Autistic adults show preserved normalisation of sensory responses in gaze processing

Progress in our understanding of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has recently been sought by characterising how systematic differences in canonical neural computations employed across the sensory cortex might contribute to clinical symptoms in diverse sensory, cognitive, and social domains. A key proposal is that ASD is characterised by reduced divisive normalisation of sensory responses. This provides a bridge between genetic and molecular evidence for an increased ratio of cortical excitation to inhibition in ASD and the functional characteristics of sensory coding that are relevant for understanding perception and behaviour. Here we tested this hypothesis in the context of gaze processing (i.e., the perception of other people's direction of gaze), a domain with direct relevance to the core diagnostic features of ASD. We show that reduced divisive normalisation in gaze processing is associated with specific predictions regarding the psychophysical effects of sensory adaptation to gaze direction, and test these predictions in adults with ASD. We report compelling evidence that both divisive normalisation and sensory adaptation occur robustly in adults with ASD in the context of gaze processing. These results have important theoretical implications for defining the types of divisive computations that are likely to be intact or compromised in this condition (e.g., relating to local vs distal control of cortical gain). These results are also a strong testament to the typical sensory coding of gaze direction in ASD, despite the atypical responses to others' gaze that are a hallmark feature of this diagnosis.This research was supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellowship (100227) awarded to GR and Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP160102239) awarded to CC. This work was enabled partly by a study visit grant to CP from the Experimental Psychology Society. We thank all the participants who gave up their time to take part in this research

Progression and regression of incident cervical HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 infections in young women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We describe type-specific progression, regression and persistence of incident human papillomavirus (HPV)-6-11-16 and -18 infections, along with type distribution in cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) lesions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study population consisted of 16–23 year-old women undergoing Pap testing and cervical swab polymerase chain reaction testing for HPV DNA at approximate 6 month intervals for up to 4 years in the placebo arm of a clinical trial of an HPV 16-vaccine. HPV types in incident infections were correlated with types in lesion biopsy specimens.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>56.7% of CIN-1 and nearly one-third of CIN-2/3 lesions following incident HPV-6-11-16 or -18 infections did not correlate with the incident infection HPV type. Cumulative 36-month progression rates to CIN-2/3 testing positive for the relevant HPV type were highest for HPV-16 infections (16.5%), followed by HPV-18 (8.2%). Overall, 26.0% of CIN-1, 50.0% of CIN-2 and 70.6% of CIN-3 biopsies tested positive for HPV-6-11-16-18 infections.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Women with a given HPV type may often be co-infected or subsequently infected with other types which may lead to subsequent cervical lesions. This issue has been addressed in this study reporting data for the natural history of HPV-6-11-16 and -18 infections and is a relevant consideration in designing future studies to evaluate the incidence/risk of CIN following other type-specific HPV infections.</p

Metabolic analysis of the interaction between plants and herbivores

Insect herbivores by necessity have to deal with a large arsenal of plant defence metabolites. The levels of defence compounds may be increased by insect damage. These induced plant responses may also affect the metabolism and performance of successive insect herbivores. As the chemical nature of induced responses is largely unknown, global metabolomic analyses are a valuable tool to gain more insight into the metabolites possibly involved in such interactions. This study analyzed the interaction between feral cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and small cabbage white caterpillars (Pieris rapae) and how previous attacks to the plant affect the caterpillar metabolism. Because plants may be induced by shoot and root herbivory, we compared shoot and root induction by treating the plants on either plant part with jasmonic acid. Extracts of the plants and the caterpillars were chemically analysed using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography/Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (UPLCT/MS). The study revealed that the levels of three structurally related coumaroylquinic acids were elevated in plants treated on the shoot. The levels of these compounds in plants and caterpillars were highly correlated: these compounds were defined as the ‘metabolic interface’. The role of these metabolites could only be discovered using simultaneous analysis of the plant and caterpillar metabolomes. We conclude that a metabolomics approach is useful in discovering unexpected bioactive compounds involved in ecological interactions between plants and their herbivores and higher trophic levels.

