Greater plasticity in lower-level than higher-level visual motion processing in a passive perceptual learning task.

Simple exposure is sufficient to sensitize the human visual system to a particular direction of motion, but the underlying mechanisms of this process are unclear. Here, in a passive perceptual learning task, we found that exposure to task-irrelevant motion improved sensitivity to the local motion directions within the stimulus, which are processed at low levels of the visual system. In contrast, task-irrelevant motion had no effect on sensitivity to the global motion direction, which is processed at higher levels.

[A study on far-advanced cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis cases].

In cases with far-advanced cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis, the most serious lesions according to the chest X-ray classification by the Japanese Society of Tuberculosis (b I 3), their prognosis is believed to be poor due to their emaciated general conditions, and a retrospective clinical study was made on these cases admitted to our hospital. The subjects consisted of 95 cases, and among them 87 were male and 8 were female, and their mean age was 49.5 +/- 13.

[Clinical review of pneumothorax cases complicated with active pulmonary tuberculosis].

Pneumothorax is an important and dangerous complication of pulmonary tuberculosis. Forty-six pneumothorax cases complicated with active pulmonary tuberculosis at National Chiba-Higashi Hospital were studied retrospectively. From Jan.

Repeated fMRI using iron oxide contrast agent in awake, behaving macaques at 3 Tesla.

Iron oxide contrast agents have been employed extensively in anesthetized rodents to enhance fMRI sensitivity and to study the physiology of cerebral blood volume (CBV) in relation to blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal following neuronal activation. This study quantified the advantages of exogenous agent for repeated neuroimaging in awake, nonhuman primates using a clinical 3 Tesla scanner. A monocrystalline iron oxide nanoparticle (MION) solution was injected at iron doses of 8 to 10 mg/kg in two macaque monkeys.

[Tuberculosis in the patients undergoing haemodialysis in Japan, 1996].

Unlabelled: We conducted a questionnaire survey on patients undergoing haemodialysis about the present situation of tuberculous incidence. They are immunocompromised hosts and are said to be at high risk of developing tuberculosis in many reports. (1) DESIGN Of the 167,192 patients on haemodialysis registered on December 31, 1996 in Japan, 71,411 patients were available for the questionnaire survey.

Genetic basis of patients with bacille Calmette-Guérin osteomyelitis in Japan: identification of dominant partial interferon-gamma receptor 1 deficiency as a predominant type.

Interferon (IFN)-gamma-mediated immunity plays an important role in host defense against intracellular pathogens, especially mycobacteria. Six Japanese children with bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) osteomyelitis were evaluated (1 disseminated, 3 multiple, and 2 solitary types) for mutations of genes involved in interleukin-12-dependent, IFN-gamma-mediated immunity. Heterozygous small deletions with frameshift (818del4 and 811del4) that are consistent with the diagnosis of partial dominant IFN-gamma receptor 1 (IFN-gammaR1) deficiency were detected in 3 unrelated patients.

Factors related to the occurrence of isolated sleep paralysis elicited during a multi-phasic sleep-wake schedule.

Study Objectives: To further investigate mechanisms of isolated sleep paralysis (ISP) in normal individuals, we experimentally elicited ISPs by facilitating sleep onset REM periods (SOREMP), a prerequisite of ISPs, and examined behavioral and psychological measurements relating to ISP appearances.

Design: The multi-phasic sleep/wake schedule (MPS) began at approximately midnight and ended when net sleep reached 7.5 hours.