How clinical trials really work rethinking research ethics

Despite prevalent concerns about the ethical conduct of clinical trials, little is known about the day-to-day work of trials and the ethical challenges arising in them. This paper reports on a study designed to fill this gap and demonstrates a need to refine the oversight system for trials to reflect an understanding of this day-to-day work. It also illuminates ethical challenges that cannot be addressed by the oversight system and so necessitate a rethinking of the ethics of clinical trials.     

Audiotactile interactions in temporal perception

In the present review, we focus on how commonalities in the ontogenetic development of the auditory and tactile sensory systems may inform the interplay between these signals in the temporal domain. In particular, we describe the results of behavioral studies that have investigated temporal resolution (in temporal order, synchrony/asynchrony, and simultaneity judgment tasks), as well as temporal numerosity perception, and similarities in the perception of frequency across touch and hearing. The evidence reviewed here highlights features of audiotactile temporal perception that are distinctive from those seen for other pairings of sensory modalities. For instance, audiotactile interactions are characterized in certain tasks (e.g., temporal numerosity judgments) by a more balanced reciprocal influence than are other modality pairings. Moreover, relative spatial position plays a different role in the temporal order and temporal recalibration processes for audiotactile stimulus pairings than for other modality pairings. The effect exerted by both the spatial arrangement of stimuli and attention on temporal order judgments is described. Moreover, a number of audiotactile interactions occurring during sensory-motor synchronization are highlighted. We also look at the audiotactile perception of rhythm and how it may be affected by musical training. The differences emerging from this body of research highlight the need for more extensive investigation into audiotactile temporal interactions. We conclude with a brief overview of some of the key issues deserving of further research in this area.     

Editorial Overview

Science policy mandates across the industrialized world insinuate more active roles for publics, their earlier participation in policy decisions, and expanded notions of science and technology governance. In response to these policies, engaged scholars in science studies have sought to design and conduct exercises aimed at better attuning science to its public contexts. As demand increases for innovative and potentially democratic forms of public engagement with science and technology, so also do the prospects for insights from science studies to contribute to policy agendas and institutional capabilities. This collection brings together an international set of scholars in science, technology and society who inquire into the meaning, efficacy and responsibility of engaged science studies scholarship as a public matter.     

Agent deliberation in an executable temporal framework

Autonomous agents are not so difficult to construct. Constructing autonomous agents that will work as required is much harder. A clear way in which we can design and analyse autonomous systems so that we can be more confident that their behaviour is as required is to use formal methods. These can, in principle, allow us to exactly specify the behaviour of the agent, and verify that any implementation has the properties required. In addition to using a more formal approach, it is clear that problems of conceptualisation and analysis can be aided by the use of an appropriate abstraction.In this article we tackle one particular aspect of formal methods for agent-based systems, namely the formal representation and implementation of deliberation within agents. The key aspect here is simplicity. Agents are specified using a relatively simple temporal logic and are executed by directly interpreting such temporal formulae. Deliberation is captured by modifying the way in which execution handles its temporal goals. Thus, in this article we provide motivations, theoretical underpinnings, implementation details, correctness arguments, and comparisons with related work.     

Midazolam amnesia and short-term/working memory processes

We examined whether midazolam impairs short-term/working memory processes. We hypothesize that prior dissociations in midazolam's effects on short-term/working memory tasks and episodic memory tasks arise because midazolam has a larger effect on episodic memory processes than on short-term/working memory processes. To examine these issues, .03 mg/kg of participant's bodyweight of midazolam was administered in a double-blind placebo-controlled within-participant design. Performance on the digit span and category generation/recall tasks was examined. The results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that: (1) midazolam impaired performance on the digit span task; (2) midazolam did not impair performance on the category generation task; (3) midazolam impaired performance on the category recall task; and (4) midazolam's effect on category recall was four times as large as its effect on digit span. The results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that midazolam did not impair digit span performance when the digit span task was administered at a later time. These results suggest that midazolam can impair short-term/working memory processes, but these effects are substantially smaller than midazolam's effect on episodic memory processes. Moreover, they demonstrate that conscious awareness of materials during study is not sufficient to produce episodic memory.     

