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Li Z, Iramina K. Spatio-Temporal Neural Dynamics of Observing Non-Tool Manipulable Objects and Interactions. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 22:7771. [PMID: 36298121 PMCID: PMC9611388 DOI: 10.3390/s22207771] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2022] [Revised: 10/07/2022] [Accepted: 10/10/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies have reported that a series of sensory-motor-related cortical areas are affected when a healthy human is presented with images of tools. This phenomenon has been explained as familiar tools launching a memory-retrieval process to provide a basis for using the tools. Consequently, we postulated that this theory may also be applicable if images of tools were replaced with images of daily objects if they are graspable (i.e., manipulable). Therefore, we designed and ran experiments with human volunteers (participants) who were visually presented with images of three different daily objects and recorded their electroencephalography (EEG) synchronously. Additionally, images of these objects being grasped by human hands were presented to the participants. Dynamic functional connectivity between the visual cortex and all the other areas of the brain was estimated to find which of them were influenced by visual stimuli. Next, we compared our results with those of previous studies that investigated brain response when participants looked at tools and concluded that manipulable objects caused similar cerebral activity to tools. We also looked into mu rhythm and found that looking at a manipulable object did not elicit a similar activity to seeing the same object being grasped.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhaoxuan Li
- Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 8190395, Japan
| | - Keiji Iramina
- Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 8190395, Japan
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Hand Preference in Adults’ Referential Gestures during Storytelling: Testing for Effects of Bilingualism, Language Ability, Sex and Age. Symmetry (Basel) 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/sym13101776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that gestures are mediated by the left hemisphere. The primary purpose of this study was to test whether most gestures are also asymmetrical, i.e., produced with the right hand. We also tested four predictors of the degree of right-hand gesture use: bilingualism, language ability, sex, and age. These factors have been related to differences in the degree of language lateralization. English monolinguals, French–English bilinguals, and French monolinguals watched a cartoon and told the story back. For the gestures they produced while speaking, we calculated the percentage produced with the right hand. As predicted, the majority of gestures were right-handed (60%). Bilingualism, language ability, and age were not significantly related to hand choice in either English or French. In English, males tended to produce more right-handed gestures than females. These results raise doubts as to whether hand preference in gestures reflects speech lateralization. We discuss possible alternative explanations for a right-hand preference.
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Genheimer H, Andreatta M, Pauli P. Conjunctive and Elemental Representations of a Context in Humans. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 32:1394-1406. [PMID: 32286135 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
The dual-process theory assumes that contexts are encoded in an elemental and in a conjunctive representation. However, this theory was developed from animal studies, and we still have to explore if and how elemental and conjunctive representations contribute to, for example, contextual anxiety in humans. Therefore, 28 participants underwent differential context conditioning in a newly developed flip-book paradigm. Virtual rooms were presented similar to a flip-book, that is, as a stream of 49 consecutive screenshots creating the impression of walking through the rooms. This allowed registration of event-related brain potentials triggered by specific screenshots. During two acquisition phases, two rooms were shown in this way for six times each. In one room, the anxiety context (CTX+), mildly painful electric stimuli (unconditioned stimuli [USs]) were administered unpredictably after 12 distinct screenshots, which became threat elements, whereas 12 selected comparable screenshots became nonthreat elements (elemental representation); all screenshots represented the anxiety context (conjunctive representation). In the second room, the safety context (CTX-), no USs were applied; thus, all screenshots created the safety context whereby 12 preselected screenshots represented safety elements. Increased US expectancy ratings for threat versus nonthreat or safety elements reflected elemental representation. Conjunctive representation was evident in differential ratings (arousal and contingency) and increased P100 and early posterior negativity amplitudes for threat and nonthreat CTX+ versus safety CTX- screenshots. These differences disappeared during two test phases without US delivery indicating successful extinction. In summary, we revealed the first piece of evidence for the simultaneous contributions of elemental and conjunctive representation during context conditioning in humans.
