Beyond body maps: Information content of specific body parts is distributed across the somatosensory homunculus.

The homunculus in primary somatosensory cortex (S1) is famous for its body part selectivity, but this dominant feature may eclipse other representational features, e.g., information content, also relevant for S1 organization.

Robotic hand augmentation drives changes in neural body representation.

Humans have long been fascinated by the opportunities afforded through augmentation. This vision not only depends on technological innovations but also critically relies on our brain's ability to learn, adapt, and interface with augmentation devices. Here, we investigated whether successful motor augmentation with an extra robotic thumb can be achieved and what its implications are on the neural representation and function of the biological hand.

Right-wing politicians prefer the emotional left.

Physiological research suggests that social attitudes, such as political beliefs, may be partly hard-wired in the brain. Conservatives have heightened sensitivity for detecting emotional faces and use emotion more effectively when campaigning. As the left face displays emotion more prominently, we examined 1538 official photographs of conservative and liberal politicians from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States for an asymmetry in posing.

Overdose in young people using heroin: associations with mental health, prescription drug use and personal circumstances.

Objective: To identify patterns of mental health, prescription drug use and personal circumstances associated with heroin overdose in young people.

Design: Linkage of data on use of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) prescription drugs with data from a self-report questionnaire.

Setting: Inner metropolitan Melbourne, Australia.

Seeking drugs or seeking help? Escalating "doctor shopping" by young heroin users before fatal overdose.

Objective: To identify prescription drug-seeking behaviour patterns among young people who subsequently died of heroin-related overdose.

Design: Linkage of Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Coroner's Court records from Victoria.

Subjects: Two hundred and two 15-24-year-olds who died of heroin-related overdose between 6 January 1994 and 6 October 1999.

Association of benzodiazepine injection with the prescription of temazepam capsules.

Temazepam capsules have become a popular choice for benzodiazepine injection by injecting drug users, and serious vascular and tissue damage leading to ulcers and gangrene can result. We compared the self-reported benzodiazepine injecting behaviour of 91 heroin users with their Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule (PBS) records for the preceding 5 years. We found that individuals prescribed PBS temazepam capsules were more likely to report injecting benzodiazepines than individuals who had either not been prescribed PBS temazepam capsules or had been prescribed PBS temazepam tablets.

Which cheek to turn? The effect of gender and emotional expressivity on posing behavior.

Nicholls et al. (1999, Proc. Royal Soc.

The effect of left and right poses on the expression of facial emotion.

Research, using composite facial photographs has demonstrated that left-left composites are more emotionally expressive than are right-right composites. The present study investigated whether hemifacial asymmetries in expression are apparent in photographs, that feature one side of the face more than the other. Photographs were taken of the models who turned their heads: (a) 15 degrees to the left, (b) 15 degrees to the right or (c) faced directly towards the camera.