Hippocampal place-cell sequences observed during awake immobility often represent previous experience, suggesting a role in memory processes. However, recent reports of goals being overrepresented in sequential activity suggest a role in short-term planning, although a detailed understanding of the origins of hippocampal sequential activity and of its functional role is still lacking. In particular, it is unknown which mechanism could support efficient planning by generating place-cell sequences biased toward known goal locations, in an adaptive and constructive fashion. To address these questions, we propose a model of spatial learning and sequence generation as interdependent processes, integrating cortical contextual coding, synaptic plasticity and neuromodulatory mechanisms into a map-based approach. Following goal learning, sequential activity emerges from continuous attractor network dynamics biased by goal memory inputs. We apply Bayesian decoding on the resulting spike trains, allowing a direct comparison with experimental data. Simulations show that this model (1) explains the generation of never-experienced sequence trajectories in familiar environments, without requiring virtual self-motion signals, (2) accounts for the bias in place-cell sequences toward goal locations, (3) highlights their utility in flexible route planning, and (4) provides specific testable predictions.

The size reduction of transistors has been the main reason for a successful development of semiconductor integrated circuits over the last decades. Because of the physically limited downscaling of transistors, alternative technologies namely the information processing and nonvolatile resistive switches (also termed memristors) have come into focus. Memristors reveal a fast switching speed, long retention time, and stable endurance. Nonvolatile analog bipolar resistive switching with a considerable large On/Off ratio is reported in BiFeO3 (BFO)-based resistive switches. So far resistive switches are mainly applied in memory applications or logic operations. Given the excellent properties of BFO based memristors, the further exploration of functionalities for memristive devices is required. A new approach for hardware based cryptographic system was developed within the framework of this dissertation. By studying the power conversion efficiencies on BFO memristor at various harmonics, it has been shown that two sets of clearly distinguishable power ratios are achievable when the BFO memristor is set into high or into low resistance state. Thus, a BFO-based binary encoding system can be established. As an example the unrecoverable seizure information from encoded medical data suggests the proper functioning of the proposed encryption system. Aside from cryptographic functionality, the single pairing spike timing dependent plasticity (STDP) in BFO-based artificial synapses is demonstrated, which can be considered as the cornerstone for energy-efficient and fast hardware-based neuromorphic networks. In comparison to the biological driven realistic way, only single one pairing of pre- and postsynaptic spikes is applied to the BFO-based artificial synapse instead of 60-80 pairings. Thus, the learning time constant of STDP function can be reduced from 25 ms to 125 us. / In den letzten Jahrzehnten war die Größenreduktion von Transistoren einer der Hauptgründe für die Leistungssteigerung von integrierten Halbleiterschaltungen. Aufgrund des physikalisch beschränkten Skalierungspotentials, werden alternative Technologien für Halbleiterschaltungen entwickelt. Dazu zählen neuartige Widerstandsschalter, sogenannte Memristoren, welche wegen ihrer schnellen Schaltgeschwindigkeit, langen Speicherzeit und stabilen Haltbarkeit in den Fokus der Forschung gerückt sind. Das nichtflüchtige analoge bipolare Schalten des Widerstandwertes mit einem On/Off Verhältnis größer als 100 wurde in BiFeO 3 (BFO)-basierten Widerstands-schaltern beobachtet. Bisher wurden Widerstandsschalter hauptsächlich als Speicher oder in rekonfigurierbaren Logikschaltungen verwendet. Aufgrund der ausgezeichneten Eigenschaften von BFO-basierten Memristoren, ist die Untersuchung weiterer neuer Funktionalitäten vielversprechend. Als neuer Ansatz für ein Hardware-basiertes Kryptosystem wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit die Ausnutzung des Leistungsübertragungskoeffizienten in BFO Memristoren vorgeschlagen. Mit Hilfe der unterschiedlichen Oberschwingungen, welche von einem BFO Memristor im ON und OFF Zustand generiert werden, wurde ein Kryptosystem zum Kodieren binärer Daten entwickelt. Ein Test des Hardware-basierten Kryptosystems an Biodaten ergab, dass die kodierten Biodaten keine vorhersagbare Korrelation mehr enthielten. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden darüberhinaus BFO-basierte künstliche Synapsen mit einer Aktionspotentials-Intervall abhängigen Plastizität (STDP) für Einzelpulse entwickelt. Diese Einzelpuls-STDP legt den Grundstein für energieffiziente und schnelle neuromorphe Netzwerke mit künstlichen Synapsen. Im Vergleich zu biologischen Synapsen mit einer 60-80-Puls-STDP und einem Lernfenster auf der ms-Zeitskale, konnte das Lernfenster von BFO-basierten künstlichen Synapsen von 25 ms auf 125 μs reduziert werden. Solch ein schnelles Lernen ermöglicht auch die extreme Reduzierung des Leistungsverbrauchs in neuromorphen Netzwerken.