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Abstract
An object's perceived readiness-for-action (e.g., its size, the degree of rotation from its canonical position, the user's viewpoint) can influence semantic knowledge retrieval. Yet, the organization of object knowledge may also be affected by body-specific sensorimotor experiences. Here, we investigated whether people's history of performing motor actions with their hands influences the knowledge they store and retrieve about graspable objects. We compared object representations between healthy right- and left-handers (Experiment 1), and between unilateral stroke patients, whose motor experience was changed by impairment of either their right or left hand (Experiment 2). Participants saw pictures of graspable everyday items with the handles oriented toward either the left or right hand, and they generated the type of grasp they would employ (i.e., clench or pinch) when using each object, responding orally. In both experiments, hand dominance and object orientation interacted to predict response times. In Experiment 1, judgments were fastest when objects were oriented toward the right hand in right-handers, but not in left-handers. In Experiment 2, judgments were fastest when objects were oriented toward the left hand in patients who had lost the use of their right hand, even though these patients were right-handed prior to brain injury. Results suggest that at least some aspects of object knowledge are determined by motor experience, and can be changed by new patterns of motor experience. People with different bodily characteristics, who interact with objects in systematically different ways, form correspondingly different neurocognitive representations of the same common objects. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel Casasanto
- Department of Psychology, Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, University of Chicago
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5
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Hand-independent representation of tool-use pantomimes in the left anterior intraparietal cortex. Exp Brain Res 2016; 234:3677-3687. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-016-4765-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2016] [Accepted: 08/26/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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6
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Resilience to the contralateral visual field bias as a window into object representations. Cortex 2016; 81:14-23. [PMID: 27160998 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.04.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2015] [Revised: 03/04/2016] [Accepted: 04/04/2016] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Viewing images of manipulable objects elicits differential blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast across parietal and dorsal occipital areas of the human brain that support object-directed reaching, grasping, and complex object manipulation. However, it is unknown which object-selective regions of parietal cortex receive their principal inputs from the ventral object-processing pathway and which receive their inputs from the dorsal object-processing pathway. Parietal areas that receive their inputs from the ventral visual pathway, rather than from the dorsal stream, will have inputs that are already filtered through object categorization and identification processes. This predicts that parietal regions that receive inputs from the ventral visual pathway should exhibit object-selective responses that are resilient to contralateral visual field biases. To test this hypothesis, adult participants viewed images of tools and animals that were presented to the left or right visual fields during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We found that the left inferior parietal lobule showed robust tool preferences independently of the visual field in which tool stimuli were presented. In contrast, a region in posterior parietal/dorsal occipital cortex in the right hemisphere exhibited an interaction between visual field and category: tool-preferences were strongest contralateral to the stimulus. These findings suggest that action knowledge accessed in the left inferior parietal lobule operates over inputs that are abstracted from the visual input and is contingent on analysis by the ventral visual pathway, consistent with its putative role in supporting object manipulation knowledge.
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McNair NA, Harris IM. Attention is required for the perceptual integration of action object pairs. Exp Brain Res 2015; 234:25-37. [PMID: 26358125 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-015-4435-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2015] [Accepted: 08/30/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have demonstrated that functionally related objects are perceptually grouped during visual identification if they are depicted as if interacting with each other (Green and Hummel in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 32(5):1107-1119, 2006). However, it is unclear whether this integration requires attention or occurs pre-attentively. Here, we used a divided-attention task with variable attentional load to address this question. Participants matched a word label to a target object that was immediately preceded by a briefly presented, task-irrelevant tool that was either functionally related or unrelated to the word label (e.g., axe | "log" or hammer | "log"). The tool was either positioned to interact with the target object or faced away from it. The amount of attention available to process the tool was manipulated by asking participants to make a concurrent perceptual discrimination of varying difficulty on a surrounding frame stimulus. The previously demonstrated advantage for the related-and-interacting condition was replicated under conditions of no or low attentional load. This benefit disappeared under high competing attentional load, indicating that attention is required to integrate functionally related objects together into a single perceptual unit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas A McNair
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
| | - Irina M Harris
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia
