Data-Independent Acquisition and Label-Free Quantification for Quantitative Proteomics Analysis of Human Cerebrospinal Fluid.

This article presents a practical guide to mass spectrometry-based data-independent acquisition and label-free quantification for proteomics analysis applied to cerebrospinal fluid, offering a robust and scalable approach to probing the proteomic composition of the central nervous system. © 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Cerebrospinal fluid sample collection and preparation for mass spectrometry analysis Basic Protocol 2: Mass spectrometry sample analysis with data-independent acquisition Support Protocol: Data-dependent mass spectrometry and spectral library construction Basic Protocol 3: Analysis of mass spectrometry data.

Risk of Alzheimer's disease is associated with longitudinal changes in plasma biomarkers in the multi-ethnic Washington Heights-Hamilton Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP) cohort.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers can help differentiate cognitively unimpaired (CU) individuals from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. The role of AD biomarkers in predicting cognitive impairment and AD needs examination. METHODS: In 628 CU individuals from a multi-ethnic cohort, amyloid beta (Aß)42, Aß40, phosphorylated tau-181 (p-tau181), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and neurofilament light chain (NfL) were measured in plasma. RESULTS: Higher baseline levels of p-tau181/Aß42 ratio were associated with an increased risk of incident dementia. A biomarker pattern (with elevated Aß42/Aß40 but low p-tau181/Aß42) was associated with decreased dementia risk. Compared to CU, participants who developed MCI or dementia had a rapid decrease in this protective biomarker pattern reflecting AD-specific pathological change. DISCUSSION: Elevated levels of AD biomarker p-tau181/Aß42, by itself or combined with a low Aß42/Aß40 level, predicts clinically diagnosed AD. Individuals with a rapid change in these biomarkers may need close monitoring for the potential downward trajectory of cognition. HIGHLIGHTS: We discuss a multi-ethnic, urban community study of elderly individuals. The study consisted of a longitudinal assessment over 6 years with repeated clinical assessments. The study used blood-based biomarkers as predictors of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

Neurofilament light chain: A potential biomarker for cerebrovascular disease in children with sickle cell anaemia.

Cerebrovascular injury frequently occurs in children with sickle cell anaemia (SCA). Limited access to magnetic resonance imaging and angiography (MRI-MRA) in sub-Saharan Africa impedes detection of clinically unapparent cerebrovascular injury. Blood-based brain biomarkers of cerebral infarcts have been identified in non-SCA adults. Using plasma samples from a well-characterized cross-sectional sample of Ugandan children with SCA, we explored relationships between biomarker levels and MRI-detected cerebral infarcts and transcranial Doppler (TCD) arterial velocity. Testing was performed using a 4-plex panel of brain injury biomarkers, including neurofilament light chain (NfL), a central nervous system neuron-specific protein. Mean biomarker levels from the SCA group (n = 81) were similar to those from non-SCA sibling controls (n = 54). Within the SCA group, NfL levels were significantly higher in those with MRI-detected infarcts compared to no infarcts, and higher with elevated TCD velocity versus normal velocity. Elevated NfL remained strongly associated with MRI-detected infarcts after adjusting for sex and age. All non-SCA controls and SCA participants lacking MRI-detected infarcts had low NfL levels. These data suggest potential utility of plasma-based NfL levels to identify children with SCA cerebrovascular injury. Replication and prospective studies are needed to confirm these novel findings and the clinical utility of NfL versus MRI imaging.

Risk of Alzheimer's Disease is Associated with Longitudinal Changes in Plasma Biomarkers in the Multiethnic Washington Heights, Inwood Columbia Aging Project Cohort.

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers can help differentiate cognitively unimpaired (CU) individuals from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. The role of AD biomarkers in predicting cognitive impairment and AD needs examination. METHODS: In 628 CU individuals from a multi-ethnic cohort, Aß42, Aß40, phosphorylated tau-181 (P-tau181), glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP), and neurofilament light chain (NfL) were measured in plasma. RESULTS: Higher baseline levels of P-tau181/Aß42 ratio were associated with increased risk of incident dementia. A biomarker pattern (with elevated Aß42/Aß40 but low P-tau181/Aß42) was associated with decreased dementia risk. Compared to CU, participants who developed MCI or dementia had a rapid decrease in the biomarker pattern reflecting AD-specific pathological change. DISCUSSION: Elevated levels of AD biomarker P-tau181/Aß42, by itself or combined with a low Aß42/Aß40 level, predicts clinically diagnosed AD. Individuals with a rapid change in these biomarkers may need close monitoring for the potential downward trajectory of cognition.

