Negation and social avoidance in language recruits the right inferior frontal gyrus: a tDCS study.

Introduction: In the process of comprehension, linguistic negation induces inhibition of negated scenarios. Numerous studies have highlighted the role of the right Inferior Frontal Gyrus (rIFG) - a key component of the inhibitory network - in negation processing. Social avoidance can be linguistically portrayed using attitudinal verbs such as "exclude" vs. "include", which inherently carry negative connotations. Consequently, we hypothesize that the interplay between explicit negation and the implicit negativity of avoidance verbs can be modulated via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting the rIFG. Methods: In our study, sixty-four participants read approach/avoidance sentences, which were either affirmative or negative, such as "Anne included (did not include) meat in her diet" vs. "Anne excluded (did not exclude) meat in her diet". This reading task followed a 20-minute tDCS session. The sentences were sequentially displayed, and at 1500 ms post-sentence, a verb was shown - either the one previously mentioned or its semantic alternative counterpart (e.g., included vs. excluded). Results: Findings revealed that anodal stimulation intensifies the inhibitory impact of negation during sentence comprehension. Under anodal conditions, negative sentences led to extended reading times for the mentioned verbs compared to their affirmative counterparts, suggesting an increased inhibitory effect on the verb. Furthermore, in avoidance sentences, anodal stimulation resulted in reduced reading times for alternative verbs (e.g. "included") in negative sentences compared to alternative verbs (e.g. "excluded") in negated approach sentences. Discussion: As "avoidance" is semantically equivalent to "non-approach", the inhibitory effect of negation is primarily applied to the implicit negation: NOT EXCLUDED = NOT→NOT (INCLUDED), which consequently activates the representation of the alternative verb making it more available. We further discuss these findings in light of the rIFG's pivotal role in processing attitudinal verbs and linguistic negation. This discussion is framed within the overarching context of the two-step model of negation processing, highlighting its significance in the realm of social communication.

The embodied typist: Bimanual actions are modulated by words' implied motility and number of evoked limbs.

The planning and execution of manual actions can be influenced by concomitant processing of manual action verbs. However, this phenomenon manifests in varied ways throughout the literature, ranging from facilitation to interference effects. Suggestively, stimuli across studies vary randomly in two potentially relevant variables: verb motility and effector quantity (i.e., the amount of movement and the number of hands implied by the word, respectively). Here we examine the role of these factors during keyboard typing, a strategic bimanual task validated in previous works. Forty-one participants read and typed high and low motility items from four categories: bimanual, unimanual, and non-manual action verbs, as well as minimally motoric verbs. Motor planning and execution were captured by first-letter lag (the lapse between word presentation and first keystroke) and whole-word lag (the lapse between the first and last keystroke). We found that verb motility modulated action planning and execution, both stages being delayed by high (relative to low) motility verbs. Effector quantity also influenced both stages, which were facilitated by bimanual verbs relative to unimanual verbs and non-manual verbs (this effect being confined to high motility items during action execution). Accordingly, motor-language coupling effects seem sensitive to words' implied motility and number of evoked limbs. These findings refine our understanding of how semantics influences bodily movement.

Social approach and avoidance in language: N400-like ERP negativity indexes congruency and theta rhythms the conflict.

Motivational congruency has been examined using tasks where participants perform approach or avoidance movements towards socially positive or negative faces. Language is tightly intertwined with interpersonal cognition. Thus, similar situations could be represented by means of language in interpersonal contexts: adjectives furnish valence to people (e.g. someone is cordial or arrogant), and attitudinal verbs define direction to relationship-actions: approach-avoidance (e.g. accept vs. reject). In an Electroencephalography (EEG) study, 40 participants were presented with sentences where a character was valenced (e.g. "Arthur is cordial/arrogant") before being the target of a relationship-actions ("Grisela welcomed/ignored Arthur at the party"). We analyzed both Event-related potential (ERP) amplitude and time-frequency power in response to the attitudinal verb. For ERP amplitudes, we found a significant cluster between 280 and 370 ms, covering part of the development of a N400-like ERP component. This cluster reflects an interaction driven by congruency between motivational direction and target valence. Likewise, time-frequency power analysis revealed an enhancement of theta rhythms under incongruent conditions, most likely indexing conflict processing. Results support that relationship-actions are represented as approach and avoidance and thus involve conflict processing and resolution of incongruent situations. Implications for the interweaving of affective language and social cognition within Embodiment Simulation Theory are discussed.

