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Introduction: Mindfulness has been associated with benefits on cognitive processes, including attention. However, the exact relationship between mindfulness, components of attention, and the role of reward context has not yet been fully elucidated, which is relevant, especially in the context of addiction. In the current study, we specifically evaluated the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and the balance between voluntary (top-down), and stimulus-driven (bottom-up) attention. In addition, we explored whether the relationship was mediated by asymmetry of frontal brain activity, an index of approach tendencies, and varies as a function of reward context. Methods: In total, 95 participants (30 male, 65 female) with a mean age of 25.87 (SD = 7.38) participated. Resting-state electrophysiological activity was recorded using EEG, and participants were assessed on dispositional mindfulness, and performed the visuospatial cueing (VSC) task, which indexed voluntary- and stimulus-driven attention in a neutral and palatable food (reward) context. In the endogenous VSC task, a central cue signals the likely location of a subsequent target. The validity effect represents the benefit of valid cueing relative to the costs of invalid cueing in terms of response time. Results and discussion: Dispositional mindfulness was associated with a reduced validity effect, plausibly reflecting a combination of reduced voluntary attention and increased stimulus-driven attention, irrespective of condition. The relationship between dispositional mindfulness and visuospatial attention could not be explained by asymmetry of frontal brain activity.
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Mixing of entire microbial communities represents a frequent, yet understudied phenomenon. Here, we mimicked estuarine condition in a microcosm experiment by mixing a freshwater river community with a brackish sea community and assessed the effects of both environmental and community coalescences induced by varying mixing processes on microeukaryotic communities. Signs of shifted community composition of coalesced communities towards the sea parent community suggest asymmetrical community coalescence outcome, which, in addition, was generally less impacted by environmental coalescence. Community stability, inferred from community cohesion, differed among river and sea parent communities, and increased following coalescence treatments. Generally, community coalescence increased alpha diversity and promoted competition from the introduction (or emergence) of additional (or rare) species. These competitive interactions in turn had community stabilizing effect as evidenced by the increased proportion of negative cohesion. The fate of microeukaryotes was influenced by mixing ratios and frequencies (i.e. one-time versus repeated coalescence). Namely, diatoms were negatively impacted by coalescence, while fungi, ciliates, and cercozoans were promoted to varying extents, depending on the mixing ratios of the parent communities. Our study suggests that the predictability of coalescence outcomes was greater when the sea parent community dominated the final community, and this predictability was further enhanced when communities collided repeatedly.
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Biodiversidade , Diatomáceas , Fungos , Diatomáceas/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Fungos/genética , Fungos/classificação , Fungos/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Rios/microbiologia , Água do Mar/microbiologia , Cilióforos/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Cilióforos/genética , Cercozoários/genética , Cercozoários/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Microbiota , Eucariotos/crescimento & desenvolvimentoRESUMO
Little is known about the origin of germ cells in humans. We previously leveraged post-zygotic mutations to reconstruct zygote-rooted cell lineage ancestry trees in a phenotypically normal woman, termed NC0. Here, by sequencing the genome of her children and their father, we analyzed the transmission of early pregastrulation lineages and corresponding mutations across human generations. We found that the germline in NC0 is polyclonal and is founded by at least two cells likely descending from the two blastomeres arising from the first zygotic cleavage. Analyses of public data from several multi-children families and from 1,934 familial quads confirmed this finding in larger cohorts, revealing that known imbalances of up to 90:10 in early lineages allocation in somatic tissues are not reflected in transmission to offspring, establishing a fundamental difference in lineage allocation between the soma and the germline. Analyses of all the data consistently suggest that germline has a balanced 50:50 lineage allocation from the first two blastomeres.
