onset. This reduction of chromatic sensitivity was present whenever a saccade was executed and it was not modified by subsequent pursuit. We also measured contrast sensitivity for flashed high- and low-spatial frequency luminance and chromatic stimuli during saccades and pursuit. During saccades, the reduction of contrast sensitivity was strongest for low-spatial frequency luminance stimuli (about 90%). However, a significant reduction was also present for chromatic stimuli (about 58%). Chromatic sensitivity was increased during smooth pursuit (about 12%). These results suggest that the modulation of visual sensitivity during saccades and smooth pursuit is more complex than previously assumed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Saccadic Suppression of Flash Detection: the Uncertainty Theory VS. Alternative Theories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenhouse, Daniel Stephen

    Helmholtz('1) and others have proposed that when a saccadic eye movement occurs, stability of the visual world is maintained by a process that utilizes a corollary to the efferent motor signal for the eye movement, allowing the visual frame of reference to translate equal in magnitude, but opposite in sign, to the movement itself. This process is now known to be synchronous neither with the saccadic trajectory('2,3) nor in all parts of the visual field.('4) In addition, this process has been shown to have variability('2) whereby the perceived visual direction of a flash presented to a fixed retinal locus during a saccade may change from trial to trial. Hence, uncertainty with respect to visual location of a stimulus may exist during and just before a saccade. It has been established for normal vision that uncertainty produces a decline in detectability of a weak stimulus.('5,6,7) The research reported in this dissertation was performed to test the notion, first suggested by L. Matin,('8) that uncertainty is responsible for saccadic suppression, the decline in detectability that has been reported('9,10,11) for a brief flash presented during a saccade. After having established the existence of suppression under the conditions we employed (1(DEGREES) foveal flash occurring 2 1/2(DEGREES) into a 10(DEGREES) voluntary saccade, presented against an illuminated background) we conducted an initial test of the uncertainty theory. We employed a pedestal (flash at the spatial, temporal, and chromatic locus of the stimulus, occurring on all trials, and sufficiently intense as to be visible during saccades) in an attempt to reduce uncertainty. Suppression was nearly eliminated for all subjects. We interpreted this result in terms of the uncertainty theory, but were unable to reject alternative theories of suppression, which include forms of neural inhibition,('10,11) increaed noise level in the retina during saccades,('12) and metacontrast masking.('13). The next experiment

  17. The background is remapped across saccades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cha, Oakyoon; Chong, Sang Chul

    2014-02-01

    Physiological studies have found that neurons prepare for impending eye movements, showing anticipatory responses to stimuli presented at the location of the post-saccadic receptive fields (RFs) (Wurtz in Vis Res 48:2070-2089, 2008). These studies proposed that visual neurons with shifting RFs prepared for the stimuli they would process after an impending saccade. Additionally, psychophysical studies have shown behavioral consequences of those anticipatory responses, including the transfer of aftereffects (Melcher in Nat Neurosci 10:903-907, 2007) and the remapping of attention (Rolfs et al. in Nat Neurosci 14:252-258, 2011). As the physiological studies proposed, the shifting RF mechanism explains the transfer of aftereffects. Recently, a new mechanism based on activation transfer via a saliency map was proposed, which accounted for the remapping of attention (Cavanagh et al. in Trends Cogn Sci 14:147-153, 2010). We hypothesized that there would be different aspects of the remapping corresponding to these different neural mechanisms. This study found that the information in the background was remapped to a similar extent as the figure, provided that the visual context remained stable. We manipulated the status of the figure and the ground in the saliency map and showed that the manipulation modulated the remapping of the figure and the ground in different ways. These results suggest that the visual system has an ability to remap the background as well as the figure, but lacks the ability to modulate the remapping of the background based on the visual context, and that different neural mechanisms might work together to maintain visual stability across saccades.

  18. The Role of the Oculomotor System in Updating Visual-Spatial Working Memory across Saccades

    OpenAIRE

    Boon, Paul J.; Belopolsky, Artem V.; Theeuwes, Jan

    2016-01-01

    Visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) helps us to maintain and manipulate visual information in the absence of sensory input. It has been proposed that VSWM is an emergent property of the oculomotor system. In the present study we investigated the role of the oculomotor system in updating of spatial working memory representations across saccades. Participants had to maintain a location in memory while making a saccade to a different location. During the saccade the target was displaced, which ...

  19. Slower saccadic reading in Parkinson’s disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jehangir, Naz; Yu, Caroline Yizhu; Song, Jeehey; Shariati, Mohammad Ali; Binder, Steven; Beyer, Jill; Santini, Veronica; Poston, Kathleen

    2018-01-01

    Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic and other neurons, leading to motor and non-motor deficits. Abnormal eye movements in PD, including fixations, saccades, and convergence, are well described. However, saccadic reading, which requires serial and alternating saccades and fixations, is not well studied, despite its obvious impact on the quality of life. In this study, we assessed saccadic reading using variations of the King-Devick (KD) test, a rapid single digit number naming test, as a way to assess the ability to make serial left-to-right ocular motor movements necessary for reading. We recruited 42 treated PD patients and 80 age-matched controls and compared their reading times with a variety of measures, including age, duration of disease, Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the National Eye Institute 25-Item Visual Functioning Questionnaire 25 (VFQ-25), and Montreal Cognitive assessment (MoCA) test. The subjects performed 4 trials of reading 120 single digit numbers aloud as fast as possible without making errors. In each trial, they read 3 pages (KD1, KD2, and KD3), and each page contained 40 numbers per page in 8 lines with 5 numbers/line. We found that PD patients read about 20% slower than controls on all tests (KD1, 2, and 3 tests) (p read irregularly spaced numbers slower than regularly spaced numbers. Having lines between numbers to guide reading (KD1 tests) did not impact reading time in both PD and controls, but increased visual crowding as a result of decreased spacing between numbers (KD3 tests) was associated with significantly slower reading times in both PD and control groups. Our study revealed that saccadic reading is slower in PD, but controls and PD patients are both impacted by visuospatial planning challenges posed by increased visual crowding and irregularity of number spacing. Reading time did not correlate with UPDRS or MoCA scores in PD patients but significantly

  20. Refixation saccades with normal gain values

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Korsager, Leise Elisabeth Hviid; Faber, Christian Emil; Schmidt, Jesper Hvass

    2017-01-01

    -ocular reflex. However, this partial deficit is in conflict with the current way of interpreting vHIT results in which the vestibular function is classified as either normal or pathological based only on the gain value. Refixation saccades, which are evident signs of vestibulopathy, are not considered...

  1. The role of "rescue saccades" in tracking objects through occlusions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zelinsky, Gregory J; Todor, Andrei

    2010-12-29

    We hypothesize that our ability to track objects through occlusions is mediated by timely assistance from gaze in the form of "rescue saccades"-eye movements to tracked objects that are in danger of being lost due to impending occlusion. Observers tracked 2-4 target sharks (out of 9) for 20 s as they swam through a rendered 3D underwater scene. Targets were either allowed to enter into occlusions (occlusion trials) or not (no occlusion trials). Tracking accuracy with 2-3 targets was ≥ 92% regardless of target occlusion but dropped to 74% on occlusion trials with four targets (no occlusion trials remained accurate; 83%). This pattern was mirrored in the frequency of rescue saccades. Rescue saccades accompanied approximatlely 50% of the Track 2-3 target occlusions, but only 34% of the Track 4 occlusions. Their frequency also decreased with increasing distance between a target and the nearest other object, suggesting that it is the potential for target confusion that summons a rescue saccade, not occlusion itself. These findings provide evidence for a tracking system that monitors for events that might cause track loss (e.g., occlusions) and requests help from the oculomotor system to resolve these momentary crises. As the number of crises increase with the number of targets, some requests for help go unsatisfied, resulting in degraded tracking.

  2. Cortical Activation during Landmark-Centered vs. Gaze-Centered Memory of Saccade Targets in the Human: An FMRI Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ying Chen

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available A remembered saccade target could be encoded in egocentric coordinates such as gaze-centered, or relative to some external allocentric landmark that is independent of the target or gaze (landmark-centered. In comparison to egocentric mechanisms, very little is known about such a landmark-centered representation. Here, we used an event-related fMRI design to identify brain areas supporting these two types of spatial coding (i.e., landmark-centered vs. gaze-centered for target memory during the Delay phase where only target location, not saccade direction, was specified. The paradigm included three tasks with identical display of visual stimuli but different auditory instructions: Landmark Saccade (remember target location relative to a visual landmark, independent of gaze, Control Saccade (remember original target location relative to gaze fixation, independent of the landmark, and a non-spatial control, Color Report (report target color. During the Delay phase, the Control and Landmark Saccade tasks activated overlapping areas in posterior parietal cortex (PPC and frontal cortex as compared to the color control, but with higher activation in PPC for target coding in the Control Saccade task and higher activation in temporal and occipital cortex for target coding in Landmark Saccade task. Gaze-centered directional selectivity was observed in superior occipital gyrus and inferior occipital gyrus, whereas landmark-centered directional selectivity was observed in precuneus and midposterior intraparietal sulcus. During the Response phase after saccade direction was specified, the parietofrontal network in the left hemisphere showed higher activation for rightward than leftward saccades. Our results suggest that cortical activation for coding saccade target direction relative to a visual landmark differs from gaze-centered directional selectivity for target memory, from the mechanisms for other types of allocentric tasks, and from the directionally

  3. Plasticity during vestibular compensation: the role of saccades

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamish Gavin MacDougall

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper is focussed on one major aspect of compensation: the recent behavioural findings concerning oculomotor responses in human vestibular compensation and their possible implications for recovery after unilateral vestibular loss (UVL. New measurement techniques have provided new insights into how patients recover after UVL and have given clues for vestibular rehabilitation. Prior to this it has not been possible to quantify the level of function of all the peripheral vestibular sense organs. Now it is. By using vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials to measure utricular and saccular function and by new video head impulse testing to measure semicircular canal function to natural values of head accelerations. With these new video procedures it is now possible to measure both slow phase eye velocity and also saccades during natural head movements. The present evidence is that there is little or no recovery of slow phase eye velocity responses to natural head accelerations. It is doubtful as to whether the modest changes in slow phase eye velocity to small angular accelerations are functionally effective during compensation. On the other hand it is now clear that saccades can play a very important role in helping patients compensate and return to a normal lifestyle. Preliminary evidence suggests that different patterns of saccadic response may predict how well patients recover. It may be possible to train patients to produce more effective saccadic patterns in the first days after their unilateral loss. Some patients do learn new strategies, new behaviours, to conceal their inadequate VOR but when those strategies are prevented from operating by using passive, unpredictable, high acceleration natural head movements, as in the head impulse test, their vestibular loss can be demonstrated. It is those very strategies which the tests exclude, which may be the cause of their successful compensation.

  4. Saccadic inhibition can cause the remote distractor effect, but the remote distractor effect may not be a useful concept.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McIntosh, Robert D; Buonocore, Antimo

    2014-05-30

    We have suggested that the remote distractor effect (RDE), the elevation of average saccadic reaction time (SRT) induced by a task-irrelevant distractor, may be explained as a statistical consequence of a characteristic reshaping of the SRT distribution known as saccadic inhibition (SI; Buonocore & McIntosh, 2008). In a recent paper, Walker and Benson (2013) argue against this idea and claim that the RDE and SI are partly dissociable. Here, we examine this claim, taking the opportunity to clarify potential ambiguities about how SI affects average SRT, and how the presence of SI can be inferred from SRT distributions.We highlight what we consider to be the most interesting aspects of Walker and Benson’s data, and suggest that a more flexible and nuanced view of SI can account for them. In considering the relation between SI and the RDE, we conclude that the RDE may no longer be a useful concept for eye movement researchers. © 2014 ARVO.

  5. Renormalization of three-quark operators for baryon distribution amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gruber, Michael

    2017-07-01

    In this thesis we design and study three-quark operators that are essential for the calculation of baryon distribution amplitudes. These nonperturbative objects grant insight into the internal structure of hadrons, but their renormalization patterns are nontrivial and need to be treated with care. With the application to lattice simulations in mind we discuss two renormalization schemes, MS and RI{sup '}/SMOM, and connect them by calculating conversion factors. Armed with this knowledge we are able to extract phenomenologically relevant results from an accompanying lattice analysis.

  6. Renormalization of three-quark operators for baryon distribution amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gruber, Michael

    2017-01-01

    In this thesis we design and study three-quark operators that are essential for the calculation of baryon distribution amplitudes. These nonperturbative objects grant insight into the internal structure of hadrons, but their renormalization patterns are nontrivial and need to be treated with care. With the application to lattice simulations in mind we discuss two renormalization schemes, MS and RI ' /SMOM, and connect them by calculating conversion factors. Armed with this knowledge we are able to extract phenomenologically relevant results from an accompanying lattice analysis.

  7. Effects of saccadic bilateral eye movements on episodic and semantic autobiographical memory fluency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Andrew; Parkin, Adam; Dagnall, Neil

    2013-01-01

    Performing a sequence of fast saccadic horizontal eye movements has been shown to facilitate performance on a range of cognitive tasks, including the retrieval of episodic memories. One explanation for these effects is based on the hypothesis that saccadic eye movements increase hemispheric interaction, and that such interactions are important for particular types of memory. The aim of the current research was to assess the effect of horizontal saccadic eye movements on the retrieval of both episodic autobiographical memory (event/incident based memory) and semantic autobiographical memory (fact based memory) over recent and more distant time periods. It was found that saccadic eye movements facilitated the retrieval of episodic autobiographical memories (over all time periods) but not semantic autobiographical memories. In addition, eye movements did not enhance the retrieval of non-autobiographical semantic memory. This finding illustrates a dissociation between the episodic and semantic characteristics of personal memory and is considered within the context of hemispheric contributions to episodic memory performance.

  8. Renormalization and applications of baryon distribution amplitudes QCD

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rohrwild, Juergen Holger

    2009-01-01

    Higher-twist effects are relevant for precision calculations of hard exclusive reactions. Furthermore, they reveal fine details of the hadron structure. In this work we construct an operator basis for arbitrary twist respecting the conformal symmetry of QCD (which is realized on 1-loop level). Using this basis the 1-loop renormalization kernels of twist 4 are constructed for baryon operators. The full spectrum of anomalous dimensions and the multiplicatively renormalizable operators is obtained. As an application of these results the radiative N * (1535) decay is discussed. Employing light-cone sum rule, the transition form factors can be directly related to the N * distribution amplitudes. (orig.)

  9. Renormalization and applications of baryon distribution amplitudes QCD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rohrwild, Juergen Holger

    2009-07-17

    Higher-twist effects are relevant for precision calculations of hard exclusive reactions. Furthermore, they reveal fine details of the hadron structure. In this work we construct an operator basis for arbitrary twist respecting the conformal symmetry of QCD (which is realized on 1-loop level). Using this basis the 1-loop renormalization kernels of twist 4 are constructed for baryon operators. The full spectrum of anomalous dimensions and the multiplicatively renormalizable operators is obtained. As an application of these results the radiative N{sup *}(1535) decay is discussed. Employing light-cone sum rule, the transition form factors can be directly related to the N{sup *} distribution amplitudes. (orig.)

  10. The ρ-meson longitudinal leading-twist distribution amplitude

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hai-Bing Fu

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available In the present paper, we suggest a convenient model for the vector ρ-meson longitudinal leading-twist distribution amplitude ϕ2;ρ‖, whose distribution is controlled by a single parameter B2;ρ‖. By choosing proper chiral current in the correlator, we obtain new light-cone sum rules (LCSR for the B→ρ TFFs A1, A2 and V, in which the δ1-order ϕ2;ρ‖ provides dominant contributions. Then we make a detailed discussion on the ϕ2;ρ‖ properties via those B→ρ TFFs. A proper choice of B2;ρ‖ can make all the TFFs agree with the lattice QCD predictions. A prediction of |Vub| has also been presented by using the extrapolated TFFs, which indicates that a larger B2;ρ‖ leads to a larger |Vub|. To compare with the BABAR data on |Vub|, the longitudinal leading-twist DA ϕ2;ρ‖ prefers a doubly-humped behavior.

  11. Experimental test of visuomotor updating models that explain perisaccadic mislocalization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Wetter, Sigrid M C I; Van Opstal, A John

    2008-10-23

    Localization of a brief visual target is inaccurate when presented around saccade onset. Perisaccadic mislocalization is maximal in the saccade direction and varies systematically with the target-saccade onset disparity. It has been hypothesized that this effect is either due to a sluggish representation of eye position, to low-pass filtering of the visual event, to saccade-induced compression of visual space, or to a combination of these effects. Despite their differences, these schemes all predict that the pattern of localization errors varies systematically with the saccade amplitude and kinematics. We tested these predictions for the double-step paradigm by analyzing the errors for saccades of widely varying amplitudes. Our data show that the measured error patterns are only mildly influenced by the primary-saccade amplitude over a large range of saccade properties. An alternative possibility, better accounting for the data, assumes that around saccade onset perceived target location undergoes a uniform shift in the saccade direction that varies with amplitude only for small saccades. The strength of this visual effect saturates at about 10 deg and also depends on target duration. Hence, we propose that perisaccadic mislocalization results from errors in visual-spatial perception rather than from sluggish oculomotor feedback.

  12. Saccade generation by the frontal eye fields in rhesus monkeys is separable from visual detection and bottom-up attention shift.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Kyoung-Min; Ahn, Kyung-Ha; Keller, Edward L

    2012-01-01

    The frontal eye fields (FEF), originally identified as an oculomotor cortex, have also been implicated in perceptual functions, such as constructing a visual saliency map and shifting visual attention. Further dissecting the area's role in the transformation from visual input to oculomotor command has been difficult because of spatial confounding between stimuli and responses and consequently between intermediate cognitive processes, such as attention shift and saccade preparation. Here we developed two tasks in which the visual stimulus and the saccade response were dissociated in space (the extended memory-guided saccade task), and bottom-up attention shift and saccade target selection were independent (the four-alternative delayed saccade task). Reversible inactivation of the FEF in rhesus monkeys disrupted, as expected, contralateral memory-guided saccades, but visual detection was demonstrated to be intact at the same field. Moreover, saccade behavior was impaired when a bottom-up shift of attention was not a prerequisite for saccade target selection, indicating that the inactivation effect was independent of the previously reported dysfunctions in bottom-up attention control. These findings underscore the motor aspect of the area's functions, especially in situations where saccades are generated by internal cognitive processes, including visual short-term memory and long-term associative memory.

  13. Saccade generation by the frontal eye fields in rhesus monkeys is separable from visual detection and bottom-up attention shift.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kyoung-Min Lee

    Full Text Available The frontal eye fields (FEF, originally identified as an oculomotor cortex, have also been implicated in perceptual functions, such as constructing a visual saliency map and shifting visual attention. Further dissecting the area's role in the transformation from visual input to oculomotor command has been difficult because of spatial confounding between stimuli and responses and consequently between intermediate cognitive processes, such as attention shift and saccade preparation. Here we developed two tasks in which the visual stimulus and the saccade response were dissociated in space (the extended memory-guided saccade task, and bottom-up attention shift and saccade target selection were independent (the four-alternative delayed saccade task. Reversible inactivation of the FEF in rhesus monkeys disrupted, as expected, contralateral memory-guided saccades, but visual detection was demonstrated to be intact at the same field. Moreover, saccade behavior was impaired when a bottom-up shift of attention was not a prerequisite for saccade target selection, indicating that the inactivation effect was independent of the previously reported dysfunctions in bottom-up attention control. These findings underscore the motor aspect of the area's functions, especially in situations where saccades are generated by internal cognitive processes, including visual short-term memory and long-term associative memory.

  14. A model of curved saccade trajectories: spike rate adaptation in the brainstem as the cause of deviation away.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kruijne, Wouter; Van der Stigchel, Stefan; Meeter, Martijn

    2014-03-01

    The trajectory of saccades to a target is often affected whenever there is a distractor in the visual field. Distractors can cause a saccade to deviate towards their location or away from it. The oculomotor mechanisms that produce deviation towards distractors have been thoroughly explored in behavioral, neurophysiological and computational studies. The mechanisms underlying deviation away, on the other hand, remain unclear. Behavioral findings suggest a mechanism of spatially focused, top-down inhibition in a saccade map, and deviation away has become a tool to investigate such inhibition. However, this inhibition hypothesis has little neuroanatomical or neurophysiological support, and recent findings go against it. Here, we propose that deviation away results from an unbalanced saccade drive from the brainstem, caused by spike rate adaptation in brainstem long-lead burst neurons. Adaptation to stimulation in the direction of the distractor results in an unbalanced drive away from it. An existing model of the saccade system was extended with this theory. The resulting model simulates a wide range of findings on saccade trajectories, including findings that have classically been interpreted to support inhibition views. Furthermore, the model replicated the effect of saccade latency on deviation away, but predicted this effect would be absent with large (400 ms) distractor-target onset asynchrony. This prediction was confirmed in an experiment, which demonstrates that the theory both explains classical findings on saccade trajectories and predicts new findings. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Influence of gap and overlap paradigms on saccade latencies and vergence eye movements in seven-year-old children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bucci, Maria Pia; Pouvreau, Nathalie; Yang, Qing; Kapoula, Zoï

    2005-07-01

    The latency of eye movements is influenced by the fixation task; when the fixation stimulus is switched off before the target presentation (gap paradigm) the latency becomes short and express movements occur. In contrast, when the fixation stimulus remains on when the target appears (overlap paradigm), eye movement latency is longer. Several previous studies have shown increased rates of express saccades in children; however the presence of an express type of latency for vergence and combined movements in children has never been explored. The present study examines the effects of the gap and the overlap paradigms on horizontal saccades at far (150 cm) and at close (20 cm) viewing distances, on vergence along the median plane, and on saccades combined with convergence or divergence in 15 normal seven-year-old children. The results show that the gap paradigm produced shorter latency for all eye movements than the overlap paradigm, but the difference was only significant for saccades at close viewing distances, for divergence (pure and combined), and for saccades combined with vergence. The gap paradigm produced significantly higher rates of express latencies for saccades at close viewing distances, for divergence, and for saccades combined with divergence; in contrast, the frequencies of express latencies for saccades at far viewing distances and for convergence (pure or combined) were similar in the gap and the overlap paradigms. Interestingly, the rate of anticipatory latencies (gap paradigm. Our collective findings suggest that the initiation of saccades at close viewing distances and of divergence is more reflexive, particularly in the gap paradigm. The finding of frequent anticipatory divergence that occurs at similar rates for seven-year-old children (this study) and for adults (Coubard et al., 2004, Exp Brain Res 154:368-381) indicates that predictive initiation of divergence is dominant.

  16. Active Listening Delays Attentional Disengagement and Saccadic Eye Movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lester, Benjamin D; Vecera, Shaun P

    2017-05-23

    Successful goal-directed visual behavior depends on efficient disengagement of attention. Attention must be withdrawn from its current focus before being redeployed to a new object or internal process. Previous research has demonstrated that occupying cognitive processes with a secondary cellular phone conversation impairs attentional functioning and driving behavior. For example, attentional processing is significantly impacted by concurrent cell phone use, resulting in decreased explicit memory for on-road information. Here, we examined the impact of a critical component of cell-phone use-active listening-on the effectiveness of attentional disengagement. In the gap task-a saccadic manipulation of attentional disengagement-we measured saccade latencies while participants performed a secondary active listening task. Saccadic latencies significantly increased under an active listening load only when attention needed to be disengaged, indicating that active listening delays a disengagement operation. Simple dual-task interference did not account for the observed results. Rather, active cognitive engagement is required for measurable disengagement slowing to be observed. These results have implications for investigations of attention, gaze behavior, and distracted driving. Secondary tasks such as active listening or cell-phone conversations can have wide-ranging impacts on cognitive functioning, potentially impairing relatively elementary operations of attentional function, including disengagement.

  17. Infant eye and head movements toward the side opposite the cue in the anti-saccade paradigm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sukigara Masune

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The anti-saccade task, when people must respond in the direction opposite to a visual stimulus, has been used as a marker of operation of the frontal cortical oculomotor area. However, early development of oculomotor control has been little studied with the infant anti-saccade paradigm, and a few studies did not recognize anti-saccades in infants in light of the results of adult anti-saccade. Since the characteristics of infant eye movements are little known, applying the criteria used in adult study is by no means the best way to study infant anti-saccade. As it is indicated that coordinated eye and head movements often enable infants to control the direction of their gaze, head movements should be examined as an infant orienting response. The aim of this study was to address how infants used eye and head movements during the anti-saccade paradigm. To distinguish infants' responses, we also investigated eye and head movements during a task for an inhibition of return. Inhibition of return, in which delayed responses occur in the direction to which attention had previously been oriented, has been thought to mark activity of the superior colliculus. Since the superior colliculus is thought to develop much earlier in life than the frontal lobes, we thought it useful to compare these task performances during infancy. Methods Infants were divided into three groups according to age. Anti-saccade and inhibition-of-return tasks were given. Their eye and head movements during tasks were independently recorded by the corneal reflection method in the head-free condition. Results Younger infants tended to initiate eye movement less than older ones in both tasks. In the anti-saccade task, responses opposite to the cue tended to show longer latency than responses to the cue. Infants made faster responses toward the side opposite the cue when it was to the right than when it was left of fixation. Regarding the comparison of responses

  18. Relative amplitude preservation processing utilizing surface consistent amplitude correction. Part 4; Surface consistent amplitude correction wo mochiita sotai shinpuku hozon shori. 4

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saeki, T [Japan National Oil Corp., Tokyo (Japan). Technology Research Center

    1997-10-22

    Discussions were given on seismic exploration from the ground surface using the reflection method, for surface consistent amplitude correction from among effects imposed from the ground surface and a surface layer. Amplitude distribution on the reflection wave zone is complex. Therefore, items to be considered in making an analysis are multiple, such as estimation of spherical surface divergence effect and exponential attenuation effect, not only amplitude change through the surface layer. If all of these items are taken into consideration, burden of the work becomes excessive. As a method to solve this problem, utilization of amplitude in initial movement of a diffraction wave may be conceived. Distribution of the amplitude in initial movement of the diffraction wave shows a value relatively close to distribution of the vibration transmitting and receiving points. The reason for this is thought because characteristics of the vibration transmitting and receiving points related with waveline paths in the vicinity of the ground surface have no great difference both on the diffraction waves and on the reflection waves. The lecture described in this paper introduces an attempt of improving the efficiency of the surface consistent amplitude correction by utilizing the analysis of amplitude in initial movement of the diffraction wave. 4 refs., 2 figs.

  19. Atypical Saccadic Scanning in Autistic Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benson, Valerie; Piper, Jenna; Fletcher-Watson, Sue

    2009-01-01

    Saccadic scanning was examined for typically developing (TD) adults and those with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) during inspection of the "Repin" picture (Yarbus, A. (1967). "Eye movements and vision". New York: Plenum) under two different viewing instructions: (A) material instructions ("Estimate the material circumstances of the family"); and…

  20. Saccade frequency response to visual cues during gait in Parkinson's disease: the selective role of attention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stuart, Samuel; Lord, Sue; Galna, Brook; Rochester, Lynn

    2018-04-01

    Gait impairment is a core feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) with implications for falls risk. Visual cues improve gait in PD, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Evidence suggests that attention and vision play an important role; however, the relative contribution from each is unclear. Measurement of visual exploration (specifically saccade frequency) during gait allows for real-time measurement of attention and vision. Understanding how visual cues influence visual exploration may allow inferences of the underlying mechanisms to response which could help to develop effective therapeutics. This study aimed to examine saccade frequency during gait in response to a visual cue in PD and older adults and investigate the roles of attention and vision in visual cue response in PD. A mobile eye-tracker measured saccade frequency during gait in 55 people with PD and 32 age-matched controls. Participants walked in a straight line with and without a visual cue (50 cm transverse lines) presented under single task and dual-task (concurrent digit span recall). Saccade frequency was reduced when walking in PD compared to controls; however, visual cues ameliorated saccadic deficit. Visual cues significantly increased saccade frequency in both PD and controls under both single task and dual-task. Attention rather than visual function was central to saccade frequency and gait response to visual cues in PD. In conclusion, this study highlights the impact of visual cues on visual exploration when walking and the important role of attention in PD. Understanding these complex features will help inform intervention development. © 2018 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  1. Saccadic Movement Strategy in Common Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helmer, Desiree; Geurten, Bart R H; Dehnhardt, Guido; Hanke, Frederike D

    2016-01-01

    Most moving animals segregate their locomotion trajectories in short burst like rotations and prolonged translations, to enhance distance information from optic flow, as only translational, but not rotational optic flow holds distance information. Underwater, optic flow is a valuable source of information as it is in the terrestrial habitat, however, so far, it has gained only little attention. To extend the knowledge on underwater optic flow perception and use, we filmed the movement pattern of six common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) with a high speed camera in this study. In the subsequent analysis, the center of mass of the cuttlefish body was manually traced to gain thrust, slip, and yaw of the cuttlefish movements over time. Cuttlefish indeed performed short rotations, saccades, with rotational velocities up to 343°/s. They clearly separated rotations from translations in line with the saccadic movement strategy documented for animals inhabiting the terrestrial habitat as well as for the semiaquatic harbor seals before. However, this separation only occurred during fin motion. In contrast, during jet propelled swimming, the separation between rotational and translational movements and thus probably distance estimation on the basis of the optic flow field is abolished in favor of high movement velocities. In conclusion, this study provides first evidence that an aquatic invertebrate, the cuttlefish, adopts a saccadic movement strategy depending on the behavioral context that could enhance the information gained from optic flow.

  2. Renormalization and applications of baryon distribution amplitudes in QCD

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rohrwild, Juergen Holger

    2009-01-01

    Higher-twist effects are relevant for precision calculations of hard exclusive reactions. Furthermore, they reveal fine details of the hadron structure. In this work we construct an operator basis for arbitrary twist respecting the conformal symmetry of QCD (which is realized on 1-loop level). Using this basis the 1-loop renormalization kernels of twist 4 are constructed for baryon operators. The full spectrum of anomalous dimensions and the multiplicatively renormalizable operators is obtained. As an application of these results the radiative N * (1535) decay is discussed. Employing light-cone sum rule, the transition form factors can be directly related to the N* distribution amplitudes. (orig.)

  3. Renormalization and applications of baryon distribution amplitudes in QCD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rohrwild, Juergen Holger

    2009-07-17

    Higher-twist effects are relevant for precision calculations of hard exclusive reactions. Furthermore, they reveal fine details of the hadron structure. In this work we construct an operator basis for arbitrary twist respecting the conformal symmetry of QCD (which is realized on 1-loop level). Using this basis the 1-loop renormalization kernels of twist 4 are constructed for baryon operators. The full spectrum of anomalous dimensions and the multiplicatively renormalizable operators is obtained. As an application of these results the radiative N{sup *}(1535) decay is discussed. Employing light-cone sum rule, the transition form factors can be directly related to the N* distribution amplitudes. (orig.)

  4. Attentional disengagement is modulated by the offset of unpleasant pictures: a saccadic reaction time study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Machado-Pinheiro, Walter; Faria, Aydamari; Braga, Filipe; Guerra, Pedro; Perakakis, Pandelis; Caldas, Ariane Leão; Mocaiber, Izabela; Oliveira, Letícia; Pereira, Mirtes Garcia; Volchan, Eliane; Vila, Jaime

    2013-12-01

    We studied the influence of passively viewing a picture on saccade latencies to peripheral targets. Thirty-two volunteers were instructed to look at a central picture, wait for the onset of a peripheral target, and execute a saccade toward it as quickly as possible - saccadic reaction time (SRT). The central picture (neutral or unpleasant) could be turned off simultaneously with target onset (the no-gap condition) or 200ms prior to target onset (the gap-200 condition). We found that saccade latencies were influenced by emotional valence and condition. In the no-gap condition, SRTs were longer after viewing unpleasant pictures. In the gap-200 condition, the pattern was reversed, and unpleasant pictures induced shorter SRTs in relation to neutral pictures. Furthermore, the influence of unpleasant pictures gradually decreased when images were re-exposed to the participants - affective habituation. The results are discussed in terms of attentional avoidance and disengagement from unpleasant emotional pictures. © 2013.

  5. Neural correlates of saccadic inhibition in healthy elderly and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alichniewicz, K. K.; Brunner, F.; Klünemann, H. H.; Greenlee, M. W.

    2013-01-01

    Performance on tasks that require saccadic inhibition declines with age and altered inhibitory functioning has also been reported in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Although mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is assumed to be a high-risk factor for conversion to AD, little is known about changes in saccadic inhibition and its neural correlates in this condition. Our study determined whether the neural activation associated with saccadic inhibition is altered in persons with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed decreased activation in parietal lobe in healthy elderly persons compared to young persons and decreased activation in frontal eye fields in aMCI patients compared to healthy elderly persons during the execution of anti-saccades. These results illustrate that the decline in inhibitory functions is associated with impaired frontal activation in aMCI. This alteration in function might reflect early manifestations of AD and provide new insights in the neural activation changes that occur in pathological ageing. PMID:23898312

  6. Lattice results for low moments of light meson distribution amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Arthur, R.; Boyle, P.A. [Edinburgh Univ. (United Kingdom). SUPA, School of Physics; Broemmel, D.; Flynn, J.M.; Rae, T.D.; Sachrajda, C.T.C. [Southampton Univ. (United Kingdom). School of Physics and Astronomy; Donnellan, M.A. [NIC/DESY Zeuthen (Germany); Juettner, A. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland). Physics Dept.

    2010-12-15

    As part of the UKQCD and RBC collaborations' N{sub f} = 2+1 domain-wall fermion phenomenology programme, we calculate the first two moments of the light-cone distribution amplitudes of the pseudoscalar mesons {pi} and K and the (longitudinally-polarised) vector mesons {rho}, K{sup *} and {phi}. We obtain the desired quantities with good precision and are able to discern the expected quark-mass dependence of SU(3)-flavour breaking effects. An important ingredient of the calculation is the nonperturbative renormalisation of lattice operators using the RI{sup '}/MOM technique. (orig.)

  7. Lattice Results for Low Moments of Light Meson Distribution Amplitudes

    CERN Document Server

    Arthur, R; Brommel, D; Donnellan, M A; Flynn, J M; Juttner, A; Rae, T D; Sachrajda, C T.C

    2011-01-01

    As part of the UKQCD and RBC collaborations' N_f=2+1 domain-wall fermion phenomenology programme, we calculate the first two moments of the light-cone distribution amplitudes of the pseudoscalar mesons pion and kaon and the (longitudinally-polarised) vector mesons rho, K-star and phi. We obtain the desired quantities with good precision and are able to discern the expected quark-mass dependence of SU(3)-flavour breaking effects. An important ingredient of the calculation is the nonperturbative renormalisation of lattice operators using the RI'/MOM technique.

  8. Lattice results for low moments of light meson distribution amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arthur, R.; Boyle, P.A.; Juettner, A.

    2010-12-01

    As part of the UKQCD and RBC collaborations' N f = 2+1 domain-wall fermion phenomenology programme, we calculate the first two moments of the light-cone distribution amplitudes of the pseudoscalar mesons π and K and the (longitudinally-polarised) vector mesons ρ, K * and φ. We obtain the desired quantities with good precision and are able to discern the expected quark-mass dependence of SU(3)-flavour breaking effects. An important ingredient of the calculation is the nonperturbative renormalisation of lattice operators using the RI ' /MOM technique. (orig.)

  9. The influence of crystalline lens accommodation on post-saccadic oscillations in pupil-based eye trackers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nyström, Marcus; Andersson, Richard; Magnusson, Måns; Pansell, Tony; Hooge, Ignace; Hooge, Ignace

    2015-01-01

    It is well known that the crystalline lens (henceforth lens) can oscillate (or 'wobble') relative to the eyeball at the end of saccades. Recent research has proposed that such wobbling of the lens is a source of post-saccadic oscillations (PSOs) seen in data recorded by eye trackers that estimate

  10. Novel Eye Movement Disorders in Whipple’s Disease—Staircase Horizontal Saccades, Gaze-Evoked Nystagmus, and Esotropia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aasef G. Shaikh

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Whipple’s disease, a rare systemic infectious disorder, is complicated by the involvement of the central nervous system in about 5% of cases. Oscillations of the eyes and the jaw, called oculo-masticatory myorhythmia, are pathognomonic of the central nervous system involvement but are often absent. Typical manifestations of the central nervous system Whipple’s disease are cognitive impairment, parkinsonism mimicking progressive supranuclear palsy with vertical saccade slowing, and up-gaze range limitation. We describe a unique patient with the central nervous system Whipple’s disease who had typical features, including parkinsonism, cognitive impairment, and up-gaze limitation; but also had diplopia, esotropia with mild horizontal (abduction more than adduction limitation, and vertigo. The patient also had gaze-evoked nystagmus and staircase horizontal saccades. Latter were thought to be due to mal-programmed small saccades followed by a series of corrective saccades. The saccades were disconjugate due to the concurrent strabismus. Also, we noted disconjugacy in the slow phase of gaze-evoked nystagmus. The disconjugacy of the slow phase of gaze-evoked nystagmus was larger during monocular viewing condition. We propose that interaction of the strabismic drifts of the covered eyes and the nystagmus drift, putatively at the final common pathway might lead to such disconjugacy.

  11. Higher order light-cone distribution amplitudes of the Lambda baryon

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Yong-Lu; Huang, Ming-Qiu; Cui, Chun-Yu

    2014-01-01

    The improved light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs) of the Λ baryon are examined on the basis of the QCD conformal partial wave expansion approach. The calculations are carried out to the next-to-leading order of conformal spin accuracy with consideration of twist 6. The next leading order conformal expansion coefficients are related to the nonperturbative parameters defined by the local three-quark operator matrix elements with different Lorentz structures with a covariant derivative. The nonperturbative parameters are determined with the QCD sum rule method. The explicit expressions of the LCDAs are provided as the main results. (orig.)

  12. Higher order light-cone distribution amplitudes of the Lambda baryon

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, Yong-Lu; Huang, Ming-Qiu [National University of Defense Technology, College of Science, Hunan (China); Cui, Chun-Yu [Third Military Medical University, Department of Physics, School of Biomedical Engineering, Chongqing (China)

    2014-09-15

    The improved light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs) of the Λ baryon are examined on the basis of the QCD conformal partial wave expansion approach. The calculations are carried out to the next-to-leading order of conformal spin accuracy with consideration of twist 6. The next leading order conformal expansion coefficients are related to the nonperturbative parameters defined by the local three-quark operator matrix elements with different Lorentz structures with a covariant derivative. The nonperturbative parameters are determined with the QCD sum rule method. The explicit expressions of the LCDAs are provided as the main results. (orig.)

  13. Small saccades and image complexity during free viewing of natural images in schizophrenia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jose Ignacio Egaña

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available In schizophrenia, patients display dysfunctions during the execution of simple visual tasks such as anti-saccade or smooth pursuit. In more ecological scenarios, such as free viewing of natural images, patients appear to make fewer and longer visual fixations and display shorter scanpaths. It is not clear whether these measurements reflect alterations in their proficiency to perform basic eye movements, such as saccades and fixations, or are related to high-level mechanisms, such as exploration or attention. We utilized free exploration of natural images of different complexities as a model of an ecological context where normally operative mechanisms of visual control can be accurately measured. We quantified visual exploration as Euclidean distance, scanpaths, saccades and visual fixation, using the standard SR-Research eye tracker algorithm (SR. We then compared this result with a computation that includes microsaccades (EM. We evaluated 8 schizophrenia patients and corresponding healthy controls (HC. Next, we tested whether the decrement in the number of saccades and fixations, as well as their increment in duration reported previously in schizophrenia patients, resulted from the increasing occurrence of undetected microsaccades. We found that when utilizing the standard SR algorithm, patients displayed shorter scanpaths as well as fewer and shorter saccades and fixations. When we employed the EM algorithm, the differences in these parameters between patients and HC were no longer significant. On the other hand, we found that image complexity plays an important role in exploratory behaviors, demonstrating that this factor explains most of differences between eye-movement behaviors in schizophrenia patients. These results help elucidate the mechanisms of visual motor control that are affected in schizophrenia and contribute to the finding of adequate markers for diagnosis and treatment for this condition.

  14. Correlations for reduced-width amplitudes in 49V

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chou, B.H.; Mitchell, G.E.; Bilpuch, E.G.; Westerfeldt, C.R.

    1980-01-01

    Measurement of the relative sign of inelastic proton-channel amplitudes permits the determination of amplitude correlations. Data were obtained for 45 5/2 + resonances in 49 V. Although the reduced widths in each channel followed a Porter-Thomas distribution, large amplitude correlations were observed. The results are compared with the reduced-width--amplitude distribution of Krieger and Porter. This is the first direct test of the Krieger-Porter distribution

  15. The cost of making an eye movement : A direct link between visual working memory and saccade execution

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schut, Martijn J; Van der Stoep, Nathan; Postma, Albert; Van der Stigchel, Stefan

    2017-01-01

    To facilitate visual continuity across eye movements, the visual system must presaccadically acquire information about the future foveal image. Previous studies have indicated that visual working memory (VWM) affects saccade execution. However, the reverse relation, the effect of saccade execution

  16. Neuronal synchronization in human parietal cortex during saccade planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Werf, J. van der; Buchholz, V.N.; Jensen, O.; Medendorp, W.P.

    2009-01-01

    Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have implicated the human posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in sensorimotor integration and saccade planning However, the temporal dynamics of the underlying physiology and its relationship to observations in non-human primates have been difficult to pin

  17. Functional Asymmetries Revealed in Visually Guided Saccades: An fMRI Study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Petit, L.; Zago, L.; Vigneau, M.; Crivello, F.; Mazoyer, B.; Mellet, E.; Tzourio-Mazoyer, N. [Centre for Imaging, Neurosciences and Applications to Pathologies, UMR6232 CNRS CEA (France); Mazoyer, B. [Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Caen (France); Andersson, F. [Institut Federatif de Recherche 135, Imagerie fonctionnelle, Tours (France); Mazoyer, B. [Institut Universitaire de France, Paris (France)

    2009-07-01

    Because eye movements are a fundamental tool for spatial exploration, we hypothesized that the neural bases of these movements in humans should be under right cerebral dominance, as already described for spatial attention. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging in 27 right-handed participants who alternated central fixation with either large or small visually guided saccades (VGS), equally performed in both directions. Hemispheric functional asymmetry was analyzed to identify whether brain regions showing VGS activation elicited hemispheric asymmetries. Hemispheric anatomical asymmetry was also estimated to assess its influence on the VGS functional lateralization. Right asymmetrical activations of a saccadic/attentional system were observed in the lateral frontal eye fields (FEF), the anterior part of the intra-parietal sulcus (aIPS), the posterior third of the superior temporal sulcus (STS), the occipito-temporal junction (MT/V5 area), the middle occipital gyrus, and medially along the calcarine fissure (V1). The present rightward functional asymmetries were not related to differences in gray matter (GM) density/sulci positions between right and left hemispheres in the pre-central, intra-parietal, superior temporal, and extrastriate regions. Only V1 asymmetries were explained for almost 20% of the variance by a difference in the position of the right and left calcarine fissures. Left asymmetrical activations of a saccadic motor system were observed in the medial FEF and in the motor strip eye field along the Rolando sulcus. They were not explained by GM asymmetries. We suggest that the leftward saccadic motor asymmetry is part of a general dominance of the left motor cortex in right-handers, which must include an effect of sighting dominance. Our results demonstrate that, although bilateral by nature, the brain network involved in the execution of VGSs, irrespective of their direction, presented specific right and left asymmetries that were not related to

  18. Functional Asymmetries Revealed in Visually Guided Saccades: An fMRI Study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Petit, L.; Zago, L.; Vigneau, M.; Crivello, F.; Mazoyer, B.; Mellet, E.; Tzourio-Mazoyer, N.; Mazoyer, B.; Andersson, F.; Mazoyer, B.

    2009-01-01

    Because eye movements are a fundamental tool for spatial exploration, we hypothesized that the neural bases of these movements in humans should be under right cerebral dominance, as already described for spatial attention. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging in 27 right-handed participants who alternated central fixation with either large or small visually guided saccades (VGS), equally performed in both directions. Hemispheric functional asymmetry was analyzed to identify whether brain regions showing VGS activation elicited hemispheric asymmetries. Hemispheric anatomical asymmetry was also estimated to assess its influence on the VGS functional lateralization. Right asymmetrical activations of a saccadic/attentional system were observed in the lateral frontal eye fields (FEF), the anterior part of the intra-parietal sulcus (aIPS), the posterior third of the superior temporal sulcus (STS), the occipito-temporal junction (MT/V5 area), the middle occipital gyrus, and medially along the calcarine fissure (V1). The present rightward functional asymmetries were not related to differences in gray matter (GM) density/sulci positions between right and left hemispheres in the pre-central, intra-parietal, superior temporal, and extrastriate regions. Only V1 asymmetries were explained for almost 20% of the variance by a difference in the position of the right and left calcarine fissures. Left asymmetrical activations of a saccadic motor system were observed in the medial FEF and in the motor strip eye field along the Rolando sulcus. They were not explained by GM asymmetries. We suggest that the leftward saccadic motor asymmetry is part of a general dominance of the left motor cortex in right-handers, which must include an effect of sighting dominance. Our results demonstrate that, although bilateral by nature, the brain network involved in the execution of VGSs, irrespective of their direction, presented specific right and left asymmetries that were not related to

  19. The calculation of the quark distribution amplitudes of decuplet baryons by means of QCD sum rules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bonekamp, J.

    1994-11-01

    Using the QCD sum rule technique, we derive the quark distribution amplitudes of the decuplet memebers Δ(1232), Σ * (1385), Ξ * (1530) and Ω(1672). Generalizing the treatment of the Bethe-Salpeter amplitude, we can distinguish spin- and orbital- angular momentum parts of the quark distributions and establish separate sum rules for the contributions. Projecting out the angular momentum 1/2 contributions, we obtain sum rules which are saturated by the lowest resonance in the given iso spin channel, thus resolving deficiencies of the standard approach. We find that for helicity 1/2 the spin part of the quark distributions is asymmetric. Also the orbital angular momentum contributions are extremely asymmetric and tend to decrease the asymmetry of the spin part. As a result of SU(3) symmetry breaking, configuration mixing occurs and the decuplet baryons Σ * and Ξ * receive octet contributions. The antisymmetric part of these octet contributions is calculated. (orig.)

  20. Inactivation of Parietal Reach Region Affects Reaching But Not Saccade Choices in Internally Guided Decisions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christopoulos, Vassilios N; Bonaiuto, James; Kagan, Igor; Andersen, Richard A

    2015-08-19

    The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has traditionally been considered important for awareness, spatial perception, and attention. However, recent findings provide evidence that the PPC also encodes information important for making decisions. These findings have initiated a running argument of whether the PPC is critically involved in decision making. To examine this issue, we reversibly inactivated the parietal reach region (PRR), the area of the PPC that is specialized for reaching movements, while two monkeys performed a memory-guided reaching or saccade task. The task included choices between two equally rewarded targets presented simultaneously in opposite visual fields. Free-choice trials were interleaved with instructed trials, in which a single cue presented in the peripheral visual field defined the reach and saccade target unequivocally. We found that PRR inactivation led to a strong reduction of contralesional choices, but only for reaches. On the other hand, saccade choices were not affected by PRR inactivation. Importantly, reaching and saccade movements to single instructed targets remained largely intact. These results cannot be explained as an effector-nonspecific deficit in spatial attention or awareness, since the temporary "lesion" had an impact only on reach choices. Hence, the PPR is a part of a network for reach decisions and not just reach planning. There has been an ongoing debate on whether the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) represents only spatial awareness, perception, and attention or whether it is also involved in decision making for actions. In this study we explore whether the parietal reach region (PRR), the region of the PPC that is specialized for reaches, is involved in the decision process. We inactivated the PRR while two monkeys performed reach and saccade choices between two targets presented simultaneously in both hemifields. We found that inactivation affected only the reach choices, while leaving saccade choices intact

  1. Impaired Saccadic Eye Movement in Primary Open-angle Glaucoma

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lamirel, Cédric; Milea, Dan; Cochereau, Isabelle

    2013-01-01

    PURPOSE:: Our study aimed at investigating the extent to which saccadic eye movements are disrupted in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). This approach followed upon the discovery of differences in the eye-movement behavior of POAG patients during the exploration of complex visual...