Regional accents modulate perspective in geographical space.

In this study, participants listened to first-person statements that mentioned a character who was approaching a geographical location close to (Tenerife, Canary Islands) or distant from the participant (Madrid, Spanish peninsula), pronounced with either the participants' local or a distal regional accent. Participants more often judged approaching statements as coherent when they refer to a close place pronounced with local accent or refer to a distant place with distal accent, rather than when they refer to a close place with distal accent or to a distant place with local accent. These results strongly suggest that the local accent induces listeners to keep their own geographical perspective, whereas the distal accent determines shifting to another's perspective. In sum, a subtle paralinguistic cue, the speaker's regional accent, modulates the participants' geographic perspective when they listen to identical first-person sentences with approaching deictic verbs.

Crossing hands behind your back reduces recall of manual action sentences and alters brain dynamics.

The embodied meaning approach posits that understanding action-related language recruits motor processes in the brain. However, the functional impact of these motor processes on cognition has been questioned. The present study aims to provide new electrophysiological (EEG) evidence concerning the role of motor processes in the comprehension and memory of action language. Participants read lists of sentences including manual-action or attentional verbs, while keeping their hands either in front of them or crossing them behind their back. Results showed that posture impacted selectively the processing of manual action sentence, and not of attentional sentences, in three different ways: 1) EEG fronto-central beta rhythms, a signature of motor processes, were desynchronized while reading action sentences in the hands-in-front posture compared to the hands-behind posture. The estimated source was the posterior cingulate cortex, involved in proprioceptive regulation. 2) Recall of nouns associated with manual sentences decreased when learning occurred in the hands-behind posture. 3) ERPs analysis revealed that the initial posture at learning modulates neural processes during subsequent recall of manual sentences in the left superior frontal gyrus, which is related to motor processes. These results provide decisive evidence for the functional involvement of embodied simulations in the encoding and retrieval of action-related language.

Genomic Sequences and Analysis of Five SARS-CoV-2 Variants Obtained from Patients in Lambayeque, Peru.

Here, we report the genomic sequences of five severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) strains obtained from nasopharyngeal samples from five tested coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-infected patients from the Lambayeque region in Peru during early April 2020.

Multisession Anodal tDCS on the Right Temporo-Parietal Junction Improves Mentalizing Processes in Adults with Autistic Traits.

Persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired mentalizing skills. In this study, a group of persons with ASD traits (high-AQ scores) initially received sham tDCS before completing a pre-test in two mentalizing tasks: false belief and self-other judgments. Over the next week, on four consecutive days, they received sessions of anodal electrical stimulation (a-tDCS) over the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ), a region frequently associated with the theory of mind. On the last day, after the stimulation session, they completed a new set of mentalizing tasks. A control group (with low-AQ scores) matched in age, education and intelligence received just sham stimulation and completed the same pre-test and post-test. The results showed that the high-AQ group improved their performance (faster responses), after a-tDCS, in the false belief and in the self-other judgments of mental features, whereas they did not change performance in the false photographs or the self-other judgments of physical features. These selective improvements cannot be attributed to increased familiarity with the tasks, because the performance of the low-AQ control group remained stable about one week later. Therefore, our study provides initial proof that tDCS could be used to improve mentalizing skills in persons with ASD traits.

Enhancing Memory for Relationship Actions by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Superior Temporal Sulcus.

