Beyond facilitating unisensory processing: Crossmodal associative memory training further modulates sensory integration.

Audiovisual associative memory and audiovisual integration involve common behavioral processing components and significantly overlap in their neural mechanisms. This suggests that training on audiovisual associative memory may have the potential to improve audiovisual integration. The current study tested this hypothesis by applying a 2 (group: audiovisual training group, unimodal control group) × 2 (time: pretest, posttest) design.

Regulating magnetic skyrmions in multiferroic monolayer MnOBr.

Two-dimensional multiferroic materials that exhibit both ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism provide a new platform for the discovery and regulation of magnetic skyrmions. In this study, we utilize first-principles calculations and Monte Carlo simulations to explore the properties and regulation of magnetic skyrmions in a novel multiferroic monolayer, MnOBr. MnOBr exhibits skyrmions without the need for an external magnetic field.

TLR4 signalling: the key to controlling EV71 replication and inflammatory response.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common infectious disease caused by enterovirus 71 (EV71) that frequently affects children, leading to severe infections in some cases. In general, when infection occurs, the body upregulates inflammatory responses to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms to protect the host from infection. However, EV71 may inhibit host's innate immunity to promote virus infection.

Is P3 amplitude associated with greater gaze distraction effect in schizotypy?

A recently proposed "Hyperfocusing hypothesis" suggests that schizotypy is associated with a more narrow but more intense way of allocating attention. The current study aims to test a vital prediction of this hypothesis in a social context, that schizotypy may be related to greater difficulty overcoming the distracting effects of gaze. This could cause a longer time to respond to targets that are invalidly cued by gaze.

Audiovisual n-Back Training Alters the Neural Processes of Working Memory and Audiovisual Integration: Evidence of Changes in ERPs.

(1) Background: This study investigates whether audiovisual n-back training leads to training effects on working memory and transfer effects on perceptual processing. (2) Methods: Before and after training, the participants were tested using the audiovisual n-back task (1-, 2-, or 3-back), to detect training effects, and the audiovisual discrimination task, to detect transfer effects. (3) Results: For the training effect, the behavioral results show that training leads to greater accuracy and faster response times.

Effect of different blood pressure levels on short-term outcomes in hospitalized heart failure patients.

Background: To investigate the influence of blood pressure (BP) level on short-term prognosis of heart failure (HF), the effect of the BP level on clinical end point events 3 months after discharge was observed.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed on 1492 hospitalized HF patients. All patients were divided according to systolic blood pressure (SBP) per 20 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) per 10 mmHg.

Audiovisual integration of the dynamic hand-held tool at different stimulus intensities in aging.

In comparison to the audiovisual integration of younger adults, the same process appears more complex and unstable in older adults. Previous research has found that stimulus intensity is one of the most important factors influencing audiovisual integration. The present study compared differences in audiovisual integration between older and younger adults using dynamic hand-held tool stimuli, such as holding a hammer hitting the floor.

Effect of aging on audiovisual integration: Comparison of high- and low-intensity conditions in a speech discrimination task.

Audiovisual integration is an essential process that influences speech perception in conversation. However, it is still debated whether older individuals benefit more from audiovisual integration than younger individuals. This ambiguity is likely due to stimulus features, such as stimulus intensity.

Auditory attentional load modulates the temporal dynamics of audiovisual integration in older adults: An ERPs study.

As older adults experience degenerations in perceptual ability, it is important to gain perception from audiovisual integration. Due to attending to one or more auditory stimuli, performing other tasks is a common challenge for older adults in everyday life. Therefore, it is necessary to probe the effects of auditory attentional load on audiovisual integration in older adults.

The Modulation of Exogenous Attention on Emotional Audiovisual Integration.

Although emotional audiovisual integration has been investigated previously, whether emotional audiovisual integration is affected by the spatial allocation of visual attention is currently unknown. To examine this question, a variant of the exogenous spatial cueing paradigm was adopted, in which stimuli varying by facial expressions and nonverbal affective prosody were used to express six basic emotions (happiness, anger, disgust, sadness, fear, surprise) via a visual, an auditory, or an audiovisual modality. The emotional stimuli were preceded by an unpredictive cue that was used to attract participants' visual attention.

Effects of stimulus intensity on audiovisual integration in aging across the temporal dynamics of processing.

Previous studies have drawn different conclusions about whether older adults benefit more from audiovisual integration, and such conflicts may have been due to the stimulus features investigated in those studies, such as stimulus intensity. In the current study, using ERPs, we compared the effects of stimulus intensity on audiovisual integration between young adults and older adults. The results showed that inverse effectiveness, which depicts a phenomenon that lowing the effectiveness of sensory stimuli increases benefits of multisensory integration, was observed in young adults at earlier processing stages but was absent in older adults.

Sex Differences in Clinical Characteristics and 2-Year Prognosis of Patients with Heart Failure Grouped by Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction Status.

After the new left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) classification criteria emerged, many studies have focused on the differences between heart failure (HF) with reduced EF (HFrEF), HF with midrange EF (HFmrEF), and HF with preserved EF (HFpEF). However, the lack of consensus on sex-related differences in prognosis within the new standard remains. We aimed to explore sex differences in the clinical characteristics and prognoses of Chinese inpatients with HF defined according to the new standard.

Potential Role of circPVT1 as a proliferative factor and treatment target in esophageal carcinoma.

Background: Many circRNAs have been reported to play important roles in cancer development and have the potential to serve as a novel class of biomarkers for clinical diagnosis. However, the role of circRNAs in esophageal carcinoma (EC) remains unclear. In the current study, we investigated the potential role of circPVT1 in esophageal carcinoma.