Modeling brain activity associated with metaphor processing with distributional semantic models

In this study we investigate how lexical-semantic relations associated with the literal meaning (and abstract meaning) are being accessed across the brain during familiar metaphor comprehension. We utilize a data-driven whole-brain searchlight similarity-decoding analysis. We contrast decoding metaphoric phrases (”she’s grasping the idea”) using distributional semantic models of the verb in the phrase (VERB model) versus that of the more abstract verb-sense (PARAPHRASE VERB model) obtained from literal paraphrases of the metaphoric phrases (”she’s understanding the idea”). We showed successful decoding with the VERB model across frontal, temporal and parietal lobes mainly within areas of the language and default-mode networks. In contrast, decoding with the PARAPHRASE VERB model was restricted to frontal-temporal lobes within areas of the language-network which overlapped to some extent with significant decoding with the VERB model. Overall, the results suggest that lexical-semantic relations closely associated with the abstract meaning in metaphor processing are largely localized to language and amodal (multimodal) semantic memory systems of the brain, while those more associated with the literal meaning are processed across a distributed semantic network including areas implicated in mental imagery and social-cognitio

MetaVR: Understanding metaphors in the mind and relation to emotion through immersive, spatial interaction

Metaphorical thinking acts as a bridge between embodiment and abstraction and helps to flexibly organize human knowledge and behavior. Yet its role in embodied human-computer interface de- sign, and its potential for supporting goals such as self-awareness and well-being, have not been extensively explored in the HCI community. We have designed a system called MetaVR to support the creation and exploration of immersive, multimodal, metaphoric experiences, in which people’s bodily actions in the physical world are linked to metaphorically relevant actions in a virtual reality world. As a team of researchers in interaction, neuroscience, and linguistics, we have created MetaVR to support research exploring the impact of such metaphoric interactions on human emotion and well-being. We have used MetaVR to create a proof-of-concept interface for immersive, spatial interactions underpinned by the WELL-BEING is VERTICALITY conceptual mapping—the known association of ‘good’=‘up’ and ‘bad’=‘down’. Researchers and developers can currently interact with this proof of concept to configure various metaphoric interactions or personifications that have positive associations (e.g., ‘being like a butterfly’ or ‘being like a flower’) and also involve vertical motion (e.g., a butterfly might fly upwards, or a flower might bloom upwards). Importantly, the metaphoric interactions supported in MetaVR do not link human movement to VR actions in one-to-one ways, but rather use abstracted relational mappings in which events in VR (e.g., the blooming of a virtual flower) are contingent not merely on a “correct” gesture being per- formed, but on aspects of verticality exhibited in human movement (e.g., in a very simple case, the time a person’s hands spend above some height threshold). This work thus serves as a small-scale vehicle for us to re- search how such interactions may impact well-being. Relatedly, it highlights the potential of using virtual embodied interaction as a tool to study cognitive processes involved in more deliberate/functional uses of metaphor and how this relates to emotion processing. By demonstrating MetaVR and metaphoric interactions designed with it at CHI Interactivity, and by offering the MetaVR tool to other researchers, we hope to inspire new perspectives, dis- cussion, and research within the HCI community about the role that such metaphoric interaction may play, in interfaces designed for well-being and beyond

Sojne razlike u toksičnosti antagoniste vitamina K varfarina kod pacova

Warfarin (3-(alpha-acetonylbenzy1)-4-hydroxy coumarin) is a vitamin K (VK) antagonist that inhibits vitamin K-dependent (VKD) processes, such as blood coagulation. It also exerts an influence on some non-VKD-related activities. In this study, the effect of sub-acute (30-day) oral warfarin (2 and 1 mg L-1) intake on hematological parameters was examined in two rat strains, Albino Oxford (AO) and Dark Agouti (DA), that differ in their sensitivity to certain chemicals. Greater susceptibility to the anticoagulant effect of 2 mg L-1 of warfarin was observed in AO rats and was associated with an increase in the relevant hematological parameters in this strain. Although both strains responded to 2 mg L-1 of warfarin with quantitative changes in the peripheral blood leukocytes, differential bone marrow and lung responses were observed. Strain-related differences in the pro-inflammatory activity of peripheral blood granulocytes and in mononuclear cell IFN-gamma production were observed. Recognition of differences in quantitative and qualitative effects of oral warfarin on processes other than hemostasis might be of relevance for those humans who are on warfarin therapy.Varfarin (3-α-acetonilbenzil)-4–hidroksikumarin) je antagonist vitamina K (VK) koji inhibira procese zavisne od ovog vitamina, uključujući koagulaciju krvi. Osim toga, on ispoljava i aktivnosti koje ne zavise od vitamina K kao što su anti-tumorska i imunomodulatorna aktivnost. U ovom radu je ispitan efekat subakutnog (30 dana) oralnog unosa varfarina na hematološke parametre i aktivnost leukocita periferne krvi kod dva soja pacova Albino Oxford (AO) i Dark Agouti (DA) koji se raz- likuju u osetljivosti na iste hemijske agense. Kod jedinki AO soja zapažena je veća smrtnost nakon konzumiranja doze od 4 mg L–1 kao i veća osetljivost na antikoagulantno dejstvo varfarina pri nižim dozama (2 mg L–1) koje je praćeno povećanjem nekih hematoloških parametara. Iako kod jedinki oba soja dolazi do povećanja broja neutrofilnih leukocita periferne krvi pri dozi od 2 mg L–1, promene u osnovnim proinflamatornim aktivnostima ovih ćelija su zapažene samo kod jedinki DA soja. Promene u broju neutrofilnih leukocita u krvi DA jedinki su praćene povećanjem broja granulocitnih prekursora u koštanoj srži, dok prisustvo neutrofila u plućima AO jedinki ukazuje na razmenu ćelija između periferne krvi i plućnog intravaskularnog pula ćelija. Diferencijalne sojno–zavisne promene u aktivnosti mononuklearnih ćelija periferne krvi su takođe zapažene. Razlike u efektu oralno unetog varfarina mogu da imaju implikacije za osobe na oralnoj varfarinskoj terapiji

Embodied Simulation: Building Meaning through Shared Neural Circuitry

The embodied simulation framework proposes that representations in the brain involved in acting, sensing, and feeling are reused for perceptual representations of other’s acting, sensing, and feeling. This framework provides an important foundation for understanding various higher-level cognitive phenomena in social cognition (Gallese & Sinigaglia, 2011). Indeed, many neuroscientific studies show that the same neural mechanisms involved in processing one’s own actions, sensations, and emotions are involved in both perceiving and understanding the actions, sensations, and emotions of others (Gallese & Goldman, 1998; Gallese, Keysers, & Rizzolatti, 2004; Keysers & Gazzola, 2009; Keysers, Kaas, & Gazzola, 2010). For example observing someone perform an action (e.g. open a bottle of champagne) has been shown to activate brain regions such as the premotor cortex and the posterior parietal cortex that are also related to performing actions (Gallese et al. , 2004; Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004). Similarly, watching a snake slither up another person’s leg may activate somatosensory cortices (SII) for processing tactile sensations (Keysers et al. , 2004). Lastly, experiencing the emotion of disgust and observing someone else experiencing disgust can activate the anterior insula and adjacent frontal operculum, areas involved in olfactory and gustatory processing and closely connected to visceromotor systems of the brain (Jabbi, Bastiaansen, & Keysers, 2008; Wicker et al. , 2003). These ‘shared circuits’ consist of brain circuits active for both processing our own actions, perceptions, and feelings and when we observe another person have the same experiences. This ‘mirror mechanism’ is believed to allow for pre-ref lective and automatic processes in social cognition that do not necessarily require ref lective metacognition

