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N Lebrun

Publications and source records attributed to N Lebrun.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

A new crystalline phase of nitric acid dihydrate.

The crystal structure of a new high-temperature phase of nitric acid dihydrate, HNO(3).2H(2)O, has been determined at 225 K by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The H atom of the nitric acid is delocalized to one water molecule, leading to an association of equimolar NO(3)(-) and H(5)O(2)(+) ionic groups. The asymmetric unit contains two molecules of HNO(3).2H(2)O. The two independent molecules are related by a pseudo-twofold c axis, by a translation of 0.54 (approximately (1/2)) along b, with a mean atomic distance difference of 0.3 A, except for one H atom of the water molecules (1.5 A), because of their different orientations in the two molecules. The two independent molecules, linked by strong hydrogen bonds, are arranged in layers. These layers are linked by weaker hydrogen bonds oriented approximately along the c axis. A three-dimensional hydrogen-bond network is observed.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

An ERD mapping study of the neurocognitive processes involved in the perceptual and semantic analysis of environmental sounds and words.

The aim of this paper was to investigate and compare the EEG mechanisms underlying the perceptual and semantic processes involved in environmental and language sounds perception by manipulating the degree of identification of sounds and using the ERD (event-related desynchronization) method in healthy subjects. Four types of stimuli were analyzed: meaningful environmental sounds, meaningless sounds, words and non-words. We report many similarities in the ERDs and ERSs (event-related synchronizations) patterns among all stimuli, with: (i) similar time-course of ERDs and ERSs between meaningful environmental sounds and words, and between meaningless sounds and non-words; (ii) similar topography of the maximal ERDs for meaningful environmental sounds, words and non-words; and (iii) same right posterior ERSs for all four stimuli. However, differences were also observed: (i) in time-course, with earlier ERSs for meaningless than meaningful stimuli, whether environmental or verbal; and (ii) in topography, with ERDs predominating in left and right hemisphere channels for meaningful and meaningless environmental sounds, respectively; (iii) ERSs predominating in the left temporal channel for non-words and in the left posterior and right frontal channels for meaningless sounds. The results of this study suggest that meaningful stimuli involve greater and longer-lasting semantic processes than meaningless stimuli, while the occurrence of ERSs for the latter points to the possible involvement of an inhibitory processing of semantic representations. Finally, the findings concerning the comparison between verbal and non verbal stimuli suggest the involvement of left-lateralized phonological and semantic processes for the former, and more distributed neurocognitive processes in both hemispheres for the latter although with predominant left laterality for their semantic processing.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Kinetic behaviour investigations and crystal structure of nitric acid dihydrate.

X-ray powder diffraction experiments are performed to prove the possible crystallization of nitric acid dihydrate (HNO(3).2H(2)O, further denoted NAD) and to determine the best thermal conditions for growing a single crystal. It is shown that the kinetic behaviour of NAD strongly depends on the preliminary thermal treatment. One good single crystal obtained by an in situ adapted Bridgman method procedure enabled determination of the crystal structure. The intensities of diffracted lines with h odd are all very weak. The H atom of nitric acid is delocalized to one water molecule leading to an association of equimolar nitrate (NO(3)(-)) and an H(5)O(2)(+) ionic group. The asymmetric unit contains two such molecules. These two molecules are related by a pseudo a/2 translation (with a 0.3 A mean atomic distance difference), except for one H atom of the water molecules (0.86 A) because of their different orientations in the two molecules. The two molecules, linked by very strong hydrogen bonds, are arranged in layers. Two layers which are linked by weaker hydrogen bonds are approximately oriented along the c axis. The structure may be described by translations of this set of two layers along the c axis without hydrogen bonds leading to a two-dimensional hydrogen-bond network. The structures of the monohydrate (NAM) and trihydrate (NAT) are re-determined for comparisons. These structures may be described by one- and three-dimensional hydrogen-bond networks, respectively.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

High temporal resolution dynamic mapping of instantaneous EEG amplitude modulation after tone-burst auditory stimulation.

A new method of instantaneous EEG analysis based on amplitude modulation (AM-EEG) was applied to analyze the AM-EEG changes in the alpha frequency band (8.20-12.89 Hz) for successive 5 ms epochs. Repeated auditory tone-burst stimuli (of 220 ms duration) were presented at fixed 2.56 second intervals to 12 attending right-handed young female volunteers, who were EEG-recorded over 19 EEG channels at 200 Hz sampling frequency. The time-course of functional activation was characterized in terms of percent decrease in instantaneous amplitude modulation, as compared to baseline, in analogy with the classical event-related desynchronization paradigm. A dynamic sequence of the successive 122 AM-EEG maps obtained for the 610 ms from beginning of tone-burst was stored and later animated on PC microcomputer. Topological changes among successive maps were extracted into 40 specific AM-EEG maps. Early left temporal and centro-temporal activation was observed, followed first by strong bilateral frontal, and then by left temporal activation. These changes induced by a warning tone-burst are discussed in terms of functional neurophysiology. The present method therefore allows an improved time-resolution for functional brain activation paradigms.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1998

Effect of environmental sound familiarity on dynamic neural activation/inhibition patterns: an ERD mapping study.

The aim of this study was to analyze the timing and topography of brain activity in relation to the cognitive processing of different types of auditory information. We specifically investigated the effects of familiarity on environmental sound identification, an issue which has been little studied with respect to cognitive processes, neural substrates, and time course of brain activity. To address this issue, we implemented and applied an electroencephalographic mapping method named event-related desynchronization, which allows one to assess the dynamics of neuronal activity with high temporal resolution (here, 125 ms); we used 19 recording electrodes with standard positioning. We designed an activation paradigm in which healthy subjects were asked to discriminate binaurally heard sounds belonging to one of two distinct categories, "familiar" (i.e., natural environmental sounds) or "unfamiliar" (i.e., altered environmental sounds). The sounds were selected according to strict preexperimental tests so that the former should engage greater semantic, and the latter greater structural, analysis, which we predicted to preferentially implicate left posterior and right brain regions, respectively. During the stimulations, significant desynchronizations (thought to reflect neuronal activations) were recorded over left hemisphere regions for familiar sounds and right temporofrontal regions for unfamiliar sounds, but with only few significant differences between the two sound categories and a common bilateral activation in the frontal regions. However, strongly significant differences between familiar and unfamiliar sounds occurred near the end of and following the stimulations, due to synchronizations (though to reflect deactivations) which appeared over the left posterior regions, as well as the vertex and bilateral frontal cortex, only after unfamiliar sounds. These unexpected synchronizations after the unfamiliar stimuli may reflect an awareness of the unfamiliarity of such sounds, which may have induced an inhibition of semantic and episodic representations because the latter could not be associated with meaningless sounds.

Arousal↗
PubMed1996

A new method for quantifying EEG event-related desynchronization:amplitude envelope analysis.

Amplitude modulation (AM) analysis defines precisely the EEG signal envelope changes at sampling frequency. Here we demonstrate mathematically that event-related desynchronization (ERD) corresponds to the integration of AM-EEG. We applied this new approach to a group of 12 healthy human volunteers hearing repeated auditory stimuli and statistically compared the results from ERD to those from AM-EEG. The results indicate that AM-EEG characterized more precisely a specific evoked EEG cortical activation event and may be a powerful method for studying the time-course of functional dynamic brain EEG mapping with improved time resolution.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