Disrupted Topological Organization of Brain Network in Rats with Spatial Memory Impairments Induced by Acute Microwave Radiation.

Previous studies have suggested that microwave (MW) radiation with certain parameters can induce spatial memory deficits. However, the effect of MW on the topological organization of the brain network is still unknown. This work aimed to investigate the topological organization of the brain network in rats with spatial memory impairments induced by acute microwave (MW) radiation. The Morris water maze (MWM) test and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging were performed to estimate the spatial memory ability and brain network topological organization of the rats after MW exposure. Compared with the sham group, the rats exposed to 30 mW/cm2 1.5 GHz MW radiation exhibited a significantly decreased normalized clustering coefficient (γ) (p = 0.002) 1 d after the exposure and a prolonged average escape latency (AEL) (p = 0.014) 3 d after the exposure. Moreover, after 10 mW/cm2 1.5 GHz MW radiation, a significantly decreased γ (p = 0.003) was also observed in the rats, without any changes in AEL. In contrast, no adverse effects on AEL or topological parameters were observed after 9.375 GHz MW radiation. In conclusion, the rats with spatial memory deficits induced by MW radiation exhibited disruptions in the topological organization of the brain network. Moreover, these topological organization disruptions emerged earlier than behavioral symptom onset and could even be found in the rats without a decline in the performance of the spatial memory task. Therefore, it is possible to use the topological parameters of the brain network as early and sensitive indicators of the spatial memory impairments induced by acute MW radiation.

The Neural Mechanisms of the Effect of Spontaneous Insight on Re-Solution: An ERP Study.

The insight memory advantage refers to the situation in which memory performance could be improved by solving a problem with an Aha experience. In re-solution tests and recognition tests, studies demonstrate an insight memory advantage by spontaneous insight or induced insight. For the re-solution test, the neural mechanisms of the effect of induced insight were studied by the fMRI technique. However, the neural mechanisms of the effect of insight on re-solution in the temporal dimension were not known. The neural mechanisms of the effect of spontaneous insight on re-solution were not known. In the present study, we use the compound remote-associated (CRA) task to reveal the neural mechanisms of the effect of spontaneous insight on re-solution by the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique. The 25 participants were asked to solve a series of Chinese verbal CRA tasks and then perform a re-solution test 1 day later. Our results indicated that the solution with the Aha experience evoked a larger N400 in the early solution phase and a more negative wave in the late solution phase than the solution with no Aha experience. In the re-solution phase, items with an Aha during the solution phase were re-solved better with higher Aha rates than items with no Aha. In the re-solution phase, compared with items with no Aha, items with an Aha during the solution phase evoked a larger positive ERP in the 250 to 350 ms time window in the early phase, and a more negative deflection before the response (-900 to -800 ms) in the later phase. In one word, spontaneous insight during the solution phase could promote re-solution and elicit ERP deflection in the re-solution phase.

The Effect of Infectious Disease Threat on Malevolent Creativity.

The behavioral immune system (BIS), which evolved to protect humans from infectious disease threats, prompts people to be sensitive to disease-connoting cues. A common denominator of many disease-connoting cues is benign physical abnormalities, such as birthmarks and obesity. Previous studies found that among people whose BIS was activated (e.g., people who were exposed to situational disease prime or chronically concerned about disease threat), disease-connoting cues could make people feel threatened by infectious disease and induce their malevolence. Malevolence is a necessary feature of malevolent creativity (MC), which is defined as creativity that deliberately leads to harmful or immoral results. According to the motivated focus account of creativity, a threat could promote creativity when creativity is relevant to the threat. Thus, infectious disease threats might increase malevolent creativity. However, whether infectious disease threats could influence MC is unknown. Therefore, the current study aims to explore the effect of infectious disease threat on MC by two disease-connoting cues (birthmark, obesity). In Study 1 (n = 174), a 2 (threat prime: infectious disease, natural disaster) × 2 (disease-connoting cue: birthmarked face, normal face) between-subjects design was used. Participants were asked to complete a malevolent creativity task (MCT). In Study 2 (n = 131), we used a perceived vulnerability to disease scale (PVD) to assess people's dispositional tendencies of concerns about disease and selected high as well as low PVD participants. A 2 (PVD: high, low) × 2 (disease-connoting cue: obese, average-weight) between-subjects design was used. Participants were asked to complete the negotiation task to assess their MC. The results of Study 1 showed that, compared with participants in the normal face condition, participants in the birthmarked face condition showed higher MC fluency and total MC when they were exposed to situational disease prime. Compared with the natural disaster prime group, the infectious disease prime group showed higher MC fluency and total MC when they were provoked by a birthmark person. The results of Study 2 showed that, compared with the average-weight condition, the obese condition led to higher MC fluency and originality among high PVD participants. Compared with low PVD participants, high PVD participants showed higher MC fluency and originality when they negotiated with an obese person. Our studies suggest that among people whose BIS is situationally or chronically activated, birthmarks and obesity could increase MC, and people's malevolent creativity might be induced by disease-connoting cues during the pandemic.

