Spatial Frequency Information Modulates Response Inhibition and Decision-Making Processes

We interact with the world through the assessment of available, but sometimes imperfect, sensory information. However, little is known about how variance in the quality of sensory information affects the regulation of controlled actions. In a series of three experiments, comprising a total of seven behavioral studies, we examined how different types of spatial frequency information affect underlying processes of response inhibition and selection. Participants underwent a stop-signal task, a two choice speed/accuracy balance experiment, and a variant of both these tasks where prior information was given about the nature of stimuli. In all experiments, stimuli were either intact, or contained only high-, or low- spatial frequencies. Overall, drift diffusion model analysis showed a decreased rate of information processing when spatial frequencies were removed, whereas the criterion for information accumulation was lowered. When spatial frequency information was intact, the cost of response inhibition increased (longer SSRT), while a correct response was produced faster (shorter reaction times) and with more certainty (decreased errors). When we manipulated the motivation to respond with a deadline (i.e., be fast or accurate), removal of spatial frequency information slowed response times only when instructions emphasized accuracy. However, the slowing of response times did not improve error rates, when compared to fast instruction trials. These behavioral studies suggest that the removal of spatial frequency information differentially affects the speed of response initiation, inhibition, and the efficiency to balance fast or accurate responses. More generally, the present results indicate a task-independent influence of basic sensory information on strategic adjustments in action control.     

三种微藻细胞破碎方法的比较

目的:获得最佳的微藻藻胆蛋白提取方法.方法:采用溶胀法、反复冻融法、低浓度氯化钙溶液提取法和玻璃珠处理法等四种方法分别对紫球藻、蔷薇藻和念珠藻三种藻细胞进行破碎,通过测定藻红蛋白的纯度和浓度对四种细胞破碎方法效果进行比较.结果:当细胞密度为1.00g/L时,采用反复冻融法处理紫球藻和蔷薇藻时能够获得最高的藻红蛋白纯度(OD545/OD280),分别为1.250和1.669,藻红蛋白的浓度分别为29.788,mg/L和36.026mg/L,细胞密度对藻红蛋白纯度影响较小;低浓度氯化钙溶液提取法能使念珠藻藻红蛋白的纯度(OD545/OD280)达到0.477.结论:紫球藻和蔷薇藻经反复冻融法破碎细胞,藻红蛋白纯度高,提取效果好;而对念珠藻藻红蛋白提纯采用低浓度氯化钙溶液提取法效果好.     

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Kinesthetic awareness is important to successfully navigate the environment. When we interact with our daily surroundings, some aspects of movement are deliberately planned, while others spontaneously occur below conscious awareness. The deliberate component of this dichotomy has been studied extensively in several contexts, while the spontaneous component remains largely under-explored. Moreover, how perceptual processes modulate these movement classes is still unclear. In particular, a currently debated issue is whether the visuomotor system is governed by the spatial percept produced by a visual illusion or whether it is not affected by the illusion and is governed instead by the veridical percept. Bistable percepts such as 3D depth inversion illusions (DIIs) provide an excellent context to study such interactions and balance, particularly when used in combination with reach-to-grasp movements. In this study, a methodology is developed that uses a DII to clarify the role of top-down processes on motor action, particularly exploring how reaches toward a target on a DII are affected in both deliberate and spontaneous movement domains.     

Effects of Citalopram on Sutural and Calvarial Cell Processes

The use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for the treatment of depression during pregnancy is suggested to increase the incidence of craniofacial abnormalities including craniosynostosis. Little is known about this mechanism, however based on previous data we propose a mechanism that affects cell cycle. Excessive proliferation, and reduction in apoptosis may lead to hyperplasia within the suture that may allow for differentiation, bony infiltration, and fusion. Here we utilized in vivo and in vitro analysis to investigate this proposed phenomenon. For in vivo analysis we used C57BL–6 wild-type breeders treated with a clinical dose of citalopram during the third trimester of pregnancy to produce litters exposed to the SSRI citalopram in utero. At post-natal day 15 sutures were harvested from resulting pups and subjected to histomorphometric analysis for proliferation (PCNA) and apoptosis (TUNEL). For in vitro studies, we used mouse calvarial pre-osteoblast cells (MC3T3-E1) to assess proliferation (MTS), apoptosis (Caspase 3/7-activity), and gene expression after exposure to titrated doses of citalopram. In vivo analysis for PCNA suggested segregation of effect by location, with the sagittal suture, showing a statistically significant increase in proliferative response. The coronal suture was not similarly affected, however there was a decrease in apoptotic activity at the dural edge as compared to the periosteal edge. No differences in apoptosis by suture or area due to SSRI exposure were observed. In vitro results suggest citalopram exposure increased proliferation and proliferative gene expression, and decreased apoptosis of the MC3T3-E1 cells. Decreased apoptosis was not confirmed in vivo however, an increase in proliferation without a concomitant increase in apoptosis is still defined as hyperplasia. Thus prenatal SSRI exposure may exert a negative effect on post-natal growth through a hyperplasia effect at the cranial growth sites perhaps leading to clinically significant craniofacial abnormalities.     

