Distractibility and impulsivity neural states are distinct from attention states and modulate the implementation of attention

In the context of visual attention, it has been classically assumed that missing the response to a target or erroneously selecting a distractor occurs as a consequence of the (miss)allocation of attention in space. In the present paper, we challenge this view and provide evidence that, in addition to encoding spatial attention, prefrontal neurons also encode a distractibility-to-impulsivity state. Using supervised dimensionality reduction techniques, we identify two partially overlapped neuronal subpopulations associated either with attention or overt behaviour. The degree of overlap accounts for the behavioural gain associated with the good allocation of attention. We further describe the neural variability accounting for distractibility-to-impulsivity behaviour by a two dimensional state associated with optimality in task and responsiveness. Overall, we thus show that behavioural performance arises from the integration of task-specific neuronal processes and pre-existing neuronal states describing task-independent behavioural states, shedding new light on attention disorders such as ADHD.

‘Out of a reverie, and as if giving unconscious expression to a deep internal feeling’

This chapter discusses the songs which were performed to accompany the labour of clothmaking in Gaelic-speaking areas of Ireland and Scotland. Clothmaking was predominantly women’s work, and these songs provide us with an insight into the preoccupations of song-poets whose compositions are unlikely to have been preserved elsewhere in the tradition. There are deep underlying similarities between the Irish and Scottish clothmaking corpora which have not been discussed in any detail to date; there are also indications that the liminal context of clothmaking songs demonstrates a degree of overlap with other elements of Gaelic tradition, particularly in the contexts of matchmaking and fertility and in the reassertion of physical boundaries seen, for example, in traditional May Day celebrations.

Measuring the Degree of Overlap and Segregation among Multiple Probabilistic Home Ranges: A New Index with Illustrative Application to the Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni

Home range overlap/segregation has several important applications to wildlife conservation and management. In this work, we first address the issue of measuring the degree of overlap/segregation among an arbitrarily large number (i.e., n ≥ 2) of probabilistic animal home ranges (i.e., utilization distributions). This subject matter has recently been solved for home ranges measured as polygons (e.g., percent minimum convex polygons and multinuclear cores) but not yet for probabilistic ones. Accordingly, we introduce a novel index named the PGOI (probabilistic general overlap index), and its complement, the PGSI (probabilistic general segregation index), an index for computation of probabilistic home range overlap/segregation at individual, population and species levels. Whatever the number of probabilistic home ranges, the PGOI returns a single score ranging in the [0, 100] interval. We applied the PGOI to five lesser kestrels (Falco naumanni) at Santeramo in Colle (Apulia region; Southern Italy) as a case study. Our new index can be applied to any animal species and to home ranges derived from any type of probabilistic home range estimator.

Summaries of harms in systematic reviews are unreliable (Part 2 of 2): Given the same data sources, systematic reviews of gabapentin have different results for harms

ObjectiveIn this methodologic study (Part 2 of 2), we examined the overlap in sources of evidence and the corresponding results for harms in systematic reviews for gabapentin. Study Design & SettingWe extracted all citations referenced as sources of evidence for harms of gabapentin from 70 systematic reviews, as well as the harms assessed and numerical results. We assessed consistency of harms between pairs of reviews with a high degree of overlap in sources of evidence (>50%) as determined by corrected covered area (CCA). Whereas our focus in this paper is on the results for harms across reviews, Paper 1 examines the methods used to assess harms.ResultsWe found 514 reports cited across 70 included reviews. Most reports (244/514, 48%) were not cited in more than one review. Among 18 pairs of reviews, we found reviews had differences in which harms were assessed and their choice to meta-analyze estimates or present qualitative summaries. When a specific harm was meta-analyzed in a pair of reviews, we found similar effect estimates. ConclusionDifferences in harms results across reviews can occur because the choice of harms is driven by reviewer preferences, rather than standardized approaches to selecting harms for assessment. A paradigm shift is needed in the current approach to synthesizing harms.

