Toward an Agent-Agnostic Transmission Model: Synthesizing Anthropocentric and Technocentric Paradigms in Communication

Technological and social evolutions have prompted operational, phenomenological, and ontological shifts in communication processes. These shifts, we argue, trigger the need to regard human and machine roles in communication processes in a more egalitarian fashion. Integrating anthropocentric and technocentric perspectives on communication, we propose an agent-agnostic framework for human-machine communication. This framework rejects exclusive assignment of communicative roles (sender, message, channel, receiver) to traditionally held agents and instead focuses on evaluating agents according to their functions as a means for considering what roles are held in communication processes. As a first step in advancing this agent-agnostic perspective, this theoretical paper offers three potential criteria that both humans and machines could satisfy: agency, interactivity, and influence. Future research should extend our agent-agnostic framework to ensure that communication theory will be prepared to deal with an ostensibly machine-inclusive future

SYMPHONY consortium:Orchestrating personalized treatment for patients with bleeding disorders

Background Treatment choices for individual patients with an inborn bleeding disorder are increasingly challenging due to increasing options and rising costs for society. We have initiated an integrated interdisciplinary national research program. Objectives The SYMPHONY consortium strives to orchestrate personalized treatment in patients with an inborn bleeding disorder, by unraveling the mechanisms behind interindividual variations of bleeding phenotype. Patients The SYMPHONY consortium will investigate patients with an inborn bleeding disorder, both diagnosed and not yet diagnosed. Results Research questions are categorized under the themes: (1) diagnosis, (2) treatment, and (3) fundamental research, and consist of work packages addressing specific domains. Importantly, collaborations between patients and talented researchers from different areas of expertise promise to augment the impact of the SYMPHONY consortium, leading to unique interactions and intellectual property. Conclusions SYMPHONY will perform research on all aspects of care, treatment individualization in patients with inborn bleeding disorders, as well as diagnostic innovations and results of molecular genetics and cellular model technology with regard to the hemostatic process. We believe that these research investments will lead to health-care innovations with long-term clinical and societal impact. This consortium has been made possible by a governmental, competitive grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) within the framework of the NWA-ORC Call grant agreement NWA.1160.18.038

Is (poly-) substance use associated with impaired inhibitory control? A mega-analysis controlling for confounders.

Many studies have reported that heavy substance use is associated with impaired response inhibition. Studies typically focused on associations with a single substance, while polysubstance use is common. Further, most studies compared heavy users with light/non-users, though substance use occurs along a continuum. The current mega-analysis accounted for these issues by aggregating individual data from 43 studies (3610 adult participants) that used the Go/No-Go (GNG) or Stop-signal task (SST) to assess inhibition among mostly "recreational" substance users (i.e., the rate of substance use disorders was low). Main and interaction effects of substance use, demographics, and task-characteristics were entered in a linear mixed model. Contrary to many studies and reviews in the field, we found that only lifetime cannabis use was associated with impaired response inhibition in the SST. An interaction effect was also observed: the relationship between tobacco use and response inhibition (in the SST) differed between cannabis users and non-users, with a negative association between tobacco use and inhibition in the cannabis non-users. In addition, participants' age, education level, and some task characteristics influenced inhibition outcomes. Overall, we found limited support for impaired inhibition among substance users when controlling for demographics and task-characteristics

The Sum of Its Parts—Effects of Gastric Distention, Nutrient Content and Sensory Stimulation on Brain Activation

<div><p></p><p>During food consumption the brain integrates multiple interrelated neural and hormonal signals involved in the regulation of food intake. Factors influencing the decision to stop eating include the foods' sensory properties, macronutrient content, and volume, which in turn affect gastric distention and appetite hormone responses. So far, the contributions of gastric distention and oral stimulation by food on brain activation have not been studied. The primary objective of this study was to assess the effect of gastric distention with an intra-gastric load and the additional effect of oral stimulation on brain activity after food administration. Our secondary objective was to study the correlations between hormone responses and appetite-related ratings and brain activation. Fourteen men completed three functional magnetic resonance imaging sessions during which they either received a naso-gastric infusion of water (stomach distention), naso-gastric infusion of chocolate milk (stomach distention + nutrients), or ingested chocolate-milk (stomach distention + nutrients + oral exposure). Appetite ratings and blood parameters were measured at several time points. During gastric infusion, brain activation was observed in the midbrain, amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus for both chocolate milk and water, i.e., irrespective of nutrient content. The thalamus, amygdala, putamen and precuneus were activated more after ingestion than after gastric infusion of chocolate milk, whereas infusion evoked greater activation in the hippocampus and anterior cingulate. Moreover, areas involved in gustation and reward were activated more after oral stimulation. Only insulin responses following naso-gastric infusion of chocolate milk correlated with brain activation, namely in the putamen and insula. In conclusion, we show that normal (oral) food ingestion evokes greater activation than gastric infusion in stomach distention and food intake-related brain areas. This provides neural evidence for the importance of sensory stimulation in the process of satiation.</p><p>Trial Registration</p><p>ClinicalTrials.gov <a href="http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=NCT01644539" target="_blank">NCT01644539</a>.</p></div

Changes in brain activity after treatment for the three conditions. Left panel: T-map of the increased response to oral chocolate milk stimulation after administration versus baseline overlaid onto the mean anatomical scan, thresholded at P<0.05 (FWE-corrected for multiple comparison).

<p>Right panel: Mean parameter estimates (a.u. ± SEM) over time from selected significant clusters. Area under the curve was greater for the oral condition in all brain areas, and for the control condition in the putamen (all P<0.05).</p

Effect of treatment with chocolate milk on brain activation in healthy normal- weight young men.

<p>Oral > gastric shows areas with increased activation in the oral condition, oral < gastric shows areas with increased activation during the gastric chocolate milk condition.</p>1<p>Values are clusters of mean brain activation, n = 14. Reported clusters were thresholded at P<0.05 (FWE-corrected for multiple comparisons).</p>2<p>Voxel coordinates are in MNI space <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0090872#pone.0090872-Evans1" target="_blank">[42]</a>.</p

Correlation between fullness and insulin changes (from baseline) and changes in brain activity in corresponding time bins during the gastric condition (n = 14, 5 time bins per subject, T-maps are thresholded at P<0.001, uncorrected for multiple comparisons).

<p>Left pane: T-map of selected significant correlations overlaid onto the mean anatomical scan. A: Correlation T-map and scatter plot showing the parameter estimates of the ACC peak voxel at MNI (−6, −16, 30) against fullness changes. B: Correlation T-map and scatter plot showing the parameter estimates of the putamen peak voxel (34, 0, 6) against insulin changes. C: Correlation T-map and scatter plot of the parameter estimates of the insula peak voxel at MNI (−38, 0, 2) plotted against insulin changes.</p

Effect of gastric infusion on brain activation in healthy normal-weight young men.

1<p>Values are clusters of mean brain activation, n = 14. Reported clusters were thresholded at P<0.05 (FWE-corrected for multiple comparisons).</p>2<p>Voxel coordinates are in MNI space <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0090872#pone.0090872-Evans1" target="_blank">[42]</a>.</p