We examine the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of right superior temporal sulcus (rSTS) in memorization of approach/avoidance relationship-action sentences; for example, "Alejandro accepted/rejected Marta in his group." Sixty-five university students participated in a tDCS study, in which a between-subjects design was adopted. Sixty-four participants were also given the behavioral approach system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) scales. Participants were subjected to 20 min of stimulation: anodal (N = 24), cathodal (N = 21), or sham (N = 20); subsequently, they were given a list of 40 sentences (half approach and half avoidance) and told to try to memorize them. Finally, they performed a changed/same memory task (half the sentences were the "same" and half were "changed"). Previously, we had examined performance in the memory task without tDCS with another group of participants (N = 20). We found that anodal stimulation improved d' index of discriminability (hits-false alarms) compared to sham and cathodal conditions for both approach and avoidance sentences. Moreover, the comparison between anodal and task-alone performance showed that stimulation improved d' index of approach sentences more, as task-alone performance showed better discrimination for avoidance than for approach. Likewise, we explored a potential modulation of tDCS effect by (BAS) and (BIS) traits. We found that d' index improvement in anodal stimulation condition only benefited low BAS and low BIS participants. Implications of these results are discussed in the context of rSTS function in encoding and memorizing verbally described intentional relationship-actions and the role of individual differences on modulating tDCS effect.

How words ripple through bilingual hands: Motor-language coupling during L1 and L2 writing.

The speed of our hand movements can be affected by concurrent processing of manual action verbs (MaVs). Whereas this phenomenon is well established for native languages (L1s), it remains underexplored in late foreign languages (L2s), especially during highly automatized tasks. Here we timed keystroke activity while Spanish-English bilinguals copied MaVs, non-manual action verbs, and non-action verbs in their L1 and L2. Motor planning and execution dynamics were indexed by first-letter lag (the time-lapse between word presentation and first keystroke) and whole-word lag (the time-lapse between first and last keystroke), respectively. Despite yielding no effects on motor planning, MaVs facilitated typing execution in L1 but delayed it in L2, irrespective of the subjects' typing skills, age of L2 learning, and L2 competence. Therefore, motor-language coupling effects seem to be present in both languages though they can arise differently in each. These results extend language grounding models, illuminating the role of embodied mechanisms throughout life.

Brain Inhibitory Mechanisms Are Involved in the Processing of Sentential Negation, Regardless of Its Content. Evidence From EEG Theta and Beta Rhythms.

The two-step process account of negation understanding posits an initial representation of the negated events, followed by a representation of the actual state of events. On the other hand, behavioral and neurophysiological studies provided evidence that linguistic negation suppresses or reduces the activation of the negated events, contributing to shift attention to the actual state of events. However, the specific mechanism of this suppression is poorly known. Recently, based on the brain organization principle of neural reuse (Anderson, 2010), it has been proposed that understanding linguistic negation partially relies upon the neurophysiological mechanisms of response inhibition. Specifically, it was reported that negated action-related sentences modulate EEG signatures of response inhibition (de Vega et al., 2016; Beltrán et al., 2018). In the current EEG study, we ponder whether the reusing of response inhibition processes by negation is constrained to action-related contents or consists of a more general-purpose mechanism. To this end, we employed the same dual-task paradigm as in our prior study-a Go/NoGo task embedded into a sentence comprehension task-but this time including both action and non-action sentences. The results confirmed that the increase of theta power elicited by NoGo trials was modulated by negative sentences, compared to their affirmative counterparts, and this polarity effect was statistically similar for both action- and non-action-related sentences. Thus, a general-purpose inhibitory control mechanism, rather than one specific for action language, is likely operating in the comprehension of sentential negation to produce the transition between alternative representations.

How meaning unfolds in neural time: Embodied reactivations can precede multimodal semantic effects during language processing.

