Combined visual and motor disorganization in patients with schizophrenia

Cognitive impairments are difficult to relate to clinical symptoms in schizophrenia, partly due to insufficient knowledge on how cognitive impairments interact with one another. Here, we devised a new sequential pointing task requiring both visual organization and motor sequencing. Six circles were presented simultaneously on a touch screen around a fixation point. Participants pointed with the finger each circle one after the other, in synchrony with auditory tones. We used an alternating rhythmic 300/600 ms pattern so that participants performed pairs of taps separated by short intervals of 300 ms. Visual organization was manipulated by using line-segments that grouped the circles two by two, yielding three pairs of connected circles, and three pairs of unconnected circles that belonged to different pairs. This led to three experimental conditions. In the “congruent condition,” the pairs of taps had to be executed on circles grouped by connecters. In the “non congruent condition,” they were to be executed on the unconnected circles that belonged to different pairs. In a neutral condition, there were no connecters. Twenty two patients with schizophrenia with mild symptoms and 22 control participants performed a series of 30 taps in each condition. Tap pairs were counted as errors when the produced rhythm was inverted (expected rhythm 600/300 = 2; inversed rhythm <1). Error rates in patients with a high level of clinical disorganization were significantly higher in the non-congruent condition than in the two other conditions, contrary to controls and the remaining patients. The tap-tone asynchrony increased in the presence of connecters in both patient groups, but not in the controls. Patients appeared not to integrate the visual organization during the planning phase of action, leading to a large difficulty during motor execution, especially in those patients revealing difficulties in visual organization. Visual motor tapping tasks may help detect those subgroups of patients

Disruption of information processing in schizophrenia: The time perspective

AbstractWe review studies suggesting time disorders on both automatic and subjective levels in patients with schizophrenia. Patients have difficulty explicitly discriminating between simultaneous and asynchronous events, and ordering events in time. We discuss the relationship between these difficulties and impairments on a more elementary level. We showed that for undetectable stimulus onset asynchronies below 20ms, neither patients nor controls merge events in time, as previously believed. On the contrary, subjects implicitly distinguish between events even when evaluating them to be simultaneous. Furthermore, controls privilege the last stimulus, whereas patients seem to stay stuck on the first stimulus when asynchronies are sub-threshold. Combining previous results shows this to be true for patients even for asynchronies as short as 8ms. Moreover, this peculiarity predicts difficulties with detecting asynchronies longer than 50ms, suggesting an impact on the conscious ability to time events. Difficulties on the subjective level are also correlated with clinical disorganization. The results are interpreted within the framework of predictive coding which can account for an implicit ability to update events. These results complement a range of other results, by suggesting a difficulty with binding information in time as well as space, and by showing that information processing lacks continuity and stability in patients. The time perspective may help bridge the gap between cognitive impairments and clinical symptoms, by showing how the innermost structure of thought and experience is disrupted

Comunicación entre el personal sanitario y el paciente afásico

Comunicación oral presentada en la Segunda Conferencia Internacional de Comunicación en Salud, celebrada el 23 de octubre de 2015 en la Universidad Carlos III de MadridIntroducción: la afasia es la pérdida de capacidad de expresión debida a una lesión temporal o crónica de los centros temporales. Se calcula que en España hay unos 300.000 casos. Las limitaciones varían dependiendo del área dañada, viéndose afectada su capacidad para hablar, leer, escribir o comprender. Objetivos: Conocer los principales errores que comete el personal sanitario al comunicarse con el paciente afásico. Mostrar alternativas de comunicación entre paciente y personal sanitario. Fomentar la comunicación interprofesional. Metodología: se realiza una búsqueda bibliográfica en las bases de datos Dialnet, Lilacs, Medline y Cuiden Plus con las palabras “comunicación” “paciente” “afasia” para artículos a texto completo publicados en los últimos diez años. Resultados: la búsqueda ofreció resultados, que después proceso de selección se redujeron a cuatro artículos. Resultados: la bibliografía sobre la temática del estudio es escasa, la mayoría de los estudios se centran en el ámbito logopédico. Los profesionales que a diario se relacionan conel paciente afásico, carecen de formación en habilidades comunicativas, consecuencia de esro es que nos enfrentamos a una comunicación personal-paciente ineficaz reflejada en frustración en ambos. Se evidencia la necesidad de futuras líneas de investigación sobre este tema, con el fin, de mejorar la calidad de vida del enfermo afásico; así como fomentar el dialogo entre logopedas y el resto de profesionales sanitarios

Further investigation of confirmed urinary tract infection (UTI) in children under five years: a systematic review.

