Neural Processing of Emotional Facial and Semantic Expressions in Euthymic Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Its Association with Theory of Mind (ToM)

Background

Adults with bipolar disorder (BD) have cognitive impairments that affect face processing and social cognition. However, it remains unknown whether these deficits in euthymic BD have impaired brain markers of emotional processing.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We recruited twenty six participants, 13 controls subjects with an equal number of euthymic BD participants. We used an event-related potential (ERP) assessment of a dual valence task (DVT), in which faces (angry and happy), words (pleasant and unpleasant), and face-word simultaneous combinations are presented to test the effects of the stimulus type (face vs word) and valence (positive vs. negative). All participants received clinical, neuropsychological and social cognition evaluations. ERP analysis revealed that both groups showed N170 modulation of stimulus type effects (face > word). BD patients exhibited reduced and enhanced N170 to facial and semantic valence, respectively. The neural source estimation of N170 was a posterior section of the fusiform gyrus (FG), including the face fusiform area (FFA). Neural generators of N170 for faces (FG and FFA) were reduced in BD. In these patients, N170 modulation was associated with social cognition (theory of mind).

Conclusions/Significance

This is the first report of euthymic BD exhibiting abnormal N170 emotional discrimination associated with theory of mind impairments.     

The impacts of increasing drought on forest dynamics,structure, and biodiversity in the United States

We synthesize insights from current understanding of drought impacts at stand‐to‐biogeographic scales, including management options, and we identify challenges to be addressed with new research. Large stand‐level shifts underway in western forests already are showing the importance of interactions involving drought, insects, and fire. Diebacks, changes in composition and structure, and shifting range limits are widely observed. In the eastern US, the effects of increasing drought are becoming better understood at the level of individual trees, but this knowledge cannot yet be confidently translated to predictions of changing structure and diversity of forest stands. While eastern forests have not experienced the types of changes seen in western forests in recent decades, they too are vulnerable to drought and could experience significant changes with increased severity, frequency, or duration in drought. Throughout the continental United States, the combination of projected large climate‐induced shifts in suitable habitat from modeling studies and limited potential for the rapid migration of tree populations suggests that changing tree and forest biogeography could substantially lag habitat shifts already underway. Forest management practices can partially ameliorate drought impacts through reductions in stand density, selection of drought‐tolerant species and genotypes, artificial regeneration, and the development of multistructured stands. However, silvicultural treatments also could exacerbate drought impacts unless implemented with careful attention to site and stand characteristics. Gaps in our understanding should motivate new research on the effects of interactions involving climate and other species at the stand scale and how interactions and multiple responses are represented in models. This assessment indicates that, without a stronger empirical basis for drought impacts at the stand scale, more complex models may provide limited guidance.     

Prf immune complexes of tomato are oligomeric and contain multiple Pto‐like kinases that diversify effector recognition

Cytoplasmic recognition of pathogen virulence effectors by plant NB‐LRR proteins leads to strong induction of defence responses termed effector triggered immunity (ETI). In tomato, a protein complex containing the NB‐LRR protein Prf and the protein kinase Pto confers recognition of the Pseudomonas syringae effectors AvrPto and AvrPtoB. Although structurally unrelated, AvrPto and AvrPtoB interact with similar residues in the Pto catalytic cleft to activate ETI via an unknown mechanism. Here we show that the Prf complex is oligomeric, containing at least two molecules of Prf. Within the complex, Prf can associate with Pto or one of several Pto family members including Fen, Pth2, Pth3, or Pth5. The dimerization surface for Prf is the novel N‐terminal domain, which also coordinates an intramolecular interaction with the remainder of the molecule, and binds Pto kinase or a family member. Thus, association of two Prf N‐terminal domains brings the associated kinases into close promixity. Tomato lines containing Prf complexed with Pth proteins but not Pto possessed greater immunity against P. syringae than tomatoes lacking Prf. This demonstrates that incorporation of non‐Pto kinases into the Prf complex extends the number of effector proteins that can be recognized.     

Le benthos subtidal de l'estuaire de la seine: Analyse statistique des peuplements

The analysis of benthic populations in the estuary of the Seine was realized from samples collected with a sediment pump (summer 1978, winter 1979). Coherent results were obtained using Principal Coordinates Analysis applied to the definition of statistical communities (R mode) or the determination of biotopes (Q mode). The best ecological interpretation arises from the estimation of specific dominances in each of the environments (seven biotopes and four different populations). The difference between this classification and the one obtained from demographic characters (summer continuum and tendency to differentiated populations in winter) shows, however, that there are no clear boundaries separating biotopes or populations. Instead, there is a more or less pronounced overlap of different niches for the benthos of the Seine estuary.     

Utilisation d'une cotation d'abondance fondée sur une progression géometrique,pour l'analyse des composantes principales en écologie planctonique

A principal component analysis is made upon a set of biological variates (counts of zoo-plankton organisms) and upon rough estimates of abundance of the same organisms given by means of a scale of classes. The classes are based upon a geometric progression with a basis of 4.3. The results of the two analyses are very similar. The authors conclude that the necessity of counting very precisely the plankton, in ecology, is doubtful.     

MIF-I suppresses deprivation-induced fluid consumption in rats

Rats were injected IP with a 0.1 mg/kg dose of MIF-I, naloxone, dynorphin, [D-Phe⁴]-Met-enkephalin, [D-Ala², F₅Phe⁴]-Met-enkephalin-NH₂, or the diluent vehicle, placed in their home cages for ten minutes, and then given ad lib access to either 20% sucrose, 10% sucrose, water, 0.01% quinine, or 0.02% quinine in a repeated measures design with solutions counter-balanced over five days. Fluid consumption was measured every hour for 4 hours. A mixed analysis of variance yielded significant results for all main effects and the peptides by fluid and hours by fluid interactions. For the 4-hr test period, naloxone and [D-Phe⁴]-Met-enkephalin produced reliable increases in consumption while MIF-I produced a reliable decrease. Differences were obtained only with sucrose solutions, and the results clearly suggest that peptides modulate fluid consumption at positive levels of incentive motivation. To reconcile the findings of increased consumption after naloxone with the many studies suggesting a decrease in such paradigms, 0.1, 1.0, and 10.0 mg/kg of naloxone and MIF-I were administered as before but to independent groups of rats and intake was measured every 30 min. These results replicate and extend the above findings by showing that during the first 30-min period, both naloxone and MIF-I suppressed intake in a dose-dependent fashion, with MIF-I being more effective at each dose. The 0.1 mg/kg naloxone group, however, increased consumption over time and achieved a total consumption greater than control animals but comparable to that observed in the first study. It appears that at very low doses naloxone increases consumption over time, but at more commonly tested higher doses it has a suppressant effect. The results support the concept that in many situations MIF-I can produce the same effects as naloxone.