When sensory input conveys rhythmic regularity, we can form predictions about the timing of upcoming events. Although rhythm processing capacities differ considerably between individuals, these differences are often obscured by participant- and trial-level data averaging procedures in M/EEG research. Here, we systematically assessed neurophysiological variability displayed by individuals listening to isochronous (1.54 Hz) equitone sequences interspersed with unexpected (amplitude-attenuated) deviant tones. Our approach aimed at revealing time-varying adaptive neural mechanisms for sampling the acoustic environment at multiple timescales. Rhythm tracking analyses confirmed that individuals encode temporal regularities and form temporal expectations, as indicated in delta-band (1.54 Hz) power and its anticipatory phase alignment to expected tone onsets. Zooming into tone- and participant-level data, we further characterized intra- and inter-individual variabilities in phase-alignment across auditory sequences. Further, individual modeling of beta-band tone-locked responses showed that a subset of auditory sequences was sampled rhythmically by superimposing binary (strong-weak; S-w), ternary (S-w-w) and mixed accentuation patterns. In these sequences, neural responses to standard and deviant tones were modulated by a binary accentuation pattern, thus pointing towards a mechanism of dynamic attending. Altogether, the current results point toward complementary roles of delta- and beta-band activity in rhythm processing and further highlight diverse and adaptive mechanisms to track and sample the acoustic environment at multiple timescales, even in the absence of task-specific instructions.

We introduce a new machine learning based technique to detect exoplanets using the transit method. Machine learning and deep learning techniques have proven to be broadly applicable in various scientific research areas. We aim to exploit some of these methods to improve the conventional algorithm based approaches presently used in astrophysics to detect exoplanets. Using the time-series analysis library TSFresh to analyse light curves, we extracted 789 features from each curve, which capture the information about the characteristics of a light curve. We then used these features to train a gradient boosting classifier using the machine learning tool lightgbm. This approach was tested on simulated data, which showed that is more effective than the conventional box least squares fitting (BLS) method. We further found that our method produced comparable results to existing state-of-the-art deep learning models, while being much more computationally efficient and without needing folded and secondary views of the light curves. For Kepler data, the method is able to predict a planet with an AUC of 0.948, so that 94.8 per cent of the true planet signals are ranked higher than non-planet signals. The resulting recall is 0.96, so that 96 per cent of real planets are classified as planets. For the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data, we found our method can classify light curves with an accuracy of 0.98, and is able to identify planets with a recall of 0.82 at a precision of 0.63.

Hot Jupiters seem to get rarer with decreasing stellar mass. The goal of the Pan-Planets transit survey was the detection of such planets and a statistical characterization of their frequency. Here, we announce the discovery and validation of two planets found in that survey, Wendelstein-1b and Wendelstein-2b, which are two short-period hot Jupiters that orbit late K host stars. We validated them both by the traditional method of radial velocity measurements with the HIgh Resolution Echelle Spectrometer and the Habitable-zone Planet Finder instruments and then by their Transit Color Signature (TraCS). We observed the targets in the wavelength range of 4000−24 000 Å and performed a simultaneous multiband transit fit and additionally determined their thermal emission via secondary eclipse observations. Wendelstein-1b is a hot Jupiter with a radius of 1.0314−0.0061+0.0061 RJ and mass of 0.592−0.129+0.0165 MJ, orbiting a K7V dwarf star at a period of 2.66 d, and has an estimated surface temperature of about 1727−90+78 K. Wendelstein-2b is a hot Jupiter with a radius of 1.1592−0.0210+0.0204 RJ and a mass of 0.731−0.311+0.0541 MJ, orbiting a K6V dwarf star at a period of 1.75 d, and has an estimated surface temperature of about 1852−140+120 K. With this, we demonstrate that multiband photometry is an effective way of validating transiting exoplanets, in particular for fainter targets since radial velocity follow-up becomes more and more costly for those targets.

