Increasing cognitive load attenuates the moderating effect of attentional inhibition on the relationship between posttraumatic stress symptoms and threat-related attention bias variability.

Theory and empirical evidence suggest that those with higher posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and better attentional control (i.e., the strategic control of higher-order executive attention in regulating bottom-up, stimulus driven responses to prepotent stimuli; Sarapas et al., 2017) can use that ability to disengage and shift attention away from threat stimuli and reduce threat-related attentional dysregulation (i.e., avoidance/overcontrollers). Those with relatively worse attentional control lack the requisite resources to do this, leading to prolonged attentional engagement with threat stimuli and threat-related attention dysregulation (i.e., maintenance/undercontrollers). Given that attentional control is a limited resource, strategic avoidance of threat information or reduced threat-related attention dysregulation may not be possible among those with relatively higher attentional control when cognitive load is relatively high. To test this hypothesis, the interaction between PTS symptoms, attentional control, and cognitive load was examined as a predictor of threat-related attentional bias and threat-related attention bias variability. Participants (N = 125 undergraduate students) were randomly assigned to high or low load conditions. Participants completed self-report measures of PTS symptoms, a behavioral measure of attentional control, and a novel task that assessed threat-related attentional bias via eye movements and threat-related attention bias variability via button press. The results of a series of hierarchical regressions showed that attentional control moderated the relationship between PTS symptoms and threat-related attention bias variability in the low, but not high, load condition. This moderation effect was not observed for threat-related attentional bias assessed via eye-tracking. Consistent with theory, under conditions of higher cognitive load, overcontrollers may not be able to use attentional control to consistently regulate threat-related attention. Study findings suggest that it may be important to consider contextual factors that increase cognitive load, as well as individual differences in attentional control, when developing attention bias modification interventions to reduce PTS symptomatology.

Individual differences in attentional control explain the differential expression of threat-related attentional bias among those with posttraumatic stress symptomatology and predict symptom maintenance up to one year later.

Individual differences in attentional control may explain null findings and inconsistent patterns of threat-related attentional bias (ABT) that are common in the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) literature. At Time 1 (T1), trauma-exposed community participants (N = 89) completed a clinical interview, self-report measures, and an eye-tracking task developed to assess ABT. Participants completed follow-up assessments online 6 (T2) and 12 (T3) months later. Those with higher PTSD symptoms and deficits in attentional control exhibited a pattern of undercontrol, characterized by attention maintenance on threat and increased arousal. In contrast, those with higher PTSD symptoms and relatively better attentional control exhibited a pattern of overcontrol, characterized by threat avoidance and reduced arousal. These effects were specific to threat stimuli. Among PTSD symptom clusters, symptoms of hyperarousal were of central importance to the observed effects. Results from the longitudinal analysis indicate that both of these patterns of ABT are maladaptive, resulting in symptom maintenance at T2 and T3. These results have implications for (a) reconciling tensions between disparate models of ABT (i.e., vigilance-avoidance vs. attention maintenance), (b) precision medicine based approaches to targeting PTSD-related ABT, and (c) understanding the transdiagnostic role that attentional control may play in influencing ABT expression.

Allocation of attention to scenes of peer harassment: Visual-cognitive moderators of the link between peer victimization and aggression.

As approximately one-third of peer-victimized children evidence heightened aggression (Schwartz, Proctor, & Chien, 2001), it is imperative to identify the circumstances under which victimization and aggression co-develop. The current study explored two potential moderators of victimization-aggression linkages: (a) attentional bias toward cues signaling threat and (b) attentional bais toward cues communicating interpersonal support. Seventy-two fifth- and sixth-grade children (34 boys; Mage = 11.67) were eye tracked while watching video clips of bullying. Each scene included a bully, a victim, a reinforcer, and a defender. Children's victimization was measured using peer, parent, and teacher reports. Aggression was measured using peer reports of overt and relational aggression and teacher reports of aggression. Victimization was associated with greater aggression at high levels of attention to the bully. Victimization was also associated with greater aggression at low attention to the defender for boys, but at high attention to the defender for girls. Attention to the victim was negatively correlated with aggression regardless of victimization history. Thus, attentional biases to social cues integral to the bullying context differentiate whether victimization is linked to aggression, necessitating future research on the development of these biases and concurrent trajectories of sociobehavioral development.

