Sensitivity to temporal synchrony and selective attention in audiovisual speech in infants at elevated likelihood for autism: A preliminary longitudinal study.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a highly heritable condition characterized by sociocommunicative difficulties, frequently entailing language atypicalities that extend to infants with a familial history of autism. The developmental mechanisms underlying these difficulties remain unknown. Detecting temporal synchrony between the lip movements and the auditory speech of a talking face and selectively attending to the mouth support typical early language acquisition.

The effect of intergroup competition outcome on ingroup cooperation: insights from the male warrior hypothesis.

Introduction: The Male Warrior Hypothesis (MWH) proposes that sex-specific selective pressures have promoted male cooperation with the ingroup members to outcompete rival groups. However, intergroup conflicts do not occur in isolation and the outcomes of previous competitions may influence group cooperativeness. Since this phenomenon is not well understood, we aimed to shed light on the effect of previous competition outcome on later cooperative behavior under intergroup conflicts.

The role of exogenous testosterone and social environment on the expression of sociosexuality and status-seeking behaviors in young Chilean men.

Testosterone plays an important role as a social hormone. Current evidence suggests that testosterone is positively related to sociosexuality increasing the psychological attitudes toward investing in short-term versus long-term mating and promotes status-seeking behaviors both by dominance and prestige. In addition, the social environment may play an important role in the expression of mating effort through changes in sociosexuality and status-seeking behaviors.

Evidence of the active participation of women in the intergroup conflict based on the use of aggression and cooperation.

Intergroup conflict has been a persistent aspect of human societies since the emergence of our species. Various researchers have proposed that competition between groups has acted as a key selective force throughout human evolutionary history. Such intergroup competition for limited resources exacerbated the expression of intergroup aggression and intragroup cooperation.

Is the Intrinsic Genomic Activity of Thyroxine Relevant In Vivo? Effects on Gene Expression in Primary Cerebrocortical and Neuroblastoma Cells.

Background: The possibility that the intrinsic genomic activity of thyroxine (T4) is of physiological relevance has been frequently hypothesized. It might explain gene expression patterns in the brain found in type 2-deiodinase (Dio2)-deficient mice. These mice display normal expression of most thyroid hormone-dependent genes, despite decreased brain triiodothyronine (T3).

Direct evidence of megamammal-carnivore interaction decoded from bone marks in historical fossil collections from the Pampean region.

Pleistocene South American megafauna has traditionally attracted the interest of scientists and the popular media alike. However, ecological interactions between the species that inhabited these ecosystems, such as predator-prey relationships or interspecific competition, are poorly known. To this regard, carnivore marks imprinted on the fossil bones of megamammal remains are very useful for deciphering biological activity and, hence, potential interspecific relationships among taxa.

Time-varying effective connectivity during visual object naming as a function of semantic demands.

Accumulating evidence suggests that visual object understanding involves a rapid feedforward sweep, after which subsequent recurrent interactions are necessary. The extent to which recurrence plays a critical role in object processing remains to be determined. Recent studies have demonstrated that recurrent processing is modulated by increasing semantic demands.

Visual object naming in patients with small lesions centered at the left temporopolar region.

Naming is considered a left hemisphere function that operates according to a posterior-anterior specificity gradient, with more fine-grained information processed in most anterior regions of the temporal lobe (ATL), including the temporal pole (TP). Word finding difficulties are typically assessed using visual confrontation naming tasks, and have been associated with selective damage to ATL resulting from different aetiologies. Nonetheless, the role of the ATL and, more specifically, of the TP in the naming network is not completely established.

Anterobasal temporal lobe lesions alter recurrent functional connectivity within the ventral pathway during naming.

An increasing amount of evidence supports a crucial role for the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in semantic processing. Critically, a selective disruption of the functional connectivity between left and right ATLs in patients with chronic aphasic stroke has been illustrated. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the consequences that lesions on the ATL have on the neurocognitive network supporting semantic cognition.

