Traditions of Modernity

Human listeners exhibit marked sensitivity to familiar music, perhaps most readily revealed by popular “name that tune” games, in which listeners often succeed in recognizing a familiar song based on extremely brief presentation. In this work, we used electroencephalography (EEG) and pupillometry to reveal the temporal signatures of the brain processes that allow differentiation between a familiar, well liked, and unfamiliar piece of music. In contrast to previous work, which has quantified gradual changes in pupil diameter (the so-called “pupil dilation response”), here we focus on the occurrence of pupil dilation events. This approach is substantially more sensitive in the temporal domain and allowed us to tap early activity with the putative salience network. Participants (N = 10) passively listened to snippets (750 ms) of a familiar, personally relevant and, an acoustically matched, unfamiliar song, presented in random order. A group of control participants (N = 12), who were unfamiliar with all of the songs, was also tested. We reveal a rapid differentiation between snippets from familiar and unfamiliar songs: Pupil responses showed greater dilation rate to familiar music from 100–300 ms post-stimulus-onset, consistent with a faster activation of the autonomic salience network. Brain responses measured with EEG showed a later differentiation between familiar and unfamiliar music from 350 ms post onset. Remarkably, the cluster pattern identified in the EEG response is very similar to that commonly found in the classic old/new memory retrieval paradigms, suggesting that the recognition of brief, randomly presented, music snippets, draws on similar processes.

To evaluate the functional status, leisure activity and satisfaction in adult stroke survivors participating in a community rehabilitation program, and to compare these outcomes with stroke survivors not attending any program. Subjects included in the study were survivors of a first stroke that received inpatient rehabilitation and were living at home at least one year post onset. Twenty seven were participants in a community rehabilitation program and 56 were non-participants. The outcome measures were the Stroke impact Scale (SIS), Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Questionnaire (IADLq), Activity Card Sort (ACS), and the Life-Satisfaction questionnaire (Li-Sat-9). The results revealed severe stroke impact and low functioning in activities of daily living in the participant group, yet the level of participation in leisure activities improved significantly after attending the program (t=-8.1, p=0.000). The comparison with the non participant group revealed that participants were even more disabled in basic activities of daily living (as measured by the FIM) than non-participants (t=-3.1, p=0.004). However, the satisfaction rates of the participants were significantly higher than non participants from "life as a whole" and from their leisure situation (p<0.05). Stroke survivors participating in a community based rehabilitation program did not show an advantage in terms of disability levels over non-participants. However, their activity level increased due to the program and their satisfaction scores were higher than non-participants.

Chewing gums may be suitable vehicles for the delivery of xylitol (X) and chlorhexidine acetate (CHX), both of which can aid oral health. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical effectiveness of chewing gums containing X or a combination of X and CHX in a double-blind, randomised, cross over, 5-day clinical trial, with a 9-day washout period in a group of participants over 40 years old. After professional tooth cleaning, 8 subjects (mean age 51.3+/-10.4 years) used in a random order 2 pieces of ACHX (a liquorice flavoured CHX/X) gum, 2 pieces of BCHX (a chocolate mint flavoured CHX/X), 2 pieces of X (a liquorice flavoured X gum) and 1 piece of ACHX. Gums were chewed 2x daily for 15 min and volunteers refrained from all other oral hygiene procedures. Data were analysed using Friedman nonparametric analysis of variance. Plaque indices for chewing 2 pieces of ACHX gum (0.78+/-0.15) and BCHX gum (0.52+/-0.15) were significantly lower (p<0.0006) than for X gum (1.57+/-0.08). The gingival index was significantly greater (p<0.05) for X containing gum than for the other chewing regimes. The subjects' attitudes to the gums were also assessed by structured questionnaires which showed that all gums were easy to chew, did not adhere to dentures, teeth or restorations and that the subjects preferred to chew 2 pellets rather than 1.

<b>Introduction:</b> It has been suggested that application of CPAP may lead to an immediate intraocular pressure (IOP) increase through a transmission of positive pressure to the intrathoracic space which would then increase venous pressure in the ocular circulation. Reduced venous return is also believed to be responsible for IOP elevation when lying down. <b>Aim:</b> We aimed to determine whether a brief exposure to CPAP increases IOP and whether any potential IOP changes correlate with the CPAP level. <b>Methods:</b> We conducted a daytime experiment with 3 groups of participants: primary open-angle glaucoma patients (POAG) established on IOP-lowering treatment, newly diagnosed untreated POAG patients and control subjects without glaucoma. IOP measurements were first performed in a sitting position and repeated 30 min later in a supine position. CPAP was then applied at 4 pressure levels (6, 10, 13 and 16cmH2O). Each pressure level was applied for 30 min in a random order. IOP measurements were taken repeatedly at each CPAP level in both eyes. <b>Results:</b> A total of 47 participants were recruited: 21 treated POAG, 8 untreated POAG and 17 control subjects. Baseline supine IOP was significantly higher than IOP measured in the upright position (1.7+2.2mmHg, p=0.00). There was no significant change in IOP across all CPAP levels and in relation to the supine measurements off CPAP (p=0.11). The three groups did not differ in their responses to CPAP (p=0.2). <b>Conclusions:</b> CPAP does not cause IOP increase in wakefulness when set within the most commonly used therapeutic pressure range. CPAP induced nocturnal IOP increase may occur through mechanisms other than simple mechanical pressure transmission.