  2. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the frontal eye fields during saccadic eye movements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miki, Atsushi; Takagi, Mineo; Abe, Haruki; Nakajima, Takashi; Miyauchi, Satoru.

    1996-01-01

    We evaluated activity-induced signal intensity changes in the human cerebral cortex during horizontal saccadic eye movements using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based on the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast method. Compared with central fixation, significant signal increases were observed bilaterally in the middle frontal gyrus (Brodmann area 8) during saccadic conditions. The location of the activated area was consistent with that of previously reported frontal eye fields (FEF). These results suggest that fMRI has potential merit for the study of cortical control of eye movements in humans. (author)

  3. Reward and Behavioral Factors Contributing to the Tonic Activity of Monkey Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus Neurons during Saccade Tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okada, Ken-Ichi; Kobayashi, Yasushi

    2016-01-01

    The pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) in the brainstem plays a role in controlling reinforcement learning and executing conditioned behavior. We previously examined the activity of PPTg neurons in monkeys during a reward-conditioned, visually guided saccade task, and reported that a population of these neurons exhibited tonic responses throughout the task period. These tonic responses might depend on prediction of the upcoming reward, successful execution of the task, or both. Here, we sought to further distinguish these factors and to investigate how each contributes to the tonic neuronal activity of the PPTg. In our normal visually guided saccade task, the monkey initially fixated on the central fixation target (FT), then made saccades to the peripheral saccade target and received a juice reward after the saccade target disappeared. Most of the tonic activity terminated shortly after the reward delivery, when the monkey broke fixation. To distinguish between reward and behavioral epochs, we then changed the task sequence for a block of trials, such that the saccade target remained visible after the reward delivery. Under these visible conditions, the monkeys tended to continue fixating on the saccade target even after the reward delivery. Therefore, the prediction of the upcoming reward and the end of an individual trial were separated in time. Regardless of the task conditions, half of the tonically active PPTg neurons terminated their activity around the time of the reward delivery, consistent with the view that PPTg neurons might send reward prediction signals until the time of reward delivery, which is essential for computing reward prediction error in reinforcement learning. On the other hand, the other half of the tonically active PPTg neurons changed their activity dependent on the task condition. In the normal condition, the tonic responses terminated around the time of the reward delivery, while in the visible condition, the activity continued

  4. Dual-Task Crosstalk between Saccades and Manual Responses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huestegge, Lynn; Koch, Iring

    2009-01-01

    Between-task crosstalk has been discussed as an important source for dual-task costs. In this study, the authors examine concurrently performed saccades and manual responses as a means of studying the role of response-code conflict between 2 tasks. In Experiment 1, participants responded to an imperative auditory stimulus with a left or a right…

  5. Predictive saccades in children and adults: A combined fMRI and eye tracking study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katerina Lukasova

    Full Text Available Saccades were assessed in 21 adults (age 24 years, SD = 4 and 15 children (age 11 years, SD = 1, using combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI and eye-tracking. Subjects visually tracked a point on a horizontal line in four conditions: time and position predictable task (PRED, position predictable (pPRED, time predictable (tPRED and visually guided saccades (SAC. Both groups in the PRED but not in pPRED, tPRED and SAC produced predictive saccades with latency below 80 ms. In task versus group comparisons, children's showed less efficient learning compared to adults for predictive saccades (adults = 48%, children = 34%, p = 0.05. In adults brain activation was found in the frontal and occipital regions in the PRED, in the intraparietal sulcus in pPRED and in the frontal eye field, posterior intraparietal sulcus and medial regions in the tPRED task. Group-task interaction was found in the supplementary eye field and visual cortex in the PRED task, and the frontal cortex including the right frontal eye field and left frontal pole, in the pPRED condition. These results indicate that, the basic visuomotor circuitry is present in both adults and children, but fine-tuning of the activation according to the task temporal and spatial demand mature late in child development.

  6. Strength of figure-ground activity in monkey primary visual cortex predicts saccadic reaction time in a delayed detection task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Supèr, Hans; Lamme, Victor A F

    2007-06-01

    When and where are decisions made? In the visual system a saccade, which is a fast shift of gaze toward a target in the visual scene, is the behavioral outcome of a decision. Current neurophysiological data and reaction time models show that saccadic reaction times are determined by a build-up of activity in motor-related structures, such as the frontal eye fields. These structures depend on the sensory evidence of the stimulus. Here we use a delayed figure-ground detection task to show that late modulated activity in the visual cortex (V1) predicts saccadic reaction time. This predictive activity is part of the process of figure-ground segregation and is specific for the saccade target location. These observations indicate that sensory signals are directly involved in the decision of when and where to look.

  7. A model of curved saccade trajectories: Spike rate adaptation in the brainstem as the cause of deviation away

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kruijne, Wouter; Van der Stigchel, Stefan; Meeter, Martijn

    2014-01-01

    The trajectory of saccades to a target is often affected whenever there is a distractor in the visual field. Distractors can cause a saccade to deviate towards their location or away from it. The oculomotor mechanisms that produce deviation towards distractors have been thoroughly explored in

  8. A model of curved saccade trajectories: Spike rate adaptation in the brainstem as the cause of deviation away.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kruijne, W.; van der Stigchel, S.; Meeter, M.

    2014-01-01

    The trajectory of saccades to a target is often affected whenever there is a distractor in the visual field. Distractors can cause a saccade to deviate towards their location or away from it. The oculomotor mechanisms that produce deviation towards distractors have been thoroughly explored in

  9. New supervised learning theory applied to cerebellar modeling for suppression of variability of saccade end points.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujita, Masahiko

    2013-06-01

    A new supervised learning theory is proposed for a hierarchical neural network with a single hidden layer of threshold units, which can approximate any continuous transformation, and applied to a cerebellar function to suppress the end-point variability of saccades. In motor systems, feedback control can reduce noise effects if the noise is added in a pathway from a motor center to a peripheral effector; however, it cannot reduce noise effects if the noise is generated in the motor center itself: a new control scheme is necessary for such noise. The cerebellar cortex is well known as a supervised learning system, and a novel theory of cerebellar cortical function developed in this study can explain the capability of the cerebellum to feedforwardly reduce noise effects, such as end-point variability of saccades. This theory assumes that a Golgi-granule cell system can encode the strength of a mossy fiber input as the state of neuronal activity of parallel fibers. By combining these parallel fiber signals with appropriate connection weights to produce a Purkinje cell output, an arbitrary continuous input-output relationship can be obtained. By incorporating such flexible computation and learning ability in a process of saccadic gain adaptation, a new control scheme in which the cerebellar cortex feedforwardly suppresses the end-point variability when it detects a variation in saccadic commands can be devised. Computer simulation confirmed the efficiency of such learning and showed a reduction in the variability of saccadic end points, similar to results obtained from experimental data.

  10. Saccade performance in the nasal and temporal hemifields

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jóhannesson, Ómar Ingi; Ásgeirsson, Árni Gunnar; Kristjánsson, Árni

    2012-01-01

    There are numerous asymmetries in anatomy between the nasal and temporal hemiretinae, which have been connected to various asymmetries in behavioral performance. These include asymmetries in Vernier acuity, saccade selection, and attentional function, in addition to some evidence for latency...... is surprising in light of previous findings of attentional asymmetries, it may reflect that cortical input to midbrain eye control centers mitigates any retinal and retinotectal asymmetry....

  11. Factorization, the light-cone distribution amplitude of the B-meson and the radiative decay $B \\to \\gamma l \

    CERN Document Server

    Descotes-Genon, S

    2003-01-01

    We study the radiative decay B -> gamma l nu_l in the framework of QCD factorization. We demonstrate explicitly that, in the heavy-quark limit and at one-loop order in perturbation theory, the amplitude does factorize, i.e. that it can be written as a convolution of a perturbatively calculable hard-scattering amplitude with the (non-perturbative) light-cone distribution amplitude of the B-meson. We evaluate the hard-scattering amplitude at one-loop order and verify that the large logarithms are those expected from a study of the b->u transition in the Soft-Collinear Effective Theory. Assuming that this is also the case at higher orders, we resum the large logarithms and perform an exploratory phenomenological analysis. The questions addressed in this study are also relevant for the applications of the QCD factorization formalism to two-body non-leptonic B-decays, in particular to the component of the amplitude arising from hard spectator interactions.

  12. How longer saccade latencies lead to a competition for salience

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Vries, Jelmer P.; Hooge, Ignace T.C.; Wiering, Marco A.; Verstraten, Frans A.J.

    It has been suggested that independent bottom-up and top-down processes govern saccadic selection. However, recent findings are hard to explain in such terms. We hypothesized that differences in visual-processing time can explain these findings, and we tested this using search displays containing

  13. Experimental access to Transition Distribution Amplitudes with the P¯ANDA experiment at FAIR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, B. P.; Erni, W.; Keshelashvili, I.; Krusche, B.; Steinacher, M.; Liu, B.; Liu, H.; Liu, Z.; Shen, X.; Wang, C.; Zhao, J.; Albrecht, M.; Fink, M.; Heinsius, F. H.; Held, T.; Holtmann, T.; Koch, H.; Kopf, B.; Kümmel, M.; Kuhl, G.; Kuhlmann, M.; Leyhe, M.; Mikirtychyants, M.; Musiol, P.; Mustafa, A.; Pelizäus, M.; Pychy, J.; Richter, M.; Schnier, C.; Schröder, T.; Sowa, C.; Steinke, M.; Triffterer, T.; Wiedner, U.; Beck, R.; Hammann, C.; Kaiser, D.; Ketzer, B.; Kube, M.; Mahlberg, P.; Rossbach, M.; Schmidt, C.; Schmitz, R.; Thoma, U.; Walther, D.; Wendel, C.; Wilson, A.; Bianconi, A.; Bragadireanu, M.; Caprini, M.; Pantea, D.; Pietreanu, D.; Vasile, M. E.; Patel, B.; Kaplan, D.; Brandys, P.; Czyzewski, T.; Czyzycki, W.; Domagala, M.; Hawryluk, M.; Filo, G.; Krawczyk, M.; Kwiatkowski, D.; Lisowski, E.; Lisowski, F.; Fiutowski, T.; Idzik, M.; Mindur, B.; Przyborowski, D.; Swientek, K.; Czech, B.; Kliczewski, S.; Korcyl, K.; Kozela, A.; Kulessa, P.; Lebiedowicz, P.; Malgorzata, K.; Pysz, K.; Schäfer, W.; Siudak, R.; Szczurek, A.; Biernat, J.; Jowzaee, S.; Kamys, B.; Kistryn, S.; Korcyl, G.; Krzemien, W.; Magiera, A.; Moskal, P.; Palka, M.; Psyzniak, A.; Rudy, Z.; Salabura, P.; Smyrski, J.; Strzempek, P.; Wrońska, A.; Augustin, I.; Lehmann, I.; Nicmorus, D.; Schepers, G.; Schmitt, L.; Al-Turany, M.; Cahit, U.; Capozza, L.; Dbeyssi, A.; Deppe, H.; Dzhygadlo, R.; Ehret, A.; Flemming, H.; Gerhardt, A.; Götzen, K.; Karabowicz, R.; Kliemt, R.; Kunkel, J.; Kurilla, U.; Lehmann, D.; Lühning, J.; Maas, F.; Morales Morales, C.; Mora Espí, M. C.; Nerling, F.; Orth, H.; Peters, K.; Rodríguez Piñeiro, D.; Saito, N.; Saito, T.; Sánchez Lorente, A.; Schmidt, C. J.; Schwarz, C.; Schwiening, J.; Traxler, M.; Valente, R.; Voss, B.; Wieczorek, P.; Wilms, A.; Zühlsdorf, M.; Abazov, V. M.; Alexeev, G.; Arefiev, A.; Astakhov, V. I.; Barabanov, M. Yu.; Batyunya, B. V.; Davydov, Yu. I.; Dodokhov, V. Kh.; Efremov, A. A.; Fedunov, A. G.; Festchenko, A. A.; Galoyan, A. S.; Grigoryan, S.; Karmokov, A.; Koshurnikov, E. K.; Lobanov, V. I.; Lobanov, Yu. Yu.; Makarov, A. F.; Malinina, L. V.; Malyshev, V. L.; Mustafaev, G. A.; Olshevskiy, A.; Pasyuk, M. A.; Perevalova, E. A.; Piskun, A. A.; Pocheptsov, T. A.; Pontecorvo, G.; Rodionov, V. K.; Rogov, Yu. N.; Salmin, R. A.; Samartsev, A. G.; Sapozhnikov, M. G.; Shabratova, G. S.; Skachkov, N. B.; Skachkova, A. N.; Strokovsky, E. A.; Suleimanov, M. K.; Teshev, R. Sh.; Tokmenin, V. V.; Uzhinsky, V. V.; Vodopyanov, A. S.; Zaporozhets, S. A.; Zhuravlev, N. I.; Zorin, A. G.; Branford, D.; Glazier, D.; Watts, D.; Woods, P.; Britting, A.; Eyrich, W.; Lehmann, A.; Uhlig, F.; Dobbs, S.; Seth, K.; Tomaradze, A.; Xiao, T.; Bettoni, D.; Carassiti, V.; Cotta Ramusino, A.; Dalpiaz, P.; Drago, A.; Fioravanti, E.; Garzia, I.; Savriè, M.; Stancari, G.; Akishina, V.; Kisel, I.; Kulakov, I.; Zyzak, M.; Arora, R.; Bel, T.; Gromliuk, A.; Kalicy, G.; Krebs, M.; Patsyuk, M.; Zuehlsdorf, M.; Bianchi, N.; Gianotti, P.; Guaraldo, C.; Lucherini, V.; Pace, E.; Bersani, A.; Bracco, G.; Macri, M.; Parodi, R. F.; Bianco, S.; Bremer, D.; Brinkmann, K. T.; Diehl, S.; Dormenev, V.; Drexler, P.; Düren, M.; Eissner, T.; Etzelmüller, E.; Föhl, K.; Galuska, M.; Gessler, T.; Gutz, E.; Hayrapetyan, A.; Hu, J.; Kröck, B.; Kühn, W.; Kuske, T.; Lange, S.; Liang, Y.; Merle, O.; Metag, V.; Mülhheim, D.; Münchow, D.; Nanova, M.; Novotny, R.; Pitka, A.; Quagli, T.; Rieke, J.; Rosenbaum, C.; Schnell, R.; Spruck, B.; Stenzel, H.; Thöring, U.; Ullrich, M.; Wasem, T.; Werner, M.; Zaunick, H. G.; Ireland, D.; Rosner, G.; Seitz, B.; Deepak, P. N.; Kulkarni, A. V.; Apostolou, A.; Babai, M.; Kavatsyuk, M.; Lemmens, P.; Lindemulder, M.; Löhner, H.; Messchendorp, J.; Schakel, P.; Smit, H.; van der Weele, J. C.; Tiemens, M.; Veenstra, R.; Vejdani, S.; Kalita, K.; Mohanta, D. P.; Kumar, A.; Roy, A.; Sahoo, R.; Sohlbach, H.; Büscher, M.; Cao, L.; Cebulla, A.; Deermann, D.; Dosdall, R.; Esch, S.; Georgadze, I.; Gillitzer, A.; Goerres, A.; Goldenbaum, F.; Grunwald, D.; Herten, A.; Hu, Q.; Kemmerling, G.; Kleines, H.; Kozlov, V.; Lehrach, A.; Leiber, S.; Maier, R.; Nellen, R.; Ohm, H.; Orfanitski, S.; Prasuhn, D.; Prencipe, E.; Ritman, J.; Schadmand, S.; Schumann, J.; Sefzick, T.; Serdyuk, V.; Sterzenbach, G.; Stockmanns, T.; Wintz, P.; Wüstner, P.; Xu, H.; Li, S.; Li, Z.; Sun, Z.; Xu, H.; Rigato, V.; Fissum, S.; Hansen, K.; Isaksson, L.; Lundin, M.; Schröder, B.; Achenbach, P.; Bleser, S.; Cardinali, M.; Corell, O.; Deiseroth, M.; Denig, A.; Distler, M.; Feldbauer, F.; Fritsch, M.; Jasinski, P.; Hoek, M.; Kangh, D.; Karavdina, A.; Lauth, W.; Leithoff, H.; Merkel, H.; Michel, M.; Motzko, C.; Müller, U.; Noll, O.; Plueger, S.; Pochodzalla, J.; Sanchez, S.; Schlimme, S.; Sfienti, C.; Steinen, M.; Thiel, M.; Weber, T.; Zambrana, M.; Dormenev, V. I.; Fedorov, A. A.; Korzihik, M. V.; Missevitch, O. V.; Balanutsa, P.; Balanutsa, V.; Chernetsky, V.; Demekhin, A.; Dolgolenko, A.; Fedorets, P.; Gerasimov, A.; Goryachev, V.; Varentsov, V.; Boukharov, A.; Malyshev, O.; Marishev, I.; Semenov, A.; Konorov, I.; Paul, S.; Grieser, S.; Hergemöller, A. K.; Khoukaz, A.; Köhler, E.; Täschner, A.; Wessels, J.; Dash, S.; Jadhav, M.; Kumar, S.; Sarin, P.; Varma, R.; Chandratre, V. B.; Datar, V.; Dutta, D.; Jha, V.; Kumawat, H.; Mohanty, A. K.; Roy, B.; Yan, Y.; Chinorat, K.; Khanchai, K.; Ayut, L.; Pornrad, S.; Barnyakov, A. Y.; Blinov, A. E.; Blinov, V. E.; Bobrovnikov, V. S.; Kononov, S. A.; Kravchenko, E. A.; Kuyanov, I. A.; Onuchin, A. P.; Sokolov, A. A.; Tikhonov, Y. A.; Atomssa, E.; Hennino, T.; Imre, M.; Kunne, R.; Le Galliard, C.; Ma, B.; Marchand, D.; Ong, S.; Ramstein, B.; Rosier, P.; Tomasi-Gustafsson, E.; Van de Wiele, J.; Boca, G.; Costanza, S.; Genova, P.; Lavezzi, L.; Montagna, P.; Rotondi, A.; Abramov, V.; Belikov, N.; Bukreeva, S.; Davidenko, A.; Derevschikov, A.; Goncharenko, Y.; Grishin, V.; Kachanov, V.; Kormilitsin, V.; Melnik, Y.; Levin, A.; Minaev, N.; Mochalov, V.; Morozov, D.; Nogach, L.; Poslavskiy, S.; Ryazantsev, A.; Ryzhikov, S.; Semenov, P.; Shein, I.; Uzunian, A.; Vasiliev, A.; Yakutin, A.; Yabsley, B.; Bäck, T.; Cederwall, B.; Makónyi, K.; Tegnér, P. E.; von Würtemberg, K. M.; Belostotski, S.; Gavrilov, G.; Izotov, A.; Kashchuk, A.; Levitskaya, O.; Manaenkov, S.; Miklukho, O.; Naryshkin, Y.; Suvorov, K.; Veretennikov, D.; Zhadanov, A.; Rai, A. K.; Godre, S. S.; Duchat, R.; Amoroso, A.; Bussa, M. P.; Busso, L.; De Mori, F.; Destefanis, M.; Fava, L.; Ferrero, L.; Greco, M.; Maggiora, M.; Maniscalco, G.; Marcello, S.; Sosio, S.; Spataro, S.; Zotti, L.; Calvo, D.; Coli, S.; De Remigis, P.; Filippi, A.; Giraudo, G.; Lusso, S.; Mazza, G.; Mingnore, M.; Rivetti, A.; Wheadon, R.; Balestra, F.; Iazzi, F.; Introzzi, R.; Lavagno, A.; Younis, H.; Birsa, R.; Bradamante, F.; Bressan, A.; Martin, A.; Clement, H.; Gålnander, B.; Caldeira Balkeståhl, L.; Calén, H.; Fransson, K.; Johansson, T.; Kupsc, A.; Marciniewski, P.; Pettersson, J.; Schönning, K.; Wolke, M.; Zlomanczuk, J.; Díaz, J.; Ortiz, A.; Vinodkumar, P. C.; Parmar, A.; Chlopik, A.; Melnychuk, D.; Slowinski, B.; Trzcinski, A.; Wojciechowski, M.; Wronka, S.; Zwieglinski, B.; Bühler, P.; Marton, J.; Suzuki, K.; Widmann, E.; Zmeskal, J.; Fröhlich, B.; Khaneft, D.; Lin, D.; Zimmermann, I.; Semenov-Tian-Shansky, K.

    2015-08-01

    Baryon-to-meson Transition Distribution Amplitudes (TDAs) encoding valuable new information on hadron structure appear as building blocks in the collinear factorized description for several types of hard exclusive reactions. In this paper, we address the possibility of accessing nucleon-to-pion ( πN) TDAs from reaction with the future P¯ANDA detector at the FAIR facility. At high center-of-mass energy and high invariant mass squared of the lepton pair q 2, the amplitude of the signal channel admits a QCD factorized description in terms of πN TDAs and nucleon Distribution Amplitudes (DAs) in the forward and backward kinematic regimes. Assuming the validity of this factorized description, we perform feasibility studies for measuring with the P¯ANDA detector. Detailed simulations on signal reconstruction efficiency as well as on rejection of the most severe background channel, i.e. were performed for the center-of-mass energy squared s = 5 GeV2 and s = 10 GeV2, in the kinematic regions 3.0 < q 2 < 4.3 GeV2 and 5 < q 2 GeV2, respectively, with a neutral pion scattered in the forward or backward cone in the proton-antiproton center-of-mass frame. Results of the simulation show that the particle identification capabilities of the P¯ANDA detector will allow to achieve a background rejection factor of 5 · 107 (1 · 107) at low (high) q 2 for s = 5 GeV2, and of 1 · 108 (6 · 106) at low (high) q 2 for s = 10 GeV2, while keeping the signal reconstruction efficiency at around 40%. At both energies, a clean lepton signal can be reconstructed with the expected statistics corresponding to 2 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. The cross sections obtained from the simulations are used to show that a test of QCD collinear factorization can be done at the lowest order by measuring scaling laws and angular distributions. The future measurement of the signal channel cross section with P¯ANDA will provide a new test of the perturbative QCD description of a novel class of hard

  14. Model simulation studies to clarify the effect on saccadic eye movements of initial condition velocities set by the Vestibular Ocular Reflex (VOR)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nam, M. H.; Winters, J. M.; Stark, L.

    1981-01-01

    Voluntary active head rotations produced vestibulo-ocular reflex eye movements (VOR) with the subject viewing a fixation target. When this target jumped, the size of the refixation saccades were a function of the ongoing initial velocity of the eye. Saccades made against the VOR were larger in magnitude. Simulation of a reciprocally innervated model eye movement provided results comparable to the experimental data. Most of the experimental effect appeared to be due to linear summation for saccades of 5 and 10 degree magnitude. For small saccades of 2.5 degrees, peripheral nonlinear interaction of state variables in the neuromuscular plant also played a role as proven by comparable behavior in the simulated model with known controller signals.

  15. Reward and behavioral factors contributing to the tonic activity of monkey pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus neurons during saccade tasks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ken-ichi Okada

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg in the brainstem plays a role in controlling reinforcement learning and executing conditioned behavior. We previously examined activity of PPTg neurons in monkeys during a reward-conditioned, visually guided saccade task, and reported that a population of these neurons exhibited tonic responses throughout the task period. These tonic responses might depend on prediction of the upcoming reward, successful execution of the task, or both. Here, we sought to further distinguish these factors and to investigate how each contributes to the tonic neuronal activity of the PPTg. In our normal visually guided saccade task, the monkey initially fixated on the central fixation target, then made saccades to the peripheral saccade target, and received a juice reward after the saccade target disappeared. Most of the tonic activity terminated shortly after the reward delivery, when the monkey broke fixation. To distinguish between reward and behavioral epochs, we then changed the task sequence for a block of trials, such that the saccade target remained visible after the reward delivery. Under these visible conditions, the monkeys tended to continue fixating on the saccade target even after the reward delivery. Therefore, the prediction of the upcoming reward and the end of an individual trial were separated in time. Regardless of the task conditions, half of the tonically active PPTg neurons terminated their activity around the time of the reward delivery, consistent with the view that PPTg neurons might send reward prediction signals until the time of reward delivery, which is essential for computing reward prediction error in reinforcement learning. On the other hand, the other half of the tonically active PPTg neurons changed their activity dependent on the task condition. In the normal condition, the tonic responses terminated around the time of the reward delivery, while in the visible condition, the activity

  16. Performance Monitoring and Response Inhibition in a Saccadic Countermanding Task in High and Low proficient bilinguals.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Niharika eSingh

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available We compared Hindi-English bilinguals differing in their L2 fluency on a saccadic countermanding task which taps inhibitory control as well as monitoring. We particularly explored whether response inhibition and performance monitoring within the oculomotor domain are affected by language proficiency in bilinguals. There were two different oculomotor redirect tasks: Visually Guided Redirect (VGR task (Experiment1 and Memory Guided Redirect (MGR task (Experiment 2. In this task typically a target is presented to which subject must make saccade (No step trials, unless a new target appears on the other location after some delay from the first target onset (Step trials. On such trials participants are required to inhibit and cancel the saccade to the first instead program a saccade to the new target. Using trial switch reaction time (TSRT, which is the time taken to inhibit the initiated saccade to the first target, as a measure of response inhibition, and post-stop slowing as a measure of performance monitoring, we observed two important results. It was found that high proficiency bilinguals showed more post-stop slowing on the no-step trials as compared to the low proficiency bilinguals for both VGR and MGR. Secondly, high and low proficiency bilingual exhibited comparable TSRT in both VGR and MGR, showing no altering effect of language proficiency on the response inhibition in bilinguals. These results suggest that bilingualism impacts performance monitoring which is modulated by language proficiency if not the inhibitory control system. Higher fluency may lead to superior cognitive flexibility, and ability to adjust behaviour that facilitates attainment of cognitive goal. These findings are in consonance with other current studies that suggest a top-down effect of bilingualism on action control systems.

  17. How Lovebirds Maneuver Rapidly Using Super-Fast Head Saccades and Image Feature Stabilization.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Kress

    Full Text Available Diurnal flying animals such as birds depend primarily on vision to coordinate their flight path during goal-directed flight tasks. To extract the spatial structure of the surrounding environment, birds are thought to use retinal image motion (optical flow that is primarily induced by motion of their head. It is unclear what gaze behaviors birds perform to support visuomotor control during rapid maneuvering flight in which they continuously switch between flight modes. To analyze this, we measured the gaze behavior of rapidly turning lovebirds in a goal-directed task: take-off and fly away from a perch, turn on a dime, and fly back and land on the same perch. High-speed flight recordings revealed that rapidly turning lovebirds perform a remarkable stereotypical gaze behavior with peak saccadic head turns up to 2700 degrees per second, as fast as insects, enabled by fast neck muscles. In between saccades, gaze orientation is held constant. By comparing saccade and wingbeat phase, we find that these super-fast saccades are coordinated with the downstroke when the lateral visual field is occluded by the wings. Lovebirds thus maximize visual perception by overlying behaviors that impair vision, which helps coordinate maneuvers. Before the turn, lovebirds keep a high contrast edge in their visual midline. Similarly, before landing, the lovebirds stabilize the center of the perch in their visual midline. The perch on which the birds land swings, like a branch in the wind, and we find that retinal size of the perch is the most parsimonious visual cue to initiate landing. Our observations show that rapidly maneuvering birds use precisely timed stereotypic gaze behaviors consisting of rapid head turns and frontal feature stabilization, which facilitates optical flow based flight control. Similar gaze behaviors have been reported for visually navigating humans. This finding can inspire more effective vision-based autopilots for drones.

  18. Amplitude correlations for inelastic proton scattering from 48Ti

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chou, B.H.; Mitchell, G.E.; Bilpuch, E.G.; Westerfeldt, C.R.

    1981-01-01

    The magnitudes and relative signs of inelastic proton channel amplitudes were determined for three decay channels for 45 5/2 + resonances in 49 V. The reduced widths in each channel follow a Porter-Thomas distribution, but extremely large amplitude correlations are observed - for one pair of channel amplitudes the relative sign is positive for 43 of 45 resonances. These results provide the first direct test of the Krieger-Porter reduced width amplitude distribution. (orig.)

  19. Parsing cognition in schizophrenia using saccadic eye movements : a selective overview

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Broerse, A; Crawford, TJ; den Boer, JA

    2001-01-01

    Eye movements provide a behavioural measure of sensorimotor processing and higher cognitive functions of the brain. With the development of novel paradigms that can be used for the study of various cognitive operations, saccadic eye movements in particular. have become increasingly popular. Patients

  20. Distinct control of initiation and metrics of memory-guided saccades and vergence by the FEF: a TMS study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qing Yang

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The initiation of memory guided saccades is known to be controlled by the frontal eye field (FEF. Recent physiological studies showed the existence of an area close to FEF that controls also vergence initiation and execution. This study is to explore the effect of transcranial magnetic simulation (TMS over FEF on the control of memory-guided saccade-vergence eye movements. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Subjects had to make an eye movement in dark towards a target flashed 1 sec earlier (memory delay; the location of the target relative to fixation point was such as to require either a vergence along the median plane, or a saccade, or a saccade with vergence; trials were interleaved. Single pulse TMS was applied on the left or right FEF; it was delivered at 100 ms after the end of memory delay, i.e. extinction of fixation LED that was the "go" signal. Twelve healthy subjects participated in the study. TMS of left or right FEF prolonged the latency of all types of eye movements; the increase varied from 21 to 56 ms and was particularly strong for the divergence movements. This indicates that FEF is involved in the initiation of all types of memory guided movement in the 3D space. TMS of the FEF also altered the accuracy but only for leftward saccades combined with either convergence or divergence; intrasaccadic vergence also increased after TMS of the FEF. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest anisotropy in the quality of space memory and are discussed in the context of other known perceptual motor anisotropies.

  1. Distinct control of initiation and metrics of memory-guided saccades and vergence by the FEF: a TMS study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Qing; Kapoula, Zoi

    2011-01-01

    The initiation of memory guided saccades is known to be controlled by the frontal eye field (FEF). Recent physiological studies showed the existence of an area close to FEF that controls also vergence initiation and execution. This study is to explore the effect of transcranial magnetic simulation (TMS) over FEF on the control of memory-guided saccade-vergence eye movements. Subjects had to make an eye movement in dark towards a target flashed 1 sec earlier (memory delay); the location of the target relative to fixation point was such as to require either a vergence along the median plane, or a saccade, or a saccade with vergence; trials were interleaved. Single pulse TMS was applied on the left or right FEF; it was delivered at 100 ms after the end of memory delay, i.e. extinction of fixation LED that was the "go" signal. Twelve healthy subjects participated in the study. TMS of left or right FEF prolonged the latency of all types of eye movements; the increase varied from 21 to 56 ms and was particularly strong for the divergence movements. This indicates that FEF is involved in the initiation of all types of memory guided movement in the 3D space. TMS of the FEF also altered the accuracy but only for leftward saccades combined with either convergence or divergence; intrasaccadic vergence also increased after TMS of the FEF. The results suggest anisotropy in the quality of space memory and are discussed in the context of other known perceptual motor anisotropies.

  2. Reliability and comparison of gain values with occurrence of saccades in the EyeSeeCam video head impulse test (vHIT)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hviid Korsager, Leise Elisabeth; Schmidt, Jesper Hvass; Faber, Christian

    2016-01-01

    . There is a lack of knowledge regarding the reliability of the two parameters. The objective was to investigate the reliability of vHIT by comparing gain values between examiners on the same subjects, and to see how differences affected the occurrence of saccades. SUBJECTS: 25 subjects who had undergone cochlear...... coefficient (ICC) of the gain values between examiners ranged from 0.62 to 0.70. Differences in gain values amongst examiners did not seem to affect the occurrence of saccades in the same patient. The occurrence of saccades, therefore, seems to be more reliable than the gain value in the evaluation......The vHIT (video head impulse test) investigates the vestibular function in two ways: a VOR (vestibulo-ocular reflex) gain value and a head impulse diagram. From the diagram covert and overt saccades can be detected. Evaluation of the vestibular function based on vHIT depends on both parameters...

  3. Effects of preparation time and trial type probability on performance of anti- and pro-saccades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierce, Jordan E; McDowell, Jennifer E

    2016-02-01

    Cognitive control optimizes responses to relevant task conditions by balancing bottom-up stimulus processing with top-down goal pursuit. It can be investigated using the ocular motor system by contrasting basic prosaccades (look toward a stimulus) with complex antisaccades (look away from a stimulus). Furthermore, the amount of time allotted between trials, the need to switch task sets, and the time allowed to prepare for an upcoming saccade all impact performance. In this study the relative probabilities of anti- and pro-saccades were manipulated across five blocks of interleaved trials, while the inter-trial interval and trial type cue duration were varied across subjects. Results indicated that inter-trial interval had no significant effect on error rates or reaction times (RTs), while a shorter trial type cue led to more antisaccade errors and faster overall RTs. Responses following a shorter cue duration also showed a stronger effect of trial type probability, with more antisaccade errors in blocks with a low antisaccade probability and slower RTs for each saccade task when its trial type was unlikely. A longer cue duration yielded fewer errors and slower RTs, with a larger switch cost for errors compared to a short cue duration. Findings demonstrated that when the trial type cue duration was shorter, visual motor responsiveness was faster and subjects relied upon the implicit trial probability context to improve performance. When the cue duration was longer, increased fixation-related activity may have delayed saccade motor preparation and slowed responses, guiding subjects to respond in a controlled manner regardless of trial type probability. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Disappearance of Anisotropic Intermittency in Large-amplitude MHD Turbulence and Its Comparison with Small-amplitude MHD Turbulence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Liping; Zhang, Lei; He, Jiansen; Tu, Chuanyi; Li, Shengtai; Wang, Xin; Wang, Linghua

    2018-03-01

    Multi-order structure functions in the solar wind are reported to display a monofractal scaling when sampled parallel to the local magnetic field and a multifractal scaling when measured perpendicularly. Whether and to what extent will the scaling anisotropy be weakened by the enhancement of turbulence amplitude relative to the background magnetic strength? In this study, based on two runs of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence simulation with different relative levels of turbulence amplitude, we investigate and compare the scaling of multi-order magnetic structure functions and magnetic probability distribution functions (PDFs) as well as their dependence on the direction of the local field. The numerical results show that for the case of large-amplitude MHD turbulence, the multi-order structure functions display a multifractal scaling at all angles to the local magnetic field, with PDFs deviating significantly from the Gaussian distribution and a flatness larger than 3 at all angles. In contrast, for the case of small-amplitude MHD turbulence, the multi-order structure functions and PDFs have different features in the quasi-parallel and quasi-perpendicular directions: a monofractal scaling and Gaussian-like distribution in the former, and a conversion of a monofractal scaling and Gaussian-like distribution into a multifractal scaling and non-Gaussian tail distribution in the latter. These results hint that when intermittencies are abundant and intense, the multifractal scaling in the structure functions can appear even if it is in the quasi-parallel direction; otherwise, the monofractal scaling in the structure functions remains even if it is in the quasi-perpendicular direction.

  5. Pupillometry and Saccades as Objective mTBI Biomark

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-06-01

    Parkinson’s disease , Parkinsonism Relat. Disord. 20 (2) (2014) 226–229, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.parkreldis.2013.10.009 (PubMed PMID: 24269283...The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report are those of the author( s ) and should not be construed as an official Department of the...Saccades as Objective mTBI Biomark 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER W81XWH-14-C-0048 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR( S ) LTC Jose E

  6. Saccadic Eye Movements in Adults with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zalla, Tiziana; Seassau, Magali; Cazalis, Fabienne; Gras, Doriane; Leboyer, Marion

    2018-01-01

    In this study, we examined the accuracy and dynamics of visually guided saccades in 20 adults with autism spectrum disorder, as compared to 20 typically developed adults using the Step/Overlap/Gap paradigms. Performances in participants with autistic spectrum disorder were characterized by preserved Gap/Overlap effect, but reduced gain and peak…

  7. Fibre optical measuring network based on quasi-distributed amplitude sensors for detecting deformation loads

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kul'chin, Yurii N; Kolchinskiy, V A; Kamenev, O T; Petrov, Yu S

    2013-01-01

    A new design of a sensitive element for a fibre optical sensor of deformation loads is proposed. A distributed fibre optical measuring network, aimed at determining both the load application point and the load mass, has been developed based on these elements. It is shown that neural network methods of data processing make it possible to combine quasi-distributed amplitude sensors of different types into a unified network. The results of the experimental study of a breadboard of a fibre optical measuring network are reported, which demonstrate successful reconstruction of the trajectory of a moving object (load) with a spatial resolution of 8 cm, as well as the load mass in the range of 1 – 10 kg with a sensitivity of 0.043 kg -1 . (laser optics 2012)

  8. Attentional Capture and Inhibition of Saccades after Irrelevant and Relevant Cues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heinz-Werner Priess

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Attentional capture is usually stronger for task-relevant than irrelevant stimuli, whereas irrelevant stimuli can trigger equal or even stronger amounts of inhibition than relevant stimuli. Capture and inhibition, however, are typically assessed in separate trials, leaving it open whether or not inhibition of irrelevant stimuli is a consequence of preceding attentional capture by the same stimuli or whether inhibition is the only response to these stimuli. Here, we tested the relationship between capture and inhibition in a setup allowing for estimates of the capture and inhibition based on the very same trials. We recorded saccadic inhibition after relevant and irrelevant stimuli. At the same time, we recorded the N2pc, an event-related potential, reflecting initial capture of attention. We found attentional capture not only for, relevant but importantly also for irrelevant stimuli, although the N2pc was stronger for relevant than irrelevant stimuli. In addition, inhibition of saccades was the same for relevant and irrelevant stimuli. We conclude with a discussion of the mechanisms that are responsible for these effects.

  9. Effects of Saccade Induced Retrieval Enhancement on conceptual and perceptual tests of explicit & implicit memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Andrew; Powell, Daniel; Dagnall, Neil

    2018-03-01

    The effects of saccadic horizontal (bilateral) eye movements upon tests of both conceptual and perceptual forms of explicit and implicit memory were investigated. Participants studied a list of words and were then assigned to one of four test conditions: conceptual explicit, conceptual implicit, perceptual explicit, or perceptual implicit. Conceptual tests comprised category labels with either explicit instructions to recall corresponding examples from the study phase (category-cued recall), or implicit instructions to generate any corresponding examples that spontaneously came to mind (category-exemplar generation). Perceptual tests comprised of word-fragments with either explicit instructions to complete these with study items (word-fragment-cued recall), or implicit instructions to complete each fragment with the first word that simply 'popped to mind' (word-fragment completion). Just prior to retrieval, participants were required to engage in 30 s of bilateral vs. no eye movements. Results revealed that saccadic horizontal eye movements enhanced performance in only the conceptual explicit condition, indicating that Saccade-Induced Retrieval Enhancement is a joint function of conceptual and explicit retrieval mechanisms. Findings are discussed from both a cognitive and neuropsychological perspective, in terms of their potential functional and neural underpinnings. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Effects of handedness & saccadic bilateral eye movements on the specificity of past autobiographical memory & episodic future thinking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Andrew; Parkin, Adam; Dagnall, Neil

    2017-06-01

    The present research investigated the effects of personal handedness and saccadic eye movements on the specificity of past autobiographical memory and episodic future thinking. Handedness and saccadic eye movements have been hypothesised to share a common functional basis in that both influence cognition through hemispheric interaction. The technique used to elicit autobiographical memory and episodic future thought involved a cued sentence completion procedure that allowed for the production of memories spanning the highly specific to the very general. Experiment 1 found that mixed-handed (vs. right handed) individuals generated more specific past autobiographical memories, but equivalent numbers of specific future predictions. Experiment 2 demonstrated that following 30s of bilateral (horizontal) saccades, more specific cognitions about both the past and future were generated. These findings extend previous research by showing that more distinct and episodic-like information pertaining to the self can be elicited by either mixed-handedness or eye movements. The results are discussed in relation to hemispheric interaction and top-down influences in the control of memory retrieval. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Neurophysiology and Neuroanatomy of Reflexive and Voluntary Saccades in Non-Human Primates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnston, Kevin; Everling, Stefan

    2008-01-01

    A multitude of cognitive functions can easily be tested by a number of relatively simple saccadic eye movement tasks. This approach has been employed extensively with patient populations to investigate the functional deficits associated with psychiatric disorders. Neurophysiological studies in non-human primates performing the same tasks have…

  12. A GABAergic Dysfunction in the Olivary–Cerebellar–Brainstem Network May Cause Eye Oscillations and Body Tremor. II. Model Simulations of Saccadic Eye Oscillations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lance M. Optican

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Eye and body oscillations are shared features of several neurological diseases, yet their pathophysiology remains unclear. Recently, we published a report on two tennis players with a novel presentation of eye and body oscillations following self-administration of performance-enhancing substances. Opsoclonus/flutter and limb tremor were diagnosed in both patients. Common causes of opsoclonus/flutter were excluded. High-resolution eye movement recordings from one patient showed novel spindle-shaped, asymmetric saccadic oscillations (at ~3.6 Hz and ocular tremor (~40–60 Hz. Based on these findings, we proposed that the oscillations are the result of increased GABAA receptor sensitivity in a circuit involving the cerebellum (vermis and fastigial nuclei, the inferior olives, and the brainstem saccade premotor neurons (excitatory and inhibitory burst neurons, and omnipause neurons. We present a mathematical model of the saccadic system, showing that the proposed dysfunction in the network can reproduce the types of saccadic oscillations seen in these patients.

  13. B→ππ form factors from light-cone sum rules with B-meson distribution amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cheng, Shan; Khodjamirian, Alexander [Theoretische Physik 1, Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultät,Department Physik, Universität Siegen,Walter-Flex-Strasse 3, 57068 Siegen (Germany); Virto, Javier [Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics,Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Bern,Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern (Switzerland)

    2017-05-30

    We study B→ππ form factors using QCD light-cone sum rules with B-meson distribution amplitudes. These form factors describe the semileptonic decay B→ππℓν̄{sub ℓ}, and constitute an essential input in B→ππℓ{sup +}ℓ{sup −} and B→πππ decays. We employ the correlation functions where a dipion isospin-one state is interpolated by the vector light-quark current. We obtain sum rules where convolutions of the P-wave B̄{sup 0}→π{sup +}π{sup 0} form factors with the timelike pion vector form factor are related to universal B-meson distribution amplitudes. These sum rules are valid in the kinematic regime where the dipion state has a large energy and a low invariant mass, and reproduce analytically the known light-cone sum rules for B→ρ form factors in the limit of ρ-dominance and zero width, thus providing a systematics for so far unaccounted corrections to B→ρ transitions. Using data for the pion vector form factor, we estimate finite-width effects and the contribution of excited ρ-resonances to the B→ππ form factors. We find that these contributions amount up to ∼20% in the small dipion mass region where they can be effectively regarded as a nonresonant (P-wave) background to the B→ρ transition.

  14. Geometry and Gesture-Based Features from Saccadic Eye-Movement as a Biometric in Radiology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hammond, Tracy [Texas A& M University, College Station; Tourassi, Georgia [ORNL; Yoon, Hong-Jun [ORNL; Alamudun, Folami T. [ORNL

    2017-07-01

    In this study, we present a novel application of sketch gesture recognition on eye-movement for biometric identification and estimating task expertise. The study was performed for the task of mammographic screening with simultaneous viewing of four coordinated breast views as typically done in clinical practice. Eye-tracking data and diagnostic decisions collected for 100 mammographic cases (25 normal, 25 benign, 50 malignant) and 10 readers (three board certified radiologists and seven radiology residents), formed the corpus for this study. Sketch gesture recognition techniques were employed to extract geometric and gesture-based features from saccadic eye-movements. Our results show that saccadic eye-movement, characterized using sketch-based features, result in more accurate models for predicting individual identity and level of expertise than more traditional eye-tracking features.

  15. DVCS amplitude with kinematical twist-3 terms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radyushkin, A.V.; Weiss, C.

    2000-01-01

    The authors compute the amplitude of deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) using the calculus of QCD string operators in coordinate representation. To restore the electromagnetic gauge invariance (transversality) of the twist-2 amplitude they include the operators of twist-3 which appear as total derivatives of twist-2 operators. The results are equivalent to a Wandzura-Wilczek approximation for twist-3 skewed parton distributions. They find that this approximation gives a finite result for the amplitude of a longitudinally polarized virtual photon, while the amplitude for transverse polarization is divergent, i.e., factorization breaks down in this term

  16. Eye movement during retrieval of emotional autobiographical memories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Nandrino, Jean-Louis; Antoine, Pascal; Boucart, Muriel; Lenoble, Quentin

    2017-03-01

    This study assessed whether specific eye movement patterns are observed during emotional autobiographical retrieval. Participants were asked to retrieve positive, negative and neutral memories while their scan path was recorded by an eye-tracker. Results showed that positive and negative emotional memories triggered more fixations and saccades but shorter fixation duration than neutral memories. No significant differences were observed between emotional and neutral memories for duration and amplitude of saccades. Positive and negative retrieval triggered similar eye movement (i.e., similar number of fixations and saccades, fixation duration, duration of saccades, and amplitude of saccades). Interestingly, the participants reported higher visual imagery for emotional memories than for neutral memories. The findings demonstrate similarities and differences in eye movement during retrieval of neutral and emotional memories. Eye movement during autobiographical retrieval seems to be triggered by the creation of visual mental images as the latter are indexed by autobiographical reconstruction. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  17. Experimental access to Transition Distribution Amplitudes with the PANDA experiment at FAIR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zambrana, Manuel; Ahmed, Samer; Deiseroth, Malte; Froehlich, Bertold; Khaneft, Dmitry; Lin, Dexu; Noll, Oliver; Valente, Roserio; Zimmermann, Iris [Institut fuer Kernphysik, Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet, Mainz (Germany); Helmholtz-Institut Mainz (Germany); Mora Espi, Maria Carmen; Ahmadi, Heybat; Capozza, Luigi; Dbeyssi, Alaa; Morales, Cristina; Rodriguez Pineiro, David [Helmholtz-Institut Mainz (Germany); Maas, Frank [Institut fuer Kernphysik, Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet, Mainz (Germany); Helmholtz-Institut Mainz (Germany); Prisma Cluster of Excellence, Mainz (Germany); Collaboration: PANDA-Collaboration

    2016-07-01

    We address the feasibility of accessing proton to pion Transition Distribution Amplitudes with the future PANDA detector at the FAIR facility. Assuming a factorized cross section, feasibility studies of measuring anti pp → e{sup +}e{sup -}π{sup 0} with PANDA have been performed at the center of mass energy squared s = 5 GeV{sup 2} and s = 10 GeV{sup 2}, in the kinematic region of four-momentum transfer 3.0 < q{sup 2} < 4.3 GeV{sup 2} and 5 < q{sup 2} < 9 GeV{sup 2}, respectively,with a neutral pion scattered in the forward or backward cone vertical stroke cosθ{sub π{sup 0}} vertical stroke > 0.5 in the anti pp center of mass frame. These include detailed simulations on signal reconstruction efficiency, rejection of the most severe background channel, i.e. anti pp → π{sup +}π{sup -}π{sup 0}, and the feasibility of the measurement using a sample of 2 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity. The cross sections obtained with the simulations are used to test QCD factorization at the leading order by measuring scaling laws and fitting angular distributions.

  18. Gliding and Saccadic Gaze Gesture Recognition in Real Time

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rozado, David; San Agustin, Javier; Rodriguez, Francisco

    2012-01-01

    , and their corresponding real-time recognition algorithms, Hierarchical Temporal Memory networks and the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm for sequence alignment. Our results show how a specific combination of gaze gesture modality, namely saccadic gaze gestures, and recognition algorithm, Needleman-Wunsch, allows for reliable...... usage of intentional gaze gestures to interact with a computer with accuracy rates of up to 98% and acceptable completion speed. Furthermore, the gesture recognition engine does not interfere with otherwise standard human-machine gaze interaction generating therefore, very low false positive rates...