Evaluation of Plasma Biomarkers for A/T/N Classification of Alzheimer Disease Among Adults of Caribbean Hispanic Ethnicity.

Importance: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma biomarkers can detect biological evidence of Alzheimer disease (AD), but their use in low-resource environments and among minority ethnic groups is limited. Objective: To assess validated plasma biomarkers for AD among adults of Caribbean Hispanic ethnicity. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this decision analytical modeling study, adults were recruited between January 1, 2018, and April 30, 2022, and underwent detailed clinical assessments and venipuncture. A subsample of participants also consented to lumbar puncture. Established CSF cut points were used to define AD biomarker-positive status, allowing determination of optimal cut points for plasma biomarkers in the same individuals. The performance of a panel of 6 plasma biomarkers was then assessed with respect to the entire group. Data analysis was performed in January 2023. Main Outcomes and Measures: Main outcomes were the association of plasma biomarkers amyloid-ß 1-42 (Aß42), amyloid-ß 1-40 (Aß40), total tau (T-tau), phosphorylated tau181 (P-tau181), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and neurofilament light chain (NfL) with AD diagnosis. These biomarkers allow assessment of amyloid (A), neurofibrillary degeneration (T), and neurodegeneration (N) aspects of AD. Statistical analyses performed included receiver operating characteristics, Pearson and Spearman correlations, t tests, and Wilcoxon rank-sum, chi-square, and Fisher exact tests. Exposures: Exposures included age, sex, education, country of residence, apolipoprotein-ε4 (APOE-ε4) allele number, serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and body mass index. Results: This study included 746 adults. Participants had a mean (SD) age of 71.0 (7.8) years, 480 (64.3%) were women, and 154 (20.6%) met clinical criteria for AD. Associations were observed between CSF and plasma P-tau181 (r = .47 [95% CI, 0.32-0.60]), NfL (r = 0.57 [95% CI, 0.44-0.68]), and P-tau181/Aß42 (r = 0.44 [95% CI, 0.29-0.58]). For AD defined by CSF biomarkers, plasma P-tau181 and P-tau181/Aß42 provided biological evidence of AD. Among individuals judged to be clinically healthy without dementia, biomarker-positive status was determined by plasma P-tau181 for 133 (22.7%) and by plasma P-tau181/Aß42 for 104 (17.7%). Among individuals with clinically diagnosed AD, 69 (45.4%) had plasma P-tau181 levels and 89 (58.9%) had P-tau181/Aß42 levels that were inconsistent with AD. Individuals with biomarker-negative clinical AD status tended to have lower levels of education, were less likely to carry APOE-ε4 alleles, and had lower levels of GFAP and NfL than individuals with biomarker-positive clinical AD. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cross-sectional study, plasma P-tau181 and P-tau181/Aß42 measurements correctly classified Caribbean Hispanic individuals with and without AD. However, plasma biomarkers identified individuals without dementia with biological evidence of AD, and a portion of those with dementia whose AD biomarker profile was negative. These results suggest that plasma biomarkers can augment detection of preclinical AD among asymptomatic individuals and improve the specificity of AD diagnosis.

Frontal-to-visual information flow explains predictive motion tracking.

Predictive tracking demonstrates our ability to maintain a line of vision on moving objects even when they temporarily disappear. Models of smooth pursuit eye movements posit that our brain achieves this ability by directly streamlining motor programming from continuously updated sensory motion information. To test this hypothesis, we obtained sensory motion representation from multivariate electroencephalogram activity while human participants covertly tracked a temporarily occluded moving stimulus with their eyes remaining stationary at the fixation point. The sensory motion representation of the occluded target evolves to its maximum strength at the expected timing of reappearance, suggesting a timely modulation of the internal model of the visual target. We further characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics of the task-relevant motion information by computing the phase gradients of slow oscillations. We discovered a predominant posterior-to-anterior phase gradient immediately after stimulus occlusion; however, at the expected timing of reappearance, the axis reverses the gradient, becoming anterior-to-posterior. The behavioral bias of smooth pursuit eye movements, which is a signature of the predictive process of the pursuit, was correlated with the posterior division of the gradient. These results suggest that the sensory motion area modulated by the prediction signal is involved in updating motor programming.

