Schizophrenia patients have difficulties in focusing their attention, when distracting information must be ignored. Although it is adaptive in some situations to monitor the background for potentially relevant changes...Schizophrenia patients have difficulties in focusing their attention, when distracting information must be ignored. Although it is adaptive in some situations to monitor the background for potentially relevant changes to a certain degree, voluntary attentional processes seem to be more severely disrupted by distracting information in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. Reorienting processes associated with the detection of potentially relevant information outside the current focus of attention have previously shown to activate a bilateral prefronto-parietal network. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether this network is dysregulated in schizophrenia patients using fMRI during the performance in a combined oddball-incongruence task, in which relevant processing must be shielded from distracting irrelevant salient or conflicting information. During the occurrence of both oddballs and incongruence patients exhibited an increased activation of the intraparietal cortex—a saliency sensitive part of the prefronto-parietal network associated with background-monitoring. As this hyperactivation was accompanied by an increased activation in the dopaminergic midbrain, the results of our study link the finding of a hyperactive salience sensitive cortical region to the finding of the hyperdopaminergic state in schizophrenia, supporting the predominant view of psychosis as a state of aberrant salience.展开更多
Rodents,including common voles(Microtus arvalis)and house mice(Mus musculus)cause immense pre-harvest and post-harvest losses.Therefore,developing methods that mitigate these losses while maintaining their role in eco...Rodents,including common voles(Microtus arvalis)and house mice(Mus musculus)cause immense pre-harvest and post-harvest losses.Therefore,developing methods that mitigate these losses while maintaining their role in ecosystems is a priority.Several plant secondary metabolites(PSM)which significantly reduce food intake of both species under laboratory conditions have been identified.However,before these can be used in rodent pest management,they must be tested under more natural conditions where other food sources are available.In this study,the odors of 4 PSMs were evaluated for their repellent effects in experiments conducted in semi-natural enclosures.Soil treated with PSMs or untreated soil(experimental control)was placed in an underground box containing food(rolled oats).We quantified the number of visits to each box and could demonstrate that all 4 PSMs reduced the number of visits to treatment boxes in both rodent species.For common voles the combination of methyl nonyl ketone+black pepper oil was the most repellent PSM.House mice made fewer visits to all PSM boxes;boxes with the anthraquinone were visited least.Furthermore,house mice consumed less food from boxes containing soil treated with all 4 PSMs.Our results suggest that PSMs are repellent in murid and microtine rodents under semi-field conditions.In addition,the future use of PSM odors for repelling both pest species,especially house mice,seems promising.Further investigations with other PSMs,different concentrations as well as alternative application methods are needed to repel common voles from attractive crops.展开更多
文摘Schizophrenia patients have difficulties in focusing their attention, when distracting information must be ignored. Although it is adaptive in some situations to monitor the background for potentially relevant changes to a certain degree, voluntary attentional processes seem to be more severely disrupted by distracting information in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. Reorienting processes associated with the detection of potentially relevant information outside the current focus of attention have previously shown to activate a bilateral prefronto-parietal network. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether this network is dysregulated in schizophrenia patients using fMRI during the performance in a combined oddball-incongruence task, in which relevant processing must be shielded from distracting irrelevant salient or conflicting information. During the occurrence of both oddballs and incongruence patients exhibited an increased activation of the intraparietal cortex—a saliency sensitive part of the prefronto-parietal network associated with background-monitoring. As this hyperactivation was accompanied by an increased activation in the dopaminergic midbrain, the results of our study link the finding of a hyperactive salience sensitive cortical region to the finding of the hyperdopaminergic state in schizophrenia, supporting the predominant view of psychosis as a state of aberrant salience.
基金the permission of the animal ethics committee of LANUV North Rhine-Westphalia(file number 84-02.04.2012.A151).
文摘Rodents,including common voles(Microtus arvalis)and house mice(Mus musculus)cause immense pre-harvest and post-harvest losses.Therefore,developing methods that mitigate these losses while maintaining their role in ecosystems is a priority.Several plant secondary metabolites(PSM)which significantly reduce food intake of both species under laboratory conditions have been identified.However,before these can be used in rodent pest management,they must be tested under more natural conditions where other food sources are available.In this study,the odors of 4 PSMs were evaluated for their repellent effects in experiments conducted in semi-natural enclosures.Soil treated with PSMs or untreated soil(experimental control)was placed in an underground box containing food(rolled oats).We quantified the number of visits to each box and could demonstrate that all 4 PSMs reduced the number of visits to treatment boxes in both rodent species.For common voles the combination of methyl nonyl ketone+black pepper oil was the most repellent PSM.House mice made fewer visits to all PSM boxes;boxes with the anthraquinone were visited least.Furthermore,house mice consumed less food from boxes containing soil treated with all 4 PSMs.Our results suggest that PSMs are repellent in murid and microtine rodents under semi-field conditions.In addition,the future use of PSM odors for repelling both pest species,especially house mice,seems promising.Further investigations with other PSMs,different concentrations as well as alternative application methods are needed to repel common voles from attractive crops.