Background: Further investigation of confirmed UTI in children aims to prevent renal scarring and future complications. Methods: We conducted a systematic review to determine the most effective approach to the further investigation of confirmed urinary tract infection (UTI) in children under five years of age. Results: 73 studies were included. Many studies had methodological limitations or were poorly reported. Effectiveness of further investigations: One study found that routine imaging did not lead to a reduction in recurrent UTIs or renal scarring. Diagnostic accuracy: The studies do not support the use of less invasive tests such as ultrasound as an alternative to renal scintigraphy, either to rule out infection of the upper urinary tract (LR- = 0.57, 95%CI: 0.47, 0.68) and thus to exclude patients from further investigation or to detect renal scarring (LR+ = 3.5, 95% CI: 2.5, 4.8). None of the tests investigated can accurately predict the development of renal scarring. The available evidence supports the consideration of contrast-enhanced ultrasound techniques for detecting vesico-ureteric reflux (VUR), as an alternative to micturating cystourethrography (MCUG) (LR+ = 14.1, 95% CI: 9.5, 20.8; LR- = 0.20, 95%CI: 0.13, 0.29); these techniques have the advantage of not requiring exposure to ionising radiation. Conclusion: There is no evidence to support the clinical effectiveness of routine investigation of children with confirmed UTI. Primary research on the effectiveness, in terms of improved patient outcome, of testing at all stages in the investigation of confirmed urinary tract infection is urgently required

On the Diversity of Phyllodocida (Annelida: Errantia), with a Focus on Glyceridae, Goniadidae, Nephtyidae, Polynoidae, Sphaerodoridae, Syllidae, and the Holoplanktonic Families

Este artículo contiene 65 páginas, 26 figuras, 1 tabla.Phyllodocida is a clade of errantiate annelids characterized by having ventral sensory palps, anterior enlarged cirri, axial muscular proboscis, compound chaetae (if present) with a single ligament, and of lacking dorsolateral folds. Members of most families date back to the Carboniferous, although the earliest fossil was dated from the Devonian. Phyllodocida holds 27 well-established and morphologically homogenous clades ranked as families, gathering more than 4600 currently accepted nominal species. Among them, Syllidae and Polynoidae are the most specious polychaete groups. Species of Phyllodocida are mainly found in the marine benthos, although a few inhabit freshwater, terrestrial and planktonic environments, and occur from intertidal to deep waters in all oceans. In this review, we (1) explore the current knowledge on species diversity trends (based on traditional species concept and molecular data), phylogeny, ecology, and geographic distribution for the whole group, (2) try to identify the main knowledge gaps, and (3) focus on selected families: Alciopidae, Goniadidae, Glyceridae, Iospilidae, Lopadorrhynchidae, Polynoidae, Pontodoridae, Nephtyidae, Sphaerodoridae, Syllidae, Tomopteridae, Typhloscolecidae, and Yndolaciidae. The highest species richness is concentrated in European, North American, and Australian continental shelves (reflecting a strong sampling bias). While most data come from shallow coastal and surface environments most world oceans are clearly under-studied. The overall trends indicate that new descriptions are constantly added through time and that less than 10% of the known species have molecular barcode information availableWe acknowledge support of the publication fees by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI) and the Open Access Publication Funds of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. This research was funded by the Spanish “Agencia Estatal de Investigación” (AEI) and the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER), Research Project PopCOmics (CTM2017-88080) to DM; the Russian Scientific Foundation for Basic Research, grant no. RFBR 18-05-00459 to TAB; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), contract foreseen in the Decree-Law 57/2016 (Nrs 4-6, art. 23), changed by Law 57/2017 to AR and FCT/MCTES to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020) through national funds; São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), fellowship proc. 2007/53040-9 to MVF; Spanish MINECO, AEI, Comunidad Autónoma de las Islas Baleares, European Social Funds and Ramón y Cajal program, RYC-2016-20799 to MC; FCT and ESF (SFRH/BD/131527/2017) through a PhD grant to MALT.Peer reviewe

Moving Just Like You: Motor Interference Depends on Similar Motility of Agent and Observer

Recent findings in neuroscience suggest an overlap between brain regions involved in the execution of movement and perception of another’s movement. This so-called “action-perception coupling” is supposed to serve our ability to automatically infer the goals and intentions of others by internal simulation of their actions. A consequence of this coupling is motor interference (MI), the effect of movement observation on the trajectory of one’s own movement. Previous studies emphasized that various features of the observed agent determine the degree of MI, but could not clarify how human-like an agent has to be for its movements to elicit MI and, more importantly, what ‘human-like’ means in the context of MI. Thus, we investigated in several experiments how different aspects of appearance and motility of the observed agent influence motor interference (MI). Participants performed arm movements in horizontal and vertical directions while observing videos of a human, a humanoid robot, or an industrial robot arm with either artificial (industrial) or human-like joint configurations. Our results show that, given a human-like joint configuration, MI was elicited by observing arm movements of both humanoid and industrial robots. However, if the joint configuration of the robot did not resemble that of the human arm, MI could longer be demonstrated. Our findings present evidence for the importance of human-like joint configuration rather than other human-like features for perception-action coupling when observing inanimate agents

Activation of LXR nuclear receptors impairs the anti-inflammatory gene and functional profile of M-CSF-dependent human monocyte-derived macrophages

