Is income inequality linked to infectious disease prevalence? A hypothesis-generating study using tuberculosis

We study the association between infectious disease incidence and income inequality. We hypothesize that random social mixing in an income-unequal society brings into contact a) susceptible and infected poor and b) the infected-poor and the susceptible-rich, raising infectious disease incidence. We analyzed publicly available, country-level panel data for a large cross-section of countries between 1995 and 2013 to examine whether countries with elevated levels of income inequality have higher rates of pulmonary Tuberculosis (TB) incidence per capita. A "negative control" using anemia and diabetes (both non-communicable diseases and hence impervious to the hypothesized mechanism) is also applied. We find that high levels of income inequality are positively associated with tuberculosis incidence. All else equal, countries with income-Gini coefficients 10% apart show a statistically significant 4% difference in tuberculosis incidence. Income inequality had a null effect on the negative controls. Our cross-country regression results suggest that income inequality may create conditions where TB spreads more easily, and policy action to reduce income inequities could directly contribute to a reduced TB burden.

A Fusion-Based Machine Learning Approach for Autism Detection in Young Children Using Magnetoencephalography Signals

In this study, we aimed to find biomarkers of autism in young children. We recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) in thirty children (4-7 years) with autism and thirty age, gender-matched controls while they were watching cartoons. We focused on characterizing neural oscillations by amplitude (power spectral density, PSD) and phase (preferred phase angle, PPA). Machine learning based classifier showed a higher classification accuracy (88%) for PPA features than PSD features (82%). Further, by a novel fusion method combining PSD and PPA features, we achieved an average classification accuracy of 94% and 98% for feature-level and score-level fusion, respectively. These findings reveal discriminatory patterns of neural oscillations of autism in young children and provide novel insight into autism pathophysiology.

A General Assessment of India's Extremely Low Number of Transgender Cancer Patients

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S)

Physiological transgender (TJ) is one of the most marginalized and oppressed community in the Indian subcontinent. The observable percentage of physiological transgender (TJ) cancer patients is extremely low. This concise report aims to assess the factors that contribute to the scarcity of transgender cancer patients.

MATERIALS/METHODS

The hospital database (2012-2021) of 2 centers in New Delhi (population 32 million) & 1 in Kolkata (15 million) were evaluated. In addition, 28 senior oncologists (ONC) and 17 trans women (TWs) completed a six-point questionnaire. ONC was asked how many TJ patients they had seen in their career, as well as histopathology/site. Furthermore, the data was extrapolated to account for all clinicians' cumulative years of experience. The questions for TWs were age and where they go if you have a disease or illness. And, do they know any TJ cancer patients?

RESULTS

India's last census (2011) revealed a half-million TJ population. TJ density must be at least 1 million to be comparable to the rest of the world. Hospital databases counted 10,486 patients, with no patient identified as TJ. A total of 37 TJ cancer patients were reported by 28 ONC with an average and collective years of their medical service of 23.1±4.1 and 646 years; distributed in 3 metropolis of 67 million (combined) population (Kolkata, New Delhi, and Mumbai). The average lifetime number of TJ cancer patients/oncologist was 1.3±1.1. Total 12 cases were head neck cancers, with 4 caused by human papillomavirus. The remaining 25 patients have 5 lung, 5 gynecological, 4 breast, 3 brain cancers, 2 soft tissue sarcomas, and 6 cases of unknown origin. The density of 5-year prevalent cancer cases in India is 0.2%, with an estimated 0.007% of TJ cancer patients. TW could not identify any cancer patients in their community.

CONCLUSION

Being transgender is a social taboo in this part of the world. Their legal rights and classification as the third gender are uncommon. TJs are denied access to standard education, mainstream occupations, and social respect. Although the exact number has never been determined, it is estimated that a large proportion (≈90%) of TJ people are forced to choose roadside begging and working as cheap sex workers. There is no clinical reason why TJs should have fewer cancer incidents, they should be more susceptible to cancer due to unhealthy living conditions, unprotected sex, lack of medical care, proper nutrition, and all other factors associated with their very low socioeconomic status. Nonetheless, it's difficult to find single TJ cancer patients in both public and private hospital OPD. They may be unable to access a traditional clinic due to social discrimination, financial constraints, or they may be unwilling to disclose their true sex. Even TJ's do not show up at free public clinics. The disclosure of true sex may be beneficial in obtaining better treatment, but the more prevalent reason is social unacceptability, which can be overcome through proper education and community economic growth.

