Recurrent uterine serous carcinoma with a germline pathogenic BRCA2 variant treated using olaparib: A case report.

A germline pathogenic variant in BRCA2 was secondarily found through genomic sequencing of uterine serous carcinoma. Clinical response to olaparib was observed in recurrent uterine serous carcinoma with a germline BRCA2 mutation. Here, we report, for the first time, a long-term clinical response to olaparib in a patient with uterine serous carcinoma and a germline pathogenic BRCA2 variant.

Task-dependent recurrent dynamics in visual cortex.

The capacity for flexible sensory-action association in animals has been related to context-dependent attractor dynamics outside the sensory cortices. Here, we report a line of evidence that flexibly modulated attractor dynamics during task switching are already present in the higher visual cortex in macaque monkeys. With a nonlinear decoding approach, we can extract the particular aspect of the neural population response that reflects the task-induced emergence of bistable attractor dynamics in a neural population, which could be obscured by standard unsupervised dimensionality reductions such as PCA. The dynamical modulation selectively increases the information relevant to task demands, indicating that such modulation is beneficial for perceptual decisions. A computational model that features nonlinear recurrent interaction among neurons with a task-dependent background input replicates the key properties observed in the experimental data. These results suggest that the context-dependent attractor dynamics involving the sensory cortex can underlie flexible perceptual abilities.

Population Code Dynamics in Categorical Perception.

Categorical perception is a ubiquitous function in sensory information processing, and is reported to have important influences on the recognition of presented and/or memorized stimuli. However, such complex interactions among categorical perception and other aspects of sensory processing have not been explained well in a unified manner. Here, we propose a recurrent neural network model to process categorical information of stimuli, which approximately realizes a hierarchical Bayesian estimation on stimuli. The model accounts for a wide variety of neurophysiological and cognitive phenomena in a consistent framework. In particular, the reported complexity of categorical effects, including (i) task-dependent modulation of neural response, (ii) clustering of neural population representation, (iii) temporal evolution of perceptual color memory, and (iv) a non-uniform discrimination threshold, are explained as different aspects of a single model. Moreover, we directly examine key model behaviors in the monkey visual cortex by analyzing neural population dynamics during categorization and discrimination of color stimuli. We find that the categorical task causes temporally-evolving biases in the neuronal population representations toward the focal colors, which supports the proposed model. These results suggest that categorical perception can be achieved by recurrent neural dynamics that approximates optimal probabilistic inference in the changing environment.

Effects of androgens on the development of nuptial coloration and chromatophores in the bitterling Rhodeus ocellatus ocellatus.

Sexually mature male bitterlings, Rhodeus ocellatus ocellatus, exhibit distinct nuptial color, whereas females maintain a body color similar to that of juveniles. In the present study, body color and chromatophores were compared between male and female bitterlings, and the effects of androgens on body color and chromatophore densities were examined in females to clarify the role of androgen in the development of nuptial coloration and chromatophores. Males showed green, blue, and red color in specific regions of their skin and red color on the dorsal and caudal fins; females showed a subdued silver body color. For chromatophores, small greenish-type iridophores were observed in the green color region in the skin of males, whereas females had large spindle-shaped silvery-type iridophores in corresponding regions. Many erythrophores were observed in males in blue and red color regions in the skin and red color regions in the fins, but females possessed xanthophores in corresponding regions. The melanophore density of the skin was not different between males and females, but the distribution of melanophores in the fins was different between them. Treatment with 11-ketotestosterone or methyltestosterone induced male-type nuptial coloration in the female skin and fins. The distribution of chromatophores in androgen-treated females was similar to that in sexually mature males: an increase in the number of greenish-type iridophores and erythrophores was also observed in the skin. These results indicate that androgen induces male-type nuptial coloration in the bitterling and that the responses of chromatophores to androgen differ with the type and distribution site of the chromatophores.