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- Schael, S, et al.
(author)
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Precision electroweak measurements on the Z resonance
- 2006
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In: Physics Reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-1573 .- 1873-6270. ; 427:5-6, s. 257-454
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report on the final electroweak measurements performed with data taken at the Z resonance by the experiments operating at the electron-positron colliders SLC and LEP. The data consist of 17 million Z decays accumulated by the ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL experiments at LEP, and 600 thousand Z decays by the SLID experiment using a polarised beam at SLC. The measurements include cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries and polarised asymmetries. The mass and width of the Z boson, m(Z) and Gamma(Z), and its couplings to fermions, for example the p parameter and the effective electroweak mixing angle for leptons, are precisely measured: m(Z) = 91.1875 +/- 0.0021 GeV, Gamma(Z) = 2.4952 +/- 0.0023 GeV, rho(l) = 1.0050 +/- 0.0010, sin(2)theta(eff)(lept) = 0.23153 +/- 0.00016. The number of light neutrino species is determined to be 2.9840 +/- 0.0082, in agreement with the three observed generations of fundamental fermions. The results are compared to the predictions of the Standard Model (SM). At the Z-pole, electroweak radiative corrections beyond the running of the QED and QCD coupling constants are observed with a significance of five standard deviations, and in agreement with the Standard Model. Of the many Z-pole measurements, the forward-backward asymmetry in b-quark production shows the largest difference with respect to its SM expectation, at the level of 2.8 standard deviations. Through radiative corrections evaluated in the framework of the Standard Model, the Z-pole data are also used to predict the mass of the top quark, m(t) = 173(+10)(+13) GeV, and the mass of the W boson, m(W) = 80.363 +/- 0.032 GeV. These indirect constraints are compared to the direct measurements, providing a stringent test of the SM. Using in addition the direct measurements of m(t) and m(W), the mass of the as yet unobserved SM Higgs boson is predicted with a relative uncertainty of about 50% and found to be less than 285 GeV at 95% confidence level. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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5. |
- Aad, G., et al.
(author)
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Commissioning of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer with cosmic rays
- 2010
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In: European Physical Journal C. Particles and Fields. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 70:3, s. 875-916
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider has collected several hundred million cosmic ray events during 2008 and 2009. These data were used to commission the Muon Spectrometer and to study the performance of the trigger and tracking chambers, their alignment, the detector control system, the data acquisition and the analysis programs. We present the performance in the relevant parameters that determine the quality of the muon measurement. We discuss the single element efficiency, resolution and noise rates, the calibration method of the detector response and of the alignment system, the track reconstruction efficiency and the momentum measurement. The results show that the detector is close to the design performance and that the Muon Spectrometer is ready to detect muons produced in high energy proton-proton collisions.
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13. |
- Aad, G., et al.
(author)
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Readiness of the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter for LHC collisions
- 2010
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In: European Physical Journal C. Particles and Fields. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 70:4, s. 1193-1236
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Tile hadronic calorimeter of the ATLAS detector has undergone extensive testing in the experimental hall since its installation in late 2005. The readout, control and calibration systems have been fully operational since 2007 and the detector has successfully collected data from the LHC single beams in 2008 and first collisions in 2009. This paper gives an overview of the Tile Calorimeter performance as measured using random triggers, calibration data, data from cosmic ray muons and single beam data. The detector operation status, noise characteristics and performance of the calibration systems are presented, as well as the validation of the timing and energy calibration carried out with minimum ionising cosmic ray muons data. The calibration systems' precision is well below the design value of 1%. The determination of the global energy scale was performed with an uncertainty of 4%.
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18. |
- Aad, G., et al.
(author)
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Studies of the performance of the ATLAS detector using cosmic-ray muons
- 2011
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In: European Physical Journal C. Particles and Fields. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 71:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Muons from cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere provide a high-statistics source of particles that can be used to study the performance and calibration of the ATLAS detector. Cosmic-ray muons can penetrate to the cavern and deposit energy in all detector subsystems. Such events have played an important role in the commissioning of the detector since the start of the installation phase in 2005 and were particularly important for understanding the detector performance in the time prior to the arrival of the first LHC beams. Global cosmic-ray runs were undertaken in both 2008 and 2009 and these data have been used through to the early phases of collision data-taking as a tool for calibration, alignment and detector monitoring. These large datasets have also been used for detector performance studies, including investigations that rely on the combined performance of different subsystems. This paper presents the results of performance studies related to combined tracking, lepton identification and the reconstruction of jets and missing transverse energy. Results are compared to expectations based on a cosmic-ray event generator and a full simulation of the detector response.
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19. |
- Aad, G., et al.
(author)
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The ATLAS Inner Detector commissioning and calibration
- 2010
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In: European Physical Journal C. Particles and Fields. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 70:3, s. 787-821
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The ATLAS Inner Detector is a composite tracking system consisting of silicon pixels, silicon strips and straw tubes in a 2 T magnetic field. Its installation was completed in August 2008 and the detector took part in data-taking with single LHC beams and cosmic rays. The initial detector operation, hardware commissioning and in-situ calibrations are described. Tracking performance has been measured with 7.6 million cosmic-ray events, collected using a tracking trigger and reconstructed with modular pattern-recognition and fitting software. The intrinsic hit efficiency and tracking trigger efficiencies are close to 100%. Lorentz angle measurements for both electrons and holes, specific energy-loss calibration and transition radiation turn-on measurements have been performed. Different alignment techniques have been used to reconstruct the detector geometry. After the initial alignment, a transverse impact parameter resolution of 22.1 +/- 0.9 mu m and a relative momentum resolution sigma (p) /p=(4.83 +/- 0.16)x10(-4) GeV(-1)xp (T) have been measured for high momentum tracks.
