No temporal association between influenza outbreaks and invasive pneumococcal infections

Objective: To assess whether the influenza peak in populations precedes the annual peak for invasive pneumococcal infections (IPI) in winter.Design: Ecological study. Active surveillance data on influenza A and IPI in children up to 16 years of age collected from 1997 to 2003 were analysed.Setting: Paediatric hospitals in Germany.Patients: Children under 16 years of age.Results: In all years under study, the influenza A season did not appear to affect the IPI season (p = 0.49). Specifically, the influenza peak never preceded the IPI peak.Conclusion: On a population level there was no indication that the annual influenza epidemic triggered the winter increase in the IPI rate or the peak of the IPI distribution in children

No evidence for auditory N1 dishabituation in healthy adults after presentation of rare novel distractors

Previous studies were not able to show that presentation of change stimuli leads to dishabituation of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) component N1 for repeated stimuli. However, these change stimuli were usually themselves repeatedly presented. Here, we tested whether the presentation of non-repeating distractor stimuli (‘novels’) would lead to N1 dishabituation. The study sample consisted of 18 healthy participants who had to identify auditory target stimuli (´targets´) among repeated standard stimuli and rare novels. AEPs to standards were separately averaged, depending on the preceding stimulus (standards after standards, standards after targets, and standards after novels) and were compared by F statistics and Bayesian t-test. Moreover, N1 repetition effects within recording blocks were analyzed in single trial analyses. The analyses showed that targets elicited significantly larger N1 amplitudes than standards and standards elicited larger N1 amplitudes than novels. In contrast, the N1 amplitude to standards did not vary with the preceding stimulus. The single trial analyses revealed significant, but similar N1 amplitude decreases within the recording blocks for all standards. The current study revealed no evidence for N1 dishabituation, as the N1 amplitude for standards after novels was not increased as compared to the N1 for standards after standards. Thus, stimulus variation had no impact on the N1 of repeated standards, as also suggested by the single trial analyses. The lack of N1 dishabituation is at odds with the assumption that the N1 amplitude decrease after repeated stimulation results from habituation

The effect of shared distinctiveness on source memory: An event-related potential study

An illusory correlation (IC) is the erroneous perception that two actually uncorrelated categories are correlated. The Shared Distinctiveness Approach (SDA) explains ICs with heightened accessibility of distinctive category combinations in episodic memory. However, empirical evidence for this approach is heterogeneous. In the present event-related potential (ERP) study, we exploited the fact that more distinctive items elicit larger P300 responses than less distinctive items, which potentially predict subsequent memory performance differences for such items. Distinctiveness at encoding was created by presenting words that differed from frequently presented, positive words in valence, font color, or both. We hypothesized that shared distinctiveness (deviation in both color and valence) would lead to an enhanced P300 subsequent memory effect (SME), better source memory performance, and an overestimation of the frequency of shared distinctive items. Behavioral results indicated the presence of shared distinctiveness effects on source memory and frequency estimation. Unexpectedly, memory also was enhanced for positive items in the frequent color. This pattern also was reflected in the P300 for highly positive and negative items. However, shared distinctiveness did not modulate the P300 SME, indicating that the processing of distinctive features might only indirectly contribute to better encoding. This study shows that shared distinctiveness indeed is associated with better source memory and ICs. Because effects were observed for the most frequent and the least frequent category combination, our results imply that the processing of distinctiveness might involve attention allocation to diametrical category combinations, thereby accentuating the differences between the categories

Regionale Selbstverständnisse und gegenseitige Wahrnehmung von Deutschen und Tschechen

