Effects of cue focality on the neural mechanisms of prospective memory: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

Remembering to execute pre-defined intentions at the appropriate time in the future is typically referred to as Prospective Memory (PM). Studies of PM showed that distinct cognitive processes underlie the execution of delayed intentions depending on whether the cue associated with such intentions is focal to ongoing activity processing or not (i.e., cue focality). The present activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis revealed several differences in brain activity as a function of focality of the PM cue. The retrieval of intention is supported mainly by left anterior prefrontal cortex (Brodmann Area, BA 10) in nonfocal tasks, and by cerebellum and ventral parietal regions in focal tasks. Furthermore, the precuneus showed increased activation during the maintenance phase of intentions compared to the retrieval phase in nonfocal tasks, whereas the inferior parietal lobule showed increased activation during the retrieval of intention compared to maintenance phase in the focal tasks. Finally, the retrieval of intention relies more on the activity in anterior cingulate cortex for nonfocal tasks, and on posterior cingulate cortex for focal tasks. Such focality-related pattern of activations suggests that prospective remembering is mediated mainly by top-down and stimulus-independent processes in nonfocal tasks, whereas by more automatic, bottom-up, processes in focal tasks

genetic parameters of two methods of scoring cow fighting ability

In this study, two different methods of scoring were implemented and compared in reason to assign a correct phenotypic value to cow fighting ability, and the variance components of the trait were estimated. Moreover, it was investigated the correlation of the estimated breeding values (EBVs) for fighting with the EBVs for the linear type traits muscularity. A scoring method mainly based on position (PS) and a method considering opponents' performances (CPS) were compared and used in genetic analyses. A correlation of 0.75 between EBVs associated to PS and CPS was obtained, and ANOVAs considering alternatively PS and CPS indicated almost the same magnitude of the different sources of variation included (R2=0.50 and 0.52 for PS and CPS, respectively). Heritability estimates with the REML method were 0.099 (S.E.=0.005) for PS and 0.034 (S.E.=0.007) for CPS. Pearson and Spearman correlations between both indexes and ranks were no significant. Finally, an evaluation of the fitness of the two models revealed that PS is the better system for scoring, although CPS was designed to account also for the opponents

Learning with the Amerindians: the evaluation of pelvic floor disorders among indigenous women who live in the Xingu Indian Park,Brazil

Objective: to evaluate the pelvic floor muscles and the incidence of pelvic organ prolapse among indigenous women who live in Xingu Indian Park, Mato Grosso, Brazil. 
Methods: observational study with 377 indigenous women, mean age 31+/-15 years, mean gravity 5+/-4, mean parity 4+/-3 and mean body mass index 23,3+/-4 Kg/m2. The Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q) was the system used to quantification the staging of pelvic support and the pelvic floor muscle strength was assessed by a perineometer. Logistic regression was used to determine odds ratios and 95% CI for factors that were associated with prolapse. 
Results: The overall distribution of POP-Q stage system was the following: 15,6% stage 0, 19,4% stage I, 63,9% stage II and 0,8% stage III. Parity (OR=9.40, 95% CI 2.81-31,42) and age (OR=1,03, 95% IC 1,01-1,05) were the most important risk factors for pelvic organ prolapse. The high resting pressure was considered as a protecting factor (OR=0,96, 95% IC 0,94-0,98). 
Conclusions: Like non indigenous community, age and the parity were the most important risk factors to the genital prolapse; however the pelvic floor muscles strength were intact, maybe due to the indigenous lifestyle

Genetic correlations of fighting ability with somatic cells and longevity in cattle.

The success in competitions may be stressful for animals and costly in terms of immune functions and longevity. Focusing on Aosta Chestnut and Aosta Black Pied cattle, selected for their fighting ability in traditional competitions, this study investigated the genetic relationships of fighting ability with udder health traits (somatic cell score and two threshold traits for somatic cells), longevity (length of productive life and number of calvings) and test-day milk, fat and protein yield. Herdbook information and phenotypic records that have been routinely collected for breeding programs in 16 years were used for the abovementioned traits. Data belonged to 9328 cows and 19 283 animals in pedigree. Single-trait animal model analyses were run using a Gibbs sampling algorithm to estimate the variance components of traits, and bivariate analyses were then performed to estimate the genetic correlations. Moderate positive genetic correlations (ra) were found for fighting ability with somatic cell score (ra=0.255), suggesting that greater fighting ability is genetically related to a detriment in udder health, in agreement with the theory. The high positive genetic correlation between fighting ability and longevity (average ra=0.669) suggests that the economic importance of fighting ability (the winning cows get an higher price at selling) had probably masked the true genetic covariances. The genetic correlation between milk yield traits and fighting ability showed large intervals, but the negative values (average ra=-0.121) agreed with previous research. This study is one of the few empirical studies on genetic correlations for the competitive success v. immune functions and longevity traits. The knowledge of the genetic correlations among productive and functional traits of interest, including fighting ability, is important in animal breeding for a sustainable genetic improvement

