Distorted body representations in healthy cognition

Delusions and misperceptions about the body are a conspicuous feature of numerous neurological and psychiatric conditions. In stark contrast to such pathological cases, the immediacy and familiarity of our ordinary experience of our body can make it seem as if our representation of our body is highly accurate, even infallible. Recent research has begun to demonstrate, however, that large and systematic distortions of body representation are a normal part of healthy cognition. Here, I will describe this research, focusing on distortions of body representations underlying tactile distance perception and position sense. I will also discuss evidence for distortions of higher-order body representations, such as the conscious body image. Finally, I will end with a discussion of the potential relations among different body representations and their distortions

Landmark detection in 2D bioimages for geometric morphometrics: a multi-resolution tree-based approach

The detection of anatomical landmarks in bioimages is a necessary but tedious step for geometric morphometrics studies in many research domains. We propose variants of a multi-resolution tree-based approach to speed-up the detection of landmarks in bioimages. We extensively evaluate our method variants on three different datasets (cephalometric, zebrafish, and drosophila images). We identify the key method parameters (notably the multi-resolution) and report results with respect to human ground truths and existing methods. Our method achieves recognition performances competitive with current existing approaches while being generic and fast. The algorithms are integrated in the open-source Cytomine software and we provide parameter configuration guidelines so that they can be easily exploited by end-users. Finally, datasets are readily available through a Cytomine server to foster future research

Maternal Drinking During Pregnancy: Attention and Short-Term Memory in 14-Year-Old Offspring—A Longitudinal Prospective Study

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66151/1/j.1530-0277.1994.tb00904.x.pd

Wing shape patterns among urban, suburban, and rural populations of Ischnura elegans (Odonata: Coenagrionidae)

Dragonflies and damselflies (the Odonata) are among the most efficient flying insects. However, fragmentation of the landscape can increase distance between habitats and affect costs of dispersal, thus shaping phenotypic patterns of flight-related traits, such as wing shape, wing loading and wing size. Urban landscapes are highly fragmented, which limits dispersal among aquatic habitats. Hence, strong selective pressures can act upon urban populations in favour of individuals with increased flight performance or may lead to the reduction in dispersal traits. Here, we explore differentiation in morphological flight-related traits among urban, suburban, and rural populations of the damselfly Ischnura elegans, which is one of the most abundant species in both urban and rural ponds in Europe. We sampled 20 sites across Leeds and Bradford, UK, in an urban-to-rural gradient from June to August 2014 and 2015 (Nmales = 201, Nfemales = 119). We compared wing shape among different land use types using geometric morphometrics. Other wing properties analysed were wing aspect ratio, wing loading and wing centroid size. Unexpectedly, no significant effect of urban land use was found on wing shape. However, wing shape differed significantly between males and females. Additionally, females showed significantly larger wing centroid sizes (P < 0.001), increased wing loading (forewings: P = 0.007; hind wings: P = 0.002) and aspect ratio (P < 0.001) compared to males across all land use types. Possible mechanisms driving these results are further discussed

DNA barcode assessment and population structure of aphidophagous hoverfly <i>Sphaerophoria scripta</i>:Implications for conservation biological control

With the advent of integrated pest management, the conservation of indigenous populations of natural enemies of pest species has become a relevant practice, necessitating the accurate identification of beneficial species and the inspection of evolutionary mechanisms affecting the long-time persistence of their populations. The long hoverfly,Sphaerophoria scripta, represents one of the most potent aphidophagous control agents due to a worldwide distribution and a favorable constellation of biological traits. Therefore, we assessed five EuropeanS. scriptapopulations by combining molecular (cytochromecoxidase subunit I-COI, internal transcribed spacer 2-ITS2, and allozyme loci) and morphological (wing size and shape) characters.COIsequences retrieved in this study were conjointly analyzed with BOLD/GenBank sequences of the otherSphaerophoriaspecies to evaluate whetherCOIpossessed a sufficient diagnostic value as a DNA barcode marker to consistently delimit allospecific individuals. Additionally, the aforementioned characters were used to inspect the population structure ofS. scriptain Europe using methods based on individual- and population-based genetic differences, as well as geometric morphometrics of wing traits. The results indicate numerous sharedCOIhaplotypes among differentSphaerophoriaspecies, thus disqualifying this marker from being an adequate barcoding region in this genus. Conversely, the analyses of population structuring revealed high population connectivity across Europe, therefore indicating strong tolerance ofS. scriptato environmental heterogeneity. The results imply a multilocus approach as the next step in molecular identification of differentSphaerophoriaspecies, while confirming the status ofS. scriptaas a powerful biocontrol agent of economically relevant aphid pests

Skull diversity and evolution in miniaturized amphibians, genus Brachycephalus (Anura: Brachycephalidae)

Miniaturized amphibians of the genus Brachycephalus are phenotypically diverse. The species of Brachycephalus have bufoniform or leptodactyliform baupläne and any of three skeletal states: nonhyperossified, hyperossified without dorsal shield, and hyperossified with dorsal shield. We integrate high-resolution microcomputed tomography, geometric morphometrics, and an estimate of molecular phylogenetic relationships to investigate skull diversity in shape and size-shape space in selected species of Brachycephalus. Skull diversity amongst species of Brachycephalus can be partitioned into shape and size-shape space according to the four conditions of skeletal states-baupläne, namely, nonhyperossified leptodactyliform, nonhyperossified bufoniform, hyperossified bufoniform without dorsal shield, and hyperossified bufoniform with dorsal shield. Skull diversity in shape and size-shape space in nonhyperossified leptodactyliform species of Brachycephalus is markedly larger, when compared to skull diversity in species of the three other conditions of skeletal states-baupläne. Variation in skull shape scales with size across Brachycephalus and, therefore, can be explained by allometry. Skull diversity, baupläne, and skeletal states covary to a large extent with monophyletic lineages of Brachycephalus, as revealed by a mitochondrial DNA species tree. Nonhyperossified bufoniform species and hyperossified bufoniform species with or without dorsal shield are monophyletic lineages, as inferred from a mitochondrial DNA species tree. Nonhyperossified leptodactyliform species of Brachycephalus do not share, however, a most recent common ancestor. The nonhyperossified leptodactyliform species of Brachycephalus, due to their marked skull diversity and lack of monophyly, emerge as evolutionarily complex. Therefore, further sampling of the nonhyperossified leptodactyliform condition of skeletal states-baupläne will be necessary to further understand the evolutionary history of Brachycephalus.Fil: dos Reis, Sérgio F.. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Biología; BrasilFil: Clemente Carvalho, Rute B.G.. Queens University; CanadáFil: dos Santos, Caio M. S. F. F.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Lopes, Ricardo T.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Von Zuben, Fernando J.. Universidade Estadual de Campinas; BrasilFil: Laborda, Prianda R.. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Biología; BrasilFil: Perez, Sergio Ivan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Departamento Científico de Antropología; Argentin