Long-term infection passaging of Human Adenovirus 36 in monkey kidney cells

Human Adenovirus 36 (HAdV-36) has been related to diverse effects on metabolism and may attenuate the lipid accumulation in kidneys with increased adiposity. Some of these effects would be related to viral persistence. However, until now, a model of persistent in vitro infection by HAdV-36 is unknown. In this study, we examined the cells of the Vero lineage to explore their permissiveness to long-term HAdV-36 infection. HAdV-36 was productively replicated in Vero cells and maintained long-term infection for up to 35 cell passages. A subculture was obtained from the cells that survived the primary infection at a low MOI (0.5). The production of the extracellular infectious virus with titers ranging from 104 to 106 TCID50/mL and DNA-bearing cells was detected. In long-term infected cells, the intracellular distribution of viral antigen was demonstrated by performing immunolocalization (IFI) and expression of cell-viral antigen in 50% of cells by flow cytometry, using anti-HAdV-36 hyperimmune rabbit serum. Furthermore, E1a and E4orf1 genes in long-term infected passages showed a decreasing trend. Our preliminary results reveal that renal epithelial monkey cells are permissive for the productive infection of HAdV-36. Vero cell culture long-term infection might be a promising model for addressing the fundamental aspects of the HAdV-36 biology that cannot reveal broadly-used cultures, which do not maintain long-term infection in primary or transformed cells

Double-blind randomized proof-of-concept trial of canakinumab in patients with COVID-19 associated cardiac injury and heightened inflammation

AIMS: In coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), myocardial injury is associated with systemic inflammation and higher mortality. Our aim was to perform a proof of concept trial with canakinumab, a monoclonal antibody to interleukin-1β, in patients with COVID-19, myocardial injury, and heightened inflammation. METHODS AND RESULTS: This trial required hospitalization due to COVID-19, elevated troponin, and a C-reactive protein concentration more than 50 mg/L. The primary endpoint was time to clinical improvement at Day 14, defined as either an improvement of two points on a seven-category ordinal scale or discharge from the hospital. The secondary endpoint was mortality at Day 28. Forty-five patients were randomly assigned to canakinumab 600 mg ( CONCLUSION: There was no difference in time to clinical improvement at Day 14 in patients treated with canakinumab, and no safety concerns were identified. Future studies could focus on high dose canakinumab in the treatment arm and assess efficacy outcomes at Day 28

Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After Stroke

[EN] Social cognition is the innate human ability to interpret the emotional state of others from contextual verbal and non-verbal information, and to self-regulate accordingly. Facial expressions are one of the most relevant sources of non-verbal communication, and their interpretation has been extensively investigated in the literature, using both behavioral and physiological measures, such as those derived from visual activity and visual responses. The decoding of facial expressions of emotion is performed by conscious and unconscious cognitive processes that involve a complex brain network that can be damaged after cerebrovascular accidents. A diminished ability to identify facial expressions of emotion has been reported after stroke, which has traditionally been attributed to impaired emotional processing. While this can be true, an alteration in visual behavior after brain injury could also negatively contribute to this ability. This study investigated the accuracy, distribution of responses, visual behavior, and pupil dilation of individuals with stroke while identifying emotional facial expressions. Our results corroborated impaired performance after stroke and exhibited decreased attention to the eyes, evidenced by a diminished time and number of fixations made in this area in comparison to healthy subjects and comparable pupil dilation. The differences in visual behavior reached statistical significance in some emotions when comparing individuals with stroke with impaired performance with healthy subjects, but not when individuals post-stroke with comparable performance were considered. The performance dependence of visual behavior, although not determinant, might indicate that altered visual behavior could be a negatively contributing factor for emotion recognition from facial expressions.This study was funded by Conselleria de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte of Generalitat Valenciana of Spain (Project SEJI/2019/017), and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Grant PAID-10-18).Maza, A.; Moliner, B.; Ferri, J.; Llorens Rodríguez, R. (2020). Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After Stroke. Frontiers in Neurology. 10:1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2019.01415S11210Nijsse, B., Spikman, J. M., Visser-Meily, J. M. A., de Kort, P. L. M., & van Heugten, C. M. (2019). Social cognition impairments are associated with behavioural changes in the long term after stroke. PLOS ONE, 14(3), e0213725. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0213725Feldman, R. S., White, J. B., & Lobato, D. (1982). Social Skills and Nonverbal Behavior. 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K., Guerra-Carrillo, B., Miller Singley, A. T., & Bunge, S. A. (2017). Beyond eye gaze: What else can eyetracking reveal about cognition and cognitive development? Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 69-91. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2016.11.001Ariel, R., & Castel, A. D. (2013). Eyes wide open: enhanced pupil dilation when selectively studying important information. Experimental Brain Research, 232(1), 337-344. doi:10.1007/s00221-013-3744-5Zekveld, A. A., & Kramer, S. E. (2014). Cognitive processing load across a wide range of listening conditions: Insights from pupillometry. Psychophysiology, 51(3), 277-284. doi:10.1111/psyp.12151De Gee, J. W., Knapen, T., & Donner, T. H. (2014). Decision-related pupil dilation reflects upcoming choice and individual bias. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(5), E618-E625. doi:10.1073/pnas.1317557111Bradley, M. M., Miccoli, L., Escrig, M. A., & Lang, P. J. (2008). The pupil as a measure of emotional arousal and autonomic activation. Psychophysiology, 45(4), 602-607. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2008.00654.xDuque, A., Sanchez, A., & Vazquez, C. (2014). Gaze-fixation and pupil dilation in the processing of emotional faces: The role of rumination. Cognition and Emotion, 28(8), 1347-1366. doi:10.1080/02699931.2014.881327Lanata, A., Armato, A., Valenza, G., & Scilingo, E. P. (2011). Eye tracking and pupil size variation as response to affective stimuli: a preliminary study. Proceedings of the 5th International ICST Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare. doi:10.4108/icst.pervasivehealth.2011.246056Peinkhofer, C., Knudsen, G. M., Moretti, R., & Kondziella, D. (2019). Cortical modulation of pupillary function: systematic review. PeerJ, 7, e6882. doi:10.7717/peerj.6882Grill-Spector, K., Knouf, N., & Kanwisher, N. (2004). The fusiform face area subserves face perception, not generic within-category identification. Nature Neuroscience, 7(5), 555-562. doi:10.1038/nn1224Ferretti, V., & Papaleo, F. (2018). Understanding others: emotion recognition abilities in humans and other animals. Genes, Brain and Behavior, e12544. doi:10.1111/gbb.12544Sergerie, K., Chochol, C., & Armony, J. L. (2008). The role of the amygdala in emotional processing: A quantitative meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 32(4), 811-830. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.12.002Rapcsak, S. Z., Galper, S. R., Comer, J. F., Reminger, S. L., Nielsen, L., Kaszniak, A. W., … Cohen, R. A. (2000). Fear recognition deficits after focal brain damage: A cautionary note. Neurology, 54(3), 575-575. doi:10.1212/wnl.54.3.575Radice-Neumann, D., Zupan, B., Tomita, M., & Willer, B. (2009). Training Emotional Processing in Persons With Brain Injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 24(5), 313-323. doi:10.1097/htr.0b013e3181b09160Yuvaraj, R., Murugappan, M., Norlinah, M. I., Sundaraj, K., & Khairiyah, M. (2013). Review of Emotion Recognition in Stroke Patients. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 36(3-4), 179-196. doi:10.1159/000353440Babbage, D. R., Yim, J., Zupan, B., Neumann, D., Tomita, M. R., & Willer, B. (2011). Meta-analysis of facial affect recognition difficulties after traumatic brain injury. Neuropsychology, 25(3), 277-285. doi:10.1037/a0021908Milders, M., Fuchs, S., & Crawford, J. R. (2003). Neuropsychological Impairments and Changes in Emotional and Social Behaviour Following Severe Traumatic Brain Injury. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25(2), 157-172. doi:10.1076/jcen.25.2.157.13642Genova, H. M., Genualdi, A., Goverover, Y., Chiaravalloti, N. D., Marino, C., & Lengenfelder, J. (2016). An investigation of the impact of facial affect recognition impairments in moderate to severe TBI on fatigue, depression, and quality of life. Social Neuroscience, 12(3), 303-307. doi:10.1080/17470919.2016.1173584Rigon, A., Voss, M. W., Turkstra, L. S., Mutlu, B., & Duff, M. C. (2018). Different aspects of facial affect recognition impairment following traumatic brain injury: The role of perceptual and interpretative abilities. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 40(8), 805-819. doi:10.1080/13803395.2018.1437120Rosenberg, H., McDonald, S., Dethier, M., Kessels, R. P. C., & Westbrook, R. F. (2014). Facial Emotion Recognition Deficits following Moderate–Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): Re-examining the Valence Effect and the Role of Emotion Intensity. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 20(10), 994-1003. doi:10.1017/s1355617714000940Lancelot, C., & Gilles, C. (2018). How does visual context influence recognition of facial emotion in people with traumatic brain injury? Brain Injury, 33(1), 4-11. doi:10.1080/02699052.2018.1531308McDonald, S. (2013). Impairments in Social Cognition Following Severe Traumatic Brain Injury. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 19(3), 231-246. doi:10.1017/s1355617712001506Vallat-Azouvi, C., Azouvi, P., Le-Bornec, G., & Brunet-Gouet, E. (2018). Treatment of social cognition impairments in patients with traumatic brain injury: a critical review. Brain Injury, 33(1), 87-93. doi:10.1080/02699052.2018.1531309Godin, B., Oishi, K., Oishi, K., Davis, C., Gomez, Y., Trupe, L., … Tippett, D. (2018). Impaired Recognition of Emotional Faces after Stroke Involving Right Amygdala or Insula. Seminars in Speech and Language, 39(01), 087-100. doi:10.1055/s-0037-1608859Abbott, J. D., Cumming, G., Fidler, F., & Lindell, A. K. (2013). The perception of positive and negative facial expressions in unilateral brain-damaged patients: A meta-analysis. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 18(4), 437-459. doi:10.1080/1357650x.2012.703206Abbott, J. D., Wijeratne, T., Hughes, A., Perre, D., & Lindell, A. K. (2014). The perception of positive and negative facial expressions by unilateral stroke patients. Brain and Cognition, 86, 42-54. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2014.01.017Delazer, M., Sojer, M., Ellmerer, P., Boehme, C., & Benke, T. (2018). Eye-Tracking Provides a Sensitive Measure of Exploration Deficits After Acute Right MCA Stroke. Frontiers in Neurology, 9. doi:10.3389/fneur.2018.00359Lech, M., Kucewicz, M. T., & Czyżewski, A. (2019). Human Computer Interface for Tracking Eye Movements Improves Assessment and Diagnosis of Patients With Acquired Brain Injuries. Frontiers in Neurology, 10. doi:10.3389/fneur.2019.00006Spikman, J. M., Milders, M. V., Visser-Keizer, A. C., Westerhof-Evers, H. J., Herben-Dekker, M., & van der Naalt, J. (2013). Deficits in Facial Emotion Recognition Indicate Behavioral Changes and Impaired Self-Awareness after Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury. PLoS ONE, 8(6), e65581. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065581Knox, L., & Douglas, J. (2009). Long-term ability to interpret facial expression after traumatic brain injury and its relation to social integration. Brain and Cognition, 69(2), 442-449. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2008.09.009Struchen, M. A., Clark, A. N., Sander, A. M., Mills, M. R., Evans, G., & Kurtz, D. (2008). Relation of executive functioning and social communication measures to functional outcomes following traumatic brain injury. NeuroRehabilitation, 23(2), 185-198. doi:10.3233/nre-2008-23208Ferro, J. M., Caeiro, L., & Santos, C. (2009). Poststroke Emotional and Behavior Impairment: A Narrative Review. Cerebrovascular Diseases, 27(1), 197-203. doi:10.1159/000200460Bortolon, C., Capdevielle, D., & Raffard, S. (2015). Face recognition in schizophrenia disorder: A comprehensive review of behavioral, neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 53, 79-107. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.03.006Harms, M. B., Martin, A., & Wallace, G. L. (2010). Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Behavioral and Neuroimaging Studies. Neuropsychology Review, 20(3), 290-322. doi:10.1007/s11065-010-9138-6Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E., & McHugh, P. R. (1975). «Mini-mental state». Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12(3), 189-198. doi:10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6Romero, M., Sánchez, A., Marín, C., Navarro, M. D., Ferri, J., & Noé, E. (2012). Clinical usefulness of the Spanish version of the Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MASTsp): validation in stroke patients. Neurología (English Edition), 27(4), 216-224. doi:10.1016/j.nrleng.2011.06.001Aguillon-Hernandez, N., Roché, L., Bonnet-Brilhault, F., Roux, S., Barthelemy, C., & Martineau, J. (2016). Eye Movement Monitoring and Maturation of Human Face Exploration. Medical Principles and Practice, 25(6), 548-554. doi:10.1159/000447971Mathôt, S., Fabius, J., Van Heusden, E., & Van der Stigchel, S. (2018). Safe and sensible preprocessing and baseline correction of pupil-size data. Behavior Research Methods, 50(1), 94-106. doi:10.3758/s13428-017-1007-2Green, C., & Guo, K. (2016). Factors contributing to individual differences in facial expression categorisation. Cognition and Emotion, 32(1), 37-48. doi:10.1080/02699931.2016.1273200Burley, D. T., Gray, N. S., & Snowden, R. J. (2017). As Far as the Eye Can See: Relationship between Psychopathic Traits and Pupil Response to Affective Stimuli. PLOS ONE, 12(1), e0167436. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0167436Partala, T., & Surakka, V. (2003). Pupil size variation as an indication of affective processing. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 59(1-2), 185-198. doi:10.1016/s1071-5819(03)00017-xGotham, K. O., Siegle, G. J., Han, G. T., Tomarken, A. J., Crist, R. N., Simon, D. M., & Bodfish, J. W. (2018). Pupil response to social-emotional material is associated with rumination and depressive symptoms in adults with autism spectrum disorder. PLOS ONE, 13(8), e0200340. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0200340Demenescu, L. R., Mathiak, K. A., & Mathiak, K. (2014). Age- and Gender-Related Variations of Emotion Recognition in Pseudowords and Faces. Experimental Aging Research, 40(2), 187-207. doi:10.1080/0361073x.2014.882210Grainger, S. A., Henry, J. D., Phillips, L. H., Vanman, E. J., & Allen, R. (2015). Age Deficits in Facial Affect Recognition: The Influence of Dynamic Cues. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, gbv100. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbv100Wagner, H. L. (1993). On measuring performance in category judgment studies of nonverbal behavior. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 17(1), 3-28. doi:10.1007/bf00987006Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (2015). Memory, emotion, and pupil diameter: Repetition of natural scenes. Psychophysiology, 52(9), 1186-1193. doi:10.1111/psyp.12442Larsen, R. S., & Waters, J. (2018). Neuromodulatory Correlates of Pupil Dilation. Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 12. doi:10.3389/fncir.2018.0002

COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information

International audienceWith the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to wearing masks and have experienced how masks seem to impair emotion and speech recognition. While several studies have focused on facial emotion recognition by adding images of masks on photographs of emotional faces, we have created a video database with actors really wearing masks to test its effect in more ecological conditions. After validating the emotions displayed by the actors, we found that surgical mask impaired happiness and sadness recognition but not neutrality. Moreover, for happiness, this effect was specific to the mask and not to covering the lower part of the face, possibly due to a cognitive bias associated with the surgical mask. We also created videos with speech and tested the effect of mask on emotion and speech recognition when displayed in auditory, visual, or audiovisual modalities. In visual and audiovisual modalities, mask impaired happiness and sadness but improved neutrality recognition. Mask impaired the recognition of bilabial syllables regardless of modality. In addition, it altered speech recognition only in the audiovisual modality for participants above 70 years old. Overall, COVID-19 masks mainly impair emotion recognition, except for older participants for whom it also impacts speech recognition, probably because they rely more on visual information to compensate age-related hearing loss

Facial mask disturbs ocular exploration but not pupil reactivity

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed to wear a face mask that may have negative consequences for social interactions despite its health benefits. A lot of recent studies focused on emotion recognition of masked faces, as the mouth is, with the eyes, essential to convey emotional content. However, none have studied neurobehavioral and neurophysiological markers of masked faces perception, such as ocular exploration and pupil reactivity. The purpose of this eye tracking study was to quantify how wearing a facial accessory, and in particular a face mask, affected the ocular and pupillary response to a face, emotional or not. Methods We used videos of actors wearing a facial accessory to characterize the visual exploration and pupillary response in several occlusion (no accessory, sunglasses, scarf, and mask) and emotional conditions (neutral, happy, and sad) in a population of 44 adults. Results We showed that ocular exploration differed for face covered with an accessory, and in particular a mask, compared to the classical visual scanning pattern of a non-covered face. The covered areas of the face were less explored. Pupil reactivity seemed only slightly affected by the mask, while its sensitivity to emotions was observed even in the presence of a facial accessory. Discussion These results suggest a mixed impact of the mask on attentional capture and physiological adjustment, which does not seem to be reconcilable with its strong effect on behavioral emotional recognition previously described

Video_2_COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information.MP4

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to wearing masks and have experienced how masks seem to impair emotion and speech recognition. While several studies have focused on facial emotion recognition by adding images of masks on photographs of emotional faces, we have created a video database with actors really wearing masks to test its effect in more ecological conditions. After validating the emotions displayed by the actors, we found that surgical mask impaired happiness and sadness recognition but not neutrality. Moreover, for happiness, this effect was specific to the mask and not to covering the lower part of the face, possibly due to a cognitive bias associated with the surgical mask. We also created videos with speech and tested the effect of mask on emotion and speech recognition when displayed in auditory, visual, or audiovisual modalities. In visual and audiovisual modalities, mask impaired happiness and sadness but improved neutrality recognition. Mask impaired the recognition of bilabial syllables regardless of modality. In addition, it altered speech recognition only in the audiovisual modality for participants above 70 years old. Overall, COVID-19 masks mainly impair emotion recognition, except for older participants for whom it also impacts speech recognition, probably because they rely more on visual information to compensate age-related hearing loss.</p

