Integrated encoding of relations and objects in visual working memory.

Comprehensive understanding of visual scenes necessitates grasping the relations among visual objects. Given the potentially pivotal role of visual working memory (VWM) in processing visual relations, it is important to investigate the representation of relations in VWM. In our previous study, we proposed the integrated storage hypothesis, postulating that relations and objects are stored together as an integrated structured representation in VWM.

Enhancement of joint flanker effect in intergroup competition.

Representing the mental state of the partner lays the foundation for successful social interaction. While the representation of group members has been extensively studied, it is unclear how intergroup interactions affect it. In three experiments utilizing the joint flanker task, we found that competition between groups brought about a greater joint flanker effect (Experiment 1).

Hierarchical Constraints on the Distribution of Attention in Dynamic Displays.

Human vision is remarkably good at recovering the latent hierarchical structure of dynamic scenes. Here, we explore how visual attention operates with this hierarchical motion representation. The way in which attention responds to surface physical features has been extensively explored.

Matrine induces autophagic cell death by triggering ROS/AMPK/mTOR axis and apoptosis in multiple myeloma.

Despite significant advancements in multiple myeloma (MM) treatment in recent years, most patients will eventually develop resistance or experience relapse. Matrine, a primary active compound of traditional Chinese medicinal herb Sophora flavescens Ait, has been found to have anti-tumor properties in various types of malignant tumors. Whether autophagy plays a crucial role in the anti-MM effect of matrine remain unknown.

Unconscious prioritization for face-to-face people.

One central question in the scientific and philosophical study of consciousness is regarding the scope of human consciousness. There is a lively debate as to whether high-level information integration is necessarily dependent on consciousness. This study presents a new form of unconscious integration based on the facingness between two individuals.

Remembering Sets: Capacity Limit and Time Limit of Ensemble Representations in Working Memory.

In a constantly changing visual environment, the ability to extract and store ensemble representations plays a crucial role in efficiently processing and remembering complex visual information. However, how working memory maintains these ensemble representations remains unclear. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the limits and characteristics of ensemble representations in working memory using a change detection paradigm.

Completeness out of incompleteness: Inferences from regularities in imperfect information ensembles.

Handling imperfect information problems is fundamental to perception, learning, and decision-making. Ensemble perception may partially overcome imperfect information by providing global clues. However, if not all cluster elements are readily accessible, the observations required for computing statistics are incomplete.

Intention beyond desire: Spontaneous intentional commitment regulates conflicting desires.

The human mind is a mosaic composed of multiple selves with conflicting desires. How can coherent actions emerge from such conflicts? Classical desire theory argues that rational action depends on maximizing the expected utilities evaluated by all desires. In contrast, intention theory suggests that humans regulate conflicting desires with an intentional commitment that constrains action planning towards a fixed goal.

Working-Memory-Guided Attention Competes with Exogenous Attention but Not with Endogenous Attention.

Recent research has extensively investigated working memory (WM)-guided attention, which is the phenomenon of attention being directed towards information in the external environment that matches the content stored in WM. While prior studies have focused on the potential influencing factors of WM-guided attention, little is known about the nature of it. This attention system exhibits characteristics of two classical distinct attention systems: exogenous attention and endogenous attention, as it can operate automatically like exogenous attention yet persist for a long time and be modulated by cognitive resources like endogenous attention.

Generative visual common sense: Testing analysis-by-synthesis on Mondrian-style image.

The well-known Mondrian-style images, aside from being aesthetically amusing, also reflect the core principles of human vision in their viewing experience. First, when we see a Mondrian-style image consisting only of a grid and primary colors, we may automatically interpret its causal history such that it was generated by recursively partitioning a blank scene. Second, the image we observe is open to many possible ways of partitioning, and their probabilities of dominating the interpretation can be captured by a probabilistic distribution.

Combined inhibition of XIAP and autophagy induces apoptosis and differentiation in acute myeloid leukaemia.

Perturbations in autophagy, apoptosis and differentiation have greatly affected the progression and therapy of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The role of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP)-related autophagy remains unclear in AML therapeutics. Here, we found that XIAP was highly expressed and associated with poor overall survival in patients with AML.

MicroRNA-143 acts as a tumor suppressor through Musashi-2/DLL1/Notch1 and Musashi-2/Snail1/MMPs axes in acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: The previous studies have revealed that abnormal RNA-binding protein Musashi-2 (MSI2) expression is associated with cancer progression through post-transcriptional mechanisms, however mechanistic details of this regulation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) still remain unclear. Our study aimed to explore the relationship between microRNA-143 (miR-143) and MSI2 and to clarify their clinical significance, biological function and mechanism.

Methods: Abnormal expression of miR-143 and MSI2 were evaluated in bone marrow samples from AML patients by quantitative real time-PCR.