Differential Neural Activation Patterns in Patients with Parkinson's Disease and Freezing of Gait in Response to Concurrent Cognitive and Motor Load

Freezing of gait is a devastating symptom of Parkinson''s disease (PD) that is exacerbated by the processing of cognitive information whilst walking. To date, no studies have explored the neural correlates associated with increases in cognitive load whilst performing a motor task in patients with freezing. In this experiment, 14 PD patients with and 15 PD patients without freezing of gait underwent 3T fMRI while performing a virtual reality gait task. Directions to walk and stop were presented on the viewing screen as either direct cues or as more cognitively indirect pre-learned cues. Both groups showed a consistent pattern of BOLD response within the Cognitive Control Network during performance of the paradigm. However, a between group comparison revealed that those PD patients with freezing of gait were less able to recruit the bilateral anterior insula, ventral striatum and the pre-supplementary motor area, as well as the left subthalamic nucleus when responding to indirect cognitive cues whilst maintaining a motor output. These results suggest that PD patients with freezing of gait are unable to properly recruit specific cortical and subcortical regions within the Cognitive Control Network during the performance of simultaneous motor and cognitive functions.     

Bacterial Flagellar Motor Switch in Response to CheY-P Regulation and Motor Structural Alterations

The bacterial flagellar motor (BFM) is a molecular machine that rotates the helical filaments and propels the bacteria swimming toward favorable conditions. In our previous works, we built a stochastic conformational spread model to explain the dynamic and cooperative behavior of BFM switching. Here, we extended this model to test whether it can explain the latest experimental observations regarding CheY-P regulation and motor structural adaptivity. We show that our model predicts a strong correlation between rotational direction and the number of CheY-Ps bound to the switch complex, in agreement with the latest finding from Fukuoka et al. It also predicts that the switching sensitivity of the BFM can be fine-tuned by incorporating additional units into the switch complex, as recently demonstrated by Yuan et al., who showed that stoichiometry of FliM undergoes dynamic change to maintain ultrasensitivity in the motor switching response. In addition, by locking some rotor switching units on the switch complex into the stable clockwise-only conformation, our model has accurately simulated recent experiments expressing clockwise-locked FliG(ΔPAA) into the switch complex and reproduced the increased switching rate of the motor.     

Differential Response of Hippocampal Subregions to Stress and Learning

The hippocampus has two functionally distinct subregions–the dorsal portion, primarily associated with spatial navigation, and the ventral portion, primarily associated with anxiety. In a prior study of chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) in rodents, we found that it selectively enhanced cellular plasticity in the dorsal hippocampal subregion while negatively impacting it in the ventral. In the present study, we determined whether this adaptive plasticity in the dorsal subregion would confer CUS rats an advantage in a spatial task–the radial arm water maze (RAWM). RAWM exposure is both stressful and requires spatial navigation, and therefore places demands simultaneously upon both hippocampal subregions. Therefore, we used Western blotting to investigate differential expression of plasticity-associated proteins (brain derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF], proBDNF and postsynaptic density-95 [PSD-95]) in the dorsal and ventral subregions following RAWM exposure. Lastly, we used unbiased stereology to compare the effects of CUS on proliferation, survival and neuronal differentiation of cells in the dorsal and ventral hippocampal subregions. We found that CUS and exposure to the RAWM both increased corticosterone, indicating that both are stressful; nevertheless, CUS animals had significantly better long-term spatial memory. We also observed a subregion-specific pattern of protein expression following RAWM, with proBDNF increased in the dorsal and decreased in the ventral subregion, while PSD-95 was selectively upregulated in the ventral. Finally, consistent with our previous study, we found that CUS most negatively affected neurogenesis in the ventral (compared to the dorsal) subregion. Taken together, our data support a dual role for the hippocampus in stressful experiences, with the more resilient dorsal portion undergoing adaptive plasticity (perhaps to facilitate escape from or neutralization of the stressor), and the ventral portion involved in affective responses.     