The mnemonic effects of insight on false memory in the DRM paradigm.

Insight accompanied by an 'aha!' experience has a mnemonic effect. Previous studies of insight have often focused on the mnemonic effect of insight on veridical memories, while the effect of insight on false memories is not known. More understanding of the mnemonic effect of insight on false memories could have implications for the mechanism of insightful mnemonic effects. The present research examined whether insight has a mnemonic effect on false memories. Participants were asked to perform Chinese verbal compound remote associate (CRA) tasks and then complete the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task, the critical lure of which was also the solution to the Chinese CRA problem. Compared to non-insight, insight was associated with a lower critical lures rate in Experiment 1 and with lower critical lures and unrelated words rates in Experiment 2 when the presentation of DRM list words was random. Giving a warning before DRM tasks could reduce the critical lures rate of non-insight but had little effect on insightful solutions in Experiment 3. These findings indicate that insight can reduce false memories.

Conceptual Knowledge Influences Decision Making Differently in Individuals with High or Low Cognitive Flexibility: An ERP Study.

OBJECTIVE: Studies using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) have distinguished between good and bad decision makers and have provided an explanation for deficits in decision making. Previous studies have demonstrated a link between Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) performance and IGT performance, but the results were not consistent and failed to explain why WCST performance can predict IGT performance. The present study aimed to demonstrate that WCST performance can predict IGT performance and to identify the cognitive component of the WCST that affects IGT performance using event-related potentials (ERPs). METHODS: In this study, 39 healthy subjects (5 subjects were excluded) were divided into a high group and a low group based on their global score on the WCST. A single-choice version of the IGT was used to eliminate the impact of retrieval strategies on the choice evaluation process and interference due to uncorrelated decks. Differences in the underlying neural mechanisms and explicit knowledge between the two groups during the three stages of the decision-making process were described. RESULTS: Based on the information processing perspective, we divided the decision-making process into three stages: choice evaluation, response selection, and feedback processing. The behavioral results showed that the highly cognitively flexible participants performed better on the IGT and acquired more knowledge of the task. The ERP results showed that during the choice evaluation stage, the P300 recorded from central and parietal regions when a bad deck appeared was larger in the high group participants than in the low group participants. During the response selection stage, the effect of choice type was significant only in the frontal region in the high group, with a larger effect for passing. During the feedback evaluation stage, a larger FRN was evoked for a loss than for a win in the high group, whereas the FRN effect was absent in the low group. CONCLUSION: Compared with the participants with low cognitive flexibility, the participants with high cognitive flexibility performed better on the IGT, acquired more knowledge of the task, and displayed more obvious somatic markers. The low group participants showed reduced working memory abilities during the choice evaluation stage. The appropriate somatic markers reflected by the DPN is formed only when conceptual knowledge is gained in the response selection stage. The absence of an FRN effect in the subjects who performed poorly on the WCST suggests a significant deficit in feedback learning and reward prediction.

Preventing the spread of H1N1 influenza infection during a pandemic: autonomy-supportive advice versus controlling instruction.

