The use of the differential outcomes procedure for the recognition of facial expressions of complex emotions and its electrophysiological correlates.

The differential outcomes procedure (DOP) is an easily applicable method for enhancing discriminative learning and recognition memory. Its effectiveness in improving the recognition of facial expressions of emotion has been recently explored, with mixed success. This study aims to explore whether the expectancies generated via the DOP are reflected as differences in event-related potentials (ERPs) between participants in differential (DOP) or non-differential conditions (NOP) in a facial expression of complex emotion label task.

Inhibition and working memory capacity modulate the mental space-time association.

This research aimed to investigate whether the mental space-time association of temporal concepts could be modulated by the availability of cognitive resources (in terms of working memory and inhibitory control capacities) and to explore whether access to this association could be an automatic process. To achieve this, two experiments were carried out. In Experiment 1, participants had to classify words with future and past meanings.

Cognitive inhibition abilities explain inter-individual variability in gender-space associations.

There is a great deal of research describing the close association that exists between numerical and spatial representations, illustrating the SNARC (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Code) effect. This effect signals the spatial mental representation of small numbers to the left and larger numbers to the right, coinciding with the direction of reading and writing. Subsequent research has found a similar spatial representation for other stimuli (e.

Long-term follow-up of HCV-infected patients with end-stage chronic kidney disease after sustained virological response with direct-acting antiviral therapy.

Background And Aim: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hepatitis C infection can be safely and effectively treated with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). However, there is scarce data on the long-term impact of hepatitis C cure on CKD. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term mortality, morbidity and hepatic/renal function outcomes in a cohort of HCV-infected individuals with CKD treated with DAAs.

Clockwise rotation of perspective view improves spatial recognition of complex environments in aging.

Deciphering the human spatial cognition system involves the development of simple tasks to assess how our brain works with shapes and forms. Prior studies in the mental rotation field disclosed a clockwise rotation bias on how basic stimuli are perceived and processed. However, there is a lack of a substantial scientific background for complex stimuli and how factors like sex or aging could influence them.

Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity Modulate Electrophysiological Correlates of Semantic Negative Priming From Single Words.

In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were registered during a semantic negative priming (NP) task in participants with higher and lower working memory capacity (WMC). On each trial participants had to actively ignore a briefly presented single prime word, which was followed either immediately or after a delay by a mask. Thereafter, either a semantically related or an unrelated target word was presented, to which participants made a semantic categorization judgment.

Schizotypal personality traits and the social learning of fear.

Schizotypy can be defined as a combination of traits qualitatively similar to those found in schizophrenia, but milder in their expression, that can be found in clinical and non-clinical populations. In this research, we explore, to our knowledge, for the first time, whether schizotypal personality traits may affect the acquisition of conditioned fear by social means only. Apart from being an essential capacity to ensure learning in safe environments, social fear learning shares important characteristics with direct fear acquisition, which also makes it a great candidate for developing successful extinction procedures.

A 2-Step Strategy Combining FIB-4 With Transient Elastography and Ultrasound Predicted Liver Cancer After HCV Cure.

Introduction: Despite the direct-acting antiviral therapy has dramatically decreased the likelihood of having liver-related complications and extrahepatic outcomes, the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not totally eliminated after sustained virological response (SVR). We aimed to develop an easy-to-apply strategy to be adopted in clinical practice for accurately classifying the HCC risk in hepatitis C virus patients after SVR.

Methods: Prospective and multicenter study enrolling hepatitis C virus patients with advanced fibrosis (transient elastography [TE] > 10 kPa) or cirrhosis by ultrasound showing SVR.

Spatial Recognition Memory: Differential Brain Strategic Activation According to Sex.

Human spatial memory research has significantly progressed since the development of computerized tasks, with many studies examining sex-related performances. However, few studies explore the underlying electrophysiological correlates according to sex. In this study event-related potentials were compared between male and female participants during the performance of an allocentric spatial recognition task.

