Tinnitus-related neural activity: theories of generation, propagation, and centralization.

The neuroscience of tinnitus represents an ideal model to explore central issues in brain functioning such as the formation of auditory percepts, in addition to opening up new treatment avenues for the condition in the long-term. The present review discusses the origin and nature of tinnitus-related neural activity. First, we review evidence for the hypothesis that tinnitus is caused by the central nervous system changes induced by sensory deprivation, even when hearing loss is not visible in the audiogram.

Brain response to subject-verb agreement during grammatical priming.

In this study, we explored cerebral mechanisms during the computation of subject-verb agreement by measuring event-related potentials after French verb and pseudoverb targets preceded by various contexts. In auditory grammatical priming, the targets were either related to a congruent predictive pronoun prime (nous prêtons we lend) or an incongruent predictive pronoun prime (vous prêtons you lend) or a nonpredictive prime (zous prêtons zous lend). Whereas an early anterior negativity (LAN) and a parietal positivity were modulated by the preceding context for verb targets, only the early negativity was sensitive to the context for pseudoverb targets.

Structures of mutants of cellulase Cel48F of Clostridium cellulolyticum in complex with long hemithiocellooligosaccharides give rise to a new view of the substrate pathway during processive action.

An efficient breakdown of lignocellulosic biomass is a prerequisite for the production of second-generation biofuels. Cellulases are key enzymes in this process. We crystallized complexes between hemithio-cello-deca and dodecaoses and the inactive mutants E44Q and E55Q of the endo-processive cellulase Cel48F, one of the most abundant cellulases in cellulosomes from Clostridium cellulolyticum, to elucidate its processive mechanism.

Choking under pressure and working memory capacity: when performance pressure reduces fluid intelligence.

Recent findings (Beilock & Carr, 2005) have demonstrated that only individuals with a high working memory capacity (WMC) "choke under pressure" on math problems with high working memory demands. This suggests that performance pressure hinders those who are the most qualified to succeed, because it consumes the WMC they usually rely on to achieve superior performance. This puts into question the use of performance in high-pressure situations as a means of distinguishing individuals with lesser or greater WMC potentials.