  19. Effects of Handedness and Saccadic Bilateral Eye Movements on Components of Autobiographical Recollection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Andrew; Dagnall, Neil

    2010-01-01

    The effects of handedness and saccadic bilateral eye movements on autobiographical recollection were investigated. Recall of autobiographical memories was cued by the use of neutral and emotional words. Autobiographical recollection was assessed by the autobiographical memory questionnaire. Experiment 1 found that mixed-handed (vs. right handed)…

  20. Saccadic Eye Movements Impose a Natural Bottleneck on Visual Short-Term Memory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohl, Sven; Rolfs, Martin

    2017-01-01

    Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is a crucial repository of information when events unfold rapidly before our eyes, yet it maintains only a fraction of the sensory information encoded by the visual system. Here, we tested the hypothesis that saccadic eye movements provide a natural bottleneck for the transition of fragile content in sensory memory…

  1. Saccades and Vergence Performance in a Population of Children with Vertigo and Clinically Assessed Abnormal Vergence Capabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bucci, Maria Pia; Kapoula, Zoï; Bui-Quoc, Emmanuel; Bouet, Aurelie; Wiener-Vacher, Sylvette

    2011-01-01

    Purpose Early studies reported some abnormalities in saccade and vergence eye movements in children with vertigo and vergence deficiencies. The purpose of this study was to further examine saccade and vergence performance in a population of 44 children (mean age: 12.3±1.6 years) with vertigo symptoms and with different levels of vergence abnormalities, as assessed by static orthoptic examination (near point of convergence, prism bar and cover-uncover test). Methods Three groups were identified on the basis of the orthoptic tests: group 1 (n = 13) with vergence spasms and mildly perturbed orthoptic scores, group 2 (n = 14) with moderately perturbed orthoptic scores, and group 3 (n = 17) with severely perturbed orthoptic scores. Data were compared to those recorded from 28 healthy children of similar ages. Latency, accuracy and peak velocity of saccades and vergence movements were measured in two different conditions: gap (fixation offset 200 ms prior to target onset) and simultaneous paradigms. Binocular horizontal movements were recorded by a photoelectric device. Results Group 2 of children with vergence abnormalities showed significantly longer latency than normal children in several types of eye movements recorded. For all three groups of children with vergence abnormalities, the gain was poor, particularly for vergence movement. The peak velocity values did not differ between the different groups of children examined. Interpretation Eye movement measures together with static orthoptic evaluation allowed us to better identify children with vergence abnormalities based on their slow initiation of eye movements. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis of a central deficit in the programming and triggering of saccades and vergence in these children. PMID:21858007

  2. Saccades and vergence performance in a population of children with vertigo and clinically assessed abnormal vergence capabilities.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Pia Bucci

    Full Text Available PURPOSE: Early studies reported some abnormalities in saccade and vergence eye movements in children with vertigo and vergence deficiencies. The purpose of this study was to further examine saccade and vergence performance in a population of 44 children (mean age: 12.3±1.6 years with vertigo symptoms and with different levels of vergence abnormalities, as assessed by static orthoptic examination (near point of convergence, prism bar and cover-uncover test. METHODS: Three groups were identified on the basis of the orthoptic tests: group 1 (n = 13 with vergence spasms and mildly perturbed orthoptic scores, group 2 (n = 14 with moderately perturbed orthoptic scores, and group 3 (n = 17 with severely perturbed orthoptic scores. Data were compared to those recorded from 28 healthy children of similar ages. Latency, accuracy and peak velocity of saccades and vergence movements were measured in two different conditions: gap (fixation offset 200 ms prior to target onset and simultaneous paradigms. Binocular horizontal movements were recorded by a photoelectric device. RESULTS: Group 2 of children with vergence abnormalities showed significantly longer latency than normal children in several types of eye movements recorded. For all three groups of children with vergence abnormalities, the gain was poor, particularly for vergence movement. The peak velocity values did not differ between the different groups of children examined. INTERPRETATION: Eye movement measures together with static orthoptic evaluation allowed us to better identify children with vergence abnormalities based on their slow initiation of eye movements. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis of a central deficit in the programming and triggering of saccades and vergence in these children.

  3. Understanding the amplitudes of noise correlation measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Victor C.

    2011-01-01

    Cross correlation of ambient seismic noise is known to result in time series from which station-station travel-time measurements can be made. Part of the reason that these cross-correlation travel-time measurements are reliable is that there exists a theoretical framework that quantifies how these travel times depend on the features of the ambient noise. However, corresponding theoretical results do not currently exist to describe how the amplitudes of the cross correlation depend on such features. For example, currently it is not possible to take a given distribution of noise sources and calculate the cross correlation amplitudes one would expect from such a distribution. Here, we provide a ray-theoretical framework for calculating cross correlations. This framework differs from previous work in that it explicitly accounts for attenuation as well as the spatial distribution of sources and therefore can address the issue of quantifying amplitudes in noise correlation measurements. After introducing the general framework, we apply it to two specific problems. First, we show that we can quantify the amplitudes of coherency measurements, and find that the decay of coherency with station-station spacing depends crucially on the distribution of noise sources. We suggest that researchers interested in performing attenuation measurements from noise coherency should first determine how the dominant sources of noise are distributed. Second, we show that we can quantify the signal-to-noise ratio of noise correlations more precisely than previous work, and that these signal-to-noise ratios can be estimated for given situations prior to the deployment of seismometers. It is expected that there are applications of the theoretical framework beyond the two specific cases considered, but these applications await future work.

  4. Generalized conditions for the distributional zero-mass limit of renormalized Feynman amplitudes in Minkowski space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Manoukian, E.B.

    1986-01-01

    Generalized conditions (rules) are set up for the existence of the distributional zero-mass limit of renormalized Feynman amplitudes in Minkowski space. These rules are generalizations of rules that have been set up earlier by us and hence are applicable to a larger class of graphs. The study is very general as the vanishing masses are led to vanish at different rates. All subtractions of renormalization are carried out directly in momentum space, about the origin, with the degree of divergence of a subtraction coinciding with the dimensionality of the corresponding subdiagram

  5. Lack of Multisensory Integration in Hemianopia: No Influence of Visual Stimuli on Aurally Guided Saccades to the Blind Hemifield

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ten Brink, Antonia F.; Nijboer, Tanja C. W.; Bergsma, Douwe P.; Barton, Jason J. S.; Van der Stigchel, Stefan

    2015-01-01

    In patients with visual hemifield defects residual visual functions may be present, a phenomenon called blindsight. The superior colliculus (SC) is part of the spared pathway that is considered to be responsible for this phenomenon. Given that the SC processes input from different modalities and is involved in the programming of saccadic eye movements, the aim of the present study was to examine whether multimodal integration can modulate oculomotor competition in the damaged hemifield. We conducted two experiments with eight patients who had visual field defects due to lesions that affected the retinogeniculate pathway but spared the retinotectal direct SC pathway. They had to make saccades to an auditory target that was presented alone or in combination with a visual stimulus. The visual stimulus could either be spatially coincident with the auditory target (possibly enhancing the auditory target signal), or spatially disparate to the auditory target (possibly competing with the auditory tar-get signal). For each patient we compared the saccade endpoint deviation in these two bi-modal conditions with the endpoint deviation in the unimodal condition (auditory target alone). In all seven hemianopic patients, saccade accuracy was affected only by visual stimuli in the intact, but not in the blind visual field. In one patient with a more limited quadrantano-pia, a facilitation effect of the spatially coincident visual stimulus was observed. We conclude that our results show that multisensory integration is infrequent in the blind field of patients with hemianopia. PMID:25835952

  6. Lack of multisensory integration in hemianopia: no influence of visual stimuli on aurally guided saccades to the blind hemifield.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonia F Ten Brink

    Full Text Available In patients with visual hemifield defects residual visual functions may be present, a phenomenon called blindsight. The superior colliculus (SC is part of the spared pathway that is considered to be responsible for this phenomenon. Given that the SC processes input from different modalities and is involved in the programming of saccadic eye movements, the aim of the present study was to examine whether multimodal integration can modulate oculomotor competition in the damaged hemifield. We conducted two experiments with eight patients who had visual field defects due to lesions that affected the retinogeniculate pathway but spared the retinotectal direct SC pathway. They had to make saccades to an auditory target that was presented alone or in combination with a visual stimulus. The visual stimulus could either be spatially coincident with the auditory target (possibly enhancing the auditory target signal, or spatially disparate to the auditory target (possibly competing with the auditory tar-get signal. For each patient we compared the saccade endpoint deviation in these two bi-modal conditions with the endpoint deviation in the unimodal condition (auditory target alone. In all seven hemianopic patients, saccade accuracy was affected only by visual stimuli in the intact, but not in the blind visual field. In one patient with a more limited quadrantano-pia, a facilitation effect of the spatially coincident visual stimulus was observed. We conclude that our results show that multisensory integration is infrequent in the blind field of patients with hemianopia.

  7. The WS transform for the Kuramoto model with distributed amplitudes, phase lag and time delay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lohe, M. A.

    2017-12-01

    We apply the Watanabe-Strogatz (WS) transform to a generalized Kuramoto model with distributed parameters describing the amplitude of oscillation, phase lag, and time delay at each node of the system. The model has global coupling and identical frequencies, but allows for repulsive interactions at arbitrary nodes leading to conformist-contrarian phenomena together with variable amplitude and time-delay effects. We show how to determine the initial values of the WS system for any initial conditions for the Kuramoto system, and investigate the asymptotic behaviour of the WS variables. For the case of zero time delay the possible asymptotic configurations are determined by the sign of a single parameter μ which measures whether or not the attractive nodes dominate the repulsive nodes. If μ>0 the system completely synchronizes from general initial conditions, whereas if μ<0 one of two types of phase-locked synchronization occurs, depending on the initial values, while for μ=0 periodic solutions can occur. For the case of arbitrary non-uniform time delays we derive a stability condition for completely synchronized solutions.

  8. Study of inelastic decay of amplitudes in 49V

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chou, B.H.

    1980-01-01

    Inelastic decay amplitudes from d-wave resonances in 49 V were obtained for 80 resonances in the proton energy range 2.2 to 3.1 MeV. With the 3 MV Van de Graaff accelerator and high resolution system at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, an overall resolution of 350 eV was obtained. The experiment consisted of measurements of the angular distributions of the inelastically scattered protons and the subsequent deexcitation gamma rays. Forty five resonances were assigned J/sup π/ = 5/2 + , while thirty five resonances were assigned 3/2 + . The magnitudes of three inelastic decay amplitudes and the relative signs between these three amplitudes were determined. Large amplitude correlations were observed; the data are in the striking disagreement with the extreme statistical model. The present results provide the first explicit test of the multivariate reduced width amplitude distribution of Krieger and Porter; the agreement is excellent. The physical origin of these channel correlations has not yet been explained

  9. Hemispheric Lateralization, Cerebral Dominance, Conjugate Saccadic Behavior and Their Use in Identifying the Creatively Gifted.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rekdal, C. K.

    1979-01-01

    In an effort to establish new means of locating the gifted creative productive thinker, an investigation of current brain research in the areas of hemispheric lateralization, cerebral dominance and conjugate saccadic behavior is analyzed. (Author/PHR)

  10. Evolution equation for the higher-twist B-meson distribution amplitude

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Braun, V.M.; Offen, N.; Manashov, A.N.; Regensburg Univ.; Sankt-Petersburg State Univ.

    2015-07-01

    We find that the evolution equation for the three-particle quark-gluon B-meson light-cone distribution amplitude (DA) of subleading twist is completely integrable in the large N c limit and can be solved exactly. The lowest anomalous dimension is separated from the remaining, continuous, spectrum by a finite gap. The corresponding eigenfunction coincides with the contribution of quark-gluon states to the two-particle DA φ - (ω) so that the evolution equation for the latter is the same as for the leading-twist DA φ + (ω) up to a constant shift in the anomalous dimension. Thus, ''genuine'' three-particle states that belong to the continuous spectrum effectively decouple from φ - (ω) to the leading-order accuracy. In turn, the scale dependence of the full three-particle DA turns out to be nontrivial so that the contribution with the lowest anomalous dimension does not become leading at any scale. The results are illustrated on a simple model that can be used in studies of 1/m b corrections to heavy-meson decays in the framework of QCD factorization or light-cone sum rules.

  11. The fastest saccadic responses escape visual masking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Crouzet, Sébastien M.; Overgaard, Morten; Busch, Niko A.

    2014-01-01

    Object-substitution masking (OSM) occurs when a briefly presented target in a search array is surrounded by small dots that remain visible after the target disappears. The reduction of target visibility occurring after OSM has been suggested to result from a specific interference with reentrant......, which gives access to very early stages of visual processing, target visibility was reduced either by OSM, conventional backward masking, or low stimulus contrast. A general reduction of performance was observed in all three conditions. However, the fastest saccades did not show any sign of interference...... under either OSM or backward masking, as they did under the low-contrast condition. This finding supports the hypothesis that masking interferes mostly with reentrant processing at later stages, while leaving early feedforward processing largely intact....

  12. Prefrontal spatial working memory network predicts animal's decision making in a free choice saccade task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mochizuki, Kei

    2015-01-01

    While neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) encode spatial information during the performance of working memory tasks, they are also known to participate in subjective behavior such as spatial attention and action selection. In the present study, we analyzed the activity of primate PFC neurons during the performance of a free choice memory-guided saccade task in which the monkeys needed to choose a saccade direction by themselves. In trials when the receptive field location was subsequently chosen by the animal, PFC neurons with spatially selective visual response started to show greater activation before cue onset. This result suggests that the fluctuation of firing before cue presentation prematurely biased the representation of a certain spatial location and eventually encouraged the subsequent choice of that location. In addition, modulation of the activity by the animal's choice was observed only in neurons with high sustainability of activation and was also dependent on the spatial configuration of the visual cues. These findings were consistent with known characteristics of PFC neurons in information maintenance in spatial working memory function. These results suggest that precue fluctuation of spatial representation was shared and enhanced through the working memory network in the PFC and could finally influence the animal's free choice of saccade direction. The present study revealed that the PFC plays an important role in decision making in a free choice condition and that the dynamics of decision making are constrained by the network architecture embedded in this cortical area. PMID:26490287

  13. Bilateral saccadic eye movements and tactile stimulation, but not auditory stimulation, enhance memory retrieval

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nieuwenhuis, S.; Elzinga, B.M.; Ras, P.H.; Berends, F.; Duijs, P.; Samara, Z.; Slagter, H.A.

    2013-01-01

    Recent research has shown superior memory retrieval when participants make a series of horizontal saccadic eye movements between the memory encoding phase and the retrieval phase compared to participants who do not move their eyes or move their eyes vertically. It has been hypothesized that the

  14. Analytical structure of the 3. -->. 3 forward scattering amplitude

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Logunov, A A; Medvedev, B V; Muzafarov, L M; Pavlov, V P; Polivanov, M K; Sukhanov, A D [AN SSSR, Moscow. Matematicheskij Inst.

    1979-08-01

    Analytical properties of the amplitude of 3..-->..3 forward scattering established in the framework of the Bogolyubov axiomatic approach are described. The amplitudes of the different channels of the process are boundary values of a unique analytical function of invariant variables. Crossing-symmetry property of the amplitude is proved. Analysis of the absorptive part of the amplitude is performed and the generalized optical theorem is proved which connects one of the contributions into the absorptive part with the distribution function of the inclusive process.

  15. Optimal sensorimotor control in eye movement sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Munuera, Jérôme; Morel, Pierre; Duhamel, Jean-René; Deneve, Sophie

    2009-03-11

    Fast and accurate motor behavior requires combining noisy and delayed sensory information with knowledge of self-generated body motion; much evidence indicates that humans do this in a near-optimal manner during arm movements. However, it is unclear whether this principle applies to eye movements. We measured the relative contributions of visual sensory feedback and the motor efference copy (and/or proprioceptive feedback) when humans perform two saccades in rapid succession, the first saccade to a visual target and the second to a memorized target. Unbeknownst to the subject, we introduced an artificial motor error by randomly "jumping" the visual target during the first saccade. The correction of the memory-guided saccade allowed us to measure the relative contributions of visual feedback and efferent copy (and/or proprioceptive feedback) to motor-plan updating. In a control experiment, we extinguished the target during the saccade rather than changing its location to measure the relative contribution of motor noise and target localization error to saccade variability without any visual feedback. The motor noise contribution increased with saccade amplitude, but remained <30% of the total variability. Subjects adjusted the gain of their visual feedback for different saccade amplitudes as a function of its reliability. Even during trials where subjects performed a corrective saccade to compensate for the target-jump, the correction by the visual feedback, while stronger, remained far below 100%. In all conditions, an optimal controller predicted the visual feedback gain well, suggesting that humans combine optimally their efferent copy and sensory feedback when performing eye movements.

  16. Renormalization Scale-Fixing for Complex Scattering Amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brodsky, Stanley J.; /SLAC; Llanes-Estrada, Felipe J.; /Madrid U.

    2005-12-21

    We show how to fix the renormalization scale for hard-scattering exclusive processes such as deeply virtual meson electroproduction by applying the BLM prescription to the imaginary part of the scattering amplitude and employing a fixed-t dispersion relation to obtain the scale-fixed real part. In this way we resolve the ambiguity in BLM renormalization scale-setting for complex scattering amplitudes. We illustrate this by computing the H generalized parton distribution at leading twist in an analytic quark-diquark model for the parton-proton scattering amplitude which can incorporate Regge exchange contributions characteristic of the deep inelastic structure functions.

  17. The modulatory role of second language proficiency on performance monitoring: evidence from a saccadic countermanding task in high and low proficient bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Niharika; Mishra, Ramesh K

    2014-01-01

    We compared Hindi-English bilinguals differing in their L2 proficiency on a saccadic countermanding task which taps inhibitory control as well as monitoring. We particularly explored whether response inhibition and performance monitoring within the oculomotor domain are affected by language proficiency in bilinguals. There were two different oculomotor redirect tasks: Visually Guided Redirect (VGR) task (Experiment1) and Memory Guided Redirect (MGR) task (Experiment 2). In the redirect task, typically a target is presented and the subject is required to make a saccade (no-step trials), unless a new target appears on a different location after some delay from the first target onset (step trials). On such trials participants are required to inhibit and cancel the saccade to the first target and programme a saccade to the new target. Using trial switch reaction time (TSRT), the time taken to inhibit the initiated saccade to the first target as a measure of response inhibition and post-step slowing as a measure of performance monitoring. The results showed the high proficient bilinguals displayed more post-step slowing on the no-step trials as compared to the low proficient bilinguals for both VGR and MGR versions of the task. Secondly, both the high and low proficient bilinguals exhibited comparable TSRT in both VGR and MGR task, showing no modulatory effects of language proficiency on the response inhibition. These results suggest that language proficiency may have an effect on performance monitoring, but not the inhibitory control per se. Thus, we infer that higher proficiency may lead to superior cognitive flexibility and an ability to adjust behavior that facilitates the attainment of the cognitive goal. These findings are in consonance with other current studies that suggest a top-down effect of bilingualism on action control systems.

  18. Prefrontal spatial working memory network predicts animal's decision making in a free choice saccade task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mochizuki, Kei; Funahashi, Shintaro

    2016-01-01

    While neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) encode spatial information during the performance of working memory tasks, they are also known to participate in subjective behavior such as spatial attention and action selection. In the present study, we analyzed the activity of primate PFC neurons during the performance of a free choice memory-guided saccade task in which the monkeys needed to choose a saccade direction by themselves. In trials when the receptive field location was subsequently chosen by the animal, PFC neurons with spatially selective visual response started to show greater activation before cue onset. This result suggests that the fluctuation of firing before cue presentation prematurely biased the representation of a certain spatial location and eventually encouraged the subsequent choice of that location. In addition, modulation of the activity by the animal's choice was observed only in neurons with high sustainability of activation and was also dependent on the spatial configuration of the visual cues. These findings were consistent with known characteristics of PFC neurons in information maintenance in spatial working memory function. These results suggest that precue fluctuation of spatial representation was shared and enhanced through the working memory network in the PFC and could finally influence the animal's free choice of saccade direction. The present study revealed that the PFC plays an important role in decision making in a free choice condition and that the dynamics of decision making are constrained by the network architecture embedded in this cortical area. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

  19. Modulation of cognitive control levels via manipulation of saccade trial-type probability assessed with event-related BOLD fMRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierce, Jordan E; McDowell, Jennifer E

    2016-02-01

    Cognitive control supports flexible behavior adapted to meet current goals and can be modeled through investigation of saccade tasks with varying cognitive demands. Basic prosaccades (rapid glances toward a newly appearing stimulus) are supported by neural circuitry, including occipital and posterior parietal cortex, frontal and supplementary eye fields, and basal ganglia. These trials can be contrasted with complex antisaccades (glances toward the mirror image location of a stimulus), which are characterized by greater functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal in the aforementioned regions and recruitment of additional regions such as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The current study manipulated the cognitive demands of these saccade tasks by presenting three rapid event-related runs of mixed saccades with a varying probability of antisaccade vs. prosaccade trials (25, 50, or 75%). Behavioral results showed an effect of trial-type probability on reaction time, with slower responses in runs with a high antisaccade probability. Imaging results exhibited an effect of probability in bilateral pre- and postcentral gyrus, bilateral superior temporal gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus. Additionally, the interaction between saccade trial type and probability revealed a strong probability effect for prosaccade trials, showing a linear increase in activation parallel to antisaccade probability in bilateral temporal/occipital, posterior parietal, medial frontal, and lateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast, antisaccade trials showed elevated activation across all runs. Overall, this study demonstrated that improbable performance of a typically simple prosaccade task led to augmented BOLD signal to support changing cognitive control demands, resulting in activation levels similar to the more complex antisaccade task. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

  20. Differential processing of natural scenes in typical and atypical Alzheimer disease measured with a saccade choice task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muriel eBoucart

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Though atrophy of the medial temporal lobe, including structures (hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex that support scene perception and the binding of an object to its context, appears early in Alzheimer disease (AD few studies have investigated scene perception in people with AD. We assessed the ability to find a target object within a natural scene in people with typical AD and in people with atypical AD (posterior cortical atrophy. Pairs of colored photographs were displayed left and right of fixation for one second. Participants were asked to categorize the target (an animal either in moving their eyes toward the photograph containing the target (saccadic choice task or in pressing a key corresponding to the location of the target (manual choice task in separate blocks of trials. For both tasks performance was compared in two conditions: with isolated objects and with objects in scenes. Patients with atypical AD were more impaired to detect a target within a scene than people with typical AD who exhibited a pattern of performance more similar to that of age-matched controls in terms of accuracy, saccade latencies and benefit from contextual information. People with atypical AD benefited less from contextual information in both the saccade and the manual choice tasks suggesting a higher sensitivity to crowding and deficits in figure/ground segregation in people with lesions in posterior areas of the brain.

  1. Bilateral Saccadic Eye Movements and Tactile Stimulation, but Not Auditory Stimulation, Enhance Memory Retrieval

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nieuwenhuis, Sander; Elzinga, Bernet M.; Ras, Priscilla H.; Berends, Floris; Duijs, Peter; Samara, Zoe; Slagter, Heleen A.

    2013-01-01

    Recent research has shown superior memory retrieval when participants make a series of horizontal saccadic eye movements between the memory encoding phase and the retrieval phase compared to participants who do not move their eyes or move their eyes vertically. It has been hypothesized that the rapidly alternating activation of the two hemispheres…

  2. Decoding of intended saccade direction in an oculomotor brain-computer interface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Nan; Brincat, Scott L.; Salazar-Gómez, Andrés F.; Panko, Mikhail; Guenther, Frank H.; Miller, Earl K.

    2017-08-01

    Objective. To date, invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) research has largely focused on replacing lost limb functions using signals from the hand/arm areas of motor cortex. However, the oculomotor system may be better suited to BCI applications involving rapid serial selection from spatial targets, such as choosing from a set of possible words displayed on a computer screen in an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) application. Here we aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of a BCI utilizing the oculomotor system. Approach. We developed a chronic intracortical BCI in monkeys to decode intended saccadic eye movement direction using activity from multiple frontal cortical areas. Main results. Intended saccade direction could be decoded in real time with high accuracy, particularly at contralateral locations. Accurate decoding was evident even at the beginning of the BCI session; no extensive BCI experience was necessary. High-frequency (80-500 Hz) local field potential magnitude provided the best performance, even over spiking activity, thus simplifying future BCI applications. Most of the information came from the frontal and supplementary eye fields, with relatively little contribution from dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Significance. Our results support the feasibility of high-accuracy intracortical oculomotor BCIs that require little or no practice to operate and may be ideally suited for ‘point and click’ computer operation as used in most current AAC systems.

  3. Responses of Purkinje cells in the oculomotor vermis of monkeys during smooth pursuit eye movements and saccades: comparison with floccular complex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raghavan, Ramanujan T; Lisberger, Stephen G

    2017-08-01

    We recorded the responses of Purkinje cells in the oculomotor vermis during smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements. Our goal was to characterize the responses in the vermis using approaches that would allow direct comparisons with responses of Purkinje cells in another cerebellar area for pursuit, the floccular complex. Simple-spike firing of vermis Purkinje cells is direction selective during both pursuit and saccades, but the preferred directions are sufficiently independent so that downstream circuits could decode signals to drive pursuit and saccades separately. Complex spikes also were direction selective during pursuit, and almost all Purkinje cells showed a peak in the probability of complex spikes during the initiation of pursuit in at least one direction. Unlike the floccular complex, the preferred directions for simple spikes and complex spikes were not opposite. The kinematics of smooth eye movement described the simple-spike responses of vermis Purkinje cells well. Sensitivities were similar to those in the floccular complex for eye position and considerably lower for eye velocity and acceleration. The kinematic relations were quite different for saccades vs. pursuit, supporting the idea that the contributions from the vermis to each kind of movement could contribute independently in downstream areas. Finally, neither the complex-spike nor the simple-spike responses of vermis Purkinje cells were appropriate to support direction learning in pursuit. Complex spikes were not triggered reliably by an instructive change in target direction; simple-spike responses showed very small amounts of learning. We conclude that the vermis plays a different role in pursuit eye movements compared with the floccular complex. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The midline oculomotor cerebellum plays a different role in smooth pursuit eye movements compared with the lateral, floccular complex and appears to be much less involved in direction learning in pursuit. The output from the

  4. The time-course of visual masking effects on saccadic responses indicates that masking interferes with reentrant processing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Crouzet, S.; Pin, Simon Hviid Del; Overgaard, Morten

    2013-01-01

    Object substitution masking (OSM) occurs when a briefly presented target in a search array is surrounded by small dots that remain visible after the target disappears. Here, we tested the widespread assumption that OSM selectively impairs reentrant processing. If OSM interferes selectively...... with reentrant processing, then the first feedforward sweep should be left relatively intact. Using a standard OSM paradigm in combination with a saccadic choice task, giving access to an early phase of visual processing (the fastest saccades occurring only 100 ms after target onset), we compared the masking....... Interestingly, the same result was observed using backward masking. In a follow-up experiment, where we assessed observer’s visual awareness using single-trial visibility ratings, we demonstrated that these ultra-fast responses were actually linked to subsequent reported visibility. Taken together...

  5. Saccadic gain adaptation is predicted by the statistics of natural fluctuations in oculomotor function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark V Albert

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Due to multiple factors such as fatigue, muscle strengthening, and neural plasticity, the responsiveness of the motor apparatus to neural commands changes over time. To enable precise movements the nervous system must adapt to compensate for these changes. Recent models of motor adaptation derive from assumptions about the way the motor apparatus changes. Characterizing these changes is difficult because motor adaptation happens at the same time, masking most of the effects of ongoing changes. Here, we analyze eye movements of monkeys with lesions to the posterior cerebellar vermis that impair adaptation. Their fluctuations better reveal the underlying changes of the motor system over time. When these measured, unadapted changes are used to derive optimal motor adaptation rules the prediction precision significantly improves. Among three models that similarly fit single-day adaptation results, the model that also matches the temporal correlations of the nonadapting saccades most accurately predicts multiple day adaptation. Saccadic gain adaptation is well matched to the natural statistics of fluctuations of the oculomotor plant.

  6. The ρ-meson light-cone distribution amplitudes from lattice QCD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Braun, Vladimir M.; Bruns, Peter C.; Collins, Sara [Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg,Universitätsstraße 31, 93040 Regensburg (Germany); Gracey, John A. [Theoretical Physics Division, Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Liverpool, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool, L69 3BX (United Kingdom); Gruber, Michael; Göckeler, Meinulf; Hutzler, Fabian; Pérez-Rubio, Paula; Schäfer, Andreas; Söldner, Wolfgang [Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg,Universitätsstraße 31, 93040 Regensburg (Germany); Sternbeck, André [Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena,Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena (Germany); Wein, Philipp [Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg,Universitätsstraße 31, 93040 Regensburg (Germany)

    2017-04-13

    We present the results of a lattice study of the normalization constants and second moments of the light-cone distribution amplitudes of longitudinally and transversely polarized ρ mesons. The calculation is performed using two flavors of dynamical clover fermions at lattice spacings between 0.060 fm and 0.081 fm, different lattice volumes up to m{sub π}L=6.7 and pion masses down to m{sub π}=150 MeV. Bare lattice results are renormalized non-perturbatively using a variant of the RI{sup ′}-MOM scheme and converted to the (MS)-bar scheme. The necessary conversion coefficients, which are not available in the literature, are calculated. The chiral extrapolation for the relevant decay constants is worked out in detail. We obtain for the ratio of the tensor and vector coupling constants f{sub ρ}{sup T}/f{sub ρ}=0.629(8) and the values of the second Gegenbauer moments a{sub 2}{sup ∥}=0.132(27) and a{sub 2}{sup ⊥}=0.101(22) at the scale μ=2 GeV for the longitudinally and transversely polarized ρ mesons, respectively. The errors include the statistical uncertainty and estimates of the systematics arising from renormalization. Discretization errors cannot be estimated reliably and are not included. In this calculation the possibility of ρ→ππ decay at the smaller pion masses is not taken into account.

  7. Effects of acute alcohol intoxication on automated processing: evidence from the double-step paradigm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vorstius, Christian; Radach, Ralph; Lang, Alan R

    2012-02-01

    Reflexive and voluntary levels of processing have been studied extensively with respect to possible impairments due to alcohol intoxication. This study examined alcohol effects at the 'automated' level of processing essential to many complex visual processing tasks (e.g., reading, visual search) that involve ongoing modifications or reprogramming of well-practiced routines. Data from 30 participants (16 male) were collected in two counterbalanced sessions (alcohol vs. no-alcohol control; mean breath alcohol concentration = 68 mg/dL vs. 0 mg/dL). Eye movements were recorded during a double-step task where 75% of trials involved two target stimuli in rapid succession (inter-stimulus interval [ISI]=40, 70, or 100 ms) so that they could elicit two distinct saccades or eye movements (double steps). On 25% of trials a single target appeared. Results indicated that saccade latencies were longer under alcohol. In addition, the proportion of single-step responses and the mean saccade amplitude (length) of primary saccades decreased significantly with increasing ISI. The key novel finding, however, was that the reprogramming time needed to cancel the first saccade and adjust saccade amplitude was extended significantly by alcohol. The additional time made available by prolonged latencies due to alcohol was not utilized by the saccade programming system to decrease the number of two-step responses. These results represent the first demonstration of specific alcohol-induced programming deficits at the automated level of oculomotor processing.

  8. Contributions of retinal input and phenomenal representation of a fixation object to the saccadic gap effect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ueda, Hiroshi; Takahashi, Kohske; Watanabe, Katsumi

    2013-04-19

    The saccadic "gap effect" refers to a phenomenon whereby saccadic reaction times (SRTs) are shortened by the removal of a visual fixation stimulus prior to target presentation. In the current study, we investigated whether the gap effect was influenced by retinal input of a fixation stimulus, as well as phenomenal permanence and/or expectation of the re-emergence of a fixation stimulus. In Experiment 1, we used an occluded fixation stimulus that was gradually hidden by a moving plate prior to the target presentation, which produced the impression that the fixation stimulus still remained and would reappear from behind the plate. We found that the gap effect was significantly weakened with the occluded fixation stimulus. However, the SRT with the occluded fixation stimulus was still shorter in comparison to when the fixation stimulus physically remained on the screen. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether this effect was due to phenomenal maintenance or expectation of the reappearance of the fixation stimulus; this was achieved by using occluding plates that were an identical color to the background screen, giving the impression of reappearance of the fixation stimulus but not of its maintenance. The result showed that the gap effect was still weakened by the same degree even without phenomenal maintenance of the fixation stimulus. These results suggest that the saccadic gap effect is modulated by both retinal input and subjective expectation of re-emergence of the fixation stimulus. In addition to oculomotor mechanisms, other components, such as attentional mechanisms, likely contribute to facilitation of the subsequent action. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Immaturity of the Oculomotor Saccade and Vergence Interaction in Dyslexic Children: Evidence from a Reading and Visual Search Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bucci, Maria Pia; Nassibi, Naziha; Gerard, Christophe-Loic; Bui-Quoc, Emmanuel; Seassau, Magali

    2012-01-01

    Studies comparing binocular eye movements during reading and visual search in dyslexic children are, at our knowledge, inexistent. In the present study we examined ocular motor characteristics in dyslexic children versus two groups of non dyslexic children with chronological/reading age-matched. Binocular eye movements were recorded by an infrared system (mobileEBT®, e(ye)BRAIN) in twelve dyslexic children (mean age 11 years old) and a group of chronological age-matched (N = 9) and reading age-matched (N = 10) non dyslexic children. Two visual tasks were used: text reading and visual search. Independently of the task, the ocular motor behavior in dyslexic children is similar to those reported in reading age-matched non dyslexic children: many and longer fixations as well as poor quality of binocular coordination during and after the saccades. In contrast, chronological age-matched non dyslexic children showed a small number of fixations and short duration of fixations in reading task with respect to visual search task; furthermore their saccades were well yoked in both tasks. The atypical eye movement's patterns observed in dyslexic children suggest a deficiency in the visual attentional processing as well as an immaturity of the ocular motor saccade and vergence systems interaction. PMID:22438934

  10. Determination of the influence of asymmetry of the electric field distribution in gaseous proportional counters on their signal amplitude

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jagusztyn, W.

    1976-01-01

    A method is described of establishing the influence of the asymmetry of the electric field distribution in gaseous proportional counters on the amplitude of their voltage signal. A numerical evaluation of this effect demands performing calculations of the electric field in the vicinity of the anode. Using the described method of numerical solution of the Laplace equation in polar coordinates with logarythmically scaled radial dimension, it is possible to achieve the required accuracy. In the calculations of differences in amplitudes of voltage signals, for chosen trajektories of electrons liberated in the process of primary ionization, changes in the gaseous amplification factors and drift velocities of positive ions are taken into account. Experimental results prove the validity of presented theory. The results obtained are accurate enough to be applied to the design of proportional counters of non-cylindrical geometries. (author)

  11. Does the Brain Extrapolate the Position of a Transient Moving Target?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quinet, Julie; Goffart, Laurent

    2015-08-26

    When an object moves in the visual field, its motion evokes a streak of activity on the retina and the incoming retinal signals lead to robust oculomotor commands because corrections are observed if the trajectory of the interceptive saccade is perturbed by a microstimulation in the superior colliculus. The present study complements a previous perturbation study by investigating, in the head-restrained monkey, the generation of saccades toward a transient moving target (100-200 ms). We tested whether the saccades land on the average of antecedent target positions or beyond the location where the target disappeared. Using target motions with different speed profiles, we also examined the sensitivity of the process that converts time-varying retinal signals into saccadic oculomotor commands. The results show that, for identical overall target displacements on the visual display, saccades toward a faster target land beyond the endpoint of saccades toward a target moving slower. The rate of change in speed matters in the visuomotor transformation. Indeed, in response to identical overall target displacements and durations, the saccades have smaller amplitude when they are made in response to an accelerating target than to a decelerating one. Moreover, the motion-related signals have different weights depending upon their timing relative to the target onset: early signals are more influential in the specification of saccade amplitude than later signals. We discuss the "predictive" properties of the visuo-saccadic system and the nature of this location where the saccades land, after providing some critical comments to the "hic-et-nunc" hypothesis (Fleuriet and Goffart, 2012). Complementing the work of Fleuriet and Goffart (2012), this study is a contribution to the more general scientific research aimed at understanding how ongoing action is dynamically and adaptively adjusted to the current spatiotemporal aspects of its goal. Using the saccadic eye movement as a probe

  12. Antecedent occipital alpha band activity predicts the impact of oculomotor events in perceptual switching

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hironori eNakatani

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Oculomotor events such as blinks and saccades transiently interrupt the visual input and, even though this mostly goes undetected, these brief interruptions could still influence the percept. In particular, both blinking and saccades facilitate switching in ambiguous figures such as the Necker cube. To investigate the neural state antecedent to these oculomotor events during the perception of an ambiguous figure, we measured the human scalp electroencephalogram (EEG. When blinking led to perceptual switching, antecedent occipital alpha band activity exhibited a transient increase in amplitude. When a saccade led to switching, a series of transient increases and decreases in amplitude was observed in the antecedent occipital alpha band activity. Our results suggest that the state of occipital alpha band activity predicts the impact of oculomotor events on the percept.

  13. Eye movements during object recognition in visual agnosia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charles Leek, E; Patterson, Candy; Paul, Matthew A; Rafal, Robert; Cristino, Filipe

    2012-07-01

    This paper reports the first ever detailed study about eye movement patterns during single object recognition in visual agnosia. Eye movements were recorded in a patient with an integrative agnosic deficit during two recognition tasks: common object naming and novel object recognition memory. The patient showed normal directional biases in saccades and fixation dwell times in both tasks and was as likely as controls to fixate within object bounding contour regardless of recognition accuracy. In contrast, following initial saccades of similar amplitude to controls, the patient showed a bias for short saccades. In object naming, but not in recognition memory, the similarity of the spatial distributions of patient and control fixations was modulated by recognition accuracy. The study provides new evidence about how eye movements can be used to elucidate the functional impairments underlying object recognition deficits. We argue that the results reflect a breakdown in normal functional processes involved in the integration of shape information across object structure during the visual perception of shape. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Fatigue Reliability under Multiple-Amplitude Loads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Talreja, R.

    1979-01-01

    for the initial tensile strength and the fatigue life, the probability distributions for the residual tensile strength in both the crack initiation and the crack propagation stages of fatigue are determined. The method is illustrated for two-amplitude loads by means of experimental results obtained by testing...

  15. Visual encoding and fixation target selection in free viewing: presaccadic brain potentials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrey R Nikolaev

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available In scrutinizing a scene, the eyes alternate between fixations and saccades. During a fixation, two component processes can be distinguished: visual encoding and selection of the next fixation target. We aimed to distinguish the neural correlates of these processes in the electrical brain activity prior to a saccade onset. Participants viewed color photographs of natural scenes, in preparation for a change detection task. Then, for each participant and each scene we computed an image heat map, with temperature representing the duration and density of fixations. The temperature difference between the start and end points of saccades was taken as a measure of the expected task-relevance of the information concentrated in specific regions of a scene. Visual encoding was evaluated according to whether subsequent change was correctly detected. Saccades with larger temperature difference were more likely to be followed by correct detection than ones with smaller temperature differences. The amplitude of presaccadic activity over anterior brain areas was larger for correct detection than for detection failure. This difference was observed for short scrutinizing but not for long explorative saccades, suggesting that presaccadic activity reflects top-down saccade guidance. Thus, successful encoding requires local scanning of scene regions which are expected to be task-relevant. Next, we evaluated fixation target selection. Saccades moving up in temperature were preceded by presaccadic activity of higher amplitude than those moving down. This finding suggests that presaccadic activity reflects attention deployed to the following fixation location. Our findings illustrate how presaccadic activity can elucidate concurrent brain processes related to the immediate goal of planning the next saccade and the larger-scale goal of constructing a robust representation of the visual scene.

  16. Detection of cardiac wall motion defects with combined amplitude/phase analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bacharach, S.L.; Green, M.V.; Bonow, R.O.; Pace, L.; Brunetti, A.; Larson, S.M.

    1985-01-01

    Fourier phase images have been used with some success to detect and quantify left ventricular (LV) wall motion defects. In abnormal regions of the LV, wall motion asynchronies often cause the time activity curve (TAC) to be shifted in phase. Such regional shifts are detected by analysis of the distribution function of phase values over the LV. However, not all wall motion defects result in detectable regional phase abnormalities. Such abnormalities may cause a reduction in the magnitude of contraction (and hence TAC amplitude) without any appreciable change in TAC shape(and hence phase). In an attempt to improve the sensitivity of the Fourier phase method for the detection of wall motion defects the authors analyzed the distribution function of Fourier amplitude as well as phase. 26 individuals with normal cardiac function and no history of cardiac disease served as controls. The goal was to detect and quantify wall motion as compared to the consensus of 3 independent observers viewing the scintigraphic cines. 26 subjects with coronary artery disease and mild wall motion defects (22 with normal EF) were studied ate rest. They found that analysis of the skew of thew amplitude distribution function improved the sensitivity for the detection of wall motion abnormalities at rest in the group from 65% to 85% (17/26 detected by phase alone, 22/26 by combined phase and amplitude analysis) while retaining a 0 false positive rate in the normal group. The authors conclude that analysis of Fourier amplitude distribution functions can significantly increase the sensitivity of phase imaging for detection of wall motion abnormalities

  17. Broadband metasurface holograms: toward complete phase and amplitude engineering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Qiu; Zhang, Xueqian; Xu, Yuehong; Gu, Jianqiang; Li, Yanfeng; Tian, Zhen; Singh, Ranjan; Zhang, Shuang; Han, Jiaguang; Zhang, Weili

    2016-09-12

    As a revolutionary three-dimensional imaging technique, holography has attracted wide attention for its ability to photographically record a light field. However, traditional phase-only or amplitude-only modulation holograms have limited image quality and resolution to reappear both amplitude and phase information required of the objects. Recent advances in metasurfaces have shown tremendous opportunities for using a planar design of artificial meta-atoms to shape the wave front of light by optimal control of both its phase and amplitude. Inspired by the concept of designer metasurfaces, we demonstrate a novel amplitude-phase modulation hologram with simultaneous five-level amplitude modulation and eight-level phase modulation. Such a design approach seeks to turn the perceived disadvantages of the traditional phase or amplitude holograms, and thus enable enhanced performance in resolution, homogeneity of amplitude distribution, precision, and signal-to-noise ratio. In particular, the unique holographic approach exhibits broadband characteristics. The method introduced here delivers more degrees of freedom, and allows for encoding highly complex information into designer metasurfaces, thus having the potential to drive next-generation technological breakthroughs in holography.

  18. Speech Enhancement by MAP Spectral Amplitude Estimation Using a Super-Gaussian Speech Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lotter Thomas

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available This contribution presents two spectral amplitude estimators for acoustical background noise suppression based on maximum a posteriori estimation and super-Gaussian statistical modelling of the speech DFT amplitudes. The probability density function of the speech spectral amplitude is modelled with a simple parametric function, which allows a high approximation accuracy for Laplace- or Gamma-distributed real and imaginary parts of the speech DFT coefficients. Also, the statistical model can be adapted to optimally fit the distribution of the speech spectral amplitudes for a specific noise reduction system. Based on the super-Gaussian statistical model, computationally efficient maximum a posteriori speech estimators are derived, which outperform the commonly applied Ephraim-Malah algorithm.

  19. A 900-channel coincidence pulse-amplitude analyser; Selecteur d'amplitudes d'impulsions a coincidence a trois dimensions; Devyatisotkanal'nyj amplitudnyj analizator impul'sov sovpadeniya; Analizador de amplitud de impulsos de coincidencia con 900 canales

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alexander, T K; Robinson, L B [Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River, Ontario (Canada)

    1962-04-15

    An analyser designed for correlation studies of pulse-height distributions from two scintillation counters is described. The analyser consists of two separate transistorized units; a dual-channel analogue-to-digital encoder and a 900-channel, 2{sup 16}-per-channel capacity ferrite-core store. The display and control unit for the instrument is separate and can be situated away from the analyser. The analysis mode of operation for coincident pulses on the A and B inputs of the encoder can be selected to be 30 by 30, 100 by 9 or 300 channels by 3 distributions. In the last two modes the base lines and the widths of the pulse-amplitude ''windows'' on distribution A can be selected by the operator. With 100 channels for pulse-amplitude analysis, eight ''windows'' in distribution A define eight groups of 100 channels for the B distributions. In this case we have, in effect, one 100-channel analyser for distribution A and eight separate 100-channel analysers to which B can be routed. A description of the basic circuits of the encoder and the logic of the store and display units is given. (author) [French] Le memoire decrit un selecteur concu pour etudier la correlation des distributions en amplitude des impulsions fournies par deux compteurs a scintillations. L'analyseur se compose de deux parties distinctes transistorisees: un codeur analogique/numerique a deux voies et une memoire a ferrites, a 900 canaux d'une capacite de 2{sup 16} par canal. Les tableaux d'enregistrement et les commandes de l'appareil forment un element autonome qui peut etre installe a une certaine distance du selecteur. Pour l'analyse des impulsions de coincidence aux entrees A et B du codeur, on peut combiner les canaux de trois manieres differentes: 30 x 30, 100 x 9 ou 300 x 3. Dans les deux derniers cas, l'operateur peut choisir les lignes de base et la largeur des des amplitudes d'impulsion pour la distribution A. Lorsque l'analyse de l'amplitude d'impulsion se fait avec 100 canaux

  20. Fast EEG spike detection via eigenvalue analysis and clustering of spatial amplitude distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fukami, Tadanori; Shimada, Takamasa; Ishikawa, Bunnoshin

    2018-06-01

    Objective. In the current study, we tested a proposed method for fast spike detection in electroencephalography (EEG). Approach. We performed eigenvalue analysis in two-dimensional space spanned by gradients calculated from two neighboring samples to detect high-amplitude negative peaks. We extracted the spike candidates by imposing restrictions on parameters regarding spike shape and eigenvalues reflecting detection characteristics of individual medical doctors. We subsequently performed clustering, classifying detected peaks by considering the amplitude distribution at 19 scalp electrodes. Clusters with a small number of candidates were excluded. We then defined a score for eliminating spike candidates for which the pattern of detected electrodes differed from the overall pattern in a cluster. Spikes were detected by setting the score threshold. Main results. Based on visual inspection by a psychiatrist experienced in EEG, we evaluated the proposed method using two statistical measures of precision and recall with respect to detection performance. We found that precision and recall exhibited a trade-off relationship. The average recall value was 0.708 in eight subjects with the score threshold that maximized the F-measure, with 58.6  ±  36.2 spikes per subject. Under this condition, the average precision was 0.390, corresponding to a false positive rate 2.09 times higher than the true positive rate. Analysis of the required processing time revealed that, using a general-purpose computer, our method could be used to perform spike detection in 12.1% of the recording time. The process of narrowing down spike candidates based on shape occupied most of the processing time. Significance. Although the average recall value was comparable with that of other studies, the proposed method significantly shortened the processing time.

  1. Reading and visual search: a developmental study in normal children.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magali Seassau

    Full Text Available Studies dealing with developmental aspects of binocular eye movement behaviour during reading are scarce. In this study we have explored binocular strategies during reading and during visual search tasks in a large population of normal young readers. Binocular eye movements were recorded using an infrared video-oculography system in sixty-nine children (aged 6 to 15 and in a group of 10 adults (aged 24 to 39. The main findings are (i in both tasks the number of progressive saccades (to the right and regressive saccades (to the left decreases with age; (ii the amplitude of progressive saccades increases with age in the reading task only; (iii in both tasks, the duration of fixations as well as the total duration of the task decreases with age; (iv in both tasks, the amplitude of disconjugacy recorded during and after the saccades decreases with age; (v children are significantly more accurate in reading than in visual search after 10 years of age. Data reported here confirms and expands previous studies on children's reading. The new finding is that younger children show poorer coordination than adults, both while reading and while performing a visual search task. Both reading skills and binocular saccades coordination improve with age and children reach a similar level to adults after the age of 10. This finding is most likely related to the fact that learning mechanisms responsible for saccade yoking develop during childhood until adolescence.

