Interoceptive and exteroceptive attention have opposite effects on subsequent somatosensory perceptual decision making

Evidence suggests that interoceptive and exteroceptive attention might have different perceptual effects. However, the effects of these different types of body-focused attention have never been directly compared. The current research investigated how interoceptive and exteroceptive attention affect subsequent performance on the somatic signal detection task (SSDT). In Experiment 1, 37 participants completed the SSDT under usual testing conditions and after performing an interoceptive heartbeat perception task. This task led to a more liberal response criterion, leading to increased touch reports in the presence and absence of a target vibration. This finding is consistent with suggestions that attending internally contributes to physical symptom reporting in patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). In Experiment 2, 40 participants completed the SSDT before and after an exteroceptive grating orientation task. This task led to a more stringent response criterion, leading to decreased touch reports in the presence and absence of the target, possibly via a reduction in sensory noise. This work demonstrates that internal and external body-focused attention can have opposite effects on subsequent somatic perceptual decision making and suggests that attentional training could be useful for patients reporting MUS. </jats:p

The effect of pain on reference memory for duration

Previous research has consistently reported that pain related stimuli are perceived as lasting longer than non-pain related ones, suggesting that pain lengthens subjective time. However, to date, the investigation has been limited to the immediate effects of pain on time perception. The current study aims to investigate whether pain affects how a duration is recalled after a period of delay. In two experiments, participants were asked to complete four temporal generalisation tasks, where they were required first to remember the duration of a standard tone (learning phase) and then to compare the standard duration to a series of comparison durations (testing phase). Using a 2 × 2 design, the four tasks differed in terms of whether participants were exposed to a painful or non-painful stimulus during the learning phase, and whether the testing phase started immediately or 15 min after the learning phase. Participants were exposed to low pain in Experiment 1 and high pain in Experiment 2. Two possible results were expected: pain could decrease temporal accuracy, because pain disrupts cognitive processes required for accurate timing, or pain could increase temporal accuracy, because pain facilitates memory consolidation. Contrary to expectations, results from both Experiments indicated that participants’ temporal performances were similar in the pain and no-pain conditions when testing occurred 15 min after the learning phase. Findings, therefore, suggest that pain neither disrupts nor enhances long-term memory representations of duration

Good Vibrations: Global Processing Can Increase the Pleasantness of Touch.

Visual-tactile carry-over effects of global/local processing (attention to the whole, versus the details) have been reported under active touch conditions. We investigated whether carry-over effects of global/local processing also occur for passive touch and whether global/local processing has differential effects on affective and discriminative aspects of touch. Participants completed two tactile tasks involving pleasantness rating and discrimination of a set of tactile vibrations before and after completing a version of the Navon task that encouraged a focus on the global (n = 30), local (n = 30), or both (n = 30) features of a series of visual stimuli. In line with previous research suggesting a link between global processing and positive emotion, global processing increased pleasantness ratings of high (but not low) frequency tactile vibrations. Local processing did not improve the ability to discriminate between vibrations of different frequencies, however. There was some evidence of a tactile-visual carry-over effect; prior local processing of tactile vibrations reduced global precedence during the Navon task in the control group. We have shown carry-over effects of global versus local processing on passive touch perception. These findings provide further evidence suggesting that a common perceptual mechanism determines processing level across modalities and show for the first time that prior global processing affects the pleasantness of touch

Comprehensive evaluation of stool-based diagnostic methods and benzimidazole resistance markers to assess drug efficacy and detect the emergence of anthelmintic resistance : a Starworms study protocol

