Homeodynamic feedback inhibition control in whole-brain simulations.

Simulations of large-scale brain dynamics are often impacted by overexcitation resulting from heavy-tailed structural network distributions, leading to biologically implausible simulation results. We implement a homeodynamic plasticity mechanism, known from other modeling work, in the widely used Jansen-Rit neural mass model for The Virtual Brain (TVB) simulation framework. We aim at heterogeneously adjusting the inhibitory coupling weights to reach desired dynamic regimes in each brain region.

Study of the effect of feeding larvae during their rearing on their growth, nutritional profile, value and safety of the produced flour.

Science and food industry must strive to ensure and improve edible insect's benefits, and especially their safety and nutritional value. This study investigated how various food substrates used in the rearing of larvae influence their growth, the safety of the larvae, and the nutritional quality of the resulting flour. The main findings indicate that all samples showed significant differences in their nutritional profile, larval characteristics, and heavy metal content.

Lethal and Sub-Lethal Effects of Organic-Production-Approved Insecticides and Fungicides on the Predator (Rambur) (Hemiptera: Miridae).

In this study, the effects of paraffin oil, copper hydroxide, copper oxychloride, wettable sulfur, and deltamethrin, as a toxic reference treatment, on the survival and predation rate of were investigated. In each treatment, the prey were classified as slightly, partially or fully consumed. The mortality rate after contact exposure was high (66.

Dynamics in interbrain synchronization while playing a piano duet.

Humans interact with each other through actions that are implemented by sensory and motor processes. To investigate the role of interbrain synchronization emerging during interpersonal action coordination, electroencephalography data from 13 pairs of pianists were recorded simultaneously while they performed a duet together. The study aimed to investigate whether interbrain phase couplings can be reduced to similar bottom-up driven processes during synchronous play, or rather represent cognitive top-down control required during periods of higher coordination demands.

Adaptive experimental design produces superior and more efficient estimates of predator functional response.

Ecological dynamics are strongly influenced by the relationship between prey density and predator feeding behavior-that is, the predatory functional response. A useful understanding of this relationship requires us to distinguish between competing models of the functional response, and to robustly estimate the model parameters. Recent advances in this topic have revealed bias in model comparison, as well as in model parameter estimation in functional response studies, mainly attributed to the quality of data.

Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards?

Apples depend on insect pollination but intensification of agriculture jeopardizes pollination services in agroecosystems. Concerns about the dependency of crop pollination exclusively on honey bees increase the interest in agricultural practices that safeguard wild pollinators in agroecosystems. The purpose of the study was to assess the potential of floral resource provision in apple orchards to enhance the conservation of hymenopterous pollinating insects and potentially the pollination service to the crop.

Essential Oil-A Review of Its Chemical Profile and Pesticide Activity.

is a medicinal and aromatic plant that belongs to the Lamiaceae family. It is cultivated in several parts of the world and, due to its splendid aroma and taste, is widely used for culinary purposes and in perfumes. The essential oil of the plant, to which is attributed its aroma, contains many secondary metabolites with valuable biological activity.

Metabolomic and Genomic Approach to Study Defense Induction by against and in Tomato Plants.

The phytophagy of the predator (Hemiptera: Miridae) can trigger defense responses in tomato plants against pests, such as two spotted spider mite (Acari: Tetranychidae) and South American leaf miner (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae). The expression of genes governing Jasmonic Acid (JA) biosynthesis pathway and fluctuations in the levels of underlying metabolites have been rarely studied in mirid-infested plants. In the present study, fifteen 3rd instar nymphs of were caged on each top and lower leaf of tomato plants for 4 d to induce plant defense; after this period the predators were removed.

Virtual deep brain stimulation: Multiscale co-simulation of a spiking basal ganglia model and a whole-brain mean-field model with The Virtual Brain.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been successfully applied in various neurodegenerative diseases as an effective symptomatic treatment. However, its mechanisms of action within the brain network are still poorly understood. Many virtual DBS models analyze a subnetwork around the basal ganglia and its dynamics as a spiking network with their details validated by experimental data.