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20. |
- Aad, G., et al.
(author)
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The ATLAS Simulation Infrastructure
- 2010
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In: European Physical Journal C. Particles and Fields. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 70:3, s. 823-874
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The simulation software for the ATLAS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider is being used for large-scale production of events on the LHC Computing Grid. This simulation requires many components, from the generators that simulate particle collisions, through packages simulating the response of the various detectors and triggers. All of these components come together under the ATLAS simulation infrastructure. In this paper, that infrastructure is discussed, including that supporting the detector description, interfacing the event generation, and combining the GEANT4 simulation of the response of the individual detectors. Also described are the tools allowing the software validation, performance testing, and the validation of the simulated output against known physics processes.
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21. |
- Abelev, Betty, et al.
(author)
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Long-range angular correlations on the near and away side in p-Pb collisions at root S-NN=5.02 TeV
- 2013
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In: Physics Letters. Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-2693. ; 719:1-3, s. 29-41
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Angular correlations between charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV for transverse momentum ranges within 0.5 < P-T,P-assoc < P-T,P-trig < 4 GeV/c. The correlations are measured over two units of pseudorapidity and full azimuthal angle in different intervals of event multiplicity, and expressed as associated yield per trigger particle. Two long-range ridge-like structures, one on the near side and one on the away side, are observed when the per-trigger yield obtained in low-multiplicity events is subtracted from the one in high-multiplicity events. The excess on the near-side is qualitatively similar to that recently reported by the CMS Collaboration, while the excess on the away-side is reported for the first time. The two-ridge structure projected onto azimuthal angle is quantified with the second and third Fourier coefficients as well as by near-side and away-side yields and widths. The yields on the near side and on the away side are equal within the uncertainties for all studied event multiplicity and p(T) bins, and the widths show no significant evolution with event multiplicity or p(T). These findings suggest that the near-side ridge is accompanied by an essentially identical away-side ridge. (c) 2013 CERN. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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22. |
- Abelev, Betty, et al.
(author)
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Measurement of prompt J/psi and beauty hadron production cross sections at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV
- 2012
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In: Journal of High Energy Physics. - 1029-8479. ; :11
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The ALICE experiment at the LHC has studied J/psi production at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV through its electron pair decay on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity L-int = 5.6 nb(-1). The fraction of J/psi from the decay of long-lived beauty hadrons was determined for J/psi candidates with transverse momentum p(t) > 1,3 GeV/c and rapidity vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.9. The cross section for prompt J/psi mesons, i.e. directly produced J/psi and prompt decays of heavier charmonium states such as the psi(2S) and chi(c) resonances, is sigma(prompt J/psi) (p(t) > 1.3 GeV/c, vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.9) = 8.3 +/- 0.8(stat.) +/- 1.1 (syst.)(-1.4)(+1.5) (syst. pol.) mu b. The cross section for the production of b-hadrons decaying to J/psi with p(t) > 1.3 GeV/c and vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.9 is a sigma(J/psi <- hB) (p(t) > 1.3 GeV/c, vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.9) = 1.46 +/- 0.38 (stat.)(-0.32)(+0.26) (syst.) mu b. The results are compared to QCD model predictions. The shape of the p(t) and y distributions of b-quarks predicted by perturbative QCD model calculations are used to extrapolate the measured cross section to derive the b (b) over bar pair total cross section and d sigma/dy at mid-rapidity.
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23. |
- Abelev, Betty, et al.
(author)
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Underlying Event measurements in pp collisions at root s=0.9 and 7 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC
- 2012
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In: Journal of High Energy Physics. - 1029-8479. ; :7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present measurements of Underlying Event observables in pp collisions at root s = 0 : 9 and 7 TeV. The analysis is performed as a function of the highest charged-particle transverse momentum p(T),L-T in the event. Different regions are defined with respect to the azimuthal direction of the leading (highest transverse momentum) track: Toward, Transverse and Away. The Toward and Away regions collect the fragmentation products of the hardest partonic interaction. The Transverse region is expected to be most sensitive to the Underlying Event activity. The study is performed with charged particles above three different p(T) thresholds: 0.15, 0.5 and 1.0 GeV/c. In the Transverse region we observe an increase in the multiplicity of a factor 2-3 between the lower and higher collision energies, depending on the track p(T) threshold considered. Data are compared to PYTHIA 6.4, PYTHIA 8.1 and PHOJET. On average, all models considered underestimate the multiplicity and summed p(T) in the Transverse region by about 10-30%.
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24. |
- Drude, Natascha Ingrid, et al.
(author)
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Planning preclinical confirmatory multicenter trials to strengthen translation from basic to clinical research : a multi-stakeholder workshop report
- 2022
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In: Translational Medicine Communications. - : Springer Nature. - 2396-832X. ; 7:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Clinical translation from bench to bedside often remains challenging even despite promising preclinical evidence. Among many drivers like biological complexity or poorly understood disease pathology, preclinical evidence often lacks desired robustness. Reasons include low sample sizes, selective reporting, publication bias, and consequently inflated effect sizes. In this context, there is growing consensus that confirmatory multicenter studies -by weeding out false positives- represent an important step in strengthening and generating preclinical evidence before moving on to clinical research. However, there is little guidance on what such a preclinical confirmatory study entails and when it should be conducted in the research trajectory. To close this gap, we organized a workshop to bring together statisticians, clinicians, preclinical scientists, and meta-researcher to discuss and develop recommendations that are solution-oriented and feasible for practitioners. Herein, we summarize and review current approaches and outline strategies that provide decision-critical guidance on when to start and subsequently how to plan a confirmatory study. We define a set of minimum criteria and strategies to strengthen validity before engaging in a confirmatory preclinical trial, including sample size considerations that take the inherent uncertainty of initial (exploratory) studies into account. Beyond this specific guidance, we highlight knowledge gaps that require further research and discuss the role of confirmatory studies in translational biomedical research. In conclusion, this workshop report highlights the need for close interaction and open and honest debate between statisticians, preclinical scientists, meta-researchers (that conduct research on research), and clinicians already at an early stage of a given preclinical research trajectory.
