Mode of Effective Connectivity within a Putative Neural Network Differentiates Moral Cognitions Related to Care and Justice Ethics

BACKGROUND: Moral sensitivity refers to the interpretive awareness of moral conflict and can be justice or care oriented. Justice ethics is associated primarily with human rights and the application of moral rules, whereas care ethics is related to human needs and a situational approach involving social emotions. Among the core brain regions involved in moral issue processing are: medial prefrontal cortex, anterior (ACC) and posterior (PCC) cingulate cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), insula and amygdala. This study sought to inform the long standing debate of whether care and justice moral ethics represent one or two different forms of cognition. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Model-free and model-based connectivity analysis were used to identify functional neural networks underlying care and justice ethics for a moral sensitivity task. In addition to modest differences in patterns of associated neural activity, distinct modes of functional and effective connectivity were observed for moral sensitivity for care and justice issues that were modulated by individual variation in moral ability. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results support a neurobiological differentiation between care and justice ethics and suggest that human moral behavior reflects the outcome of integrating opposing rule-based, self-other perspectives, and emotional responses

Prognostic performance of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and platelet/lymphocyte ratio for mortality in patients with acute stroke

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic performance of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) for mortality in patients with acute stroke treated at a Peruvian hospital. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Tertiary care hospital. Patients: Patients aged ≥18 years with a diagnosis of acute stroke and admitted to the hospital from May 2019 to June 2021. Interventions: None. Main variables of interests: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and mortality. Results: A total of 165 patients were included. The mean age was 66.1 ± 14.2 years, and 59.4% were male. Only NLR had a performance superior to 0.7 (AUC: 0.75; 95%CI: 0.65–0.85), and its elevated levels were associated with an increased risk of mortality (aRR: 3.66; 95%CI: 1.77–8.85) after adjusting for confounders. Conclusion: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio has an acceptable prognostic performance for mortality in patients with acute stroke. Its use may be considered to stratify patients’ risk and to consider timely alternative care and management.Revisión por pare

Striatal dopamine receptor plasticity in neurotensin deficient mice

Schizophrenia is thought to be caused, at least in part, by dysfunction in striatal dopamine neurotransmission. Both clinical studies and animal research have implicated the dopamine neuromodulator neurotensin (NT) in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Utilizing male mice lacking the NT gene (NT(−/−)), these studies examined the consequences of NT deficiency on dopaminergic tone and function, investigating (1) dopamine concentrations and dopamine receptor and transporter expression and binding in dopaminergic terminal regions, and (2) the behavioral effects of selective dopamine receptor agonists on locomotion and sensorimotor gating in adult NT(−/−) mice compared to wildtype (NT(+/+)) mice. NT(−/−) mice did not differ from NT(+/+) mice in concentrations of dopamine or its metabolite DOPAC in any brain region examined. However, NT(−/−) mice showed significantly increased D1 receptor, D2 receptor, and dopamine transporter (DAT) mRNA in the caudate putamen compared to NT(+/+) controls. NT(−/−) mice also showed elevated D2 receptor binding densities in both the caudate putamen and nucleus accumbens shell compared to NT(+/+) mice. In addition, some of the behavioral effects of the D1-type receptor agonist SKF-82958 and the D2-type receptor agonist quinpirole on locomotion, startle amplitude, and prepulse inhibition were dose-dependently altered in NT(−/−) mice, showing altered D1-type and D2-type receptor sensitivity to stimulation by agonists in the absence of NT. The results indicate that NT deficiency alters striatal dopamine receptor expression, binding, and function. This suggests a critical role for the NT system in the maintenance of striatal DA system homeostasis and implicates NT deficiency in the etiology of dopamine-associated disorders such as schizophrenia