<p dir="ltr">Past research has extensively explored the benefits of acute aerobic exercise (AE) on memory and executive functions. Additionally, the cross-sectional relationship between muscle strength – a direct outcome of RE – and cognition is unknown, despite the simultaneous onset of muscle and cognitive decline in one’s thirties. However, the effects of acute resistance exercise (RE) on cognition remain understudied, despite the growing popularity of RE and evidence that RE may have distinct effects on cognition.. Therefore, the present study aimed to broaden our understanding of the connection between muscle strength and hippocampal-dependent memory and to investigate the influence of RE on memory and executive function.</p><p dir="ltr">A sample of 125 healthy young adults (18-50 years old) completed this study. On the first day of testing, subjects completed a cognitive battery testing aspects of hippocampal dependent memory, spatial abilities, and working memory, a maximal muscle strength testing session including handgrip strength and one-rep-max testing, and maximal aerobic capacity testing. Subjects completed a bioelectrical impedance assessment (BIA) body scan to measure body composition on Day 2. Day 3 consisted of a randomized controlled trial (RCT), where subjects completed either 42 minute moderate intensity RE (n = 62) or a seated rest (n = 61). Cognitive testing including a memory recognition task, an inhibitory control task, and a working memory task were performed both before and after the intervention. Subjects also completed lactate, blood pressure, and blood draw (only a subset of subjects (n = 59)) before and after intervention.</p><p dir="ltr">The results first revealed that after controlling for known covariates, those with greater handgrip strength performed better on mental rotation tasks (t = 2.14, p = 0.04, Δr2= 0.04), while those with higher upper-body relative strength did better on recognition (t = 2.78, p = 0.01, Δr2 = 0.06) and pattern separation (t = 2.03, p = 0.04, Δr2= 0.04) tasks. Further, while there was no acute effect of RE on memory performance, response times during measures of inhibitory control (t = 4.15, p < 0.01, d = 0.40) and working memory decreased after exercise (t = 7.01, p < 0.01, d = 0.46), along with decreases in P3 latency during the inhibitory control task (t =-5.99, p < 0.01, d = 0.58). Additionally, blood lactate (t =-17.18, p < 0.01, d = 2.06), serum brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) (t = -4.17, p < 0.01, d = 0.66), and systolic blood pressure (t = -10.58, p < 0.01, d = 0.99) all increased following RE, while diastolic blood pressure (t = 4.90, p < 0.01,d = 0.50) decreased. Notably, the change in systolic blood pressure (t = -2.83, p = 0.01, Δr2 = 0.06) was associated with improvements in behavioral measures of inhibitory control, changes in lactate (t = -2.26, p = 0.03, Δr2 = 0.04) and systolic blood pressure (t = -3.30, p < 0.01, Δr2 = 0.08) were also related to improved behavioral changes in working memory, and changes in lactate (t = -3.31, p < 0.01, Δr2= 0.08) and BDNF (t = -2.12, p = 0.04, Δr2= 0.08) related to faster P3 latency during inhibitory control. Importantly, these associations between physiological and cognitive changes were consistent across both exercise and rest groups, suggesting that physiological changes were linked to improved cognitive performance regardless of group assignment.</p><p dir="ltr">In conclusion, this study highlights the positive relationships between cross-sectional muscle strength and aspects of memory and spatial abilities, with distinct contributions from handgrip and upper body strength. Furthermore, acute RE was shown to enhance executive functions, particularly in terms of processing speed during inhibitory control (response time and P3 latency) and working memory (response time). This study suggests that RE can be a valid way to garner exercise-induced benefits on executive functions potentially through its influence on lactate, BDNF, and blood pressure, however, since these effects were evident regardless of intervention, more work is needed to determine if RE-induced changes have the same mechanisms. Overall, these findings underscore the potential benefits of muscle strength and RE on enhancing executive function in young and middle-aged adults.</p>

