Can you hear shapes you touch?

Shape is an inherent property of objects existing in both vision and touch but not audition. Can shape then be represented by sound artificially? It has previously been shown that sound can convey visual information by means of image-to-sound coding, but whether sound can code tactile information is not clear. Blindfolded sighted individuals were trained to recognize tactile spatial information using sounds mapped from abstract shapes. After training, subjects were able to match auditory input to tactually discerned shapes and showed generalization to novel auditory–tactile pairings. Furthermore, they showed complete transfer to novel visual shapes, despite the fact that training did not involve any visual exposure. In addition, we found enhanced tactile acuity specific to the training stimuli. The present study demonstrates that as long as tactile space is coded in a systematic way, shape can be conveyed via a medium that is not spatial, suggesting a metamodal representation.     

Would you like to play together? Adults’ attachment and the mirror game

Why is it easy for some people to play together and difficult for others? In this interdisciplinary pilot study, we looked at dyadic interaction in motion as a paradigm to explore the expression of attachment in adulthood. We used a device that gives simple, quantitative and automated indicators for the quality of interaction while playing the mirror game. Forty-seven participants played the mirror game with the same gender-matched expert players. In addition, participants were interviewed on the Adult Attachment Interview to assess their quality of attachment. Using high resolution kinematic measures, we found that secure attachment was correlated with high complexity of the game and low synchrony compared to insecure attachment. The findings suggest that security of attachment is related to a more exploratory and less rigid game than insecure-dismissing attachment. These preliminary findings imply that high resolution analysis of simple movement interaction could carry information about attachment behavior.     

Randomized trial of radiofrequency ablation versus conventional surgery for superficial venous insufficiency: if you don’t tell,they won’t know

OBJECTIVES:This study compared radiofrequency ablation versus conventional surgery in patients who had not undergone previous treatment for bilateral great saphenous vein insufficiency, with each patient serving as his own control.METHOD:This was a randomized controlled trial that included 18 patients and was carried out between November 2013 and May 2015. Each of the lower limbs of each patient was randomly assigned to undergo either radiofrequency ablation or conventional surgery. Clinical features (hyperpigmentation, hematoma, aesthetics, pain, skin burn, nerve injury, and thrombophlebitis) were evaluated at one week, one month, and six months postoperatively. Hemodynamic assessments (presence of resection or occlusion of the great saphenous vein and recurrent reflux in the sapheno-femoral junction and in the great saphenous vein) were performed at one month, six months, and 12 months postoperatively. The independent observer (a physician not involved in the original operation), patient, and duplex ultrasonographer were not made aware of the treatment done in each case. Clinicaltrials.gov: {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT02588911","term_id":"NCT02588911"}}NCT02588911.RESULTS:Among the clinical variables analyzed, only the aesthetic evaluation by the physicians was significant, with radiofrequency ablation being considered better than conventional surgery (average, 0.91 points higher: standard deviation: 0.31; 95% confidence interval: -1.51, -0.30; p=0.003). However, in our study, we observed primary success rates of 80% for radiofrequency ablation and 100% for conventional surgery.CONCLUSIONS:If the physician is not required to inform the patient as to the technique being performed, the patient will not be able to identify the technique based on the signs and symptoms. Our study revealed that both techniques led to high levels of patient satisfaction, but our results favor the choice of conventional surgery over radiofrequency ablation, as patients who underwent conventional surgery had better hemodynamic assessments.     

Are you responsible for medical director duties in anatomic pathology--and why should you care?

For many pathologists, the roles of the medical director are not clearly distinguished from other medical leadership and management duties, such as those of the chair of pathology or a section head of anatomic pathology. We describe the evolution in the understanding of the roles of the medical director as defined by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 and separate from the roles of the chair of pathology, department chair, division chair, and a section head in anatomic pathology in our institution. Delineation of the roles of medical director, department chair, chair of anatomic pathology division, and a section head of a subdivision in anatomic pathology has helped us to understand the roles and ensure that all duties are fulfilled for patient care and for compliance and regulation.     

Do you know where your arm is if you think your head has moved?

Reproduction of a previously presented elbow position is affected by changes in head position. As movement of the head is associated with local biomechanical changes, the aim of the present study was to determine if illusory changes in head position could induce similar effects on the reproduction of elbow position. Galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) was applied to healthy subjects in supine lying. The stimulus was applied during the presentation of an elbow position, which the subject then reproduced without stimulation. In the first study, 13 subjects received 1.5 mA stimuli, which caused postural sway in standing, confirming that the firing of vestibular afferents was affected, but no illusory changes in head position were reported. In the second study, 13 subjects received 2.0–3.0 mA GVS. Six out of 13 subjects reported consistent illusory changes in head position, away from the side of the anode. In these subjects, anode right stimulation induced illusory left lateral flexion and elbow joint position error towards extension (p=0.03), while anode left tended to have the opposite effect (p=0.16). The GVS had no effect on error in subjects who did not experience illusory head movement with either 1.5 mA stimulus (p=0.8) or 2.0–3.0 mA stimulus (p=0.7). This study demonstrates that the accuracy of elbow repositioning is affected by illusory changes in head position. These results support the hypothesis that the perceived position of proximal body segments is used in the planning and performance of accurate upper limb movements.     

