Previous research suggests that prompting individuals to think on their own mortality affects their perception of painful somatic stimuli and related brain activity. Grounded on the assumption that reminders of mortality may recruit threat-defence mechanisms similar to the ones activated by painful nociceptive stimuli, we hypothesize that the effects exerted by linguistic reminders of death on pain perception and brain activity would be elicited by passive observation of death-related pictures vs. more generic threat-related pictures. Results showed an increase of the laser evoked P2 amplitude and oscillatory theta activity when participants observed death-related images. However, no change in pain ratings was found. Moreover, observation of death-related content was linked to increased oscillatory alpha desynchronisation but not to variations of visual evoked potentials amplitude. Our findings indicate that pairing potentially noxious stimuli with death-related images exerts a preferential modulation of nociceptive and visual cortical representations.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.08.055 | DOI Listing |
Forensic Sci Med Pathol
January 2025
Department of Forensic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
Nitrous oxide (NO) abuse is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. Moreover, the use of NO combined with other substances, such as alcohol, is also common. Accidental deaths associated with NO abuse are rare in forensic practice, with most fatal cases involving continuous inhalation equipment or exposure in a confined space.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAME Case Rep
October 2024
Department of Oncology, Wenzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
Background: Hyperammonemic encephalopathy caused by high-dose infusion of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is a rare adverse reaction in rectal cancer patients with an incidence rate of 5.7%. Although the patient could be restored to normal after supportive treatments, the occurrence of this side effect was still inevitable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroorganisms
January 2025
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
The re-emergence of the Nipah virus (NiV) in Kerala, India, following the tragic death of a 14-year-old boy, underscores the persistent threat posed by zoonotic pathogens and highlights the growing global public health challenge. With no vaccine or curative treatment available, and fatality rates as high as 94% in past outbreaks, the Nipah virus is a critical concern for health authorities worldwide. Transmitted primarily through contact with fruit bats or consumption of contaminated food, as well as direct human-to-human transmission, NiV remains a highly lethal and unpredictable pathogen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Gynaecol Obstet
January 2025
Ariadne Labs at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Background: The intrapartum period is critical for reducing maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. The WHO's Safe Childbirth Checklist (SCC) was designed as a reminder of the most critical, evidence-based practices (EBPs) to improve quality care and reduce preventable complications and deaths.
Objective: To assess the impact of SCC on birth attendant behavior and maternal and newborn health outcomes.
Cureus
December 2024
Department of Gynecology, Division of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Ljubljana University Medical Centre, Ljubljana, SVN.
Although burns are an extremely rare injury during pregnancy, they place a significant additional burden on the body, which is physiologically adapted to pregnancy and therefore limited in its ability to respond effectively to stress. Due to the low incidence of burns during pregnancy, the existing literature is scarce. Case reports are mostly from third-world countries, and there are no official guidelines or recommendations.
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