Cortical processing of dynamic bodies in the superior occipito-temporal regions of the infants' brain: Difference from dynamic faces and inversion effect.

Previous functional neuroimaging studies imply a crucial role of the superior temporal regions (e.g., superior temporal sulcus: STS) for processing of dynamic faces and bodies. However, little is known about the cortical processing of moving faces and bodies in infancy. The current study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to directly compare cortical hemodynamic responses to dynamic faces (videos of approaching people with blurred bodies) and dynamic bodies (videos of approaching people with blurred faces) in infants' brain. We also examined the body-inversion effect in 5- to 8-month-old infants using hemodynamic responses as a measure. We found significant brain activity for the dynamic faces and bodies in the superior area of bilateral temporal cortices in both 5- to 6-month-old and 7- to 8-month-old infants. The hemodynamic responses to dynamic faces occurred across a broader area of cortex in 7- to 8-month-olds than in 5- to 6-month-olds, but we did not find a developmental change for dynamic bodies. There was no significant activation when the stimuli were presented upside down, indicating that these activation patterns did not result from the low-level visual properties of dynamic faces and bodies. Additionally, we found that the superior temporal regions showed a body inversion effect in infants aged over 5 months: the upright dynamic body stimuli induced stronger activation compared to the inverted stimuli. The most important contribution of the present study is that we identified cortical areas responsive to dynamic bodies and faces in two groups of infants (5-6-months and 7-8-months of age) and we found different developmental trends for the processing of bodies and faces.

Infants' recognition of their mothers' faces in facial drawings.

This study examined the development of ability to recognize familiar face in drawings in infants aged 6-8 months. In Experiment 1, we investigated infants' recognition of their mothers' faces by testing their visual preference for their mother's face over a stranger's face under three conditions: photographs, cartoons produced by online software that simplifies and enhances the contours of facial features of line drawings, and veridical line drawings. We found that 7- and 8-month-old infants showed a significant preference for their mother's face in photographs and cartoons, but not in veridical line drawings. In contrast, 6-month-old infants preferred their mother's face only in photographs. In Experiment 2, we investigated a visual preference for an upright face over an inverted face for cartoons and veridical line drawings in 6- to 8-month-old infants, finding that infants aged older than 6 months showed the inversion effect in face preference in both cartoons and veridical line drawings. Our results imply that the ability to utilize the enhanced information of a face to recognize familiar faces may develop aged around 7 months of age.

Perceptual narrowing towards adult faces is a cross-cultural phenomenon in infancy: a behavioral and near-infrared spectroscopy study with Japanese infants.

Recent data showed that, in Caucasian infants, perceptual narrowing occurs for own-race adult faces between 3 and 9 months of age, possibly as a consequence of the extensive amount of social and perceptual experience accumulated with caregivers and/or other adult individuals of the same race of the caregiver. The neural correlates of this developmental process remain unexplored, and it is currently unknown whether perceptual tuning towards adult faces can be extended to other cultures. To this end, in the current study we tested the ability of 3- and 9-month-old Japanese infants to discriminate among adult and infant Asian faces in a visual familiarization task (Experiment 1), and compared 9-month-olds' cerebral hemodynamic responses to adult and infant faces as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) (Experiment 2). Results showed that 3-month-olds exhibit above-chance discrimination of adult and infant faces, whereas 9-month-olds discriminate adult faces but not infant faces (Experiment 1). Moreover, adult faces, but not infant faces, induced significant increases in hemodynamic responses in the right temporal areas of 9-month-old infants. Overall, our data suggest that perceptual narrowing towards adult faces is a cross-cultural phenomenon occurring between 3 and 9 months of age, and translates by 9 months of age into a right-hemispheric specialization in the processing of adult faces.

(Z)-1,2-Di(1-pyrenyl)disilene: Synthesis, Structure, and Intramolecular Charge-Transfer Emission.

(Z)-1,2-Di(1-pyrenyl)disilene containing bulky 1,1,3,3,5,5,7,7-octaethyl-s-hydrindacen-4-yl (Eind) groups has been obtained as purple crystals by the reductive coupling reaction of the corresponding dibromosilane with lithium naphthalenide. An X-ray crystallographic analysis revealed an Eind- and pyrenyl-meshed molecular gear around the disilene core adopting the Z configuration, in which the two pyrenyl groups intramolecularly interact through the π-π stacking with a distance of 3.635 Å between the centers of the two pyrene rings. The disilene π-system exhibits a π(Si-Si) → π*(pyrene) intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) fluorescence at room temperature, whose wavelengths depend on the solvent polarity. The photophysical properties are theoretically supported by computational studies including excited-state calculations.