Wearing facemask is an effective strategy for preventing the spread of the H1N1 in enclosed public spaces. This quasi-experiment examined the effects of University professor 'autonomy support on students' motivation, social cognitive factors, and intention to wear facemasks in the lecture hall during a hypothetical H1N1 pandemic. University students (N = 705) completed self-report measures of motivation, social cognitive factors, and intention according to a hypothetical H1N1 pandemic scenario in which their professors asked them to wear facemasks in the lecture hall, using either an 'autonomy-supportive' interpersonal style or a 'controlling' style. The results showed that the manipulation of professors' autonomy support exerted a positive effect on students' perception of autonomy support, which positively predicted their self-determined motivation, social cognitive factors, and intentions to wear facemasks. In conclusion, promoting self-determined motivation using autonomy-supportive communication styles might be an effective means of fostering individuals' adaptive beliefs and motivation of H1N1 prevention.

A rabbit model of spontaneous thrombosis induced by lipopolysaccharide.

AIM: Inflammation plays a critical role in the development of atherosclerotic plaque, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a potentially important source of inflammation. The aim of this study was to develop a rabbit model of spontaneous thrombosis mimicking the pathophysiological and morphological characteristics of atherosclerotic plaque in humans. METHODS: The rabbits were randomized into four groups: group A (n=10) received a normal diet; group B (n=10) received a regular diet and weekly LPS injections (1 µg/kg, Escherichia coli); group C (n=15) received a cholesterol-enriched diet before and after sustaining a balloon injury to the right common carotid artery; and group D (n=15) was treated the same as group C in addition to receiving LPS injections. The morphological characteristics of the resulting lesions were evaluated using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and histology. RESULTS: No significant atherosclerotic plaque was observed in groups A or B. Group D exhibited a higher incidence of spontaneous luminal thrombi than group C or B (60% vs. 20% vs. 10%, p<0.05). All of the thrombi detected with OCT were confirmed on histology. A good correlation between the fibrous cap thickness and thrombus arc was obtained on OCT and the histological evaluations. CONCLUSIONS: A rabbit model of LPS-induced spontaneous thrombosis was developed in which OCT was used to follow changes in plaque morphology.

Identification of an amphioxus intelectin homolog that preferably agglutinates gram-positive over gram-negative bacteria likely due to different binding capacity to LPS and PGN.

Intelectin is a recently described galactofuranose-binding lectin that plays a role in innate immunity in vertebrates. Little is known about intelectin in invertebrates, including amphioxus, the transitional form between vertebrates and invertebrates. We cloned an amphioxus intelectin homolog, AmphiITLN-like, coding 302 amino acids with a conserved fibrinogen-related domain (FReD) in the N-terminus and an Intelectin domain in the C-terminus. In situ hybridization in adult amphioxus showed that AmphiITLN-like transcripts were highly expressed in the digestive tract and the skin. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that AmphiITLN-like is significantly up-regulated in response to Staphylococcus aureus challenge, but only modestly to Escherichia coli. In addition, recombinant AmphiITLN-like expressed in E. coli agglutinates Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria to different degrees in a calcium dependent manner. Recombinant AmphiITLN-like could bind lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and peptidoglycan (PGN), the major cell wall components of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively, with a higher affinity to PGN. Our work identified and characterized for the first time an amphioxus intelectin homolog, and provided insight into the evolution and function of the intelectin family.

Dynamic evolution of CIKS (TRAF3IP2/Act1) in metazoans.

CIKS (TRAF3IP2/Act1) is important for inflammatory responses and autoimmunity control through its dual functions in CD40L/BAFF and IL17 signaling in mammalians. In this study, we performed comparative and evolutionary analyses of CIKSs from metazoans. Although nematode (Caenorabditis elegans) and sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) have IL17 and IL17 receptors, we found no CIKS in their genomes. The ancient CIKS-like (CIKSL) genes from the invertebrates lottia (Lottia gigantea) and amphioxus (Branchiostoma floridae) have an additional DEATH domain compared with other CIKSLs/CIKSs. Our data suggest that the ancient CIKSL evolved into early chordate CIKS possibly through gene tandem duplication and gene fission. Based on phylogenetic and synteny analyses, vertebrate CIKS genes are divided into two groups, one of which is orthologous to human CIKS and the other is paralogous. Expression analysis indicated that cephalochordata amphioxus IL17 together with CIKS might play an ancient and conserved role in host defense against bacterial infections. During the evolutionary process, the CIKS genes have obtained more and more functions through cooperation with other genes.