Volumetric Variability of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Reflects the Propensity for Engaging in High-Stakes Gambling Behavior.

The human ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has been traditionally associated with decision-making under risk. Neuroimaging studies of such decision-making processes have largely focused on patients with vmPFC lesions or pathological gambling behavior, leading to a relative paucity of work focusing on the structural variability of the vmPFC in healthy individuals. To address this, we developed a decision-making task that allowed healthy players to choose to participate in either low stakes or high-stakes gambling on a trial-by-trial basis, and computed a metric that indexes the propensity for engaging in gambles with greater potential payoffs. We leveraged voxel-based morphometric analyses to examine the association between prefrontal gray matter volume and individual differences in the propensity for seeking high-risk/high-reward situations. Our analyses showed that vmPFC gray matter volume was inversely correlated with an increased tendency for engaging in high-stakes gambling. These results converge with findings from functional neuroimaging and brain lesion studies of vmPFC, and further extend them to show that normative variability in brain structure could also underpin risk-taking behavior.

Blood-Based Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease in Older Adults with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with cognitive decline and risk for dementia, but the neuropathology involved is unclear. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether PTSD is associated with increased levels of Alzheimer's disease (AD) blood-based biomarkers. Methods: Individuals aged 50 years and older with PTSD were compared to trauma-exposed healthy controls (TEHCs) at baseline on serum measures of amyloid-ß (Aß) 42 and 40 levels, the Aß 42/Aß 40 ratio, and total tau. Serum was analyzed using ultrasensitive Simoa Human Neurology 3-Plex A assay (N3PA). Linear regressions modeling each AD biomarker as a function of group were used to investigate between-group differences, controlling for age, sex, and educational attainment (years). Results: TEHC participants (N = 26) were 53.8% male with mean age 66.8±10.7, whereas PTSD participants (N = 44) were 47.7% male and aged 62.5±9.1 years. No between-group differences were noted on demographic characteristics or cognitive performance measured with the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. There were no significant between-group differences in serum Aß 40 (TEHC 105.8±51.6 versus PTSD 93.2±56.1, p = 0.46), Aß 42 (TEHC 8.1±4.6 versus PTSD 7.8±4.6, p = 0.63), Aß 42/Aß 40 (TEHC 0.08±0.03 versus PTSD 0.09±0.03, p = 0.27), or total tau (TEHC 0.5±0.3 versus PTSD 0.5±0.4, p = 0.77). Likewise, there were no significant interaction effects of amyloid or tau serum concentrations and PTSD group status on cognitive functioning. Conclusion: Findings from cognitive assessments and serum analyses do not support PTSD-induced neurodegeneration of the Alzheimer's type as a pathway linking PTSD to increased incidence of dementia in older adults.

Correlation of plasma and neuroimaging biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease.

Blood-based phosphorylated tau (Ptau) 181 and 217 biomarkers are sensitive and specific for Alzheimer's disease. In this racial/ethnically diverse cohort study, participants were classified as biomarker positive (Ptau+) or negative (Ptau-) based on Ptau 181 and 217 concentrations and as cognitively impaired (Sym) or unimpaired (Asym). The four groups, Ptau-/Asym, Ptau+/Asym, Ptau-/Sym, and Ptau+/Sym, differed by age, APOE-4 allele frequency, total tau, neurofilament light chain, and cortical thickness measured by MRI. Our results add to increasing evidence that plasma Ptau 181 and 217 concentrations are valid Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in diverse populations.

Does periosteum promote chondrogenesis? A comparison of free periosteal and perichondrial grafts in the regeneration of ear cartilage.