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25. |
- Filevich, Elisa, et al.
(author)
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Day2day : Investigating daily variability of magnetic resonance imaging measures over half a year
- 2017
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In: BMC Neuroscience. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2202. ; 18:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Most studies of brain structure and function, and their relationships to cognitive ability, have relied on inter-individual variability in magnetic resonance (MR) images. Intra-individual variability is often ignored or implicitly assumed to be equivalent to the former. Testing this assumption empirically by collecting enough data on single individuals is cumbersome and costly. We collected a dataset of multiple MR sequences and behavioural covariates to quantify and characterize intra-individual variability in MR images for multiple individuals. Methods and design: Eight participants volunteered to undergo brain scanning 40-50 times over the course of 6 months. Six participants completed the full set of sessions. T1-weighted, T2*-weighted during rest, T2-weighted high-resolution hippocampus, diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI), and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy sequences were collected, along with a rich set of stable and time-varying physical, behavioural and physiological variables. Participants did not change their lifestyle or participated in any training programs during the period of data collection. Conclusion: This imaging dataset provides a large number of MRI scans in different modalities for six participants. It enables the analysis of the time course and correlates of intra-individual variability in structural, chemical, and functional aspects of the human brain.
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26. |
- Fjell, Anders M., et al.
(author)
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Is short sleep bad for the brain? : Brain structure and cognitive function in short sleepers
- 2023
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In: Journal of Neuroscience. - 0270-6474 .- 1529-2401. ; 43:28, s. 5241-5250
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Many sleep less than recommended without experiencing daytime sleepiness. According to prevailing views, short sleep increases risk of lower brain health and cognitive function. Chronic mild sleep deprivation could cause undetected sleep debt, negatively affecting cognitive function and brain health. However, it is possible that some have less sleep need and are more resistant to negative effects of sleep loss. We investigated this using a cross-sectional and longitudinal sample of 47,029 participants of both sexes (20-89 years) from the Lifebrain consortium, Human Connectome project (HCP) and UK Biobank (UKB), with measures of self-reported sleep, including 51,295 MRIs of the brain and cognitive tests. A total of 740 participants who reported to sleep <6 h did not experience daytime sleepiness or sleep problems/disturbances interfering with falling or staying asleep. These short sleepers showed significantly larger regional brain volumes than both short sleepers with daytime sleepiness and sleep problems (n = 1742) and participants sleeping the recommended 7-8 h (n = 3886). However, both groups of short sleepers showed slightly lower general cognitive function (GCA), 0.16 and 0.19 SDs, respectively. Analyses using accelerometer-estimated sleep duration confirmed the findings, and the associations remained after controlling for body mass index, depression symptoms, income, and education. The results suggest that some people can cope with less sleep without obvious negative associations with brain morphometry and that sleepiness and sleep problems may be more related to brain structural differences than duration. However, the slightly lower performance on tests of general cognitive abilities warrants closer examination in natural settings.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Short habitual sleep is prevalent, with unknown consequences for brain health and cognitive performance. Here, we show that daytime sleepiness and sleep problems are more strongly related to regional brain volumes than sleep duration. However, participants sleeping ≤6 h had slightly lower scores on tests of general cognitive function (GCA). This indicates that sleep need is individual and that sleep duration per se is very weakly if at all related brain health, while daytime sleepiness and sleep problems may show somewhat stronger associations. The association between habitual short sleep and lower scores on tests of general cognitive abilities must be further scrutinized in natural settings.
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27. |
- Fjell, Anders M., et al.
(author)
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No phenotypic or genotypic evidence for a link between sleep duration and brain atrophy
- 2023
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In: Nature Human Behaviour. - : Springer Nature. - 2397-3374. ; 7:11, s. 2008-2022
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Short sleep is held to cause poorer brain health, but is short sleep associated with higher rates of brain structural decline? Analysing 8,153 longitudinal MRIs from 3,893 healthy adults, we found no evidence for an association between sleep duration and brain atrophy. In contrast, cross-sectional analyses (51,295 observations) showed inverse U-shaped relationships, where a duration of 6.5 (95% confidence interval, (5.7, 7.3)) hours was associated with the thickest cortex and largest volumes relative to intracranial volume. This fits converging evidence from research on mortality, health and cognition that points to roughly seven hours being associated with good health. Genome-wide association analyses suggested that genes associated with longer sleep for below-average sleepers were linked to shorter sleep for above-average sleepers. Mendelian randomization did not yield evidence for causal impacts of sleep on brain structure. The combined results challenge the notion that habitual short sleep causes brain atrophy, suggesting that normal brains promote adequate sleep duration—which is shorter than current recommendations.
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28. |
- Fjell, Anders M., et al.