Adaptability to pain is associated with potency of local pain inhibition, but not conditioned pain modulation: A healthy human study

BackgroundSacroiliitis detected by MRI plays a central role in the ASAS (Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society) classification criteria for axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA)1. However, both false positives and false negatives have...

In this thesis, two concepts concerning conditions of practice were examined for the practice, retention and transfer of perceptual-cognitive skill, specifically anticipation in tennis. First, from the motor skills literature, the contextual interference (CI) effect was investigated for the first time in perceptual-cognitive skill training. A blocked and random schedule of practice was used to train anticipation skills in tennis using video simulation techniques with transfer of learning assessed using a field-based task. Results showed support for the CI effect in this new domain as random practice had significantly greater response accuracy in the retention test, and significantly reduced decision time in the field-based transfer test, when compared to the blocked group. Subsequently, the underpinning mechanisms of the CI effect were examined focusing on cognitive effort and error processing. Across two experiments results showed that following errors, the random groups exhibited greater cognitive effort compared to errorless trials, whereas the blocked groups showed no difference between errorless and error trials. These results provided an alternative account for the CI effect by suggesting that it is not solely the switching of the tasks during random practice, but the role of error processing in conjunction with the switching tasks that result in greater cognitive effort and the CI effect. Second, the role of contextual information in perceptual-cognitive skills training was examined. Tennis shots were displayed to participants in either a smart-random structure, which showed shots in a tactically relevant manner, or in a random order so that no contextual information was available, just postural cue information. The smart-random structure group showed superior response accuracy in retention and reduced decision time in a field-based transfer test. Results demonstrated the benefits of contextual information for the retention and transfer of perceptual-cognitive skills in tennis. The overall findings extend the research in perceptual-cognitive skill training and have several theoretical and applied implications.

Care-giving to elderly population is challenging impacting their quality of life (QoL). We carried out the present study evaluating the influence of an intervention targeting this population in improving their QoL. A community-based randomized clinical trial was undertaken targeting the elderly population residing in an urban slum area after evaluating the baseline QoL using pre-validated questionnaire from World Health Organization (WHO QOL-BREF). Intervention involving mainly the interaction with elderly population in facilitating their interaction with the health care providers, and social clubs was carried out in the intervention group. Control group of participants was provided the usual standard of care without any active intervention.: Eight-hundred and fifty-two were included (study group: 426 and control group: 426) with a large-majority in the age range of 60-69 years. Most of the participants were educated, housewives, economically dependent on their family members, with a monthly income ranging between 5001 and 10000 rupees. The demographic characteristics were comparable between the intervention and control groups except for the concomitant diseases that were significantly more in the intervention group. Baseline mean WHO QOL-BREF scores were 40.04 and 45.2 in the intervention and control groups, respectively. Post-intervention, the QoL scores were significantly (p &amp;#60; 0.05) greater in the intervention group. Those between 60 and 69 years, male gender, those independant on their family members, and healthy individuals had significantly greater QoL scores post-intervention.We observed that our intervention had significant beneficial effects in improving the QoL among the elderly individuals residing in an urban slum area. We have also identified certain sub-groups of individuals with a greater response. There is an urgent need for evaluating the utility of our intervention using a randomized study.

Pupillary response indexes the metrical hierarchy of unattended rhythmic violations

Recognizing a familiar face rapidly is a fundamental human brain function. Here we used scalp EEG to determine the minimal time needed to classify a face as personally familiar or unfamiliar. Go (familiar) and no-go (unfamiliar) responses elicited clear differential waveforms from 210 msec onward, this difference being first observed at right occipito-temporal electrode sites. Similar but delayed (by about 40 msec) responses were observed when go response were required to the unfamiliar rather than familiar faces, in a second group of participants. In both groups, a small increase of amplitude was also observed on the right hemisphere N170 face-sensitive component for familiar faces. However, unlike the post-200 msec differential go/no-go effect, this effect was unrelated to behavior and disappeared with repetition of unfamiliar faces. These observations indicate that accumulation of evidence within the first 200 msec poststimulus onset is sufficient for the human brain to decide whether a person is familiar based on his or her face, a time frame that puts strong constraints on the time course of face processing.

