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Govani V, Shastry A, Iosifescu D, Govil P, Mayer M, Sobeih T, Choo T, Wall M, Sehatpour P, Kantrowitz J. Augmentation of learning in schizophrenia by D-serine is related to auditory and frontally-generated biomarkers: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. RESEARCH SQUARE 2023:rs.3.rs-2943290. [PMID: 37293030 PMCID: PMC10246259 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2943290/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Auditory cognition is impaired in schizophrenia, and typically engages a complex, distributed, hierarchical network, including both auditory and frontal input. We recently demonstrated proof of principle for the target engagement of an N-methyl-D-aspartate-type glutamate receptor (NMDAR) agonist + auditory targeted remediation (d-serine+AudRem) combination, showing significant improvement in auditory-learning induced plasticity and mismatch negativity. In this secondary analysis, we report on frontal EEG outcomes, assessing for both generalized effects and the mechanism of auditory plasticity. 21 schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder participants were randomized to three 1x weekly AudRem + double-blind d-serine (100 mg/kg) visits. In AudRem, participants indicated which paired tone was higher in pitch. The focus of this secondary analysis was a frontally (premotor) mediated EEG outcome- event-related desynchronization in the b band (b-ERD), which was shown to be sensitive to AudRem in previous studies. d-Serine+AudRem led to significant improvement in b-ERD power across the retention and motor preparation intervals (F 1,18 =6.0, p=0.025) vs. AudRem alone. b-ERD was significantly related to baseline cognition, but not auditory-learning induced plasticity. The principal finding of this prespecified secondary analysis are that in addition to improving auditory based biomarkers, the d-serine+AudRem combination led to significant improvement in biomarkers thought to represent frontally mediated dysfunction, suggesting potential generalization of effects. Changes in auditory-learning induced plasticity were independent of these frontally mediated biomarkers. Ongoing work will assess whether d-serine+AudRem is sufficient to remediate cognition or whether targeting frontal NMDAR deficits with higher-level remediation may also be required. Trial Registration: NCT03711500.
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Zhen LQ, Pratt SR. Perceptual, procedural, and task learning for an auditory temporal discrimination task. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2023; 153:1823. [PMID: 37002097 PMCID: PMC10257527 DOI: 10.1121/10.0017548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Revised: 02/22/2023] [Accepted: 02/23/2023] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
Perceptual learning reflects experience-driven improvements in the ability to detect changes in stimulus characteristics. The time course for perceptual learning overlaps with that for procedural learning (acquiring general skills and strategies) and task learning (learning the perceptual judgment specific to the task), making it difficult to isolate their individual effects. This study was conducted to examine the role of exposure to stimulus, procedure, and task information on learning for auditory temporal-interval discrimination. Eighty-three listeners completed five online sessions that required temporal-interval discrimination (target task). Before the initial session, listeners were differentially exposed to information about the target task's stimulus, procedure, or task characteristics. Learning occurred across sessions, but an exposure effect was not observed. Given the significant learning across sessions and variability within and across listeners, contributions from stimulus, procedure, and task exposure to overall learning cannot be discounted. These findings clarify the influence of experience on temporal perceptual learning and could inform designs of training paradigms that optimize perceptual improvements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leslie Q Zhen
- Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
| | - Sheila R Pratt
- Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
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Xu R, Church RM, Sasaki Y, Watanabe T. Effects of stimulus and task structure on temporal perceptual learning. Sci Rep 2021; 11:668. [PMID: 33436842 PMCID: PMC7804100 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-80192-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2020] [Accepted: 12/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Our ability to discriminate temporal intervals can be improved with practice. This learning is generally thought to reflect an enhancement in the representation of a trained interval, which leads to interval-specific improvements in temporal discrimination. In the present study, we asked whether temporal learning is further constrained by context-specific factors dictated through the trained stimulus and task structure. Two groups of participants were trained using a single-interval auditory discrimination task over 5 days. Training intervals were either one of eight predetermined values (FI group), or random from trial to trial (RI group). Before and after the training period, we measured discrimination performance using an untrained two-interval temporal comparison task. Our results revealed a selective improvement in the FI group, but not the RI group. However, this learning did not generalize between the trained and untrained tasks. These results highlight the sensitivity of TPL to stimulus and task structure, suggesting that mechanisms of temporal learning rely on processes beyond changes in interval representation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rannie Xu
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, 02912, USA.