  2. Validation of mobile eye tracking as novel and efficient means for differentiating progressive supranuclear palsy from Parkinson’s disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Svenja eMarx

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: The decreased ability to carry out vertical saccades is a key symptom of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP. Objective measurement devices can help to reliably detect subtle eye-movement disturbances to improve sensitivity and specificity of the clinical diagnosis. The present study aims at transferring findings from restricted stationary video-oculography to a wearable head-mounted device, which can be readily applied in clinical practice.Methods: We investigated the eye movements in 10 possible or probable PSP patients, 11 Parkinson’s disease (PD patients and 10 age-matched healthy controls (HC using a mobile, gaze-driven video camera setup (EyeSeeCam. Ocular movements were analyzed during a standardized fixation protocol and in an unrestricted real-life scenario while walking along a corridor.Results: The EyeSeeCam detected prominent impairment of both saccade velocity and amplitude in PSP patients, differentiating them from PD and HCs. Differences were particularly evident for saccades in the vertical plane, and stronger for saccades than for other eye movements. Differences were more pronounced during the standardized protocol than in the real-life scenario. Conclusions: Combined analysis of saccade velocity and saccade amplitude during the fixation protocol with the EyeSeeCam provides a simple, rapid (< 20s and reliable tool to differentiate clinically established PSP patients from PD and HCs. As such, our findings prepare the ground for using wearable eye-tracking in patients with uncertain diagnoses.

  3. CLEO and E791 Data A Smoking Gun for the Pion Distribution Amplitude?

    CERN Document Server

    Bakulev, A P; Stefanis, N G

    2003-01-01

    The CLEO experimental data on the \\pi\\gamma transition are analyzed to NLO in QCD perturbation theory using light-cone QCD sum rules. By processing the data along the lines proposed by Khodjamiryan, Schmedding and Yakovlev, and recently revised by us, we obtain new constraints for the Gegenbauer coefficients a_2 and a_4, as well as for the inverse moment \\langle{x^{-1}\\rangle of the pion distribution amplitude (DA). The former determine the pion DA at low momentum scale, the latter is crucial in calculating pion form factors. From the results of our analysis we conclude that the data confirm the shape of the pion DA we previously obtained with QCD sum rules and nonlocal condensates, while the exclusion of the asymptotic and the Chernyak-Zhitnitsky DA is reinforced. We also investigate the sensitivity of the calculated coefficients in this analysis to the twist-4 contribution and check out pion DA against the di-jets data of the E791 experiment, providing credible evidence for our results far more broadly. Thu...

  4. Context-dependent effects of substantia nigra stimulation on eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basso, Michele A; Liu, Ping

    2007-06-01

    In a series of now classic experiments, an output structure of the basal ganglia (BG)--the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr)--was shown to be involved in the generation of saccades made in particular behavioral contexts, such as when memory was required for guidance. Recent electrophysiological experiments, however, call this original hypothesis into question. Here we test the hypothesis that the SNr is involved preferentially in nonvisually guided saccades using electrical stimulation. Monkeys performed visually guided and memory-guided saccades to locations throughout the visual field. On 50% of the trials, electrical stimulation of the SNr occurred. Stimulation of the SNr altered the direction, amplitude, latency, and probability of saccades. Visually guided saccades tended to be rotated toward the field contralateral to the side of stimulation, whereas memory-guided saccades tended to be rotated toward the hemifield ipsilateral to the side of stimulation. Overall, the changes in saccade vector direction were larger for memory-guided than for visually guided saccades. Both memory- and visually guided saccades were hypometric during stimulation trials, but the stimulation preferentially affected the length of memory-guided saccades. Electrical stimulation of the SNr produced decreases in visually guided saccades bilaterally. In contrast, memory-guided saccades often had increases in saccade latency bilaterally. Finally, we found approximately 10% reduction in the probability of memory-guided saccades bilaterally. Visually guided saccade probability was unaltered. Taken together the results are consistent with the hypothesis that SNr primarily influences nonvisually guided saccades. The pattern of stimulation effects suggests that SNr influence is widespread, altering the pattern of activity bilaterally across the superior colliculus map of saccades.

  5. Algorithm for automatic analysis of electro-oculographic data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pettersson, Kati; Jagadeesan, Sharman; Lukander, Kristian; Henelius, Andreas; Haeggström, Edward; Müller, Kiti

    2013-10-25

    Large amounts of electro-oculographic (EOG) data, recorded during electroencephalographic (EEG) measurements, go underutilized. We present an automatic, auto-calibrating algorithm that allows efficient analysis of such data sets. The auto-calibration is based on automatic threshold value estimation. Amplitude threshold values for saccades and blinks are determined based on features in the recorded signal. The performance of the developed algorithm was tested by analyzing 4854 saccades and 213 blinks recorded in two different conditions: a task where the eye movements were controlled (saccade task) and a task with free viewing (multitask). The results were compared with results from a video-oculography (VOG) device and manually scored blinks. The algorithm achieved 93% detection sensitivity for blinks with 4% false positive rate. The detection sensitivity for horizontal saccades was between 98% and 100%, and for oblique saccades between 95% and 100%. The classification sensitivity for horizontal and large oblique saccades (10 deg) was larger than 89%, and for vertical saccades larger than 82%. The duration and peak velocities of the detected horizontal saccades were similar to those in the literature. In the multitask measurement the detection sensitivity for saccades was 97% with a 6% false positive rate. The developed algorithm enables reliable analysis of EOG data recorded both during EEG and as a separate metrics.

  6. Amplitude modulation reduces loudness adaptation to high-frequency tones.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wynne, Dwight P; George, Sahara E; Zeng, Fan-Gang

    2015-07-01

    Long-term loudness perception of a sound has been presumed to depend on the spatial distribution of activated auditory nerve fibers as well as their temporal firing pattern. The relative contributions of those two factors were investigated by measuring loudness adaptation to sinusoidally amplitude-modulated 12-kHz tones. The tones had a total duration of 180 s and were either unmodulated or 100%-modulated at one of three frequencies (4, 20, or 100 Hz), and additionally varied in modulation depth from 0% to 100% at the 4-Hz frequency only. Every 30 s, normal-hearing subjects estimated the loudness of one of the stimuli played at 15 dB above threshold in random order. Without any amplitude modulation, the loudness of the unmodulated tone after 180 s was only 20% of the loudness at the onset of the stimulus. Amplitude modulation systematically reduced the amount of loudness adaptation, with the 100%-modulated stimuli, regardless of modulation frequency, maintaining on average 55%-80% of the loudness at onset after 180 s. Because the present low-frequency amplitude modulation produced minimal changes in long-term spectral cues affecting the spatial distribution of excitation produced by a 12-kHz pure tone, the present result indicates that neural synchronization is critical to maintaining loudness perception over time.

  7. CLEO and E791 data: a smoking gun for the pion distribution amplitude?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bakulev, A.P.; Mikhailov, S.V.; Stefanis, N.G

    2004-01-01

    The CLEO experimental data on the {pi}{gamma} transition are analyzed to next-to-leading order accuracy in QCD perturbation theory using light-cone QCD sum rules. By processing these data along the lines proposed by Schmedding and Yakovlev, and recently revised by us, we obtain new constraints for the Gegenbauer coefficients a{sub 2} and a{sub 4}, as well as for the inverse moment {sub {pi}} of the pion distribution amplitude (DA). The former determine the pion DA at low momentum scale, the latter is crucial in calculating pion form factors. From the results of our analysis we conclude that the data confirm the end-point suppressed shape of the pion DA we previously obtained with QCD sum rules and nonlocal condensates, while the exclusion of both the asymptotic and the Chernyak-Zhitnitsky DAs is reinforced at the 3{sigma}- and 4{sigma}-level, respectively. The reliability of the main results of our updated CLEO data analysis is demonstrated. Our pion DA is checked against the di-jets data from the E791 experiment, providing credible evidence for our results far more broadly.

  8. A long-memory model of motor learning in the saccadic system: a regime-switching approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Aaron L; Shelhamer, Mark

    2013-08-01

    Maintenance of movement accuracy relies on motor learning, by which prior errors guide future behavior. One aspect of this learning process involves the accurate generation of predictions of movement outcome. These predictions can, for example, drive anticipatory movements during a predictive-saccade task. Predictive saccades are rapid eye movements made to anticipated future targets based on error information from prior movements. This predictive process exhibits long-memory (fractal) behavior, as suggested by inter-trial fluctuations. Here, we model this learning process using a regime-switching approach, which avoids the computational complexities associated with true long-memory processes. The resulting model demonstrates two fundamental characteristics. First, long-memory behavior can be mimicked by a system possessing no true long-term memory, producing model outputs consistent with human-subjects performance. In contrast, the popular two-state model, which is frequently used in motor learning, cannot replicate these findings. Second, our model suggests that apparent long-term memory arises from the trade-off between correcting for the most recent movement error and maintaining consistent long-term behavior. Thus, the model surprisingly predicts that stronger long-memory behavior correlates to faster learning during adaptation (in which systematic errors drive large behavioral changes); greater apparent long-term memory indicates more effective incorporation of error from the cumulative history across trials.

  9. Eye movements characteristics of Chinese dyslexic children in picture searching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Xu; Jing, Jin; Zou, Xiao-Bing; Wang, Meng-Long; Li, Xiu-Hong; Lin, Ai-Hua

    2008-09-05

    Reading Chinese, a kind of ideogram, relies more on visual cognition. The visuospatial cognitive deficit of Chinese dyslexia is an interesting topic that has received much attention. The purpose of current research was to explore the visuopatial cognitive characteristics of Chinese dyslexic children by studying their eye movements via a picture searching test. According to the diagnostic criteria defined by ICD-10, twenty-eight dyslexic children (mean age (10.12 +/- 1.42) years) were enrolled from the Clinic of Children Behavioral Disorder in the third affiliated hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. And 28 normally reading children (mean age (10.06 +/- 1.29) years), 1:1 matched by age, sex, grade and family condition were chosen from an elementary school in Guangzhou as a control group. Four groups of pictures (cock, accident, canyon, meditate) from Picture Vocabulary Test were chosen as eye movement experiment targets. All the subjects carried out the picture searching task and their eye movement data were recorded by an Eyelink II High-Speed Eye Tracker. The duration time, average fixation duration, average saccade amplitude, fixation counts and saccade counts were compared between the two groups of children. The dyslexic children had longer total fixation duration and average fixation duration (F = 7.711, P < 0.01; F = 4.520, P < 0.05), more fixation counts and saccade counts (F = 7.498, P < 0.01; F = 11.040, P < 0.01), and a smaller average saccade amplitude (F = 29.743, P < 0.01) compared with controls. But their performance in the picture vocabulary test was the same as those of the control group. The eye movement indexes were affected by the difficulty of the pictures and words, all eye movement indexes, except saccade amplitude, had a significant difference within groups (P < 0.05). Chinese dyslexic children have abnormal eye movements in picture searching, applying slow fixations, more fixations and small and frequent saccades. Their abnormal eye movement

  10. Saccades phase-locked to alpha oscillations in the occipital and medial temporal lobe enhance memory encoding

    OpenAIRE

    Noachtar, Soheyl; Doeller, Christian; Jensen, Ole; Hartl, Elisabeth; Staudigl, Tobias

    2017-01-01

    Efficient sampling of visual information requires a coordination of eye movements and ongoing brain oscillations. Using intracranial and MEG recordings, we show that saccades are locked to the phase of visual alpha oscillations, and that this coordination supports mnemonic encoding of visual scenes. Furthermore, parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortex involvement in this coordination reflects effective vision-to-memory mapping, highlighting the importance of neural oscillations for the inter...

  11. Prestimulus Inhibition of Saccades in Adults With and Without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder as an Index of Temporal Expectations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dankner, Yarden; Shalev, Lilach; Carrasco, Marisa; Yuval-Greenberg, Shlomit

    2017-07-01

    Knowing when to expect important events to occur is critical for preparing context-appropriate behavior. However, anticipation is inherently complicated to assess because conventional measurements of behavior, such as accuracy and reaction time, are available only after the predicted event has occurred. Anticipatory processes, which occur prior to target onset, are typically measured only retrospectively by these methods. In this study, we utilized a novel approach for assessing temporal expectations through the dynamics of prestimulus saccades. Results showed that saccades of neurotypical participants were inhibited prior to the onset of stimuli that appeared at predictable compared with less predictable times. No such inhibition was found in most participants with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and particularly not in those who experienced difficulties in sustaining attention over time. These findings suggest that individuals with ADHD, especially those with sustained-attention deficits, have diminished ability to benefit from temporal predictability, and this could account for some of their context-inappropriate behaviors.

  12. Impact of Target Distance, Target Size, and Visual Acuity on the Video Head Impulse Test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Judge, Paul D; Rodriguez, Amanda I; Barin, Kamran; Janky, Kristen L

    2018-05-01

    The video head impulse test (vHIT) assesses the vestibulo-ocular reflex. Few have evaluated whether environmental factors or visual acuity influence the vHIT. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of target distance, target size, and visual acuity on vHIT outcomes. Thirty-eight normal controls and 8 subjects with vestibular loss (VL) participated. vHIT was completed at 3 distances and with 3 target sizes. Normal controls were subdivided on the basis of visual acuity. Corrective saccade frequency, corrective saccade amplitude, and gain were tabulated. In the normal control group, there were no significant effects of target size or visual acuity for any vHIT outcome parameters; however, gain increased as target distance decreased. The VL group demonstrated higher corrective saccade frequency and amplitude and lower gain as compared with controls. In conclusion, decreasing target distance increases gain for normal controls but not subjects with VL. Preliminarily, visual acuity does not affect vHIT outcomes.

  13. Spatial patterns of persistent neural activity vary with the behavioral context of short-term memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daie, Kayvon; Goldman, Mark S; Aksay, Emre R F

    2015-02-18

    A short-term memory can be evoked by different inputs and control separate targets in different behavioral contexts. To address the circuit mechanisms underlying context-dependent memory function, we determined through optical imaging how memory is encoded at the whole-network level in two behavioral settings. Persistent neural activity maintaining a memory of desired eye position was imaged throughout the oculomotor integrator after saccadic or optokinetic stimulation. While eye position was encoded by the amplitude of network activity, the spatial patterns of firing were context dependent: cells located caudally generally were most persistent following saccadic input, whereas cells located rostrally were most persistent following optokinetic input. To explain these data, we computationally identified four independent modes of network activity and found these were differentially accessed by saccadic and optokinetic inputs. These results show how a circuit can simultaneously encode memory value and behavioral context, respectively, in its amplitude and spatial pattern of persistent firing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. The contribution of forward masking to saccadic inhibition of return.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Souto, David; Born, Sabine; Kerzel, Dirk

    2018-03-08

    Inhibition of return is the name typically given to the prolonged latency of motor responses directed to a previously cued target location. There is intense debate about the origins of this effect and its function, but most take for granted (despite lack of evidence) that it depends little on forward masking. Therefore, we re-examined the role of forward masking in inhibition of return. Forward masking was indexed by slower saccadic reaction times (SRTs) when the target orientation repeated the cue orientation at the same location. We confirmed effects of orientation repetition in the absence of an attentional bias when cues were presented on both sides of fixation (bilateral presentation). The effect of orientation repetition was reduced with high target contrast, consistent with a low-level origin such as contrast gain control in early visual areas. When presenting cues on only one side of fixation (unilateral presentation), we obtained inhibition of return with longer cue-target intervals and facilitation with targets presented shortly after the cue. The effect of orientation repetition was reduced when facilitation was observed, but was as strong as with bilateral cues when inhibition of return was observed. Therefore, forward masking may contribute to the inhibition of return effect by delaying reaction times to repeated features at the same location, but is not a principal cause of inhibition of return; in agreement with previous views. The saccadic inhibition of return effect is a reaction-time cost when responding to a pre-cued location. Additional object updating costs are typically invoked to explain reaction-time costs observed when cue and target have the same shape. Yet, lower-level, forward masking of the target by the cue can not be ruled out. Importantly, we show an effect of orientation repetition that is consistent with low-level forward masking rather than object updating costs and that does not interact with inhibition of return.

  15. Amplitude death in a ring of nonidentical nonlinear oscillators with unidirectional coupling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryu, Jung-Wan; Kim, Jong-Ho; Son, Woo-Sik; Hwang, Dong-Uk

    2017-08-01

    We study the collective behaviors in a ring of coupled nonidentical nonlinear oscillators with unidirectional coupling, of which natural frequencies are distributed in a random way. We find the amplitude death phenomena in the case of unidirectional couplings and discuss the differences between the cases of bidirectional and unidirectional couplings. There are three main differences; there exists neither partial amplitude death nor local clustering behavior but an oblique line structure which represents directional signal flow on the spatio-temporal patterns in the unidirectional coupling case. The unidirectional coupling has the advantage of easily obtaining global amplitude death in a ring of coupled oscillators with randomly distributed natural frequency. Finally, we explain the results using the eigenvalue analysis of the Jacobian matrix at the origin and also discuss the transition of dynamical behavior coming from connection structure as the coupling strength increases.

  16. Eying the future: Eye movement in past and future thinking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Lenoble, Quentin

    2017-06-07

    We investigated eye movement during past and future thinking. Participants were invited to retrieve past events and to imagine future events while their scan path was recorded by an eye-tracker. Past thinking triggered more fixation (p thinking. Past and future thinking triggered a similar duration of fixations and saccades, as well as a similar amplitude of saccades. Interestingly, participants rated past thinking as more vivid than future thinking (p thinking seems to be accompanied by an increased number of fixations and saccades. Fixations and saccades in past thinking can be interpreted as an attempt by the visual system to find (through saccades) and activate (through fixations) stored memory representations. The same interpretation can be applied to future thinking as this ability requires activation of past experiences. However, future thinking triggers fewer fixations and saccades than past thinking: this may be due to its decreased demand on visual imagery, but could also be related to a potentially deleterious effect of eye movements on spatial imagery required for future thinking. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Multivariable controller for discrete stochastic amplitude-constrained systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hannu T. Toivonen

    1983-04-01

    Full Text Available A sub-optimal multivariable controller for discrete stochastic amplitude-constrained systems is presented. In the approach the regulator structure is restricted to the class of linear saturated feedback laws. The stationary covariances of the controlled system are evaluated by approximating the stationary probability distribution of the state by a gaussian distribution. An algorithm for minimizing a quadratic loss function is given, and examples are presented to illustrate the performance of the sub-optimal controller.

  18. Electrical Microstimulation of the Superior Colliculus in Strabismic Monkeys.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleuriet, Jérome; Walton, Mark M G; Ono, Seiji; Mustari, Michael J

    2016-06-01

    Visually guided saccades are disconjugate in human and nonhuman strabismic primates. The superior colliculus (SC) is a region of the brain topographically organized in visual and motor maps where the saccade goal is spatially coded. The present study was designed to investigate if a site of stimulation on the topographic motor map was evoking similar or different saccade vectors for each eye. We used microelectrical stimulation (MS) of the SC in two strabismic (one esotrope and one exotrope) and two control macaques under binocular and monocular viewing conditions. We compared the saccade amplitudes and directions for each SC site and each condition independently of the fixating eye and then between each fixating eye. A comparison with disconjugacies of visually guided saccades was also performed. We observed different saccade vectors for the two eyes in strabismic monkeys, but conjugate saccades in normal monkeys. Evoked saccade vectors for the left eye when that eye was fixating the target were different from those of the right eye when it was fixating. The disconjugacies evoked by the MS were not identical but similar to those observed for visually guided saccades especially for the dominant eye. Our results suggest that, in strabismus, the saccade generator does not interpret activation of a single location of the SC as the same desired displacement for each eye. This finding is important for advancing understanding of the development of neural circuits in strabismus. French Abstract.

  19. Time and amplitude dependent damping in a single crystal of zirconium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Atrens, A.; Ritchie, I.G.; Sprungmann, K.W.; CEA Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires de Grenoble, 38

    1977-01-01

    The amplitude dependent and time dependent damping in a single crystal of zirconium has been investigated in the temperature range ambient to 400 0 C. The results are attributed to a combination of dislocation unpinning and pin rearrangement. After stabilization of the pin distribution by vibration conditioning, followed by a sudden large increase in amplitude, it is shown that the specimen retains a memory of the stabilized state

  20. Bilateral preictal signature of phase-amplitude coupling in canine epilepsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gagliano, Laura; Bou Assi, Elie; Nguyen, Dang K; Rihana, Sandy; Sawan, Mohamad

    2018-01-01

    Seizure forecasting would improve the quality of life of patients with refractory epilepsy. Although early findings were optimistic, no single feature has been found capable of individually characterizing brain dynamics during transition to seizure. Cross-frequency phase amplitude coupling has been recently proposed as a precursor of seizure activity. This work evaluates the existence of a statistically significant difference in mean phase amplitude coupling distribution between the preictal and interictal states of seizures in dogs with bilaterally implanted intracranial electrodes. Results show a statistically significant change (p<0.05) of phase amplitude coupling during the preictal phase. This change is correlated with the position of implanted electrodes and is more significant within high-gamma frequency bands. These findings highlight the potential benefit of bilateral iEEG analysis and the feasibility of seizure forecasting based on slow modulation of high frequency amplitude. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Saccadic eye movement applications for psychiatric disorders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bittencourt J

    2013-09-01

    Med/Medline, ISI Web of Knowledge, Cochrane, and SciELO databases were reviewed. Results: Saccadic eye movement appears to be heavily involved in psychiatric diseases covered in this review via a direct mechanism. The changes seen in the execution of eye movement tasks in patients with psychopathologies of various studies confirm that eye movement is associated with the cognitive and motor system. Conclusion: Saccadic eye movement changes appear to be heavily involved in the psychiatric disorders covered in this review and may be considered a possible marker of some disorders. The few existing studies that approach the topic demonstrate a need to improve the experimental paradigms, as well as the methods of analysis. Most of them report behavioral variables (latency/reaction time, though electrophysiological measures are absent. Keywords: depression, bipolar disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder

  2. The Effect of Repetitive Saccade Execution on the Attention Network Test: Enhancing Executive Function with a Flick of the Eyes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edlin, James M.; Lyle, Keith B.

    2013-01-01

    The simple act of repeatedly looking left and right can enhance subsequent cognition, including divergent thinking, detection of matching letters from visual arrays, and memory retrieval. One hypothesis is that saccade execution enhances subsequent cognition by altering attentional control. To test this hypothesis, we compared performance…

  3. Color guided amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Broedel, Johannes [Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics and Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA (United States); Dixon, Lance J. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA (United States)

    2012-07-01

    Amplitudes in gauge thoeries obtain contributions from color and kinematics. While these two parts of the amplitude seem to exhibit different symmetry structures, it turns out that they can be reorganized in a way to behave equally, which leads to the so-called color-kinematic dual representations of amplitudes. Astonishingly, the existence of those representations allows squaring to related gravitational theories right away. Contrary to the Kawaii-Levellen-Tye relations, which have been used to relate gauge theories and gravity previously, this method is applicable not only to tree amplitudes but also at loop level. In this talk, the basic technique is introduced followed by a discussion of the existence of color-kinematic dual representations for amplitudes derived from gauge theory actions which are deformed by higher-operator insertions. In addition, it is commented on the implications for deformed gravitational theories.

  4. Saccadic reaction times to audiovisual stimuli show effects of oscillatory phase reset.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adele Diederich

    Full Text Available Initiating an eye movement towards a suddenly appearing visual target is faster when an accessory auditory stimulus occurs in close spatiotemporal vicinity. Such facilitation of saccadic reaction time (SRT is well-documented, but the exact neural mechanisms underlying the crossmodal effect remain to be elucidated. From EEG/MEG studies it has been hypothesized that coupled oscillatory activity in primary sensory cortices regulates multisensory processing. Specifically, it is assumed that the phase of an ongoing neural oscillation is shifted due to the occurrence of a sensory stimulus so that, across trials, phase values become highly consistent (phase reset. If one can identify the phase an oscillation is reset to, it is possible to predict when temporal windows of high and low excitability will occur. However, in behavioral experiments the pre-stimulus phase will be different on successive repetitions of the experimental trial, and average performance over many trials will show no signs of the modulation. Here we circumvent this problem by repeatedly presenting an auditory accessory stimulus followed by a visual target stimulus with a temporal delay varied in steps of 2 ms. Performing a discrete time series analysis on SRT as a function of the delay, we provide statistical evidence for the existence of distinct peak spectral components in the power spectrum. These frequencies, although varying across participants, fall within the beta and gamma range (20 to 40 Hz of neural oscillatory activity observed in neurophysiological studies of multisensory integration. Some evidence for high-theta/alpha activity was found as well. Our results are consistent with the phase reset hypothesis and demonstrate that it is amenable to testing by purely psychophysical methods. Thus, any theory of multisensory processes that connects specific brain states with patterns of saccadic responses should be able to account for traces of oscillatory activity in observable

  5. Updating visual memory across eye movements for ocular and arm motor control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Aidan A; Henriques, Denise Y P

    2008-11-01

    Remembered object locations are stored in an eye-fixed reference frame, so that every time the eyes move, spatial representations must be updated for the arm-motor system to reflect the target's new relative position. To date, studies have not investigated how the brain updates these spatial representations during other types of eye movements, such as smooth-pursuit. Further, it is unclear what information is used in spatial updating. To address these questions we investigated whether remembered locations of pointing targets are updated following smooth-pursuit eye movements, as they are following saccades, and also investigated the role of visual information in estimating eye-movement amplitude for updating spatial memory. Misestimates of eye-movement amplitude were induced when participants visually tracked stimuli presented with a background that moved in either the same or opposite direction of the eye before pointing or looking back to the remembered target location. We found that gaze-dependent pointing errors were similar following saccades and smooth-pursuit and that incongruent background motion did result in a misestimate of eye-movement amplitude. However, the background motion had no effect on spatial updating for pointing, but did when subjects made a return saccade, suggesting that the oculomotor and arm-motor systems may rely on different sources of information for spatial updating.

  6. Phenomenological study of helicity amplitudes of high energy exclusive leptoproduction of the ρ meson

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anikin, I. V.; Besse, A.; Ivanov, D. Yu.; Pire, B.; Szymanowski, L.; Wallon, S.

    2011-01-01

    We apply a previously developed scheme to consistently include the twist-3 distribution amplitudes for transversely polarized ρ mesons in order to evaluate, in the framework of k T factorization, the helicity amplitudes for exclusive leptoproduction of a light vector meson, at leading order in α s . We compare our results with high energy experimental data for the ratios of helicity amplitudes T 11 /T 00 and T 01 /T 00 and get a good description of the data.

  7. Control of broadband optically generated ultrasound pulses using binary amplitude holograms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Michael D; Jaros, Jiri; Cox, Ben T; Treeby, Bradley E

    2016-04-01

    In this work, the use of binary amplitude holography is investigated as a mechanism to focus broadband acoustic pulses generated by high peak-power pulsed lasers. Two algorithms are described for the calculation of the binary holograms; one using ray-tracing, and one using an optimization based on direct binary search. It is shown using numerical simulations that when a binary amplitude hologram is excited by a train of laser pulses at its design frequency, the acoustic field can be focused at a pre-determined distribution of points, including single and multiple focal points, and line and square foci. The numerical results are validated by acoustic field measurements from binary amplitude holograms, excited by a high peak-power laser.

  8. Observation of large-amplitude ion acoustic solitary waves in a plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakamura, Yoshiharu

    1987-01-01

    Propagation of nonlinear ion acoustic waves in a multi-component plasma with negative ions is investigated in a double-plasma device. When the density of negative ions is larger than a critical value, a broad negative pulse evolves to rarefactive solitons, and a positive pulse whose amplitude is less than a certain threshold value becomes a subsonic wave train. In the same plasma, a positive pulse whose amplitude is larger than the threshold develops into a solitary wave. The critical amplitude is measured as a function of the density of negative ions and compared with predictions of the pseudo-potential method. The energy distribution of electrons in the solitary wave is also measured. (author)

  9. Figure-ground processing during fixational saccades in V1: indication for higher-order stability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilad, Ariel; Pesoa, Yair; Ayzenshtat, Inbal; Slovin, Hamutal

    2014-02-26

    In a typical visual scene we continuously perceive a "figure" that is segregated from the surrounding "background" despite ongoing microsaccades and small saccades that are performed when attempting fixation (fixational saccades [FSs]). Previously reported neuronal correlates of figure-ground (FG) segregation in the primary visual cortex (V1) showed enhanced activity in the "figure" along with suppressed activity in the noisy "background." However, it is unknown how this FG modulation in V1 is affected by FSs. To investigate this question, we trained two monkeys to detect a contour embedded in a noisy background while simultaneously imaging V1 using voltage-sensitive dyes. During stimulus presentation, the monkeys typically performed 1-3 FSs, which displaced the contour over the retina. Using eye position and a 2D analytical model to map the stimulus onto V1, we were able to compute FG modulation before and after each FS. On the spatial cortical scale, we found that, after each FS, FG modulation follows the stimulus retinal displacement and "hops" within the V1 retinotopic map, suggesting visual instability. On the temporal scale, FG modulation is initiated in the new retinotopic position before it disappeared from the old retinotopic position. Moreover, the FG modulation developed faster after an FS, compared with after stimulus onset, which may contribute to visual stability of FG segregation, along the timeline of stimulus presentation. Therefore, despite spatial discontinuity of FG modulation in V1, the higher-order stability of FG modulation along time may enable our stable and continuous perception.

  10. Quantum correlation versus Bell-inequality violation under the amplitude damping channel

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ma, WenChao; Xu, Shuai; Shi, Jiadong; Ye, Liu, E-mail: yeliu@ahu.edu.cn

    2015-11-06

    We investigate the quantum correlations including quantum discord and entanglement under the amplitude damping channel. Our analysis results indicate that although the entanglement of initial state is degraded due to decoherence, the distribution trend of entanglement is not to be affected. Moreover, we find that the survival time for entanglement is much longer than for the Bell inequality violation, i.e., as time goes on the Bell inequality violation of final state may be not satisfied while the final state still remains entangled. Especially, although quantum entanglement and quantum discord all decrease under the amplitude damping channel, quantum discord (QD) is reduced significantly slower than entanglement. Therefore, the quantum discord is more robust against amplitude damping in comparison to entanglement measures. Furthermore, we also find that there are mixed states having quantum discord higher than that for pure states for a given degree of Bell's inequality violation. This means that the manipulation of nonclassical correlations via a pure state can result in a larger loss of quantum discord than that via a mixed state. - Highlights: • Entanglement distribution trend is not be affected by the decoherent. • The survival time for entanglement is much longer than for the Bell inequality violation. • The quantum discord is more robust against amplitude damping in comparison entanglement measures.

  11. Accuracy of visually and memory-guided antisaccades in man.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krappmann, P; Everling, S; Flohr, H

    1998-10-01

    Primary saccades to remembered targets are generally not precise, but rather undershoot target position. The major source of this saccadic undershoot may be (a) a memory-related process or (b) a poor spatial resolution in those processes which transfer the retinotopic target information into an intermediate memory-linked representation of space. The aim of this study was to investigate whether distortions of eye positions in the antisaccade task, which are characterized by inherent co-ordinate transformation processes, may completely account for the spatial inaccuracies of memory-guided antisaccades. The results show that the spatial inaccuracy of primary and secondary eye movements in the visually guided antisaccade task was comparable to that in the memory-guided antisaccade task. In both conditions, the direction error component was less dysmetric than the amplitude error component. Secondary eye movements were significantly corrective. This increase of eye position accuracy was achieved by reducing the amplitude error only. It is concluded from this study that at least some of the distortion of memory-guided saccades is due to inaccuracies in the sensorimotor co-ordinate transformations.

  12. Decreased Number of Self-Paced Saccades in Post-Concussion Syndrome Associated with Higher Symptom Burden and Reduced White Matter Integrity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taghdiri, Foad; Chung, Jonathan; Irwin, Samantha; Multani, Namita; Tarazi, Apameh; Ebraheem, Ahmed; Khodadadi, Mozghan; Goswami, Ruma; Wennberg, Richard; Mikulis, David; Green, Robin; Davis, Karen; Tator, Charles; Eizenman, Moshe; Tartaglia, Maria Carmela

    2018-03-01

    The aim of this study was to examine the potential utility of a self-paced saccadic eye movement as a marker of post-concussion syndrome (PCS) and monitoring the recovery from PCS. Fifty-nine persistently symptomatic participants with at least two concussions performed the self-paced saccade (SPS) task. We evaluated the relationships between the number of SPSs and 1) number of self-reported concussion symptoms, and 2) integrity of major white matter (WM) tracts (as measured by fractional anisotropy [FA] and mean diffusivity) that are directly or indirectly involved in saccadic eye movements and often affected by concussion. These tracts included the uncinate fasciculus (UF), cingulum (Cg) and its three subcomponents (subgenual, retrosplenial, and parahippocampal), superior longitudinal fasciculus, and corpus callosum. Mediation analyses were carried out to examine whether specific WM tracts (left UF and left subgenual Cg) mediated the relationship between the number of SPSs and 1) interval from last concussion or 2) total number of self-reported symptoms. The number of SPSs was negatively correlated with the total number of self-reported symptoms (r = -0.419, p = 0.026). The number of SPSs were positively correlated with FA of left UF and left Cg (r = 0.421, p = 0.013 and r = 0.452, p = 0.008; respectively). FA of the subgenual subcomponent of the left Cg partially mediated the relationship between the total number of symptoms and the number of SPSs, while FA of the left UF mediated the relationship between interval from last concussion and the number of SPSs. In conclusion, SPS testing as a fast and objective assessment may reflect symptom burden in patients with PCS. In addition, since the number of SPSs is associated with the integrity of some WM tracts, it may be useful as a diagnostic biomarker in patients with PCS.

  13. Large-amplitude dust acoustic shocklets in non-Maxwellian dusty plasmas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, S.; Naeem, Ismat; Mirza, Arshad M.

    2017-10-01

    The formation and propagation of fully nonlinear dust-acoustic (DA) waves and shocks are studied in a non-Maxwellian thermal dusty plasma which is composed of Maxwellian electrons and nonthermal energetic ions with a neutralizing background of negatively charged dust grains. For this purpose, we have solved dust dynamical equations along with quasineutrality equation by using a diagonalization matrix technique. A set of two characteristic wave equations is obtained, which admits both analytical and numerical solutions. Taylor expansion in the small-amplitude limit ( Φ ≪ 1 ) leads to nonlinear effective phase and shock speeds accounting for nonthermal energetic ions. It is numerically shown that DA pulses can be developed into DA shocklets involving the negative electrostatic potential, dust fluid velocity, and dust number density. These structures are significantly influenced by the ion-nonthermality, dust thermal correction, and temporal variations. However, the amplitudes of solitary and shock waves are found smaller in case of Cairns-distributed ions as compared to Kappa-distributed ions due to smaller linear and nonlinear effective phase speeds that cause smaller nonlinearity effects. The present results should be useful for understanding the nonlinear characteristics of large-amplitude DA excitations and nonstationary shocklets in a laboratory non-Maxwellian dusty plasma, where nonthermal energetic ions are present in addition to Maxwellian electrons.

  14. Neurophysiology and Neuroanatomy of Reflexive and Volitional Saccades as Revealed by Lesion Studies with Neurological Patients and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muri, Rene M.; Nyffeler, Thomas

    2008-01-01

    This review discusses the neurophysiology and neuroanatomy of the cortical control of reflexive and volitional saccades in humans. The main focus is on classical lesion studies and studies using the interference method of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). To understand the behavioural function of a region, it is essential to assess…

  15. Two-Loop Splitting Amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bern, Z.

    2004-01-01

    Splitting amplitudes govern the behavior of scattering amplitudes at the momenta of external legs become collinear. In this talk we outline the calculation of two-loop splitting amplitudes via the unitarity sewing method. This method retains the simple factorization properties of light-cone gauge, but avoids the need for prescriptions such as the principal value or Mandelstam-Leibbrandt ones. The encountered loop momentum integrals are then evaluated using integration-by-parts and Lorentz invariance identities. We outline a variety of applications for these splitting amplitudes

  16. Two-loop splitting amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bern, Z.; Dixon, L.J.; Kosower, D.A.

    2004-01-01

    Splitting amplitudes govern the behavior of scattering amplitudes at the momenta of external legs become collinear. In this talk we outline the calculation of two-loop splitting amplitudes via the unitarity sewing method. This method retains the simple factorization properties of light-cone gauge, but avoids the need for prescriptions such as the principal value or Mandelstam-Leibbrandt ones. The encountered loop momentum integrals are then evaluated using integration-by-parts and Lorentz invariance identities. We outline a variety of applications for these splitting amplitudes

  17. Amplitudes, acquisition and imaging

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bloor, Robert

    1998-12-31

    Accurate seismic amplitude information is important for the successful evaluation of many prospects and the importance of such amplitude information is increasing with the advent of time lapse seismic techniques. It is now widely accepted that the proper treatment of amplitudes requires seismic imaging in the form of either time or depth migration. A key factor in seismic imaging is the spatial sampling of the data and its relationship to the imaging algorithms. This presentation demonstrates that acquisition caused spatial sampling irregularity can affect the seismic imaging and perturb amplitudes. Equalization helps to balance the amplitudes, and the dealing strategy improves the imaging further when there are azimuth variations. Equalization and dealiasing can also help with the acquisition irregularities caused by shot and receiver dislocation or missing traces. 2 refs., 2 figs.

  18. Eye Movement Indices in the Study of Depressive Disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yu; Xu, Yangyang; Xia, Mengqing; Zhang, Tianhong; Wang, Junjie; Liu, Xu; He, Yongguang; Wang, Jijun

    2016-12-25

    Impaired cognition is one of the most common core symptoms of depressive disorder. Eye movement testing mainly reflects patients' cognitive functions, such as cognition, memory, attention, recognition, and recall. This type of testing has great potential to improve theories related to cognitive functioning in depressive episodes as well as potential in its clinical application. This study investigated whether eye movement indices of patients with unmedicated depressive disorder were abnormal or not, as well as the relationship between these indices and mental symptoms. Sixty patients with depressive disorder and sixty healthy controls (who were matched by gender, age and years of education) were recruited, and completed eye movement tests including three tasks: fixation task, saccade task and free-view task. The EyeLink desktop eye tracking system was employed to collect eye movement information, and analyze the eye movement indices of the three tasks between the two groups. (1) In the fixation task, compared to healthy controls, patients with depressive disorder showed more fixations, shorter fixation durations, more saccades and longer saccadic lengths; (2) In the saccade task, patients with depressive disorder showed longer anti-saccade latencies and smaller anti-saccade peak velocities; (3) In the free-view task, patients with depressive disorder showed fewer saccades and longer mean fixation durations; (4) Correlation analysis showed that there was a negative correlation between the pro-saccade amplitude and anxiety symptoms, and a positive correlation between the anti-saccade latency and anxiety symptoms. The depression symptoms were negatively correlated with fixation times, saccades, and saccadic paths respectively in the free-view task; while the mean fixation duration and depression symptoms showed a positive correlation. Compared to healthy controls, patients with depressive disorder showed significantly abnormal eye movement indices. In addition

  19. Different types of errors in saccadic task are sensitive to either time of day or chronic sleep restriction.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barbara Wachowicz

    Full Text Available Circadian rhythms and restricted sleep length affect cognitive functions and, consequently, the performance of day to day activities. To date, no more than a few studies have explored the consequences of these factors on oculomotor behaviour. We have implemented a spatial cuing paradigm in an eye tracking experiment conducted four times of the day after one week of rested wakefulness and after one week of chronic partial sleep restriction. Our aim was to verify whether these conditions affect the number of a variety of saccadic task errors. Interestingly, we found that failures in response selection, i.e. premature responses and direction errors, were prone to time of day variations, whereas failures in response execution, i.e. omissions and commissions, were considerably affected by sleep deprivation. The former can be linked to the cue facilitation mechanism, while the latter to wake state instability and the diminished ability of top-down inhibition. Together, these results may be interpreted in terms of distinctive sensitivity of orienting and alerting systems to fatigue. Saccadic eye movements proved to be a novel and effective measure with which to study the susceptibility of attentional systems to time factors, thus, this approach is recommended for future research.

  20. Secret-Key Agreement with Public Discussion subject to an Amplitude Constraint

    KAUST Repository

    Zorgui, Marwen

    2016-04-06

    This paper considers the problem of secret-key agreement with public discussion subject to a peak power constraint A on the channel input. The optimal input distribution is proved to be discrete with finite support. To overcome the computationally heavy search for the optimal discrete distribution, several suboptimal schemes are proposed and shown numerically to perform close to the capacity. Moreover, lower and upper bounds for the secret-key capacity are provided and used to prove that the secret-key capacity converges for asymptotic high values of A, to the secret-key capacity with an average power constraint A2. Finally, when the amplitude constraint A is small (A ! 0), the secret-key capacity is proved to be asymptotically equal to the capacity of the legitimate user with an amplitude constraint A and no secrecy constraint.

  1. Secret-Key Agreement with Public Discussion subject to an Amplitude Constraint

    KAUST Repository

    Zorgui, Marwen; Rezki, Zouheir; Alomair, Basel; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

    2016-01-01

    This paper considers the problem of secret-key agreement with public discussion subject to a peak power constraint A on the channel input. The optimal input distribution is proved to be discrete with finite support. To overcome the computationally heavy search for the optimal discrete distribution, several suboptimal schemes are proposed and shown numerically to perform close to the capacity. Moreover, lower and upper bounds for the secret-key capacity are provided and used to prove that the secret-key capacity converges for asymptotic high values of A, to the secret-key capacity with an average power constraint A2. Finally, when the amplitude constraint A is small (A ! 0), the secret-key capacity is proved to be asymptotically equal to the capacity of the legitimate user with an amplitude constraint A and no secrecy constraint.

  2. Computational evaluation of amplitude modulation for enhanced magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soetaert, Frederik; Dupré, Luc; Ivkov, Robert; Crevecoeur, Guillaume

    2015-10-01

    Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) can interact with alternating magnetic fields (AMFs) to deposit localized energy for hyperthermia treatment of cancer. Hyperthermia is useful in the context of multimodality treatments with radiation or chemotherapy to enhance disease control without increased toxicity. The unique attributes of heat deposition and transfer with MNPs have generated considerable attention and have been the focus of extensive investigations to elucidate mechanisms and optimize performance. Three-dimensional (3D) simulations are often conducted with the finite element method (FEM) using the Pennes' bioheat equation. In the current study, the Pennes' equation was modified to include a thermal damage-dependent perfusion profile to improve model predictions with respect to known physiological responses to tissue heating. A normal distribution of MNPs in a model liver tumor was combined with empirical nanoparticle heating data to calculate tumor temperature distributions and resulting survival fraction of cancer cells. In addition, calculated spatiotemporal temperature changes were compared among magnetic field amplitude modulations of a base 150-kHz sinusoidal waveform, specifically, no modulation, sinusoidal, rectangular, and triangular modulation. Complex relationships were observed between nanoparticle heating and cancer tissue damage when amplitude modulation and damage-related perfusion profiles were varied. These results are tantalizing and motivate further exploration of amplitude modulation as a means to enhance efficiency of and overcome technical challenges associated with magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia (MNH).

  3. Multilevel recording of complex amplitude data pages in a holographic data storage system using digital holography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nobukawa, Teruyoshi; Nomura, Takanori

    2016-09-05

    A holographic data storage system using digital holography is proposed to record and retrieve multilevel complex amplitude data pages. Digital holographic techniques are capable of modulating and detecting complex amplitude distribution using current electronic devices. These techniques allow the development of a simple, compact, and stable holographic storage system that mainly consists of a single phase-only spatial light modulator and an image sensor. As a proof-of-principle experiment, complex amplitude data pages with binary amplitude and four-level phase are recorded and retrieved. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed holographic data storage system.

  4. Subleading terms in the collinear limit of Yang–Mills amplitudes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephan Stieberger

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available For two massless particles i and j, the collinear limit is a special kinematic configuration in which the particles propagate with parallel four-momentum vectors, with the total momentum P distributed as pi=xP and pj=(1−xP, so that sij≡(pi+pj2=P2=0. In Yang–Mills theory, if i and j are among N gauge bosons participating in a scattering process, it is well known that the partial amplitudes associated to the (single trace group factors with adjacent i and j are singular in the collinear limit and factorize at the leading order into (N−1-particle amplitudes times the universal, x-dependent Altarelli–Parisi factors. We give a precise definition of the collinear limit and show that at the tree level, the subleading, non-singular terms are related to the amplitudes with a single graviton inserted instead of two collinear gauge bosons. To that end, we argue that in one-graviton Einstein–Yang–Mills amplitudes, the graviton with momentum P can be replaced by a pair of collinear gauge bosons carrying arbitrary momentum fractions xP and (1−xP.

  5. Analyticity properties of two-body helicity amplitudes; Proprietes d'analyticite des amplitudes d'helicite a deux corps

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Navelet-Noualhier, H [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Saclay (France). Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

    1967-06-15

    Helicity amplitudes are expressed via the spinor amplitudes in terms of the Joos invariant which have been shown by Williams to be free from kinematical singularities. This procedure allows to analyze the kinematical singularities of helicity amplitudes and separate them out, which results into the definition of regularized helicity amplitudes. A crossing matrix for helicity amplitudes, is written down, corresponding to the continuation path used to cross spinor amplitudes. We verify explicitly that the corresponding crossing matrix for regularized helicity amplitudes is uniform as it should be. Kinematical constraints which generalize, to the case of arbitrary spins and masses, relations which must hold between helicity amplitudes at some values of the energy variable in {pi}N {yields} {pi}N, {pi}{pi} {yields} NN-bar and NN-bar {yields} NN-bar reactions, appear as a consequence of the existence of poles in the crossing matrix between regularized helicity amplitudes. An english version of this work has been written with G. Cohen-Tannoudji and A. Morel and submitted for publication to Annals of Physics. (author) [French] Les amplitudes d'helicite pour une reaction a deux corps sont exprimees, par l'intermediaire des amplitudes spinorielles, en fonction d'amplitudes invariantes de Joos qui sont, comme l'a montre Williams, sans singularites cinematiques. Ce procede nous permet d'analyser puis d'eliminer les singularites cinematiques des amplitudes d'helicite. Ceci nous conduit a la definition d'amplitudes d'helicite 'regularisees'. Une relation de 'croisement' entre amplitudes d'helicite est ecrite; elle realise leur prolongement analytique le long du chemin utilise pour 'croiser' les amplitudes spinorielles. Nous verifions que les elements de la matrice de croisement entre amplitudes d'helicite 'regularisees' sont bien uniformes. Les contraintes cinematiques qui generalisent, au cas de masses et de spins arbitraires, les relations obtenues dans les reactions {pi

  6. Real topological string amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Narain, K.S. [The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP),Strada Costiera 11, Trieste, 34151 (Italy); Piazzalunga, N. [Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, State University of New York,Stony Brook, NY, 11794-3636 (United States); International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) and INFN, Sez. di Trieste,via Bonomea 265, Trieste, 34136 (Italy); Tanzini, A. [International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) and INFN, Sez. di Trieste,via Bonomea 265, Trieste, 34136 (Italy)

    2017-03-15

    We discuss the physical superstring correlation functions in type I theory (or equivalently type II with orientifold) that compute real topological string amplitudes. We consider the correlator corresponding to holomorphic derivative of the real topological amplitude G{sub χ}, at fixed worldsheet Euler characteristic χ. This corresponds in the low-energy effective action to N=2 Weyl multiplet, appropriately reduced to the orientifold invariant part, and raised to the power g{sup ′}=−χ+1. We show that the physical string correlator gives precisely the holomorphic derivative of topological amplitude. Finally, we apply this method to the standard closed oriented case as well, and prove a similar statement for the topological amplitude F{sub g}.

  7. Conformist-contrarian interactions and amplitude dependence in the Kuramoto model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lohe, M. A.

    2014-11-01

    We derive exact formulas for the frequency of synchronized oscillations in Kuramoto models with conformist-contrarian interactions, and determine necessary conditions for synchronization to occur. Numerical computations show that for certain parameters repulsive nodes behave as conformists, and that in other cases attractive nodes can display frustration, being neither conformist nor contrarian. The signs of repulsive couplings can be placed equivalently outside the sum, as proposed in Hong and Strogatz (2011 Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 054102), or inside the sum as in Hong and Strogatz (2012 Phys. Rev. E 85 056210), but the two models have different characteristics for small magnitudes of the coupling constants. In the latter case we show that the distributed coupling constants can be viewed as oscillator amplitudes which are constant in time, with the property that oscillators of small amplitude couple only weakly to connected nodes. Such models provide a means of investigating the effect of amplitude variations on synchronization properties.

