Molecular Tumor Boards: Ethical Issues in the New Era of Data Medicine

The practice and development of modern medicine requires large amounts of data, particularly in the domain of cancer. The future of personalized medicine lies neither with “genomic medicine” nor with “precision medicine”, but with “data medicine” (DM) (big data, data mining). The establishment of this DM has required far-reaching changes, to establish four essential elements connecting patients and doctors: biobanks, databases, bioinformatic platforms and genomic platforms. The “transformation” of scientific research areas, such as genetics, bioinformatics and biostatistics, into clinical specialties has generated a new vision of care. Molecular tumor boards (MTB) are one response to these changes and are now providing better access to next-generation sequencing (NGS) and new cancer treatments to patients with inoperable or metastatic cancers, and those for whom the usual treatment has failed. However, MTB face a crucial ethical challenge: maintaining and improving the trust of patients, clinicians, researchers and industry in academic medical centers supported by private or public funding rather than providing genetic data directly to private companies. We believe that, in this era of DM, appropriate modern digital communication networks will be required to maintain this trust and to improve the organization and effectiveness of the system. There is, therefore, a need to reconsider the form and content of informed consent (IC) documents at all academic medical centers and to introduce dynamic and electronic informed consent (e-IC).     

French Validation of the Overexcitability Questionnaire 2: Psychometric Properties and Factorial Structure

Overexcitability corresponds to an overall response to stimulations in 5 domains: psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, imaginational, and emotional. The aim of this study was to develop a French version of the Overexcitability Questionnaire 2 (OEQ2) and to expand its psychometric properties. Two studies were conducted: one with a sample of 474 adolescents and another with a sample of 436 adults. Internal consistency, factorial structure, and validity (correlations with intelligence, personality, and alexithymia) were examined. The French OEQ2 showed satisfactory psychometric properties, thus advocating for its use in further research on overexcitability and in clinical practice.     

Extinction of conditioned taste aversion depends on functional protein synthesis but not on NMDA receptor activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex

We investigated the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in extinction of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) by microinfusing a protein synthesis inhibitor or N-methyl-d-asparate (NMDA) receptors antagonist into the vmPFC immediately following a non-reinforced extinction session. We found that the protein synthesis blocker anisomycin, but not the NMDA receptors antagonist D,L-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid, impaired CTA extinction in the vmPFC. Anisomycin microinfusion into vmPFC had no effect on CTA acquisition and by itself did not induce CTA. These findings show the necessary role functional protein synthesis is playing in the vmPFC during the learning of CTA extinction.     

Motivational Profiles Among Young Table-Tennis Players in Intensive Training Settings: A Latent Profile Transition Analysis

This study aimed to (a) identify motivational profiles among a sample of 141 young table-tennis players involved in intensive training settings; (b) examine the consistency or change of motivational profiles for the same athlete over time; and (c) investigate differences between these profiles on burnout, coping, stress, and recovery. Latent profile transition analysis revealed 2 or 3 distinct profiles that are similar for the 3 measurement occasions: self-determined profile, moderate profile, and low profile. Motivational profiles exhibited both stability and changes over time from an intraindividual perspective. Athletes from the self-determined profile were characterized by the best psychological adjustment.     

Book review

Cecile Beizmann. Handbook for Scorings of Rorschach Responses. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1970, 244 pages, $9.50. Reviewed by Henry Hoey

Donald S. Marshall, & Robert C. Suggs, (Eds.). Human Sexual Behavior. New York: Basic Books, 1971. 302 pages, $10.00. Reviewed by Russell Eisenman

Calvin S. Hall & Gardner Lindzey. Theories of Personality. 2nd ed., New York: Wiley, 1970, 622 pages, $9.95. Reviewed by Eric C. Theiner

Mary R. Haworth. The CAT. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1966, 322 pages. $10.75. Reviewed by Russell Eisenman

Milton Kramer (Ed.). Dream Psychology and the New Biology of Dreaming. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1969, 459 pages, $17.00. Reviewed by Thomas W. Allen

Humberto Nagera (Ed.). Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts on the Theory of Dreams. The Hampstead Clinic Psychoanalytic Library, Vol. II. New York: Basic Books, 1969. Reviewed by Dr. Rose Palm