Brain simulation as a cloud service: The Virtual Brain on EBRAINS.

The Virtual Brain (TVB) is now available as open-source services on the cloud research platform EBRAINS (ebrains.eu). It offers software for constructing, simulating and analysing brain network models including the TVB simulator; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) processing pipelines to extract structural and functional brain networks; combined simulation of large-scale brain networks with small-scale spiking networks; automatic conversion of user-specified model equations into fast simulation code; simulation-ready brain models of patients and healthy volunteers; Bayesian parameter optimization in epilepsy patient models; data and software for mouse brain simulation; and extensive educational material.

Interacting brains coming in sync through their minds: an interbrain neurofeedback study.

Neurophysiological evidence shows that interpersonal action coordination is accompanied by interbrain synchronization (IBS). However, the functional significance of this association remains unclear. Using two experimental designs, we explored whether IBS is amenable to neurofeedback (NFB).

dsRNA-Mediated Pest Management of Is Compatible with Its Biological Control Agent .

RNAi-mediated insect pest management has recently shown promising results against the most serious pest of tomato, the tomato leafminer, . This study aimed to investigate whether dsRNA (ds-) designed to target the gene could cause adverse effects to its biocontrol agent, the mirid predator, Oral exposure of to dsRNA (ds) designed to target - resulted in a 61%, 67% and 55% reduction in its transcript level in comparison to the sucrose, ds and ds treatments, respectively. In addition, significantly higher mortality of 57% was recorded in dstreated when compared to the sucrose (7%), ds (10%) and ds (10%) treatments.

Predator size affects the intensity of mutual interference in a predatory mirid.

Interference competition occurs when access to an available resource is negatively affected by interactions with other individuals, where mutual interference involves individuals of the same species. The interactive phenomena among individuals may be size-dependent, since body size is a major factor that may alter prey consumption rates and ultimately the dynamics and structure of food webs.A study was initiated in order to evaluate the effect of mutual interference in the prey-specific attack rates and handling times of same size class predators, incorporating variation in consumer size.

Pest Management and Ochratoxin A Contamination in Grapes: A Review.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is the most toxic member of ochratoxins, a group of toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi. The most relevant species involved in OTA production in grapes is . Berry infection by is enhanced by damage to the skin caused by abiotic and biotic factors.

Lifespan Changes in Network Structure and Network Topology Dynamics During Rest and Auditory Oddball Performance.

Behavioral and physiological evidence suggests that developmental changes lead to enhanced cortical differentiation and integration through maturation and learning, and that senescent changes during aging result in dedifferentiation and reduced cortical specialization of neural cell assemblies. We used electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings to evaluate network structure and network topology dynamics during rest with eyes closed and open, and during auditory oddball task across the lifespan. For this evaluation, we constructed a hyper-frequency network (HFN) based on within- and cross-frequency coupling (WFC and CFC, respectively) at 10 oscillation frequencies ranging between 2 and 20 Hz.

Encapsulation of Mentha pulegium Essential Oil in Yeast Cell Microcarriers: An Approach to Environmentally Friendly Pesticides.

A green approach for the encapsulation of Mentha pulegium essential oil in commercial baker's yeast and its evaluation as a pesticide against the insect pest Myzus persicae are presented. Upon treating aqueous yeast cell dispersion with the essential oil, the formation of essential-oil-loaded microparticles of about 9 μm is observed, with a loading capacity ranging from 29 to 36%, depending upon the encapsulation conditions. The thermal properties of the microparticles were characterized using differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis, confirming the protection of the essential oil from the cells.

Plant insects and mites uptake double-stranded RNA upon its exogenous application on tomato leaves.

Exogenously applied double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules onto tomato leaves, moved rapidly from local to systemic leaves and were uptaken by agricultural pests namely aphids, whiteflies and mites. Four small interfering RNAs, deriving from the applied dsRNA, were molecularly detected in plants, aphids and mites but not in whiteflies. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) acts as the elicitor molecule of the RNA silencing (RNA interference, RNAi), the endogenous and evolutionary conserved surveillance system present in all eukaryotes.