Effects of Oxygen-Releasing Materials on Aerobic Bacterial Degradation Processes

The aerobic microbial degradation of p-nitrophenol (PNP) and phenol was examined under oxygen-limiting conditions in the presence of three known oxygen-releasing materials: (1) polyvinylidene chloride-encapsulated sodium percarbonate; (2) REGENESIS oxygen-releasing compound (magnesium peroxide); and (3) PermeOx® solid peroxygen (calcium peroxide). The degradation of PNP or phenol in buffered solutions was measured in 40-mL reaction chambers containing 25 to 300 mg of oxygen-releasing materials in the presence of immobilized chemical-degrading bacteria. Radiometric studies were used to determine total chemical mineralization and material balances of ¹⁴C-residues. Degradation of PNP and phenol increased in proportion to both the supplemented amount and the relative oxygen content of each oxygen-releasing material. Comparison of actual to theoretical degradation, based on stoichiometry of balanced equations for mineralization, showed that chemical uptake (primary degradation) at lower concentrations of oxygen-releasing materials was two-fold higher than could be mineralized theoretically. Radiometric studies confirmed the relationships between chemical uptake, cellular ¹⁴C-residues, mineralization, and the concentration of oxygen-releasing material. Further studies with PermeOx(identified supplementation levels required to support aerobic bacterial mineralization of PNP and phenol at levels similar to those of aerobic controls. These results show how the concentration of oxygen-releasing materials affects the rate and extent of aerobic chemical under oxygen-limiting conditions.     

Effect of Blocking of Calcium Channels on Cognitive Processes and General Motor Activity in Normal and Stressed Rats

In Wistar rats, we studied the effects of injections of a Ca²⁺ channel blocker, verapamil, on realization of a food-procuring operant conditioned reflex, OCR, and general motor activity within intersignal periods in the norm and under conditions of stress-induced disorders. The OPRs and a few behavioral phenomena (immobilization, grooming, research behavior, orientational and locomotor activity, vertical stands, and intersignal limb movements in a manger) were recorded. The acute stress state was induced by intense acoustic stimulation (a loud ringing sound presented in the course of OCR realization). Inhibition of the conditioned reflex activity (immobilization of the animal within an interstimulus period) and weakening of attention to the manger resulted from stress induction. Stress-related behavioral effects evoked by intense auditory stimulation were eliminated against the background of the action of verapamil, while the OCR and motor activity were not inhibited. Verapamil suppressed reactions of fear and anxiety in a dose-dependent manner and promoted concentration of attention; these effects improved the integrative functions and abilities to adequately estimate the signals in a given situation of the OCR performance. Such effects can be based on weakening of stress-related adrenaline release and certain normalization of the state of the cardiovascular systems due to partial blocking of calcium channels.     

TK1与LDH联合检测对非霍奇金淋巴瘤鉴别诊断及疗效评估的作用

目的:探讨联合检测血清胸苷激酶1(TK1)与乳酸脱氢酶(LDH)水平在非霍奇金淋巴瘤(NHL)患者鉴别诊断及疗效监测中的临床意义。方法:收集2016年1月至2018年6月我院诊治的111例非霍奇金淋巴瘤的初诊患者血清标本,并选择50例正常人血清标本作为对照,采用免疫印迹增强发光法检测TK1浓度,比色法检测LDH浓度。所有患者随访至少1年,分析和比较惰性NHL与侵袭性NHL及各自四类分期之间血清TK1和LDH水平的差异,化疗后完全缓解、部分缓解与未缓解组LDH水平以及NHL患者中血清TK1和LDH的阳性率。结果:高度侵袭性NHL患者和侵袭性NHL患者血清TKI和LDH水平与惰性NHL患者相比显著增高(P0.05),但惰性NHL患者血清TK1和LDH水平与正常组之间差异无统计学意义(P0.05);Ⅲ、Ⅳ期侵袭性NHL患者血清TK1和LDH水平与Ⅰ、Ⅱ期患者相比显著增高(P0.05)。与化疗前相比,四次化疗后,完全缓解组NHL患者血清LDH水平下降21.05%,部分缓解组为16.66%,病情稳定组血清LDH水平升高至11.54%,三组NHL患者血清LDH水平比较差异具有统计学意义(P0.008),两组之间的差异均有统计学意义(P0.05)。结论:联合检测血清TK1和LDH水平对于NHL患者的鉴别诊断、疗效评估均具有重要参考价值。     

