Shifts in task absorption during decision-making episodes.

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, this study investigates the impact of new technology on organizational work dynamics. By integrating the Job Demands-Resources theory and the Episodic Process Model, we examine the cognitive mechanisms that influence task performance during decision-making episodes. Our research focuses on episodic job demands and resources, emphasizing the mediating role of task absorption in the relationship between these factors and task performance.

Fixational eye movements and their associated evoked potentials during natural vision are altered in schizophrenia.

Background: Visual exploration is abnormal in schizophrenia; however, few studies have investigated the physiological responses during selecting objectives in more ecological scenarios. This study aimed to demonstrate that people with schizophrenia have difficulties observing the prominent elements of an image due to a deficit mechanism of sensory modulation (active sensing) during natural vision.

Methods: An electroencephalogram recording with eye tracking data was collected on 18 healthy individuals and 18 people affected by schizophrenia while looking at natural images.

Microbial Composition and Diversity of High-demand Street-vended Foods in Ecuador.

Developing countries such as Ecuador carry a heavy food safety burden but reports on the microbiological quality of their foods are scarce. In this investigation, the microbial diversity of 10 high-risk and mass-consumption street-vended foods including bolones, encebollado, food dressings, ceviche, chopped fruits, fruit juices, fruit salads, cheese, raw chicken, and ground beef in Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca, three major population centers in Ecuador, were evaluated using 16S rRNA gene High Throughput Sequencing. In total, 1,840 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were classified into 23 phyla, 253 families, 645 genera, and 829 species.

Autogenous cerebral processes: an invitation to look at the brain from inside out.

While external stimulation can reliably trigger neuronal activity, cerebral processes can operate independently from the environment. In this study, we conceptualize as intrinsic operations of the brain that exist on multiple scales and can influence or shape stimulus responses, behavior, homeostasis, and the physiological state of an organism. We further propose that the field should consider exploring to what extent perception, arousal, behavior, or movement, as well as other cognitive functions previously investigated mainly regarding their stimulus-response dynamics, are ACP-driven.

Neuronal Population Activity in Macaque Visual Cortices Dynamically Changes through Repeated Fixations in Active Free Viewing.

During free viewing, we move our eyes and fixate on objects to recognize the visual scene of our surroundings. To investigate the neural representation of objects in this process, we studied individual and population neuronal activity in three different visual regions of the brains of macaque monkeys (): the primary and secondary visual cortices (V1, V2) and the inferotemporal cortex (IT). We designed a task where the animal freely selected objects in a stimulus image to fixate on while we examined the relationship between spiking activity, the order of fixations, and the fixated objects.

Modelling Worldviews as Stable Metabolisms.

The emergence and evolution of worldviews is a complex phenomenon that requires strong and rigorous scientific attention in our hyperconnected world. On the one hand, cognitive theories have proposed reasonable frameworks but have not reached general modeling frameworks where predictions can be tested. On the other hand, machine-learning-based applications perform extremely well at predicting outcomes of worldviews, but they rely on a set of optimized weights in a neural network that does not comply to a well-founded cognitive framework.

Aversion to Mesh Use in Pelvic Floor Surgery in a Latina Population at the U.S.-Mexico Border.

Importance: Limited studies have examined patient aversion to mesh use in pelvic surgery, especially in Latinas.

Objective: This study aimed to assess aversion to pelvic surgery with mesh for urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse in a sample of Latinas on the U.S.

Hidden lymphoma in the appendix: a case of primary appendiceal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma presenting as acute appendicitis.

The occurrence of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) of the appendix presenting as acute appendicitis is rare, constituting only a minuscule portion (0.015%) of gastrointestinal lymphoma cases. We present a case of a 55-year-old woman that was admitted to the emergency department with symptoms of acute appendicitis and underwent an interval laparoscopic appendectomy with a right hemicolectomy and lymph node resection.

Effects of the self-perceived sensorimotor demand and immersion during video gaming on visual-attention skills.

Playing specific genres of video games (e.g., action video games) has been linked to improvements in cognitive skills mostly related to attentional phenomena.

Event-related (de)synchronization and potential in whole vs. part sensorimotor learning.

Background: There are different ways to learn a sensorimotor task. This research focuses on whole versus part learning in a complex video game that involves sensorimotor adaptations and skill learning. The primary aim of this research is to compare the changes in (1) event-related potentials (ERP) and (2) Alpha and Beta event-related desynchronization/synchronization [ERD(S)] of EEG between whole and part practice protocols.

Perforated mediastinal gastric volvulus: an uncommon complication of hiatal hernia.

A woman in her 50s was admitted to the emergency department with a 3-day history of abdominal pain, mainly in the right hypochondrium, radiating to the back, associated with postprandial vomiting and dysphagia. The abdominal ultrasound study found no abnormalities. Laboratory tests showed increased C-reactive protein levels, creatinine and high white blood cell count without a left shift.

Visual-spatial processing impairment in the occipital-frontal connectivity network at early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia worldwide, but its pathophysiological phenomena are not fully elucidated. Many neurophysiological markers have been suggested to identify early cognitive impairments of AD. However, the diagnosis of this disease remains a challenge for specialists.

Combined therapy of bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation and ocular occlusion improves visual function in adults with amblyopia, a randomized pilot study.

