The TESS-Keck Survey. VIII. Confirmation of a Transiting Giant Planet on an Eccentric 261 Day Orbit with the Automated Planet Finder Telescope*

We report the discovery of TOI-2180 b, a 2.8 M J giant planet orbiting a slightly evolved G5 host star. This planet transited only once in Cycle 2 of the primary Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. Citizen scientists identified the 24 hr single-transit event shortly after the data were released, allowing a Doppler monitoring campaign with the Automated Planet Finder telescope at Lick Observatory to begin promptly. The radial velocity observations refined the orbital period of TOI-2180 b to be 260.8 ± 0.6 days, revealed an orbital eccentricity of 0.368 ± 0.007, and discovered long-term acceleration from a more distant massive companion. We conducted ground-based photometry from 14 sites spread around the globe in an attempt to detect another transit. Although we did not make a clear transit detection, the nondetections improved the precision of the orbital period. We predict that TESS will likely detect another transit of TOI-2180 b in Sector 48 of its extended mission. We use giant planet structure models to retrieve the bulk heavy-element content of TOI-2180 b. When considered alongside other giant planets with orbital periods over 100 days, we find tentative evidence that the correlation between planet mass and metal enrichment relative to stellar is dependent on orbital properties. Single-transit discoveries like TOI-2180 b highlight the exciting potential of the TESS mission to find planets with long orbital periods and low irradiation fluxes despite the selection biases associated with the transit method.

Likeness-making and the evolution of cognition

Paleontological evidence suggests that human artefacts with intentional markings might have originated already in the Lower Paleolithic, up to 500.000 years ago and well before the advent of ‘behavioural modernity’. These markings apparently did not serve instrumental, tool-like functions, nor do they appear to be forms of figurative art. Instead, they display abstract geometric patterns that potentially testify to an emerging ability of symbol use. In a variation on Ian Hacking’s speculative account of the possible role of “likeness-making” in the evolution of human cognition and language, this essay explores the central role that the embodied processes of making and the collective practices of using such artefacts might have played in early human cognitive evolution. Two paradigmatic findings of Lower Paleolithic artefacts are discussed as tentative evidence of likenesses acting as material scaffolds in the emergence of symbolic reference-making. They might provide the link between basic abilities of mimesis and imitation and the development of modern language and thought.

An examination of intolerance of uncertainty effects on subjective, psychophysiological, and neural markers during uninstructed and instructed threat acquisition and extinction training

Individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to find uncertainty aversive. Prior research has demonstrated that under uncertainty individuals with high IU display difficulties in updating learned threat associations to safety associations. Importantly, recent research has shown that providing contingency instructions about threat and safety contingencies (i.e. reducing uncertainty) to individuals with high IU promotes the updating of learned threat associations to safety associations. Here we aimed to conceptually replicate IU and contingency instruction-based effects by conducting a secondary analysis of self-reported IU, ratings, skin conductance, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data recorded during uninstructed/instructed blocks of threat acquisition and threat extinction training (n = 48). Self-reported IU was not associated with differential responding to learned threat and safety cues for any measure during uninstructed/instructed blocks of threat acquisition and threat extinction training. There was some tentative evidence that higher IU was associated with greater ratings of unpleasantness and arousal to the safety cue after the experiment and greater skin conductance response to the safety cue during extinction generally. Potential explanations for these null effects and directions for future research are discussed.

Stressful Life Events, Differential Vulnerability, and Depressive Symptoms: Critique and New Evidence

Depressive symptoms are disproportionately high among women and less educated individuals. One mechanism proposed to explain this is the differential vulnerability hypothesis—that these groups experience particularly strong increases in symptoms in response to stressful life events. We identify limitations to prior work and present evidence from a new approach to life stress research using the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Preliminarily, we replicate prior findings of differential vulnerability in between-individual models. Harnessing repeated measures, however, we show that apparent findings of differential vulnerability by both sex and education are artifacts of confounding. Men and women experience similar average increases in depressive symptoms after stressful life events. One exception is tentative evidence for a stronger association among women for events occurring to others in the household. We term this the “female vulnerability to network events” hypothesis and discuss with reference to Kessler and McLeod’s related “cost of caring” hypothesis.