Brain synchronization during perception of facial emotional expressions with natural and unnatural dynamics.

Research on the perception of facial emotional expressions (FEEs) often uses static images that do not capture the dynamic character of social coordination in natural settings. Recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies suggest that dynamic FEEs (videos or morphs) enhance emotion perception. To identify mechanisms associated with the perception of FEEs with natural dynamics, the present EEG (Electroencephalography)study compared (i) ecologically valid stimuli of angry and happy FEEs with natural dynamics to (ii) FEEs with unnatural dynamics, and to (iii) static FEEs.

Teams on the same wavelength perform better: Inter-brain phase synchronization constitutes a neural substrate for social facilitation.

Working together feels easier with some people than with others. We asked participants to perform a visual search task either alone or with a partner while simultaneously measuring each participant's EEG. Local phase synchronization and inter-brain phase synchronization were generally higher when subjects jointly attended to a visual search task than when they attended to the same task individually.

Structure and Topology Dynamics of Hyper-Frequency Networks during Rest and Auditory Oddball Performance.

Resting-state and task-related recordings are characterized by oscillatory brain activity and widely distributed networks of synchronized oscillatory circuits. Electroencephalographic recordings (EEG) were used to assess network structure and network dynamics during resting state with eyes open and closed, and auditory oddball performance through phase synchronization between EEG channels. For this assessment, we constructed a hyper-frequency network (HFN) based on within- and cross-frequency coupling (WFC and CFC, respectively) at 10 oscillation frequencies ranging between 2 and 20 Hz.

The multiscale entropy: Guidelines for use and interpretation in brain signal analysis.

Background: Multiscale entropy (MSE) estimates the predictability of a signal over multiple temporal scales. It has been recently applied to study brain signal variability, notably during aging. The grounds of its application and interpretation remain unclear and subject to debate.

Functional coordination of muscles underlying changes in behavioural dynamics.

The dynamical systems approach addresses Bernstein's degrees of freedom problem by assuming that the neuro-musculo-skeletal system transiently assembles and dismantles its components into functional units (or synergies) to meet task demands. Strikingly, little is known from a dynamical point of view about the functioning of the muscular sub-system in this process. To investigate the interaction between the dynamical organisation at muscular and behavioural levels, we searched for specific signatures of a phase transition in muscular coordination when a transition is displayed at the behavioural level.

Brain Dynamics of Aging: Multiscale Variability of EEG Signals at Rest and during an Auditory Oddball Task.

The present work focused on the study of fluctuations of cortical activity across time scales in young and older healthy adults. The main objective was to offer a comprehensive characterization of the changes of brain (cortical) signal variability during aging, and to make the link with known underlying structural, neurophysiological, and functional modifications, as well as aging theories. We analyzed electroencephalogram (EEG) data of young and elderly adults, which were collected at resting state and during an auditory oddball task.

Functional architectures and structured flows on manifolds: a dynamical framework for motor behavior.

We outline a dynamical framework for sequential sensorimotor behavior based on the sequential composition of basic behavioral units. Basic units are conceptualized as temporarily existing low-dimensional dynamical objects, or structured flows, emerging from a high-dimensional system, referred to as structured flows on manifolds. Theorems from dynamical system theory allow for the unambiguous classification of behaviors as represented by structured flows, and thus provide a means to define and identify basic units.

Time scale hierarchies in the functional organization of complex behaviors.

Traditional approaches to cognitive modelling generally portray cognitive events in terms of 'discrete' states (point attractor dynamics) rather than in terms of processes, thereby neglecting the time structure of cognition. In contrast, more recent approaches explicitly address this temporal dimension, but typically provide no entry points into cognitive categorization of events and experiences. With the aim to incorporate both these aspects, we propose a framework for functional architectures.