Publications by authors named "Enns J"

Pantomimes are human actions that simulate ideas, objects, and events, commonly used in conversation, performance art, and gesture-based interfaces for computing and controlling robots. Yet, their underlying neurocognitive mechanisms are not well understood. In this review, we examine pantomimes through two parallel lines of research: (1) the two visual systems (TVS) framework for visually guided action, and (2) the neuropsychological literature on limb apraxia.

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Article Synopsis
  • Understanding social interactions involves reading mental states through non-verbal cues like facial expressions and body language, linking the actions of an actor and the interpretation by an observer.
  • The review discusses an action-observation methodology that separates the analysis of how actions are performed and perceived while exploring their dynamic interaction in social exchanges.
  • Two research lines are examined: one focusing on individual actions and attention inference, and the other on collaborative task performances, with suggestions for extending the methodology to enhance research on social actions.
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Background: Across Canada, Child Protection Services (CPS) disrupt Indigenous families by apprehending their children at alarmingly high rates. The harms borne by children in out-of-home care (OoHC) have been extensively documented. We examined the impact of OoHC on Manitoba children's health and legal system outcomes to provide rigorous evidence on how discretionary decision-making by CPS agencies can affect these outcomes.

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Perception of a picture is influenced by the social information and emotional value it carries for the viewer. There are still many unanswered questions about how social and emotional processing are related, but it is clear they involve overlapping brain areas and are cognitively interconnected. Yet studies of emotion processing using standardized picture datasets typically leave the social content in the pictures free to vary.

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  • Colonial policies in Canada have led to significant health disparities for First Nations people, especially regarding maternal and infant health outcomes linked to incarceration.
  • A study comparing birth outcomes in Manitoba found that First Nations women who were prenatally incarcerated had higher risks of adverse outcomes like low birthweight and poor Apgar scores compared to those incarcerated after giving birth.
  • The results highlight the importance of addressing these health inequities, as prenatal incarceration adversely affects both First Nations and other Manitoban birthing parents, but the outcomes differ between these groups.
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Social perception and communication differ between those with and without autism, even when verbal fluency and intellectual ability are equated. Previous work found that observers responded more quickly to an actor's points if the actor had chosen by themselves where to point instead of being directed where to point. Notably, this 'choice-advantage' effect decreased across non-autistic participants as the number of autistic-like traits and tendencies increased (Pesquita et al.

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Introduction: Using data in research often requires that the data first be de-identified, particularly in the case of health data, which often include Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and/or Personal Health Identifying Information (PHII). There are established procedures for de-identifying structured data, but de-identifying clinical notes, electronic health records, and other records that include free text data is more complex. Several different ways to achieve this are documented in the literature.

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  • Differential access to healthcare has led to worse health outcomes for First Nations in Canada, prompting partnerships during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure they received timely and culturally safe vaccinations.
  • A study analyzed data from almost 115,000 First Nations individuals and over 1.2 million others in Manitoba to compare vaccination rates, finding First Nations were prioritized for faster vaccine uptake.
  • Results indicated that First Nations faced higher COVID-19 infection rates than other Manitobans, highlighting ongoing healthcare disparities even amid vaccination efforts.
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Introduction: Primary chronic pain is pain that persists for over 3 months without associated measurable tissue damage. One of the most consistent findings in primary chronic pain is its association with autonomic hyperactivation. Yet whether the autonomic hyperactivation causes the pain or results from it is still unclear.

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Electrooculography (EOG) serves as a widely employed technique for tracking saccadic eye movements in a diverse array of applications. These encompass the identification of various medical conditions and the development of interfaces facilitating human-computer interaction. Nonetheless, EOG signals are often met with skepticism due to the presence of multiple sources of noise interference.

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Pituitary apoplexy can cause a chemical meningitis and its mimicry in presentation with infectious meningitis poses a diagnostic challenge. Here we report an 18-year-old woman who presented with acute headache, altered mental status, and cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis, and clinically improved with antibiotics and steroids. Despite an unremarkable head computed tomography scan, brain magnetic resonance imaging showed a pituitary macroadenoma with apoplexy.

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Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are a class of enzymes that cleave acyl groups from lysine residues of histone and non-histone proteins. There are 18 human HDAC isoforms with different cellular targets and functions. Among them, HDAC6 was found to be overexpressed in different types of cancer.

