Virtual reality-based sensorimotor adaptation shapes subsequent spontaneous and naturalistic stimulus-driven brain activity

Our everyday life summons numerous novel sensorimotor experiences, to which our brain needs to adapt in order to function properly. However, tracking plasticity of naturalistic behaviour and associated brain modulations is challenging. Here we tackled this question implementing a prism adaptation training in virtual reality (VRPA) in combination with functional neuroimaging. Three groups of healthy participants (N=45) underwent VRPA (with a spatial shift either to the left/right side, or with no shift), and performed fMRI sessions before and after training. To capture modulations in free-flowing, task-free brain activity, the fMRI sessions included resting state and free viewing of naturalistic videos. We found significant decreases in spontaneous functional connectivity between large-scale cortical networks, namely attentional and default mode/fronto-parietal networks, only for adaptation groups. Additionally, VRPA was found to bias visual representations of naturalistic videos, as following rightward adaptation, we found upregulation of visual response in an area in the parieto-occipital sulcus (POS) in the right hemisphere. Notably, the extent of POS upregulation correlated with the size of the VRPA induced after-effect measured in behavioural tests. This study demonstrates that a brief VRPA exposure is able to change large-scale cortical connectivity and correspondingly bias the representation of naturalistic sensory inputs.

Intact finger representation within primary sensorimotor cortex of Musicians Dystonia

Musicians dystonia presents with a persistent deterioration of motor control during musical performance. A predominant hypothesis has been that this is underpinned by maladaptive neural changes to the somatotopic organisation of finger representations within primary somatosensory cortex. Here, we tested this hypothesis by investigating the finger-specific activity patterns in the primary somatosensory and motor cortex using functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) in nine musicians with dystonia and nine healthy musicians. A purpose-built keyboard device allowed fMRI characterisation of activity patterns elicited during passive extension and active finger presses of individual fingers. We analysed the data using both traditional spatial analysis and state-of-the art multivariate analyses. Our analysis reveals that digit representations in musicians were poorly captured by spatial measures. An optimised spatial metric found clear somatotopy but no difference in the spatial geometry between fingers. Representational similarity analysis was confirmed as a highly reliable technique and more consistent than all spatial metrics evaluated. Significantly, the dissimilarity architecture was equivalent for musicians with and without dystonia and no expansion or spatial shift of digit representation maps were found in the symptomatic group. Our results therefore suggest that the neural representation of generic finger maps in primary sensorimotor cortex is intact in Musicians dystonia. These results are against the idea that task-specific dystonia is associated with a distorted hand somatotopy and suggests that task-specific dystonia is due to a higher order disruption of skill encoding. Such a formulation can better explain the task-specific deficit and offers mechanistic insight for therapeutic interventions.

Classroom concept as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic: An antivirus built-environment approach

This discussion is based on the COVID-19 pandemic, which causes children to be vulnerable to infection due to their still-developing organs and immune system. The nature of the virus to survive in the environment encourages the existence of variants of the virus, making vaccines the only way to stop the virus from spreading internally. Based on the latest research by WHO, a new virus variant has been found with the potential for transmission and effects that are more severe than the previous virus. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on changing educational activities to distance through the use of technology. Children are a golden phase to learn and get to know something that tends to be through direct interaction. However, this is less effective because of children who need to be supervised and tend to be given natural direction and the children’s homes’ different psychological conditions and conditions. This study aims to analyze the concept of an excellent class to minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19 and other virus variants in the future so that it is safe for the health of users, namely children. It conducts a concept-based framework with an antivirus built-environment approach supported with simulation, literature and precedent review. In the discussion, the concept of an antivirus built-environment class is supported by an understanding of biophilic built-environment, especially biomimetics and direct use of nature, as well as the existence of spatial shift standards due to the risk of spread, government regulations on learning systems, healthy space and climate conditions in Indonesia. Biomimetics translates the character and work system of viruses biologically with the help of antivirus software tools because of the similarities in their properties. Antivirus built-environment on the class concept is realized in the form of scanning incoming users with the help of technology and room protection. The application of this concept, when discovered, is expected to prevent the accumulation of users from minimizing interactions that are at risk of spreading the virus, nourish users with the help of nature, and provide a place for children’s learning activities.

Solar Photovoltaic Investment Changes across China Regions Using a Spatial Shift-Share Analysis

Solar photovoltaic (PV) has become the fastest-growing new energy in China and one of the main contributors to China’s clean energy transition. From 2013 to 2019, China’s solar PV installed capacity grew from 15,890 MW to 204,180 MW, increasing by 11.85 times. To explore solar PV investment changes across China regions, we use spatial shift-share analysis model to decompose solar PV investment changes from 2013 to 2019 into four components: national energy investment growth effect (NEG), national energy investment structure effect (NES), neighbor–nation solar PV investment competitive effect (NNC), and region–neighbor solar PV investment competitive effect (RNC). Based on the decomposition results, we find that the value of NNC of most western provinces is negative for the entire period, while the NNC of most central and eastern provinces is in the middle and lower range. There is little difference in RNC among these regions. While comparing the influence caused by the four effects, NNC and RNC play dominant roles in solar PV investment changes in eastern and central provinces, which means NEG and NES have relatively small impacts. By contrast, NEG and NES affect the solar PV investment changes at a larger scale in most western provinces. Comparing the NNC and RNC, we find that RNC played a prominent role in the eastern and central regions, while NNC played a dominant role in the west.

