Sense of Agency and Its Disruption

Sense of agency—the feeling of being the author of one’s actions—may be a critical component of one’s sense of self and of one’s interaction with the world. Insights from clinical and experimental neuropsychology, as well as cognitive and computational neuroscience, have provided complementary evidence that the sense of agency arises from the integration of an array of internal and external cues. These frameworks can help to explain how disruptions in one or more of these cues may result in altered experiences of agency. This chapter reviews these explanatory frameworks and shows how important and useful they have become in making sense of an array of clinical observations, from the disorders of control and agency that result from circumscribed brain damage to the widespread attenuation of agency that may characterize psychosis in which no clear brain lesion has been identified

Novel ex vivo models of epithelial ovarian cancer: the future of biomarker and therapeutic research

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a heterogenous disease associated with variations in presentation, pathology and prognosis. Advanced EOC is typified by frequent relapse and a historical 5-year survival of less than 30% despite improvements in surgical and systemic treatment. The advent of next generation sequencing has led to notable advances in the field of personalised medicine for many cancer types. Success in achieving cure in advanced EOC has however been limited, although significant prolongation of survival has been demonstrated. Development of novel research platforms is therefore necessary to address the rapidly advancing field of early diagnostics and therapeutics, whilst also acknowledging the significant tumour heterogeneity associated with EOC. Within available tumour models, patient-derived organoids (PDO) and explant tumour slices have demonstrated particular promise as novel ex vivo systems to model different cancer types including ovarian cancer. PDOs are organ specific 3D tumour cultures that can accurately represent the histology and genomics of their native tumour, as well as offer the possibility as models for pharmaceutical drug testing platforms, offering timing advantages and potential use as prospective personalised models to guide clinical decision-making. Such applications could maximise the benefit of drug treatments to patients on an individual level whilst minimising use of less effective, yet toxic, therapies. PDOs are likely to play a greater role in both academic research and drug development in the future and have the potential to revolutionise future patient treatment and clinical trial pathways. Similarly, ex vivo tumour slices or explants have also shown recent renewed promise in their ability to provide a fast, specific, platform for drug testing that accurately represents in vivo tumour response. Tumour explants retain tissue architecture, and thus incorporate the majority of tumour microenvironment making them an attractive method to re-capitulate in vivo conditions, again with significant timing and personalisation of treatment advantages for patients. This review will discuss the current treatment landscape and research models for EOC, their development and new advances towards the discovery of novel biomarkers or combinational therapeutic strategies to increase treatment options for women with ovarian cancer

Damage to the right insula disrupts the perception of affective touch

© 2020 Kirsch et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.Specific, peripheral C-tactile afferents contribute to the perception of tactile pleasure, but the brain areas involved in their processing remain debated. We report the first human lesion study on the perception of C-tactile touch in right hemisphere stroke patients (N = 59), revealing that right posterior and anterior insula lesions reduce tactile, contralateral and ipsilateral pleasantness sensitivity, respectively. These findings corroborate previous imaging studies regarding the role of the posterior insula in the perception of affective touch. However, our findings about the crucial role of the anterior insula for ipsilateral affective touch perception open new avenues of enquiry regarding the cortical organization of this tactile system.Peer reviewe

Problematising separated children:a policy analysis of the UK ‘Safeguarding Strategy: Unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children’

While international and national policies, strategies and legislation have been designed to address the problems of forced displacement, they also form a vital role in the discursive construction, governance and regulation of those who have been displaced. This paper critically interrogates the ‘UK Safeguarding Strategy: Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking and Refugee Children’ to highlight the ways in which unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) are implicitly constructed as a policy problem. Drawing on Foucault, and using a novel analytic method (WPR) for studying problematisation within policy, this paper moves beyond the policy definition of an unaccompanied asylum seeking child to unearth characterisations that the policy ascribes to this group of children, and in particular the conceptual boundaries established for the way society thinks about UASC. These conceptual boundaries are divisive in nature, including suspicion around routes of arrival to the UK; constructions of risk; and questions about the responsibility of providing care and of being in need of care. The significance of the paper lies in its aim to use the examination of the discursive practices of the UK’s Safeguarding Strategy as a starting point to open a broader discussion around how UASC are constructed and governed, nationally and internationally.</p

Self–other distinction and borderline personality disorder features: Evidence for egocentric and altercentric bias in a self–other facial morphing task

Self–other distinction (SOD) refers to the ability to distinguish one’s own body, actions, and mental representations from those of others. Problems with SOD are considered to be a key feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, empirical studies on SOD in BPD are scarce. Here, we present a study providing preliminary support for the usefulness and validity of a self–other facial morphing task to capture the capacity for SOD in a sample of nonclinical participants high (n = 30) and low (n = 32) in BPD features. Participants had to watch a video sequence in which their own face was gradually morphed into the face of an unfamiliar other (self-to-other) or vice versa (other-to-self), requiring them to indicate at which point they judged the morph to look more like the target face than the starting face. Consistent with predictions, results showed that participants in the high-BPD group judged the morph to look like themselves for longer in the self-to-other direction (suggestive of egocentric bias), but only with a relatively more attractive target face. In the other-to-self direction, the high-BPD group had more difficulty recognizing their own face (i.e., an altercentric bias), but this time only with the relatively less attractive face. Further research is needed to replicate these findings in clinical samples, but overall they suggest that the current task might be suited to investigate SOD problems in BPD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved

The effect of intranasal oxytocin on the perception of affective touch and multisensory integration in anorexia nervosa: protocol for a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study.

