The Role of Agentive and Physical Forces in the Neural Representation of Motion Events

How does the brain represent information about motion events in relation to agentive and physical forces? In this study, we investigated the neural activity patterns associated with observing animated actions of agents (e.g., an agent hitting a chair) in comparison to similar movements of inanimate objects that were either shaped solely by the physics of the scene (e.g., gravity causing an object to fall down a hill and hit a chair) or initiated by agents (e.g., a visible agent causing an object to hit a chair). Using an fMRI-based multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA), this design allowed testing where in the brain the neural activity patterns associated with motion events change as a function of, or are invariant to, agentive versus physical forces behind them. A total of 29 human participants (nine male) participated in the study. Cross-decoding revealed a shared neural representation of animate and inanimate motion events that is invariant to agentive or physical forces in regions spanning frontoparietal and posterior temporal cortices. In contrast, the right lateral occipitotemporal cortex showed a higher sensitivity to agentive events, while the left dorsal premotor cortex was more sensitive to information about inanimate object events that were solely shaped by the physics of the scene.

Metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral therapy in Latin America

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the prevalence of and the associated factors for metabolic syndrome (MS) among Latin American HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) using baseline data from the RAPID II study.

METHODS

A longitudinal study to evaluate the metabolic profile, cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and associated treatment practices to reduce this risk has been conducted in seven Latin American countries (the RAPID II study). Adult HIV patients with at least six months of RT were enrolled. MS was defined following ATP-III criteria. Demographic and anthropometric data, serum biochemical and clinical parameters were compared in patients with and without MS using bivariate and multivariate analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 4,010 patients were enrolled, 2,963 (74%) were males. Mean age (SD) was 41.9 (10.0) years. The prevalence of MS was 20.2%. Females had higher prevalence of MS than males (22.7% vs. 19.4%, p = 0.02). MS was driven by high triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol and high blood pressure (HBP). Patients with MS had higher 10 year CVD risk: 22.2% vs. 7.4%, p < 0.001. Age (OR: 1.05 per year), female gender (OR: 1.29), family history of CVD (OR: 1.28), CD4 cell count (OR: 1.09 per 100 cell increase), and protease inhibitor based-ART (OR: 1.33) correlated with MS in the multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Prevalence of MS in this setting was similar to that reported from developed countries. MS was driven by high triglycerides, low-HDL and HBP, and it was associated with higher risk of CVD. Traditional risk factors, female gender, immune reconstitution, and protease inhibitor based-ART correlated with MS.

Intradermal immunization with human diploid cell rabies vaccine. Serological and clinical responses of persons with and without prior vaccination with duck embryo vaccine

Intradermal administration of human diploid cell rabies vaccine (HDCV) was investigated in an attempt to reduce the current high cost of preexposure rabies prophylaxis. The study population consisted of 240 volunteers from a veterinary hospital, 165 of whom had prior vaccination with duck embryo rabies vaccine (DEV). Vaccine safety was good; only minor reactions were experienced, all of which resolved spontaneously. Serological responses to intradermal HDCV were excellent; 209 (99.5%) of the 210 persons who completed the study produced rabies antibody titers of 0.50 lU/mL or greater (range, 0.50 to 40.00 lU/mL). Two 0.1-mL doses of HDCV given intradermally 28 days apart provide a safe, effective, and economical method for human preexposure prophylaxis against rabies, irrespective of the previous DEV vaccination history of the recipient.