Visual Attention to Dynamic Scenes of Ambiguous Provocation and Children's Aggressive Behavior.

Research on biases in attention related to children's aggression has yielded mixed results. Some research suggests that inattention to social cues and reliance on maladaptive social schemas underlie aggression. Other research suggests that maladaptive social schemas lead aggressive individuals to attend to nonhostile cues. The primary objective of this study was to test the proposition that aggression is related to delayed attention to cues followed by selective attention to nonhostile cues after the provocation has occurred. A second objective was to test whether these biases are associated with aggression only when children hold negative social schemas. The eye fixations of 70 children (34 boys, 36 girls; Mage = 11.71 years) were monitored with an eye tracker as they watched video clips of child actors portraying scenes of ambiguous provocation. Aggression was measured using peer-, teacher-, and parent-reports, and children completed a measure of antisocial and prosocial peer beliefs. Aggressive behavior was associated with greater time until fixation on the provocateur among youth who held antisocial peer beliefs. Aggression was also associated with greater time until fixation on an actor displaying empathy for the victim among children reporting low levels of prosocial peer beliefs. After the provocation, aggression was associated with suppressed attention to an amused peer among children who held negative peer beliefs. Increasing attention to cues in a scene of ambiguous provocation, in conjunction with fostering more positive beliefs about peers, may be effective in reducing hostile responding among aggressive youth.

On the taxonomy of the genus Sidonis Mulsant, stat. nov. (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae: Chnoodini) with descriptions of new species from Brazil.

The subgenus Sidonis Mulsant, 1850 is elevated to generic status and two new species from Brazil are described and illustrated: Sidonis bira sp. nov. and Sidonis biguttata sp. nov. New geographic distribution records are provided. In addition, lectotypes of Sidonis consanguinea (Mulsant, 1850) and S. guttata (Sicard, 1912) are designated. Illustrations of diagnostic characters from five of six species of the genus, comments on the differences from similar species and a key to all recognized taxa are included.

Saccade latency reveals episodic representation of object color.

While previous studies suggest that identity, but not color, plays a role in episodic object representation, such studies have typically used tasks in which only identity is relevant, raising the possibility that the results reflect task demands, rather than the general principles that underlie object representation. In the present study, participants viewed a preview display containing one (Experiments 1 and 2) or two (Experiment 3) letters, then viewed a target display containing a single letter, in either the same or a different location. Participants executed an immediate saccade to fixate the target; saccade latency served as the dependent variable. In all experiments, saccade latencies were longer to fixate a target appearing in its previewed location, consistent with a bias to attend to new objects rather than to objects for which episodic representations are being maintained in visual working memory. The results of Experiment 3 further demonstrate, however, that changing target color eliminates these latency differences. The results suggest that color and identity are part of episodic representation even when not task relevant and that examining biases in saccade execution may be a useful approach to studying episodic representation.

Contextual influences on rapid object categorization in natural scenes.

The current study aimed to investigate the effects of scene context on rapid object recognition using both behavioral and electrophysiological measures. Participants performed an animal/non-animal go/no-go categorization task in which they had to decide whether or not a flashed scene contained an animal. Moreover, the influence of scene context was manipulated either by retaining, deleting, or phase-randomizing the original scene background. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that participants responded more accurately and quickly to objects appearing with their original scene backgrounds. Moreover, the event-related potential (ERP) data obtained from Experiment 2 showed that the onset latency of the frontal go/no-go ERP difference was delayed for objects appearing with phase-randomized scene backgrounds compared to objects appearing with their original scene backgrounds, providing direct evidence that scene context facilitates object recognition. Additionally, an increased frontal negativity along with a decreased late positive potential for processing objects presented in meaningless scene backgrounds suggest that the categorization task becomes more demanding when scene context is eliminated. Together, the results of the current study are consistent with previous research showing that scene context modulates object processing.

