Patterns of neural response in scene-selective regions of the human brain are affected by low-level manipulations of spatial frequency

Neuroimaging studies have found distinct patterns of response to different categories of scenes. However, the relative importance of low-level image properties in generating these response patterns is not fully understood. To address this issue, we directly manipulated the low level properties of scenes in a way that preserved the ability to perceive the category. We then measured the effect of these manipulations on category-selective patterns of fMRI response in the PPA, RSC and OPA. In Experiment 1, a horizontal-pass or vertical-pass orientation filter was applied to images of indoor and natural scenes. The image filter did not have a large effect on the patterns of response. For example, vertical- and horizontal-pass filtered indoor images generated similar patterns of response. Similarly, vertical- and horizontal-pass filtered natural scenes generated similar patterns of response. In Experiment 2, low-pass or high-pass spatial frequency filters were applied to the images. We found that image filter had a marked effect on the patterns of response in scene-selective regions. For example, low-pass indoor images generated similar patterns of response to low-pass natural images. The effect of filter varied across different scene-selective regions, suggesting differences in the way that scenes are represented in these regions. These results indicate that patterns of response in scene-selective regions are sensitive to the low-level properties of the image, particularly the spatial frequency content

Social Support

First paragraph: Flick through any autobiography of a celebrated athlete and you will find that one of its key themes is social support. Certainly there will be discussions of training and tactics, distress and disappointment, guts and glory. But the backdrop to all this is likely to be the support the athlete received from key individuals and groups along the way. The mother who drove them to training every day in the middle of winter, the coach who instilled a sense of self-discipline and pride, the backroom team who always had a kind word when things hadn’t gone quite to plan. This is beautifully exemplified by a legendary yet bitter-sweet moment from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where hot-favourite sprinter Derek Redmond from the United Kingdom tore his hamstring during the 400 meters semi-final. His father, Jim, jumped the balustrades and pushed past event officials to help his son cross the line and finish the race. We hobbled over the finishing line with our arms round each other, just me and my dad, the man I’m really close to, who’s supported my athletics career since I was seven years old. (Bos, 2017) Accounts such as this are also often filled with heroic examples of athletes going ‘above and beyond’ to provide support to others in their team — even to the extent of making personal sacrifices for the ‘greater good’. Consider the 2012 Tour de France, when Chris Froome gave up his opportunity to secure personal victory, instead opting to help his teammate Bradley Wiggins secure the coveted maillot jaune. Clearly, the role of socially supportive others, across both sport and life more generally, cannot be understated. For this reason, social support plays a key role in optimal functioning across a range of performance contexts — not only in sport, but also in the workplace, at school, or at home (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2012; Freeman & Rees, 2009; Sarkar & Fletcher, 2014). Indeed, work by the fourth author and his colleagues highlighted how supportive families, coaches, and networks are key to the development of super-elite athletes (Rees et al., 2016)

Celebrity culture and public connection: bridge or chasm?

Media and cultural research has an important contribution to make to recent debates about declines in democratic engagement: is for example celebrity culture a route into democratic engagement for those otherwise disengaged? This article contributes to this debate by reviewing qualitative and quantitative findings from a UK project on 'public connection'. Using self-produced diaries (with in-depth multiple interviews) as well as a nationwide survey, the authors argue that while celebrity culture is an important point of social connection sustained by media use, it is not linked in citizens' own accounts to issues of public concern. Survey data suggest that those who particularly follow celebrity culture are the least engaged in politics and least likely to use their social networks to involve themselves in action or discussion about public-type issues. This does not mean 'celebrity culture' is 'bad', but it challenges suggestions of how popular culture might contribute to effective democracy

CR Component Attendance & Risk Factors

Purpose: To examine: (1) the rate of clinical events precluding cardiac rehabilitation (CR) continuation, (2) CR attendance by component in those without events, and (3) the association between disease severity (eg, tobacco use, diabetes, and depression) and component attendance (eg, exercise, diet, stress management, and tobacco cessation). Methods: Retrospective analysis of electronic records of the CR program in London, Ontario, from 1999 to 2017. Patients in the supervised program are offered exercise sessions 2 times/wk with a minimum of 48 prescribed sessions tailored to patient need. Patients attending ≥1 session without major factors that would limit their exercise ability were included. Intervening events were recorded, as was component attendance. Results: Of 5508 enrolled, supervised patients, 3696 did not have a condition that could preclude exercise. Of those enrolled, one-sixth (n = 912) had an intervening event; these patients were less likely to work, more likely to have medical risk factors, had more severe angina and depression, and lower functional capacity. The remaining cohort attended a mean of 26.5 ± 21.3 sessions overall (median = 27; 19% attending ≥48 sessions), including 20.5 ± 17.4 exercise sessions (median = 21). After exercise, the most common components attended were individual dietary and psychological counseling. Patients with more severe angina and depressive symptoms as well as tobacco users attended significantly fewer total sessions, but more of some specific components. Conclusions: In one-sixth of patients, CR attendance and completion are impacted by clinical factors beyond their control. Many patients are taking advantage of components specific to their risk factors, buttressing the value of individually tailored, menu-based programming.Dr. Suskin receives support from Western University’s Department of Medicine’s Program of Experimental Medicine. Dr. Prior receives salary support as an associate scientist from the Lawson Health Research Institute