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The market for artificial sweeteners as substitutes for conventional sugar (sucrose) is growing, despite potential health risks associated with their intake. Estimating population usage of artificial sweeteners is therefore crucial, and wastewater analysis can serve as a complement to existing methods. This study evaluated spatial and temporal usage of artificial sweeteners in five Swedish communities based on wastewater analysis. We further compared their levels measured in wastewater with the restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden and assessed health risks to the Swedish population. Influent wastewater samples (n = 194) collected in March 2019-February 2022 from communities in central and southern Sweden were analyzed for acesulfame, saccharin, and sucralose using liquid-chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Spatial differences in loads for individual artificial sweetener were observed, with sucralose being higher in Kalmar (southern Sweden), and acesulfame and saccharin in Enköping and Östhammar (central Sweden). Based on sucrose equivalent doses, all communities showed a consistent prevalence pattern of sucralose > acesulfame > saccharin. Four communities with relatively short monitoring periods showed no apparent temporal changes in usage, but the four-year monitoring in Uppsala revealed a significant (p < 0.05) annual increase of â¼19 % for sucralose, â¼9 % for acesulfame and â¼8 % for saccharin. This trend showed no instant or delayed effects from COVID-19 restrictions, reflecting positively on the studied population which retained similar exposure to the artificial sweeteners despite potential pandemic stresses. Among the three artificial sweeteners, only acesulfame's levels were at the lower end of the health-related threshold for consumption of artificially sweetened beverages; yet, all were far below the acceptable daily intake, indicating no appreciable health risks. Our study provided valuable, pilot insights into the spatio-temporal usage of artificial sweeteners in Sweden and their associated health risks. This shows the usefulness of wastewater analysis for public health authorities wishing to assess future relevant interventions.
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Mindfulness has been linked to enhanced inhibitory control, yet the dynamics of this relationship, especially in reward situations, are not well understood. Our cross-sectional study aimed to explore the relationship between trait mindfulness and a performance measure of inhibitory control as a function of reward context operationalized by stimuli characteristics, and temporal inhibitory demands. Thirty-six individuals aged 19 to 41 filled out the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and performed a stop signal task (SST), that included both neutral (stone images) and reward-related (money images) stimuli. The SST encompassed four conditions: neutral go/neutral stop, neutral go/reward stop, reward go/neutral stop, and reward go/reward stop, requiring participants to suppress reactions either during or after encountering reward-related stimuli. The relevant index of inhibitory control is the stop signal reaction time (SSRT), a performance measure of inhibitory control. Our findings showed no notable variation in the relationship between the MAAS score and SSRT across the different conditions. However, there was an overall significant effect of MAAS score on SSRT, irrespective of condition. Results may reflect the benefit of mindfulness on inhibitory control after generalized reward exposure.
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Inibição Psicológica , Atenção Plena , Tempo de Reação , Recompensa , Humanos , Adulto , Masculino , Feminino , Tempo de Reação/fisiologia , Adulto Jovem , Atenção/fisiologia , Estudos TransversaisRESUMO
According to the Multiple Arousal Theory, electrodermal activity (EDA) is not uniform across the body. However, the psychological meaning of a left or right-sided EDA dominance is still not clear. We explored EDA lateral asymmetry as a psychophysiological marker of optimistic and pessimistic attributional style regarding success and failure in a darts competition. Bilateral EDA pattern of 230 throws of a competing pair was measured by Obimon EDA including accelerometer measurements of movements. First, we confirmed that lateral asymmetry can be measured reliably based on EDA data from both wrists. Second, we assessed attributional styles related to lateral asymmetry based on 80 individual throws. We recorded participants' expectations regarding their upcoming performance, and their attribution of success and failure based on Seligman's definition as optimist (internal cause attributed to success, or external cause ascribed to failure) or pessimist. The ratio of optimist and pessimist attributions was significantly different for throws with right or left-sided EDA dominance (p = 0.001). Optimistic attribution characterized 84% of right dominant, while pessimist 63% of left-dominant EDA during throws. We replicated these findings on 50 throws from 10 more individuals (p = 0.034). All individuals were right-handed. We conclude that wrist EDA can be reliably measured during physical movements, such as in a darts game. Lateral EDA asymmetry is a consistent psychophysiological marker of the attitude toward success and failure in a competitive setting, suggesting that lateral asymmetry of emotional arousal may serve as a novel psychophysiological biomarker for attribution style. Results underlie the psychophysiological relevance of bilateral arousal assessment and provide evidence-based verification for the Multiple Arousal Theory.
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BACKGROUND: The aim was to investigate to what extent the quantification of myocardial blood flow (MBF) from dynamic 13 N-NH3 positron emission tomography (PET) images is affected by time frame schemes, time-of-flight (ToF), reconstruction algorithms, blood pool volume of interest (VOI) locations and compartment models in patients with suspected chronic coronary syndrome. METHODS: A standard MBF value was determined from 25 patients' rest/stress 13 N-NH3 PET/CT images reconstructed with ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM), 5 s time frame for the first frames without ToF, subsequently analyzed using a basal VOI and the deGrado compartment model. MBFs calculated using 2 or 10 s for the first frames, ToF, block-sequential regularized expectation maximization (BSREM), apical or large VOI, Hutchins or Krivokapich compartment models were compared to MBFstandard in Bland-Altman plots (bias ± SD). RESULTS: Good agreement in global rest/stress MBF (mL/min/g) was found when changing the time frame scheme or reconstruction algorithm (MBFstandard vs. MBF2s : -0.02 ± 0.06; MBF10s : 0.01 ± 0.07; MBFBSREM : 0.01 ± 0.07), while a lower level of agreement was found when altering the other factors (MBFstandard vs. MBFToF : -0.07 ± 0.10; MBFapical VOI : -0.27 ± 0.25; MBFlarge VOI : -0.11 ± 0.10; MBFHutchins : -0.08 ± 0.10; MBFKrivokapich : -0.47 ± 0.50). CONCLUSIONS: Quantification of MBF from 13 N-NH3 PET images is more affected by choice of compartment models, ToF and blood pool VOIs than by different time frame schemes and reconstruction algorithms.
