Your Unconscious Knows Your Name

One's own name constitutes a unique part of conscious awareness – but does this also hold true for unconscious processing? The present study shows that the own name has the power to bias a person's actions unconsciously even in conditions that render any other name ineffective. Participants judged whether a letter string on the screen was a name or a non-word while this target stimulus was preceded by a masked prime stimulus. Crucially, the participant's own name was among these prime stimuli and facilitated reactions to following name targets whereas the name of another, yoked participant did not. Signal detection results confirmed that participants were not aware of any of the prime stimuli, including their own name. These results extend traditional findings on “breakthrough” phenomena of personally relevant stimuli to the domain of unconscious processing. Thus, the brain seems to possess adroit mechanisms to identify and process such stimuli even in the absence of conscious awareness

The effects of stimulus complexity on the preattentive processing of self-generated and nonself voices: an ERP study

The ability to differentiate one's own voice from the voice of somebody else plays a critical role in successful verbal self-monitoring processes and in communication. However, most of the existing studies have only focused on the sensory correlates of self-generated voice processing, whereas the effects of attentional demands and stimulus complexity on self-generated voice processing remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of stimulus complexity on the preattentive processing of self and nonself voice stimuli. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 17 healthy males who watched a silent movie while ignoring prerecorded self-generated (SGV) and nonself (NSV) voice stimuli, consisting of a vocalization (vocalization category condition: VCC) or of a disyllabic word (word category condition: WCC). All voice stimuli were presented as standard and deviant events in four distinct oddball sequences. The mismatch negativity (MMN) ERP component peaked earlier for NSV than for SGV stimuli. Moreover, when compared with SGV stimuli, the P3a amplitude was increased for NSV stimuli in the VCC only, whereas in the WCC no significant differences were found between the two voice types. These findings suggest differences in the time course of automatic detection of a change in voice identity. In addition, they suggest that stimulus complexity modulates the magnitude of the orienting response to SGV and NSV stimuli, extending previous findings on self-voice processing.This work was supported by Grant Numbers IF/00334/2012, PTDC/PSI-PCL/116626/2010, and PTDC/MHN-PCN/3606/2012, funded by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) and the Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through the European programs Quadro de Referencia Estrategico Nacional and Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade, awarded to A.P.P., and by FCT Doctoral Grant Number SFRH/BD/77681/2011, awarded to T.C.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of UK car insurance brokers' web sites: some preliminary findings

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to: determine which criteria of the car insurance brokers' web sites are important or unimportant; establish how well those criteria are presented on the car insurance brokers' web sites; and find out whether the consumer's final decision to purchase the product is influenced by the web sites' characteristics, the price, etc. Design/methodology/approach - The evaluation method employed in this study is the extended web assessment method (EWAM), which is an evaluation tool specifically created for the assessment of electronic commerce applications. A double questionnaire survey has been undertaken to collect data from 28 finance advisers in an independent financial advisory firm in the UK. Findings - The preliminary findings suggest that the majority of the assessed web site criteria fall in the categories of "maintain strategy" and "no immediate improvement necessary" with certain web site features considered as "strategic overkill" or "improvement necessary". It is also found that the web sites are utilised as a tool for shopping around for quotes but the final purchase would be made by most consumers via the telephone. Research limitations/implications - It is important to mention that an empirical study with a sample of 28 insurance advisers in one financial advisory company can only reflect a limited picture of current practice in the UK car insurance brokers market. Therefore, the findings reported in this paper are tentative and preliminary. To test or confirm relevant findings reported here, further evaluation work with a larger number of assessors having different backgrounds may be necessary. Practical implications - While the majority of the assessed web site criteria fall in the "maintain strategy" and "no immediate improvement necessary" fields, efforts should be made by practitioners to improve site maps, site search, and insurers' details for quotes. Originality/value - This paper provides useful information for UK car insurance brokers and web sites developers

A phase 2 randomized trial of radiotherapy (RT) plus panitumumab compared to chemoradiotherapy in patients with unresected, locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN): interim pooled safety analysis