Memory Processes in the Response of Plants to Environmental Signals

Plants are sensitive to stimuli from the environment (e.g., wind, rain, contact, pricking, wounding). They usually respond to such stimuli by metabolic or morphogenetic changes. Sometimes the information corresponding to a stimulus may be “stored” in the plant where it remains inactive until a second stimulus “recalls” this information and finally allows it to take effect. Two experimental systems have proved especially useful in unravelling the main features of these memory-like processes.In the system based on Bidens seedlings, an asymmetrical treatment (e.g., pricking, or gently rubbing one of the seedling cotyledons) causes the cotyledonary buds to grow asymmetrically after release of apical dominance by decapitation of the seedlings. This information may be stored within the seedlings, without taking effect, for at least two weeks; then the information may be recalled by subjecting the seedlings to a second, appropriate, treatment that permits transduction of the signal into the final response (differential growth of the buds). Whilst storage is an irreversible, all-or-nothing process, recall is sensitive to a number of factors, including the intensity of these factors, and can readily be enabled or disabled. In consequence, it is possible to recall the stored message several times successively.In the system based on flax seedlings, stimulation such as manipulation stimulus, drought, wind, cold shock and radiation from a GSM telephone or from a 105 GHz Gunn oscillator, has no apparent effect. If, however, the seedlings are subjected at the same time to transient calcium depletion, numerous epidermal meristems form in their hypocotyls. When the calcium depletion treatment is applied a few days after the mechanical treatment, the time taken for the meristems to appear is increased by a number of days exactly equal to that between the application of the mechanical treatment and the beginning of the calcium depletion treatment. This means that a meristem-production information corresponding to the stimulation treatment has been stored in the plants, without any apparent effect, until the calcium depletion treatment recalls this information to allow it to take effect. Gel electrophoresis has shown that a few protein spots are changed (pI shift, appearance or disappearance of a spot) as a consequence of the application of the treatments that store or recall a meristem-production signal in flax seedlings. A SIMS investigation has revealed that the pI shift of one of these spots is probably due to protein phosphorylation. Modifications of the proteome have also been observed in Arabidopsis seedlings subjected to stimuli such as cold shock or radiation from a GSM telephone.Key Words: memory, environmental signals, meristems, mobile telephone, bud growth, proteome, plants     

Public Response to Official Information on Cancer and Cancer Clusters

Official information about cancer and cancer clusters from state health departments clashes with lay views. A few studies have covered site-specific communication by telephone and public meetings, and hypothetical messages, but not generic information actually provided. Public response to such information was probed with a random survey of New Jersey households (n = 327), part of a quasi-experiment contrasting the agency's cognitive message and an alternative message adding procedural and affective information. Respondents rated both information types as understandable, helpful, and trustworthy, particularly among those trusting the agency, agreeing with officials’ views of facts, and with low concern about local clusters. Anxiety about cancer, aversion to uncertainty, cancer experience, and familiarity with clusters or the agency did not affect responses. Agreeing with officially defined facts (knowledge) was associated with trust in the agency and concern about clusters, but scepticism about expert knowledge. Information exposure increased trust, belief in expert knowledge (except on whether cancers cluster), and (some) factual knowledge, but also increased self-reported concern among those already concerned. These findings suggest that, absent specific learning, people believe scientific information is understandable, helpful, and trustworthy when they already trust experts and institutions; people with prior distrust offer less positive evaluations.     

Effects of TMS on Different Stages of Motor and Non-Motor Verb Processing in the Primary Motor Cortex