Prevalences of Peripheral Arterial Disease Diagnosed by Computed Tomography Angiography in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) with the use of computed tomography angiography (CTA) in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS), although several reports have examined its prevalence using an ankle brachial index (ABI). We aimed to determine the prevalence of PAD indicated by CTA in patients with AIS and to clarify the prevalence of PAD in each clinical ischemic stroke subtype. METHODS: We included 199 consecutive patients with AIS admitted to our hospital and divided them into PAD and non-PAD groups according to the CTA findings. RESULTS: Of the 199 patients, 40 (20.1%) had PAD; 27 (67.5%) of the PAD patients were asymptomatic. The prevalence of abnormal ABI (≤.9) was 12.2%. Patients with PAD were older (78.3 ± 10.2 versus 71.5 ± 10.9, P <.001) and had a significantly lower ABI value (.89 ± .24 versus 1.15 ± .09, P <.001) and higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus (50.0% versus 31.4%, P = .028), atrial fibrillation (40.0% versus 16.4%, P = .001), coronary artery disease (32.5% versus 8.2%, P <.001), and intracranial arterial stenosis (47.5% versus 28.9%, P = .025) than patients without PAD. The prevalence of cerebral microbleeds was not different between patients with PAD and those without PAD (25.6% versus 25.4%, P = .985). The prevalence of PAD among ischemic stroke subtypes was highest in patients with cardioembolic infarction (40.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Almost one fourth of the AIS patients examined had PAD on CTA. Cardioembolic infarction patients showed the highest prevalence of PAD among the clinical ischemic subtypes, suggesting the coexistence of atheromatous diseases and atrial fibrillation.

The synchronous activity of lateral habenular neurons is essential for regulating hippocampal theta oscillation.

Lateral habenula (LHb) has attracted growing interest as a regulator of serotonergic and dopaminergic neurons in the CNS. However, it remains unclear how the LHb modulates brain states in animals. To identify the neural substrates that are under the influence of LHb regulation, we examined the effects of rat LHb lesions on the hippocampal oscillatory activity associated with the transition of brain states. Our results showed that the LHb lesion shortened the theta activity duration both in anesthetized and sleeping rats. Furthermore, this inhibitory effect of LHb lesion on theta maintenance depended upon an intact serotonergic median raphe, suggesting that LHb activity plays an essential role in maintaining hippocampal theta oscillation via the serotonergic raphe. Multiunit recording of sleeping rats further revealed that firing of LHb neurons showed significant phase-locking activity at each theta oscillation cycle in the hippocampus. LHb neurons showing activity that was coordinated with that of the hippocampal theta were localized in the medial LHb division, which receives afferents from the diagonal band of Broca (DBB), a pacemaker region for the hippocampal theta oscillation. Thus, our findings indicate that the DBB may pace not only the hippocampus, but also the LHb, during rapid eye movement sleep. Since serotonin is known to negatively regulate theta oscillation in the hippocampus, phase-locking activity of the LHb neurons may act, under the influence of the DBB, to maintain the hippocampal theta oscillation by modulating the activity of serotonergic neurons.

Photoassimilation, assimilate translocation and plasmodesmal biogenesis in the source leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana grown under an increased atmospheric CO2 concentration.

Using 18-day-old Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings grown under increased (780 p.p.m., experimental plants) or ambient (390 p.p.m., control plants) CO2 conditions, we evaluated (14)CO2 photoassimilation in and translocation from representative source leaves. The total (14)CO2 photoassimilation amounts increased in the third leaves of the experimental plants in comparison with that found for the third leaves of the control plants, but the rates were comparable for the first leaves of the two groups. In contrast, translocation of labeled assimilates doubled in the first leaves of the experimental group, whereas translocation was, at best, passively enhanced even though photoassimilation increased in their third leaves. The transcript levels of the companion cell-specific sucrose:H(+) symporter gene SUC2 were not significantly affected in the two groups of plants, whereas those of the sucrose effluxer gene SWEET12 and the sieve element-targeted sucrose:H(+) symporter gene SUT4 were up-regulated in the experimental plants, suggesting up-regulation of SUT4-dependent apoplastic phloem loading. Compared with SUC2, SUT4 is a minor component that is expressed in companion cells but functions in sieve elements after transfer through plasmodesmata. The number of aniline blue-stained spots for plasmodesma-associated callose in the midrib wall increased in the first leaf of the experimental plants but was comparable in the third leaf between the experimental and control plants. These results suggest that A. thaliana responds to greater than normal concentrations of CO2 differentially in the first and third leaves in regards to photoassimilation, assimilate translocation and plasmodesmal biogenesis.

