Effects of Exogenous Auditory Attention on Temporal and Spectral Resolution

Previous research in the visual domain suggests that exogenous attention in form of peripheral cueing increases spatial but lowers temporal resolution. It is unclear whether this effect transfers to other sensory modalities. Here, we tested the effects of exogenous attention on temporal and spectral resolution in the auditory domain. Eighteen young, normal-hearing adults were tested in both gap and frequency change detection tasks with exogenous cuing. Benefits of valid cuing were only present in the gap detection task while costs of invalid cuing were observed in both tasks. Our results suggest that exogenous attention in the auditory system improves temporal resolution without compromising spectral resolution

The genetic structure of the Turkish population reveals high levels of variation and admixture

The construction of population-based variomes has contributed substantially to our understanding of the genetic basis of human inherited disease. Here, we investigated the genetic structure of Turkey from 3,362 unrelated subjects whose whole exomes (n = 2,589) or whole genomes (n = 773) were sequenced to generate a Turkish (TR) Variome that should serve to facilitate disease gene discovery in Turkey. Consistent with the history of present-day Turkey as a crossroads between Europe and Asia, we found extensive admixture between Balkan, Caucasus, Middle Eastern, and European populations with a closer genetic relationship of the TR population to Europeans than hitherto appreciated. We determined that 50% of TR individuals had high inbreeding coefficients (≥0.0156) with runs of homozygosity longer than 4 Mb being found exclusively in the TR population when compared to 1000 Genomes Project populations. We also found that 28% of exome and 49% of genome variants in the very rare range (allele frequency < 0.005) are unique to the modern TR population. We annotated these variants based on their functional consequences to establish a TR Variome containing alleles of potential medical relevance, a repository of homozygous loss-of-function variants and a TR reference panel for genotype imputation using high-quality haplotypes, to facilitate genome-wide association studies. In addition to providing information on the genetic structure of the modern TR population, these data provide an invaluable resource for future studies to identify variants that are associated with specific phenotypes as well as establishing the phenotypic consequences of mutations in specific genes

Protective effect of Pycnogenol on cisplatin-induced ototoxicity in rats

Context: Pycnogenol((R)), which is French maritime pine bark extract, is a potent antioxidant. It is used in medical conditions caused by oxidative stress. Cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum II) is an antineoplastic agent. However, its serious side effects such as ototoxicity limit its usage.Objective: Antioxidants can be used to prevent ototoxicity. We investigated the effect of Pycnogenol((R)) on cisplatin-induced ototoxicity.Materials and methods: Rats were randomly assigned to four groups of five. Distortion product-evoked otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) test was performed for each rat. The experimental groups were as follows: Control Group, Pycnogenol((R)) Group: 10mg/kg Pycnogenol((R)) intraperitoneally for 7 days, Cisplatin Group: intraperitoneally 15mg/kg single injection of cisplatin on the fifth day, Cisplatin+Pycnogenol((R)) Group: intraperitoneally 10mg/kg Pycnogenol((R)) treatment for 7 days, additionally on the fifth day, 15mg/kg single injection of cisplatin was given. On the eighth day, DPOAE was re-performed and rats were sacrificed. Apoptosis was evaluated histopathologically.Results: Mean percentage of apoptotic cells was 1.5, 3, 30 and 11% in organ of Corti and 2, 2, 40, 15% in spiral ganglion neurons in Control Group, Pycnogenol((R)) Group, Cisplatin Group and Cisplatin+Pycnogenol((R)) Group, respectively. Cisplatin Group and Cisplatin+Pycnogenol((R)) Group were significantly different when compared to Control Group histopathologically both in organ of Corti and spiral ganglion neuron (p<0.001, p=0.019, p=0.001, p=0.015). DPOAE results showed that Cisplatin+Pycnogenol((R)) Group was significantly different when compared to Cisplatin Group at 3, 6 and 8kHz (p<0.05).Conclusion: Pycnogenol protected against cisplatin ototoxicity. Also, pycnogenol is not ototoxic

Evaluation of Lapatinib and Trastuzumab for Ototoxic Effects

OBJECTIVE: Trastuzumab and lapatinib are widely used chemotherapeutic agents. Our aim in this study was to assess the possible ototoxicity of these chemotherapeutic agents