Cortical signatures of visual body representation develop in human infancy

Human infants cannot report their experiences, limiting what we can learn about their bodily awareness. However, visual cortical responses to the body, linked to visual awareness and selective attention in adults, can be easily measured in infants and provide a promising marker of bodily awareness in early life. We presented 4- and 8-month-old infants with a flickering (7.5 Hz) video of a hand being stroked and recorded steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs). In half of the trials, the infants also received tactile stroking synchronously with visual stroking. The 8-month-old, but not the 4-month-old infants, showed a significant enhancement of SSVEP responses when they received tactile stimulation concurrent with the visually observed stroking. Follow-up experiments showed that this enhancement did not occur when the visual hand was presented in an incompatible posture with the infant's own body or when the visual stimulus was a body-irrelevant video. Our findings provide a novel insight into the development of bodily self-awareness in the first year of life.

Autism Detection in Children using Common Spatial Patterns of MEG Signals

Autism exhibits a wide range of developmental disabilities and is associated with aberrant anatomical and functional neural patterns. To detect autism in young children (4-7 years) in an automatic and non-invasive fashion, we have recorded magnetoencephalogram (MEG) signals from 30 autistic and 30 age-matched typically developing (TD) children. We have used a machine learning classification framework with common spatial pattern (CSP)-based logarithmic band power (LBP) features. When comparing the LBP feature to the conventional logarithmic variance (LV) spatial pattern, CSP + LBP (92.77%) has performed better than CSP + LV (90.66%) in the 1-100 Hz frequency range for distinguishing autistic children from TD children. In frequency band-wise analysis using our proposed method, the high gamma frequency band (50-100 Hz) has shown the highest classification accuracy (97.14%). Our findings reveal that the occipital lobe exhibits the most distinct spatial pattern in autistic children over the whole frequency range. This study shows that spatial brain activation patterns can be utilized as potential biomarkers of autism in young children. The improved performance signifies the clinical relevance of the work for autism detection using MEG signals.

Functional connectivity based machine learning approach for autism detection in young children using MEG signals

Objective.Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder, and identifying early autism biomarkers plays a vital role in improving detection and subsequent life outcomes. This study aims to reveal hidden biomarkers in the patterns of functional brain connectivity as recorded by the neuro-magnetic brain responses in children with ASD.Approach.We recorded resting-state magnetoencephalogram signals from thirty children with ASD (4-7 years) and thirty age and gender-matched typically developing (TD) children. We used a complex coherency-based functional connectivity analysis to understand the interactions between different brain regions of the neural system. The work characterizes the large-scale neural activity at different brain oscillations using functional connectivity analysis and assesses the classification performance of coherence-based (COH) measures for autism detection in young children. A comparative study has also been carried out on COH-based connectivity networks both region-wise and sensor-wise to understand frequency-band-specific connectivity patterns and their connections with autism symptomatology. We used artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers in the machine learning framework with a five-fold CV technique.Main results.To classify ASD from TD children, the COH connectivity feature yields the highest classification accuracy of 91.66% in the high gamma (50-100 Hz) frequency band. In region-wise connectivity analysis, the second highest performance is in the delta band (1-4 Hz) after the gamma band. Combining the delta and gamma band features, we achieved a classification accuracy of 95.03% and 93.33% in the ANN and SVM classifiers, respectively. Using classification performance metrics and further statistical analysis, we show that ASD children demonstrate significant hyperconnectivity.Significance.Our findings support the weak central coherency theory in autism detection. Further, despite its lower complexity, we show that region-wise COH analysis outperforms the sensor-wise connectivity analysis. Altogether, these results demonstrate the functional brain connectivity patterns as an appropriate biomarker of autism in young children.

Flow in contemporary musicians: Individual differences in flow proneness, anxiety, and emotional intelligence

Flow is a highly focussed state of consciousness that is rewarding, fulfilling, and sought after by many, especially musicians. It is characterised by exceptional levels of concentration, loss of self-consciousness, and competent control over one's actions. Several personality and non-cognitive traits have been positively linked with flow proneness, such as emotional intelligence; however, anxiety is thought to be the antithesis of flow, yet the relationship between trait anxiety and flow proneness in musicians is not adequately characterised. This study investigated the individual differences in flow proneness in contemporary musicians (N = 664), focusing on the interaction of trait anxiety and emotional intelligence. We identified a significant negative correlation between trait anxiety and flow. Emotional intelligence was positively correlated with flow proneness and negatively with trait anxiety. Moderation analysis revealed a difference in the relationship between trait anxiety and flow depending on the level of emotional intelligence; there was no correlation in those with low emotional intelligence, whereas a strong negative relationship was found in those with high emotional intelligence. Finally, hierarchical regression indicated that musical training was the most substantial predictor of all the tested variables and that trait anxiety did not add any predictive power on top of the known predictors. Altogether, this study provided new insights into the possible disruption of flow proneness linked to high anxiety and low emotional intelligence in contemporary musicians.

