Eshkol-Wachmann Movement Notation was applied to describe and quantify nonverbal behavioral synchrony between romantic partners. The interaction of 30 couples was observed across three study conditions, Pre-Stressor, and two Post-Stressor conditions when the female partner had been targeted with a stress manipulation. Participant-level behavior, and forms of dyadic synchrony were predicted with the male and females' self-reported attachment style. Results support theories from the attachment literature.

Emotion theories posit that emotion systems (e.g., behavior, self-report, physiology) should be related when an emotion is being elicited because this serves an adaptive purpose and allows the individual to respond appropriately to the present situation. Oftentimes, this coherent relationship is not found, and research has hypothesized that the type of analyses used and lack of examination of individual differences could be affecting this relationship. Most studies examine the relationship between emotion systems between-subjects when within-subjects analyses may be more appropriate. The present study examined the relationship between self-reported distress (SUDS) and heart rate, and whether trait differences of anxiety sensitivity and heart rate variability affect that relationship. Undergraduate students (N = 294) completed an anxiety sensitivity measure and their heart rate variability was calculated prior to undergoing a 7.5% CO2 challenge. SUDS was collected 11 times throughout the challenge and heart rate was collected continuously. Consistent with studies examining both concordance (between-subjects correlation between systems) and synchrony (within-subjects correlation between systems), synchrony was found between heart rate and SUDS, but concordance was not found between the two variables. Contrary to our hypotheses, neither anxiety sensitivity nor heart rate variability predicted synchrony between heart rate and SUDS. Our results suggest that synchrony is a more appropriate measure of adaptive emotional response than concordance because synchrony allows for examination of coordination of emotion systems over time.

MOTHER-INFANT SYNCHRONY DURING INFANT FEEDING By Barbara A. Reyna, PhD A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010. Major Director: Rita H. Pickler, PhD Endowed Nursing Alumni Professor Department of Family and Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing Synchrony between a mother and her infant is fundamental to their developing relationship. Feeding is an essential activity that provides an opportunity for interaction between a mother and her infant and may lead to synchronous interaction. The purpose this study was to develop and test a coding system, the Maternal-Infant Synchrony Scale (MISS), for assessing synchrony of feeding interaction between a mother and her preterm infant. The secondary aims were to: (1) describe mother and preterm infant synchrony during feeding; (2) examine mother-infant synchrony during feeding over time; (3) examine the mediating effects of infant severity of illness, behavior state, birth gestation, and birth weight, and maternal depression, and maternal responsiveness and sensitivity on mother-infant synchrony; and (4) test the criterion-related validity of the synchrony scale. A descriptive, longitudinal design using data collected during an earlier study was employed; a sample dataset from 10 mother-infant dyads that completed three data collection points (30 observations total) was used. Data were also collected on maternal depression and responsiveness and sensitivity and dyadic tension and reciprocity. For this analysis, scores for infant severity illness and behavior state were computed. The Noldus Observer XT 8.0 (Noldus Information Technology b.v., 2006) was used for data review and coding. The MISS was created by determining the frequency of select behaviors and the percentage of time behaviors occurred during the feeding; changes in behaviors over the three observations periods were calculated. Mothers were attentive and focused during feedings. The influence of infant maturation on feeding behaviors was evident across observations; infant attempts at interaction (gazing at mother) were greater than the mother attempts to engage her infant. MISS scores were not significantly different over the observations, the selected mediators had no significant effect on synchrony, and the criterion validity for the MISS was not established. This study revealed behaviors that are descriptive of the interaction and can be used to develop interventions that would support the developing relationship. Use of the MISS with a larger sample size and a cohort of healthy, term newborns is needed to establish the MISS as a valid and reliable measure of synchrony.

