Cosmological Constraints from Multiple Probes in the Dark Energy Survey.

The combination of multiple observational probes has long been advocated as a powerful technique to constrain cosmological parameters, in particular dark energy. The Dark Energy Survey has measured 207 spectroscopically confirmed type Ia supernova light curves, the baryon acoustic oscillation feature, weak gravitational lensing, and galaxy clustering. Here we present combined results from these probes, deriving constraints on the equation of state, w, of dark energy and its energy density in the Universe.

Subjective fixation disparity affected by dynamic asymmetry, resting vergence, and nonius bias.

Purpose: This study was undertaken to investigate how subjectively measured fixation disparity can be explained by (1) the convergent-divergent asymmetry of vergence dynamics (called dynamic asymmetry) for a disparity vergence step stimulus of 1° (60 arc min), (2) the dark vergence, and (3) the nonius bias.

Methods: Fixation disparity, dark vergence, and nonius bias were measured subjectively using nonius lines. Dynamic vergence step responses (both convergent and divergent) were measured objectively.

Binocularity during reading fixations: Properties of the minimum fixation disparity.

The present study was based on the physiologically reasonable assumption that the binocular system aims for a reduction of fixation disparity during fixation and that the minimum amount of fixation disparity reflects the optimal binocular status. We measured eye movements (EyeLink II) of 18 participants, while they read 60 sentences from the Potsdam-Sentence-Corpus (PSC) at a viewing distance of 60cm. The minimum fixation disparity was frequently reached directly after the post-saccadic drift, sometimes at the end of fixation and sometimes somewhere in between.

Role of ataxia telangiectasia mutated in insulin signalling of muscle-derived cell lines and mouse soleus.

Aim: Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) reportedly plays a role in insulin-stimulated activation of Akt in some cell types but not in others. The role of ATM in insulin signalling has not been firmly resolved for skeletal muscle cells, for which Akt phosphorylation is a pivotal step in stimulation of glucose transport. Accordingly, our aim was to determine the role of ATM in insulin effects for cell lines derived from skeletal muscle and for skeletal muscle.

Accommodation modulates the individual difference between objective and subjective measures of the final convergence step response.

Measuring vergence eye movements with dichoptic nonius lines (subjectively) usually leads to an overestimation of the vergence state after a step response: a subjective vergence overestimation (SVO). We tried to reduce this SVO by presenting a vergence stimulus that decoupled vergence and accommodation during the step response, i.e.

Ocular accommodation and cognitive demand: an additional indicator besides pupil size and cardiovascular measures?

Background: The aim of the present study was to assess accommodation as a possible indicator of changes in the autonomic balance caused by altered cognitive demand. Accounting for accommodative responses from a human factors perspective may be motivated by the interest of designing virtual image displays or by establishing an autonomic indicator that allows for remote measurement at the human eye. Heart period, pulse transit time, and the pupillary response were considered as reference for possible closed-loop accommodative effects.

Objective and subjective measures of vergence step responses.

Dichoptic nonius lines are used for subjectively (psychophysically) measuring vergence states, but they have been questioned as valid indicators of vergence eye position. In a mirror-stereoscope, we presented convergent and divergent step-stimuli and estimated the vergence response with nonius lines flashed at fixed delays after the disparity step stimulus. For each delay, an adaptive psychophysical procedure was run to determine the physical nonius offset required for subjective alignment; these vergence states were compared with objective eye movement recordings.

Objective vs subjective measurements of dark vergence.

Dark vergence is a resting position of vergence (tonic vergence), measured in a dark visual field to eliminate fusional, accommodative, and proximal stimuli. The vergence resting position is relevant for measures of phoria and fixation disparity. Dark vergence differs reliably among subjects: the average subject converges at a viewing distance of about 1 m, while the inter-individual range is from infinity to about 40 cm.

Phototactic behaviour correlates with gustatory responsiveness in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.).

The response threshold hypothesis of division of labour in honey bees assumes that individuals differ in their responsiveness to different stimulus modalities. However, previous experiments have shown that responsiveness to gustatory stimuli correlates with responsiveness to odours, pollen and tactile stimuli. Evaluation of these stimuli involves sensory receptors on the antenna.

Magnetoneurographic registration of propagating magnetic fields in the lumbar spine after stimulation of the posterior tibial nerve.

Stimulation of the posterior tibial nerve has been associated with different somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) recorded along the spine and thorax. The aim of this study was to register and describe the magnetic fields corresponding to different components of spinal SEP after stimulation of tibial nerves. In nine healthy subjects, right and left posterior tibial nerves were transcutaneously electrostimulated at the ankles.

Measurement of refractive error and accommodation with the photorefractor PowerRef II.

The infrared photorefractor PowerRef II (PR II; PlusoptiX AG, Nurnberg, Germany) uses the principle of eccentric photorefraction. In eight subjects the mean non-cycloplegic refraction measured with the 'Full Scan' mode of the PR II at a far viewing distance (0.2 D) was significantly more hypermetropic by 0.

Central and parietal event-related lateralizations in a flanker task.

Recently Wascher et al. (1999) reported that in a flanker task with arrow stimuli not only the known lateralized readiness potential (LRP) that reflects lateralized response activation was induced, but also a parietal lateralized activation (direction encoding lateralization; DEL) that was interpreted as reflecting an earlier coding of a response side. However, the Wascher study did not exclude that the DEL could have also been due to lateralized stimulus- or attention-related factors.

