Sensorimotor input as a language generalisation tool: a neurorobotics model for generation and generalisation of noun-verb combinations with sensorimotor inputs

The paper presents a neurorobotics cognitive model explaining the understanding and generalisation of nouns and verbs combinations when a vocal command consisting of a verb-noun sentence is provided to a humanoid robot. The dataset used for training was obtained from object manipulation tasks with a humanoid robot platform; it includes 9 motor actions and 9 objects placing placed in 6 different locations), which enables the robot to learn to handle real-world objects and actions. Based on the multiple time-scale recurrent neural networks, this study demonstrates its generalisation capability using a large data-set, with which the robot was able to generalise semantic representation of novel combinations of noun-verb sentences, and therefore produce the corresponding motor behaviours. This generalisation process is done via the grounding process: different objects are being interacted, and associated, with different motor behaviours, following a learning approach inspired by developmental language acquisition in infants. Further analyses of the learned network dynamics and representations also demonstrate how the generalisation is possible via the exploitation of this functional hierarchical recurrent network

Prolactin confers resistance against cisplatin in breast cancer cells by activating glutathione-S-transferase

Resistance to chemotherapy is a major obstacle for successful treatment of breast cancer patients. Given that prolactin (PRL) acts as an anti-apoptotic/survival factor in the breast, we postulated that it antagonizes cytotoxicity by chemotherapeutic drugs. Treatment of breast cancer cells with PRL caused variable resistance to taxol, vinblastine, doxorubicin and cisplatin. PRL prevented cisplatin-induced G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. In the presence of PRL, significantly less cisplatin was bound to DNA, as determined by mass spectroscopy, and little DNA damage was seen by γ-H2AX staining. PRL dramatically increased the activity of glutathione-S-transferase (GST), which sequesters cisplatin in the cytoplasm; this increase was abrogated by Jak and mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitors. PRL upregulated the expression of the GSTμ, but not the π, isozyme. A GST inhibitor abrogated antagonism of cisplatin cytotoxicity by PRL. In conclusion, PRL confers resistance against cisplatin by activating a detoxification enzyme, thereby reducing drug entry into the nucleus. These data provide a rational explanation for the ineffectiveness of cisplatin in breast cancer, which is characterized by high expression of both PRL and its receptor. Suppression of PRL production or blockade of its actions should benefit patients undergoing chemotherapy by allowing for lower drug doses and expanded drug options