Background: Panitumumab (pmab), a fully human monoclonal antibody against the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), is indicated as monotherapy for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. This ongoing study is designed to assess the efficacy and safety of pmab in combination with radiotherapy (PRT) compared to chemoradiotherapy (CRT) as initial treatment of unresected, locally advanced SCCHN (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00547157). Methods: This is a phase 2, open-label, randomized, multicenter study. Eligible patients (pts) were randomized 2:3 to receive cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on days 1 and 22 of RT or pmab 9.0 mg/kg on days 1, 22, and 43. Accelerated RT (70 to 72 Gy − delivered over 6 to 6.5 weeks) was planned for all pts and was delivered either by intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) modality or by three-dimensional conformal (3D-CRT) modality. The primary endpoint is local-regional control (LRC) rate at 2 years. Key secondary endpoints include PFS, OS, and safety. An external, independent data monitoring committee conducts planned safety and efficacy reviews during the course of the trial. Results: Pooled data from this planned interim safety analysis includes the first 52 of the 150 planned pts; 44 (84.6%) are male; median (range) age is 57 (33−77) years; ECOG PS 0: 65%, PS 1: 35%; 20 (39%) pts received IMRT, and 32 (61%) pts received 3D-CRT. Fifty (96%) pts completed RT, and 50 pts received RT per protocol without a major deviation. The median (range) total RT dose administered was 72 (64−74) Gy. The most common grade _ 3 adverse events graded using the CTCAE version 3.0 are shown (Table). Conclusions: After the interim safety analysis, CONCERT-2 continues per protocol. Study enrollment is estimated to be completed by October 2009

Countering Countermeasures: Detecting Identity Lies by Detecting Conscious Breakthrough

One major drawback of deception detection is its vulnerability to countermeasures, whereby participants wilfully modulate their physiological or neurophysiological response to critical guilt-determining stimuli. One reason for this vulnerability is that stimuli are usually presented slowly. This allows enough time to consciously apply countermeasures, once the role of stimuli is determined. However, by increasing presentation speed, stimuli can be placed on the fringe of awareness, rendering it hard to perceive those that have not been previously identified, hindering the possibility to employ countermeasures. We tested an identity deception detector by presenting first names in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation and instructing participants to lie about their own identity. We also instructed participants to apply a series of countermeasures. The method proved resilient, remaining effective at detecting deception under all countermeasures

Phase 2, open-label, 1:1 randomized controlled trial exploring the efficacy of EMD 1201081 in combination with cetuximab in second-line cetuximab-naïve patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (R/M SCCHN)

Aim: to determine whether EMD 1201081, a TLR9 agonist, added to cetuximab had antitumor activity in second-line recurrent/metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (R/M SCCHN) Methods: this was a phase 2, open-label, randomized trial of EMD 1201081 0.32 mg/kg subcutaneously weekly plus cetuximab (combination) vs cetuximab monotherapy (control) in cetuximab-na < ve patients with R/M SCCHN who progressed on 1 cytotoxic regimen. Crossover to combination was permitted after progression Results: objective response rate in both arms was 5.7 % (95 % CI 1.2-15.7 %) by independent assessment. Disease control was 37.7 % for patients on combination (24.8-52.1 %) and 43.4 % on control (29.8-57.7 %). Neither independent nor investigator assessments showed significant differences between study arms. Median progression-free survival was 1.5 months (1.3-2.6) for patients on combination, and 1.9 months (1.5-2.9) on control. The most frequent adverse events in the combination arm were rash (29.6 %), acneiform dermatitis (22.2 %), and injection site reactions (20.4 %). Grade 3/4 dyspnea and hypokalemia were more frequent with cetuximab monotherapy (7.5 % and 5.7 % vs 1.9 % each, respectively), and grade 3/4 respiratory failure and disease progression were more frequent with combination (5.6 % each vs 1.9 % each) Conclusion: EMD 1201081 was well tolerated combined with cetuximab, but there was no incremental clinical efficacy