Cognitive Science

Bacterial products can act on neurons to alter signaling and function. In the present study, we found that dorsal root ganglion (DRG) sensory neurons are enriched for ANTXR2, the high-affinity receptor for anthrax toxins. Anthrax toxins are composed of protective antigen (PA), which binds to ANTXR2, and the protein cargoes edema factor (EF) and lethal factor (LF). Intrathecal administration of edema toxin (ET (PA + EF)) targeted DRG neurons and induced analgesia in mice. ET inhibited mechanical and thermal sensation, and pain caused by formalin, carrageenan or nerve injury. Analgesia depended on ANTXR2 expressed by Nav1.8+ or Advillin+ neurons. ET modulated protein kinase A signaling in mouse sensory and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived sensory neurons, and attenuated spinal cord neurotransmission. We further engineered anthrax toxins to introduce exogenous protein cargoes, including botulinum toxin, into DRG neurons to silence pain. Our study highlights interactions between a bacterial toxin and nociceptors, which may lead to the development of new pain therapeutics.

... In both the Ryan and Bastian experiments one-third of the words were high in semantic meaning and low in association value, one-third of the words were high in asso-ciation value and low in semantic meaning, and one-third were control words which were very low in associa ...

We evaluated the natural history of psychopathology in a stratified sample (n = 245) comprising subjects with no DSM-III-R psychiatric disorder, subthreshold disorder and threshold (DSM-III-R) psychiatric disorder, respectively, over a 12-months period, using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R mental disorders (SCID) as an assessment tool. A representative sample categorized 1 year earlier into DSM-III-R psychiatric disorder, subthreshold disorder and no DSM-III-R psychiatric disorder were reassessed with SCID 1 year on. The incidence, recovery rates and the percentage of subthreshold disorders which become DSM-III-R disorders were calculated. The utilization rate of psychiatric services was also assessed. The incidence rate of new cases was 10.4%. The recovery (remission) rate was 41.5%, and approximately 20% of subthreshold disorders became definitive disorders (DSM-III-R) after 1 year. Anxiety disorders tend to have a higher magnitude of temporal stability in comparison with depressive disorders. Male sex and contact with psychiatric services were found to affect the recovery rate. Approximately 13% of the sample had made contact with psychiatric services with no gender differences, but men were significantly more often hospitalized than women. Our findings indicate that mental disorders are relatively common. The high incidence rate found in this study is attributed in part to the high negative rate at baseline assessment. Approximately 60% of psychiatric disorders in the community are persistent, and patients with emotional disorder under-utilize existing services.

Page 1. Analyzing learning approaches by means of complex movement pattern analysis ∗ Daniel Janssen, Florian Gebkenjans, Hendrik Beckmann, and Wolfgang I. Schöllhorn 1 Introduction Does the order of movement executions have effects on the movement variability? ...

The 10-min psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) is a widely used tool to assess behavioral alertness. In operational environments, however, the 3-min version of the PVT is more practicable. Under controlled laboratory conditions, we compared performance on the 3-min PVT on a wrist-worn device with the 3-min PVT on a laptop computer. We conducted two repeated measures experiments (72 participants) to assess the effects of PVT device type (laptop or wrist-worn), backlight on the wrist-worn device (on or off), ambient light (low or normal levels), and interstimulus interval (ISI). First, we compared the wrist-worn PVT (ISI of 2-10 s) with the laptop-based PVT (ISI of 1-4 s). Participants performed six PVT trials counterbalanced for order of ambient light and device type. In both ambient-lighting conditions, the median differences in PVT metrics (reaction time, response speed, and percentage of 355-ms or 500-ms lapses combined with false starts) between the laptop and the wrist-worn PVT wit...

A behavior analytic model of analogical reasoning has been developed over the past two decades. Applying this model, we analyzed 12 visual analogies of the Test Of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI-2) and predicted competition between stimulus-stimulus relations based on the number of nonarbitrary relations shared between the sample and the comparisons. Thirty-three adult participants solved the selected items while their eye movements were monitored using an eye-tracking device. For every item, a repeated measures ANOVA showed that observation duration was significantly higher in the response alternatives that shared more nonarbitrary relations with the sample (p < 0.001). The correct comparison was observed for a longer period of time, followed by the higher rank distractors, and then the rest. The effect size ranged from 0.293 to 0.764. The systematic application of the behavior analytic model of analogical reasoning allowed us to predict the behavior of participants taking an intelligence test based on visual analogies, at least to some extent. This work extends the application of the behavior analytic model of analogical reasoning to a rather complex situation (i.e., a published intelligence test).

Recent developments in information technology and Web services have increased the potential for creating more rapid and extensive social networks and business relationships. Web 2.0 technologies, commonly referred to as online social media, have become important tools within the growth of information and communication technology (ICT) in the last few years. Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, Wiki and other

Our approach to determining the design parameters for a multi- echelon maintenance system is to achieve a minimum-cost ar chitecture that delivers a specified level of availability to the sup port system. Decision variables represent the amount of test equipment and the number of spares allocated to the various repair levels. Structured as an optimization problem, the system performance measure is obtained through simulation. A direct search technique is employed to iteratively seek an indicated optimal solution. An additional decision criterion is used to deter mine the run length at each search point and for indicating termination.