Supervolcanoes Within an Ancient Volcanic Province in Arabia Terra, Mars

Several irregularly shaped craters located within Arabia Terra, Mars represent a new type of highland volcanic construct and together constitute a previously unrecognized martian igneous province. Similar to terrestrial supervolcanoes, these low-relief paterae display a range of geomorphic features related to structural collapse, effusive volcanism, and explosive eruptions. Extruded lavas contributed to the formation of enigmatic highland ridged plains in Arabia Terra. Outgassed sulfur and erupted fine-grained pyroclastics from these calderas likely fed the formation of altered, layered sedimentary rocks and fretted terrain found throughout the equatorial region. Discovery of a new type of volcanic construct in the Arabia volcanic province fundamentally changes the picture of ancient volcanism and climate evolution on Mars. Other eroded topographic basins in the ancient Martian highlands that have been dismissed as degraded impact craters should be reconsidered as possible volcanic constructs formed in an early phase of widespread, disseminated magmatism on Mars

The Ethics of Delusional Belief

In this paper we address the ethics of adopting delusional beliefs and we apply consequentialist and deontological considerations to the epistemic evaluation of delusions. Delusions are characterised by their epistemic shortcomings and they are often defined as false and irrational beliefs. Despite this, when agents are overwhelmed by negative emotions due to the effects of trauma or previous adversities, or when they are subject to anxiety and stress as a result of hypersalient experience, the adoption of a delusional belief can prevent a serious epistemic harm from occurring. For instance, delusions can allow agents to remain in touch with their environment overcoming the disruptive effect of negative emotions and anxiety. Moreover, agents are not blameworthy for adopting their delusions if their ability to believe otherwise is compromised. There is evidence suggesting that no evidence-related action that would counterfactually lead them to believe otherwise is typically available to them. The lack of ability to believe otherwise, together with some other conditions, implies that the agents are not blameworthy for their delusions. The examination of the epistemic status of delusions prompts us to acknowledge the complexity and contextual nature of epistemic evaluation, establish connections between consequentialist and deontological frameworks in epistemology, and introduce the notion of epistemic innocence into the vocabulary of epistemic evaluatio

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α gene polymorphisms and cancer risk: a meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The results from the published studies on the association between <it>hypoxia-inducible factor -1α </it>(HIF-1α) polymorphisms and cancer risk are conflicting. In this meta-analysis, we aimed to investigate the association between <it>HIF-1α </it>1772 C/T and 1790 G/A polymorphisms and cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The meta-analysis for 1772 C/T polymorphism included 4131 cancer cases and 5387 controls, and for 1790 G/A polymorphism included 2058 cancer cases and 3026 controls. Allelic and genotypic comparisons between cases and controls were evaluated. Subgroup analyses by cancer types, ethnicity, and gender were also performed. We included prostate cancer in male subgroup, and female specific cancers in female subgroup.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For the 1772 C/T polymorphism, the analysis showed that the T allele and genotype TT were significantly associated with higher cancer risk: odds ratio (OR) = 1.29 [95% confidence interval (CI, 1.01, 1.65)], P = 0.04, P_{heterogeneity}< 0.00001, and OR = 2.18 [95% CI (1.32, 3.62)], P = 0.003, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.02, respectively. The effect of the genotype TT on cancer especially exists in Caucasians and female subjects: OR = 2.40 [95% CI (1.26, 4.59)], P = 0.008, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.02, and OR = 3.60 [95% CI (1.17, 11.11)], P = 0.03, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.02, respectively. For the 1790 G/A polymorphism, the pooled ORs for allelic frequency comparison and dominant model comparison suggested a significant association of 1790 G/A polymorphism with a decreased breast cancer risk: OR = 0.28 [95% CI (0.08, 0.90)], P = 0.03, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.45, and OR = 0.29 [95% CI (0.09, 0.97)], P = 0.04, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.41, respectively. The frequency of the <it>HIF-1α </it>1790 A allele was very low and only two studies were included in the breast cancer subgroup.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our meta-analysis suggests that the <it>HIF-1α </it>1772 C/T polymorphism is significantly associated with higher cancer risk, and 1790 G/A polymorphism is significantly associated with decreased breast cancer risk. The effect of the 1772 C/T polymorphism on cancer especially exists in Caucasians and female subjects. Only female specific cancers were included in female subgroup, which indicates that the 1772 C/T polymorphism is significantly associated with an increased risk for female specific cancers. The association between the 1790 G/A polymorphism and lower breast cancer risk could be due to chance.</p