| | - Russell M Church
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, 02912, USA
| | - Yuka Sasaki
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, 02912, USA
| | - Takeo Watanabe
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, 02912, USA
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Banai K, Nir B, Moav-Scheff R, Bar-Ziv N. A role for incidental auditory learning in auditory-visual word learning among kindergarten children. J Vis 2020; 20:4. [PMID: 32181860 DOI: 10.1167/jovi.20.3.4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
This study focused on the potential role of incidental, auditory perceptual learning in among children learning new words. To this end, we examined how irrelevant auditory similarities across words, that provide no cues regarding their visual or conceptual attributes, influence pseudo-word learning in a name/picture matching paradigm. Two types of irrelevant auditory similarities were used: shared sequences of vowels or consonants. Learning word-to-picture associations in these two conditions was compared to a baseline condition in which items did not share either sequence. Kindergarten children readily learned items in all conditions, but auditory similarity interfered with learning (odds ratio, 1.12). Individual differences in reasoning and vocabulary did not account for the interference effect. These findings suggest that the sensory properties of words continue to influence language learning during the preschool years through rapid incidental learning, even if the effect is relatively small. Consistent with previous studies in the visual modality, we now suggest that incidental perceptual learning occurs in the auditory modality. Furthermore, the current findings suggest that this learning can interfere with word learning, highlighting the importance of the perceptual structure of words in real-world-like learning environments.
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Zaltz Y, Roth DAE, Amir N, Kishon-Rabin L. Logarithmic Versus Linear Change in Step Size When Using an Adaptive Threshold-Seeking Procedure in a Frequency Discrimination Task: Does It Matter? JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2019; 62:3887-3900. [PMID: 31618120 DOI: 10.1044/2019_jslhr-h-19-0049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Different rules for changing step sizes (e.g., logarithmic, linear) are alternately used in adaptive threshold-seeking procedures, with no clear justification. We hypothesized that the linear rule may yield more accurate thresholds for poor performers because the step sizes are predetermined and fixed across listeners and thus can be small, in contrast to the logarithmic rule, in which step sizes are changed with respect to the listener's performance. Purpose The aim of this study was to test the effect of logarithmic and linear rules on frequency discrimination (FD) thresholds. Method Three experiments involving human subjects and Monte Carlo computer simulations were designed and conducted. In the 1st experiment, FD thresholds were estimated in 40 young adults with either 3-interval 2-alternative forced choice (3I2AFC; n = 19) or 2-interval 2AFC (n = 21) in a within-subject design. In the 2nd experiment, thresholds were estimated in 16 children (7-8 years old) in a within-subject design, using 3I2AFC. In the 3rd experiment, thresholds were estimated in 30 young adults in a between-subjects design using 3I2AFC. Results No significant differences were shown between the 2 rules, regardless of age group, method, or level of FD performance. Computer simulations supported the empirical findings, predicting similar FD thresholds for both rules in the majority of runs. However, they also yielded more accurate thresholds with the linear rule, but with a larger number of outliers, which increased as the listener's attention level decreased. Conclusion Overall, the use of a particular rule has little influence on FD thresholds. Possible outliers may be minimized by monitoring the participant's attention at the beginning of the run.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yael Zaltz
- Department of Communication Disorders, Steyer School of Health Professions, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel
| | - Daphne Ari-Even Roth
- Department of Communication Disorders, Steyer School of Health Professions, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel
| | - Noam Amir
- Department of Communication Disorders, Steyer School of Health Professions, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel
| | - Liat Kishon-Rabin
- Department of Communication Disorders, Steyer School of Health Professions, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel
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Lengyel G, Fiser J. The relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning. J Vis 2019; 19:28. [PMID: 31022729 PMCID: PMC6487893 DOI: 10.1167/19.4.28] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated the origin of two previously reported general rules of perceptual learning. First, the initial discrimination thresholds and the amount of learning were found to be related through a Weber-like law. Second, increased training length negatively influenced the observer's ability to generalize the obtained knowledge to a new context. Using a five-day training protocol, separate groups of observers were trained to perform discrimination around two different reference values of either contrast (73% and 30%) or orientation (25° and 0°). In line with previous research, we found a Weber-like law between initial performance and the amount of learning, regardless of whether the tested attribute was contrast or orientation. However, we also showed that this relationship directly reflected observers' perceptual scaling function relating physical intensities to perceptual magnitudes, suggesting that participants learned equally on their internal perceptual space in all conditions. In addition, we found that with the typical five-day training period, the extent of generalization was proportional to the amount of learning, seemingly contradicting the previously reported diminishing generalization with practice. This result suggests that the negative link between generalization and the length of training found in earlier studies might have been due to overfitting after longer training and not directly due to the amount of learning per se.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gábor Lengyel
- Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - József Fiser
- Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
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Schmidt TT, Miller TM, Blankenburg F, Pulvermüller F. Neuronal correlates of label facilitated tactile perception. Sci Rep 2019; 9:1606. [PMID: 30733578 PMCID: PMC6367477 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-37877-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2018] [Accepted: 12/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
It is a long-standing question in neurolinguistics, to what extent language can have a causal effect on perception. A recent behavioural study reported that participants improved their discrimination ability of Braille-like tactile stimuli after one week of implicit association training with language stimuli being co-presented redundantly with the tactile stimuli. In that experiment subjects were exposed twice a day for 1 h to the joint presentation of tactile stimuli presented to the fingertip and auditorily presented pseudowords. Their discrimination ability improved only for those tactile stimuli that were consistently paired with pseudowords, but not for those that were discordantly paired with different pseudowords. Thereby, a causal effect of verbal labels on tactile perception has been demonstrated under controlled laboratory conditions. This raises the question as to what the neuronal mechanisms underlying this implicit learning effect are. Here, we present fMRI data collected before and after the aforementioned behavioral learning to test for changes in brain connectivity as the underlying mechanism of the observed behavioral effects. The comparison of pre- and post-training revealed a language-driven increase in connectivity strength between auditory and secondary somatosensory cortex and the hippocampus as an association-learning related region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timo Torsten Schmidt
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit (NNU), Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Tally McCormick Miller
- Brain Language Laboratory, Department of Philosophy and Humanities, WE4, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 10099, Berlin, Germany
| | - Felix Blankenburg
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit (NNU), Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 10099, Berlin, Germany
| | - Friedemann Pulvermüller
- Brain Language Laboratory, Department of Philosophy and Humanities, WE4, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 10099, Berlin, Germany
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Kantrowitz JT, Epstein ML, Beggel O, Rohrig S, Lehrfeld JM, Revheim N, Lehrfeld NP, Reep J, Parker E, Silipo G, Ahissar M, Javitt DC. Neurophysiological mechanisms of cortical plasticity impairments in schizophrenia and modulation by the NMDA receptor agonist D-serine. Brain 2017; 139:3281-3295. [PMID: 27913408 DOI: 10.1093/brain/aww262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2016] [Revised: 08/20/2016] [Accepted: 08/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Schizophrenia is associated with deficits in cortical plasticity that affect sensory brain regions and lead to impaired cognitive performance. Here we examined underlying neural mechanisms of auditory plasticity deficits using combined behavioural and neurophysiological assessment, along with neuropharmacological manipulation targeted at the N-methyl-D-aspartate type glutamate receptor (NMDAR). Cortical plasticity was assessed in a cohort of 40 schizophrenia/schizoaffective patients relative to 42 healthy control subjects using a fixed reference tone auditory plasticity task. In a second cohort (n = 21 schizophrenia/schizoaffective patients, n = 13 healthy controls), event-related potential and event-related time-frequency measures of auditory dysfunction were assessed during administration of the NMDAR agonist d-serine. Mismatch negativity was used as a functional read-out of auditory-level function. Clinical trials registration numbers were NCT01474395/NCT02156908 Schizophrenia/schizoaffective patients showed significantly reduced auditory plasticity versus healthy controls (P = 0.001) that correlated with measures of cognitive, occupational and social dysfunction. In event-related potential/time-frequency analyses, patients showed highly significant reductions in sensory N1 that reflected underlying impairments in θ responses (P < 0.001), along with reduced θ and β-power modulation during retention and motor-preparation intervals. Repeated administration of d-serine led to intercorrelated improvements in (i) auditory plasticity (P < 0.001); (ii) θ-frequency response (P < 0.05); and (iii) mismatch negativity generation to trained versus untrained tones (P = 0.02). Schizophrenia/schizoaffective patients show highly significant deficits in auditory plasticity that contribute to cognitive, occupational and social dysfunction. d-serine studies suggest first that NMDAR dysfunction may contribute to underlying cortical plasticity deficits and, second, that repeated NMDAR agonist administration may enhance cortical plasticity in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua T Kantrowitz