Multivariate patterns and long-range temporal correlations of alpha oscillations are associated with flexible manipulation of visual working memory representations

The ability to flexibly manipulate memory representations is embedded in visual working memory (VWM) and can be tested using paradigms with retrospective cues. Although valid retrospective cues often facilitate memory recall, invalid ones may or may not result in performance costs. We investigated individual differences in utilising retrospective cues and evaluated how these individual differences are associated with brain oscillatory activity at rest. At the behavioural level, we operationalised flexibility as the ability to make effective use of retrospective cues or disregard them if required. At the neural level, we tested whether individual differences in such flexibility were associated with properties of resting-state alpha oscillatory activity (8-12 Hz). To capture distinct aspects of these brain oscillations, we evaluated their power spectral density and temporal dynamics using long-range temporal correlations (LRTCs). In addition, we performed multivariate patterns analysis (MVPA) to classify individuals' level of behavioural flexibility based on these neural measures. We observed that alpha power alone (magnitude) at rest was not associated with flexibility. However, we found that the participants' ability to manipulate VWM representations was correlated with alpha LRTC and could be decoded using MVPA on patterns of alpha power. Our findings suggest that alpha LRTC and multivariate patterns of alpha power at rest may underlie some of the individual differences in using retrospective cues in working memory tasks.

A rational-choice model of Covid-19 transmission with endogenous quarantining and two-sided prevention

This paper offers a parsimonious, rational-choice model to study the effect of pre-existing inequalities on the transmission of COVID-19. Agents decide whether to "go out" (or self-quarantine) and, if so, whether to wear protection such as masks. Three elements distinguish the model from existing work. First, non-symptomatic agents do not know if they are infected. Second, some of these agents unknowingly transmit infections. Third, we permit two-sided prevention via the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions: the probability of a person catching the virus from another depends on protection choices made by each. We find that a mean-preserving increase in pre-existing income inequality unambiguously increases the equilibrium proportion of unprotected, socializing agents and may increase or decrease the proportion who self-quarantine. Strikingly, while higher pre-COVID inequality may or may not raise the overall risk of infection, it increases the risk of disease in social interactions.

Exponential-growth prediction bias and compliance with safety measures related to COVID-19

Objective

We define prediction bias as the systematic error arising from an incorrect prediction of the number of positive COVID cases x-weeks hence when presented with y-weeks of prior, actual data on the same. Our objective is to investigate the importance of an exponential-growth prediction bias (EGPB) in understanding why the COVID-19 outbreak has exploded. To that end, our goal is to document EGPB in the comprehension of disease data, study how it evolves as the epidemic progresses, and connect it with compliance of personal safety guidelines such as the use of face coverings and social distancing. We also investigate whether a behavioral nudge, cost less to implement, can significantly reduce EGPB.

Rationale

The scientific basis for our inquiry is the received wisdom that infectious disease spread, especially in the initial stages, follows an exponential function meaning few positive cases can explode into a widespread pandemic if the disease is sufficiently transmittable. If people suffer from EGPB, they will likely make incorrect judgments about their infection risk, which in turn, may lead to reduced compliance of safety protocols.

Method

To collect data on prediction bias, we ran an incentivized, experiment on a global, online platform with participation from people in forty-three countries, each at different stages of progression of COVID-19. We also constructed several indices of compliance by surveying participants about their frequency of hand-washing and use of sanitizers and masks; their willingness to pay for masks; their view about the social appropriateness of others’ behavior; and their like/dislike of government responses. The prediction data was used to construct several measures of EGPB. Our experimental design permits us to identify the root of under-prediction as EGPB arising from the general tendency to underestimate the speed at which exponential processes unfold.

Results

Respondents make predictions about the path of the disease using a model that is substantially less convex than the actual data generating process. This creates significant EGPB, which, in turn, is significantly and negatively associated with non-compliance with safety measures. The bias is significantly higher for respondents from countries at a later stage relative to those at an early stage of disease progression. A simple behavioral nudge that shows prior data in terms of raw numbers, as opposed to a graph, causally reduces EGPB.

Conclusion

Behavioral biases concerning the comprehension of disease data are quantitatively important, and act as severe impediments to effective policy action against the spread of COVID-19. Clear communication of future infection risk via raw numbers could increase the accuracy of risk perception, in turn, facilitating compliance with suggested protective behaviors.

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Examines bias in the prediction of number of future positive COVID cases.

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Bias is negatively associated with non-compliance with WHO safety measures.

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Bias is higher for those in countries at a later stage of disease progression.