Anger as Seeing Red: Perceptual Sources of Evidence.

A class of metaphors links the experience of anger to perceptions of redness. Whether such metaphors have significant implications for understanding perception is not known. In Experiment 1, anger (versus sadness) concepts were primed and it was found that priming anger concepts led individuals to be more likely to perceive the color red. In Experiment 2, anger states were directly manipulated, and it was found that evoking anger led individuals to be more likely to perceive red. Both experiments showed that the observed effects were independent of the actual color presented. These findings extend the New Look, perceptual, metaphoric, and social cognitive literatures. Most importantly, the results suggest that emotion representation processes of a metaphoric type can be extended to the perceptual realm.

The influence of location and visual features on visual object memory.

In five experiments, we examined the influence of contextual objects' location and visual features on visual memory. Participants' visual memory was tested with a change detection task in which they had to judge whether the orientation (Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2) or color (Experiments 3A and 3B) of a target object was the same. Furthermore, contextual objects' locations and visual features were manipulated in the test image. The results showed that change detection performance was better when contextual objects' locations remained the same from study to test, demonstrating that the original spatial configuration is important for subsequent visual memory retrieval. The results further showed that changes to contextual objects' orientation, but not color, reduced orientation change detection performance; and changes to contextual objects' color, but not orientation, impaired color change detection performance. Therefore, contextual objects' visual features are capable of affecting visual memory. However, selective attention plays an influential role in modulating such effects.

Pretransplant cardiovascular evaluation and posttransplant cardiovascular risk.

Modern immunosuppression has expanded access to kidney transplantation by limiting the risk of rejection. However, cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the principal cause of death with a functioning graft, threatening the long-term survival of transplant recipients. The article reviews the leading risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity both before and after kidney transplantation. Evidence linking poor renal function to CVD is discussed. The function of immunosuppression in exacerbating the risk of both nephrotoxicity and CVD is explored through means of a clinical case study. Underlying kidney disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes are recognized risk factors for CVD both before and after kidney transplantation. Worsening kidney function and posttransplant immunosuppression exacerbate the risk. Although underlying medical conditions and demographic factors are not easily modifiable, immunosuppression has been recognized as a suitable target. Multiple risk factors converge to increase the risk of cardiovascular events and cardiovascular mortality after kidney transplantation. Clinicians are charged with isolating and treating modifiable risk factors to reduce the risk to long-term survival.

Potential of emerging immunosuppressive strategies to improve the posttransplant cardiovascular risk profile.

Currently used immunosuppressants exacerbate cardiovascular risk. However, attempts to limit the use of these agents increase the risk of allograft rejection. Immunosuppressants targeting signal 2 and signal 3 lymphocyte activation pathways are under clinical development. Clinical data from trials of the Janus family protein tyrosine kinase-3 inhibitor tasocitinib and the costimulation blocker belatacept are presented. Additional pipeline agents are described. Results from two phase III clinical trials of belatacept revealed efficacy that is not inferior to that provided by cyclosporine (CsA). In the Belatacept Evaluation of Nephroprotection and Efficacy as First-line Immunosuppression Trial enrolling recipients of standard criteria living or deceased donor organs, the risk of rejection was higher among patients treated with a more intensive treatment regimen. Increased risk of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder, particularly among Epstein-Barr virus-patients, was a notable adverse event. Data from a phase II trial of tasocitinib suggested good prophylaxis of rejection. Safety signals included increased risk of infection and potential myelosuppression, leading to anemia, neutropenia, and leukopenia. Both belatacept and tasocitinib were associated with a low cardiovascular risk profile and improved renal function compared with CsA. New immunosuppressive regimens should maintain the effectiveness provided by current agents while preserving renal function and cardiovascular health. Surveillance for new adverse events must be an integral part of the long-term management strategy.

Episodic Representation of Diagnostic and Non-Diagnostic Object Color.

