Distinctive body perception mechanisms in high versus low symptom reporters: A neurophysiological model for medically-unexplained symptoms.

2020

Abstract Objective The neurophysiological processes involved in the generation of medically-unexplained symptoms (MUS) remain unclear. This study tested three assumptions of the perception-filter model contributing to MUS: (I.) increased bodily signal strength (II.) decreased filter function, (III.) increased perception. Methods In this cross-sectional, observational study, trait MUS were assessed by a web-based survey (N = 486). The upper and lower decile were identified as extreme groups of high (HSR; n = 29; 26 women; Mage = 26.0 years) and low symptom reporters (LSR; n = 29; 21 women; Mage = 28.4 years). Mean heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV), and cortisol awakening respo…

Making sense of what you sense: Disentangling interoceptive awareness, sensibility and accuracy.

2016

Garfinkel and Critchley (2013) recently proposed a three level model of interoception. Only few studies, however, have empirically tested this theoretical model thus far. The present study aimed at investigating (1) the central assumptions of this model, i.e. that Accuracy, Sensibility and Awareness are distinguishable facets of interoception and that Interoceptive Accuracy is the basic level of interoception, and (2) whether cardiovascular activation (as indexed by heart rate) is differentially related to the three facets of interoception. Analyses were conducted on a total sample of N=159 healthy participants (118 female [74.2%]; mean age=23.9years, SD=3.3, range=19-45) who performed eith…

High blood pressure responders show largest increase in heartbeat perception accuracy after post-learning stress following a cardiac interoceptive le…

2020

Mental disorders with physical symptoms, e.g. somatic symptom disorder, are characterized by altered interoceptive accuracy (IAc), which can be explained by individual differences in interoceptive learning (IL). We investigated if stress facilitates IL. Seventy-three healthy participants performed a heartbeat counting task (HCT: T1) and a heartbeat perception training (HBPT). After exposure to a socially-evaluated cold pressor stress test (SECPT; n = 48) or a control condition (n = 25), two more HCTs were performed (T2: 30 min after SECPT; T3: 24 h later). After the HBPT, all participants showed an increase in IAc. We separated the stress group into high vs. low systolic blood pressures (SB…

Subclinical levels of anxiety but not depression are associated with planning performance in a large population-based sample

2017

BackgroundMajor depression and anxiety disorders are known to negatively influence cognitive performance. Moreover, there is evidence for greater cognitive decline in older adults with generalized anxiety disorder. Except for clinical studies, complex executive planning functions and subclinical levels of anxiety have not been examined in a population-based sample with a broad age range.MethodsPlanning performance was assessed using the Tower of London task in a population-based sample of 4240 participants aged 40–80 years from the Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) and related to self-reported anxiety and depression by means of multiple linear regression analysis.ResultsHigher anxiety ratings we…

Reconstruction of events recorded with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

2020

Cosmic rays arriving at Earth collide with the upper parts of the atmosphere, thereby inducing extensive air showers. When secondary particles from the cascade arrive at the ground, they are measured by surface detector arrays. We describe the methods applied to the measurements of the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory to reconstruct events with zenith angles less than 60 using the timing and signal information recorded using the water-Cherenkov detector stations. In addition, we assess the accuracy of these methods in reconstructing the arrival directions of the primary cosmic ray particles and the sizes of the induced showers.

PHQ-2 and GAD-2 scores predict mortality in patients undergoing oral anticoagulation

2015

Search for ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles with the Pierre Auger Observatory

2016

We present a search for ultra-relativistic magnetic monopoles with the Pierre Auger Observatory. Such particles, possibly a relic of phase transitions in the early universe, would deposit a large amount of energy along their path through the atmosphere, comparable to that of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). The air shower profile of a magnetic monopole can be effectively distinguished by the fluorescence detector from that of standard UHECRs. No candidate was found in the data collected between 2004 and 2012, with an expected background of less than 0.1 event from UHECRs. The corresponding 90% confidence level (C.L.) upper limits on the flux of ultra-relativistic magnetic monopoles ra…

Muons in air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory

2015

We present the first hybrid measurement of the average muon number in air showers at ultrahigh energies, initiated by cosmic rays with zenith angles between 62° and 80°. The measurement is based on 174 hybrid events recorded simultaneously with the surface detector array and the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The muon number for each shower is derived by scaling a simulated reference profile of the lateral muon density distribution at the ground until it fits the data. A 1019eV shower with a zenith angle of 67°, which arrives at the surface detector array at an altitude of 1450 m above sea level, contains on average (2.68±0.04±0.48(sys))×107 muons with energies large…

Search for patterns by combining cosmic-ray energy and arrival directions at the Pierre Auger Observatory

2015

Energy-dependent patterns in the arrival directions of cosmic rays are searched for using data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. We investigate local regions around the highest-energy cosmic rays with E ≥ 6×1019 eV by analyzing cosmic rays with energies above E ≥ 5×1018 eV arriving within an angular separation of approximately 15∘. We characterize the energy distributions inside these regions by two independent methods, one searching for angular dependence of energy-energy correlations and one searching for collimation of energy along the local system of principal axes of the energy distribution. No significant patterns are found with this analysis. The comparison of these measurements with …

Searches for anisotropies in the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory

2015

We analyze the distribution of arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory in 10 years of operation. The data set, about three times larger than that used in earlier studies, includes arrival directions with zenith angles up to $80^\circ$, thus covering from $-90^\circ$ to $+45^\circ$ in declination. After updating the fraction of events correlating with the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the V��ron-Cetty and V��ron catalog, we subject the arrival directions of the data with energies in excess of 40 EeV to different tests for anisotropy. We search for localized excess fluxes and for self-clustering of event directions at angular scales up t…

Cardiac modulation of startle is altered in depersonalization-/derealization disorder: Evidence for impaired brainstem representation of baro-afferen…

2016

Patients with depersonalization-/derealization disorder (DPD) show altered heartbeat-evoked brain potentials, which are considered psychophysiological indicators of cortical representation of visceral-afferent neural signals. The aim of the current investigation was to clarify whether the impaired CNS representation of visceral-afferent neural signals in DPD is restricted to the cortical level or is also present in sub-cortical structures. We used cardiac modulation of startle (CMS) to assess baro-afferent signal transmission at brainstem level in 22 DPD and 23 healthy control individuals. The CMS paradigm involved acoustic startle stimuli (105dB(A), 50ms) elicited 0, 100, 200, 300, 400 and…

The energy spectrum of cosmic rays beyond the turn-down around 1017 eV as measured with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

2021

The successful installation, commissioning, and operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory would not have been possible without the strong commitment and effort from the technical and administrative staff in Malargüe. We are very grateful to the following agencies and organizations for financial support: Argentina – Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT); Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); Gobierno de la Provincia de Mendoza; Municipalidad de Malargüe; NDM Holdings and Valle Las Leñas; in gratitude for their continuing cooperation over land access; Australia – the Australian Research Council; Be…