Neural correlates of belief-laden reasoning during premise processing: an event-related potential study.

In this study, electrophysiological correlates of belief-laden reasoning were investigated. As subjects, trained participants were required to draw a logical conclusion after being exposed to 4 conditional arguments: the inhibitory content of modus tollens (ICMT), facilitatory content of modus tollens (FCMT), inhibitory content of denial of the antecedent (ICDA) and facilitatory content of denial of the antecedent (FCDA). Event-related potentials were employed to record the processing of minor premises. The results show that in comparison with FCMT, a greater negativity in the ICMT developed during both the 400- to 600- and the 800- to 1,600-ms time windows. A greater anterior cingulate cortex activity observed in the 800- to 1,600-ms time window in ICMT could reflect a detection of the conflict between empirical beliefs and logical rules. However, the components elicited by ICDA and FCDA were not significantly different. The results indicate that logical training influenced MT and DA forms of belief-laden reasoning in different ways and different strategies were likely adopted in the inference processes.

Prolonged survival of human hepatocarcinoma cells in the liver of newborn C57BL/6 mice and resulting cellular xenorejection, especially the activation of hepatic natural killer T cells.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the fate of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the livers of newborn mice and the resulting cellular rejection. METHODS: Two HCC cell lines (HepG2 and HCCLM3) labeled with DMAHAS were orthotopically transplanted to newborn and adult mice with or without low-dose cyclosporin A (CsA) treatment (10 mg/kg). The fate of tumor xenografts was examined and the resulting cellular response was investigated. RESULTS: Tumor xenografts survived in newborn mice for > 4 weeks, with a delayed lymphocyte infiltration mediated by CD4+ T, CD8+ T and NK1.1+ cells. In contrast, the xenografts survived in adults < 8-10 days with an acute cellular rejection by CD8+T cells, NK1.1+ cells, macrophages or neutrophils. Orthotopic transplantation of human HCC xenografts elicited a strong cytotoxic response in newborn mice (p < 0.05), and selective T/NK1.1+ cell deletion in vitro suggested that such effector cells were mainly CD8+ T cells. Moreover, tumor xenografts induced a rapid activation of hepatic natural killer T (NKT) cells in both newborn and adult mice with enhanced secretion of IL-4 and IFN-gamma in serum and subsequent NKT-like cytotoxicity. The rapid activation of NKT cells could be efficiently suppressed by low-dose CsA treatment, possibly in a CD1d-independent manner. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the livers of newborn mice were more suitable for the survival of xenografts than those of adult mice. Cell-mediated tumor xenorejection in newborn mice was different from that in adults, and hepatic NKT cells may play an important role in early tumor xenorejection.

Eleven years of experience reveals that fine-needle aspiration cytology is still a useful method for preoperative diagnosis of breast carcinoma.

Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has been used extensively for the diagnosis of breast lesions over the past 15 years. More recently, large gauge needle biopsy such as core biopsy has been used and the clinical value of FNAC has therefore been questioned. To answer this clinical question, we performed an 11-year study in which 1238 aspirates from patients with a breast lump were involved. In total, 1071 breast carcinomas were diagnosed with postoperative histological diagnosis. One thousand and forty-six of these 1071 breast carcinomas were definitely diagnosed by FNAC. Only one breast carcinoma identified by FNAC was not finally verified by histological diagnosis postoperatively. The diagnostic sensitivity, diagnostic specificity, overall accuracy, and the pseudo-negative and pseudo-positive results of FNAC for diagnosing breast carcinoma are 97.72%, 99.4%, 97.94%, 2.28%, and 0.6%, respectively. The method is rapid, accurate, and essentially complication-free, particularly in patients for neoadjuvant chemotherapy or endocrine therapy. The results suggest that FNAC is still a useful and reliable method for the preoperative diagnosis of breast carcinoma.