In three experiments, we investigated transsaccadic object file representations. In each experiment, participants moved their eyes from a central fixation cross to a saccade target located between two peripheral objects. During the saccade, this preview display was replaced with a target display containing a single object to be named. On trials in which the target identity matched one of the preview objects, its color either matched or did not match the previewed object color. The results indicated that color changes disrupt perceptual continuity, but only for the class of objects for which color is diagnostic of object identity. When the color is not integral to identifying an object (for example, when the object is a letter or an object without a characteristic color), object continuity is preserved regardless of changes to the object's color. These results suggest that object features that are important for defining the object are incorporated into its episodic representation. Furthermore, the results are consistent with previous work showing that the quality of a feature's representation determines its importance in preserving continuity.

The Effect of Spatial and Nonspatial Contextual Information on Visual Object Memory.

Recent research has found visual object memory can be stored as part of a larger scene representation rather than independently of scene context. The present study examined how spatial and nonspatial contextual information modulate visual object memory. Two experiments tested participants' visual memory by using a change detection task in which a target object's orientation was either the same as it appeared during initial viewing or changed. In addition, we examined the effect of spatial and nonspatial contextual manipulations on change detection performance. The results revealed that visual object representations can be maintained reliably after viewing arrays of objects. Moreover, change detection performance was significantly higher when either spatial or nonspatial contextual information remained the same in the test image. We concluded that while processing complex visual stimuli such as object arrays, visual object memory can be stored as part of a comprehensive scene representation, and both spatial and nonspatial contextual changes modulate visual memory retrieval and comparison.

Attention to smoking-related and incongruous objects during scene viewing.

This study examined the influences of semantic characteristics of objects in real-world scenes on allocation of attention as reflected in eye movement measures. Stimuli consisted of full-color photographic scenes, and within each scene, the semantic salience of two target objects was manipulated while the objects' perceptual salience was kept constant. One of the target objects was either inconsistent or consistent with the scene category. In addition, the second target object was either smoking-related or neutral. Two groups of college students, namely current cigarette smokers (N=18) and non-smokers (N=19), viewed each scene for 10s while their eye movements were recorded. While both groups showed preferential allocation of attention to inconsistent objects, smokers also selectively attended to smoking-related objects. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

Object continuity and the transsaccadic representation of form.

Transsaccadic object file representations were investigated in three experiments. Subjects moved their eyes from a central fixation cross to a location between two peripheral objects. During the saccade, this preview display was replaced with a target display containing a single object to be named. On trials on which the target identity matched one of the preview objects, its orientation either matched or did not match the previewed orientation. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that orientation changes disrupt perceptual continuity for objects located near fixation, but not for objects located further from fixation. The results of Experiment 3 confirmed that orientation changes do not disrupt continuity for distant objects, while showing that subjects nevertheless maintain an object-specific representation of the orientation of such objects. Together, the results suggest that object files represent orientation but that whether or not orientation plays a role in the processes that determine continuity depends on the quality of the perceptual representation.

Tracking the Evil Eye: Trait Anger and Selective Attention within Ambiguously Hostile Scenes.

Previous research has shown that trait anger is associated with biases in attention and interpretation, but the temporal relation between these two types of biases remains unresolved. Indeed, two very different models can be derived from the literature. One model proposes that interpretation biases emerge from earlier biases in attention, whereas the other model proposes that hostile interpretations occur quickly, even prior to the allocation of attention to specific cues. Within the context of integrated visual scenes of ambiguously intended harm, the two models make opposite predictions that can be examined using an eye-tracking methodology. The present study (N = 45) therefore tracked participants' allocation of attention to hostile and non-hostile cues in ambiguous visual scenes, and found support for the idea that high anger individuals make early hostile interpretations prior to encoding hostile and non-hostiles cues. The data are important in understanding associations between trait anger and cognitive biases.

Selective attention during scene perception: evidence from negative priming.