Video_7_COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information.MP4

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to wearing masks and have experienced how masks seem to impair emotion and speech recognition. While several studies have focused on facial emotion recognition by adding images of masks on photographs of emotional faces, we have created a video database with actors really wearing masks to test its effect in more ecological conditions. After validating the emotions displayed by the actors, we found that surgical mask impaired happiness and sadness recognition but not neutrality. Moreover, for happiness, this effect was specific to the mask and not to covering the lower part of the face, possibly due to a cognitive bias associated with the surgical mask. We also created videos with speech and tested the effect of mask on emotion and speech recognition when displayed in auditory, visual, or audiovisual modalities. In visual and audiovisual modalities, mask impaired happiness and sadness but improved neutrality recognition. Mask impaired the recognition of bilabial syllables regardless of modality. In addition, it altered speech recognition only in the audiovisual modality for participants above 70 years old. Overall, COVID-19 masks mainly impair emotion recognition, except for older participants for whom it also impacts speech recognition, probably because they rely more on visual information to compensate age-related hearing loss.</p

Video_9_COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information.MP4

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to wearing masks and have experienced how masks seem to impair emotion and speech recognition. While several studies have focused on facial emotion recognition by adding images of masks on photographs of emotional faces, we have created a video database with actors really wearing masks to test its effect in more ecological conditions. After validating the emotions displayed by the actors, we found that surgical mask impaired happiness and sadness recognition but not neutrality. Moreover, for happiness, this effect was specific to the mask and not to covering the lower part of the face, possibly due to a cognitive bias associated with the surgical mask. We also created videos with speech and tested the effect of mask on emotion and speech recognition when displayed in auditory, visual, or audiovisual modalities. In visual and audiovisual modalities, mask impaired happiness and sadness but improved neutrality recognition. Mask impaired the recognition of bilabial syllables regardless of modality. In addition, it altered speech recognition only in the audiovisual modality for participants above 70 years old. Overall, COVID-19 masks mainly impair emotion recognition, except for older participants for whom it also impacts speech recognition, probably because they rely more on visual information to compensate age-related hearing loss.</p

Video_4_COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information.MP4

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to wearing masks and have experienced how masks seem to impair emotion and speech recognition. While several studies have focused on facial emotion recognition by adding images of masks on photographs of emotional faces, we have created a video database with actors really wearing masks to test its effect in more ecological conditions. After validating the emotions displayed by the actors, we found that surgical mask impaired happiness and sadness recognition but not neutrality. Moreover, for happiness, this effect was specific to the mask and not to covering the lower part of the face, possibly due to a cognitive bias associated with the surgical mask. We also created videos with speech and tested the effect of mask on emotion and speech recognition when displayed in auditory, visual, or audiovisual modalities. In visual and audiovisual modalities, mask impaired happiness and sadness but improved neutrality recognition. Mask impaired the recognition of bilabial syllables regardless of modality. In addition, it altered speech recognition only in the audiovisual modality for participants above 70 years old. Overall, COVID-19 masks mainly impair emotion recognition, except for older participants for whom it also impacts speech recognition, probably because they rely more on visual information to compensate age-related hearing loss.</p

Étude longitudinale de l’orientation sociale chez les enfants avec TSA d’âge préscolaire

International audienceDes études montrent, en situation écologique mais également expérimentale, que les comportements d’orientation sociale seraient réduits chez les enfants avec TSA. Nous proposons d’étudier le développement des compétences d’orientation sociale dans ces deux situations chez 13 enfants avec TSA d’âge préscolaire afin de faire le lien entre les compétences lors d’une tâche expérimentale et les comportements en situation de vie quotidienne. Les enfants ont été filmés tous les mois en classe dans des situations d’interaction afin d’observer leurs comportements d’attention visuelle dirigés vers un adulte (annotés à l’aide du logiciel The Observer XT10 Noldus). En parallèle, ces mêmes enfants participent à une tâche de préférence visuelle entre un visage et un objet en oculométrie. Sur le plan longitudinal, une diminution du nombre de fixations vers les visages en oculométrie est liée avec une amélioration de la durée d’orientation sociale en classe. La progression des enfants peut être mise en lien avec leur niveau de base à la tâche, ainsi qu’avec le score obtenu aux échelles de l’ECSP en début de suivi