Neural mechanisms underlying robust target selection in response to microstimulation of the oculomotor system.

Despite its prevalence in studying the causal roles of different brain circuits in cognitive processes, electrical microstimulation often results in inconsistent behavioral effects. These inconsistencies are assumed to be due to multiple mechanisms, including habituation, compensation by other brain circuits, and contralateral suppression. Considering the presence of reinforcement in most experimental paradigms, we hypothesized that interactions between reward feedback and microstimulation could contribute to inconsistencies in behavioral effects of microstimulation.

eIF2α phosphorylation evokes dystonia-like movements with D2-receptor and cholinergic origin and abnormal neuronal connectivity.

Dystonia is the 3 most common movement disorder. Dystonia is acquired through either injury or genetic mutations, with poorly understood molecular and cellular mechanisms. Eukaryotic initiation factor alpha (eIF2α) controls cell state including neuronal plasticity via protein translation control and expression of ATF4.

Transfer of learning: Analysis of dose-response functions from a large-scale, online, cognitive training dataset.

Fundamental to the efficacy of cognitive training (CT) is its dose. Here we used the power and breadth afforded by a large dataset to measure precisely dose-response (D-R) functions for CT and to examine the generality of their magnitude and form. The present observational study involved 107,000 users of Lumosity, a commercial program comprising computer games designed to provide CT over the internet.

Modelling human behaviour in cognitive tasks with latent dynamical systems.

Response time data collected from cognitive tasks are a cornerstone of psychology and neuroscience research, yet existing models of these data either make strong assumptions about the data-generating process or are limited to modelling single trials. We introduce task-DyVA, a deep learning framework in which expressive dynamical systems are trained to reproduce sequences of response times observed in data from individual human subjects. Models fitted to a large task-switching dataset captured subject-specific behavioural differences with high temporal precision, including task-switching costs.

A massive dataset of the NeuroCognitive Performance Test, a web-based cognitive assessment.

We present a dataset of approximately 5.5 million subtest scores from over 750,000 adults who completed the NeuroCognitive Performance Test (NCPT; Lumos Labs, Inc.), a validated, self-administered cognitive test accessed via web browser.

[Rationalism and mystification. On the formal pathetic of being against].

The article presents the results of the interpretation of qualitative interviews with coronavirus critics. It focuses on the forms of social criticism manifested in the interviews. The analysis (1) shows that the critique is based on a rationalistic ideal of crisis resolution.

Computerized Cognitive Training by Healthy Older and Younger Adults: Age Comparisons of Overall Efficacy and Selective Effects on Cognition.

Among the non-pharmacological methods under development for maintaining cognitive function across the lifespan is computerized cognitive training (CCT). There has been considerable interest in using CCT to slow or remediate age-related cognitive decline, both normal and pathological. Toward these ends, it would be useful to know how the effects of CCT on cognitive function vary over the course of normal cognitive aging.

Outcomes in CME/CPD - Special Collection: How to make the "pyramid" a perpetuum mobile.

Continuing medical education (CME) should not be an end in itself, but as expressed in Moore's pyramid, help to improve both individual patient and ultimately community, health. However, there are numerous barriers to translation of physician competence into improvements in community health. To enhance the effect CME may achieve in improving community health the authors suggest a kick-off/keep-on continuum of medical competence, and integration of aspects of public health at all levels from planning to delivery and outcomes measurement in CME.

Separable Influences of Reward on Visual Processing and Choice.

Primate vision is characterized by constant, sequential processing and selection of visual targets to fixate. Although expected reward is known to influence both processing and selection of visual targets, similarities and differences between these effects remain unclear mainly because they have been measured in separate tasks. Using a novel paradigm, we simultaneously measured the effects of reward outcomes and expected reward on target selection and sensitivity to visual motion in monkeys.

Inferring latent learning factors in large-scale cognitive training data.

The flexibility to learn diverse tasks is a hallmark of human cognition. To improve our understanding of individual differences and dynamics of learning across tasks, we analyse the latent structure of learning trajectories from 36,297 individuals as they learned 51 different tasks on the Lumosity online cognitive training platform. Through a data-driven modelling approach using probabilistic dimensionality reduction, we investigate covariation across learning trajectories with few assumptions about learning curve form or relationships between tasks.

Perceptions of Brain Training: Public Expectations of Cognitive Benefits From Popular Activities.

Many popular activities are thought by the general public to improve cognitive function. Such expectations can influence how often people engage in these activities, as well as the scientific evaluation of their putative cognitive benefits, e.g.

Independent Continuing Medical Education (CME)/Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Must Deliver Unbiased Information.

Physicians commit themselves always to act in the best interests of their patients, and this includes their approach to continuing medical education (CME) as well as continuing professional development (CPD). For many years professional codes, and in some countries also the civil law, have defined that CME/CPD must be independent of commercial interests. Over the last few decades, numerous bodies have introduced CME/CPD accreditation to ensure that the planning and conduct of CME/CPD follows a set of defined standards, with independence of commercial interests as one of the leading principles.

Solar autocalibrating XUV-IR spectrometer system (SOLACER) for the measurement of solar spectral irradiance.