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Tomografia por Emissão de Pósitrons combinada à Tomografia Computadorizada , Compostos Radiofarmacêuticos , Humanos , Tomografia por Emissão de Pósitrons combinada à Tomografia Computadorizada/métodos , Tomografia por Emissão de Pósitrons , Circulação Coronária , Algoritmos , Processamento de Imagem Assistida por Computador/métodosRESUMO
The SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 Omicron subvariant was first detected in wastewater in Sweden in week 31 2023, using 21 highly specific markers from the 50 investigated. We report BA.2.86's introduction and subsequent spread to all 14 regions performing wastewater sampling, and on 70 confirmed COVID-19 cases, along with the emergence of sublineages JN.1 and JN.2. Further, we investigated two novel mutations defining the unique BA.2.86 branching in Sweden. Our integrated approach enabled variant tracking, offering evidence for well-informed public health interventions.
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COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Humanos , SARS-CoV-2/genética , Águas Residuárias , Suécia/epidemiologia , COVID-19/epidemiologia , GenômicaRESUMO
Seasonal environmental variation is a leading driver of microbial planktonic community assembly and interactions. However, departures from usual seasonal trends are often reported. To understand the role of local stressors in modifying seasonal succession, we sampled fortnightly, throughout three seasons, five nearby shallow soda lakes exposed to identical seasonal and meteorological changes. We characterised their microeukaryotic and bacterial communities by amplicon sequencing of the 16S and 18S rRNA gene, respectively. Biological interactions were inferred by analyses of synchronous and time-shifted interaction networks, and the keystone taxa of the communities were topologically identified. The lakes showed similar succession patterns during the study period with spring being characterised by the relevance of trophic interactions and a certain level of community stability followed by a more dynamic and variable summer-autumn period. Adaptation to general seasonal changes happened through shared core microbiome of the lakes. Stochastic events such as desiccation disrupted common network attributes and introduced shifts from the prevalent seasonal trajectory. Our results demonstrated that, despite being extreme and highly variable habitats, shallow soda lakes exhibit certain similarities in the seasonality of their planktonic communities, yet local stressors such as droughts instigate deviations from prevalent trends to a greater extent for microeukaryotic than for bacterial communities.
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Aclimatação , Lagos , Estações do Ano , Clima , Secas , Plâncton/genéticaRESUMO
Idiopathic autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is highly heterogeneous, and it remains unclear how convergent biological processes in affected individuals may give rise to symptoms. Here, using cortical organoids and single-cell transcriptomics, we modeled alterations in the forebrain development between boys with idiopathic ASD and their unaffected fathers in 13 families. Transcriptomic changes suggest that ASD pathogenesis in macrocephalic and normocephalic probands involves an opposite disruption of the balance between excitatory neurons of the dorsal cortical plate and other lineages such as early-generated neurons from the putative preplate. The imbalance stemmed from divergent expression of transcription factors driving cell fate during early cortical development. While we did not find genomic variants in probands that explained the observed transcriptomic alterations, a significant overlap between altered transcripts and reported ASD risk genes affected by rare variants suggests a degree of gene convergence between rare forms of ASD and the developmental transcriptome in idiopathic ASD.
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Transtorno do Espectro Autista , Transtorno Autístico , Masculino , Humanos , Transtorno Autístico/genética , Transtorno do Espectro Autista/patologia , Neurônios/metabolismo , Neurogênese , Prosencéfalo/metabolismo , Organoides/metabolismoRESUMO
Mosaic mutations can be used to track cell ancestries and reconstruct high-resolution lineage trees during cancer progression and during development, starting from the first cell divisions of the zygote. However, this approach requires sampling and analyzing the genomes of multiple cells, which can be redundant in lineage representation, limiting the scalability of the approach. We describe a strategy for cost- and time-efficient lineage reconstruction using clonal induced pluripotent stem cell lines from human skin fibroblasts. The approach leverages shallow sequencing coverage to assess the clonality of the lines, clusters redundant lines and sums their coverage to accurately discover mutations in the corresponding lineages. Only a fraction of lines needs to be sequenced to high coverage. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach for reconstructing lineage trees during development and in hematologic malignancies. We discuss and propose an optimal experimental design for reconstructing lineage trees.
