Neural correlates of enhanced visual short-term memory for angry faces: An fMRI study

Copyright: © 2008 Jackson et al.Background: Fluid and effective social communication requires that both face identity and emotional expression information are encoded and maintained in visual short-term memory (VSTM) to enable a coherent, ongoing picture of the world and its players. This appears to be of particular evolutionary importance when confronted with potentially threatening displays of emotion - previous research has shown better VSTM for angry versus happy or neutral face identities.Methodology/Principal Findings: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, here we investigated the neural correlates of this angry face benefit in VSTM. Participants were shown between one and four to-be-remembered angry, happy, or neutral faces, and after a short retention delay they stated whether a single probe face had been present or not in the previous display. All faces in any one display expressed the same emotion, and the task required memory for face identity. We find enhanced VSTM for angry face identities and describe the right hemisphere brain network underpinning this effect, which involves the globus pallidus, superior temporal sulcus, and frontal lobe. Increased activity in the globus pallidus was significantly correlated with the angry benefit in VSTM. Areas modulated by emotion were distinct from those modulated by memory load.Conclusions/Significance: Our results provide evidence for a key role of the basal ganglia as an interface between emotion and cognition, supported by a frontal, temporal, and occipital network.The authors were supported by a Wellcome Trust grant (grant number 077185/Z/05/Z) and by BBSRC (UK) grant BBS/B/16178

Patient Priorities in Autoimmune Hepatitis: The Need for Better Treatments, More Education and Challenging Stigma

BACKGROUND: Data show that patients with autoimmune hepatitis have significantly reduced quality-of-life and that corticosteroids carry marked side effects. AIMS: This study explored patients’ experiences of autoimmune hepatitis and its treatments; key aspects for developing safe and effective new approaches to therapy. METHODS: An anonymised, internet-based survey collected data including patient demographics, treatments, side-effects, impact on day-to-day life, sources of support and attitudes towards autoimmune hepatitis between December 2019–January 2020. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 patients to further explore their support networks, treatment experiences and health priorities. Descriptive and quantitative analyses were undertaken using R and free text responses were subject to thematic analysis. RESULTS: In total, 270 survey responses were received (median age 55 years and 94% female). Perceived medication side-effects were reported by 66% (169/257) and 73% responded negatively about their experience of corticosteroids. The majority (62·3% [(109/175]) would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ consider clinical trial participation to improve their care. Only 18·7% (31/166) reported access to a specialist liver nurse and nearly half were involved in support groups. Interview and survey data suggested that major issues were stigma, loss of control and fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insights into the realities of living with autoimmune hepatitis with clear issues around lack of support networks, need for patient empowerment and stigma surrounding liver disease. Patient priorities are better therapies to slow disease progression, avoiding corticosteroids and minimising side-effects. Patient willingness to participate in trials suggests that they are achievable provided they have the right design and clinical endpoints

Human Computer Interaction Meets Psychophysiology: A Critical Perspective

Human computer interaction (HCI) groups are more and more often exploring the utility of new, lower cost electroencephalography (EEG) interfaces for assessing user engagement and experience as well as for directly controlling computers. While the potential benefits of using EEG are considerable, we argue that research is easily driven by what we term naïve neurorealism. That is, data obtained with psychophysiological devices have poor reliability and uncertain validity, making inferences on mental states difficult. This means that unless sufficient care is taken to address the inherent shortcomings, the contributions of psychophysiological human computer interaction are limited to their novelty value rather than bringing scientific advance. Here, we outline the nature and severity of the reliability and validity problems and give practical suggestions for HCI researchers and reviewers on the way forward, and which obstacles to avoid. We hope that this critical perspective helps to promote good practice in the emerging field of psychophysiology in HCI

A comparative study on long-term evoked auditory and visual potential responses between Schizophrenic patients and normal subjects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The electrical signals measuring method is recommended to examine the relationship between neuronal activities and measure with the event related potentials (ERPs) during an auditory and a visual oddball paradigm between schizophrenic patients and normal subjects. The aim of this study is to discriminate the activation changes of different stimulations evoked by auditory and visual ERPs between schizophrenic patients and normal subjects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty-three schizophrenic patients were selected as experimental group patients, and 40 healthy subjects with no medical history of any kind of psychiatric diseases, neurological diseases, or drug abuse, were recruited as a control group. Auditory and visual ERPs were studied with an oddball paradigm. All the data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software version 10.0.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the comparative study of auditory and visual ERPs between the schizophrenic and healthy patients, P300 amplitude at Fz, Cz, and Pz and N100, N200, and P200 latencies at Fz, Cz, and Pz were shown significantly different. The cognitive processing reflected by the auditory and the visual P300 latency to rare target stimuli was probably an indicator of the cognitive function in schizophrenic patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study shows the methodology of application of auditory and visual oddball paradigm identifies task-relevant sources of activity and allows separation of regions that have different response properties. Our study indicates that there may be slowness of automatic cognitive processing and controlled cognitive processing of visual ERPs compared to auditory ERPs in schizophrenic patients. The activation changes of visual evoked potentials are more regionally specific than auditory evoked potentials.</p

How do role conflict intensity and coping strategies affect the success of women entrepreneurs in Africa? Evidence from Ethiopia