Bound Together: Social binding leads to faster processing, spatial distortion and enhanced memory of interacting partners.

The binding of features into perceptual wholes is a well-established phenomenon, which has previously only been studied in the context of early vision and low-level features, such as colour or proximity. We hypothesised that a similar binding process, based on higher level information, could bind people into interacting groups, facilitating faster processing and enhanced memory of social situations. To investigate this possibility we used three experimental approaches to explore grouping effects in displays involving interacting people. First, using a visual search task we demonstrate more rapid processing for interacting (versus non-interacting) pairs in an odd-quadrant paradigm (Experiments 1a & 1b). Second, using a spatial judgment task, we show that interacting individuals are remembered as physically closer than are non-interacting individuals (Experiments 2a & 2b). Finally, we show that memory retention of group- relevant and irrelevant features is enhanced when recalling interacting partners in a surprise memory task (Experiments 3a & 3b). Each of these results is consistent with the social binding hypothesis, and alternative explanations based on low level perceptual features and attentional effects are ruled out. We conclude that automatic mid-level grouping processes bind individuals into groups on the basis of their perceived interaction. Such social binding could provide the basis for more sophisticated social processing. Identifying the automatic encoding of social interactions in visual search, distortions of spatial working memory, and facilitated retrieval of object properties from longer-term memory, opens new approaches to studying social cognition with possible practical applications

One, two and three-dimensional ultrasound measurements of carotid atherosclerosis before and after cardiac rehabilitation: preliminary results of a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: It is still not known how patients who are post-transient ischemic attack (TIA) or post-stroke might benefit from prospectively planned comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation (CCR). In this pilot evaluation of a larger ongoing randomized-controlled-trial, we evaluated ultrasound (US) measurements of carotid atherosclerosis in subjects following TIA or mild non-disabling stroke and their relationship with risk factors before and after 6-months of CCR. METHODS: Carotid ultrasound (US) measurements of one-dimensional intima-media-thickness (IMT), two-dimensional total-plaque-area (TPA), three-dimensional total-plaque-volume (TPV) and vessel-wall-volume (VWV) were acquired before and after 6-months CCR for 39 subjects who had previously experienced a TIA and provided written informed consent to participate in this randomized controlled trial. We maintained blinding for this ongoing study by representing treatment and control groups as A or B, although we did not identify which of A or B was treatment or control. Carotid IMT, TPA, TPV and VWV were measured before and after CCR as were changes in body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), triglycerides (TG), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). RESULTS: There were no significant differences in US measurements or risk factors between groups A and B. There was no significant change in carotid ultrasound measurements for group A (IMT, p = .728; TPA, p = .629; TPV, p = .674; VWV, p = .507) or B (IMT, p = .054; TPA, p = .567; TPV, p = .773; VWV, p = .431) at the end of CCR. There were significant but weak-to-moderate correlations between IMT and VWV (r = 0.25, p = .01), IMT and TPV (r = 0.21, p = .01), TPV and TPA (r = 0.60, p \u3c .0001) and VWV and TPV (r = 0.22, p = .02). Subjects with improved TC/HDL ratios showed improved carotid VWV although, this was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: In this preliminary evaluation, there were no significant differences in carotid US measurements in the control or CCR group; a larger sample size and/or longer duration is required to detect significant changes in US or other risk factor measurements