Mortimer Schiffer. The Therapeutic Play Group. New York and London: Grune & Stratton, 1969. 214 pages, $8.75. Reviewed by Irving R. Stone

James O. Palmer. The Psychological Assessment of Children. New York: James Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1970. 474 pages, $12.50. Reviewed by Max R. Reed     

Inter-hemispheric remapping between arm proprioception and vision of the hand is disrupted by single pulse TMS on the left parietal cortex

Parietal cortical areas are involved in sensori-motor transformations for their respective contralateral hemifield/body. When arms of the subjects are crossed while their gaze is fixed straight ahead, vision of the hand is processed by the hemisphere ipsilateral to the arm position and proprioception of the arm by the contralateral hemisphere. It induces interhemispheric transfer and remapping. Our objective was to investigate whether a single pulse TMS applied to the left parietal cortical area would disturb interhemispheric remapping in a similar case, and would increase a simple reaction time (RT) with respect to a control single pulse TMS applied to the frontal cortical area. Two LED were superimposed and located in front of the subjects on the saggital axis. Subjects were asked to carefully fixate on these LED during each trial. The lighting of the red LED was used as a warning signal. Following the green one was illuminated after a variable delay and served as a go-signal. The hand for the response was determined before the start of each trial. TMS was applied to the left parietal, the left frontal cortical areas, or not applied to the subject. Results revealed that: (1) Irrespective of its location, single pulse TMS induced a non-specific effect similar to a startle reflex and reduced RT substantially (15 ms on average) with respect to a control condition without TMS (mean value = 153 ms). (2) Irrespective of TMS, RT were shorter when the right or the left hand was positioned in the right visual hemi-field (i.e. normal and crossed positions respectively). (3) Finally, RT increased when single pulse TMS was applied to the left parietal area and when hands were crossed irrespective of which hand was used. We concluded that interhemispheric sensori-motor remapping was disrupted by a single pulse TMS that was applied to the left parietal cortex. This effect was also combined with some visual attention directed towards the hand located on the right visual hemi-field.     

Novice motor performance: Better not to verbalize

Offline verbalization about a new motor experience is often assumed to positively influence subsequent performance. Here, we evaluated this presumed positive influence and whether it originates from declarative or from procedural knowledge using the explicit/implicit motor-learning paradigm. To this end, 80 nongolfers learned to perform a golf-putting task with high error rates (i.e., explicit motor learning), and thus relied on declarative knowledge, or low error rates (i.e., implicit motor learning), and thus relied on procedural knowledge. Afterward, they either put their memories of the previous motor experience into words or completed an irrelevant verbal task. Finally, they performed the putting task again. Verbalization did not improve novice motor performance: Putting was impaired, overall, and especially so for high-error learners. We conclude that declarative knowledge is altered by verbalization, whereas procedural knowledge is not.     

What is the best strategy for retaining gestures in working memory?

This study aimed to determine whether the recall of gestures in working memory could be enhanced by verbal or gestural strategies. We also attempted to examine whether these strategies could help resist verbal or gestural interference. Fifty-four participants were divided into three groups according to the content of the training session. This included a control group, a verbal strategy group (where gestures were associated with labels) and a gestural strategy group (where participants repeated gestures and were told to imagine reproducing the movements). During the experiment, the participants had to reproduce a series of gestures under three conditions: “no interference”, gestural interference (gestural suppression) and verbal interference (articulatory suppression). The results showed that task performance was enhanced in the verbal strategy group, but there was no significant difference between the gestural strategy and control groups. Moreover, compared to the “no interference” condition, performance decreased in the presence of gestural interference, except within the verbal strategy group. Finally, verbal interference hindered performance in all groups. The discussion focuses on the use of labels to recall gestures and differentiates the induced strategies from self-initiated strategies.     

Relationships between work-related characteristics,needs satisfaction,motivation and mental health in midwifery students

The present study examined the relationships between work-related characteristics in internships, psychological needs satisfaction, motivation and mental health using a partial least squares path modeling. Midwifery students (N = 214; M_age = 22.8 years) from three French schools completed different questionnaires online. Results showed (1) the importance of work resources (work control and social support) as protective factors of psychological needs satisfaction; and (2) the role of competence need satisfaction through motivation in the relationships between work resources and mental health. Midwifery schools should pay more attention to these two results, and take them into account in midwifery students’ training.