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Showing prior data through raw numbers, as opposed to graphs, causally reduces bias.

Auditory but Not Audiovisual Cues Lead to Higher Neural Sensitivity to the Statistical Regularities of an Unfamiliar Musical Style

It is still a matter of debate whether visual aids improve learning of music. In a multisession study, we investigated the neural signatures of novel music sequence learning with or without aids (auditory-only: AO, audiovisual: AV). During three training sessions on three separate days, participants (nonmusicians) reproduced (note by note on a keyboard) melodic sequences generated by an artificial musical grammar. The AV group (n = 20) had each note color-coded on screen, whereas the AO group (n = 20) had no color indication. We evaluated learning of the statistical regularities of the novel music grammar before and after training by presenting melodies ending on correct or incorrect notes and by asking participants to judge the correctness and surprisal of the final note, while EEG was recorded. We found that participants successfully learned the new grammar. Although the AV group, as compared to the AO group, reproduced longer sequences during training, there was no significant difference in learning between groups. At the neural level, after training, the AO group showed a larger N100 response to low-probability compared with high-probability notes, suggesting an increased neural sensitivity to statistical properties of the grammar; this effect was not observed in the AV group. Our findings indicate that visual aids might improve sequence reproduction while not necessarily promoting better learning, indicating a potential dissociation between sequence reproduction and learning. We suggest that the difficulty induced by auditory-only input during music training might enhance cognitive engagement, thereby improving neural sensitivity to the underlying statistical properties of the learned material.

Investigating Age-Related Neural Compensation During Emotion Perception Using Electroencephalography

Previous research suggests declines in emotion perception in older as compared to younger adults, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we address this by investigating how “face-age” and “face emotion intensity” affect both younger and older participants’ behavioural and neural responses using event-related potentials (ERPs). Sixteen young and fifteen older adults viewed and judged the emotion type of facial images with old or young face-age and with high- or low- emotion intensities while EEG was recorded. The ERP results revealed that young and older participants exhibited significant ERP differences in two neural clusters: the left frontal and centromedial regions (100–200 ms stimulus onset) and frontal region (250–900 ms) when perceiving neutral faces. Older participants also exhibited significantly higher ERPs within these two neural clusters during anger and happiness emotion perceptual tasks. However, while this pattern of activity supported neutral emotion processing, it was not sufficient to support the effective processing of facial expressions of anger and happiness as older adults showed reductions in performance when perceiving these emotions. These age-related changes are consistent with theoretical models of age-related changes in neurocognitive abilities and may reflect a general age-related cognitive neural compensation in older adults, rather than a specific emotion-processing neural compensation.

P4779High facility preference for rivaroxaban in atrial fibrillation increases risk of major bleeding compared to facility preference for apixaban

Background

No randomized trial has compared efficacy and safety of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) in atrial fibrillation (AF). Previous real-world comparisons could be biased by patient characteristics of importance for treatment selection, but instrumental variables could potentially account for measured and unmeasured confounders.

Purpose

To compare efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban and apixaban using facility preference for type of NOAC as instrumental variable.

Methods

AF patients started on apixaban or rivaroxaban were identified using nationwide registries. We categorized patients according to facility preference for type of NOAC, measured as percentage of the prior 20 AF patients started on rivaroxaban in the same facility. Occurrence of stroke/thromboembolism (TE), major bleeding, myocardial infarction and all-cause mortality during two years of follow-up were investigated using adjusted Cox regressions. To further examine general frailty according to facility preferences we also investigated occurrence of cancer, urogenital tract infection, dehydration and fracture.

Results

We analyzed 6264 AF patients initiated on rivaroxaban or apixaban. Compared with patients treated in facilities that used rivaroxaban in 0–20% of cases, the adjusted hazard ratio for bleeding was 1.05 when treated in a facility with 25–40% use; 1.40 with 45–60% use; 1.50 with 65–80% use; and 1.81 for 85–100% use (Ptrend=0.002). Higher facility level use of rivaroxaban was not associated with increased risk of stroke/TE (Ptrend=0.06), myocardial infarction (Ptrend=0.87) or all-cause mortality (Ptrend=0.91), and there was no association between facility preference for rivaroxaban and risk of cancer (Ptrend=0.83), urogenital tract infection (Ptrend=0.49), dehydration (Ptrend=0.91) or fracture (Ptrend=0.47).