“Look where you’re going!”: gaze behaviour associated with maintaining and changing the direction of locomotion

In order to fully understand how vision is used to guide locomotion it is necessary to know what people look at as they move through the environment. This study provides information, hitherto lacking, regarding gaze behaviour associated with both maintaining and changing the direction of locomotion: activities that are essential for efficient navigation through our cluttered environment. Participants' spatiotemporal gaze patterns were recorded whilst they performed a task requiring that they either maintained a straight walking trajectory or changed their direction of walking by 30 degrees or 60 degrees, left or right, at the midpoint of a 9-m path. Participants were either visually cued to turn when they stepped on a trigger mat placed one step before the mid-point of the walkway (cued trials) or given verbal instruction about the required route prior to the start of each trial (advance knowledge trials). Our clear finding was that for the large majority of the time participants' gaze was aligned with environmental features lying in their current plane of progression both prior to and following the onset of the transition stride during which the direction change was implemented. This gaze behaviour was observed both during cued trials (78% of total fixation time prior to the transition stride onset and 89% following the transition stride onset) and advance knowledge trials (67% prior to transition stride onset, 92% following transition stride onset). When not aligned with the plane of progression, gaze was normally fixated on environmental features related to either known or potential future routes. Prior to changing the direction of walking, individuals invariably made saccadic eye movements in order to align gaze with the end-point of the required travel path. This gaze realignment was invariably accompanied by head reorientation, which was initiated, on average, at the same time as the saccade. On average, participants fixated gaze on their goal (represented by the cue light at the travel path end-point) until after head realignment with the new path was achieved. Additionally, the head was consistently aligned with participants' current walking direction prior to and following the transition stride even on the minority of occasions when they were looking elsewhere. These findings challenge the ecological validity of existing theories of how visual information is used to determine heading direction and are consistent with the proposal that aligning the head with the desired travel direction through coordinated eye and head movements provides the CNS with an allocentric frame of reference that is used to control the movement of the body in space.     

Polycomb-mediated repression during terminal differentiation: what don't you want to be when you grow up?

Chromatin-modifying enzymes are known to be critical components for the correct differentiation of embryonic stem cells into specific lineages, such as neurons. Recently, the role of Polycomb group proteins has been studied in the specification and differentiation of muscle stem cells. In this perspective, we review a recent study by Juan and colleagues (pp. 789-794) in Genes & Development of the role of the polycomb group protein Ezh2 in muscle stem cells, and discuss the implications for general lineage restriction.     

What can exome sequencing do for you?

Recent advances in next-generation sequencing technologies have brought a paradigm shift in how medical researchers investigate both rare and common human disorders. The ability cost-effectively to generate genome-wide sequencing data with deep coverage in a short time frame is replacing approaches that focus on specific regions for gene discovery and clinical testing. While whole genome sequencing remains prohibitively expensive for most applications, exome sequencing--a technique which focuses on only the protein-coding portion of the genome--places many advantages of the emerging technologies into researchers' hands. Recent successes using this technology have uncovered genetic defects with a limited number of probands regardless of shared genetic heritage, and are changing our approach to Mendelian disorders where soon all causative variants, genes and their relation to phenotype will be uncovered. The expectation is that, in the very near future, this technology will enable us to identify all the variants in an individual's personal genome and, in particular, clinically relevant alleles. Beyond this, whole genome sequencing is also expected to bring a major shift in clinical practice in terms of diagnosis and understanding of diseases, ultimately enabling personalised medicine based on one's genome. This paper provides an overview of the current and future use of next generation sequencing as it relates to whole exome sequencing in human disease by focusing on the technical capabilities, limitations and ethical issues associated with this technology in the field of genetics and human disease.     

"Have you seen this?" peliosis hepatis

Peliosis hepatis, characterized by the presence of blood-filled spaces within hepatic parenchyma, developed in C57Bl mice implanted subcutaneously with melanoma cells 23 days previously. The peliosis was associated with dilated hepatic sinusoids that were lined by prominent, proliferating endothelial cells. The development of peliosis hepatis was completely abrogated when melanoma growth was inhibited by administration of dexamethasone. These features support the concept that peliosis hepatis can be induced by a circulating tumor-derived endothelial growth factor such as vascular endothelial growth factor.