13 p.-7 fig.Liver X Receptors (LXR) control cholesterol metabolism and exert anti-inflammatory actions but their contribution to human macrophage polarization remains unclear. The LXR pathway is enriched in pro-inflammatory macrophages from rheumatoid arthritis as well as in tumors-associated macrophages from human tumors. We now report that LXR activation inhibits the anti-inflammatory gene and functional profile of M-CSF-dependent human macrophages, and prompts the acquisition of a pro-inflammatory gene signature, with both effects being blocked by an LXR inverse agonist. Mechanistically, the LXR-stimulated macrophage polarization shift correlates with diminished expression of MAFB and MAF, which govern the macrophage anti-inflammatory profile, and with enhanced release of activin A. Indeed, LXR activation impaired macrophage polarization in response to tumor-derived ascitic fluids, as well as the expression of MAF- and MAFB-dependent genes. Our results demonstrate that LXR activation limits the anti-inflammatory human macrophage polarization and prompts the acquisition of an inflammatory transcriptional and functional profile.This work was supported by grants from Ministerio de Ciencia, Investigación y Universidades (SAF2017-83785-R to MV and ALC), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades y Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (SAF2017-90604-REDT and PID2019-104284RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to AC), Fundación La Marató/TV3 (Grant 201619.31 to ALC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Grant PI20/00316 to AP-K), and Red de Investigación en Enfermedades Reumáticas (RIER, RD16/0012/0007) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III and cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund “A way to achieve Europe” (ERDF) to AP-K and ALC. This work was also supported in part by a grant from the Dutch Society for Clinical Chemistry (NVKC) to IM and R. de Jonge. AGA was funded by FPU predoctoral fellowship (FPU16/02756) from Ministerio de Universidades.Peer reviewe

Spatiotemporal processing of somatosensory stimuli in schizotypy

Unusual interaction behaviors and perceptual aberrations, like those occurring in schizotypy and schizophrenia, may in part originate from impaired remapping of environmental stimuli in the body space. Such remapping is contributed by the integration of tactile and proprioceptive information about current body posture with other exteroceptive spatial information. Surprisingly, no study has investigated whether alterations in such remapping occur in psychosis-prone individuals. Four hundred eleven students were screened with respect to schizotypal traits using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. A subgroup of them, classified as low, moderate, and high schizotypes were to perform a temporal order judgment task of tactile stimuli delivered on their hands, with both uncrossed and crossed arms. Results revealed marked differences in touch remapping in the high schizotypes as compared to low and moderate schizotypes. For the first time here we reveal that the remapping of environmental stimuli in the body space, an essential function to demarcate the boundaries between self and external world, is altered in schizotypy. Results are discussed in relation to recent models of 'self-disorders' as due to perceptual incoherence

Who will care for the women?

Over 20 million people today, including children, working-age disabled, and elderly persons, require some sort of assistance to live safely. Largely because women live longer than men, well into the ages when the probability of needing care increases, 70 percent of elderly people who need long-term care are women. Furthermore, most long-term care is provided by women, mainly as unpaid care in the home, or as low-paid care in institutions and community settings (Stone & Weiner 2001). The United States faces a severe long-term care crisis because of the nation\u27s inability to plan for the changing demographic balance. The crisis in long term care has two problems: a) that we are putting too many resources into institutional care relative to home- and community-based care and relying too heavily on unpaid care in the home to meet the real needs of the aging population, and b) that we do not, and increasingly will not, have enough people to provide for the volume of care that will be needed in the coming decades. This chapter begins with a description of the long-term care system in the United States – what long-term care is, who needs it, in what settings it is provided, and who pays for it. Using the author\u27s analysis of a national survey of caregivers conducted by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP in 2003 along with other sources, this section shows that a substantial portion of the people who need long-term care rely on unpaid care from family and friends, mainly women. When people do receive paid care, almost half – mostly women -- receive it in institutional settings. The discussion demonstrates that women are far more likely to end up in institutions than men, even controlling for age and level of impairment. It then argues that, for a number of reasons, states and the federal government will have to respond to the preferences of consumers for home- and community-based care

Autoantibodies against type I IFNs in patients with life-threatening COVID-19

Interindividual clinical variability in the course of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is vast. We report that at least 101 of 987 patients with life-threatening coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia had neutralizing immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies (auto-Abs) against interferon-w (IFN-w) (13 patients), against the 13 types of IFN-a (36), or against both (52) at the onset of critical disease; a few also had auto-Abs against the other three type I IFNs. The auto-Abs neutralize the ability of the corresponding type I IFNs to block SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro. These auto-Abs were not found in 663 individuals with asymptomatic or mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and were present in only 4 of 1227 healthy individuals. Patients with auto-Abs were aged 25 to 87 years and 95 of the 101 were men. A B cell autoimmune phenocopy of inborn errors of type I IFN immunity accounts for life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia in at least 2.6% of women and 12.5% of men