Background : To work towards reaching the WHO goal of eliminating soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections as a public health problem, the total number of children receiving anthelmintic drugs has strongly increased over the past few years. However, as drug pressure levels rise, the development of anthelmintic drug resistance (AR) is more and more likely to appear. Currently, any global surveillance system to monitor drug efficacy and the emergence of possible AR is lacking. Consequently, it remains unclear to what extent the efficacy of drugs may have dropped and whether AR is already present. The overall aim of this study is to recommend the best diagnostic methods to monitor drug efficacy and molecular markers to assess the emergence of AR in STH control programs. Methods : A series of drug efficacy trials will be performed in four STH endemic countries with varying drug pressure (Ethiopia and Brazil: low drug pressure, Lao PDR: moderate drug pressure and Tanzania: high drug pressure). These trials are designed to assess the efficacy of a single oral dose of 400 mg albendazole (ALB) against STH infections in school-aged children (SAC) by microscopic (duplicate Kato-Katz thick smear, Mini-FLOTAC and FECPAK(G2)) and molecular stool-based diagnostic methods (quantitative PCR (qPCR)). Data will be collected on the cost of the materials used, as well as the time required to prepare and examine stool samples for the different diagnostic methods. Following qPCR, DNA samples will also be submitted for pyrosequencing to assess the presence and prevalence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the beta-tubulin gene. These SNPs are known to be linked to AR in animal STHs. Discussion : The results obtained by these trials will provide robust evidence regarding the cost-efficiency and diagnostic performance of the different stool-based diagnostic methods for the assessment of drug efficacy in control programs. The assessment of associations between the frequency of SNPs in the beta-tubulin gene and the history of drug pressure and drug efficacy will allow the validation of these SNPs as a marker for AR in human STHs

Spatial limits of visuotactile interactions in the presence and absence of tactile stimulation

The presence of a light flash near to the body not only increases the ability to detect a weak touch but also increases reports of feeling a weak touch that did not occur. The somatic signal detection task (SSDT) provides a behavioural marker by which to clarify the spatial extent of such visuotactile interactions in peripersonal space. Whilst previous evidence suggests a limit to the spatial extent over which visual input can distort the perception of tactile stimulation during the rubber hand illusion, the spatial boundaries of light-induced tactile sensations are not known. In a repeated measures design, 41 participants completed the SSDT with the light positioned 1 cm (near), 17.5 cm (mid) or 40 cm (far) from the tactile stimulation. In the far condition, the light did not affect hit, or false alarm rates during the SSDT. In the near and mid conditions, the light significantly increased hit rates and led to a more liberal response criterion, that is, participants reported feeling the touch more often regardless of whether or not it actually occurred. Our results demonstrate a spatial boundary over which visual input influences veridical and non-veridical touch perception during the SSDT, and provide further behavioural evidence to show that the boundaries of the receptive fields of visuotactile neurons may be limited to reach space

Feeling Bad and Looking Worse: Negative Affect Is Associated with Reduced Perceptions of Face-Healthiness

Some people perceive themselves to look more, or less attractive than they are in reality. We investigated the role of emotions in enhancement and derogation effects; specifically, whether the propensity to experience positive and negative emotions affects how healthy we perceive our own face to look and how we judge ourselves against others. A psychophysical method was used to measure healthiness of self-image and social comparisons of healthiness. Participants who self-reported high positive (N = 20) or negative affectivity (N = 20) judged themselves against healthy (red-tinged) and unhealthy looking (green-tinged) versions of their own and stranger’s faces. An adaptive staircase procedure was used to measure perceptual thresholds. Participants high in positive affectivity were un-biased in their face health judgement. Participants high in negative affectivity on the other hand, judged themselves as equivalent to less healthy looking versions of their own face and a stranger’s face. Affective traits modulated self-image and social comparisons of healthiness. Face health judgement was also related to physical symptom perception and self-esteem; high physical symptom reports were associated a less healthy self-image and high self-reported (but not implicit) self-esteem was associated with more favourable social comparisons of healthiness. Subject to further validation, our novel face health judgement task could have utility as a perceptual measure of well-being. We are currently investigating whether face health judgement is sensitive to laboratory manipulations of mood

Therapeutic efficacy of albendazole against soil-transmitted helminthiasis in children measured by five diagnostic methods

