Tracking the Misallocation and Reallocation of Spatial Attention toward Auditory Stimuli.

Completely ignoring a salient distractor presented concurrently with a target is difficult, and sometimes attention is involuntarily attracted to the distractor's location (attentional capture). Employing the N2ac component as a marker of attention allocation toward sounds, in this study we investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of auditory attention across two experiments. Human participants (male and female) performed an auditory search task, where the target was accompanied by a distractor in two-third of the trials. For a distractor more salient than the target (Experiment 1), we observe not only a distractor N2ac (indicating attentional capture) but the full chain of attentional dynamics implied by the notion of attentional capture, namely, (1) the distractor captures attention before the target is attended, (2) allocation of attention to the target is delayed by distractor presence, and (3) the target is attended after the distractor. Conversely, for a distractor less salient than the target (Experiment 2), although responses were delayed, no attentional capture was observed. Together, these findings reveal two types of spatial attentional dynamics in the auditory modality (distraction with and without attentional capture).

Interplay Between Systemic Inflammation, Myocardial Injury, and Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Results From the LiiRA Study.

BACKGROUND: Coronary microvascular dysfunction as measured by myocardial flow reserve (MFR) is associated with increased cardiovascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The objective of this study was to determine the association between reducing inflammation with MFR and other measures of cardiovascular risk. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients with RA with active disease about to initiate a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor were enrolled (NCT02714881). All subjects underwent a cardiac perfusion positron emission tomography scan to quantify MFR at baseline before tumor necrosis factor inhibitor initiation, and after tumor necrosis factor inhibitor initiation at 24 weeks. MFR <2.5 in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease was defined as coronary microvascular dysfunction. Blood samples at baseline and 24 weeks were measured for inflammatory markers (eg, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hsCRP], interleukin-1b, and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T [hs-cTnT]). The primary outcome was mean MFR before and after tumor necrosis factor inhibitor initiation, with Δhs-cTnT as the secondary outcome. Secondary and exploratory analyses included the correlation between ΔhsCRP and other inflammatory markers with MFR and hs-cTnT. We studied 66 subjects, 82% of which were women, mean RA duration 7.4 years. The median atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk was 2.5%; 47% had coronary microvascular dysfunction and 23% had detectable hs-cTnT. We observed no change in mean MFR before (2.65) and after treatment (2.64, P=0.6) or hs-cTnT. A correlation was observed between a reduction in hsCRP and interleukin-1b with a reduction in hs-cTnT. CONCLUSIONS: In this RA cohort with low prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, nearly 50% of subjects had coronary microvascular dysfunction at baseline. A reduction in inflammation was not associated with improved MFR. However, a modest reduction in interleukin-1b and no other inflammatory pathways was correlated with a reduction in subclinical myocardial injury. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT02714881.

Toward Sound Localization Testing in Virtual Reality to Aid in the Screening of Auditory Processing Disorders.

Sound localization testing is key for comprehensive hearing evaluations, particularly in cases of suspected auditory processing disorders. However, sound localization is not commonly assessed in clinical practice, likely due to the complexity and size of conventional measurement systems, which require semicircular loudspeaker arrays in large and acoustically treated rooms. To address this issue, we investigated the feasibility of testing sound localization in virtual reality (VR). Previous research has shown that virtualization can lead to an increase in localization blur. To measure these effects, we conducted a study with a group of normal-hearing adults, comparing sound localization performance in different augmented reality and VR scenarios. We started with a conventional loudspeaker-based measurement setup and gradually moved to a virtual audiovisual environment, testing sound localization in each scenario using a within-participant design. The loudspeaker-based experiment yielded results comparable to those reported in the literature, and the results of the virtual localization test provided new insights into localization performance in state-of-the-art VR environments. By comparing localization performance between the loudspeaker-based and virtual conditions, we were able to estimate the increase in localization blur induced by virtualization relative to a conventional test setup. Notably, our study provides the first proxy normative cutoff values for sound localization testing in VR. As an outlook, we discuss the potential of a VR-based sound localization test as a suitable, accessible, and portable alternative to conventional setups and how it could serve as a time- and resource-saving prescreening tool to avoid unnecessarily extensive and complex laboratory testing.

