A minor role for hemispheric specialization in determining pseudoneglect: A pre-registered replication-extension study.

Neurologically intact individuals display a mild asymmetry in spatial attention that can be measured during experimental spatial tasks such as line bisection. Although this phenomenon, known as pseudoneglect, is traditionally explained as the consequence of right hemisphere dominance for visuospatial attention, surmounting evidence suggests this is not its sole or even its most important determinant. For instance, a recent fMRI study in left-handers revealed that rare individuals with a reversed, left hemispheric dominance (LHDS, N = 23) also demonstrated left-sided pseudoneglect, although their spatial bias was less marked compared to typically lateralized controls (N = 40).

Deletion of the polyketide synthase-encoding gene pks1 prevents melanization in the extremophilic fungus Cryomyces antarcticus.

Cryomyces antarcticus, a melanized cryptoendolithic fungus endemic to Antarctica, can tolerate environmental conditions as severe as those in space. Particularly, its ability to withstand ionizing radiation has been attributed to the presence of thick and highly melanized cell walls, which-according to a previous investigation-may contain both 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) and L-3,4 dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) melanin. The genes putatively involved in the synthesis of DHN melanin were identified in the genome of C.

Brain (Yakovlevian) torque direction is associated with volume asymmetry of the intracranial transverse sinuses: evidence from situs inversus totalis.

Previous research reported reversal of the prototypical brain torque in individuals with mirrored visceral topology (situs inversus totalis, SIT). Here, we investigate if typical asymmetry of the posterior intracranial venous system is also reversed in SIT and whether the direction and magnitude of this asymmetry is related to the direction and magnitude of the brain torque. Brain structural MRI images of 38 participants with SIT were compared with those of 38 matched control participants.

Clinical implications of brain asymmetries.

No two human brains are alike, and with the rise of precision medicine in neurology, we are seeing an increased emphasis on understanding the individual variability in brain structure and function that renders every brain unique. Functional and structural brain asymmetries are a fundamental principle of brain organization, and recent research suggests substantial individual variability in these asymmetries that needs to be considered in clinical practice. In this Review, we provide an overview of brain asymmetries, variations in such asymmetries and their relevance in the clinical context.

Brain functional segregation, handedness and cognition in situs inversus totalis: A replication study.

Situs inversus totalis (SIT) is a rare congenital anomaly in which the arrangement of the visceral organs is completely left-right mirrored. A previous study by our lab suggests that SIT (N = 15) correlated with more heterogeneous asymmetrical brain organization and increased left-handedness. In addition, visceral reversal correlated with poorer cognitive performance, especially when hemisphere organization was atypical.

Laterality indices consensus initiative (LICI): A Delphi expert survey report on recommendations to record, assess, and report asymmetry in human behavioural and brain research.

Laterality indices (LIs) quantify the left-right asymmetry of brain and behavioural variables and provide a measure that is statistically convenient and seemingly easy to interpret. Substantial variability in how structural and functional asymmetries are recorded, calculated, and reported, however, suggest little agreement on the conditions required for its valid assessment. The present study aimed for consensus on general aspects in this context of laterality research, and more specifically within a particular method or technique (i.

Variability in Hemispheric Functional Segregation Phenotypes: A Review and General Mechanistic Model.

Many functions of the human brain are organized asymmetrically and are subject to strong population biases. Some tasks, like speaking and making complex hand movements, exhibit left hemispheric dominance, whereas others, such as spatial processing and recognizing faces, favor the right hemisphere. While pattern of preference implies the existence of a stereotypical way of distributing functions between the hemispheres, an ever-increasing body of evidence indicates that not everyone follows this pattern of hemispheric functional segregation.

Early white matter connectivity and plasticity in post stroke aphasia recovery.

A disruption of white matter connectivity is negatively associated with language (recovery) in patients with aphasia after stroke, and behavioral gains have been shown to coincide with white matter neuroplasticity. However, most brain-behavior studies have been carried out in the chronic phase after stroke, with limited generalizability to earlier phases. Furthermore, few studies have investigated neuroplasticity patterns during spontaneous recovery (i.