(author)
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Poor Self-Reported Sleep is Related to Regional Cortical Thinning in Aging but not Memory Decline-Results From the Lifebrain Consortium
- 2021
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In: Cerebral Cortex. - : Oxford University Press. - 1047-3211 .- 1460-2199. ; 31:4, s. 1953-1969
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We examined whether sleep quality and quantity are associated with cortical and memory changes in cognitively healthy participants across the adult lifespan. Associations between self-reported sleep parameters (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI) and longitudinal cortical change were tested using five samples from the Lifebrain consortium (n = 2205, 4363 MRIs, 18-92 years). In additional analyses, we tested coherence with cell-specific gene expression maps from the Allen Human Brain Atlas, and relations to changes in memory performance. "PSQI # 1 Subjective sleep quality" and "PSQI #5 Sleep disturbances" were related to thinning of the right lateral temporal cortex, with lower quality and more disturbances being associated with faster thinning. The association with "PSQI #5 Sleep disturbances" emerged after 60 years, especially in regions with high expression of genes related to oligodendrocytes and S1 pyramidal neurons. None of the sleep scales were related to a longitudinal change in episodic memory function, suggesting that sleep-related cortical changes were independent of cognitive decline. The relationship to cortical brain change suggests that self-reported sleep parameters are relevant in lifespan studies, but small effect sizes indicate that self-reported sleep is not a good biomarker of general cortical degeneration in healthy older adults.
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29. |
- Fjell, Anders M., et al.
(author)
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Self-reported sleep relates to hippocampal atrophy across the adult lifespan : results from the Lifebrain consortium
- 2020
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In: Sleep. - : Oxford University Press. - 0161-8105 .- 1550-9109. ; 43:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objectives: Poor sleep is associated with multiple age-related neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric conditions. The hippocampus plays a special role in sleep and sleep-dependent cognition, and accelerated hippocampal atrophy is typically seen with higher age. Hence, it is critical to establish how the relationship between sleep and hippocampal volume loss unfolds across the adult lifespan.Methods: Self-reported sleep measures and MRI-derived hippocampal volumes were obtained from 3105 cognitively normal participants (18–90 years) from major European brain studies in the Lifebrain consortium. Hippocampal volume change was estimated from 5116 MRIs from 1299 participants for whom longitudinal MRIs were available, followed up to 11 years with a mean interval of 3.3 years. Cross-sectional analyses were repeated in a sample of 21,390 participants from the UK Biobank.Results: No cross-sectional sleep—hippocampal volume relationships were found. However, worse sleep quality, efficiency, problems, and daytime tiredness were related to greater hippocampal volume loss over time, with high scorers showing 0.22% greater annual loss than low scorers. The relationship between sleep and hippocampal atrophy did not vary across age. Simulations showed that the observed longitudinal effects were too small to be detected as age-interactions in the cross-sectional analyses.Conclusions: Worse self-reported sleep is associated with higher rates of hippocampal volume decline across the adult lifespan. This suggests that sleep is relevant to understand individual differences in hippocampal atrophy, but limited effect sizes call for cautious interpretation.
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30. |
- Fjell, Anders M., et al.
(author)
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The genetic organization of longitudinal subcortical volumetric change is stable throughout the lifespan running title: Genetics of subcortical lifespan change
- 2021
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In: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Development and aging of the cerebral cortex show similar topographic organization and are governed by the same genes. It is unclear whether the same is true for subcortical regions, which follow fundamentally different ontogenetic and phylogenetic principles. We tested the hypothesis that genetically governed neurodevelopmental processes can be traced throughout life by assessing to which degree brain regions that develop together continue to change together through life. Analyzing over 6000 longitudinal MRIs of the brain, we used graph theory to identify five clusters of coordinated development, indexed as patterns of correlated volumetric change in brain structures. The clusters tended to follow placement along the cranial axis in embryonic brain development, suggesting continuity from prenatal stages, and correlated with cognition. Across independent longitudinal datasets, we demonstrated that developmental clusters were conserved through life. Twin-based genetic correlations revealed distinct sets of genes governing change in each cluster. Single nucleotide polymorphisms-based analyses of 38127 cross-sectional MRIs showed a similar pattern of genetic volume-volume correlations. In conclusion, coordination of subcortical change adheres to fundamental principles of lifespan continuity and genetic organization.
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31. |
- Gleich, Tobias, et al.
(author)
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Prefrontal and Striatal Glutamate Differently Relate to Striatal Dopamine : Potential Regulatory Mechanisms of Striatal Presynaptic Dopamine Function?
- 2015
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In: Journal of Neuroscience. - : Society for Neuroscience. - 0270-6474 .- 1529-2401. ; 35:26, s. 9615-9621
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Theoretical and animal work has proposed that prefrontal cortex (PFC) glutamate inhibits dopaminergic inputs to the ventral striatum (VS) indirectly, whereas direct VS glutamatergic afferents have been suggested to enhance dopaminergic inputs to the VS. In the present study, we aimed to investigate relationships of glutamate and dopamine measures in prefrontostriatal circuitries of healthy humans. We hypothesized that PFC and VS glutamate, as well as their balance, are differently associated with VS dopamine. Glutamate concentrations in the left lateral PFC and left striatum were assessed using 3-Tesla proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Striatal presynaptic dopamine synthesis capacity was measured by fluorine-18-l-dihydroxyphenylalanine (F-18-FDOPA) positron emission tomography. First, a negative relationship was observed between glutamate concentrations in lateral PFC and VS dopamine synthesis capacity (n = 28). Second, a positive relationship was revealed between striatal glutamate and VS dopamine synthesis capacity (n = 26). Additionally, the intraindividual difference between PFC and striatal glutamate concentrations correlated negatively with VS dopamine synthesis capacity (n = 24). The present results indicate an involvement of a balance in PFC and striatal glutamate in the regulation of VS dopamine synthesis capacity. This notion points toward a potential mechanism how VS presynaptic dopamine levels are kept in a fine-tuned range. A disruption of this mechanism may account for alterations in striatal dopamine turnover as observed in mental diseases (e.g., in schizophrenia).SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The present work demonstrates complementary relationships between prefrontal and striatal glutamate and ventral striatal presynaptic dopamine using human imaging measures: a negative correlation between prefrontal glutamate and presynaptic dopamine and a positive relationship between striatal glutamate and presynaptic dopamine are revealed. The results may reflect a regulatory role of prefrontal and striatal glutamate for ventral striatal presynaptic dopamine levels. Such glutamate–dopamine relationships improve our understanding of neurochemical interactions in prefrontostriatal circuits and have implications for the neurobiology of mental disease.