Konspirationsteorier under COVID-19-pandemien i Danmark

Denne hvidbog undersøger karakteren og udbredelsen af konspirationsteorier under COVID-19-pandemien i Danmark. Dens formål er at kvalificere den nuværende debat ved at undersøge fænomenet konspirationsteorier fra forskellige metodiske vinkler. Dansksprogede facebookopslag er udgangspunktet for undersøgelsen. Først undersøger vi den konspiratoriske retorik i danske facebookopslag for at beskrive de typiske argumentative træk. Dernæst analyserer vi, hvordan indhold, der er blevet markeret som misinformation, har spredt sig på onlineplatforme, og hvorvidt indhold, der kan betragtes som konspiratorisk, har spillet en særlig rolle. Til sidst undersøger vi, hvorvidt omfanget af konspiratorisk indhold er steget i udvalgte coronakritiske facebookgrupper under pandemien. Hvidbogen tager ikke et specifikt normativt standpunkt i undersøgelsen af data, men tilstræber snarere at give en nuanceret og empirisk funderet vurdering af karakteren og udbredelsen af konspiratorisk tænkning i Danmark både i forhold til kvalitet og kvantitet. Hvidbogen er udarbejdet i fællesskab af forskere, der er tilknyttet DataPublics og AlterPublics projekterne samt Center for Nyhedsforskning på Roskilde Universitet. Vi vil gerne takke Thomas Hedin og alle hos TjekDet for at give indblik i deres faktatjek- metoder samt bistand med indsamling af data. Vi vil også gerne takke Illum-fondet for økonomisk støtte til projektet

Evaluating clinician acceptability of the prototype CanRisk tool for predicting risk of breast and ovarian cancer: A multi-methods study.

BACKGROUND:There is a growing focus on the development of multi-factorial cancer risk prediction algorithms alongside tools that operationalise them for clinical use. BOADICEA is a breast and ovarian cancer risk prediction model incorporating genetic and other risk factors. A new user-friendly Web-based tool (CanRisk.org) has been developed to apply BOADICEA. This study aimed to explore the acceptability of the prototype CanRisk tool among two healthcare professional groups to inform further development, evaluation and implementation. METHOD:A multi-methods approach was used. Clinicians from primary care and specialist genetics clinics in England, France and Germany were invited to use the CanRisk prototype with two test cases (either face-to-face with a simulated patient or via a written vignette). Their views about the tool were examined via a semi-structured interview or equivalent open-ended questionnaire. Qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis and organised around Sekhon's Theoretical Framework of Acceptability. RESULTS:Seventy-five clinicians participated, 21 from primary care and 54 from specialist genetics clinics. Participants were from England (n = 37), France (n = 23) and Germany (n = 15). The prototype CanRisk tool was generally acceptable to most participants due to its intuitive design. Primary care clinicians were concerned about the amount of time needed to complete, interpret and communicate risk information. Clinicians from both settings were apprehensive about the impact of the CanRisk tool on their consultations and lack of opportunities to interpret risk scores before sharing them with their patients. CONCLUSIONS:The findings highlight the challenges associated with developing a complex tool for use in different clinical settings; they also helped refine the tool. This prototype may not have been versatile enough for clinical use in both primary care and specialist genetics clinics where the needs of clinicians are different, emphasising the importance of understanding the clinical context when developing cancer risk assessment tools

Variations in achievement of evidence-based, high-impact quality indicators in general practice: an observational study

Background: There are widely recognised variations in the delivery and outcomes of healthcare but an incomplete understanding of their causes. There is a growing interest in using routinely collected ‘big data’ in the evaluation of healthcare. We developed a set of evidence-based ‘high impact’ quality indicators (QIs) for primary care and examined variations in achievement of these indicators using routinely collected data in the United Kingdom (UK). Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of routinely collected, electronic primary care data from a sample of general practices in West Yorkshire, UK (n = 89). The QIs covered aspects of care (including processes and intermediate clinical outcomes) in relation to diabetes, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and ‘risky’ prescribing combinations. Regression models explored the impact of practice and patient characteristics. Clustering within practice was accounted for by including a random intercept for practice. Results: Median practice achievement of the QIs ranged from 43.2% (diabetes control) to 72.2% (blood pressure control in CKD). Considerable between-practice variation existed for all indicators: the difference between the highest and lowest performing practices was 26.3 percentage points for risky prescribing and 100 percentage points for anticoagulation in atrial fibrillation. Odds ratios associated with the random effects for practices emphasised this; there was a greater than ten-fold difference in the likelihood of achieving the hypertension indicator between the lowest and highest performing practices. Patient characteristics, in particular age, gender and comorbidity, were consistently but modestly associated with indicator achievement. Statistically significant practice characteristics were identified less frequently in adjusted models. Conclusions: Despite various policy and improvement initiatives, there are enduring inappropriate variations in the delivery of evidence-based care. Much of this variation is not explained by routinely collected patient or practice variables, and is likely to be attributable to differences in clinical and organisational behaviour