"Zu den Zeiten des Ost-West-Konfliktes beherrschte der so genannte Eiserne Vorhang zwischen Deutschland und der Tschechoslowakei die Wahrnehmung der grenzregionalen bayerischen und tschechischen Bevölkerung und markierte das Ende der eigenen Lebenswelt. Seit dem Ende der Ost-West-Konfrontation vor mehr als einem Jahrzehnt ist indes der Nachbar jenseits der Grenze zu einem wichtigen Faktor regionaler Politik und regionalen Selbstverständnisses geworden. Jedoch zeigt sich, dass alleine die Möglichkeit, ein grenzüberschreitendes Miteinander vor der eigenen Haustüre pflegen zu können, bislang nur bedingt nachhaltige Beziehungsverflechtungen mit sich brachte. Die im Grenzgebiet ansässige Bevölkerung beider Länder, welche einen deutsch-tschechischen Dialog mit vergleichsweise geringem Aufwand führen kann, lebt tatsächlich noch mehr nebeneinander als miteinander. Zumindest die euphorischen Erwartungen und damit verbundenen Hoffnungen nach dem Fall des Eisernen Vorhangs haben sich bis dato nicht erfüllt. Auch wenn teilweise ein engagierter interkultureller Austausch stattfindet und dieser intensiv gefördert wird, dominiert im gesamten bayerisch-tschechischen Grenzraum doch aktuell das Desinteresse der Bevölkerung gegenüber dem jeweiligen Nachbar. Allerdings sind auch regionale Unterschiede auszumachen: Der Bayerische Wald und weite Teile der Oberpfalz verharren in der Sicherheit ihres historisch fundierten Selbstverständnisses und sehen entsprechend kaum Bedarf, sich nach Osten zu orientieren. Demgegenüber ist ein solcher regionaler Bezugsrahmen der Bevölkerung im Fichtelgebirge und im tschechischen Grenzraum geringer ausgeprägt, weshalb der potenzielle Nutzen grenzüberschreitender Beziehungen verstärkt wahrgenommen und diskutiert sowie dem Nachbar vermehrt Aufmerksamkeit zuteil wird. Die stärkere Wahrnehmung des Anderen führt aber nicht nur zu einer bemerkenswerten Aufgeschlossenheit, sondern auch zu vergleichsweise negativ ausgeprägten Einstellungen gegenüber dem Nachbar. Um auf solche Befunde reagieren und Strategien für die Stärkung der regionalen Identität wie auch die bayerisch-böhmische Nachbarschaft entwickeln zu können, müssen lokale und regionale Eigenheiten und somit das Selbstverständnis der Bevölkerung ernst genommen werden. Gutnachbarschaftlichen Beziehungen, welche im Grenzraum unmittelbare Relevanz besitzen und hier einer Bewährungsprobe unterzogen werden, erscheinen unter dieser Voraussetzung durchaus realisierbar." (Autorenreferat

Is resistance to ischaemia of motor axons in diabetic subjects due to membrane depolarization?

The reasons for the resistance to ischaemia of peripheral nerves in diabetics are not well understood. We have now explored whether axonal depolarization underlies this phenomenon, as has previously been proposed. Resistance to ischaemia was determined by the new method of “threshold tracking”. This method revealed an increase in excitability of the peroneal nerve at the popliteal fossa during ischaemia, and a decrease in excitability in the post-ischaemic period. The extent of these alterations in 28 type 1 diabetics without peripheral neuropathy showed a strong correlation with the mean blood glucose concentrations during the last 24 h before examination. To test whether the ischaemic resistance was related to membrane potential, we also measured axonal superexcitability in 11 selected diabetics, since it has been shown that post-spike changes in excitability depend on membrane potential. Changes in excitability of the peroneal nerve were measured in the period between 10 and 30 msec following a conditioning supramaximal compound action potential. Under resting conditions, no differences in the post-spike superexcitability were found between controls and diabetics, despite striking differences in their responses to a 10-min pressure cuff. These observations indicate that membrane depolarization is not involved in the resistance to ischaemia of motor axons in diabetic subjects

ORCA: A picture database of object-scene arrangements for cross-cultural and aging research

In recent years, cross-cultural research on the modulation of basic cognitive processes by culture has intensifed – also from an aging perspective. Despite this increased research interest, only a few cross-culturally normed non-verbal stimulus sets are available to support cross-cultural cognitive research in younger and older adults. Here we present the ORCA (Ofcial Rating of Complex Arrangements) picture database, which includes a total of 720 object–scene compositions sorted into 180 quadruples (e.g., two diferent helmets placed in two diferent deserts). Each quadruple contains visually and semantically matched pairs of objects and pairs of scenes with varying degrees of semantic ft between objects and scenes. A total of 95 younger and older German and Chinese adults rated every object–scene pair on object familiarity and semantic ft between object and scene. While the ratings were signifcantly correlated between cultures and age groups, small but signifcant culture and age diferences emerged. Object familiarity was higher for older adults than younger adults and for German participants than for Chinese participants. Semantic ft was rated lower by German older adults and Chinese younger adults as compared to German younger adults and Chinese older adults. Due to the large number of stimuli, our database is particularly well suited for cognitive and neuroscientifc research on cross-cultural and age-related diferences in perception, attention, and memory