Investigating the modulation of methylphenidate’s effects on impulsivity by fluoxetine

<p>The co-prescribing of methylphenidate (MPH) and a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor for patients presenting co-morbidly with both attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and depression or anxiety is in some cases recommended. Little research has been conducted on the specific cognitive and behavioural outcomes of this. Studies with rats have shown that SSRI’s potentiate MPH-induced dopamine release in the pre-frontal cortex, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens, as well as enhancing MPH-induced hyper-locomotion (Borycz, Zapata, Quiroz, Volkow, & Ferré, 2008; Weikop, Yoshitake, & Kehr, 2007b). Impulsivity is a behavioural construct with dissociable sub-types, of which one, ‘action restraint’, has been consistently shown to be associated with increased dopamine activity in the mesolimbic system, including the nucleus accumbens. It was hypothesised that rats would make more ‘no-go’ errors in a Go/No-Go task, indicative of an increase in ‘action restraint’ type impulsivity, when co-administered fluoxetine (FLX) and MPH compared to either drug administered alone. Although this was not shown in the current study, tentative evidence was found to suggest that the combination of these drugs may negatively impact on attention, based on a decrease in ‘go’ accuracy. A second subtype of impulsivity, “action cancellation”, was tested using a new variant of the Stop-Signal Reaction Time (SSRT) task that we have developed for rats. Studies show that this subtype of impulsivity seems to be unaffected by changes in dopamine activity, but is improved by increases in norepinephrine. In the Weikop study mentioned above, the SSRI citalopram enhanced not only MPH-induced dopamine release, but also norepinephrine release in the nucleus accumbens. Thus it was hypothesised that FLX may potentiate MPH’s impulsivity-reducing effects as measured by stopping latency in the SSRT. We were not able to show this in the current study, however the demonstration that lower doses of MPH reduced stopping latency, consistent with previous versions of the SSRT, validated the new version developed for the current study. A final experiment revealed a rapid, short-term increase in locomotor activity when rats were co-administered FLX and MPH, an effect not present when either drug was administered singly. This synergistic effect replicates previous findings, and indicates a potentiation of dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, as was found in previous studies. Although FLX was not found to moderate MPH’s effects on impulsivity in the current study, synergistic effects of the two drugs were effects were found on motor activity and potentially on attention also. This is an indication of the value of further research into specific behavioural and cognitive process that may be affected by co-administration of MPH and an SSRI.</p>

Investigating the modulation of methylphenidate’s effects on impulsivity by fluoxetine

<p>The co-prescribing of methylphenidate (MPH) and a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor for patients presenting co-morbidly with both attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and depression or anxiety is in some cases recommended. Little research has been conducted on the specific cognitive and behavioural outcomes of this. Studies with rats have shown that SSRI’s potentiate MPH-induced dopamine release in the pre-frontal cortex, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens, as well as enhancing MPH-induced hyper-locomotion (Borycz, Zapata, Quiroz, Volkow, & Ferré, 2008; Weikop, Yoshitake, & Kehr, 2007b). Impulsivity is a behavioural construct with dissociable sub-types, of which one, ‘action restraint’, has been consistently shown to be associated with increased dopamine activity in the mesolimbic system, including the nucleus accumbens. It was hypothesised that rats would make more ‘no-go’ errors in a Go/No-Go task, indicative of an increase in ‘action restraint’ type impulsivity, when co-administered fluoxetine (FLX) and MPH compared to either drug administered alone. Although this was not shown in the current study, tentative evidence was found to suggest that the combination of these drugs may negatively impact on attention, based on a decrease in ‘go’ accuracy. A second subtype of impulsivity, “action cancellation”, was tested using a new variant of the Stop-Signal Reaction Time (SSRT) task that we have developed for rats. Studies show that this subtype of impulsivity seems to be unaffected by changes in dopamine activity, but is improved by increases in norepinephrine. In the Weikop study mentioned above, the SSRI citalopram enhanced not only MPH-induced dopamine release, but also norepinephrine release in the nucleus accumbens. Thus it was hypothesised that FLX may potentiate MPH’s impulsivity-reducing effects as measured by stopping latency in the SSRT. We were not able to show this in the current study, however the demonstration that lower doses of MPH reduced stopping latency, consistent with previous versions of the SSRT, validated the new version developed for the current study. A final experiment revealed a rapid, short-term increase in locomotor activity when rats were co-administered FLX and MPH, an effect not present when either drug was administered singly. This synergistic effect replicates previous findings, and indicates a potentiation of dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, as was found in previous studies. Although FLX was not found to moderate MPH’s effects on impulsivity in the current study, synergistic effects of the two drugs were effects were found on motor activity and potentially on attention also. This is an indication of the value of further research into specific behavioural and cognitive process that may be affected by co-administration of MPH and an SSRI.</p>