Progressive hearing loss is a common phenomenon in healthy aging and may affect the perception of emotions expressed in speech. Elderly with mild to moderate hearing loss often rate emotional expressions as less emotional and display reduced activity in emotion-sensitive brain areas (e.g., amygdala). However, it is not clear how hearing loss affects cognitive and emotional control mechanisms engaged in multimodal speech processing. In previous work we showed that negative, task-relevant and -irrelevant emotion modulates the two types of control in younger and older adults without hearing loss. To further explore how reduced hearing capacity affects emotional and cognitive control, we tested whether moderate hearing loss (>30 dB) at frequencies relevant for speech impacts cognitive and emotional control. We tested two groups of older adults with hearing loss (HL; N = 21; mean age = 70.5) and without hearing loss (NH; N = 21; mean age = 68.4). In two EEG experiments participants observed multimodal video clips and either categorized pronounced vowels (cognitive conflict) or their emotions (emotional conflict). Importantly, the facial expressions were either matched or mismatched with the corresponding vocalizations. In both conflict tasks, we found that negative stimuli modulated behavioral conflict processing in the NH but not the HL group, while the HL group performed at chance level in the emotional conflict task. Further, we found that the amplitude difference between congruent and incongruent stimuli was larger in negative relative to neutral N100 responses across tasks and groups. Lastly, in the emotional conflict task, neutral stimuli elicited a smaller N200 response than emotional stimuli primarily in the HL group. Consequently, age-related hearing loss not only affects the processing of emotional acoustic cues but also alters the behavioral benefits of emotional stimuli on cognitive and emotional control, despite preserved early neural responses. The resulting difficulties in the multimodal integration of incongruent emotional stimuli may lead to problems in processing complex social information (irony, sarcasm) and impact emotion processing in the limbic network. This could be related to social isolation and depression observed in the elderly with age-related hearing loss.

How specific brain networks track rhythmic sensory input over time remains a challenge in neuroimaging work. Here we show that subcortical areas, namely the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, specifically contribute to the neural tracking of rhythm. We tested patients with focal lesions in either of these areas and healthy controls by means of electroencephalography (EEG) while they listened to rhythmic sequences known to induce selective neural tracking at a frequency corresponding to the most-often perceived pulse-like beat. Both patients and controls displayed neural responses to the rhythmic sequences. However, these response patterns were different across groups, with patients showing reduced tracking at beat frequency, especially for the more challenging rhythms. In the cerebellar patients, this effect was specific to the rhythm played at a fast tempo, which places high demands on the temporally precise encoding of events. In contrast, basal ganglia patients showed more heterogeneous responses at beat frequency specifically for the most complex rhythm, which requires more internal generation of the beat. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence that these subcortical structures selectively shape the neural representation of rhythm. Moreover, they suggest that the processing of rhythmic auditory input relies on an extended cortico-subcortico-cortical functional network providing specific timing and entrainment sensitivities.

The capacity to predict what should happen next and to minimize any discrepancy between an expected and an actual sensory input (prediction error) is a central aspect of perception. Particularly in vocal communication, the effective prediction of an auditory input that informs the listener about the emotionality of a speaker is critical. What is currently unknown is how the perceived valence of an emotional vocalization affects the capacity to predict and detect a change in the auditory input. This question was probed in a combined event-related potential (ERP) and time-frequency analysis approach. Specifically, we examined the brain response to standards (Repetition Positivity) and to deviants (Mismatch Negativity – MMN), as well as the anticipatory response to the vocal sounds (pre-stimulus beta oscillatory power). Short neutral, happy (laughter), and angry (growls) vocalizations were presented both as standard and deviant stimuli in a passive oddball listening task while participants watched a silent movie and were instructed to ignore the vocalizations. MMN amplitude was increased for happy compared to neutral and angry vocalizations. The Repetition Positivity was enhanced for happy standard vocalizations. Induced pre-stimulus upper beta power was increased for happy vocalizations, and predicted the modulation of the standard Repetition Positivity. These findings indicate enhanced sensory prediction for positive vocalizations such as laughter. Together, the results suggest that positive vocalizations are more effective predictors in social communication than angry and neutral ones, possibly due to their high social significance.