In two experiments, we examined the role of semantic scene content in guiding attention during scene viewing. In each experiment, performance on a lexical decision task was measured following the brief presentation of a scene. The lexical decision stimulus named an object that was either present or not present in the scene. The results of Experiment 1 revealed no priming from inconsistent objects (whose identities conflicted with the scene in which they appeared), but negative priming from consistent objects. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that negative priming from consistent objects occurs only when inconsistent objects are present in the scenes. Together, the results suggest that observers are likely to attend to inconsistent objects, and that representations of consistent objects are suppressed in the presence of an inconsistent object. Furthermore, the data suggest that inconsistent objects draw attention because they are relatively difficult to identify in an inappropriate context.

The emergence of chemical genomics in drug discovery.

The interaction of small organic molecules with proteins and other macromolecules is fundamental to drug action. Chemical genomics employs a combination of chemistry, genomics and informatics to study these drug-target interactions in a systematic and global manner in order to improve the efficiency of the drug discovery process.

Daclizumab to prevent rejection after cardiac transplantation.

BACKGROUND: Daclizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against the interleukin-2 receptor, reduced the risk of rejection without increasing the risk of infection among renal-transplant recipients and, in a single-center trial, among cardiac-transplant recipients. We conducted a multicenter, placebo-controlled, double-blind study to confirm these results in cardiac-transplant patients. METHODS: We randomly assigned 434 recipients of a first cardiac transplant treated with standard immunosuppression (cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil, and corticosteroids) to receive five doses of daclizumab or placebo. The primary end point was a composite of moderate or severe cellular rejection, hemodynamically significant graft dysfunction, a second transplantation, or death or loss to follow-up within six months. RESULTS: By six months, 104 of 218 patients in the placebo group had reached the primary end point, as compared with 77 of the 216 patients in the daclizumab group (47.7 percent vs. 35.6 percent, P=0.007), a 12.1 percent absolute risk reduction and a 25 percent relative reduction. The rate of rejection was lower in the daclizumab group than in the placebo group (41.3 percent vs. 25.5 percent). Among patients reaching the primary end point, the median time to the end point was almost three times as long in the daclizumab group as in the placebo group during the first 6 months (61 vs. 21 days) and at 1 year (96 vs. 26 days). More patients in the daclizumab group than in the placebo group died of infection (6 vs. 0) when they received concomitant cytolytic therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Daclizumab was efficacious as prophylaxis against acute cellular rejection after cardiac transplantation. Because of the excess risk of death, concurrent or anticipated use of cytolytic therapy with daclizumab should be avoided.

Mycophenolate mofetil combination therapy improves long-term outcomes after liver transplantation in patients with and without hepatitis C.

To evaluate the impact of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) on long-term outcomes of tacrolimus and corticosteroids, we analyzed data reported to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients for 11,670 adult patients (3463 with hepatitis C [HCV]) who underwent primary, single-organ, liver transplantation between 1995 and 2001. Patients who were discharged from the hospital on tacrolimus-based immunosuppression with (n = 4466; n = 1323 HCV) or without MMF (n = 7204; n = 2140 HCV) were included in the analysis. Recipients treated at discharge with MMF, tacrolimus, and corticosteroids had significantly increased patient survival (81.0% vs. 77.0% at 4 years, P < 0.0001) and graft survival (76.4% vs. 72.9%, P < 0.0001), and lower rates of acute rejection (29.0% vs. 33.4%, P < 0.001) as compared to recipients treated at discharge with tacrolimus and corticosteroids alone. A trend toward lower rates of death from infection was observed (6.1% at 4 years for MMF vs. 7.1% at 4 years for tacrolimus and corticosteroids, P = 0.0508), but this result did not reach statistical significance. In multiple regression analyses, MMF triple therapy at discharge was associated with a reduced risk of death (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.77, P < 0.001), graft loss (HR = 0.81, P < 0.001), acute rejection (HR = 0.89, P = 0.002), and death from infectious complications (HR = 0.80, P = 0.007). Outcomes were similar for the cohort with HCV.In conclusion, the addition of MMF at discharge to tacrolimus-based immunosuppression is associated with improved long-term outcomes after liver transplantation in patients with and without HCV.