Abstract: Please refer to full text to view abstrac

Representation of target-bound drugs by computed conformers: implications for conformational libraries

BACKGROUND: The increasing number of known protein structures provides valuable information about pharmaceutical targets. Drug binding sites are identifiable and suitable lead compounds can be proposed. The flexibility of ligands is a critical point for the selection of potential drugs. Since computed 3D structures of millions of compounds are available, the knowledge of their binding conformations would be a great benefit for the development of efficient screening methods. RESULTS: Integration of two public databases allowed superposition of conformers for 193 approved drugs with 5507 crystallised target-bound counterparts. The generation of 9600 drug conformers using an atomic force field was carried out to obtain an optimal coverage of the conformational space. Bioactive conformations are best described by a conformational ensemble: half of all drugs exhibit multiple active states, distributed over the entire range of the reachable energy and conformational space. A number of up to 100 conformers per drug enabled us to reproduce the bound states within a similarity threshold of 1.0 Å in 70% of all cases. This fraction rises to about 90% for smaller or average sized drugs. CONCLUSION: Single drugs adopt multiple bioactive conformations if they interact with different target proteins. Due to the structural diversity of binding sites they adopt conformations that are distributed over a broad conformational space and wide energy range. Since the majority of drugs is well represented by a predefined low number of conformers (up to 100) this procedure is a valuable method to compare compounds by three-dimensional features or for fast similarity searches starting with pharmacophores. The underlying 9600 generated drug conformers are downloadable from the Super Drug Web site [1]. All superpositions are visualised at the same source. Additional conformers (110,000) of 2400 classified WHO-drugs are also available

Stress-Induced Reinstatement of Drug Seeking: 20 Years of Progress

In human addicts, drug relapse and craving are often provoked by stress. Since 1995, this clinical scenario has been studied using a rat model of stress-induced reinstatement of drug seeking. Here, we first discuss the generality of stress-induced reinstatement to different drugs of abuse, different stressors, and different behavioral procedures. We also discuss neuropharmacological mechanisms, and brain areas and circuits controlling stress-induced reinstatement of drug seeking. We conclude by discussing results from translational human laboratory studies and clinical trials that were inspired by results from rat studies on stress-induced reinstatement. Our main conclusions are (1) The phenomenon of stress-induced reinstatement, first shown with an intermittent footshock stressor in rats trained to self-administer heroin, generalizes to other abused drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine, nicotine, and alcohol, and is also observed in the conditioned place preference model in rats and mice. This phenomenon, however, is stressor specific and not all stressors induce reinstatement of drug seeking. (2) Neuropharmacological studies indicate the involvement of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), noradrenaline, dopamine, glutamate, kappa/dynorphin, and several other peptide and neurotransmitter systems in stress-induced reinstatement. Neuropharmacology and circuitry studies indicate the involvement of CRF and noradrenaline transmission in bed nucleus of stria terminalis and central amygdala, and dopamine, CRF, kappa/dynorphin, and glutamate transmission in other components of the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system (ventral tegmental area, medial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and nucleus accumbens). (3) Translational human laboratory studies and a recent clinical trial study show the efficacy of alpha-2 adrenoceptor agonists in decreasing stress-induced drug craving and stress-induced initial heroin lapse

Thermal Evolution of the Proton Irradiated Structure in Tungsten–5 wt% Tantalum

We have monitored the thermal evolution of the proton irradiated structure of W–5 wt% Ta alloy by in-situ annealing in a transmission electron microscope at fusion reactor temperatures of 500–1300 °C. The interstitial-type a/2 dislocation loops emit self-interstitial atoms and glide to the free sample surface during the early stages of annealing. The resultant vacancy excess in the matrix originates vacancy-type a/2 dislocation loops that grow by loop and vacancy absorption in the temperature range of 600–900 °C. Voids form at 1000 °C, by either vacancy absorption or loop collapse, and grow progressively up to 1300 °C. Tantalum delays void formation by a vacancy-solute trapping mechanism

Brain Activity in Fairness Consideration during Asset Distribution: Does the Initial Ownership Play a Role?

Previous behavioral studies have shown that initial ownership influences individuals’ fairness consideration and other-regarding behavior. However, it is not entirely clear whether initial ownership influences the brain activity when a recipient evaluates the fairness of asset distribution. In this study, we randomly assigned the bargaining property (monetary reward) to either the allocator or the recipient in the ultimatum game and let participants of the study, acting as recipients, receive either disadvantageous unequal, equal, or advantageous unequal offers from allocators while the event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Behavioral results showed that participants were more likely to reject disadvantageous unequal and equal offers when they initially owned the property as compared to when they did not. The two types of unequal offers evoked more negative going ERPs (the MFN) than the equal offers in an early time window and the differences were not modulated by the initial ownership. In a late time window, however, the P300 responses to division schemes were affected not only by the type of unequal offers but also by whom the property was initially assigned to. These findings suggest that while the MFN may function as a general mechanism that evaluates whether the offer is consistent or inconsistent with the equity rule, the P300 is sensitive to top-down controlled processes, into which factors related to the allocation of attentional resources, including initial ownership and personal interests, come to play