Characteristics by facility preference Percent of previous AF patients from facility started on rivaroxaban P for trend 0–20% 25–40% 45–60% 65–80% 85–100% No. of patients 1406 1421 1551 930 956 Received rivaroxaban, (%) 279, (19.8) 499, (35.1) 711, (45.8) 632, (68.0) 774, (81.0) <0.001 Standard dose, (%) 1216, (86.5) 1232, (86.7%) 1366, (88.1%) 793, (85.3%) 824, (86.2%) 0.62 Median age, (interquartile range) 70, (63.3–74) 69, (63–74) 70, (64–74) 70, (64–75) 70, (63–75) 0.11 Below median income, (%) 740, (52.6) 699, (49.2) 764, (49.3) 458, (49.3) 471, (49.3) 0.31 Prior stroke, (%) 99, (7.0) 115, (8.1) 134, (8.6) 69, (7.4) 74, (7.7) 0.56 Prior bleeding, (%) 136, (9.7) 141, (9.9) 163, (10.5) 91, (9.8) 97, (10.1) 0.51 Antiplatelet therapy, (%) 445, (31.7) 465, (32.7) 491, (31.7) 303, (32.6) 317, (33.2) 0.49

Rate of events according to instrument

Conclusion

High facility preference for rivaroxaban increases risk of major bleeding compared to facility preference for apixaban.

Acknowledgement/Funding

This study was funded by an unrestricted grant from the Capital Region of Denmark, Foundation for Health Research.

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Val66Met Polymorphism Is Associated With a Reduced ERP Component Indexing Emotional Recollection

The Met allele of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism is associated with reduced functioning of the amygdala and hippocampus. It has been linked to major psychiatric conditions, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and is associated with deficits in episodic memory. The precise mechanisms of the BDNF gene’s influence on emotional memory are not well characterized, especially its impact on recognition. Two electrophysiological experiments of emotional memory were run on two independent samples genotyped for BDNF Val66Met. Event-related potentials (ERPs) corresponding to the recognition of negative and neutral words (Experiment 1, N = 37) and negative and positive words (Experiment 2, N = 23) were recorded, and the late parietal component (LPC), typically associated with conscious recollection, was analyzed. In Experiment 1, a reduced LPC was observed in Met carriers (N = 12) compared to Val homozygotes (N = 25) in the negative condition, but the group difference was not present in the neutral condition. In Experiment 2, the reduced LPC was seen in Met carriers (N = 12) compared to Val homozygotes (N = 11) across both conditions. This study provides the first evidence of an association between the BDNF Val66Met genotype and the late parietal electrophysiological component, suggesting that the conscious experience of emotional recollection may differ according to BDNF Val66Met genotype. Further, these results suggest that this effect is likely due to emotional arousal rather than valence polarity. Results were discussed with reference to the possible mechanisms by which emotional recollection deficits may contribute to psychopathology.

Switch or stay? Automatic classification of internal mental states in bistable perception

The human brain goes through numerous cognitive states, most of these being hidden or implicit while performing a task, and understanding them is of great practical importance. However, identifying internal mental states is quite challenging as these states are difficult to label, usually short-lived, and generally, overlap with other tasks. One such problem pertains to bistable perception, which we consider to consist of two internal mental states, namely, transition and maintenance. The transition state is short-lived and represents a change in perception while the maintenance state is comparatively longer and represents a stable perception. In this study, we proposed a novel approach for characterizing the duration of transition and maintenance states and classified them from the neuromagnetic brain responses. Participants were presented with various types of ambiguous visual stimuli on which they indicated the moments of perceptual switches, while their magnetoencephalogram (MEG) data were recorded. We extracted different spatio-temporal features based on wavelet transform, and classified transition and maintenance states on a trial-by-trial basis. We obtained a classification accuracy of 79.58% and 78.40% using SVM and ANN classifiers, respectively. Next, we investigated the temporal fluctuations of these internal mental representations as captured by our classifier model and found that the accuracy showed a decreasing trend as the maintenance state was moved towards the next transition state. Further, to identify the neural sources corresponding to these internal mental states, we performed source analysis on MEG signals. We observed the involvement of sources from the parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and cerebellum in distinguishing transition and maintenance states. Cross-conditional classification analysis established generalization potential of wavelet features. Altogether, this study presents an automatic classification of endogenous mental states involved in bistable perception by establishing brain-behavior relationships at the single-trial level.