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Linhagem da Célula , Neoplasias , Software , Humanos , Células Germinativas , Mutação , Neoplasias/patologiaRESUMO
Interpersonal distance regulation is an essential element of social communication. Its impairment in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely acknowledged among practitioners, but only a handful of studies reported empirical research in real-life settings, focusing mainly on children. Interpersonal distance in adults with ASD and related autonomic functions received less attention. Here, we measured interpersonal distance along with heart rate variability (HRV) in adults with ASD, and tested the modulatory effects of eye-contact and attribution. Twenty-two adults diagnosed with ASD and 21 matched neurotypical controls participated in our study from October 2019 to February 2020. Our experimental design combined the modified version of the stop distance paradigm with HRV measurement controlling for eye contact between the experimenter and the participant to measure interpersonal distance. Still, we did not detect significant modulatory effect of eye contact and attribution. Our results showed a greater preferred distance in ASD. Moreover, we found lower baseline HRV and reduced HRV reactivity in ASD; however, these autonomic measurements could not predict preferred interpersonal distance. Our study highlights the importance of interpersonal space regulation in ASD: it might be considered that people with ASD need individually variable, presumably greater interpersonal distance. In addition, regardless of the distance they may have reduced autonomic regulatory capacity in social situations. Our results could help shape future experiments with sophisticated designs to grasp the complexity and underlying factors of distance regulation in typical and atypical populations.
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Transtorno do Espectro Autista , Adulto , Criança , Humanos , Frequência Cardíaca/fisiologia , Atenção , Comunicação , Comunicação não VerbalRESUMO
Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder thought to involve a reduction of basal ganglia (BG) interneurons and malfunctioning of the BG circuitry. However, whether interneurons fail to develop or are lost postnatally remains unknown. To investigate the pathophysiology of early development in TS, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived BG organoids from TS patients and healthy controls were compared on multiple levels of measurement and analysis. BG organoids from TS individuals manifested an impaired medial ganglionic eminence fate and a decreased differentiation of cholinergic and GABAergic interneurons. Transcriptome analyses revealed organoid mispatterning in TS, with a preference for dorsolateral at the expense of ventromedial fates. Our results point to altered expression of GLI transcription factors downstream of the Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathway with cilia disruption at the earliest stages of BG organoid differentiation as a potential mechanism for the BG mispatterning in TS. This study uncovers early neurodevelopmental underpinnings of TS neuropathological deficits using organoids as a model system.
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Síndrome de Tourette , Humanos , Síndrome de Tourette/metabolismo , Proteínas Hedgehog/metabolismo , Gânglios da Base/patologia , Interneurônios/metabolismo , Organoides/metabolismoRESUMO
This study explored the influence of suggestions on differences in electrodermal laterality of the skin conductance orienting response (SCR). Thirty-two participants were randomly assigned to either permitting or excluding suggestions. During the dream task in the permitting condition the suggestion was: "You are aware of your surroundings and any distractions that might disturb your dream," while in the excluding condition the wording was: "No outside stimulus will disturb your sleep." Participants were presented with 12 standards and 2 deviant computer-generated tones during active-alert hypnosis and musical control conditions in a mixed within-between design. High hypnotizables produced higher SCRs after permissive compared to excluding suggestions during hypnosis, while low hypnotizables did the same in the control condition. Study limitations include some loss of data due to equipment failure and relative homogeneity of sample, therefore results cannot be considered definitive.