The embodied cognition hypothesis suggests that motor and premotor areas are automatically and necessarily involved in understanding action language, as word conceptual representations are embodied. This transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study explores the role of the left primary motor cortex in action-verb processing. TMS-induced motor-evoked potentials from right-hand muscles were recorded as a measure of M1 activity, while participants were asked either to judge explicitly whether a verb was action-related (semantic task) or to decide on the number of syllables in a verb (syllabic task). TMS was applied in three different experiments at 170, 350 and 500 ms post-stimulus during both tasks to identify when the enhancement of M1 activity occurred during word processing. The delays between stimulus onset and magnetic stimulation were consistent with electrophysiological studies, suggesting that word recognition can be differentiated into early (within 200 ms) and late (within 400 ms) lexical-semantic stages, and post-conceptual stages. Reaction times and accuracy were recorded to measure the extent to which the participants'' linguistic performance was affected by the interference of TMS with M1 activity. No enhancement of M1 activity specific for action verbs was found at 170 and 350 ms post-stimulus, when lexical-semantic processes are presumed to occur (Experiments 1–2). When TMS was applied at 500 ms post-stimulus (Experiment 3), processing action verbs, compared with non-action verbs, increased the M1-activity in the semantic task and decreased it in the syllabic task. This effect was specific for hand-action verbs and was not observed for action-verbs related to other body parts. Neither accuracy nor RTs were affected by TMS. These findings suggest that the lexical-semantic processing of action verbs does not automatically activate the M1. This area seems to be rather involved in post-conceptual processing that follows the retrieval of motor representations, its activity being modulated (facilitated or inhibited), in a top-down manner, by the specific demand of the task.     

Differential Response to Interspecific and Intraspecific Signals Amongst Chickadees

Black‐capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and mountain chickadees (P. gambeli) have a similar vocal repertoire and share many other life history traits; yet, black‐capped chickadees are socially dominant to mountain chickadees where populations overlap. Previous research suggested that in contact zones, both species respond weakly to heterospecific songs during the breeding season, and have suggested minimal interspecific competition. However, both black‐capped and mountain chickadees discriminate between conspecific and heterospecific chick‐a‐dee calls, suggesting attention is paid to interspecific signals. We compared the responses of both black‐capped and mountain chickadees to conspecific and heterospecific chick‐a‐dee calls during the winter, when both species compete for the same food resources. We conducted an aviary playback experiment exposing both species to playback composed of heterospecific and conspecific chick‐a‐dee calls, which had been recorded in the context of finding food sources. Responses from the tested birds were measured by recording vocalizations and behaviour. Black‐capped chickadees responded significantly more to conspecific than to heterospecific stimuli, whereas the subordinate mountain chickadees responded to both mountain and black‐capped chickadee calls. Based upon the reactions to playbacks, our results suggest these two closely related species may differ in their perception of the relative threat associated with intra‐ versus interspecific competitors.     

The Differential Response of Proteins to Macromolecular Crowding

The habitat in which proteins exert their function contains up to 400 g/L of macromolecules, most of which are proteins. The repercussions of this dense environment on protein behavior are often overlooked or addressed using synthetic agents such as poly(ethylene glycol), whose ability to mimic protein crowders has not been demonstrated. Here we performed a comprehensive atomistic molecular dynamic analysis of the effect of protein crowders on the structure and dynamics of three proteins, namely an intrinsically disordered protein (ACTR), a molten globule conformation (NCBD), and a one-fold structure (IRF-3) protein. We found that crowding does not stabilize the native compact structure, and, in fact, often prevents structural collapse. Poly(ethylene glycol) PEG500 failed to reproduce many aspects of the physiologically-relevant protein crowders, thus indicating its unsuitability to mimic the cell interior. Instead, the impact of protein crowding on the structure and dynamics of a protein depends on its degree of disorder and results from two competing effects: the excluded volume, which favors compact states, and quinary interactions, which favor extended conformers. Such a viscous environment slows down protein flexibility and restricts the conformational landscape, often biasing it towards bioactive conformations but hindering biologically relevant protein-protein contacts. Overall, the protein crowders used here act as unspecific chaperons that modulate the protein conformational space, thus having relevant consequences for disordered proteins.     

Differential Oxygen Response of Photosynthesis in Soybean and Panicum milioides

The carbon dioxide compensation concentration of Panicum milioides was less than that of soybean over the range of 15 to 35 C. In soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr. cv. Wayne), the compensation concentration was directly proportional to O₂ concentration. In P. milioides, the compensation concentration was near zero up to 10% O₂ and then increased linearly with higher O₂, although the slope of the response was less than that in soybean. Leaf extracts of P. milioides contained 3-fold higher phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase activity than soybean leaf extracts. Oxygen inhibition of photosynthesis and carboxy-lation efficiency was less in P. milioides than that observed in soybean. The affinity of P. millioides ribulose-1,5-di-P carboxylase for CO₂ appeared to be slightly greater than that of soybean. The affinity of both enzymes for O₂ was similar. The reduced response of the compensation concentration and photosynthesis to O₂ in P. milioides may be explained by photosynthetic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase fixation and by an apparent increased affinity of ribulose-1,5-di-P carboxylase for CO₂.