I am interested in discovering the role of field potential oscillations in producing synchrony within the song system of the male zebra finch brain. An important function attributed to neural synchrony is sensorimotor integration. In the production of birdsong, sensorimotor integration is crucial, as auditory feedback is necessary for the maintenance of the song. A cortical-thalamic-cortical feedback loop is thought to play a role in the integration of auditory and motor information for the purpose of producing song. Synchronous activity has been observed between at least two nuclei in this feedback loop, MMAN and HVC. Since low frequency field potential oscillations have been shown to play a role in the synchronization of nuclei within the brain of other model animals, I hypothesized that this may be the case in the zebra finch song system. In order to investigate whether oscillatory activity is a mechanism behind the synchronous activity observed between HVC and MMAN, I performed dual extracellular recordings of neural activity within the zebra finch song system. Results suggest that oscillations are likely not involved in the synchrony observed in these nuclei. Future study may reveal that the structure of the feedback loop is necessary, and possibly even sufficient, for the synchronous activity in the zebra finch song system.

Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae, Hopkins) is a major disturbance agent in pine ecosystems of western North America. Adaptation to local climates has resulted in primarily univoltine (one generation per year) generation timing across a thermally diverse latitudinal gradient. We hypothesized that this pattern in total development time is shaped by selection for slower developmental rates, altered developmental thresholds, or oviposition rates in southern populations inhabiting warmer climates. To investigate traits responsible for latitudinal differences we measured lifestage-specific development of southern mountain pine beetle eggs, larvae and pupae across a range of temperatures. We also describe and model oviposition of southern US MPB. Using a novel technique that included frequent X-ray imaging, oviposition rate and fecundity were estimated separately and shown to both be significant and independent sources of variation. When compared with previously collected data for a northern MPB population, total oviposition time predicted for southern MPB at a constant 20°C was slightly longer than that of northern MPB, but the delay was too small to account for significant differences between the populations in total development time. Developmental rate curves for eggs, larvae, and pupae were fit using maximum posterior likelihood estimation with a Bayesian prior to improve fit stability. When compared to previously published data for a northern population (Régnière et al. 2012), observed developmental rates of the southern and northern populations were similar across all studied lifestages at 20 and 25°C, although southern individuals were generally faster at temperature extremes (10 and 27°C). These findings were inconsistent with our hypothesis that southern individuals would have consistently slower rates. Optimal development of southern individuals occurred at higher temperatures, with higher development thresholds, as compared with northern individuals. Our results suggest that evolved traits in the remaining unstudied lifestage, teneral (i.e., pre-emergent) adult, likely influence latitudinal differences in mountain pine beetle generation time.