Role of Leptin in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which affects about a quarter of the global population, poses a substantial health and economic burden in all countries, yet there is no approved pharmacotherapy to treat this entity, nor well-established strategies for its diagnosis. Its prevalence has been rapidly driven by increased physical inactivity, in addition to excessive calorie intake compared to energy expenditure, affecting both adults and children. The increase in the number of cases, together with the higher morbimortality that this disease entails with respect to the general population, makes NAFLD a serious public health problem.

Implicit outcomes expectancies shape memory process: Electrophysiological evidence.

The simple manipulation of pairing specific outcomes with the sample stimuli strongly affects discriminative learning and memory processes. This procedure has been named the Differential Outcomes Procedure (DOP) and is usually compared to a control condition (the non-differential procedure, NOP) consisting in the random administration of the outcomes after each correct response. Recent research has revealed that the DOP effect arises even under unconscious conditions.

Electrophysiological correlates of the differential outcomes effect in visual short-term memory.

The differential outcomes procedure (DOP) consists in applying a specific outcome after each discriminative stimulus-correct response pairing, leading to improved performance in both memory and learning tasks (faster acquisition and/or higher response accuracy), compared to the non-differential outcomes procedure (NOP). The main aim of this study was to explore the electrophysiological correlates (ERPs) of the DOP in a visual short-term memory task, and to test whether a differential activation pattern would be observed depending on the outcomes condition (DOP vs. NOP).

Semantic Negative Priming From an Ignored Single-Prime Depends Critically on Prime-Mask Inter-Stimulus Interval and Working Memory Capacity.

The aim of this study is to examine the link between working memory capacity and the ability to exert cognitive control. Here, participants with either high or low working memory capacity (WMC) performed a semantic negative priming (NP) task as a measure of cognitive control. They were required to ignore a single prime word followed by a pattern mask appearing immediately or after a delay.

Enhanced learning and retention of medical information in Alzheimer's disease after differential outcomes training.

Background: Adherence to treatment is a crucial factor for patients who have chronic illnesses or multiple morbidities and polypharmacy, which is frequently found in older adults. The non-adherence to medications has important economic and social consequences as well as impacts on the health of the patients. One of the reasons that can explain the low adherence to treatment, is the memory deficits that are characteristics of this population and that are even more evident in cases that involve neurodegenerative diseases.

Effectiveness, safety/tolerability of OBV/PTV/r ± DSV in patients with HCV genotype 1 or 4 with/without HIV-1 co-infection, chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage IIIb-V and dialysis in Spanish clinical practice - Vie-KinD study.

Background And Aims: Limited data are available on the effectiveness and tolerability of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) therapies in the real world for HCV-infected patients with comorbidities. This study aimed to describe the effectiveness of OBV/PTV/r ± DSV (3D/2D regimen) with or without ribavirin (RBV) in HCV or HCV/HIV co-infected patients with GT1/GT4 and CKD (IIIb-V stages), including those under hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis in routine clinical practice in Spain in 2015.

Material And Methods: Non-interventional, retrospective, multicenter data collection study in 31 Spanish sites.

Effectiveness and safety of sofosbuvir/velpatasvir/voxilaprevir in patients with chronic hepatitis C previously treated with DAAs.

Background & Aims: Around 5% of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection treated with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) agents do not achieve sustained virological response (SVR). The currently approved retreatment regimen for prior DAA failure is a combination of sofosbuvir, velpatasvir, and voxilaprevir (SOF/VEL/VOX), although there is little data on its use in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to analyse the effectiveness and safety of SOF/VEL/VOX in the real-world setting.

Does the implicit outcomes expectancies shape learning and memory processes?

Does the explicit or implicit knowledge about the consequences of our choices shape learning and memory processes? This seems to be the case according to previous studies demonstrating improvements in learning and retention of symbolic relations and in visuospatial recognition memory when each correct choice is reinforced with its own unique and explicit outcome (the differential outcomes procedure, DOP). In the present study, we aim to extend these findings by exploring the impact of the DOP under conditions of non-conscious processing. To test for this, both the outcomes (Experiment 1A) and the sample stimuli (Experiment 1B) were presented under subliminal (non-conscious) and supraliminal conditions in a delayed visual recognition memory task.

