Characterizing Behavioral and Brain Changes Associated with Practicing Reasoning Skills

We have reported previously that intensive preparation for a standardized test that taxes reasoning leads to changes in structural and functional connectivity within the frontoparietal network. Here, we investigated whether reasoning instruction transfers to improvement on unpracticed tests of reasoning, and whether these improvements are associated with changes in neural recruitment during reasoning task performance. We found behavioral evidence for transfer to a transitive inference task, but no evidence for transfer to a rule generation task. Across both tasks, we observed reduced lateral prefrontal activation in the trained group relative to the control group, consistent with other studies of practice-related changes in brain activation. In the transitive inference task, we observed enhanced suppression of task-negative, or default-mode, regions, consistent with work suggesting that better cognitive skills are associated with more efficient switching between networks. In the rule generation task, we found a pattern consistent with a training-related shift in the balance between phonological and visuospatial processing. Broadly, we discuss general methodological considerations related to the analysis and interpretation of training-related changes in brain activation. In summary, we present preliminary evidence for changes in brain activation associated with practice of high-level cognitive skills.National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research FellowshipEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S.) (F32HD079143-01

Psychology and Social Media

Social media is extremely successful in today’s world. This can be explained using psychology. This paper outlines three perspectives of social media use and the various psychological concepts that explain them: the Poster, the Viewer, and the Connector. The Poster creates and uploads content to social media in hopes of the feedback given by those who see it. This can lead to addiction and provides social approval. Many Posters also engage in a false identity to some extent. The Viewer utilizes social media for many reasons, all of which fall under four categories: education, inspiration, entertainment, and socialization. They are also susceptible to addiction and parasocial relationships. The final category, the Connector, involves those who utilize messaging on social media as well as dating apps

KELT-10b: The First Transiting Exoplanet from the KELT-South Survey -- A Hot Sub-Jupiter Transiting a V = 10.7 Early G-Star

We report the discovery of KELT-10b, the first transiting exoplanet discovered using the KELT-South telescope. KELT-10b is a highly inflated sub-Jupiter mass planet transiting a relatively bright $V = 10.7$ star (TYC 8378-64-1), with T$_{eff}$ = $5948\pm74$ K, $\log{g}$ = $4.319_{-0.030}^{+0.020}$ and [Fe/H] = $0.09_{-0.10}^{+0.11}$, an inferred mass M$_{*}$ = $1.112_{-0.061}^{+0.055}$ M$_{\odot}$ and radius R$_{*}$ = $1.209_{-0.035}^{+0.047}$ R$_{\odot}$. The planet has a radius R$_{P}$ = $1.399_{-0.049}^{+0.069}$ R$_{J}$ and mass M$_{P}$ = $0.679_{-0.038}^{+0.039}$ M$_{J}$. The planet has an eccentricity consistent with zero and a semi-major axis $a$ = $0.05250_{-0.00097}^{+0.00086}$ AU. The best fitting linear ephemeris is $T_{0}$ = 2457066.72045$\pm$0.00027 BJD$_{TDB}$ and P = 4.1662739$\pm$0.0000063 days. This planet joins a group of highly inflated transiting exoplanets with a radius much larger and a mass much less than those of Jupiter. The planet, which boasts deep transits of 1.4%, has a relatively high equilibrium temperature of T$_{eq}$ = $1377_{-23}^{+28}$ K, assuming zero albedo and perfect heat redistribution. KELT-10b receives an estimated insolation of $0.817_{-0.054}^{+0.068}$ $\times$ 10$^9$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$, which places it far above the insolation threshold above which hot Jupiters exhibit increasing amounts of radius inflation. Evolutionary analysis of the host star suggests that KELT-10b is unlikely to survive beyond the current subgiant phase, due to a concomitant in-spiral of the planet over the next $\sim$1 Gyr. The planet transits a relatively bright star and exhibits the third largest transit depth of all transiting exoplanets with V $<$ 11 in the southern hemisphere, making it a promising candidate for future atmospheric characterization studies.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

TOI-4641b: An Aligned Warm Jupiter Orbiting a Bright (V=7.5) Rapidly Rotating F-star

