fMRI Evidence for the Role of Recollection in Suppressing Misattribution Errors: The Illusory Truth Effect

Misattribution refers to the act of attributing a memory or idea to an incorrect source, such as successfully remembering a bit of information but linking it to an inappropriate person or time [Jacoby, L. L., Kelley, C., Brown, J., & Jasechko, J. (1989). Becoming famous overnight: Limits on the ability to avoid unconscious influences of the past. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 326–338; Schacter, D. L. (1999). The seven sins of memory: Insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience. American Psychologist, 54, 182–203; Schacter, D. L. (2001). The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin]. Cognitive studies have suggested that misattribution errors may occur in the absence of recollection for the details of an initial encounter with a stimulus, but little is known about the neural basis of this memory phenomenon. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the hypothesized role of recollection in counteracting the illusory truth effect, a misattribution error whereby perceivers systematically overrate the truth of previously presented information. Imaging was conducted during the encoding and subsequent judgment of unfamiliar statements that were presented as true or false. Event-related fMRI analyses were conditionalized as a function of subsequent performance. Results demonstrated that encoding activation in regions previously associated with successful recollection—including the hippocampus and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC)—correlated with the successful avoidance of misattribution errors, providing initial neuroimaging support for earlier cognitive accounts of misattribution.Psycholog

Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries in National Football League Athletes From 2010 to 2013: A Descriptive Epidemiology Study.

BACKGROUND: There is a high incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries among National Football League (NFL) athletes; however, the incidence of reinjury in this population is unknown. PURPOSE: This retrospective epidemiological study analyzed all publicly disclosed ACL tears occurring in NFL players between 2010 and 2013 to characterize injury trends and determine the incidence of reinjury. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiological study. METHODS: A comprehensive online search identified any NFL player who had suffered an ACL injury from 2010 to 2013. Position, playing surface, activity, and date were recorded. Each player was researched for any history of previous ACL injury. The NFL games database from USA Today was used to determine the incidence of ACL injuries on artificial turf and grass fields. Databases from Pro Football Focus and Pro Football Reference were used to determine the injury rate for each position. RESULTS: NFL players suffered 219 ACL injuries between 2010 and 2013. Forty players (18.3%) had a history of previous ACL injury, with 27 (12.3%) retears and 16 (7.3%) tears contralateral to a previous ACL injury. Five players (2.28%) suffered their third ACL tear. Receivers (wide receivers and tight ends) and backs (linebackers, fullbacks, and halfbacks) had significantly greater injury risk than the rest of the NFL players, while perimeter linemen (defensive ends and offensive tackles) had significantly lower injury risk than the rest of the players. Interior linemen (offensive guards, centers, and defensive tackles) had significantly greater injury risk compared with perimeter linemen. ACL injury rates per team games played were 0.050 for grass and 0.053 for turf fields (P \u3e .05). CONCLUSION: In this retrospective epidemiological study of ACL tears in NFL players, retears and ACL tears contralateral to a previously torn ACL constituted a substantial portion (18.3%) of total ACL injuries. The significant majority of ACL injuries in players with a history of previous ACL injury were retears. Skilled offensive players and linebackers had the greatest injury risk, and significantly more ACL tears occurred among interior linemen than perimeter linemen. The month of August had the highest incidence of ACL injuries, probably because of expanded roster sizes at that point in the NFL season

Electrophysiological Dissociation of Picture Versus Word Encoding: The Distinctiveness Heuristic as a Retrieval Orientation

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the neural processes underlying the distinctiveness heuristic— a response mode in which participants expect to remember vivid details of an experience and make recognition decisions based on this metacognitive expectation. One group of participants studied pictures and auditory words; another group studied visual and auditory words. Studied and novel items were presented at test as words only, with all novel items repeating after varying lags. ERP differences were seen between the word and picture groups for both studied and novel items. For the novel items, ERP differences were largest in frontal and central midline electrodes. In separate analyses, the picture group showed the greatest ERP differences between item types in a parietally based component from 550 to 1000 msec, whereas the word group showed the greatest differences in a frontally based component from 1000 to 2000 msec. The authors suggest that the distinctiveness heuristic is a retrieval orientation that facilitates reliance upon recollection to differentiate between item types. Although the picture group can use this heuristic and its retrieval orientation on the basis of recollection, the word group must engage additional postretrieval processes to distinguish between item types, reflecting the use of a different retrieval orientation.Psycholog