Research on how the brain construes meaning during language use has prompted two conflicting accounts. According to the 'grounded view', word understanding involves quick reactivations of sensorimotor (embodied) experiences evoked by the stimuli, with simultaneous or later engagement of multimodal (conceptual) systems integrating information from various sensory streams. Contrariwise, for the 'symbolic view', this capacity depends crucially on multimodal operations, with embodied systems playing epiphenomenal roles after comprehension. To test these contradictory hypotheses, the present magnetoencephalography study assessed implicit semantic access to grammatically constrained action and non-action verbs (n = 100 per category) while measuring spatiotemporally precise signals from the primary motor cortex (M1, a core region subserving bodily movements) and the anterior temporal lobe (ATL, a putative multimodal semantic hub). Convergent evidence from sensor- and source-level analyses revealed that increased modulations for action verbs occurred earlier in M1 (∼130-190 ms) than in specific ATL hubs (∼250-410 ms). Moreover, machine-learning decoding showed that trial-by-trial classification peaks emerged faster in M1 (∼100-175 ms) than in the ATL (∼345-500 ms), with over 71% accuracy in both cases. Considering their latencies, these results challenge the 'symbolic view' and its implication that sensorimotor mechanisms play only secondary roles in semantic processing. Instead, our findings support the 'grounded view', showing that early semantic effects are critically driven by embodied reactivations and that these cannot be reduced to post-comprehension epiphenomena, even when words are individually classified. Briefly, our study offers non-trivial insights to constrain fine-grained models of language and understand how meaning unfolds in neural time.

Both the mirror and the affordance systems might be impaired in adults with high autistic traits. Evidence from EEG mu and beta rhythms.

The association of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with an altered mirror neuron system is still controversial. At the same time, the processing of object affordances by persons with ASD is a neglected issue. In this electroencephalographic study, adults differing in their autism quotient (AQ) scores were selected. We found anomalous modulation of mu and beta rhythms in high-AQ, compared to low-AQ persons, while they watched a set of goal-directed manual actions. This confirms that observing actions involving implicit intentions most clearly reveals the impairment of the mirror neurons system (MNS). The high-AQ group also showed anomalous mu and beta modulation when they looked at pictures of manipulable objects, indicating a deficit in processing motor affordances. We conclude that high-AQ adults have neural impairment of both the MNS and the affordance systems, which could underlie their relational problems with both people and objects. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1032-1042. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Adults with autistic traits (high-autism quotient [AQ] scores) and matched controls (low-AQ) observed intentional hand actions, and pictures of manipulable and non-manipulable objects. The high-AQ group compared to the control group, showed anomalous modulation of the electroencephalographic motoric rhythms (mu and beta) while observing familiar goal-directed actions, confirming an impairment of their mirror neuron system. Also, their brain rhythms were anomalous when they watched manipulable objects, which suggest a dysfunction in their relation with objects (affordance system).

Negation markers inhibit motor routines during typing of manual action verbs.

We explored whether negation markers recruit inhibitory mechanisms during keyboard-based action-verb typing. In each trial, participants read two sentences: the first featured a context (There is a contract) and the second ended with a relevant verb which had to be immediately typed. Crucially, the verb could describe manual actions, non-manual actions or non-motor processes, with either affirmative (You do sign it) or negative (You don't sign it) polarity. We assessed the impact of verb type and polarity on two typing dimensions: motor programming (lapse between target onset and first keystroke) and motor execution (lapse between first and last keystroke). Negation yielded no effect on motor planning, but it selectively delayed typing execution for manual-action verbs, irrespective of the subjects' typing skills. This suggests that processing negations during comprehension of manual-action sentences recruits inhibitory mechanisms acting on same-effector movements. Our novel finding extends embodied models of language and effector-specific motor-language integration.

Quiste hidatídico cerebral: caso clínico y revisión de la literatura / Cerebral hydatid cyst: Clinical case and review of the literature

En la actualidad la hidatidosis es una parasitosis accidental, siendo su ubicación cerebral rara. Presentamos el caso de un varón de 33años que llega a emergencias por síndrome de hipertensión endocraneana y focalización derecha. La tomografía computarizada mostró una lesión quística frontoparietal izquierda, la cual es intervenida quirúrgicamente, realizándose la exéresis completa de la lesión con buena evolución posterior. La hidatidosis es una patología poco frecuente a nivel cerebral, por lo que es importante la sospecha clínica para orientar los estudios al diagnóstico precoz. Revisamos la patogenia, el diagnóstico y el tratamiento de la hidatidosis cerebral

