Organochlorine pesticides exposure & preterm birth

Commento su invito ad uno studio su esposizione fetale a composti organoclorurat

Enhancing links between visual short term memory, visual attention and cognitive control processes through practice:An electrophysiological insight

The operation of attention on visible objects involves a sequence of cognitive processes. The current study firstly aimed to elucidate the effects of practice on neural mechanisms underlying attentional processes as measured with both behavioural and electrophysiological measures. Secondly, it aimed to identify any pattern in the relationship between Event-Related Potential (ERP) components which play a role in the operation of attention in vision. Twenty-seven participants took part in two recording sessions one week apart, performing an experimental paradigm which combined a match-to-sample task with a memory-guided efficient visual-search task within one trial sequence. Overall, practice decreased behavioural response times, increased accuracy, and modulated several ERP components that represent cognitive and neural processing stages. This neuromodulation through practice was also associated with an enhanced link between behavioural measures and ERP components and with an enhanced cortico-cortical interaction of functionally interconnected ERP components. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the ERP amplitude data revealed three components, having different rostro-caudal topographic representations. The first component included both the centro-parietal and parieto-occipital mismatch triggered negativity - involved in integration of visual representations of the target with current task-relevant representations stored in visual working memory - loaded with second negative posterior-bilateral (N2pb) component, involved in categorising specific pop-out target features. The second component comprised the amplitude of bilateral anterior P2 - related to detection of a specific pop-out feature - loaded with bilateral anterior N2, related to detection of conflicting features, and fronto-central mismatch triggered negativity. The third component included the parieto-occipital N1 - related to early neural responses to the stimulus array - which loaded with the second negative posterior-contralateral (N2pc) component, mediating the process of orienting and focusing covert attention on peripheral target features. We discussed these three components as representing different neurocognitive systems modulated with practice within which the input selection process operates

sensorimotor states affect choice in the magnitude judgment of ambiguous durations

66 words) The statistics of the environment seem to exert optimal influence on the organization of functions subserving decision making. In order to make decisions about ambiguous sensory information, predictive coding models suggest that brain generate a template against which to match observed sensory evidence. Here we challenge this notion providing evidence that stochastic choices about the magnitude judgment of visual duration are triggered by bottom-up sensorimotor information. Main Text (1204 words, including acknowledgements and references) The statistics of the environment seem to exert optimal influence on the organization of functions subserving decision making. "Predictive coding" models suggest that whenever a clear outcome is not available, the brain resolves perceptual ambiguity by anticipating the forthcoming sensory environment, generating a template against which to match observed sensory evidence. Accordingly, decisions that we make are often guided by the outcomes of similar decisions made in the past. Nevertheless, everyday life teaches us that higher-level processes, such as voluntary choice, have often proved themselves to be immune to previous experience. Task-irrelevant information may influence behavior, not always orienting decision making toward ecologically optimal deeds. Grounded cognition provided some insight in this direction focusing on the role of the body in cognition, based on widespread findings that bodily states can cause cognitive states and be effects of them. Here we investigate if low-level sensorimotor manipulation affects performance of observers whose attempt to generate magnitude decision about ambiguous durations. To this purpose head turning to the left or to the right space was selectively manipulated in two separated experiments. Lateral head turns are known to reallocate spatial attention in the outside world. Two groups of participants had to judge the duration of a test stimulus as longer or shorter with respect to a reference stimulus, once with their head kept straight (baseline) and once while turning their head. We tested groups' performance in two separate experiments: one during the temporal encoding/storage of the reference stimulus; the other during the retrieval/comparison of the duration of the reference stimulus with that of the test one (Figure 1a, supplementary method). To create an ambiguous vs. unambiguous temporal outcome the duration' stimuli were manipulated by using a loglinear temporal distance from the reference. Data analysis of both baseline sessions specified th

Endometriosis: 10 keys points for MRI

Endometriosis is a chronic disease and a clinical problem in women of fertile age, with a high impact on quality of life, work productivity and health care management. Two imaging modalities are employed in the diagnosis and evaluation of extent of disease: ultrasound examination with endovaginal approach and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI, thanks to its high contrast and resolution characteristics, offers a high level of accuracy in the study of endometriosis and adenomyosis. We illustrate here 10 key MRI points for the detection and diagnosis of endometriosis