Trends in left ventricular assist device use and outcomes among Medicare beneficiaries, 2004–2011

Objective: To characterise the trends in the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation rates and outcomes between 2004 and 2011 in the Medicare population. Since the approval of the HeartMate II in 2008, the use of LVADs has steadily climbed. Given the increase in LVAD use, issues around discharge disposition, post-implant hospitalisations and costs require further understanding. Methods: We examined LVAD implantation rates and short-term and long-term outcomes among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries hospitalised for LVAD implantation. We also conducted analyses among survivors 1-year post-discharge to examine rehospitalisation rates. Lastly, we reported Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) payments for both index hospitalisation and rehospitalisations 1 year post-discharge. Results: A total of 2152 LVAD implantations were performed with numbers increasing from 107 in 2004 to 612 in 2011. The 30-day mortality rate decreased from 52% to 9%, and 1-year mortality rate decreased from 69% to 31%. We observed no change in overall length of stay, but post-procedure length of stay increased. We also found an increase in home discharge dispositions from 26% to 53%. Between 2004 and 2010, the rehospitalisation rate increased and the number of hospital days decreased. The adjusted CMS payment for the index hospitalisation increased from $188 789 to$225 697 over time but decreased for rehospitalisation from $60 647 to$53 630. Conclusions: LVAD implantations increased over time. We found decreasing 30-day and 1-year mortality rates and increasing home discharge disposition. The proportion of patients rehospitalised among 1-year survivors remained high with increasing index hospitalisation cost, but decreasing post-implantation costs over time

The molecular basis of thioalcohol production in human body odour

This work was supported by the BBSRC Grant BB/N006615/1.Body odour is a characteristic trait of Homo sapiens, however its role in human behaviour and evolution is poorly understood. Remarkably, body odour is linked to the presence of a few species of commensal microbes. Herein we discover a bacterial enzyme, limited to odour-forming staphylococci that are able to cleave odourless precursors of thioalcohols, the most pungent components of body odour. We demonstrated using phylogenetics, biochemistry and structural biology that this cysteine-thiol lyase (C-T lyase) is a PLP-dependent enzyme that moved horizontally into a unique monophyletic group of odour-forming staphylococci about 60 million years ago, and has subsequently tailored its enzymatic function to human-derived thioalcohol precursors. Significantly, transfer of this enzyme alone to non-odour producing staphylococci confers odour production, demonstrating that this C-T lyase is both necessary and sufficient for thioalcohol formation. The structure of the C-T lyase compared to that of other related enzymes reveals how the adaptation to thioalcohol precursors has evolved through changes in the binding site to create a constrained hydrophobic pocket that is selective for branched aliphatic thioalcohol ligands. The ancestral acquisition of this enzyme, and the subsequent evolution of the specificity for thioalcohol precursors implies that body odour production in humans is an ancient process.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

siRNA Knockdown of Ribosomal Protein Gene RPL19 Abrogates the Aggressive Phenotype of Human Prostate Cancer

We provide novel functional data that posttranscriptional silencing of gene RPL19 using RNAi not only abrogates the malignant phenotype of PC-3M prostate cancer cells but is selective with respect to transcription and translation of other genes. Reducing RPL19 transcription modulates a subset of genes, evidenced by gene expression array analysis and Western blotting, but does not compromise cell proliferation or apoptosis in-vitro. However, growth of xenografted tumors containing the knocked-down RPL19 in-vivo is significantly reduced. Analysis of the modulated genes reveals induction of the non-malignant phenotype principally to involve perturbation of networks of transcription factors and cellular adhesion genes. The data provide evidence that extra-ribosomal regulatory functions of RPL19, beyond protein synthesis, are critical regulators of cellular phenotype. Targeting key members of affected networks identified by gene expression analysis raises the possibility of therapeutically stabilizing a benign phenotype generated by modulating the expression of an individual gene and thereafter constraining a malignant phenotype while leaving non-malignant tissues unaffected