Healthy aging is characterized by a gradual decline in cognitive control and inhibition of interferences, while emotional control is either preserved or facilitated. Emotional control regulates the processing of emotional conflicts such as in irony in speech, and cognitive control resolves conflict between non-affective tendencies. While negative emotion can trigger control processes and speed up resolution of both cognitive and emotional conflicts, we know little about how aging affects the interaction of emotion and control. In two EEG experiments, we compared the influence of negative emotion on cognitive and emotional conflict processing in groups of younger adults (mean age = 25.2 years) and older adults (69.4 years). Participants viewed short video clips and either categorized spoken vowels (cognitive conflict) or their emotional valence (emotional conflict), while the visual facial information was congruent or incongruent. Results show that negative emotion modulates both cognitive and emotional conflict processing in younger and older adults as indicated in reduced response times and/or enhanced event-related potentials (ERPs). In emotional conflict processing, we observed a valence-specific N100 ERP component in both age groups. In cognitive conflict processing, we observed an interaction of emotion by congruence in the N100 responses in both age groups, and a main effect of congruence in the P200 and N200. Thus, the influence of emotion on conflict processing remains intact in aging, despite a marked decline in cognitive control. Older adults may prioritize emotional wellbeing and preserve the role of emotion in cognitive and emotional control.

Cognitive control enables successful goal-directed behavior by resolving a conflict between opposing action tendencies, while emotional control arises as a consequence of emotional conflict processing such as in irony. While negative emotion facilitates both cognitive and emotional conflict processing, it is unclear how emotional conflict processing is affected by positive emotion (e.g., humor). In 2 EEG experiments, we investigated the role of positive audiovisual target stimuli in cognitive and emotional conflict processing. Participants categorized either spoken vowels (cognitive task) or their emotional valence (emotional task) and ignored the visual stimulus dimension. Behaviorally, a positive target showed no influence on cognitive conflict processing, but impeded emotional conflict processing. In the emotional task, response time conflict costs were higher for positive than for neutral targets. In the EEG, we observed an interaction of emotion by congruence in the P200 and N200 ERP components in emotional but not in cognitive conflict processing. In the emotional conflict task, the P200 and N200 conflict effect was larger for emotional than neutral targets. Thus, our results show that emotion affects conflict processing differently as a function of conflict type and emotional valence. This suggests that there are conflict- and valence-specific mechanisms modulating executive control.

The prime Kepler mission revealed that small planets (<4 R-circle plus) are common, especially around low-mass M dwarfs. K2, the repurposed Kepler mission, continues this exploration of small planets around small stars. Here we combine K2 photometry with spectroscopy, adaptive optics imaging, and archival survey images to analyze two small planets orbiting the nearby field-age M dwarfs, K2-26 (EPIC 202083828) and K2-9. K2-26 is an M1.0 +/- 0.5 dwarf at 93 +/- 7 pc from K2 Campaign 0. We validate its planet with a day period of 14.5665 and estimate a radius of 2.67(-0.42)(+0.46) R-circle plus. K2-9 is an M2.5 +/- 0.5 dwarf at 110 +/- 12 pc from K2 Campaign 1. K2-9b was first identified by Montet et al.; here we present spectra and adaptive optics imaging of the host star and independently validate and characterize the planet. Our analyses indicate K2-9b is a 2.25(-0.96)(+0.53) R-circle plus planet with a 18.4498 day period. K2-26b exhibits a transit duration that is too long to be consistent with a circular orbit given its measured stellar radius. Thus, the long transits are likely due to the photoeccentric effect and our transit fits hint at an eccentric orbit. Both planets receive low incident flux from their host stars and have estimated equilibrium temperatures <500 K. K2-9b may receive approximately Earth-like insolation. However, its host star exhibits strong GALEX UV emission which could affect any atmosphere it harbors. K2-26b and K2-9b are representatives of a poorly studied class of small planets with cool temperatures that have radii intermediate to Earth and Neptune. Future study of these systems can provide key insight into trends in bulk composition and atmospheric properties at the transition from silicate dominated to volatile rich bodies.

Rhetorical theory suggests that rhythmic and metrical features of language substantially contribute to persuading, moving, and pleasing an audience. A potential explanation of these effects is offered by "cognitive fluency theory," which stipulates that recurring patterns (e.g., meter) enhance perceptual fluency and can lead to greater aesthetic appreciation. In this article, we explore these two assertions by investigating the effects of meter and rhyme in the reception of poetry by means of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Participants listened to four versions of lyrical stanzas that varied in terms of meter and rhyme, and rated the stanzas for rhythmicity and aesthetic liking. The behavioral and ERP results were in accord with enhanced liking and rhythmicity ratings for metered and rhyming stanzas. The metered and rhyming stanzas elicited smaller N400/P600 ERP responses than their nonmetered, nonrhyming, or nonmetered and nonrhyming counterparts. In addition, the N400 and P600 effects for the lyrical stanzas correlated with aesthetic liking effects (metered-nonmetered), implying that modulation of the N400 and P600 has a direct bearing on the aesthetic appreciation of lyrical stanzas. We suggest that these effects are indicative of perceptual-fluency-enhanced aesthetic liking, as postulated by cognitive fluency theory.