Black Hole Gravitational Potential Enhanced Fallback Accretion onto the Nascent Lighter Compact Object: Tentative Evidence in the O3 Run Data of LIGO/Virgo

In a binary system, the gravitational potential of the primary black hole may play an important role in enhancing the fallback accretion onto the lighter compact object newly formed in the second supernova explosion. As a result, the final masses of the binary compact objects would be correlated, as suggested recently by Safarzadeh & Wysocki. In this work, we analyze the mass distribution of four gravitational-wave events, which are characterized by both a small mass ratio and a low mass (≤5M ⊙) of the light component, and find tentative evidence for a mass correlation among the objects. To evaluate the feasibility of testing such a hypothesis with upcoming observations, we carry out simulations with a mock population and perform Bayesian hierarchical inference for the mass distribution. We find that with dozens of low mass ratio events, whether there exists correlation in the component mass distributions or not can be robustly tested and the correlation, if it exists, can be well determined.

Metacognitively ALERT In Science

The development of student metacognition has the potential to provide some of the greatest learning gains in science classes, even outstripping the contribution of general intelligence. However, some science educators not only struggle with successfully prompting students to develop metacognition, but also find understanding the concept itself problematic. This struggle is compounded by models for metacognition that are in broad agreement about its nature, but vary widely in essential elements and the relationships between elements. This article presents a synthesis of metacognition studies in science education and further afield that draws together non-contested elements into a readily understood hierarchy of metacognitive knowledge and skills. The hierarchical framework comprises, from the foundation level, self-Aware of cognition, self-Monitor cognition, self-Evaluate cognition, self-Regulate cognition and self-Transfer cognition (AMERT). As a preliminary test of its viability, the AMERT framework is used to analyse interview data in which there was evidence of rich metacognitive thinking by students in the fourth, research-focused, year of a science degree. The degree used the six facets of the Research Skill Development (RSD) framework as labels for cognition. Rich epitomizing statements were found in interviews for each level of the AMERT hierarchy, providing tentative evidence of its viability for understanding metacognitive processes. The AMERT hierarchy of metacognition provides opportunities for teaching and learning, teacher action research, and research teams to investigate metacognition in the contexts of school and university science programs.

Temporal response modelling uncovers electrophysiological correlates of trial-by-trial error-driven learning

Humans learn from statistical regularities in the environment. We tested if prediction and prediction error may play a role in such learning in the brain. We used Error-Driven Learning (EDL) to simulate participants’ trial-by-trial learning during exposure to a bimodal distribution of non-native lexical tones. We simulated incremental trial-by-trial learning to get estimates of the degree of expectation of upcoming stimuli over the course of the experiment. The expectation estimates were combined with Temporal Response Function fitting to generate a prediction of the trial-by-trial ERP waveform. EDL simulations captured the data significantly better than chance and better than models based on either stimulus characteristics or statistical distributions. The results provide tentative evidence that trial-by-trial learning as measured in neural activity is error-driven.

Motivation as a function of success frequency

It is well-established that intermediate challenge is optimally motivating. We tested whether this can be quantified into an inverted-U relationship between motivation and success frequency. Participants played a game in which they navigated a scene to catch targets. In Experiment 1 (N = 101), play duration was free and the motivating value of success frequency was measured from the probability that a player would continue at that frequency. In Experiment 2 (N = 70), play duration was fixed, and motivation was measured using repeated self-reports. In Experiment 1, the probability to continue increased linearly with the success frequency whereas play duration did show the inverted-U relationship with success frequency. In Experiment 2, self-reported motivation showed the inverted-U relationship with success frequency. Together, this shows that motivation depends on success frequency. In addition, we provide tentative evidence that the concept of intermediate challenge being most motivating can be quantified into an inverted-U relationship between motivation and success frequency.