The processing of faces across non-rigid facial transformation develops at 7 month of age: a fNIRS-adaptation study.

BACKGROUND: Using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), our previous neural adaptation studies found that infants' bilateral temporal regions process facial identity (FiHN 5:153, 2011). In addition, we revealed that size-invariant processing of facial identity develops by 5 months of age (NR 23:984-988, 2012), while view-invariant processing develops around 7 months of age (FiHN 5:153, 2011). The aim in the current study was to examine whether infants' brains process facial identity across the non-rigid transformation of facial features by using the neural adaptation paradigm. We used NIRS to compare hemodynamic changes in the bilateral temporal areas of 5- to 6-month-olds and 7- to 8-month-olds during presentations of an identical face and of different faces. RESULTS: We found that (1) the oxyhemoglobin concentration around the T5 and T6 positions increased significantly during the presentation of different faces only in 7- to 8-month-olds and (2) 7- to 8-month-olds, but not 5- to 6-month-olds, showed attenuation in these channels to the presentation of the same face rather than to the presentation of different faces, regardless of non-rigid changes in facial features. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the processing of facial identity with non-rigid facial transformation develops around 7 months after birth.

Tracheostomy for the pediatric patient with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is an extremely rare connective tissue disease characterized by subsequent ossification of skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other fibrous tissues. The ossification of these tissues progresses during childhood and leads to limb and trunk deformities. Since any surgery may trigger subsequent ossification, it is relatively contraindicated for patients with FOP. In this report, we describe our experience in performing tracheostomy in a pediatric patient with FOP who developed a restrictive respiratory disorder due to progressive deformity of the trunk. CASE PRESENTATION: A 12-year-old boy, diagnosed with FOP at the age of one, was referred for a tracheotomy after requiring 2 months of oral intubation and mechanical ventilation due to severe deformity-induced dyspnea. After changing from oral intubation to nasal intubation, we carefully considered the indications and benefits of tracheostomy in patients with FOP. Eventually, tracheostomy was successfully performed using our surgical design: creating a skin incision at the level of the cricoid cartilage that can always be identified, creating inverted U-shaped incision on the anterior tracheal wall to make a flap, and suturing the entire circumference of the tracheotomy and skin. One month after the surgery, he regained normal breathing and pronunciation and returned to school. The patient showed no unfavorable postoperative outcomes over a 4-year follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: Tracheostomy in our pediatric case of FOP required careful perioperative management. However, it could effectively improve the patient's quality of life.

Single-center experience of thoracoscopic sympathectomy for palmar hyperhidrosis with long-term postoperative questionnaire survey.

OBJECTIVES: Thoracoscopic sympathectomy is an effective treatment for palmar hyperhidrosis. However, compensatory hyperhidrosis occurs frequently as a postoperative complication of the procedure. The goal of this study was to elucidate the clinical significance of thoracoscopic sympathectomy using our surgical procedure. METHODS: Consecutive 151 patients who underwent thoracoscopic sympathectomy for palmar hyperhidrosis were studied. In addition, to investigate patients' satisfaction and long-term quality of life, 111 patients were asked to complete a mailing questionnaire survey, and 84 responded (response rate of 75.7%). RESULTS: All of the 151 patients reported a reduction in palmar sweating during the immediate postoperative period. None of the patients had pneumothorax, hemothorax, Horner's syndrome, or worsening of bradycardia. Based on the questionnaire, the surgical success rate was 98.8%. None of the patients had a recurrence of palmar hyperhidrosis during the long-term postoperative period. However, compensatory hyperhidrosis was reported in 82 patients (97.6%). In total, 94.0% of patients had high levels of postoperative satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Thoracoscopic sympathectomy is an effective surgical treatment for palmar hyperhidrosis. By contrast, the careful preoperative explanation of compensatory hyperhidrosis is considered to be very important.