No rapid audiovisual recalibration in adults on the autism spectrum

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by difficulties in social cognition, but are also associated with atypicalities in sensory and perceptual processing. Several groups have reported that autistic individuals show reduced integration of socially relevant audiovisual signals, which may contribute to the higher-order social and cognitive difficulties observed in autism. Here we use a newly devised technique to study instantaneous adaptation to audiovisual asynchrony in autism. Autistic and typical participants were presented with sequences of brief visual and auditory stimuli, varying in asynchrony over a wide range, from 512 ms auditory-lead to 512 ms auditory-lag, and judged whether they seemed to be synchronous. Typical adults showed strong adaptation effects, with trials proceeded by an auditory-lead needing more auditory-lead to seem simultaneous, and vice versa. However, autistic observers showed little or no adaptation, although their simultaneity curves were as narrow as the typical adults. This result supports recent Bayesian models that predict reduced adaptation effects in autism. As rapid audiovisual recalibration may be fundamental for the optimisation of speech comprehension, recalibration problems could render language processing more difficult in autistic individuals, hindering social communication

Indiscriminate Males: Mating Behaviour of a Marine Snail Compromised by a Sexual Conflict?

Background: In promiscuous species, male fitness is expected to increase with repeated matings in an open-ended fashion (thereby increasing number of partners or probability of paternity) whereas female fitness should level out at some optimal number of copulations when direct and indirect benefits still outweigh the costs of courtship and copulation. After this fitness peak, additional copulations would incur female fitness costs and be under opposing selection. Hence, a sexual conflict over mating frequency may evolve in species where females are forced to engage in costly matings. Under such circumstance, if females could avoid male detection, significant fitness benefits from such avoidance strategies would be predicted. Methodology/Principal Findings: Among four Littorina species, one lives at very much higher densities and has a longer mating season than the other three species. Using video records of snail behaviour in a laboratory arena we show that males of the low-density species discriminate among male and female mucous trails, trailing females for copulations. In the high-density species, however, males fail to discriminate between male and female trails, not because males are unable to identify female trails (which we show using heterospecific females), but because females do not, as the other species, add a gender-specific cue to their trail. Conclusions/Significance: We conclude that there is likely a sexual conflict over mating frequency in the high-densit

From Offshore to Onshore: Multiple Origins of Shallow-Water Corals from Deep-Sea Ancestors

Shallow-water tropical reefs and the deep sea represent the two most diverse marine environments. Understanding the origin and diversification of this biodiversity is a major quest in ecology and evolution. The most prominent and well-supported explanation, articulated since the first explorations of the deep sea, holds that benthic marine fauna originated in shallow, onshore environments, and diversified into deeper waters. In contrast, evidence that groups of marine organisms originated in the deep sea is limited, and the possibility that deep-water taxa have contributed to the formation of shallow-water communities remains untested with phylogenetic methods. Here we show that stylasterid corals (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Stylasteridae)—the second most diverse group of hard corals—originated and diversified extensively in the deep sea, and subsequently invaded shallow waters. Our phylogenetic results show that deep-water stylasterid corals have invaded the shallow-water tropics three times, with one additional invasion of the shallow-water temperate zone. Our results also show that anti-predatory innovations arose in the deep sea, but were not involved in the shallow-water invasions. These findings are the first robust evidence that an important group of tropical shallow-water marine animals evolved from deep-water ancestors