J.L. Moreno,M.D.

You could call Moreno a composer of religion. He drew his religious and spiritual ideas from different sources and self-confidently created his world-view and an individual notion of God. In this article important stations of his religious biography are told and integrated. The abiding benchmark of Moreno’s religious thoughts is the message of Friedrich Nietzsche that god is dead. Moreno sees what a high price society pays for disposing of its gods too quickly and not in a consequent way: the price for an imperfect secularization. He does not accept that important issues like existential questions, sense and death or the position of man in the cosmos cannot be debated anymore. That is the reason why he claims a new theory of God. That is also the reason why he provides the axiodramatic scene to deal with those themes.     

Oxytocin modulates fMRI responses to facial expression in macaques

Increasing evidence has shown that oxytocin (OT), a mammalian hormone, modifies the way social stimuli are perceived and the way they affect behavior. Thus, OT may serve as a treatment for psychiatric disorders, many of which are characterized by dysfunctional social behavior. To explore the neural mechanisms mediating the effects of OT in macaque monkeys, we investigated whether OT would modulate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses in face-responsive regions (faces vs. blank screen) evoked by the perception of various facial expressions (neutral, fearful, aggressive, and appeasing). In the placebo condition, we found significantly increased activation for emotional (mainly fearful and appeasing) faces compared with neutral faces across the face-responsive regions. OT selectively, and differentially, altered fMRI responses to emotional expressions, significantly reducing responses to both fearful and aggressive faces in face-responsive regions while leaving responses to appeasing as well as neutral faces unchanged. We also found that OT administration selectively reduced functional coupling between the amygdala and areas in the occipital and inferior temporal cortex during the viewing of fearful and aggressive faces, but not during the viewing of neutral or appeasing faces. Taken together, our results indicate homologies between monkeys and humans in the neural circuits mediating the effects of OT. Thus, the monkey may be an ideal animal model to explore the development of OT-based pharmacological strategies for treating patients with dysfunctional social behavior.In the last decade, oxytocin (OT), a mammalian hormone, has become one of the most studied peptides of the neuroendocrine system. In humans, accumulating evidence has demonstrated that OT affects a wide range of social behavior and cognition, including perception, recognition and memory of social stimuli (1–5), socially reinforced learning (6), and more complex sociocognitive behaviors [e.g., trust (7, 8), cooperation (9), generosity (10), and empathy (6, but see ref. 11)]. Therefore, it has been proposed that OT may serve as a treatment for various disorders with dysfunctional social behavior, such as autism spectrum disorders, antisocial personality disorder, and schizophrenia (for review, see ref. 12). A recent study found that OT enhances brain activity for socially meaningful stimuli but attenuates activity for nonsocially meaningful stimuli in children with autism spectrum disorders (13). Although these studies suggest very promising prospects of OT for clinical use, the neural mechanisms underlying OT’s modulatory effects remain elusive. To understand these mechanisms, it is important to investigate the effect of OT on brain activity, especially in regions involved in social behavior and cognition.Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been the major approach to investigating altered brain activation patterns in response to OT in humans. OT may affect the perception of social stimuli, and thus mediate subsequent social information processing (e.g., learning and memory, etc.) (14). Many fMRI studies have examined the effects of OT on brain activity during the perception of social stimuli to probe the brain regions that underlie OT’s modulatory effects. Emotional stimuli, which are crucial for social communication and interaction, have been mainly used. For example, Kirsch et al. showed that OT reduces activation in response to fear-inducing stimuli in the amygdala, a key brain region involved in emotional regulation (15). Subsequently, a series of studies examined the effects of OT on responses to facial expressions (3, 16), to conditioned facial expressions (17), and to threatening scenes (18). These studies showed that activity evoked by emotional stimuli, especially negative stimuli (e.g., fearful faces, but see refs. 3 and 16 for happy faces), is systematically altered within an interconnected network of brain regions after OT administration.Because of the limitation of experimental approaches with human subjects, animal models are essential not only for investigating the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of OT but also for exploring OT-based therapeutic strategies for individuals with dysfunctional social behavior. Given the similarities between monkeys and humans in the neural circuitry underlying social cognition (19), the rhesus macaque could be an ideal animal model to examine the effects of OT. To date, only a few studies have investigated the behavioral consequences of OT administration in monkeys (20–25). Consistent with the human literature, these studies have found that intranasal administration of OT affects social behavior and cognition in monkeys, including vicarious as well as self-reinforcement (20), social vigilance (22), socially reinforced learning (26), and attention to facial features and expressions (21, 24). However, how OT exerts its effects on brain activity in monkeys remains unclear. To explore the neural mechanisms mediating the effects of OT in macaque monkeys, in the present study, we investigated whether OT would modulate fMRI responses evoked by the perception of facial expressions, an effect mainly studied in humans thus far.We scanned monkeys while they viewed images of monkey faces with four different expressions: neutral, fearful, aggressive, and appeasing. Scanning was conducting under two different conditions: placebo control (saline) and intranasal OT. We predicted that in the placebo condition, emotional faces (especially fearful) would evoke enhanced activation compared with neutral faces, that is, they would show a valence effect; that, as in humans, OT administration would reduce this valence effect in monkeys; and that OT administration would alter functional coupling among those brain regions showing a valence effect.     