Critical role of types 2 and 3 deiodinases in the negative regulation of gene expression by T₃in the mouse cerebral cortex.

Thyroid hormones regulate brain development and function through the control of gene expression, mediated by binding of T(3) to nuclear receptors. Brain T(3) concentration is tightly controlled by homeostatic mechanisms regulating transport and metabolism of T(4) and T(3). We have examined the role of the inactivating enzyme type 3 deiodinase (D3) in the regulation of 43 thyroid hormone-dependent genes in the cerebral cortex of 30-d-old mice.

Thyroid hormone regulation of gene expression in the developing rat fetal cerebral cortex: prominent role of the Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV pathway.

Thyroid hormones influence brain development through regulation of gene expression mediated by nuclear receptors. Nuclear receptor concentration increases rapidly in the human fetus during the second trimester, a period of high sensitivity of the brain to thyroid hormones. In the rat, the equivalent period is the last quarter of pregnancy.

Importance of monocarboxylate transporter 8 for the blood-brain barrier-dependent availability of 3,5,3'-triiodo-L-thyronine.

Mutations of the gene expressing plasma membrane transporter for thyroid hormones MCT8 (SLC16A2) in humans lead to altered thyroid hormone levels and a severe neurodevelopmental disorder. Genetically engineered defect of the Mct8 gene in mice leads to similar thyroid hormone abnormalities but no obvious impairment of brain development or function. In this work we studied the relative role of the blood-brain barrier and the neuronal plasma cell membrane in the restricted access of T(3) to the target neurons.

Glucose controls multiple processes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through diverse combinations of signaling pathways.

We have studied how the lack of glucose sensors in the plasma membrane, or of the enzymes Hxk1, Hxk2, Glk1, which catalyze the first intracellular step in glucose metabolism, affect the different responses of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to glucose. Lack of the G-protein-coupled receptor Gpr1 or of Snf3/Rgt2 did not affect glucose repression of different genes or activation by glucose of plasma membrane ATPase, whereas lack of Gpr1 decreased, in an additive manner with lack of Mth1, the degradation of fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase that takes place in the presence of glucose. In an hxk1 hxk2 glk1 strain, unable to phosphorylate glucose, all of these responses to the sugar were suppressed or strongly reduced.

Different signalling pathways mediate glucose induction of SUC2, HXT1 and pyruvate decarboxylase in yeast.

The glucose sensors Gpr1, Snf3 and Rgt2 generate the earliest signals produced by glucose in yeast. We showed that a lack of Gpr1 or Snf3/Rgt2 decreased by twofold the glucose induction of SUC2, but had no effect on the induction of pyruvate decarboxylase (Pdc). The induction of HXT1 was not affected by the absence of Gpr1.

Autism and family home movies: a comprehensive review.

In this article, we focus on the early development of autism studied through family home movies. We review all investigations published in English that met specific methodological standards, including the use of comparison samples, coding blind to group membership, and adequate levels of interrater reliability. After discussing in detail the pros and cons of the home-movie methodology, we review the results of all empirical studies conducted to date.

Sampling Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells by rapid filtration improves the yield of mRNAs.

To optimize the recovery of mRNAs extracted from yeast, different methods for sampling the yeast cells have been compared. For Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains growing on gluconeogenic carbon sources (derepressed cells) rapid filtration allowed much higher yields (3-10 fold) than centrifugation at room temperature or at 4 degrees C. Recovery of total RNA was similar with the different procedures.

Xylose and some non-sugar carbon sources cause catabolite repression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Glucose and other sugars, such as galactose or maltose, are able to cause carbon catabolite repression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Although glycolytic intermediates have been suggested as signal for repression, no evidence for such a control mechanism is available. The establishment of a correlation between levels of intracellular metabolites and the extent of catabolite repression may facilitate the identification of potential signal molecules in the process.