Prestimulus alpha power in the EEG data and pre- and peristimulus neural activity and network dynamics in the bistable trials of the fMRI data.

(A) Occipital prestimulus alpha power was significantly lower in the bistable EM trials than in the bistable GM trials. Significant time points in the prestimulus period are indicated with the black bar (cluster-based correction, p bistable GM” as the psychological factor. The left IPS showed enhanced neural coupling with sensorimotor and frontal areas during the prestimulus period of the bistable EM trials, compared to the prestimulus period of the bistable GM trials. For example, in a representative participant, mean corrected prestimulus neural activity in the SMA is shown as a function of mean corrected prestimulus activity in the left IPS (i.e., the first principal component from a sphere of 4 mm radius) for the bistable EM trials (red dots and lines) and bistable GM trials (blue dots and lines), respectively. Underlying data available at https://osf.io/tze94/. a.u., arbitrary unit; DMN, default-mode network; EEG, electroencephalography; EM, element motion; fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; GM, group motion; IFG, inferior frontal gyrus; IPS, intraparietal sulcus; MPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; PPI, psychophysiological interaction; SEM, standard error of the mean; SMA, supplementary motor area.</p

Schematic demonstration of the temporal and spatial grouping in the Ternus display and their hypothetical relations to the alpha cycles.

(A) Upper panel: explicit EM at the short IFI (50 ms). At the short IFI, the shared central disk between the two frames is temporally grouped as the same object, resulting in explicit EM percepts. The central disk is perceived to remain still at the central location, and the two lateral disks are perceived to jump from one side to the other (see also S1 Video). Lower panel: explicit GM at the long IFI (230 ms). At the long IFI, the two disks within each of the two frames are spatially grouped, respectively, resulting in explicit GM percepts. The two disks in the first frame are perceived to move together as a group towards the second frame in a manner consistent with the physical displacement (see also S2 Video). (B) Upper panel: bistable EM percepts at the threshold IFI. The lower the PAF, the higher possibility the two consecutively presented frames will fall in the same alpha cycle, resulting in the EM percepts. Lower panel: bistable GM percepts at the threshold IFI. The higher the PAF, the two frames will more likely fall in different alpha cycles, resulting in the EM percepts. EM, element motion; GM, group motion; IFI, interframe interval; PAF, prestimulus alpha frequency.</p

Relationship between the PAF and bistable perceptual grouping.

(A) The normalized amplitude obtained through an FFT from all the bistable trials (from –800 to 0 ms relative to the onset of the first frame) collapsed over all electrodes in all the participants revealed a clear peak at the alpha frequency. The gray shading indicates ±1 SEM. The light gray rectangle indicates the selected frequency band. (B) The amplitude topographic map of the selected alpha frequency band (8–13 Hz) revealed a clear posterior scalp distribution. The selected posterior electrodes are indicated with white dots. (C) The frequency of occipital alpha in each individual subject, derived from the prestimulus alpha activity, was significantly correlated with the individual transition IFI threshold. Dashed lines indicate 95% confidence intervals around the linear fit line. (D) Within-subject analysis of the instantaneous PAF revealed higher alpha frequency preceding the bistable GM trials than the bistable EM trials. Significant time points are indicated by the horizontal black bar (cluster-based correction, p https://osf.io/tze94/. a.u., arbitrary unit; EM, element motion; FFT, Fast Fourier Transform; GM, group motion; IFI, interframe interval; PAF, prestimulus alpha frequency; SEM, standard error of the mean.</p

Behavioral results.

(A) Psychometric curves fitted on the psychophysical data for each participant in the EEG experiment. The transition IFI threshold in each individual subject was defined as the IFI corresponding to the point of 50% reported GM/EM percepts on the fitted logistic function. All curves fitted well to the selection probability of GM (all R2 values > 0.9). (B) Threshold IFIs derived from the psychophysical procedure for each participant in the EEG and fMRI experiment, respectively. (C) Accuracy rates of the explicit EM and GM trials averaged across all the participants in the EEG and fMRI experiment, respectively. (D) Rates of the bistable EM and GM trials averaged across all the participants in the EEG and fMRI experiment, respectively. (E) RTs relative to the onset of frame 2 for all the experimental conditions in the EEG and fMRI experiment. The error bars indicate ±1 SEM. *p p https://osf.io/tze94/. EEG, electroencephalography; EM, element motion; fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; GM, group motion; IFI, interframe interval; RT, reaction time.</p

PAF effect in the four epileptic patients.