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA .,2 Division of Experimental Therapeutics, Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Michael L Epstein
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA.,3 Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
| | - Odeta Beggel
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Stephanie Rohrig
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Jonathan M Lehrfeld
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Nadine Revheim
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Nayla P Lehrfeld
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Jacob Reep
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Emily Parker
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Gail Silipo
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Merav Ahissar
- 4 Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Daniel C Javitt
- 1 Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA.,2 Division of Experimental Therapeutics, Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
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Daikhin L, Ahissar M. Fast learning of simple perceptual discriminations reduces brain activation in working memory and in high-level auditory regions. J Cogn Neurosci 2015; 27:1308-21. [PMID: 25603023 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Introducing simple stimulus regularities facilitates learning of both simple and complex tasks. This facilitation may reflect an implicit change in the strategies used to solve the task when successful predictions regarding incoming stimuli can be formed. We studied the modifications in brain activity associated with fast perceptual learning based on regularity detection. We administered a two-tone frequency discrimination task and measured brain activation (fMRI) under two conditions: with and without a repeated reference tone. Although participants could not explicitly tell the difference between these two conditions, the introduced regularity affected both performance and the pattern of brain activation. The "No-Reference" condition induced a larger activation in frontoparietal areas known to be part of the working memory network. However, only the condition with a reference showed fast learning, which was accompanied by a reduction of activity in two regions: the left intraparietal area, involved in stimulus retention, and the posterior superior-temporal area, involved in representing auditory regularities. We propose that this joint reduction reflects a reduction in the need for online storage of the compared tones. We further suggest that this change reflects an implicit strategic shift "backwards" from reliance mainly on working memory networks in the "No-Reference" condition to increased reliance on detected regularities stored in high-level auditory networks.
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Neger TM, Rietveld T, Janse E. Relationship between perceptual learning in speech and statistical learning in younger and older adults. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:628. [PMID: 25225475 PMCID: PMC4150448 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00628] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2014] [Accepted: 07/28/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Within a few sentences, listeners learn to understand severely degraded speech such as noise-vocoded speech. However, individuals vary in the amount of such perceptual learning and it is unclear what underlies these differences. The present study investigates whether perceptual learning in speech relates to statistical learning, as sensitivity to probabilistic information may aid identification of relevant cues in novel speech input. If statistical learning and perceptual learning (partly) draw on the same general mechanisms, then statistical learning in a non-auditory modality using non-linguistic sequences should predict adaptation to degraded speech. In the present study, 73 older adults (aged over 60 years) and 60 younger adults (aged between 18 and 30 years) performed a visual artificial grammar learning task and were presented with 60 meaningful noise-vocoded sentences in an auditory recall task. Within age groups, sentence recognition performance over exposure was analyzed as a function of statistical learning performance, and other variables that may predict learning (i.e., hearing, vocabulary, attention switching control, working memory, and processing speed). Younger and older adults showed similar amounts of perceptual learning, but only younger adults showed significant statistical learning. In older adults, improvement in understanding noise-vocoded speech was constrained by age. In younger adults, amount of adaptation was associated with lexical knowledge and with statistical learning ability. Thus, individual differences in general cognitive abilities explain listeners' variability in adapting to noise-vocoded speech. Results suggest that perceptual and statistical learning share mechanisms of implicit regularity detection, but that the ability to detect statistical regularities is impaired in older adults if visual sequences are presented quickly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thordis M Neger
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands ; International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Toni Rietveld
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Esther Janse
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands ; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands
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Jacoby N, Ahissar M. What does It take to Show that a Cognitive Training Procedure is Useful? PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2013; 207:121-40. [DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-444-63327-9.00004-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
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