Body size adaptation alters perception of test stimuli, not internal body image

Recent studies have reported that adaptation to extreme body types produces aftereffects on judgments of body normality and attractiveness, and also judgments of the size and shape of the viewer’s own body. This latter effect suggests that adaptation could constitute an experimental model of media influences on body image. Alternatively, adaptation could affect perception of test stimuli, which should produce the same aftereffects for judgments about participant’s own body or someone else’s body. Here, we investigated whether adaptation similarly affects judgments about one’s body and other bodies. We were interested in participants’ own body image judgements, i.e. we wanted to measure the mental representations to which the test stimuli were compared to and not the perception of test stimuli per se. Participants were adapted to pictures of thin or fat bodies and then rated whether bodies were fatter or thinner than either: their own body, an average body (Experiment 1) or the body of another person (Experiments 2-3). By keeping the visual stimuli constant but changing the task/type of judgement, i.e. the internal criterion participants are asked to judge the bodies against, we investigated how adaptation affects different stored representations of bodies, specifically. own body image vs representations of others. After adaptation, a classic aftereffect was found, with judgments biased away from the adapting stimulus. Critically, aftereffects were nearly identical for judgments of one’s own body and for other people’s bodies. These results suggest that adaptation affects body representations in a generic way and may not be specific to the own body image

Visual adaptation enhances action sound discrimination

Prolonged exposure, or adaptation, to a stimulus in one modality can bias, but also enhance, perception of a subsequent stimulus presented within the same modality. However, recent research has also found that adaptation in one modality can bias perception in another modality. Here we show a novel crossmodal adaptation effect, where adaptation to a visual stimulus enhances subsequent auditory perception. We found that when compared to no adaptation, prior adaptation to visual, auditory or audiovisual hand actions enhanced discrimination between two subsequently presented hand action sounds. Discrimination was most enhanced when the visual action ‘matched’ the auditory action. In addition, prior adaptation to a visual, auditory or audiovisual action caused subsequent ambiguous action sounds to be perceived as less like the adaptor. In contrast, these crossmodal action aftereffects were not generated by adaptation to the names of actions. Enhanced crossmodal discrimination and crossmodal perceptual aftereffects may result from separate mechanisms operating in audiovisual action sensitive neurons within perceptual systems. Adaptation induced crossmodal enhancements cannot be explained by post-perceptual responses or decisions. More generally, these results together indicate that adaptation is a ubiquitous mechanism for optimizing perceptual processing of multisensory stimuli

Cellular binding partners of the human papillomavirus E6 protein

The high-risk strains of human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) are known to be causative agents of cervical cancer and have recently also been implicated in cancers of the oropharynx. E6 is a potent oncogene of HR-HPVs, and its role in the progression to malignancy has been and continues to be explored. E6 is known to interact with and subsequently inactivate numerous cellular proteins pivotal in the mediation of apoptosis, transcription of tumor suppressor genes, maintenance of epithelial organization, and control of cell proliferation. Binding of E6 to these proteins cumulatively contributes to the oncogenic potential of HPV. This paper provides an overview of these cellular protein partners of HR-E6, the motifs known to mediate oncoprotein binding, and the agents that have the potential to interfere with E6 expression and activity and thus prevent the subsequent progression to oncogenesis

El matrimonio de Felipe V y la alianza borbónico-saboyana de 1701

After the coronation of Philip V as King of Spain and the imminent outbreak of war caused by Charles II’s succession, both the French and the Spanish Monarchy entered into different diplomatic alliances in order to neutralize claims from the Viennese branch of the House of Austria to the Spanish crown. The Italian Peninsula, where France and the Spanish Monarchy had the support of the duchies of Mantua and Savoy, was an important scenario for Bourbon diplomacy. This article aims to analyse the role played by the marriage of Philip V and Mary Louise of Savoy in the signing of the Bourbon-Savoyard Treaty, in April 1701. Based on diplomatic sources located in Spanish, French and Italian archives, this paper focuses not only on the characteristics of the agreement signed between the two dynasties, but also on how the negotiations for the King’s marriage were influenced by the fragility of a politically asymmetric alliance which would break apart just two years after its formalization