Concurrent task effects on memory encoding and retrieval: Further support for an asymmetry

Several studies have demonstrated that divided attention at encoding significantly reduces memory performance, whereas divided attention at retrieval affects memory performance only minimally. However, the possibility exists that retrieval processes have shown such resilience because the concurrent tasks used have often not been very demanding. To assess this possibility, we used independent manipulations of the concurrent task during either encoding or retrieval that included stimulus-response compatibility and participant- versus experimenter-controlled pace. In addition, we manipulated the distribution of practice that the participants received with the primary and the concurrent tasks. The results replicated and extended those recently reported by Rohrer and Pashler (2003), indicating that although memory performance is negatively affected by divided attention at retrieval, especially with noncompatible stimulus-response mapping in the concurrent task, this effect was much smaller than that at encoding, in line with the asymmetry notion. Furthermore, experimenter versus participant control of the concurrent task had no effect on memory retrieval. Finally, under conditions of equal practice with both the memory and the concurrent tasks, memory retrieval was affected only to a small degree. In contrast to encoding processes, the processes involved in retrieval accuracy appear, in many cases, to be less interrupted by divided attention, although this protection requires substantial resources.     

Functional analysis of aberrant behavior through measurement of separate response topographies

Functional analysis results for multiple topographies of aberrant behavior were graphed in an aggregate fashion and then separately for 48 clients. The results indicated that multiple topographies of behavior may be maintained by different contingencies. These results indicate that graphing functional analysis data in an aggregate fashion and then separately may improve the accuracy of their interpretation.     

Central ghrelin increases anxiety in the Open Field test and impairs retention memory in a passive avoidance task in neonatal chicks

Ghrelin (Grh) is an endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor. Although Ghr stimulates feeding in rats, it inhibits feeding in neonatal chicks. However, little is known about other central behavioral effects of Ghr. Therefore, we investigated the Ghr effects, injected intracerebroventricularly, on anxiety and memory retention of neonatal chicks in an Open Field test and in a one-trial passive avoidance task, respectively. In the Open Field test, the administration of Ghr in a dose-dependent manner increased the latency to ambulate but decreased ambulation activity, indicating an anxiogenic effect. Furthermore, chicks trained on a passive avoidance task and injected with a dose of 30 pmol of Ghr immediately after training showed an impairment of memory retention. However, there were no significant effects on the number of pecks during the pretraining, training, retention and discrimination. In addition, different doses of Ghr produced an inhibition in food intake at different times after injection. Our results indicate that Ghr induces anxiogenesis in chicks. Moreover, we have shown for the first time that Ghr can decrease memory retention in a non-mammalian species, suggesting that Ghr may play an important role in the processes of memory retention in birds.     

From object to image to object

Images are mental representations accommodated by grammatical structures. These structures order sensori-input of information as well as provide for articulated ways of expressing motor sequences associated with images. The psychological process of perception is reflected in the development of paradigmatic structures. The psychological process of action (behavior and its mental representations) is reflected in the development of syntagmatic structures. Forming and expressing imagery requires both paradigmatic and syntagmatic structuring. The former relates to logical issues of identity of objects and to the formation of concepts. The latter relates to the solution of psycho-logical questions of causality through articulation of grammatical roles in sentences. Two issues affecting the formation of a model to account for imagery are examined: (1) The tendency to explain imagery as a result of motor sequences and to utilize performance grammar. (2) The impact of ontogenesis on social processes affecting the logical and psycho-logical concerns facing the person at different stages of development. The grammar of imagery is seen as broader than one of performance. The epistemology of imagemaking does not reflect a linear ontogenetic development which precludes attention to problems of creating the logical structures of an object.