The multi-determined model (Titone & Libben, The Mental Lexicon, 2014, 9, 473) suggests that processing of idioms depends on multiple linguistic factors (e.g., familiarity, literal plausibility, decomposability). According to this model, these sources of information modulate the comprehension of idioms at different time courses. In the current study, we investigated whether these linguistics factors modulate the neurophysiological underpinnings associated with processing of different types of idioms. Adult native speakers of English read sentences that contained idioms with high and low level of familiarity and literal plausibility while their electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Event-related potentials data showed that idioms with low level of familiarity elicited larger negativity starting from 300 ms post stimulus onset and lasted for about 200 ms. A similar negativity, but which started later (at around 400 ms post stimulus onset) was also observed for idioms with a low level of literal plausibility. These results are consistent with the multi-determined model of idiom processing indicating the role of these linguistics factors over different time courses. Finally, the observed negativity for low familiar and low literally plausible idioms was greater over the right hemisphere. Accordingly, the possible role of the right hemisphere in processing idioms will be discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The human brain has evolved to operate effectively in highly complex acoustic environments, segregating multiple sound sources into perceptually distinct auditory objects. A recent theory seeks to explain this ability by arguing that stream segregation occurs primarily due to the temporal coherence of the neural populations that encode the various features of an individual acoustic source. This theory has received support from both psychoacoustic and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that use stimuli which model complex acoustic environments. Termed stochastic figure-ground (SFG) stimuli, they are composed of a "figure" and background that overlap in spectrotemporal space, such that the only way to segregate the figure is by computing the coherence of its frequency components over time. Here, we extend these psychoacoustic and fMRI findings by using the greater temporal resolution of electroencephalography to investigate the neural computation of temporal coherence. We present subjects with modified SFG stimuli wherein the temporal coherence of the figure is modulated stochastically over time, which allows us to use linear regression methods to extract a signature of the neural processing of this temporal coherence. We do this under both active and passive listening conditions. Our findings show an early effect of coherence during passive listening, lasting from ∼115 to 185 ms post-stimulus. When subjects are actively listening to the stimuli, these responses are larger and last longer, up to ∼265 ms. These findings provide evidence for early and preattentive neural computations of temporal coherence that are enhanced by active analysis of an auditory scene.

Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to rapidly label pitch without an external reference. The speed of AP labeling may be related to faster sensory processing. We compared time needed for auditory processing in AP musicians, non-AP musicians, and nonmusicians (NM) using high-density electroencephalographic recording. Participants responded to pure tones and sung voice. Stimuli evoked a negative deflection peaking at ~100ms (N1) post-stimulus onset, followed by a positive deflection peaking at ~200ms (P2). N1 latency was shortest in AP, intermediate in non-AP musicians, and longest in NM. Source analyses showed decreased auditory cortex and increased frontal cortex contributions to N1 for complex tones compared with pure tones. Compared with NM, AP musicians had weaker source currents in left auditory cortex but stronger currents in left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) during N1, and stronger currents in left IFG during P2. Compared with non-AP musicians, AP musicians exhibited stronger source currents in right insula and left IFG during N1, and stronger currents in left IFG during P2. Non-AP musicians had stronger N1 currents in right auditory cortex than nonmusicians. Currents in left IFG and left auditory cortex were correlated to response times exclusively in AP. Findings suggest a left frontotemporal network supports rapid pitch labeling in AP.

&lt;p&gt;Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to rapidly label pitch without an external reference. The speed of AP labeling may be related to faster sensory processing. We compared time needed for auditory processing in AP musicians, non-AP musicians, and nonmusicians (NM) using high-density electroencephalographic recording. Participants responded to pure tones and sung voice. Stimuli evoked a negative deflection peaking at ~100 ms (N1) post-stimulus onset, followed by a positive deflection peaking at ~200 ms (P2). N1 latency was shortest in AP, intermediate in non-AP musicians, and longest in NM. Source analyses showed decreased auditory cortex and increased frontal cortex contributions to N1 for complex tones compared with pure tones. Compared with NM, AP musicians had weaker source currents in left auditory cortex but stronger currents in left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) during N1, and stronger currents in left IFG during P2. Compared with non-AP musicians, AP musicians exhibited stronger source currents in right insula and left IFG during N1, and stronger currents in left IFG during P2. Non-AP musicians had stronger N1 currents in right auditory cortex than nonmusicians. Currents in left IFG and left auditory cortex were correlated to response times exclusively in AP. Findings suggest a left frontotemporal network supports rapid pitch labeling in AP.&lt;/p&gt;

Beyond eye gaze: What else can eyetracking reveal about cognition and cognitive development?