INTRODUCTION: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder characterised by restriction of energy intake, fears of gaining weight and related body image disturbances. The oxytocinergic system has been proposed as a pathophysiological candidate for AN. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide involved in bodily processes (eg, breast feeding) and in the onset of social behaviours (eg, bonding). Studies investigating the effect of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT) in AN showed that it can improve attentional bias for high-calorie food and fat bodies stimuli, and related stress. However, less is known about the effect of IN-OT on bodily awareness and body image distortions, key features of the disorder linked to its development, prognosis and maintenance. Here, we aim to investigate the effect of IN-OT on the perception of affective, C-tactile-optimal touch, known to be impaired in AN and on multisensory integration processes underlying a body ownership illusion (ie, rubber hand illusion). For exploratory purposes, we will also investigate the effect of IN-OT on another interoceptive modality, namely cardiac awareness and its relationship with affective touch. DESIGN, METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Forty women with AN and forty matched healthy controls will be recruited and tested in two separate sessions; self-administering IN-OT (40 IU) or placebo, intranasally, in a pseudo-randomised manner. The data from this double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study will be analysed using linear mixed models that allow the use of both fixed (treatment levels) and random (subjects) effects in the same analysis. To address our main hypotheses, separate analyses will be run for the affective touch task, where the primary outcome dependent variable will be the pleasantness of the touch, and for the rubber hand illusion, where we will investigate multisensory integration quantified as subjective embodiment towards the rubber hand. In the latter, we will manipulate the synchronicity of touch and the size of the hand. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval has been obtained by National Research Ethics Service NRES Committee London (Queen's Square Committee, ref number 14/LO/1593). The results will be disseminated through conference presentations and publication in peer-reviewed journals

Trends of Marine Logistics Development in Greece on the Digital Revolution Era

The current article is devoted to the study of the legal nature of maritime logistics in the modern Greek Republic under the conditions of the digital revolution and economic integration. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that shipping is one of the oldest types of transportation of goods and people, which still haven't lost their relevance in the XXI century, and currently this industry has received special attention. Maritime transport occupies an important place in the implementation of trade and economic relations. The branch of the law of the sea has repeatedly become the object of scientific research. The main function of transport is to provide services to the client through the use of the vehicle. The authors consider the historical development of the maritime branch of law in all the existence of the Greek state. Additionally, the author focuses on digital technologies that are beginning to be developed in the transport and maritime industry and considers the progress in the logistics sector, with regard to trade and transport in Greece

Problems of Digital State in Modern Society

The article is devoted to the problems of the digital state, its role in modern society. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that at present, in the context of economic integration and digital revolution, the society, which consists of consumers of goods, suppliers, employees of state structures, participants in trade relations, logistics operators and others, is showing great interest in informational technology. Considering current trends of technological development, the XXI century is characterized as the «Age of digital technologies». Digital technologies are rapidly being implemented in all spheres of human life. The modern «digital state» eliminates intermediaries and moves to direct transactions with consumers. The transformation of the new «digital state» will provide easy and quick access to the data of society, also will provide new living conditions for its citizens and improve the efficiency of state structures and business. It seems that in such a state digitalization of documents throughout the state apparatus will be implemented, as well as electronic platforms, through which the government will interact with the civilian population. By using informational technology, people will be able to introduce a new service in the management of the state apparatus, and in this way it will facilitate significant problems with the volume of work of civil personnel, as well as provide economic productivity of the e-government digital state

Legal Regulation of Maritime Logistics in the Context of the Emergence of New IT-Technologies in the Digital Age

The article is devoted to the development of Maritime logistics in the twenty-first century. The twenty-first century is characterized as the “digital Age”. Digital technologies are rapidly being implemented in all spheres of human life. Today, the participants of the logistics market show great interest in digital production and logistics. This is primarily due to the fact that IT-technologies are rapidly developing, providing new opportunities and thus facilitate the transportation of goods to customers with the possibility of saving time and reducing logistics costs. In terms of competitiveness, many participants in the international and domestic logistics market have introduced and are already using different types of digital technologies. However, it need to be consider, that this new phenomenon requires detailed analysis, development, legislative consolidation and practical implementation in the transport industry. Today, it is especially important to take into account the scope of international legal sources regulating digital technologies, as the practical application of digital logistics should find legislative consolidation