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32. |
- Hurtig, Per, 1980-, et al.
(author)
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Low-Latency Scheduling in MPTCP
- 2019
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In: IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. - : IEEE. - 1063-6692 .- 1558-2566. ; 1, s. 302-315
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The demand for mobile communication is continuously increasing, and mobile devices are now the communication device of choice for many people. To guarantee connectivity and performance, mobile devices are typically equipped with multiple interfaces. To this end, exploiting multiple available interfaces is also a crucial aspect of the upcoming 5G standard for reducing costs, easing network management, and providing a good user experience. Multi-path protocols, such as multi-path TCP (MPTCP), can be used to provide performance optimization through load-balancing and resilience to coverage drops and link failures, however, they do not automatically guarantee better performance. For instance, low-latency communication has been proven hard to achieve when a device has network interfaces with asymmetric capacity and delay (e.g., LTE and WLAN). For multi-path communication, the data scheduler is vital to provide low latency, since it decides over which network interface to send individual data segments. In this paper, we focus on the MPTCP scheduler with the goal of providing a good user experience for latency-sensitive applications when interface quality is asymmetric. After an initial assessment of existing scheduling algorithms, we present two novel scheduling techniques: the block estimation (BLEST) scheduler and the shortest transmission time first (STTF) scheduler. BLEST and STTF are compared with existing schedulers in both emulated and real-world environments and are shown to reduce web object transmission times with up to 51% and provide 45% faster communication for interactive applications, compared with MPTCP's default scheduler.
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33. |
- Karch, Julian D, et al.
(author)
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Identifying predictors of within-person variance in MRI-based brain volume estimates
- 2019
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In: NeuroImage. - : Elsevier BV. - 1095-9572 .- 1053-8119. ; 200, s. 575-589
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Adequate reliability of measurement is a precondition for investigating individual differences and age-related changes in brain structure. One approach to improve reliability is to identify and control for variables that are predictive of within-person variance. To this end, we applied both classical statistical methods and machine-learning-inspired approaches to structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data of six participants aged 24-31 years gathered at 40-50 occasions distributed over 6-8 months from the Day2day study. We explored the within-person associations between 21 variables covering physiological, affective, social, and environmental factors and global measures of brain volume estimated by VBM8 and FreeSurfer. Time since the first scan was reliably associated with Freesurfer estimates of grey matter volume and total cortex volume, in line with a rate of annual brain volume shrinkage of about 1 percent. For the same two structural measures, time of day also emerged as a reliable predictor with an estimated diurnal volume decrease of, again, about 1 percent. Furthermore, we found weak predictive evidence for the number of steps taken on the previous day and testosterone levels. The results suggest a need to control for time-of-day effects in sMRI research. In particular, we recommend that researchers interested in assessing longitudinal change in the context of intervention studies or longitudinal panels make sure that, at each measurement occasion, (a) a given participant is measured at the same time of day; (b) participants overall are measured at about the same time of day. Furthermore, the potential effects of physical activity, including moderate amounts of aerobic exercise, and testosterone levels on MRI-based measures of brain structure deserve further investigation.
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34. |
- Kühn, Simone, et al.
(author)
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Brain areas consistently linked to individual differences in perceptual decision-making in younger as well as older adults before and after training
- 2011
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In: Journal of cognitive neuroscience. - Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press. - 0898-929X .- 1530-8898. ; 23:9, s. 2147-2158
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Perceptual decision-making performance depends on several cognitive and neural processes. Here, we fit Ratcliff's diffusion model to accuracy data and reaction-time distributions from one numerical and one verbal two-choice perceptual-decision task to deconstruct these performance measures into the rate of evidence accumulation (i.e., drift rate), response criterion setting (i.e., boundary separation), and peripheral aspects of performance (i.e., nondecision time). These theoretical processes are then related to individual differences in brain activation by means of multiple regression. The sample consisted of 24 younger and 15 older adults performing the task in fMRI before and after 100 daily 1-hr behavioral training sessions in a multitude of cognitive tasks. Results showed that individual differences in boundary separation were related to striatal activity, whereas differences in drift rate were related to activity in the inferior parietal lobe. These associations were not significantly modified by adult age or perceptual expertise. We conclude that the striatum is involved in regulating response thresholds, whereas the inferior parietal lobe might represent decision-making evidence related to letters and numbers.
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35. |
- Kühn, Simone, et al.
(author)
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Spend time outdoors for your brain–an in-depth longitudinal MRI study
- 2022
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In: World Journal of Biological Psychiatry. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1562-2975 .- 1814-1412. ; 23:3, s. 201-207
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objectives: The effects of nature on physical and mental health are an emerging topic in empirical research with increasing influence on practical health recommendations. Here we set out to investigate the association between spending time outdoors and brain structural plasticity in conjunctions with self-reported affect. Methods: We established the Day2day study, which includes an unprecedented in-depth assessment of variability of brain structure in a serial sequence of 40–50 structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisitions of each of six young healthy participants for 6–8 months (n = 281 MRI scans in total). Results: A whole-brain analysis revealed that time spent outdoors was positively associated with grey matter volume in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and positive affect, also after controlling for physical activity, fluid intake, free time, and hours of sunshine. Conclusions: Results indicate remarkable and potentially behaviorally relevant plasticity of cerebral structure within a short time frame driven by the daily time spent outdoors. This is compatible with anecdotal evidence of the health and mood-promoting effects of going for a walk. The study may provide the first evidence for underlying cerebral mechanisms of so-called green prescriptions with possible consequences for future interventions in mental disorders.