The linear impact of visual working memory load on visual awareness: Evidence from motion-induced blindness.

Despite the close relationship between visual working memory (VWM) and visual awareness, the question of how these two constructs interact with each other is still under debate. The current study aimed to further address this issue by investigating whether and how visual awareness is influenced by VWM load. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to perform a motion-induced blindness (MIB) task while simultaneously memorizing different numbers of items in VWM.

Aging-related genes related to the prognosis and the immune microenvironment of acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), one of the common malignancies of the hematologic system, has progressively increased in incidence. Aging is present in both normal tissues and the tumor microenvironment. However, the relationship between senescence and AML prognosis is still not elucidated.

Attentional biases and daily game craving dynamics: An ecological momentary assessment study.

Background And Aims: Theories posit that the combination of external (e.g. cue exposure) and internal (e.

Spontaneous perspective taking of an invisible person.

Observing the world from the perspective of others is one of the important foundational skills of social cognition. Visual perspective taking (VPT) is usually considered to have occurred when seeing another person. In researches on automatic VPT, a critical question is, does VPT occur merely based on another person's realistic perspective at the current moment, or does it also consider potential future perspectives? To examine the taking-a-potential-perspective assumption, the current study created a series of situations in which others are currently out of our sight (thus, extinguishing the information about the current perspective), with the possibility of returning and seeing a target from a different perspective than the participants, to test whether participants would spontaneously take the perspective of the temporarily invisible person.

Intrinsic neural activity predisposes susceptibility to a body illusion.

Susceptibility to the rubber hand illusion (RHI) varies. To date, however, there is no consensus explanation of this variability. Previous studies, focused on the role of multisensory integration, have searched for neural correlates of the illusion.

More attention with less working memory: The active inhibition of attended but outdated information.

Attention has traditionally been regarded as a gateway to working memory, and almost all theoretical frameworks of attention and working memory assume that individuals always have a better memory for information that has received more attention. Here, we provide a series of counterintuitive demonstrations that show that paying more attention to a piece of information impedes, rather than enhances, the selection of this information into working memory. Experiments 1 to 5 provide converging evidence for an even weaker working memory trace of fully attended but outdated features, compared with baseline irrelevant features that were completely ignored.

The automatic processing of social information in working memory.

Working memory has been considered an active buffer for processing perceptual representations in a progressive manner, integrating information involuntarily to form structured mental representations. The automatic integration of objects' physical features in working memory has been well documented, although its social aspect remains unknown. The current study examines whether working memory would automatically process social information, that is, extract social information from memory content to form a higher-level social representation.

The ROCK Tool: A Novel Method for the Structural Exploration of Schemata.

Information stored in the human memory is organized in the form of mental schemata. In this paper we report on the Reproduction of Categorical Knowledge (ROCK) tool, a novel method for uncovering the structure of mental schemata of memorized information. The tool applies serial reproduction and hierarchical clustering to magnify memory bias and uncover inner configurations of fragmented information, using strength of association.

Implicit and Explicit Self-Identification as a Drug User in People Who Used Heroin and Methamphetamine.

Implicit and explicit self-identification as a drug user specific to the substance used (e.g., viewing oneself as a drinker) have been examined, as they relate to that drug use.

The storage mechanism of dynamic relations in visual working memory.

The ability to briefly hold and manipulate object relations provides a foundation for interacting with our complex environment. Previous studies on working memory focused more on objects than their relations, which is disproportionate in the context of their theoretical importance. This study examined dynamic relations of objects to better understand the storage mechanism (capacity and representation) using a self-developed modified change detection paradigm, where an object moved dynamically, based on its relation to other objects.

The postdictive effect of choice reflects the modulation of attention on choice.

Our conscious perception of the world is not an instantaneous, moment-by-moment construction. Rather, our perception of an event is influenced, over time, by information gained after the event; this is known as a postdictive effect. A recent study reported that this postdictive effect could occur even in choice.

Consciousness can overflow report: Novel evidence from attribute amnesia of a single stimulus.

There is a long-standing debate on whether visual consciousness is confined to cognitive access measured by reportability, or whether it is rich and overflows reportability. Much of the debate in previous studies concentrated on whether information outside attentional focus could be consciously experienced and reportable. This study sought to address the debate from a new perspective, through testing whether fully attended supraliminal information is necessarily reportable with a variation of attribute amnesia.

The Gilding-the-Lily Effect: Exploratory Behavior Energized by Curiosity.

The widespread metaphor "to gild the lily" suggests that people usually engage in superfluous behaviors. Understanding the cognitive mechanism underlying superfluous behaviors helps individuals to reduce possible waste and even disasters incurred by unnecessary actions. Here, we assumed that curiosity for new information partly pushes people to make needless efforts.