The Chloroplast Function Database II: a comprehensive collection of homozygous mutants and their phenotypic/genotypic traits for nuclear-encoded chloroplast proteins.

The Chloroplast Function Database has so far offered phenotype information on mutants of the nuclear-encoded chloroplast proteins in Arabidopsis that pertains to >200 phenotypic data sets that were obtained from 1,722 transposon- or T-DNA-tagged lines. Here, we present the development of the second version of the database, which is named the Chloroplast Function Database II and was redesigned to increase the number of mutant characters and new user-friendly tools for data mining and integration. The upgraded database offers information on genome-wide mutant screens for any visible phenotype against 2,495 tagged lines to create a comprehensive homozygous mutant collection. The collection consists of 147 lines with seedling phenotypes and 185 lines for which we could not obtain homozygotes, as well as 1,740 homozygotes with wild-type phenotypes. Besides providing basic information about primer lists that were used for the PCR genotyping of T-DNA-tagged lines and explanations about the preparation of homozygous mutants and phenotype screening, the database includes access to a link between the gene locus and existing publicly available databases. This gives users access to a combined pool of data, enabling them to gain valuable insights into biological processes. In addition, high-resolution images of plastid morphologies of mutants with seedling-specific chloroplast defects as observed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are available in the current database. This database is used to compare the phenotypes of visually identifiable mutants with their plastid ultrastructures and to evaluate their potential significance from characteristic patterns of plastid morphology in vivo. Thus, the Chloroplast Function Database II is a useful and comprehensive information resource that can help researchers to connect individual Arabidopsis genes to plastid functions on the basis of phenotype analysis of our tagged mutant collection. It can be freely accessed at http://rarge.psc.riken.jp/chloroplast/.

Reducing the thickness of left lateral segment grafts in neonatal living donor liver transplantation.

Liver transplantation is now an established treatment for children with end-stage liver disease. Left lateral segment (LLS) grafts are most commonly used in split and living donor liver transplantation in children. In very small children, LLS grafts can be too large, and further nonanatomical reduction has recently been introduced to mitigate the problem of large-for-size grafts. However, the implantation of LLS grafts can be a problem in infants and very small children because of the thickness of the grafts, and these techniques do not address problems related to thickness. We herein describe a technique for reducing the thickness of living donor left lateral grafts and successful transplantation in a 2.8-kg infant with acute liver failure.

Living donor liver transplantation with alternative porto-left gastric vein anastomosis in patients with post-Kasai extrahepatic portal vein obstruction.

EPVO is a common cause of prehepatic portal hypertension in pediatric patients and sometimes results in cavernous transformation of the PV. We herein present the cases of two patients who underwent LDLT for EPVO with post-Kasai biliary atresia. PV reconstruction was performed with a porto-left gastric vein anastomosis. The patient who underwent PV reconstruction using an interposition vein graft is doing well without surgical complications, whereas PV anastomotic stenosis was detected three months after LDLT in the patient who did not receive an interposition vein graft. The availability of vein grafts is limited in the LDLT setting. In such cases, performing PV reconstruction with varicose veins using interposition vein grafts is a feasible and valuable alternative option for obtaining a sufficient portal blood flow. Our experiences suggest that using interposition vein grafts may be appropriate for preventing the anastomotic stenosis caused by the fragility of varicose veins.

Eye contrast polarity is critical for face recognition by infants.

Just as faces share the same basic arrangement of features, with two eyes above a nose above a mouth, human eyes all share the same basic contrast polarity relations, with a sclera lighter than an iris and a pupil, and this is unique among primates. The current study examined whether this bright-dark relationship of sclera to iris plays a critical role in face recognition from early in development. Specifically, we tested face discrimination in 7- and 8-month-old infants while independently manipulating the contrast polarity of the eye region and of the rest of the face. This gave four face contrast polarity conditions: fully positive condition, fully negative condition, positive face with negated eyes ("negative eyes") condition, and negated face with positive eyes ("positive eyes") condition. In a familiarization and novelty preference procedure, we found that 7- and 8-month-olds could discriminate between faces only when the contrast polarity of the eyes was preserved (positive) and that this did not depend on the contrast polarity of the rest of the face. This demonstrates the critical role of eye contrast polarity for face recognition in 7- and 8-month-olds and is consistent with previous findings for adults.

[Initial experience of split liver transplantation in National Center for Child Health and Development, Japan].