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Hipnose , Humanos , Sugestão , Resposta Galvânica da Pele , Atenção/fisiologia , ConscientizaçãoRESUMO
Previous studies have suggested positive effects of mindfulness on inhibitory control (stopping behaviour). However, scarce previous studies suggest the relationship may depend on context. We provide first evidence that inhibitory control is challenged when perceiving attractive faces, especially when being mindful. Specifically, we investigated the relationship between mindfulness and inhibitory control and the moderating role of a social reward context (being exposed to attractive opposite sex faces). Participants (n = 50) between 18-43 years old (M = 25, SD = 5.4) filled out questionnaires assessing standard demographic variables and dispositional mindfulness. Subsequently, they performed a Go/No-go task with a neutral condition and attractive faces condition. Results showed that inhibitory control was challenged in the attractive condition relative to the neutral condition, p = 0.019. Dispositional mindfulness was negatively correlated with inhibitory performance, but only in the attractive faces condition (r = -0.32, p = 0.024). Results did not support a moderating role of gender. Finally, though post-hoc, higher mindfulness was associated with reduced perceived attractiveness of presented faces (r = -0.33, p = 0.019). However, the relationship between mindfulness and reduced inhibitory control could not be explained by mindfulness associated reduced attractiveness. Taken together, results show that mindfulness challenges inhibitory control when perceiving attractive faces. This implies that mindfulness interventions aimed at enhancing inhibitory control, may not render the desired effect in a context of being exposed to attractive faces. Though certainly plausible, it remains an open question whether results generalize to other reward contexts as well.
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Atenção Plena , Adolescente , Adulto , Animais , Humanos , Atenção Plena/métodos , Personalidade , Recompensa , Animais de Trabalho , Inquéritos e Questionários , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Understanding processes that determine community membership and abundance is important for many fields from theoretical community ecology to conservation. However, spatial community studies are often conducted only at a single timepoint despite the known influence of temporal variability on community assembly processes. Here we used a spatiotemporal study to determine how environmental fluctuation differences induced by mesocosm volumes (larger volumes were more stable) influence assembly processes of aquatic bacterial metacommunities along a press disturbance gradient. By combining path analysis and network approaches, we found mesocosm size categories had distinct relative influences of assembly process and environmental factors that determined spatiotemporal bacterial community composition, including dispersal and species sorting by conductivity. These processes depended on, but were not affected proportionately by, mesocosm size. Low fluctuation, large mesocosms primarily developed through the interplay of species sorting that became more important over time and transient priority effects as evidenced by more time-delayed associations. High fluctuation, small mesocosms had regular disruptions to species sorting and greater importance of ecological drift and dispersal limitation indicated by lower richness and higher taxa replacement. Together, these results emphasize that environmental fluctuations influence ecosystems over time and its impacts are modified by biotic properties intrinsic to ecosystem size.
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Bactérias , Ecossistema , Bactérias/genéticaRESUMO
Epidemiological and phenomenological studies suggest shared underpinnings between multiple addictive behaviors. The present genetic association study was conducted as part of the Psychological and Genetic Factors of Addictions study (n = 3003) and aimed to investigate genetic overlaps between different substance use, addictive, and other compulsive behaviors. Association analyses targeted 32 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, potentially addictive substances (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and other drugs), and potentially addictive or compulsive behaviors (internet use, gaming, social networking site use, gambling, exercise, hair-pulling, and eating). Analyses revealed 29 nominally significant associations, from which, nine survived an FDRbl correction. Four associations were observed between FOXN3 rs759364 and potentially addictive behaviors: rs759364 showed an association with the frequency of alcohol consumption and mean scores of scales assessing internet addiction, gaming disorder, and exercise addiction. Significant associations were found between GDNF rs1549250, rs2973033, CNR1 rs806380, DRD2/ANKK1 rs1800497 variants, and the "lifetime other drugs" variable. These suggested that genetic factors may contribute similarly to specific substance use and addictive behaviors. Specifically, FOXN3 rs759364 and GDNF rs1549250 and rs2973033 may constitute genetic risk factors for multiple addictive behaviors. Due to limitations (e.g., convenience sampling, lack of structured scales for substance use), further studies are needed. Functional correlates and mechanisms underlying these relationships should also be investigated.
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Previous studies have shown that dispositional mindfulness is positively associated with cognitive performance, including the ability to stop behavioral actions (formally called inhibitory control). However, some studies suggest that the relationship may be context dependent. The current study addressed previous limitations and focused on the role of reward context regarding the relationship between mindfulness and inhibitory control. Seventy-five participants (31 men, 44 women) between 18-50 years old (M = 30, SD = 9) were included in the final sample. Participants filled out a self-report measure of mindfulness and performed a stop signal task with three conditions that varied in terms of reward context. In the neutral condition, go stimuli (stimuli to which a response was required) were letters; in the food and money condition, these were pictures of food and money, respectively. Results showed that inhibitory control was reduced in the money condition relative to the neutral condition (p = 0.012). Mindfulness was positively correlated with inhibitory control, but only in the money condition (p = 0.001). However, results might differ when inhibitory control is required while perceiving a learned reward-related stimulus. The latter represents an open question for future research.