Is self always prioritised? Attenuating the ownership self-reference effect in memory

The current study demonstrates the abolishment of the Ownership Self Reference Effect (OSRE) when elaborate details of a distant other-referent are provided. In a 2 (High versus Low information) × 2 (Self versus Other) experimental design, we tested the capacity for the SRE to be modulated with social saliency. Using a well-established ownership paradigm (Collard et al., 2020; Cunningham et al., 2008; Sparks et al., 2016), when the other was made socially salient (i.e. details and characteristics about the other were provided to the participant prior to encoding), no SRE emerged, such that self-owned and other-owned items were recalled with comparable accuracy. In contrast, when the other was not salient (i.e., no details about them were provided), participants accurately recalled a higher proportion of self-owned items, demonstrating a typical SRE in source memory. The degree of self- or other- referencing was not related to measured variables of closeness, similarity or shared traits with the other. Although the SRE is an established and robust effect, the findings of the current study illustrate critical circumstances in which the self is no longer prioritised above the other. In line with our predictions, we suggest that the self has automatic attributed social salience (e.g. through ownership) and that enhancing social salience by elaborating details of the other, prioritisation can expand to encapsulate an other beyond the self and influence incidental memory.

Emerging echinocandin-resistant Candida albicans and glabrata in Switzerland

Echinocandins represent the first-line therapy of candidemia. Echinocandin resistance among Candida spp. is mainly due to acquired FKS mutations. In this study, we report the emergence of FKS-mutant Candida albicans/glabrata in Switzerland and provide the microbiological and clinical characteristics of 9 candidemic episodes. All patients were previously exposed to echinocandins (median 26 days; range 15–77). Five patients received initial echinocandin therapy with persistent candidemia in 4 of them. Overall mortality was 33%.

Accuracy of Sensititre YeastOne echinocandins epidemiological cut-off values for identification of FKS mutant Candida albicans and Candida glabrata: a ten year national survey of the Fungal Infection Network of Switzerland (FUNGINOS)

OBJECTIVES

Echinocandins represent the first-line treatment of candidaemia. Acquired echinocandin resistance is mainly observed among Candida albicans and Candida glabrata and is associated with FKS hotspot mutations. The commercial Sensititre YeastOne™ (SYO) kit is widely used for antifungal susceptibility testing, but interpretive clinical breakpoints are not well defined. We determined echinocandins epidemiological cut-off values (ECV) for C. albicans/glabrata tested by SYO and assessed their ability to identify FKS mutants in a national survey of candidaemia.

METHODS

Bloodstream isolates of C. albicans and C. glabrata were collected in 25 Swiss hospitals from 2004 to 2013 and tested by SYO. FKS hotspot sequencing was performed for isolates with an MIC≥ECV for any echinocandin.

RESULTS

In all, 1277 C. albicans and 347 C. glabrata were included. ECV 97.5% of caspofungin, anidulafungin and micafungin were 0.12, 0.06 and 0.03 μg/mL for C. albicans, and 0.25, 0.12 and 0.03 μg/mL for C. glabrata, respectively. FKS hotspot sequencing was performed for 70 isolates. No mutation was found in the 52 'limit wild-type' isolates (MIC=ECV for at least one echinocandin). Among the 18 'non-wild-type' isolates (MIC>ECV for at least one echinocandin), FKS mutations were recovered in the only two isolates with MIC>ECV for all three echinocandins, but not in those exhibiting a 'non-wild-type' phenotype for only one or two echinocandins.

CONCLUSION

This 10-year nationwide survey showed that the rate of echinocandin resistance among C. albicans and C. glabrata remains low in Switzerland despite increased echinocandin use. SYO-ECV could discriminate FKS mutants from wild-type isolates tested by SYO in this population.

Pictures of you: Dot stimuli cause motor contagion in presence of a still human form

In this study, we investigate which visual cues induce participants to encode a non-human motion stimulus in their motor system. Participants performed reach-to-grasp actions to a target after observing a dot moving in a direct or higher-arcing path across a screen. Dot motion occurred in the presence of a meaningless (scrambled human model) stimulus, a still human model, or a human model performing a direct or exaggeratedly curved reach to a target. Our results show that observing the dot displacement causes motor contagion (changes in the height of the observer's hand trajectory) when a human form was visually present in the background (either moving or still). No contagion was evident, however, when this human context was absent (i.e., human image scrambled and not identifiable). This indicates that visual cues suggestive of human agency can determine whether or not moving stimuli are encoded in the motor system.

