Pitzer College

Local field potentials (LFPs) reflect coordination among neural populations, yet their exact relationship to neural computation remains unknown. One exception is the theta rhythm of the rodent hippocampus, which organizes sequential firing among place cells, enabling spike timing to track the animal's path through its environment. But when the animal stops, the theta rhythm becomes irregular, which is assumed to disrupt its ability to carry spatial information. Here we challenge this assumption by developing an artificial neural network that discovers position-tuned theta rhythms (pThetas) from LFPs even in the absence of strong theta oscillations. Using recordings from male rats, we provide evidence that pTheta is distinct from the dominant theta rhythm, while reflecting rhythmic coordination among place cell populations. Our work suggests that weak and intermittent oscillations, as seen in many brain regions and species, can convey information commensurate with population spike codes when decoded using information-based rather than variance-based principles.

As Large Language Models (LLMs) become increasingly integrated into educational and research environments, questions arise regarding their utility in mentoring undergraduate research and supporting classroom instruction. This paper outlines general guidelines for the effective use of LLMs in research and education, including a comparative analysis of various LLMs to evaluate their respective performance in planning interactive lessons. Findings suggest that LLMs can support lesson planning if seeded with ideas for learning objectives that come from additional background research and human ingenuity, iterate to find better interactive activities, and draw from multiple LLMs to avoid the typical weaknesses of a single LLM. In research mentoring, LLMs support efficient and high-quality output if one can engineer a suitable prompt, aided by background knowledge from some other source. The biggest barrier to LLM effectiveness is their confident hallucinations and lack of accuracy and creativity, but guidelines are provided here that should allow users to get beyond the pedestrian and sometimes incorrect output of the LLMs. LLMs should not replace human instruction and mentorship, but rather, should be seen as supplements that demand informed and reflective use. <em>Primary Image:</em>&nbsp;Can a professor be replaced with a Large Language Model? It could democratize education. We investigate the benefits and pitfalls of doing so.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted emerging adult first-year college students’ daily lives and well-being. Adaptive emotion regulation (ER) is crucial for this developmental transition phase during challenging times. We assessed 1796 ecological momentary assessments from 76 first-year students (aged 18–20, 71% female, 46% white) during the spring 2020 COVID-19 campus lockdowns. Multilevel model results revealed that specific Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) based ER behaviors were associated with greater momentary well-being. We then contextualized participants’ likelihood to engage in ER behaviors based on the day of the week and human interaction. We found that engaging in ER behaviors increased or decreased based on these factors; specifically, participants were more likely to do nearly all the DBT ER behaviors if they recently interacted with others. This study contributes an ecologically valid understanding of how emerging adult first-year students navigate their emotional experiences and well-being within the confines of daily life during a pandemic.

Abstract Rituals display, legitimize, and sometimes question existing power relations in public settings. At the same time, recent research has shown that ceremonies and rituals help various actors and groups establish and re-establish their roles in social and political systems. Indeed, rituals construct new power relations rather than merely re-affirm previously existing ones. As such, they constitute new social realities and establish new social contracts, fostering debates about political authority, religious belief, cultural identity, tradition, and history. The articles gathered in this volume draw on this latter strand of scholarship. They take political ritual as constitutive of political and social relationships and explore its relevance at a particular time and place, drawing larger conclusions about the social and political environment. Together, they investigate the work of ceremonies and rituals, with a particular focus on the early modern period.