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36. |
- Kühn, Simone, et al.
(author)
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The dynamics of change in striatal activity following updating training
- 2013
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In: Human Brain Mapping. - : Wiley. - 1065-9471 .- 1097-0193. ; 34:7, s. 1530-1541
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Increases in striatal activity have been suggested to mediate training-related improvements in working-memory ability. We investigated the temporal dynamics of changes in task-related brain activity following training of working memory. Participants in an experimental group and an active control group, trained on easier tasks of a constant difficulty in shorter sessions than the experimental group, were measured before, after about 1 week, and after more than 50 days of training. In the experimental group an initial increase of working-memory related activity in the functionally defined right striatum and anatomically defined right and left putamen was followed by decreases, resulting in an inverted u-shape function that relates activity to training over time. Activity increases in the striatum developed slower in the active control group, observed at the second posttest after more than 50 days of training. In the functionally defined left striatum, initial activity increases were maintained after more extensive training and the pattern was similar for the two groups. These results shed new light on the relation between activity in the striatum (especially the putamen) and the effects of working memory training, and illustrate the importance of multiple measurements for interpreting effects of training on regional brain activity.
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37. |
- Kuhn, Simone, et al.
(author)
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The neural representation of intrusive thoughts
- 2013
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In: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1749-5024 .- 1749-5016. ; 8:6, s. 688-693
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Based on the philosophical notion that language embodies thought we investigated whether a habitual tendency for intrusive thought that younger and older participants report over a period of 100 sessions, spread out over about 6 months, is associated with brain regions related to language production. In favour of this hypothesis, we found that individual differences in habitual intrusive thoughts are correlated with activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, Broca's area) as well as the cingulate cortex (CC) during a two-choice reaction-time task in fMRI. Participants who habitually tended to experience intrusive thoughts showed greater activity during task-free (baseline) compared to task periods in brain regions involved in language production. Task performance was unrelated to individual differences in intrusive thoughts. We conclude that intrusive thoughts may be represented in a language-like format and that individuals reporting a habitually higher tendency for intrusive thoughts may have stronger and more habitual inner speech processes.
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38. |
- Kumar Maroju, Praveen, et al.
(author)
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Attosecond pulse shaping using a seeded free-electron laser
- 2020
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 578, s. 386-391
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Attosecond pulses are central to the investigation of valence- and core-electron dynamics on their natural timescales. The reproducible generation and characterization of attosecond waveforms has been demonstrated so far only through the process of high-order harmonic generation. Several methods for shaping attosecond waveforms have been proposed, including the use of metallic filters, multilayer mirrors and manipulation of the driving field. However, none of these approaches allows the flexible manipulation of the temporal characteristics of the attosecond waveforms, and they suffer from the low conversion efficiency of the high-order harmonic generation process. Free-electron lasers, by contrast, deliver femtosecond, extreme-ultraviolet and X-ray pulses with energies ranging from tens of microjoules to a few millijoules. Recent experiments have shown that they can generate subfemtosecond spikes, but with temporal characteristics that change shot-to-shot. Here we report reproducible generation of high-energy (microjoule level) attosecond waveforms using a seeded free-electron laser. We demonstrate amplitude and phase manipulation of the harmonic components of an attosecond pulse train in combination with an approach for its temporal reconstruction. The results presented here open the way to performing attosecond time-resolved experiments with free-electron lasers.
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39. |
- Lisofsky, Nina, et al.
(author)
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Hippocampal volume and functional connectivity changes during the female menstrual cycle.
- 2015
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In: NeuroImage. - : Elsevier BV. - 1095-9572 .- 1053-8119. ; 118, s. 154-162
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Hippocampal volume has been shown to be sensitive to variations in estrogen and progesterone levels across rodents' estrous cycle. However, little is known about the covariation of hormone levels and brain structure in the course of the human menstrual cycle. Here, we examine this covariation with a multi-method approach that includes several brain imaging methods and hormonal assessments. We acquired structural and functional scans from 21 naturally cycling women on four time points during their cycles (early follicular phase, late follicular phase, ovulation and luteal phase). Hormone blood concentrations and cognitive performance in different domains were assessed on each of the measurement occasions. Structural MRI images were processed by means of whole-brain voxel-based morphometry and FreeSurfer. With either method, bilateral increases in hippocampal volume were found in the late follicular phase relative to the early follicular phase. The gray matter probability in regions of hippocampal volume increase was associated with lower mean diffusivity in the same region. In addition, we observed higher functional connectivity between the hippocampi and the bilateral superior parietal lobe in the late follicular phase. We did not find any reliable cycle-related performance variations on the cognitive tasks. The present results show that hormonal fluctuations covary with hippocampal structure and function in the course of the human menstrual cycle.
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40. |
- Lövdén, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Experience-dependent plasticity of white-matter microstructure extends into old age
- 2010
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In: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 48:13, s. 3878-3883
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Experience-dependent alterations in the human brain's white-matter microstructure occur in early adulthood, but it is unknown whether such plasticity extends throughout life. We used cognitive training, diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI), and structural MRI to investigate plasticity of the white-matter tracts that connect the left and right hemisphere of the frontal lobes. Over a period of about 180 days, 20 younger adults and 12 older adults trained for a total of one hundred and one 1-h sessions on a set of three working memory, three episodic memory, and six perceptual speed tasks. Control groups were assessed at pre- and post-test. Training affected several DTI metrics and increased the area of the anterior part of the corpus callosum. These alterations were of similar magnitude in younger and older adults. The findings indicate that experience-dependent plasticity of white-matter microstructure extends into old age and that disruptions of structural interhemispheric connectivity in old age, which are pronounced in aging, are modifiable by experience and amenable to treatment.