Terms of debate: Consensus definitions to guide the scientific discourse on visual distraction.

Hypothesis-driven research rests on clearly articulated scientific theories. The building blocks for communicating these theories are scientific terms. Obviously, communication - and thus, scientific progress - is hampered if the meaning of these terms varies idiosyncratically across (sub)fields and even across individual researchers within the same subfield. We have formed an international group of experts representing various theoretical stances with the goal to homogenize the use of the terms that are most relevant to fundamental research on visual distraction in visual search. Our discussions revealed striking heterogeneity and we had to invest much time and effort to increase our mutual understanding of each other's use of central terms, which turned out to be strongly related to our respective theoretical positions. We present the outcomes of these discussions in a glossary and provide some context in several essays. Specifically, we explicate how central terms are used in the distraction literature and consensually sharpen their definitions in order to enable communication across theoretical standpoints. Where applicable, we also explain how the respective constructs can be measured. We believe that this novel type of adversarial collaboration can serve as a model for other fields of psychological research that strive to build a solid groundwork for theorizing and communicating by establishing a common language. For the field of visual distraction, the present paper should facilitate communication across theoretical standpoints and may serve as an introduction and reference text for newcomers.

The surprising robustness of visual search against concurrent auditory distraction.

People often complain about distraction by irrelevant sounds that reportedly hamper performance on concurrent visual tasks demanding the allocation of focused attention toward relevant stimuli, such as processing street signs during driving. To study this everyday issue experimentally, we devised a cross-modal distraction paradigm, inspired by a standard visual-distraction paradigm (additional-singleton paradigm) that is highly sensitive to measure interference on the allocation of attention. In a visual-search pop-out task, participants reported whether a salient target (a tilted bar) was present or absent, while a completely irrelevant, but salient auditory distractor accompanied some trials. To our surprise, the results revealed no notable distraction on visual-search performance (controlled for speed-accuracy tradeoffs). Reliable auditory distraction failed to occur even when the distractor was a (highly salient) auditory oddball or was additionally presented with a temporal advantage of 300 ms. However, when the auditory modality was made relevant globally while maintaining its irrelevance to the visual-search task, we finally observed the expected interference effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Impact of viable myocardium assessed by 99Tcm-MIBI SPECT and 18F-FDG PET imaging on clinical outcome of patients with left ventricular aneurysm underwent revascularization / 中华心血管病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the impact of viable myocardium assessed by (99)Tc()m-MIBI SPECT and (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET imaging in patients with left ventricular aneurysm (LVA) underwent revascularization (RVS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Forty-six consecutive patients with LVA (mean LVEF 36% +/- 7%), underwent (99)Tc(m)-sestamibi SPECT and (18)F-FDG PET examinations and received RVS therapy, were followed-up for a mean period of 80 +/- 27 months. Viable myocardium in aneurysm was defined as perfusion-metabolism mismatch score (MMS) >/= 2.0. Patients were divided into four groups by aneurysm viability and aneurysmectomy. Group A1 (n = 8): viability-; Group A2 (n = 15): viability-, aneurysmectomy; Group B1 (n = 10): viability +; and Group B2 (n = 13): viability +, aneurysmectomy.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The cardiac event rates during follow up were similar among groups [A1 (25%, 2/8), B1 (40%, 6/15), A2 (20%, 2/10) and B2 (31%, 4/13; P > 0.05)]. After revascularization, LVEF was improved (> 10%) in groups A2, B1 and B2 (P < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that LV-MMS (OR = 2.34, 95% CI 1.08 - 5.06, P < 0.05), distal vessel disease (OR = 0.008, 95% CI 0.001 - 0.560, P < 0.05) and nonaneurysm perfusion score (OR = 0.24, 95% CI 0.07 - 0.85, P < 0.05) were significantly associated with the improvement of LVEF after revascularization.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Long term cardiac events rate post revascularization was not affected by viable myocardium or aneurysmectomy in LVA patients. Viable myocardium in LVA patients was associated with better LVEF improvement after revascularization.</p>

Doxorubicin Cardiotoxicity: Response of Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction to Exercise and Incidence of Regional Wall Motion Abnormalities

No abstract available.