Semantic context-dependent neural representations of odors in the human piriform cortex revealed by 7T MRI.

Olfactory perception depends not only on olfactory inputs but also on semantic context. Although multi-voxel activity patterns of the piriform cortex, a part of the primary olfactory cortex, have been shown to represent odor perception, it remains unclear whether semantic contexts modulate odor representation in this region. Here, we investigated whether multi-voxel activity patterns in the piriform cortex change when semantic context modulates odor perception and, if so, whether the modulated areas communicate with brain regions involved in semantic and memory processing beyond the piriform cortex.

An olfactory self-test effectively screens for COVID-19.

Background: Key to curtailing the COVID-19 pandemic are wide-scale screening strategies. An ideal screen is one that would not rely on transporting, distributing, and collecting physical specimens. Given the olfactory impairment associated with COVID-19, we developed a perceptual measure of olfaction that relies on smelling household odorants and rating them online.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of odor representations in the human brain revealed by EEG decoding.

How the human brain translates olfactory inputs into diverse perceptions, from pleasurable floral smells to sickening smells of decay, is one of the fundamental questions in olfaction. To examine how different aspects of olfactory perception emerge in space and time in the human brain, we performed time-resolved multivariate pattern analysis of scalp-recorded electroencephalogram responses to 10 perceptually diverse odors and associated the resulting decoding accuracies with perception and source activities. Mean decoding accuracies of odors exceeded the chance level 100 ms after odor onset and reached maxima at 350 ms.

More Than Smell-COVID-19 Is Associated With Severe Impairment of Smell, Taste, and Chemesthesis.

Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments, such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored chemesthesis, and generally lacked quantitative measurements. Here, we report the development, implementation, and initial results of a multilingual, international questionnaire to assess self-reported quantity and quality of perception in 3 distinct chemosensory modalities (smell, taste, and chemesthesis) before and during COVID-19.

Relationship between odor intensity estimates and COVID-19 prevalence prediction in a Swedish population.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have implemented various strategies to reduce and slow the spread of the disease in the general population. For countries that have implemented restrictions on its population in a step-wise manner, monitoring of COVID-19 prevalence is of importance to guide decision on when to impose new, or when to abolish old, restrictions. We are here determining whether measures of odor intensity in a large sample can serve as one such measure.

Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder Show Altered Event-Related Potentials in the Late Stages of Olfactory Processing.

Atypical sensory reactivities are pervasive among people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). With respect to olfaction, most previous studies have used psychophysical or questionnaire-based methodologies; thus, the neural basis of olfactory processing in ASD remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the stages of olfactory processing that are altered in ASD.

Subjective unpleasantness of malodors induces a stress response.

Unpleasant odors impair our mood and may affect physical health, even when the odorants are not toxic. A possible cause for such negative effects is stress induced by odors; however, whether the unpleasantness itself elicited stress or not has not been clear. Thus, we examined whether unpleasantness of odors induced the stress responses of emotion, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS).

Electrophysiological correlates of top-down attentional modulation in olfaction.

The capacity to pay attention is important for the cognitive ability, for example, evaluating an object for its qualities. Attention can selectively prioritize the neural processes that are relevant to a given task. Neuroimaging investigations on human attention are primarily focused on vision to the exclusion of other sensory systems, particularly olfaction.

Lorazepam as a Cause of Drug-Induced Liver Injury.

Lorazepam is a benzodiazepine derivative that is globally used for the therapy of anxiety and insomnia. A 51-year-old Japanese man with yellowish discoloration of the eyes and skin and pruritus was admitted due to liver dysfunction. He had taken lorazepam approximately 5 months prior to this admission.

Brief Report: Odour Awareness in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The elucidation of odour awareness in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is important. We compared the odour awareness of young children with ASD with those of typical development (TD) children using the Children's Olfactory Behavior in Everyday Life (COBEL) questionnaire, which is a self-report measure that mainly assesses odour awareness. Forty-five young boys (aged 5-6 years), including 20 children with ASD and 25 TD children, participated in this study.

Approaches for Assessing Olfaction in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Olfactory traits in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are considered the strongest predictors of social impairment. Compared to other sensory abnormalities, olfactory abnormalities in individuals with ASD are poorly understood. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the current assessment in individuals with ASD.

Child Odors and Parenting: A Survey Examination of the Role of Odor in Child-Rearing.

Parental caregiving is critical for the survival of our young and continuation of our species. In humans, visual and auditory signals from offspring have been shown to be potent facilitators of parenting. However, whether odors emitted by our young also influence human parenting remains unclear.

Relationship between health literacy, health information access, health behavior, and health status in Japanese people.

Objective: To examine the relationship between health literacy (HL), health information access, health behavior, and health status in Japanese people.

Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted at six healthcare facilities in Japan. Eligible respondents aged 20-64 years (n=1218) were included.

Discovery of novel 2-(alkylmorpholin-4-yl)-6-(3-fluoropyridin-4-yl)-pyrimidin-4(3H)-ones as orally-active GSK-3β inhibitors for Alzheimer's disease.