'What you suggest is not what I expected': How pre-consultation expectations affect shared decision-making in patients with low back pain.

Objective: Existing studies on shared decision-making (SDM) have hardly taken into consideration that patients could have independently developed expectations prior to their consultation with a healthcare provider, nor have studies explored how such expectations affect SDM. Therefore, we explore how pre-consultation expectations affect SDM in patients with low back pain.

Methods: We performed a qualitative study through telephone interviews with 10 patients and seven care professionals (physicians, nurse, physician assistants) and 63 in-person observations of patient-physician consultations in an outpatient clinic in the Netherlands.

Structural perisylvian asymmetry in naturally occurring atypical language dominance.

Functional and anatomical hemispheric asymmetries abound in the neural language system, yet the relationship between them remains elusive. One attractive proposal is that structural interhemispheric differences reflect or even drive functional language laterality. However, studies on structure-function couplings either find that left and right language dominant individuals display similar leftward structural asymmetry or yield inconsistent results.

Reporting health services research to a broader public: An exploration of inconsistencies and reporting inadequacies in societal publications.

Introduction: Little is known about the accuracy of societal publications (e.g. press releases, internet postings or professional journals) that are based on scientific work.

"I Like and Prefer to Work Alone": Social Anxiety, Academic Self-Efficacy, and Students' Perceptions of Active Learning.

Although active learning improves student outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs, it may provoke anxiety in some students. We examined whether two psychological variables, social anxiety (psychological distress relating to the fear of negative evaluation by others) and academic self-efficacy (confidence in one's ability to overcome academic challenges), interact with student perceptions of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) and associate with their final grades in a STEM-related course. Human anatomy and physiology students in community college courses rated various EBIPs for their perceived educational value and their capacity to elicit anxiety ( = 227).

Fibre-specific laterality of white matter in left and right language dominant people.

Language is the most commonly described lateralised cognitive function, relying more on the left hemisphere compared to the right hemisphere in over 90% of the population. Most research examining the structure-function relationship of language lateralisation only included people showing a left language hemisphere dominance. In this work, we applied a state-of-the-art "fixel-based" analysis approach, allowing statistical analysis of white matter micro- and macrostructure on a fibre-specific level in a sample of participants with left and right language dominance (LLD and RLD).

Evaluating the performance of the visual half field paradigm as a screening tool to detect right hemispheric language dominance.

Language is among the most studied functional asymmetries, yet little is known about right hemispheric language dominance. Because of its low prevalence, including a big sample of individuals with this variant of brain organization implies testing large groups, which may not be feasible when using expensive techniques. One solution involves screening a large sample using a cost-efficient method and next inviting only those participants flagged as potentially right dominant for follow-up investigation.

Hemispheric dominance for visuospatial attention does not predict the direction of pseudoneglect.

Pseudoneglect refers to a tendency of neurologically healthy individuals to produce leftward perceptual biases during spatial tasks, which is traditionally measured using line bisection tasks. This behavioral asymmetry is often explained as a consequence of right hemispheric dominance for visuospatial attention. The present study directly tested this notion by comparing line bisection performance between left-handers with either right hemispheric dominance (RVSD, N = 40) or "atypical" left hemispheric dominance (LVSD, N = 23) for visuospatial attention as determined by fMRI.

Individual, institutional, and scientific environment factors associated with questionable research practices in the reporting of messages and conclusions in scientific health services research publications.

Background: Health Services Research findings (HSR) reported in scientific publications may become part of the decision-making process on healthcare. This study aimed to explore associations between researcher's individual, institutional, and scientific environment factors and the occurrence of questionable research practices (QRPs) in the reporting of messages and conclusions in scientific HSR publications.

Methods: We employed a mixed-methods study design.

Mirrored brain organization: Statistical anomaly or reversal of hemispheric functional segregation bias?

