Right heart-pulmonary circulation unit and cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Clinical response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has been known for years to be highly variable, with a spectrum of responses from no change or even deterioration of cardiac function to spectacular improvements. In the plethora of clinical, echocardiographic, biohumoral, and electrophysiological predictors of response to CRT and postimplant issues besides patient selection, the role of right ventricular (RV) function has been largely overlooked. In reviewing current evidence, we noticed conflicting results between observational studies and randomized trials not only concerning the impact of baseline RV function on CRT efficacy but also on the effects of CRT on RV size and function.

A Neural "Tuning Curve" for Multisensory Experience and Cognitive-Perceptual Schizotypy.

Our coherent perception of external events is enabled by the integration of inputs from different senses occurring within a range of temporal offsets known as the temporal binding window (TBW), which varies from person to person. A relatively wide TBW may increase the likelihood that stimuli originating from different environmental events are erroneously integrated and abnormally large TBW has been found in psychiatric disorders characterized by unusual perceptual experiences. Despite strong evidence of inter-individual differences in TBW, both within clinical and nonclinical populations, the neurobiological underpinnings of this variability remain unclear.

Neural bases of personal and extrapersonal neglect in humans.

Human awareness of left space may be disrupted by cerebral lesions to the right hemisphere (hemispatial neglect). Current knowledge on the anatomical bases of this complex syndrome is based on the results of group studies that investigated primarily the best known aspect of the syndrome, which is visual neglect for near extrapersonal (or peripersonal) space. However, another component-neglect for personal space-is more often associated with, than double-dissociated from, extrapersonal neglect, especially, in chronic patients.