The interaction between neuronal cells can be identified as the computing mechanism of the brain. Neurons are complex cells that do not operate in isolation, but they are organized in a highly connected network structure. There is experimental evidence that groups of neurons dynamically synchronize their activity and process brain functions at all levels of complexity. A fundamental step to prove this hypothesis is to analyze large sets of single neurons recorded in parallel. Techniques to obtain these data are meanwhile available, but advancements are needed in the pre-processing of the large volumes of acquired data and in data analysis techniques. Major issues include extracting the signal of single neurons from the noisy recordings (referred to as spike sorting) and assessing the significance of the synchrony. This dissertation addresses these issues with two complementary strategies, both founded on the manipulation of point processes under rigorous analytical control. On the one hand I modeled the effect of spike sorting errors on correlated spike trains by corrupting them with realistic failures, and studied the corresponding impact on correlation analysis. The results show that correlations between multiple parallel spike trains are severely affected by spike sorting, especially by erroneously missing spikes. When this happens sorting strategies characterized by classifying only good'' spikes (conservative strategies) lead to less accurate results than tolerant'' strategies. On the other hand, I investigated the effectiveness of methods for assessing significance that create surrogate data by displacing spikes around their original position (referred to as dithering). I provide analytical expressions of the probability of coincidence detection after dithering. The effectiveness of spike dithering in creating surrogate data strongly depends on the dithering method and on the method of counting coincidences. Closed-form expressions and bounds are derived for the case where the dither equals the allowed coincidence interval. This work provides new insights into the methodologies of identifying synchrony in large-scale neuronal recordings, and of assessing its significance. / Die Informationsverarbeitung im Gehirn erfolgt maßgeblich durch interaktive Prozesse von Nervenzellen, sogenannten Neuronen. Diese zeigen eine komplexe Dynamik ihrer chemischen und elektrischen Eigenschaften. Es gibt deutliche Hinweise darauf, dass Gruppen synchronisierter Neurone letztlich die Funktionsweise des Gehirns auf allen Ebenen erklären können. Um die schwierige Frage nach der genauen Funktionsweise des Gehirns zu beantworten, ist es daher notwendig, die Aktivität vieler Neuronen gleichzeitig zu messen. Die technischen Voraussetzungen hierfür sind in den letzten Jahrzehnten durch Multielektrodensyteme geschaffen worden, die heute eine breite Anwendung finden. Sie ermöglichen die simultane extrazelluläre Ableitung von bis zu mehreren hunderten Kanälen. Die Voraussetzung für die Korrelationsanalyse von vielen parallelen Messungen ist zunächst die korrekte Erkennung und Zuordnung der Aktionspotentiale einzelner Neurone, ein Verfahren, das als Spikesortierung bezeichnet wird. Eine weitere Herausforderung ist die statistisch korrekte Bewertung von empirisch beobachteten Korrelationen. Mit dieser Dissertationsschrift lege ich eine theoretische Arbeit vor, die sich der Vorverarbeitung der Daten durch Spikesortierung und ihrem Einfluss auf die Genauigkeit der statistischen Auswertungsverfahren, sowie der Effektivität zur Erstellung von Surrogatdaten für die statistische Signifikanzabschätzung auf Korrelationen widmet. Ich verwende zwei komplementäre Strategien, die beide auf der analytischen Berechnung von Punktprozessmanipulationen basieren. In einer ausführlichen Studie habe ich den Effekt von Spikesortierung in mit realistischen Fehlern behafteten korrelierten Spikefolgen modeliert. Zum Vergleich der Ergebnisse zweier unterschiedlicher Methoden zur Korrelationsanalyse auf den gestörten, sowie auf den ungestörten Prozessen, leite ich die entsprechenden analytischen Formeln her. Meine Ergebnisse zeigen, dass koinzidente Aktivitätsmuster multipler Spikefolgen durch Spikeklassifikation erheblich beeinflusst werden. Das ist der Fall, wenn Neuronen nur fälschlicherweise Spikes zugeordnet werden, obwohl diese anderen Neuronen zugehörig sind oder Rauschartefakte sind (falsch positive Fehler). Jedoch haben falsch-negative Fehler (fälschlicherweise nicht-klassifizierte oder missklassifizierte Spikes) einen weitaus grösseren Einfluss auf die Signifikanz der Korrelationen. In einer weiteren Studie untersuche ich die Effektivität einer Klasse von Surrogatmethoden, sogenannte Ditheringverfahren, welche paarweise Korrelationen zerstören, in dem sie koinzidente Spikes von ihrer ursprünglichen Position in einem kleinen Zeitfenster verrücken. Es zeigt sich, dass die Effektivität von Spike-Dithering zur Erzeugung von Surrogatdaten sowohl von der Dithermethode als auch von der Methode zur Koinzidenzzählung abhängt. Für die Wahrscheinlichkeit der Koinzidenzerkennung nach dem Dithern stelle ich analytische Formeln zur Verfügung. Die vorliegende Arbeit bietet neue Einblicke in die Methoden zur Korrelationsanalyse auf multi-variaten Punktprozessen mit einer genauen Untersuchung von unterschiedlichen statistischen Einflüssen auf die Signifikanzabschätzung. Für die praktische Anwendung ergeben sich Leitlinien für den Umgang mit Daten zur Synchronizitätsanalyse.

Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were compared to age-matched typically developing controls in the context of phase synchrony statistics acquired through magnetoencephalography. Subjects performed a “low-attention” task, pressing a button to a single, repeated auditory tone, and this was contrasted to an “oddball” task where they were required to button press only to deviant tones. The differences in task outcomes were primarily thought to relate to differences in sensory and executive attention. Regardless of task condition, ASD subjects showed greater magnitudes of synchrony between the parietal hemispheres which variably extended across frequencies. Additionally, for ASD subjects, increases in synchrony from the “low-attention” task to the “oddball” task were observed; whereas an opposite tendency occurred for controls. Furthermore, rates of fluctuation of phase differences showed more stable parietal synchrony within ASD across the hemispheric midline. Implications including the possibility of coordination as an indicator of ASD are discussed.

Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were compared to age-matched typically developing controls in the context of phase synchrony statistics acquired through magnetoencephalography. Subjects performed a “low-attention” task, pressing a button to a single, repeated auditory tone, and this was contrasted to an “oddball” task where they were required to button press only to deviant tones. The differences in task outcomes were primarily thought to relate to differences in sensory and executive attention. Regardless of task condition, ASD subjects showed greater magnitudes of synchrony between the parietal hemispheres which variably extended across frequencies. Additionally, for ASD subjects, increases in synchrony from the “low-attention” task to the “oddball” task were observed; whereas an opposite tendency occurred for controls. Furthermore, rates of fluctuation of phase differences showed more stable parietal synchrony within ASD across the hemispheric midline. Implications including the possibility of coordination as an indicator of ASD are discussed.

Shifts in species’ phenologies and phenological asynchronies between the interacting organisms have received a lot of attention in the context of climate change. Changes in temporal overlap between species, caused by phenological asynchrony, make species depending on one another become so separated in time that they can no longer interact. This may have important consequences both for single species, like fluctuations in abundances, and for the functioning of whole communities by creating mismatches between trophic levels and rearrangements of community structure. This thesis focuses on the impact of temperatures on spring timing and phenological synchrony in a herbivorous insect – host plant system, consisting of the orange tipbutterfly Anthocharis cardamines and five of its Brassicaceae host plant species. Paper I demonstrates that diapause duration and winter thermal conditions can determine the timing of spring emergence in the herbivore, and these traits may differ between species with different feeding strategies. In paper II we show that thermal reaction norms of post-winterdevelopment of A. cardamines display cogradient latitudinal variation.Paper III shows that temperature-mediated phenological plasticity of A. cardamines butterflies and a majority of the most used host plant species is similar within populations originating from different latitudes. Thus, the species’ timing appeared well conserved in response to thermal variation. In paper IV we explored the importance of the butterfly’s adult emergence and thermal conditions on the succeeding part of the butterfly’s life-cycle – larval development. The outcome from the interaction was examined for both the insect and the plant side. The degree in phenological overlap between the female butterflies and host plants as well as temperatures during larval development were found to influence larval development but had no effect on plant reproductive fitness. The four papers of the presented thesis demonstrate that developmental preadaptations, evolvedin a herbivore to maintain phenological synchrony with host plants across yearly variation of spring conditions, can prevent disruption of the interaction under a wide range of temperatures. This indicates that temporary constrained interactions are not always vulnerable to decoupling, particularly if they involve generalist strategy. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Submitted.</p> / Ekoklim

Dance is a universal and ancient human behavior; however, our understanding of the basis of this behavior is surprisingly weak. In this dissertation, I explore the cognitive and evolutionary foundations of human dance, providing evidence of two ways in which the production and perception of dance actions are rooted in the functions of more general cognitive systems.In doing so, I aim to both inform our understanding of dance, and use the study of dance to elucidate broader issues in cognition. Chapter 1 demonstrates that the ability to entrain, or move in time with an auditory beat, is not unique to humans. In addition, across hundreds of species, I find that all animals able to entrain can also vocally imitate sound. This supports the hypothesis that entrainment relies on cognitive machinery that originally evolved to support vocal imitation. Chapter 2 investigates the perception of dance-like actions. Previous work shows that we infer the goals of observed actions by calculating their efficiency as a means to external effects, like reaching an object or location. However, dance actions typically lack an external effect or external goal. In two experiments, I show that for dance-like actions, adults infer that the agents’ goal is simply to produce the movements themselves. Furthermore, this inference is driven by the actions’ inefficiency as a means to external goals. This inefficiency effectively rules out external goals, making movement-based goals the best explanation. Thus, perception of both dance and non-dance actions appears to rely the same type of efficiency-based goal inference. Chapter 3 builds on these findings, showing that the inference that the movements are the goal is closely related to our concept of dance. First, I find that participants view movement-based goals as more consistent with dance than with other activities. Second, I find that simply construing actions as having movement-based goals leads participants to view the actions as more dancelike, even when all participants have seen the exact same actions. Thus, even our categorization of actions as dance versus non-dance is rooted in the same cognitive processes as support our understanding of other intentional actions. / Psychology