Transcranial magnetic stimulation disrupts the perception and embodiment of facial expressions

Copyright © 2008 Society for Neuroscience and the authors. The The Journal of Neuroscience uses a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.Theories of embodied cognition propose that recognizing facial expressions requires visual processing followed by simulation of the somatovisceral responses associated with the perceived expression. To test this proposal, we targeted the right occipital face area (rOFA) and the face region of right somatosensory cortex (rSC) with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) while participants discriminated facial expressions. rTMS selectively impaired discrimination of facial expressions at both sites but had no effect on a matched face identity task. Site specificity within the rSC was demonstrated by targeting rTMS at the face and finger regions while participants performed the expression discrimination task. rTMS targeted at the face region impaired task performance relative to rTMS targeted at the finger region. To establish the temporal course of visual and somatosensory contributions to expression processing, double-pulse TMS was delivered at different times to rOFA and rSC during expression discrimination. Accuracy dropped when pulses were delivered at 60–100 ms at rOFA and at 100–140 and 130–170 ms at rSC. These sequential impairments at rOFA and rSC support embodied accounts of expression recognition as well as hierarchical models of face processing. The results also demonstrate that nonvisual cortical areas contribute during early stages of expression processing.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Counci

Malnutrition in the Elderly in Long-Term Care Facilities

In 2000, there were 17,000 nursing homes in the United States housing about 1.5 million residents over the age of 65. Approximately 75% of long-term residents are women. The average length of stay for residents is 2.5 years, so in essence the nursing home becomes their home. Those who are in these long-term care facilities are generally characterized as frail elderly adults who suffer from a host of chronic and acute diseases and conditions. They are most likely cognitively impaired and have a great number of limitations in their activities of daily living (ADL). In addition, data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 1999-2000 indicated that 28% of nursing facility residents required assistance with eating and 19.2% were totally dependent on eating assistance

Urban Pathology

Urban theorists have long debated to what extend and how the social problems of the city have been brought about or exaggerated in some consistent way by the urban environments in which they occur. This presentation reviews theories of urbanism, and the features of cities which contribute to the augmentation and control of various types of social pathology. Special emphasis is given to some types and patterns of urban unrest, and the structural characteristics associated with deleterious urban environments. Also included is perspective on the contested nature of social relations, the construction of perceptions of social pathology, and some overall implications for public policy relative to urban pathology

Threats of future climate change and land use to vulnerable tree species native to Southern California

Climate and land-use changes are expected to drive high rates of environmental change and biodiversity loss in Mediterranean ecosystems this century. This paper compares the relative future impacts of land use and climate change on two vulnerable tree species native to Southern California (Juglans californica and Quercus engelmannii) using species distribution models. Under the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change's A1B future scenario, high levels of both projected land use and climate change could drive considerable habitat losses on these two already heavily-impacted tree species. Under scenarios of no dispersal, projected climate change poses a greater habitat loss threat relative to projected land use for both species. Assuming unlimited dispersal, climate-driven habitat gains could offset some of the losses due to both drivers, especially in J. californica which could experience net habitat gains under combined impacts of both climate change and land use. Quercus engelmannii, in contrast, could experience net habitat losses under combined impacts, even under best-case unlimited dispersal scenarios. Similarly, projected losses and gains in protected habitat are highly sensitive to dispersal scenario, with anywhere from > 60% loss in protected habitat (no dispersal) to > 170% gain in protected habitat (unlimited dispersal). The findings underscore the importance of dispersal in moderating future habitat loss for vulnerable species