Verbal social primes alter motor contagion during action observation

We investigated whether prosocial and nonsocial word primes prior to action observation modify subsequent initiation and execution of the observer's own reach-to-grasp actions. Participants observed a model performing exaggeratedly curved (vertical deviation) or natural straight reaches to a vertical dowel and always performed a straight reach to a dowel themselves. Observing curved movements slowed initiation times and increased the vertical deviation of the participants' movements. Observing curved movements enhanced vertical deviation only in the prosocial word primes condition. We suggest that social context priming can modulate initiation of movement as well as the extent of motor contagion (in this case, the extent of vertical deviation) between model and observer.

Identification of Propionibacterium avidum from a breast abscess: an overlooked etiology of clinically significant infections

We report the case of a 37-year-old previously healthy woman diagnosed with a breast abscess due to Propionibacterium avidum after breast reduction surgery. This case emphasizes the potential pathogenicity and morbidity associated with this commensal skin organism.

Modulation of reach-to-grasp parameters: semantic category, volumetric properties and distractor interference?

In the two experiments of this study, we assessed the influence of target size and semantic category on the expression of reach-to-grasp kinematic parameters. Moreover, we investigated the influence of size and semantic category of distractors on reaches to the target. The experimental objects represented living and non-living categories and wide and narrow grasp sizes. Participants reached for and picked up mid-sagittally placed targets, which were either alone or flanked by distractors congruent or incongruent to semantic category and size of the target. In experiment 1, movement duration was faster to living objects. We could not replicate this, however, in experiment 2. Conversely, significant and reliable Category x Size interactions for grasp were obtained in experiment 1 and replicated in experiment 2. The pattern of the means in these interactions coincided with the absolute volumetric properties of the stimuli, indicating that the size of the stimuli was the main determinant of the expression of kinematic parameters. We conclude that volumetric properties such as size, rather than semantic category, are the crucial features in the programming and execution of movement to targets. As regards the category and size of the distractor, interference effects were evident: both category and size exerted a comparable influence on reaches to the target. The direction of interference, however, was not systematic. The interference effects are discussed in the context of visual search models of attention.

Interference from distractors in reach-to-grasp movements

Descriptions of interference effects from non-relevant stimuli are extensive in visual target detection and identification paradigms. To explore the influence of features of non-relevant objects on reach-to-grasp movements, we instructed healthy normal controls to reach for and pick up a cylinder (target) placed midsagittally 30 cm from the starting position of the hand. In Experiment 1, the target was presented alone, or accompanied by a narrower, wider, or same-size distractor positioned to the left or right of the target. In Experiment 2, the target was presented alone or accompanied by a distractor, which was slanted at a different orientation to the target. Reflective markers were placed on the wrist, thumb, and index finger of the right hand, and infra-red light-detecting cameras recorded their displacement through a calibrated 3-dimensional working space. Kinematic parameters were derived and analysed. Consistent changes in the expression of peak velocity, acceleration, and deceleration were evident when the distractor was narrower or wider than the target. The impact of the orientation of the distractor, conversely, was not marked. We discuss the results in the context of physiological findings and models of selective attention.

Attention for action: coordinating bimanual reach-to-grasp movements

Theories of attention have frequently pointed to the finding that there is a significant performance decrement ('cost') to responding to two different objects concurrently. However, much of the research aimed at investigating how attention is 'divided' in such circumstances has adopted response time (RT) as the measure of interest. In this paper we investigate how attention is 'divided' during the execution of concurrent motor responses, by studying bimanual reach-to-grasp movements directed towards two separate target objects. Furthermore, a key aspect of our study is that each hand is required to perform either the same action (congruent reaches) or a different action (incongruent reaches). Thus in Expt 1 we manipulated the movement amplitude of each hand, while in Expt 2 we manipulated object size. The results of this study suggest that while there is an overall cost associated with carrying out two movements simultaneously, kinematic measures are unaffected by whether the actions required of each hand are the same (congruent) or different (incongruent). The problem of executing incongruent bimanual movements appears to be solved by synchronizing each limb to a common movement duration, while movement velocity and grip aperture are independently scaled. These findings are discussed in relation to theories developed to explain the coordination of the reach-and-grasp phases of unimanual prehension, and in the context of recent theories of attention for action.