Preventive chemotherapy (PC) with benzimidazole drugs is the backbone of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) control programs. Over the past decade, drug coverage has increased and with it, the possibility of developing anthelmintic resistance. It is therefore of utmost importance to monitor drug efficacy. Currently, a variety of novel diagnostic methods are available, but it remains unclear whether they can be used to monitor drug efficacy. In this study, we compared the efficacy of albendazole (ALB) measured by different diagnostic methods in a head-to-head comparison to the recommended single Kato-Katz.; An ALB efficacy trial was performed in 3 different STH-endemic countries (Ethiopia, Lao PDR and Tanzania), each with a different PC-history. During these trials, stool samples were evaluated with Kato-Katz (single and duplicate), Mini-FLOTAC, FECPAKG2, and qPCR. The reduction rate in mean eggs per gram of stool (ERR) and mean genome equivalents / ml of DNA extract (GERR) were calculated to estimate drug efficacy.; The results of the efficacy trials showed that none of the evaluated diagnostic methods could provide reduction rates that were equivalent to a single Kato-Katz for all STH. However, despite differences in clinical sensitivity and egg counts, they agreed in classifying efficacy according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. This demonstrates that diagnostic methods for assessing drug efficacy should be validated with their intended-use in mind and that other factors like user-friendliness and costs will likely be important factors in driving the choice of diagnostics. In addition, ALB efficacy against STH infections was lower in sites with a longer history of PC. Yet, further research is needed to identify factors that contribute to this finding and to verify whether reduced efficacy can be associated with mutations in the β-tubulin gene that have previously been linked to anthelmintic resistance.; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03465488

Diagnostic performance of a single and duplicate Kato-Katz, Mini-FLOTAC, FECPAKG2 and qPCR for the detection and quantification of soil-transmitted helminths in three endemic countries

Because the success of deworming programs targeting soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) is evaluated through the periodically assessment of prevalence and infection intensities, the use of the correct diagnostic method is of utmost importance. The STH community has recently published for each phase of a deworming program the minimal criteria that a potential diagnostic method needs to meet, the so-called target product profiles (TPPs).; We compared the diagnostic performance of a single Kato-Katz (reference method) with that of other microscopy-based methods (duplicate Kato-Katz, Mini-FLOTAC and FECPAKG2) and one DNA-based method (qPCR) for the detection and quantification of STH infections in three drug efficacy trials in Ethiopia, Lao PDR, and Tanzania. Furthermore, we evaluated a selection of minimal diagnostic criteria of the TPPs.; All diagnostic methods showed a clinical sensitivity of ≥90% for all STH infections of moderate-to-heavy intensities. For infections of very low intensity, only qPCR resulted in a sensitivity that was superior to a single Kato-Katz for all STHs. Compared to the reference method, both Mini-FLOTAC and FECPAKG2 resulted in significantly lower fecal egg counts for some STHs, leading to a substantial underestimation of the infection intensity. For qPCR, there was a positive significant correlation between the egg counts of a single Kato-Katz and the DNA concentration.; Our results indicate that the diagnostic performance of a single Kato-Katz is underestimated by the community and that diagnostic specific thresholds to classify intensity of infection are warranted for Mini-FLOTAC, FECPAKG2 and qPCR. When we strictly apply the TPPs, Kato-Katz is the only microscopy-based method that meets the minimal diagnostic criteria for application in the planning, monitoring and evaluation phase of an STH program. qPCR is the only method that could be considered in the phase that aims to seek confirmation for cessation of program.; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03465488

The space between us: the effect of perceived threat on interpersonal distance and perceived pleasantness of interpersonal touch

The space we keep between ourselves and others allows us either to engage in close shared experiences or to distance ourselves for safety. Focusing primarily on the latter, previous studies have identified a link between interpersonal distance and perceived threat, perceptual discrimination including pain perception as well as how we move and behave as a result. Although interpersonal distance has been studied in a range of contexts, a mechanistic way of how such spatial behaviour might alter how we perceive affective touch has yet to be investigated. Here we probe the effect of perceived threat of COVID-19 on interpersonal distance preferences and perceived pleasantness of vicarious affective touch. Our results demonstrate that increased perceived threat from COVID-19 is associated with larger boundaries of interpersonal distance. Moreover, we show a positive association between perceived threat and pleasantness of touch coming from a member of the household, but no association with outsider touch. Importantly, rather than focusing on the purely “positive” and prosocial functions of affective touch, these results bolster a novel perspective that socially-relevant cues guide both approach and avoidance behaviours