Anatomical locations of the first ten contacts with the largest alpha (8–13 Hz) power from each of four patients (A, B, C, and D). Precise anatomical regions of the 10 selected contacts are marked on the coronal T1 slices of individual brains. Instantaneous PAF was calculated for the bistable EM and bistable GM trials, respectively, for each selected contact, and averaged across all the contacts. The alpha frequency preceding the bistable GM trials was higher than that preceding the bistable EM trials in most of selected contacts in each patient. In the averaged results, significant time points are indicated by horizontal black bars (cluster-based correction, p https://osf.io/tze94/. EM, element motion; GM, group motion; PAF, prestimulus alpha frequency; SEM, standard error of the mean.</p

Hypothesis and results of decoding results of the EEG data.

(A) Hypothesis on the efficient versus inefficient inference. Upper: predictions towards the GM percepts will be generated based on higher PAFs since it is more possible for the two frames to fall in different alpha cycles. Lower: predictions towards the EM percepts will be generated based on lower PAFs since it is more possible for the two frames to fall within the same alpha cycle. Conjointly considering the specific prediction and the forthcoming bottom-up inputs, perceptual inference towards one specific percept will be made. The perceptual inference is defined as efficient if it is consistent with the perceived percept and inefficient if inconsistent. (B) Post hoc trial categorization procedure for the decoding analysis. All the bistable trials were first sorted based on their PAF values. The bistable trials with a PAF higher than the PAF of the median trial (trial n/2, n = the total number of bistable trials) were considered as the high PAF trials, while the bistable trials with a PAF lower than the PAF of the trial n/2 were considered as the lower PAF trials. Therefore, conjointly based on the PAF (high versus low) and the perceptual outcome (EM versus GM), the bistable trials were categorized into the following four types: (1) the high PAF GM trials, (2) the low PAF EM trials, (3) the low PAF GM trials, and (4) the high PAF EM trials. The former two types of trials were assigned to the efficient inference condition since the prior perceptual inference based on the PAFs was consistent with the subsequently perceived percept, while the latter two types of trials were assigned to the inefficient inference condition since the perceptual inference was inconsistent with the perceptual outcome. (C) A hypothetical 2D activation space for the EEG signals representing the bistable EM and GM percepts. Activation patterns for each percept are projected onto a discriminant axis, which differentiates the two percepts. A decision boundary placed along the axis allows for classification between the bistable EM and GM percepts. The overlap of the Gaussian distributions reflects “decision noise.” More distant representations produce less noise and result in higher decoding accuracy. (D) Temporal generalization matrices for the efficient inference condition. (E) Temporal generalization matrices for the inefficient inference condition. (F) Temporal generalization matrices for the differential contrast between the efficient versus inefficient conditions. Columns in the images are the time points the classifier was trained, and rows are the time points the classifier was tested. Color values indicate decoding accuracy in terms of AUC (D, E) or AUC difference (F). The contour with the black line indicates the significant cluster, p p https://osf.io/tze94/. AUC, area under the receiver operator characteristic; EEG, electroencephalography; EM, element motion; GM, group motion; PAF, prestimulus alpha frequency; SEM, standard error of the mean.</p

Data_Sheet_1_Structure-Functional Activity Relationship of β-Glucans From the Perspective of Immunomodulation: A Mini-Review.docx

β-Glucans are a heterogeneous group of glucose polymers with a common structure comprising a main chain of β-(1,3) and/or β-(1,4)-glucopyranosyl units, along with side chains with various branches and lengths. β-Glucans initiate immune responses via immune cells, which become activated by the binding of the polymer to specific receptors. However, β-glucans from different sources also differ in their structure, conformation, physical properties, binding affinity to receptors, and thus biological functions. The mechanisms behind this are not fully understood. This mini-review provides a comprehensive and up-to-date commentary on the relationship between β-glucans' structure and function in relation to their use for immunomodulation.</p

Table_1_Essential Oils Improve the Survival of Gnotobiotic Brine Shrimp (Artemia franciscana) Challenged With Vibrio campbellii.docx