Modulation of unilateral neglect as a function of direction of object motion

Unilateral neglect is a disorder involving difficulty in attending to the side of space contralesional to brain injury. Two recent experiments have shown that task-irrelevant background motion reduces neglect on line bisection tasks; however, task-relevant motion has not been assessed. We investigated the effect of task-relevant object motion on left neglect using a moving cube presented on a computer screen. Subjects responded to cued corners of the cube as it moved across the screen. Direction of cube motion had a significant impact on the magnitude of neglect. Responses to left hemispace targets appearing on a leftward moving cube were equal to patients' fastest responses. In contrast, responses to left hemispace targets appearing on a rightward moving cube were the slowest of all responses. These results demonstrate that contralesional object motion is capable of normalising neglect patients' detection of contralesional targets.

The influence of initial hand posture on the expression of prehension parameters

This paper describes the transport and grasp kinematic parameters associated with four initial hand postures (palm flat and thumb against the hand, palm flat and thumb extended laterally, index and thumb in opposition, and index and thumb in opposition and elbow flexed 90 degrees). A group of healthy adult subjects reached for and picked up a wooden dowel placed midsagittally, at one of three distances (20 cm, 25 cm and 30 cm). The initial posture of the hand and arm altered transport (peak velocity and peak negative acceleration) as well as grasp (peak angle and time to peak angle) parameters, particularly when the elbow was flexed 90 degrees. The pattern of results was reproduced in a pointing paradigm. The findings are discussed in the context of joint space models of reaching.

Contingent and non-contingent auditory cueing in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and their normal controls performed two experiments involving a sequential movement task, depressing a series of buttons at choice points along a response board. Visual or auditory cues were presented prior to each move according to various contingencies. PD, a disorder characterised by degeneration of the basal ganglia (BG), typically manifests with poor execution of motor sequences. We found that external cueing facilitated motor sequencing in PD patients. In particular, auditory cues which occurred late in the movement cycle maximally facilitated switching between subcomponents of a sequence. Based on physiological findings reported in the primate literature [Brotchie et al., Brain 114, 1685-1702, 1978; Schultz and Romo, Exp. Brain Res. 1, 363-384, 1992], it is suggested that external cues enhance performance by replacing defective, internally generated cues (discharges) of the BG. This has implications for the use of physical training strategies in the treatment of PD.

Effects of norepinephrine infused in the paraventricular hypothalamus on energy expenditure in the rat

The metabolic effects of norepinephrine (NE), when infused into the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), were examined using indirect calorimetry. In two separate experiments, it was found that NE infused into the PVN reduced energy expenditure in freely moving rats. While NE also reduced motor activity, these reductions were not statistically significant. Reductions in voluntary motor activity were not necessary for a reduction in energy expenditure, as NE still reduced energy expenditure in rats that were lightly sedated. Clonidine, but not L-phenylephrine, mimicked the hypometabolic effect of NE, suggesting an action at alpha 2 receptors. Infusions of NE were also found to increase blood glucose shortly after infusion, although the specificity of this effect is questionable. Taken together, these data suggest that activation of noradrenergic neurons within the PVN results in a metabolic shift towards energy conservation.

Effects of oral prajmaline bitartrate on exercise test responses in patients with coronary artery disease

The safety, tolerability and haemodynamic effects of oral prajmaline bitartrate were assessed in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial in 21 patients with stable angina pectoris and coronary artery disease. No serious side-effects occurred. Prajmaline bitartrate produced no statistically significant changes in resting heart rate or systolic blood pressure or in work capacity on the treadmill, or in heart rate or systolic blood pressure at maximum exercise compared to placebo values. No new arrhythmias or conduction abnormalities were produced in any patient. We conclude that oral prajmaline bitartrate is well tolerated and can be given safely to patients with coronary artery disease without producing deleterious haemodynamic effects or changes in exercise capacity.