Adult Age Differences in Eye Movements During Reading: The Evidence From Chinese

Abstract Objectives: Substantial evidence indicates that older readers of alphabetic languages (e.g., English and German) compensate for age-related reading difficulty by employing a more risky reading strategy in which words are skipped more frequently. The effects of healthy aging on reading behavior for nonalphabetic languages, like Chinese, are largely unknown, although this would reveal the extent to which age-related changes in reading strategy are universal. Accordingly, the present research used measures of eye movements to investigate adult age differences in Chinese reading. Method: The eye movements of young (18-30 years) and older (60+ years) Chinese readers were recorded. Results: The older adults exhibited typical patterns of age-related reading difficulty. But rather than employing a more risky reading strategy compared with the younger readers, the older adults read more carefully by skipping words infrequently, making shorter forward eye movements, and fixating closer to the beginnings of two-character target words in sentences. Discussion: In contrast with the findings for alphabetic languages, older Chinese readers appear to compensate for agerelated reading difficulty by employing a more careful reading strategy. Age-related changes in reading strategy therefore appear to be language specific, rather than universal, and may reflect the specific visual and linguistic requirements of the writing system

Targeting VEGF/VEGFRs Pathway in the Antiangiogenic Treatment of Human Cancers by Traditional Chinese Medicine

Bearing in mind the doctrine of tumor angiogenesis hypothesized by Folkman several decades ago, the fundamental strategy for alleviating numerous cancer indications may be the strengthening application of notable antiangiogenic therapies to inhibit metastasis-related tumor growth. Under physiological conditions, vascular sprouting is a relatively infrequent event unless when specifically stimulated by pathogenic factors that contribute to the accumulation of angiogenic activators such as the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Since VEGFs have been identified as the principal cytokine to initiate angiogenesis in tumor growth, synthetic VEGF-targeting medicines containing bevacizumab and sorafenib have been extensively used, but prominent side effects have concomitantly emerged. Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM)–derived agents with distinctive safety profiles have shown their multitarget curative potential by impairing angiogenic stimulatory signaling pathways directly or eliciting synergistically therapeutic effects with anti-angiogenic drugs mainly targeting VEGF-dependent pathways. This review aims to summarize ( a ) the up-to-date understanding of the role of VEGF/VEGFR in correlation with proangiogenic mechanisms in various tissues and cells; ( b ) the elaboration of antitumor angiogenesis mechanisms of 4 representative TCMs, including Salvia miltiorrhiza, Curcuma longa , ginsenosides, and Scutellaria baicalensis ; and ( c ) circumstantial clarification of TCM-driven therapeutic actions of suppressing tumor angiogenesis by targeting VEGF/VEGFRs pathway in recent years, based on network pharmacology