Dissociated Mechanisms of Extracting Perceptual Information into Visual Working Memory

The processing mechanisms of visual working memory (VWM) have been extensively explored in the recent decade. However, how the perceptual information is extracted into VWM remains largely unclear. The current study investigated this issue by testing whether the perceptual information was extracted into VWM via an integrated-object manner so that all the irrelevant information would be extracted (object hypothesis), or via a feature-based manner so that only the target-relevant information would be extracted (feature hypothesis), or via an analogous processing manner as that in visual perception (analogy hypothesis).High-discriminable information which is processed at the parallel stage of visual perception and fine-grained information which is processed via focal attention were selected as the representatives of perceptual information. The analogy hypothesis predicted that whereas high-discriminable information is extracted into VWM automatically, fine-grained information will be extracted only if it is task-relevant. By manipulating the information type of the irrelevant dimension in a change-detection task, we found that the performance was affected and the ERP component N270 was enhanced if a change between the probe and the memorized stimulus consisted of irrelevant high-discriminable information, but not if it consisted of irrelevant fine-grained information.We conclude that dissociated extraction mechanisms exist in VWM for information resolved via dissociated processes in visual perception (at least for the information tested in the current study), supporting the analogy hypothesis

The effect of tobacco, XPC, ERCC2 and ERCC5 genetic variants in bladder cancer development

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In this work, we have conducted a case-control study in order to assess the effect of tobacco and three genetic polymorphisms in <it>XPC, ERCC2 and ERCC5 </it>genes (rs2228001, rs13181 and rs17655) in bladder cancer development in Tunisia. We have also tried to evaluate whether these variants affect the bladder tumor stage and grade.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The patients group was constituted of 193 newly diagnosed cases of bladder tumors. The controls group was constituted of non-related healthy subjects. The rs2228001, rs13181 and rs17655 polymorphisms were genotyped using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our data have reported that non smoker and light smoker patients (1-19PY) are protected against bladder cancer development. Moreover, light smokers have less risk for developing advanced tumors stage. When we investigated the effect of genetic polymorphisms in bladder cancer development we have found that ERCC2 and ERCC5 variants were not implicated in the bladder cancer occurrence. However, the mutated homozygous genotype for XPC gene was associated with 2.09-fold increased risk of developing bladder cancer compared to the control carrying the wild genotype (p = 0.03, OR = 2.09, CI 95% 1.09-3.99). Finally, we have found that the XPC, ERCC2 and ERCC5 variants don't affect the tumors stage and grade.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest that the mutated homozygous genotype for XPC gene was associated with increased risk of developing bladder. However we have found no association between rs2228001, rs13181 and rs17655 polymorphisms and tumors stage and grade.</p

Deficiency in Nucleotide Excision Repair Family Gene Activity, Especially ERCC3, Is Associated with Non-Pigmented Hair Fiber Growth

We conducted a microarray study to discover gene expression patterns associated with a lack of melanogenesis in non-pigmented hair follicles (HF) by microarray. Pigmented and non-pigmented HFs were collected and micro-dissected into the hair bulb (HB) and the upper hair sheaths (HS) including the bulge region. In comparison to pigmented HS and HBs, nucleotide excision repair (NER) family genes ERCC1, ERCC2, ERCC3, ERCC4, ERCC5, ERCC6, XPA, NTPBP, HCNP, DDB2 and POLH exhibited statistically significantly lower expression in non- pigmented HS and HBs. Quantitative PCR verified microarray data and identified ERCC3 as highly differentially expressed. Immunohistochemistry confirmed ERCC3 expression in HF melanocytes. A reduction in ERCC3 by siRNA interference in human melanocytes in vitro reduced their tyrosinase production ability. Our results suggest that loss of NER gene function is associated with a loss of melanin production capacity. This may be due to reduced gene transcription and/or reduced DNA repair in melanocytes which may eventually lead to cell death. These results provide novel information with regard to melanogenesis and its regulation

A New Strategy to Identify and Annotate Human RPE-Specific Gene Expression

Background: To identify and functionally annotate cell type-specific gene expression in the human retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a key tissue involved in age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Methodology: RPE, photoreceptor and choroidal cells were isolated from selected freshly frozen healthy human donor eyes using laser microdissection. RNA isolation, amplification and hybridization to 44 k microarrays was carried out according to Agilent specifications. Bioinformatics was carried out using Rosetta Resolver, David and Ingenuity software. Principal Findings: Our previous 22 k analysis of the RPE transcriptome showed that the RPE has high levels of protein synthesis, strong energy demands, is exposed to high levels of oxidative stress and a variable degree of inflammation. We currently use a complementary new strategy aimed at the identification and functional annotation of RPE-specific expressed transcripts. This strategy takes advantage of the multilayered cellular structure of the retina and overcomes a number of limitations of previous studies. In triplicate, we compared the transcriptomes of RPE, photoreceptor and choroidal cells and we deduced RPE specific expression. We identified at least 114 entries with RPE-specific gene expression. Thirty-nine of these 114 genes also show high expression in the RPE, comparison with the literature showed that 85% of these 39 were previously identified to be expressed in the RPE. In the group of 114 RPE specific genes there was an overrepresentation of genes involved in (membrane) transport, vision and ophthalmic disease. More fundamentally, we found RPE-specific involvement in the RAR-activation, retinol metabolism and GABA receptor signaling pathways. Conclusions: In this study we provide a further specification and understanding of the RPE transcriptome by identifying and analyzing genes that are specifically expressed in the RPE

Actin: its cumbersome pilgrimage through cellular compartments

In this article, we follow the history of one of the most abundant, most intensely studied proteins of the eukaryotic cells: actin. We report on hallmarks of its discovery, its structural and functional characterization and localization over time, and point to present days’ knowledge on its position as a member of a large family. We focus on the rather puzzling number of diverse functions as proposed for actin as a dual compartment protein. Finally, we venture on some speculations as to its origin

Incremental grouping of image elements in vision

One important task for the visual system is to group image elements that belong to an object and to segregate them from other objects and the background. We here present an incremental grouping theory (IGT) that addresses the role of object-based attention in perceptual grouping at a psychological level and, at the same time, outlines the mechanisms for grouping at the neurophysiological level. The IGT proposes that there are two processes for perceptual grouping. The first process is base grouping and relies on neurons that are tuned to feature conjunctions. Base grouping is fast and occurs in parallel across the visual scene, but not all possible feature conjunctions can be coded as base groupings. If there are no neurons tuned to the relevant feature conjunctions, a second process called incremental grouping comes into play. Incremental grouping is a time-consuming and capacity-limited process that requires the gradual spread of enhanced neuronal activity across the representation of an object in the visual cortex. The spread of enhanced neuronal activity corresponds to the labeling of image elements with object-based attention