The influence of sex, allergic rhinitis, and test system on nasal sensitivity to airborne irritants: a pilot study.

"Nasal irritant sensitivity" is an important construct in environmental health science; functional measures, however, lack standardization. We performed duplicate measures of nasal irritant perceptual acuity on 16 subjects (evenly divided by sex and seasonal allergy status) using two different test compounds: carbon dioxide (CO2) (detection) and n-propanol (localization). The a priori hypotheses included a) allergic rhinitics will display lower perceptual thresholds than nonrhinitics; b) females will display lower perceptual thresholds than males; and c) estimates of perceptual acuity using the two test systems will be positively correlated. We obtained CO2 detection thresholds using an ascending concentration series, presenting 3-sec pulses of CO2, paired with air in random order, by nasal cannula. We obtained localization thresholds by simultaneously presenting stimuli (ascending concentrations of n-propanol vapor in air) and blanks (saturated water vapor in air) to opposite nostrils, with laterality randomized. In terms of test-retest reliability, individual replicate measures for CO2 detection thresholds correlated more closely than did the localization thresholds of volatile organic compounds (VOC) (r = 0.65 and r = 0.60, respectively). As an intertest comparison, log-transformed individual mean CO2 and VOC measures were positively correlated with an r of 0.63 (p < 0.01). In univariate analyses, sex predicted both log-transformed CO2 and VOC thresholds (females being more "sensitive"; p < 0.05 and 0.001, respectively). Nasal allergies predicted sensory testing results only in the multivariate analysis, and then only for VOC localization (p < 0.05). The question of population variation in nasal irritant sensitivity (as well as the generalizability of results across test compounds) deserves further attention

Sniff Invariant Odor Coding.

Sampling regulates stimulus intensity and temporal dynamics at the sense organ. Despite variations in sampling behavior, animals must make veridical perceptual judgments about external stimuli. In olfaction, odor sampling varies with respiration, which influences neural responses at the olfactory periphery. Nevertheless, rats were able to perform fine odor intensity judgments despite variations in sniff kinetics. To identify the features of neural activity supporting stable intensity perception, in awake mice we measured responses of mitral/tufted (MT) cells to different odors and concentrations across a range of sniff frequencies. Amplitude and latency of the MT cells' responses vary with sniff duration. A fluid dynamics (FD) model based on odor concentration kinetics in the intranasal cavity can account for this variability. Eliminating sniff waveform dependence of MT cell responses using the FD model allows for significantly better decoding of concentration. This suggests potential schemes for sniff waveform invariant odor concentration coding

Considering the role of cognitive control in expert performance

© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Dreyfus and Dreyfus’ (1986) influential phenomenological analysis of skill acquisition proposes that expert performance is guided by non-cognitive responses which are fast, effortless and apparently intuitive in nature. Although this model has been criticised (e.g., by Breivik Journal of Philosophy of Sport, 34, 116–134 2007, Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 40, 85–106 2013; Eriksen 2010; Montero Inquiry:An interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 53, 105–122 2010; Montero and Evans 2011) for over-emphasising the role that intuition plays in facilitating skilled performance, it does recognise that on occasions (e.g., when performance goes awry for some reason) a form of ‘detached deliberative rationality’ may be used by experts to improve their performance. However, Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) see no role for calculative problem solving or deliberation (i.e., drawing on rules or mental representations) when performance is going well. In the current paper, we draw on empirical evidence, insights from athletes, and phenomenological description to argue that ‘continuous improvement’ (i.e., the phenomenon whereby certain skilled performers appear to be capable of increasing their proficiency even though they are already experts; Toner and Moran 2014) among experts is mediated by cognitive (or executive) control in three distinct sporting situations (i.e., in training, during pre-performance routines, and while engaged in on-line skill execution). We conclude by arguing that Sutton et al. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 42, 78–103 (2011) ‘applying intelligence to the reflexes’ (AIR) approach may help to elucidate the process by which expert performers achieve continuous improvement through analytical/mindful behaviour during training and competition

A network that performs brute-force conversion of a temporal sequence to a spatial pattern: relevance to odor recognition

A classic problem in neuroscience is how temporal sequences (TSs) can be recognized. This problem is exemplified in the olfactory system, where an odor is defined by the TS of olfactory bulb (OB) output that occurs during a sniff. This sequence is discrete because the output is subdivided by gamma frequency oscillations. Here we propose a new class of "brute-force" solutions to recognition of discrete sequences. We demonstrate a network architecture in which there are a small number of modules, each of which provides a persistent snapshot of what occurs in a different gamma cycle. The collection of these snapshots forms a spatial pattern (SP) that can be recognized by standard attractor-based network mechanisms. We will discuss the implications of this strategy for recognizing odor-specific sequences generated by the OB

Corporal diagnostic work and diagnostic spaces: Clinicians' use of space and bodies during diagnosis

© 2015 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness © 2015 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.An emerging body of literature in sociology has demonstrated that diagnosis is a useful focal point for understanding the social dimensions of health and illness. This article contributes to this work by drawing attention to the relationship between diagnostic spaces and the way in which clinicians use their own bodies during the diagnostic process. As a case study, we draw upon fieldwork conducted with a multidisciplinary clinical team providing deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat children with a movement disorder called dystonia. Interviews were conducted with team members and diagnostic examinations were observed. We illustrate that clinicians use communicative body work and verbal communication to transform a material terrain into diagnostic space, and we illustrate how this diagnostic space configures forms of embodied 'sensing-and-acting' within. We argue that a 'diagnosis' can be conceptualised as emerging from an interaction in which space, the clinician-body, and the patient-body (or body-part) mutually configure one another. By conceptualising diagnosis in this way, this article draws attention to the corporal bases of diagnostic power and counters Cartesian-like accounts of clinical work in which the patient-body is objectified by a disembodied medical discourse.The Wellcome Trust (Wellcome Trust Biomedical Strategic Award 086034