  8. Conformist–contrarian interactions and amplitude dependence in the Kuramoto model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lohe, M A

    2014-01-01

    We derive exact formulas for the frequency of synchronized oscillations in Kuramoto models with conformist–contrarian interactions, and determine necessary conditions for synchronization to occur. Numerical computations show that for certain parameters repulsive nodes behave as conformists, and that in other cases attractive nodes can display frustration, being neither conformist nor contrarian. The signs of repulsive couplings can be placed equivalently outside the sum, as proposed in Hong and Strogatz (2011 Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 054102), or inside the sum as in Hong and Strogatz (2012 Phys. Rev. E 85 056210), but the two models have different characteristics for small magnitudes of the coupling constants. In the latter case we show that the distributed coupling constants can be viewed as oscillator amplitudes which are constant in time, with the property that oscillators of small amplitude couple only weakly to connected nodes. Such models provide a means of investigating the effect of amplitude variations on synchronization properties. (paper)

  9. Scalar-field amplitudes in black-hole evaporation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farley, A.N.St.J.; D'Eath, P.D.

    2004-01-01

    We consider the quantum-mechanical decay of a Schwarzschild-like black hole into almost-flat space and weak radiation at a very late time. That is, we are concerned with evaluating quantum amplitudes (not just probabilities) for transitions from initial to final states. In this quantum description, no information is lost because of the black hole. The Lagrangian is taken, in the first instance, to consist of the simplest locally supersymmetric generalization of Einstein gravity and a massless scalar field. The quantum amplitude to go from given initial to final bosonic data in a slightly complexified time-interval T=τexp(-iθ) at infinity may be approximated by the form constxexp(-I), where I is the (complex) Euclidean action of the classical solution filling in between the boundary data. Additionally, in a pure supergravity theory, the amplitude constxexp(-I) is exact. Suppose that Dirichlet boundary data for gravity and the scalar field are posed on an initial spacelike hypersurface extending to spatial infinity, just prior to collapse, and on a corresponding final spacelike surface, sufficiently far to the future of the initial surface to catch all the Hawking radiation. Only in an averaged sense will this radiation have an approximately spherically-symmetric distribution. If the time-interval T had been taken to be exactly real, then the resulting 'hyperbolic Dirichlet boundary-value problem' would, as is well known, not be well posed. Provided instead ('Euclidean strategy') that one takes T complex, as above (0<θ=<π/2), one expects that the field equations become strongly elliptic, and that there exists a unique solution to the classical boundary-value problem. Within this context, by expanding the bosonic part of the action to quadratic order in perturbations about the classical solution, one obtains the quantum amplitude for weak-field final configurations, up to normalization. Such amplitudes are here calculated for weak final scalar fields

  10. Unifying relations for scattering amplitudes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheung, Clifford; Shen, Chia-Hsien; Wen, Congkao

    2018-02-01

    We derive new amplitudes relations revealing a hidden unity among a wideranging variety of theories in arbitrary spacetime dimensions. Our results rely on a set of Lorentz invariant differential operators which transmute physical tree-level scattering amplitudes into new ones. By transmuting the amplitudes of gravity coupled to a dilaton and two-form, we generate all the amplitudes of Einstein-Yang-Mills theory, Dirac-Born-Infield theory, special Galileon, nonlinear sigma model, and biadjoint scalar theory. Transmutation also relates amplitudes in string theory and its variants. As a corollary, celebrated aspects of gluon and graviton scattering like color-kinematics duality, the KLT relations, and the CHY construction are inherited traits of the transmuted amplitudes. Transmutation recasts the Adler zero as a trivial consequence of the Weinberg soft theorem and implies new subleading soft theorems for certain scalar theories.

  11. Dissociated effects of distractors on saccades and manual aiming.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McIntosh, Robert D; Buonocore, Antimo

    2012-08-01

    The remote distractor effect (RDE) is a robust phenomenon whereby target-directed saccades are delayed by the appearance of a distractor. This effect persists even when the target location is perfectly predictable. The RDE has been studied extensively in the oculomotor domain but it is unknown whether it generalises to other spatially oriented responses. In three experiments, we tested whether the RDE generalises to manual aiming. Experiment 1 required participants to move their hand or eyes to predictable targets presented alone or accompanied by a distractor in the opposite hemifield. The RDE was observed for the eyes but not for the hand. Experiment 2 replicated this dissociation in a more naturalistic task in which eye movements were not constrained during manual aiming. Experiment 3 confirmed the lack of manual RDE across a wider range of distractor delays (0, 50, 100, and 150 ms). Our data imply that the RDE is specific to the oculomotor system, at least for non-foveal distractors. We suggest that the oculomotor RDE reflects competitive interactions between target and distractor representations in the superior colliculus, which are not necessarily shared by manual aiming.

  12. Abstinent adult daily smokers show reduced anticipatory but elevated saccade-related brain responses during a rewarded antisaccade task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geier, Charles F; Sweitzer, Maggie M; Denlinger, Rachel; Sparacino, Gina; Donny, Eric C

    2014-08-30

    Chronic smoking may result in reduced sensitivity to non-drug rewards (e.g., money), a phenomenon particularly salient during abstinence. During a quit attempt, this effect may contribute to biased decision-making (smoking>alternative reinforcers) and relapse. Although relevant for quitting, characterization of reduced reward function in abstinent smokers remains limited. Moreover, how attenuated reward function affects other brain systems supporting decision-making has not been established. Here, we use a rewarded antisaccade (rAS) task to characterize non-drug reward processing and its influence on inhibitory control, key elements underlying decision-making, in abstinent smokers vs. non-smokers. Abstinent (12-hours) adult daily smokers (N=23) and non-smokers (N=11) underwent fMRI while performing the rAS. Behavioral performances improved on reward vs. neutral trials. Smokers showed attenuated activation in ventral striatum during the reward cue and in superior precentral sulcus and posterior parietal cortex during response preparation, but greater responses during the saccade response in posterior cingulate and parietal cortices. Smokers' attenuated anticipatory responses suggest reduced motivation from monetary reward, while heightened activation during the saccade response suggests that additional circuitry may be engaged later to enhance inhibitory task performance. Overall, this preliminary study highlights group differences in decision-making components and the utility of the rAS to characterize these effects. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Direct generation of all-optical random numbers from optical pulse amplitude chaos.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Pu; Wang, Yun-Cai; Wang, An-Bang; Yang, Ling-Zhen; Zhang, Ming-Jiang; Zhang, Jian-Zhong

    2012-02-13

    We propose and theoretically demonstrate an all-optical method for directly generating all-optical random numbers from pulse amplitude chaos produced by a mode-locked fiber ring laser. Under an appropriate pump intensity, the mode-locked laser can experience a quasi-periodic route to chaos. Such a chaos consists of a stream of pulses with a fixed repetition frequency but random intensities. In this method, we do not require sampling procedure and external triggered clocks but directly quantize the chaotic pulses stream into random number sequence via an all-optical flip-flop. Moreover, our simulation results show that the pulse amplitude chaos has no periodicity and possesses a highly symmetric distribution of amplitude. Thus, in theory, the obtained random number sequence without post-processing has a high-quality randomness verified by industry-standard statistical tests.

  14. Pulse-amplitude multipliers using logarithmic amplitude-to-time conversion; Amplificateurs d'impulsions utilisant une conversion logarithmique temps-amplitude; Ob umnozhitelyakh amplitudy impul'sov s ispol'zovaniem logarifmicheskogo preobrazovaniya amplitudy vo vremya; Multiplicadores de amplitud de impulso usando una conversion logaritmica de amplitud en tiempo

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Konrad, M [Institut Rudjer Boskovic, Zagreb, Yugoslavia (Croatia)

    1962-04-15

    The accuracy and limitations of multipliers based on logarithmic amplitude-to-time conversion using RC pulse stretchers are discussed with respect to their application for determining whether the amplitude product of two coincident pulses has a given value. Some possible circuits are given. (author) [French] L'auteur etudie la precision et les limitations des amplificateurs fondes sur la conversion logarithmique temps-amplitude et utilisant des allongeurs d'impulsions RC, afin d'etablir si ces appareils peuvent servir a determiner la valeur du produit des amplitudes de deux impulsions coincidentes. Il decrit en outre plusieurs circuits possibles. (author) [Spanish] La memoria discute la precision y limitaciones de los multiplicadores basados en la conversion logaritmica de amplitud en tiempo empleando circuitos alargadores de resistencia-capacidad en relacion con su aplicacion para determinar si el producto de las amplitudes de dos impulsos coincidentes tiene un valor determinado. Indica algunos circuitos posibles. (author) [Russian] Obsuzhdayutsya predel pogreshnosti i ogranicheniya umnozhitelej, osnovannykh na logarifmicheskom preobrazovanii amplitudy vo vremya, s ispol'zovaniem rasshiritelej impul'sov RC; ehto delaetsya v svyazi s ikh primeneniem dlya vyyasneniya voprosa o tom, imeet li opredelennuyu velichinu proizvedenie amplitud dvukh sovpadayushchikh impul'sov. Privodyatsya nekotorye vozmozhnye blok-skhemy. (author)

  15. Time-amplitude converter; Convertisseur temps-amplitude

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Banner, M [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Saclay (France).Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

    1961-07-01

    It is normal in high energy physics to measure the time of flight of a particle in order to determine its mass. This can be done by the method which consists in transforming the time measurement into an analysis of amplitude, which is easier; a time-amplitude converter has therefore been built for this purpose. The apparatus here described uses a double grid control tube 6 BN 6 whose resolution time, as measured with a pulse generator, is 5 x 10{sup -11} s. The analysis of the response of a particle counter, made up of a scintillator and a photomultiplier, indicates that a time of resolution of 5 x 10{sup -10} s. can be obtained. A time of this order of magnitude is obtained experimentally with the converter. This converter has been used in the study of the time of flight of particles in a secondary beam of the accelerator Saturne. It has thus been possible to measure the energy spectrum of {pi}-mesons, of protons, and of deutons emitted from a polyethylene target bombarded by 1,4 and 2 GeV protons. (author) [French] Pour determiner la masse d'une particule, il est courant, en physique des hautes energies, de mesurer le temps de vol de cette particule. Cela peut etre fait par la methode qui consiste a transformer la mesure d'un temps en une analyse d'amplitude, plus aisee; aussi a-t-on, a cet effet, cree un convertisseur temps-amplitude. L'appareillage decrit dans cet article utilise un tube a double grille de commande 6 BN 6 dont le temps de resolution mesure avec un generateur d'impulsion est de 5.10{sup -11} s. L'analyse de la reponse d'un compteur de particules, constitue par un scintillateur et un photomultiplicateur, indique qu'un temps de resolution de 5.10{sup -10} s peut etre obtenu. Un temps de cet ordre est atteint experimentalement avec le convertisseur. Ce convertisseur a servi a l'etude du temps de vol des particules dans un faisceau secondaire de l'accelerateur Saturne. On a mesure ainsi le spectre d'energie des mesons {pi}, des protons, des deutons

  16. COMPARISON OF HOLOGRAPHIC AND ITERATIVE METHODS FOR AMPLITUDE OBJECT RECONSTRUCTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. A. Shevkunov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Experimental comparison of four methods for the wavefront reconstruction is presented. We considered two iterative and two holographic methods with different mathematical models and algorithms for recovery. The first two of these methods do not use a reference wave recording scheme that reduces requirements for stability of the installation. A major role in phase information reconstruction by such methods is played by a set of spatial intensity distributions, which are recorded as the recording matrix is being moved along the optical axis. The obtained data are used consistently for wavefront reconstruction using an iterative procedure. In the course of this procedure numerical distribution of the wavefront between the planes is performed. Thus, phase information of the wavefront is stored in every plane and calculated amplitude distributions are replaced for the measured ones in these planes. In the first of the compared methods, a two-dimensional Fresnel transform and iterative calculation in the object plane are used as a mathematical model. In the second approach, an angular spectrum method is used for numerical wavefront propagation, and the iterative calculation is carried out only between closely located planes of data registration. Two digital holography methods, based on the usage of the reference wave in the recording scheme and differing from each other by numerical reconstruction algorithm of digital holograms, are compared with the first two methods. The comparison proved that the iterative method based on 2D Fresnel transform gives results comparable with the result of common holographic method with the Fourier-filtering. It is shown that holographic method for reconstructing of the object complex amplitude in the process of the object amplitude reduction is the best among considered ones.

  17. Gaze Step Distributions Reflect Fixations and Saccades: A Comment on Stephen and Mirman (2010)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bogartz, Richard S.; Staub, Adrian

    2012-01-01

    In three experimental tasks Stephen and Mirman (2010) measured gaze steps, the distance in pixels between gaze positions on successive samples from an eyetracker. They argued that the distribution of gaze steps is best fit by the lognormal distribution, and based on this analysis they concluded that interactive cognitive processes underlie eye…

  18. Lens oscillations in the human eye. Implications for post-saccadic suppression of vision.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Tabernero

    Full Text Available The eye changes gaze continuously from one visual stimulus to another. Using a high speed camera to record eye and lens movements we demonstrate how the crystalline lens sustains an inertial oscillatory decay movement immediately after every change of gaze. This behavior fit precisely with the movement of a classical damped harmonic oscillator. The time course of the oscillations range from 50 to 60 msec with an oscillation frequency of around 20 Hz. That has dramatic implications on the image quality at the retina on the very short times (∼50 msec that follow the movement. However, it is well known that our vision is nearly suppressed on those periods (post-saccadic suppression. Both phenomenon follow similar time courses and therefore might be synchronized to avoid the visual impairment.

  19. Source of low frequency modulation of ENSO amplitude in a CGCM

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moon, Byung-Kwon [Chonbuk National University, Division of Science Education/Institute of Science Education, Jeonju (Korea); Yeh, Sang-Wook [Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Ansan (Korea); Dewitte, Boris [Laboratoire d' Etude en Geophysique et Oceanographie Spatiale, Toulouse (France); Jhun, Jong-Ghap [Seoul National University, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul (Korea); Kang, In-Sik [Seoul National University, Climate Environment System Research Center (CES), Seoul (Korea)

    2007-07-15

    We study the relationship between changes in equatorial stratification and low frequency El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) amplitude modulation in a coupled general circulation model (CGCM) that uses an anomaly coupling strategy to prevent climate drifts in the mean state. The stratification is intensified at upper levels in the western and central equatorial Pacific during periods of high ENSO amplitude. Furthermore, changes in equatorial stratification are connected with subsurface temperature anomalies originating from the central south tropical Pacific. The correlation analysis of ocean temperature anomalies against an index for the ENSO modulation supports the hypothesis of the existence of an oceanic ''tunnel'' that connects the south tropical Pacific to the equatorial wave guide. Further analysis of the wind stress projection coefficient onto the oceanic baroclinic modes suggests that the low frequency modulation of ENSO amplitude is associated with a significant contribution of higher-order modes in the western and central equatorial Pacific. In the light of these results, we suggest that, in the CGCM, change in the baroclinic mode energy distribution associated with low frequency ENSO amplitude modulation have its source in the central south tropical Pacific. (orig.)

  20. Large amplitude ion-acoustic solitary waves and double layers in multicomponent plasma with positrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sabry, R.

    2009-01-01

    A finite amplitude theory for ion-acoustic solitary waves and double layers in multicomponent plasma consisting of hot positrons, cold ions, and electrons with two-electron temperature distributions is presented. Conditions are obtained under which large amplitude stationary ion-acoustic solitary waves and double layers can exist. For the physical parameters of interest, the ion-acoustic solitary wave (double layers) profiles and the relationship between the maximum soliton (double layers) amplitude and the Mach number are found. Also, we have presented the region of existence of the large amplitude ion-acoustic waves by analyzing the structure of the pseudopotential. For the selected range of parameters, it is found that only positive solitary waves and double layers can exist. An analysis for the small amplitude limit through the Sagdeev pseudopotential analysis and the reductive perturbation theory shows the existence of positive and negative ion-acoustic solitary waves and double layers. The effects of positron concentration and temperature ratio on the characteristics of the solitary ion-acoustic waves and double layers (namely, the amplitude and width) are discussed in detail. The relevance of this investigation to space and laboratory plasmas is pointed out.

  1. Hidden beauty in multiloop amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cachazo, Freddy; Spradlin, Marcus; Volovich, Anastasia

    2006-01-01

    Planar L-loop maximally helicity violating amplitudes in N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory are believed to possess the remarkable property of satisfying iteration relations in L. We propose a simple new method for studying iteration relations for four-particle amplitudes which involves the use of certain linear differential operators and eliminates the need to fully evaluate any loop integrals. We carry out this procedure in explicit detail for the two-loop amplitude and prove that this method can be applied to any multiloop integral, allowing a conjectured iteration relation for any given amplitude to be tested up to polynomials in logarithms

  2. Off-shell CHY amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lam, C.S., E-mail: Lam@physics.mcgill.ca [Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, Q.C., H3A 2T8 (Canada); Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1 (Canada); Yao, York-Peng, E-mail: yyao@umich.edu [Department of Physics, The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)

    2016-06-15

    The Cachazo–He–Yuan (CHY) formula for on-shell scattering amplitudes is extended off-shell. The off-shell amplitudes (amputated Green's functions) are Möbius invariant, and have the same momentum poles as the on-shell amplitudes. The working principles which drive the modifications to the scattering equations are mainly Möbius covariance and energy momentum conservation in off-shell kinematics. The same technique is also used to obtain off-shell massive scalars. A simple off-shell extension of the CHY gauge formula which is Möbius invariant is proposed, but its true nature awaits further study.

  3. Dispersion relation for the 3. -->. 3 forward scattering amplitude and the generalized optical theorem. [Crossing properties, dispersion relations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Logunov, A A; Medvedev, B V; Mestvirishvili, M A; Pavlov, V P; Polivanov, M K; Sukhanov, A D [Gosudarstvennyj Komitet po Ispol' zovaniyu Atomnoj Ehnergii SSSR, Serpukhov. Inst. Fiziki Vysokikh Ehnergij

    1977-11-01

    Investigation of analytical structure of the three-particle forward scattering amplitude with respect to energy variable of one of particles is performed. The results obtained make it possible to draw the conclusions on crossing properties of the amplitude and to derive the generalized optical theorem relating the discontinuity of the amplitude to the distribution function of an inclusive process. For a special case when two of three particles are of zero mass, a dispersion relation is proved.

  4. Latitudinal amplitude-phase structure of MHD waves: STARE radar observations and modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pilipenko V.

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available We have developed a numerical model that yields a steady-state distribution of field components of MHD wave in an inhomogeneous plasma box simulating the realistic magnetosphere. The problem of adequate boundary condition at the ionosphere–magnetosphere interface for coupled MHD mode is considered. To justify the model’s assumptions, we have derived the explicit inequality showing when the ionospheric inductive Hall effect can be neglected upon the consideration of Alfven wave reflection from the ionospheric boundaries. The model predicts a feature of the ULF spatial amplitude/phase distribution that has not been noticed by the field line resonance theory: the existence of a region with opposite phase delays on the source side of the resonance. This theoretical prediction is supported by the amplitude-phase latitudinal structures of Pc5 waves observed by STARE radar and IMAGE magnetometers. A gradual decrease in azimuthal wave number m at smaller L-shells was observed at longitudinally separated radar beams.

  5. Higher-order multipole amplitude measurement in psi ' -> gamma chi(c2)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ablikim, M.; Achasov, M. N.; Alberto, D.; An, F. F.; An, Q.; An, Z. H.; Bai, J. Z.; Baldini, R.; Ban, Y.; Becker, J.; Berger, N.; Bertani, M.; Bian, J. M.; Boger, E.; Bondarenko, O.; Boyko, I.; Briere, R. A.; Bytev, V.; Cai, X.; Calcaterra, A. C.; Cao, G. F.; Chang, J. F.; Chelkov, G.; Chen, G.; Chen, H. S.; Chen, J. C.; Chen, M. L.; Chen, S. J.; Chen, Y.; Chen, Y. B.; Cheng, H. P.; Chu, Y. P.; Cronin-Hennessy, D.; Dai, H. L.; Dai, J. P.; Dedovich, D.; Deng, Z. Y.; Denysenko, I.; Destefanis, M.; Ding, Y.; Dong, L. Y.; Dong, M. Y.; Du, S. X.; Fang, J.; Fang, S. S.; Feng, C. Q.; Fu, C. D.; Fu, J. L.; Gao, Y.; Geng, C.; Goetzen, K.; Gong, W. X.; Greco, M.; Gu, M. H.; Gu, Y. T.; Guan, Y. H.; Guo, A. Q.; Guo, L. B.; Guo, Y. P.; Han, Y. L.; Hao, X. Q.; Harris, F. A.; He, K. L.; He, M.; He, Z. Y.; Heng, Y. K.; Hou, Z. L.; Hu, H. M.; Hu, J. F.; Hu, T.; Huang, B.; Huang, G. M.; Huang, J. S.; Huang, X. T.; Huang, Y. P.; Hussain, T.; Ji, C. S.; Ji, Q.; Ji, X. B.; Ji, X. L.; Jia, L. K.; Jiang, L. L.; Jiang, X. S.; Jiao, J. B.; Jiao, Z.; Jin, D. P.; Jin, S.; Jing, F. F.; Kalantar-Nayestanaki, N.; Kavatsyuk, M.; Kuehn, W.; Lai, W.; Lange, J. S.; Leung, J. K. C.; Li, C. H.; Li, Cheng; Li, Cui; Li, D. M.; Li, F.; Li, G.; Li, H. B.; Li, J. C.; Li, K.; Li, Lei; Li, N. B.; Li, Q. J.; Li, S. L.; Li, W. D.; Li, W. G.; Li, X. L.; Li, X. N.; Li, X. Q.; Li, X. R.; Li, Z. B.; Liang, H.; Liang, Y. F.; Liang, Y. T.; Liao, X. T.; Liu, B. J.; Liu, C. L.; Liu, C. X.; Liu, C. Y.; Liu, F. H.; Liu, Fang; Liu, Feng; Liu, H.; Liu, H. B.; Liu, H. H.; Liu, H. M.; Liu, H. W.; Liu, J. P.; Liu, K.; Liu, K.; Liu, K. Y.; Liu, Q.; Liu, S. B.; Liu, X.; Liu, X. H.; Liu, Y. B.; Liu, Y. W.; Liu, Yong; Liu, Z. A.; Liu, Zhiqiang; Liu, Zhiqing; Loehner, H.; Lu, G. R.; Lu, H. J.; Lu, J. G.; Lu, Q. W.; Lu, X. R.; Lu, Y. P.; Luo, C. L.; Luo, M. X.; Luo, T.; Luo, X. L.; Lv, M.; Ma, C. L.; Ma, F. C.; Ma, H. L.; Ma, Q. M.; Ma, S.; Ma, T.; Ma, X.; Ma, X. Y.; Maggiora, M.; Malik, Q. A.; Mao, H.; Mao, Y. J.; Mao, Z. P.; Messchendorp, J. G.; Min, J.; Min, T. J.; Mitchell, R. E.; Mo, X. H.; Muchnoi, N. Yu; Nefedov, Y.; Nikolaev, I. B.; Ning, Z.; Olsen, S. L.; Ouyang, Q.; Pacetti, S.; Park, J. W.; Pelizaeus, M.; Peters, K.; Ping, J. L.; Ping, R. G.; Poling, R.; Pun, C. S. J.; Qi, M.; Qian, S.; Qiao, C. F.; Qin, X. S.; Qiu, J. F.; Rashid, K. H.; Rong, G.; Ruan, X. D.; Sarantsev, A.; Schulze, J.; Shao, M.; Shen, C. P.; Shen, X. Y.; Sheng, H. Y.; Shepherd, M. R.; Song, X. Y.; Spataro, S.; Spruck, B.; Sun, D. H.; Sun, G. X.; Sun, J. F.; Sun, S. S.; Sun, X. D.; Sun, Y. J.; Sun, Y. Z.; Sun, Z. J.; Sun, Z. T.; Tang, C. J.; Tang, X.; Tian, H. L.; Toth, D.; Varner, G. S.; Wang, B.; Wang, B. Q.; Wang, K.; Wang, L. L.; Wang, L. S.; Wang, M.; Wang, P.; Wang, P. L.; Wang, Q.; Wang, Q. J.; Wang, S. G.; Wang, X. L.; Wang, Y. D.; Wang, Y. F.; Wang, Y. Q.; Wang, Z.; Wang, Z. G.; Wang, Z. Y.; Wei, D. H.; Wen, Q. G.; Wen, S. P.; Wiedner, U.; Wu, L. H.; Wu, N.; Wu, W.; Wu, Z.; Xiao, Z. J.; Xie, Y. G.; Xiu, Q. L.; Xu, G. F.; Xu, G. M.; Xu, H.; Xu, Q. J.; Xu, X. P.; Xu, Y.; Xu, Z. R.; Xu, Z. Z.; Xue, Z.; Yan, L.; Yan, W. B.; Yan, Y. H.; Yang, H. X.; Yang, T.; Yang, Y.; Yang, Y. X.; Ye, H.; Ye, M.; Ye, M. H.; Yu, B. X.; Yu, C. X.; Yu, S. P.; Yuan, C. Z.; Yuan, W. L.; Yuan, Y.; Zafar, A. A.; Zallo, A.; Zeng, Y.; Zhang, B. X.; Zhang, B. Y.; Zhang, C.; Zhang, C. C.; Zhang, D. H.; Zhang, H. H.; Zhang, H. Y.; Zhang, J.; Zhang, J. Q.; Zhang, J. W.; Zhang, J. Y.; Zhang, J. Z.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, S. H.; Zhang, T. R.; Zhang, X. J.; Zhang, X. Y.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Y. H.; Zhang, Y. S.; Zhang, Z. P.; Zhang, Z. Y.; Zhao, G.; Zhao, H. S.; Zhao, Jiawei; Zhao, Jingwei; Zhao, Lei; Zhao, Ling; Zhao, M. G.; Zhao, Q.; Zhao, S. J.; Zhao, T. C.; Zhao, X. H.; Zhao, Y. B.; Zhao, Z. G.; Zhao, Z. L.; Zhemchugov, A.; Zheng, B.; Zheng, J. P.; Zheng, Y. H.; Zheng, Z. P.; Zhong, B.; Zhong, J.; Zhong, L.; Zhou, L.; Zhou, X. K.; Zhou, X. R.; Zhu, C.; Zhu, K.; Zhu, K. J.; Zhu, S. H.; Zhu, X. L.; Zhu, X. W.; Zhu, Y. S.; Zhu, Z. A.; Zhuang, J.; Zou, B. S.; Zou, J. H.; Zuo, J. X.

    2011-01-01

    Using 106 x 10(6) psi' events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII storage ring, the higher-order multipole amplitudes in the radiative transition psi' -> gamma chi(c2) -> gamma pi(+)pi(-)/gamma K+K- are measured. A fit to the chi(c2) production and decay angular distributions yields M2

  6. New relations for Einstein–Yang–Mills amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stieberger, Stephan; Taylor, Tomasz R.

    2016-01-01

    We obtain new relations between Einstein–Yang–Mills (EYM) amplitudes involving N gauge bosons plus a single graviton and pure Yang–Mills amplitudes involving N gauge bosons plus one additional vector boson inserted in a way typical for a gauge boson of a “spectator” group commuting with the group associated to original N gauge bosons. We show that such EYM amplitudes satisfy U(1) decoupling relations similar to Kleiss–Kuijf relations for Yang–Mills amplitudes. We consider a D-brane embedding of EYM amplitudes in the framework of disk amplitudes involving open and closed strings. A new set of monodromy relations is derived for mixed open–closed amplitudes with one closed string inserted on the disk world-sheet and a number of open strings at the boundary. These relations allow expressing the latter in terms of pure open string amplitudes and, in the field-theory limit, they yield the U(1) decoupling relations for EYM amplitudes.

  7. Motivic amplitudes and cluster coordinates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Golden, J.K.; Goncharov, A.B.; Spradlin, M.; Vergu, C.; Volovich, A.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper we study motivic amplitudes — objects which contain all of the essential mathematical content of scattering amplitudes in planar SYM theory in a completely canonical way, free from the ambiguities inherent in any attempt to choose particular functional representatives. We find that the cluster structure on the kinematic configuration space Conf n (ℙ 3 ) underlies the structure of motivic amplitudes. Specifically, we compute explicitly the coproduct of the two-loop seven-particle MHV motivic amplitude A 7,2 M and find that like the previously known six-particle amplitude, it depends only on certain preferred coordinates known in the mathematics literature as cluster X-coordinates on Conf n (ℙ 3 ). We also find intriguing relations between motivic amplitudes and the geometry of generalized associahedrons, to which cluster coordinates have a natural combinatoric connection. For example, the obstruction to A 7,2 M being expressible in terms of classical polylogarithms is most naturally represented by certain quadrilateral faces of the appropriate associahedron. We also find and prove the first known functional equation for the trilogarithm in which all 40 arguments are cluster X-coordinates of a single algebra. In this respect it is similar to Abel’s 5-term dilogarithm identity

  8. Strain amplitude-dependent anelasticity in Cu-Ni solid solution due to thermally activated and athermal dislocation-point obstacle interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kustov, S.; Gremaud, G.; Benoit, W.; Golyandin, S.; Sapozhnikov, K.; Nishino, Y.; Asano, S.

    1999-02-01

    Experimental investigations of the internal friction and the Young's modulus defect in single crystals of Cu-(1.3-7.6) at. % Ni have been performed for 7-300 K over a wide range of oscillatory strain amplitudes. Extensive data have been obtained at a frequency of vibrations around 100 kHz and compared with the results obtained for the same crystals at a frequency of ˜1 kHz. The strain amplitude dependence of the anelastic strain amplitude and the average friction stress acting on a dislocation due to solute atoms are also analyzed. Several stages in the strain amplitude dependence of the internal friction and the Young's modulus defect are revealed for all of the alloy compositions, at different temperatures and in different frequency ranges. For the 100 kHz frequency, low temperatures and low strain amplitudes (˜10-7-10-5), the amplitude-dependent internal friction and the Young's modulus defect are essentially temperature independent, and are ascribed to a purely hysteretic internal friction component. At higher strain amplitudes, a transition stage and a steep strain amplitude dependence of the internal friction and the Young's modulus defect are observed, followed by saturation at the highest strain amplitudes employed. These stages are temperature and frequency dependent and are assumed to be due to thermally activated motion of dislocations. We suggest that the observed regularities in the entire strain amplitude, temperature and frequency ranges correspond to a motion of dislocations in a two-component system of obstacles: weak but long-range ones, due to the elastic interaction of dislocations with solute atoms distributed in the bulk of the crystal; and strong short-range ones, due to the interaction of dislocations with solute atoms distributed close to dislocation glide planes. Based on these assumptions, a qualitative explanation is given for the variety of experimental observations.

  9. Tomography for amplitudes of hard exclusive processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Polyakov, M.V.

    2008-01-01

    We discuss which part of information about hadron structure encoded in the Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) [part of total GPD image] can be restored from the known amplitude of a hard exclusive process. The physics content of this partial image is analyzed. Among other things, we show that this partial image contains direct information about how the target hadron responses to the (string) quark-antiquark operator of arbitrary spin J. Explicit equations relating physics content of the partial image of GPDs directly to the data are derived. Also some new results concerning the dual parametrization of GPDs are presented

  10. Study of High and Low Amplitude Wave Trains of Cosmic Ray ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    1Physics Department, Government T.R.S. College, Rewa (M.P.) 486 001, India. 2Physics Department, A.P.S. University, Rewa (M.P.) 486 003, India. ∗ e-mail: ambika.physics@gmail. .... stations are running parallel to each other. In Fig. 3, we show the frequency distribution of the occurrence of high and low amplitude wave ...

  11. Atom localization via phase and amplitude control of the driving field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ghafoor, Fazal; Qamar, Sajid; Zubairy, M. Suhail

    2002-01-01

    Control of amplitude and phase of the driving field in an atom-field interaction leads towards the strong line narrowing and quenching in the spontaneous emission spectrum. We exploit this fact for the atom localization scheme and achieve a much better spatial resolution in the conditional position probability distribution of the atom. Most importantly the quenching in the spontaneous emission manifests itself in reducing the periodicity in the conditional position probability distribution and hence the uncertainty in a particular position measurement of the single atom by a factor of 2

  12. Probability distribution functions for intermittent scrape-off layer plasma fluctuations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theodorsen, A.; Garcia, O. E.

    2018-03-01

    A stochastic model for intermittent fluctuations in the scrape-off layer of magnetically confined plasmas has been constructed based on a super-position of uncorrelated pulses arriving according to a Poisson process. In the most common applications of the model, the pulse amplitudes are assumed exponentially distributed, supported by conditional averaging of large-amplitude fluctuations in experimental measurement data. This basic assumption has two potential limitations. First, statistical analysis of measurement data using conditional averaging only reveals the tail of the amplitude distribution to be exponentially distributed. Second, exponentially distributed amplitudes leads to a positive definite signal which cannot capture fluctuations in for example electric potential and radial velocity. Assuming pulse amplitudes which are not positive definite often make finding a closed form for the probability density function (PDF) difficult, even if the characteristic function remains relatively simple. Thus estimating model parameters requires an approach based on the characteristic function, not the PDF. In this contribution, the effect of changing the amplitude distribution on the moments, PDF and characteristic function of the process is investigated and a parameter estimation method using the empirical characteristic function is presented and tested on synthetically generated data. This proves valuable for describing intermittent fluctuations of all plasma parameters in the boundary region of magnetized plasmas.

  13. Greater disruption to control of voluntary saccades in autistic disorder than Asperger's disorder: evidence for greater cerebellar involvement in autism?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stanley-Cary, Chloe; Rinehart, Nicole; Tonge, Bruce; White, Owen; Fielding, Joanne

    2011-03-01

    It remains unclear whether autism and Asperger's disorder (AD) exist on a symptom continuum or are separate disorders with discrete neurobiological underpinnings. In addition to impairments in communication and social cognition, motor deficits constitute a significant clinical feature in both disorders. It has been suggested that motor deficits and in particular the integrity of cerebellar modulation of movement may differentiate these disorders. We used a simple volitional saccade task to comprehensively profile the integrity of voluntary ocular motor behaviour in individuals with high functioning autism (HFA) or AD, and included measures sensitive to cerebellar dysfunction. We tested three groups of age-matched young males with normal intelligence (full scale, verbal, and performance IQ estimates >70) aged between 11 and 19 years; nine with AD, eight with HFA, and ten normally developing males as the comparison group. Overall, the metrics and dynamics of the voluntary saccades produced in this task were preserved in the AD group. In contrast, the HFA group demonstrated relatively preserved mean measures of ocular motricity with cerebellar-like deficits demonstrated in increased variability on measures of response time, final eye position, and movement dynamics. These deficits were considered to be consistent with reduced cerebellar online adaptation of movement. The results support the notion that the integrity of cerebellar modulation of movement may be different in AD and HFA, suggesting potentially differential neurobiological substrates may underpin these complex disorders.

  14. A heating mechanism of ions due to large amplitude coherent ion acoustic wave

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yajima, Nobuo; Kawai, Yoshinobu; Kogiso, Ken.

    1978-05-01

    Ion heating mechanism in a plasma with a coherent ion acoustic wave is studied experimentally and numerically. Ions are accelerated periodically in the electrostatic potential of the coherent wave and their oscillation energy is converted into the thermal energy of ions through the collision with the neutral atoms in plasma. The Monte Carlo calculation is applied to obtain the ion temperature. The amplitude of the electrostatic potential, the mean number of collisions and the mean life time of ions are treated as parameters in the calculation. The numerical results are compared with the experiments and both of them agree well. It is found that the ion temperature increases as the amplitude of the coherent wave increases and the high energy tail in the distribution function of ions are observed for the case of large wave-amplitude. (author)

  15. Relative amplitude preservation processing utilizing surface consistent amplitude correction. Part 3; Surface consistent amplitude correction wo mochiita sotai shinpuku hozon shori. 3

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saeki, T [Japan National Oil Corporation, Tokyo (Japan). Technology Research Center

    1996-10-01

    For the seismic reflection method conducted on the ground surface, generator and geophone are set on the surface. The observed waveforms are affected by the ground surface and surface layer. Therefore, it is required for discussing physical properties of the deep underground to remove the influence of surface layer, preliminarily. For the surface consistent amplitude correction, properties of the generator and geophone were removed by assuming that the observed waveforms can be expressed by equations of convolution. This is a correction method to obtain records without affected by the surface conditions. In response to analysis and correction of waveforms, wavelet conversion was examined. Using the amplitude patterns after correction, the significant signal region, noise dominant region, and surface wave dominant region would be separated each other. Since the amplitude values after correction of values in the significant signal region have only small variation, a representative value can be given. This can be used for analyzing the surface consistent amplitude correction. Efficiency of the process can be enhanced by considering the change of frequency. 3 refs., 5 figs.

  16. Amplitude analysis of $B^0 \\rightarrow \\bar{D}^0 K^+ \\pi^-$ decays

    CERN Document Server

    Aaij, Roel; Adinolfi, Marco; Affolder, Anthony; Ajaltouni, Ziad; Akar, Simon; Albrecht, Johannes; Alessio, Federico; Alexander, Michael; Ali, Suvayu; Alkhazov, Georgy; Alvarez Cartelle, Paula; Alves Jr, Antonio Augusto; Amato, Sandra; Amerio, Silvia; Amhis, Yasmine; An, Liupan; Anderlini, Lucio; Anderson, Jonathan; Andreotti, Mirco; Andrews, Jason; Appleby, Robert; Aquines Gutierrez, Osvaldo; Archilli, Flavio; d'Argent, Philippe; Artamonov, Alexander; Artuso, Marina; Aslanides, Elie; Auriemma, Giulio; Baalouch, Marouen; Bachmann, Sebastian; Back, John; Badalov, Alexey; Baesso, Clarissa; Baldini, Wander; Barlow, Roger; Barschel, Colin; Barsuk, Sergey; Barter, William; Batozskaya, Varvara; Battista, Vincenzo; Bay, Aurelio; Beaucourt, Leo; Beddow, John; Bedeschi, Franco; Bediaga, Ignacio; Bel, Lennaert; Belyaev, Ivan; Ben-Haim, Eli; Bencivenni, Giovanni; Benson, Sean; Benton, Jack; Berezhnoy, Alexander; Bernet, Roland; Bertolin, Alessandro; Bettler, Marc-Olivier; van Beuzekom, Martinus; Bien, Alexander; Bifani, Simone; Bird, Thomas; Birnkraut, Alex; Bizzeti, Andrea; Blake, Thomas; Blanc, Frédéric; Blouw, Johan; Blusk, Steven; Bocci, Valerio; Bondar, Alexander; Bondar, Nikolay; Bonivento, Walter; Borghi, Silvia; Borsato, Martino; Bowcock, Themistocles; Bowen, Espen Eie; Bozzi, Concezio; Braun, Svende; Brett, David; Britsch, Markward; Britton, Thomas; Brodzicka, Jolanta; Brook, Nicholas; Bursche, Albert; Buytaert, Jan; Cadeddu, Sandro; Calabrese, Roberto; Calvi, Marta; Calvo Gomez, Miriam; Campana, Pierluigi; Campora Perez, Daniel; Capriotti, Lorenzo; Carbone, Angelo; Carboni, Giovanni; Cardinale, Roberta; Cardini, Alessandro; Carniti, Paolo; Carson, Laurence; Carvalho Akiba, Kazuyoshi; Casanova Mohr, Raimon; Casse, Gianluigi; Cassina, Lorenzo; Castillo Garcia, Lucia; Cattaneo, Marco; Cauet, Christophe; Cavallero, Giovanni; Cenci, Riccardo; Charles, Matthew; Charpentier, Philippe; Chefdeville, Maximilien; Chen, Shanzhen; Cheung, Shu-Faye; Chiapolini, Nicola; Chrzaszcz, Marcin; Cid Vidal, Xabier; Ciezarek, Gregory; Clarke, Peter; Clemencic, Marco; Cliff, Harry; Closier, Joel; Coco, Victor; Cogan, Julien; Cogneras, Eric; Cogoni, Violetta; Cojocariu, Lucian; Collazuol, Gianmaria; Collins, Paula; Comerma-Montells, Albert; Contu, Andrea; Cook, Andrew; Coombes, Matthew; Coquereau, Samuel; Corti, Gloria; Corvo, Marco; Couturier, Benjamin; Cowan, Greig; Craik, Daniel Charles; Crocombe, Andrew; Cruz Torres, Melissa Maria; Cunliffe, Samuel; Currie, Robert; D'Ambrosio, Carmelo; Dalseno, Jeremy; David, Pieter; Davis, Adam; De Bruyn, Kristof; De Capua, Stefano; De Cian, Michel; De Miranda, Jussara; De Paula, Leandro; De Silva, Weeraddana; De Simone, Patrizia; Dean, Cameron Thomas; Decamp, Daniel; Deckenhoff, Mirko; Del Buono, Luigi; Déléage, Nicolas; Derkach, Denis; Deschamps, Olivier; Dettori, Francesco; Dey, Biplab; Di Canto, Angelo; Di Ruscio, Francesco; Dijkstra, Hans; Donleavy, Stephanie; Dordei, Francesca; Dorigo, Mirco; Dosil Suárez, Alvaro; Dossett, David; Dovbnya, Anatoliy; Dreimanis, Karlis; Dufour, Laurent; Dujany, Giulio; Dupertuis, Frederic; Durante, Paolo; Dzhelyadin, Rustem; Dziurda, Agnieszka; Dzyuba, Alexey; Easo, Sajan; Egede, Ulrik; Egorychev, Victor; Eidelman, Semen; Eisenhardt, Stephan; Eitschberger, Ulrich; Ekelhof, Robert; Eklund, Lars; El Rifai, Ibrahim; Elsasser, Christian; Ely, Scott; Esen, Sevda; Evans, Hannah Mary; Evans, Timothy; Falabella, Antonio; Färber, Christian; Farinelli, Chiara; Farley, Nathanael; Farry, Stephen; Fay, Robert; Ferguson, Dianne; Fernandez Albor, Victor; Ferrari, Fabio; Ferreira Rodrigues, Fernando; Ferro-Luzzi, Massimiliano; Filippov, Sergey; Fiore, Marco; Fiorini, Massimiliano; Firlej, Miroslaw; Fitzpatrick, Conor; Fiutowski, Tomasz; Fohl, Klaus; Fol, Philip; Fontana, Marianna; Fontanelli, Flavio; Forty, Roger; Francisco, Oscar; Frank, Markus; Frei, Christoph; Frosini, Maddalena; Fu, Jinlin; Furfaro, Emiliano; Gallas Torreira, Abraham; Galli, Domenico; Gallorini, Stefano; Gambetta, Silvia; Gandelman, Miriam; Gandini, Paolo; Gao, Yuanning; García Pardiñas, Julián; Garofoli, Justin; Garra Tico, Jordi; Garrido, Lluis; Gascon, David; Gaspar, Clara; Gastaldi, Ugo; Gauld, Rhorry; Gavardi, Laura; Gazzoni, Giulio; Geraci, Angelo; Gerick, David; Gersabeck, Evelina; Gersabeck, Marco; Gershon, Timothy; Ghez, Philippe; Gianelle, Alessio; Gianì, Sebastiana; Gibson, Valerie; Girard, Olivier Göran; Giubega, Lavinia-Helena; Gligorov, V.V.; Göbel, Carla; Golubkov, Dmitry; Golutvin, Andrey; Gomes, Alvaro; Gotti, Claudio; Grabalosa Gándara, Marc; Graciani Diaz, Ricardo; Granado Cardoso, Luis Alberto; Graugés, Eugeni; Graverini, Elena; Graziani, Giacomo; Grecu, Alexandru; Greening, Edward; Gregson, Sam; Griffith, Peter; Grillo, Lucia; Grünberg, Oliver; Gui, Bin; Gushchin, Evgeny; Guz, Yury; Gys, Thierry; Hadjivasiliou, Christos; Haefeli, Guido; Haen, Christophe; Haines, Susan; Hall, Samuel; Hamilton, Brian; Hampson, Thomas; Han, Xiaoxue; Hansmann-Menzemer, Stephanie; Harnew, Neville; Harnew, Samuel; Harrison, Jonathan; He, Jibo; Head, Timothy; Heijne, Veerle; Hennessy, Karol; Henrard, Pierre; Henry, Louis; Hernando Morata, Jose Angel; van Herwijnen, Eric; Heß, Miriam; Hicheur, Adlène; Hill, Donal; Hoballah, Mostafa; Hombach, Christoph; Hulsbergen, Wouter; Humair, Thibaud; Hussain, Nazim; Hutchcroft, David; Hynds, Daniel; Idzik, Marek; Ilten, Philip; Jacobsson, Richard; Jaeger, Andreas; Jalocha, Pawel; Jans, Eddy; Jawahery, Abolhassan; Jing, Fanfan; John, Malcolm; Johnson, Daniel; Jones, Christopher; Joram, Christian; Jost, Beat; Jurik, Nathan; Kandybei, Sergii; Kanso, Walaa; Karacson, Matthias; Karbach, Moritz; Karodia, Sarah; Kelsey, Matthew; Kenyon, Ian; Kenzie, Matthew; Ketel, Tjeerd; Khanji, Basem; Khurewathanakul, Chitsanu; Klaver, Suzanne; Klimaszewski, Konrad; Kochebina, Olga; Kolpin, Michael; Komarov, Ilya; Koopman, Rose; Koppenburg, Patrick; Korolev, Mikhail; Kravchuk, Leonid; Kreplin, Katharina; Kreps, Michal; Krocker, Georg; Krokovny, Pavel; Kruse, Florian; Kucewicz, Wojciech; Kucharczyk, Marcin; Kudryavtsev, Vasily; Kuonen, Axel Kevin; Kurek, Krzysztof; Kvaratskheliya, Tengiz; La Thi, Viet Nga; Lacarrere, Daniel; Lafferty, George; Lai, Adriano; Lambert, Dean; Lambert, Robert W; Lanfranchi, Gaia; Langenbruch, Christoph; Langhans, Benedikt; Latham, Thomas; Lazzeroni, Cristina; Le Gac, Renaud; van Leerdam, Jeroen; Lees, Jean-Pierre; Lefèvre, Regis; Leflat, Alexander; Lefrançois, Jacques; Leroy, Olivier; Lesiak, Tadeusz; Leverington, Blake; Li, Yiming; Likhomanenko, Tatiana; Liles, Myfanwy; Lindner, Rolf; Linn, Christian; Lionetto, Federica; Liu, Bo; Liu, Xuesong; Lohn, Stefan; Longstaff, Iain; Lopes, Jose; Lucchesi, Donatella; Lucio Martinez, Miriam; Luo, Haofei; Lupato, Anna; Luppi, Eleonora; Lupton, Oliver; Machefert, Frederic; Maciuc, Florin; Maev, Oleg; Maguire, Kevin; Malde, Sneha; Malinin, Alexander; Manca, Giulia; Mancinelli, Giampiero; Manning, Peter Michael; Mapelli, Alessandro; Maratas, Jan; Marchand, Jean François; Marconi, Umberto; Marin Benito, Carla; Marino, Pietro; Märki, Raphael; Marks, Jörg; Martellotti, Giuseppe; Martinelli, Maurizio; Martinez Santos, Diego; Martinez Vidal, Fernando; Martins Tostes, Danielle; Massafferri, André; Matev, Rosen; Mathad, Abhijit; Mathe, Zoltan; Matteuzzi, Clara; Matthieu, Kecke; Mauri, Andrea; Maurin, Brice; Mazurov, Alexander; McCann, Michael; McCarthy, James; McNab, Andrew; McNulty, Ronan; Meadows, Brian; Meier, Frank; Meissner, Marco; Merk, Marcel; Milanes, Diego Alejandro; Minard, Marie-Noelle; Mitzel, Dominik Stefan; Molina Rodriguez, Josue; Monteil, Stephane; Morandin, Mauro; Morawski, Piotr; Mordà, Alessandro; Morello, Michael Joseph; Moron, Jakub; Morris, Adam Benjamin; Mountain, Raymond; Muheim, Franz; Müller, Janine; Müller, Katharina; Müller, Vanessa; Mussini, Manuel; Muster, Bastien; Naik, Paras; Nakada, Tatsuya; Nandakumar, Raja; Nasteva, Irina; Needham, Matthew; Neri, Nicola; Neubert, Sebastian; Neufeld, Niko; Neuner, Max; Nguyen, Anh Duc; Nguyen, Thi-Dung; Nguyen-Mau, Chung; Niess, Valentin; Niet, Ramon; Nikitin, Nikolay; Nikodem, Thomas; Ninci, Daniele; Novoselov, Alexey; O'Hanlon, Daniel Patrick; Oblakowska-Mucha, Agnieszka; Obraztsov, Vladimir; Ogilvy, Stephen; Okhrimenko, Oleksandr; Oldeman, Rudolf; Onderwater, Gerco; Osorio Rodrigues, Bruno; Otalora Goicochea, Juan Martin; Otto, Adam; Owen, Patrick; Oyanguren, Maria Aranzazu; Palano, Antimo; Palombo, Fernando; Palutan, Matteo; Panman, Jacob; Papanestis, Antonios; Pappagallo, Marco; Pappalardo, Luciano; Parkes, Christopher; Passaleva, Giovanni; Patel, Girish; Patel, Mitesh; Patrignani, Claudia; Pearce, Alex; Pellegrino, Antonio; Penso, Gianni; Pepe Altarelli, Monica; Perazzini, Stefano; Perret, Pascal; Pescatore, Luca; Petridis, Konstantinos; Petrolini, Alessandro; Petruzzo, Marco; Picatoste Olloqui, Eduardo; Pietrzyk, Boleslaw; Pilař, Tomas; Pinci, Davide; Pistone, Alessandro; Piucci, Alessio; Playfer, Stephen; Plo Casasus, Maximo; Poikela, Tuomas; Polci, Francesco; Poluektov, Anton; Polyakov, Ivan; Polycarpo, Erica; Popov, Alexander; Popov, Dmitry; Popovici, Bogdan; Potterat, Cédric; Price, Eugenia; Price, Joseph David; Prisciandaro, Jessica; Pritchard, Adrian; Prouve, Claire; Pugatch, Valery; Puig Navarro, Albert; Punzi, Giovanni; Qian, Wenbin; Quagliani, Renato; Rachwal, Bartolomiej; Rademacker, Jonas; Rakotomiaramanana, Barinjaka; Rama, Matteo; Rangel, Murilo; Raniuk, Iurii; Rauschmayr, Nathalie; Raven, Gerhard; Redi, Federico; Reichert, Stefanie; Reid, Matthew; dos Reis, Alberto; Ricciardi, Stefania; Richards, Sophie; Rihl, Mariana; Rinnert, Kurt; Rives Molina, Vincente; Robbe, Patrick; Rodrigues, Ana Barbara; Rodrigues, Eduardo; Rodriguez Lopez, Jairo Alexis; Rodriguez Perez, Pablo; Roiser, Stefan; Romanovsky, Vladimir; Romero Vidal, Antonio; Rotondo, Marcello; Rouvinet, Julien; Ruf, Thomas; Ruiz, Hugo; Ruiz Valls, Pablo; Saborido Silva, Juan Jose; Sagidova, Naylya; Sail, Paul; Saitta, Biagio; Salustino Guimaraes, Valdir; Sanchez Mayordomo, Carlos; Sanmartin Sedes, Brais; Santacesaria, Roberta; Santamarina Rios, Cibran; Santimaria, Marco; Santovetti, Emanuele; Sarti, Alessio; Satriano, Celestina; Satta, Alessia; Saunders, Daniel Martin; Savrina, Darya; Schiller, Manuel; Schindler, Heinrich; Schlupp, Maximilian; Schmelling, Michael; Schmelzer, Timon; Schmidt, Burkhard; Schneider, Olivier; Schopper, Andreas; Schubiger, Maxime; Schune, Marie Helene; Schwemmer, Rainer; Sciascia, Barbara; Sciubba, Adalberto; Semennikov, Alexander; Sepp, Indrek; Serra, Nicola; Serrano, Justine; Sestini, Lorenzo; Seyfert, Paul; Shapkin, Mikhail; Shapoval, Illya; Shcheglov, Yury; Shears, Tara; Shekhtman, Lev; Shevchenko, Vladimir; Shires, Alexander; Silva Coutinho, Rafael; Simi, Gabriele; Sirendi, Marek; Skidmore, Nicola; Skillicorn, Ian; Skwarnicki, Tomasz; Smith, Edmund; Smith, Eluned; Smith, Iwan Thomas; Smith, Jackson; Smith, Mark; Snoek, Hella; Sokoloff, Michael; Soler, Paul; Soomro, Fatima; Souza, Daniel; Souza De Paula, Bruno; Spaan, Bernhard; Spradlin, Patrick; Sridharan, Srikanth; Stagni, Federico; Stahl, Marian; Stahl, Sascha; Steinkamp, Olaf; Stenyakin, Oleg; Sterpka, Christopher Francis; Stevenson, Scott; Stoica, Sabin; Stone, Sheldon; Storaci, Barbara; Stracka, Simone; Straticiuc, Mihai; Straumann, Ulrich; Sun, Liang; Sutcliffe, William; Swientek, Krzysztof; Swientek, Stefan; Syropoulos, Vasileios; Szczekowski, Marek; Szczypka, Paul; Szumlak, Tomasz; T'Jampens, Stephane; Tekampe, Tobias; Teklishyn, Maksym; Tellarini, Giulia; Teubert, Frederic; Thomas, Christopher; Thomas, Eric; van Tilburg, Jeroen; Tisserand, Vincent; Tobin, Mark; Todd, Jacob; Tolk, Siim; Tomassetti, Luca; Tonelli, Diego; Topp-Joergensen, Stig; Torr, Nicholas; Tournefier, Edwige; Tourneur, Stephane; Trabelsi, Karim; Tran, Minh Tâm; Tresch, Marco; Trisovic, Ana; Tsaregorodtsev, Andrei; Tsopelas, Panagiotis; Tuning, Niels; Ukleja, Artur; Ustyuzhanin, Andrey; Uwer, Ulrich; Vacca, Claudia; Vagnoni, Vincenzo; Valenti, Giovanni; Vallier, Alexis; Vazquez Gomez, Ricardo; Vazquez Regueiro, Pablo; Vázquez Sierra, Carlos; Vecchi, Stefania; Velthuis, Jaap; Veltri, Michele; Veneziano, Giovanni; Vesterinen, Mika; Viaud, Benoit; Vieira, Daniel; Vieites Diaz, Maria; Vilasis-Cardona, Xavier; Vollhardt, Achim; Volyanskyy, Dmytro; Voong, David; Vorobyev, Alexey; Vorobyev, Vitaly; Voß, Christian; de Vries, Jacco; Waldi, Roland; Wallace, Charlotte; Wallace, Ronan; Walsh, John; Wandernoth, Sebastian; Wang, Jianchun; Ward, David; Watson, Nigel; Websdale, David; Weiden, Andreas; Whitehead, Mark; Wiedner, Dirk; Wilkinson, Guy; Wilkinson, Michael; Williams, Mark Richard James; Williams, Matthew; Williams, Mike; Williams, Timothy; Wilson, Fergus; Wimberley, Jack; Wishahi, Julian; Wislicki, Wojciech; Witek, Mariusz; Wormser, Guy; Wotton, Stephen; Wright, Simon; Wyllie, Kenneth; Xie, Yuehong; Xu, Zhirui; Yang, Zhenwei; Yu, Jiesheng; Yuan, Xuhao; Yushchenko, Oleg; Zangoli, Maria; Zavertyaev, Mikhail; Zhang, Liming; Zhang, Yanxi; Zhelezov, Alexey; Zhokhov, Anatoly; Zhong, Liang

