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Connection strength estimation is widely used in detecting the topology of neuronal networks and assessing their synaptic plasticity. A recently proposed model-based method using the leaky integrate-and-fire model neuron estimates membrane potential from spike trains by calculating the maximum a posteriori (MAP) path. We further enhance the MAP path method using variational Bayes and dynamic causal modeling. Several simulations demonstrate that the proposed method can accurately estimate connection strengths with an error ratio of less than 20%. The results suggest that the proposed method can be an effective tool for detecting network structure and synaptic plasticity.

A 59-year old man was admitted to our stroke care unit 1.8 hours after onset of cardioembolic stroke. Administration of issue-plasminogen activator achieved complete recanalization, and his lesion on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) disappeared and single photon emission computed tomography showed luxury perfusion. DWI reversal and luxury perfusion were sometimes observed in hyperacute stroke patients, especially timely reperfusion was achieved. However, the relationships between DWI reversal and luxury perfusion were not well known. Transient DWI reversal may be associated with luxury perfusion in patients treated with t-PA, via early complete recanalization achieved by thrombolysis.

The WM (working memory) is the essential element of intellectual work, thus the estimation of fatigue from neural activations in the WM task is important to control the stress with intellectual work. Furthermore, these WM evaluations from neural activities are useful for an improvement of diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. In this study, we investigate the relationship with the hemodynamic changes measured with Near Infrared spectroscopy during the WM task and the WM performance. Furthermore, we show the difference of the hemodynamics in delay time between correct-tasks and incorrect-tasks.

Limit-cycle oscillations induced by time delay are widely observed in various systems, but a systematic phase-reduction theory for them has yet to be developed. Here we present a practical theoretical framework to calculate the phase response function Z(θ), a fundamental quantity for the theory, of delay-induced limit cycles with infinite-dimensional phase space. We show that Z(θ) can be obtained as a zero eigenfunction of the adjoint equation associated with an appropriate bilinear form for the delay differential equations. We confirm the validity of the proposed framework for two biological oscillators and demonstrate that the derived phase equation predicts intriguing multimodal locking behavior.

Time delay is known to induce sustained oscillations in many biological systems such as electroencephalogram (EEG) activities and gene regulations. Furthermore, interactions among delay-induced oscillations can generate complex collective rhythms, which play important functional roles. However, due to their intrinsic infinite dimensionality, theoretical analysis of interacting delay-induced oscillations has been limited. Here, we show that the two primary methods for finite-dimensional limit cycles, namely, the center manifold reduction in the vicinity of the Hopf bifurcation and the phase reduction for weak interactions, can successfully be applied to interacting infinite-dimensional delay-induced oscillations. We systematically derive the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation and the phase equation without delay for general interaction networks. Based on the reduced low-dimensional equations, we demonstrate that diffusive (linearly attractive) coupling between a pair of delay-induced oscillations can exhibit nontrivial amplitude death and multimodal phase locking. Our analysis provides unique insights into experimentally observed EEG activities such as sudden transitions among different phase-locked states and occurrence of epileptic seizures.

The purpose of this study is to construct a force display method for virtual clay with a passive force display. It is difficult for passive systems to send feedback forces against soft objects such as clay because the systems cannot actively send feedback elasticity. However, it is essential for virtual worlds to send feedback forces from virtual clay because there are many soft objects like clay in the real world. Passive force display will enable force feedback from clay by way of expressing resistance against an operator's force. Therefore, if the force feedback of virtual clay is actualized in the same way as active force display with a motor, then it will be possible to realize many applications and easily control the systems compared with active systems.

Structurally controlled zinc porphyrin-anthracene dyads, syn-arranged 1 and anti-arranged 2, were newly synthesized employing a diarylurea linkage, and the excitation energy transfer (EET) from the anthracene to the zinc porphyrin chromophore was investigated by steady-state fluorescence emission spectroscopy as well as fluorescence lifetime measurement, especially focusing on the effect of the chromophoric orientation on the EET. In both of the dyads, intramolecular EET was facilitated upon excitation of the anthracene chromophore (lamda(ex)= 401 nm), and the zinc porphyrin S1-S0 emission (580-720 nm) was enhanced. The EET in the syn-arranged dyad 1 was more efficient than in the anti-arranged 2: the S1-S0 emission in 1 was 1.8 times larger than that in the zinc porphyrin reference compound 3, whereas that in 2 was enhanced by 1.6 times, compared to that in 3. In the fluorescence lifetime measurement, the quiet short-lived component assignable to the EET was observed for the dyads 1 and 2 beyond the analysis limit (25 ps). The EET rate constants in the dyads 1 and 2 were estimated as not less than 4.0 x 10(10) s-1. However, in the case of 2, the residual long-lived component assigned to the anthracene emission was also observed at 425 nm. These results showed that the syn-arrangement of the zinc porphyrin and anthracene chromophores was more preferred for intramolecular EET to the anti-arrangement.