The halophilic aquatic bacterium Vibrio campbellii is an important aquatic pathogen, capable of causing vibriosis in shrimp and fish resulting in significant economic losses. In a previous work, essential oils (EOs) extracts from Melaleuca alternifolia, Litsea citrata, and Eucalyptus citriodora were found to inhibit the growth of V. campbellii in vitro. This study aimed to determine in vivo EOs’ potential protective effect towards gnotobiotic brine shrimp Artemia franciscana, challenged with V. campbellii. The study showed that brine shrimp larvae supplemented with EOs of M. alternifolia (0.0008%) and L. citrata (0.002%) displayed significantly increased survival against V. campbellii. The results indicated that supplementation of these EOs increased the expression of immune-related genes (either in the presence or absence of the pathogen), probably contributing to enhanced protection. Furthermore, in vitro studies indicated that some EOs modulated the expression of virulence factors including swimming motility, biofilm formation, and gelatinase and lipase activity, while flow cytometry data and regrowth assay indicated that these EOs do not exhibit antimicrobial activity as V. campbellii grew at the tested concentrations [M. alternifolia (0.0008%) and L. citrata (0.002%)]. Our findings suggest that EOs extracted from M. alternifolia and L. citrata, can modulate virulence factor production and immunological responses and might hence become part of an intervention strategy to control vibriosis in a fish or shrimp aquaculture setting, a hypothesis that needs to be validated in the future.</p

Image_1_Essential Oils Improve the Survival of Gnotobiotic Brine Shrimp (Artemia franciscana) Challenged With Vibrio campbellii.pdf

The halophilic aquatic bacterium Vibrio campbellii is an important aquatic pathogen, capable of causing vibriosis in shrimp and fish resulting in significant economic losses. In a previous work, essential oils (EOs) extracts from Melaleuca alternifolia, Litsea citrata, and Eucalyptus citriodora were found to inhibit the growth of V. campbellii in vitro. This study aimed to determine in vivo EOs’ potential protective effect towards gnotobiotic brine shrimp Artemia franciscana, challenged with V. campbellii. The study showed that brine shrimp larvae supplemented with EOs of M. alternifolia (0.0008%) and L. citrata (0.002%) displayed significantly increased survival against V. campbellii. The results indicated that supplementation of these EOs increased the expression of immune-related genes (either in the presence or absence of the pathogen), probably contributing to enhanced protection. Furthermore, in vitro studies indicated that some EOs modulated the expression of virulence factors including swimming motility, biofilm formation, and gelatinase and lipase activity, while flow cytometry data and regrowth assay indicated that these EOs do not exhibit antimicrobial activity as V. campbellii grew at the tested concentrations [M. alternifolia (0.0008%) and L. citrata (0.002%)]. Our findings suggest that EOs extracted from M. alternifolia and L. citrata, can modulate virulence factor production and immunological responses and might hence become part of an intervention strategy to control vibriosis in a fish or shrimp aquaculture setting, a hypothesis that needs to be validated in the future.</p

Table_1_Dietary factors and risk for asthma: A Mendelian randomization analysis.docx

BackgroundPrevious research has found a link between dietary factors and asthma. However, few studies have analyzed the relationship between dietary factors and asthma using Mendelian randomization. Methods: The IEU Open GWAS project (https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk/) was the source of exposure and outcome datasets. The exposure datasets included Alcoholic drinks per week, Alcohol intake frequency, Processed meat intake, Poultry intake, Beef intake, Non-oily fish intake, Oily fish intake, Pork intake, Lamb/mutton intake, Bread intake, Cheese intake, Cooked vegetable intake, Tea intake, Fresh fruit intake, Cereal intake, Salad/raw vegetable intake, Coffee intake, and Dried fruit intake. The weighted median, MR-Egger, and Inverse Variance Weighted methods were used as the main methods of Mendelian randomization analysis. Heterogeneity and pleiotropic analysis were performed to ensure the accuracy of the results.ResultsAlcohol intake frequency (after removing outliers OR: 1.217; 95% CI: 1.048-1.413; p=0.00993) was related to an increased risk of Asthma. Fresh fruit intake (OR: 0.489; 95% CI: 0.320-0.748; p=0.000954) and Dried fruit intake (after removing outliers OR: 0.482; 95% CI: 0.325-0.717; p= 0.000312) were discovered as protective factors. Other dietary intakes found no causal relationship with asthma.ConclusionThis study found that dried fruit intake and fresh fruit intake were associated with a reduced risk of asthma, and alcohol intake frequency was associated with an increased risk of asthma. This study also found that other factors included in this study were not associated with asthma.</p