Changes in Early Cortical Visual Processing Predict Enhanced Reactivity in Deaf Individuals

Individuals with profound deafness rely critically on vision to interact with their environment. Improvement of visual performance as a consequence of auditory deprivation is assumed to result from cross-modal changes occurring in late stages of visual processing. Here we measured reaction times and event-related potentials (ERPs) in profoundly deaf adults and hearing controls during a speeded visual detection task, to assess to what extent the enhanced reactivity of deaf individuals could reflect plastic changes in the early cortical processing of the stimulus. We found that deaf subjects were faster than hearing controls at detecting the visual targets, regardless of their location in the visual field (peripheral or peri-foveal). This behavioural facilitation was associated with ERP changes starting from the first detectable response in the striate cortex (C1 component) at about 80 ms after stimulus onset, and in the P1 complex (100–150 ms). In addition, we found that P1 peak amplitudes predicted the response times in deaf subjects, whereas in hearing individuals visual reactivity and ERP amplitudes correlated only at later stages of processing. These findings show that long-term auditory deprivation can profoundly alter visual processing from the earliest cortical stages. Furthermore, our results provide the first evidence of a co-variation between modified brain activity (cortical plasticity) and behavioural enhancement in this sensory-deprived population

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of transmural collaborative care with consultation letter (TCCCL) and duloxetine for major depressive disorder (MDD) and (sub)chronic pain in collaboration with primary care: design of a randomized placebo-controlled multi-Centre trial: TCC:PAINDIP

__Abstract__ Background: The comorbidity of pain and depression is associated with high disease burden for patients in terms of disability, wellbeing, and use of medical care. Patients with major and minor depression often present themselves with pain to a general practitioner and recognition of depression in such cases is low, but evolving. Also, physical symptoms, including pain, in major depressive disorder, predict a poorer response to treatment. A multi-faceted, patient-tailored treatment programme, like collaborative care, is promising. However, treatment of chronic pain conditions in depressive patients has, so far, received limited attention in research. Cost effectiveness of an integrated approach of pain in depressed patients has not been studied. This article describes the aims and design of a study to evaluate effects and costs of collaborative care with the antidepressant duloxetine for patients with pain symptoms and a depressive disorder, compared to collaborative care with placebo and compared to duloxetine alone

Reduced visual evoked potential amplitude in autism spectrum disorder, a variability effect?

International audienc

Emotional visual mismatch negativity: a joint investigation of social and non-social dimensions in adults with autism

International audienc

MEASUREMENT OF TIME-DEPENDENT B-D(0) (B)OVER-BAR-D(0) MIXING

The time dependent mixing of B-d(0)-(B) over bar(d)(0) mesons has been observed by using the correlations between the charge of D-* mesons and the weighted mean charge of particles in each hemisphere. From a reconstructed D-*+/- sample corresponding to about 1.7 million hadronic Z(0) decays, the mass difference between the two B-d(0) mass eigenstates has been measured to be hm = 0.50 +/- 0.12 (stat.) +/- 0.06 (syst.) (h) over bar/ps or, converting into eV/c(2): Delta m = [3.29 +/- 0.79 (stat.) +/- 0.39 (syst.)] 10(-4) eV/c(2)