BACKGROUND: Elastic ear cartilage is a good source of tissue for support or augmentation in plastic and reconstructive surgery. However, the amount of ear cartilage is limited and excessive use of cartilage can cause deformation of the auricular framework. This animal study investigated the potential of periosteal chondrogenesis in an ear cartilage defect model. METHODS: Twelve New Zealand white rabbits were used in the present study. Four ear cartilage defects were created in both ears of each rabbit, between the central artery and marginal veins. The defects were covered with perichondrium (group 1), periosteum taken from the calvarium (group 2), or periosteum taken from the tibia (group 3). No coverage was performed in a control group (group 4). All animals were sacrificed 6 weeks later, and the ratio of neo-cartilage to defect size was measured. RESULTS: Significant chondrogenesis occurred only in group 1 (cartilage regeneration ratio: mean± standard deviation, 0.97± 0.60), whereas the cartilage regeneration ratio was substantially lower in group 2 (0.10± 0.11), group 3 (0.08± 0.09), and group 4 (0.08± 0.14) (p= 0.004). Instead of chondrogenesis, osteogenesis was observed in the periosteal graft groups. No statistically significant differences were found in the amount of osteogenesis or chondrogenesis between groups 2 and 3. Group 4 showed fibrous tissue accumulation in the defect area. CONCLUSION: Periosteal grafts showed weak chondrogenic potential in an ear cartilage defect model of rabbits; instead, they exhibited osteogenesis, irrespective of their embryological origin.

Neural representations of ensemble coding in the occipital and parietal cortices.

The human visual system is able to extract summary statistics from sets of similar items, but the underlying neural mechanism remains poorly understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and an encoding model, we examined how the neural representation of ensemble coding is constructed by manipulating the task-relevance of ensemble features. We found a gradual increase in orientation-selective responses to the mean orientation of multiple stimuli along the visual hierarchy only when these orientations were task-relevant. Such responses to the ensemble orientation were present in the extrastriate area, V3, even when the mean orientation was not task-relevant, indicating that the ensemble representation can co-exist with the task-relevant individual feature representation. Ensemble orientations were also represented in frontal regions, but those representations were robust only when each mean orientation was linked to a motor response dimension. Together, our findings suggest that the neural representation of the ensemble percept is formed by pooling signals at multiple levels of the visual processing stream.

Simultaneous estimation procedure reveals the object-based, but not space-based, dependence of visual working memory representations.

Visual working memory (VWM) allows us to actively represent a limited amount of visual information in mind. Although its severe capacity limit is widely accepted, researchers disagree on the nature of its representational unit. Object-based theories argue that VWM organizes feature representations into integrated representations, whereas feature-based theories argue that VWM represents visual features independently. Supporting a feature-based account of VWM, recent studies have demonstrated that features comprising an object can be forgotten independently. Although evidence of feature-based forgetting invalidates a pure object-based account of VWM that assumes perfect integration of feature representations, it is possible that feature representations may be organized in a dependent manner on the basis of objects when they exist in memory. Furthermore, many previous studies prompted participants to recall object features independently by sequentially displaying a response probe for each feature (i.e., sequential estimation procedure), and this task demand might have promoted the independence of feature representations in VWM. To test these possibilities, we created a novel task to simultaneously capture the representational quality of two features of the same object (i.e., simultaneous estimation procedure) and tested their dependence across the entire spectrum of representational quality. Here, we found that the quality of feature representations within the same object covaried reliably in both sequential and simultaneous estimation procedures, but this representational dependence was statistically stronger in the simultaneous estimation procedure than in the sequential estimation procedure. Furthermore, we confirmed that neither the shared spatial location nor simultaneous estimation of two features was sufficient to induce representational dependence in VWM. Thus, our results demonstrate that feature representations in VWM are organized in a dependent manner on the basis of objects, but the degree of dependence can vary based on the current task demand.

Elevated In Vitro Kinase Activity in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase 2 G2019S Carriers: A Novel Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay-Based Method.

BACKGROUND: Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 kinase inhibitors are being vigorously pursued as potential therapeutic options; however, there is a critical need for sensitive and quantitative assays of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 function and target engagement. OBJECTIVES: Our objective was to compare collection and storage protocols for peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and to determine the optimal conditions for downstream analyses of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 in PD cohorts. METHODS: Here, we describe enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based assays capable of detecting multiple aspects of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 function at endogenous levels in human tissues. RESULTS: In peripheral blood mononuclear cells from both healthy and affected carriers of the G2019S mutation in leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, we report, for the first time, significantly elevated in vitro kinase activity, while detecting a significant increase in pS935/leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 in idiopathic PD patients. CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative assays such as these described here could potentially uncover specific markers of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 function that are predictive of disease progression, aid in patient stratification, and be a critical component of upcoming clinical trials. © 2020 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Electrophysiological Evidence for Distinct Proactive Control Mechanisms in a Stop-Signal Task: An Individual Differences Approach.