Neural entrainment is associated with subjective groove and complexity for performed but not mechanical musical rhythms

Both movement and neural activity in humans can be entrained by the regularities of an external stimulus, such as the beat of musical rhythms. Neural entrainment to auditory rhythms supports temporal perception, and is enhanced by selective attention and by hierarchical temporal structure imposed on rhythms. However, it is not known how neural entrainment to rhythms is related to the subjective experience of groove (the desire to move along with music or rhythm), the perception of a regular beat, the perception of complexity, and the experience of pleasure. In two experiments, we used musical rhythms (from Steve Reich’s Clapping Music) to investigate whether rhythms that are performed by humans (with naturally variable timing) and rhythms that are mechanical (with precise timing), elicit differences in (1) neural entrainment, as measured by inter-trial phase coherence, and (2) subjective ratings of the complexity, preference, groove, and beat strength of rhythms. We also combined results from the two experiments to investigate relationships between neural entrainment and subjective perception of musical rhythms. We found that mechanical rhythms elicited a greater degree of neural entrainment than performed rhythms, likely due to the greater temporal precision in the stimulus, and the two types only elicited different ratings for some individual rhythms. Neural entrainment to performed rhythms, but not to mechanical ones, correlated with subjective desire to move and subjective complexity. These data, therefore, suggest multiple interacting influences on neural entrainment to rhythms, from low-level stimulus properties to high-level cognition and perception.

Spontaneous Visual Imagery During Meditation for Creating Visual Art: An EEG and Brain Stimulation Case Study

Experienced meditators often report spontaneous visual imagery during deep meditation in the form of lights or other types of visual images. These experiences are usually interpreted as an "encounters with light" and gain mystical meaning. Contrary to the well-studied intentional and controlled visual imagery, spontaneous imagery is poorly understood, yet it plays an important role in creativity of visual artists. The neural correlates of such experiences are indeed hard to capture in laboratory settings. In this case study we aimed to investigate the neural correlates of spontaneous visual imagery in an artist who experiences strong visual imagery during meditation. She uses these images to create visual art. We recorded her EEG during seven meditation sessions in which she experienced visual imagery episodes (visions). To examine the functional role of the neural oscillations we also conducted three separate meditation sessions under different transcranial alternating current (tACS) brain stimulation: alpha (10 Hz), gamma (40 Hz) and sham. We observed a robust increase in occipital gamma power (30-70 Hz) during the deepest stage of meditation across all sessions. This gamma increase was consistent with the experience of spontaneous visual imagery: higher during visions compared to no visions. Alpha tACS was found to affect the contents of her visual imagery, making them sharper, shorter and causing more visions to occur; the artist reported that these sharp images were too detailed to be used in her art. Interestingly, gamma and sham stimulation had no impact on the visual imagery contents. Our findings raise the hypothesis that occipital gamma might be a neural marker of spontaneous visual imagery, which emerges in certain meditation practices of experienced meditators.

A machine learning approach to predict perceptual decisions: an insight into face pareidolia

The perception of an external stimulus not only depends upon the characteristics of the stimulus but is also influenced by the ongoing brain activity prior to its presentation. In this work, we directly tested whether spontaneous electrical brain activities in prestimulus period could predict perceptual outcome in face pareidolia (visualizing face in noise images) on a trial-by-trial basis. Participants were presented with only noise images but with the prior information that some faces would be hidden in these images, while their electrical brain activities were recorded; participants reported their perceptual decision, face or no-face, on each trial. Using differential hemispheric asymmetry features based on large-scale neural oscillations in a machine learning classifier, we demonstrated that prestimulus brain activities could achieve a classification accuracy, discriminating face from no-face perception, of 75% across trials. The time–frequency features representing hemispheric asymmetry yielded the best classification performance, and prestimulus alpha oscillations were found to be mostly involved in predicting perceptual decision. These findings suggest a mechanism of how prior expectations in the prestimulus period may affect post-stimulus decision making.

Gold Nanoparticle-Based Detection of Low Molecular Weight AGEs from In Vitro Glycated Haemoglobin A0 Samples

Protein glycation is a major biochemical event that takes place in the plasma of diabetic patients due to increased sugar levels. Extensive glycation leads to the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that is well known for having detrimental effects on diabetic patients. In the current work, we have glycated the physiologically important protein Haemoglobin A0 in vitro to study AGE formation and activity by using them as a template for gold nanoparticle (GNPs) synthesis. It was found that the surface plasmon resonance of synthesised GNPs showed high correlation with the extent of glycation. On fractionation, the glycated Haemoglobin A0 segregated into two distinct population of products, one consisting of proteinaceous, cross-linked larger fragments of Haemoglobin A0 and a second population of non-proteinaceous low molecular weight AGEs. Only low molecular weight AGEs contributed to synthesis of GNPs upon using the fractions as a template, substantiating the principle of proposed GNP-based assay. Owing to its physiological importance, AGEs can be used as a diagnostic means for diabetes and its associated complications. In this study, we have employed the high reactivity of AGEs for the development of a GNP-based novel colorimetric sensor to enable their detection. Our proposed GNP-based sensing could have high clinical significance in detecting diabetes and its associated complexities.