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41. |
- Lövdén, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Spatial navigation training protects the hippocampus against age-related changes during early and late adulthood
- 2012
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In: Neurobiology of Aging. - : Elsevier BV. - 0197-4580 .- 1558-1497. ; 33:3, s. 620.e9-620.e22
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- It is unknown whether lifestyle, including mental stimulation, and appropriate training interventions, may directly improve spatial navigation performance and its underlying neural substrates. Here we report that healthy younger and older men performing a cognitively demanding spatial navigation task every other day over 4 months display navigation-related gains in performance and stable hippocampal volumes that were maintained 4 months after termination of training. In contrast, control groups displayed volume decrements consistent with longitudinal estimates of age-related decline. Hippocampal barrier density, as indicated by mean diffusivity estimated from diffusion tensor imaging, showed a quadratic shape of increased density after training followed by a return to baseline in the right hippocampus, but declined in the control groups and in the left hippocampus. We conclude that sustained experiential demands on spatial ability protect hippocampal integrity against age-related decline. These results provide the first longitudinal evidence indicating that spatial navigation experience modifies hippocampal volumes in humans, and confirm epidemiological results suggesting that mental stimulation may have direct effects on neural integrity.
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42. |
- Maroju, Praveen K., et al.
(author)
-
A Novel Attosecond Timing Tool for Free-Electron Laser Experiment
- 2020
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In: High Intensity Lasers and High Field Phenomena 2020. - 9781943580736
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We demonstrate a novel timing tool for Free-Electron Lasers to determine the delay between an attosecond pulse train and infrared pulse with sub-optical-cycle resolu-. tion.
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43. |
- Nyberg, Lars, et al.
(author)
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Educational attainment does not influence brain aging
- 2021
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In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 118:18
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Education has been related to various advantageous lifetime outcomes. Here, using longitudinal structural MRI data (4,422 observations), we tested the influential hypothesis that higher education translates into slower rates of brain aging. Cross-sectionally, education was modestly associated with regional cortical volume. However, despite marked mean atrophy in the cortex and hippocampus, education did not influence rates of change. The results were replicated across two independent samples. Our findings challenge the view that higher education slows brain aging.
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44. |
- Nyberg, Lars, 1966-, et al.
(author)
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Individual differences in brain aging : heterogeneity in cortico-hippocampal but not caudate atrophy rates
- 2023
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In: Cerebral Cortex. - : Oxford University Press. - 1047-3211 .- 1460-2199. ; 33:9, s. 5075-5081
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- It is well documented that some brain regions, such as association cortices, caudate, and hippocampus, are particularly prone to age-related atrophy, but it has been hypothesized that there are individual differences in atrophy profiles. Here, we document heterogeneity in regional-atrophy patterns using latent-profile analysis of 1,482 longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging observations. The results supported a 2-group solution reflecting differences in atrophy rates in cortical regions and hippocampus along with comparable caudate atrophy. The higher-atrophy group had the most marked atrophy in hippocampus and also lower episodic memory, and their normal caudate atrophy rate was accompanied by larger baseline volumes. Our findings support and refine models of heterogeneity in brain aging and suggest distinct mechanisms of atrophy in striatal versus hippocampal-cortical systems.
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45. |
- Pannunzi, Mario, et al.
(author)
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Resting-state fMRI correlations : From link-wise unreliability to whole brain stability
- 2017
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In: NeuroImage. - : Elsevier BV. - 1053-8119. ; 157, s. 250-262
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The functional architecture of spontaneous BOLD fluctuations has been characterized in detail by numerous studies, demonstrating its potential relevance as a biomarker. However, the systematic investigation of its consistency is still in its infancy. Here, we analyze within- and between-subject variability and test-retest reliability of resting-state functional connectivity (FC) in a unique data set comprising multiple fMRI scans (42) from 5 subjects, and 50 single scans from 50 subjects. We adopt a statistical framework that enables us to identify different sources of variability in FC. We show that the low reliability of single links can be significantly improved by using multiple scans per subject. Moreover, in contrast to earlier studies, we show that spatial heterogeneity in FC reliability is not significant. Finally, we demonstrate that despite the low reliability of individual links, the information carried by the whole-brain FC matrix is robust and can be used as a functional fingerprint to identify individual subjects from the population.
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46. |
- Roe, James M., et al.
(author)
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Asymmetric thinning of the cerebral cortex across the adult lifespan is accelerated in Alzheimer’s disease
- 2021
-
In: Nature Communications. - : Nature Research. - 2041-1723. ; 12:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are associated with progressive brain disorganization. Although structural asymmetry is an organizing feature of the cerebral cortex it is unknown whether continuous age- and AD-related cortical degradation alters cortical asymmetry. Here, in multiple longitudinal adult lifespan cohorts we show that higher-order cortical regions exhibiting pronounced asymmetry at age ~20 also show progressive asymmetry-loss across the adult lifespan. Hence, accelerated thinning of the (previously) thicker homotopic hemisphere is a feature of aging. This organizational principle showed high consistency across cohorts in the Lifebrain consortium, and both the topological patterns and temporal dynamics of asymmetry-loss were markedly similar across replicating samples. Asymmetry-change was further accelerated in AD. Results suggest a system-wide dedifferentiation of the adaptive asymmetric organization of heteromodal cortex in aging and AD.
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47. |
- Salminen, Tiina, et al.