Humans demonstrate a prototypical hemispheric functional segregation pattern, with language and praxis lateralizing to the left hemisphere and spatial attention, face recognition, and emotional prosody to the right hemisphere. In this study, we used fMRI to determine laterality for all five functions in each participant. Crucially, we recruited a sample of left-handers preselected for atypical (right) language dominance ( = 24), which allowed us to characterize hemispheric asymmetry of the other functions and compare their functional segregation pattern with that of left-handers showing typical language dominance ( = 39).

Some Believe, Not All Achieve: The Role of Active Learning Practices in Anxiety and Academic Self-Efficacy in First-Generation College Students.

First-generation college students face a variety of barriers in higher education compared with their continuing-generation peers. Active learning practices in STEM classrooms can potentially narrow the achievement gap by increasing academic self-efficacy, or confidence in academic abilities. However, these practices can also provoke anxiety in students.

The right visual field advantage for word processing is stronger in older adults.

The human brain is functionally asymmetric. Producing and understanding language, for instance, engages the left hemisphere to a larger extent than the right in most people. Recent research showed that lateralization for auditory word processing increases with age.

Figure Interpretation Assessment Tool-Health (FIAT-health) 2.0: from a scoring instrument to a critical appraisal tool.

Background: Statistics are frequently used in health advocacy to attract attention, but are often misinterpreted. The Figure Interpretation Assessment Tool-Health (FIAT-Health) 1.0 was developed to support systematic assessment of the interpretation of figures on health and health care.

White matter asymmetries in human situs inversus totalis.

Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) was used to investigate white matter asymmetries in participants with situs inversus totalis (SIT) and matched controls. Regardless of visceral condition, hemispheric differences were found for the arcuate fasciculus (ARC) and the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), which are involved in language and visuospatial functioning, respectively. The ARC appears lateralized to the left hemisphere, analogous to the left lateralization of functional areas associated with language.

Statistics in Dutch policy debates on health and healthcare.

Background: The notion of 'fact-free politics' is debated in Europe and the United States of America and has particular relevance for the use of evidence to underpin health and healthcare policies. To better understand how evidence on health and healthcare is used in the national policy-making process in the Netherlands, we explore how different statistics are used in various policy debates on health and healthcare in the Dutch government and parliament.

Methods: We chose eight ongoing policy debates as case studies representing the subject categories of morbidity, lifestyle, healthcare expenditure and healthcare outcomes, including (1) breast cancer screening rates, prevalence and incidence, (2) dementia prevalence and incidence, (3) prevalence of alcohol use by pregnant women, (4) mobility and school sports participation in children, (5) costs of smoking, (6) Dutch national healthcare expenditure, (7) hospital mortality rates, and (8) bedsore prevalence.

Occurrence and nature of questionable research practices in the reporting of messages and conclusions in international scientific Health Services Research publications: a structured assessment of publications authored by researchers in the Netherlands.

Objectives: Explore the occurrence and nature of questionable research practices (QRPs) in the reporting of messages and conclusions in international scientific Health Services Research (HSR) publications authored by researchers from HSR institutions in the Netherlands.

Design: In a joint effort to assure the overall quality of HSR publications in the Netherlands, 13 HSR institutions in the Netherlands participated in this study. Together with these institutions, we constructed and validated an assessment instrument covering 35 possible QRPs in the reporting of messages and conclusions.

Laterality for recognizing written words and faces in the fusiform gyrus covaries with language dominance.

Recognizing words and faces engages highly specialized sites within the middle fusiform gyrus, known as the visual word form area (VWFA) and fusiform face area (FFA) respectively. The VWFA and FFA have clear but opposite population-level asymmetries, with the VWFA typically being lateralized to the left and the FFA to the right hemisphere. The present study investigates how language dominance may relate to these asymmetries.

Magnesium Stable Isotope Fractionation on a Cellular Level Explored by Cyanobacteria and Black Fungi with Implications for Higher Plants.

In a controlled growth experiment we found that the cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme has a bulk cell Mg/Mg ratio (expressed as δMg) that is -0.27‰ lower than the growth solution at a pH of ca. 5.