Effects of spatial attention on the brain stem frequency-following potential.

Can spatial attention or orienting affect human auditory information processing as peripheral as on the brain stem level? More specifically, is the reduction of the latency of the frequency-following potential (FFP; an evoked lower brain stem response) that we described in an earlier Neuroreport article really specifically attention-related? Here we demonstrate that, indeed, exogenous intramodal (auditory) spatial orienting, but not a transient modulation of general arousal, reduced the latency of the FFP by 27 micros; there were no effects on the FFP-amplitude. Although it might seem small, this reduction may be relevant in spatial hearing. We conclude that under certain conditions spatial attention can affect auditory information processing already on the brain stem level.

Short-term mobilization of processing resources is revealed in the event-related potential.

This study investigates whether an occasional effortful improvement of performance, as asked for by a precue, is reflected in event-related potential (ERP) changes. To estimate the limits of possible effort-induced behavioral and ERP changes, we manipulated the time between precue and imperative stimulus (IS; precue interval, PCI). The subjects could, in fact, improve their performance in the effort trials, with all but the shortest PCI.

[Magnetoneurographic registration of evoked summation action fields over lumbar vertebrae following transcutaneous tibial nerve stimulation].

Goal of this study was the development of a protocol for the registration of evoked magnetic fields over the lumbar spine using off-the-shelf equipment. Three subjects in a sitting position with their torso bent slightly forward were stimulated at the tibial nerve with a commercially available stimulator. Neuromagnetic fields were registered over a circular, 800 cm2 area of the lumbosacral spine using a 61-channel 4D-Neuroimaging biomagnetometer.

Changes of error-related ERPs with age.

Errors in reaction tasks are followed by a negative component of the event-related brain potential (ERP), the error negativity (Ne), which is thought to be a correlate of error detection. In the present study we show that, in tasks that induce different types of errors, the amplitude of the Ne was reduced in elderly (54-65 years old) compared with young subjects (19-25 years old). This reduction was also seen in single trials, as were computed for one of the visual tasks.

Action monitoring, error detection, and the basal ganglia: an ERP study.

The error negativity (Ne or ERN) is an event-related brain potential component, which is assumed to reflect error detection. Recently it has been hypothesized that the basal ganglia are assumed to play a crucial role in error detection. In the present study we ask whether the Ne is altered in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), who have an impaired function of the basal ganglia.

Early attention effects in human auditory-evoked potentials.

A fundamental question in attention theory concerns the earliest processing stages that can be modulated by selective attention. A series of experiments is reported in which very early attention effects are found under specific conditions in the frequency-following potential (FFP), a brain stem response to low-frequency tone stimuli. In two experiments, stimuli of two different modalities were applied, and attention directed to one of the modalities.

ERP components on reaction errors and their functional significance: a tutorial.

Some years ago we described a negative (Ne) and a later positive (Pe) deflection in the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) of incorrect choice reactions [Falkenstein, M., Hohnsbein, J., Hoormann, J.

ERP components in Go/Nogo tasks and their relation to inhibition.

In visual Go/Nogo tasks the ERP usually shows a frontal negativity after Nogo stimuli ("Nogo-N2"), which possibly reflects an inhibition process. However, the Nogo-N2 appears to be very small after auditory stimuli, which is evidence against the inhibition hypothesis. In the present study we tested this hypothesis by evaluating performance differences between subjects.

Performance differences in reaction tasks are reflected in event-related brain potentials (ERPs).

Event-related potentials (ERPs), which can be extracted from the electroencephalogram (EEG), are assumed to reflect distinct cognitive processes in real time. Hence ERP analysis could be used in cognitive ergonomics as a tool to specify, for example, bottlenecks or sources of individual performance differences. Such specific results may be helpful to change the tasks or train the subjects specifically.

A method to improve the latency estimation of the frequency-following potential (FFP).

If the latency of a noisy frequency-following potential (FFP) is estimated by determining the shift of the (periodical) cross-correlation function (CCF) between the stimulus and the FFP, the result may be unambiguous only within +/-1 or +/-2 periods of the CCF, because the absolute maximum and adjacent local maxima may not be significantly different. Here we present a method to amplify this difference by applying amplitude modulated stimuli. Using this method we first illustrate the effect of the method by a simulation and then demonstrate its usefulness by measuring real FFPs and estimating their latencies.

[Event-related potential components related to errors].

Event-related potentials (ERPs) of error trials in choice tasks and Go/Nogo tasks are found to be considerably different from the ERPs of the correct trials: In error trial ERPs there is an additional negative (Ne) and an additional positive component (Pe) compared to correct trials. Amplitude and latency variation of both components in different experiments supports the hypothesis that these components reflect different aspects of error processing. The Ne is interpreted as a real-time correlate of error detection, as defined by a mismatch between cognitive representations of the erroneous response and the correct response.

Effects of attention and time-pressure on P300 subcomponents and implications for mental workload research.

Our approach to objective measures of mental workload is establishing relationships between components of the event-related brain potential (ERP) and information processing stages. These relationships can be used to infer the influence of specific workload conditions on specific processing stages. We recently showed that the ERP component P300 in choice tasks is composed of two subcomponents, P-SR and P-CR, which are time-related to stimulus-evaluation and response-selection.