The Pan-Planets survey observed an area of 42 sq deg. in the galactic disk for about 165 h. The main scientific goal of the project is the detection of transiting planets around M dwarfs. We establish an efficient procedure for determining the stellar parameters T-eff and log g of all sources using a method based on SED fitting, utilizing a three-dimensional dust map and proper motion information. In this way we identify more than 60 000 M dwarfs, which is by far the largest sample of low-mass stars observed in a transit survey to date. We present several planet candidates around M dwarfs and hotter stars that are currently being followed up. Using Monte Carlo simulations we calculate the detection efficiency of the Pan-Planets survey for different stellar and planetary populations. We expect to find 3.0(-1.6)(+3.3) hot Jupiters around F, G, and K dwarfs with periods lower than 10 days based on the planet occurrence rates derived in previous surveys. For M dwarfs, the percentage of stars with a hot Jupiter is under debate. Theoretical models expect a lower occurrence rate than for larger main sequence stars. However, radial velocity surveys find upper limits of about 1% due to their small sample, while the Kepler survey finds a occurrence rate that we estimate to be at least 0.17((+0.67)(-0.04))%, making it even higher than the determined fraction from OGLE-III for E, G and K stellar types, 0.140((+0.67)(-0.076))%. With the large sample size of Pan-Planets, we are able to determine an occurrence rate of 0.11((+0.37)(-0.02))% in case one of our candidates turns out to be a real detection. If, however, none of our candidates turn out to be true planets, we are able to put an upper limit of 0.34% with a 95% confidence on the hot Jupiter occurrence rate of M dwarfs. This limit is a significant improvement over previous estimates where the lowest limit published so far is 1.1% found in the WFCAM Transit Survey. Therefore we cannot yet confirm the theoretical prediction of a lower occurrence rate for cool stars.

In face-to-face communication, speech is typically enriched by gestures. Clearly, not all people gesture in the same way, and the present study explores whether such individual differences in gesture style are taken into account during the perception of gestures that accompany speech. Participants were presented with one speaker that gestured in a straightforward way and another that also produced self-touch movements. Adding trials with such grooming movements makes the gesture information a much weaker cue compared with the gestures of the non-grooming speaker. The Electroencephalogram was recorded as participants watched videos of the individual speakers. Event-related potentials elicited by the speech signal revealed that adding grooming movements attenuated the impact of gesture for this particular speaker. Thus, these data suggest that there is sensitivity to the personal communication style of a speaker and that affects the extent to which gesture and speech are integrated during language comprehension.

This experiment investigates the integration of gesture and speech from a multisensory perspective. In a disambiguation paradigm, participants were presented with short videos of an actress uttering sentences like "She was impressed by the BALL, because the GAME/DANCE...." The ambiguous noun (BALL) was accompanied by an iconic gesture fragment containing information to disambiguate the noun toward its dominant or subordinate meaning. We used four different temporal alignments between noun and gesture fragment: the identification point (IP) of the noun was either prior to (+120 msec), synchronous with (0 msec), or lagging behind the end of the gesture fragment (-200 and -600 msec). ERPs triggered to the IP of the noun showed significant differences for the integration of dominant and subordinate gesture fragments in the -200, 0, and +120 msec conditions. The outcome of this integration was revealed at the target words. These data suggest a time window for direct semantic gesture-speech integration ranging from at least -200 up to +120 msec. Although the -600 msec condition did not show any signs of direct integration at the homonym, significant disambiguation was found at the target word. An explorative analysis suggested that gesture information was directly integrated at the verb, indicating that there are multiple positions in a sentence where direct gesture-speech integration takes place. Ultimately, this would implicate that in natural communication, where a gesture lasts for some time, several aspects of that gesture will have their specific and possibly distinct impact on different positions in an utterance.