Ultra-high-field fMRI insights on insight: Neural correlates of the Aha!-moment

Finding creative solutions to difficult problems is a fundamental aspect of human culture and a skill highly needed. However, the exact neural processes underlying creative problem solving remain unclear. Insightful problem solving tasks were shown to be a valid method for investigating one subcomponent of creativity: the Aha!-moment. Finding insightful solutions during a remote associates task (RAT) was found to elicit specific cortical activity changes. Considering the strong affective components of Aha!-moments, as manifested in the subjectively experienced feeling of relief following the sudden emergence of the solution of the problem without any conscious forewarning, we hypothesized the subcortical dopaminergic reward network to be critically engaged during Aha. To investigate those subcortical contributions to insight, we employed ultra-high-field 7 T fMRI during a German Version of the RAT. During this task, subjects were exposed to word triplets and instructed to find a solution word being associated with all the three given words. They were supposed to press a button as soon as they felt confident about their solution without further revision, allowing us to capture the exact event of Aha!-moment. Besides the finding on cortical involvement of the left anterior middle temporal gyrus (aMTG), here we showed for the first time robust subcortical activity changes related to insightful problem solving in the bilateral thalamus, hippocampus, and the dopaminergic midbrain comprising ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (NAcc), and caudate nucleus. These results shed new light on the affective neural mechanisms underlying insightful problem solving.

Not Cure But Heal: Music and Medicine

Do you know that our soul is composed of harmony? Leonardo Da Vinci Despite evidence for music-specific mechanisms at the level of pitch-pattern representations, the most fascinating aspect of music is its transmodality. Recent psychological and neuroscientific evidence suggest that music is unique in the coupling of perception, cognition, action and emotion. This potentially explains why music has been since time immemorial almost inextricably linked to healing processes and should continue to be.

Relaxing learned constraints through cathodal tDCS on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

We solve problems by applying previously learned rules. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a pivotal role in automating this process of rule induction. Despite its usual efficiency, this process fails when we encounter new problems in which past experience leads to a mental rut. Learned rules could therefore act as constraints which need to be removed in order to change the problem representation for producing the solution. We investigated the possibility of suppressing the DLPFC by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to facilitate such representational change. Participants solved matchstick arithmetic problems before and after receiving cathodal, anodal or sham tDCS to the left DLPFC. Participants who received cathodal tDCS were more likely to solve the problems that require the maximal relaxation of previously learned constraints than the participants who received anodal or sham tDCS. We conclude that cathodal tDCS over the left DLPFC might facilitate the relaxation of learned constraints, leading to a successful representational change.

Navigating abstract virtual environment: an eeg study

Perceptions of different environments are different for different people. An abstract designed environment, with a degree of freedom from any visual reference in the physical world requests a completely different perception than a fully or semi-designed environment that has some correlation with the physical world. Maximal evidence on the manner in which the human brain is involved/operates in dealing with such novel perception comes from neuropsychology. Harnessing the tools and techniques involved in the domain of neuropsychology, the paper presents nee evidence on the role of pre-central gyrus in the perception of abstract spatial environments. In order to do so, the research team developed three different categories of designed environment with different characteristics: (1) Abstract environment, (2) Semi-designed environment, (3) Fully designed environment, as experimental sample environments. Perception of Fully-designed and semi-designed environments is almost the same, [maybe] since the brain can find a correlation between designed environments and already experienced physical world. In addition to this, the response to questionnaires accompanied with a list of buzzwords that have been provided after the experiments, also describe the characteristics of the chosen sample environments. Additionally, these results confirm the suitability of continuous electroencephalography (EEG) for studying Perception from the perspective of architectural environments.

Musical training shapes neural responses to melodic and prosodic expectation

Current research on music processing and syntax or semantics in language suggests that music and language share partially overlapping neural resources. Pitch also constitutes a common denominator, forming melody in music and prosody in language. Further, pitch perception is modulated by musical training. The present study investigated how music and language interact on pitch dimension and whether musical training plays a role in this interaction. For this purpose, we used melodies ending on an expected or unexpected note (melodic expectancy being estimated by a computational model) paired with prosodic utterances which were either expected (statements with falling pitch) or relatively unexpected (questions with rising pitch). Participants' (22 musicians, 20 nonmusicians) ERPs and behavioural responses in a statement/question discrimination task were recorded. Participants were faster for simultaneous expectancy violations in the melodic and linguistic stimuli. Further, musicians performed better than nonmusicians, which may be related to their increased pitch tracking ability. At the neural level, prosodic violations elicited a front-central positive ERP around 150 ms after the onset of the last word/note, while musicians presented reduced P600 in response to strong incongruities (questions on low-probability notes). Critically, musicians' P800 amplitudes were proportional to their level of musical training, suggesting that expertise might shape the pitch processing of language. The beneficial aspect of expertise could be attributed to its strengthening effect of general executive functions. These findings offer novel contributions to our understanding of shared higher-order mechanisms between music and language processing on pitch dimension, and further demonstrate a potential modulation by musical expertise.