Screening by symmetry of long-range hydrodynamic interactions of polymers confined in sheets

Hydrodynamic forces may significantly affect the motion of polymers. In sheet-like cavities, such as the cell's cytoplasm and microfluidic channels, the hydrodynamic forces are long-range. It is therefore expected that that hydrodynamic interactions will dominate the motion of polymers in sheets and will be manifested by Zimm-like scaling. Quite the opposite, we note here that although the hydrodynamic forces are long-range their overall effect on the motion of polymers vanishes due to the symmetry of the two-dimensional flow. As a result, the predicted scaling of experimental observables such as the diffusion coefficient or the rotational diffusion time is Rouse-like, in accord with recent experiments. The effective screening validates the use of the non-interacting blobs picture for polymers confined in a sheet.Comment: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/complex/tlusty/papers/Macromolecules2006.pdf http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ma060251

ЩОДО ПРОБЛЕМИ ФОРМУВАННЯ КОМУНІКАТИВНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТІ ПРИ ОПАНУВАННІ ПСИХОЛОГІЧНИХ ЗНАНЬ СТУДЕНТАМИ-МЕДИКАМИ

The article deals with the possibility of forming of skills of communicative competence of medical students when using social-psychological training in the classroom as a part of the psychological circle. The necessity of improving of communicative competence of students of medical specialties is substantiated. We used art therapy techniques, role-playing games, reflexive techniques that enhance the experience of recognition units / feelings / patterns in relationships with people. Results of changes in communication of students that participate in an appropriate form of psychological work are summed.У статті розглядаються можливості формування навичок комунікативної компетентності студентів-медиків при використанні методу соціально-психологічного тренінгу в навчальному процесі в рамках психологічного гуртка. Обґрунтовано необхідність підвищення комунікативної компетентності у студентів медичних спеціальностей. Використовувалися методи арттерапії, рольових ігор, рефлексивних технік, що розширюють досвід розпізнавання установок/почуттів/патернів у відносинах з людьми. Підсумовані результати змін у спілкуванні студентів, які беруть участь у відповідній формі психологічної роботи.

Empathy, engagement, entrainment: the interaction dynamics of aesthetic experience

A recent version of the view that aesthetic experience is based in empathy as inner imitation explains aesthetic experience as the automatic simulation of actions, emotions, and bodily sensations depicted in an artwork by motor neurons in the brain. Criticizing the simulation theory for committing to an erroneous concept of empathy and failing to distinguish regular from aesthetic experiences of art, I advance an alternative, dynamic approach and claim that aesthetic experience is enacted and skillful, based in the recognition of others’ experiences as distinct from one’s own. In combining insights from mainly psychology, phenomenology, and cognitive science, the dynamic approach aims to explain the emergence of aesthetic experience in terms of the reciprocal interaction between viewer and artwork. I argue that aesthetic experience emerges by participatory sense-making and revolves around movement as a means for creating meaning. While entrainment merely plays a preparatory part in this, aesthetic engagement constitutes the phenomenological side of coupling to an artwork and provides the context for exploration, and eventually for moving, seeing, and feeling with art. I submit that aesthetic experience emerges from bodily and emotional engagement with works of art via the complementary processes of the perception–action and motion–emotion loops. The former involves the embodied visual exploration of an artwork in physical space, and progressively structures and organizes visual experience by way of perceptual feedback from body movements made in response to the artwork. The latter concerns the movement qualities and shapes of implicit and explicit bodily responses to an artwork that cue emotion and thereby modulate over-all affect and attitude. The two processes cause the viewer to bodily and emotionally move with and be moved by individual works of art, and consequently to recognize another psychological orientation than her own, which explains how art can cause feelings of insight or awe and disclose aspects of life that are unfamiliar or novel to the viewer

An interdisciplinary examination of attentional focus strategies used during running gait retraining

The aim was to investigate the biomechanical, physiological and perceptual responses to different motor learning strategies derived to elicit a flatter foot contact. Twenty‐eight, rearfoot‐striking recreational runners (age 24.9±2.8 years; body mass 78.8±13.6 kg; height 1.79±0.09 m) were matched by age, mass and height and assigned to one verbal cue group: internal focus of attention (IF), external focus of attention (EF) and a clinically derived condition (CLIN) incorporating an IF followed by an EF statement. Participants completed two treadmill runs at 10 km.h‐1 for six minutes each: normal running (control) followed by the experimental condition (IF, EF or CLIN). Lower limb kinematics, oxygen consumption (V̇02 )and central and peripheral ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded for each run. Compared to the control condition, foot angle was reduced in the IF (difference=5.86°, d=2.58) and CLIN (difference=3.00°, d=1.31) conditions, but unchanged in the EF (difference=0.33°, d=0.14) condition, whilst greater knee flexion at initial contact in the EF and CLIN conditions was observed (difference=‐5.19°, d=1.97; difference=‐3.66°, d=1.39, respectively). A higher V̇02 was observed in the CLIN condition (difference=‐4.56 ml.kg‐1.min‐1, d=2.29), but unchanged in the IF (difference = ‐1.87 ml.kg‐1.min‐1, d=0.94) and EF conditions (difference=‐0.37 ml.kg‐1.min‐1, d=0.19). All experimental conditions increased central and peripheral RPE (difference=‐1.08, d=0.54 and difference=‐2.39, d=1.33 respectively). Providing gait retraining instructions using an internally directed focus of attention was the most effective way to target specific changes in running kinematics, with no detrimental effect on physiological responses. Yet, perceptual effort responses increased regardless of the type of cue provided