We herein describe the results of further evolution of GSK-3β inhibitors for Alzheimer's disease from our promising compounds with in vivo tau phosphorylation inhibitory activity by oral administration. Introduction of a low alkyl group instead of the phenyl group at the 3-position of the morpholine moiety aiming to improve pharmacokinetic profiles resulted in potent low molecular weight GSK-3β inhibitors with good in vitro pharmacokinetic profiles, which also showed in vivo tau phosphorylation inhibitory activity by oral administration. Effect of the stereochemistry of the alkyl moiety is also discussed using docking models.

A cross sectional study on fertility knowledge in Japan, measured with the Japanese version of Cardiff Fertility Knowledge Scale (CFKS-J).

Background: A recent survey of 79 countries showed that fertility knowledge was lower in Japan than in any other developed country. Given the fertility decline in Japan and the importance of fertility knowledge, we conducted an online survey to examine fertility knowledge and the related factors for effective public education.

Methods: We studied people aged 18-59 years old, n = 4,328 (the "General" group), and also people who had been trying to conceive for at least six months, 18-50 years old, n = 618 (the "Triers" group).

Correlation between LIFG and autonomic activation during stressful tasks: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study.

It remains unclear whether language tasks in one's first (L1) or second (L2) language can cause stress responses and whether frontal, autonomic and behavioral responses to stressful tasks are correlated. In this study, we studied 22 Chinese subjects whose L2 was English and measured the cerebral blood oxygenation in their frontal lobe by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as participants engaged in a mental arithmetic task (MAT) and verbal fluency tasks (VFTs) in L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English). To examine the activated cortical areas, we estimated the channel location based on Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) standard brain space by using a probabilistic estimation method.

Reading comprehension of health checkup reports and health literacy in Japanese people.

Objectives: To determine the reading comprehension of health checkup reports in the context of health literacy (HL) in Japanese people.

Methods: A web-based survey was conducted among 424 Japanese adults aged 35-59 years. Participants were asked to read specifically designed health checkup reports and then answer a series of questions to examine whether they accomplished the fundamental purposes of health checkup reports (recognition of the problems, recognition of the risk of illness, recognition of the need for preventive action, and motivation for preventive action).

Validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the Newest Vital Sign: a preliminary study.

Health literacy (HL) refers to the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services, and is thus needed to make appropriate health decisions. The Newest Vital Sign (NVS) is comprised of 6 questions about an ice cream nutrition label and assesses HL numeracy skills. We developed a Japanese version of the NVS (NVS-J) and evaluated the validity and reliability of the NVS-J in patients with chronic pain.

Superiority of experts over novices in trueness and precision of concentration estimation of sodium chloride solutions.

Several studies have reported that experts outperform novices in specific domains. However, the superiority of experts in accuracy, taking both trueness and precision into consideration, has not yet been explored. Here, we examined differences between expert and novice performances by evaluating the accuracy of their estimations of physical concentrations of sodium chloride in solutions while employing a visual analog scale.

Extrinsic information influences taste and flavor perception: a review from psychological and neuroimaging perspectives.

The perception of taste and flavor can be greatly biased by extrinsic cues, or the information about a food that comes from outside of the food itself, such as package designs, brands, prices, and so on. In order to understand taste/flavor experiences in a broader context, it is necessary to consider factors other than the food/tastants themselves. This review aims to summarize some of the relevant findings from psychological and neuroimaging studies, focusing on depicting how extrinsic cues exert their effect on taste and flavor.

Health numeracy in Japan: measures of basic numeracy account for framing bias in a highly numerate population.

Background: Health numeracy is an important factor in how well people make decisions based on medical risk information. However, in many countries, including Japan, numeracy studies have been limited.

Methods: To fill this gap, we evaluated health numeracy levels in a sample of Japanese adults by translating two well-known scales that objectively measure basic understanding of math and probability: the 3-item numeracy scale developed by Schwartz and colleagues (the Schwartz scale) and its expanded version, the 11-item numeracy scale developed by Lipkus and colleagues (the Lipkus scale).

Clinically-oriented monitoring of acute effects of methylphenidate on cerebral hemodynamics in ADHD children using fNIRS.

Objective: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a common developmental syndrome with inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, is typically treated with the psychostimulant drug, methylphenidate (MPH). We explored the feasibility of using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to search for a clinically implementable biological marker for the acute MPH effect on ADHD children.

Methods: Following an MPH washout period, twelve ADHD children performed a go/no-go task before and 1.

Conjoint analysis on the purchase intent for traditional fermented soy product (natto) among Japanese housewives.

Unlabelled: The effect of sensory and extrinsic attributes on consumer intentions to purchase the Japanese traditional fermented soybean product natto was evaluated using conjoint analysis. Six attributes with 2 levels each were chosen and manipulated: price (high compared with low), the country of origin of the soybeans (domestic compared with imported), stickiness (strong compared with moderate), smell (rich compared with moderate), attached seasonings (attached compared with no attached seasonings), and the environmental friendliness of the packaging (high compared with low). A fractional factorial design was applied and 8 hypothetical product labels were produced.

Virtual screening and further development of novel ALK inhibitors.

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) has been in the spotlight in recent years as a promising new target for therapy of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Since the identification of the echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4)-ALK fusion gene in some NSCLC patients was reported in 2007, various research groups have been seeking ALK inhibitors. Above all, crizotinib (PF-02341066) has been under clinical trial, and its therapeutic efficacy of inhibiting ALK in NSCLC has been reported.