(author)
-
Increased integrity of white matter pathways after dual n-back training
- 2016
-
In: NeuroImage. - : Elsevier BV. - 1053-8119. ; 133, s. 244-250
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Dual n-back WM training has been shown to produce broad transfer effects to different untrained cognitive functions. The task is demanding to the cognitive system because it includes a bi-modal (auditory and visual) dual-task component. A previous WM training study showed increased white matter integrity in the parietal lobe as well as the anterior part of the corpus callosum after visual n-back training. We investigated dual n-back training-related changes in white matter pathways. We anticipated dual n-back training to increase white matter integrity in pathways that connect brain regions related to WM processes. Additionally, we hypothesized that dual n-back training would produce more brain-wide white matter changes than single n-back training because of the involvement of two modalities and the additional dual-task coordination component of the task. The dual n-back training group showed increased white matter integrity (reflected as increased fractional anisotropy, FA) after training. The effects were mostly left lateralized as compared with changes from pretest to posttest in the passive and active control groups. Additionally, significant effects were observed in the anterior part of the corpus callosum, when the training group was compared with the passive control group. There were no changes in pretest to posttest FA changes between the passive and active control groups. The results therefore show that dual n-back training produces increased integrity in white matter pathways connecting different brain regions. The results are discussed in reference to the bi-modal dual-task component of the training task.
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48. |
- Schael, S., et al.
(author)
-
Electroweak measurements in electron positron collisions at W-boson-pair energies at LEP
- 2013
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In: Physics Reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-1573 .- 1873-6270. ; 532:4, s. 119-244
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Electroweak measurements performed with data taken at the electron positron collider LEP at CERN from 1995 to 2000 are reported. The combined data set considered in this report corresponds to a total luminosity of about 3 fb(-1) collected by the four LEP experiments ALEPH, DELPHI, 13 and OPAL, at centre-of-mass energies ranging from 130 GeV to 209 GeV. Combining the published results of the four LEP experiments, the measurements include total and differential cross-sections in photon-pair, fermion-pair and four-fermion production, the latter resulting from both double-resonant WW and ZZ production as well as singly resonant production. Total and differential cross-sections are measured precisely, providing a stringent test of the Standard Model at centre-of-mass energies never explored before in electron positron collisions. Final-state interaction effects in four-fermion production, such as those arising from colour reconnection and Bose Einstein correlations between the two W decay systems arising in WW production, are searched for and upper limits on the strength of possible effects are obtained. The data are used to determine fundamental properties of the W boson and the electroweak theory. Among others, the mass and width of the W boson, m(w) and Gamma(w), the branching fraction of W decays to hadrons, B(W -> had), and the trilinear gauge-boson self-couplings g(1)(Z), K-gamma and lambda(gamma), are determined to be: m(w) = 80.376 +/- 0.033 GeV Gamma(w) = 2.195 +/- 0.083 GeV B(W -> had) = 67.41 +/- 0.27% g(1)(Z) = 0.984(-0.020)(+0.018) K-gamma - 0.982 +/- 0.042 lambda(gamma) = 0.022 +/- 0.019. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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49. |
- Tendolkar, Indira, et al.
(author)
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Physical neglect during childhood alters white matter connectivity in healthy young males
- 2018
-
In: Human Brain Mapping. - : Wiley. - 1065-9471. ; 39:3, s. 1283-1290
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Childhood adversity (CA) leads to greater vulnerability for psychopathology by causing structural as well as functional brain abnormalities. Recent findings on gray matter effects point towards the importance of identifying CA outcome as a function of different CA types, varying in the dimensions of threat and deprivation. Using diffusion tensor imaging, we investigate whether different forms of CA impact differently on white matter connectivity in a healthy cohort not confounded by other aspects of disease. Methods: In 120 healthy young males, we assessed different forms of maltreatment during childhood with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) images were generated and projected onto a white matter skeleton using tract-based spatial statistics. Correlational analysis between FA, MD, and CTQ subscores was then performed using voxelwise statistics. Results: Of all CTQ-subscores, only physical neglect (PN) predicted a decrease of FA but not MD in the bilateral anterior thalamic radiation around the middle frontal gyrus and the right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, the cingulum and precuneus. Reduced FA in the posterior cingulum was related to the effects of PN during childhood on anxiety levels at trend level. Conclusions: PN may have severe consequences and should be considered equally important to more active forms of abuse. FA changes, particularly in the cingulum, actually appear to a functional consequence and are linked to trait anxiety, a personality dimension that is suggested to be a transdiagnostic risk factor of affective disorders. Potentially this reveals a mechanistic chain that forms one pathyway from CA to disease.
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50. |
- Vidal-Pineiro, Didac, et al.
(author)
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Individual variations in 'brain age' relate to early-life factors more than to longitudinal brain change
- 2021
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In: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications. - 2050-084X. ; 10
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Brain age is a widely used index for quantifying individuals’ brain health as deviation from a normative brain aging trajectory. Higher-than-expected brain age is thought partially to reflect above-average rate of brain aging. Here, we explicitly tested this assumption in two indepen-dent large test datasets (UK Biobank [main] and Lifebrain [replication]; longitudinal observations ≈ 2750 and 4200) by assessing the relationship between cross-sectional and longitudinal estimates of brain age. Brain age models were estimated in two different training datasets (n ≈ 38,000 [main] and 1800 individuals [replication]) based on brain structural features. The results showed no association between cross-sectional brain age and the rate of brain change measured longitudinally. Rather, brain age in adulthood was associated with the congenital factors of birth weight and polygenic scores of brain age, assumed to reflect a constant, lifelong influence on brain structure from early life. The results call for nuanced interpretations of cross-sectional indices of the aging brain and question their validity as markers of ongoing within-person changes of the aging brain. Longitudinal imaging data should be preferred whenever the goal is to understand individual change trajectories of brain and cognition in aging.
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