The dynamics of experiencing Gestalt and Aha in cubist art: pupil responses and art evaluations show a complex interplay of task, stimuli content, and time course

IntroductionGestalt perception refers to the cognitive ability to perceive various elements as a unified whole. In our study, we delve deeper into the phenomenon of Gestalt recognition in visual cubist art, a transformative process culminating in what is often described as an Aha moment. This Aha moment signifies a sudden understanding of what is seen, merging seemingly disparate elements into a coherent meaningful picture. The onset of this Aha moment can vary, either appearing almost instantaneously, which is in line with theories of hedonic fluency, or manifesting after a period of time, supporting the concept of delayed but more in-depth meaningful insight.MethodsWe employed pupillometry to measure cognitive and affective shifts during art interaction, analyzing both maximum pupil dilation and average dilation across the trial. The study consisted of two parts: in the first, 84 participants identified faces in cubist paintings under various conditions, with Aha moments and pupil dilation measured. In part 2, the same 84 participants assessed the artworks through ratings in a no-task free-viewing condition.ResultsResults of part 1 indicate a distinctive pattern of pupil dilation, with maximum dilation occurring at both trial onset and end. Longer response times were observed for high-fluent, face-present stimuli, aligning with a delayed but accurate Aha-moment through recognition. Additionally, the time of maximum pupil dilation, rather than average dilation, exhibited significant associations, being later for high-fluent, face-present stimuli and correct detections. In part 2, average, not the time of maximum pupil dilation emerged as the significant factor. Face-stimuli and highly accessible art evoked stronger dilations, also reflecting high clearness and negative valence ratings.DiscussionThe study underscores a complex relationship between the timing of recognition and the Aha moment, suggesting nuanced differences in emotional and cognitive responses during art viewing. Pupil dilation measures offer insight into these processes especially for moments of recognition, though their application in evaluating emotional responses through artwork ratings warrants further exploration

A novel underuse model shows that inactivity but not ovariectomy determines the deteriorated material properties and geometry of cortical bone in the tibia of adult rats

Our goal in this study was to determine to what extent the physiologic consequences of ovariectomy (OVX) in bones are exacerbated by a lack of daily activity such as walking. We forced 14-week-old female rats to be inactive for 15 weeks with a unique experimental system that prevents standing and walking while allowing other movements. Tibiae, femora, and 4th lumbar vertebrae were analyzed by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT), microfocused X-ray computed tomography (micro-CT), histology, histomorphometry, Raman spectroscopy, and the three-point bending test. Contrary to our expectation, the exacerbation was very much limited to the cancellous bone parameters. Parameters of femur and tibia cortical bone were affected by the forced inactivity but not by OVX: (1) cross-sectional moment of inertia was significantly smaller in Sham-Inactive rat bones than that of their walking counterparts; (2) the number of sclerostin-positive osteocytes per unit cross-sectional area was larger in Sham-Inactive rat bones than in Sham-Walking rat bones; and (3) material properties such as ultimate stress of inactive rat tibia was lower than that of their walking counterparts. Of note, the additive effect of inactivity and OVX was seen only in a few parameters, such as the cancellous bone mineral density of the lumbar vertebrae and the structural parameters of cancellous bone in the lumbar vertebrae/tibiae. It is concluded that the lack of daily activity is detrimental to the strength and quality of cortical bone in the femur and tibia of rats, while lack of estrogen is not. Our inactive rat model, with the older rats, will aid the study of postmenopausal osteoporosis, the etiology of which may be both hormonal and mechanical

Conversion of a molecular classifier obtained by gene expression profiling into a classifier based on real-time PCR: a prognosis predictor for gliomas

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The advent of gene expression profiling was expected to dramatically improve cancer diagnosis. However, despite intensive efforts and several successful examples, the development of profile-based diagnostic systems remains a difficult task. In the present work, we established a method to convert molecular classifiers based on adaptor-tagged competitive PCR (ATAC-PCR) (with a data format that is similar to that of microarrays) into classifiers based on real-time PCR.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Previously, we constructed a prognosis predictor for glioma using gene expression data obtained by ATAC-PCR, a high-throughput reverse-transcription PCR technique. The analysis of gene expression data obtained by ATAC-PCR is similar to the analysis of data from two-colour microarrays. The prognosis predictor was a linear classifier based on the first principal component (PC1) score, a weighted summation of the expression values of 58 genes. In the present study, we employed the delta-delta Ct method for measurement by real-time PCR. The predictor was converted to a Ct value-based predictor using linear regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We selected <it>UBL5 </it>as the reference gene from the group of genes with expression patterns that were most similar to the median expression level from the previous profiling study. The number of diagnostic genes was reduced to 27 without affecting the performance of the prognosis predictor. PC1 scores calculated from the data obtained by real-time PCR showed a high linear correlation (r = 0.94) with those obtained by ATAC-PCR. The correlation for individual gene expression patterns (r = 0.43 to 0.91) was smaller than for PC1 scores, suggesting that errors of measurement were likely cancelled out during the weighted summation of the expression values. The classification of a test set (n = 36) by the new predictor was more accurate than histopathological diagnosis (log rank p-values, 0.023 and 0.137, respectively) for predicting prognosis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We successfully converted a molecular classifier obtained by ATAC-PCR into a Ct value-based predictor. Our conversion procedure should also be applicable to linear classifiers obtained from microarray data. Because errors in measurement are likely to be cancelled out during the calculation, the conversion of individual gene expression is not an appropriate procedure. The predictor for gliomas is still in the preliminary stages of development and needs analytical clinical validation and clinical utility studies.</p

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum