Order effects in stimulus discrimination challenge established models of comparative judgement: A meta-analytic review of the Type B effect.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the Type B effect (TBE), a phenomenon reflected in the observation that discrimination sensitivity varies with the order of stimuli in comparative judgment tasks, such as the two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) paradigm. Specifically, when the difference threshold is lower (higher) with the constant standard preceding rather than following the variable comparison, one speaks of a negative (positive) TBE. Importantly, prominent psychophysical difference models such as signal detection theory (Green & Swets, 1966) cannot easily account for the TBE, and are hence challenged by it. The present meta-analysis provides substantial evidence for the TBE across various stimulus attributes, suggesting that the TBE is a general feature of discrimination experiments when standard and comparison are presented successively. Thus, inconsistent with psychophysical difference models, subjective differences between stimuli are not merely a function of their physical differences but rather also depend on their temporal order. From the literature, we identify four classes of potential candidate theories explaining the origin of the TBE, namely (1) differential weighting of the stimulus magnitudes at the two positions (e.g., Hellström, Psychological Research, 39, 345-388 1977), (2) internal reference formation (e.g., Dyjas, Bausenhart, & Ulrich, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 74, 1819-1841 2012), (3) Bayesian updating (e.g., de Jong, Akyürek, & van Rijn, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 28, 1183-1190 2021), and (4) biased threshold estimation (García-Pérez & Alcalá-Quintana, Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 72, 1155-1178 2010). As these models, to some extent, make differential predictions about the direction of the TBE, investigating the respective boundary conditions of positive and negative TBEs might be a valuable perspective for diagnostic future research.

Generation and characterization of human induced pluripotent stem cell line METUi002-A from a patient with primary familial brain calcification (PFBC) carrying a heterozygous mutation (c.687dupT (p.Val230CysfsTer28)) in the SLC20A2 gene.

Primary familial brain calcification (PFBC) is a rare neurological condition characterized by abnormal calcification commonly in basal ganglia and multiple other brain regions, leading to neuropsychiatric, cognitive, and motor symptoms. SLC20A2, one of the known causative genes for PFBC, contains the highest number of variants directly associated with the disease. Here, we established an iPSC line (METUi002-A) from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a clinically diagnosed PFBC patient carrying a SLC20A2 mutation (c.687dupT) using the integration-free Sendai reprogramming. METUi002-A can serve as a valuable tool to generate cellular models to investigate the mechanistic effects of this mutation in PFBC.

Establishment of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Multiple Sclerosis Patients.

The patient-derived iPSC lines provide valuable resources as these cells can be utilized to generate human cell types relevant to the disease of interest. In this context, human iPSC-based model systems are particularly useful for neurological diseases as the neuron and glial cell types affected by such diseases are difficult to obtain. Multiple sclerosis is a demyelinating central nervous system disease characterized by inflammation and eventually axonal damage. iPS cells generated from MS patients may allow for unique approaches for studying the disease in a species-specific manner, with a potentially limitless supply of patients' own glial and neuronal cells differentiated from the iPSCs. Here we describe the detailed protocol for establishing iPSCs from peripheral blood mononuclear cells that we have utilized to model multiple sclerosis. We particularly focused on optimized and cost-effective procedures using the integration-free Sendai virus-based reprogramming method for the generation and characterization of MS iPSCs.

Generation and characterization of human induced pluripotent stem cell line METUi001-A from a 25-year-old male patient with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease characterized by inflammation, demyelination, and axonal damage in the central nervous system. Here, we established an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line METUi001-A from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a 25-year-old male individual with clinically diagnosed Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) using the integration-free Sendai reprogramming method. We demonstrated that the iPSCs are free of exogenous Sendai reprogramming vectors, have a normal male karyotype, express pluripotency markers, and differentiate into the three germ layers. The iPSC line can serve as a valuable resource to generate cellular model systems to investigate molecular mechanisms underlying RRMS.