Investigating causal effects of pupil size on visual discrimination and visually evoked potentials in an optotype discrimination task.

Pupil size primarily changes to regulate the amount of light entering the retina, optimizing the balance between visual acuity and sensitivity for effective visual processing. However, research directly examining the relationship between pupil size and visual processing has been limited. While a few studies have recorded pupil size and EEG signals to investigate the role of pupil size in visual processing, these studies have predominantly focused on the domain of visual sensitivity.

Exploring the impact of tonal inventory on speech perception across languages: a study of MMN responses in tonal language speakers.

Previous research on the perception of segmental features of languages has established a correlation between the phoneme inventory of a language and its speakers' perceptual abilities, as indexed by discrimination tasks and Mismatch Negativity (MMN). Building on this background, the current study elucidated the relationship between perceptual ability and tonal inventory by utilizing two tonal languages. Two groups of participants were included in the present experiment: Mandarin speakers and Hakka-Mandarin speakers.

A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of global research on the role of acrolein in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis: involvement of amyloid-beta.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive and behavioral decline. Acrolein, an environmental pollutant and endogenous compound, is implicated in AD development. This research employs bibliometric analysis to assess current trends and key areas concerning acrolein-AD interaction.

Aquaporin-8 promotes human dermal fibroblasts to counteract hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative damage: A novel target for management of skin aging.

The skin is subjected to various external factors that contribute to aging including oxidative stress from hydrogen peroxide (HO). This study investigated the distribution of aquaporin-8 (AQP8), a protein that transports HO across biological membranes, in skin cells, and its effects in mitigating HO-induced oxidative damage. Human dermal fibroblasts were treated with increasing concentrations of HO to evaluate oxidative damage.

The prevalence of IgE positivity, environmental factors, and clinical implications associated with mite species in allergic patients in Taiwan.

Background: Allergic diseases are a growing public health concern with increasing prevalence and severity. Allergens play significant roles in triggering immune responses and the development of allergic reactions.

Objective: Investigate the presence and clinical significance of dust mites, storage mites, and predatory mite Cheyletus eruditus(Ce) in household environments.

Linking tonic and phasic pupil responses to P300 amplitude in an emotional face-word Stroop task.

The locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system, which regulates arousal levels, is important for cognitive control, including emotional conflict resolution. Additionally, the LC-NE system is implicated in P300 generation. If the P300 is mediated by the LC-NE system, and considering the established correlations between LC activity and pupil dilation, P300 amplitude should correlate with task-evoked (phasic) pupil dilation on a trial-by-trial basis.

Acrolein adducts and responding autoantibodies correlate with metabolic disturbance in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is caused by many intertwining pathologies involving metabolic aberrations. Patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) generally show hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia, which can lead to the formation of aldehydic adducts such as acrolein on peptides in the brain and blood. However, the pathogenesis from MetS to AD remains elusive.

Reduction or enhancement? Repetition effects on early brain potentials during visual word recognition are frequency dependent.

Most studies on word repetition have demonstrated that repeated stimuli yield reductions in brain activity. Despite the well-known repetition reduction effect, some literature reports repetition enhancements in electroencephalogram (EEG) activities. However, although studies of object and face recognition have consistently demonstrated both repetition reduction and enhancement effects, the results of repetition enhancement effects were not consistent in studies of visual word recognition.

Antioxidative Activities of Micronized Solid-State Cultivated Rich in Erinacine A against MPTP-Induced Damages.

The Lion's mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus, HE) is a traditional medical mushroom with high nutritional and economic value. HE possesses anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant, immunomodulating, neurotrophic, and neuroprotective activities. The present study evaluated the protection and antioxidative activities of micronized mycelium of HE (HEM) in mice treated with 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPTP).

Immunomodulatory effects of modified Liu-Wei-Di-Huang-Wan Traditional Chinese medicine on allergic asthmatic mice.

Background: Allergic asthma occurs worldwide and is particularly prevalent in westernized countries characterized by chronic airway inflammation resulting in airway hyperresponsiveness. The house dust mites (HDM) including Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus are major sources of sensitization and triggering allergic symptoms in asthmatic patients. The Der p 2 is a major allergen and the predominant source of causative respiratory disorders which induce airway inflammation and bronchial constriction in mite-allergic patients.

Elevated alanine aminotransferase is associated with biphasic insulin secretion in the healthy elderly Han Chinese population.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between alanine transaminase (ALT) level and biphasic insulin secretion (BPIS) in healthy elderly Han Chinese individuals.

Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled healthy elderly participants aged ≥60 years that were part of a health examination programme. In order to explore the correlation and severity of the clinical condition, those with any possible confounding factors known to affect insulin secretion or liver function were excluded from the study.

Effects of Phonological Consistency and Semantic Radical Combinability on N170 and P200 in the Reading of Chinese Phonograms.

Studies have suggested that visually presented words are obligatorily decomposed into constituents that could be mapped to language representations. The present study aims to elucidate how orthographic processing of one constituent affects the other and vice versa during a word recognition task. Chinese orthographic system has characters representing syllables and meanings instead of suffixation roles, and the majority of Chinese characters are phonograms that can be further decomposed into phonetic radical and semantic radical.

A Minimum Temporal Window for Direction Detection of Frequency-Modulated Sweeps: A Magnetoencephalography Study.

The ability to rapidly encode the direction of frequency contour contained in frequency-modulated (FM) sweeps is essential for speech processing, music appreciation, and conspecific communications. Psychophysical evidence points to a common temporal window threshold for human listeners in processing rapid changes in frequency glides. No neural evidence has been provided for the existence of a cortical temporal window threshold underlying the encoding of rapid transitions in frequency glides.

Occurrence of complete heart block associated with acute renal infarction.

Complete heart block (CHB) and acute renal infarction (ARI) are both uncommon diseases and seldom encountered in the clinical practice. We describe a rare case of pre-existing left bundle branch block, presenting simultaneously with CHB and ARI. The possible mechanism depends on prior presence of either CHB or ARI.

Correction: Effect of body mass index on diabetogenesis factors at a fixed fasting plasma glucose level.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Effect of body mass index on diabetogenesis factors at a fixed fasting plasma glucose level.

Aim: The present study evaluated the relative influence of body mass index (BMI) on insulin resistance (IR), first-phase insulin secretion (FPIS), second-phase insulin secretion (SPIS), and glucose effectiveness (GE) at a fixed fasting plasma glucose level in an older ethnic Chinese population.

Methods: In total, 265 individuals aged 60 years with a fasting plasma glucose level of 5.56 mmol/L were enrolled.

High normotension is associated with future metabolic syndrome but not cardiovascular disease: A 10-year longitudinal study.

Hypertension and prehypertension can increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes. However, whether the harmful effects of high blood pressure (BP) are also seen with high normotension remains unknown. This 10-year longitudinal follow-up study aimed to investigate the relationships among normal-range BP, metabolic syndrome (MetS), and CVD.

The Acquisition of Orthographic Knowledge: Evidence from the Lexicality Effects on N400.

This study aimed to understand how reading ability shapes the lexicality effects on N400. Fifty-three typical developing children from the second to the sixth grades were asked to perform the pronounceability judgment task on a set of Chinese real characters (RC), pseudocharacters (PC) and non-characters (NC), as ERPs were recorded. The cluster-based permutation analysis revealed that children with low- to medium-reading ability showed greater negativity to NCs than to RCs and PCs in frontal sites from 300 to 450 ms, while children with high ability group showed a greater positivity to NCs than both RCs and PCs at central to posterior sites.

Identification of Impaired Second-Phase Insulin Secretion in Various Degrees of Glucose Tolerance in a Chinese Population.

Aim: Impaired insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion (ISEC) are major pathophysiologies of type 2 diabetes (T2DM). ISEC has two phases: the first and second phases (second ISEC). In this study, we derived equations to identify patients with second ISEC deficiency (ISEC-D).

Effects of orthographic consistency and homophone density on Chinese spoken word recognition.

Studies of alphabetic language have shown that orthographic knowledge influences phonological processing during spoken word recognition. This study utilized the Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to differentiate two types of phonology-to-orthography (P-to-O) mapping consistencies in Chinese, namely homophone density and orthographic consistency. The ERP data revealed an orthographic consistency effect in the frontal-centrally distributed N400, and a homophone density effect in central-posteriorly distributed late positive component (LPC).

Depression as the Primary Cause of Insomnia and Excessive Daytime Sleepiness in a Family with Multiple Cases of Spinocerebellar Ataxia.

Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) is a hereditary disease characterized by central nervous system-related motor dysfunctions. Sleep disorders and frequent non-motor manifestations are commonly comorbid with SCA. To elucidate this relationship, we present three cases in a family that included multiple SCA type 2 patients with various sleep disorders.

An improved method for measuring mismatch negativity using ensemble empirical mode decomposition.

Background: Mismatch negativity (MMN) is a component of event-related potentials (ERPs). Conventional approaches to measuring MMN include recording a large number of trials (e.g.