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Michałowski B, Króliczak G. Sinistrals are rarely "right": evidence from tool-affordance processing in visual half-field paradigms. Front Hum Neurosci 2015; 9:166. [PMID: 25870553 PMCID: PMC4375976 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2014] [Accepted: 03/10/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Although current neuroscience and behavioral studies provide substantial understanding of tool representations (e.g., the processing of tool-related affordances) in the human brain, most of this knowledge is limited to right-handed individuals with typical organization of cognitive and manual skills. Therefore, any insights from these lines of research may be of little value in rehabilitation of patients with atypical laterality of praxis and/or hand dominance. To fill this gap, we tested perceptual processing of man-made objects in 18 healthy left-handers who were likely to show greater incidence of right-sided or bilateral (atypical) lateralization of functions. In the two experiments reported here, participants performed a tool vs. non-tool categorization task. In Experiment 1, target and distracter objects were presented for 200 ms in the left (LVF) or right (RVF) visual field, followed by 200 ms masks. In Experiment 2, the centrally presented targets were preceded by masked primes of 35 ms duration, again presented in the LVF or RVF. Based on results from both studies, i.e., response times (RTs) to correctly discriminated stimuli irrespective of their category, participants were divided into two groups showing privileged processing in either left (N = 9) or right (N = 9) visual field. In Experiment 1, only individuals with RVF advantage showed significantly faster categorization of tools in their dominant visual field, whereas those with LVF advantage revealed merely a trend toward such an effect. In Experiment 2, when targets were preceded by identical primes, the "atypical" group showed significantly facilitated categorization of non-tools, whereas the "typical" group demonstrated a trend toward faster categorization of tools. These results indicate that in subjects with atypically organized cognitive skills, tool-related processes are not just mirror reversed. Thus, our outcomes call for particular caution in neurorehabilitation directed at left-handed individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bartosz Michałowski
- Action and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Poznań, Poland ; Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Poznań, Poland
| | - Gregory Króliczak
- Action and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Poznań, Poland
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Stevens WD, Tessler MH, Peng CS, Martin A. Functional connectivity constrains the category-related organization of human ventral occipitotemporal cortex. Hum Brain Mapp 2015; 36:2187-206. [PMID: 25704493 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22764] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2014] [Revised: 12/17/2014] [Accepted: 01/29/2015] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
One of the most robust and oft-replicated findings in cognitive neuroscience is that several spatially distinct, functionally dissociable ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) regions respond preferentially to different categories of concrete entities. However, the determinants of this category-related organization remain to be fully determined. One recent proposal is that privileged connectivity of these VOTC regions with other regions that store and/or process category-relevant properties may be a major contributing factor. To test this hypothesis, we used a multicategory functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) localizer to individually define category-related brain regions of interest (ROIs) in a large group of subjects (n = 33). We then used these ROIs in resting-state functional connectivity MRI analyses to explore spontaneous functional connectivity among these regions. We demonstrate that during rest, distinct category-preferential VOTC regions show differentially stronger functional connectivity with other regions that have congruent category-preference, as defined by the functional localizer. Importantly, a "tool"-preferential region in the left medial fusiform gyrus showed differentially stronger functional connectivity with other left lateralized cortical regions associated with perceiving and knowing about common tools-posterior middle temporal gyrus (involved in perception of nonbiological motion), lateral parietal cortex (critical for reaching, grasping, manipulating), and ventral premotor cortex (involved in storing/executing motor programs)-relative to other category-related regions in VOTC of both the right and left hemisphere. Our findings support the claim that privileged connectivity with other cortical regions that store and/or process category-relevant properties constrains the category-related organization of VOTC.
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Affiliation(s)
- W Dale Stevens
- Section on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
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Gainotti G. The influence of handedness on hemispheric representation of tools: a survey. Brain Cogn 2015; 94:10-6. [PMID: 25617742 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2014.12.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2014] [Revised: 11/11/2014] [Accepted: 12/18/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
An important debate exists in contemporary cognitive neuroscience about the innate or experience-dependent origin of the brain representation of conceptual categories. The 'domains of knowledge' hypothesis maintains that innate factors subsume the categorical organization at the brain level of animals, plant life and artefacts. On the other hand, the 'sensory-motor model of conceptual knowledge' and the embodied cognition theory attribute this categorical organization to experience-dependent factors. I tried to clarify this issue by surveying the influence that handedness could have on the lateralization of tools representation in the inferior fronto-parietal and posterior middle temporal cortices of the left hemisphere. The underlying assumption was that, if this lateralization results from innate mechanisms, then handedness should not influence this hemispheric asymmetry. If, on the other hand, this lateralization is due to the motor and somatosensory experiences made with the right dominant hand during the manipulation of tools and other artefacts, then this asymmetry should be inverted or strongly attenuated in left-handers. Results of the review strongly suggest that manual experience acquired during tool manipulation can influence the hemispheric representation of tools and other artefacts. They also suggest, however, that handedness-related embodiment is not fixed, but influenced by personal motor experiences (such as those made by left-handers who have been forced to use their right hand) and by social visual experiences (such as the fact that, living in a right-handed world, left-handers see more people in their environment who use the right rather than the left hand) during tool manipulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guido Gainotti
- Center for Neuropsychological Research, Department of Neurosciences, Università Cattolica of Rome, Italy; IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Department of Clinical and Behavioral Neurology, Rome, Italy.