Präsentiert werden drei Studien zum Thema Prädiktion von Leistung. In Studie 1 wurde die Prädiktion von Studienerfolg nicht nur mit Persönlichkeitsmaßen auf Facettenebene sowohl von Fremd- als auch Selbst-Ratings untersucht, sondern auch der Einfluss von faking auf die Kriteriumsvalidität. Ergebnisse zeigten, dass Fremd- über Selbst-Ratings und Intelligenz hinaus Studienerfolg prädizieren. Auch wurde gezeigt, dass Faking die Kriteriumsvaliditäten auf Facettenebene in unterschiedlicher Weise beeinflusst. Studie 2 untersuchte den Einfluss der unterschiedlichen Abstraktionsebene von Prädiktor und Kriterium auf die Kriteriumsvalidität. Dazu wurden Leistungsmotivationsskalen sowohl in einer Mathe-spezifischen Formulierung als auch in einer globalen Formulierung Schülern vorgegeben. Diese Skalen dienten dann als Prädiktoren für Noten in Mathe, Physik und Deutsch. Ergebnisse einer Varianzzerlegung mit MTMM zeigten, dass die Mathe-spezifischen Skalen durchgehend ein Plus an Varianz enthalten, welches unabhängig ist von der Varianz aufgrund der einzelnen Motivationskonstrukte. Folglich messen domänen-spezifische Skalen entweder ein engeres Konstrukt von Leistungsmotivation oder, eher, ein zusätzliches Konstrukt. Das Korrelationsmuster der domänen-spezifischen Varianz mit den drei untersuchten Noten legt nahe, dass es sich bei diesem zusätzlichen Konstrukt um Selbstkonzept handelt. Studie 3 untersuchte die Konstruktvalidität der Big 5 und möglicher higher-order factors nach Kontrolle von möglichen Biases innerhalb des CTCM-1 Ansatzes mit Selbst- und Fremdratings. Ergebnisse zeigten, dass bias-bereinigte Big 5 Maße die Annahme eines higher-order factors wenig plausibel machen. Darüber hinaus konnte ein solcher potentieller Faktor nicht theoriekonform die positive Eigenschaft Intelligenz prädizieren. Insgesamt verdeutlicht dies die Problematik des Einflusses von unterschiedlichen Quellen und Verzerrungen auf die Kriteriumsvalidität von häufig eingesetzten Persönlichkeitsmaßen. / Presented are 3 studies about the prediction of performance. Study 1 analyzes the prediction of academic performance by use of self-ratings, other-ratings and faked-ratings of personality measures not only on domain level but also on facet level. Result showed that other-ratings yield incremental validity above and beyond self-ratings and intelligence. Moreover, against prior findings for domain-level, faking does influence criterion validity on facet-level, with the influence not being uniform in direction. Study 2 analyzed the influence of different levels of abstraction of predictor and criterion in the realm of achievement motivation. For that, various achievement motivation scales were administered both in a global and a math-specific wording. These scales later on served as predictor for grades in math, physics and German. By modeling this data in a MTMM model different sources of variance could be disentangled. Results showed that math-specific scales are the better predictors. More so, these domain-specific scales have uniformly an increase in variance regardless of the positive or negative valence of the various achievement motivation scales. This leads to the conclusion that math-domain-specific scales either measure a narrower construct or, more probable, they tap an additional construct. This is backed by the uniform positive additional variance. Moreover, test-criterion correlation-pattern between the math-domain-specific variance and the three different grades makes it plausible that the additional construct tapped in these scales is self-concept. Study 3 analyzed the construct-validity of personality’s Big 5 and their possible higher order factor after controlling for singular rater biases using a newly developed CTCM-1 approach. Results showed that these bias free Big 5 make the assumption of one higher order factor implausible. Moreover, such a factor would not uniformly predict intelligence as is claimed by advocates of this factor.

<p>This dissertation describes the effects of a <i>de novo</i> mutation of CaMKII found in children with learning disabilities and describes its effect on catalytic activity. We develop a malachite green assay for the measurement of CaMKII activation and use it for high-throughput chemical screening to identify CaMKII inhibitors and enhancers. We also propose a new mechanism of regulation of CaMKII activity by ADP.</p><p><br></p>