The Moro reaction: More than a reflex,a ritualized behavior of nonverbal communication

ObjectiveTo propose a phylogenetic significance to the Moro reflex which remains unexplained since its publication in 1918 because both hands are free at the end of the gesture.MethodAmong the 75 videos of healthy term newborns we have filmed in a research project on antenatal education to parenthood, we describe a sequence that clearly showed the successive movements of the Moro reflex and we report the occurrence of this reflex in the videos that were recorded from Time 0 of birth defined as the moment that lies between the birth of the thorax and the pelvis of the infant.ResultsThe selected sequence showed the following succession of the newborn’s actions: quick extension-adduction of both arms, the orientation of the body, head and eyes towards a human person, and full extension-abduction of both arms with spreading of the fingers, crying and a distressed face. There were 13 Moro reflexes between 2 and 14 s from Time 0 of birth. We found a significant association between the occurrence of the Moro reflex and the placement of the newborn at birth in supine position on the mother’s abdomen (p = 0.002).DiscussionThe quick extension-adduction of both arms which started the sequence may be considered as a startle reflex controlled by the neural fear system and the arm extension-adduction which followed as a Moro reflex. The characteristics of all Moro reflexes were those of ritualization: amplitude, duration, stereotype of the gestures. This evolutionary process turns a physiological behavior, grasping in this case, to a non-verbal communicative behavior whose meaning is a request to be picked up in the arms. The gestures associated with the Moro reflex: crying and orientation of the body, head, and eyes towards a human person, are gestures of intention to communicate which support our hypothesis. The neural mechanism of the Moro reaction probably involves both the fear and the separation-distress systems.ConclusionThis paper proposes for the first time a phylogenetic significance to the Moro reflex: a ritualized behavior of nonverbal communication. Professionals should avoid stimulating the newborns’ fear system by unnecessarily triggering Moro reflexes. Antenatal education should teach parents to respond to the Moro reflexes of their newborn infant by picking her up in their arms with mother talk.     

《论语》:一种可能的情感解读

在面对三代经礼文化日益衰颓的社会情势时,孔子开始向人之内在情感领域发掘道德实践的理据。这种发掘,一方面使他实现了对传统礼乐的改造,一方面则凿通了经由内在真实情感的抉发而走向儒家性情论伦理思想的义理道路。这种人本主义的情感关怀和情感诉求,渗透于孔子诠释道德要目与道德行为、论《诗》、论乐的诸多言论之中。因此,可以毫不夸张地说,《论语》是一部未言“情”字(“情感”义)而又处处关“情”的著作。     

TACE术联合自体CIK细胞治疗原发性肝癌

探讨肝动脉栓塞化疗（TACE）联合自体细胞因子诱导的杀伤细胞（CIK）治疗原发性肝癌的临床疗效。比较TACE术＋CIK组（治疗组）和TACE组（对照组）患者的免疫功能、临床疗效及副反应。结果表明,TACE术＋CIK与TACE术比较安全有效。因此,TACE术联合自体CIK细胞是治疗原发性肝癌的一种有效方法。     

循环肿瘤细胞的研究进展

循环肿瘤细胞（circulating tumor cells,CTCs）指自发或因诊疗操作由实体瘤或转移灶释放进入外周血循环的肿瘤细胞。CTCs能被看作液体活检,具有实时监测功能,是一种非侵入性的新型诊断工具,有助于早期发现肿瘤的微转移,可评估预后,在治疗的监测及个体化治疗上具有重要的临床意义。     

The premotor theory of attention and the Simon effect

In the paper by Hommel (2011-this issue), the roles of the theory of event coding (TEC) and the premotor theory of attention (PMTA) for the Simon effect were considered. PMTA was treated by Hommel in terms of the proposal that attentional orienting can be viewed as the preparation of a saccade towards a certain location, and was dismissed as providing no useful contribution for an attentional explanation of the Simon effect. Here we considered a more recent and broader conception of the PMTA, compared this approach with TEC, and confronted both approaches with a few studies focusing on the role of spatial attention for the Simon effect. It was argued that PMTA may account more easily for various studies examining the influence of spatial attention on the Simon effect. We concluded our paper by listing some elements that an overall encompassing theory on the Simon effect should contain.     

Visualizing the temporal dynamics of spatial information processing responsible for the Simon effect and its amplification by inhibition of return

Research has shown that the Simon effect is larger for targets suffering from inhibition of return (IOR). We used speed–accuracy trade-off (SAT) methodology to explore the temporal dynamics underlying this interaction. In Experiment 1, a new method for sorting the data was used to reveal a monotonic decay in the impact of task-irrelevant location information that is responsible for the Simon effect. In Experiment 2, we show that IOR delays both task-relevant identity and task-irrelevant location codes; a relatively longer delay for location than identity codes accounts for the effect of IOR on the Simon effect. When location information was made task-relevant in Experiment 3, IOR delayed the accumulation of this information by about the same amount as when location was irrelevant. The results suggest that IOR, therefore, has a greater effect on location than identity information.     

Synchronization in repetitive smooth movement requires perceptible events

Accurate timing performance during auditory–motor synchronization has been well documented for finger tapping tasks. It is believed that information pertaining to an event in movement production aids in detecting and correcting for errors between movement cycle completion and the metronome tone. Tasks with minimal event-related information exhibit more variable synchronization and less rapid error correction. Recent work from our laboratory has indicated that a task purportedly lacking an event structure (circle drawing) did not exhibit accurate synchronization or error correction (Studenka & Zelaznik, in press). In the present paper we report on two experiments examining synchronization in tapping and circle drawing tasks. In Experiment 1, error correction processes of an event-timed tapping timing task and an emergently timed circle drawing timing task were examined. Rapid and complete error correction was seen for the tapping, but not for the circle drawing task. In Experiment 2, a perceptual event was added to delineate a cycle in circle drawing, and the perceptual event of table contact was removed from the tapping task. The inclusion of an event produced a marked improvement in synchronization error correction for circle drawing, and the removal of tactile feedback (taking away an event) slightly reduced the error correction response of tapping. Furthermore, the task kinematics of circle drawing remained smooth providing evidence that event structure can be kinematic or perceptual in nature. Thus, synchronization and error correction, characteristic of event timing (Ivry, Spencer, Zelaznik, & Diedrichsen, 2002; Repp, 2005), depends upon the presence of a distinguishable source of sensory information at the timing goal.     

Inferring hidden causal structure

We used a new method to assess how people can infer unobserved causal structure from patterns of observed events. Participants were taught to draw causal graphs, and then shown a pattern of associations and interventions on a novel causal system. Given minimal training and no feedback, participants in Experiment 1 used causal graph notation to spontaneously draw structures containing one observed cause, one unobserved common cause, and two unobserved independent causes, depending on the pattern of associations and interventions they saw. We replicated these findings with less-informative training (Experiments 2 and 3) and a new apparatus (Experiment 3) to show that the pattern of data leads to hidden causal inferences across a range of prior constraints on causal knowledge.     

干细胞移植治疗缺血性心脏病研究的新途径:miRNAs

miRNAs在干细胞的自我更新、多向分化及分泌血管活性物质等过程中扮演作非常重要作用。近年来人们对于干细胞移植术治疗缺血性心脏病,取得了一定的成果,但仍然存在着大量有待解决的问题。例如如何增加移植后的干细胞存活率;改善梗死区的微环境,增加迁移或归巢到梗死区干细胞的数量等,而miRNAs在干细胞中的调节机制且表明miRNAs有可能成为干细胞移植研究的一个新的切入点。