Hippocampal tauopathy in tau transgenic mice coincides with impaired hippocampus-dependent learning and memory, and attenuated late-phase long-term depression of synaptic transmission

We evaluated various forms of hippocampus-dependent learning and memory, and hippocampal synaptic plasticity in THY-Tau22 transgenic mice, a murine tauopathy model that expresses double-mutated 4-repeat human tau, and shows neuropathological tau hyperphosphorylation and aggregation throughout the brain. Focussing on hippocampus, immunohistochemical studies in aged THY-Tau22 mice revealed prominent hyper- and abnormal phosphorylation of tau in CA1 region, and an increase in glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in hippocampus, but without signs of neuronal loss. These mice displayed spatial, social, and contextual learning and memory defects that could not be reduced to subtle neuromotor disability. The behavioral defects coincided with changes in hippocampal synaptic functioning and plasticity as measured in paired-pulse and novel long-term depression protocols. These results indicate that hippocampal tauopathy without neuronal cell loss can impair neural and behavioral plasticity, and further show that transgenic mice, such as the THY-Tau22 strain, might be useful for preclinical research on tauopathy pathogenesis and possible treatment.     

Threat and selective exposure: the moderating role of threat and decision context on confirmatory information search after decisions

Previous studies on the impact of perceived threat on confirmatory information search (selective exposure) in the context of decision making have yielded mixed results. Some studies have suggested that confirmatory information search is reduced, yet others have found contradictory effects. The present series of 5 studies consistently found that the crucial moderator for these inconsistent findings was whether the induced threat was contextually related to the subsequent decision and information search tasks. Contextual incongruence (e.g., an induction of terrorist threat followed by an economic decision case) results in reduced levels of confirmatory information search, whereas a congruent threat (e.g., an induction of terrorist threat followed by a decision case on terrorism) results in increased levels of confirmatory information search. Analyses of the underlying psychological processes revealed that decision-unrelated threat inductions increase decision makers' experienced decision uncertainty, thus reducing confirmatory information search.     

Finger coordination under artificial changes in finger strength feedback: a study using analytical inverse optimization

A recently developed method of analytical inverse optimization (ANIO) was used to compute cost functions based on sets of experimental observations in 4-finger pressing tasks with accurate total force and moment production. In different series, feedback on total force and moment was provided using the index finger force at its value, doubled, or halved. Finger force data across different force-moment combinations formed a plane. This allowed reconstructing cost functions as 2nd-order polynomials with linear terms. Changes in the coefficients of the cost function across the 3 series allowed the authors to offer a biomechanical interpretation related to constraints on finger forces with different lever arms. ANIO allows the authors to describe preferred regions within the space of solutions for redundant tasks in terms of cost functions.     

Hearing Bad News

Personal reports of receiving bad news provide data that describes patients' comprehension, reflections, experienced emotions, and an interpretative commentary with the wisdom of hindsight. Analysis of autobiographical accounts of "hearing bad news" enables the identification of patterns of how patients found out diagnoses, buffering techniques used, and styles of receiving the news. I describe how patients grapple with the news, their somatic responses to hearing, and how they struggle and strive to accept what they are hearing. I discuss metaphors used within the languages of hearing bad news. Finally, I discuss implications for a change of focus in the breaking bad news research agenda, that is, from the physician's "performance" to a patient-focused agenda.     

Cardiac morbidity risk and depression and anxiety: a disorder, symptom and trait analysis among cardiac surgery patients

The aim of this study was to examine depression and anxiety disorders and their characteristic symptoms (anhedonia/low positive affect and anxious arousal, respectively), along with measures of state negative affect (NA) and Type D personality, in relation to cardiac surgery related morbidity. Patients awaiting elective coronary artery bypass graft surgery (n=158; 20.9% female; 11.4% concomitant valve surgery; age M=64.7, SD=10.6) underwent the structured MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview to determine current affective disorders. Patients also completed the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire and a measure of Type D personality traits. Postoperative cardiac morbidity was confirmed after surgery during the index hospitalization and included stroke,renal failure, ventilation>24 h, deep sternal wound infection, reoperation, arrhythmia and 30-day mortality at any location (n=59, 37.3% of total). After adjustment for age, recent myocardial infarction, heart failure, hypertension, urgency of surgery and time spent on cardiopulmonary bypass generalized anxiety disorder was associated with cardiac morbidity (odds ratio [OR]=3.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.10-9.67, p=0.03). Adjusted analysis of personality traits revealed the NA component of Type D personality was associated with cardiac morbidity (OR=1.07, 95% CI 1.01-1.14, p=0.03). The Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire subscales were not associated with increased morbidity risk. Affective disorders, affective phenotypes, and personality traits were differentially associated with post-cardiac surgery morbidity outcomes independent of cardiac surgery morbidity risk factors. Concurrent investigation of depression and anxiety with respect to cardiac outcomes warrants further research.     

Rapid communication: Global-local processing affects recognition of distractor emotional faces

Recent studies have shown links between happy faces and global, distributed attention as well as sad faces to local, focused attention. Emotions have been shown to affect global-local processing. Given that studies on emotion-cognition interactions have not explored the effect of perceptual processing at different spatial scales on processing stimuli with emotional content, the present study investigated the link between perceptual focus and emotional processing. The study investigated the effects of global-local processing on the recognition of distractor faces with emotional expressions. Participants performed a digit discrimination task with digits at either the global level or the local level presented against a distractor face (happy or sad) as background. The results showed that global processing associated with broad scope of attention facilitates recognition of happy faces, and local processing associated with narrow scope of attention facilitates recognition of sad faces. The novel results of the study provide conclusive evidence for emotion-cognition interactions by demonstrating the effect of perceptual processing on emotional faces. The results along with earlier complementary results on the effect of emotion on global-local processing support a reciprocal relationship between emotional processing and global-local processing. Distractor processing with emotional information also has implications for theories of selective attention.     

Nonselective motor-level changes associated with selective response inhibition: evidence from response force measurements

In the present study, we examined the effects of selective response inhibition on motor production using response force measures within a task that was based on that of Aron and Verbruggen (Psychological Science, 19, 1146–1153, 2008). In each trial, participants were signaled to respond bimanually with the two index fingers or the two middle fingers. After a short delay, a stop signal was sometimes presented, indicating that one of the two finger responses should be withheld. A given response was slowed when the response on the other hand was stopped, replicating a previously observed stopping interference effect. In addition, the given response was also made more forcefully when the response on the other hand was stopped, indicating that the requirement to stop one activated response has global motor-level consequences for other responses that are to be carried out normally.     

The Social and Ethical Acceptability of NBICs for Purposes of Human Enhancement: Why Does the Debate Remain Mired in Impasse?

The emergence and development of convergent technologies for the purpose of improving human performance, including nanotechnology, biotechnology, information sciences, and cognitive science (NBICs), open up new horizons in the debates and moral arguments that must be engaged by philosophers who hope to take seriously the question of the ethical and social acceptability of these technologies. This article advances an analysis of the factors that contribute to confusion and discord on the topic, in order to help in understanding why arguments that form a part of the debate between transhumanism and humanism result in a philosophical and ethical impasse: 1. The lack of clarity that emerges from the fact that any given argument deployed (arguments based on nature and human nature, dignity, the good life) can serve as the basis for both the positive and the negative evaluation of NBICs. 2. The impossibility of providing these arguments with foundations that will enable others to deem them acceptable. 3. The difficulty of applying these same arguments to a specific situation. 4. The ineffectiveness of moral argument in a democratic society. The present effort at communication about the difficulties of the argumentation process is intended as a necessary first step towards developing an interdisciplinary response to those difficulties.