Redox-switchable siderophore anchor enables reversible artificial metalloenzyme assembly

Artificial metalloenzymes that contain protein-anchored synthetic catalysts are attracting increasing interest. An exciting, but still unrealized advantage of non-covalent anchoring is its potential for reversibility and thus component recycling. Here we present a siderophore–protein combination that enables strong but redox-reversible catalyst anchoring, as exemplified by an artificial transfer hydrogenase (ATHase). By linking the iron(iii)-binding siderophore azotochelin to an iridium-containing imine-reduction catalyst that produces racemic product in the absence of the protein CeuE, but a reproducible enantiomeric excess if protein bound, the assembly and reductively triggered disassembly of the ATHase was achieved. The crystal structure of the ATHase identified the residues involved in high-affinity binding and enantioselectivity. While in the presence of iron(iii), the azotochelin-based anchor binds CeuE with high affinity, and the reduction of the coordinated iron(iii) to iron(ii) triggers its dissociation from the protein. Thus, the assembly of the artificial enzyme can be controlled via the iron oxidation state

Polarimetric Plasmonic Sensing with Bowtie Nanoantenna Arrays

We propose a polarimetric plasmonic biosensor based on bowtie nanoantenna array transducers. Through numerical simulations, based on the finite element method (FEM), we study the phase retardation between the components of light polarized parallel and perpendicular to the major axis of the bowties within the arrays. From a design for high volumetric sensitivity at a wavelength of 780 nm, sensitivities ∼5 rad/RIU is obtained, corresponding to a detection limit of ∼10−7 when using a polarimetric readout platform. Similarly, surface sensitivity of the same array is evaluated by simulating the phase retardation changes induced by the coverage of bioreceptors and analytes of the metallic nanostructures

Torosaurus Is Not Triceratops: Ontogeny in Chasmosaurine Ceratopsids as a Case Study in Dinosaur Taxonomy

Background: In horned dinosaurs, taxonomy is complicated by the fact that the cranial ornament that distinguishes species changes with age. Based on this observation, it has been proposed that the genera Triceratops and Torosaurus are in fact synonymous, with specimens identified as Torosaurus representing the adult form of Triceratops. The hypothesis of synonymy makes three testable predictions: 1) the species in question should have similar geographic and stratigraphic distributions, 2) specimens assigned to Torosaurus should be more mature than those assigned to Triceratops, and 3) intermediates should exist that combine features of Triceratops and Torosaurus. The first condition appears to be met, but it remains unclear whether the other predictions are borne out by the fossil evidence. Methodology/Principal Findings: We assessed the relative maturity of Torosaurus and Triceratops specimens by coding skulls for characters that vary with maturity, and then using a clustering analysis to arrange them into a growth series. We found that a well-defined sequence of changes exists in horned dinosaurs: development of cranial ornament occurs in juveniles, followed by fusion of the skull roof in subadults, and finally, the epoccipitals, epijugals, and rostral fuse to the skull in adults. Using this scheme, we identified mature and immature individuals of both Torosaurus and Triceratops. Furthermore, we describe the ventral depressions on the frill of Triceratops, and show that they differ in shape and position from the parietal fenestrae of Torosaurus. Thus, we conclude that these structures are not intermediates between the soli

Genome sequences of four cluster P mycobacteriophages

Four bacteriophages infecting Mycobacterium smegmatis mc2155 (three belonging to subcluster P1 and one belonging to subcluster P2) were isolated from soil and sequenced. All four phages are similar in the left arm of their genomes, but the P2 phage differs in the right arm. All four genomes contain features of temperate phages