Cognitive control supports goal-directed behavior by resolving conflict among opposing action tendencies. Emotion can trigger cognitive control processes, thus speeding up conflict processing when the target dimension of stimuli is emotional. However, it is unclear what role emotionality of the target dimension plays in the processing of emotional conflict (e.g. in irony). In two EEG experiments, we compared the influence of emotional valence of the target (emotional, neutral) in cognitive and emotional conflict processing. To maximally approximate real-life communication, we used audiovisual stimuli. Participants either categorized spoken vowels (cognitive conflict) or their emotional valence (emotional conflict), while visual information was congruent or incongruent. Emotional target dimension facilitated both cognitive and emotional conflict processing, as shown in a reduced reaction time conflict effect. In contrast, the N100 in the event-related potentials showed a conflict-specific reversal: the conflict effect was larger for emotional compared with neutral trials in cognitive conflict and smaller in emotional conflict. Additionally, domain-general conflict effects were observed in the P200 and N200 responses. The current findings confirm that emotions have a strong influence on cognitive and emotional conflict processing. They also highlight the complexity and heterogeneity of the interaction of emotion with different types of conflict.

Forward predictions are not only crucial to predict somatosensory consequences of movements, but may also guide cross-modal sensory mapping (Ramnani, 2006). When a visual stimulus temporally predicts an auditory tone onset (‘when’ information), the amplitude of the N1-P2 complex is reduced compared to a temporally unpredictable tone (e.g., Ford et al., 2007; Sowman, Kuusik, & Johnson, 2012). However, cue quality and/or tone identity (‘what’ information) may further modulate visual-to- auditory predictions. When the quality of a visual cue varies, its strength to predict a subsequent tone onset influences cross- modal sensory mapping. In addition, infrequently occurring deviant tones (altered in frequency) induce uncertainty about tone identity that may further impact visual-to-auditory predictions (cf. Schwartze, Farrugia, & Kotz, 2013, for sensory predictions). A visual-to-auditory cross-modal prediction paradigm was used in the current experiment. Participants passively viewed visual cues that temporally predicted a subsequent tone onset or not. We manipulated (1) the predictive strength of a visual cue (five different cue colors vs. one [grey] color), (2) the probability of an auditory tone to occur (80% standard, 20% deviant tones), and (3) temporal predictability (predictable vs. unpredictable tone onset). Predictable blocks either preceded unpredictable blocks or vice versa (between subjects-design). This allowed investigating whether frequent standard tones are affected by uncertainty of tone identity (‘what’ information) as a function of temporal predictability (‘when’ information). The results on lateral electrodes revealed that the N1-P2 complex to standard tones was modulated by temporal predictability. The N100 amplitude was enhanced (predictable>unpredictable) when predictable blocks preceded unpredictable blocks, while the N100 amplitude was reduced (predictable<unpredictable) for unpredictable blocks preceding predictable blocks. These effects did not vary as a function of cue quality. The P200 response was attenuated (predictable<unpredictable) for colored and grey cues, but only when unpredictable blocks were presented first. This finding is comparable to previous results, in which tone identity was always fully predictable. This suggests that the P200 component is not susceptible to uncertainty of tone identity. In contrast, N100 findings differ between the two studies. Whereas the N100 showed a main effect of temporal predictability (predictable<unpredictable) when tone identity was 100% certain, the N100 amplitude was altered by temporal predictability (‘when’ information) depending on block order in the current study. This can be explained by a global order effect, in which initial blocks receive more attention than succeeding blocks. However, only predictable blocks were modulated by block order. Thus, a more reasonable explanation for the present results is that the saliency of deviant tones attracts attention, which, in turn, affects temporal predictability. Future research needs to further address whether cross-modal sensory mapping is indeed susceptible to attention.

The Pan-STARRS1 Planet Survey (Pan-Planets) is a search for transiting extra-solar planets in the Galactic disk with a focus on planets around M-dwarfs and White dwarfs. The large field of view of the Pan-STARRS1 camera enables us to monitor ∼50 000 M-dwarfs and ∼5 000 White dwarfs brighter than iP1 = 18 in seven fields. We give a description of the science goals and observating strategy and present some early results from the first two observing campaigns conducted in 2010 and 2011.