Spontaneous rupture of metastatic α-fetoprotein-producing gastric cancer of the liver

An 80-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of the rupture of the liver. Laboratory data showed iron-deficiency anemia, although there was no liver dysfunction. A computed tomography scan showed large liver tumor with intraperitoneal hemorrhage, and since a serum level of α-fetoprotein (AFP) was extremely high, we initially suspected a rupture of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Transarterial embolization was performed to stop bleeding from the tumor, followed by an endoscopic examination that revealed advanced gastric cancer. Histological analysis revealed that both the gastric and the hepatic tumors were moderately to poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, as well as that both tumors were immunohistochemically positive for AFP. Finally, we diagnosed AFP-producing gastric cancer associated with liver metastasis. Rupture of metastatic liver cancer is rare, and accordingly, distinction from HCC is important, particularly for the cases of AFP-producing gastric cancer

A Drastic Change in Background Luminance or Motion Degrades the Preview Benefit

When some distractors (old items) precede some others (new items) in an inefficient visual search task, the search is restricted to new items, and yields a phenomenon termed the preview benefit. It has recently been demonstrated that, in this preview search task, the onset of repetitive changes in the background disrupts the preview benefit, whereas a single transient change in the background does not. In the present study, we explored this effect with dynamic background changes occurring in the context of realistic scenes, to examine the robustness and usefulness of visual marking. We examined whether preview benefit in a preview search task survived through task-irrelevant changes in the scene, namely a luminance change and the initiation of coherent motion, both occurring in the background. Luminance change of the background disrupted preview benefit if it was synchronized with the onset of the search display. Furthermore, although the presence of coherent background motion per se did not affect preview benefit, its synchronized initiation with the onset of the search display did disrupt preview benefit if the motion speed was sufficiently high. These results suggest that visual marking can be destroyed by a transient event in the scene if that event is sufficiently drastic

Attentional Capture to a Singleton Distractor Degrades Visual Marking in Visual Search

Visual search is easier after observing some distractors in advance; it is as if the previewed distractors were excluded from the search. This effect is referred to as the preview benefit, and a memory template that visually marks the old locations of the distractors is thought to help in prioritizing the locations of newly presented items. One remaining question is whether the presence of a conspicuous item during the sequential shift of attention within the new items reduces this preview benefit. To address this issue, we combined the above preview search and a conventional visual search paradigm using a singleton distractor and examined whether the search performance was affected by the presence of the singleton. The results showed that the slope of reaction time as a function of set size became steeper in the presence of a singleton, indicating that the singleton distractor reduced the preview benefit. Furthermore, this degradation effect was positively correlated with the degree of conventional attentional capture to a singleton measured in a separate experiment with simultaneous search. These findings suggest that the mechanism of visual marking shares common attentional resources with the search process

アニメにおける声質に対する印象の調査：日常場面およびドラマとの比較

When we listen to someone's voice, we estimate various speaker characteristics, such as one's personality and emotion, based on voice qualities. Previous studies have shown that voice qualities in anime are typically different from those in daily life. Although such studies analyzed various physical characteristics of voices in a particular anime, it is still unknown about impressions about voice qualities in anime from a more general perspective. In the present study, we compared impressions about voice qualities in three different situations: daily life, drama, and anime. Also, impressions of male and female voices were explored separately. Participants were instructed to assume the voice of each sex in each situation and asked to show their impression about voice qualities with various words. We conducted the factorial analysis and revealed that voice qualities could be explained in four factors: power, hoarseness, pitch, and brightness. The further analysis showed that participants had different impressions between three situations and sex. The impression about voice qualities in anime showed higher power, pitch, and brightness, whereas hoarseness was lower. We discuss the relationship between such impressions about voice qualities and known physical characteristics of voices in acting situations. Also, there were differences in impressions about voice qualities between sex: the female voice was thought to have higher power, pitch, and brightness while hoarseness was lower. Such results are discussed based on the physiological differences between sex. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the present study and possible future directions of researches on impressions to voice qualities