Differential Outcomes Training Ameliorates Visual Memory Impairments in Patients With Alzheimer's Disease: A Pilot Study.

It is well known that Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is associated with deficits in cognitive processes including visual memory impairments. One technique that might be used to ameliorate these impairments is the differential outcomes procedure (DOP) that involves associating each to-be-remembered stimulus with a specific outcome. Previous research has demonstrated that the DOP can be used to reduce or eliminate the learning and memory deficits associated with animal models of amnesia and dementia.

Effectiveness and safety of elbasvir/grazoprevir therapy in patients with chronic HCV infection: Results from the Spanish HEPA-C real-world cohort.

In randomized controlled trials of patients with chronic HCV infection, elbasvir/grazoprevir (EBR/GZR) demonstrated high cure rates and a good safety profile. This study assessed the effectiveness and safety of EBR/GZR, with and without ribavirin, in a real-world HCV patient cohort. HEPA-C is a collaborative, monitored national registry of HCV patients directed by the Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver and the Networked Biomedical Research Centre for Hepatic and Digestive Diseases.

Duration of the acute hepatic encephalopathy episode determines survival in cirrhotic patients.

Background: Episodes of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) have been related to low survival rate. However, the relation between its clinical evolution and mortality has not been assessed.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of 245 cirrhotic patients admitted for an acute episode of HE (⩾grade 2) or who developed an HE episode after an upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) event was performed to assess the relation between time in HE and transplant-free survival.

Impact of comorbidities on patient outcomes after interferon-free therapy-induced viral eradication in hepatitis C.

Background & Aims: Patients with advanced liver fibrosis remain at risk of cirrhosis-related outcomes and those with severe comorbidities may not benefit from hepatitis C (HCV) eradication. We aimed to collect data on all-cause mortality and relevant clinical events within the first two years of direct-acting antiviral therapy, whilst determining the prognostic capability of a comorbidity-based model.

Methods: This was a prospective non-interventional study, from the beginning of direct-acting antiviral therapy to the event of interest (mortality) or up to two years of follow-up, including 14 Spanish University Hospitals.

New records of sabellids and serpulids (Polychaeta: Sabellidae, Serpulidae) from the Tropical Eastern Pacific.

Sabellids and serpulids are two well represented families in the polychaete fauna of the Tropical Eastern Pacific, with 31 and 34 species respectively; however, most records come from the Gulf of California or the western coast of Baja California Peninsula. Only a few records are from localities in the large expanse of the central and southern Mexican Pacific. Thus, sabellids and serpulids were collected from several shallow water habitats along the coast of Mexican Pacific, such as coastal lagoons, coral reefs, rocky shores and from man-made structures as marinas, piers and ships of several harbors; additionally, specimens from national collections were revised.

Effectiveness and safety of first-generation protease inhibitors in clinical practice: Hepatitis C virus patients with advanced fibrosis.

Aim: To evaluates the effectiveness and safety of the first generation, NS3/4A protease inhibitors (PIs) in clinical practice against chronic C virus, especially in patients with advanced fibrosis.

Methods: Prospective study and non-experimental analysis of a multicentre cohort of 38 Spanish hospitals that includes patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 1, treatment-naïve (TN) or treatment-experienced (TE), who underwent triple therapy with the first generation NS3/4A protease inhibitors, boceprevir (BOC) and telaprevir (TVR), in combination with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. The patients were treatment in routine practice settings.

Profiles and clinical management of hepatitis C patients in Spain: disHCovery study.

Introduction: To assess the clinical profile and management of patients with hepatitis C (HCV) infection in an observational study in Spanish hospitals.

Methods: The study included an initial cross-sectional phase (study phase I), in which investigators at 48 hospitals from 14 Spanish regions collected data from approximately 20 consecutive patients each (a total of 1,000 patients) to assess the general features of HCV-infected patients of any genotype. During the second phase (study phase II), data from 878 patients that were infected exclusively with genotype 1 HCV were assessed retrospectively.