    2015-07-20

    The Dalitz plot distribution of $B^0 \\rightarrow \\bar{D}^0 K^+ \\pi^-$ decays is studied using a data sample corresponding to $3.0\\rm{fb}^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. The data are described by an amplitude model that contains contributions from intermediate $K^*(892)^0$, $K^*(1410)^0$, $K^*_2(1430)^0$ and $D^*_2(2460)^-$ resonances. The model also contains components to describe broad structures, including the $K^*_0(1430)^0$ and $D^*_0(2400)^-$ resonances, in the $K\\pi$ S-wave and the $D\\pi$ S- and P-waves. The masses and widths of the $D^*_0(2400)^-$ and $D^*_2(2460)^-$ resonances are measured, as are the complex amplitudes and fit fractions for all components included in the amplitude model. The model obtained will be an integral part of a future determination of the angle $\\gamma$ of the CKM quark mixing matrix using $B^0 \\rightarrow \\bar{D}^0 K^+ \\pi^-$ decays.

  17. QCD collinear factorization, its extensions and the partonic distributions

    OpenAIRE

    Szymanowski, Lech

    2012-01-01

    I review the basics of the collinear factorization theorem applied primarily to deep inelastic scattering (DIS) involving forward parton distributions (PDFs) and the extensions of this theorem for exclusive processes probing non-forward parton distributions (GPDs), the generalized distribution amplitudes (GDAs) and the transition distribution amplitudes (TDAs). These QCD factorization theorem is an important tool in the description of hard processes in QCD. Whenever valid, it permits to repre...

  18. Optical asymmetric cryptography based on amplitude reconstruction of elliptically polarized light

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, Jianjun; Shen, Xueju; Lei, Ming

    2017-11-01

    We propose a novel optical asymmetric image encryption method based on amplitude reconstruction of elliptically polarized light, which is free from silhouette problem. The original image is analytically separated into two phase-only masks firstly, and then the two masks are encoded into amplitudes of the orthogonal polarization components of an elliptically polarized light. Finally, the elliptically polarized light propagates through a linear polarizer, and the output intensity distribution is recorded by a CCD camera to obtain the ciphertext. The whole encryption procedure could be implemented by using commonly used optical elements, and it combines diffusion process and confusion process. As a result, the proposed method achieves high robustness against iterative-algorithm-based attacks. Simulation results are presented to prove the validity of the proposed cryptography.

  19. New relations for gauge-theory amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bern, Z.; Carrasco, J. J. M.; Johansson, H.

    2008-01-01

    We present an identity satisfied by the kinematic factors of diagrams describing the tree amplitudes of massless gauge theories. This identity is a kinematic analog of the Jacobi identity for color factors. Using this we find new relations between color-ordered partial amplitudes. We discuss applications to multiloop calculations via the unitarity method. In particular, we illustrate the relations between different contributions to a two-loop four-point QCD amplitude. We also use this identity to reorganize gravity tree amplitudes diagram by diagram, offering new insight into the structure of the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye (KLT) relations between gauge and gravity tree amplitudes. This insight leads to similar but novel relations. We expect this to be helpful in higher-loop studies of the ultraviolet properties of gravity theories.

  20. Multiscalar production amplitudes beyond threshold

    CERN Document Server

    Argyres, E N; Kleiss, R H

    1993-01-01

    We present exact tree-order amplitudes for $H^* \\to n~H$, for final states containing one or two particles with non-zero three-momentum, for various interaction potentials. We show that there are potentials leading to tree amplitudes that satisfy unitarity, not only at threshold but also in the above kinematical configurations and probably beyond. As a by-product, we also calculate $2\\to n$ tree amplitudes at threshold and show that for the unbroken $\\phi^4$ theory they vanish for $n>4~$, for the Standard Model Higgs they vanish for $n\\ge 3~$ and for a model potential, respecting tree-order unitarity, for $n$ even and $n>4~$. Finally, we calculate the imaginary part of the one-loop $1\\to n$ amplitude in both symmetric and spontaneously broken $\\phi^4$ theory.

  1. Superposed epoch analysis applied to large-amplitude travelling convection vortices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Lühr

    1998-07-01

    Full Text Available For the six months from 1 October 1993 to 1 April 1994 the recordings of the IMAGE magnetometer network have been surveyed in a search for large-amplitude travelling convection vortices (TCVs. The restriction to large amplitudes (>100 nT was chosen to ensure a proper detection of evens also during times of high activity. Readings of all stations of the northern half of the IMAGE network were employed to check the consistency of the ground signature with the notation of a dual-vortex structure moving in an azimuthal direction. Applying these stringent selection criteria we detected a total of 19 clear TCV events. The statistical properties of our selection resemble the expected characteristics of large-amplitude TCVs. New and unexpected results emerged from the superposed epoch analysis. TCVs tend to form during quiet intervals embedded in moderately active periods. The occurrence of events is not randomly distributed but rather shows a clustering around a few days. These clusters recur once or twice every 27 days. Within a storm cycle they show up five to seven days after the commencement. With regard to solar wind conditions, we see the events occurring in the middle of the IMF sector structure. Large-amplitude TCVs seem to require certain conditions to make solar wind transients 'geoeffective', which have the tendency to recur with the solar rotation period.Key words. Ionosphere (Aural ionosphere; Ionosphere- magnetosphere interactions · Magnetospheric Physics (current system

  2. Amplitude structure of off-shell processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fearing, H.W.; Goldstein, G.R.; Moravcsik, M.J.

    1984-01-01

    The structure of M matrices, or scattering amplitudes, and of potentials for off-shell processes is discussed with the objective of determining how one can obtain information on off-shell amplitudes of a process in terms of the physical observables of a larger process in which the first process is embedded. The procedure found is inevitably model dependent, but within a particular model for embedding, a determination of the physically measurable amplitudes of the larger process is able to yield a determination of the off-shell amplitudes of the embedded process

  3. Cosmophysical Factors in the Fluctuation Amplitude Spectrum of Brownian Motion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaminsky A. V.

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Phenomenon of the regular variability of the fine structure of the fluctuation in the amplitude distributions (shapes of related histograms for the case of Brownian motion was investigated. We took an advantage of the dynamic light scattering method (DLS to get a stochastically fluctuated signal determined by Brownian motion. Shape of the histograms is most likely to vary, synchronous, in two proximally located independent cells containing Brownian particles. The synchronism persists in the cells distant at 2m from each other, and positioned meridionally. With a parallel-wise positioning of the cells, high probability of the synchronous variation in the shape of the histograms by local time has been observed. This result meets the previous conclusion about the dependency of histogram shapes ("fluctuation amplitudes" of the spectra of stochastic processes upon rotation of the Earth.

  4. Non-supersymmetric loop amplitudes and MHV vertices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bedford, James; Brandhuber, Andreas; Spence, Bill; Travaglini, Gabriele

    2005-01-01

    We show how the MHV diagram description of Yang-Mills theories can be used to study non-supersymmetric loop amplitudes. In particular, we derive a compact expression for the cut-constructible part of the general one-loop MHV multi-gluon scattering amplitude in pure Yang-Mills theory. We show that in special cases this expression reduces to known amplitudes-the amplitude with adjacent negative-helicity gluons, and the five gluon non-adjacent amplitude. Finally, we briefly discuss the twistor space interpretation of our result

  5. Real-time estimation of horizontal gaze angle by saccade integration using in-ear electrooculography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hládek, Ľuboš; Porr, Bernd; Brimijoin, W Owen

    2018-01-01

    The manuscript proposes and evaluates a real-time algorithm for estimating eye gaze angle based solely on single-channel electrooculography (EOG), which can be obtained directly from the ear canal using conductive ear moulds. In contrast to conventional high-pass filtering, we used an algorithm that calculates absolute eye gaze angle via statistical analysis of detected saccades. The estimated eye positions of the new algorithm were still noisy. However, the performance in terms of Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients was significantly better than the conventional approach in some instances. The results suggest that in-ear EOG signals captured with conductive ear moulds could serve as a basis for light-weight and portable horizontal eye gaze angle estimation suitable for a broad range of applications. For instance, for hearing aids to steer the directivity of microphones in the direction of the user's eye gaze.

  6. Using GRACE Amplitude Data in Conjunction with the Spatial Distribution of Groundwater Recharge to Estimate the Components of the Terrestrial Water Storage Anomaly across the Contiguous United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanford, W. E.; Reitz, M.; Zell, W.

    2017-12-01

    The GRACE satellite project by NASA has been mapping the terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) across the globe since 2002. To date most of the studies using this data have focused on estimating long-term storage declines in groundwater aquifers or the cryosphere. In this study we are focusing on using the amplitude of the seasonal storage signal to estimate the sources and values of the different water components that are contributing to the TWSA signal across the contiguous United States (CONUS). Across the CONUS the TWSA seasonal amplitude observed by GRACE varies by a factor of ten or more (from 1 to 10+ cm of liquid water equivalent). For a seasonal sinusoidal recharge rate, the change in storage in either the soil (unsaturated zone beneath the root zone) or groundwater (by water-table fluctuation) is limited to the amplitude of the recharge rate divided by π or 2π, respectively. We compiled the GRACE signal for the 18 major HUC watersheds across the CONUS and compared them to estimates of seasonal recharge-rate amplitudes based on a recent map of recharge rates generated by the USGS. The ratios of the recharge to GRACE amplitudes suggest that all but two of the HUCs must have other substantial sources of storage change in addition to soil or groundwater. The most likely additional sources are (1) winter snowpack, (2) seasonal irrigation withdrawals, and/or (3) surface water (rivers or reservoirs). Estimates of the seasonal amplitudes of these three signals across the CONUS suggest they can explain the remaining GRACE seasonal signal that cannot be explained by soil or groundwater fluctuations. Each of these signals has its own unique spatial distribution, with snowpack limited to the northern states, surface water limited to large rivers or reservoirs, and irrigation as a dominant signal limited to arid to semi-arid agricultural regions. Use of the GRACE seasonal signal shows promise in constraining the hydraulic diffusivities of surficial aquifer

  7. Scattering amplitudes in gauge theories

    CERN Document Server

    Henn, Johannes M

    2014-01-01

    At the fundamental level, the interactions of elementary particles are described by quantum gauge field theory. The quantitative implications of these interactions are captured by scattering amplitudes, traditionally computed using Feynman diagrams. In the past decade tremendous progress has been made in our understanding of and computational abilities with regard to scattering amplitudes in gauge theories, going beyond the traditional textbook approach. These advances build upon on-shell methods that focus on the analytic structure of the amplitudes, as well as on their recently discovered hidden symmetries. In fact, when expressed in suitable variables the amplitudes are much simpler than anticipated and hidden patterns emerge.   These modern methods are of increasing importance in phenomenological applications arising from the need for high-precision predictions for the experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider, as well as in foundational mathematical physics studies on the S-matrix in quantum ...

  8. Analytical properties of multiple production amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Medvedev, B V; Pavlov, V P; Polivanov, M K; Sukhanov, A D [Gosudarstvennyj Komitet po Ispol' zovaniyu Atomnoj Ehnergii SSSR, Moscow. Inst. Teoreticheskoj i Ehksperimental' noj Fiziki; AN SSSR, Moscow. Matematicheskij Inst.)

    1984-05-01

    Local analytical properties of amplitudes 2..-->..3 and 2..-->..4 are studied. The amplitudes are shown to be analytical functions of total and partial energies at fixed momentum transfers in the neighbourhood of any physical point on the energy shell 14 (for the 2..-->..3 case) and 242 (for the 2..-->..4 case) boundary values are expressed through the amplitudes of real processes.

  9. Amplitude and Recurrence Time of LP activity at Mt. Etna, Italy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cauchie, Léna; Saccorotti, Gilberto; Bean, Christopher

    2013-04-01

    The manifestation of Long-Period (LP) activity is attested on many volcanoes worldwide and is thought to be associated with the resonant oscillations of subsurface, fluid-filled, cracks and conduits. Nonetheless the actual source mechanism that originates the resonance is still unclear. Different models have been proposed so far, including (i) fluid flow instabilities as periodic degassing and (ii) brittle failure in viscous magmas. Since LP activity usually precedes and accompanies volcanic eruption, the understanding of these sources is crucial for the hazard assessment and eruption early warning. The work is aimed at improving the understanding of the LP source mechanism through a statistical analysis of detailed LP catalogues. The behaviour of LP activity is compared with the empirical laws governing earthquakes recurrence (e.g., Gutenberg-Richter [GR] and Gamma-law distributions), in order to understand what relationships, if any, exist between these two apparently different earthquake classes. In particular, about 13000 events were detected on Mount Etna in August 2005 through a STA/LTA method. For this given period, the volcano does not present particular sign of unrest. The manifestation of the LP events is sustained in time over all the period of analysis. From the analysis of the directional properties, it turns out that the events of this first catalog propagate from 2 distinct sources . Furthermore, the events exhibit a high degree of waveform similarity, and provide a criterion for classification/source separation. The events were then grouped into families of comparable waveforms, resulting also in a separation for their source locations. We then used template signals of each family for a Matched-Filtering of the continuous data streams, in order to discriminate small-amplitude events previously undetected by the STA/LTA triggering method. This procedure allowed for a significant enrichment of the catalogues. The retrieved amplitude distributions

  10. Amplitude distributions of dark counts and photon counts in NbN superconducting single-photon detectors integrated with the HEMT readout

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kitaygorsky, J. [Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, Delft University of Technology, 2600 GA Delft (Netherlands); Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0231 (United States); Słysz, W., E-mail: wslysz@ite.waw.pl [Institute of Electron Technology, PL-02 668 Warsaw (Poland); Shouten, R.; Dorenbos, S.; Reiger, E.; Zwiller, V. [Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, Delft University of Technology, 2600 GA Delft (Netherlands); Sobolewski, Roman [Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0231 (United States)

    2017-01-15

    Highlights: • A new operation regime of NbN superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs). • A better understanding of the origin of dark counts generated by the detector. • A promise of PNR functionality in SSPD measurements. - Abstract: We present a new operation regime of NbN superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs) by integrating them with a low-noise cryogenic high-electron-mobility transistor and a high-load resistor. The integrated sensors are designed to get a better understanding of the origin of dark counts triggered by the detector, as our scheme allows us to distinguish the origin of dark pulses from the actual photon pulses in SSPDs. The presented approach is based on a statistical analysis of amplitude distributions of recorded trains of the SSPD photoresponse transients. It also enables to obtain information on energy of the incident photons, as well as demonstrates some photon-number-resolving capability of meander-type SSPDs.

  11. Determination of backward pion nucleon scattering amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pietarinen, E.

    1978-04-01

    Backward C(sup(+-))πN amplitudes are determined from πN→Nπ and NantiN→2π differential cross sections in such a way that they are consistent with the analyticity properties and information of the unphysical ππ→NantiN amplitudes. Combining the result with forward C(sup(+-)) amplitudes positive and negative parity resonances are extracted. An error analysis of the amplitudes is performed. (author)

  12. Amplitude analysis of $B^0 → ¯D^0 K^+ π^-$ decays

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aaij, R.; Raven, G.

    2015-01-01

    The Dalitz plot distribution of B0→D¯0K+π- decays is studied using a data sample corresponding to 3.0fb-1 of pp collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. The data are described by an amplitude model that contains contributions from intermediate K∗(892)0, K∗(1410)0,

  13. Evaluating camouflage design using eye movement data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Chiuhsiang Joe; Chang, Chi-Chan; Lee, Yung-Hui

    2014-05-01

    This study investigates the characteristics of eye movements during a camouflaged target search task. Camouflaged targets were randomly presented on two natural landscapes. The performance of each camouflage design was assessed by target detection hit rate, detection time, number of fixations on display, first saccade amplitude to target, number of fixations on target, fixation duration on target, and subjective ratings of search task difficulty. The results showed that the camouflage patterns could significantly affect the eye-movement behavior, especially first saccade amplitude and fixation duration, and the findings could be used to increase the sensitivity of the camouflage assessment. We hypothesized that the assessment could be made with regard to the differences in detectability and discriminability of the camouflage patterns. These could explain less efficient search behavior in eye movements. Overall, data obtained from eye movements can be used to significantly enhance the interpretation of the effects of different camouflage design. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

  14. Threat but not arousal narrows attention: Evidence from pupil dilation and saccade control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henk eVan Steenbergen

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available It has been shown that negative affect causes attentional narrowing. According to Easterbrook’s (1959 influential hypothesis this effect is driven by the withdrawal motivation inherent to negative emotions and might be related to increases in arousal. We investigated whether valence-unspecific increases in physiological arousal, as measured by pupil dilation, could account for attentional narrowing effects in a cognitive control task. Following the presentation of a negative, positive, or neutral picture, participants performed a saccade task with a prosaccade versus an antisaccade instruction. The reaction time difference between pro- and antisaccades was used to index attentional selectivity, and while pupil diameter was used as an index of physiological arousal. Pupil dilation was observed for both negative and positive pictures, which indicates increased physiological arousal. However, increased attentional selectivity was only observed following negative pictures. Our data show that motivational intensity effects on attentional narrowing can occur independently of physiological arousal effects.

  15. Scattering amplitudes in open superstring theory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schlotterer, Oliver

    2011-07-15

    The present thesis deals with the theme field of the scattering amplitudes in theories of open superstrings. Especially two different formalisms for the handling of superstrings are introduced and applied for the calaculation of tree-level amplitudes - the Ramond- Neveu-Schwarz (RNS) and the Pure-Spinor (PS) formalism. The RNS approach is proved as flexible in order to describe compactification of the initially ten flat space-time dimensions to four dimensions. We solve the technical problems, which result from the interacting basing world-sheet theory with conformal symmetry. This is used to calculate phenomenologically relevant scattering amplitudes of gluons and quarks as well as production rates of massive harmonic vibrations, which were already identified as virtual exchange particles on the massless level. In the case of a low string mass scale in the range of some Tev the string-specific signatures in parton collisions can be observed in the near future in the LHC experiment at CERN and indicated as first experimental proof of the string theory. THose string effects occur universally for a wide class of string ground states respectively internal geometries and represent an elegant way to avoid the so-called landscape problem of the string theory. A further theme complex in this thesis is based on the PS formalism, which allows a manifestly supersymmetric treatment of scattering amplitudes in ten space-time dimension with sixteen supercharges. We introduce a family of superfields, which occur in massless amplitudes of the open string and can be naturally identified with diagrams of three-valued knots. Thereby we reach not only a compact superspace representation of the n-point field-theory amplitude but can also write the complete superstring n-point amplitude as minimal linear combination of partial amplitudes of the field theory as well as hypergeometric functions. The latter carry the string effects and are analyzed from different perspectives, above all

  16. Scattering amplitudes in open superstring theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schlotterer, Oliver

    2011-01-01

    The present thesis deals with the theme field of the scattering amplitudes in theories of open superstrings. Especially two different formalisms for the handling of superstrings are introduced and applied for the calaculation of tree-level amplitudes - the Ramond- Neveu-Schwarz (RNS) and the Pure-Spinor (PS) formalism. The RNS approach is proved as flexible in order to describe compactification of the initially ten flat space-time dimensions to four dimensions. We solve the technical problems, which result from the interacting basing world-sheet theory with conformal symmetry. This is used to calculate phenomenologically relevant scattering amplitudes of gluons and quarks as well as production rates of massive harmonic vibrations, which were already identified as virtual exchange particles on the massless level. In the case of a low string mass scale in the range of some Tev the string-specific signatures in parton collisions can be observed in the near future in the LHC experiment at CERN and indicated as first experimental proof of the string theory. THose string effects occur universally for a wide class of string ground states respectively internal geometries and represent an elegant way to avoid the so-called landscape problem of the string theory. A further theme complex in this thesis is based on the PS formalism, which allows a manifestly supersymmetric treatment of scattering amplitudes in ten space-time dimension with sixteen supercharges. We introduce a family of superfields, which occur in massless amplitudes of the open string and can be naturally identified with diagrams of three-valued knots. Thereby we reach not only a compact superspace representation of the n-point field-theory amplitude but can also write the complete superstring n-point amplitude as minimal linear combination of partial amplitudes of the field theory as well as hypergeometric functions. The latter carry the string effects and are analyzed from different perspectives, above all

  17. On angular distribution of nucleus fission fragments by fast neutrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barabanov, A.L.; Grechukhin, D.P.

    1987-01-01

    Evaluation of amplitudes of quadrupole and hexadecapole components of angular distribution of nucleus fission fragments by neutrons with the energies E n < or approx. 6 MeV is conducted. Stability of this amplitude to permeability optical coefficient variations for neutrons is revealed. It is shown, that the ratio of these amplitudes as well as the character of their dependence on the target nucleus orientation degree are sensitive to the type of fission probability distribution along K projection if fissile nucleus J spin to the fragment scattering axis. This sensitivity may be used for fragment angular distribution anisotropy formation statistical model verification

  18. Color-Kinematics Duality for QCD Amplitudes

    CERN Document Server

    Johansson, Henrik

    2016-01-01

    We show that color-kinematics duality is present in tree-level amplitudes of quantum chromodynamics with massive flavored quarks. Starting with the color structure of QCD, we work out a new color decomposition for n-point tree amplitudes in a reduced basis of primitive amplitudes. These primitives, with k quark-antiquark pairs and (n-2k) gluons, are taken in the (n-2)!/k! Melia basis, and are independent under the color-algebra Kleiss-Kuijf relations. This generalizes the color decomposition of Del Duca, Dixon, and Maltoni to an arbitrary number of quarks. The color coefficients in the new decomposition are given by compact expressions valid for arbitrary gauge group and representation. Considering the kinematic structure, we show through explicit calculations that color-kinematics duality holds for amplitudes with general configurations of gluons and massive quarks. The new (massive) amplitude relations that follow from the duality can be mapped to a well-defined subset of the familiar BCJ relations for gluo...

  19. Assessment of Attentional Workload while Driving by Eye-fixation-related Potentials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takeda, Yuji; Yoshitsugu, Noritoshi; Itoh, Kazuya; Kanamori, Nobuhiro

    How do drivers cope with the attentional workload of in-vehicle information technology? In the present study, we propose a new psychophysiological measure for assessing drivers' attention: eye-fixation-related potential (EFRP). EFRP is a kind of event-related brain potential measurable at the eye-movement situation that reflects how closely observers examine visual information at the eye-fixated position. In the experiment, the effects of verbal working memory load and spatial working memory load during simulated driving were examined by measuring the number of saccadic eye-movements and EFRP as the indices of drivers' attention. The results showed that the spatial working memory load affected both the number of saccadic eye-movements and the amplitude of the P100 component of EFRP, whereas the verbal working memory load affected only the number of saccadic eye-movements. This implies that drivers can perform time-sharing processing between driving and the verbal working memory task, but the decline of accuracy of visual processing during driving is inescapable when the spatial working memory load is given. The present study suggests that EFRP can provide a new index of drivers' attention, other than saccadic eye-movements.

  20. Analytic continuation of dual Feynman amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bleher, P.M.

    1981-01-01

    A notion of dual Feynman amplitude is introduced and a theorem on the existence of analytic continuation of this amplitude from the convergence domain to the whole complex is proved. The case under consideration corresponds to massless power propagators and the analytic continuation is constructed on the propagators powers. Analytic continuation poles and singular set of external impulses are found explicitly. The proof of the theorem on the existence of analytic continuation is based on the introduction of α-representation for dual Feynman amplitudes. In proving, the so-called ''trees formula'' and ''trees-with-cycles formula'' are established that are dual by formulation to the trees and 2-trees formulae for usual Feynman amplitudes. (Auth.)

  1. New relations for graviton-matter amplitudes

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2018-01-01

    I report on recent progress in finding compact expressions for scattering amplitudes involving gravitons and gluons as well as massive scalar and fermionic matter particles. At tree level the single graviton emission amplitudes may be expressed as linear combination of purely non-gravitational ones. At the one-loop level recent results on all four point Einstein-Yang-Mills amplitudes with at most one opposite helicity state using unitarity methods are reported. 

  2. Real-time estimation of horizontal gaze angle by saccade integration using in-ear electrooculography.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ľuboš Hládek

    Full Text Available The manuscript proposes and evaluates a real-time algorithm for estimating eye gaze angle based solely on single-channel electrooculography (EOG, which can be obtained directly from the ear canal using conductive ear moulds. In contrast to conventional high-pass filtering, we used an algorithm that calculates absolute eye gaze angle via statistical analysis of detected saccades. The estimated eye positions of the new algorithm were still noisy. However, the performance in terms of Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients was significantly better than the conventional approach in some instances. The results suggest that in-ear EOG signals captured with conductive ear moulds could serve as a basis for light-weight and portable horizontal eye gaze angle estimation suitable for a broad range of applications. For instance, for hearing aids to steer the directivity of microphones in the direction of the user's eye gaze.

  3. Modulation of microsaccades by spatial frequency during object categorization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craddock, Matt; Oppermann, Frank; Müller, Matthias M; Martinovic, Jasna

    2017-01-01

    The organization of visual processing into a coarse-to-fine information processing based on the spatial frequency properties of the input forms an important facet of the object recognition process. During visual object categorization tasks, microsaccades occur frequently. One potential functional role of these eye movements is to resolve high spatial frequency information. To assess this hypothesis, we examined the rate, amplitude and speed of microsaccades in an object categorization task in which participants viewed object and non-object images and classified them as showing either natural objects, man-made objects or non-objects. Images were presented unfiltered (broadband; BB) or filtered to contain only low (LSF) or high spatial frequency (HSF) information. This allowed us to examine whether microsaccades were modulated independently by the presence of a high-level feature - the presence of an object - and by low-level stimulus characteristics - spatial frequency. We found a bimodal distribution of saccades based on their amplitude, with a split between smaller and larger microsaccades at 0.4° of visual angle. The rate of larger saccades (⩾0.4°) was higher for objects than non-objects, and higher for objects with high spatial frequency content (HSF and BB objects) than for LSF objects. No effects were observed for smaller microsaccades (<0.4°). This is consistent with a role for larger microsaccades in resolving HSF information for object identification, and previous evidence that more microsaccades are directed towards informative image regions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. One-loop triple collinear splitting amplitudes in QCD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Badger, Simon; Buciuni, Francesco; Peraro, Tiziano [Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh,Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, Scotland (United Kingdom)

    2015-09-28

    We study the factorisation properties of one-loop scattering amplitudes in the triple collinear limit and extract the universal splitting amplitudes for processes initiated by a gluon. The splitting amplitudes are derived from the analytic Higgs plus four partons amplitudes. We present compact results for primitive helicity splitting amplitudes making use of super-symmetric decompositions. The universality of the collinear factorisation is checked numerically against the full colour six parton squared matrix elements.

  5. Effect of excess superthermal hot electrons on finite amplitude ion-acoustic solitons and supersolitons in a magnetized auroral plasma

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rufai, O. R., E-mail: rrufai@csir.co.za [Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria (South Africa); Bharuthram, R., E-mail: rbharuthram@uwc.ac.za [University of the Western Cape, Bellville (South Africa); Singh, S. V., E-mail: satyavir@iigs.iigm.res.in; Lakhina, G. S., E-mail: lakhina@iigs.iigm.res.in [Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, New Panvel (W), Navi, Mumbai-410218 (India)

    2015-10-15

    The effect of excess superthermal electrons is investigated on finite amplitude nonlinear ion-acoustic waves in a magnetized auroral plasma. The plasma model consists of a cold ion fluid, Boltzmann distribution of cool electrons, and kappa distributed hot electron species. The model predicts the evolution of negative potential solitons and supersolitons at subsonic Mach numbers region, whereas, in the case of Cairn's nonthermal distribution model for the hot electron species studied earlier, they can exist both in the subsonic and supersonic Mach number regimes. For the dayside auroral parameters, the model generates the super-acoustic electric field amplitude, speed, width, and pulse duration of about 18 mV/m, 25.4 km/s, 663 m, and 26 ms, respectively, which is in the range of the Viking spacecraft measurements.

  6. Reduction in plasmaspheric hiss wave amplitudes during a substorm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, H.; Yuan, Z.; Yu, X.; Deng, X.; Tang, R.; Chen, Z.; Zhou, M.; Huang, S.

    2017-12-01

    Plasmaspheric hiss is an important plasma wave in controlling the overall structure and dynamics of radiation belt electrons, so the distribution and generation mechanism of plasmaspheric hiss waves is worthy of study. Previous studies have found that the amplitude of plasmaspheric hiss waves tends to increase as substorm activity increases. In this study, through analysis of a hiss event observed by the Van Allen Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), it is found that the intensity of plasmaspheric hiss waves at magnetic local time (MLT) > 1300 (L≈5) is reduced or even disappears during a substorm. After calculating energetic electron trajectories, we suggest that this is because electrons are prevented from entering the plasmasphere at MLT > 1300 (L≈5) by the stronger convection electric field during the substorm. The calculations are consistent with direct observations from the RBSP satellites. The results highlight the significant and complex variability of plasmaspheric hiss waves. The amplitude of these waves on the dayside is not necessarily positively correlated with substorm activity, as negative correlations may be observed on the afternoon side during a substorm.

  7. Precise signal amplitude retrieval for a non-homogeneous diagnostic beam using complex interferometry approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krupka, M.; Kalal, M.; Dostal, J.; Dudzak, R.; Juha, L.

    2017-08-01

    Classical interferometry became widely used method of active optical diagnostics. Its more advanced version, allowing reconstruction of three sets of data from just one especially designed interferogram (so called complex interferogram) was developed in the past and became known as complex interferometry. Along with the phase shift, which can be also retrieved using classical interferometry, the amplitude modifications of the probing part of the diagnostic beam caused by the object under study (to be called the signal amplitude) as well as the contrast of the interference fringes can be retrieved using the complex interferometry approach. In order to partially compensate for errors in the reconstruction due to imperfections in the diagnostic beam intensity structure as well as for errors caused by a non-ideal optical setup of the interferometer itself (including the quality of its optical components), a reference interferogram can be put to a good use. This method of interferogram analysis of experimental data has been successfully implemented in practice. However, in majority of interferometer setups (especially in the case of the ones employing the wavefront division) the probe and the reference part of the diagnostic beam would feature different intensity distributions over their respective cross sections. This introduces additional error into the reconstruction of the signal amplitude and the fringe contrast, which cannot be resolved using the reference interferogram only. In order to deal with this error it was found that additional separately recorded images of the intensity distribution of the probe and the reference part of the diagnostic beam (with no signal present) are needed. For the best results a sufficient shot-to-shot stability of the whole diagnostic system is required. In this paper, efficiency of the complex interferometry approach for obtaining the highest possible accuracy of the signal amplitude reconstruction is verified using the computer

  8. Generalized unitarity for N=4 super-amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Drummond, J.M.; Henn, J. [LAPTH, Université de Savoie, CNRS B.P. 110, F-74941 Annecy-le-Vieux Cedex (France); Korchemsky, G.P., E-mail: Gregory.Korchemsky@cea.fr [Institut de Physique Théorique, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); Sokatchev, E. [LAPTH, Université de Savoie, CNRS B.P. 110, F-74941 Annecy-le-Vieux Cedex (France)

    2013-04-21

    We develop a manifestly supersymmetric version of the generalized unitarity cut method for calculating scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM theory. We illustrate the power of this method by computing the one-loop n-point NMHV super-amplitudes. The result confirms two conjectures which we made in Drummond, et al., [1]. Firstly, we derive the compact, manifestly dual superconformally covariant form of the NMHV tree amplitudes for arbitrary number and types of external particles. Secondly, we show that the ratio of the one-loop NMHV to the MHV amplitude is dual conformal invariant.

  9. Evolution of the squeezing-enhanced vacuum state in the amplitude dissipative channel

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Gang; Du, Jian-ming; Zhang, Wen-hai

    2018-05-01

    We study the evolution of the squeezing-enhanced vacuum state (SEVS) in the amplitude dissipative channel by using the two-mode entangled state in the Fock space and Kraus operator. The explicit formulation of the output state is also given. It is found that the output state does not exhibit sub-Poissonian behavior for the nonnegative value of the Mandel's Q-parameters in a wide range of values of squeezing parameter and dissipation factor. It is interesting to see that second-order correlation function is independent of the dissipation factor. However, the photon-number distribution of the output quantum state shows remarkable oscillations with respect to the dissipation factor. The shape of Wigner function and the degree of squeezing show that the initial SEVS is dissipated by the amplitude dissipative channel.

  10. Holographic corrections to meson scattering amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Armoni, Adi; Ireson, Edwin, E-mail: 746616@swansea.ac.uk

    2017-06-15

    We compute meson scattering amplitudes using the holographic duality between confining gauge theories and string theory, in order to consider holographic corrections to the Veneziano amplitude and associated higher-point functions. The generic nature of such computations is explained, thanks to the well-understood nature of confining string backgrounds, and two different examples of the calculation in given backgrounds are used to illustrate the details. The effect we discover, whilst only qualitative, is re-obtainable in many such examples, in four-point but also higher point amplitudes.

  11. Multi-leg one-loop gravity amplitudes from gauge theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bern, Z.; Dixon, L.; Perelstein, M.; Rozowsky, J.S.

    1999-01-01

    By exploiting relations between gravity and gauge theories, we present two infinite sequences of one-loop n-graviton scattering amplitudes: the 'maximally helicity-violating' amplitudes in N = 8 supergravity, and the 'all-plus' helicity amplitudes in gravity with any minimally coupled massless matter content. The all-plus amplitudes correspond to self-dual field configurations and vanish in supersymmetric theories. We make use of the tree-level Kawai-Lewellen-Tye (KLT) relations between open and closed string theory amplitudes, which in the low-energy limit imply relations between gravity and gauge theory tree amplitudes. For n ≤ 6, we determine the all-plus amplitudes explicitly from their unitarity cuts. The KLT relations, applied to the cuts, allow us to extend to gravity a previously found 'dimension-shifting' relation between (the cuts of) the all-plus amplitudes in gauge theory and the maximally helicity-violating amplitudes in N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory. The gravitational version of the relation lets us determine the n ≤ 6N = 8 supergravity amplitudes from the all-plus gravity amplitudes. We infer the two series of amplitudes for all n from their soft and collinear properties, which can also be derived from gauge theory using the KLT relations

  12. Covariant amplitudes in Polyakov string theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aoyama, H.; Dhar, A.; Namazie, M.A.

    1986-01-01

    A manifestly Lorentz-covariant and reparametrization-invariant procedure for computing string amplitudes using Polyakov's formulation is described. Both bosonic and superstring theories are dealt with. The computation of string amplitudes is greatly facilitated by this formalism. (orig.)

  13. Complex amplitude reconstruction by iterative amplitude-phase retrieval algorithm with reference

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Cheng; Guo, Cheng; Tan, Jiubin; Liu, Shutian; Liu, Zhengjun

    2018-06-01

    Multi-image iterative phase retrieval methods have been successfully applied in plenty of research fields due to their simple but efficient implementation. However, there is a mismatch between the measurement of the first long imaging distance and the sequential interval. In this paper, an amplitude-phase retrieval algorithm with reference is put forward without additional measurements or priori knowledge. It gets rid of measuring the first imaging distance. With a designed update formula, it significantly raises the convergence speed and the reconstruction fidelity, especially in phase retrieval. Its superiority over the original amplitude-phase retrieval (APR) method is validated by numerical analysis and experiments. Furthermore, it provides a conceptual design of a compact holographic image sensor, which can achieve numerical refocusing easily.

  14. Modification of Particle Distributions by MHD Instabilities II

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    White, Roscoe B.

    2011-01-01

    The modification of particle distributions by low amplitude magnetohydrodynamic modes is an important topic for magnetically confined plasmas. Low amplitude modes are known to be capable of producing significant modification of injected neutral beam profiles, and the same can be expected in burning plasmas for the alpha particle distributions. Flattening of a distribution in an island due to phase mixing and portions of phase space becoming stochastic lead to modification of the particle distribution, a process extremely rapid in the time scale of an experiment but still very long compared to the time scale of guiding center simulations. Large amplitude modes can cause profile avalanche and particle loss. Thus it is very valuable to be able to predict the temporal evolution of a particle distribution produced by a given spectrum of magnetohydrodynamic modes. In this paper we further develop and investigate the use of a new method of determining domains of phase space in which good KAM surfaces do not exist and use this method to examine a well documented case of profile modification by instabilities.

  15. A possible role of midbrain dopamine neurons in short- and long-term adaptation of saccades to position-reward mapping.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takikawa, Yoriko; Kawagoe, Reiko; Hikosaka, Okihide

    2004-10-01

    Dopamine (DA) neurons respond to sensory stimuli that predict reward. To understand how DA neurons acquire such ability, we trained monkeys on a one-direction-rewarded version of memory-guided saccade task (1DR) only when we recorded from single DA neurons. In 1DR, position-reward mapping was changed across blocks of trials. In the early stage of training of 1DR, DA neurons responded to reward delivery; in the later stages, they responded predominantly to the visual cue that predicted reward or no reward (reward predictor) differentially. We found that such a shift of activity from reward to reward predictor also occurred within a block of trials after position-reward mapping was altered. A main effect of long-term training was to accelerate the within-block reward-to-predictor shift of DA neuronal responses. The within-block shift appeared first in the intermediate stage, but was slow, and DA neurons often responded to the cue that indicated reward in the preceding block. In the advanced stage, the reward-to-predictor shift occurred quickly such that the DA neurons' responses to visual cues faithfully matched the current position-reward mapping. Changes in the DA neuronal responses co-varied with the reward-predictive differentiation of saccade latency both in short-term (within-block) and long-term adaptation. DA neurons' response to the fixation point also underwent long-term changes until it occurred predominantly in the first trial within a block. This might trigger a switch between the learned sets. These results suggest that midbrain DA neurons play an essential role in adapting oculomotor behavior to frequent switches in position-reward mapping.

  16. Amplitude-Mode Dynamics of Polariton Condensates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brierley, R. T.; Littlewood, P. B.; Eastham, P. R.

    2011-01-01

    We study the stability of collective amplitude excitations in nonequilibrium polariton condensates. These excitations correspond to renormalized upper polaritons and to the collective amplitude modes of atomic gases and superconductors. They would be present following a quantum quench or could be created directly by resonant excitation. We show that uniform amplitude excitations are unstable to the production of excitations at finite wave vectors, leading to the formation of density-modulated phases. The physical processes causing the instabilities can be understood by analogy to optical parametric oscillators and the atomic Bose supernova.

  17. Effects of strength training on mechanomyographic amplitude

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    DeFreitas, Jason M; Beck, Travis W; Stock, Matt S

    2012-01-01

    The aim of the present study was to determine if the patterns of mechanomyographic (MMG) amplitude across force would change with strength training. Twenty-two healthy men completed an 8-week strength training program. During three separate testing visits (pre-test, week 4, and week 8), the MMG signal was detected from the vastus lateralis as the subjects performed isometric step muscle actions of the leg extensors from 10–100% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). During pre-testing, the MMG amplitude increased linearly with force to 66% MVC and then plateaued. Conversely, weeks 4 and 8 demonstrated an increase in MMG amplitude up to ∼85% of the subject's original MVC before plateauing. Furthermore, seven of the ten force levels (30–60% and 80–100%) showed a significant decrease in mean MMG amplitude values after training, which consequently led to a decrease in the slope of the MMG amplitude/force relationship. The decreases in MMG amplitude at lower force levels are indicative of hypertrophy, since fewer motor units would be required to produce the same absolute force if the motor units increased in size. However, despite the clear changes in the mean values, analyses of individual subjects revealed that only 55% of the subjects demonstrated a significant decrease in the slope of the MMG amplitude/force relationship. (paper)

  18. AMPLITUDES OF DISJUNCTIVE DISLOCATIONS IN THE KNIPOVICH RIDGE FLANKS (NORTHERN ATLANTIC AS AN INDICATOR OF MODERN REGIONAL GEODYNAMICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Yu. Sokolov

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This article presents the first map showing the vertical amplitudes of modern disjunctive dislocations inNorthern Atlantic, based on the estimated phase shifts of reflected waves recorded by high-frequency seismic acoustic surveys. The amplitude distribution pattern is mosaic with alternating areas of compression and extension in the flanks of the Knipovich rift system. The modern structure of the Knipovich Ridge, including two strike-slip faults, represents a local rift in the pull-apart setting. The asymmetry of stresses and the presence of compression in the ridge flanks is evidenced by the distribution of the focal mechanisms of strong earthquakes related to reverse faults. In the southeastern Knipovich Ridge, tectonic activity is marked by the asymmetric pattern of the epicenters of small earthquakes.

  19. Nonsinglet pentagons and NMHV amplitudes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.V. Belitsky

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Scattering amplitudes in maximally supersymmetric gauge theory receive a dual description in terms of the expectation value of the super Wilson loop stretched on a null polygonal contour. This makes the analysis amenable to nonperturbative techniques. Presently, we elaborate on a refined form of the operator product expansion in terms of pentagon transitions to compute twist-two contributions to NMHV amplitudes. To start with, we provide a novel derivation of scattering matrices starting from Baxter equations for flux-tube excitations propagating on magnon background. We propose bootstrap equations obeyed by pentagon form factors with nonsinglet quantum numbers with respect to the R-symmetry group and provide solutions to them to all orders in 't Hooft coupling. These are then successfully confronted against available perturbative calculations for NMHV amplitudes to four-loop order.