The accurate measurement of solar spectral irradiance (SSI) from space is challenging because it requires a system that can reliably exclude the impact of degradation on the instruments for the full duration of a long-term mission. The new Autocalibrating XUV-IR Spectrometer System (SOLACER) presented here meets this requirement. It is a compact and moderate-cost instrument that allows repeated onboard calibration of the spectrometers (SPs) providing SSI data of significantly increased accuracy.

Enhanced Neural Processing by Covert Attention only during Microsaccades Directed toward the Attended Stimulus.

Attention can be "covertly" directed without eye movements; yet, even during fixation, there are continuous microsaccades (MSs). In areas V4 and IT of macaques, we found that firing rates and stimulus representations were enhanced by attention but only following a MS toward the attended stimulus. The onset of neural attentional modulations was tightly coupled to the MS onset.

Pulvinar-Cortex Interactions in Vision and Attention.

The ventro-lateral pulvinar is reciprocally connected with the visual areas of the ventral stream that are important for object recognition. To understand the mechanisms of attentive stimulus processing in this pulvinar-cortex loop, we investigated the interactions between the pulvinar, area V4, and IT cortex in a spatial-attention task. Sensory processing and the influence of attention in the pulvinar appeared to reflect its cortical inputs.

Prefrontal contributions to visual selective attention.

The faculty of attention endows us with the capacity to process important sensory information selectively while disregarding information that is potentially distracting. Much of our understanding of the neural circuitry underlying this fundamental cognitive function comes from neurophysiological studies within the visual modality. Past evidence suggests that a principal function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is selective attention and that this function involves the modulation of sensory signals within posterior cortices.

The role of lateral tension in calcium-induced DPPS vesicle rupture.

We assess the role of lateral tension in rupturing anionic dipalmitoylphosphatidyserine (DPPS), neutral dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), and mixed DPPS-DPPC vesicles. Binding of Ca(2+) is known to have a significant impact on the effective size of DPPS lipids and little effect on the size of DPPC lipids in bilayer structures. In the present work we utilized laser transmission spectroscopy (LTS) to assess the effect of Ca(2+)-induced stress on the stability of the DPPS and DPPC vesicles.

Quantitative and rapid DNA detection by laser transmission spectroscopy.

Laser transmission spectroscopy (LTS) is a quantitative and rapid in vitro technique for measuring the size, shape, and number of nanoparticles in suspension. Here we report on the application of LTS as a novel detection method for species-specific DNA where the presence of one invasive species was differentiated from a closely related invasive sister species. The method employs carboxylated polystyrene nanoparticles functionalized with short DNA fragments that are complimentary to a specific target DNA sequence.

Selective attention from voluntary control of neurons in prefrontal cortex.

Animals can learn to voluntarily control neuronal activity within various brain areas through operant conditioning, but the relevance of that control to cognitive functions is unknown. We found that rhesus monkeys can control the activity of neurons within the frontal eye field (FEF), an oculomotor area of the prefrontal cortex. However, operantly driven FEF activity was primarily associated with selective visual attention, and not oculomotor preparation.

[Supply of and participation in CME activities in the area served the north rhine chamber of physicians in Germany].

Introduction: the study analyses the supply and the demand for Continuing Medical Education (CME) in the area served by the "Ärztekammer Nordrhein (ÄkNo)", which is one of the biggest regional Chambers of Physicians in Germany. Both the supply of all CME events certified by the ÄkNo in 2007 (n=18,932) and the participation of physicians in CME activities - using the example of family doctors (n=850), ophthalmologists (n=122) and orthopaedists (n=38) in the university towns of Cologne, Bonn and Aachen - was analysed for the period of 2002 to 2007 (n=44,760 events).

Methods: differences between groups were tested by the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis method; adjustment for other factors was performed using Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests.

High-precision sizing of nanoparticles by laser transmission spectroscopy.

We describe the implementation of precision laser transmission spectroscopy for sizing and counting nanoparticles in suspension. Our apparatus incorporates a tunable laser and balanced optical system that measures light transmission over a wide (210-2300 nm) wavelength range with high precision and sensitivity. Spectral inversion is employed to determine both the particle size distribution and absolute particle density.

The value of training in communication skills for continuing medical education.

Objective: Question arises as to what extent communication skills are considered in continuing medical education (CME).

Methods: Analysis for CME-courses in communication skills in the area of the Chamber of Physicians North Rhine (ÄkNo), Germany. Supply Arm(A): CME events (n = 19,320) certified in 2007 were evaluated.

[Medical quality assurance today].

Both the quality and performance of health systems are strongly influenced by the number and the qualification of the professional staff. Quality assurance programs help to analyse causalities which are responsible for medical malpractice. On the basis of the experiences gained by the performance of established Quality Assurance Programs (QAP) in the North Rhine area since 1982 various aspects of the efficiency of these programs will be discussed.

Loss of heterozygosity of DNA repair gene, hOGG1, in renal cell carcinoma but not in renal papillary adenoma.

The kidney is constantly exposed to free radicals due to its active metabolism and processing of toxic metabolites. Among 20 or so free radical-induced DNA lesions, 8-oxoquanine is the most abundant and is potentially mutagenic if not sufficiently removed. The human 8-oxoquanine DNA glycosylase 1 (hOGG1) gene repairs 8-oxoguanine and resides at 3p25-26, which has frequent loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in clear cell-renal cell carcinoma (CC-RCC).