Postoperative outcomes and the association with overlap before or after the critical step of lumbar fusion

OBJECTIVE This study assesses how degree of overlap, either before or after the critical operative portion, affects lumbar fusion outcomes. METHODS The authors retrospectively studied 3799 consecutive patients undergoing single-level, posterior-only lumbar fusion over 6 years (2013–2019) at a university health system. Outcomes recorded within 30–90 and 0–90 postoperative days included emergency department (ED) visit, readmission, reoperation, overall morbidity, and mortality. Furthermore, morbidity and mortality were recorded for the duration of follow-up. The amount of overlap that occurred before or after the critical portion of surgery was calculated as a percentage of total beginning or end operative time. Subsequent to initial whole-population analysis, coarsened exact-matched cohorts of patients were created with the least and most amounts of either beginning or end overlap. Univariate analysis was performed on both beginning and end overlap exact-matched cohorts, with significance set at p < 0.05. RESULTS Equivalent outcomes were observed when comparing exact-matched patients. Among the whole population, the degree of beginning overlap was correlated with reduced ED visits within 30–90 and 0–90 days (p = 0.007, p = 0.009; respectively), and less 0–90 day morbidity (p = 0.037). Degree of end overlap was correlated with fewer 30–90 day ED visits (p = 0.015). When comparing only patients with overlap, degree of beginning overlap was correlated with fewer 0–90 day reoperations (p = 0.022), and no outcomes were correlated with degree of end overlap. CONCLUSIONS The degree of overlap before or after the critical step of surgery does not lead to worse outcomes after lumbar fusion.

To which extent do political parties utilize similar frames?

How parties compete by utilizing frames in the public debate is not well understood. A widespread understanding is that parties tend to compete by talking past each other, i.e. when they utilize dissimilar frames. This article relies on a unique data set of parties’ framing of four individual policy questions over two decades in Denmark to examine frame overlap, i.e. when parties adopt similar frames. Results show that parties utilize similar and dissimilar frames in the public debate. However, a high degree of frame similarity was generally found across parliamentary blocs (between the leading mainstream party from each bloc, their leading junior coalition partner, and the two blocs) and most often a very high degree of overlap was found within parliamentary blocs (between the leading mainstream party and its junior coalition partner). This result suggests a need to rethink thoroughly how to understand and study interaction among parties utilizing frames.

The vowel system of Santiago Mexquititlán Otomi (Hñäñho)

The present study provides an acoustic description of the vowel system of Santiago Mexquititlán Otomi (Hñäñho), an endangered and understudied Oto-Manguean language variety spoken in central Mexico. The goal of this production study was to determine whether the phonemic contrasts between Hñäñho vowels, as previously described impressionistically, are maintained in the acoustic realizations of a group of relatively balanced bilingual native speakers of Hñäñho or if Hñäñho phonemic categories are merging due to the extensive influence of Spanish. To this end, each Hñäñho speaker recorded a carefully designed list of 90 Hñäñho words and the resulting dataset of a total of 1507 tokens was subjected to analysis. Linear mixed-effects models were constructed to predict Bark scale correlates of vowel height (B1 – b0) and vowel frontness/backness (B2 – B1) and the Pillai scores were calculated in order to determine the degree of overlap for adjacent Hñäñho vowel pairs. The speakers’ Hñäñho vowels were also compared to their Spanish vowels. A list of five Spanish words was used and a total of 90 tokens of the Spanish vowels were recorded. The results confirm that the vowel system of Hñäñho, produced by older Hñäñho speakers, consists of 10 distinct phonemes. Hñäñho-specific phonetic details are discussed, including the fronted realization of the vowel /u/ as [u̟] and the lowering of the vowel /ɔ/ to [ɒ], which might lead to a future /a – ɔ/ merger. These findings underline the importance of early and sustained exposure to indigenous bilinguals’ native language for the maintenance of phonetic features of Hñäñho despite extensive contact with Spanish.