Hydatid disease is an accidental parasitosis, with brain location being rare. The case is reported of a 33year-old male, with no history of note, who was admitted to hospital with intracranial hypertension syndrome and right hemiparesis. Computed tomography showed a cystic lesion in the left frontal-parietal lobule. Surgery was performed by complete excision of the lesion, with a good outcome. Hydatid disease is a rare condition in the brain. Clinical suspicion is important for an early diagnosis. A review is presented on the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of cerebral hydatid disease

[Cerebral hydatid cyst: Clinical case and review of the literature]. / Quiste hidatídico cerebral: caso clínico y revisión de la literatura.

Hydatid disease is an accidental parasitosis, with brain location being rare. The case is reported of a 33year-old male, with no history of note, who was admitted to hospital with intracranial hypertension syndrome and right hemiparesis. Computed tomography showed a cystic lesion in the left frontal-parietal lobule. Surgery was performed by complete excision of the lesion, with a good outcome. Hydatid disease is a rare condition in the brain. Clinical suspicion is important for an early diagnosis. A review is presented on the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of cerebral hydatid disease.

Readers of narratives take the protagonist's geographical perspective. Evidence from an event-related potential study.

This ERP study explores how the reader's brain is sensitive to the protagonist's perspective in the fictitious environment of narratives. Participants initially received narratives describing a protagonist living in a given geographical place. Later on they were given short paragraphs describing another character as "coming" or "going" to a place either close to or distant from the protagonist. Paragraphs referring to distant places elicited larger negative waves than those with places close to the protagonist. Moreover, narratives with the verb to come incoherent with the protagonist's perspective (e.g., "she came to the distant place") elicited larger negative-going waves in the 320-400ms time window than coherent paragraphs (e.g., "she came to the close place"). These results indicate that readers of narratives were able to take the protagonist's geographical perspective, showing discourse-level coherence effects when they read motion sentences with the marked deictic verb to come.

Neurophysiological traces of the reader's geographical perspective associated with the deictic verbs of motion to go and to come.

This ERP study explores how participants activate their own geographical perspective, while reading sentences describing a motion (to come or to go), or a static spatial relation (to be) referred either to the participant's current location or a distant place. The ERPs recorded at the place names revealed that, compared to "distant places", "close places" enhanced ERP's components, associated with motivational relevance, in the context of the deictic verbs of motion to come and to go, but not in the context of the static verb to be. Also, in the context of the verbs of motion source estimation showed that "close places" elicited more activity than "distant places" in the medial temporal cortex (around the parahippocampal gyrus), suggesting projection of the reader's self-relevant information, or retrieval of geographical episodic memories. Finally, sentences describing motions congruent with the self-perspective (e.g. "going to distant place") elicited less activation than sentences incongruent with the self-perspective (e.g. "coming to distant place") in the right fronto-polar cortex and in the posterior cingulate cortex, regions generally associated with the other's perspective or with self/other perspective conflict. These findings provide information on the brain processes underlying readers' perspective taking, guided by the deictic verbs of motion.

Prevalencia de anticuerpos antifosfolípidos en pacientes con conectivopatías / Prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with connective tissue diseases

