West Nile Virus: An Update Focusing on Southern Europe.

West Nile Virus (WNV) is a zoonotic, vector-borne pathogen affecting humans and animals, particularly in Europe. The virus is primarily transmitted through mosquitoes that infect birds, which serve as the main reservoirs. Humans and horses are incidental hosts.

The effects of lidocaine-prilocaine cream on responses to intravenous catheter placement in cats sedated with dexmedetomidine and either methadone or nalbuphine.

Objective: To compare the reaction to cephalic intravenous (IV) catheter placement with or without lidocaine-prilocaine cream in cats sedated with dexmedetomidine and methadone or nalbuphine.

Study Design: Prospective, randomized, blind study.

Animals: A group of 24 female mixed breed cats.

Overnight improvements in two REM sleep-sensitive tasks are associated with both REM and NREM sleep changes, sleep spindle features, and awakenings for dream recall.

Memory consolidation is associated with sleep physiology but the contribution of specific sleep stages remains controversial. To clarify the contribution of REM sleep, participants were administered two REM sleep-sensitive tasks to determine if associated changes occurred only in REM sleep. Twenty-two participants (7 men) were administered the Corsi Block Tapping and Tower of Hanoi tasks prior to and again after a night of sleep.

Disturbed dreaming during the third trimester of pregnancy.

Objective: The majority of women develop sleep impairments during pregnancy, but alterations in dream experiences remain poorly understood. This study aimed to assess prospectively and comparatively the recall of dreaming and of disturbed dreaming in late pregnancy.

Methods: Fifty-seven nulliparous, third-trimester pregnant women (mean age±SD, 28.

Maternal representations in the dreams of pregnant women: a prospective comparative study.

Dreams are thought to respond to self- and socially-relevant situations that evoke strong emotions and require rapid adaptation. First pregnancy is such a situation during which maternal mental representations (MMR) of the unborn baby, the self and significant others undergo remodeling. Some studies suggest that dreams during pregnancy contain more MMR and are more dysphoric, but such studies contain important methodological flaws.

Population-level right-handedness for a coordinated bimanual task in naturalistic housed chimpanzees: replication and extension in 114 animals from Zambia and Spain.

Recently, many studies have been conducted on manual laterality in chimpanzees. Nevertheless, whether nonhuman primates exhibit population-level handedness remains a topic of considerable debate. One of the behaviors studied has been bimanual coordinated actions.

Changes in cardiac variability after REM sleep deprivation in recurrent nightmares.

Study Objectives: To assess whether dysfunctional autonomic regulation during REM sleep as indexed by heart rate variability (HRV) is a pathophysiological factor in frequent nightmares (NMs).

Design: Monitoring with polysomnography (PSG) and electrocardiography (ECG) for 3 consecutive nights: Night 1 (N1), adaptation night; N2, administration of partial REM sleep deprivation; N3, recovery night. Differences between NM and control (CTL) groups assessed for ECG measures drawn from wakefulness, REM sleep, and Stage 2 sleep on both N1 and N3.

REM sleep characteristics of nightmare sufferers before and after REM sleep deprivation.

Objectives: To examine whether disrupted regulation of REM sleep propensity is implicated in nightmare (NM) pathophysiology.

Background: Heightened REM propensity induced by REM sleep deprivation is belied by increases in REM %, REM density and the dream-like quality of dream mentation during post-deprivation recovery sleep. Compromised regulation of REM sleep propensity may be a contributing factor in the pathophysiology of frequent NMs.

New evidence on imitation in an enculturated chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes).

Imitation in the great apes continues to be an active field of research and one that is not free of controversy. Several studies suggest that these species do not tend to match the motor movements of the model they observe, but try to achieve the same results using their own methods (emulation of results). In the studies reviewed, gestures have been used very infrequently outside an intraspecific communicative context to evaluate imitation.

Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and dreaming may be implicated in cross-night adaptation to emotionally negative events. To evaluate the impact of REM sleep deprivation (REMD) and the presence of dream emotions on a possible emotional adaptation (EA) function, 35 healthy subjects randomly assigned to REMD (n = 17; mean age 26.4 +/- 4.

Partial REM-sleep deprivation increases the dream-like quality of mentation from REM sleep and sleep onset.

Study Objectives: Sleep onset (SO) is cognitively and physiologically similar to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, supporting the notion that REM sleep-related processes are 'covertly' active at this time. The objective was to determine if SO mentation is sensitive to REM sleep deprivation.

Design: Two-group cross-sectional design; sleep recordings for 3 nights.