Proactive control reflects a sustained, top-down maintenance of a goal representation prior to task-related events, whereas reactive control reflects a transient, bottom-up goal reactivation in response to them. We designed a manual stop-signal task to isolate electrophysiological signals specifically involved in proactive control. Participants performed a simple choice reaction time task but had to withhold their response to an infrequent stop signal, resulting in go- and stop-signal trials. We manipulated the stop-signal probability (30% vs. 10%) over different blocks of trials so that different proactive control levels were sustained within each block. The behavioral results indicated that most participants proactively changed their behaviors. The reaction times in the go trials increased and the number of response errors in the stop-signal trials decreased. However, those two behavioral measures did not correlate: individuals with an increased delayed reaction did not necessarily manifest a higher decrease in response errors in the stop-signal trials. To isolate the proactive control signal, we obtained event-related potentials (ERPs) locked to an uninformative fixation onset and compared the signals between the two stop-signal probability conditions. We found that the ERPs at the left hemisphere were more negatively shifted with the increasing stop-signal probability. Moreover, ERP differences obtained from a set of electrodes in the left hemisphere accounted for the changes in response errors in the stop-signal trials but did not explain the changes in reaction times of the go trials. Together, the behavioral and electrophysiological results suggest that proactive control mechanisms reducing erroneous responses of the stop-signal trials are different from mechanisms slowing reaction times of the go trials.

Similarity-based clusters are representational units of visual working memory.

We investigated whether clustering based on feature similarity improves the representational quality of visual working memory (VWM). We hypothesized that similar items are organized into clusters, and their recall precision increases with fewer clusters because of reduced memory load. In a series of 6 experiments, participants remembered orientations or colors of several stimuli and estimated the orientation (color) of cued item(s). We measured recall bias to identify whether items formed cluster(s) and measured recall precision to determine the effect of clustering on the representational quality of VWM. In Experiments 1 and 2, orientation similarity was manipulated to partition stimuli into 1, 2, or 3 clusters. In Experiment 3, we varied both the number of stimuli and their similarities such that 5 items were summarized into a smaller number of clusters than 3 items. We consistently found that similar items formed a cluster, and that the precision of the individual items increased with fewer clusters regardless of the number of items. We also observed the same clustering effects using color stimuli when participants were to remember items' colors (Experiment 4). However, a task-irrelevant feature was not potent enough to cluster items and did not increase the precision (Experiment 5). In Experiment 6, we varied item similarity and found that response errors were correlated within the same cluster but not across different clusters. Taken together, these results suggest that clusters formed by similar items can impact the representation of VWM; thus, acting as one of representational units of VWM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Ensemble representations reveal distinct neural coding of visual working memory.

We characterized the population-level neural coding of ensemble representations in visual working memory from human electroencephalography. Ensemble representations provide a unique opportunity to investigate structured representations of working memory because the visual system encodes high-order summary statistics as well as noisy sensory inputs in a hierarchical manner. Here, we consistently observe stable coding of simple features as well as the ensemble mean in frontocentral electrodes, which even correlated with behavioral indices of the ensemble across individuals. In occipitoparietal electrodes, however, we find that remembered features are dynamically coded over time, whereas neural coding of the ensemble mean is absent in the old/new judgment task. In contrast, both dynamic and stable coding are found in the continuous estimation task. Our findings suggest that the prefrontal cortex holds behaviorally relevant abstract representations while visual representations in posterior and visual areas are modulated by the task demands.

Slow Temporal Dynamics of Motion-Induced Brightness Shift Reveals Impact of Adaptation.