From the Cover: PNAS Plus: Amygdala lesions disrupt modulation of functional MRI activity evoked by facial expression in the monkey inferior temporal cortex

Significance

Successful social interaction depends on the ability to recognize others, evaluate their mental states (e.g. intentions, desires, and beliefs), and “read” their emotional states. Here, we show that, in monkeys, damage to the amygdala, a brain structure that is central to the expression of emotion, significantly disrupts the processing of emotional facial expression in high-level visual cortical areas involved in face recognition. These findings suggest that the projections of the amygdala to visual cortical areas likely enhance the sensory processing of biologically important signals, including those related to potential environmental threats and social contexts.     

Audiocardiography in the cardiovascular evaluation of the morbidly obese

Morbid obesity is believed to limit cardiovascular auscultation. We compared audiocardiography to senior attending physicians using conventional stethoscopes in 190 individuals with morbid obesity. Overall, there were 128 (67·4%) women and 62 (32·6%) men with mean ages of 44·9 ± 12·3 and 51·3 ± 10·8 , respectively (P = 0·001). The overall body mass index (BMI) was 47·3 ± 8·5 kg m^?2. Of those with an S₃ by audiocardiography (n = 7), one had a history of coronary artery disease (CAD), none had a history of heart failure, and one had a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <45%. The mean LVEF was 58·6 ± 9·9 versus 61·6 ± 5·3 for those with and without an S₃ by audiocardiography (P = 0·16). By contrast, of those (n = 6) with an S₃ by stethoscope, one had a history of CAD, two had histories of heart failure, and 3 had LVEF < 45%. The mean LVEF of those with and without S₃ by stethoscope was 53·7 ± 2·3 and 61·6 ± 5·5%, respectively (P = 0·02). There were 40 (21·1%) patients with an S₄ (S₄ strength >5) identified by acoustic cardiography while there were 42 (22·1%) heard by the stethoscope and it was heard with both methods in nine patients (21·4% concordance). There were no significant correlations between BMI or peak oxygen consumption and S₃ or S₄ strength by audiocardiography. Acoustic cardiography performed with an electronic device was not helpful in assisting the cardiovascular examination of the morbidly obese. These data suggest the careful clinical exam with attention to traditional cardiac auscultation using a stethoscope in a quiet room should remain the gold standard.     

From Capsids to Complexes: Expanding the Role of TRIM5α in the Restriction of Divergent RNA Viruses and Elements

An evolutionary arms race has been ongoing between retroviruses and their primate hosts for millions of years. Within the last century, a zoonotic transmission introduced the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1), a retrovirus, to the human population that has claimed the lives of millions of individuals and is still infecting over a million people every year. To counteract retroviruses such as this, primates including humans have evolved an innate immune sensor for the retroviral capsid lattice known as TRIM5α. Although the molecular basis for its ability to restrict retroviruses is debated, it is currently accepted that TRIM5α forms higher-order assemblies around the incoming retroviral capsid that are not only disruptive for the virus lifecycle, but also trigger the activation of an antiviral state. More recently, it was discovered that TRIM5α restriction is broader than previously thought because it restricts not only the human retroelement LINE-1, but also the tick-borne flaviviruses, an emergent group of RNA viruses that have vastly different strategies for replication compared to retroviruses. This review focuses on the underlying mechanisms of TRIM5α-mediated restriction of retroelements and flaviviruses and how they differ from the more widely known ability of TRIM5α to restrict retroviruses.     

Isoflavone Genistein Induces Fluid Secretion and Morphological Changes in the Uteri of Post-Pubertal Rats

A reported increase in the incidence of infertility following high genistein intake could be related to alteration in the normal fluid volume and morphology of the uterus in adult female. In view of this, we investigated the effect of this compound on fluid secretion, fluid volume and morphology of the uterus in post-pubertal rats. Methods: Ovariectomised SD rats were treated with 17-β oestradiol (E) (0.8 X 10^-4 mg/kg/day) and genistein (0.5, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg/day) for three days. Following drug treatment, in-vivo uterine perfusion was performed and the rate of fluid secretion and the volume of fluid in the uterus were determined via changes in weight (μl/min) and F-dextran concentration of the perfusate respectively. The animals were then sacrificed and the uteri were removed for weight determination, morphological analyses and proliferative cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression analyses by Western blotting. Results: Subcutaneous genistein treatment resulted in a dose-dependent increase in fluid secretion rate, fluid volume and uterine wet weight. Treatment with 100 mg/kg/day genistein resulted in a remarkable increase in the rate of uterine fluid secretion, the volume of the uterine luminal fluid as well as the circumference of the uterine and uterine glandular lumen suggesting an excessive fluid accumulation. Meanwhile, there were evidence of glandular hyperplasia and an increase in the expression of PCNA following treatment with 50 and 100 mg/kg/day genistein. Conclusion: High genistein intake could potentially cause adverse effects on the uterus by inducing excessive fluid secretion and accumulation as well as hyperplasia.