Diel and seasonal activity pattern of alien sika deer with sympatric mammalian species from Muljangori-oreum wetland of Hallasan National Park, South Korean

Background Sika deer, Cervus nippon, were originally introduced to South Korea from Japan and Taiwan for commercial farming purposes. Unfortunately, they were released into the wild during religious events and have since begun to impact the native ecosystem and species endemic to South Korea. The study of activity patterns can improve our understanding of the environmental impact of non-native species and their association with sympatric species. Using camera traps, we studied the diel and seasonal activity patterns of non-native sika deer and quantified the temporal overlap with sympatric mammalian species in the Muljangori-oreum wetlands of Hallasan National Park, South Korea. Results A total of 970 trap events were recorded for five mammalian species from nine locations during the camera-trap survey. Siberian roe deer (Capreoluspygargus tianschanicus) had the highest number of recorded events (72.0%), followed by sika deer (Cervus nippon) (16.2%), wild boar (Sus scrofa) (5.0%), Asian badger (Meles leucurus) (4.5%), and the Jeju weasel (Mustela sibirica quelpartis) (2.0%). Sika deer had bimodal activity patterns throughout the year, with peaks throughout the spring-autumn twilight, and day and night time throughout the winter. Relating the daily activity of sika deer with other mammalian species, roe deer expressed the highest degree of overlap (∆4 = 0.80) while the Asian badger demonstrated the lowest overlap (∆4 = 0.37). Conclusions Our data show that sika deer are a crepuscular species with seasonal variations in daily activity patterns. Additionally, we identified the temporal differences in activity peaks between different mammals in the Muljangori-oreum wetlands and found higher degree of overlap between sika deer and roe deer during twilight hours.

Characteristics of landslide path dependency revealed through multiple resolution landslide inventories in the Nepal Himalaya

Recent research in Umbria, Italy, has shown that landslide susceptibility is controlled by a process called path-dependency, which describes how past landslides control the locations of future landslides. To date, landslide path-dependency has only been characterised in Italy. This raises the question of whether this process occurs in other geomorphic settings, and thus whether path-dependency should be more universally included in landslide susceptibility assessments. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to investigate and quantify landslide path dependency in the Nepal Himalaya. This is achieved by applying several path dependent metrics to three monsoon-triggered landslide inventories for the central-eastern Nepal Himalaya. These inventories were developed at two different spatial and temporal resolutions. As such, we aim not just to quantify landslide path-dependency, but also assess whether path dependency characteristics are resolution-dependent. We find strong evidence that landslide path dependency is occurring in Nepal, with all three inventories having more overlap between past and new landslides than expected from a random distribution, and a tentative observation that the expected degree of overlap between landslides decreases with time. Finally, whilst path-dependency is observable across both of the investigated inventory resolutions, we find that the rates and magnitudes of the quantified path dependent metrics are sensitive to inventory length, study region size and the size/type of landslides mapped. Overall, our results corroborate the path-dependency observations from Italy, confirming that this process does occur in other geomorphic settings, and thus suggesting that path-dependency should be explicitly and universally considered in landslide susceptibility approaches.

When Polarization Triggers Out-Group “Counter-Projection” Across the Political Divide

Although projecting one’s own characteristics onto another person is pervasive, “counter-projection,” or seeing the opposite of oneself in others is also sometimes found, with implications for intergroup conflict. After a focused review of previous studies finding counter-projection (often unexpectedly), we map conditions for counter-projection to an individual out-group member. Counter-projection requires identified antagonistic groups, is moderated by in-group identity, and is moderated by which information is assessed in the target person. Using political groups defined by support for former U.S. President Trump, across our Initial Experiment ( N = 725) and Confirmatory Experiment ( N = 618), we found counter-projection to individual political out-group targets for moral beliefs, personality traits, and everyday likes (e.g., preference for dogs vs. cats). Counter-projection was increased by in-group identification and overlapped considerably with “oppositional” out-group stereotypes, but we also found counter-projection independent of out-group stereotypes (degree of overlap with stereotyping depended on the information being projected).