PURPOSE: We reviewed our initial experience of deceased split liver transplantation in National Center for Child Health and Development and report the results herein. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We have listed 50 patients with end-stage liver disease for deceased liver transplantation, and done 6 cases of split liver transplantation during October 2010 through October 2012. Variables including indication of liver transplantation outcome were reviewed. RESULTS: The indication for split liver transplantation was acute liver failure in 4, re-transplantation in 1 and primary sclerosing cholangitis in 1. The age of recipient ranged 17 days-15 yeras and body weight ranged 2.4 kg-55 kg. The split grafts were hyper-reduced left lateral segment in 1, left lateral segment in 3, left lobe in 1 and right lobe in 1. Although case #2 received retransplantation with living donor, all the patients are currently doing well with acceptable liver function with minimum follow-up of 2 months. CONCLUSION: Satisfactory result can be achieved on initial experience of split liver transplantation in National Center for Child Health and Development. The follow-up period was too short to make definitive conclusion, however, split liver transplantation could be expand potential donor pool and may reduce the waiting list mortality without alterations of the results.

The role of scenic context on upright face preference in infancy.

Scenic information plays an important role in face processing, whereas it has received limited attention in the field of developmental research. In the current study, we investigated whether infants, like adults, utilize scenic information for face processing by the preferential-looking method. In Experiment 1, we examined 4-5 and 6-7-month-olds' visual preferences for upright faces compared to inverted faces in two surrounding scene conditions: intact (in which a face occurs in an intact scene) and scrambled (in which a face occurs in a jumbled scene). We found that 6- to 7-month-olds preferred the upright face in the intact scene, but not in the scrambled scene. Meanwhile, 4- to 5-month-olds showed significant upright face preference in both scenes. The results of Experiment 2 ruled out the possibility that the lack of preference for upright faces in the scrambled scene in 6- to 7-month-olds resulted from more distraction by the scrambledness of the image than occurs with 4- to 5-month-olds, by showing no developmental changes in preference either for the scrambled images or the intact images when faces did not appear. Our results suggest that infants aged 6 months or more utilize scenic information for face processing.

Do infants recognize the Arcimboldo images as faces? Behavioral and near-infrared spectroscopic study.

Arcimboldo images induce the perception of faces when shown upright despite the fact that only nonfacial objects such as vegetables and fruits are painted. In the current study, we examined whether infants recognize a face in the Arcimboldo images by using the preferential looking technique and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). In the first experiment, we measured looking preference between upright and inverted Arcimboldo images among 5- and 6-month-olds and 7- and 8-month-olds. We hypothesized that if infants perceive the Arcimboldo images as faces, they would prefer the upright images to the inverted ones. We found that only 7- and 8-month-olds significantly preferred upright images, suggesting that they could perceive the Arcimboldo images as faces. In the second experiment, we measured hemodynamic responses using NIRS. Based on the behavioral data, we hypothesized that 7- and 8-month-olds would show different neural activity for upright and inverted Arcimboldo images, as do adults. Therefore, we measured hemodynamic responses in 7- and 8-month-olds while they were looking at upright and inverted Arcimboldo images. Their responses were then compared with the baseline activation during the presentation of individual vegetables. We found that the concentration of oxyhemoglobin increased in the left temporal area during the presentation of the upright images compared with the baseline during the presentation of vegetables. The results of the two experiments suggest that (a) the ability to recognize the upright Arcimboldo images as faces develops at around 7 or 8 months of age and (b) processing of the upright Arcimboldo images is related to the left temporal area of the brain.

Early experience with single-incision laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease in patients with mental retardation via a gastrostomy site incision: report of five cases.

Single-incision laparoscopic fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease is not widespread because of its technical difficulty. On the other hand, patients with gastroesophageal reflux frequently also have mental retardation and eating disorders. We have been performing single-incision laparoscopic fundoplication via a gastrostomy site incision since October 2009 for these patients. The treated patients were 4 males and 1 female. A small skin incision was made on the gastrostomy site and a SILS port was placed. Under pneumoperitoneum, a single-incision laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication and gastrostomy were performed with a flexible scope, conventional instruments, and high-dexterity instruments. The pneumoperitoneal time was 115-180 min and blood loss was 1-15 ml. There were no intra- or postoperative complications. The hospital stay was under 8 days for all patients. Using this procedure, the incidence of postoperative intestinal obstruction was very low. The results indicate this procedure can be used as a standard operation for these patients in the future.