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Melodic expectancy influences the processing of prosodic expectancy.

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Musical expertise modulates pitch processing in music and language.

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Musicians have a more refined response to pitch.

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Musicians' neural responses are proportional to their level of musical expertise.

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Possible association between the P200 neural component and behavioural facilitation.

The Role of Intuition in the Generation and Evaluation Stages of Creativity

Both intuition and creativity are associated with knowledge creation, yet a clear link between them has not been adequately established. First, the available empirical evidence for an underlying relationship between intuition and creativity is sparse in nature. Further, this evidence is arguable as the concepts are diversely operationalized and the measures adopted are often not validated sufficiently. Combined, these issues make the findings from various studies examining the link between intuition and creativity difficult to replicate. Nevertheless, the role of intuition in creativity should not be neglected as it is often reported to be a core component of the idea generation process, which in conjunction with idea evaluation are crucial phases of creative cognition. We review the prior research findings in respect of idea generation and idea evaluation from the view that intuition can be construed as the gradual accumulation of cues to coherence. Thus, we summarize the literature on what role intuitive processes play in the main stages of the creative problem-solving process and outline a conceptual framework of the interaction between intuition and creativity. Finally, we discuss the main challenges of measuring intuition as well as possible directions for future research.

Adverse fetal outcome: is first trimester ultrasound and Doppler better predictor than biomarkers?

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the predictive value of first trimester biomarkers and ultrasound in determining adverse fetal outcomes in a low risk Asian population.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

All low risk, singleton pregnancies between 11 and 14 weeks gestation underwent ultrasound with uterine artery Doppler along with PAPP-A and free β-hCG estimation, and were followed till delivery to observe the outcome. The adverse fetal outcomes detected were structural anomaly, aneuploidy, intrauterine growth restriction, preterm birth and stillbirth (SB).

RESULTS

Out of 3500 women screened, 417 cases had adverse fetal outcome in the absence of maternal complication, 2151 had normal outcome. Major structural anomaly was detected in first trimester in 17/28 (60.7%) cases. The most important markers for adverse fetal outcome were increased uterine artery pulsatility index (UPI) (p = 0.028, OR 1.5, 95% CI: 1.05-2.38, AUC 0.56) for IUGR, nuchal translucency (p = 0.001, OR 1.7, 95% CI: 1.11-2.77, AUC 0.60) for major anomaly and low PAPP-A (p = 0.017, OR -0.075, 95% CI: 0.87-0.98, AUC 0.621) for SB.

CONCLUSION

UPI, NT and PAPP-A in the first trimester are significant markers of adverse fetal outcome, although the sensitivity and specificity are not high they have a high negative predictive value.

Role of maternal factors, PAPP-A, and Doppler in screening for early- and late-onset pregnancy hypertension in Asian population

OBJECTIVE

To determine the predictive value of biochemical markers, uterine artery Doppler, and maternal factors in predicting early-onset (EO) and late-onset (LO) pregnancy hypertension.

METHODOLOGY

All singleton pregnancies between 11 and 13 weeks and 6 days gestation underwent estimation of body mass index (BMI), mean arterial pressure (MAP), uterine artery Doppler pulsatality index (PI, and resistance index), biomarker PAPP-A, and free β-hCG. Women who developed hypertension were treated as cases and normotensives were taken as controls. The cases were further divided into EO and LO hypertension. The comparison was undertaken by appropriate statistical analysis.

RESULTS

Pregnancy hypertension was seen in 399 (13.2%) women. EO hypertension was seen in 153 (38.3%), whereas LO was observed in 246 (61.7%). The significant markers for predicting hypertension in pregnancy were maternal age, BMI, MAP, uterine artery Doppler PI, and PAPP-A. A combination of MAP and BMI was a better predictor (sensitivity and specificity 80% and 52%, respectively) than PAPP-A and Doppler combined (sensitivity and specificity 62% and 52%, respectively). When all the above markers were combined, the sensitivity and specificity of the test was 73% and 70%, respectively. EO hypertension was better predicted compared with LO. The negative predictive value (NPV) of the test was above 90%, suggesting that if a woman had the marker below the cutoff, there was more than 90% chance that she would not develop hypertension later in pregnancy.

CONCLUSION

A combination of variables increased the sensitivity and specificity of the test for hypertension in pregnancy. The markers examined were a predictor of EO hypertension, with a high NPV, making it a good screening test.