Spatial Shift-Share Analysis as a Tool for Studying the Economic Development of Russia’s Macroregions

Structural analysis of regional economies plays a significant role in political decision-making. In the context of Russian regional development, a new research topic emerges at the level of economic macroregions as defined in the current Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation. The present work aims to empirically evaluate the use of shift-share analysis to clarify the contribution of the neighbourhood effect in addition to national and regional growth factors. The proposed approach incorporates structural shifts of spatial interactions into the classical method using various matrices (adjacency, neighbourhood). Macroregional economic growth was decomposed on the basis of consolidated sectoral structural dynamics and national development stages from 2004–2018 to reveal specific features of structural growth. It was determined that the most significant effects at all stages are those generated by national economic policy. Regional effects are especially important for macroregions whose development is characterised by substantial state support combined with an adequate resource base. Negative values of the spatial sectoral shift persisting across all macroregions testify to the positive mutual influence of macroregional specialisation and intensified interregional cooperation. Sectoral effects were observed only for particular economic sectors or at certain macroregional development stages. Recommendations for strengthening interregional interactions are proposed on the basis of the enlarged typology of structural effects in macroregions. Comparative analysis confirmed the consistency of estimates obtained using standard and spatial shift-share methods. Future research will focus on clarifying the structure of spatial relationships and detailing actual interregional economic interactions in the form of products and goods exchanged between macroregions.

Dynamics of Area Substitution of Pulses in India

Background: Pulses have been very curial in many aspects like; rich source of protein, economy aspect and contribute to agricultural and environmental sustainability. In this investigation an attempt has been made to evaluate the dynamics of area substitution between pulses and other crops, extent of spatial shift among pulses producing states and some policy measures have been suggested to stabilize the area under pulses across states. Methods: Secondary data on area of principal crops for the period 1966-2016 was used in this article. By computing quartile values, all states and groups of states were clubbed into four different quartiles for each decade. Area substitution among principal field crops including pulses has been analyzed using first order Markov transition probability matrix (TPM). Result: This TPM was further used to evaluate the mobility of membership status of states under pulses production. It was found that period 1986-2006 happened to be the golden period for area under pulses in India. Mean area under pulses had increased for first three decades and in the subsequent two decades mean area (quartile values) had declined substantially.

Commuting, Labor, and Housing Market Effects of Mass Transportation: Welfare and Identification

I study Los Angeles Metro Rail's effects using panel data on bilateral commuting flows, a quantitative spatial model, and historically motivated quasi-experimental research designs. The model separates transit's commuting effects from local productivity or amenity effects, and spatial shift-share instruments identify inelastic labor and housing supply. Metro Rail connections increase commuting by 16% but do not have large effects on local productivity or amenities. Metro Rail generates $94 million in annual benefits by 2000, or 12-25% of annualized costs. Accounting for reduced congestion and slow transit adoption adds, at most, another $200 million in annual benefits.

Estimating Fishing Effort and Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Longline Vessels in the Indian Ocean

Protein from fish is essential for feeding the world’s population and is increasingly recognized as critical for food security. To ensure that fisheries resources can be sustainably maintained, fisheries management must be appropriately implemented. When logbook and landing records data are not complete or are incorrect, it is challenging to have an accurate understanding of catch volume. Focusing on Indonesian longline vessels operating in the Indian Ocean from 2012–2019 (n = 1124 vessels), our aims were to (1) assess compliance through identification of landing sites and potentially illicit behavior inferred by interruptions in VMS transmission, and (2) understand how the fishery operates along with quantifying the spatio-temporal distribution of fishing intensity by applying a Hidden Markov Model, which automatically classified each VMS position as fishing, steaming and anchoring. We found vessel compliance gaps in 90% of vessels in the dataset. Compliance was questionable due both to the widespread occurrence of long intermissions in relaying VMS positions (mean = 17.8 h, n = 973 vessels) and the use of unauthorized landing sites. We also observed substantial changes in fishing effort locations among years. The introduction of regulatory measures during the study period banning transshipment and foreign vessels may be responsible for the spatial shift in fishing activity we observed, from encompassing nearly the whole Indian Ocean to more recent intense efforts off western Sumatra and northern Australia.

Reducing SAR in 7T brain fMRI by circumventing fat suppression while removing the lipid signal through a parallel acquisition approach

Ultra-high-field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers a way to new insights while increasing the spatial and temporal resolution. However, a crucial concern in 7T human MRI is the increase in power deposition, supervised through the specific absorption rate (SAR). The SAR limitation can restrict the brain coverage or the minimal repetition time of fMRI experiments. In the majority of today’s studies fMRI relies on the well-known gradient-echo echo-planar imaging (GRE-EPI) sequence, which offers ultrafast acquisition. Commonly, the GRE-EPI sequence comprises two pulses: fat suppression and excitation. This work provides the means for a significant reduction in the SAR by circumventing the fat-suppression pulse. Without this fat-suppression, however, lipid signal can result in artifacts due to the chemical shift between the lipid and water signals. Our approach exploits a reconstruction similar to the simultaneous-multi-slice method to separate the lipid and water images, thus avoiding undesired lipid artifacts in brain images. The lipid-water separation is based on the known spatial shift of the lipid signal, which can be detected by the multi-channel coils sensitivity profiles. Our study shows robust human imaging, offering greater flexibility to reduce the SAR, shorten the repetition time or increase the volume coverage with substantial benefit for brain functional studies.