Magnetoencephalography Reveals Mismatch Field Enhancement from Unexpected Syntactic Category Errors in English Sentences.

The type of syntactic operations that increase neuronal activation in humans as a result of syntactically erroneous, unexpected lexical items in hearing sentences has remained unclear. In the present study, we used recordings of magnetoencephalographic (MEG) activity to compare bare infinitive and full infinitive constructions in English. This research aims to identify the type of syntactic deviance that may trigger an early syntax-related mismatch field (MMF) component when unexpected words appear in sentences. Six speakers of English as a first language were presented with auditory stimuli of sentences or words in a passive odd-ball paradigm while watching a silent movie. The experimental protocol included four sessions, specifically investigating the sentential (structural) versions of full (with the 'to' infinitival particle) and bare infinitival structures (without the particle) and the lexical (non-structure) versions of the verb either with or without the particle to determine whether the structure processing of sentences was a more crucial factor in the detection of the MMF than the simple processing of lexical items in verb-only conditions. The amplitude analysis of the resulting evoked fields showed that the presence of the syntactic category error of bare infinitival structures against syntactic predictions evoked a significantly larger MMF activation with a peak latency of approximately 200ms in the anterior superior temporal sulci in the left hemisphere, compared with the lexical items that did not have any syntactic status. These results clearly demonstrate that syntactically unexpected, illegal input in the bare infinitival structure is likely to be noticed more robustly in the brain while processing the structural information of the entire sentence than the corresponding verb-only items.

Evaluation of performance to detect default mode network among some algorithms applied to resting-state fMRI data.

Significant correlation exists in the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals of resting-state fMRI across different regions in the brain. These regions form the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN), sensory networks, and others. Among these, the DMN is widely investigated in relation to various mental diseases. Several analytic methods are available for obtaining the DMN activity from individuals' fMRI time-series signals, but a fully effective method has not yet been established. In the present study, we examined a functional connectivity analysis and three algorithms of blind source separation including independent component analysis, second-order blind identification, and non-negative matrix factorization using a set of resting-state fMRI data measured for twelve young participants. Results showed that the second-order blind identification yielded superior performance for the DMN detection, indicating significant activation in all DMN regions based on statistical parametric maps.

Magnetocardiograms early detection of pulmonary arterial hypertension using inverse problem analysis in rat model.

Utilizing small animal magnetocardiograms (MCG), we have developed a diagnostic method to detect the development of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in a rat heart. We obtained multiple MCG of rats with monocrotaline-induced PH and monitored the development of pathophysiological conditions. Current dipole estimation was then applied to determine the association between abnormal propagation of the cardiac excited wavefront and disease states. The progress of right ventricular hypertrophy correlated with a decrease in the angles of the current dipoles during R and S waves. In addition, clear changes in the current dipole angles during S waves were observed 9-19 days before the availability of echocardiographic diagnosis of the PH. Our results showed, using a rat PH model, that continuous monitoring of myocardial conditions allows PH to be detected at an earlier stage than echocardiographic screening.

Analyses of Transient Behaviors of No-Insulation REBCO Pancake Coils During Sudden Discharging and Overcurrent.

Stability margin of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coil is two or three orders of magnitude greater than that of a low-temperature superconducting coil. In recent years, many papers have reported test results of turn-to-turn no-insulation (NI) HTS coils having extremely enhanced thermal stability, such that burnout never occurs in an NI coil, even at an operating current exceeding 2.5 times the critical current. Thus, The main goal of this paper is to clarify transient electromagnetic and thermal behaviors and mechanism of the high thermal stability in an NI REBCO coil. A partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) model is proposed for the numerical simulation of an NI REBCO coil, which considers a local electrical contact resistance between turns, an I-V characteristic of an REBCO tape, and local self and mutual inductances of the NI REBCO coil. Using the PEEC model, we investigate the influence of the turn-to-turn contact resistance on the transient behavior of the NI REBCO coil during sudden discharging. We also perform thermal conduction analyses with the PEEC model to clarify the transient behavior of an NI REBCO coil during an overcurrent operation.

Pursuing the flow of information: connectivity between bilateral premotor cortices predicts better accuracy in the phonological working memory task.

Using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) we studied functional connectivity of cortical areas during phonological working memory task. Six subjects participated in the experiment and their neuronal activity was measured by a 306-channel MEG system. We used a modified version of the visual Sternberg paradigm, which required subjects to memorize 8 alphabet letters in 2s for a late recall period. We estimated functional connectivity of oscillatory regional brain activities during the encoding session for each trial of each subject using beamformer source reconstruction and Granger causality analysis. Regional brain activities were mostly found in the bilateral premotor cortex (Brodmann area (BA) 6: PMC), the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9: DLPFC), and the right frontal eye field (BA 8). Considering that the left and right PMCs participate in the functions of phonological loop (PL) and the visuospatial sketchpad (VS) in the Baddeley's model of working memory, respectively, our result suggests that subjects utilized either single function or both functions of working memory circuitry to execute the task. Interestingly, the accuracy of the task was significantly higher in the trials where the alpha band oscillatory activities in the bilateral PMCs established functional connectivity compared to those where the PMC was not working in conjunction with its counterpart. Similar relationship was found in the theta band oscillatory activities between the right PMC and the right DLPFC, however in this case the establishment of functional connectivity significantly decreased the accuracy of the task. These results suggest that sharing the memory load with both PL- and VS- type memory storage circuitries contributed to better performance in the highly-demanding cognitive task.

Evidence of subsurface oxygen vacancy ordering on reduced CeO2(111).

Surface and subsurface oxygen vacancies on the slightly reduced CeO(2)(111) surface have been studied by atomic resolution dynamic force microscopy at 80 K. Both types of defect are clearly identified by the comparison of the observed topographic features with the corresponding structures predicted from recent first-principles calculations. By combining two simultaneously acquired signals (the topography and the energy dissipated from the cantilever oscillation), we are able to unambiguously locate subsurface oxygen vacancies buried at the third surface atomic layer. We report evidence of local ordering of these subsurface defects that suggests the existence of a delicate balance between subtle interactions among adjacent subsurface oxygen vacancy structures.