  20. Nonsinglet pentagons and NMHV amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belitsky, A.V., E-mail: andrei.belitsky@asu.edu

    2015-07-15

    Scattering amplitudes in maximally supersymmetric gauge theory receive a dual description in terms of the expectation value of the super Wilson loop stretched on a null polygonal contour. This makes the analysis amenable to nonperturbative techniques. Presently, we elaborate on a refined form of the operator product expansion in terms of pentagon transitions to compute twist-two contributions to NMHV amplitudes. To start with, we provide a novel derivation of scattering matrices starting from Baxter equations for flux-tube excitations propagating on magnon background. We propose bootstrap equations obeyed by pentagon form factors with nonsinglet quantum numbers with respect to the R-symmetry group and provide solutions to them to all orders in 't Hooft coupling. These are then successfully confronted against available perturbative calculations for NMHV amplitudes to four-loop order.

  1. Amplitude ratios in ρ0 leptoproductions and GPDs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Goloskokov S.V.

    2017-01-01

    Using the model results we calculate the ratio of different helicity amplitudes for a transversely polarized proton target to the leading twist longitudinal amplitude. Our results are close to the amplitude ratios measured by HERMES.

  2. Tree-level gluon amplitudes on the celestial sphere

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schreiber, Anders Ø.; Volovich, Anastasia; Zlotnikov, Michael

    2018-06-01

    Pasterski, Shao and Strominger have recently proposed that massless scattering amplitudes can be mapped to correlators on the celestial sphere at infinity via a Mellin transform. We apply this prescription to arbitrary n-point tree-level gluon amplitudes. The Mellin transforms of MHV amplitudes are given by generalized hypergeometric functions on the Grassmannian Gr (4 , n), while generic non-MHV amplitudes are given by more complicated Gelfand A-hypergeometric functions.

  3. Tree-level amplitudes and dual superconformal symmetry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Drummond, J M, E-mail: drummond@lapp.in2p3.fr [PH-TH Division, CERN, CH-1211, Geneva 23 (Switzerland); LAPTH, Universite de Savoie, CNRS, B.P. 110, F-74941 Annecy-le-Vieux Cedex (France)

    2011-11-11

    We review the structure of gauge theory scattering amplitudes at tree level and describe how a compact expression can be found which encodes all the tree-level amplitudes in the maximally supersymmetric N=4 theory. The expressions for the amplitudes reveal a dual superconformal symmetry. We describe how these ideas can be extended to leading singularities and the loop integrand in the planar theory and discuss the appearance of dual conformal symmetry in higher-dimensional gauge theories. This paper is an invited review for a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to 'Scattering amplitudes in gauge theories'. (review)

  4. Exclusive two-photon processes: Tests of QCD at the amplitude level

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brodsky, S.J.

    1992-07-01

    Exclusive two-photon processes at large momentum transfer, particularly Compton scattering γp→γp and its crossed-channel reactions γγ→ bar pp and bar pp→γγ, can provide definitive information on the bound-state distributions of quarks in hadrons at the amplitude level. Recent theoretical work has shown that QCD predictions based on the factorization of long and short distance physics are already applicable at momentum transfers of order of a few GeV

  5. Scattering Amplitudes via Algebraic Geometry Methods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Søgaard, Mads

    Feynman diagrams. The study of multiloop scattering amplitudes is crucial for the new era of precision phenomenology at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Loop-level scattering amplitudes can be reduced to a basis of linearly independent integrals whose coefficients are extracted from generalized...

  6. Saccades to future ball location reveal memory-based prediction in a virtual-reality interception task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diaz, Gabriel; Cooper, Joseph; Rothkopf, Constantin; Hayhoe, Mary

    2013-01-16

    Despite general agreement that prediction is a central aspect of perception, there is relatively little evidence concerning the basis on which visual predictions are made. Although both saccadic and pursuit eye-movements reveal knowledge of the future position of a moving visual target, in many of these studies targets move along simple trajectories through a fronto-parallel plane. Here, using a naturalistic and racquet-based interception task in a virtual environment, we demonstrate that subjects make accurate predictions of visual target motion, even when targets follow trajectories determined by the complex dynamics of physical interactions and the head and body are unrestrained. Furthermore, we found that, following a change in ball elasticity, subjects were able to accurately adjust their prebounce predictions of the ball's post-bounce trajectory. This suggests that prediction is guided by experience-based models of how information in the visual image will change over time.

  7. Interpretation of the shape of electron diffraction spots from small polyhedral crystals by means of the crystal shape amplitude

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neumann, W.; Hofmeister, H.; Heydenreich, J.; Komrska, J.

    1988-01-01

    The influence of the crystal shape on the fine structure of transmission electron diffraction (TED) patterns described by the crystal shape amplitude is discussed. A general algebraic expression for the crystal shape amplitude of any crystal polyhedron is used for computing the intensity distribution of TED reflections. The computer simulation method is applied to the analysis of the fine structure of TED patterns of small gold and palladium crystals having octahedral and tetrahedral habits. (orig.)

  8. Expansion of all multitrace tree level EYM amplitudes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Yi-Jian; Feng, Bo; Teng, Fei

    2017-12-01

    In this paper, we investigate the expansion of tree level multitrace Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) amplitudes. First, we propose two types of recursive expansions of tree level EYM amplitudes with an arbitrary number of gluons, gravitons and traces by those amplitudes with fewer traces or/and gravitons. Then we give many support evidence, including proofs using the Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formula and Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten (BCFW) recursive relation. As a byproduct, two types of generalized BCJ relations for multitrace EYM are further proposed, which will be useful in the BCFW proof. After one applies the recursive expansions repeatedly, any multitrace EYM amplitudes can be given in the Kleiss-Kuijf (KK) basis of tree level color ordered Yang-Mills (YM) amplitudes. Thus the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) numerators, as the expansion coefficients, for all multitrace EYM amplitudes are naturally constructed.

  9. Scattering amplitudes in four- and six-dimensional gauge theories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schuster, Theodor

    2014-01-01

    We study scattering amplitudes in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) theory and the six-dimensional N=(1,1) SYM theory, focusing on the symmetries of and relations between the tree-level scattering amplitudes in these three gauge theories. We derive the tree level and one-loop color decomposition of an arbitrary QCD amplitude into primitive amplitudes. Furthermore, we derive identities spanning the null space among the primitive amplitudes. We prove that every color ordered tree amplitude of massless QCD can be obtained from gluon-gluino amplitudes of N=4 SYM theory. Furthermore, we derive analytical formulae for all gluon-gluino amplitudes relevant for QCD. We compare the numerical efficiency and accuracy of evaluating these closed analytic formulae for color ordered QCD tree amplitudes to a numerically efficient implementation of the Berends-Giele recursion. We derive the symmetries of massive tree amplitudes on the coulomb branch of N=4 SYM theory, which in turn can be obtained from N=(1,1) SYM theory by dimensional reduction. Furthermore, we investigate the tree amplitudes of N=(1, 1) SYM theory and explain how analytical formulae can be obtained from a numerical implementation of the supersymmetric BCFW recursion relation and investigate a potential uplift of the massless tree amplitudes of N=4 SYM theory. Finally we study an alternative to dimensional regularization of N=4 SYM theory. The infrared divergences are regulated by masses obtained from a Higgs mechanism. The corresponding string theory set-up suggests that the amplitudes have an exact dual conformal symmetry. We confirm this expectation and illustrate the calculational advantages of the massive regulator by explicit calculations.

  10. Positivity of spin foam amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baez, John C; Christensen, J Daniel

    2002-01-01

    The amplitude for a spin foam in the Barrett-Crane model of Riemannian quantum gravity is given as a product over its vertices, edges and faces, with one factor of the Riemannian 10j symbols appearing for each vertex, and simpler factors for the edges and faces. We prove that these amplitudes are always nonnegative for closed spin foams. As a corollary, all open spin foams going between a fixed pair of spin networks have real amplitudes of the same sign. This means one can use the Metropolis algorithm to compute expectation values of observables in the Riemannian Barrett-Crane model, as in statistical mechanics, even though this theory is based on a real-time (e iS ) rather than imaginary-time e -S path integral. Our proof uses the fact that when the Riemannian 10j symbols are nonzero, their sign is positive or negative depending on whether the sum of the ten spins is an integer or half-integer. For the product of 10j symbols appearing in the amplitude for a closed spin foam, these signs cancel. We conclude with some numerical evidence suggesting that the Lorentzian 10j symbols are always nonnegative, which would imply similar results for the Lorentzian Barrett-Crane model

  11. Employing helicity amplitudes for resummation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moult, Ian; Stewart, Iain W.; Tackmann, Frank J.; Waalewijn, Wouter J.; Amsterdam Univ.

    2015-08-01

    Many state-of-the-art QCD calculations for multileg processes use helicity amplitudes as their fundamental ingredients. We construct a simple and easy-to-use helicity operator basis in soft-collinear effective theory (SCET), for which the hard Wilson coefficients from matching QCD onto SCET are directly given in terms of color-ordered helicity amplitudes. Using this basis allows one to seamlessly combine fixed-order helicity amplitudes at any order they are known with a resummation of higher-order logarithmic corrections. In particular, the virtual loop amplitudes can be employed in factorization theorems to make predictions for exclusive jet cross sections without the use of numerical subtraction schemes to handle real-virtual infrared cancellations. We also discuss matching onto SCET in renormalization schemes with helicities in 4- and d-dimensions. To demonstrate that our helicity operator basis is easy to use, we provide an explicit construction of the operator basis, as well as results for the hard matching coefficients, for pp → H+0,1,2 jets, pp → W/Z/γ+0,1,2 jets, and pp → 2,3 jets. These operator bases are completely crossing symmetric, so the results can easily be applied to processes with e + e - and e - p collisions.

  12. Fatigue life prediction of rotor blade composites: Validation of constant amplitude formulations with variable amplitude experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Westphal, T; Nijssen, R P L

    2014-01-01

    The effect of Constant Life Diagram (CLD) formulation on the fatigue life prediction under variable amplitude (VA) loading was investigated based on variable amplitude tests using three different load spectra representative for wind turbine loading. Next to the Wisper and WisperX spectra, the recently developed NewWisper2 spectrum was used. Based on these variable amplitude fatigue results the prediction accuracy of 4 CLD formulations is investigated. In the study a piecewise linear CLD based on the S-N curves for 9 load ratios compares favourably in terms of prediction accuracy and conservativeness. For the specific laminate used in this study Boerstra's Multislope model provides a good alternative at reduced test effort

  13. Fatigue life prediction of rotor blade composites: Validation of constant amplitude formulations with variable amplitude experiments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westphal, T.; Nijssen, R. P. L.

    2014-12-01

    The effect of Constant Life Diagram (CLD) formulation on the fatigue life prediction under variable amplitude (VA) loading was investigated based on variable amplitude tests using three different load spectra representative for wind turbine loading. Next to the Wisper and WisperX spectra, the recently developed NewWisper2 spectrum was used. Based on these variable amplitude fatigue results the prediction accuracy of 4 CLD formulations is investigated. In the study a piecewise linear CLD based on the S-N curves for 9 load ratios compares favourably in terms of prediction accuracy and conservativeness. For the specific laminate used in this study Boerstra's Multislope model provides a good alternative at reduced test effort.

  14. Scattering Amplitudes via Algebraic Geometry Methods

    CERN Document Server

    Søgaard, Mads; Damgaard, Poul Henrik

    This thesis describes recent progress in the understanding of the mathematical structure of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory. The primary purpose is to develop an enhanced analytic framework for computing multiloop scattering amplitudes in generic gauge theories including QCD without Feynman diagrams. The study of multiloop scattering amplitudes is crucial for the new era of precision phenomenology at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Loop-level scattering amplitudes can be reduced to a basis of linearly independent integrals whose coefficients are extracted from generalized unitarity cuts. We take advantage of principles from algebraic geometry in order to extend the notion of maximal cuts to a large class of two- and three-loop integrals. This allows us to derive unique and surprisingly compact formulae for the coefficients of the basis integrals. Our results are expressed in terms of certain linear combinations of multivariate residues and elliptic integrals computed from products of ...

  15. NOTE ON TRAVEL TIME SHIFTS DUE TO AMPLITUDE MODULATION IN TIME-DISTANCE HELIOSEISMOLOGY MEASUREMENTS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nigam, R.; Kosovichev, A. G.

    2010-01-01

    Correct interpretation of acoustic travel times measured by time-distance helioseismology is essential to get an accurate understanding of the solar properties that are inferred from them. It has long been observed that sunspots suppress p-mode amplitude, but its implications on travel times have not been fully investigated so far. It has been found in test measurements using a 'masking' procedure, in which the solar Doppler signal in a localized quiet region of the Sun is artificially suppressed by a spatial function, and using numerical simulations that the amplitude modulations in combination with the phase-speed filtering may cause systematic shifts of acoustic travel times. To understand the properties of this procedure, we derive an analytical expression for the cross-covariance of a signal that has been modulated locally by a spatial function that has azimuthal symmetry and then filtered by a phase-speed filter typically used in time-distance helioseismology. Comparing this expression to the Gabor wavelet fitting formula without this effect, we find that there is a shift in the travel times that is introduced by the amplitude modulation. The analytical model presented in this paper can be useful also for interpretation of travel time measurements for the non-uniform distribution of oscillation amplitude due to observational effects.

  16. Effective string theory and QCD scattering amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Makeenko, Yuri

    2011-01-01

    QCD string is formed at distances larger than the confinement scale and can be described by the Polchinski-Strominger effective string theory with a nonpolynomial action, which has nevertheless a well-defined semiclassical expansion around a long-string ground state. We utilize modern ideas about the Wilson-loop/scattering-amplitude duality to calculate scattering amplitudes and show that the expansion parameter in the effective string theory is small in the Regge kinematical regime. For the amplitudes we obtain the Regge behavior with a linear trajectory of the intercept (d-2)/24 in d dimensions, which is computed semiclassically as a momentum-space Luescher term, and discuss an application to meson scattering amplitudes in QCD.

  17. Cross channel isospin amplitude analysis of the reaction pN→NNπ at 19 GeV/c

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bakken, V.; Gennow, H.; Hansen, J.D.; Lundborg, P.; Maekelae, J.; Pimiae, M.; Sellden, B.; Skjevling, G.; Sundell, E.

    1976-10-01

    The reaction N 1 N 2 →N 3 (N 4 π) is analysed in terms of three isospin amplitudes Msub(I)sup(Isub(x)) where Isub(x) and I are the isospin of the exchanged particle and the N 4 π combination respectively. The amplitudes are studied as functions of the momentum transfer to and the mass of the N 4 π system. The M 0 sub(1/2) amplitude exhibits the characteristics of diffraction dissociation with a broad low mass enhancement centered around 1.35 GeV. The dsigma/dt' distribution of M 0 sub(1/2) shows a clear break around 0.2 (GeV/c) 2 for masses smaller than 1.36 GeV. For higher masses the break disappears and the slope of the forward peak becomes smaller. The interference between M 0 sub(1/2) and M 1 sub(1/2) is zero for small values of t' and becomes large in magnitude and negative for larger t' values. The other interference terms are consistent with being zero. The hypothesis of factorization is tested for the M 0 sub(1/2) amplitude by comparison with the corresponding amplitude of π +- N reactions. The agreement is excellent over the whole mass range. (Auth.)

  18. Evidence for cognitive vestibular integration impairment in idiopathic scoliosis patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mercier Pierre

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is characterized by a three-dimensional deviation of the vertebral column and its etiopathogenesis is unknown. Various factors cause idiopathic scoliosis, and among these a prominent role has been attributed to the vestibular system. While the deficits in sensorimotor transformations have been documented in idiopathic scoliosis patients, little attention has been devoted to their capacity to integrate vestibular information for cognitive processing for space perception. Seated idiopathic scoliosis patients and control subjects experienced rotations of different directions and amplitudes in the dark and produced saccades that would reproduce their perceived spatial characteristics of the rotations (vestibular condition. We also controlled for possible alteration of the oculomotor and vestibular systems by measuring the subject's accuracy in producing saccades towards memorized peripheral targets in absence of body rotation and the gain of their vestibulo-ocular reflex. Results Compared to healthy controls, the idiopathic scoliosis patients underestimated the amplitude of their rotations. Moreover, the results revealed that idiopathic scoliosis patients produced accurate saccades to memorized peripheral targets in absence of body rotation and that their vestibulo-ocular reflex gain did not differ from that of control participants. Conclusion Overall, results of the present study demonstrate that idiopathic scoliosis patients have an alteration in cognitive integration of vestibular signals. It is possible that severe spine deformity developed partly due to impaired vestibular information travelling from the cerebellum to the vestibular cortical network or alteration in the cortical mechanisms processing the vestibular signals.

  19. Evolution equation for the B-meson distribution amplitude in the heavy-quark effective theory in coordinate space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kawamura, Hiroyuki; Tanaka, Kazuhiro

    2010-01-01

    The B-meson distribution amplitude (DA) is defined as the matrix element of a quark-antiquark bilocal light-cone operator in the heavy-quark effective theory, corresponding to a long-distance component in the factorization formula for exclusive B-meson decays. The evolution equation for the B-meson DA is governed by the cusp anomalous dimension as well as the Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi-type anomalous dimension, and these anomalous dimensions give the ''quasilocal'' kernel in the coordinate-space representation. We show that this evolution equation can be solved analytically in the coordinate space, accomplishing the relevant Sudakov resummation at the next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The quasilocal nature leads to a quite simple form of our solution which determines the B-meson DA with a quark-antiquark light-cone separation t in terms of the DA at a lower renormalization scale μ with smaller interquark separations zt (z≤1). This formula allows us to present rigorous calculation of the B-meson DA at the factorization scale ∼√(m b Λ QCD ) for t less than ∼1 GeV -1 , using the recently obtained operator product expansion of the DA as the input at μ∼1 GeV. We also derive the master formula, which reexpresses the integrals of the DA at μ∼√(m b Λ QCD ) for the factorization formula by the compact integrals of the DA at μ∼1 GeV.

  20. Tsunami Amplitude Estimation from Real-Time GNSS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeffries, C.; MacInnes, B. T.; Melbourne, T. I.

    2017-12-01

    Tsunami early warning systems currently comprise modeling of observations from the global seismic network, deep-ocean DART buoys, and a global distribution of tide gauges. While these tools work well for tsunamis traveling teleseismic distances, saturation of seismic magnitude estimation in the near field can result in significant underestimation of tsunami excitation for local warning. Moreover, DART buoy and tide gauge observations cannot be used to rectify the underestimation in the available time, typically 10-20 minutes, before local runup occurs. Real-time GNSS measurements of coseismic offsets may be used to estimate finite faulting within 1-2 minutes and, in turn, tsunami excitation for local warning purposes. We describe here a tsunami amplitude estimation algorithm; implemented for the Cascadia subduction zone, that uses continuous GNSS position streams to estimate finite faulting. The system is based on a time-domain convolution of fault slip that uses a pre-computed catalog of hydrodynamic Green's functions generated with the GeoClaw shallow-water wave simulation software and maps seismic slip along each section of the fault to points located off the Cascadia coast in 20m of water depth and relies on the principle of the linearity in tsunami wave propagation. The system draws continuous slip estimates from a message broker, convolves the slip with appropriate Green's functions which are then superimposed to produce wave amplitude at each coastal location. The maximum amplitude and its arrival time are then passed into a database for subsequent monitoring and display. We plan on testing this system using a suite of synthetic earthquakes calculated for Cascadia whose ground motions are simulated at 500 existing Cascadia GPS sites, as well as real earthquakes for which we have continuous GNSS time series and surveyed runup heights, including Maule, Chile 2010 and Tohoku, Japan 2011. This system has been implemented in the CWU Geodesy Lab for the Cascadia

  1. Constructing QCD one-loop amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forde, D

    2008-01-01

    In the context of constructing one-loop amplitudes using a unitarity bootstrap approach we discuss a general systematic procedure for obtaining the coefficients of the scalar bubble and triangle integral functions of one-loop amplitudes. Coefficients are extracted after examining the behavior of the cut integrand as the unconstrained parameters of a specifically chosen parameterization of the cut loop momentum approach infinity. Measurements of new physics at the forthcoming experimental program at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will require a precise understanding of processes at next-to-leading order (NLO). This places increased demands for the computation of new one-loop amplitudes. This in turn has spurred recent developments towards improved calculational techniques. Direct calculations using Feynman diagrams are in general inefficient. Developments of more efficient techniques have usually centered around unitarity techniques [1], where tree amplitudes are effectively 'glued' together to form loops. The most straightforward application of this method, in which the cut loop momentum is in D = 4, allows for the computation of 'cut-constructible' terms only, i.e. (poly)logarithmic containing terms and any related constants. QCD amplitudes contain, in addition to such terms, rational pieces which cannot be derived using such cuts. These 'missing' rational parts can be extracted using cut loop momenta in D = 4-2 (var e psilon). The greater difficulty of such calculations has restricted the application of this approach, although recent developments [3, 4] have provided new promise for this technique. Recently the application of on-shell recursion relations [5] to obtaining the 'missing' rational parts of one-loop processes [6] has provided an alternative very promising solution to this problem. In combination with unitarity methods an 'on-shell bootstrap' approach provides an efficient technique for computing complete one-loop QCD amplitudes [7]. Additionally

  2. Uncertainties in model-independent extractions of amplitudes from complete experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoblit, S.; Sandorfi, A.M.; Kamano, H.; Lee, T.-S.H.

    2012-01-01

    A new generation of over-complete experiments is underway, with the goal of performing a high precision extraction of pseudoscalar meson photo-production amplitudes. Such experimentally determined amplitudes can be used both as a test to validate models and as a starting point for an analytic continuation in the complex plane to search for poles. Of crucial importance for both is the level of uncertainty in the extracted multipoles. We have probed these uncertainties by analyses of pseudo-data for KLambda photoproduction, first for the set of 8 observables that have been published for the K + Lambda channel and then for pseudo-data on a complete set of 16 observables with the uncertainties expected from analyses of ongoing CLAS experiments. In fitting multipoles, we have used a combined Monte Carlo sampling of the amplitude space, with gradient minimization, and have found a shallow X 2 valley pitted with a large number of local minima. This results in bands of solutions that are experimentally indistinguishable. All ongoing experiments will measure observables with limited statistics. We have found a dependence on the particular random choice of values of Gaussian distributed pseudo-data, due to the presence of multiple local minima. This results in actual uncertainties for reconstructed multipoles that are often considerable larger than those returned by gradient minimization routines such as Minuit which find a single local minimum. As intuitively expected, this additional level of uncertainty decreases as larger numbers of observables are included.

  3. High energy hadron spin-flip amplitude

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Selyugin, O.V.

    2016-01-01

    The high-energy part of the hadron spin-flip amplitude is examined in the framework of the new high-energy general structure (HEGS) model of the elastic hadron scattering at high energies. The different forms of the hadron spin-flip amplitude are compared in the impact parameter representation. It is shown that the existing experimental data of the proton-proton and proton-antiproton elastic scattering at high energy in the region of the diffraction minimum and at large momentum transfer give support in the presence of the energy-independent part of the hadron spin-flip amplitude with the momentum dependence proposed in the works by Galynskii-Kuraev. [ru

  4. Hidden simplicity of gauge theory amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Drummond, J M, E-mail: drummond@lapp.in2p3.f [LAPTH, Universite de Savoie, CNRS, B.P. 110, F-74941 Annecy-le-Vieux, Cedex (France)

    2010-11-07

    These notes were given as lectures at the CERN Winter School on Supergravity, Strings and Gauge Theory 2010. We describe the structure of scattering amplitudes in gauge theories, focussing on the maximally supersymmetric theory to highlight the hidden symmetries which appear. Using the Britto, Cachzo, Feng and Witten (BCFW) recursion relations we solve the tree-level S-matrix in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory and describe how it produces a sum of invariants of a large symmetry algebra. We review amplitudes in the planar theory beyond tree level, describing the connection between amplitudes and Wilson loops, and discuss the implications of the hidden symmetries.

  5. On the singularities of massive superstring amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Foda, O.

    1987-06-04

    Superstring one-loop amplitudes with massive external states are shown to be in general ill-defined due to internal on-shell propagators. However, we argue that since any massive string state (in the uncompactified theory) has a finite lifetime to decay into massless particles, such amplitudes are not terms in the perturbative expansion of physical S-matrix elements: These can be defined only with massless external states. Consistent massive amplitudes repuire an off-shell formalism.

  6. Nonlinear (super)symmetries and amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kallosh, Renata [Physics Department, Stanford University,382 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford, CA 94305-4060 (United States)

    2017-03-07

    There is an increasing interest in nonlinear supersymmetries in cosmological model building. Independently, elegant expressions for the all-tree amplitudes in models with nonlinear symmetries, like D3 brane Dirac-Born-Infeld-Volkov-Akulov theory, were recently discovered. Using the generalized background field method we show how, in general, nonlinear symmetries of the action, bosonic and fermionic, constrain amplitudes beyond soft limits. The same identities control, for example, bosonic E{sub 7(7)} scalar sector symmetries as well as the fermionic goldstino symmetries. We present a universal derivation of the vanishing amplitudes in the single (bosonic or fermionic) soft limit. We explain why, universally, the double-soft limit probes the coset space algebra. We also provide identities describing the multiple-soft limit. We discuss loop corrections to N≥5 supergravity, to the D3 brane, and the UV completion of constrained multiplets in string theory.

  7. Cluster polylogarithms for scattering amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Golden, John; Paulos, Miguel F; Spradlin, Marcus; Volovich, Anastasia

    2014-01-01

    Motivated by the cluster structure of two-loop scattering amplitudes in N=4 Yang-Mills theory we define cluster polylogarithm functions. We find that all such functions of weight four are made up of a single simple building block associated with the A 2 cluster algebra. Adding the requirement of locality on generalized Stasheff polytopes, we find that these A 2 building blocks arrange themselves to form a unique function associated with the A 3 cluster algebra. This A 3 function manifests all of the cluster algebraic structure of the two-loop n-particle MHV amplitudes for all n, and we use it to provide an explicit representation for the most complicated part of the n = 7 amplitude as an example. This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to ‘Cluster algebras in mathematical physics’. (paper)

  8. Eikonal representation of N-body Coulomb scattering amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fried, H.M.; Kang, K.; McKellar, B.H.J.

    1983-01-01

    A new technique for the construction of N-body Coulomb scattering amplitudes is proposed, suggested by the simplest case of N = 2: Calculate the scattering amplitude in eikonal approximation, discard the infinite phase factors which appear upon taking the limit of a Coulomb potential, and treat the remainder as an amplitude whose absolute value squared produces the exact, Coulomb differential cross section. The method easily generalizes to the N-body Coulomb problem for elastic scattering, and for inelastic rearrangement scattering of Coulomb bound states. We give explicit results for N = 3 and 4; in the N = 3 case we extract amplitudes for the processes (12)+3->1+2+3 (breakup), (12)+3->1+(23) (rearrangement), and (12)+3→(12)'+3 (inelastic scattering) as residues at the appropriate poles in the free-free amplitude. The method produces scattering amplitudes f/sub N/ given in terms of explicit quadratures over (N-2) 2 distinct integrands

  9. New rigorous asymptotic theorems for inverse scattering amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lomsadze, Sh.Yu.; Lomsadze, Yu.M.

    1984-01-01

    The rigorous asymptotic theorems both of integral and local types obtained earlier and establishing logarithmic and in some cases even power correlations aetdeen the real and imaginary parts of scattering amplitudes Fsub(+-) are extended to the inverse amplitudes 1/Fsub(+-). One also succeeds in establishing power correlations of a new type between the real and imaginary parts, both for the amplitudes themselves and for the inverse ones. All the obtained assertions are convenient to be tested in high energy experiments when the amplitudes show asymptotic behaviour

  10. On the singularities of massive superstring amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Foda, O.

    1987-01-01

    Superstring one-loop amplitudes with massive external states are shown to be in general ill-defined due to internal on-shell propagators. However, we argue that since any massive string state (in the uncompactified theory) has a finite lifetime to decay into massless particles, such amplitudes are not terms in the perturbative expansion of physical S-matrix elements: These can be defined only with massless external states. Consistent massive amplitudes repuire an off-shell formalism. (orig.)

  11. Joint Inversion of Phase and Amplitude Data of Surface Waves for North American Upper Mantle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamada, K.; Yoshizawa, K.

    2015-12-01

    For the reconstruction of the laterally heterogeneous upper-mantle structure using surface waves, we generally use phase delay information of seismograms, which represents the average phase velocity perturbation along a ray path, while the amplitude information has been rarely used in the velocity mapping. Amplitude anomalies of surface waves contain a variety of information such as anelastic attenuation, elastic focusing/defocusing, geometrical spreading, and receiver effects. The effects of elastic focusing/defocusing are dependent on the second derivative of phase velocity across the ray path, and thus, are sensitive to shorter-wavelength structure than the conventional phase data. Therefore, suitably-corrected amplitude data of surface waves can be useful for improving the lateral resolution of phase velocity models. In this study, we collect a large-number of inter-station phase velocity and amplitude ratio data for fundamental-mode surface waves with a non-linear waveform fitting between two stations of USArray. The measured inter-station phase velocity and amplitude ratios are then inverted simultaneously for phase velocity maps and local amplification factor at receiver locations in North America. The synthetic experiments suggest that, while the phase velocity maps derived from phase data only reflect large-scale tectonic features, those from phase and amplitude data tend to exhibit better recovery of the strength of velocity perturbations, which emphasizes local-scale tectonic features with larger lateral velocity gradients; e.g., slow anomalies in Snake River Plain and Rio Grande Rift, where significant local amplification due to elastic focusing are observed. Also, the spatial distribution of receiver amplification factor shows a clear correlation with the velocity structure. Our results indicate that inter-station amplitude-ratio data can be of help in reconstructing shorter-wavelength structures of the upper mantle.

  12. Calibration and fluctuation of the secular frequency peak amplitude versus initial condition distribution of the ion cloud confined into a three-dimensional quadrupole ion trap using a fourier transform operating mode and a steady ion flow injection mode

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Janulyte, A.; Andre, J.; Carette, M.; Mercury, M.; Reynard, C; Zerega, Y.

    2009-01-01

    A specific Fourier transform operating mode is applied to a 3-dimensional quadrupolar ion trap for mass analysis (Fourier Transform Quadrupolar Ion Trap (FTQIT) Operating Mode or Mass Spectrometer). With this operating mode, an image signal, which is representative of the collective motion of simultaneously confined ions, is made up from a set of recorded time-of-flight histograms. In an ion trap, the secular frequency of ion motion depends on m/Z ratio of the ion. By Fourier transformation of the image signal, one observes the frequency peak of each confined ionic species. When only one ionic species is confined, the peak amplitude is proportional to the maximal amplitude of the image signal. The maximal amplitude of the image signal is expressed according to the operating parameters, the initial conditions of the ions and the number of ions. Simulation tools lead to fluctuation calculation of the maximal amplitude of the image signal. Two origins are explored: (1) the fluctuation of the numbers of ions according to the steady ion flow injection mode (SIFIM) used with this operating mode and (2) the distribution fluctuation of the initial positions and velocities. Initial confinement conditions, obtained with SIFIM injection mode, lead to optimal detection with small fluctuations of the peak amplitude for Fourier transform operating mode applied to an ion trap. (authors)

  13. Scattering amplitudes in super-renormalizable gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Donà, Pietro; Giaccari, Stefano; Modesto, Leonardo; Rachwał, Lesław; Zhu, Yiwei

    2015-01-01

    We explicitly compute the tree-level on-shell four-graviton amplitudes in four, five and six dimensions for local and weakly nonlocal gravitational theories that are quadratic in both, the Ricci and scalar curvature with form factors of the d’Alembertian operator inserted between. More specifically we are interested in renormalizable, super-renormalizable or finite theories. The scattering amplitudes for these theories turn out to be the same as the ones of Einstein gravity regardless of the explicit form of the form factors. As a special case the four-graviton scattering amplitudes in Weyl conformal gravity are identically zero. Using a field redefinition, we prove that the outcome is correct for any number of external gravitons (on-shell n−point functions) and in any dimension for a large class of theories. However, when an operator quadratic in the Riemann tensor is added in any dimension (with the exception of the Gauss-Bonnet term in four dimensions) the result is completely altered, and the scattering amplitudes depend on all the form factors introduced in the action.

  14. Corrections to the large-angle scattering amplitude

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goloskokov, S.V.; Kudinov, A.V.; Kuleshov, S.P.

    1979-01-01

    High-energy behaviour of scattering amplitudes is considered within the frames of Logunov-Tavchelidze quasipotential approach. The representation of scattering amplitude of two scalar particles, convenient for the study of its asymptotic properties is given. Obtained are corrections of the main value of scattering amplitude of the first and the second orders in 1/p, where p is the pulse of colliding particles in the system of the inertia centre. An example of the obtained formulas use for a concrete quasipotential is given

  15. Helicity amplitudes for matter-coupled gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aldrovandi, R.; Novaes, S.F.; Spehler, D.

    1992-07-01

    The Weyl-van der Waerden spinor formalism is applied to the evaluation of helicity invariant amplitudes in the framework of linearized gravitation. The graviton couplings to spin-0, 1 - 2 , 1, and 3 - 2 particles are given, and, to exhibit the reach of this method, the helicity amplitudes for the process electron + positron → photon + graviton are obtained. (author)

  16. GSC4813-0981 = V921 Mon, a new low-amplitude δ Scuti star with variable amplitude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galeev, A.; Bikmaev, I.; Shimansky, V.; Deminova, N.

    2014-11-01

    GSC 4813-0981 = V921 Mon is a low-amplitude δ Scuti-type variable with an amplitude of 0.018^m-0.027^m in different bands and a period of 48.5 minutes. The fundamental parameters of the atmosphere and physical characteristics, determined from medium-resolution spectra, are: T_{eff}=8700 K, log g=3.95 dex, [M/H]=0, M=1.7 M_{⊙}, R=2.3 R_{⊙}. We performed a long-term analysis of the variations using a ten-year data set of CCD observations (2003-2013) acquired in BVR with the 1.5-m Russian-Turkish telescope (RTT150, TUBITAK National Observatory). A preliminary result is that the amplitude of the variability changes; it was decreasing during 2003-2008, but is now increasing.

  17. Fringe image analysis based on the amplitude modulation method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gai, Shaoyan; Da, Feipeng

    2010-05-10

    A novel phase-analysis method is proposed. To get the fringe order of a fringe image, the amplitude-modulation fringe pattern is carried out, which is combined with the phase-shift method. The primary phase value is obtained by a phase-shift algorithm, and the fringe-order information is encoded in the amplitude-modulation fringe pattern. Different from other methods, the amplitude-modulation fringe identifies the fringe order by the amplitude of the fringe pattern. In an amplitude-modulation fringe pattern, each fringe has its own amplitude; thus, the order information is integrated in one fringe pattern, and the absolute fringe phase can be calculated correctly and quickly with the amplitude-modulation fringe image. The detailed algorithm is given, and the error analysis of this method is also discussed. Experimental results are presented by a full-field shape measurement system where the data has been processed using the proposed algorithm. (c) 2010 Optical Society of America.

  18. Validation of the α-μ Model of the Power Spectral Density of GPS Ionospheric Amplitude Scintillation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kelias Oliveira

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The α-μ model has become widely used in statistical analyses of radio channels, due to the flexibility provided by its two degrees of freedom. Among several applications, it has been used in the characterization of low-latitude amplitude scintillation, which frequently occurs during the nighttime of particular seasons of high solar flux years, affecting radio signals that propagate through the ionosphere. Depending on temporal and spatial distributions, ionospheric scintillation may cause availability and precision problems to users of global navigation satellite systems. The present work initially stresses the importance of the flexibility provided by α-μ model in comparison with the limitations of a single-parameter distribution for the representation of first-order statistics of amplitude scintillation. Next, it focuses on the statistical evaluation of the power spectral density of ionospheric amplitude scintillation. The formulation based on the α-μ model is developed and validated using experimental data obtained in São José dos Campos (23.1°S; 45.8°W; dip latitude 17.3°S, Brazil, located near the southern crest of the ionospheric equatorial ionization anomaly. These data were collected between December 2001 and January 2002, a period of high solar flux conditions. The results show that the proposed model fits power spectral densities estimated from field data quite well.

  19. MHV Vertices And Tree Amplitudes In Gauge Theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cachazo, Freddy; Svrcek, Peter; Witten, Edward

    2004-01-01

    As an alternative to the usual Feynman graphs, tree amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory can be constructed from tree graphs in which the vertices are tree level MHV scattering amplitudes, continued off shell in a particular fashion. The formalism leads to new and relatively simple formulas for many amplitudes, and can be heuristically derived from twistor space. (author)

  20. Pricing FX Options in the Heston/CIR Jump-Diffusion Model with Log-Normal and Log-Uniform Jump Amplitudes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rehez Ahlip

    2015-01-01

    model for the exchange rate with log-normal jump amplitudes and the volatility model with log-uniformly distributed jump amplitudes. We assume that the domestic and foreign stochastic interest rates are governed by the CIR dynamics. The instantaneous volatility is correlated with the dynamics of the exchange rate return, whereas the domestic and foreign short-term rates are assumed to be independent of the dynamics of the exchange rate and its volatility. The main result furnishes a semianalytical formula for the price of the foreign exchange European call option.

  1. Scattering amplitudes in gauge theories

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Henn, Johannes M. [Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States). School of Natural Sciences; Plefka, Jan C. [Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Physik

    2014-03-01

    First monographical text on this fundamental topic. Course-tested, pedagogical and self-contained exposition. Includes exercises and solutions. At the fundamental level, the interactions of elementary particles are described by quantum gauge field theory. The quantitative implications of these interactions are captured by scattering amplitudes, traditionally computed using Feynman diagrams. In the past decade tremendous progress has been made in our understanding of and computational abilities with regard to scattering amplitudes in gauge theories, going beyond the traditional textbook approach. These advances build upon on-shell methods that focus on the analytic structure of the amplitudes, as well as on their recently discovered hidden symmetries. In fact, when expressed in suitable variables the amplitudes are much simpler than anticipated and hidden patterns emerge. These modern methods are of increasing importance in phenomenological applications arising from the need for high-precision predictions for the experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider, as well as in foundational mathematical physics studies on the S-matrix in quantum field theory. Bridging the gap between introductory courses on quantum field theory and state-of-the-art research, these concise yet self-contained and course-tested lecture notes are well-suited for a one-semester graduate level course or as a self-study guide for anyone interested in fundamental aspects of quantum field theory and its applications. The numerous exercises and solutions included will help readers to embrace and apply the material presented in the main text.

  2. Scattering amplitudes in gauge theories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henn, Johannes M.; Plefka, Jan C.

    2014-01-01

    First monographical text on this fundamental topic. Course-tested, pedagogical and self-contained exposition. Includes exercises and solutions. At the fundamental level, the interactions of elementary particles are described by quantum gauge field theory. The quantitative implications of these interactions are captured by scattering amplitudes, traditionally computed using Feynman diagrams. In the past decade tremendous progress has been made in our understanding of and computational abilities with regard to scattering amplitudes in gauge theories, going beyond the traditional textbook approach. These advances build upon on-shell methods that focus on the analytic structure of the amplitudes, as well as on their recently discovered hidden symmetries. In fact, when expressed in suitable variables the amplitudes are much simpler than anticipated and hidden patterns emerge. These modern methods are of increasing importance in phenomenological applications arising from the need for high-precision predictions for the experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider, as well as in foundational mathematical physics studies on the S-matrix in quantum field theory. Bridging the gap between introductory courses on quantum field theory and state-of-the-art research, these concise yet self-contained and course-tested lecture notes are well-suited for a one-semester graduate level course or as a self-study guide for anyone interested in fundamental aspects of quantum field theory and its applications. The numerous exercises and solutions included will help readers to embrace and apply the material presented in the main text.

  3. Conformal higher spin scattering amplitudes from twistor space

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Adamo, Tim [Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom); Hähnel, Philipp; McLoughlin, Tristan [School of Mathematics, Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2 (Ireland)

    2017-04-04

    We use the formulation of conformal higher spin (CHS) theories in twistor space to study their tree-level scattering amplitudes, finding expressions for all three-point (MHV)-bar amplitudes and all MHV amplitudes involving positive helicity conformal gravity particles and two negative helicity higher spins. This provides the on-shell analogue for the covariant coupling of CHS fields to a conformal gravity background. We discuss the restriction of the theory to a ghost-free unitary subsector, analogous to restricting conformal gravity to general relativity with a cosmological constant. We study the flat-space limit and show that the restricted amplitudes vanish, supporting the conjecture that in the unitary sector the S-matrix of CHS theories is trivial. However, by appropriately rescaling the amplitudes we find non-vanishing results which we compare with chiral flat-space higher spin theories.

  4. Conformal higher spin scattering amplitudes from twistor space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adamo, Tim; Hähnel, Philipp; McLoughlin, Tristan

    2017-01-01

    We use the formulation of conformal higher spin (CHS) theories in twistor space to study their tree-level scattering amplitudes, finding expressions for all three-point (MHV)-bar amplitudes and all MHV amplitudes involving positive helicity conformal gravity particles and two negative helicity higher spins. This provides the on-shell analogue for the covariant coupling of CHS fields to a conformal gravity background. We discuss the restriction of the theory to a ghost-free unitary subsector, analogous to restricting conformal gravity to general relativity with a cosmological constant. We study the flat-space limit and show that the restricted amplitudes vanish, supporting the conjecture that in the unitary sector the S-matrix of CHS theories is trivial. However, by appropriately rescaling the amplitudes we find non-vanishing results which we compare with chiral flat-space higher spin theories.

  5. What saccadic eye movements tell us about TMS-induced neuromodulation of the DLPFC and mood changes: a pilot study in bipolar disorders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lysianne eBeynel

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The study assumed that the antisaccade (AS task is a relevant psychophysical tool to assess (i short-term neuromodulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC induced by intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS and (ii mood change occurring during the course of the treatment. Saccadic inhibition is known to strongly involve the DLPFC, whose neuromodulation with iTBS requires less stimulation time and lower stimulation intensity, as well as results in longer aftereffects than the conventional repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS. Active or sham iTBS was applied every day for three weeks over the left DLPFC of 12 drug-resistant bipolar depressed patients. To assess the iTBS-induced short-term neuromodulation, the saccadic task was performed just before (S1 and just after (S2 the iTBS session, the first day of each week. Mood was evaluated through MADRS scores and the difference in scores between the beginning and the end of treatment was correlated with AS performance change between these two periods. As expected, only patients from the active group improved their performance from S1 to S2 and mood improvement was significantly correlated with AS performance improvement. In addition, the AS task also discriminated depressive bipolar patients from healthy control subjects. Therefore, the AS task could be a relevant and useful tool for clinicians to assess if the TMS-induced short-term neuromodulation of the DLPFC occurs as well as a ‘trait vs. state’ objective marker of depressive mood disorder.

  6. What saccadic eye movements tell us about TMS-induced neuromodulation of the DLPFC and mood changes: a pilot study in bipolar disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beynel, Lysianne; Chauvin, Alan; Guyader, Nathalie; Harquel, Sylvain; Szekely, David; Bougerol, Thierry; Marendaz, Christian

    2014-01-01

    The study assumed that the antisaccade (AS) task is a relevant psychophysical tool to assess (i) short-term neuromodulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) induced by intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS); and (ii) mood change occurring during the course of the treatment. Saccadic inhibition is known to strongly involve the DLPFC, whose neuromodulation with iTBS requires less stimulation time and lower stimulation intensity, as well as results in longer aftereffects than the conventional repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Active or sham iTBS was applied every day for 3 weeks over the left DLPFC of 12 drug-resistant bipolar depressed patients. To assess the iTBS-induced short-term neuromodulation, the saccadic task was performed just before (S1) and just after (S2) the iTBS session, the first day of each week. Mood was evaluated through Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores and the difference in scores between the beginning and the end of treatment was correlated with AS performance change between these two periods. As expected, only patients from the active group improved their performance from S1 to S2 and mood improvement was significantly correlated with AS performance improvement. In addition, the AS task also discriminated depressive bipolar patients from healthy control subjects. Therefore, the AS task could be a relevant and useful tool for clinicians to assess if the Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-induced short-term neuromodulation of the DLPFC occurs as well as a "trait vs. state" objective marker of depressive mood disorder.

  7. Stable statistical representations facilitate visual search.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corbett, Jennifer E; Melcher, David

    2014-10-01

    Observers represent the average properties of object ensembles even when they cannot identify individual elements. To investigate the functional role of ensemble statistics, we examined how modulating statistical stability affects visual search. We varied the mean and/or individual sizes of an array of Gabor patches while observers searched for a tilted target. In "stable" blocks, the mean and/or local sizes of the Gabors were constant over successive displays, whereas in "unstable" baseline blocks they changed from trial to trial. Although there was no relationship between the context and the spatial location of the target, observers found targets faster (as indexed by faster correct responses and fewer saccades) as the global mean size became stable over several displays. Building statistical stability also facilitated scanning the scene, as measured by larger saccadic amplitudes, faster saccadic reaction times, and shorter fixation durations. These findings suggest a central role for peripheral visual information, creating context to free resources for detailed processing of salient targets and maintaining the illusion of visual stability.

  8. Amplitude-to-frequency converter of radioisotope instruments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Demchenkov, V.P.; Korobkov, I.N.

    1988-01-01

    An amplitude-to-frequency converter designed for signal processing of radioisotope relay devices is descibed. The basic elements of the converter are a scaling amplifier, an analog-to-digital converter, a code-to-frequency converter, a null-organ, a delay unit and a clock-pulse generator. The designed amplitude-to-frequency converter takes into account a prior information about the signal shape of the energy spectrum. The converter processes input pulses of 0.10 V amplitude and duration more than 2μs. The energy channel number is 64

  9. Amplitude-modulated fiber-ring laser

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Caputo, J. G.; Clausen, Carl A. Balslev; Sørensen, Mads Peter

    2000-01-01

    Soliton pulses generated by a fiber-ring laser are investigated by numerical simulation and perturbation methods. The mathematical modeling is based on the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with perturbative terms. We show that active mode locking with an amplitude modulator leads to a self......-starting of stable solitonic pulses from small random noise, provided the modulation depth is small. The perturbative analysis leads to a nonlinear coupled return map for the amplitude, phase, and position of the soliton pulses circulating in the fiber-ring laser. We established the validity of this approach...

  10. The five-gluon amplitude and one-loop integrals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bern, Z.; Dixon, L.; Kosower, D.A.