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Studies of auditory object perception claim that semantic properties dominate acoustic properties in determining identification accuracy. Yet the direction of the semantic effect is mixed, with some studies showing an advantage for detecting incongruent sounds and others reporting a congruent sound advantage. Here we examine the role of the participant's attentional set when identifying auditory objects in naturalistic soundscapes.

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Investigations of grasping real, 3D objects subjected to illusory effects from a pictorial background often choose in-flight grasp aperture as the primary variable to test the hypothesis that the visuomotor system resists the illusion. Here we test an equally important feature of grasps that has received less attention: in-flight grasp orientation. The current study tested a variant of the simultaneous tilt illusion using a mirror-apparatus to manipulate the availability of haptic feedback.

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Background: Cancer is a leading cause of death among people living with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD). Although studies have documented lower cancer screening rates, there is limited epidemiological evidence quantifying potential diagnostic delays. This study explores the risk of metastatic cancer stage for people with IDD compared to those without IDD among breast (female), colorectal, and lung cancer patients in Canada.

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The nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is an important regulator of inflammation and immune responses. Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) has been implicated in the assembly and activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in mouse cells, however, the role in human immune cells remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effect of HDAC6 deficiency on NLRP3-mediated interleukin (IL)-1β release using proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTAC) technology.

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Wearable sensors are quickly making their way into psychophysiological research, as they allow collecting data outside of a laboratory and for an extended period of time. The present tutorial considers fidelity of physiological measurement with wearable sensors, focusing on reliability. We elaborate on why ensuring reliability for wearables is important and offer statistical tools for assessing wearable reliability for between participants and within-participant designs.

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Introduction: Rising use of methamphetamine is causing significant public health concern in Canada. The biological and behavioural effects of methamphetamine range from wakefulness, vigour and euphoria to adverse physical health outcomes like myocardial infarction, haemorrhagic stroke, arrhythmia and seizure. It can also cause severe psychological complications such as psychosis.

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Background: Occupational exposures may result in Canadian military Veterans having poorer health and higher use of health services after transitioning to civilian life compared to the general population. However, few studies have documented the physical health and health services use of Veterans in Canada, and thus there is limited evidence to inform public health policy and resource allocation.

Methods: In a retrospective, matched cohort of Veterans and the Ontario general population between 1990-2019, we used routinely collected provincial administrative health data to examine chronic disease prevalence and health service use.

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Introduction: Out-of-school or after-school programs are designed to support healthy behaviours, boost academic achievement and strengthen social skills. The Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg (BGCW) in Manitoba, Canada, have been offering out-of-school programs to children and adolescents in low-income neighbourhoods for more than 40 years. Many BGCW participants face considerable risk of poor health, social and educational outcomes due to challenges they experience at home, in school and in their communities.

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This study tests the influence of wearing a protective face mask on the perceived attractiveness of the wearer. Participants who identified as White, and who varied in their ideological stance toward mask wearing, rated the attractiveness of facial photographs. The photos varied in baseline attractiveness (low, medium, and high), race (White and Asian), and whether or not the face was wearing a protective mask.

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Introduction: Acute care hospitals often inadequately prepare older adults to transition back to the community. Interventions that seek to improve this transition process are usually evaluated using healthcare use outcomes (e.g.

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Background: Amid rising concern about opioid use across Canada, Métis leaders in Manitoba are seeking information on prescription opioid dispensing in Red River Métis populations to assist with planning and implementing appropriate evidence-based harm-reduction strategies in their communities. We examined patterns of prescription opioid dispensing among Red River Métis and compared them to those among other residents of Manitoba.

Methods: We conducted a population-based retrospective cross-sectional study for fiscal years 2006/07-2018/19 using administrative data from the Manitoba Population Research Data Repository and a study designed in partnership with researchers from the Manitoba Métis Federation.

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Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a serotonergic psychedelic compound receiving increasing interest due to putative anxiolytic and antidepressant properties. However, the potential neurobiological mechanisms mediating these effects remain elusive. Employing in vivo electrophysiology, microionthophoresis, behavioral paradigms and morphology assays, we assessed the impact of acute and chronic LSD administration on anxiety-like behavior, on the cortical dendritic spines and on the activity of serotonin (5-HT) neurons originating in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) in male mice exposed to chronic restraint stress.

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