Novel objects with causal event schemas elicit selective responses in tool- and hand-selective lateral occipitotemporal cortex.

Tool-selective lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) responds preferentially to images of tools (hammers, brushes) relative to non-tool objects (clocks, shoes). What drives these responses? Unlike other objects, tools exert effects on their surroundings. We tested whether LOTC responses are influenced by event schemas that denote different temporal relations. Participants learned about novel objects embedded in different event sequences. Causer objects moved prior to the appearance of an environmental event (e.g. stars), while Reactor objects moved after an event. Visual features and motor association were controlled. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants viewed still images of the objects. We localized tool-selective LOTC and non-tool-selective parahippocampal cortex (PHC) by contrasting neural responses to images of familiar tools and non-tools. We found that LOTC responded more to Causers than Reactors, while PHC did not. We also measured responses to images of hands, which elicit overlapping responses with tools. Across inferior temporal cortex, voxels tool and hand selectivity positively predicted a preferential response to Causers. We conclude that an event schema typical of tools is sufficient to drive LOTC and that category-preferential responses across the temporal lobe may reflect relational event structures typical of those domains

Incidental binding between predictive relations.

Knowledge of predictive relations is a core aspect of learning. Beyond individual relations, we also represent intuitive theories of the world, which include interrelated sets of relations. We asked whether individual predictive relations learned incidentally in the same context become associatively bound and whether they spontaneously influence later learning. Participants performed a cover task while watching three sequences of events. Each sequence contained the same set of events, but differed in how the events related to each other. The first two sequences each had two strong predictive relations (R1 & R2, and R3 & R4). The third contained either a consistent pairing of relations (R1 & R2) or an inconsistent pairing (R1 & R3). We found that participants learning of the individual relations in the third sequence was affected by pairing consistency, suggesting the mind associates relations to each other as part of the intrinsic way it learns about the world. This was despite participants minimal ability to verbally describe most of the relations they had learned. Thus, participants spontaneously developed the expectation that pairs of relations should cohere, and this affected their ability to learn new evidence. Such associative binding of relational information may help us build intuitive theories

Human malarial disease: a consequence of inflammatory cytokine release

Malaria causes an acute systemic human disease that bears many similarities, both clinically and mechanistically, to those caused by bacteria, rickettsia, and viruses. Over the past few decades, a literature has emerged that argues for most of the pathology seen in all of these infectious diseases being explained by activation of the inflammatory system, with the balance between the pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines being tipped towards the onset of systemic inflammation. Although not often expressed in energy terms, there is, when reduced to biochemical essentials, wide agreement that infection with falciparum malaria is often fatal because mitochondria are unable to generate enough ATP to maintain normal cellular function. Most, however, would contend that this largely occurs because sequestered parasitized red cells prevent sufficient oxygen getting to where it is needed. This review considers the evidence that an equally or more important way ATP deficency arises in malaria, as well as these other infectious diseases, is an inability of mitochondria, through the effects of inflammatory cytokines on their function, to utilise available oxygen. This activity of these cytokines, plus their capacity to control the pathways through which oxygen supply to mitochondria are restricted (particularly through directing sequestration and driving anaemia), combine to make falciparum malaria primarily an inflammatory cytokine-driven disease

Implicit binding between predictive relations

Knowledge of predictive relations is a core aspect of learning. Beyond individual relations, we also represent intuitive theories of the world, which include interrelated sets of relations. We asked whether individual predictive relations learned incidentally in the same context become automatically associatively bound and whether they influence later learning. Participants performed a cover task while watching three sequences of events. Each sequence contained the same set of events, but differed in how the events related to each other. The first two sequences each had two strong predictive relations (R1 & R2, and R3 & R4). The third contained either a consistent pairing of relations (R1 & R2) or an inconsistent pairing (R1 & R3). We found that participants’ learning of the individual relations in the third sequence was affected by pairing consistency, suggesting the mind associates relations to each other as part of the intrinsic way it learns about the world. This was despite participants’ minimal ability to verbally describe most of the relations they had learned. Thus, participants spontaneously developed the expectation that pairs of relations should cohere, and this affected their ability to learn new evidence. Such associative binding of relational information may help us build intuitive theories

Novel objects with causal schemas elicit selective responses in tool- and hand-selective lateral occipito-temporal cortex

Tool-selective lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC) responds preferentially to images of tools (hammers, brushes) relative to non-tool objects (clocks, shoes). What drives these responses? Tools have elongated shapes and are more likely to have motor associations, but another essential property is that they exert causal effects on the environment. We tested whether LOTC would respond to novel objects associated with a tool-canonical schema in which their actions cause other events. To do so, we taught male and female human participants about novel objects embedded in animated event sequences, which varied in the temporal order of their events. Causer objects moved prior to the appearance of an environmental event (e.g., stars) while Reactor objects moved after an identical event; objects were matched on shape and motor association. During fMRI, participants viewed still images of these novel objects. We localized tool-selective LOTC and non-tool-selective parahippocampal cortex (PHC) by contrasting neural responses to images of familiar tools and non-tools. We found that LOTC responded more to Causers than Reactors; this effect was absent and weaker in right PHC. We also localized responses to images of hands, which elicit overlapping responses with tools. Across inferior temporal cortex, voxels’ tool and hand selectivity positively predicted a preferential response to Causers, and non-tool selectivity negatively so. We conclude that a causal schema typical of tools is sufficient to drive LOTC, and more generally, that preferential responses to domains across the temporal lobe may reflect the relational event structures typical of those domains

ToolCausality

fMRI experiment looking at the role of tool-selective regions of the brain and how they respond to information about temporal order/causality linked to novel object

Lipoleiomyoma of broad ligament mimicking ovarian cancer in a postmenopausal patient: case report and literature review

Lipoleiomyoma is a very rare tumor which is composed of adipocytes and smooth muscle cells. It is most commonly located in uterine corpus although cervical, ovarian, and retroperitoneal locations were also reported. Lipoleiomyoma located in broad ligament is extremely uncommon and only five cases were reported to date. Here, we report the sixth case of lipoleiomyoma of broad ligament which was diagnosed in a postmenopausal woman who was subjected to exploratory laparotomy with a preoperative diagnosis of a solid adnexal mass suggesting an ovarian malignancy