We report the discovery of TOI-4641b, a warm Jupiter transiting a rapidly rotating F-type star with a stellar effective temperature of 6560 K. The planet has a radius of 0.73 $R_{Jup}$, a mass smaller than 3.87 $M_{Jup}$ $(3\sigma)$, and a period of 22.09 days. It is orbiting a bright star (V=7.5 mag) on a circular orbit with a radius and mass of 1.73 $R_{\odot}$ and 1.41 $M_{\odot}$. Follow-up ground-based photometry was obtained using the Tierras Observatory. Two transits were also observed with the Tillinghast Reflector Echelle Spectrograph (TRES), revealing the star to have a low projected spin-orbit angle ($\lambda$=$1.41^{+0.76}_{-0.76}$ degrees). Such obliquity measurements for stars with warm Jupiters are relatively few, and may shed light on the formation of warm Jupiters. Among the known planets orbiting hot and rapidly-rotating stars, TOI-4641b is one of the longest-period planets to be thoroughly characterized. Unlike hot Jupiters around hot stars which are more often misaligned, the warm Jupiter TOI-4641b is found in a well-aligned orbit. Future exploration of this parameter space can add one more dimension to the star-planet orbital obliquity distribution that has been well-sampled for hot Jupiters.Comment: Accepted MNRA

TOI-2005b : an eccentric warm Jupiter in spin-orbit alignment

Funding: C.H. thanks the support of the ARC DECRA program DE200101840 and Future Fellowship program FT240100016. G.Z. thanks the support of the ARC DECRA program DE210101893 and Future Fellowship program FT230100517. This research also received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 803193/BEBOP) and from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; grant No. ST/S00193X/1). A.J. acknowledges support from ANID—Millennium Science Initiative—ICN12_009, AIM23-0001 and from FONDECYT project 1210718.We report the discovery and characterization of TOI-2005 b, a warm Jupiter on an eccentric (e ∼ 0.59), 17.3 days orbit around a Vmag = 9.867 rapidly rotating F-star. The object was detected as a candidate by Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the planetary nature of TOI-2005 b was then confirmed via a series of ground-based photometric, spectroscopic, and diffraction-limited imaging observations. The planet was found to reside in a low sky-projected stellar obliquity orbit (λ = 4.8+2.3-2.5 degrees) via a transit spectroscopic observation using the Magellan Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle spectrograph. TOI-2005 b is one of a few planets known to have a lowobliquity high-eccentricity orbit, which may be the result of high-eccentricity coplanar migration. The planet has a periastron equilibrium temperature of ∼2100 K, similar to some highly irradiated hot Jupiters where atomic metal species have been detected in transmission spectroscopy, and varies by almost 1000 K during its orbit. Future observations of the atmosphere of TOI-2005b can inform us about its radiative timescales thanks to the rapid heating and cooling of the planet.Peer reviewe

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

A large ground-based observing campaign of the disintegrating planet K2-22b

We present 45 ground-based photometric observations of the K2-22 system collected between 2016 December and 2017 May, which we use to investigate the evolution of the transit of the disintegrating planet K2-22b. Last observed in early 2015, in these new observations we recover the transit at multiple epochs and measure a typical depth of <1.5%. We find that the distribution of our measured transit depths is comparable to the range of depths measured in observations from 2014 and 2015. These new observations also support ongoing variability in the K2-22b transit shape and time, although the overall shallowness of the transit makes a detailed analysis of these transit parameters difficult. We find no strong evidence of wavelength-dependent transit depths for epochs where we have simultaneous coverage at multiple wavelengths, although our stacked Las Cumbres Observatory data collected over days-to-months timescales are suggestive of a deeper transit at blue wavelengths. We encourage continued high-precision photometric and spectroscopic monitoring of this system in order to further constrain the evolution timescale and to aid comparative studies with the other few known disintegrating planets

Brain multiplexes reveal morphological connectional biomarkers fingerprinting late brain dementia states

Accurate diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) before conversion to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is invaluable for patient treatment. Many works showed that MCI and AD affect functional and structural connections between brain regions as well as the shape of cortical regions. However, ‘shape connections’ between brain regions are rarely investigated -e.g., how morphological attributes such as cortical thickness and sulcal depth of a specific brain region change in relation to morphological attributes in other regions. To fill this gap, we unprecedentedly design morphological brain multiplexes for late MCI/AD classification. Specifically, we use structural T1-w MRI to define morphological brain networks, each quantifying similarity in morphology between different cortical regions for a specific cortical attribute. Then, we define a brain multiplex where each intra-layer represents the morphological connectivity network of a specific cortical attribute, and each inter-layer encodes the similarity between two consecutive intra-layers. A significant performance gain is achieved when using the multiplex architecture in comparison to other conventional network analysis architectures. We also leverage this architecture to discover morphological connectional biomarkers fingerprinting the difference between late MCI and AD stages, which included the right entorhinal cortex and right caudal middle frontal gyrus