Objetivos: Determinar la prevalencia de anticuerpos antifosfolípidos en pacientes con conectivopatías. Diseño: Estudio descriptivo transversal. Institución: Hospital Dos de Mayo e Instituto de Investigaciones Clínicas de la UNMSM, Lima, Perú. Participantes: Pacientes con diagnóstico de colagenopatía y sujetos sanos. Intervenciones: En 100 pacientes con diagnóstico de colagenopatía y 50 sujetos sanos, todos provenientes de Lima Metropolitana y atendidos entre enero y noviembre de 2008, se determinó fibrinógeno, tiempo de protrombina, tiempo parcial de tromboplastina activada, anticuerpos anticardiolipina y anticoagulante lúpico. Principales medidas de resultados: Presencia de anticuerpos anticardiolipina y anticoagulante lúpico. Resultados: Los pacientes con conectivopatías presentaron anticuerpos antifosfolípidos en 17 por ciento, anticoagulante lúpico en 13 por ciento y anticardiolipina IgG 4 por ciento. Al dividir el grupo por conectivopatías, en los 70 pacientes con lupus eritematoso sistémico 10 resultaron positivos para anticoagulante lúpico y 3 tuvieron anticardiolipina IgG; de los 30 pacientes con artritis reumatoide, 3 tuvieron anticoagulante lúpico positivo y 1 presentó anticardiolipina IgG. En el grupo de 50 personas sanas, solo se encontró un caso positivo para anticoagulante lúpico. Conclusiones: La prevalencia de anticuerpos antifosfolípidos en pacientes con conectivopatías fue 17 por ciento. La conectivopatía estudiada más frecuente fue el lupus eritematoso sistémico. El anticuerpo antifosfolípido más frecuente fue el anticoagulante lúpico.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with connective tissue diseases. Design: Descriptive transversal study. Setting: Dos de Mayo Hospital and Institute of Clinical Research, San Marcos University, Lima, Peru. Participants: Patients with diagnosis of collagen disease and healthy subjects. Interventions: In 100 patients with collagen disease and 50 healthy subjects, all from Metropolitan Lima and attended between January and November 2008, fibrinogen, prothrombin time, partial activated thromboplastin time, anticardiolipin antibody and lupus anticoagulant were determined. Main outcome measures: Presence of anticardiolipin antibodies and lupus anticoagulant. Results: Patients with collagen diseases presented antiphospholipid antibodies in 17 per cent, lupus anticoagulant in 13 per cent, and IgG anticardiolipin in 4 per cent. Individualizing connective tissue diseases, in 70 patients with systemic erythematous lupus 10 were positive for lupus anticoagulant and 3 had IgG anticardiolipin; of 30 patients with rheumatoid arthritis three were positive to lupus anticoagulant and one presented IgG anticardiolipin. In the group of 50 healthy individuals, only one was positive for lupus anticoagulant. Conclusions: The prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with connective tissue was 17 per cent. The most frequent connective tissue disease studied was lupus erythematosus and the most frequent antiphospholipid antibody found was lupus anticoagulant.

Spontaneous cerebral calcific embolus from the aortic arch.

Spontaneous calcific embolism is an uncommon cause of stroke. In most cases calcified cardiac valves are the sources of the emboli although embolization of calcific material from the brachiocephalic trunk has also been described. We report a case of stroke attributable to spontaneous calcific emboli from the aortic arch in which migration of the emboli was observed along the middle cerebral artery following iv tPA.

Comparación entre abordaje transesfenoidal sublabial y transesfenoidal endonasal directo en cirugía de tumores hipofisarios / Comparison between sublabial transphenoidal and direct endonasal aproaches in surgery of pituitary tumors

Los tumores hipofisarios representan aproximadamente el 10 por ciento de los tumores intracraneales primarios. Estas lesiones en su mayoría son de histología benigna (adenomas), originados en la adenohipófisis. Los tumores de hipófisis malignos (carcinomas) son extremadamente raros. Aproximadamente más del 90 por ciento de estos tumores pueden ser abordados por vía transesfenoidal. Sin embargo, el abordaje transesfenoidal puede ser sublabial transeptal o endonasal transeptal o endonasal directo, no habiéndose determinado las ventajas y desventajas que puede tener una técnica sobre otra en el tratamiento quirúrgico de los tumores hipofisarios.

Pituitary tumors approximately represent 10 per cent of the intracranial primary tumors. These injuries in their majority are of benign histology (adenomas), originated from the anterior pituitary. The malignant tumors (carcinomas) are extremely rare. Approximately more than 90 per cent of these tumors may be resected by transphenoidal approach. Nevertheless, the transesphenoidal approach can be transeptal sublabial or transeptal endonasal or direct endonasal with advantages and disadvantages that have not been determinated between these approaches in the surgical treatment of the pituitary tumors.