Background: Amblyopia is the interocular visual acuity difference of two lines or more with the best correction in both eyes. It is treated with ocular occlusion therapy, but its success depends on neuroplasticity, and thus is effective in children but not adults. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is suggested to increase neuroplasticity.

SaFiDe: Detection of saccade and fixation periods based on eye-movement attributes from video-oculography, scleral coil or electrooculography data.

In this work we present SaFiDe, a deterministic method to detect eye movements (saccades and fixations) from eye-trace data. We developed this method for human and nonhuman primate data from video- and coil-recorded eye traces and further applied the algorithm to eye traces computed from electrooculograms. All the data analyzed were from free-exploration paradigms, where the main challenge was to detect periods of saccades and fixations that were uncued by the task.

Voluntary self-initiation of the stimuli onset improves working memory and accelerates visual and attentional processing.

The ability of an organism to voluntarily control the stimuli onset modulates perceptual and attentional functions. Since stimulus encoding is an essential component of working memory (WM), we conjectured that controlling the initiation of the perceptual process would positively modulate WM. To corroborate this proposition, we tested twenty-five healthy subjects in a modified-Sternberg WM task under three stimuli presentation conditions: an automatic presentation of the stimuli, a self-initiated presentation of the stimuli (through a button press), and a self-initiated presentation with random-delay stimuli onset.

Cortico-Hippocampal Oscillations Are Associated With the Developmental Onset of Hippocampal-Dependent Memory.

Hippocampal-dependent memories emerge late during postnatal development, aligning with hippocampal maturation. During sleep, the two-stage memory formation model states that through hippocampal-neocortical interactions, cortical slow-oscillations (SO), thalamocortical Spindles, and hippocampal sharp-wave ripples (SWR) are synchronized, allowing for the consolidation of hippocampal-dependent memories. However, evidence supporting this hypothesis during development is still lacking.

Alpha EEG Activity and Pupil Diameter Coupling during Inactive Wakefulness in Humans.

Variations in human behavior correspond to the adaptation of the nervous system to different internal and environmental demands. Attention, a cognitive process for weighing environmental demands, changes over time. Pupillary activity, which is affected by fluctuating levels of cognitive processing, appears to identify neural dynamics that relate to different states of attention.

The Energy Homeostasis Principle: A Naturalistic Approach to Explain the Emergence of Behavior.

It is still elusive to explain the emergence of behavior and understanding based on its neural mechanisms. One renowned proposal is the Free Energy Principle (FEP), which uses an information-theoretic framework derived from thermodynamic considerations to describe how behavior and understanding emerge. FEP starts from a whole-organism approach, based on mental states and phenomena, mapping them into the neuronal substrate.

Extending the integrate-and-fire model to account for metabolic dependencies.

It is widely accepted that the brain, like any other physical system, is subjected to physical constraints that restrict its operation. The brain's metabolic demands are particularly critical for proper neuronal function, but the impact of these constraints continues to remain poorly understood. Detailed single-neuron models are recently integrating metabolic constraints, but these models' computational resources make it challenging to explore the dynamics of extended neural networks, which are governed by such constraints.

Perceptions of Mesh Use for Pelvic Floor Surgery in Latinas: Face Validity of a Spanish Questionnaire.

Objective: The aim of the study was to validate a Spanish-translated survey assessing patients' perceptions of mesh use in pelvic floor surgery.

Methods: An English-language survey evaluating perceptions of mesh use underwent a process of Spanish translation and validation, using a forward-backward translation validation protocol. Self-identified bilingual Latinas with symptoms of pelvic floor disorders were recruited to participate in cognitive interviews after completing the survey in English and Spanish.

A Structured, Hybrid Cystoscopy Simulation Curriculum for Obstetrics/Gynecology Residents.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the subjective and objective cystoscopy skills of gynecology residents before and after implementation of a comprehensive simulation curriculum.

Methods: Residents in an obstetrics/gynecology program at a single academic institution participated in a 6-week cystoscopy simulation course. Residents attended an initial orientation and didactic presentation, and then weekly 20- to 30-minute training sessions using a water balloon model and a virtual reality simulator.

Interoceptive insular cortex participates in sensory processing of gastrointestinal malaise and associated behaviors.

The insular cortex plays a central role in the perception and regulation of bodily needs and emotions. Its modular arrangement, corresponding with different sensory modalities, denotes a complex organization, and reveals it to be a hub that is able to coordinate autonomic and behavioral responses to many types of stimuli. Yet, little is known about the dynamics of its electrical activity at the neuronal level.

Beyond planetary-scale feedback self-regulation: Gaia as an autopoietic system.

The Gaia hypothesis states that the Earth is an instance of life. However, appraisals of it tend to focus on the claim that life is a feedback self-regulator that controls Earth's chemistry and climate dynamics, yet, self-regulation by feedbacks is not a definitive characteristic of living systems. Here, we consider the characterization of biological systems as autopoietic systems (causally organized to self-produce through metabolic efficient closure) and then ask whether the Gaia hypothesis is a tractable question from this standpoint.

Corrigendum: The Energy Homeostasis Principle: Neuronal Energy Regulation Drives Local Network Dynamics Generating Behavior.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2019.