    1992-12-01

    We review the conventional field theory description of the string motivated technique. This technique is applied to the one-loop five-gluon amplitude. To evaluate the amplitude a general method for computing dimensionally regulated one-loop integrals is outlined including results for one-loop integrals required for the pentagon diagram and beyond. Finally, two five-gluon helicity amplitudes are given

  11. ALOHA: Automatic libraries of helicity amplitudes for Feynman diagram computations

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Aquino, Priscila; Link, William; Maltoni, Fabio; Mattelaer, Olivier; Stelzer, Tim

    2012-10-01

    We present an application that automatically writes the HELAS (HELicity Amplitude Subroutines) library corresponding to the Feynman rules of any quantum field theory Lagrangian. The code is written in Python and takes the Universal FeynRules Output (UFO) as an input. From this input it produces the complete set of routines, wave-functions and amplitudes, that are needed for the computation of Feynman diagrams at leading as well as at higher orders. The representation is language independent and currently it can output routines in Fortran, C++, and Python. A few sample applications implemented in the MADGRAPH 5 framework are presented. Program summary Program title: ALOHA Catalogue identifier: AEMS_v1_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEMS_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/UoI-NCSA.php No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 6094320 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 7479819 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: Python2.6 Computer: 32/64 bit Operating system: Linux/Mac/Windows RAM: 512 Mbytes Classification: 4.4, 11.6 Nature of problem: An effcient numerical evaluation of a squared matrix element can be done with the help of the helicity routines implemented in the HELAS library [1]. This static library contains a limited number of helicity functions and is therefore not always able to provide the needed routine in the presence of an arbitrary interaction. This program provides a way to automatically create the corresponding routines for any given model. Solution method: ALOHA takes the Feynman rules associated to the vertex obtained from the model information (in the UFO format [2]), and multiplies it by the different wavefunctions or propagators. As a result the analytical expression of the helicity routines is obtained. Subsequently, this expression is

  12. Structure of the amplitude equation of the climate; Struktur der Amplitudengleichung des Klimas

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hauschild, A. [Freie Univ. Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Meteorologie

    1999-04-01

    The structure of the `amplitude equation`, a new dynamic equation on the seasonal time scale is derived, in which the weather scales may be treated statistically. The elsewhere-introduced climate-specific seasonally smoothed amplitudes and phases of the Fourier spectral representation are used as new prognostic variables. For the vorticity it is shown, that the still unsolved problem of the parameterisation of subscale transports may be solved in the `amplitude equation`. The approach could be successful because of the empirically derived statistical properties of the amplitudes (Poisson distribution and ergodicity) and of the phases (equipartition) of sub-planetary waves could be used. They allow a scale separation of weather and climate and lead to a tremendous reduction of the number of the horizontal degree of freedom of the amplitude equation to be between 10{sup 3} and 10{sup 4}. (orig.) [Deutsch] Es wird die Struktur der `Amplitudengleichung`, einer neuen dynamischen Gleichung auf der saisonalen Zeitskala abgeleitet. Anhand analysierter Daten des EZMW wird gezeigt, dass in der `Amplitudengleichung` die explizite Dynamik des Wetters tatsaechlich statistisch behandelt werden kann. Als prognostische Variablen der Gleichung werden die woanders neu eingefuehrten, klimaspezifischen, saisonal geglaetteten Amplituden und Phasen der Fourier-Spektraldarstellung verwendet. Am Beispiel der Vorticity wird gezeigt, dass das bisher ungeloeste Problem der Behandlung der subskaligen Transporte in der `Amplitudengleichung` grundsaetzlich geloest werden kann. Dies gelingt durch Ausnutzung der ebenfalls empirisch abgeleiteten besonderen statistischen Eigenschaften der Amplituden (Poissonverteilung und Ergodizitaet) und Phasen (Gleichverteilung) der subplanetaren Wellen, die eine Skalentrennung von Wetter und Klima ermoeglichen. Dies fuehrt zur erheblichen Reduktion der Zahl der horizontalen Freiheitsgrade der Amplitudengleichung auf 10{sup 3} bis 10{sup 4}. Die Ableitung

  13. Phase-space spinor amplitudes for spin-1/2 systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watson, P.; Bracken, A. J.

    2011-01-01

    The concept of phase-space amplitudes for systems with continuous degrees of freedom is generalized to finite-dimensional spin systems. Complex amplitudes are obtained on both a sphere and a finite lattice, in each case enabling a more fundamental description of pure spin states than that previously given by Wigner functions. In each case the Wigner function can be expressed as the star product of the amplitude and its conjugate, so providing a generalized Born interpretation of amplitudes that emphasizes their more fundamental status. The ordinary product of the amplitude and its conjugate produces a (generalized) spin Husimi function. The case of spin-(1/2) is treated in detail, and it is shown that phase-space amplitudes on the sphere transform correctly as spinors under rotations, despite their expression in terms of spherical harmonics. Spin amplitudes on a lattice are also found to transform as spinors. Applications are given to the phase space description of state superposition, and to the evolution in phase space of the state of a spin-(1/2) magnetic dipole in a time-dependent magnetic field.

  14. Automation of loop amplitudes in numerical approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fujimoto, J.; Ishikawa, T.; Shimizu, Y.; Kato, K.; Nakazawa, N.; Kaneko, T.

    1997-01-01

    An automatic calculating system GRACE-L1 of one-loop Feynman amplitude is reviewed. This system can be applied to 2 to 2-body one-loop processes. A sample calculation of 2 to 3-body one-loop amplitudes is also presented. (orig.)

  15. Fault-tolerant quantum cryptographic protocols with collective detection over the collective amplitude damping channel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang, Wei; Su, Qi; Li, Yan-Bing; Sun, Ying

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, a quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol, which can be immune to collective amplitude damping noise, is proposed with collective detection strategy. Then a multi-party quantum secret sharing (MQSS) protocol and a quantum private comparison (QPC) protocol are introduced as two applications of the proposed QKD protocol. Except for one participant who is responsible for preparing and measuring quantum states, the rest of the users in each of these protocols only need to perform certain unitary operations due to the utilization of collective detection. Therefore, in addition to the advantage of being secure against collective amplitude damping noise, the proposed protocols still have the advantages of higher qubit efficiency and lower cost for implementation. Moreover, the security of these protocols is guaranteed by theorems on quantum operation discrimination. (papers)

  16. Singularities in four-body final-state amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adhikari, S.K.

    1978-01-01

    Like three-body amplitudes, four-body amplitudes have subenergy threshold singularities over and above total-energy singularities. In the four-body problem we encounter a new type of subenergy singularity besides the usual two- and three-body subenergy threshold singularities. This singularity will be referred to as ''independent-pair threshold singularity'' and involves pair-subenergy threshold singularities in each of the two independent pair subenergies in four-body final states. We also study the particularly interesting case of resonant two- and three-body interactions in the four-body isobar model and the rapid (singular) dependence of the isobar amplitudes they generate in the four-body phase space. All these singularities are analyzed in the multiple-scattering formalism and it is shown that they arise from the ''next-to-last'' rescattering and hence may be represented correctly by an approximate amplitude which has that rescattering

  17. On the observability of the quark orbital angular momentum distribution

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Courtoy, Aurore, E-mail: aurore.courtoy@ulg.be [IFPA, AGO Department, Université de Liège, Bât. B5, Sart Tilman, B-4000 Liège (Belgium); Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN, Frascati (Italy); Goldstein, Gary R., E-mail: gary.goldstein@tufts.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 (United States); Osvaldo Gonzalez Hernandez, J., E-mail: jog4m@virginia.edu [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) – Sezione di Torino, via P. Giuria, 1, 10125 Torino (Italy); Liuti, Simonetta, E-mail: sl4y@virginia.edu [University of Virginia – Physics Department, 382 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States); Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN, Frascati (Italy); Rajan, Abha, E-mail: ar5xc@virginia.edu [University of Virginia – Physics Department, 382 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States)

    2014-04-04

    We argue that due to parity constraints, the helicity combination of the purely momentum space counterparts of the Wigner distributions – the generalized transverse momentum distributions – that describes the configuration of an unpolarized quark in a longitudinally polarized nucleon can enter the deeply virtual Compton scattering amplitude only through matrix elements involving a final state interaction. The relevant matrix elements in turn involve light-cone operators projections in the transverse direction, or they appear in the deeply virtual Compton scattering amplitude at twist three. Orbital angular momentum or the spin structure of the nucleon was a major reason for these various distributions and amplitudes to have been introduced. We show that the twist three contributions associated with orbital angular momentum are related to the target-spin asymmetry in deeply virtual Compton scattering, already measured at HERMES.

  18. Large amplitude ion-acoustic solitons in dusty plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tiwari, R. S.; Jain, S. L.; Mishra, M. K.

    2011-01-01

    Characteristics of ion-acoustic soliton in dusty plasma, including the dynamics of heavily charged massive dust grains, are investigated following the Sagdeev Potential formalism. Retaining fourth order nonlinearities of electric potential in the expansion of the Sagdeev Potential in the energy equation for a pseudo particle and integrating the resulting energy equation, large amplitude soliton solution is determined. Variation of amplitude (A), half width (W) at half maxima and the product P = AW 2 of the Korteweg-deVries (KdV), dressed and large amplitude soliton as a function of wide range of dust concentration are numerically studied for recently observed parameters of dusty plasmas. We have also presented the region of existence of large amplitude ion-acoustic soliton in the dusty plasma by analyzing the structure of the pseudo potential. It is found that in the presence of positively charged dust grains, system supports only compressive solitons, on the other hand, in the presence of negatively charged dust grains, the system supports compressive solitons up to certain critical concentration of dust grains and above this critical concentration, the system can support rarefactive solitons also. The effects of dust concentration, charge, and mass of the dust grains, on the characteristics of KdV, dressed and large amplitude the soliton, i.e., amplitude (A), half width at half maxima (W), and product of amplitude (A) and half width at half maxima (P = AW 2 ), are discussed in detail

  19. Investigating the amplitude of interactive footstep sounds and soundscape reproduction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Turchet, Luca; Serafin, Stefania

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, we study the perception of amplitude of soundscapes and interactively generated footstep sounds provided both through headphones and a surround sound system. In particular, we investigate whether there exists a value for the amplitude of soundscapes and footstep sounds which...... of soundscapes does not significantly affect the selected amplitude of footstep sounds. Similarly, the perception of the soundscapes amplitude is not significantly affected by the selected amplitude of footstep sounds....

  20. High Frequency Amplitude Detector for GMI Magnetic Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aktham Asfour

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available A new concept of a high-frequency amplitude detector and demodulator for Giant-Magneto-Impedance (GMI sensors is presented. This concept combines a half wave rectifier, with outstanding capabilities and high speed, and a feedback approach that ensures the amplitude detection with easily adjustable gain. The developed detector is capable of measuring high-frequency and very low amplitude signals without the use of diode-based active rectifiers or analog multipliers. The performances of this detector are addressed throughout the paper. The full circuitry of the design is given, together with a comprehensive theoretical study of the concept and experimental validation. The detector has been used for the amplitude measurement of both single frequency and pulsed signals and for the demodulation of amplitude-modulated signals. It has also been successfully integrated in a GMI sensor prototype. Magnetic field and electrical current measurements in open- and closed-loop of this sensor have also been conducted.

  1. Ratios of helicity amplitudes for exclusive ρ{sup 0} electroproduction on transversely polarized protons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Airapetian, A. [Justus-Liebig Universitaet Giessen, II. Physikalisches Institut, Giessen (Germany); University of Michigan, Randall Laboratory of Physics, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Akopov, N.; Elbakian, G.; Gharibyan, V.; Marukyan, H.; Petrosyan, A. [Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan (Armenia); Akopov, Z.; Borissov, A.; Deconinck, W.; Holler, Y.; Rostomyan, A.; Zihlmann, B. [DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Aschenauer, E.C.; Nowak, W.D. [DESY, Zeuthen (Germany); Augustyniak, W.; Marianski, B.; Trzcinski, A.; Zupranski, P. [National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw (Poland); Belostotski, S.; Kisselev, A.; Manaenkov, S.I.; Veretennikov, D.; Vikhrov, V. [B.P. Konstantinov Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Leningrad Region (Russian Federation); Blok, H.P. [National Institute for Subatomic Physics (Nikhef), Amsterdam (Netherlands); VU University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Bryzgalov, V.; Ivanilov, A.; Korotkov, V.; Salomatin, Y. [Institute for High Energy Physics, Moscow Region (Russian Federation); Capitani, G.P.; De Sanctis, E.; Muccifora, V.; Reolon, A.R. [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati (Italy); Ciullo, G.; Lenisa, P.; Pappalardo, L.L.; Statera, M. [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Ferrara, Ferrara (Italy); Universita di Ferrara, Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Ferrara (Italy); Contalbrigo, M. [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Ferrara, Ferrara (Italy); De Leo, R.; Lagamba, L.; Vilardi, I. [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Bari (Italy); Dueren, M. [Justus-Liebig Universitaet Giessen, II. Physikalisches Institut, Giessen (Germany); Ellinghaus, F. [University of Colorado, Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Boulder, CO (United States); Felawka, L. [TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC (Canada); Frullani, S.; Garibaldi, F. [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma, Gruppo Collegato Sanita, Rome (Italy); Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome (Italy); Gavrilov, G. [DESY, Hamburg (Germany); B.P. Konstantinov Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Leningrad Region (Russian Federation); TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC (Canada); Goloskokov, S.V.; Shutov, V. [Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna (Russian Federation); Jackson, H.E.; Reimer, P.E. [Argonne National Laboratory, Physics Division, Argonne, IL (United States); Joosten, S. [Ghent University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Gent (Belgium); University of Illinois, Department of Physics, Urbana, IL (United States); Kaiser, R.; Lehmann, I.; Rosner, G.; Seitz, B. [University of Glasgow, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, Glasgow (United Kingdom); Karyan, G. [DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan (Armenia); Kozlov, V.; Terkulov, A. [Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow (Russian Federation); Kravchenko, P. [Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, Physikalisches Institut, Erlangen (Germany); B.P. Konstantinov Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Leningrad Region (Russian Federation); Kroll, P.; Schaefer, A. [Universitaet Regensburg, Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, Regensburg (Germany); Lapikas, L. [National Institute for Subatomic Physics (Nikhef), Amsterdam (Netherlands); Lorenzon, W. [University of Michigan, Randall Laboratory of Physics, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Miyachi, Y.; Shibata, T.A. [Tokyo Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, Tokyo (Japan); Movsisyan, A. [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Ferrara, Ferrara (Italy); Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan (Armenia); Nass, A.; Rith, K. [Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, Physikalisches Institut, Erlangen (Germany); Riedl, C. [DESY, Zeuthen (Germany); University of Illinois, Department of Physics, Urbana, IL (United States); Ryckbosch, D.; Tytgat, M.; Haarlem, Y. van [Ghent University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Gent (Belgium); Schnell, G. [University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Department of Theoretical Physics, Bilbao (Spain); Basque Foundation for Science, IKERBASQUE, Bilbao (Spain); Ghent University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Gent (Belgium); Truty, R. [University of Illinois, Department of Physics, Urbana, IL (United States); Hulse, C. van [University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Department of Theoretical Physics, Bilbao (Spain); Ghent University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Gent (Belgium); Yaschenko, S. [DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, Physikalisches Institut, Erlangen (Germany); Collaboration: The HERMES Collaboration

    2017-06-15

    Exclusive ρ{sup 0}-meson electroproduction is studied by the HERMES experiment, using the 27.6 GeV longitudinally polarized electron/positron beam of HERA and a transversely polarized hydrogen target, in the kinematic region 1.0 GeV{sup 2} < Q{sup 2} < 7.0 GeV{sup 2}, 3.0 GeV < W < 6.3 GeV, and -t{sup '} < 0.4 GeV{sup 2}. Using an unbinned maximum-likelihood method, 25 parameters are extracted. These determine the real and imaginary parts of the ratios of several helicity amplitudes describing ρ{sup 0}-meson production by a virtual photon. The denominator of those ratios is the dominant amplitude, the nucleon-helicity-non-flip amplitude F{sub 0(1)/(2)0(1)/(2)}, which describes the production of a longitudinal ρ{sup 0}-meson by a longitudinal virtual photon. The ratios of nucleon-helicity-non-flip amplitudes are found to be in good agreement with those from the previous HERMES analysis. The transverse target polarization allows for the first time the extraction of ratios of a number of nucleon-helicity-flip amplitudes to F{sub 0(1)/(2)0(1)/(2)}. Results obtained in a handbag approach based on generalized parton distributions taking into account the contribution from pion exchange are found to be in good agreement with these ratios. Within the model, the data favor a positive sign for the π - ρ transition form factor. By also exploiting the longitudinal beam polarization, a total of 71 ρ{sup 0} spin-density matrix elements is determined from the extracted 25 parameters, in contrast to only 53 elements as directly determined in earlier analyses. (orig.)

  2. Ratios of helicity amplitudes for exclusive ρ{sup 0} electroproduction on transversely polarized protons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Airapetian, A. [Giessen Univ. (Germany). 2. Physikalisches Inst.; Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Randall Lab. of Physics; Akopov, N. [Yerevan Physics Institute (Armenia); Akopov, Z. [DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Collaboration: HERMES Collaboration; and others

    2017-06-13

    Exclusive ρ{sup 0}-meson electroproduction is studied by the HERMES experiment, using the 27.6 GeV longitudinally polarized electron/positron beam of HERA and a transversely polarized hydrogen target, in the kinematic region 1.0 GeV{sup 2}amplitudes describing ρ{sup 0}-meson production by a virtual photon. The denominator of those ratios is the dominant amplitude, the nucleon-helicity-non-flip amplitude F{sub 0(1)/(2)0(1)/(2)}, which describes the production of a longitudinal ρ{sup 0}-meson by a longitudinal virtual photon. The ratios of nucleon-helicity-non-flip amplitudes are found to be in good agreement with those from the previous HERMES analysis. The transverse target polarization allows for the first time the extraction of ratios of a number of nucleon-helicity-flip amplitudes to F{sub 0(1)/(2)0(1)/(2)}. Results obtained in a handbag approach based on generalized parton distributions taking into account the contribution from pion exchange are found to be in good agreement with these ratios. Within the model, the data favor a positive sign for the π-ρ transition form factor. By also exploiting the longitudinal beam polarization, a total of 71 ρ{sup 0} spin-density matrix elements is determined from the extracted 25 parameters, in contrast to only 53 elements as directly determined in earlier analyses.

  3. Efficient analytic computation of higher-order QCD amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bern, Z.; Chalmers, G.; Dunbar, D.C.; Kosower, D.A.

    1995-01-01

    The authors review techniques simplifying the analytic calculation of one-loop QCD amplitudes with many external legs, for use in next-to-leading-order corrections to multi-jet processes. Particularly useful are the constraints imposed by perturbative unitarity, collinear singularities and a supersymmetry-inspired organization of helicity amplitudes. Certain sequences of one-loop helicity amplitudes with an arbitrary number of external gluons have been obtained using these constraints

  4. Examining the time dependence of DAMA's modulation amplitude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelso, Chris; Savage, Christopher; Sandick, Pearl; Freese, Katherine; Gondolo, Paolo

    2018-03-01

    If dark matter is composed of weakly interacting particles, Earth's orbital motion may induce a small annual variation in the rate at which these particles interact in a terrestrial detector. The DAMA collaboration has identified at a 9.3σ confidence level such an annual modulation in their event rate over two detector iterations, DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA, each with ˜ 7 years of observations. This data is well fit by a constant modulation amplitude for the two iterations of the experiment. We statistically examine the time dependence of the modulation amplitudes, which "by eye" appear to be decreasing with time in certain energy ranges. We perform a chi-squared goodness of fit test of the average modulation amplitudes measured by the two detector iterations which rejects the hypothesis of a consistent modulation amplitude at greater than 80, 96, and 99.6% for the 2-4, 2-5 and 2-6 keVee energy ranges, respectively. We also find that among the 14 annual cycles there are three ≳ 3σ departures from the average in our estimated data in the 5-6 keVee energy range. In addition, we examined several phenomenological models for the time dependence of the modulation amplitude. Using a maximum likelihood test, we find that descriptions of the modulation amplitude as decreasing with time are preferred over a constant modulation amplitude at anywhere between 1σ and 3σ , depending on the phenomenological model for the time dependence and the signal energy range considered. A time dependent modulation amplitude is not expected for a dark matter signal, at least for dark matter halo morphologies consistent with the DAMA signal. New data from DAMA/LIBRA-phase2 will certainly aid in determining whether any apparent time dependence is a real effect or a statistical fluctuation.

  5. The pressure distribution for biharmonic transmitting array: theoretical study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baranowska, A.

    2005-03-01

    The aim of the paper is theoretical analysis of the finite amplitude waves interaction problem for the biharmonic transmitting array. We assume that the array consists of 16 circular pistons of the same dimensions that regrouped in two sections. Two different arrangements of radiating elements were considered. In this situation the radiating surface is non-continuous without axial symmetry. The mathematical model was built on the basis of the Khokhlov - Zabolotskaya - Kuznetsov (KZK) equation. To solve the problem the finite-difference method was applied. On-axis pressure amplitude for different frequency waves as a function of distance from the source, transverse pressure distribution of these waves at fixed distances from the source and pressure amplitude distribution for them at fixed planes were examined. Especially changes of normalized pressure amplitude for difference frequency were studied. The paper presents mathematical model and some results of theoretical investigations obtained for different values of source parameters.

  6. Transversity Amplitudes in Hypercharge Exchange Processes; Amplitudes de transversidad en procesos de intercambio de hipercarga

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aguilar Benitez de Lugo, M.

    1979-07-01

    In this work we present several techniques developed for the extraction of the. Transversity amplitudes governing quasi two-body meson baryon reactions with hypercharge exchange. We review the methods used In processes having a pure spin configuration, as well as the more relevant results obtained with data from K{sup p} and Tp interactions at intermediate energies. The predictions of the additive quark model and the ones following from exchange degeneracy and etoxicity are discussed. We present a formalism for amplitude analysis developed for reactions with mixed spin configurations and discuss the methods of parametric estimation of the moduli and phases of.the amplitudes, as well as the various tests employed to check the goodness of the fits. The calculation of the generalized joint density matrices is given and we propose a method based on the generalization of the idea of multipole moments, which allows to investigate the structure of the decay angular correlations and establishes the quality of the fits and the validity of the simplifying assumptions currently used in this type of studies. (Author) 43 refs.

  7. On the singularities of massive superstring amplitudes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Foda, O.

    1987-01-01

    Superstring one-loop amplitudes with massive external states are shown to be in general ill-defined due to internal on-shell propagators. However, we argue that since any massive string state (in the uncompactified theory) has a finite lifetime to decay into massless particles, such amplitudes are

  8. Connected formulas for amplitudes in standard model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    He, Song [CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics,Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190 (China); School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049 (China); Zhang, Yong [Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University,Beijing 100875 (China); CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics,Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190 (China)

    2017-03-17

    Witten’s twistor string theory has led to new representations of S-matrix in massless QFT as a single object, including Cachazo-He-Yuan formulas in general and connected formulas in four dimensions. As a first step towards more realistic processes of the standard model, we extend the construction to QCD tree amplitudes with massless quarks and those with a Higgs boson. For both cases, we find connected formulas in four dimensions for all multiplicities which are very similar to the one for Yang-Mills amplitudes. The formula for quark-gluon color-ordered amplitudes differs from the pure-gluon case only by a Jacobian factor that depends on flavors and orderings of the quarks. In the formula for Higgs plus multi-parton amplitudes, the massive Higgs boson is effectively described by two additional massless legs which do not appear in the Parke-Taylor factor. The latter also represents the first twistor-string/connected formula for form factors.

  9. Growth of 2D and 3D plane cracks under thermo-mechanical loading with varying amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sbitti, Amine

    2009-01-01

    After a presentation of the phenomenon of thermal fatigue (in industrial applications and nuclear plants), this research thesis reports the investigation of the growth and arrest of a 2D crack under thermal fatigue (temperature and stress distribution over thickness, calculation of stress intensity factors, laws of fatigue crack growth, growth under varying amplitude), and the investigation of 3D crack growth under cyclic loading with varying amplitudes (analytic and numerical calculation of stress intensity factors, variational formulation in failure mechanics, 3D crack propagation under fatigue, use of the Aster code, use of the extended finite element method or X-FEM). The author discusses the origin and influence of the 3D crack network under thermal fatigue

  10. The effect of solar and lunar currents on simultaneous phase path, group path and amplitude measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baulch, R.N.E.; Butcher, E.C.

    1984-01-01

    The solar and lunar variations in the phase path, group path and amplitude of a fixed frequency transmission were obtained at the September equinox over a slightly oblique path. The phase of the lunar semi-diurnal tide in the phase path and amplitude were similar, the maxima occurring near 0200 lunar time, whereas the group path had a maximum near 0800 lunar time. These results were compared with other results obtained near the same location. The results suggest a complex situation in the E-region, where the height of the lunar current depends on season, and also suggest that the location and distribution of the solar and lunar currents may be different. (author)

  11. Source-Space Cross-Frequency Amplitude-Amplitude Coupling in Tinnitus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oliver Zobay

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The thalamocortical dysrhythmia (TCD model has been influential in the development of theoretical explanations for the neurological mechanisms of tinnitus. It asserts that thalamocortical oscillations lock a region in the auditory cortex into an ectopic slow-wave theta rhythm (4–8 Hz. The cortical area surrounding this region is hypothesized to generate abnormal gamma (>30 Hz oscillations (“edge effect” giving rise to the tinnitus percept. Consequently, the model predicts enhanced cross-frequency coherence in a broad range between theta and gamma. In this magnetoencephalography study involving tinnitus and control cohorts, we investigated this prediction. Using beamforming, cross-frequency amplitude-amplitude coupling (AAC was computed within the auditory cortices for frequencies (f1,f2 between 2 and 80 Hz. We find the AAC signal to decompose into two distinct components at low (f1,f230 Hz frequencies, respectively. Studying the correlation of AAC with several key covariates (age, hearing level (HL, tinnitus handicap and duration, and HL at tinnitus frequency, we observe a statistically significant association between age and low-frequency AAC. Contrary to the TCD predictions, however, we do not find any indication of statistical differences in AAC between tinnitus and controls and thus no evidence for the predicted enhancement of cross-frequency coupling in tinnitus.

  12. Numerical evaluation of one-loop QCD amplitudes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Badger, Simon David; Biedermann, Benedikt; Uwer, Peter

    2012-01-01

    We present the publicly available program NGluon allowing the numerical evaluation of primitive amplitudes at one-loop order in massless QCD. The program allows the computation of one-loop amplitudes for an arbitrary number of gluons. The focus of the present article is the extension to one-loop ...

  13. Phase and amplitude control system for Stanford Linear Accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoo, S.J.

    1983-01-01

    The computer controlled phase and amplitude detection system measures the instantaneous phase and amplitude of a 1 micro-second 2856 MHz rf pulse at a 180 Hz rate. This will be used for phase feedback control, and also for phase and amplitude jitter measurement. The program, which was originally written by John Fox and Keith Jobe, has been modified to improve the function of the system. The software algorithms used in the measurement are described, as is the performance of the prototype phase and amplitude detector system

  14. Relativistic amplitudes in terms of wave functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karmanov, V.A.

    1978-01-01

    In the framework of the invariant diagram technique which arises at the formulation of the fueld theory on the light front the question about conditions at which the relativistic amplitudes may be expressed through the wave functions is investigated. The amplitudes obtained depend on four-vector ω, determining the light front surface. The way is shown to find such values of the four-vector ω, at which the contribution of diagrams not expressed through wave functions is minimal. The investigation carried out is equivalent to the study of the dependence of amplitudes of the old-fashioned perturbation theory in the in the infinite momentum frame on direction of the infinite momentum

  15. Effect of ion suprathermality on arbitrary amplitude dust acoustic waves in a charge varying dusty plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tribeche, Mouloud; Mayout, Saliha; Amour, Rabia

    2009-01-01

    Arbitrary amplitude dust acoustic waves in a high energy-tail ion distribution are investigated. The effects of charge variation and ion suprathermality on the large amplitude dust acoustic (DA) soliton are then considered. The correct suprathermal ion charging current is rederived based on the orbit motion limited approach. In the adiabatic case, the variable dust charge is expressed in terms of the Lambert function and we take advantage of this transcendental function to show the existence of rarefactive variable charge DA solitons involving cusped density humps. The dust charge variation leads to an additional enlargement of the DA soliton, which is less pronounced as the ions evolve far away from Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. In the nonadiabatic case, the dust charge fluctuation may provide an alternate physical mechanism causing anomalous dissipation the strength of which becomes important and may prevail over that of dispersion as the ion spectral index κ increases. Our results may provide an explanation for the strong spiky waveforms observed in auroral electric field measurements by Ergun et al.[Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 2025 (1998)].

  16. Full amplitude models of 15 day Cepheids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cogan, B.C.; Cox, A.N.; King, D.S.

    1980-01-01

    Numerical models of Cepheids have been computed with a range of effective temperatures and compositions. The amplitudes increase if the helium abundance increases or if the effective temperature decreases. The latter effect is contrary to observational data. The models also exhibit velocity amplitudes which are much lower than those observed

  17. Modeling control of eye orientation in three dimensions. I. Role of muscle pulleys in determining saccadic trajectory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raphan, T

    1998-05-01

    This study evaluates the effects of muscle axis shifts on the performance of a vector velocity-position integrator in the CNS. Earlier models of the oculomotor plant assumed that the muscle axes remained fixed relative to the head as the eye rotated into secondary and tertiary eye positions. Under this assumption, the vector integrator model generates torsional transients as the eye moves from secondary to tertiary positions of fixation. The torsional transient represents an eye movement response to a spatial mismatch between the torque axes that remain fixed in the head and the displacement plane that changes by half the angle of the change in eye orientation. When muscle axis shifts were incorporated into the model, the torque axes were closer to the displacement plane at each eye orientation throughout the trajectory, and torsional transients were reduced dramatically. Their size and dynamics were close to reported data. It was also shown that when the muscle torque axes were rotated by 50% of the eye rotation, there was no torsional transient and Listing's law was perfectly obeyed. When muscle torque axes rotated >50%, torsional transients reversed direction compared with what occurred for muscle axis shifts of law is implemented by the oculomotor plant subject to a two-dimensional command signal that is confined to the pitch-yaw plane, having zero torsion. Saccades that bring the eye to orientations outside Listing's plane could easily be corrected by a roll pulse that resets the roll state of the velocity-position integrator to zero. This would be a simple implementation of the corrective controller suggested by Van Opstal and colleagues. The model further indicates that muscle axis shifts together with the torque orientation relationship for tissue surrounding the eye and Newton's laws of motion form a sufficient plant model to explain saccadic trajectories and periods of fixation when driven by a vector command confined to the pitch-yaw plane. This implies

  18. Finite Amplitude Ocean Waves

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    IAS Admin

    wavelength, they are called shallow water waves. In the ... Deep and intermediate water waves are dispersive as the velocity of these depends on wavelength. This is not the ..... generation processes, the finite amplitude wave theories are very ...

  19. Automated force controller for amplitude modulation atomic force microscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Miyagi, Atsushi, E-mail: atsushi.miyagi@inserm.fr, E-mail: simon.scheuring@inserm.fr; Scheuring, Simon, E-mail: atsushi.miyagi@inserm.fr, E-mail: simon.scheuring@inserm.fr [U1006 INSERM, Université Aix-Marseille, Parc Scientifique et Technologique de Luminy, 163 Avenue de Luminy, 13009 Marseille (France)

    2016-05-15

    Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is widely used in physics, chemistry, and biology to analyze the topography of a sample at nanometer resolution. Controlling precisely the force applied by the AFM tip to the sample is a prerequisite for faithful and reproducible imaging. In amplitude modulation (oscillating) mode AFM, the applied force depends on the free and the setpoint amplitudes of the cantilever oscillation. Therefore, for keeping the applied force constant, not only the setpoint amplitude but also the free amplitude must be kept constant. While the AFM user defines the setpoint amplitude, the free amplitude is typically subject to uncontrollable drift, and hence, unfortunately, the real applied force is permanently drifting during an experiment. This is particularly harmful in biological sciences where increased force destroys the soft biological matter. Here, we have developed a strategy and an electronic circuit that analyzes permanently the free amplitude of oscillation and readjusts the excitation to maintain the free amplitude constant. As a consequence, the real applied force is permanently and automatically controlled with picoNewton precision. With this circuit associated to a high-speed AFM, we illustrate the power of the development through imaging over long-duration and at various forces. The development is applicable for all AFMs and will widen the applicability of AFM to a larger range of samples and to a larger range of (non-specialist) users. Furthermore, from controlled force imaging experiments, the interaction strength between biomolecules can be analyzed.

  20. Calculation and modular properties of multiloop superstring amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Danilov, G. S.

    2013-01-01

    Multiloop superstring amplitudes are calculated within an extensively used gauge where the two-dimensional gravitino field carries Grassmann moduli. In general, the amplitudes possess, instead of modular symmetry, symmetry with respect to modular transformation supplemented with appropriate transformations of two-dimensional local supersymmetry. If the number of loops is larger than three, the integrationmeasures are notmodular forms, while the expression for the amplitude contains integrals along the boundary of the fundamental region of the modular group.

  1. NearFar: A computer program for nearside farside decomposition of heavy-ion elastic scattering amplitude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cha, Moon Hoe

    2007-02-01

    The NearFar program is a package for carrying out an interactive nearside-farside decomposition of heavy-ion elastic scattering amplitude. The program is implemented in Java to perform numerical operations on the nearside and farside angular distributions. It contains a graphical display interface for the numerical results. A test run has been applied to the elastic O16+Si28 scattering at E=1503 MeV. Program summaryTitle of program: NearFar Catalogue identifier: ADYP_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADYP_v1_0 Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: none Computers: designed for any machine capable of running Java, developed on PC-Pentium-4 Operating systems under which the program has been tested: Microsoft Windows XP (Home Edition) Program language used: Java Number of bits in a word: 64 Memory required to execute with typical data: case dependent No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 3484 Number of bytes distributed program, including test data, etc.: 142 051 Distribution format: tar.gz Other software required: A Java runtime interpreter, or the Java Development Kit, version 5.0 Nature of physical problem: Interactive nearside-farside decomposition of heavy-ion elastic scattering amplitude. Method of solution: The user must supply a external data file or PPSM parameters which calculates theoretical values of the quantities to be decomposed. Typical running time: Problem dependent. In a test run, it is about 35 s on a 2.40 GHz Intel P4-processor machine.

  2. The shock formation distance in a bounded sound beam of finite amplitude.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, Chao; Ma, Jian; Zhu, Zhemin; Du, Gonghuan; Ping, Zihong

    2003-07-01

    This paper investigates the shock formation distance in a bounded sound beam of finite amplitude by solving the Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov (KZK) equation using frequency-domain numerical method. Simulation results reveal that, besides the nonlinearity and absorption, the diffraction is another important factor that affects the shock formation of a bounded sound beam. More detailed discussions of the shock formation in a bounded sound beam, such as the waveform of sound pressure and the spatial distribution of shock formation, are also presented and compared for different parameters.

  3. Effects of amplitude modulation on perception of wind turbine noise

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yoon, Ki Seop; Lee, Soo Gab; Gwak, Doo Young [Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Seong, Yeol Wan [Ammunition Engineering Team, Defense Agency for Technology and Quality, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Seung Hoon [Aerodynamics Research Team, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Hong, Ji Young [Transportation Environmental Research Team, Green Transport and Logistics Institute, Korea Railroad Research Institute, Uiwang (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-10-15

    Wind turbine noise is considered to be easily detectable and highly annoying at relatively lower sound levels than other noise sources. Many previous studies attributed this characteristic to amplitude modulation. However, it is unclear whether amplitude modulation is the main cause of these properties of wind turbine noise. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to identify the relationship between amplitude modulation and these two properties of wind turbine noise. For this investigation, two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, 12 participants determined the detection thresholds of six target sounds in the presence of background noise. In the second experiment, 12 participants matched the loudness of modified sounds without amplitude modulation to that of target sounds with amplitude modulation. The results showed that the detection threshold was lowered as the modulation depth increased; additionally, sounds with amplitude modulation had higher subjective loudness than those without amplitude modulation.

  4. Effects of amplitude modulation on perception of wind turbine noise

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoon, Ki Seop; Lee, Soo Gab; Gwak, Doo Young; Seong, Yeol Wan; Lee, Seung Hoon; Hong, Ji Young

    2016-01-01

    Wind turbine noise is considered to be easily detectable and highly annoying at relatively lower sound levels than other noise sources. Many previous studies attributed this characteristic to amplitude modulation. However, it is unclear whether amplitude modulation is the main cause of these properties of wind turbine noise. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to identify the relationship between amplitude modulation and these two properties of wind turbine noise. For this investigation, two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, 12 participants determined the detection thresholds of six target sounds in the presence of background noise. In the second experiment, 12 participants matched the loudness of modified sounds without amplitude modulation to that of target sounds with amplitude modulation. The results showed that the detection threshold was lowered as the modulation depth increased; additionally, sounds with amplitude modulation had higher subjective loudness than those without amplitude modulation

  5. Effects of vortex-like and non-thermal ion distributions on non-linear dust-acoustic waves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mamun, A.A.; Cairns, R.A.; Shukla, P.K.

    1996-01-01

    The effects of vortex-like and non-thermal ion distributions are incorporated in the study of nonlinear dust-acoustic waves in an unmagnetized dusty plasma. It is found that owing to the departure from the Boltzmann ion distribution to a vortex-like phase space distribution, the dynamics of small but finite amplitude dust-acoustic waves is governed by a modified Kortweg endash de Vries equation. The latter admits a stationary dust-acoustic solitary wave solution, which has larger amplitude, smaller width, and higher propagation velocity than that involving adiabatic ions. On the other hand, consideration of a non-thermal ion distribution provides the possibility of coexistence of large amplitude rarefactive as well as compressive dust-acoustic solitary waves, whereas these structures appear independently when the wave amplitudes become infinitely small. The present investigation should help us to understand the salient features of the non-linear dust-acoustic waves that have been observed in a recent numerical simulation study. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics

  6. Conformal amplitude hierarchy and the Poincaré disk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shimada, Hirohiko

    2018-02-01

    The amplitude for the singlet channels in the 4-point function of the fundamental field in the conformal field theory of the 2d O(n) model is studied as a function of n. For a generic value of n, the 4-point function has infinitely many amplitudes, whose landscape can be very spiky as the higher amplitude changes its sign many times at the simple poles, which generalize the unique pole of the energy operator amplitude at n = 0. In the stadard parameterization of n by angle in unit of π, we find that the zeros and poles happen at the rational angles, forming a hierarchical tree structure inherent in the Poincaré disk. Some relation between the amplitude and the Farey path, a piecewise geodesic that visits these zeros and poles, is suggested. In this hierarchy, the symmetry of the congruence subgroup Γ(2) of SL(2, ℤ) naturally arises from the two clearly distinct even/odd classes of the rational angles, in which one respectively gets the truncated operator algebras and the logarithmic 4-point functions.

  7. Topological amplitudes in string theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Antoniadis, I.; Taylor, T.R.

    1993-07-01

    We show that certain type II string amplitudes at genus g are given by the topological partition F g discussed recently by Bershadsky, Cecotti, Ooguri and Vafa. These amplitudes give rise to a term in the four-dimensional effective action of the form Σ g F g W 2g , where W is the chiral superfield of N = 2 supergravitational multiplet. The holomorphic anomaly of F g is related to non-localities of the effective action due to the propagation of massless states. This result generalizes the holomorphic anomaly of the one loop case which is known to lead to non-harmonic gravitational couplings. (author). 22 refs, 2 figs

  8. Mapping Pn amplitude spreading and attenuation in Asia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yang, Xiaoning [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Phillips, William S [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Stead, Richard J [Los Alamos National Laboratory

    2010-12-06

    Pn travels most of its path in the mantle lid. Mapping the lateral variation of Pn amplitude attenuation sheds light on material properties and dynamics of the uppermost region of the mantle. Pn amplitude variation depends on the wavefront geometric spreading as well as material attenuation. We investigated Pn geometric spreading, which is much more complex than a traditionally assumed power-law spreading model, using both synthetic and observed amplitude data collected in Asia. We derived a new Pn spreading model based on the formulation that was proposed previously to account for the spherical shape of the Earth (Yang et. al., BSSA, 2007). New parameters derived for the spreading model provide much better correction for Pn amplitudes in terms of residual behavior. Because we used observed Pn amplitudes to construct the model, the model incorporates not only the effect of the Earth's spherical shape, but also the effect of potential upper-mantle velocity gradients in the region. Using the new spreading model, we corrected Pn amplitudes measured at 1, 2, 4 and 6 Hz and conducted attenuation tomography. The resulting Pn attenuation model correlates well with the regional geology. We see high attenuation in regions such as northern Tibetan Plateau and the western Pacific subduction zone, and low attenuation for stable blocks such as Sichuan and Tarim basins.

  9. Simplicity in the structure of QED and gravity amplitudes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Badger, Simon [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Zeuthen (Germany); Bjerrum-Bohr, N.E.J. [Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States). School of Natural Sciences; Vanhove, Pierre [Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques IHES, Bures sur Yvette (France); CEA, IPhT, CNRS, URA, Gif-sur-Yvette, (France). Inst. de Physique Theorique

    2008-11-15

    We investigate generic properties of one-loop amplitudes in unordered gauge theories in four dimensions. For such theories the organisation of amplitudes in manifestly crossing symmetric expressions poses restrictions on their structure and results in remarkable cancellations. We show that one-loop multi-photon amplitudes in QED with at least eight external photons are given only by scalar box integral functions. This QED 'no-triangle' property is true for all helicity configurations and has similarities to the 'notriangle' property found in the case of maximal N=8 supergravity. Results are derived both via a world-line formalism as well as using on-shell unitarity methods. We show that the simple structure of the loop amplitude originates from the extremely good BCFW scaling behaviour of the QED tree-amplitude. (orig.)

  10. Simplicity in the structure of QED and gravity amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Badger, Simon; Bjerrum-Bohr, N.E.J.; Vanhove, Pierre; CEA, IPhT, CNRS, URA, Gif-sur-Yvette,

    2008-11-01

    We investigate generic properties of one-loop amplitudes in unordered gauge theories in four dimensions. For such theories the organisation of amplitudes in manifestly crossing symmetric expressions poses restrictions on their structure and results in remarkable cancellations. We show that one-loop multi-photon amplitudes in QED with at least eight external photons are given only by scalar box integral functions. This QED 'no-triangle' property is true for all helicity configurations and has similarities to the 'notriangle' property found in the case of maximal N=8 supergravity. Results are derived both via a world-line formalism as well as using on-shell unitarity methods. We show that the simple structure of the loop amplitude originates from the extremely good BCFW scaling behaviour of the QED tree-amplitude. (orig.)

  11. Multi-loop string amplitudes and Riemann surfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taylor, J.G.

    1986-01-01

    The paper was presented at the workshop on 'Supersymmetry and its applications', Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1985. Super-string theory is discussed under the following topic headings: the functional approach to the string amplitude, Rieman surfaces, the determinants Δsub(epsilon)(1) and Δsub(epsilon)(2), Green's functions, total amplitude, and divergence analysis. (U.K.)

  12. Amplitude chimeras and chimera death in dynamical networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zakharova, Anna; Kapeller, Marie; Schöll, Eckehard

    2016-01-01

    We find chimera states with respect to amplitude dynamics in a network of Stuart- Landau oscillators. These partially coherent and partially incoherent spatio-temporal patterns appear due to the interplay of nonlocal network topology and symmetry-breaking coupling. As the coupling range is increased, the oscillations are quenched, amplitude chimeras disappear and the network enters a symmetry-breaking stationary state. This particular regime is a novel pattern which we call chimera death. It is characterized by the coexistence of spatially coherent and incoherent inhomogeneous steady states and therefore combines the features of chimera state and oscillation death. Additionally, we show two different transition scenarios from amplitude chimera to chimera death. Moreover, for amplitude chimeras we uncover the mechanism of transition towards in-phase synchronized regime and discuss the role of initial conditions. (paper)

  13. Euclidean to Minkowski Bethe-Salpeter amplitude and observables

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carbonell, J.; Frederico, T.; Karmanov, V.A.

    2017-01-01

    We propose a method to reconstruct the Bethe-Salpeter amplitude in Minkowski space given the Euclidean Bethe-Salpeter amplitude - or alternatively the light-front wave function - as input. The method is based on the numerical inversion of the Nakanishi integral representation and computing the corresponding weight function. This inversion procedure is, in general, rather unstable, and we propose several ways to considerably reduce the instabilities. In terms of the Nakanishi weight function, one can easily compute the BS amplitude, the LF wave function and the electromagnetic form factor. The latter ones are very stable in spite of residual instabilities in the weight function. This procedure allows both, to continue the Euclidean BS solution in the Minkowski space and to obtain a BS amplitude from a LF wave function. (orig.)

  14. Euclidean to Minkowski Bethe-Salpeter amplitude and observables

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Carbonell, J. [Universite Paris-Sud, IN2P3-CNRS, Institut de Physique Nucleaire, Orsay Cedex (France); Frederico, T. [Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica, DCTA, Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil); Karmanov, V.A. [Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2017-01-15

    We propose a method to reconstruct the Bethe-Salpeter amplitude in Minkowski space given the Euclidean Bethe-Salpeter amplitude - or alternatively the light-front wave function - as input. The method is based on the numerical inversion of the Nakanishi integral representation and computing the corresponding weight function. This inversion procedure is, in general, rather unstable, and we propose several ways to considerably reduce the instabilities. In terms of the Nakanishi weight function, one can easily compute the BS amplitude, the LF wave function and the electromagnetic form factor. The latter ones are very stable in spite of residual instabilities in the weight function. This procedure allows both, to continue the Euclidean BS solution in the Minkowski space and to obtain a BS amplitude from a LF wave function. (orig.)

  15. Brain activations related to saccadic response conflict are not sensitive to time on task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ewa eBeldzik

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Establishing a role of the dorsal medial frontal cortex in the performance monitoring and cognitive control has been a challenge to neuroscientists for the past decade. In light of recent findings, the conflict monitoring hypothesis has been elaborated to an action-outcome predictor theory. One of the findings that led to this re-evaluation was the fMRI study in which conflict-related brain activity was investigated in terms of the so-called time on task effect, i.e. a linear increase of the BOLD signal with longer response times. The aim of this study was to investigate brain regions involved in the processing of saccadic response conflict and to account for the time on task effect. A modified spatial cueing task was implemented in the event-related fMRI study with oculomotor responses. The results revealed several brain regions which show higher activity for incongruent trials in comparison to the congruent ones, including pre-supplementary motor area together with the frontal and parietal regions. Further analysis accounting for the effect of response time provided evidence that these brain activations were not sensitive to time on task but reflected purely the congruency effect.

  16. Brain Activations Related to Saccadic Response Conflict are not Sensitive to Time on Task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beldzik, Ewa; Domagalik, Aleksandra; Oginska, Halszka; Marek, Tadeusz; Fafrowicz, Magdalena

    2015-01-01

    Establishing a role of the dorsal medial frontal cortex in the performance monitoring and cognitive control has been a challenge to neuroscientists for the past decade. In light of recent findings, the conflict monitoring hypothesis has been elaborated to an action-outcome predictor theory. One of the findings that led to this re-evaluation was the fMRI study in which conflict-related brain activity was investigated in terms of the so-called time on task effect, i.e., a linear increase of the BOLD signal with longer response times. The aim of this study was to investigate brain regions involved in the processing of saccadic response conflict and to account for the time on task effect. A modified spatial cueing task was implemented in the event-related fMRI study with oculomotor responses. The results revealed several brain regions which show higher activity for incongruent trials in comparison to the congruent ones, including pre-supplementary motor area together with the frontal and parietal regions. Further analysis accounting for the effect of response time provided evidence that these brain activations were not sensitive to time on task but reflected purely the congruency effect.

  17. The amplitude of quantum field theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Medvedev, B.V.; Pavlov, V.P.; Polivanov, M.K.; Sukhanov, A.D.

    1989-01-01

    General properties of the transition amplitude in axiomatic quantum field theory are discussed. Bogolyubov's axiomatic method is chosen as the variant of the theory. The axioms of this method are analyzed. In particular, the significance of the off-shell extension and of the various forms of the causality condition are examined. A complete proof is given of the existence of a single analytic function whose boundary values are the amplitudes of all channels of a process with given particle number

  18. Amplitude and Ascoli analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hansen, J.D.

    1976-01-01

    This article discusses the partial wave analysis of two, three and four meson systems. The difference between the two approaches, referred to as amplitude and Ascoli analysis is discussed. Some of the results obtained with these methods are shown. (B.R.H.)

  19. Modification of Particle Distributions By MHD Instabilities I

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    White, R.B.

    2010-01-01

    The modification of particle distributions by low amplitude magnetohydrodynamic modes is an important topic for magnetically confined plasmas. Low amplitude modes are known to be capable of producing significant modification of injected neutral beam profiles, and the same can be expected in burning plasmas for the alpha particle distributions. Flattening of a distribution due to phase mixing in an island or due to portions of phase space becoming stochastic is a process extremely rapid on the time scale of an experiment but still very long compared to the time scale of guiding center simulations. Thus it is very valuable to be able to locate significant resonances and to predict the final particle distribution produced by a given spectrum of magnetohydrodynamic modes. In this paper we introduce a new method of determining domains of phase space in which good surfaces do not exist and use this method for quickly determining the final state of the particle distribution without carrying out the full time evolution leading to it.

  20. Algebraic evaluation of rational polynomials in one-loop amplitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Binoth, Thomas; Guillet, Jean-Philippe; Heinrich, Gudrun

    2007-01-01

    One-loop amplitudes are to a large extent determined by their unitarity cuts in four dimensions. We show that the remaining rational terms can be obtained from the ultraviolet behaviour of the amplitude, and determine universal form factors for these rational parts by applying reduction techniques to the Feynman diagrammatic representation of the amplitude. The method is valid for massless and massive internal particles. We illustrate this method by evaluating the rational terms of the one-loop amplitudes for gg→H, γγ→γγ, gg→gg,γγ→ggg and γγ→γγγγ