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Grasping with the eyes: the role of elongation in visual recognition of manipulable objects. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2014; 14:319-35. [PMID: 23996788 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-013-0208-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Processing within the dorsal visual stream subserves object-directed action, whereas visual object recognition is mediated by the ventral visual stream. Recent findings suggest that the computations performed by the dorsal stream can nevertheless influence object recognition. Little is known, however, about the type of dorsal stream information that is available to assist in object recognition. Here, we present a series of experiments that explored different psychophysical manipulations known to bias the processing of a stimulus toward the dorsal visual stream in order to isolate its contribution to object recognition. We show that elongated-shaped stimuli, regardless of their semantic category and familiarity, when processed by the dorsal stream, elicit visuomotor grasp-related information that affects how we categorize manipulable objects. Elongated stimuli may reduce ambiguity during grasp preparation by providing a coarse cue to hand shaping and orientation that is sufficient to support action planning. We propose that this dorsal-stream-based analysis of elongation along a principal axis is the basis for how the dorsal visual object processing stream can affect categorization of manipulable objects.
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van Elk M, van Schie H, Bekkering H. Action semantics: A unifying conceptual framework for the selective use of multimodal and modality-specific object knowledge. Phys Life Rev 2014; 11:220-50. [DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2013.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2013] [Accepted: 11/11/2013] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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Helon H, Króliczak G. The effects of visual half-field priming on the categorization of familiar intransitive gestures, tool use pantomimes, and meaningless hand movements. Front Psychol 2014; 5:454. [PMID: 24904470 PMCID: PMC4034417 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2013] [Accepted: 04/28/2014] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Although the control of meaningful gestures is one of the most left-lateralized functions, the relative contribution of the two hemispheres to their processing is still debated. We tested the effects of primes appearing in the left or right visual field in the form of pictures (Experiment 1), and words (Experiment 2) on categorization of movies showing intransitive (“communicative”) gestures, tool use (transitive) pantomimes, and meaningless movements. Fifteen participants (eight women) watched 36 movies (12 from each category) primed for 150 ms with either a congruent or incongruent stimulus followed by a 50-ms mask. On congruent trials, a picture or word was directly related to the presented gesture, including nonsense pictures or non-words for meaningless actions. On incongruent trials, a picture or word belonged to a different category. In Experiment 1, intransitive gestures were categorized significantly faster than the other two types of hand movements. Moreover, whereas the categorization of transitive gestures was significantly facilitated by congruent pictures on the right, the effect was weaker for intransitive, and reversed for meaningless movements. In Experiment 2, intransitive gestures were again categorized significantly faster, but transitive significantly slower than the other two gesture categories. Yet, there was now a significant facilitation of intransitive, and inhibition of transitive gesture categorization following congruent prime words in the right visual field, and significantly faster categorization of intransitive gestures following incongruent words in the left visual field. These outcomes lend support to the complexity account of differences in left-hemisphere representations of meaningful gestures reported in the neuropsychological, behavioral, and neuroimaging literature. Nevertheless, they also indicate that the representations of intransitive gestures show some differential, and sometimes counterintuitive sensitivity to right hemisphere processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Honorata Helon
- Action and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Poznań, Poland
| | - Gregory Króliczak
- Action and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Poznań, Poland
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Verma A, Brysbaert M. A validated set of tool pictures with matched objects and non-objects for laterality research. Laterality 2014; 20:22-48. [PMID: 24821308 DOI: 10.1080/1357650x.2014.914949] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Neuropsychological and neuroimaging research has established that knowledge related to tool use and tool recognition is lateralized to the left cerebral hemisphere. Recently, behavioural studies with the visual half-field technique have confirmed the lateralization. A limitation of this research was that different sets of stimuli had to be used for the comparison of tools to other objects and objects to non-objects. Therefore, we developed a new set of stimuli containing matched triplets of tools, other objects and non-objects. With the new stimulus set, we successfully replicated the findings of no visual field advantage for objects in an object recognition task combined with a significant right visual field advantage for tools in a tool recognition task. The set of stimuli is available as supplemental data to this article.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ark Verma
- a Department of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychological and Educational Sciences , University of Gent , Gent , Belgium
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