The guilty brain: the utility of neuroimaging and neurostimulation studies in forensic field

Several studies have aimed to address the natural inability of humankind to detect deception and accurately discriminate lying from truth in the legal context. To date, it has been well established that telling a lie is a complex mental activity. During deception, many functions of higher cognition are involved: the decision to lie, withholding the truth, fabricating the lie, monitoring whether the receiver believes the lie, and, if necessary, adjusting the fabricated story and maintaining a consistent lie. In the previous 15 years, increasing interest in the neuroscience of deception has resulted in new possibilities to investigate and interfere with the ability to lie directly from the brain. Cognitive psychology, as well as neuroimaging and neurostimulation studies, are increasing the possibility that neuroscience will be useful for lie detection. This paper discusses the scientific validity of the literature on neuroimaging and neurostimulation regarding lie detection to understand whether scientific findings in this field have a role in the forensic setting. We considered how lie detection technology may contribute to addressing the detection of deception in the courtroom and discussed the conditions and limits in which these techniques reliably distinguish whether an individual is lying

Genetic correlations between type and test-day milk yield in small dual purpose cattle populations: the Aosta Red Pied breed as a case study.

This study aimed at estimating the relationships between linear type traits and milk production in the dual purpose Aosta Red Pied (ARP) cattle breed, by expressing type traits as factor scores with the same biological meaning of the individual traits. Factor analysis was applied to individual type traits for muscularity and udder of 32,275 first parity ARP cows, obtaining 3 factors scores for individual muscularity (F1), udder side (F2) and udder conformation (F3). Data from 169,008 test-day records of milk, fat and protein yield (kg), belonging to the first 3 lactations of 16,605 cows were also analyzed. After obtaining genetic parameters for both morphological factors and milk production traits through a series of AIREML single-trait models, bivariate analyses were performed on a dataset accounting for 201,283 records of 35,530 cows, to assess the phenotypic and genetic correlations among all factor scores and milk yield traits. The heritability estimates obtained proved to be moderate for both groups of traits, ranging from 0.132 (fat) to 0.314 (F1). Muscularity factor showed moderate and negative genetic correlations (ra) with udder size (-0.376) and udder conformation (0.214) factors. A low and negative ra was found between udder factors. Strong and positive ra were found among all the 3 milk production traits and F2 (ra ≥ 0.597). Negative ra with milk traits were obtained for both F1 and F3, ranging from -0.417 to -0.221. Phenotypic correlations resulted lower than the genetic ones, and sometimes close to zero. The antagonism between milk production and meat attitude traits suggests that great attention should be paid in assigning proper weight to the traits, comprising functional traits such as udder conformation, included in selection indices for the dual purpose breed. The ra obtained for factor scores are consistent with previous estimates for the corresponding individual type traits, and this confirms the possible use of factor analysis to improve type traits relevant to beef attitude

What is missing in the study of emotion expression?

While approaching celebrations for the 150 years of “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals”, scientists’ conclusions on emotion expression are still debated. Emotion expression has been traditionally anchored to prototypical and mutually exclusive facial expressions (e.g., anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise). However, people express emotions in nuanced patterns and – crucially – not everything is in the face. In recent decades considerable work has critiqued this classical view, calling for a more fluid and flexible approach that considers how humans dynamically perform genuine expressions with their bodies in context. A growing body of evidence suggests that each emotional display is a complex, multi-component, motoric event. The human face is never static, but continuously acts and reacts to internal and environmental stimuli, with the coordinated action of muscles throughout the body. Moreover, two anatomically and functionally different neural pathways sub-serve voluntary and involuntary expressions. An interesting implication is that we have distinct and independent pathways for genuine and posed facial expressions, and different combinations may occur across the vertical facial axis. Investigating the time course of these facial blends, which can be controlled consciously only in part, is recently providing a useful operational test for comparing the different predictions of various models on the lateralization of emotions. This concise review will identify shortcomings and new challenges regarding the study of emotion expressions at face, body, and contextual levels, eventually resulting in a theoretical and methodological shift in the study of emotions. We contend that the most feasible solution to address the complex world of emotion expression is defining a completely new and more complete approach to emotional investigation. This approach can potentially lead us to the roots of emotional display, and to the individual mechanisms underlying their expression (i.e., individual emotional signatures)

PREGNANT WOMEN GROUPS: KNOWLEGES, CHANGES AND LINKS OF SPAPE AMONG THE PARTICIPANTS

During pregnancy there are several changes and consequent adaptations that might produce anxietyand fear. A form of confronting might be the participation in pregnant women groups. This study wants to know theperception of the participants in pregnant women groups and its repercussion in the womens lives after themeetings. It is a study with qualitative, descriptive and exploratory approach, of the case study kind. The data weregathered through non-structured interviews. For the analysis the proposition of Bardin was taken into consideration.Two out of four emergent themes two are presented in this article: the group as a space of knowledge, changesand links; and, the group and the repercussions in the participants lives. The pregnant women groups can betherapeutic for their participants and they pertinent while integral form to assistance people