Changes in reward magnitude or value have been reported to produce effects on timing behavior, which have been attributed to changes in the speed of an internal pacemaker in some instances and to attentional factors in other cases. The present experiments therefore aimed to clarify the effects of reward magnitude on timing processes. In Experiment 1, rats were trained to discriminate a short (2 s) vs. a long (8 s) signal followed by testing with intermediate durations. Then, the reward on short or long trials was increased from 1 to 4 pellets in separate groups. Experiment 2 measured the effect of different reward magnitudes associated with the short vs. long signals throughout training. Finally, Experiment 3 controlled for satiety effects during the reward magnitude manipulation phase. A general flattening of the psychophysical function was evident in all three experiments, suggesting that unequal reward magnitudes may disrupt attention to duration.

Impulsive choice behavior has been proposed as a primary risk factor for other maladaptive behaviors (e.g., gambling, substance abuse). Recent research has suggested that timing processes may play a key role in impulsive choice behavior, and could provide an avenue for altering impulsive choice. Accordingly, the current experiments assessed a set of time-based behavioral interventions to increase self-control while simultaneously assessing effects on timing processes within the impulsive choice task. Three experiments assessed temporal interventions using a differential reinforcement of low rates task (Experiment 1) and exposure to either a variable or fixed interval schedule (Experiments 2–3). The efficacy of the interventions was assessed in Sprague-Dawley (Experiments 1–2) and Lewis (Experiment 3) rat strains. Impulsive choice behavior was assessed by measuring preferences of a smaller-sooner (SS) versus a larger-later (LL) reward, while timing of the SS and LL durations was measured during peak trials within the impulsive choice procedure. The rats showed an increased preference for the LL following all three time-based interventions and also displayed increased temporal precision. These results add to the increasing evidence that supports a possible role for temporal processing in impulsive choice behavior and supply novel behavioral interventions to decrease impulsive behavior.

Lyman α (Lyα) photons from ionizing sources and cooling radiation undergo a complex resonant scattering process that generates unique spectral signatures in high-redshift galaxies. We present a detailed Lyα radiative transfer study of a cosmological zoom-in simulation from the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) project. We focus on the time, spatial, and angular properties of the Lyα emission over a redshift range of z = 5-7, after escaping the galaxy and being transmitted through the intergalactic medium (IGM). Over this epoch, our target galaxy has an average stellar mass of M ≈ 5 × 10 8 M . We find that many of the interesting features of the Lyα line can be understood in terms of the galaxy's star formation history. The time variability, spatial morphology, and anisotropy of Lyα properties are consistent with current observations. For example, the rest frame equivalent width has a EW Lyα,0 > 20Å duty cycle of 62% with a non-negligible number of sightlines with > 100Å, associated with outflowing regions of a starburst with greater coincident UV continuum absorption, as these conditions generate redder, narrower (or single peaked) line profiles. The lowest equivalent widths correspond to cosmological filaments, which have little impact on UV continuum photons but efficiently trap Lyα and produce bluer, broader lines with less transmission through the IGM. We also show that in dense self-shielding, low-metallicity filaments and satellites Lyα radiation pressure can be dynamically important. Finally, despite a significant reduction in surface brightness with increasing redshift, Lyα detections and spectroscopy of high-z galaxies with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope is feasible.

We present the Cosmic Lyman-α Transfer code (COLT), a massively parallel Monte-Carlo radiative transfer code, to simulate Lyman-α (Lyα) resonant scattering through neutral hydrogen as a probe of the first galaxies. We explore the interaction of centrally produced Lyα radiation with the host galactic environment. Lyα photons emitted from the luminous starburst region escape with characteristic features in the line profile depending on the density distribution, ionization structure, and bulk velocity fields. For example, anisotropic ionization exhibits a tall peak close to line centre with a skewed tail that drops off gradually. Idealized models of first galaxies explore the effect of mass, anisotropic H II regions, and radiation pressure driven winds on Lyα observables. We employ mesh refinement to resolve critical structures. We also post-process an ab initio cosmological simulation and examine images captured at various distances within the 1 Mpc 3 comoving volume. Finally, we discuss the emergent spectra and surface brightness profiles of these objects in the context of high-z observations. The first galaxies will likely be observed through the red damping wing of the Lyα line. Observations will be biased toward galaxies with an intrinsic red peak located far from line centre that reside in extensive H II super bubbles, which allows Hubble flow to sufficiently redshift photons away from line centre and facilitate transmission through the intergalactic medium. Even with gravitational lensing to boost the luminosity this preliminary work indicates that Lyα emission from stellar clusters within haloes of M vir < 10 9 M is generally too faint to be detected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).