Brightness of an object is determined by various factors including ambient illumination, surface reflectance of the object, and spatial and temporal relation between the object and its surrounding context. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the motion of an object alters its own and nearby object's appearance such as brightness and color. This study aims to unveil mechanisms of the motion-induced brightness shift by measuring its temporal dynamics. We found that the motion-induced brightness shift occurred instantaneously with the motion onset when the motion was introduced abruptly. However, the brightness of a stationary object was altered gradually by a nearby moving object in about 2 s time window when the stationary dot was introduced abruptly. Two distinct temporal dynamics (slow vs. fast) of the motion-induced brightness shift demonstrate that both slow neural adaptation and fast neural normalization processes determine the brightness shift induced by the object's motion.

Effect of different muscle contraction interventions using an isokinetic dynamometer on muscle recovery following muscle injury.

The objective of the present study was to examine the effects of different muscle contraction interventions using isokinetic dynamometers on the muscle recovery after muscle injury caused by eccentric exercise. A total of 28 healthy male adults participated in the present study and each subject was randomly assigned to eccentric muscle contraction (EC, n=7), concentric muscle contraction (CC, n=7), both eccentric and concentric muscle contraction (BEC, n=7), and control (CON, n=7) groups after performing eccentric exercise. In all groups, except the control group, a different type of muscle contraction intervention was applied repeatedly for 24-96 hr after eccentric exercise, and maximum strength, muscle soreness, and creatine kinase (CK) levels were measured. The results showed a significant association between time and group, with respect to maximum strength (P<0.05), muscle soreness (P<0.001), and CK (P<0.001) after eccentric exercise. Moreover, BEC group showed faster muscle recovery than other groups. In conclusion, implementing active strategies such as performing BEC using an isokinetic dynamometer after eccentric exercise may be effective in facilitating muscle recovery.

Prolonged Interruption of Cognitive Control of Conflict Processing Over Human Faces by Task-Irrelevant Emotion Expression.

As documented by Darwin 150 years ago, emotion expressed in human faces readily draws our attention and promotes sympathetic emotional reactions. How do such reactions to the expression of emotion affect our goal-directed actions? Despite the substantial advance made in the neural mechanisms of both cognitive control and emotional processing, it is not yet known well how these two systems interact. Here, we studied how emotion expressed in human faces influences cognitive control of conflict processing, spatial selective attention and inhibitory control in particular, using the Eriksen flanker paradigm. In this task, participants viewed displays of a central target face flanked by peripheral faces and were asked to judge the gender of the target face; task-irrelevant emotion expressions were embedded in the target face, the flanking faces, or both. We also monitored how emotion expression affects gender judgment performance while varying the relative timing between the target and flanker faces. As previously reported, we found robust gender congruency effects, namely slower responses to the target faces whose gender was incongruent with that of the flanker faces, when the flankers preceded the target by 0.1 s. When the flankers further advanced the target by 0.3 s, however, the congruency effect vanished in most of the viewing conditions, except for when emotion was expressed only in the flanking faces or when congruent emotion was expressed in the target and flanking faces. These results suggest that emotional saliency can prolong a substantial degree of conflict by diverting bottom-up attention away from the target, and that inhibitory control on task-irrelevant information from flanking stimuli is deterred by the emotional congruency between target and flanking stimuli.

Peripheral target identification performance modulates eye movements.

We often shift our eyes to an interesting stimulus, but it is important to inhibit that eye movement in some environments (e.g., a no-look pass in basketball). Here, we investigated participants' ability to inhibit eye movements when they had to process a peripheral target with a requirement to maintain strict fixation. An array of eight letters composed of four characters was briefly presented and a directional cue was centrally presented to indicate the target location. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the cue and the stimulus array was chosen from six values, consisting of pre-cue conditions (-400 and -200ms), a simultaneous cue condition (0ms), and post-cue conditions (200, 400, and 800ms). We found the following: 1) participants shifted their eyes toward the cued location even though the stimulus array was absent at the onset of eye movements, but the eye movement amplitude was smaller than the actual location of the target; 2) eye movements occurred approximately 150ms after the onset of stimulus array in the pre-cue conditions and 250ms after cue onset in the simultaneous and post-cue conditions; and 3) eye movement onsets were delayed and their amplitudes were smaller in correct trials than incorrect trials. These results indicate that the inhibitory process controlling eye movements also compete for cognitive resources like other cognitive processes.