Episodic memory demands modulate novel metaphor use during event narration

Metaphor is an important part of everyday thought and language. Although we are often not aware of metaphor in everyday speech, on occasion, a particularly creative or novel use of metaphor will make us pay attention. It has been hypothesized that one of the driving cognitive factors behind the use of novel metaphor is a need to describe a new reality (as opposed to a preexisting reality) that would otherwise be difficult to convey using conventionalized metaphor. To this extent, novel metaphor use in everyday language may be more associated with episodic memory demands in contrast to conventional metaphor that is associated with semantic memory. To test this idea we analyzed novel metaphor use in the Hippocorpus --- a corpus of more than 5000 recalled and imagined stories about memorable life events in the first person perspective. In this dataset, recalled events have been shown to rely on episodic memory to a greater extent than descriptions of imagined events (i.e., narrating an event as if it happened to you but not describing an event that actually happened to you), which largely draw on semantic memory. We hypothesized that novel metaphor use during event narration should be modulated by the extent to which language users are able to draw on primary experience to describe events. We found that novel metaphor counts in recalled events were significantly higher than imagined events. Importantly, we found that factors that influence the extent to which language users are able to draw on primary experience during event narration (i.e., openness to experience, similarity to one's own experience, and how memorable or important an event was) modulated novel metaphor use in different ways in imagined compared to recalled events. The work paves the way for using large scale corpora to analyze underlying cognitive processes that modulate metaphorical language use

CHARACTERISTICS OF GETTING INJURED AND WOUNDED IN THE NATO AGGRESSION VICTIMS ON THE TERRITORY OF BELGRADE

During the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia in the period from March toJune, 1999, at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Belgrade there were 34 victimsregistered, namely, 22 of male and 12 of male sex. The greatest number of the killedwas of younger age, namely, of 31 to 40 years of age (l O persons) and from 21 to 30years of age (8 persons) while three victims were children up to 10 years of age. Onlyin one čaše the person on duty was wounded while all the other victims were civilianswho got fatal injuries out of the military objects. The wounds were in most casesinflicted by the NATO aviation actions at night, from midnight to 6 o'clock a. m. (28).In the inner city zone 26 persons were hurt; 6 were hurt in the villages aroundBelgrade and two in the suburban settlements. Half of them were killed at their jobs;16 of them were killed in the building of the Radio Television of Serbia; 9 were killedin their homes; 3 were killed in the hospital just like in the embassy and 2 in the street.Most of the persons (33) got injured due to a direct mechanical and/or thermal effectof explosive weapons. The forensic-medical autopsy was done on 31 victims. In 30cases the death occurred at the place where in the injury was inflicted

The Association of Polymorphisms in Nrf2 and Genes Involved in Redox Homeostasis in the Development and Progression of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Deleterious effects of SNPs found in genes encoding transcriptional factors, as well as antioxidant and detoxification enzymes, are disputable; however, their functional significance seems to modify the risk for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) development and progression. We investigated the effect of specific Nrf2, SOD2, GPX1 gene variants and GSTP1ABCD haplotype on ccRCC risk and prognosis and evaluated the association between GSTP1 and regulatory (JNK1/2) and executor (caspase-3) apoptotic molecule expression in ccRCC tissue samples and the presence of GSTP1 : JNK1/2 protein : protein interactions. Genotyping was performed in 223 ccRCC patients and 336 matched controls by PCR-CTTP and qPCR. Protein expression was analyzed using immunoblot, while the existence of GSTP1 : JNK1 protein : protein interactions was investigated by immunoprecipitation experiments. An increased risk of ccRCC development was found among carriers of variant genotypes of both SOD2 rs4880 and GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphisms. Nrf2 rs6721961 genetic polymorphism in combination with both rs4880 and rs1695 showed higher ccRCC risk as well. Haplotype analysis revealed significant risk of ccRCC development in carriers of the GSTP1C haplotype. Furthermore, GSTP1 variant forms seem to affect the overall survival in ccRCC patients, and the proposed molecular mechanism underlying the GSTP1 prognostic role might be the presence of GSTP1 : JNK1/2 protein : protein interactions